← Truth in the Barrel
Truth in the Barrel
This Week Unfiltered 05.15.25
00:53:51
Today we’re taking an UNFILTERED flight in Donald Trump’s brand new “free” plane, welcoming refugees to America (so long as they’re white), and learning how MAGA define “winning”. Plus, we’ll dive into some refreshing sewage with RFK...
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- [00:01]
Amy McGrath
Today, we're taking an unfiltered flight in Donald Trump's new gold plane, welcoming refugees to America as long as they're white, and learning how MAGA defines winning. Plus, we'll dive into some sewage with RFK Jr. Apparently and his family. We'll join Judge Jeanine at her new job. This is Truth in the a different Kind of Whiskey Rebellion.
- [00:36]
Denver Riggleman
I love it. And by the way, Amy, I love the fact that you said Whiskey Rebellion. It makes me happy, as you know, since we make whiskey. But if anybody wants to continue to hear everything that we're doing, Amy, you know what they got to do? They got to subscribe to their favorite podcast. They have to make sure that they click on us on YouTube and subscribe there. And they need to follow us on all our socials, which includes True Social, but specifically Blue sky and X. Make sure, because you're going to get great content like you're about to hear today if you sign up for Truth.
- [01:05]
Amy McGrath
In the Barrel and welcome to Truth in the barrel. I'm Amy McGrath with my co host, Denver Riggleman in the Middle East. Denver, where are you right now?
- [01:16]
Denver Riggleman
I'm sitting in Dubai, but yesterday I was in Abu Dhabi. So I've been all around Amy. I've been in Sharjah, I've been in Ajman, but I've also been in something called Rak, which is Ras Al Khema. I met with the ruler there, the sheikh, which was unbelievable in his palace. But I've been able to do some incredible work here in artificial intelligence, talk to some really credible individuals when it comes to business. But it's been very weird as the guy who is the J6 technical advisor is here doing business. And I while we'll have Donald Trump just landed not too long ago in Abu Dhabi, not far from me. So that is then. The questions I've gotten, Amy, here in the UAE have been insane. And you know, people sort of know me and. But yeah, it's been pretty crazy for a guy doing business over here with businesses opening up by the very guy that I investigated in January 6th.
- [02:12]
Amy McGrath
You know, we're going to talk a lot today about Donald Trump and the Middle East. So let's get started. But before we do, I want to announce again our new weekly live show begins on June 10th. It's going to be the most distilled version of Truth in the Barrel because it's just Denver and I live with you all, with all of our listeners and viewers out there. It's going to be great. We're going to answer your questions. We're going to be drinking a lot of whiskey and having a lot of fun.
- [02:40]
Denver Riggleman
So.
- [02:40]
Amy McGrath
So please join us Tuesday, June 10, 7:30 to 8:30pm Eastern Time. That's Eastern time in the United States. All right, so Denver, you need to come back here. And I will be back.
- [02:53]
Denver Riggleman
I'll be back. And by the way, you know me and you are whiskey aficionados, right? We know our bourbons, we know our whiskeys. And what I think the live version is like, Amy, is when we thief whiskey right out of the barrel, and there's still char in it, so you get that taste, that pure character, unfiltered cash, strength in your face, burn your throat, baby, feel hot. That's the kind of stuff we're gonna do in the live show. That's how I think about it. Yeah.
- [03:21]
Amy McGrath
And the live show, it's best to watch it on YouTube because that's where you can interact with us, where you can send in your questions, your comments in the chat. It's all gonna be on YouTube, so don't miss out on any of the exciting things that we're gonna be doing here this summer. All right, let's get into our whiskey minute. So since I'm over here back in the United States, I'm gonna be the one to drink here today. I have this amazing whiskey. It is called Nearest Green. It's Tennessee whiskey. The coolest thing about this whiskey, Denver, is the story behind it. I went with my kid, my husband and children down to Tennessee last summer to go fishing and go to a lake. And every time we do a trip, I make them do some kind of historical trip I guess associated with that. So guess where we took them? We took them to the Jack Daniels Distillery to do a historical cultural tour of that. And it was in that distillery tour that we learned about Jack Daniels. First master distiller in the mid to late 1800s was a man by the name of Uncle Nearest or Nearest Green was his name. And he was a black man. And what's so interesting about his story is, you know, in the south at that time, black men did not have the same rights and respect as white men. And this man was Jack Daniels Distiller. He was the guy that knew how to make the whiskey, and Jack Daniels treated him as a peer. And their relationship was a very strong one. This is a story that a lot of people in that area knew for many, many years, but has more recently been sort of told to the rest of the world. And there's a great book that I read about this story called Love and Whiskey, which sort of turned me on to this, this particular brand. And it is a distillery that was created in honor of of Nearest Green in Shelbyville, Tennessee, which is right near Lynchburg. And so we went there and it's fabulous. Everybody should try it. It's a really great story. And the master distiller for this distillery and in Shelbyville is a woman by the name of Victoria Butler and she is a fifth generation descendant of Nearest Green, the first master distiller for Jack Daniels, which is the Cheers.
