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A
Guys, thanks for helping me carry my Christmas tree.
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B
Zoe, this thing weighs a ton. Drew Ski, live with your legs, man.
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A
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B
He's talking to you britches.
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A
I'm not. Of course he did. Right, Santa, you know my elf Drew Ski here.
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B
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A
Visit t mobile.com at a time when Pete Hegseth and the Trump administration are destroying small boats in the Caribbean, claiming they are fighting drug trafficking, they pardon one of the biggest drug lords in North American history. Now reports are starting to swirl that these boat strikes might not have been even legal and could be considered a war crime. And if you even start to question the facts, you're considered a traitor and could get court martialed. All of this while Trump and Republicans continue their assault on higher education, making it harder for nurses to get degrees they so desperately need. Today on Truth in the Barrel, we're going to talk about all of this with my friend Joe Walsh and maybe find out who the happiest people in the world are. Joe, welcome to Truth in the Barrel.
- [01:51]
B
Amy, I generally say this, but I don't always mean it. It's really good to be with you. I mean it. It's an honor to be with you.
- [02:00]
A
Well, it's an honor to be with you, too. I know you're busy. Let's start out with what. What you're doing these days.
- [02:07]
B
It's such a funny question. Today I am officially a Democrat. For exactly six months, June 4th of 25, I became a Democrat. How bizarro right from the Tea Party to the Democratic Party. What am I doing? Amy? I'm just, I. Trying to do my damnedest to rally others to follow me, because maybe, I think definitely, like you, I believe my former party's a real threat to democracy and the rule of law. So I generally yell every day to try to get folks to join me.
- [02:37]
A
Yeah. And I have so much respect for you for being somebody who, you know, just is. Is so truthful and, and able to say to the, to people of your former party, hey, we've. We've sort of gone off the cliff here. And not just to say that, but to also move over into the other party that has to win for, you know, power to shift.
- [03:03]
B
Amy that's such a great point. People ask me all the time, why did I become a Democrat? I like, I'm not 30 or 40 anymore, but I want to stay in the political fight. I believe my former party is a real threat. The only other game in town is the Democratic Party. And the Democratic Party is a party that still believes in democracy, the rule of law, pluralism, basic human decency. I want to help what you just said. I want to help my new party defeat the Republican Party. Cause they have to. And you and I may disagree on a few policy issues. I know I disagree with a lot of Democrats on some policy issues. I just don't think this is a moment about policy.
- [03:49]
A
I always talked about the fact that I married a Republican. I was an independent for my entire military career. It's always, for me, been about country over party. I'm a proud Democrat because I believe in things like health care, affordable health care and education and some of those things. But you and I might have a disagreement on tax policy or other things. But right now we're in a moment in this country where it's bigger. It's bigger than those. Those political policies.
- [04:20]
B
Amen, Amy. And when I became a Democrat in June, I think that was just after Zoran Mamdani won the primary in New York. So right away, they put microphones in front of my face. Hey, new Democrat, do you endorse Zoran Mamdani? And I said, did he win the Democratic primary? Yeah. Well, then I endorse him. This is a big enough tent. I want it to be a tent big enough for Mamdani and AOC and Amy McGrath and Joe Walsh. I think it's gotta be that big to be successful to win.
- [04:49]
A
Yeah. And, well, and a lot of people say when they, when they talk about Mandami, they're, you know, this is the future of the Democratic Party. And I'm like, he won in New York City, all right? Anybody that's been in New York City knows there's not a whole lot of Republicans there. Okay. And that. That political. Is dominated. The politics there are dominated by Democrats. And. And so you've got to. I think the future of the Democratic Party is the Abigail Spanbergers and the Mikey Sheryls of the world.
- [05:17]
B
Oh, I would throw Amy McGr into that group. You're right, Amy, if I had one. I have a few criticisms of my new political party. One of them is we've forgotten that this is a big, diverse, regionally diverse, politically diverse country. What you just said. Zoran Mamdani, God bless him, New York City. I couldn't win in New York City. Zoran Mamdani couldn't win in Kentucky or South Carolina. We got to get back to where the party recognizes. We got to support candidates who can win in redder districts in redder states that may mean different kinds of candidates. And I think we've become so obsessed with this national brand, we've forgotten how regional this country is.
