← Truth in the Barrel
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- [00:01]
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- [00:36]
Amy McGrath
Welcome back, friends, to this week's unfiltered edition of Truth in the barrel. I'm Amy McGrath and I'm so happy to be back after a much needed vacation. We're ready to make sense of what's happening in our country right now. Today we're going to talk about the ongoing and escalating war in Iran. Can Congress do anything about it? We'll talk about Pete Hegseth again. Of course, he's now he's not allowing women and black officers to be promoted in the Navy and the high ranks in the military. And we'll discuss the World Cup. I can never do this alone. So welcome back to our friend and medical doctor Kristin Lierly. Hey there, Doc.
- [01:10]
Kristin Lierly
Hello, my friend. You could do it alone, but it's so much more fun to do it together.
- [01:14]
Amy McGrath
It's not fun doing this alone. I guess one of the things that I said when I started this is I don't want to be up there just talking and doing some kind of monologue. I've got to have interesting people because I don't have all of the answers. And I want to go back and forth with people and just, you know, get their expertise on things. So it's way more fun this way.
- [01:34]
Kristin Lierly
I think, too, we live in this rabbit hole. We all live in our own rabbit holes just because of the way that we receive our media now. So just to have conversations with other people who have other experiences and maybe have different opinions. We learn so much from talking to each other when we're challenging each other and listening to each other. So thanks, thanks for having me.
- [01:54]
Amy McGrath
So let's get right to this. A lot of people have been asking me about Iran and can Congress do anything about this? And I have been somebody that for a long time has said Congress has to take back its constitutional duty in Article 1 of hey, you are the branch that decides whether we go to war or not, not the president. And they are basically been asleep at the wheel on this issue of Iran. They were asleep at the Wheel of Venezuela. But now this is getting really bad. There. There's no end in sight. And the House of Representatives just this week passed a bipartisan war powers resolution, 215 to 208 in the vote counts there. And this resolution directs the President to remove the U.S. armed forces from hostilities against Iran. Now, what happens here? Yes, it passed the House of Representatives there hasn't passed the Senate, so it hasn't gone from there. But it's a start, right? I feel like Congress needs to be on the record on this war. This is a start. It talks about the War Powers act, which was passed in 1973, that demands the President withdraw troops unless Congress authorizes the war, which they haven't done in this case. So that's where this is, following that law. But it is a start.
- [03:37]
Kristin Lierly
I think it's so. Yeah, it's so confusing, like, for the average American. It's just. You hear these mixed messages and it's so confusing. But the truth of the matter is we are at war because President Trump said sent us to war. And Congress just sits there like an impotent body. They've been impotent since Trump took over because he is ruling by executive order. And what we're starting to see is they're starting to find their purpose and understand that they have an obligation to the American people. And maybe it's because elections are on the horizon and they need to be on record because they know that this is a very unpopular war with Americans. They know that this is a war that is making people not just uncomfortable, but it's hurting our pocketbooks. What's happening with oil is very interesting. We've seen it a little bit, but then we've dipped into the reserves and things are happening with China. So the cost of oil has not risen the way that we would have anticipated. But these temporary things that are keeping gas prices low are not going to last forever. Within the next couple of weeks, we can expect to see prices start to creep up again. And I think that's when most Americans are really going to be feeling it and demanding more from their representatives. It's good that they're getting on the record. It's good that Congress is. Is starting to push back. Maybe. Maybe they'll actually be able to make something happen here. It's just confusing and it's tough.
- [05:04]
Amy McGrath
So the good news is there are four Republicans on the House side that have crossed party lines to join and voted with Democrats in passing this measure. It's a measure that is probably not going to change what's happening in Iran right now. But I do think it's significant because that, you know, Congress is at least that part. The House of Representatives is starting to stand up to some degree. And I also think it's really important that our representatives, Congress in general, our senators, our representatives, go on the record about matters of war and peace. That is, you know, they really only have two jobs in the world, pass a budget and matters of war and peace. That, that is what. That is what the Constitution says. And they haven't been doing the war and peace part. They've been just, let's, let's give that to the president. And there's no end in sight to this war right now. And there's no plan.
- [06:02]
Kristin Lierly
What's the plan?