- [06:15]
Denver Riggleman
I wish I had whiskey with me here in the uae, but I do not, Amy. But I have this. So my wife knows her, been on panels with her, right? So Christine's very familiar with Uncle Nearest Right and Nearest Green, which is pretty cool. But you know what, Amy, I was just thinking about your kids. You know, they get back from school break and they're asking all the kids what they did over break and our parents took us to Disney World. Oh, that's great, Johnny, where did. Okay, Becky, where did your parents take you? Oh, our parents took us to the beach. Oh, that's great, Becky. And okay, McGrath kids, where did your mom and dad take you? Oh, our mom and dad took us to a distillery. Crickets. Silence in the classroom.
- [07:01]
Amy McGrath
We gotta do something historical. It's American history, Denver. It's American history. And they went, and now my 9 year old daughter knows all about Jack Daniels. She can see the statue of him and be like, that's Jack Daniels.
- [07:15]
Denver Riggleman
Sorry.
- [07:16]
Amy McGrath
Yeah, they were upset they couldn't do the tasting at the end. But you know.
- [07:22]
Denver Riggleman
Amy, where are you taking your kids next year? Well, to the first marijuana farm in Kentucky.
- [07:28]
Amy McGrath
I don't know if we're going to do that. All right, let's get on to the show though. This is a really important show. There's a lot going on, as there always is. And it's in particularly important because of where you're at right now, Denver, in the Middle East. I call this latest issue, shall we say Trump farce one. This is Donald Trump's idea that he is going to get a free gift in the form of a massive Boeing 7478 jet from Qatar. A gift to him personally. But it's a bigger sign in my mind of this pay to play presidency that we have going on.
- [08:18]
Denver Riggleman
Well, ma' am, I'm here and when you were talking, I was thinking about that Boeing at 400 million. But I was also thinking. And we have great researchers, right? And a great research team. And I was looking at that. But what really struck me, here we can talk about maybe it's going to be a billion dollars to retrofit it upwards of that, right? Tens of millions or hundreds of millions to retrofit it. We don't know exactly what's in the plane. It's from a foreign government. And also, when you look at his trip, you know, he's done Saudi, Qatar, right? And now he's in the uae, landing in Abu Dhabi, probably coming over into Dubai. Who knows if he's going to see any of the other five Emirates right here in uae. But what strikes me about this is that even the people here now, these are people that do business. They're not in our news cycle, Amy. Right. They're not, you know, consuming this 24 7. It's a. It's a different place here, different culture. They actually have lives, things like that. Here's what they're saying today, like, well, you know, what if we do, maybe we just give him a plane so we can get some good more business. I mean, that's the they, you know, a lot of people here said, you know, now, as far as they're concerned, right? As far as America, right, It's pay to play. You know, Amy, it sounds very innocent when people say pay to play, but they're saying that to Americans and to an American as they're watching Trump on every TV now because he's doing this trip and they're trying to parse every word to where they can get advantage, just like Americans are doing right now. And when you think about what's happening with sort of this relaxation of competitive contract language, this ridiculous everything's a service policy that's coming out, which really is just a definition or a play or an opaque overview of people can actually just get business by giving the business, except they don't have to go through the competitive process. I find it embarrassing, but I also find it a bit chilling. And uae, they understand what's happening. Saudi understands what's happening. Qatar certainly does, because there's also a golf course going in over there. You know, Amy, it's just really hard with me as an American being here having these type of comments. I mean, having to somehow try to navigate through that.
- [10:34]
Amy McGrath
Well, a couple of things just to start off. So, first of all, Donald Trump is celebrating this as a free gift. I should take this. It's free. They're giving it to us for free. It's not free. Number one, the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, she thinks this is perfectly legal. She says, hey, it's perfectly legal because, you know, they didn't ask for anything in return. No, it's not legal at all. We have this thing called the Constitution which basically says you cannot take a gift, a personal gift greater than your own salary and for good reason. It's right there in our Constitution. Bondi herself, by the way, Denver was paid as a lobbyist $115,000 a month. From what country? What do you think?
- [11:34]
Denver Riggleman
I think it starts with a Q and rhymes with Qatar.
- [11:39]
Amy McGrath
Yeah, she, she was a paid lobbyist for this country. So she turns around and says, oh, this is totally legal. Give me a break. And then here's the other part, the cost of this. And it's not just a cost in terms of money. It's a cost and security. I think what a lot of people have been focused on is the constitutional part of this, which is highly illegal and wrong and un American. But also you cannot take a plane that has been a part of another country and for a long time. It's a Boeing plane, so it's made in America, but it's been sent to a foreign country and then turn around and say, oh, you can just make this Air Force One overnight. Doesn't happen that way. Why? Because there's potentially listening devices in it already. So it's going to take tens of millions of dollars to do a screen to make sure that those are not there. And then what a lot of people don't understand is Air Force One isn't just a normal Boeing 747. It's got communication equipment. It is used as the command center, the national command center in the event of a nuclear conflict. So you've got to have things on that plane to be able to communicate to our forces all around the world. You have to have systems on board that plane to be able to make it survivable. Denver more survivable than the average 747. And I'm talking systems that are like what we call in the aviation community, CHAP or flare. Flares would be things that come out of the, of the aircraft in order to try to get maybe heat seeking missiles that are being, you know, shot at it to, to go off to the flares and not to hit the aircraft. So these are all things, they're systems that would be have to be put into a new plane. So that would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, billions potentially.