- [06:03]
A
Right. We don't all fit into one box here. And we need to embrace the fact that, you know, as. As you just said, the Democratic Party is a big tent party. At the end of the day, we care about, you know, the country, and we care about rule of law and the Constitution and something that the other side apparently doesn't care about right now does not.
- [06:24]
B
And think about that, Amy. It's painful to me. I was a Republican my whole life. The party, that party has utterly abandoned democracy and the rule of law, and we see it every day. It's. It's painful to see, but it's been going on for some time.
- [06:41]
A
Yeah. Well, I want to get into a few issues with you, Joe. A lot's been happening on the foreign policy front. And if you listen to this show, you know that Truth in the Barrel, we talk a lot about foreign policy and defense policy. Why? Because, you know, I was in the military, and it's something that I really care about. And if you've been listening to the show, you know that I've been sounding the alarm for a while on these potentially unlawful orders that Pete Hegseth and the Trump administration have talked about giving to our armed forces. Certainly, Trump has talked about giving unlawful orders in the past, but after a report from the Washington Post last week, these fears appear to be warranted. And you remember those strikes on the. On the Venezuelan boats back in September. Now, the background on this is that two people with direct knowledge of the operation in the Caribbean said that Pete Hegseth, our Secretary of War, gave a spoken order to kill all the crew members aboard that vessel suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean. Now, what does that mean, though? What happened was there was live drone footage here and it showed that after the first strike, there were two survivors, Joe, from this original strike. They were clinging to the wreckage of the boat after the initial attack. And supposedly the special operations commander, who's a four star admiral overseeing the operation, then ordered a second strike to comply with the Secretary of War's directive. So I want to start there and just first ask you, Joe.
- [08:24]
This report and what appears to have happened, does this shock you at all?
- [08:31]
B
No. And Amy, you can be so much more informative and educational to all of us on this particular issue. But no, not at all shocking. Look, as a general rule, because I voted for Trump in 16 and I come from MAGA, I never, ever, ever take shots at Trump's voters because I used to be one. They're good, decent people who've been lied to. But I will take shots at Trump until the cows come home. I'll take shots at Hannity and all of his cheerleaders and I'll take shots at Pete Hegseth. Utterly unqualified.
- [09:09]
Utterly in over his head. Mark Kelly, Senator Mark Kelly nailed it a couple days ago when he said Pete Hegseth is like some 12 year old playing army. And he is. But again, who put him in that position? That's the first point I'd say. He's already with that, with the signal controversy. He endangered the lives of our troops by just, you know, bragging about what we're doing about an attack over, over a signal chat. He, this is going to go on. And because he's utterly in over his head, he was a weekend Fox News host, that's it. But Trump hired him and I expect incidents like this to continue. The second thing I'll say is it sure sounds like Hegseth has said different things about this action and the other aspect of Trump. And this is something everyone who works for Trump has to do is you have to lie. Yeah, we've never seen anybody lie like Trump. But to work for Trump is to lie like Trump. And Trump's never taken accountability for anything. So the buck never stops with him. The buck will never stop with Hegseth. And I don't know, Amy, you'd know better than I do. But it sure sounds like they've thrown this admiral, or they're trying to throw this admiral under the bus.
- [10:31]
A
Yeah, I mean, the response has changed. And we'll get into these strikes, and I want your opinion on that. More broadly, however.
- [10:41]
You hit the nail on the head, the response to this has changed. First they came out and said, oh, it's fake news. Washington report, none of it's true. It's fake news. And then when some more evidence was coming out that it wasn't fake news, the response was, we're going to blame the admiral. We're going to blame. We're going to say, I stand behind the admiral and his decision to do this. And then the response from the president, you know, who never takes responsibility for anything.
- [11:10]
Said that he didn't even know about it, didn't even know about the strike. And then the Secretary of War comes in. Hegseth, or Secretary of Defense, I can't even say Secretary of War says, well, I didn't personally see the survivors because, you know, everything was on fire, Joe, and it exploded, and there's fire and smoke and you can't see anything. And, you know, this is called the fog of war. I mean, for anybody that has been in the military, you gotta have to laugh about that, because first of all, that's not anything near the actual term fog of war means. But the story has changed three or four times now. And so that tells you there's something there. There. But also the strikes themselves. And the American public is split right now on these strikes about 50, 50. And I really think that.
