This Week Unfiltered 04.17.25

Summary

Podcast Summary: Truth in the Barrel – "This Week Unfiltered 04.17.25"

Hosts: Amy McGrath & Denver Riggleman
Release Date: April 18, 2025
Website: www.TruthintheBarrel.com

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1. Introduction and Whiskey Appreciation (00:00 – 03:32)

Amy McGrath and Denver Riggleman kick off the episode with their signature blend of patriotism, political discourse, and a mutual love for whiskey. Amy introduces the episode by highlighting pressing issues such as government actions and the SAVE Act, setting the stage for an unfiltered discussion.

• Whiskey Highlight:
  Amy: “What am I sipping today? Okay, this is Green River. Green River, Kentucky straight rye whiskey...” (01:04)

• Notable Banter:
  Denver humorously refers to himself as an “international man of the flu” due to a sore throat, adding a lighthearted touch to the conversation.
  Denver: “International man of the flu that I'm getting over. So I apologize for my voice...” (00:32)

2. The SAVE Act: A Critical Examination (03:32 – 15:30)

The hosts delve deep into the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act), dissecting its implications and the motivations behind its introduction.

• Overview of the SAVE Act:
  Amy: “The full name of it is called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. It’s one of these things that the Republicans are trying to push under the political umbrella of trying to stop undocumented immigrants from voting...” (04:10)

• Critique of Legislative Intent:
  Denver criticizes Representative Chip Roy's motives, suggesting the act is more about aligning with Trumpian conspiracies than genuine voter protection.
  Denver: “Chip Roy is not putting in this bill to save America... He’s putting in this bill to support conspiratorial notions of a stolen election.” (05:10)

• Impact on Voters, Especially Married Women:
  Amy: “Anyone registering to vote or changing their registration must appear in person at an election office with a valid US Passport... That’s going to make it extraordinarily difficult for married women who have changed their names.” (07:54)

  Denver: “If you are a woman military spouse who took her husband's last name, don't ever expect to vote again.” (09:41)

• Broader Implications:
  The hosts discuss how the SAVE Act could disenfranchise millions, particularly rural voters and married women, undermining the democratic process.

3. Deportation Case Study: Kilmar Abrego Garcia (15:30 – 23:00)

Amy and Denver examine the controversial deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, highlighting issues of due process and governmental overreach.

• Legal Concerns:
  Amy: “This is about being an American. Remember innocent until proven guilty... This man was not charged with anything. Our government nabbed him and threw him in a foreign torture prison camp with no due process.” (19:30)

• Political Ramifications:
  Denver argues that such actions erode trust in the government and set dangerous precedents for future deportations without proper legal procedures.
  Denver: “Our constitution and due process is what separates us from the animals and the autocrats. If we let that go, we're screwed.” (22:58)

• International Relations:
  The conversation touches on the strained relationship with El Salvador and the questionable motives behind such deportations, suggesting possible backdoor deals and corruption.
  Denver: “There's a quid pro quo going on here with money and favors changing hands.” (19:03)

4. U.S. Negotiations with Iran: Challenges and Concerns (23:00 – 38:42)

The hosts discuss President Donald Trump's efforts to renegotiate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, expressing skepticism about the appointed negotiator's competence and the administration's strategy.

• Trump's Iran Strategy:
  Amy: “Donald Trump should have never undermined the 2015 Iran deal... Now Iran is further ahead in getting a nuclear weapon.” (27:19)

• Critique of Appointees:
  Denver criticizes Ambassador Witkoff’s qualifications, likening him to Jared Kushner and expressing doubts about his effectiveness in negotiations.
  Denver: “He’s only been studying this issue for the past three weeks... I’m going to call him Witless Cough.” (28:53)

• Technical Challenges of Nuclear Negotiations:
  Amy: “Iran's nuclear program involves enriching uranium through centrifuges, making it difficult to dismantle through bombing alone. Destroying centrifuges may only offer temporary relief.” (37:22)

• Historical Context:
  The conversation references the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and its shortcomings, arguing for a more robust and enforceable agreement.
  Denver: “The JCPOA is no longer in existence. We need something enforceable.” (31:25)

5. Rapid Fire Segment: Current Events and Opinions (38:44 – 48:39)

In a dynamic rapid-fire section, Amy and Denver tackle various hot-button issues, offering quick, candid opinions.

• Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s Oval Office Visit:
  Denver: “If she starts with bullshit, instead of hiding in the corner, she should just walk out.” (39:18)

• CIA Director's Deleted Messages:
  Amy: “Deleting Signal messages is a breach of the National Records Act and demands investigation.” (40:56)

• Office of the Secretary of Defense Leaks:
  Denver: “Hiring incompetence leads to incompetence. Seeing officials removed is a positive sign.” (43:06)

• U.S. Stance on Russia’s Attack on Ukraine:
  Denver: “We should condemn Vladimir Putin for attacking Ukraine. It’s insane to support Russia.” (46:14)

6. Closing Remarks and Toasts (48:09 – 48:39)

The episode wraps up with the hosts raising a glass to U.S. District Judge James Boasberg for his actions against the Trump administration, emphasizing their commitment to justice and constitutional principles.

• Toast to Judge Boasberg:
  Amy: “Raise a glass to U.S. District Judge James Boasberg for opening criminal contempt proceedings against the Trump administration.” (47:07)
  Denver: “Cheers to old Jimmy B. True American.” (47:34)

• Final Thoughts:
  Denver expresses enjoyment of the episode and encourages listeners to subscribe and engage with the show’s content.
  Denver: “Make sure you subscribe to Truth in the Barrel. Cheers to our listeners.” (48:12)

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Notable Quotes:

• Amy McGrath (02:05): “Whiskey without regrets... the official whiskey of the United States Marine Hospital back in the late 1800s.”

• Denver Riggleman (06:41): “Legislation based on fantasy and conspiracy theories is being pushed into the American public to save us from something that doesn’t happen.”

