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- [00:15]
A
Welcome to Uncovered. I'm Anthony, he's Ron. And together we uncover the MAGA propaganda that is not covered by the mainstream and corporate media. And it's as if it's not like the world is burning or even America is burning, or even Los Angeles is burning, Ron. It's as if the US Government is burning itself down. It's literally at war with itself. And I just want to make it clear to those people who are saying, oh, my God, it's terrible what's happening in Los Angeles. There hasn't actually been much happening in Los Angeles other than the, you know, the, the military troops that Donald Trump has sent, the, the National Guard and the, the Marines. And you, you yourself are a Marine, so maybe you can shed a little light on what's going down. But, you know, really, this has been created out of nothing. This is a propaganda move that has been very successful because people around the world genuinely think that LA is burning and it is simply not the case. So let's get into this, Ron. I mean, firstly, how are you feeling with regards to the shift? Because there has been a seismic authoritarian shift in the last five days. It's undoubted. My.
- [01:31]
B
Yeah, my. Of all the stuff that Trump has been doing, you know, whether it's with the Department of Justice, threatening the media, going after the universities, going after government workers, you know, obviously he's, he's doing a whole, he's, he's attacking on a lot of fronts. But the one thing that hasn't happened yet, that's really happening now, this week especially, is the main thing I've always been worried about, which is the military, you know, because that's the last line of defense to preserve the Republic is an apolitical military who won't take sides. And that was the guard rail we had in 2020 that I, I think that had people like Millie and Esper not been there, we would have been in a lot more trouble, and they aren't there now. So he obviously has installed the civilian leadership that is going to politicize the military and do whatever he wants them to do, without question. The issue for me is are the generals going to go along with this? Is the chair of the Joint Chiefs going to go along with this? Is the. Roger Wicker, the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, going to go along with this? And all the veterans in Congress who are Republican, that. The jury's very much out on that. Obviously, none of them have spoken up, not one Republican has spoken up about the politicization of the military. And that's definitely the main thing that concerns me.
- [03:15]
A
Gavin Newsom today came out with some very harsh words for Donald Trump. I mean, he, you know, I was thinking about when Trump came to California after the fires, and Newsom kind of basically doorstep to him at the bottom of the steps of the plane because Trump didn't want to meet Newsom. And Newsom's like, I'm not having this. You know, my city is literally burning through wildfire. And he, you know, he got up in his face and he was like, da, da, da, da, da. And, and there was this kind of weird power play. I was thinking that now, because of what Newsom has had to do to step up over the authoritarian behavior, the, the disappearances of people snatching people off the streets, the behavior of ice, supported now by the National Guard without Newsom's permission, is that money for wildfires is just not going to come. Oh, yeah. And, and this is, this is the problem when you have an authoritarian leader, a dictator, somebody who is also, you know, a TV host, painfully insecure. Power play and all of these things. Is that the important stuff, like getting funding to rebuild a city after a natural disaster, it all, it's all gone. I mean, I, I read that he's shutting down FEMA in the next few months. I mean, once hurricane season is over, FEMA is, is gone.
- [04:37]
B
Well, I mean, you know, he, his first FEMA director that he appointed testified before Congress that was asked, do you think FEMA should be disbanded? He said, no, I think FEMA is important. And he was fired the next day. And that was Trump's first appointee.
- [04:54]
A
So. Yeah.
- [04:55]
B
And Trump said yesterday that he intends to disband FEMA and personally decide how funds are dispersed. Right. You know, it used to be you go through a process and all that through fema, non partisan, non political, all of that just based on need.
- [05:11]
A
You mean like a democratic process, like.
- [05:14]
B
How it's supposed to work?
- [05:15]
A
Yeah, yeah.
- [05:15]
B
But Trump wants to be able to decide, you know, I'm going to decide who gets the money, who, you know, dola. And, and, you know, who's going to get the money. Of course it's going to be Republicans or, or any Democrat who kisses his ass, you know, and so that's, that's going to be the deal. That, that's. And that's how it works in authoritarian countries and dictatorships. And, and that's. So in every area, every aspect of society and government, he is taking it in an authoritarian strongman direction, whether it's tariffs or anything. Else where he makes the decision. Some, somebody even said this week to him about the tariff question. They, they said, well, isn't. Isn't something like that up to Congress talking about Congress ratifying a tariff agreement? And he said, oh, no, no, no, I, I will decide. They. He said, he said, he was talking about Lindsay Graham's bill and he was to sanction Russia, and he was saying, oh, with tariffs. And he's, he said, no, no, I, they can pass what they want, but I'm going to decide how those are going to be administered or enforced.
- [06:28]
A
Yeah.
- [06:28]
B
So he's, I mean, he's saying at every turn, like, Congress can do what they want. You know, the courts can do what they want, but I'm not going to listen to them.
- [06:38]
A
We've been predicting this for years now, and not many people listened to the, the, the corporate media failed to take this seriously. The two people who have been very clear on this, Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, they told us exactly what was coming, and they were discarded. So, you know, this is, this is the reality that we have to face now. And I honestly think that anybody who's not taking this as seriously as they should is. Is complicit in a way. You know, I really feel like you have to take this as seriously as it is meant. This is not a rehearsal. This is not a drill. This is actually happening. Let's play a clip from Gavin Newsom. I just want you to look at how he is having to step up. He's given up on funding for the fires. There's a whole new fire that he's having to deal with. And he's not mincing his words.
- [07:38]
C
All of this is about immigration enforcement.
- [07:41]
B
And the type of, of.
- [07:44]
A
Well, go ahead, feel free. No, I mean, I know.
- [07:45]
C
I don't mean even to cut you out. I think it's about something much more. This is about authoritarian tendencies. This is about command and control. This is about power. This is about ego. My way or the highway. This is a consistent pattern of practice, of recklessness. This guy has abandoned the core principles of this great democracy. He's threatening to go after judges he disagrees with, cut off funding to institutions of higher learning. He's on a cultural binge. He's rewriting history, censoring historical facts. I mean, this is something completely different. And this is part of, of that ongoing play that is unfolding in front of our eyes. It is a serious moment under the guise of immigration. But it's much deeper than that.
- [08:40]
A
Maybe we should talk to that. The immigration here obviously was the catalyst and the reason for the protests in Los Angeles was the indiscriminate nature that ICE were using to round people up. And we've since heard that there was a memo that went out from Stephen Miller where they realized that the quota was down. They weren't arresting as many people as even Joe Biden was deporting. And they, so they were just like, just get everybody, just go for it.
- [09:08]
B
It was worse than a memo. I mean, he, he summoned all 50 regional ICE directors from around the country to D.C. to a meeting. And, and he gave them, I think like five days notice. Like you will be in D.C. in five days. And they all showed up. And it was, it wasn't just the ICE directors, but it was a lot of the other ancillary agency heads. And he read him the riot act and he was screaming and yelling at him. This is all the reporting because some of these people leaked to the press and was yelling and ranting and raving, talking about needing whatever it was, 30, 000 people a week or something, whatever.
- [09:45]
A
His quota was, I think.