- [12:06]
It'S really important for people to understand we don't want drugs coming into our country, and we should do everything that we can to stop drugs. Okay. By the way, if we really cared about drugs and addiction in the country, we wouldn't be cutting funding for addiction services from Medicaid and we wouldn't be pardoning drug lords, which we'll talk about next. But. But I think the big thing is that, you know, there's no evidence that these vessels were actually transporting drugs. We gloss over the word suspected drug runners, and we've gotten to the point where we've asked our military to just schwack stuff without being at war.
- [12:54]
And, you know, Congress hasn't authorized any. Any of this.
- [12:58]
B
Bingo. And correct me if I'm wrong, 7, 6, 7, 8 or 9 strikes we've done on these boats off the shores. I don't think to date we know who's been killed. I mean, think about that. I don't think we do. And so we don't Even know who we've hit.
- [13:19]
A
Yeah.
- [13:20]
B
Why we've hit. I'll tell you, Amy, it's even more disturbing to me. I was at an event a while back, a month or so ago with another four star, and he raised an interesting thought. He said, do we know for certain that it's the United States military carrying out these operations? I mean, that was like, kind of mind boggling. But this is what we get with an administration that no longer puts out jobs numbers, is transparent about the President's health, no longer does anything puts out any information. We don't know who's been carrying these attack out, these attacks. We don't know who's been killed and we don't know why we're doing this.
- [14:02]
A
And there's no authorization from Congress at all. The reports are that there's 21 boats and 83 people, but as you said, we have no idea. And the Pentagon has stopped the press from even being able to ask questions. This is why this is coming out months later. But, you know, it is, it is a war crime to execute people who are in sort of extremis on the high seas. I mean, you know, this, this idea that, well, they're survivors and that because they're radioing for help, then that means that they're, they're still combatants. Well, we don't even know if they were combatants to begin with. There's no war declared. I mean, it's just crazy.
- [14:46]
B
The only answer here, as you know, Senator, to be, is a thorough bipartisan investigation in the Senate and the House. But we're at a point politically in this country with my former political party that I don't know if that's ever going to be possible.
- [15:07]
A
I don't think it is in the current makeup of Congress. And I would actually go a step further, Joe. And this is, this is something that's really important to me personally because I did three combat tours and I had friends who are no longer with us. Okay. I came home and they didn't.
- [15:26]
It is really important that when you send the military to war.
- [15:33]
B
Yeah.
- [15:34]
A
When you use force around the world, that you owe it to the troops, you owe it to our country, you owe it to the world to have Congress vote on it.
- [15:45]
B
Yeah.
- [15:46]
A
If it's an emergency, if it's a war. Okay. If we're at war, if we need to go to war against Venezuela. All right. Congress needs to fly it back to Washington D.C. right now, and the President needs to make the case for why we need to go to war to Congress and to the American people and then they vote on it. That is, that is in our Constitution. It's Article one of our Constitution. And it's not, you know, you're like, well, we haven't declared war since World War II. Okay. It's not in modern day. It's called the Authorization to Use Military Force. We did it in Afghanistan, we did it in Iraq. You know, we need to do it here. We've got how many troops off the coast of Venezuela right now? 10,000.
- [16:28]
B
Amy, you're right to be fair because we should always be fair. Presidents of both parties over the years have abused this. Trump has taken this to, as he has with everything else, to a ridiculously dangerous level. The problem is this is what a president who believes he's.
- [16:51]
Accountable to no one above the law, can do whatever he wants, or as the Supreme Court said, has total immunity. This is what it looks like. He just doesn't believe he can answer to anybody. And he's put a 13 year old in charge of the Department of Defense who will do whatever he says. Unlike in Trump's first term. As you recall, when Donald Trump asked then Secretary of Defense Mark Esper about American citizens protesting in D.C. can we just, let's just shoot at their legs. Can our military do that? And Mark Esper said, no, sir, we can't do that. No way would Pete Hegseth ever say no to something like that.