- [13:37]
Denver Riggleman
I don't want to use plane if I'm president, Amy, free or not. You know, it's like, hey, you Know, you're in the United States of America. We have Boeing here, have all these huge places to build jets. Let's get a used one. It's like, you know. You know what I really want? A 2008 Jaguar. Hmm. That's what I want for Air Force One. And the other thing, too, you're right about countermeasures. Countermeasures on aircraft aren't cheap. You know, I worked on C141s. You know, there's some special mission C141s and chap and flare C141s with all the countermeasures are much more expensive than the base models, plus even the maintenance. But you think about the president, United States. Amy, I can't imagine wanting a used plane. Uh, I. I just. I. I don't even know anymore. You know, I. You almost get to the point. There's only curse words that sort of run through my brain when I'm thinking about how ridiculous this is. But when you talk about Pam Bondi, how much he made from Qatar, when you're talking about the fact that there is quid pro quo, and you're talking about him having a golf course being built in Qatar, now, the fact is, is that this is pay to play. And everybody in the world. Everybody in the world understands it's a bribe. We know it's a bribe. That's what it is. It's a bribe. Right. And I don't even know what to say anymore. Amy, you just. You just put the intellectual argument out there why this is ludicrous. I'm just saying that I think that we have to look at what it is. And we have a country with a president can be bribed.
- [15:06]
Amy McGrath
It's 100% corruption. There is no other excuse for this. Here's the other thing. That the country of Qatar, we have a base there. We are partnered with them. But make no mistake, they are not a constitutional democracy. They're not a republic. This is a kingdom. They have lots of human rights abuses, problems with that. They have a history of financing or allowing the financing of radical Islamic terrorist organizations there. So, I mean, this is not a place where we want to accept a major gift to our country from certainly not Air Force One.
- [16:03]
Denver Riggleman
Hey, right now I am sitting in a country ruled by an absolute monarchy. If you're looking at Saudi, it's the same. Looking at Qatar, it's the same. And that's why I just don't think Americans realize what's happening or what we're dealing with or how this works, Amy, you just nailed it. I just don't know what else to say. You never thought you'd see something like this in the history of our country.
- [16:28]
Amy McGrath
Yeah. And the last thing I'll say on this, normally for pretty much every president before Donald Trump, the first trip, Presidential trip was made where our president would go to a country that was one of our closest allies in the world, a country that was another democracy, for example, or a country in NATO. Now he's taking his first trip to the Middle East. And what does that say about. About our country? What does that say about its leadership? It says, hey, we care more about business. I care more about personal wealth than I do about democracy, than I do about the values that America stands for. That's just my opinion.
- [17:19]
Denver Riggleman
Well, you know, if you look at what's happening, uae, everybody needs to look up Dubai and Trump Tower also, if you want to, you know, really put this into perspective. I don't see Germany giving him a free plane and for fun, just building Berlin, Trump Tower. I just don't see that happening. So that's where we're at, guys. That's why he didn't go see our allies.
- [17:45]
Amy McGrath
All right, so here is another issue that I think is even more appalling right now. We're taking in South African refugees while we're kicking out Afghans who fought alongside you and me in Afghanistan. We welcomed the first group of white South African refugees, 59 of them this week under an executive order that Donald Trump signed mandating that they be prioritized for resettlement. They are Afrikaners, a South African minority group that has Dutch ancestry. Now, Trump claims that these white South Africans are victims of genocide, and that aligns very well with this sort of racist. Well, it is racist. Great Replacement theory. It's a conspiracy theory that has been notably pushed by Tucker Carlson. I know you know a lot about this, Denver.
- [18:48]
Denver Riggleman
I do. If people look back, I think if you go back to 2010, 2011, you see it. Actually, the genesis of it, I think, was a French writer who talked about the Grand Replacement Theory or something like that, which is where it got its root as far as the name. But as far as a replacement theory, as far as the baseline belief system, that goes back well before 2011, right, Amy? It's well before that, but the current iteration is about 15 years old. The Great Replacement Theory also was part of the fabric of QAnon. The that it was part of this deep state or globalist way of actually replacing the white population with people of color to Destroy our civilization, Right? Great Western civilization. A lot of this is linked to the proud boys and the Oath Keepers and their Western chauvinism ideal. Now, Western chauvinism is just another word for white supremacy, right, Amy? So what you have is you have this sort of interlocking way of trying to identify or define what the Great Replacement Theory is, which is the replacement of whites by a certain set of population, usually globalist or the deep state, right. Through immigration and through streamlining immigration, so that we change our very way of life by destroying the white population. Here's what's scarier. A lot of the shooters that you see, school shooters, or even the shooters overseas, are captured by the White Replacement theory. Many of these shooters become saints. S A I N T S saints. And the Great Replacement or the white supremacy group chats or in the belief or these sort of These belief packages on 4chan or other types of encrypted chat areas. So when people talk, rate replacement. Oh, it's just this Great Replacement theory sparks murder and violence. There's a following. It has its own tradition of sainthood. It comes from almost the baseline ideal or title comes from European white supremacy individuals, which, you know, it's been rampant in certain areas in Europe, but here right now, it is festered and grown until you have literally people being pardoned from January 6th who are part of the belief in the Great Replacement Theory. But we're white supremacists. Lastly, Charlottesville, 2017. Jews will not replace us. Those were Great Replacement Theory individuals, by the way. White supremacists, led in part by Richard Spencer, sadly, a University of Virginia graduate. Why do I know so much about it? As you know, Charlottesville was in my district, in Virginia's 5th district. So, Amy, I hope that helps with the Great Replacement Theory, the genesis of it and why it's so dangerous.
