← Truth in the Barrel
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
00:42:18
Welcome To Truth In The Barrel! In this their very first episode, Amy and Denver broadcast live from the Hartfield & Company Distillery in Bourbon County, Kentucky. All manner of subjects come up from D.O.G.E, Veterans Rights, Matters...
Loading summary
Transcript144 lines
- [00:00]
Amy McGrath
We're just two patriots who love our country, who served our country, and not just in the military, but also in politics. And we're here to tell it like it is.
- [00:10]
Denver Riggleman
We really are. I think it's exciting, too, that we're starting here in Bourbon County. I'm pretty excited about that. And, you know, part of what we're doing with Truth in the Barrel is really about whiskey, because truth is whiskey as far as I'm concerned. Amy.
- [00:22]
Amy McGrath
Amen. And we're here to talk about what you should know as Americans, especially on matters of national security. And this is an age where a lot of people don't, you know, believe corporate media. So we're going to talk to you about our experiences and what's going on in the world.
- [00:39]
Denver Riggleman
You know, it's weird, you know, so many people, every time that. That I'm out there, they're like, Denver, we don't look at. We don't. We don't even look at mass media anymore. We only go to independent media. And that's pretty interesting to me because a lot of independent media is disinformation. As you know, we've talked about it on the far right and even on the far left, I think here with our backgrounds, especially with yours, what you've done, which has been amazing, you know, 89 combat missions. You're talking about the first Marine female pilot to fly an FA18 in combat. Weapons officer, Weapons officer. Well, then. Well, weapons officer, then pilot, but it's still pretty badass. And as an Air Force intelligence officer, I barely know the difference. Anyway, and so then. And so. Well, you know, backseat front seat. Backseat front seat, that's right. What is it? What is it? The. God. I remember the F4s, they used to have a name for it. It was like the Rio. Was that what it was with the F4?
- [01:25]
Amy McGrath
The F4 and the F14 were called Rios, but in the F18, we call them Wiz.
- [01:30]
Denver Riggleman
Yeah, well, in B1s, they were Wizos, too, because I was B1s and also F15es, you know, so. But no, it's just incredible, your background, what you've done. And I think that's why, when we talk about independent media, that's why we're here today. I think people need somebody they can trust. And you've done some things to get this set up where you wanted to make sure we validated and sourced everything that we're doing.
- [01:49]
Amy McGrath
Absolutely. And one of the reasons that I wanted to partner with Denver to do the show was that, you know, Denver ran As a Republican, he stepped up in 2018 when I stepped up, because we needed better leaders in this country and we had something to give back to this country and make sure that Americans know the truth. I like Denver because he's got a tremendous background in new technologies and AI. He was an intelligence officer in the Air Force. And now probably even more impressive is that he owns and operates, but he's not the master distiller of a very cool distillery in Virginia. But today, what are we drinking on our very first episode?
- [02:33]
Denver Riggleman
I tell you, I'm pretty excited about this. First of all, you know, this is the first time that I've been here Old Bourbon County. It's Hartfield and Company. We're actually here today, and we thought, my wife's going to be mad at me, but she actually is a traditionalist. So she said, you should start in Kentucky, right in Bourbon county, where we're at today. This is a straight whiskey, 110 proof. I actually love it. It's a little bit sweet, which makes me very happy. We also do a weeded bourbon. But what I really like about this bourbon, I mean, guys, have you seen this bottle? Also this. This is a class act product, and I love the notes on it. You know, I sort of make it up. My wife, they should probably ensure her nose and her palate, but when I drink it. Let me get. Let me give you guys what I think when I drink it. Let me tell you. Hmm. Yes. The palate is effing great. That's the palate. It's effing great. And I think that's what's so cool. I think people should really visit this distillery. And the fact that they would let us be here is pretty damn exciting.
- [03:25]
Amy McGrath
And so every episode, we're gonna be talking about bourbon. We're gonna be talking about whiskey. Why? Because, let's face it, folks, we need a little bit of this to get through what we're getting through in our country right now.
- [03:40]
Denver Riggleman
The thing about real bourbon, you know, I don't know if people know the federal definition of bourbon, but you can't cheat. And I think that's why whiskey is America. And I think when you combine facts and truth, I think that is sort of the real Whiskey Rebellion. And I think that's what we're doing here in Truth in the Barrel. So I'm pretty excited.
- [03:56]
Amy McGrath
All right.
- [03:57]
Denver Riggleman
About getting. So let's.
- [03:58]
Amy McGrath
Let's get started. All right. We're going to talk about some important topics that are going on in our country. The first one that I wanted to tackle was these massive cuts that the current administration is implementing. That's hurting, in my opinion, the veterans, the va. Right. And look, the biggest thing from my perspective, the first thing, and I'm interested in yours, is number one, veterans aren't calling for these cuts.
- [04:34]
Denver Riggleman
No.