- [06:03]
Amy McGrath
There's no plan. There's never been a plan. Here we are. Is Thursday June. What. What is it? June. I don't even know. June 11, and we have the President this week escalating or threatening to escalate attacks. We have the Iranians potentially shooting down, although maybe there's a midair between an Apache helicopter and a drone, and us retaliating, the Iranians retaliating back in ballistic missiles against countries like Jordan and Bahrain. We have the president, our president talking now again about hitting power plants and desalination plants. Now he's talking this morning about invading Carg island and seizing their oil. It's. This is the same threats that he made months ago, and nothing has changed. And I go back to what I've been saying from the very beginning, the Trump administration and Donald Trump and his national security people, they do not know what to do. They don't know what they are doing. They don't know what they are doing. They do not know how to end this thing. They're getting increasingly upset. And if you look at this from Iran's point of view, Iran does not trust the United States. So when the President says, well, we're really close to negotiating, meanwhile, he's, you know, attacking them. The Iranians don't trust Trump. Remember, he was the one that ordered airstrikes against the Iranian negotiating team, assassinating their diplomats months ago.
- [07:44]
Kristin Lierly
Yeah.
- [07:44]
Amy McGrath
The Iranians want hostilities to end in Lebanon, too, where 3,700 people have been killed and million people have been displaced. They want Israel to comply with this. Israel is not always on board with what we want. They want reparations for being attacked. They want now control of the Strait of Hormuz forever. And they are targeting not only US Troops and bases, but. But now their response is to Go after the economic infrastructure of the Gulf states. This is a war that is so much bigger and more complicated than just dropping bombs.
- [08:26]
Kristin Lierly
Yeah. And one thing we haven't heard about, and I would love your thoughts on this, is our troops. Usually Americans are so concerned about what's happening with our troops, and we know that we've already had a number of casualties in this unnecessary. Where is the outcry to save our troops, to protect our troops who are sacrificing their lives for what?
- [08:54]
Amy McGrath
You know, I think that the administration is doing a disservice, but they are doing, in their mind, probably a very good job of covering up what is happening in the Middle east when it comes to our bases and our troops in the region. They have clamped down on Pentagon reporting and reporting within the DoD. You know, when I was deployed to Iraq, I lived in a tent with other female Marines and Air Force personnel. But guess what? I also lived in a tent for a month with a journalist. She was also in the tent with us.
- [09:35]
Kristin Lierly
Wow.
- [09:36]
Amy McGrath
And, you know, male journalists were with the men. They lived in the bases that we were doing airstrikes out of. They would repeatedly ask me questions about what was going on and our missions. None of that's happening now. Right. We don't have a Pentagon press corps. And I feel like the administration's just covering up anything that is going on on the basis right now we don't even know the full damage that this war has taken.
- [10:11]
Kristin Lierly
They control the entire narrative.
- [10:13]
Amy McGrath
Yeah. Wow.
- [10:14]
Kristin Lierly
Amy. I didn't. I didn't realize that. That they were embedded with you and that we don't have that now. That just completely changes how we receive our information.
- [10:23]
Amy McGrath
Well, and there's always been a kind of a push pull with the press and the military. Right. Going all the way back to Vietnam. You know, the military didn't always like the reporting that was coming out of Vietnam, but that's so important for our democracy.
- [10:37]
Kristin Lierly
Yeah.
- [10:37]
Amy McGrath
Right. That the press are able to report on things. And it's important for the American people so that they know what is happening to our troops and our bases and get the full story. And that's just not happening. But, you know, I feel like right now with this Iran war, it's. It's teaching us a lot. We're going to have to have national security experts in the future that are going to look at the future of war to do things like harden bases, disperse our troops, make sure we have enough munitions and unmanned systems, and all of these things. I just don't think this administration is up to the task of doing any of that.
- [11:16]
Kristin Lierly
I think that your hypothesis is based on a lot of recent experience. And I know that we're going to talk about some of the choices that Pete Hegseth has made, and I know that we're going to talk down the road about what's happening with media and how the administration is attacking media and preventing us from getting unfiltered. I use the word unfiltered. Stories and information that we really need in order to be able to make important decisions about the future, our own futures, but the future of this country.
