PBD Podcast
Trump Gaza, USAID Waste EXPOSED, FCC Investigates George Soros w/ Chris Cuomo | PBD Podcast | Ep. 545
Thu, 06 Feb 2025
Patrick Bet-David, Tom Ellsworth, Vincent Oshana, and Adam Sosnick are joined by Chris Cuomo as they cover President Trump's plans to own Gaza, USAID exposing millions of government waste, the FCC investigating George Soros, and Trump's proposal to shut down the Department of Education. ---- 🇺🇸 GET THE VT PRESIDENT'S DAY COLLECTION: https://bit.ly/4jKHTeC 📺 VOTE ON TRUMP'S FIRST 100 DAYS: https://bit.ly/4gXLioq 👕 GET THE LATEST VT MERCH: https://bit.ly/3BZbD6l 📕 PBD'S BOOK "THE ACADEMY": https://bit.ly/41rtEV4 📰 VTNEWS.AI: https://bit.ly/3OExClZ 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON SPOTIFY: https://bit.ly/4g57zR2 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON ITUNES: https://bit.ly/4g1bXAh 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON ALL PLATFORMS: https://bit.ly/4eXQl6A 📱 CONNECT ON MINNECT: https://bit.ly/4ikyEkC 👔 BET-DAVID CONSULTING: https://bit.ly/3ZjWhB7 🎓 VALUETAINMENT UNIVERSITY: https://bit.ly/3BfA5Qw 📺 JOIN THE CHANNEL: https://bit.ly/4g5C6Or 💬 TEXT US: Text “PODCAST” to 310-340-1132 to get the latest updates in real-time! ABOUT US: Patrick Bet-David is the founder and CEO of Valuetainment Media. He is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller “Your Next Five Moves” (Simon & Schuster) and a father of 2 boys and 2 girls. He currently resides in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Did you ever think you would make it? I feel I'm supposed to take sweet victory. I know this life meant for me. Adam, what's your point?
The future looks bright. A handshake is better than anything I ever signed, right here.
You are a one-on-one? My son's right there.
I don't think I've ever said this before.
Okay, we got a fight going on here today, guys. I hope you're ready for it. It's been very disturbing from the moment Chris Coma walked in. There's been fights, arguments. Vinny, Adam, we had to kind of ask Vinny to step outside for 10 minutes, come out.
I'm tired.
This is why we need behind the scenes. I think this is why we need behind the scenes. Oh, they loved it. To see what's going on.
How do you punch somebody in the face right when you walk into the room?
And he puts you on. You know what it would remind me? It would remind me of the four Christmases. when they come into Two Brothers with Vince Vaughn and says, that's Dallas, that's Denver. We were named after City, our parents. I got that feeling when you guys right off the bat got into it. But anyways, folks, it's great to be with you. We got a lot of weird stories to go through.
Some good, some crazy, some wild. But definitely a lot of stories to go through. You got President Trump with Netanyahu. There's a ton of clips to react to. We'll react to every single one of them. But one of them is my favorite, and I'll tell you which one that is. We got Doge, who is pissing a lot of people off. And there's folks in Congress not happy about it.
There's a lady that made a video that's funny. We're going to watch and react to it. There is an executive order that President Trump signs. about women's sports that got Martina Navratilova to agree with them. Do you know what it takes to do something like that? She comes out and she says, I cannot believe Democrats missed the mark on this. We'll talk about that. Senate confirms Pam Bondi.
Trump was asked about Iran assassination attempt. The answer he gave is fascinating. We'll talk about that. New Jersey governor backlash after claims he is sheltering migrants. Trump's asking about a nuclear peace agreement with Iran. I don't know how that's possible. We'll address that as well. Border czar Tom Holman threatens to seek prosecution after New Jersey governor...
Phil Murphy, we will address that. FCC launches probe into Soros-backed radio station that revealed the live locations of undercover ICE agents. That one we're not going to address. Tom said we have to address because they accelerated the process of sales, and everybody's wondering why did you accelerate the process this quickly for Soros to get all these radios. They're investigating it.