- [21:22]
Amy McGrath
Yeah, so Donald Trump is just playing right into this. And meanwhile, meanwhile, 9,000, 9,000 Afghan refugees who came to our country are now at risk to be deported back to Afghanistan. Why? Because the Trump administration has ended what's called the Temporary Protected Status Program that allows them to stay in the United States legally. The White House. Pam Bondi, our friend, has said that, get this, she said that Afghanistan is no longer dangerous for them. Here's a quote. Afghanistan has, has had an improved security situation, and its stabilizing economy no longer prevent them from returning to their home country. Seriously, that is absolute ridiculous. The reason why Afghanistan has a security situation that is no longer, in her mind, dangerous is because it is ruled by The Taliban, the very who will lop off their heads if they go back there and their families heads if they go back there. It is absolutely crazy. And let me just remind people these are not sort of just normal refugees which also by the way, I feel deserve a place to go that is safe, that America has been a place for refugees for a long time and we'll talk about that. But these Afghan refugees are special because they fought alongside us, they trusted us, we trusted them with our lives. They are our interpreters. They were people that helped us with intelligence and their families at great risk to themselves and their families. And they're going to be killed immediately if they go back to Afghanistan. And so for our country under Donald Trump to, to do this is just an absolute, it's abhorrent in my mind.
- [23:27]
Denver Riggleman
Well, I don't think Pam Bondi is taking vacations in Afghanistan if it's so safe, Amy. My guess is she's probably not going to summer in Tora Bora. I, you know, I just find it incredible. And you know, as you know, both me and you know a little bit about Afghanistan, understating it. But if they send individuals back there who helped US troops back into Taliban held towns and cities in the entire country to are dead, it's just that simple. And the fact is we're turning our back on the very people that helped us in these horrible wars of attrition. I just, it's hard again for me. We're thinking about 59 Africaners now. Listen, I don't want to automatically make the judgment it could be mutually exclusive that we have a racist administration bringing in African ers who might have actually been somehow in danger. I don't know. Right, Amy. But I do know this. It does look odd. It looks a little weird. It looks a little, maybe not on the up and up that the people who helped us in conflict or people that were here under temporary protected status are being sent back in the thousands. While we think that 59 Africaners are somehow worthy of protection, it's against everything we should believe as Americans. As somebody who served, as somebody who deployed after 9, 11, Amy, as you, as somebody who actually engaged in combat missions, people again, I will say that over and over again. I know it probably makes you uncomfortable. People need to understand this. We are two American service individuals who put, you know, put our hand up, took the oath to the country, swore we protect our friends, made sure our buddies are taken care of and we're sending them back into harm's way while we're allowing this idiotic story being run by, you know, the families of Elon Musk. Right. To come over as Africaners. I'm to a point. It's such crazy towns. Think about what we talked about. Qatar giving us an aircraft, $150,000 a month from Pam Bondi, Donald Trump getting a golf course, the fact that it's bribery and corruption. Now we're sending back the people that helped us while we're bringing over people that somehow are under some systemic racism as white folks from South Africa. It's like we're taking crazy pills. It's literally taking crazy.
- [25:36]
Amy McGrath
It is crazy. And the other interesting thing is Secretary of State Marco Rubio used to be a champion of these Afghans who helped us. He's silent now. Mike Waltz used to be a champion Afghan veteran, used to be a champion of these folks who helped us. Silent. And the other thing that people ought to know about just refugees in general in our history, in American history, in 1980, we passed an act, and it was one of the things that sort of Reagan championed. It was an act called the Refugee act. And it used to offer up to 100,000 refugees from around the world, the most vulnerable people from around the world to come to the United States for safety, to build a new life. That was something we should be proud of, that we used to be proud of, that we could be a place where people could come and be safe. Guess what? Donald Trump stopped that program. We don't have any more refugees coming in except for these 59 white Afrikaners. That's it. I mean, I'm sorry. There is no explanation for this other than 100% racism. None.
- [26:54]
Denver Riggleman
What has been the gold standard for Republican presidents? Amy? Ronald Reagan. Right? And people can fact check this. Who was the president that provided amnesty for illegal immigrants? Does anybody know? Anyone? Bueller. Bueller. Not to you, Amy. You already know this. That's Ronald Reagan. When I was running For Congress in 2018, I was in a dairy farm somewhere near Halifax County, Virginia. And we're talking about immigration. So, by the way, if people don't know this, in rural districts, most of the workers are H2A and H2B migrant workers. When you're looking at dairy farms or you're looking at peach farms and things like that, people that pick crops, people that milk cows, people that tend cattle, all this stuff, right? Listen, peach growers in my district, in the county, in my district, one peach grower with over 100 employees, 100% of his employees were immigrants, legal migrants for workers. So I'm in a meeting with about 14 or 15 dairy workers, Amy. And so they're saying, oh, we got to get the immigrants out of here. I'm like, okay. I said, well, you guys need H2A and H2B workers, right? And they're like, well, yeah. So on my right, there's this older gentleman. He's probably 80 years old. He goes, you know what? Congress or Denver, I wasn't a congressman yet. He goes, you know what? There is a person here who's voted Republican for every year he's been in America, 39 years. And I said, well, who's that? He said, the person that was actually provided amnesty by Ronald Reagan. What?