- [17:32]
A
Yeah, you're right. He is a 13 year old and he's somebody who has championed war criminals in the past. He's somebody who's fired all the jags, you know, which sends a signal. I mean, but here's the other thing about all this. If you take it back and you think, well, and I hear this from, from people, well, the President's just going after drug traffickers and gosh darn it, finally we've got somebody to go after these guys. Okay, I get that. But here's the thing. If we're in an armed conflict with these drug cartels, why is it that the President just pardoned the Honduras Honduran ex president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who is serving a 45 year sentence for drug trafficking? He just pardoned him. Let him off.
- [18:21]
B
Yeah, along Amy, again, along with, I think I saw yesterday, he's already issued 1200 pardons in this first year, that being one of them. Look.
- [18:36]
Clearly Trump, who's not doing well domestically, his numbers are horrible. His cruel un American immigration enforcement policy, mass federal agents on our streets, the American people don't support that. My fear, Amy, is That he and Hegseth are looking for a distraction. And it's this notion of regime change in Venezuela that no American voted for. But I can't explain this military buildup down there besides that.
- [19:11]
A
Well, that's really interesting. And, you know, 70 to 80% of Americans do not want us to go to war against Venezuela. And again, it goes back to Congress.
- [19:24]
You know, we have a responsibility. If you're wanting to go to war, you have to make the case to the American people. You make it through Congress and Congress then votes on it. But, you know, the case here is, well, we gotta start this war because we have to go against, you know, narco terrorists or whatever. This Hernandez guy was found guilty in an American court. And he wasn't just a. He wasn't just a, you know, big time, a weekend drug dealer around the corner. This guy was guilty of selling and, and, and transporting 500 tons of cocaine. Now, 500 tons. To me, it's kind of like blah, blah, blah. What, what the heck is 500 tons? So I looked it up, right? How big is that? You know how big 500 tons is? It's the equivalent in weight wise, of four blue whales.
- [20:15]
B
Jeez.
- [20:16]
A
I mean, that's huge. And our president's just like, yeah, here you go, pardoned. Congratulations.
- [20:22]
B
Look, I don't think, Amy, that any American voted for higher grocery prices in America and regime change down in Venezuela. And I'm not, I'm not on the hustings right now campaigning for you, but my God, if I were running for office right now.
- [20:43]
We've been living now for a year without a Congress. I don't think Americans fully realize that there's been no independent legislative branch for the past year. Mike Johnson and the Republican House, they work for Trump. They're not independent. There's no oversight, there's no investigations been going on with anything this administration's doing. My God, we need Democrats to have control of the House and the Senate, if only to reestablish an independent legislative branch 100%.
- [21:16]
A
I mean, Congress is supposed to be a co. Equal branch, okay? And they're not right now.
- [21:22]
B
We always say that, Amy. We always say that. But actually, you know, like a lot of us know, our founders intended it for it to be the preeminent branch.
- [21:30]
A
That's why it's Article one.
- [21:32]
B
Boom. The most important branch.
- [21:34]
A
Yeah, well, there's also members of Congress right now on the Democratic side who are actually trying to do something even though they're not in power. Regarding this story that we just Talked about. And, you know, these Democratic members of Congress are all veterans, was led by Mark Kelly. They came out with a video last week. It was titled Don't Give up the Ship. And basically what they said in this video is they were talking to military leaders and they were saying, you know, we know what's being talked about. Please remember your oath to the Constitution. You can refuse to. To execute illegal orders, which is actually the law. And in response, the president and members of his administration have threatened to court martial these guys and called them traitors. I mean, what are we doing here.
- [22:34]
B
Since this story broke? Amy, I wanted to pick your brain on it because you nailed it, right? These six Democratic members of Congress simply reiterated the law. I want to say that again. They simply reiterated the law. And because of that, Trump and Hegseth are going after them.
- [22:53]
For purely, purely political reasons. But, Amy. Right. That's all they did.
- [22:59]
A
Yeah. So, first of all, people need to know that military leaders have a duty.
- [23:07]
Not just a right, a duty to not obey illegal orders. It's a long precedent in history. I mean, if you look back to Vietnam, for example, My Lai massacre, where members of our U.S. army soldiers executed civilians. They followed in the illegal order, and they were prosecuted for that. That was an illegal order, and they knew it was wrong and they did it anyway. And so what these members of Congress are simply trying to say is that, look, we've heard President Trump, as you mentioned earlier, we've heard him say some pretty crazy things like shooting protesters in the legs. Remember, you have a duty not to do those things if ever ordered. And in response, the administration, you know, and Republican members of Congress, some of them have lost their minds and have said, these guys are traitors. You know, the military is not Donald Trump's personal militia. We have ethics and rules, and at the end of the day, we swear an oath to the Constitution.