AOC calls Elon Musk an unintelligent billionaire. That's what AOC called Elon Musk. Bill Gates, worried about scaling back USAID, tells View host, you could have literally millions of deaths because of USAID. University of California schools illegally use racial preferences in admissions, lawsuit alleges. You got Democratic Party unfavorable rating hit 16, you're high.
The last time it was this high is when Barack Obama took office, I believe, if I'm doing the math right. Bernie Sanders, Josh Hawley team up on Trump's pledge to slash credit card rates to 10%. So a capitalist conservative teams up with a socialist Democrat, Bernie Sanders. That's interesting. Armory recruitment hits major milestone, but it may not be enough.
Teen spend more than a quarter of their time at school on phones. Adam has some thoughts on that. Joe Rogan responds to Kamala Harris' alleged lies about their interview that wasn't. Fox to launch subscription streaming model as shares jump on election ad surge. And then he got a bunch of Super Bowl sports. They're removing racism. Tickets are down 58%. I asked Dylan.
I'm like, Dylan, you want to go to the Super Bowl? He says, I don't want to go watch Kansas City play. Why would I want to go watch the Chiefs play? This guy is so like.
He does not like them.
Who's his team? Joe Burrow. Bengals.
That's his team. That's whoever Joe's at.
Whoever's Joe's at. Just Joe Burrow. Just Joe Burrow. Joe Burrow sent him a jersey. He wrote a letter to him. So him and Joe have a little bit of a relationship. Okay. Fox News' Brett Baer will interview President Donald Trump during Super Bowl pregame. For those of you guys competing on vtnews.ai, when you said yes, you got some extra points there.
By the way, go score your contest, your predictions on vtnews.ai. Rob, if you want to pull it up, let's see what it is for today. If we can go to it. Whoa, this is a long one. Who will operate TikTok in the U.S. by the end of Trump's 100 days? And this is 800 points.
Holy moly.
Musk, Ellison, Zuck, Jimmy Donaldson.
I take the last. TikTok will not be purchased in time to prevent it from happening.
Really? You're going there?
I don't think there'll be any transaction where any of these people are in. First 100 days. No.
There you go. So Cuomo's giving you counsel. 800 free points from Chris. Go to vtnews.ai. Be one of the first. Tom, Tom, Tom, hurry up. Hurry up, Tom. Get the vote in.
I don't know that it's banned, but I don't think there'll be a transaction.
Is that literally what Tom's doing? He's cheating right now? No, no, no. He's not doing that.
Okay.
So Maverick season ticket holders are receiving huge refunds after Luka Doncic's trade. And then we got a couple other things that's going on here we'll talk about. Political. Maybe we'll start off with political for how weird it is with what they did. By the way, there was even a $5 million payout to Sean Penn, apparently, that I read about. If that's true, that's insane if they did that.
We will cover that. Okay. Ridiculous. However, Rob, when is President's Day? Next weekend. Next weekend is President's Day. And for President's Day, we have a limited edition merch that you can go order on vtmerch.com for President's Day. Bunch of cool stuff. This one right here, look, whatever you do, if you're not going to order anything, order this one. It is absolutely sick.
This is an actual photo taken of Abraham Lincoln with the glasses when he said, future looks bright.
Yes.
And he said, by the way, one of the best things is don't... He says... There was a tweet about Abraham Lincoln on Twitter. He says, don't believe everything on the Internet, something like that. When I used to tweet back in the day, it's just funny. But anyways, hey, President's Day. We got Abraham Lincoln's shirt. Future looks bright. It's sick. The quality is the best.
Feel the quality, Chris, how sick this is.