• Amy McGrath (12:43): “You want to screw over married women voting in this country? How about we make anyone, I don't know, wanting to buy a gun, show their passport and birth certificate?”

• Denver Riggleman (23:11): “When you have so much incompetence, when everybody wants to be famous instead of worrying about the country, you get pure insanity.”

Conclusion:

In this episode of "Truth in the Barrel," Amy McGrath and Denver Riggleman provide a sharp, unfiltered analysis of current political issues, from the controversial SAVE Act to international deportation policies and U.S.-Iran relations. Their candid conversations, underpinned by a shared passion for patriotism and constitutional integrity, offer listeners a comprehensive and engaging perspective on the pressing matters facing America today.

Transcript

[Amy McGrath]

Foreign. Hello and welcome to Truth in the Barrel. We've got a lot to get through today, like our government shipping people off to foreign prisons. The SAVE Act. What's that? A possibility of a nuclear Iran and some rapid fire at the end. This is Truth in the Barrel unfiltered. I'm Amy McGrath. I'm here with my co host and international man of mystery, Denver Riggleman, also.

[Denver Riggleman]

International man of the flu that I'm getting over. So I apologize for my voice. I sound like Clint Eastwood after a long night, you know, on the desert or something. But also, don't forget, everybody, we're on about every social media platform, including Truth Social, which I know people think is nuts, but X Blue sky, you can go to YouTube and also on all our pods. Right. Any of your favorite podcasts, you need to look at us because we love having these discussions. And also, you know, we still have bourbon as part of this. Right, Amy? I mean, not only talking truth. Right. We got bourbon as part of this.

[Amy McGrath]

Yeah. And before we start talking about all the important topics, we need to talk about whiskey. That is super important. So what am I sipping today? Okay, this is Green river. Green River, Kentucky straight rye whiskey. It's from Owensboro, Kentucky, dates back Denver to 1885, which is really cool because that's the year that my great grandparents were born. So that's really cool. And this is called the Whiskey Without Regrets, which I love. The other reason I like it is not only for the taste, and it's. It's really good whiskey, but it served as the official whiskey of the United States Marine Hospital back in the late 1800s, and that ended up becoming what we now know as the National Institute of Health. It was the official whiskey of the Public Health Service back then, which I.

[Denver Riggleman]

Think we should still have an official whiskey for the nih, you know what I'm saying?

[Amy McGrath]

They need it right now.

[Denver Riggleman]

And, you know, we were just at the New Orleans Bourbon Festival, and Green river was there. What great folks, right? Yeah. Cheers to. Cheers to Green River. Yeah, this might help my. What did you say before we got on air here, Amy? The frog in my throat.

[Amy McGrath]

It might. You know, they used it in the 1800s. Officially.

[Denver Riggleman]

It's medicinal.

[Amy McGrath]

It is.

[Denver Riggleman]

Well, that's how a lot of the big distillers got through Prohibition. They had themselves identified as medicinal whiskey. That's how they made it. Right. And. And that's why it's so cool with Green River. You know, it's an incredible tagline right. On your romance to say you know whiskey without regrets. But we all know that too much whiskey usually means regrets no matter what, and that's what makes life exciting. That's right.

[Amy McGrath]

That's what I love about it. And the other thing about Green river is this is like the westernmost distillery. If you do the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, that's like the furthest west that you can go, at least officially. But it's really good. And here's the thing. I'll also say to everybody out there, if you want us to highlight your whiskey or your bourbon, maybe you know of one with a good story or has a great taste or even better yet, both send it our way, we would be happy. Denver and I would be very happy to taste your bourbon.

[Denver Riggleman]

Oh, absolutely.

[Amy McGrath]

All right.

[Denver Riggleman]

Absolutely. If we must. If we must, Amy, we will sacrifice.

[Amy McGrath]

Yeah.

[Denver Riggleman]

To try everybody's bourbon.

[Amy McGrath]

Oh, that is so much love, Green River. Okay, let's get into unfiltered. Here's something that I have seen all over the Internet, and it's one of these things, Denver, that, like, you see and you're like, really? Is this a big deal? Should I really know about this? It's called the SAVE act, and honestly, I didn't really care or know about it until it actually passed the House. Okay. And then when it passed the House of Representatives, I was like, oh, man, I should probably know about this. What is it all about? First of all, it was introduced by a guy named Chip Roy, who you probably know. And anything introduced by that man should be really carefully looked at. So that's what we're going to do today. The full name of it is called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. It's one of these things that the Republicans are trying to push under the political umbrella of trying to stop undocumented immigrants from voting, even though we don't have a problem with that. So I'll start there, and then I'm actually going to tell you what's in the act, which is totally infuriating to anyone, but particularly to those of us who are married women.

[Denver Riggleman]

Well, you know, it's funny, in Congress and the military, we had some of the same sayings, right. We always. Sometimes we're a solution looking for a problem, or, you know, real solutions for phantom problems. This is it. But I know Chip pretty well. And here's part of the political portion of this, Amy. You know, he has to burnish his conservative credentials a little bit more because he actually voted to certify the election in 2021. And Chip will come out as this fiery constitutional guy. But that really hurt him, you know, and as he was going forward, he still needs to make sure that he's showing the proper amount of, I would say, bend the knee behavior to Donald Trump. And I think that's what you're seeing right now with the SAVE Act. When you talk about phantom problems, what is the one big phantom problem? The phantom problem was that the November 2020 election was stolen, which Trump pushed, which we know all of that. I was on the January 6 committee. We have to relitigate all that because I'm very good at it. But I think what we're seeing right now is legislation based on fantasy and conspiracy theories that's being pushed into the American public is something that's saving us from something that doesn't happen. And I think that's where people start to lose complete faith in our government. We talk about legislation that doesn't actually apply to anything. Here's the other thing I will say, though, that 77 million voters who voted for Trump would probably think that this is great legislation, Amy. And that's the thing that really bothers me, and I think, again, why we're doing this show Truth in the Barrel, is to show people that Chip Roy is not putting in this to save America. Chip Roy is not putting in this bill for some kind of constitutional, you know, brass shining for him. He's putting in this bill to show that he's still part of Team Trump, and he's putting in this bill to support conspiratorial notions of a stolen election.