- [28:27]
Amy McGrath
Yeah.
- [28:27]
Denver Riggleman
So then an argument happened between the farmers that what is the real Republican? If you're looking at the 80s, what is really Republican? It's accepting all immigrants. Ronald Reagan did that. And so when you're saying this, Amy, I want to go back to where we have a Republican Party. It's not perfect. You know, there's. There's always going to be. People hate Reagan, love Reagan, whatever. But how about a party that welcomes immigrants and understands the value of immigration and the party that provided amnesty for illegal immigrants across the entire country, that was Ronald Reagan, everybody. Look it up.
- [29:05]
Amy McGrath
And it used to be bipartisan. It's 100% American. And here's the thing. We're not the only one speaking out on this. The Episcopal Church has actually ended their partnership with the federal government. They used to help with the resettlement of refugees. They've ended that and in protest to this sort of racist policy that is happening right now. So I just say cheers to the Episcopal Church for actually standing up against Trump administration here.
- [29:34]
Denver Riggleman
Damn it. I wish I had a whole bottle with me right now with that. Cheers.
- [29:37]
Amy McGrath
All right, now there's a lot of winning going on, apparently, at least according to Donald Trump and his followers. They love that word win. Back in the 2016 campaign, if you remember Denver, Trump even promised that with him as president, there would be so much winning that we would all be tired of it. He always casts himself as a winner and everyone else is the loser. It's like their proudest achievement. But you know what? Most times on policy, they lose, and so now they know they've lost. So the tactic is we don't really care if we won or lost. We're just going to claim that we won. We're just going to say that we won on pretty much everything. So let's take a look at some of the recent wins touted by Donald Trump and his followers. The first one is China. Okay? And you hear this now among just sort of regular people. Just this past week heard this guy say to me, well, really, Trump took it to China, didn't he? Okay, let's think about that. Denver. So, number one, Trump escalates his trade war on China by inflicting 145% tariffs on that country. And he says to China, do not retaliate and you will be rewarded. What did China do? Retaliated with 125% tariffs on American goods. China ignored Donald Trump's warning and it was rewarded anyway. And then what happens? Donald Trump just declares victory. He reduces the tariffs down to 30%. China then reduces its tariffs down to 10%. And here's the kicker. There was no extraction of any concessions at all from China. No manufacturing came back to the United States. No change in Chinese trade practices. The US still has a reliance on Chinese imports that remains unchanged. There's no victory here. Nothing was won. There's no great strategic brilliance on the part of Donald Trump, but, you know, he just claims to the victory.
- [31:58]
Denver Riggleman
No tiny screwdrivers turning screws and iPhones. Amy. Remember that shit. Oh, sorry. But, you know, here's the thing. I've always talked about these bar fight analogies, right? But it's almost like. It's almost like you're in a fight, you beat the person where they're in traction in the hospital, and they're in the hospital and they have, you know, their arm is up in a cast, their leg is up in a cast, their face has a cast. You know, just like the movies. You just see their eye holes and you go in there like, hey, man, listen, I'm sorry about the fight, but you probably shouldn't have picked the fight. I told you not to do it. And the person in traction says this, wait till I get out of traction. I'll get you next time. That's Donald Trump. And the capitulation that he did to China was such a rollover move. Move. It's incredible. China's the one who said, hey, we're going to. We're not. We're going to retaliate and told America based on their actions. If you retaliate, it's going to get worse. And Trump just simply was like, oh, oh, my God. Oh, I started this war and I started this fight. Now I'm getting my ass kicked. What am I going to do? And that's exactly what Trump did. He capitulate. That is exactly what Trump was thinking in Bed late at night, that exact voice that you just heard on this incredible show. And so I'm to a point now, if anybody tells me that or they come up like they did to you, Amy, it's simply this is that we enacted pain on ourselves. We shot ourselves in the face, and we're claiming a victory on the fact that we finally stopped shooting ourselves in the face and allowed it to heal. That's the victory.
- [33:40]
Amy McGrath
I mean, if somebody says that to you, you need to say, what did we win? What exactly did we win here? Because we still have tariffs going on which hurt Americans, consumers, and we've got nothing out of this. It's ridiculous. How about this, Denver? How about Trump's win against the Houthis? All right, now, Trump this past week surprised a lot of people when he announced that the Houthis have, quote, capitulated. The Houthis have capitulated in the wake of US Military actions. Actions, by the way, that was basically a month long bombing campaign, offensive bombing campaign, which cost about a billion dollars in terms of ammunition, bombs, missiles expended. And Donald Trump has said, well, we won. The Houthis have capitulated and we're going to stop the bombing now. Okay, all right, what do you make of that then?