- [09:47]
B
And yeah, that's what it was. And, and one of the, one of the directors raised his hand. Well, you know, Trump has said that we're. And, and Gnome has said that we're only arresting criminals, and Bondi has said that and Levitt, that we're only supposed to be arresting people with criminal records. And he. And the guy said, there's no way we can hit those numbers that you're talking about if that's what we're focused on because there's not enough people with criminal records. And, and that's when Miller lost it and started screaming at the guy and was saying, no, I want you arresting everybody. And that's when he said, go to Home Depots. Go to seven elevens. That was the quote. And, and just go to schools. We want you, we want you arresting everybody, not just criminals. And so what we saw there was like, what they're telling the public that they're doing is not matching up now with what they're telling their people behind the scenes. And that's what really sparked this whole thing was after that meeting, the ICE guy in LA sent his guys to a Home Depot where day laborers gathered that are weight. You know, a lot of contractors show up there. If you've ever been to a Home Depot in the morning, you can see this. You know, contractors show up and there's guys hanging around in the area and they'll pull over and they'll, I need five guys and they'll jump in the back of the truck. So they, they did a raid there and that's when people got very upset because it was like there was a McDonald's next door. I mean, it was crazy. And that sparked this whole thing. It really all started with Miller's edict. And so if they're going to start doing ICE raids like this, look, LA is just the beginning. They're going to start doing these all over the country. That means National Guard call ups all over the country. And you know, it's going to be, it's certainly going to be interesting because it hasn't happened yet really, in like a deep red state like Texas or Florida. And I'm waiting to see what happens when Trump tries to do this kind of a raid in a, in a Republican state where the governor won't push back and local officials won't push back.
- [12:05]
A
Well, apparently next is Philadelphia and Chicago and New York as well.
- [12:11]
B
Blue areas. Right, right.
- [12:12]
A
Because there is lots of like proxy protests happening. You know, people are not just upset in California, people are upset right across the country at the treatment of migrants, many of whom are legal, who have paperwork and are still being arrested. We're even hearing of American citizens being taken off the streets, shot. I mean, journalists shot with rubber bullets. You know, there was a video yesterday of a woman trying to walk back to her apartment in Los Angeles and get shot in at point blank range by, by an officer with a, with a rubber bullet. I mean, this is America, Ron. And, well, and nothing turning on the.
- [12:55]
B
People, nothing makes Trump happier than these protests. I mean, Trump loves the protests, absolutely loves it. And that's why he's doing these provocative raids in blue air, in Democratic areas, Democratic strongholds, because he wants to spark violence, he wants to spark pushback, he wants to spark vandalism. The images of the cars burning, I mean, that's like candy to Don. That's a gift to Donald Trump. And the people who are doing that are, are giving him a gift, really. I mean, and I don't even think, you know, and that's just a tiny percentage of people. It's not 99 of the protesters, but it only takes a handful to feed the optics to Fox News and Trump that they want to play on a loop. And, and then you get people like Fetterman, you know, who sees cars burning and starts denouncing his own party and Trump just lights up the victory cigar. That's, that's what he wants. He wants to show that it's the Democrats who are fighting back. That are the extremists. I'm just trying to preserve law and order. And so. But I get it. Like, you know, we have Democratic leaders out there telling everybody, be peaceful, don't do this stuff, don't vandalize. You're playing into Trump's hands. But the reality is the people that they're talking to are not the ones doing the vandalism. Yeah, it's just a handful of bad actors who really have nothing to do with the politics of this. And we saw that. How many migrants have been arrested in la? One.
- [14:35]
A
One. Yeah.
- [14:36]
B
Like, they're not the ones doing. Doing the vandalism.
- [14:40]
A
Well, understand the thought process. If you are an undocumented migrant who is doing casual work in Los Angeles, you're not going to do criminal damage because you're going to end up in prison.
- [14:52]
B
Right.
- [14:53]
A
You're going to want to stay under the radar. You're going to stay home with your family. And what we have at the moment is a lot of people who are just not leaving the house for fear of. Of being caught up in something, caught in the. In the crossfire. And in so much of the videos that we're seeing, the kind of citizen journalism videos, we are seeing a very aggressive stance by this National Guard, which was California's National Guard, which has basically been. The authority of. Which has been taken away from Gavin Newsom. The law says the governor is the one that has to call the National Guard. The president calls the governor, the governor calls the Guard, and Trump has overridden that. And that is why Newsom is suing the Trump regime. I think tomorrow is when the judge is going to hear this case. And I, I don't even know necessarily that Newsom will be that successful in this.
- [15:50]
B
Well, I mean, he's got a, a really good judge actually assigned to that, which is former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer's brother, who was appointed by Clinton as the judges assigned to that case. But, you know, he may not necessarily be the end of the line here. It could go up on appeal. But, you know, I think the other aspect of this is, is, is we, we have to talk about this because, you know, when we first started this second Trump administration, we talked on this show a few times about the leadership vacuum of the opposition of the Democrats, you know, and the fact that, you know, we have, we were in transition at the dnc. The DNC leader resigned. We have Chuck Schumer in the Senate, who, in my opinion is hopelessly useless and needs to retire, who's always three days behind the news cycle. I saw he posted about an hour ago his outrage at the Marines being activated. I'm like, that happened last week, dude.
- [16:48]
A
Right.
- [16:49]
B
But that's typical of Schumer and, you know, and Hakeem, who, who just, you know, speaks in these, like, he's not a good public speaker. He speaks in these, like, slogans and platitudes from his studio, which is rather dark, poor lighting, you know, and it's like, that's our, that's our leadership. So what I said in, back in January and February is I said, you know, I, I truly believe, and I believe this for a couple years now. Our next president is going to come from one of the governors. And, and I said, and, and there's a whole bunch of them. There's six of them that are going to run for president for sure. You got Newsom, Whitmer, Westmore, maybe Bashir, Pritzker and Shapiro, probably. Okay, so you got six for sure. And I said, you know, normally they wouldn't come out until two years out, you know, and get out there and start speaking out and taking on Trump. But in this particular scenario, one of them or a couple of them needed to get out early because the Democratic Party needs an opposition leader and we don't have one coming from Congress right now that we can rely on. And we have seen this week, I think it. Gavin Newsom is the one who basically started his presidential campaign this week.
- [18:08]
A
Well, it started with the, with the wildfires, didn't it? I mean, that's where we, it really started. But as I said, now he's had to change gear and he's gone from the vice presidential nomination to the presidential nomination, taking on. I mean, he's calling out authoritarianism. Like, this is what is so important. And as you know.
- [18:25]
B
Right.
- [18:26]
A
I call it on this show ringing the authoritarian bell because we can talk about these things and we can intellectualize and we can analyze, but we sometimes forget to remind people that this is a dictatorship. This is what it actually is.
- [18:41]
B
Because you just hit on a good point because the other governors I mentioned, with the exception of Pritzker, the other ones I've mentioned, Whitmer, Shapiro, Bashir, have been only speaking out on issues, specific issues that their state is dealing with.
- [18:58]
A
Right.
- [18:58]
B
Regarding the Trump administration. But Newsom is talking about the big picture stuff, the stuff that we talk about on this show.
- [19:07]
A
Yeah.
- [19:08]
B
And he's the only one doing that, you know, beside, like I said, besides Pritzker, who I don't think is really.
- [19:14]
A
And that's Why? I said, if you're not talking about it in those terms, you are complicit. And it is very important that people understand that, because, you know, you taught history, I read history, especially the history of Nazi Germany and the rise of that movement. And the parallels are identical. Right. Ten years out of the Second World War. And this is what people need to understand is that it starts slow. But in the four or five months that Donald Trump has been the president, we have seen the trajectory of authoritarianism rise at a rate that. That didn't even happen in Nazi Germany. And that is my fear, because they could come a point where he's like, right, this is the deal. You ain't staying.