- [04:34]
Amy McGrath
Okay. So Donald Trump and his VA secretary and the Elon Musk Doge people, who have clearly never served their country in uniform and have no idea what that really means are sweeping through all the agencies, and they're going to the VA and they are talking about cutting 80,000 jobs at the VA. And the current secretary of the VA says, hey, stand by. There's major changes. Get used to it. But don't worry, veterans, it's not gonna affect your healthcare. Let me just say right off the bat, that is total bullshit.
- [05:13]
Denver Riggleman
Well, I know Doug Collins.
- [05:16]
Amy McGrath
I'm sure you do.
- [05:17]
Denver Riggleman
Hi, Doug. And I think part of it, when you're looking at Doug, I don't know, after being in Congress so long, maybe he doesn't understand what it means to actually lose health care. You know, I was in Congress. You know, the health care is amazing. I don't know if people know this. We have our own personal doctor in Congress.
- [05:30]
Amy McGrath
That's nice.
- [05:31]
Denver Riggleman
Ain't that nice? Yeah. Drink to that. Cheers. But I think what you're looking at is that most of the veterans didn't ask for this. But what else? When you look at who votes for Donald Trump, it's veterans, right? If you look across the board, if you're talking about leaning right, it's mostly going to be veterans in the U.S. armed forces. So you have Doug Collins, who I believe really didn't make that great a decisions when he was in Congress anyway. Somebody who would sell out quickly based on where he's at. I mean, look what he got. He got the VA job. Right. And the other thing, too, is that what's interesting is I think there's going to be a massive backlash. Because when you talk about inefficiencies in the va, and me and you have talked about this before, we know there are inefficiencies in the va, but you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. And you have to have a nuanced look based on experts in the medical field, the insurance field, and the care field, they need to have some kind of tiger team initially to get started. Now, tiger team is a team, everybody, of experts that are put together to actually fix a problem. Right. Or to address a problem. I haven't seen that. I just saw hey, Trump calls Doug. Doug says cut. People cut. Veterans don't matter. And they think that they can somehow roll.
- [06:34]
Amy McGrath
Well, Elon says cut, and Doug just rolls along with that.
- [06:38]
Denver Riggleman
Of course.
- [06:38]
Amy McGrath
But, but here's the thing. I mean, you cannot cut 80,000 workers and expect better healthcare outcomes. That just. It just doesn't work that way.
- [06:48]
Denver Riggleman
It does.
- [06:49]
Amy McGrath
And here's what annoys me. The va and a lot of people say, well, hey, how come you can't just privatize veterans healthcare? Well, number one, there's no big calling to privatize. There are some right wing veterans groups like that were led by Pete Hegseth and many of the current, unfortunately, assistance secretaries of the VA who always wanted to privatize the va. They could never do it. Why? Because there's no broad calling to privatize the VA from veterans or from the American public. It's always an eyesore to them. Right. Because what is VA health care? It's universal healthcare for veterans. It's socialized medicine, and it works. Now, it's not perfect.
- [07:43]
Denver Riggleman
No.
- [07:43]
Amy McGrath
Now, my husband and I both get our health care through the va and we will tell you it's not perfect, but in our region, it's great. They do tremendous work, but every region is different. And we have to concede that, but we have to make it better, not throw it away.
- [08:01]
Denver Riggleman
Well, preach, Amy, because I would say even the distillery cat was meowing while you were preaching. And here in the distillery, knowing that, you're absolutely correct. Right on. What's going on? And is that kitty over there well fed cat? Yeah, that's right. Way to go, kitty. What's that cat's name? Does anybody. Can anybody tell me the cat's name? No? Is it barley? Well, damn right. We love barley and barley. Oh, you know what? I do taste the notes of malt.
- [08:25]
Amy McGrath
Here's the thing I want to ask you though, right? Why? Because you're a Republican. You know all these guys.
- [08:31]
Denver Riggleman
I do.
- [08:31]
Amy McGrath
Why are they doing this? Why are they. Because clearly it's going to hurt vets. It may not hurt vets in proportion to our age. It may not hurt sort of younger vets as much. But a lot of older vets really rely on the va. You know, my uncle, for example, is a Vietnam vet who had an illness related to Agent Orange and he got a lot of care later on in his life dealing with that. That is not something that you get from the local clinic. And that's another thing that a lot of I think Americans need to understand is the VA helps Veterans, specifically blast injuries, traumatic brain injuries, things that only, I mean, you don't get exposed to Agent Orange in civilian life. You don't get exposed as much to toxic fumes the way we were exposed to toxic fumes in Afghanistan and Iraq. That, by the way, the last administration passed the PACT act that allowed veterans of our generation to get healthcare from. And now they're basically trying to undermine all this. Why are they doing that?