[Amy McGrath]

Let's, though, get into what does the act say? Because as you, as you said before, a lot of, a lot of people are going to be like, oh, well, yeah, this, this sounds good. Let's make sure that our elections, that, that, you know, undocumented immigrants can't vote in our elections. But let, let's, let's get into the details. Okay. About this act. So what it says is anyone registering to vote or changing their registration must appear in person at, at an election office with a valid US Passport, a birth certificate, or naturalization papers that prove not only your identity, but also your citizenship. And get this, Denver driver's licenses, military IDs, your new real ID that's no longer accepted, that would no longer be accepted as proof of citizenship. And, and the SAVE act requires that the name on your passport matches the name on your birth certificate. Now, Den, how many married women do you know whose married name matches the name on their birth certificate?

[Denver Riggleman]

That wouldn't be a thing.

[Amy McGrath]

Mine does not, by the way. I mean, when I was born, they didn't know who I was going to marry. I, I mean, this is ridiculous. 69 million other married women fall into this category. And it would make it just extraordinarily difficult for us every single time we move to go into an election office then. What's an election office? Aren't we closing down all of our offices?

[Denver Riggleman]

That's a good question. Is it a polling place? Is it your local election input area where you actually go in to actually sign up? And you know, that's the thing is that, I mean, are we in the. Show me your papers United States right now. Show me your papers. What are you doing on the street? Why does your birth certificate not match your passport? Well, I was married for 37 years. That is no excuse. Well, off you go to El Salvador.

[Amy McGrath]

Your marriage certificate then doesn't. Is not accepted your marriage certificate. So get this, you can't register. You would then not be able to register online. You can't register online anymore anywhere in America. You have to go in person to an election office while they're closing down all these offices. Every time you move into a new home or apartment, you change your party affiliation, you update your name. You're now required to go re register to vote. What happens if you've never had a birth certificate or lost a birth certificate? I guess you just don't get the vote. How about if you're elderly and you move into an assisted living? That's, that's going to be fun for them. How about transient populations, like, I don't know, den military families. How many times did you move in the air force in 15 years?

[Denver Riggleman]

I moved 13 times, counting.

[Amy McGrath]

There you go.

[Denver Riggleman]

You know, starting before basic, all the way through ROTC. I was active nine years, 11 years, then, you know, inactive at NSA. Yeah. I mean, if I just look at the 11 years, probably nine times, Amy. I mean, I mean, that's.

[Amy McGrath]

How many election officers are around in, in the desert when I was living in a tent for two years. I mean, and basically here's the deal. If you are a woman military spouse who took her husband's last name, don't ever expect to vote again. I mean, it's just going to be so freaking hard for you to vote. You just. Well, you know, forget it.

[Denver Riggleman]

I don't see it, I don't see it. Getting the necessary votes in the Senate, hopefully. I think what we're seeing though is real messaging, you know, from the gop that they're really serious about this whole limiting as many voters as possible. You know, the only way that the GOP can win. Now, I had this interesting conversation. You know, I lost in a convention with only 2,500 voters because they had to narrow the voting pool to just evangelicals for me to be beat in the convention. And obviously because of the gay wedding and stuff, the GOP believes you have to win by subtraction. And the very thing they accused people of, of stealing elections is they're trying to throttle elections. And I've tried to, I've tried to talk to people about this, like, oh, Denver, you can't say January 6th was stolen. If you're worried about your convention when you say that that was taken from you. Well, of course it was. They didn't even have a primary because they were afraid. They were absolutely terrified that somebody like me, who's more socially liberal, could break through on the Republican Party, especially with the Christian, the nativism and the Christian nationalism that we see right now in the gop, Amy. And I think that's what's. It's really something that every accusation is a confession. And you especially see that with conspiracy theorists. There's also this other weird thing, is that inconsistency in these type of policies is a feature, not a bug when it comes to conspiracy theorists, but especially to the magas, right, is that they don't care that this doesn't make sense. Amy, what you just told me is nonsensical. It's as if nine year olds, right, reading Mein Kampf wrote this thing. And I mean, it's just, it's insane.

[Amy McGrath]

I mean, Speaker Johnson, the Speaker of the House, he says this is no big deal because, you know, Dan, we always got a card teenagers when they try to buy alcohol. So, you know, we should. You should be able to prove your, your documentation to vote. That that's his. That's his belief. So let's just consider this. You want to screw over married women voting in this country? How about we make anyone, I don't know, wanting to buy a gun, for example, have to show their passport and birth certificate? How would that fly?

[Denver Riggleman]

No, I don't think that would fly at all. Do you?

[Amy McGrath]

No. I mean, this is dumb. I don't understand. Four Democrats voted for this shit. It's unbelievable.