- [11:43]
Amy McGrath
You first talked about the administration, namely Pete Hegseth, stopping the promotions of people who are rising through the ranks in the military. And this is, this is the, you know, you said it's the decisions that they are making. It is their decisions, and they can do this. It will hurt us in the long run. It will hurt our national security. It's absolutely wrong. So what's happening is the Secretary of defense has recently blocked the promotions of nine U.S. navy officers who have been selected to the highest rank. Okay, that's, that's an admiral. The rank of admiral. There's different levels of admiral. There's one star, two star, three star, and four star. And so from a Nate, for a Navy captain to go to admiral, that's a big jump. They look at hundreds of Navy captains and they, they do. The Navy does these boards. And the boards are very thorough. And we've been, they've been doing this for, you know, years, decades. This is how it's done. They look through the records of these officers, and they only pick the best. Not only do they pick the best, they pick the officer that have done the hard jobs that are qualified to go to the next level. And Pete Heath has gone in there and basically pulled out a lot of women, black officers, some men as well, white men particularly. What I'm hearing is they're just going through and picking out anyone who has done in the past a. A job related to DEI or a job related to the Afghan pull out, which they feel was, you know, botched. And I've said on TV earlier last week, I said, you know, even if you think the Afghan pullout was bad, that was a strategic decision, right? That was bad. The tactical part of it actually went very, very well.
- [13:53]
Kristin Lierly
So you're saying that that wasn't necessarily their choice. They were just executing their orders. Right.
- [13:58]
Amy McGrath
And the same thing, when you take somebody who is, you know, when you get ordered to be in charge of diversity in the Marine Corps or the Navy or something like that. Those are orders. That's your job, you know, and you might do that job for one or two or three years and then move on to the next job. And, you know, so to get to punish these people for the jobs that they had, it's just wrong. Of the 22 people that they put up, he pulled nine of these names. And if you think about women, women in the Navy, women are 21% of the United States Navy. 30% of Naval Academy grads are women. But women only make up about 5% of Admirals.
- [14:47]
Kristin Lierly
Wow.
- [14:47]
Amy McGrath
And there's lots of reasons for that. It's a hard career to go through, certainly hard to have a family. That's a lot of the reasons why women don't make it to the higher ranks. But it's not because women are not competent or don't belong. And then to just arbitrarily pull the names of women just makes those numbers even worse.
- [15:14]
Kristin Lierly
I can't imagine what it's like to be one of those candidates and to get to that point where you are nominated and just have him just whisk it away just because. And it's not just the Navy. It happened in the army as well.
- [15:27]
Amy McGrath
That's right. It happened in the Army. And I'm assuming it's probably going to happen in the other, you know, in March. He did this for the Army. And it reminds me though, I read Kristin this article just last night in the Atlantic. I don't know if you get the Atlantic, but it talked about misogyny and that misogyny is holding the far right together right now. And there's this author, Helen Lewis, who wrote an article entitled the Men who Want Women to Be Quiet. And I read through this and it just, it's. It's Pete Hegseth. I mean, it's just, it is he. He is a perfect example of this. The article talks about Hegseth's pastor who wants to repeal the 19th amendment. They want to go back to a world where husbands rule. Women certainly do not belong in political office. They certainly do not belong in the military. Bashing women is just fine. And she makes the point that the single most important force uniting the right now is this masculinism. And I think of that when I think of Pete Hegseth, this guy who just thinks women are second class citizens and therefore under his watch, he's not going to let any women rise in the military.
- [17:02]
Kristin Lierly
I look at that guy and he is just such an overblown. I mean, even Just the way that he stands in his suit with his chest puffed out. He thinks he's such a hot shit, but he. He's not going to last forever. I think that's really important to remember. And, you know, as a woman and as a mom, and I know you feel this way, too, Amy. We're raising children in this environment. I have four sons, and they are not those people. Men are not the problem. Misogynists are the problem. There are really good men in the world who support women. But I think it's incredibly important for people like us and for other women who believe in women in leadership, who recognize how important it is to have our voices at the table to support each other and to use those voices now and demonstrate we can be here and we do belong here. We're going to get through this phase. This is just another flavor of what happens in government, and there is going to be something on the other side of it, and that's an opportunity for us. So we just got to keep moving forward, lock arms and move forward together.
- [18:07]
Amy McGrath
Each advance of women in society has promoted a backlash.
- [18:16]
Kristin Lierly
Yes. Because it's a threat.
- [18:17]
Amy McGrath
And we're. Yeah. And a lot of these men feel like women took their status away. You know, a guy like Pete Hegseth who never got promoted within the National Guard, poor guy who, you know, looks at women and says, well, or even, you know, black officers and says, how did they get promoted? And I didn't, you know, that they. They. They must be the problem. It must be because they were promoted because they were women. And that's, you know, I'm. I'm much better. But we have gone from a world just a few years ago where we had the Me Too movement, to now we are. Are being led by men who, you know, are championing the quiet piggy. Yes. I mean, that's like their thing.