The Abe Lincoln thing is great. Wake up. Future looks bright. Let's go to the theater.
future looks bright sweaters we got a bunch of other gear here whatever you do go to vtmerch.com play steward you get a white house sticker and a future looks bright sticker i got my future looks bright sticker invite him a sticker on the back of my phone and uh i think it's the what's the number here i gave my inaugural shirt the white one that i wore on the show i gave it to a very good friend of mine who loves you guys and he gave me a great idea about future looks bright he
He says, you know what it is? He says, it's a secret test, future looks bright. I was like, no, I don't think it is. I think Pat's just trying to be optimistic. He goes, exactly. If anybody looks at my shirt and says future looks bright and has a problem with it, he goes, they're an Americant. Ha! And I was thinking about it, and I was like, well, that is true. What would be your problem with it?
Future looks bright. That's right. Why don't you want the future to look bright?
And by the way, while you're saying— I think he had an Ellsworth Sosnick version of that.
He could have. But anyways, the future looks bright. We also have a—for President's Day, we have a 47% off for 47. Rob, if you want to go to that category as well, there's a bunch of things there.
Did I say that these shirts are only $18 now?
Yes.
Wow. That's a deal.
Yeah, for sure. So go to vtmerch.com, place your order, especially the Lincoln one, because that one is limited. It'll go very, very quickly. Okay, gang, let's get right into it. Rob, pull up the story with Politico. What the hell is going on with Politico? I saw the story everywhere. We're on a flight back from Vegas. We're coming back.
We had a bunch of things we had to do yesterday and the night before. And then you see the story. Pull that up, Rob, the thumbnail that you just had. Doge cancels political government funding after $8 million in subscription contracts revealed. $8 million of subscription contracts revealed? What do you mean by that?
White House Press Secretary Caroline Libet announced that Politico will no longer receive taxpayer money after ex-user Adam Townsend revealed that the news outlet had received $8.1 million in government contracts for subscription and other services as confirmed by USAspending.gov. I can confirm that more than $8 million. Is this her, by the way, saying that? Yes. Okay, pull up that clip, Rob.
Go for it.
COMING OUT HERE TO THE BRIEFING ROOM, I WAS MADE AWARE OF THE FUNDING FROM USAID TO MEDIA OUTLETS, INCLUDING POLITICO, WHO I KNOW HAS A SEAT IN THIS ROOM. AND I CAN CONFIRM THAT THE MORE THAN 8 MILLION TAXPAYER DOLLARS THAT HAVE GONE TO ESSENTIALLY SUBSIDIZING SUBSCRIPTIONS TO POLITICO ON THE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS' DIME WILL NO LONGER BE HAPPENING.
THE DOGE TEAM IS WORKING ON CANCELING THOSE PAYMENTS NOW. AGAIN, THIS IS A WHOLE OF GOVERNMENT EFFORT TO ENSURE THAT We are going line by line when it comes to the federal government's books.
Oh, I love that. Please do so.
And this president and his team are making decisions across the board on do these receipts serve the interests of the American people.
Check this out. You can pause it right here. Like I said, two weeks ago, our CFO, the finance folks, went through line by line asking why do we have 910 monthly memberships that we're paying for services. Correct. For Valuetainment. For Valuetainment. Asking, what the hell are we doing paying? Do you know what that means? 910 memberships that we're paying on a monthly basis.
You know what the beautiful thing about an audit is? When you go in high forensics, you kind of go through every line by line to see what's going on. That's exactly what's going on right now. They're assuming this was never going to happen. Tom, what do you know about the story so far?
Well, it's very interesting that came out of this. And, of course, the Internet is abuzz with a bunch of elements. There is... Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald, and CBS apparently asked Politico directly, says, hey, here's where the money went. Here's the reference point. Is that you? So giving them an opportunity to say, this is what's showing up in the audit. There's the money here. Is that you?
And they did not answer Matt. They didn't answer Glenn. And they didn't answer CBS as of this morning, supposedly.