[Denver Riggleman]

I bet Jared golden was one of them. And you know, I'm thinking this. Do I think American citizens should be the only ones voting in elections? Yes, Amy, sure, of course. But when you're talking about real service to people, legislation should be serious and it should be addressing a problem that is real. That's pretty funny. I. I'm sorry, I gotta say it, because sometimes our producer, Amy, and things put up there he goes. It's like the real life he man woman haters club. It's pretty much true. And you know what I was gonna say, too, to that is that this unserious legislation, which I said came from conspiracy theorists fantasist. As a continuation, we go back to Chip Roy wanting to make sure he's in the Trump Club, which is the, I guess the he man club. My biggest worry is that as our legislation gets more and more unserious, how does that affect real people? And if there's people serious. Amy, we are serious people. We like to have fun and joke around, but when it comes to service, there has to be a serious element to this at some place when we're talking about this legislation. And Amy, when you're talking about women, there seems to be this massive misogynistic vein of crazy that's sort of buttressing all of this. And it's almost like it's the misogyny written I color my beard group, you know, like at times, Ben Shapiro or Matt Walsh or J.D. vance. Right. Or some of these other crazies out there. If you go look at some of these Christian white nationalists who think that women shouldn't vote or they're against suffrage, they all color their beards with really black coloring stuff. And I'm not quite sure of maybe that that's infecting their brains, because I'm to the point that when you see this type of unserious legislation, you have to wonder where we go from here. And so for anybody to listen to this and say, oh, Denver. And Amy, you guys don't understand. You don't understand that only Americans should vote. And okay, guys, if you want to show your papers and your passport, you know who this hurts? This is my whole rant. Do you know who this really hurts? Rural voters who vote for Trump.

[Amy McGrath]

Where.

[Denver Riggleman]

Are they going to go?

[Amy McGrath]

And married women. I mean, married women, let's be honest.

[Denver Riggleman]

Rural voters. Well, and married women, obviously. And I apologize. I should put that first. But married women. But then the rural voters out there.

[Amy McGrath]

Yeah.

[Denver Riggleman]

So are their wives not voting? What? Where are they going? Bob's farm. I mean, actually turning your passport.

[Amy McGrath]

And we do have to move on because we can't talk about that. But I'm. I'm with you. I hope this is in the Senate. It needs to die in the Senate.

[Denver Riggleman]

Yes, ma'am. So, you know, I want to talk about our. Somebody that we've heard a lot about in the news, Kilmar Abrego Garcia. And about his deportation to El Salvador with what was, you know, presumably a bunch of Ms. 13 gang members and sent away. And this whole argument about whether he should have been sent away or not based on his alleged affiliation with Ms. 13. You know, you talk about lack of nuance and speaking to the most stupid of our population, you know, individuals going, hey, Den, we don't want criminals here. He was already a criminal. He was an illegal alien. He should have gone anyway. Well, okay, here. Here's the issue. In 2019, a court ruled that he could stay here based on real physical danger to himself. So now we have the court saying that he's here legally. I could hate MSF 13, Amy, and I'd love to hear your opinion on this. I could hate criminals. I could say that illegal aliens that don't have any disposition here based on where they're at or who they are. Right. Maybe should be deported back. Yeah. I'm a big proponent of a strong border. I think that's part of us having a country.

[Amy McGrath]

Yep.

[Denver Riggleman]

But being in a rural district like this. Amy, you're in Kentucky. I'm a big proponent of legal immigration based on the fact that we have such a lack of a labor force for actual seasonal work and also farm work. It's absolutely brutal here in the 5th district. There's a farm here, a beach farm. Amy. Over 100 employees. 100% are H2As or H2Bs are actual immigrants. So here's the thing. If we allow somebody to be deported after a court has ruled he's here legally without due process. It's not about the fact if he was or was not Ms. 13, which the evidence is incredibly shaky.

[Amy McGrath]

Right.

[Denver Riggleman]

Or the fact that he might have been accused of domestic violence, which is awful. I hate domestic violence people. I. I hate them. Right. I despise them.

[Amy McGrath]

Yeah.

[Denver Riggleman]

Right. He was judged here legally. If there's no proof or there's no documentation, there's no way to go before a court to prove this. And you actually round him up where the. Where there's already an admittance of an administrative error by the White House. Where are we as a country if people are like, eh, big deal.

[Amy McGrath]

We're in a new low because it comes down to. And it isn't just like, oh, Dems and are supporting gang members. That's not what this is about. Okay. This is about being an American. This is about the values that we have that the greatest Generation fought for, okay? The fact that, hey, remember watching the Hill Street Blues and cop shows back when we were young, there's this thing called innocent until proven guilty, right? It's a thing that we. That's the American way, right? That's due process. And this man, he was not charged with anything. He was not convicted of anything. And for the government, our government is we the people nabbed this guy and threw him in a foreign torture prison camp with no due process. That is a fundamental problem, okay? And if you can't see that as an American, you need to take that, you know, that American flag off the back of your car, okay? Because this is purely what our constitution says and it's been enshrined since 1780, 89.

[Denver Riggleman]

Well, I think this was a bit of a drug deal too, as we would say in our parlance, you know, whether it's government contracting or a real drug deal or somebody wired for sound or a quid pro quo. Because if you think about it, El Salvador, this guy I think is Naib Bukele, I believe, if I'm pronouncing that correctly, the President, first of all, you know, don't go to the White House dressed like an extra narcos, you know what I mean?

[Amy McGrath]

Unless you're at the bottom. Or Putin.

[Denver Riggleman]

Yeah, yeah, unless that's right. And no, but it's what's interesting, you know, with the, the, the black, you know, I'm like, oh, come on, man, what are you, a motto? Are you the number one trafficker for Mexican, you know, cocaine from the Colombians? You know, dress, you know, like you respect the president since you're not at war, but you are at war with your people. I mean, some of the allegations on this guy and some of the stuff sort of proven based on the fact, you know, building fake social media accounts to, to go after his opponents, right? A guy who's built this supermax prison, right, where somehow last five years, human rights abuses. Oh, yeah, that's guy, that's what he's been accused of. But do you know what happened right before he came to the White House, El Salvador got upgraded by the State Department. I believe it's like a tier one country now. One of the safest countries to travel to.

[Amy McGrath]

Oh, lovely.

