Denver
Appearances
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
We really are. I think it's exciting, too, that we're starting here in Bourbon County. I'm pretty excited about that. And, you know, part of what we're doing with Truth in the Barrel is really about whiskey, because truth is whiskey, as far as I'm concerned, Amy.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
Peter Navarro had this report called The Immaculate Deception that talked about January 6th. And part of the reason he called it The Immaculate Deception is he made some, he actually made some claims that the reason that some of the election was thrown was because a lot of the poll workers were having sex while they should have been actually counting ballots.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
And you've done some things to get this set up where you wanted to make sure we validated and sourced everything that we're doing.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
So Peter Navarro is really nuttier than a shithouse rat if we want to be honest, right? And so, I mean, and if you think about the people that he has around him now, I mean, Trump has not you know, pick the best and brightest, but here's the flip to it. Trump has really never really run a successful real business, right?
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
And when you look at tariffs and supply chain, people talk about tariffs as a tax. Yeah, yeah. But what does the retaliation look like? And for manufacturing, what does that supply chain look like? People say, oh... automotive will come back.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
You had what the, the leader of the UAW stepped up and changed his tune in a couple of weeks saying Trump's doing great things with tariffs when just a year, a couple, a couple of years before he said Trump was an idiot.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
So I think what you're saying again, Amy, and I know I don't want to boil this down to basics, basics, basics, but people are just doing what Trump wants them to do based on their position, based on them having the, I would say the support of their electorate and constituents. But if we're looking at unions, it's the fact that a lot of these unions now have sort of started to tilt and
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
to the right, you know, sort of Trump-ish. And I think a lot of those individuals are just doing what Trump wants them to do based on that position or having some kind of, you know— Well, the truth is it's galactically stupid.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
Pass-through on tariffs are ridiculous. You know, after COVID, you know, so we're in a distillery. You know, my wife and I own Silverback Distillery. And I remember after COVID, we had these incredible price increases that were called COVID... additional fees, right, that were sort of tacked onto it.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
And I remember I'm like, oh my God, I mean, corks, bottles, and people don't understand there's a cumulative effect in manufacturing when it comes to tariffs, when it comes to any increase in price in the supply chain. And again, I would really encourage people, you know, to go look at what our debt and deficit is right now. Right. Just really look at that. Right.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
Look at look at our national debt, but also look at the yearly deficits and go back and look at what Trump did with his yearly deficits and look at what the actual pattern is. I think you're going to be surprised that we're really not going to. OK. And I think the American people need to know this. It is mathematically impossible. for tariffs to make up the difference on our deficit and debt.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
Inflation was almost 3% in the last report. Egg prices, they think that's going to go up 40%. So when you're looking at it across the board, there is no prices have been lowered. Gas is no lower. What did I pay on the way up here? Just under $4 a gallon?