- [20:04]
B
And it seems like Gavin is the one guy who seems to, like, really understand that right now. Maybe the others do, but they're. They're not articulating it very well. Yeah, and so, you know, I read. I read a great tweet by somebody, and it was just like a random person with not very many followers. I don't even remember who it was, but they said, I like Gavin Newsom, the governor, a lot better than I like Gavin Newsom, the podcaster. You know, I thought that was a great tweet. And I thought, man, that that sums up my feelings exactly. I mean, you know, no one was more critical of him over the Kirk Bannon thing than me. I mean, I hated that whole episode. But, you know, this week I'm like, you know, I gotta let that go, because I think he realizes that that was kind of a screw up now.
- [20:51]
A
He.
- [20:51]
D
And.
- [20:51]
B
And I think he's left that stuff in his rearview mirror and he gets this, that the stakes right now are so high, and this is not the time to make nice with these people and sit down on a couch with them and. And, you know, philosophize.
- [21:07]
A
Donald Trump has floated along with Steve Bannon that Gavin Newsom should be arrested. Now, this, again, is another step change. The. The announced potential arrest of a governor of the most populous state in the U.S. i mean, this is. This is extremely serious. And Gavin Newsom handled it rather brilliantly, didn't he? Kind of talked about, come and get me, you know, if you want to arrest me, you arrest me. And just, you know, see how that plays out. I mean, very few people would have had the guts to be able to use that kind of language in that. In that way. And we've seen others being asked about it. In fact, let me show the clip of Trump being asked about it and see what, what he had to Say, here we go.
- [21:59]
D
Wearing a uniform, because you don't know exactly who they are in Los Angeles. The governor of California, the mayor of Los Angeles. They're incompetent and they paid. Troublemakers, agitators and insurrectionists. They're engaged in this willful attempt to nullify federal law and aid the occupation of the city by criminal invaders. That's what it is.
- [22:33]
A
It's not quite the clip that I was looking for, but this opens up the issue of getting these assembled crowd. This is the speech at Fort Bragg yesterday, actually getting these military people to boo Gavin Newsom. I mean, this has never happened before.
- [22:51]
B
Never. This never. In fact. In fact, you know, it's something that George Washington talked about in his farewell address to the nation, his final address. He talked specifically about keeping politics away from the military and, and not politicizing it in any way and not having the military be loyal to one particular political party over another. It's. It's all in his speech. Anybody can read it online. So, I mean, the Republicans like to talk about the founders, and they revere Washington like he's a God. Well, this is exactly what he warned about. And other generals like Eisenhower who became president re talked about that as well. I mean, Eisenhower specifically did not return salutes, you know, coming off the planes, because he said, I'm a civilian now. I'm not, you know, I'm. Yeah, I'm the commander in chief, but I'm not a general anymore.
- [23:50]
A
Yeah.
- [23:51]
B
And so, you know, so everyone in the military throughout the history of the United States has always been careful never to do anything like this. That is the first time any United States president in the history of the Republic has stood in front of active duty troops and attacked his political opponent. It has never happened before. And there isn't a single Republican member of Congress or governor who has said a word about it. And it, it is just extremely alarming. And the fact that the troops and, you know, a lot of these guys are young, and they're 17, 18, 19 years old, and they're caught up in the moment.
- [24:36]
A
Yeah.
- [24:36]
B
And that's why we don't dangle these things in front of sold young soldiers, because they get caught up in things and, and they got. And, you know, look, who knows how many thousands were there.
- [24:48]
D
But.
- [24:48]
B
And that might have only been 5% of them, but that is like an infection. It's like a cancer that spreads throughout a military unit.
- [24:56]
A
He knows it. He's playing it.
- [24:58]
B
And he. He is. He's giving them permission. He's giving the junior officers permission, a permission slip to start getting into politics. And it's going to be very interesting to watch his speech this Saturday at this military parade to see if he claims this is all about the Army's birthday.
- [25:18]
A
Right.
- [25:19]
B
Let's see if he sticks to the history of the army or whether he launches into a partisan speech.
- [25:26]
A
Yeah, well, he doesn't even know what the Bill of Rights is. So, you know, this is going to be very interesting. And the timing of the military parade, which is his 79th birthday, I think, am I right? 79.
- [25:38]
B
That is correct.
- [25:40]
A
He, you know, to him it's his birthday party. He's always wanted the military parade, but the timing of this parade and the tanks are already rolling into DC Is not good, considering that he is putting the National Guard and the Marines on the streets of Los Angeles and potentially other Democratic cities as well. The timing, the optics, you know, for him, it's probably great timing. I mean, he's probably loving it. Right. The fact that this crescendo is building.
- [26:10]
B
Towards this, that's at Fort Bragg that we just watched was not on his schedule. Right. He added that to his schedule this week. And he did that deliberately. He wanted to call up the Marines and the National Guard in, in la, go to the military base, give a political speech in front of the troops, and then have the military parade. Yes. And Hegseth is it. And all of them are actively pushing the politicization of the military. So the question is, Dan Kane, remember Dan Kane, Raisin Kane, the, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the guy who is in the seat that Mark Milley sat in when he continuously told Trump, no, you can't do that. Well, he was asked, as you may recall, we talked about it at his confirmation hearing over and over again by Democrats who, who are worried that he would not push back on Trump if this happened. And, and you remember I said, I watched the whole hearing because I would. This is the number one thing I'm worried about. And I thought he is the most normal of all of Trump's nominees. I thought watching him and I, he said all the right things. And so we don't know what's going on behind the scenes here. We don't know if he's pushing back. But, you know, it's, it's really, I think at some point going to take someone like him or another very senior general who's a Republican to resign and protest and to come forward and speak out. So far, nobody has. But, but, you know, it's early days here on this stuff. But this has got to be really bothering a lot of career military officers.
- [27:53]
A
Go back to the arrest of Gavin Newsom. Here's the clip.
- [27:59]
D
Gavin Newsom is, he's daring Tom Homan.
- [28:04]
B
To come and arrest him.
- [28:06]
D
Should he do it? I would do it if I were Tom. I think it's great. Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing. He's done a terrible job. Look, he's done. I like Gavin Newsom, he's a nice guy, but he's grossly incompetent. Everybody knows all you have to do is look at the little railroad he's building. It's about 100 times over budget. We're putting a flagpole over there. Under budget. I always do under budget.
- [28:33]
A
I mean, I don't want to spend too much time on it. But comparing a flagpole in the ground to a high speed train project that has taken 10 years. I mean, if that's where Trump's brain is, if he honestly thinks that people can judge him as a, as a better operator because he can build a flagpole, I mean, all bets are off. This is who we're dealing with. That is an expose of his, the inner workings of his mind.
- [29:05]
B
And we have never had ever a president call for the arrest of a sitting governor. Yeah, even in the height of the civil rights movement, when you had George Wallace down in Alabama defying federal court orders and refusing to let kids go to school, you, JFK did not call for his arrest. And so he wanted to be arrested. He was looking to be a right wing martyr, but he wasn't. And so, and, but here we are. We have. And, and, and Trump was later in the Oval Office asked a follow up about that, which was on what charge? What would Gavin Newsom be arrested for? And he said for being incompetent as a governor. You know, I mean, you can't just throw. I, you know, and the press is just like, you know, again, Trump being Trump. Well, no, this is, this is serious business. This is, this is no joke. That's really an impeachable fence right there. Now, I know they're never going to impeach him, but, you know, this is outrageous stuff. And, and just the level of outrage on the part of the press and just the general public is just not, is not there and it should be there. I think everybody's just kind of like waiting for something really super bad to happen before they wake up. I guess.