[Denver Riggleman]

Because somehow in five years, their murder rate has gone from 107 per 100,000 to 1.9. Which human rights people are like, that's impossible. Right? What is this, Mayberry? Yeah, you know, we got Don Knotts walking around, right? So it's ludicrous. So you have a guy who's been accused of actually making deals with gangs, payoffs, all that kind of stuff. A guy who has this authoritarian bent, who builds this huge prison to intimidate the population of El Salvador. Right. All of a sudden. Oh, of course he loves any strong man Trump loves. I mean, he wants to spoon with the guy, right? So, I mean, that's what's going on. And so there's a quid pro quo going on here with money and favors changing hands. And then we have an El Salvadoran president again, dressed like he just came out of a movie, you know, like narcos, saying he wouldn't return a person, a judge, to be here legally from an El Salvadoran prison, and a Supreme Court that said we need to facilitate that transfer at 9 to 0, by the way. But of course, it's weak ass language, Amy, and I know you probably have some opinions on that.

[Amy McGrath]

Yeah.

[Denver Riggleman]

But it's just insane to me, you know, that we're dealing with this kind of ridiculousness because we're beyond the slippery slope now, Amy. We're here.

[Amy McGrath]

Well, in The Supreme Court, 9 to 9 to 0 said that Donald Trump and his administration needs to facilitate the return of this guy. He was, you know, he was, he was sent there illegally. And Donald Trump has basically said, no, we don't, because, you know, his excuse is, well, El Salvador doesn't want to give him back. So we don't really, we don't really want him back. We don't, we don't do anything. We don't need to do anything. I mean, here's the reason why this also matters to everyday people. If this can happen to this man, it can happen to anyone. Anyone.

[Denver Riggleman]

Yeah.

[Amy McGrath]

And Donald Trump even is even talking about this, hey, I want to, I want to send homegrowns to your prison in, in El Salvador. What, what are you talking about? You know, in this country we have criminals, right? And when they get sentenced, they go to jail. And those jails are right here in the United States. We don't, we don't send them off to Saudi Arabia. We don't send them off to El Salvador. That's just not what we do in America.

[Denver Riggleman]

It's so out of bounds, it's hard to get your arms around it. You know, our constitution and due process is what separates us from the animals and the autocrats. And if we let that go, we're screwed. You know, I keep saying it's not a slippery slope anymore. We're not going there.

[Amy McGrath]

It's in front of Us it's right here.

[Denver Riggleman]

It's here.

[Amy McGrath]

And good on, you know, the Maryland senator, senators, lawmakers who are going down there and trying to make a difference in highlighting this. You know, it's. Somebody's got to do it. Somebody's got to do it.

[Denver Riggleman]

Well, they let in the mouth breathing MAGA representatives, but they wouldn't let in the Maryland senator and right then the president. If we had a real president and not a guy. You know what I almost think of, Amy? Gosh, this is old school and I know. I don't even know if this is. You remember the Naked Gun? The movies. The Naked Gun. I almost think, remember the montages that were so ridiculous, you know, with Leslie Nielsen running along the shore with Priscilla Presley and all the stupid stuff they were doing together. I almost feel like we need a montage with Trump with all the dictators in the world and how much fun he has with him. You know, I feel like we need a naked Gun montage of Trump, you know, skipping through the tulips with all these fricking dictators and autocrats. Cuz that's where we're at.

[Amy McGrath]

That is where we're at. It's embarrassing and it's shameful. As somebody who proudly served my country and wore the uniform. Hello and welcome to Truth in the Barrel. We've got a lot to get shameful.

[Denver Riggleman]

Because like Amy, people might listen to this. Here's what we're going to be accused of if there was GOP messaging against you right now, right, Amy?

[Amy McGrath]

A possibility of a nuclear Iran. And we support rapid fire terrorists and wife beaters. Truth in the Barrel.

[Denver Riggleman]

We support gang members.

[Amy McGrath]

I'm Amy McCra.

[Denver Riggleman]

Support everybody here illegally.

[Amy McGrath]

Co host because we don't support the President of the United States, Denver Riggleman.

[Denver Riggleman]

Right. And it shows this evil strain within us, this globalist strain to destroy America within from destroying our American values by allowing these murderers and killers into our countries and by protecting them. Lake and Riley didn't have any due process. All these people who have been killed by illegal immigrants didn't have due process. Well, hey, hey, here's the other people don't have due processes. Everybody killed doesn't have due process, whether American citizen or not. And by the way, you have to have due process and constitutional rights for people who are judged to be here legally. But Amy, the messaging doesn't work. There's not that new nuance.

[Amy McGrath]

Yeah.

[Denver Riggleman]

And I think that's why we're in such troubles, because we don't own the media, which is why you Called me to start this show. This was your idea.

[Amy McGrath]

Yeah.

[Denver Riggleman]

Right. And I'm going back to truth in the barrel that you wanted another media stream independently where we could get sort of this common sense, facts based stuff out there. Yeah. So there you go.

[Amy McGrath]

No, you're right. All right, so another important event that's happening this week is Donald Trump. Our president, is looking for another Iran deal. He really wants a new deal on this. And he sent his negotiator, his longtime business associate out there to the Middle east to try to make a deal. But it's important right now because Iran is very, very close to a nuclear weapon. They're also very vulnerable. So now is a good time to make a deal. But Donald Trump's sort of ratcheting up the pressure here saying, quote, if they don't make a deal, there will be bombing. All right, so look, I just want to start out in saying we should have a deal. It would be in our interest, in the interest of the United States of America and the world to make some sort of deal to make sure Iran does not get a nuclear weapon. I want to make sure that everyone, everybody understands that perfectly clear. So good on the Trump administration for trying. But number one, Donald Trump should have never undermined the 2015 Iran deal that Obama, along with the other members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany put together to make sure that Iran did not get a deal. That's number one. And you may disagree with me, and I'm going to kick it back to you in a minute, but he never should have undermined that. Number two, the Trump team that he sent over there to negotiate this new deal is like most of his cabinet, not exactly the A team. Den the ambassador, his name is Ambassador Witkoff. He's only been studying.

[Denver Riggleman]

It's not the A team.