- [09:42]
Denver Riggleman
Because they're Blue Falcons. I mean, if you think about it really, you know, you have what I think when I was in, in the 116th and when you went into the 1 17th, I don't know if it was 16 to 18% maybe representative were veterans in Congress, which is well over the 1 to 2% of the American population. But I think what you're looking at, and people can look up Blue Falcon, please look in your urban dictionary for what we're not gonna. So please do that. But it's incredible to me, Amy, that you have former veterans that are sort of going down this line and you ask me a very profound question is why do they do it? I think there's three things and I think people listening to this podcast or this show are going to be a little bit shocked at how basic it is. They're worried about polling, they're worried about fundraising, and they're worried about winning. Let me say that again. They're worried about polling, they're worried about fundraising and they're worried about winning. That's it. They're worried about their cross tabs and their polling. And I think when you look at it, if you have a 73% say you have a 73% approval rate, like in my district. Right. We're in Virginia 5. Right. It's probably still about 10,000 square miles. It's as big as New Jersey. All they're worried about is what that two years looks like. And it's a little bit different from the Senate. When you look at the House, as soon as you win, you're already running for the next term. So. And by the way, when I first came in, I don't know if a lot of people know this, McCarthy said something pretty interesting. He said, winners make history and we have to win no matter what. And I think what you're looking at is people betraying the very oath that they're taking because they believe that they have to be subservient, you know, to a guy who's gone bankrupt six times and is a felon.
- [11:15]
Amy McGrath
Why even get into that position? You want that position so bad. And then when you get into it, you basically just throw all of your morals and principles away to keep the position. What's the point? I mean, the Republican Party used to be the party of national security, used to be the party of, hey, I'm going to stand for veterans. And now they're just a. Okay with cutting veterans health care. And here's the other thing about being a veteran. And yes, you and I are both veterans. So, you know, maybe, maybe don't take this the wrong way for people that are watching, but here's my belief. We ask people to sign the dotted line for four years of their life. At least. Four years of their life. At least put on a uniform, go through a tremendous amount of pretty hard shit, okay, in training, maybe put your life at risk and go into harm's way. You don't know if you're gonna go, but you might. And you could be, you know, you could be a logistician, you could be an admin person, and you can be in harm's way. It does not matter what your quote MOS is. You sign the dotted line for four years, you basically give up your rights. And in return, we give a handshake deal to these less than 1% of Americans that do this. And that handshake deal is a little more than a handshake. It used to be an actual promise. Prior to the Trump administration, it was a promise. And that promise says, we're going to give you some GI benefits, we're going to give you some educational benefits, you might get your college paid for, depending on what state you're in. We might give you a better home loan, a better rate on home loan.
- [12:54]
Denver Riggleman
Yeah, I've used it.
- [12:55]
Amy McGrath
You know, we might give you preferential treatment on, on getting a federal job if you get out. But the biggest thing we give people, the biggest thing is you're going to get health care for life, quality healthcare for life. And right now, the attack on that is what is making me very upset.
- [13:16]
Denver Riggleman
I think, I think if everybody was listening right now, what you should do is look at your state, because we're going to hit all 50 states on this amazing podcast called Truth in the Barrel. But look at how many people are covered under VA. 9 million.
- [13:32]
Amy McGrath
9 million veterans.
- [13:35]
Denver Riggleman
9 million.
- [13:36]
Amy McGrath
Serve this country.
- [13:37]
Denver Riggleman
Serve this country. So are you telling us that somehow an individual that's put there had the somehow the wisdom and the foresight to make those cuts in the first 100 days of administration without looking at really what the impacts of that funding are? It Just goes to show you that there's incompetence, inefficiencies, and power mongering that are driving the decision making in the VA right now. And I think that's something we have to accept, but it's something we also have to fight. And as we go through the next two to four years, I think it's something that, and I'm gonna say this as a Republican, as a former Republican, Democrats need to look at how veterans are being taken care of. And I think that's an issue for Democrats. Independents, even the center right, never Trumpers. They need to look how veterans are taken care of. And I think if they do that, I think there's a way forward, there's a path to use the VA and what's happening there as a broader definition of what's happening with this whole administration.
- [14:32]
Amy McGrath
Yeah. And the final thing on this, just for. For people, I mean, when you walk into the VA and your therapists, the people who are doctors and nurses have to greet you at the counter because we fired all the people that we think are, quote, non essential. I mean, that doesn't make a good running health organization. We're firing people right now that are doing things like making sure our health records that from the active duty get into the Veterans Administration. I mean, these are important things for healthcare. I mean, I'm not an expert, but, like, just the blanket firing of people just makes me really upset. And also because these are people that, you know, they're caring for veterans, you know, they are. They could be out there doing lots of things, but they care about, you know, the folks that serve this country.
- [15:31]
Denver Riggleman
Can you imagine how they're feeling now? And I think what I would say is, to Donald Trump and Doug, don't be a Blue Falcon administration. I think that's really what we're. That's where we're at.
- [15:41]
Amy McGrath
I think there already are.
- [15:42]
Denver Riggleman
But, hey, agree. Cheers to that. Cheers.
- [15:45]
Amy McGrath
Next topic.
- [15:46]
Denver Riggleman
All right, let's go.