- [24:20]
B
Amy, you made a really important point there. What these six Democratic members of Congress did, reminding members of the military to simply obey the law. It's not in a vacuum. I mean, we have a president who's been pretty public that he wants our military on our streets in this country, I believe, to create and incite violence next year, I believe, to mess with the 2026 elections in a context like that. You got a president who wants our troops on the streets, which shouldn't happen here. You have a secretary of defense who will do whatever he says. Makes sense to put out a video there saying, hey, reminding you military, you got to follow the law. Make perfect sense that they Put this video out.
- [25:11]
A
Well, it's. And I've always said. And this is also why Congress is. Is really failing here and failing our military, because they. Our military right now is put in a really tough place. They're in sort of this legal black hole because, you know, when you're like, well, we. We have to follow orders. We're supposed to not follow illegal orders. But what is legal and illegal in a world where Congress hasn't voted on the authorization to use military force in place, like Venezuela or the Caribbean? So if the President just says, I think I want to attack tomorrow, and doesn't really even give a justification, there's no imminent defense, you know, so it's. It's not like, you know, they're attacking us. And the military is put in a tough place because they are supposed to follow the orders of the commander in chief. And this is why Congress needs to step up and vote up or down, clarify it. Because the longer Congress does nothing, the more this gray area that we're putting the military in, it's very hard for these commanders, and they won't.
- [26:18]
B
Amy. Congress will not do anything. I guarantee you. Mike Johnson and the House will not do anything. John Thune. I know we still think about it or reminisce about normal Republicans. And John Thune used to be thought of as a normal Republican. Republican. He ain't gonna do anything. So Congress isn't gonna do anything here. And this, again, puts our military in a really tough spot. But look what he's done with folks who work at the Justice Department. We have an attorney general that's acting like Trump's personal lawyer, the FBI. We've got the top two people at the FBI who were put there to go after the FBI. So you've got Americans working in the Justice Department and at the FBI and at the CIA and in our military who have served this country and want to serve with everything they have. And there are people at the top of their organizations that are direct threats to them. This is a scary, scary place.
- [27:14]
A
We're in a really dark time right now. I will shift gears a little bit here because.
- [27:21]
This is really important for my state in Kentucky, and it deals with health care at a time when there's this thing called the McKinsey Global Institute, and they have said that half, half of the American work hours can be replaced by artificial intelligence in the future. Now, while this is happening, the Trump administration has decided to attack the very field that needs actual, real people working the most. Like, you can't replace a lot of healthcare workers, you know, specifically nursing with AI. And so what's happened is 70% of the tasks performed by careers of healthcare workers require the kind of physical presence, you know, requires empathy and care, dexterity that machines and AI can't replicate. And this bill that Republicans and Donald Trump just passed this summer, guess what, wiped out federal aid for higher education programs, and it downgraded. They've recently downgraded professional programs like nursing and physical therapy. So that makes it harder for people going into those fields to get loans, to complete the degrees, to go into those fields, which is insane because we need these professions. Right. In my state of Kentucky, we're already facing dangerous shortages of nursing. So I feel like this is a really big deal. We're not talking about it enough.
- [28:53]
By the way.
- [28:53]
B
That's a really good point, Amy. In this Trump era, we don't talk enough about issues like this. It's generally what just the outrage of, oh, what did Trump do? What did Hecseth do? What did Pam Bondi do? But real important, tangible issues like what you just articulated that impact people in Kentucky and around the country, we're not talking about. And we need to. And I say this as a former Republican, you and I may have very different policy solutions to address health care in this country, but my former party, the Republican Party, has never had health care plans. We would scream. Amy.
- [29:33]
A
Still waiting on the plan, Joe. We're still waiting on it.
- [29:35]
B
Right? I was great at. And all of my Republican colleagues, we were great at repeal, repeal, repeal Obamacare. We never had a replace. That's the dirty truth. And Republicans still don't have a replace component there. And rural America in your state just getting hammered. The closing of hospitals, what they've done, the cuts to Medicaid. And these are a lot of Trump voters out in rural Kentucky, and they are sadly going to get hammered when it comes to health care issues.