- [30:26]
A
I said last week, and I'll repeat it, the pendulum is not going to swing back anytime soon to the normalcy that we experienced during Joe Biden's administration. There is no mechanism in place. The courts can't hear enough cases to deal with this. The media cannot print enough stories to deal with the amount of chaos. And you mentioned potentially impeaching him for calling for the arrest of Newsom. There's probably a few dozen opportunities to have impeached him since January. Well, you know where he's crossed a line and it just keeps happening.
- [31:03]
B
Who is the person who could check him, who has oversight authority and who could check him on all of this stuff? It is, it is Mike Johnson, right? It is the speaker of the House. Speaker of the House could grind the agenda of the Trump administration to a screeching halt at any point in time. We saw Paul Ryan do some of that in Trump's first term. Pushback. But when Mike Johnson was asked about this, what did he say? Oh, well, I don't know that Newsom should be arrested, but he should be tarred and feathered.
- [31:36]
A
Right. Who says that? Let's take a look.
- [31:39]
E
And we're going to solve that problem in this bill as well and so many other things. So there's a real urgency. I'm very, I'm very confident and encouraged by the developments. I spoke with the last night, I spoke with individual senators over the weekend. We feel like we're moving in the right direction.
- [31:55]
B
California, the president said today that Gavin Newsom in Italy should be arrested.
- [32:00]
A
Are you comfortable with the President saying something like that?
- [32:03]
E
Well, I was busy all day today and I heard that for the first time sitting next to the President when they asked him that question at the White House. I don't know what all that involved, but he gave comment there and I'll stick by what he said.
- [32:13]
B
As a constitutional lawyer, you always talk about the Constitution. Do you think that we are within the realm of the Constitution, sending in nothing military troops on the US Soil and there are local law enforcement to deal with this issue?
- [32:25]
E
Well, I'm told that the chief of police in Los Angeles made some comments suggesting that he was, he was thankful that they got back up because they got could have gotten far out of control. We've seen that in the past in Los Angeles and other large cities. And we saw it in the so called summer of Love when the progressives went crazy in the Pacific Northwest. We can't have that. And President Trump is ensuring the front end strong leadership that that is not going to be the case. And when he said that Marines might be dispatched to Los Angeles. I think that's an important message that's being sent. Hopefully it has the deterrent effect. But he's, he's federalized the National Guard. I think that's an appropriate step. They are bringing an end to that chaos. If they were not there, you'd have buildings and cars.
- [33:04]
B
You don't think that stokes the flame somehow?
- [33:06]
A
Why not?
- [33:07]
E
Because I believe we have to maintain the rule of law. And if the, the state and local leader or unable or unwilling to do so, it is the job of federal.
- [33:15]
A
Government to step in this. We should probably talk about how we touched on it earlier, the notion that a burning car and somebody waving a Mexican flag, which has now been weaponized by the right saying, you know, they wave. What if they're waving a Mexican flag? They shouldn't be here, they should be in Mexico. The, this Republican mindset of anybody who does anything that is on a, that comes under the heading of criminal damage is more serious and more of a problem than people who are protesting their rights to, to remain in this nation and not be indiscriminately arrested and deported without due process. I mean, this is what we were saying earlier about John Federman and I'll show that clip in a sec. But this is really the crux of this entire thing, that Republicans will always jump on the visuals and the optics and the criminal damage and make it all about that rather than the actual issue that that is the instigator for all of these things.
- [34:20]
B
And that's the frustration on the part of so many activists who are, who really care deeply about these things and, and these issues and are trying to help people that when you have these small handful of bad actors who go do these things who are really not connected to their movement at all, but are take advantage of the situation, making, making the activists as much victims as the owners of the property. It's a shame. Yes, it's a shame that that diverts all the media because the. What is the media loves cars being on fire. I mean, that's looks sexy on television a lot, a lot more sexy than, you know, a lawyer standing up and giving from the ACLU giving a speech. Right. So, yes, unfortunately, the, the Trump playbook, the Republican playbook, the Fox News playbook, they have it down to a science. I mean, it, it, it, they look for these things. They, it's sort of like the pride parades of a few years ago where they used to cover the hell out of those. And, and because you could have pride parades going around all over the country, everything is great, lots of love, lots of fun. But they'll find that one guy, you know, who whipped his penis out in front of a crowd on a float. And that will be on Fox News for three days straight. And it will, it just kind of like re. Resets the narrative for them that this is all, you know, out of control lawlessness. And so it is a shame. I don't know what Democrats can do about it. I mean, you know, maybe policing their own a little more, but these aren't their own. These are, these are just bad actors who are, who are doing things to cause problems.
- [36:10]
A
There was some advice going around amongst activists in the last 24 hours, which is take the American flag and wait, don't take the Mexican flag because you're playing into the hands of Fox News and to the right wing propaganda machine and that, you know, there are ways to express your anger because how they.
- [36:31]
B
Spin it is if you're, if you're flying a Mexican flag, why aren't you in Mexico? That, yeah, that's what they say. That is a message that resonates with a lot of Americans.
- [36:42]
A
That is the fundamental problem is that there isn't any critical thinking when it comes to the history of protest and how people are, you know, protesting. You know, even the idea that somebody, you know, has migrated to America but still is proud of their nation.
- [37:00]
B
Sure.
- [37:00]
A
People don't understand. I made a video about it the other night. Well, I'll be making videos about it every night, but I made one specifically where I actually talked about how America basically stole Mexico, turned it into California and paid $15 million just to, you know, pay it off. And I said, you know, these Mexicans are happy in California because it's Mexico, you know.
- [37:25]
B
Yeah, but that's also not a helpful argument that Fox uses a lot when people say that, you know, I'm reminding.
- [37:33]
A
People of the history.
- [37:34]
B
It's, it's trying to say, okay, you're, you're reclaiming your territory. You know, you're taking it back over. Which plays into Trump's argument that this is an invasion of, from foreign, from foreigners.
- [37:46]
A
Yeah.
- [37:47]
B
So, yeah, it's, never mind the invasion.
- [37:49]
A
From 200 years ago.
- [37:51]
B
It's the big, massive right wing propaganda machine takes advantage of a small handful of people to reshape the narrative. And that's why I credit Newsom so much for understanding that you can't sit back and wait to respond the next day or three days later. And you can't do that by issuing written statements or doing press conferences. Like so many Democrats in Congress think he, he's showing the playbook for how to push back and how to do right away, immediately. Trump claimed that he, he called Newsom, that he said Newsom was out, like, literally five minutes later, posting, that's a lie.
- [38:40]
A
Yeah.
- [38:40]
B
You know, and so Newsom's jumping on the Midas Touch podcast in real time, responding to Trump jumping on cable news channels. No other Democrat does that. And that's what I've been screaming about for so many years is that politics has changed. In the social media era of politics, it's rapid response. You have to jump on things right away. And right now, it seems that Gavin Newsome is really the only Democrat who gets that. And so I think that vaults him to the, to the top of the, of the ticket 100.
- [39:14]
A
So we mentioned John Fetterman, who is supposedly a Democrat, is often missing in action. We know he has mental health problems, but this clip we're about to see is him doing exactly what we were just discussing, taking an issue and twisting it. And you would think from what he's saying that he's been watching Fox News for the last five days. Let's take a look.
- [39:38]
B
You can't defend when people start setting things on fire or they start damaging buildings or going after members of law enforcement. That's not free speech. That is not, that is not peaceful protests. And I'm very supportive of immigration as well, too. We have to find a way forward. That, too must be true. At the same time.