- [15:48]
Amy McGrath
Tariffs. All right, look, this is a national security podcast and we're going to talk a lot about national security, intelligence, the military, all that stuff. However, tariffs affect all of us. It affects our economy. And I just gotta say, this whole idea of putting tariffs on Mexico, Canada, all of our partners and allies, unprovoked for no reason is just galactically stupid. I mean, we are like. It's almost like he's doing the opposite of what you would do to help growth in our country and our economy. What's going on here?
- [16:37]
Denver Riggleman
I think he made some promises and he's listening to some of the craziest people on earth. Right. I mean, people forget who was one of his trade representatives in his first administration. I know a lot of people don't remember this. It was the sterling and completely sane Peter Navarro. Right? So I think.
- [16:54]
Amy McGrath
So when you're the Peter Navarro who said recently that tariffs are not taxes, they're taxes on, like, other countries, but not on us or something like that. And I was like, that is just the opposite.
- [17:10]
Denver Riggleman
Peter Navarro had this report called the Immaculate Deception that talked about January 6th. And part of the reason he called it the Immaculate Deception is he made some. He actually made some claims that the reason that some of the election was thrown was because a lot of the poll workers were having sex while they should have been actually counting ballots. So Peter Navarro is really nuttier than a shithouse rat, if we want to be honest. Right. And so, I mean, and if you think about the people that he has around him now, I mean, Trump has not picked the best and brightest. But here's the flip to it. Trump has really never really run a successful real business. Right. And when you look at tariffs and supply chain, people talk about tariffs as a tax. Yeah, yeah. But what does the retaliation look like? And for manufacturing, what does that supply chain look like? People say, oh, automotive will come back. You had what. The leader of the UAW stepped up and changed his tune in a couple weeks, saying Trump's doing great things with tariffs when just a year, a couple years before, he said Trump was an idiot. So I think what you're saying, again, Amy, and I know, I don't wanna boil this down to basics, basics, basics. But people are just doing what Trump wants them to do based on their position, based on them having, I would say, the support of their electorate and constituents. But if we're looking at unions, it's the fact that a lot of these unions now have sort of started to tilt to the right, you know, sort of Trumpish. And I think a lot of those individuals are just doing what Trump wants them to do based on that position or having some kind of.
- [18:32]
Amy McGrath
Well, you know, the truth is, it's galactically stupid. All right, and. And so let me break it down a little bit. Okay, sure. Break it one. Because they say on. On the right. All right? And I'm, I'm just pointing at you because, you know, wait, am I in the.
- [18:47]
Denver Riggleman
Where am I in the shot? I'm on the. Oh, shit, I'm on the right.
- [18:49]
Amy McGrath
They say, hey, these tariffs are gonna restore the industrial base, right? Okay, maybe, but not for a really, really, really, really long time. All right? And it's not gonna happen overnight. And I would argue that under the last administration, which was Democratic administration, we were starting to do that with some good policies to begin with. Okay, that's number one. Number two, these tariffs are gonna replace income tax. That's what your buddy Navarro said, right? No, they won't. They're not gonna replace income tax. That's not even. We're getting. And Americans are getting taxed twice, right? Because we're gonna have income tax and we're gonna have the tax that is the higher prices that we're gonna all suffer through because of these tariffs. And number three, Trump says, and Trump's people say that we're gonna pay off the US Debt with these tariffs. Now, if you know anything about deficits or debt, you know how freaking laughable that statement is? It's not even close. Not even close. This is a tax on Americans. It's a tax on the, you know, working class Americans because we spend on things and we have a higher percentage of our, of our income as, you know, spending on those things and all of the prices are going to be higher. This is just stupid.
- [20:13]
Denver Riggleman
Pass through on tariffs are ridiculous. You know, after Covid, you know, so we're in a distillery. You know, my wife and I own Silverback Distillery. And I remember after Covid, we had these incredible price hack price increases that were called Covid additional fees. Right. That were sort of tacked onto it. And I remember, I'm like, oh my God. I mean, corks, bottles and people don't understand there's a cumulative effect in manufacturing when it comes to tariffs, when it comes any increase in price in the supply chain. And again, I would really encourage people to go look at what our debt and deficit is right now. Just really look at that. Look at our national debt. But also look at the yearly deficits and go back and look at what Trump did with his yearly deficits and look at what the actual pattern is. I think you're going to be surprised that we're really not going down. Okay. And I think the American people need to know this. It is mathematically impossible for tariffs to make up the difference. Can't do it on our deficit and debt.
- [21:12]
Amy McGrath
Can't do it. We'll have a show on that. To make the graphs. We'll do graphs. Here's something that Peter Navarro just said. Tariffs equal tax cuts. And when I read that, I was just laughing because that's when my kids think that money that comes out of the ATM is free. Like, that's the same. Tariffs do not equal tax cuts. The answer is no, they do not equal tax cuts. It's the opposite. This will actually hurt Americans in their wallets. It's gonna happen. And here's the thing Trump ran on lowering prices. And here's the question I wanna ask you. Has anything been lowered? Have egg prices been lowered?