[Amy McGrath]

Get this. He's only been studying this issue of Iran, nuclear power and nuclear weapons for the past three weeks. Trump has also designated this guy to be his lead negotiator in ending the war between Russia and Ukraine. How's that working out for you? And he's also in charge of, get this, peace between Israel and Hamas. So hasn't been so successful with that either. But now he's tasked this longtime business associate, this real estate mogul that he knows to create this new deal with Iran. And just to start out, in the last few days, this ambassador goes on tv, goes on Fox News, and he says Iran does not need enrichment over 3.67%. Then 24 hours later, then he goes back on the News and says that Iran must stop its nuclear enrichment altogether. Now, that may sound like a lot of mumbo jumbo to a lot of people, but for those people that understand and know about nuclear weapons and negotiations, like that is the very heart of what you're talking about. And it seems to me that this guy has no idea what he's doing.

[Denver Riggleman]

Well, you know, I think he is like Trump's new Jared Kushner. Right. I think he's, you know, tasked with everything qualified for nothing. And that's why I want to call him Witless Cough. I think that's his new name from us, Amy. So jcpoa. So when I came in.

[Amy McGrath]

So jcpoa, remind people what that is. That is Obama's deal from 2015. Stands for Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Got it?

[Denver Riggleman]

Yes. Sorry.

[Amy McGrath]

Come on. Acronym man.

[Denver Riggleman]

Here's the thing. When we were in Congress and I was part of trying to dismantle the jcpoa, because there are some things there that we got. We had the partisan talking points, we had nonpartisan talking points, we had my staff, we had to strip it all back. We were looking at what the JCPOA actually meant. I remember the Brennan center coming. I talked to everybody, right. Like, what is this really about? It came down the fact while we were actually dealing with the JCPOA between 2019 and 2021. You remember that's when Soleimani was killed, right, Amy? Yes, I was there when that happened.

[Amy McGrath]

That was a. By the way, that was a very high leader within Iran's military.

[Denver Riggleman]

Yes. You know, and somebody that, you know, when he was killed. And by the way, the person that was killed with him was actually just as powerful. And we can go into that in another show, right? If we're talking about Iranian leadership in the IRGC and state sponsored, you know, terrorism within Iraq from Iran and the Shia Sunni issue. I love talking about this. This is sort of my bailiwick. Right. One of my bailiwicks, as it is yours. So we were looking at it. We were looking at these massive money flows for state sponsored terrorism, but also looking at the long term effects of the jcpoa, which a lot of us thought we needed something. Some of the more moderate Republicans, we needed an agreement, but enriched uranium was still allowed long term. Plus with the sanctions that were being lifted and a lot of the money that was flowing into Iran, we were seeing increases in state sponsored terrorism as the JCPOA was actually being executed. And we had to give them notice before we actually went in and did actual inspections. So There was things that were good and things that were really bad. And me as being some somewhat versed on counterterrorism, I'm like, this sucks. We would need a whole new structure. Therefore, the JCPOA is no longer in existence. So me and you can have a long talk about that, I think. Yeah. And, you know, we start the show, we're going to disagree on some things. However, the issue is we do need some kind of agreement that is enforceable because I think especially this is near and dear to your heart. We have something like Witlaskopf going in to do negotiations with Iran. It's not really helping the nuclear proliferation problem if we have somebody that stupid actually is the spearhead for American ingenuity and excellence in negotiations in the nuclear programs. So that's the kind of thing that really bothers me.

[Amy McGrath]

I mean, we can debate over pulling out of the original Obama deal. It was never a perfect deal. But I will say this. When Donald Trump took us out of that deal in 2018, what happened? Well, the US put more sanctions on Iran. But guess what? These other countries that made that deal with us, Russia, China, they are now really close to Iran because they look at the United States as, hey, you guys made this deal, then you pulled out of it. And here's the other thing. Who, where does Iran get its revenue?

[Denver Riggleman]

Oil.

[Amy McGrath]

Who's buying that oil now? China. So, you know, it hasn't been great in my estimation. And here's the other thing. We are now, Iran is now way further ahead than they were when that deal was made back in 2015 in terms of getting a nuclear weapon. And so that's where we're at today. Now, Iran, their economy is hurting. This is a good time to approach them for a deal. Why? Because their proxy fighters in the region have had some significant blows to them. Who am I talking about? Hamas, Hezbollah, their guy, Bashir al Assad. Guess what? He's gone. And so they have lost some friends in their region. Right. And so they're kind of vulnerable right now. So now is a good time to approach them for a new deal, shall we say? But you're right on the fact that who do we have out there and what are they doing? I hope that this works out, but my concern is that we're going to come away with this deal with the same types of things we've seen in the past for Donald Trump. And what do I mean by that? Vague pledges of a possible deal in the future, presidential summits where, you know, Iran gets, you know, to be to be out there on the same platform as the President of the United States. That's what I worry about. I just don't think these guys know what they're doing. Iran are, they're very good negotiators and we'll see.

[Denver Riggleman]

Well, look, the White House has consulted experts on this, Amy. Like Bill Maher.

[Amy McGrath]

Yeah.

[Denver Riggleman]

How could they not know, you know, what they're doing, number one? Number two, here's the other thing. What I would want people to go see. This is a, almost a 5050 thing. When you're looking at the JCPOA and now you're looking at the evolution of where Iran is today, we couldn't really say they didn't already have those agreements still happening with Russia and China even after the jcpoa. We also knew that enriched uranium was going to be allowed long term based on the treaty, which was where. That's where you've, you know, sometimes when people look at like even the, the titles of bills, it really is going into the nuance and where you're at and it's just like people like, well, timber. Why did you vote for that when you agreed with these parts and disagreed? Wasn't it 5149 that you should have voted this way? I'm like actually was 5149 the other way. I don't, I only have a yes or no vote and I'm not going to be a coward and vote present. Right.

[Amy McGrath]

Yeah.