Now, pause for one second. Everybody watching right now, remember what Tom just said is a fact, and it's probably the most important part of the story, and here's why. The next time any major media outlet plays a no comment as a tacit admission of guilt, remember they refuse to comment themselves. This happens all the time in the media where they'll come to you. They give you no time to respond.
PBD, it turns out we hear that you're eating babies. And you're like, wait, this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Sorry, I got to go to print. I need to hear from you by 3 o'clock. And they play no comment as if PBD has something to hide. They did the same thing when they were asked a question. So just remember that. When someone says no comment, it doesn't mean that they're guilty.
And outlets like Politico, like the New York Times, it's also involved in this story. I don't know why they're getting a pass. They do this all the time. So just be aware, as a critical thinking citizen, when they play no comment as a tacit admission, they did the same thing.
Got you. And so everyone is looking at it, making the natural comment, saying, why on earth is our government, through USAID, sending money to a news outlet? Why are they doing that? This is not like, hey, we're all going to go over to Vietnam for this commemoration of this, and we'll help you with travel. A couple of you extra people can be on Air Force One. Those things happen.
But this is, why are you giving them the money for this? Then there was a... Indication is my favorite. Apparently Politico by a couple hours was the first breaker of the Russian interference story during the election. And so it's like, wow. So now the question is, was the government not only sending money, but was the government also sending narratives?
Four o'clock, the story will be Russian interference. And here's what we got. It doesn't look good. It looks very, very gooey is the word I'm coming up with.
For Politico. You're dovetailing a little bit with what Schellenberger has been talking about with some other coordination that he found between government funding and the CIA and the media, which is very cloudy at this point. The problem with this story when it came out, and I believe it was most likely leaked by the Doge guys because of who broke it, you don't see...
far-right podcasters breaking a lot of news, right? And they all came out at once with this story, so somebody probably leaked it to them. It was leaked as a USAID story, and it isn't. Most overwhelmingly, the money does not come from USAID.
It's only 44 grand from USAID.
Right, but it is. So they came out heavy on USAID. Why? Because that's the narrative that they wanted to run, right? And that's what was leaked to them. That's the problem with not being an accountable media organization, is that you'll just take what you're fed. But There is two legitimate questions here. There are two legitimate questions.
One is, should taxpayer dollars be going to any outlet for any reason? OK, because of the inherent conflict that Tom is bringing up. And I think that's a legitimate question. And it's a little surprising. I've never heard of this before. There's a second question though. Congress funds a lot of regional and local media. A lot of outlets are dying, right?
Local news is struggling in a lot of places, especially in print. There's a lot of subsidies. Is that a good use of taxpayer dollars? That's a harder question for me. It's easy to say, should you be giving the New York Times money? It's different if you're talking about the Topeka, Kansas Register newspaper. Why would you give them money, though?
I don't think left, right, center, anybody should get money from the government. Because in a way, your loyalty... lies there because they're paying you. That's the argument.
But I'm saying we haven't heard that story yet.
But give the opposing argument, though. Like, argue that. Argue it and say, the argument that people would say to say, no, we should fund these small little media organizations, what is that argument for?
In the public interest of information and news that you want to inform citizenry and that these outlets are going to close down. There's going to be there will be fewer outlets. There'll be more driven by agendas. And we want to make sure that there's a robust free media, even if that means there has to be some supporting of smaller outlets that wouldn't survive in the marketplace.
That's the argument.
Remember, Voice of America was funded by the government. It's supposed to be out there on a global basis. Capitalism, freedom, and all that. All they did is the government has taken that same technique and said, hey, wait a minute.
If we do it that way, then we could also do it this way, and we could whoever's in power has the power of the pendulum swinging that side of the aisle and go and spend the money and do it.
You can argue that we are living proof right now that you don't need to do it this way anymore. Again, it's a political question, not a legal question. And I think that the media has evolved in a way where everybody has immediate access to information and they have their own microphone.
So maybe the situation has changed and it's time to look at it because every dollar you save is a deliverable on what the promise of the last campaign was.