- [21:55]
Denver Riggleman
No, nothing. Inflation was almost 3% in the last report. Egg prices, they think that's gonna go up 40%. So when you're looking at it across the board, there is no prices that have been lowered. Gas is no lower. What did I pay on the way up here? Just under $4 a gallon.
- [22:09]
Amy McGrath
We're just going to increase the prices because that's what tariffs are going to do.
- [22:12]
Denver Riggleman
That's what tariffs do.
- [22:14]
Amy McGrath
When you impose a tariff on another country, you're imposing a tax on that other country. Guess what they do in response?
- [22:22]
Denver Riggleman
It's tariffs up.
- [22:23]
Amy McGrath
They impose another tax on us. And that's you and me buying their products. So just recently, Canada, right, took off all of their bourbon from Kentucky off the shelves. What does that do to the bourbon industry in Kentucky?
- [22:42]
Denver Riggleman
Was it. They took all US liquor? Was it Ontario? Can't remember if it was all of Canada or Ontario, but they took all the liquor off the shelves. What does that do? There's a cascading effect to employment, There's a cascading effect to growth. There's a cascading effect of marketing. There's a cascading effect with our actual relationship with our allies when we talk about this stuff. And Canada is an ally, I mean, they're an incredible ally. So I just find it amazing that we have a president who does commercials for Tesla, right, and can't seem to understand how tariffs work because he's ignorant. I mean, let's just put it.
- [23:14]
Amy McGrath
And here's the thing, when you listen to Donald Trump and he says, ah, tariffs are gonna make us great again, we're gonna have so much cash, it's going to be, it's going to be great. We're going to be rolling in the dough. You know, whatever he says, you know what I'm talking about, I think people need to know that's bullshit. Remember he said Mexico would pay for the wall? Did Mexico pay for the wall?
- [23:36]
Denver Riggleman
No, I don't remember that.
- [23:37]
Amy McGrath
No, no, no, he's lying. The additional costs will not be paid by other countries. They will be paid by Americans. Prices will go up. You know, our biggest trading partner, our biggest trading Partner is. Is what now?
- [23:51]
Denver Riggleman
Well, there was Canada, Mexico, where our biggest. China was number three. So it might have been.
- [23:55]
Amy McGrath
Mexico is now our number one.
- [23:57]
Denver Riggleman
Was number one, I believe. Yeah.
- [23:58]
Amy McGrath
So to, to, to put all the. Where do we, what do we get from Mexico? Well.
- [24:02]
Denver Riggleman
Oh, good. Dear Lord. Everything.
- [24:04]
Amy McGrath
Yeah, we get a lot of fruits and vegetables. All this stuff's going to go up.
- [24:09]
Denver Riggleman
That's right.
- [24:09]
Amy McGrath
You know, Canada, we got a lot of crude oil. All that stuff's going to go up. So all those prices are going to go up.
- [24:15]
Denver Riggleman
Wait till we have the avocado riots in the United States. I just, you know, I want my heart healthy. Avocados now.
- [24:22]
Amy McGrath
And here's the other thing. Didn't Donald Trump, wasn't he the one that negotiated the update to nafta? NAFTA was the North American Free Trade Agreement. That was negotiated by Clinton back. By Bill Clinton back in the 90s. And that was actually, in my opinion, a very good deal. And it was with, I mean, we.
- [24:46]
Denver Riggleman
Need to have another discussion.
- [24:47]
Amy McGrath
Okay. With Canada and Mexico, which are our largest trade partners.
- [24:54]
Denver Riggleman
They are.
- [24:55]
Amy McGrath
And Donald Trump negotiated that again to the usmca, and now he's going against that.
- [25:01]
Denver Riggleman
So USMCA was a big portion of the 116th Congress. That's why when you were talking about this. Oh, my God, that's what you did. I was having a flashbacks. Yeah, we voted for the usmca. So that's why it's incredible to me what I'm seeing right now. It's sort of the. It's like opposite. It's just so hard to explain. Listen, Trump was not a good president, but when we talk about now, I don't know if it's an advance in senility and dementia or the fact that he surrounded himself with people that are now just complete loyalist and incompetent, but I think we're to a point now where we're having policy being made based on faulty notions and based on fictions. And I think that's the scariest thing going forward is that if you don't even understand how tariffs work. Amy, you have Peter Navarro saying that tariffs equal tax cuts. That's like saying Demer Riggleman equals supermodel. Like, that's just.
- [25:49]
Amy McGrath
We know that's not true.
- [25:50]
Denver Riggleman
We know that's not true. Right. It's completely opposite. So that's the issue that I have, is that we just have lies and disinformation even being, I would say, spread, metastasized across our entire media ecosystem. And listen, people who aren't really paying attention. Might buy it.