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
What was it? They took all U.S. liquor. Was it Ontario? I can't remember if it was all of Canada or Ontario, but they took all the liquor off the shelves. What does that do? There's a cascading effect to employment. There's a cascading effect to growth. There's a cascading effect to marketing. There's a cascading effect with our actual relationship with our allies when we talk about this stuff.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
And Canada is an ally. I mean, they're an incredible ally. So I just find it amazing that we have a president who does commercials for Tesla, right, and can't seem to understand how tariffs work because he's ignorant. I mean, let's just be honest.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
Well, there was Canada, Mexico were our biggest trade. I think China was number three. So it might have been. Mexico is now our number one. Mexico was number one, I believe. Yes.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
So USMCA was a big portion of the 116th Congress. That's why when you're talking about this, I'm like, God, I was having flashbacks. Yeah, we voted for the USMCA. So that's why it's incredible to me what I'm seeing right now. It's sort of the, it's like opposite. It's just so hard to explain. Listen, Trump was not a good president.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
But we talk about now, I don't know if it's an advanced insinuity and dementia or the fact that he surrounded himself with people that are now just complete loyalties and loyalists and incompetent. But I think we're to a point now where we're having, We're having policy being made based on faulty notions and based on fictions.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
I'm pretty excited about this. First of all, you know, this is the first time that I've been here. Old Bourbon County, it's Hartfield and Company. We're actually here today. And we thought my wife's going to be mad at me, but she actually is a traditionalist. So she said, you should start in Kentucky, right? In Bourbon County, where we're at today. This is a straight whiskey, 110 proof.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
And I think that's the scariest thing going forward is that if you don't even understand how tariffs work, Amy, you have Peter Navarro saying that tariffs equal tax cuts. That's like saying Denver Riggleman equals supermodel. We know that's not true, right? It's completely opposite.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
So that's the issue that I have is that we just have lies and disinformation even being, I would say, spread metastasized across our entire media ecosystem. And listen, people who aren't really paying attention might buy it.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
Yeah, it's a bully syndrome. That's just my take. Just a bully syndrome with stupid policy.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
I don't either, but thanks for asking. Appreciate you guys.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
Thanks, Katie. Appreciate it. So what's on your mind? Oh, I'm pissed. You know, I was in Ukraine back in September, and I'm going back. And I think what I just saw with what was going on with our good friend Marco Rubio, right, going to Saudi Arabia to talk to the Ukrainian delegation about what's going to happen in Russia.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
I think looking at this 30-day ceasefire that's proposed, by the way, Russia hasn't agreed to it. I wonder what that capitulation looked like as far as Trump's bullying of Ukraine. Since I was there in September, and I want to ask you this question, Amy, what you think about Ukraine.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
I have a really, really bad feeling about this, that we're going to have a brokered land deal and that Russia is going to be able to keep exactly what they've taken, which could be up to 20 percent of Ukraine. And I don't know what that lat long looks like, the latitude longitude of what that would look like or what that container looks like that they're going to be able to keep.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
So I think with me being in Ukraine. Talking to Ukrainians, those who have actually fought and those who are fighting, looking at some of their intelligence and weapons systems, looking at their challenges, I know that our aid and our assistance is very key to their literally pushing back against Russia.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
But what I'm starting to think, Amy, is that maybe—and I'm saying this so understatedly—I'm wondering maybe we're actually capitulating to Putin. And I don't know which—I know that you have a lot of thoughts on this. But I would like to ask you, and I do know Ukraine, what your thoughts are as you're looking at what's happening between Trump, Ukraine, and Zelensky.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
I actually love it. It's a little bit sweet, which makes me very happy. We also do a weeded bourbon. But what I really like about this bourbon, I mean, guys, have you seen this bottle also? This is a Class Act product, and I love the notes on it. You know, I sort of make it up. My wife, they should probably insure her nose and her palate.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
But when I drink it, let me give you guys what I think when I drink it. Let me tell you. Hmm. Yes. The palate is... Effing great. That's the palate. It's effing great. And I think that's what's so cool. I think people should really visit this distillery. And the fact that they would let us be here is pretty damn exciting.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
Yeah, I mean, it sort of looks like the MAGA version of the Neville Chamberlain policy. It also leads me to believe that a lot of Republicans love bare-chested horse riders. like Putin, right? Yeah, I mean, there's got to be something there, right? I'd love to do a study on how many people, you know, might be curious about, you know, what happens out there. You know, they love that fake strength.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
Bad stuff is happening. And I think that's why it's so disingenuous when you hear J.D. Vance or you hear Trump or you hear anybody in the administration saying that Ukraine can't win. Here's how they can win. I hope you're ready for this. All we have to do is feed them the arms and material that they need to win. Because Russia has tried for over three years to do this and they can't get it done.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
Right. And it's just so funny to see, you know, Wall Street Journal or other far right publications try to rationalize it somehow. But what it comes down to is Ukraine can win with our help unilaterally. So why the hell aren't we doing that?