[Denver Riggleman]

Like Massey and Justin Amash like to do all the time. Right, Right. So, you know, I'm going to vote because that's my job for my constituents to make the best decision based on where I am and where my constituents are to vote for down the line and my expertise, which maybe they voted me in or not. The flip to that is, as you said, there has to be expert negotiations if we're going to scrap the jcpoa. Bill Maher and Witkoff should not be the intellectual giants we're leaning on for these type of negotiations. Yeah. And I would say that people should go out and look at the long term effects of the JCPOA and come to some decisions themselves. Read a Democratic look at the jcpoa. Read the Republican look at the jcpoa, but go and look at some other places like the Brennan center or some other areas. Right. University studies that break down the absolute language and say, you know, where were you there? The thing about this show is we can't. And why I, why I loved it and why I accepted is because I don't think you allow it. We're not going to be hyperbolic one way or the other on where we should go. What we're going to be angry about is that if we're dealing with something like nuclear proliferation and its links to Iranian state sponsored terrorism, maybe we should have actual effing professionals. Yeah, I mean dealing with it.

[Amy McGrath]

We have diplomats in this country who are very, very good. I do not understand why we send people. I mean, would you do surgery with somebody that hasn't gone through the training to become a surgeon? And this is dumb, but the last thing I'll say on this and something I know a little bit about because I hear this a lot and of course you also hear it from the President of the United States. Well, if they don't do what we say, we'll just bomb them. We can just stop their nuclear program with bombing. And here's the thing about bombing that people need to understand Iran's nuclear program the way they enrich through centrifuges because that's how you get to highly enriched uranium. It's not so much the technical difficulties of making a bomb itself, it's getting the fuel for a bomb which is the highly enriched uranium and that you get that you develop it having these long sets of centrifuges. They have put these things underground, underground. And so it's harder to bomb them. Could we destroy them? Maybe, maybe, but maybe not.

[Denver Riggleman]

And so maybe consecutive miracles with a penetrating jdam with a 40 millimeter fuse. Right.

[Amy McGrath]

I just want people to understand when you bomb things, it doesn't, you know, if they're underground, it may not destroy it altogether. And the other thing is it's going to be very hard. You cannot destroy the knowledge. Okay. That's what the Iranians have now, the knowledge to get a bomb. So even if you destroy the centrifuges for that may work for a limited amount of time, they can just build that back up, learn from the last mistake or vulnerability, go again. And, and, and it's probably going to make them more likely to get a nuclear weapon. So I, I just caution us with this answer of well, we'll just bomb them.

[Denver Riggleman]

Yeah, that's probably a bad thing. I meant to say 40 millisecond fuse by the way. I don't know what a 40 millimeter fuse, but I've had the flu. Yeah. I don't know if immediately going to the bombing as a, as a, as an effect of not coming to the negotiate table is really smart. And I, and again, you're right. I Mean, just the mission planning alone. But you know what, Amy? It's all okay. You know, why we're going to find about it on signal before it happens.

[Amy McGrath]

Tell us when the bombers are coming, and, you know, they'll figure it out. All right?

[Denver Riggleman]

Yeah, yeah. Don't worry about that. You know, we're going to find out about it beforehand.

[Amy McGrath]

Shall we go into rapid fire?

[Denver Riggleman]

So I'm ready for rapid fire. I think you're starting, right?

[Amy McGrath]

Oh, yeah. Okay, so here, now's the time in the show where we're going to do some rapid fire questions. You get 30 seconds, no more than a minute to give me your response here. Okay.

[Denver Riggleman]

All right, you got it.

[Amy McGrath]

Denver. In the news, we all saw Governor Gretchen Whitmer in the Oval Office. Right. Trying to not be in the Oval Office. And there's been a lot of backlash to what she did. There is that backlash for working with the Trump administration.

[Denver Riggleman]

Fair, Fair. And you know what? I think a lot of people say, oh, gosh, then she was there to help her constituents. It's fine. That's great. But if you're such a smart politician, why are you trusting whatever Trump is going to say in a press conference while you walking in there? Number one. Number two, if he starts with that bullshit, instead of hiding in the corner and cowering, you're the governor of Michigan. You walk out the door.

[Amy McGrath]

Yeah.

[Denver Riggleman]

And you try to mouse something like bullshit. You, you listen. It takes a. You know, here's the thing about Christian Whitmer. While it's warranted, you know why she went to the White House? She wanted to look like she was crossing lanes, she was crossing over to do what's best for constituents. You know why? Because she wants to run for president in 2028. Great. I love that you care about your constituents, but you were always at the White House because you want to run for president. So let's not be an idiot here. You're a politician. I know you pretty well. Also, if they do say something stupid, don't sit there and hide. That's not a great look. Walk out. Great. You're going to help your constituents. You're trying to set up your political future. Sweet. We all get it. However, if you're going to do that and you're going to go all the way, then go all the way. Because now you're done. You're done.

[Amy McGrath]

Mistakes are made. I don't know. I kind of feel like people can bounce back off of stuff, but whatever.

[Denver Riggleman]

Well, maybe, maybe so. But there you go. That's my Opinion of the day. All right, send it my way, Amy. All right, Amy. John Radcliffe. Oh, yeah, our boy CIA director. He deleted his signal gate messages. Does this even matter?

[Amy McGrath]

I think it matters. Look, there's two things here. One, these. These signal chat messages, Denver, are now evidence in what should be, what should be an actual investigation into a massive breach of classified operational information. If we were living in any normal time, there would be an investigation on this. And, you know, that's evidence. So, one, he should never have been getting rid of that. Number two, any comms either classified or unclassified, dealing with national security decision making needs to be retained under the National Records Act. I know that that sounds really kind of like wonky, but it's for good reason. We want to know how our leaders made important national security decisions so we can learn from them in the future. It is something that, like, look, if you're going to get into this position and you're going to be a part of our government and lead the American people, that is something we expect from you. Okay? If you don't want to do that, go be the leader of the intelligence agency, I don't know, in Saudi Arabia or some other place that doesn't care about that. So he's willfully disobe being disobedient to the National Records act, in my mind.