- [19:08]
Kristin Lierly
Yes. But the MeToo movement and the people who support those kinds of movements, that's all still there. I'm thinking about what I've been hearing with regards to the SAVE act, which failed last week in the Senate, thankfully. And what I'm hearing from young women, like women of reproductive age, women who are unmarried, is that was a real threat, I don't think. If I ever choose to get married, and a lot of young women are choosing not to get married, they're saying, I'm not going to change my name because I recognize that that is a liability. And that also makes a lot of men, a lot of partners, feel uncomfortable because it's a Cultural shift, because the expectation is that your wife will take your name. But this political revolution that the Trump administration, the Trump regime has created has really made us think about who we are and where we fit in society and how we can. How we can work together with others to create a society that works for all of. Not just a small group of people who hold all the power, all the money, all of it.
- [20:14]
Amy McGrath
Yeah. I mean, I feel like right now the leadership of our country is the fringe. The fringe men who really look at women as a threat. They want women to stay at home. That's why birth control is so bad. Working outside the home is so bad. They don't want women to have financial independence. It's this very, like, take us back, you know, to 1950s level again. And. But, you know, I do feel like we are going to get through this. It's. It's kind of a, you know, two steps forward, one step back. And we're in the one step back moment. Yeah.
- [20:59]
Kristin Lierly
But we're here and we're ready. We're ready to pounce. As soon as there's a weakness, we're like, yes, let's do this.
- [21:05]
Amy McGrath
Like, have your little time there, but we're going to come back with a vengeance. All right. Well, here on Truth in the Barrel, we focus a lot on politics and we focus on national security issues. But because we're here with a literal medical doctor joining us today, I thought it'd be a great opportunity for us to talk about some stories that aren't getting enough attention on the medical front. So what are some of the stories right now, Kristin, that you're focused on that maybe we don't know about or that we should be focused on?
- [21:39]
Kristin Lierly
I picked three stories out of the headlines that are just, like, blowing it out of the water right now. The first one is, have you heard Melinda French Gates is giving a ton of money to research menopause? Who would have thought?
- [21:53]
Amy McGrath
We need it.
- [21:54]
Kristin Lierly
We need it. There's so little information out there about menopause. I'll tell you that. Twenty years ago, when I was in medical school, we got one lecture on menopause for 30 minutes, and then we got an hour lecture on manopause. Not joking. We'd gotten so little information about menopause, and a lot of it was because there was this study 20, 25 years ago, the Women's Health Initiative study, that really freaked people out about hormones. It looked like that initial data that hormones were actually bad for us, when in reality, when they parse the data out Hormones actually are good for us, and they make a huge difference. But we have to be treated according to who we are, what our individual circumstances are. So that education is starting to come back, and that's what Melinda Frenchgates is supporting. She wants to make sure that people going through this transition with this, like, myriad of symptoms. Menopause is not just vaginal dryness. It's not just painful sex. It's not just hot flashes. It can be aching joints. It can be depression. It can be so many different things. We need more information because women, if we are lucky enough to live into our 50s and 60s, will likely experience these symptoms. And we have to know how to treat them, how to reduce our risk factors, and how to live our lives better. This is exciting stuff, isn't it, Amy?
- [23:10]
Amy McGrath
It is. And I'm just thankful for Melinda French Gates, because I feel like there's hardly any women billionaires, and there's not a lot of them that really are the people that fund really strong initiatives in the health area. And she's one of them. She's really focused on women's empowerment. She's done a lot of stuff in that area, and we need it. I wish we had way more.
- [23:47]
Kristin Lierly
Yeah, well, we will in the future as we continue to build. Just. We just have to be patient.
- [23:51]
Amy McGrath
Yeah. What else? What else is going on?
- [23:54]
Kristin Lierly
Let's talk about Ebola. I keep hearing about what's happening in the Congo and how scary it is. When I first started my practice back in the, I don't know, 2000, 2013 or so, there was an Ebola outbreak at that time. And I remember, and you might remember
- [24:09]
Amy McGrath
this, too, every time during the Obama administration.
- [24:12]
Kristin Lierly
Yes. Every time you would check in for an appointment, there was a sign there that said, have you traveled internationally? Because we were so worried about Ebola spreading, but the CDC was all over it. We were very careful, and luckily we were able to contain it. This outbreak is different. It's a different strain, and we don't have the infrastructure in place to be able to contain it the way we did last time. So it will continue to spread. It's going to be an epidemic. Already there have been 550 cases diagnosed. Over 100 people have died. This is the tip of the iceberg. There are so many more people that are affected that just haven't been diagnosed yet because we don't have the tests, we don't have the treatments. So we can anticipate this is going to get much worse. And it has a whole political dimension to it because in the past, we've got centers in the United States to treat, to quarantine and treat Ebola patients. But the Trump regime is not allowing Americans to come back into the United States for that treatment. Instead, they're planning to send them to Kenya, which creates a whole other political problem because Kenya doesn't have Ebola. Kenya doesn't owe the US Anything. As you said earlier, trust is at an all time low with the Trump administration from our international community. So there's this debate in Kenya about whether they're going to host Americans who are dealing with Ebola. This is an evolving situation. Keep your eye on it. It is really scary stuff.