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
And I think that's one of the things that I've been very angry about is that it doesn't seem like pundits, and we talk about me and you are independent media, it seems like they can't understand that Ukraine really has the upper hand based on the type of aid that we can provide or NATO or EU can provide.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
The other thing, too, you know, everybody was bothered by what happened with Zelensky in the White House. And how awful that went down. He was in a bar fight with two idiots and he came out looking pretty good against Trump and Vance. That's not what bothered me the most, Amy. What bothered me the most is that we voted with Russia and China and North Korea on the resolution. So that was shameful.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
And I think that's what gets me when we talk about Ukraine.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
I know, you know, I don't, you know, Marine Corps... Fighter pilot. Awesome. And, you know, backseater to frontseater. Wow. I remember in intel training, we were trained on Russian threat systems, service terror missile systems. My whole life has been trained on killing Russian systems or other things. And you went to China. Obviously, we looked at things like North Korea.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
But my training was on red threats. And red threats, as you know, were defined as Russian threats. Whether it's the SA-10, the SA-15, the SA-21, the SA-6, the SA-2, right? You know, sure, you know, whatever. I was taught, you know, huh. And what I had to learn on air-to-air, right, as an intel officer, obviously, I never, you know, got too much stick time air-to-air like you did, right?
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
But by God, I could memorize some shit. Let me tell you, us Air Force people can read a book. But, you know, what's amazing to me is that we are so superior in our tactics. We're so superior in our armaments. We were supposed to be superior morally. And I think we've given that up in Ukraine. And whatever this peace deal looks like, I think it's going to be absolutely a travesty.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
I think it's going to be something that, as far as the American people is concerned, I don't know if we can live that down. I don't know if our allies will ever respect us again. I think it'll take decades to, I would say, to build the bridge back to some kind of trust with our allies. And I think this will be one of the most... Thank you very much.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
The thing about real bourbon, you know, I don't know if people know the federal definition of bourbon, but you can't cheat. And I think that's why whiskey is America. And I think when you combine facts and truth, I think that is sort of the real whiskey rebellion. And I think that's what we're doing here in Truth in the Barrel. So I'm pretty excited about getting going.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
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Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
Well, I know Doug Collins. I'm sure you do. Hi, Doug. And I think part of it, when you're looking at Doug, I don't know, after being in Congress so long, maybe he doesn't understand what it means to actually lose health care. You know, I was in Congress. You know, the health care is amazing. I don't know if people know this. We have our own personal doctor in Congress. That's nice.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
Isn't that nice? Yeah, drink to that. Cheers. I think what you're looking at is that most of the veterans didn't ask for this, but what else? When you look at who votes for Donald Trump, it's veterans, right? If you look across the board, if you're talking about leaning right, it's mostly going to be veterans in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
So you have Doug Collins, who I believe really didn't make that great of decisions when he was in Congress anyway, somebody who would sell out quickly based on where he's at. I mean, look what he got. He got the VA job, right? And the other thing, too, is that what's interesting is I think there's going to be a massive backlash because—
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
When you talk about inefficiencies in the VA, I mean, you've talked about this before. We know there are inefficiencies in the VA, but you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. And you have to have a nuanced look based on experts in the medical field, the insurance field, and the care field. They need to have some kind of tiger team initially to get started.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
Now, tiger team is a team, everybody, of experts that are put together to actually fix a problem, right, or to address a problem. I haven't seen that. I just saw, hey, Trump calls Doug. Doug says, cut. People cut. Veterans don't matter. And they think that they can somehow roll over.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
You know, it's weird. You know, so many people, every time that I'm out there, they're like, General, we don't even look at mass media anymore. We only go to independent media. And that's pretty interesting to me because a lot of independent media is disinformation, as you know. We've talked about it on the far right and even on the far left.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
Well, preach, Amy, because I would say even the distillery cat was meowing while you were preaching in here in the distillery, knowing that you're absolutely correct, right, on what's going on. And is that kitty over there? Well-fed cat. Oh, yeah, that's right. Way to go, kitty. What's that cat's name? Can anybody tell me the cat's name? Barley. Is it Barley? Well, damn right. We love barley.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