- [30:08]
A
I think we're already getting hammered. And the thing about the Affordable Care act and Obamacare is I'm not sure I've talked to anyone who said, this is it. This is the answer to all of our dreams. We all know health care in America is really, really broken and remains that way. I've always said about the Affordable Care act, look, I think it was so bad prior to the Affordable Care act that we had to do something. And I know that it wasn't perfect. And I always looked at Republicans who, you know, wanted to repeal it, and I was like, okay, what do you got? What do we do? What do we do? And that was why, you know, when John McCain did that famous, you know, where he voted down on Mitch McConnell's bill to repeal it always gave me a lot of pride and I was so proud of him for doing that because I was like, you know, he, he probably didn't vote for the, the Affordable Care Act. He probably didn't want it, but he recognized that there was no plan, that you're, you're doing this for purely political reasons and people are going to get hurt if you don't have a plan.
- [31:14]
B
And by the way, again, Amy McGrath, this is not a campaign commercial for you. This is why, again, we need people like you in the House and the Senate because as you know, it's driven by the extremes right now, reaching across the aisle, trying to find middle ground. It doesn't happen. John McCain was that kind of a legislator. And the other thing though is I do believe that the issue of health care in America, I don't think there's a more important domestic issue. And mainly because unlike our parents and our grandparents, great grandparents generation, we're living longer and longer and we're healthier longer and longer. Healthcare for the American people as they get older, that is the biggest part of our federal budget and it's the fastest growing piece of our federal budget. And we've got to have real adult conversations about this because it's great news that we're all living longer and longer.
- [32:16]
A
Absolutely.
- [32:17]
B
How are we going to pay for the health care? We need mature, grown up legislative conversations to answer that.
- [32:23]
A
Absolutely. And when I talked about this issue and when I taught the federal budget to, you know, midshipmen at the Naval Academy and then at the University of Kentucky, I always talked about that piece of the pie that, you know, and Social Security too. Congratulations, we're all living longer. You know, when a lot of these things were enacted in the Social Security, right. In the 1930s and then, and then Medicare in the 1960s, we're in a different world. So congratulations, we're living longer, but we're also, we also are living longer. And that, that's, you know, it's expensive. So let's have a, an adult conversation about this. But what is, is happening right now with this make America healthy again under this current administration, every action, Joe, that they're actually taking is the opposite of making us healthy again. The, the big beautiful bill which cuts Medicare, deeply, threatens 35 hospital rural hospitals in Kentucky.
- [33:25]
Republicans now refuse to extend the Affordable Care act subsidies that actually helps families afford health insurance. Not every family, but many. I mean, what are we doing?
- [33:38]
B
It's crazy, you know, and it's interesting, Amy, to give a political response. I got elected in that Tea Party wave, and it was a reaction to the Affordable, the passing of the Affordable Care Act Act. A lot of American people back then didn't like it, and people like me were sent to Congress to do something about it. Every Democrat back then who voted for the Affordable Care Act, Amy, they knew it was going to hurt them politically, but they believed in what they voted for. I'm telling you, every Republican that voted for the big, beautiful bill, they knew what they were voting for was going to hurt them politically. And almost to a man and a woman, Amy, and they know the bill is a piece of crap. And every Democrat like you running for Congress, and it's primarily because of the healthcare, a lot of other things, they need to be hung with this issue because this is going to hurt real Americans, and real Americans are going to die because of what Republicans passed, especially in red states.
- [34:46]
A
I mean, this bill is the worst bill for Kentucky in my lifetime, 100%. Well, we've got some quick takes for you, Joe. I want to get your take on a few of these things.
- [35:00]
That are in the news. So there's this new White House webpage and a tip line that they have come up with. It's called the Media Bias Portal. And the White House is asking the American public to report what is it claims as fake news. Right. And the portal lists journalists and news outlets and articles that, you know, say bad things about the Trump administration. And they also have this thing called the Media Offender of the Week award. So your take on this? I mean, I laugh, but I'm like crying too.