- [25:36]
Amy McGrath
So are there Americans that have been diagnosed with Ebola?
- [25:42]
Kristin Lierly
I don't know, but there will be because we've got aid workers over there. So we can anticipate that this is going to happen based on, you know, what we know is happening over there right now and what has happened in the past. So this part of it we know we can plan for. But the planning that we're doing is just like what's happening with our public health infrastructure in general. It's inadequate, it's irresponsible, it's not evidence based, and it's entirely political.
- [26:06]
Amy McGrath
I remember back during the first Trump administration that, you know, it was because of the Ebola crisis that happened under the Obama administration that the Obama administration put together this big binder of like, if there was a pandemic, what would we do? Imagine that all these lessons learned and then the first Trump administration came in and looked at the binder like, oh, we'll never need that. Throw that away. And then we had Covid.
- [26:34]
Kristin Lierly
Yeah, there's always a pandemic on the horizon. That's the whole point of the cdc, is to figure it out early and sequester it so that it doesn't become a giant problem. It's just failure after failure when we're not ready. And the HHS under RFK Jr. Is a disaster. He's so focused on his personal initiatives, he's not running the rest of the organization. Marco Rubio is taking over pieces of it. I mean, it is just such a mess right now. But I do have a little bit of good news. You want to hear it? What's that? Well, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, my college, and I'm not here as a representative, but I do serve on the executive board. They've done some really bold things. They have denied federal funding for some really important projects. And instead They've nested them in other places where they know they can be safe and can't be impacted by what's happening in the Trump regime. But what they did yesterday is super exciting. They issued their own recommendations for pregnant, postpartum, and lactating women for vaccines. In the past, we've worked with the CDC to issue these recommendations, but the CDC is compromised. So we know that we can't rely on them anymore. So now ACOG has issued these really important vaccine recommendations. Thirteen other medical and professional organizations have endorsed them. These are the guidelines that pregnant, postpartum, and lactating women can turn to when they're trying to figure out, how can I be healthy? How can I protect myself? How can I protect my baby? ACOG. ACOG.org that's where the guidelines are.
- [28:01]
Amy McGrath
That's great. So now doctors around the country and hospitals, are they going to now shift from like, hey, this was the CDC's guidance to this other guidance? So that's my first question. My second one is, insurance companies, are they going to cover these things or are they going to say, well, the CDC says we don't need to do that, so we're not going to cover that.
- [28:29]
Kristin Lierly
Yeah, that's a great point. So, first of all, with regards to the doctors, that's up to the doctors in the hospital systems. But what I can tell you is we are seeing that people are adopting the professional organization's recommendations, recognizing that the changes that have been made at the CDC are political. It's so very obvious. So when it comes to childhood vaccines, you want to look at the American Academy of Pediatrics. AAP.org when you want to see vaccines for moms, you look@acog.org with regards to insurance companies, they too have the freedom to be able to adopt whatever they think is appropriate. But they are generally informed by medical professionals. So we are seeing that they are covering these vaccines. But it's always safest to ask your insurance company and make sure that it will be covered.
- [29:19]
Amy McGrath
Yeah. And I would think from the insurance company, I think, you know, if they're, if they're worried about money, which a
- [29:25]
Kristin Lierly
lot, which they are. That's the whole point.
- [29:27]
Amy McGrath
Right, right. You would think, though, that. That they would want vaccines in general because, you know, the cost of treating somebody that isn't vaccinated is much higher.
- [29:40]
Kristin Lierly
You would think. You would think the same thing about birth control. It's cheaper just to, you know, have a pack of pills or an IUD instead of a birth. But the way they think about it, is what's going to get me to the end of the cycle, the end of the fiscal year, because there's a chance that those patients might leave and go to a different plan and that they wouldn't have to pay for the thing that would be the circumstance of not having prevented something. So, yeah, it's not. We don't do a great job of investing in the future of our health in this country from an insurance company standpoint, from a hospital standpoint. Like if I were in charge of preventive care in this country, everybody would have health and it would be very clear what the guidelines are and there would be very clear pathways for people to do their own research and see the evidence and ask questions. That is not the system we have right now, but it is the system that I think we can build. And there are organizations out there, like the Committee to Protect Healthcare, that are focused on ensuring that every person in this country will have access to healthcare in the future.