- [26:04]
Amy McGrath
Yeah. And I, I still think that there are a lot of Americans that are kind of like, well, you know, kind of Trump knows what he's doing and we gotta do these tariffs for a while. Cause we gotta curb illegal immigration and all that. Look, folks, there's ways to curb all these stuff without putting a massive tax on Americans.
- [26:20]
Denver Riggleman
Yeah, it's a bully syndrome. Just a bully syndrome with stupid policy.
- [26:25]
Amy McGrath
All right, good deal. Last topic.
- [26:29]
Denver Riggleman
Do you want to talk you. We have noise over you.
- [26:38]
Amy McGrath
What you think the last round.
- [26:40]
Denver Riggleman
I want to talk back to you. Crame. All right, Miss who? Yep. I'm going to ask you the question what you think a couple of times here.
- [26:48]
Amy McGrath
Okay.
- [26:49]
Denver Riggleman
You ready?
- [26:50]
Amy McGrath
Yeah, Send it.
- [26:51]
Denver Riggleman
I'll let them know when they're ready.
- [26:53]
Amy McGrath
Nope, I'm good with.
- [26:56]
Denver Riggleman
I don't either, but thanks for asking. Appreciate you guys.
- [27:03]
Amy McGrath
All right, thanks, Katie. So appreciate it. So what's on your mind?
- [27:08]
Denver Riggleman
Oh, I'm pissed. You know, I was back, I was in Ukraine back in September and I'm going back and I think what I just saw with what was going on with our good friend Marco Rubio going to Saudi Arabia to talk to the Ukrainian delegation about what's going to happen in Russia. I think looking at this 30 day ceasefire that's proposed, by the way, Russia hasn't agreed to it. I wonder what that capitulation looked like as far as Trump's bullying of Ukraine since I was there in September. And I want to ask you this question, Amy, what you think about Ukraine? I have a really, really bad feeling about this, that we're going to have a brokered land deal and that Russia is going to be able to keep exactly what they've taken, which could be up to 20% of Ukraine. And I don't know what that lat long looks like, the latitude, longitude of what that would look like or what that container looks like that they're going to be able to keep. So I think with me being in Ukraine, talking to Ukrainians, those who have actually fought and those who are fighting, looking at some of their intelligence and weapons systems, looking at their challenges, I know that our aid and our assistance is very key to their literally pushing back against Russia. But what I'm starting to think, Amy, is that maybe, and I'm saying this so understatedly, I'm wondering maybe were actually capitulating to Putin. And I don't know which, I know that you have a lot of thoughts on this, but I would like to ask you some And I, and I do know Ukraine, what your thoughts are as you're looking at what's happening between Trump, Ukraine and Zelensky?
- [28:40]
Amy McGrath
Well, the best peace deal in my mind would be for Russia to get the heck out of Ukraine. And I think that's what the Ukrainians have wanted the entire time. There is no both sides here. And that has been, I think, the biggest shift in the last few months since Trump has become president. The messaging that Republicans, that Marco Rubio, J.D. vance, Donald Trump are trying to push out there is that there should be both sides here. Both sides are good, and let's just come to a peace deal. No, no, no. There are no good. Both sides are not good here. We have one country that invaded, invaded another country. We have one country that is bombing civilians of another country. We have one country that is basically on a daily basis instituting war crimes. You know, what they've done to civilians in Bucha and other places, you know, lopping off heads. They're not all the same. We have been on the side of the good guys here, on the side of democracy, on the side of our partners, on the side of standing up for the, in my opinion, the world order that the greatest generation built for us, okay? And the other side is Vladimir Putin and the Russians that are doing unspeakable things to the Ukrainians. And so now we have a president that has come in and has basically said, hey, Ukraine, why don't you just give up 25% of your country? And the Ukrainians are not wanting that because they don't want to give up their country. And frankly, I don't think they should have to give up their country. Now, we have been giving the Ukraine's Ukrainians some weapons and some aid. So has Europe to defend themselves. And why is that so important? If you're somebody that's like, I don't even know where Ukraine is on a map, we don't do that. If we don't give them the weapons that they need and Europe doesn't give them the aid that they need, Russians are just going to take over. And they're not going to stop in Ukraine. They're going to go elsewhere. They're going to be emboldened by this. This is exactly what happened in the 1930s when we looked our country, along with many in Europe, looked at Adolf Hitler and said, maybe we'll just give him a little bit of land here and see what happens. No, no, no, that's not how this works. And so, yeah, it's a long way for me to say that what they're trying to do right now is, in my opinion, not the right way to go.
- [31:45]
Denver Riggleman
Yeah. I mean, it sort of looks like the MAGA version of the Neville Chamberlain policy. And also leads me to believe that a lot of Republicans love bare chested horse riders like Putin. Right? Yeah. I mean, there's gotta be something there, right? I'd love to do a study on how many people, you know, might be curious about, you know, what happens out there.
- [32:03]
Amy McGrath
You know, they love that fake strength. And look, here's the thing. Vladimir Putin, by the way, is not winning.