- [40:00]
A
And yeah, I mean, I sadly think he's a bit of a lost cause politically. You know, I kind of wish he would just go hang up his hat and go look after himself, but this is not helping either, is it?
- [40:14]
B
No, it's really not. And, you know, it's just, it's just very frustrating because, like, you know, he, he claimed in a social media post that went super viral, especially on the right, where every Republican was praising him, you know, talking about, he's, he claimed that no, none of his colleagues, none of the Democrats are, are condemning the violence or condemning the vandalism. And, and, and I'm like, what are you talking about? It's clear. And I, I have heard that he is a regular Fox News viewer. It's clear that he seems to only be getting his news from Fox News because I follow all the Democrats in Congress and in the Senate, and they all condemned the vandalism. They all condemned the violence. They were begging and pleading people not to do that because it, it just feeds Trump's propaganda machine. You're giving him what he wants. They were all saying that. So I don't know what the hell Fetterman is talking about when he says my colleagues. And I clap back at him because, look, he follows me on social media. His wife Giselle follows me on social media. And I kept saying to him, yeah, dude, read the statements from your colleagues. Go to their social media feeds. They are condemning this. Don't believe Fox News. Don't believe Donald Trump. Open your eyes, dude. And, you know, I try to remind him from time to time all the things that Trump said and Republicans said about him when he ran in 2020, saying his mind was mush and he's a vegetable and trashing his wife. They constantly trashed Giselle. And I tried to remind him that at the time when he had his stroke and all the Republicans were ridiculing him and piling on, it was us Democrats who stood up for him and defended him. And he doesn't seem to remember that. That we stood in the breach at his lowest moment and stood up for him and defended him and put him in the Senate. And now he's turning his back on us. And by the way, while he's complaining about Democrats not condemning vandalism, I have not heard Fetterman say one word condemning Donald Trump for anything in the last month that he's done nothing.
- [42:33]
A
Yeah, he. He. He, per. It's a bit like how Trump doesn't say a bad word about Putin. You know, there is this. There is this thing.
- [42:40]
B
Betterman will not criticize Trump. Yeah, there's something wrong here.
- [42:45]
A
Yeah, for sure. The cost of sending in these Marines and the mobilizing the National Guard is significant. And Pete Hegseth, the timing was kind of interesting. He had to show up at a hearing, a budgetary hearing, and. And he showed up with no budget. I mean, this was part of the problem. And this is what Republicans seem to be doing time and time again when there are Democrats sitting on these panels that they're showing up without any supportive material. And so they just go, well, I don't have it, but I'll. I'll get it to you at some point. Partly because they just don't have it. I don't think anything, you know, all the protocols, all the. The ledger and all of that, all of the work that should be going on behind the scenes, I. I worry that very little of it is even being done anymore. You know, it's like the. The paper trail is purposely missing. Anyway, let's take a look at Pete Hegseth being asked about the. The cost of this and whether or not, you know, this is something that he can justify, considering the unnecessary nature of this call up in shipbuilding and.
- [43:58]
B
The challenges our department under the previous administration squandered a lot of that.
- [44:02]
F
Please. I know I want your plan. I've had difficulties with the prior administration, and I don't mind calling him out. What is your plan for the future? Can we get that in writing and on paper so that we know where you're going? Because we don't have anything today. We have zip, nada. And knowing where you're going, you could talk percentages, you could talk about whatever you want. But unless this committee sees dollars and cents and where you're going and what your plan is, then we may reconsider what you need to do to go forward. Give us the details, Congresswoman.
- [44:35]
B
We have the details, and we will provide them.
- [44:36]
F
Then let's have them before we. And my hope is that we could get to it before we go to a markup within a few hours here today. I yield back my time, Mr.
- [44:48]
D
Chair.
- [44:48]
A
Gentle lady yields back. Dolora was there actually talking about the cost of. Of submarines that have been requisitioned. And then the earlier conversation was about the. I think it was $134 million. The cost of mobilizing the National Guard. They've been sent into Los Angeles without seemingly any support. They're sleeping on the floor. There's not enough food for these troops. They haven't really thought it through. It's like Trump has this grand plan, calls it and says, I want it done now. I mean, just explain from a military perspective, you know, surely these things require a little bit of planning. You can't just shift 2,000 troops overnight.
- [45:34]
B
Well, and he was also asked, like, in that same hearing by another. By somebody else. These Marines that you're calling up, are they trained for crowd control and urban. Urban, you know, keeping. Keeping people or keeping the peace in an urban setting?
- [45:54]
A
Yeah.
- [45:55]
B
Now, I know. I was stationed where these Marines are coming from to 29 Palms, California.
- [46:01]
A
Right.
- [46:02]
B
They're in 2 7. I was in 1 5. I mean, they're. They're an infantry battalion. We have no training in that. Zero. None. We don't train for that.
- [46:10]
A
No.
- [46:11]
B
So. And Hegseth answered, oh, yes, this is a special unit that, like, has specific training and crowd control. And I'm like, geez. Well, maybe, you know, it's been a long time since I've been in the Marines. Maybe they're training infantry Battalions in that. And it turns out, no, no, oh no. The reason why Marines aren't even in LA right now as we speak is because they had to grab that unit and send them to a special school to be trained in how to do all that stuff. So they're not in LA where the pe, the military you're seeing is National Guard, it's not the Marines. So he lied in his testimony. He said, oh yes, they're ready to go. They've been specially trained for this mission. They, and they haven't been. And, and so, you know, just thinking like, you're gonna what, put these Marines through like a two week course and then send them into the city of LA to deal with all of this nonsense. It's just, it's just crazy. And, and so you see there with Rep. Doloro who, you know, she's the ranking member, this is supposed to be about the defense budget. And we already know from his own senior people who have talked to the media that he doesn't work on this stuff. He's running around the country, he's running around the world, he's doing push ups with troops, he's leading prayer meetings, he's talking about woke stuff and trans stuff and he's not in his office working on what a Defense Secretary is supposed to be working on. He just submitted a trillion doll budget. They did. That's up from 850 billion. It is a massive increase in military spending at a time when we are not at war. And Congress wants to know why are you doing this when we have huge deficits and we're not at war, why are you seeking a 20% increase in the defense budget, which is like what we did when World War II started? And he has no answers because he doesn't know anything in his own budget because he's a dunce and a, and that those kinds of things don't concern him.
- [48:17]
A
He's a Fox News weekend host. That's who he is. He looks the part. He's, you know, he's very good on camera, but that's where it ends. And you know, we've been discussing this in previous weeks, but it seems that all of Trump's cabinet are just TV people, people he's seen on television, people that are good in front of the camera. And it's like the whole thing is a, is a production, it's performative. He's playing the role of the Defense Secretary, but not actually being it.
- [48:49]
B
Kristi Noem, I mean, she had all those videos that she filmed of Herself and all these different costumes and she got ridiculed for that. So what do they do? Last night, they put out a video of her sitting in her office signing papers. Like, they put it out of all decked out and all her makeup and her hair extensions glammed up, just signing paper. They put out a video of her signing papers. It's like, can these people stay off camera and off social media for five freaking minutes and do their job? Pam Bondi, same thing.
- [49:22]
A
I know.
- [49:23]
B
I mean, you had Alina Haba announcing a drug arrest today. I'm like, are you a United States attorney announcing a routine drug indictment? I mean, like, did you see Pete Crazy?
- [49:35]
A
Do you see Pete Hegseth his play on music when he arrived at Fort Bragg to make his speech?
- [49:41]
B
I didn't see that. No.