- [30:42]
Amy McGrath
Well, there are good sites out there and good organizations. You just outlined a few of them that people can go to. Because I think you're right. I mean, I basically wouldn't even go to the CDC right now. I wouldn't go to their website if I had an issue. I just wouldn't. I would talk to you. I talked to my mom, who's a retired physician. I talked to others, go to the American Academy of Pediatrics and some of these websites that you talk to. Because I do feel like the CDC is compromised right now.
- [31:17]
Kristin Lierly
It is definitely compromised and it has been, you know, Right. As soon as Trump took over, he took down some of the guidelines that we use every day, the medical eligibility criteria that we use for people who have complicated health histories and need contraception, the STD guidelines for treating sexually transmitted infections, all of that stuff disappeared for a short time. And we had to figure out ways to get access to that really important information so that we could take the best possible care of our patients. And so in a way, our professional organizations have gotten much stronger and much more self sufficient because of this. But it's not the right way. You know, the government should be involved. We should be focused on research and development and looking to the future, having a vision for the health of the American people here in this country where we spend more per capita than any other country on earth. Our outcomes aren't nearly as good as our peer countries and it's because we are funneling money in the wrong direction. We can do so much better and that's our opportunity. As the pendulum starts to swing back in the other direction and we can build a better country. Healthcare is a huge part of it.
- [32:26]
Amy McGrath
Well, I've been talking about this for a while, but when the Trump administration ends, and we all hope it ends. It will.
- [32:36]
Kristin Lierly
It has to.
- [32:36]
Amy McGrath
It will. And we have so much to do to rethink and figure out what government should be in the future because they are destroying so much. One of the things that I think should be done is I think the CDC and HHS should not be part the same way we think of the executive branch. I think it should be independent the way the Fed is independent, the way the National Nuclear Regulatory Commission is independent. Because the politics of this, it ends up, the trust goes away. People don't trust the organization anymore. And so if we could make it more like the Fed, where they're going to do what's best for. In the Fed's case, do what's best for the economy and our monetary policy, regardless of who's in the White House. We've got to have that again for the CDC so that the American people can trust what comes out.
- [33:45]
Kristin Lierly
Maybe this is, maybe this is the bright spot. I mean, the Trump regime has really uncovered all of the weaknesses, so now we can go back and fix those structural problems so that this won't happen again.
- [33:56]
Amy McGrath
Yeah, I mean, that's the way I look at it. All right, let's get some quick takes because there's a lot going on that I want to get your opinion, opinion on quickly. So let's go. Days ago, one of my other co hosts that comes on quite a bit, Nicole Malikowski, who's a, a Thunderbird pilot, former Thunderbird F, F16 pilot. She sent me this article while I was on vacation about the White House targeting leftist influencers.
- [34:25]
Kristin Lierly
Oh, yeah, those are my people. Yeah.
- [34:28]
Amy McGrath
Putting it on their website. Political commentators who are media, quote, media offenders. And, you know, we laugh about this at first. It's like, oh, you know, roll your eyes kind of thing. But I feel like this is really, really bad because you're using an official White House page. You're using a government platform. This is not the President or Pete Hegseth or JFK Jr or somebody going on their personal page and saying, you know, all of these influen are bad or I don't like them. This is not a part, you know, it's not the GOP saying this or it's not a party platform. This is the official government website saying, these are, quote, media offenders. These American people who are just speaking their mind are Bad for speaking their mind.
- [35:28]
Kristin Lierly
This ties into what you said earlier about how when you were deployed, you had a journalist embedded in your tent with you, and now that's not there. The Trump administration is really freaked out by what's happening with the media ecosystem and they can't control it. And, you know, this isn't the first time that the official executive branch has done something crazy. Do you remember the video that they put out a couple months ago where, like, Trump is flying through the air, pooping on, like, Harry Sisson and, like, that was an official thing that was on their social media. And also the House is investigating this group of progressive influencers. This started a couple months ago. So they are clearly, they recognize that this is a threat. I think these influencers are. They're kind of flattered by it because they know that the work that they're doing is getting out to the public. And let's be honest, the executive branch is doing the same thing, but they're doing it in a way that misinforms and it's propaganda versus what these influencers are doing, which is sharing real information because the old pathways no longer exist. Look what's happening with traditional media. CBS and the big Paramount merger. Can you trust any of that anymore? I don't feel like you can. It's like the cdc, like we were just talking about, none of that traditional stuff feels trustworthy anymore. But you can look to Brian Tyler Cohen because he's got the answers.