I'm looking at this one here. It says political received $44,000 from USAID. But was given millions more by other agencies.
Yeah, mostly HHS.
HHS gave him $1.37 million. Yeah. Wow.
So I did a little research on this. They have an energy, a special, they have a special product that has like deeper experts and stuff. But here's the problem. Congress buys subscriptions also, Pat. But they do like a subscription that you can go in and everybody uses the same code for the New York Times so that all members of Congress can get access to these different media outlets.
I don't have so much of a problem with that. They want to subscribe to Valuetainment so that everybody can see what's going on here. That's cool. They should be informed about what's happening in significant places. It's when you allow it on an individual basis, you wind up netting up these costs.
And now you have like 937, as we were talking about earlier, your own audit, people getting separate subscriptions. That's when it gets expensive.
This comes down to basically one thing. It's the government efficiency.
Yeah.
So imagine you're a family and your income is $100,000 a year, okay? And then you look at your line-by-line budget or your audit, as Pat called it, and hold on, guys, our income is $100,000, but we spent $120,000. But not only do that this year, we did that last year, the year before, and the year before.
But it's also not car and driver. It's the New York Times, and there is a conflict.
But I don't even know what that means, Cuomo, but let me get to my point.
Car and Driver magazine, who cares if you subscribe? There's no agenda. You subscribe to the New York Times, there's a conflict.
Okay, but I'm talking about income and expenses budget. The point is this. Imagine you're the U.S. government. How much was our U.S. government income this year? $5 trillion. How much was our expenses? $6.8 trillion. There's a deficit of $1.8 trillion. Guys, these aren't small numbers. These aren't millions. These aren't billions. Almost $2 trillion were in the red.
So how long is that sustainable for? Pat, we talked about the U.S. GDP of what it was in 2024. How much was it? $29 trillion.
And you know which party cares about that more?
Hopefully both, but it's probably the Republican Party.
Neither. Neither give a damn. They never cut spending on their watch.
The Tea Party, I would say, agrees with that, but I don't know if they'll do anything. But the point is, what's our federal debt? $37 trillion. How long is it sustainable for? So what she said, Caroline Levin said one thing that was actually super important. She goes, we're going to go everything line by line. Hell frickin' yeah.
Let's go line by line and see if this serves the interest of the American people. I just hope they keep doing it. Hopefully they figure this out and they save that money.
You hope they do that? I hope they keep doing it. I have a feeling. Why would they stop doing it? Because something else will become more important. And there'll be the Iran nuclear deal. It'll be what's happening in Ukraine. And then people stop covering it. They stop paying attention. You stop hearing about it.
Well, I mean, I don't think that'll happen because isolating responsibilities to certain individuals. Trump may get sidetracked with a different issue. But the Doge, their job is to cut. Like, you know, the numbers came up that X's EBITDA went up. I don't know if you saw the numbers about X's EBITDA went up the last 24 months. Now, wait a minute. How did the EBITDA double in 24 months?
Well, he was able to make the world. They're losing money. They're doing this. They're doing that. The story just came up. We'll cover that story here in a minute. But, Vinny, you want to say something? He cut 70% of his labor force.
Yeah, 6,500 employees gone. He didn't need any of them. Yeah, which... I guess. Yeah, which goes to my point. So what? USAID spends $50 billion a year, okay? And under the... By the way, I did... Last night, that's all I was watching. Under the guise of humanitarian aid, they... In part, top of governments, they install politicians in different countries and they do regime change.
This is besides the political stuff. OK, they paid. Pat mentioned it. Sean Penn, five million dollars, taxpayer dollars to go meet with Zelensky just to give him an Oscar and that moment to give backing to like to keep giving this guy credit. hundreds of billions of dollars. That's that. They allegedly paid Ben Stiller $4 million to meet with Zelensky. This is, again, all of our money.
$68 million to the World Economic Forum. Michael Schellenberger was just on Jesse... Ben Stiller says that was not true. That's what Ben said.