And barley—oh, you know what? I do taste the notes of malt.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
I think here with our backgrounds, especially with yours, what you've done, which has been amazing, you know, 89 combat missions. You're talking about the first Marine female pilot to fly an F-18 in combat. Weapons officer. Weapons officer. And pilot. Well, weapons officer, then pilot, but it's still pretty badass. And as an Air Force intelligence officer, I barely know the difference anyway.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
Because they're blue falcons. I mean, if you think about it, really, you know, you have what—I think when I was in the 116th and when you went into the 117th, I don't know if it was 16 to 18 percent maybe representative were veterans in Congress, which is well over the 1 to 2 percent of the American population. But I think what you're looking at—and people can look up Blue Falcon.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
Please look in your urban dictionary for what— We're not going to see it here. So— So please do that. But it's incredible to me, Amy, that you have former veterans that are sort of going down this line and you ask me a very profound question is why do they do it? I think there's three things.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
And I think people listening to this podcast or this show are going to be a little bit shocked at how basic it is. They're worried about polling, they're worried about fundraising, and they're worried about winning. Let me say that again. They're worried about polling, they're worried about fundraising, and they're worried about winning. That's it.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
They're worried about their crosstabs and their polling. And I think when you look at it, if you have a 73%, say you have a 73% approval rate, like in my district, right? We're in Virginia 5, right? It's probably still about 10,000 square miles. It's as big as New Jersey. All they're worried about is what that two years looks like. And it's a little bit different from the Senate.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
When you look at the House, as soon as you win, you're already running for the next term. So, and by the way, when I first came in, I don't know if a lot of people know this, McCarthy said something pretty interesting. He said, winners make history. And we have to win no matter what.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
And I think what you're looking at is people betraying the very oath that they're taking because they believe that they have to be subservient, you know, to a guy who's gone bankrupt six times and is a felon.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
Backseat, front seat. Backseat, front seat. That's right. What is it? God, I remember the F-4s they used to have a name for. Rio. Was that what it was with the F-4?
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
I think— I think if everybody was listening right now, what you should do is look at your state because we're going to hit all 50 states on this amazing podcast called Truth in the Barrel. But look at how many people are covered under VA.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
Nine million. Serve this country. Serve this country. So are you telling us that somehow an individual that's put there had somehow the wisdom and the foresight to make those cuts in the first 100 days of administration without looking at really what the impacts of that funding are?
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
It just goes to show you that there's incompetence, inefficiencies, and power-mongering that are driving the decision-making in the VA right now. And I think that's something we have to accept, but it's something we also have to fight.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
And as we go through the next two to four years, I think it's something that, and I'm going to say this as a Republican, as a former Republican, Democrats need to look at how veterans are being taken care of. And I think that's an issue for Democrats, independents, even the center right never Trumpers. They need to look how veterans are taken care of.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
And I think if they do that, I think there's a way forward. There's a path. to use the VA and what's happening there as a broader definition of what's happening with this whole administration.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
Wizzo's, yeah. Well, in B1s, they were Wizzo's too, because I was B1s and also F15Es, you know. So, but no, it's just incredible, your background, what you've done. And I think that's why when we talk about independent media, that's why we're here today. I think people need somebody they can trust.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
Can you imagine how they're feeling now? And I think what I would say is to Donald Trump and Doug, don't be a blue falcon administration. I think that's really what we're, that's where we're at. I think there already are. But, hey. Agreed. Cheers to that. Cheers. Next topic. All right. Let's go.
Truth in the Barrel
Launch Day | Live From Bourbon County
I think, you know, he made some promises and he's listening to some of the craziest people on earth, right? I mean, people forget who was one of his trade representatives in his first administration. I know a lot of people remember this. It was the sterling and completely sane Peter Navarro, right? So I think...