- [34:35]
Denver Riggleman
They haven't capitulated. Okay, Amy, you and Doug are gonna be like, my God, another one. Here's the thing, here's what I think about with him saying the Houthis capitulated. You ever see Life of Brian, the movie, the Monty Python movie, Amy, when the suicide squad runs up to help Brian as he's on the cross and they kill themselves. Right? I feel like that, I feel like we're, to a point that we're laughing because we would, if we weren't laughing, we'd be crying right now because there has been no capitulation. The Houthis are still militarily active. We haven't done anything with Iran. And that's the thing, we haven't gone there. Right, Amy? We haven't gotten to Iran yet and how they're related to the Houthis. And now we're talking about doing things with Iran. But we still have military action happening in Yemen, right? We still have China not capitulating. We still have all these happening. And it seems like we have Americans who can't even see the forest for the trees. You know why, though? They're listening to propaganda sources that me and you can't control. Anyway, I, I know I sound exasperated, but I guess it's being over here in the Middle east, being over the uae, listening to this and watching people, you know, the Emiratis shaking their head like your president just likes to get pre planes, you know, it's just, it's incredible.
- [35:52]
Amy McGrath
I want to give our listeners a little bit of background though, because they might hear from their friends and neighbors. Oh, we beat the Houthis. Donald Trump beat the Houthis. Okay, here's the thing. Recall why the United States went on the offensive with this bombing campaign to begin with. What was the goal? The goal was to get the Houthis to stop targeting merchant ships in the Red Sea and to stop targeting Israel. That was the goal. Okay. You have to go back. Anytime you use machine military force, you have to go back and think about what is the goal in the use of military force. Despite what MEGA might think, it wasn't to show us that Pete Hegsett was completely incompetent in the use of signal chat, which was one of the things we found out during this bombing campaign. But the goal was to stop the Houthis from targeting merchant ships, thereby allowing merchant ships to go back through the Red Sea, you know, in, in a safe manner. What happened after we did this month long $1 billion campaign? Did we reach those goals? No.
- [37:05]
Denver Riggleman
I bet our listeners can guess that.
- [37:07]
Amy McGrath
The Houthis are still attacking Israel every single day. Almost. Google how many attacks are going on in the last 24 hours. They are still threatening to attack Russia, merchant ships in the Red Sea. Where's the win here? There is no win. And in fact the Houthis, they just found out that they. There was a video released May 10 that shows an at sea interdiction of bomb making material going to the Houthis. So the Houthis are actually rearming right now. There has been no win here at all. It's ridiculous.
- [37:44]
Denver Riggleman
Did you say May 10, Amy? Yeah, May 10. That seems a long time after that bombing we did. And I, and I know our listeners are getting it right. If you're trying to stop people from attacking merchant ships and shipping lanes and stopping attacks on our allies, you know, we can talk about Israel as an ally in another show and they're not. That literally means that it didn't work. That means it didn't work. And so I don't know what else to say. Well, again, it's not that I run out of words on this. Me and you would love to have these conversations. It's that for this, for people to go and not source or just to take things at face value is something we're used to. But again, I'm not trying to talk to flatter us, but I think that's why we started this show, right Amy? I mean that just to put that out there.
- [38:41]
Amy McGrath
The last thing I wanted to ask you, Denver, on this issue of big wins, because you're over there in the Middle East, Donald Trump is touting and his administration is touting all of these great billion dollar wins in the Middle east, all of these business deals. There's a business deal between Qatar Airways and Boeing and all of this great stuff. And it's almost like he's saying none of this would have happened without him. I wanted to get your take on this because you know when you, when you have a deal for a foreign country to buy a bunch of American made aircraft, that doesn't happen overnight. This, this shit has been in the pipeline for like months and years prior to Donald Trump. He's just coming in and cutting the tape on some of this stuff, right?
- [39:31]
Denver Riggleman
Yep. And let me, let me give an example if I may. The Saudis pledged to buy $1821-820001-82000,000,000 worth of military equipment from us. I don't know if you saw that, Amy. Also. So you know from Saudi. So I'm over here and I love having this stories personally. I am here guys, right? Amy. I am here. So this is pretty neat right as this is happening. So I'm with some very high ranking members of certain governments over here and we're having a dinner and we talked about the $182 billion deal and person next to me, hiring goes well, we'll see if he actually does it. That is what everybody says here. It's not just the massive amount of regulatory issues and the massive amount of process we have to go through in order to transfer this equipment after sales. It's huge. There's nothing to talk about. The operations and maintenance tail. But which is Amy, that's what you're saying, right? There's O and M. After you actually put over you have a sustainability issue. How are they gonna sustain it? What does that look like? The other thing too is though, is that when he came over here he shortcutted all the cfius CFIUS restrictions. So there's something else going on here that the American people need to know about that when you're talking about foreign sales and people need to look this up. Right. When you're talking about foreign sales, there's a process we have to go through to make sure we actually adjudicate those foreign sales. So that we're not sending it to terrorist countries and that has been short circuited. But what we're seeing right now when he's promising all of this is are we actually going to deliver what's going to happen before the time that they deliver? And as Amy said, folks, a lot of this was already in the pipeline. It has to be in the pipeline. It.
- [41:12]
Amy McGrath
Years.
- [41:13]
Denver Riggleman
It's years. And it's going to take years for this. Just like with the aircraft that he got gifted. He's going to make an Air Force One, I guess. But I think he's just going to keep it the same way it is and just use it as soon as he's out. Right, Amy? That's what's gonna happen. People need to realize that first the stuff has to be delivered, it has to be paid for, it has to be maintained, it has to be put in a certain configuration. All this has to happen, as they say over here in the Middle east and my good friends over here in the uae. Well, let's see if it actually happens.