- [35:35]
B
Well, Amy, and I need to laugh more because I tend to be a dark Irishman and I grab my musket every day and go to war against Trump. And what my party is. I need, I need levity. Look, this is. This is just an old staple. This is what we always used to do on the right, and they still do it on the right. The media's bad. The media is against conservatives, against Republicans. It's kind of the old go to one of the old go tos that Republicans always do. And I think as Trump's numbers continue to go down, he's gonna keep putting out stuff like this.
- [36:08]
A
Yeah, it's sad and scary because people are watching and listening. I mean, every day when I think something is so crazy that people don't believe it, then I go, you know, I go to a store someplace and I'll talk to somebody and they're, they believe it, you know, and you're just like, okay, now here's another one that sort of made me laugh, but also kind of ticks me off and makes me cry at the same time. The FBI's leader now, cash Patel, he is under investigation. I don't know by who because, you know, the FBI is not going to investigate itself but for the use of SWAT teams to protect his, his girlfriend. So the New York Times has said that the FBI's director's travel on government jets has contributed to these growing questions inside the administration about whether he's using taxpayer funded resources inappropriately. Your thoughts on Patel's date night travels.
- [37:09]
B
We put a conspiracist, we put a podcaster in charge of the FBI. This is, there's just going to be more of this.
- [37:17]
A
Sad. I know, yeah, yeah. Personal joy rides. I don't know, it's. We've put buffoons in charge of the FBI and the secretary of, or the Defense Department and all these crazies.
- [37:32]
B
And Amy, I know with these quick takes, we're having fun. And you don't have to say this, but I'll say this. Look, Trump won fair and square last November. Unlike like them, when they win an election, we concede they won, even though we don't like it. But part of what's going on here is we elected a bad man again. A really bad man who now believes he's really accountable to no one. And there's a part of me that feels like, sadly, the American people are going to kind of have to feel, yeah, a lot of the pain that's going to go along with this. And hopefully, Amy, that will wake a lot of folks up.
- [38:11]
A
Up. I mean, the grift and corruption is off the charts. Off the charts. Doug, who is our producer, said that Democrats in Congress are the ones investigating. So clearly it's not, it's not the FBI investigating itself, it's Democrats in Congress. All right, this one is really interesting to me and I wanted your take on it because of your background. Joe. So the, the Oxford Dictionary comes out with a word of the year every year. Like a new word that, that is voted on that is like the, the, the of that year. And so the Oxford word of the year for 2025 is rage bait. Rage bait. Okay, so what does that mean? That is rage bait. The definition of it is online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, offensive. It's typically posted in order to increase traffic. Right. Or engagement with a webpage or a social media account. So this is the word of 2025.
- [39:16]
B
Amy, two thoughts. That's interesting to me because to me it seems like an old word, but it's perfect for right now because that's what most of our politics is. And I say this as someone who, before he woke up six, seven years ago, I used to engage in this. Right. You try to inflame and piss off and outrage your people, your audience, and that's how you generate more followers. That's still what most folks on both extremes do.
- [39:46]
A
Yeah. Well, here's the good news. The president of Oxford Languages, he has said that the fact that the word rage bait exists in such a big deal now, that means that we're seeing this dramatic surge in the usage, and it means that we're increasingly aware of the manipulation tactics that we can be drawn into. He thinks that that's a good, this is a good thing that people are more aware.
- [40:11]
B
Now. I'm not, I, I don't know that I agree with that. I'm not knowledgeable enough, but that would surprise me if people are aware of this.
- [40:19]
A
Yeah. Wow. Last year's word was brain rot. And that's when you scroll, when you scroll, you know.
- [40:25]
B
Yeah.
- [40:25]
A
Over and you just, your brain starts to go to mush. Either way, either way, we're mentally exhausted with all this stuff, right?
- [40:32]
B
Yes.
- [40:32]
A
All right, now it's time for our shout outs. This is the end of our.
- [40:39]
Episode here. We're very excited because we always end on a good note and because this is a sort of whiskey bourbon themed show. I want to ask you before we start, Joe, do you have a whiskey or a favorite bourbon?
- [40:55]
B
Amy, you will never. Amy McGrath, you will never invite me back back. Because I am strictly and proudly and 100% a tequila drinker. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We just lost. Look at your audience. They're all leaving now. They're all leaving. I, I, so I don't, I'm not even now I've had bourbon whiskey. I'm not even knowledgeable enough to give you a brand or two because I'm just. Tequila.