- [32:10]
Denver Riggleman
Right.
- [32:10]
Amy McGrath
I'm sorry, but if you need like 10,000 North Koreans to help you out on the battlefield, you ain't winning.
- [32:17]
Denver Riggleman
Bad stuff is happening. And I think that's why it's so disingenuous when you hear J.D. vance or you hear Trump or you hear anybody in the administration saying that Ukraine can't win, here's how they can win. I hope you're ready for this. All we have to do is feed them the arms and material that they need to win, because Russia's tried for over three years to do this and they can't get it done right. And it's just so funny to see, you know, Wall Street Journal or other far right publications try to rationalize it somehow. But what it comes down to is Ukraine can win with our help unilaterally. So why the hell aren't we doing that? And I think that's one of the things that I've been very angry about, is that it doesn't seem like pundits. And we talk about me and you are independent media. It seems like they can't understand that Ukraine really has the upper hand based on the type of aid that we can provide, or NATO or EU can provide. The other thing too. Everybody was bothered by what happened with Zelenskyy in the White House and how awful that went down. He was in a bar fight with two idiots and he came out looking pretty good against Trump and Vance. That's not what bothered me the most, Amy. What bothered me the most is that we voted with Russia and China and North Korea on the resolution. So that was shameful. We actually became the baddies.
- [33:26]
Amy McGrath
Yeah.
- [33:27]
Denver Riggleman
And I think that's what gets me when we talk about Ukrainian.
- [33:30]
Amy McGrath
We were on the side of war criminals.
- [33:31]
Denver Riggleman
Yeah, absolutely.
- [33:32]
Amy McGrath
Congratulations. United States is now on the side of war criminals. How does that make you feel? I'll tell you what, as somebody that served my country, that doesn't make me feel really good right now.
- [33:42]
Denver Riggleman
I know. You know, I don't, you know, Marine Corps fighter pilot. Awesome. And you know, back seater to front seater. Wow. I remember in intel training, we were trained on Russian threat systems, surface terror missile systems. My whole life has been trained on killing Russian systems or other things. And you went to China, obviously. We looked at things like North Korea, but my training was on red threats. And red threats, as you know, were defined as Russian threats, whether it's the SA10, the SA15, the SA21, the SA6, the SA2. Right. You know, sure, stay, you know, whatever I was taught, you know, huh. And what I had to learn on air to air. Right. As an intel officer, obviously I never, you know, got too much stick time air to air like you did. Right. But by God, I could memorize some shit, let me tell you. U.S. air Force people can read a book. But you know, what's amazing to me is that we are so superior in our tactics. We're so superior in our armaments. We were supposed to be superior morally. And I think we've given that up in Ukraine. And whatever this peace deal looks like, I think it's going to be absolutely a travesty. I think it's going to be something that, as far as the American people is concerned, I don't know if we can live that down. I don't know if our allies will ever respect us again. I think it'll take decades, I would say, to build the bridge back to some kind of trust with our allies. And I think this will be one of the most black portions of our history, the most sordid portions of our history that we let a country be consumed and innocents killed by a dirtbag shit bird like Vladimir Putin.
- [35:21]
Amy McGrath
And we're supposed to be stand for something. We're supposed to stand for something as Americans. Now, we don't always get it right. We've been in many conflicts throughout the 20th century, and even in the 21st century, we don't always get it right. But we're supposed to be on the side of the right, you know, And I'm not talking left. Right. I'm talking morally. And we are not right now. And here's the other thing that really irks me, this quote. Aid military aid, humanitarian aid, financial aid to Ukraine. It is not that much. It does not. I mean, you might think, well, it's billions of dollars going to a foreign country. In the big scheme of things, it is not that much money we are giving. We were, you know, what we were giving them. We were not even Giving them our top of the line weapons. We were giving them stockpiles, stuff that.
- [36:18]
Denver Riggleman
We never even use.
- [36:20]
Amy McGrath
Okay. And that we will never, you know, we're never gonna go back to using that stuff. We were giving that to them. And so the amount is just not that much. And what they were doing with it was defending their country and defending the free world against an authoritarian war criminal. I think that's a pretty darn good bargain.
- [36:45]
Denver Riggleman
I think it's a great bargain. And I'm going to try to do this out of memory, so forgive me. Number one, the CIA has deprioritized support for Ukraine. Number two, Cyber Command and Russian cyber defense threats have been deprived. Deprioritized. CISA has been deprioritized.
- [37:03]
Amy McGrath
What's cisa?