- [49:42]
A
It was an AC DC tune that was playing full on. And he was like, yeah, yeah. And he was like doing all the showbiz pointing and the smiling at people. You know, Trump does that too. This kind of fake play on. And, you know, the biggest cheer he got was, you know, no more woke in the military. And everybody just like went up. And I was like, man, this is. It's dystopian, but it's almost like a crap version of dystopia. You know, they can't even get dystopia right. And this is why we have to take this threat very seriously. Because these people are chaotic and behind them are operators, people like Russell Vogt and Stephen Miller who are actually much more serious about all this stuff. You know, they send the performers out. But. But I mean, Russ Vogt, I mean, he is, he's doing budget, but he is dangerous down the project. 2025 Avenue. And all of this stuff, sending the military into cities, it's all in the pages of that Project 2025 document. You know, none of this is happening by accident.
- [50:51]
B
No, no. I mean, we all saw the plan. The only question is like, are they really gonna do it? And, and I think that there was a lot of people in the media or, you know, on, in. On Capitol Hill, including in the Republicans who thought, oh, no, no, no, this isn't gonna happen. This is all just, you know, think tank stuff. This is all just guys in a room, you know, cooking up their. Their wish list of stuff which has happened for many decades. I mean, look, right wing and left wing think tanks have. Have cooked up all kinds of stuff. Policy proposals and papers that never go anywhere. They're all their, their dreams, you know, but this is the first time that we've taken like the far right fever dreams of these people who sit in these rooms and cook up these schemes have actually been put into practice time.
- [51:52]
A
It's the only playbook that they have available to them. Trump didn't have any policies. He was relying entirely on other people.
- [52:00]
B
Oh yeah, of course.
- [52:01]
A
He just didn't want to go to prison.
- [52:03]
B
His only policy was deportations.
- [52:05]
A
Right.
- [52:05]
B
You know, we're going to deport everybody. That. That's pretty much it. And tax cuts, you know, and yeah.
- [52:12]
A
And we can see how that's going to Listen, we have to take a quick break, but I want to come back and show this clip of the of Tulsi Gabbard because for all of the craziness that we've been discussing, all of the authoritarianism and the abuse of power and the lack of due process and all of that, I feel like Tulsi Gabbard has come out and pipped everybody to the post with this is like a next level of crazy. We'll look at that next here on Uncovered. Life moves fast and sometimes you just need a way to relax, recharge or focus without overcomplicating things. That's where Via comes in. If you haven't tried them yet, you're missing out. Whether you need to unwind, refocus or boost your mood, Via is here to enhance your everyday and night. Trusted by over half a million happy customers, Via is changing the game in natural wellness blending powerful high quality hemp derived ingredients to deliver real effect driven benefits. Whether you're looking to sleep better, have a better libido, improve focus, recover or simply relax, Via has a tailored solution just for you. Whether you're looking to support your daily wellness routine, enhance focus and clarity or unwind with deep relaxation, Via has you covered. From their award winning effect Forward gummies to calming drops, every Via product is thoroughly crafted, made with organic lab tested hemp sourced from trusted independent American owned farms. And the best part, VIA legally ships across the usa, discreet direct to your door, no medical card required and backed by a worry free guarantee. So if you're 21 +, treat yourself to 15% off and get a free gift with your first order using our exclusive code offer uncovered@viahemp.com + enjoy free shipping on orders over a hundred dollars. That's V I I A h e m p.com after you purchase they ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Enhance your everyday with VI and links to our sponsors are in the description Below. Okay, Ron, talk to me about Tulsi Gabbard. Now, the rumor was before she got this role of what is she, Is she national security Director of. National director of National Security? Before she got nominated, we were openly discussing that she was somehow connected to the Russians. She was spouting Russian propaganda. She had a relationship with Syria Bashar al Assad. Like, weird stuff that didn't really make any sense. And she really was the last person that would ever get a security clearance to lead such an important role in Trump's cabinet. And yet here we are. I mean, how did they look the other way with all that stuff?
- [55:17]
B
Yeah, this one just really stunned me, what she did this week, because it was so obvious and so blatant. And I have read that she has been excluded from a lot of the intelligence briefings inside the Trump administration. Like, shoot, they don't even want her there. And as, as pro Putin as they are, they, I think they even think she's nuts. And so, yeah, there was always. Because she's constantly anti Zelensky, anti Ukraine and all of that. So, you know, you know, Putin's, one of Putin's strategy to try and turn public opinion against Ukraine is to threaten nuclear war and to get his propagandists in the west to scare the, out of the American people and try and say, oh, you know, if you, if we don't end this war and surrender Ukraine to Russia, then nuclear World War III could happen. We hear this constantly from Trump. World War Three, we, for the last three years, Trump talked about it every single day. World War Three could break out any minute. Any minute. Donald Trump Jr. Said that. Tucker Carlson said that every night we're flirting with World War Three. That's what Putin wants. He wants us to be afraid of that so we won't resist and we won't fight back. Right? So Tulsi Gabbert this week goes to Japan and she visits Hiroshima, Nagasaki. And I, I said, what the hell is the Director of National Intelligence doing in Japan who's not an enemy, and why is she touring Nagasaki and Hiroshima where he dropped the atom bombs? Like, it seemed weird to me. And then she puts out this video a couple days ago. And the first part of the video, which I cut because it went on and on, was showing all the horrors of a nuclear war, showing old footage of, you know, the babies burned in the radiation and people in the hospitals and all of the long term damage it did to the environment in the area and all the, And I'm like watching this going, what Is she doing, like a history lesson? And she was also suggesting, you know, that the US should, should not have dropped the bombs and we were wrong and that that's an argument for a different show. But, but the point is, then I'm so, I'm like, where's she going with this? I'm watching this thing. And then she segues into, you know, that there are deep state people, there are elites, political elites in the United States and the west who want nuclear war. They're pushing us into nuclear war. And I thought, oh, this is kind of weird. And then she says, because they have, like, sophisticated bomb shelters for themselves and their families.
- [58:03]
A
Right.
- [58:03]
B
And they know they'll be able to survive a nuclear war. And I'm like, this is straight from Putin.
- [58:10]
A
Yep. This is Putin's language. We hear this all the time.
- [58:15]
B
I was stunned. I. I couldn't believe it. And again, the front, the same thing I say a million times. Not one Republican has come out and condemned this video. Not one.
- [58:30]
A
Okay, well, I'm going to show it. It's a minute long. This is the Director of National Intelligence appointed by Donald Trump of the United States of America.
- [58:40]
G
Soil condemning survivors to agonizing deaths or lifelong suffering. A nuclear winter could follow with smoke and ash completely blocking the sun, plunging the world into darkness and cold, killing crops and starving billions. Acid rain would scar the earth, wiping out entire ecosystems. This isn't some made up science fiction story. This is the reality of what's at stake, what we are facing now. Because as we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elite and warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers. Perhaps it's because they are confident that they will have access to nuclear shelters for themselves and for their families that regular people won't have access to. So it's up to us, the people, to speak up and demand an end to this madness. We must reject this path to nuclear war and work toward a world where no one has to live in fear of a nuclear holocaust.
- [59:54]
B
She's our Tokyo Rose. She's Tokyo Rose. She's. She is Putin's spokesperson. And, and you know, it's not like, okay, she's got a podcast or she's in Congress or something, or she's Tucker Carlson. She's the Director of National Intelligence for the United States.
- [60:14]
A
And that's an official video. That's not her own video?
- [60:17]
B
No, no, no. That was released from her DNI account.
- [60:21]
A
Right.