- [36:56]
Amy McGrath
Well, yeah, and you're right. The debate reflects this sort of broader change in the plan. Political media. Right. Where these podcasters, what we're doing, the streamers, independent commentators were out there and can shape the national coverage.
- [37:16]
Kristin Lierly
Yeah.
- [37:16]
Amy McGrath
You know, without working inside the traditional media ecosphere. And that's scary for the White House and they. Because they can't control it. And, and I do think, you know, the worry is the first thing you do in an authoritarian regime is you put out, hey, these are bad people, on an official government website. And then what's next? That's what I worry about. What's next? They're going to go. How are they going to go after these people?
- [37:49]
Kristin Lierly
Yeah.
- [37:50]
Amy McGrath
And. And I. That that's my concern, and I think it's real.
- [37:54]
Kristin Lierly
Did I ever tell you that I'm like, literally a stone's throw away from Joseph McCarthy's birthplace? Literally right down the road. Yeah. We could do the next episode, and I could do it live from outside the farmhouse where he was born. But you're right, they are so worried about this they want to control the entire narrative. And the thing that we have to do as the American public is recognize, ask for receipts, recognize that any of this information that we are receiving. This is not the days of Walter Cronkite. Nobody is fact checking and verifying anymore. We've got to do that ourselves. We've got to figure out who we trust and why and help to disseminate that good, positive, real information and push back on the misinformation that is on every single one of us.
- [38:39]
Amy McGrath
That is, we have to be more savvy and we have to teach our kids to be more savvy. I'm constantly talking, you know, I have, I have three children ages almost 14, almost 12 and 10 now, and I'm constantly talking to them about, well, where did you see that? Where did you read that? Oh, on YouTube or it's on the Internet. Okay. Where, you know, like. And I do feel like if we constantly just push a little bit more, the next generation will hopefully be more savvy. I honestly. And I'm probably, I'm probably going to get some comments about this. The statement I'm just going to make here.
- [39:27]
Kristin Lierly
Do it. Yeah.
- [39:28]
Amy McGrath
I think that my children, at least the 14 year old, is probably more savvy about whether something is true or not on the Internet than many senior citizens.
- [39:50]
Kristin Lierly
Oh, yeah, not even senior citizens. I mean, Gen Xers, Millennials. Because we didn't grow up with AI. And all of this time, has your 14 year old said to you, no, mom, that's not real, that's AI? Yeah, my kids have told me that
- [40:03]
Amy McGrath
too, but I feel like they're so, I mean, I, I know people, you know, we all do. Who, who are of a different generation where, you know, if it's, if it's out there, it's true.
- [40:14]
Kristin Lierly
Yes. Because that's what they grew up with. That makes sense.
- [40:17]
Amy McGrath
Yeah.
- [40:18]
Kristin Lierly
Yeah. But you have seen the videos of the bunnies Trump jumping on the trampoline, right?
- [40:23]
Amy McGrath
I've seen so many videos about crazy stuff which, you know, my, my son will be like, that's AI. I wish it were true.
- [40:33]
Kristin Lierly
Thanks, kids, for teaching us.
- [40:37]
Amy McGrath
Well, listen, I thought that this was an interesting story about what's happening in Albania. Now, I did have to look up where Albania is after I was like, yeah, where is that again? It's in the Adriatic Sea. It's a country. It's one of the most beautiful countries on the planet. But Jared Kushner, who is the President's son in law, is trying to build an island resort. In Albania and on this, like, former Communist military base. His investment firm, Jared Kushner's investment firm, which is called Affinity Partners, is trying to build this billion dollar luxury resort. And the people of Albania now the Prime Minister there is all for it. He's, you know, buddy, buddy with, I guess, Trump and his family. But the people there are not for it. Many of them are protesting this, and they're carrying around inflatable flamingos because this coastline is apparently a home to the flamingo. And they're saying this is an ecologically sensitive area. We have pristine beaches, we have these protected species, and we do not want this billion dollar monstrosity. So I just think it's interesting that's going on right now. They're pushing back. They're saying Albania cannot be bought.
- [42:03]
Kristin Lierly
As I was reading this story, I was tempted to go buy myself a flamingo and put it in my yard.
- [42:10]
Amy McGrath
It's now a new thing.