- [41:46]
Amy McGrath
But even if it does, none of this stuff is his, just of his doing, you know, and. And to claim that. That he is the. The victor here, the. The winner is. Is just kind of. And people need to know that.
- [42:01]
Denver Riggleman
We're back to Monty Python, right?
- [42:02]
Amy McGrath
Yeah.
- [42:03]
Denver Riggleman
Black Knight. Yeah. Bite your knee off or what? You know, we're back to. We're back to Monty Python again.
- [42:08]
Amy McGrath
Amy, time for quick shots. Denver, because you got a lot of work to do. I know. Still out there. And we got to wrap things up. There's been a few interesting things going on that we really do need to touch on from the last week. The first one is, and I honestly don't know a ton about this except for the headlines, RFK Jr. On Mother's Day. He, by the way, is our Health and Human Services secretary. He took his grandkids swimming and wading in Rock Creek. And this is a place where swimming and wading have been banned for 50 years due to consistently high levels of E. Coli and widespread human and animal waste. Wow. What do you say to that then?
- [42:59]
Denver Riggleman
First of all, may I translate what that is really quickly when you say E. Coli and human waste. And animal waste. Yeah. That.
- [43:09]
Amy McGrath
Called sewage.
- [43:11]
Denver Riggleman
It's shit and urine and grotesqueness. So what I really like about this is he's so. He's so secure in his immune system and his children that he's willing to swim in shit water just to show what a man he is. And I gotta tell you what, he gets he gets, Amy, what he gets, he gets.
- [43:32]
Amy McGrath
The other thing is, this past week he was testifying on the Hill, and I don't remember what the question was, but his answer had to do with, oh, no, the question was about, I think, the measles vaccine. And his answer was, oh, well, you shouldn't take any health advice or medical advice from me. That's the HHS secretary, Health and Human Services Secretary. If we can't take health advice.
- [43:58]
Denver Riggleman
I saw that.
- [43:59]
Amy McGrath
I don't even know what to say to that.
- [44:01]
Denver Riggleman
I got to laughing about that when I saw it, actually. What is happening? Right, yeah. Oh, hold on a second. Yeah, I have all these doctors working for me and I'm the HHS secretary and I said that I'm. Actually, here's the thing that's really odd about this, Amy. He's a guy who says he's an anti vaxxer, a vaccination expert based on autism or all the things that he says, Right? Fluoride and water, bleeding out of the ears and 5G. He's an expert in everything because he's RFK junior and he's a fucking nut bag. Right? And I think what we have right now is we have crazies in charge. But I am to a point, if we have an HHS secretary that likes to swim in shit water, I say we get what we get. Right? He gets what he gets. That's just the way. That's where we're at, Amy. That's where we're at.
- [44:45]
Amy McGrath
All right. President Trump has appointed Fox News host Judge Jeanine Piero. I really butcher her name every time.
- [44:54]
Denver Riggleman
Well, she also butchers her own name because of her alcoholism, so don't.
- [44:58]
Amy McGrath
Yeah, it's Denver. President Trump has appointed Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro as interim U.S. attorney for Washington D.C. and this marks the 23rd Fox News former employee that Trump has hired in his second term. What do you say to that? Seriously?
- [45:22]
Denver Riggleman
It's DEI for alcoholics. 23 Fox personalities you're talking about. First of all, Fox is not real news. It's just entertainment, Right? So we're talking about entertainment personalities that are being put in positions of power, United States government. Also from an organization that was sued, successfully sued for over $780 million for lying about the stolen election. That's who he's actually putting in power. But as far as Jeanine Pirro, and by the way, you say her name perfectly. Amy. I've never. Just the best, most beautiful pronunciation of her name I've ever heard. But I think With Jeanine Pirro, I think you have somebody who really has some mental issues. I've watched her before. You know, I know people are going to be shocked at this, but I was on Fox a lot when I was in Republican politics. So, yeah, she is not quite all there. And the fact is she's such a conspiracy theorist and so insanely out there, especially with her love of wine. I think we will have a really interesting run with her.
- [46:25]
Amy McGrath
And here's the other thing. The 23 former Fox employees, these aren't like, just contributors, right? Then you and I have been on cnn, msnbc. Do we get paid for those when we go on? No, we're not employees. The Trump administration is filled with former Fox employees. People have been paid to spew this propaganda for him for years. And, you know, because it's an interim appointment, the judge, Jeanine, she will not have to face Senate confirmation hearing because of the interim appointment. But, boy, wouldn't that be kind of fun entertainment if she were to go in front of them? I mean, that would be entertaining, maybe what this is all about. But the sad part is these are really important positions in our government and they're just being filled with buffoons.
- [47:20]
Denver Riggleman
I would love it because the first question I'd ask her if I was on national TV is, do you believe the January 6 election was stolen? Maybe my first question. Oh, I wish I was a guest questioner. Oh, my God.
- [47:33]
Amy McGrath
C SPAN would beat Netflix and viewership there.
- [47:36]
Denver Riggleman
Oh, my God. I would call it the inquisition of the stupid. You know, and just have it, like, in flashing lights, you know, as we're going forward, I. Oh, my gosh, it would be so much fun.