[Denver Riggleman]

Well, I think. I don't know, Amy. It sounds like. I don't know. With you being a former military officer and decorated combat veteran, I almost feel like you're saying that there should be accountability and rule of law to the constitutional democracy and republic.

[Amy McGrath]

Shocking.

[Denver Riggleman]

I don't know, Amy.

[Amy McGrath]

Speaking of accountability, then two, and I actually think it's three now. Office of the Secretary of Defense. Quote, leakers were put on administrative leave and escorted. Escorted. Wow, that's tough. Out of the building, out of the Pentagon. What is up with this, Denver? And is this a positive development?

[Denver Riggleman]

You know what? To me, it is. And I know it was like. You know, Dan, I have some perverse. I think some really perverse thoughts on this. Not like weird perverse, by the way, Amy, I think what it shows that when you hire incompetence, incompetence follows. I know that's a. That's incredibly profound, but I think the other thing, too, is that you're seeing, these were handpicked people by the individuals themselves. When you talk about Hegseth, remember Waltz's guys got run out on a rail, too. Mike Waltz, the National Security Advisor. So it's interesting to me. I think the good thing is we're starting to see sort of the first, real. Real kinks in the process, really, the bricks being taken out of the wall of crazy. Right. When you have so much incompetence, when you have everybody wanting to be famous, everybody wanting to be the journalist best friends, instead of worrying about the country, they worry about themselves. Plus you have this unadulterated incompetence. Right. It's almost pure in the beauty of its insanity and batshitary. Right. And now you have three people walked out that were really close to Hegseth. Handpicked. I think it's positive because it's showing. And I hope. And I could be wrong because there still could be 77 million people who will never watch us, Amy. But I hope they do. And you have to have competent people to do competent things. You have to have professional people to do professional things. And I think when you see people being walked out like that, I think you're starting to see that maybe there's a realization that stupid is not the best thing to have at the highest levels of government.

[Amy McGrath]

Yeah, well. And here they leaked a few things to a reporter. Meanwhile, the secretary himself leaked classified operational information to a reporter.

[Denver Riggleman]

But that's okay, Amy.

[Amy McGrath]

Apparently.

[Denver Riggleman]

I don't understand. What's your problem? I mean, what's the hypocrisy? Well, I got a question for you really quick.

[Amy McGrath]

All right.

[Denver Riggleman]

Why in the hell did the United states tell our G7 allies that it won't back a statement condemning Russia's attack on Ukraine there in sumi?

[Amy McGrath]

Well, two things. One, we of Denver are now on the side of war criminal Vladimir Putin. Okay. That's why. That's Donald Trump's bud. But two, what's interesting to me about all of what's happening right now in this issue is Trump is distancing himself from this war, which, you know, wow, surprise. Why is he doing that? Because he said he would end it on day one, and surprise, surprise, that didn't happen. And then he went from I'm going to end the day and the war on day one to I'm going to end the war in 100 days. And that doesn't appear to be happening. And now, of course, it's. It's Biden's war. Right. Every time he talks about this Ukraine, Russia conflict, it's now Biden's war. So we're seeing a shift. And he's clearly on the side of Vladimir Putin here.

[Denver Riggleman]

I can't argue. I don't even understand how we are supporting Russia right now, especially you said something about service earlier. How in the hell in our past and our service are we here right now as military veterans, looking at the insanity that's going on with this ridiculousness? Obviously, we should condemn an attack of innocence by a murderous thug dictator like Putin in a democratic country like Ukraine when they were attacked over three years ago to take their sovereign territory. Are you effing kidding me?

[Amy McGrath]

It's insane. But he.

[Denver Riggleman]

It's insane.

[Amy McGrath]

We cannot end on that note, okay?

[Denver Riggleman]

No, we cannot.

[Amy McGrath]

There's always an abundance of bad news every week. There's always an abundance of crazy, and we're going to talk about all that stuff. But there's still good news to celebrate. All right? And so we. Oh, there is. Do you have something to tell us? We still have our Green River. I do. Right here.

[Denver Riggleman]

I got a little bit of the.

[Amy McGrath]

I would like a moment to raise a glass here to U.S. district Judge James Boasberg. Okay. For opening the criminal contempt proceedings against the Trump administration. Trump, of course, ignored his court order to return Kilmer, Abrego Garcia to the United States, and this judge opened up criminal contempt proceedings. Cheers.

[Denver Riggleman]

Cheers. Amy, that rocks. I think everybody should be out there cheering old Jimmy B. Right, Judge Jimmy B is what I call him. Amy.

[Amy McGrath]

True American.

[Denver Riggleman]

True American is old Jimmy B. Well, holy hell, what a show. I have to say, I enjoyed this one. I don't know why I enjoyed it so much. I think I just enjoy being with you, Amy.

[Amy McGrath]

Lovely.

[Denver Riggleman]

Especially when my voice sounds like this. But again, people need to tune in, right? I know. You know, in military briefings, what do we say, Amy, we always said, tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell them, and then tell them what you told them. Remember all that stuff.

[Amy McGrath]

Be brief, be bold, and be gone.

[Denver Riggleman]

And that is us. We were brief, we were bold, and now we're gone. But before we go, you better tune into Truth in the Barrel. You need to subscribe to your favorite podcast. You need to subscribe on YouTube because it's great to listen on podcasts, but it's even more awesome to look at two pretty people like ourselves as we're going over all the truth that's going on here. So I hope everybody joins us for our next episode of Truth in the Barrel. And one more time, cheers to our listeners. And cheers to you, Amy, for another great show.

[Amy McGrath]

Cheers.

[Denver Riggleman]

Cheers.