- [60:22]
B
That was produced by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for the United States. A Putin propaganda video. I mean, I would like to, I would love to sit down in front of Lindsey Graham or Roger Wicker and play that video for him sitting in front of me and demand them to comment on it. Because they hide from this stuff, they run from it, they don't want to talk about it, and the press will not ask them about it. So that's why they get away with this stuff. Any other, and I post this on social media, any other American president in the history of the United States, Republican or Democrat, no matter who, Reagan, Bush, whoever you want to say, would have fired her that day, but not Donald Trump.
- [61:12]
A
Well, you know why? Because she's not even the most nuts. We have RFK Jr. Who is heading up Health and Human Services and Department of Health and everything else, who has gone one step further and has just fired the entire vaccine Committee this week. I mean, all that stuff that he lied about during his nomination hearing where, you know, he gave the impression that he wasn't crazy anymore and that everything was going to be quite traditional and, you know, that clearly was a smokescreen. And now that he's into the department, he's doing exactly what he wanted from the very beginning, which is to sow the conspiracies at an official level. And I mean, the, the dictat last week was that children and pregnant women can't get a COVID vaccine anymore. The, the, the flu team who, you know, they put together the strains for next year's flu season, they all got disbanded and now the entire CDC vaccine group has gone. This is potentially very, very serious. This is a public health crisis waiting to happen. And we're starting to hear people like Senator Bill Cassidy being asked the question as to whether or not he regrets voting for RFK Jr. Let's take a look.
- [62:36]
D
It is a good bill. It is waste, fraud and abuse the personification of.
- [62:42]
B
So I'm hoping.
- [62:43]
D
Do you, do you regret your vote on RFK Jr. You know, you can.
- [62:48]
B
Refer to our tweet on that, sir.
- [62:52]
D
I know you have some different questions.
- [62:53]
A
But you're trying to get something similar.
- [62:55]
D
And this second coming. Thank you.
- [62:59]
B
Still stand by that vote. So you see a staffer, like, as soon as Manu asks him about RFK immediately. Like, we're not talking about that. Yeah, because, you know, first of all, who was the one who asked Mike Johnson the question about before? It was Manu, it was Manaraju, you know, who's like the best guy CNN has. I mean, I know there's some people who don't like him or whatever because they think he sucks up to Republicans. He doesn't. I mean, he, he, I follow all these congressional reporters. He is the best guy. He gets in their face. And every time, because Bill Cassidy is a doctor. And Bill Cassidy was the one who supposedly wasn't going to vote for RFK and was going to be the one that was going to sink his nomination. And because he only passed by one vote, and that was Bill Cassidy. And, and, and so supposedly RFK made him all these promises and assurances that convinced him, but to, to vote for him. But the reality is, is that Bill Cassidy is in Louisiana. He's perceived as a moderate Rhino. Right. And many of the people in the MAGA movement want Trump to endorse someone to challenge him in a primary like what's happening in Texas with John Cornyn. And if that happened, Cassidy would probably lose. And so Cassidy knew that if he voted against RFK and sunk his nomination, he would draw a primary challenge from someone endorsed by Trump and he would probably be out of the Senate. So he chose his position in the Senate over his oath as a physician and, and passed RFK Jr. And hoped and prayed for the best. And every time RFK Jr does something nuts, Manu Raju runs to Bill Cassidy and puts a microphone in his face and says, what about this? You know, and, and this was one of the promises that RFK made, was not to disband this committee. And so first he announced they were. He fired all 17 members. So then, you know, it came out. You promised Gil, Cassie, you would not do this. And then he came back two days later. RFK said, oh, no, no, no, no. I'm not disbanding this. I'm. I'm gonna hire 17 new people, but they're gonna be better than these other ones were.
- [65:26]
A
I mean, I'm just fearful that if there's another pandemic that we are screwed.
- [65:32]
B
We are screwed.
- [65:33]
A
This is really, really are the problem.
- [65:36]
B
Yeah.
- [65:37]
A
Talking of journalists and who are the good ones? Terry Moran is our next topic of conversation. Now, this is a guy who pub. You know, he did that interview with Donald Trump, which was actually rather brilliant a few months ago, and got a lot of attention for that. He looks like. He looks like this.
- [65:56]
B
Trump was yelling at him.
- [65:58]
A
Trump was yelling at him, which can only be a good thing. But Terry Moran, you know, writes this personal posting, and, and maybe I should read it out just for those that kind of missed out on it. But he wrote the thing about Stephen Miller is not that he is the brains behind Trumpism. Yes, he is one of the people who conceptualizes the impulses of the Trumpist movement and translates them into policy. But that's not what's interesting about Miller. It's not brains, it's bile. Miller is a man who is so richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He's a world class hate hater. You can see this just by looking at him, because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate. Trump is a world class hater, but his hatred only is a means to an end. And that end is his own glorification. That's his spirit, spiritual nourishment. I mean, so this, this kind of kicked off on the 8th of June. He posted that. Right. And so ABC News unfortunately made the decision to. They suspended him initially, I think, and now they've completely dropped him. Yeah, we at Midas Touch have extended an olive branch to Terry Moran and said, you want to come and hang with us, then, you know, come to the good side of the force. This is an expose of how corporate media ultimately is bowing down to the Trump regime and that there really isn't such a thing as getting a, you know, a kind of a truthful analysis of, of the fall of American democracy if you watch the mainstream media.
- [67:36]
B
Yeah. So, I mean, we, we certainly welcome Jim Acosta to independent media and we help him get his substack going and his podcast going and all that. And we've done a lot of cross pollinization with him. Same thing. Katie Fang, we brought her into the Midas team, you know, but, you know, and we have a job offer, an open invitation to Moran. But the thing is, like, Moran. No, I mean, Moran has to know. You have to know that once you as a legacy mainstream journalist go to work for somebody like Midas or, or go on sub stack and start expressing your opinions, the bridge is burned forever. He, he will never be able to go back to any mainstream legacy outlet again once he does that. So it's like, you know, it's like Cortez burning his ships behind him on the beach. You know, you can't go back. And, and so really when I read that, I was pretty surprised, you know, when I first read it, because you don't usually see. He, he's ABC's chief political correspondent. He's their number one guy.
- [68:41]
A
Yeah.
- [68:41]
B
So. And this comes on the heels of the George Stephanopoulos settlement, where they just had to settle the lawsuit with Trump and, and they Got all kinds of heat for that. And then their chief correspondent says what he said. Now, nothing in there is inaccurate. I mean, everything he said there is true, but, you know, that's not something that they're allowed to say. I mean, I knew right away he was in trouble. As soon as I read it, I thought he, he knocked out a few scotches, but he must have known press conference and got pissed off.
- [69:14]
A
There's no way that he didn't write that knowing that it would probably had to know the final nail in the coffin.
- [69:20]
B
And his contract was up like it was about to expire. So I think he just decided it was one of those, like it moments, you know, where he's just like, I don't give a anymore. I can't take this anymore.
- [69:32]
A
Yeah.
- [69:33]
B
You know, he just popped off and, you know, good for him. He went out in a blaze of glory.
- [69:37]
A
Yeah, I, I am. I, you know, he's, he's very good at his job. And we're seeing this. You know, the people that are leaving tend to be the ones who are really good, and.
- [69:47]
B
That's right.
- [69:48]
A
You know, even Rachel Maddow stepped away from MSNBC for a while. But the point is that we need people to understand that this subject, you know, what's happening at the moment is so serious. This, this fall of American democracy is so serious that, you know, American news journalism has no reputation around the world. It is thought of as infotainment. It is not taken seriously, especially the cable news channels.