- [47:48]
Amy McGrath
We gotta end this show on a cheers, too. And I know that my cheers here is going to be somewhat controversial because I've already had a number of conversations about this just in the last 24 hours. Pete Rose, former baseball player, now deceased, one of the best baseball players that ever lived, is finally eligible for the hall of Fame. Of course, he was banned from baseball because he bet on baseball. He bet on his own team, bet on the Reds to win when he was the manager. And there should be consequences for that. And he was banned for life. But my feeling, this is just Amy McGrath, is it's about time. The man was one of the best baseball players that ever lived. He should be in the hall of Fame. He was not somebody who cheated with steroids. He had a gambling problem. He was punished pretty severely in my mind for that gambling problem. And now we're moving on he has passed away. But I think that it's important for the sport and for the hall of Fame. And I'm glad, as somebody who was a fan of Pete Rose, I was a fan of, and still am a fan, big fan of the Cincinnati Reds to see that. That he's eligible again. So I'm interested to what you think, but I would like to have a cheers to him.
- [49:20]
Denver Riggleman
Cheers. And here's the thing. Charlie Hustle, right. Me and you were alive. Amy. Right. We saw Pete Rose play. I did. Right. So I love Charlie Hussle. And yeah, he was a degenerate gambler, as they said. Right. Yeah. But you know what? He didn't bet on his team to lose. See, he met on a scene to win. And, you know, that means Charlie Hustle, I don't think would ever throw a game. People might disagree with me and things like that. Here's the thing. Here's what's sad. They had to wait till he's dead. He don't know. Right. It's a Cheers. But you're doing this now. It just seems sort of ludicrous. If I were to talk to somebody, like, why does it matter now? Just to save face for you. Really. Foxtrot Oscar, right? Get out of here. Right. You're saving face somehow. Oh, he's eligible for the hall of Fame. Yeah. He's dead.
- [50:14]
Amy McGrath
He's dead.
- [50:16]
Denver Riggleman
So it's just. It's incredible. Yeah, of course there's. Listen, he should have been punished, but he also literally is the most prolific hitter in baseball history and was.
- [50:25]
Amy McGrath
And I agree, it's a very sad story. I know that he's been punished for it. I just. I feel like the punishment was really harsh, and I'm just glad that he's gonna be in the hall of Fame because he deserves it. I mean, the hall of Fame to me is a place that looks at and judges you on your actions on the field. And there are lots of ball players, Denver, that are. Were terrible, terrible people. I mean, Ty Cobb was a raging racist.
- [50:58]
Denver Riggleman
He was.
- [50:58]
Amy McGrath
Lots of other ballplayers, you know, domestic abusers, that kind of stuff. Had a gambling problem. Okay. But he was a great ball player. And I just think cheers to him for finally being eligible for the hall of Fame.
- [51:17]
Denver Riggleman
And, you know, I don't want to add on to the chairs, but how about this? After what we've gone through in recent history, even though he was a gambler and did bad things, doesn't seem almost relatively minor based on what we're facing today.
- [51:31]
Amy McGrath
Totally.
- [51:32]
Denver Riggleman
I mean, we have a sexual abuser for president. We're worried about somebody who gambled in baseball.
- [51:37]
Amy McGrath
Yeah. You know, and here's the other thing my husband told me before the show here. He said, you know, every team in Major League Baseball now is tied almost to gambling because of the corporate Internet gambling sort of that we have going on in our country right now.
- [51:56]
Denver Riggleman
So.
- [51:57]
Amy McGrath
All right.
- [51:57]
Denver Riggleman
I wonder what Jeanine Pyro would say.
- [52:00]
Amy McGrath
We want to raise a glass in appreciation to everyone who has watched and listened to this show here at Truth and Love. Errol, we're so thankful that you have taken the time to be with us and a chance to get to know us. And we hope we get better each week. And I'm just really thrilled, Denver, that you can still do this show on your travels. That's the beauty of this. We get a chance to listen to you and all your great stories as well.
- [52:27]
Denver Riggleman
Well, you know, I feel bad because, Amy, you have taken really the reins that I've been gone, made sure it was prepared. You and the team have been incredible while I'm out here, you know, it was tough last night. I was dining on the 123rd floor of the Burj Khalifa, drinking smoked Old Fashioned. Think, man. I wonder what Amy's doing right now. And, you know, I just want to let you know I was really mentally preparing for the show as I was drinking my second Old Fashioned. And I just want to let you know that I've been working hard making sure that I'm here to support you as you're back in the States and my very hard travels out here in the uae.
- [53:07]
Amy McGrath
I know you're working hard and not hardly working. We know.
- [53:11]
Denver Riggleman
Yes, ma' am. Thank you. It was great to be here. And as far as everybody else, if you want to listen to this incredible show, Amy and Bourbon county, sometimes a shrinking bourbon me sort of gallivanting around the world right now. But I'll be back. You have to subscribe, so you better download your favorite podcast, you better click on the subscribe button for YouTube and you better follow us on socials because if you don't, you're a bit of a loser. So thank you so much. It's just another great show here on Truth in the Barrel.
- [53:40]
Amy McGrath
Bye, everyone.
- [53:42]
Denver Riggleman
Love ya. Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now, and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements, or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn ads, go to Libsynads.com that's L I B S Y N ads.com today.