It's not true about Stiller or Penn. Penn has an organization that he started called CORE. which is kind of like the Red Cross that does amazing work in Haiti and other distressed areas. It is a relief organization. That's what the money was tied to. And they have done a lot of work with displaced people in Poland and in Ukraine. So these guys aren't the problem, photo ops aside.
Okay, so go back to my point. The money spending is absolutely insane. And then now you're seeing all these people. You see Jamie Raskin and everybody watching. All the Dems are losing their minds because now their money is going to go bye-bye. And yesterday I had an epiphany. No wonder why Trump has been such a freaking threat and why they've been trying to – ruin him, destroy him, and kill him.
By the way, the first four years, he didn't have this. The first four years, it was right out the gate, Russia collusion, impeachment, everything. It's so refreshing that now we have four years, he's not seeking re-election, and it's down to brass tacks, and he doesn't give two shits about anybody else and anybody complaining. And good, what money?
Why are we spending, I don't care if it's $1, transgender DEI plays in Ireland. What are we talking about? See, Alberto just told me, too, you know how much money we were spending for a pillow fluffing situation?
He did send it right now. What was it? Sesame Street Workshop in Iraq. In Iraq. $20 billion. Diversity, equity, inclusion, scholarships in Burma. $45 million. Is this her saying it? Yes. Go ahead and pull that up. Go for it.
and the President and this administration are committed to ensuring that these individuals get the funding that they need.
And I would just say a strong message to Democrats who are out there pretending to be outraged about the long list of crap that this administration is cutting, federal waste and funding, like $2 million for sex changes in Guatemala, $6 million to fund tourism in Egypt, $20 million on a new Sesame Street show in Iraq. 4.5 million to combat disinformation in Kazakhstan.
I could go on and on, and I'm happy to provide this list to every single one of you. Democrats are outraged that the American people want to be, they want their taxpayers going to good uses, not stuff like this. But then they're very quiet about the fact that there are still North Carolinians and people in California You have lost everything.
And in the last four years, this federal government did nothing to help them. This president will continue to put Americans first. And I think the successes of this week so far speak to that. And it's only Wednesday. So I'll see you guys.
I think it's super important that they go line by line. The tourism in Egypt, whatever's going on in Colombia, what's going on. But listen, leave Kazakhstan alone.
It's very nice in Kazakhstan.
Let's not fuck misinformation.
It's kind of funny. What cracked me up was Iran and Sesame Street, you know?
Iraq.
Iraq. Iraq. Even worse. Iraq and Sesame Street. It's like today's show was brought to you by the letter U and the number 238. You know, it's like this is really kind of nuts. Was that a uranium joke? That was a nice joke. Very nice. That's right. U-238 is what they take out and they refine and they make very loud things. Yellow cake.
But I think what's going on is that this is exactly what was promised. Get past all the photo ops and running to the microphone and being outraged or being so, you know, on top of it. And it really comes down to Americans are seeing the rock has been lifted up and we're seeing the bugs underneath it. That is where our taxpayers...
If you remember a few days ago, we're doing a podcast. I read a story from Politico, and I re-say the story, and I say, wait a minute, why would you write the article this way? I remember that. And then I'm like, oh, it's Politico. That was literally... No, it was one of them that I read. I don't know what the story was, Rob. But I read it. I'm like, what kind of a title is that?
It's kind of a weird title to write that way. And it was political. And then five days later, the story comes out political. I know.
So that's the problem. That's the problem with the conflict is that – You can have problems with headlines. I mean, headlines are all disingenuous, right? I mean, they almost never reflect what you'll find halfway down a story. That's the problem with balance and media and judging your outlets.
And now they create it in a conflict, and that's what they have to deal with because now the suspicion has a reasonable basis. Nobody has any problem with cutting waste, fraud, and abuse. Literally, the acronym WFA is part of everybody's political science handbook in messaging. They just say WFA, and you know they mean waste, fraud, and abuse. It just never really happens.