- [37:04]
Denver Riggleman
CISA is a cybersecurity information security agency that's supposed to be looking at threats coming in from foreign and domestic threats into our networks. Works for dhs. It's a DHS committee. The Pentagon has deprioritized Ukraine support. Right. We have actually taken away any support for jammers for the F16s. We have voted against Ukraine and the UN it comes to the point, as you start stacking us taking away intelligence. Oh, the one that just happened, which was validated, was that we took away their ability to get commercial imagery in order to target Russians. What are we doing here? And I think if you start stacking everything we've done, there's a trend. And in intelligence, once you see a trend, it becomes much more than a coincidence. You can actually come to some kind of analysis. And the analysis is this, this administration is pro Russia. And I would beg anybody who wants to argue with us, Amy, on this, because we will bring the receipts. And it is really the actions, not the words of an administration that determines what happens in a foreign policy setting. And what we're seeing right now, again, I think isn't just a travesty. That's not a strong enough word, Amy. There's got to be a stronger word. It's a humiliation. There's got to be a stronger word.
- [38:14]
Amy McGrath
It's UN American.
- [38:15]
Denver Riggleman
It's UN American. Maybe they should.
- [38:17]
Amy McGrath
Donald Trump says to Vladimir Zelensky, you don't have the cards. What is he doing? He's taking the cards away from Zelensky and the Ukrainians. That's what he's doing. He's trying to tip the scales to Russia. And for me, I just think that's unconscionable right now. That's how I think.
- [38:39]
Denver Riggleman
I just wonder how Many posters of Vladimir Putin's naked chest is on Republicans walls right now in their bedrooms. And I think that's really, that's really. I think, I think that's the definition of what's happening right now.
- [38:52]
Amy McGrath
It's not an image I want to end on.
- [38:53]
Denver Riggleman
Well, that I actually have one of me bare chested a horse that I.
- [38:57]
Amy McGrath
Gave my wife an image I want.
- [38:58]
Denver Riggleman
But it was one of those little hobby horses and it was. Cheers.
- [39:02]
Amy McGrath
All right, let's end on a different image.
- [39:05]
Denver Riggleman
All right. You want to end on a different image?
- [39:08]
Amy McGrath
Yeah.
- [39:09]
Denver Riggleman
Okay. I think people will find that very exciting.
- [39:11]
Amy McGrath
All right, so Mallory had some questions for us. We did.
- [39:18]
Denver Riggleman
Okay. What'd you guys think about that ending at me bare chested on a hobby gorse?
- [39:22]
Amy McGrath
Does that, does that end on Vladimir Putin or, or his chest? I think you should end on. It's been great to be here together. Okay. We're going to be doing this virtually, like kind of thing and then wrap it up with, you know, make sure you're following us. Yeah. And just don't say where because we.
- [39:37]
Denver Riggleman
Could put it on the screen. Right, okay. On the screen. Okay. Okay.
- [39:40]
Amy McGrath
So. So you want to remind, you want to, you want to end on great bourbon. Yeah.
- [39:45]
Denver Riggleman
Do we want barley in my lap? Cotton maybe stroking the cat?
- [39:49]
Amy McGrath
Not as loud as we thought.
- [39:51]
Denver Riggleman
Oh, it's not. I actually thought you could hear. I could hear it very loud. That's, you know, look, look, remind folks again.
- [39:58]
Amy McGrath
Yeah. You're going to put some of these things in the show notes. Well, you'll, you know. Yeah. Like tell us what you want to hear about. That's right. Look, all of what we're discussing are really important things, but we wanna hear from our audience, we wanna hear from you as to what's important, what you wanna hear from us, our take on various things. And that's what this show is gonna be about. We need a lot of whiskey to get through the next few years and we gotta be truth tellers.
- [40:26]
Denver Riggleman
I think it's amazing that we covered the veteran administration tariffs in Ukraine in one show. I think it's incredible and I just think we've scratched the surface. We could talk so much about Ukraine, Virginia and tariffs, but I think that's what's so special about this show and our first one here in this distillery is that we're able to encapsulate this from us being Americans, former veterans. Right. And obviously we have some political experience. A little bit. A little bit, Right. I mean, I am the most successful one term congressman in the history of the US Congress.
- [40:53]
Amy McGrath
At least you got one term.
- [40:55]
Denver Riggleman
Yeah. Sort of accidental, though, like, Mr. Riggleman goes to Washington.
- [40:59]
Amy McGrath
I just ran against Voldemort.
- [41:01]
Denver Riggleman
Well, a little bit. No doubt. And I know, but we can talk about that more. We gotta have a whole show on that. But it was so happy to be here with you today. I mean, Truth in the Barrel. I mean, there's not going to be anything better than this. And I hope people tune in, and I really do hope they look at all our social media channels also. Amy.
- [41:17]
Amy McGrath
Yeah, you definitely need to follow us, because we got a lot going on in our country. We're going to be talking about a lot of important issues that affect Americans and affect our national security.
- [41:27]
Denver Riggleman
You know, it's amazing. I think next time we're going to touch on my exotic dancing background, and I think that's going to be. As you guys know, I dance with Chubby Dale, so. But thanks for being here for Truth in a Barrel, and I love being here with you.
- [41:37]
Amy McGrath
Awesome. Cheers.
- [41:38]
Denver Riggleman
Cheers.