- [42:11]
Kristin Lierly
It's a new thing. It's also an old thing. Does that happen sometimes in your neighborhood where all of a sudden somebody's yard will be, like, filled with flamingos, like on their birthday? I love that. No, I think this is genius. And it's not just happening in the United States. We talked about ebay, ebola, earlier. Kenyans are out protesting. Kenyans are dying because they don't want Americans to be treated in Kenya. They don't want Ebola to come to Kenya because it's a real risk. It's the same thing with Albania. That good pushback. The United States of America should. People from the US should not be coming to Albania and ruining your ecosystem. Protect your culture, protect your country. I'm so excited that they are pushing back.
- [42:52]
Amy McGrath
So, yeah, it's really great to see. It really is. And here's another good story for the week, that a federal judge has ruled that the Kennedy center, the name change that Trump wanted to name it after himself, was illegal. And this federal judge, U.S. district Judge Christopher Cooper, said that Congress named that building and they specifically designated it the John F. Kennedy center for the Performing Arts as a living memorial to the slain President Kennedy. And you can't. Only Congress can change the name, not the president. So the Kennedy center has had to remove Trump's name, at least from its website and YouTube page. The big letters that they have on there still remain at this point. I can't wait for those to come off. That should be a. That should. We should go there for the YouTube, you know, do a YouTube feed when they, when they take those off. But you know, I think it's a
- [43:58]
Kristin Lierly
good thing I'll be there. You, me, in front of the Kennedy center, watching it go down. I love this idea.
- [44:04]
Amy McGrath
I know. And two shout outs for the week. One is Sherry Devote. So do you know who she is?
- [44:12]
Kristin Lierly
Sherry Devote?
- [44:13]
Amy McGrath
She is the first woman to win the Kentucky Derby. Oh, she's the first horse trainer. And last Saturday she won the Belmont Stakes as well.
- [44:25]
Kristin Lierly
Fantastic.
- [44:27]
Amy McGrath
That is amazing. What a year for her. It's just shout out to her. But also, this week is huge in our family.
- [44:37]
Kristin Lierly
Oh, dear.
- [44:38]
Amy McGrath
Primarily because I have put posters up in almost every room of the schedule and the team outlines of all of the teams in the World Cup. This is, of course, the international soccer tournament that comes every four years. Very excited in our. In our family. This is happening here in the United States, in Canada, in Mexico. Yeah. Has the largest amount of teams ever. The games start today in Mexico City. So we're very excited about this. And I don't know if you're a soccer fan, but it's a huge, huge thing in our household.
- [45:20]
Kristin Lierly
I am not a soccer fan, admittedly, but I appreciate the scale and all of the enthusiasm. I love the chatter. I just talked to somebody yesterday who's flying to Seattle to watch the Iranians take on Egypt. I think is the game that they're going to like. This is so much fun and so exciting and it's a real joy to be part of it. It's sad that we're doing this under this. In this political, I don't know, fog, because it shouldn't be this way, but let's just enjoy it for what it is, whether we are soccer fans or not.
- [45:51]
Amy McGrath
I hear you and I hope people get a chance to watch the game because they. At least a few of the games because they are really, really cool. Soccer fans are amazing and it's just. It's the international sport of this world and I just love it. So I hope, of course, us goes a long way. We have. We're not. We're not the top dogs.
- [46:16]
Kristin Lierly
Not the men's soccer team, anyway.
- [46:18]
Amy McGrath
In this. That's right. We gotta wait for the women's World cup to be the top dogs, which I love too, so. So shout out to the World Cup. Best wishes to. To the United States and to all of the teams out there. We'll follow along with the World cup as. As the summer goes on. But what a wonderful show. Great to see you.
- [46:37]
Kristin Lierly
It's so good to spend time with you. I just love our time together.
- [46:41]
Amy McGrath
I do too. And I'm going to be really looking forward to getting back into Truth in the Barrel here this summer. We're gonna have some exciting shows and exciting guests throughout the summer. So wonderful to see you. Until next time.
- [46:55]
Kristin Lierly
And a field trip to the Kennedy Center. Put it on your calendar. That's right.
- [47:01]
Amy McGrath
We've gotta find out exactly when they're knocking that name off.
- [47:06]
Kristin Lierly
That's right. Watch your social media. It's coming.
- [47:09]
Amy McGrath
That's right. Awesome. Well, great to see you. Another great episod of Truth in the Barrel, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. Make sure you like and follow all of our content. We're going to be out there in full force now that the summer is out.
- [47:29]
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