- [70:17]
B
It largely is.
- [70:18]
A
Yeah. Right. And so in this moment, it is important that people recognize that, yes, they can put their head in the sand, say they watch the news and, you know, turn. Turn on one of the major networks and where they kind of carry on like everything's normal, but nothing is normal right now. This is the most extraordinary period in American political history, bar none. And as I keep trying to remind people, it's never going to go back to how it was. The institutions like the Department of Education, usaid, things that are being shut down are not going to. They took decades to be built in the first place. They're not just going to come back overnight. The courts are not, you know, they're not set up for it to deal with this amount of annihilation. And I really feel that we're going to see on Saturday with the protests that are going to be going on around the country. I heard the Pope is doing an event on. Is it Sun Saturday or Sunday? I think it's Sunday. The, the, the military parade, but the Pope has got his own event going on in, in Rome, which is going to draw a lot of the attention. I'm sure Trump is furious about that. But seeing tanks in, in D.C. and this military parade and the flypast and Trump doing his whole thing, you know, Mr. Bone spurs, who never wanted to go into the military himself, militarizing America against its own citizens, I think people then might just start to realize how things have changed. And I just want to show this clip of the tanks rolling into D.C. i mean, this is an example of something we have never seen before. Not even for fun. Right. Not even for a family day. This is not what, you know, what Washington should look like. And so Trump has wanted this for years and was prevented in his first term from doing this. And he's finally got his way. And so the timing could not be worse for everybody and couldn't be better for him with the, with everything else.
- [72:25]
B
We've never, we've never done this before. Yeah. We've never rolled out howitzers, tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, helicopters. Aircraft that. This is what he's about to do. 7,000 troops, bringing them in from all around the country. We've never done that before. Now the Soviet Union has done it. Putin does it. Kim Jong Un does it.
- [72:47]
A
Yep.
- [72:48]
B
But we, we have never done that because we don't want a militarized domestic country. You know, our military serves overseas and they serve on bases which are generally in isolated areas of the country, not in heavily populated areas. Matter of fact, I can remember we had a military base in Orange County, California, long before it got very heavily populated. And once it did get heavily populated, they, they moved out, they sold it. So, I mean, this is not who we are as a people. We don't have a high, high military presence domestically in our cities. And, but this is, part of this is Donald Trump projecting that strong man image and letting him know, this is my military now, these are my assets. And showing the people in our nation's capital like this could, this could happen to a city near you. And, and it's all also part of glorifying himself.
- [73:49]
A
Well, I was going to say, I think he's doing it for Putin. This is the thing, because, you know, there have been no trade deals done. Right. He's, he's pissed off half the planet. Nobody trusts America anymore. No one wants to do any deals with America. And so really, the only people that he kind of has left are the dictators who, who he is trying to impress and, and engage with. You know, there's no Sign of the war in Ukraine coming to a peaceful close. Trump doesn't have those skills. He's been outmaneuvered time and time again.
- [74:25]
B
And as we speak, there's news reports that Israel is about to conduct a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, which would dramatically escalate things in the Middle East. Right. In the middle of this.
- [74:36]
A
Right.
- [74:36]
B
Embassies are being evacuated right now in Iraq and places like that. I mean, so, yeah, this was a guy who promised us no new wars. None of the. And. And was going to resolve all the conflicts that were occurring in the world. None of that has happened. And we have new wars breaking out. And. And we also have a war on. On the United States, on his own people.
- [74:59]
A
Yeah, it's. I mean, at what point do we start using the language of a civil war? Because that's really what he's gunning for, as I see it. And I, I feel like, you know, the moment that you turn American troops on the American people, which is what is currently happening, changes the narrative, it changes the game, and I just hope people wake up to it, because Trump is not of sound mind. You know, he is increasingly nuts from. We've often spoken about, you know, there are two channels to Trump's insanity. There's the. The dementia, the senile dementia. As he ages, his father suffered from this as well, which is, you know, clearly presenting itself. But then there's also the narcissistic, malignant, you know, narcissism that makes him.
- [75:46]
B
Bad combination.
- [75:48]
A
A bad combination. He lost his footing climbing up to Air Force One a couple of days ago.
- [75:55]
E
Let's take a look now to our scheduled program. We join it in progress.
- [76:03]
D
Foreign.
- [76:04]
A
Yes, small stumbles. I don't like to make too much of these things because, you know, Joe Biden fell down a few times as well. And I think it's perfectly acceptable if you're in your late 70s or early 80s to fall over occasionally. But, you know, it still is. It is an opportunity for us to remind people that this guy is not of sound mind. You know, he. He is unstable in so many ways. And I think that, you know, people need to recognize that just because he's holding a military parade does not make him any more capable. You know, it does. It didn't kind of give. It wasn't like a magical elixir drink that he suddenly drunk and got 20 years younger. So we're dealing with somebody who, like many of the dictators in history, is unhinged, is unstable, and that is so much a part of of what makes them so dangerous.
- [77:02]
B
Look, Trump, Trump had, it had an entire social media team throughout the entire Biden presidency who did nothing but follow Biden's every move, every appearance, and look for any slip, trip, any mistake, any gaff, any word mispronounce, any stutter, stammer, and they clipped it and they went viral with him over and over again. And Fox News picked him up every single time Biden slipped, tripped, whatever, it was all over their social media. So had they not done any of that stuff and just treated him like a normal guy in his late 70s? I wouldn't care about this. I wouldn't even mention it. I wouldn't even, we wouldn't even talk about it. And some people have pushed back and said, oh, you're being ageist. You're making a big deal out of nothing. And I'm like, no, no, no, no. They, they need a taste of their own medicine because it's not an isolated incident. I mean, it goes with all these other things, all these mispronouncing words, getting names wrong. He said we were, we fought the Japanese In World War I this week, a couple days ago. It's, it's, he's a constant non stop gaff machine. And I watched Joe Biden, who made far fewer of these kinds of mistakes than Trump is making right now, getting called senile because of it.
- [78:26]
A
Yeah, Biden was always correcting himself.
- [78:28]
B
So look, if there's anybody out there who, who is offended, thinks I'm being ageist or ableist, and there were some people that were on the left, okay, like, I don't care. I'm just telling you right now, I don't care. You can complain all you want. I'm going to keep doing it. Every time he slips, trips, every time he comes out with a knee brace under his pants, we at Midas are going to be blowing it up and maybe nobody else in media will, but we will not stop.
- [78:58]
A
Well, he makes his own bed. I mean, he had the German Chancellor in the Oval Office and he didn't know what D Day was. And that really, to me is, is the whole point. If you've got a commander in chief who's in charge of the military, who is threatening nations and threatening governors and threatening other countries to not know that and understand the origins of D Day and the importance of what that meant for the, the German people and liberation from the Nazis, then we have the wrong man in the house because he.
- [79:31]
B
Was acting like it was only the Americans who did it when there was like 20 different countries. Yeah, that landed with us on. On. On D Day. Yeah.
- [79:40]
A
Yeah. Okay, listen, we have to finish, but thank you, Ron, as always. It's going to be interesting to watch the activities that happen this weekend, and we'll come back next Wednesday and give you our full analysis. The audio podcast drops later tonight, and we'll come back next Wednesday.
- [79:57]
B
You always get my blood pressure up, man. Why do you do that?
- [80:00]
A
I don't know. That's just, you know, that's just our friendship, you know? It's because I like you. It's because I like you. All right, we'll see you next week. Thanks a lot, Ron.
- [80:09]
B
All right.