- [41:21]
A
Well, what's your favorite tequila?
- [41:23]
B
I'm all over the map. I have about 13 of them. I am all over the map.
- [41:28]
A
Okay, fair enough.
- [41:29]
B
Easy. I'm pretty easy. But it's the only thing I drink. So you, you give me a name or two or three.
- [41:34]
A
Well, we're gonna talk about one. But I, I do remember Joe from your social media when you do some tequila takes, Right? Is that what it's called Tequila takes.
- [41:43]
B
I apologize for those.
- [41:45]
A
Those are the best, by the way. Everybody should check them out. Okay, so lasso, motels, darts, cigarette blend, bourbon was crowned last week the world's best new bourbon. And the reason I bring it up is because it is distilled in Green River, Kentucky. So this is Green river, which I really love. Green river is one of my favorite bourbons. This is the rye version and it's, you know, out of, out of Kentucky, Owensboro area. And it's made up of 70% corn, this new bourbon blend and 21% rye. And so, you know, it won the award. So cheers to, to the cigarette blend bourbon. All right. But also wanted to bring this up because bourbon, the bourbon industry here in Kentucky has been kind of hurt, shall we say, with Trump's tariffs. It's really threatened the whole industry. So sales of like Bullet, that's a very famous bourbon, that's down 7.3%. Wild Turkey are, those sales are down 8%. So we gotta give a shout out to bourbon because they're, you know, that industry's hurting. Amen.
- [42:55]
B
And Amy, I'll just say this again. Reminder, reminder, reminder, everybody in Kentucky, the United States of America, when Donald Trump was sworn in in January, by far had the strongest post Covid economic recovery in the world. And this guy single handedly with his stupid unconstitutional tariffs has destroyed that economic recovery.
- [43:15]
A
I'm glad you said that. We didn't have a segment on it, but stupid unconstitutional terrorism tariffs is a hundred percent the way I feel. I look at that policy and my head explodes because I'm just like, there is no reason for this. Every economist said not to do this. Nobody asked for this. Nobody asked. Hey, hey, I really want Donald Trump to get back into office because I want tariffs. Nobody.
- [43:38]
B
And Amy, it goes to the theme you've been saying this whole show. Hello, Congress, this is your authority. Congress, where you been?
- [43:46]
A
Yeah, 100. All right, well, let's end on a good note though. And I just learned this the other day and I could really use some more happiness in my life. And did you know that Finland is the world's happiest country for the eighth year in a row? I mean, Finland, I, I would have never guessed that because it's way up there in the north and I, I think like in the winter time they don't see a whole lot of daylight late.
- [44:13]
B
No, that Amy, again, they always kick butt in these surveys, I think because they're outdoors a lot and they're outdoors people and they love Wintertime activities. The older I get, I can't handle the cold. But they, gosh, they must just love it.
- [44:28]
A
Have you been there?
- [44:30]
B
No. I want to go.
- [44:32]
A
I want to, too.
- [44:33]
B
Sweden, Finland, those countries I want to see.
- [44:36]
A
Well, you know, thanks to the last administration, we have Finland now as part of NATO. Right. So.
- [44:43]
B
Yep, yep, yep.
- [44:44]
A
Yeah. Good on you, Finland, and good on you for being the happiest. Do you know where the United States was in this? We're 24th. It's the lowest we have ever been in this report. 24th in the world. And, you know, we're not, we're not going in the right direction there. But anyway, I wanted to say thank you so much, Joe, for being on the show. This is really important. Love having you on. I hope you have a great holiday and it's been fun.
- [45:14]
B
Amy, I love you. I'm a big fan. Keep going, kiddo. Great to be with you.
- [45:18]
A
Yeah. We'll do this again. All right. And for all the listeners out there, make sure you're following us on all the social platforms. Get, get like us. Follow us on YouTube, all that stuff. And we'll be back later on in December for a couple more episodes. Can't wait. Thanks, Joe.
- [45:35]
B
Thanks.
- [45:41]
Hey, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. You know, one of the perks about having four kids that you know about is actually getting a direct line to the big man up north.
- [45:50]
A
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B
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A
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B
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A
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