And I have no problem with this list of things. If you don't like them, that's fine. But the idea that this is the big nut Everything that they've listed so far from USAID is less than half a percent of its budget. So that's why Marco Rubio came out and said, hey, USAID matters. There's certain things that equate with soft power. But, you know, even this time, he wants more control over this.
He doesn't want Elon to just shut USAID because as secretary of state, you want the power of some money for soft power. So, you know, I think you just got to be careful about the extremes. But the concept of let's go through it and let the people, you know, feel and let political judgments be made. No one's going to have a problem.
But Chris, why is it that because this is all I've been seeing. I haven't seen one Republican in Washington in the street yelling and cussing and saying Elon is a threat and let's go after him. Let's go on the streets because of the USID. It seems like one side is pissed off that we're wasting all this money because it seems like their wallets are getting hurt. Why haven't I seen one Republican?
out there.
Because Elon works for the Republicans. If Biden had done this with Bill Gates, Republicans would be going crazy. Vinny, there is an immutable truth here that everybody has to get their hands around. If you think one party is better than the other when it comes to playing to advantage, then you are being sold by the game.
But here's my thing. Let's just say I'm an independent, which I am. The past four years compared to what's happening right now, I don't need to be a Republican or a Democrat. I just need to have eyes and ears. And the left is the shit show of this world. And if Kamala won, where would we be right now?
The hole we'd be going in would be done.
Let's go through this.
I don't know, but you guys would be very upset. I know that much.
Oh, what do you mean? Bill Gates worried about scaling back USAID. Right. Tells The View host you could have literally millions of deaths. So if you want to play this clip, you said Bill Gates, here's Bill Gates. Go for it.
And you, Mr. Gates, you also called Elon Musk's political influence abroad, quote, insane, along with another word we can't repeat here. But what's your take on his political access and influence here in America right now?
Well, Elon, his private sector work, you know, has been very innovative, really fantastic. A lot of private sector people, when they get into government, they don't take the time necessarily to see what the good work is or why it's structured the way it is. So I'm a little worried, particularly with this USAID stuff. My foundation partners with USAID on nutrition and getting vaccines out.
You know, there's incredible people. You know, they're not actually worms that work there. So, you know, hopefully we'll get some of that work back in shape. In fact, if we don't, you know, you could have literally millions of deaths.
What?
You know, with AIDS, people think... you know, wow, how much do we give these countries? As you said, it's less than a percent. People think it's 5%, and it should be 2%, but it's actually under 1%.
Wow. And still saving lives.
Am I the only one that doesn't trust anything that comes out of his mouth? Is it just me? Do you trust anything that comes out of his mouth? With his sweater vest, with his button down underneath? What is it exactly that you don't trust about him? Adam, Sometimes, you know, people like facts and 100% my intuition, I don't trust anything that comes out of his mouth, zero.
And if you listen to what his wife, Melinda Gates, said about him and one of the main reasons she left him was his relationship with Bill Gates, with Epstein. I don't want to hear anything about this guy, the computer nerd that's pushing vaccines and threatening millions of people.
How come the Epstein files aren't one of the things that are being exposed, by the way, along with JFK and Bobby Kennedy and Dr. King's deaths? How come they're not releasing Epstein?
What if they're timing it perfectly?
They're going one at a time.
What's your insinuation? I don't know.
I think people make choices about what matters to them and what doesn't matter to them. And I don't disagree. I'm not being skeptical of it because, look, my problem with skepticism is it's the lowest form of intelligence. So you now have to take a couple more steps. Is Gates right that millions could die? It's a possibility. It's not a probability. Why?
Because you're doing the things with the mosquito nets and the AIDS and the malaria and all these different things that fall under USAID. I get it. Things could be worse in situations. The mistake is making it like there's a right and a wrong. There's a preference. And they are legitimate political questions. And if Trump wants to go through this, fine. How Musk does it is worthy of scrutiny.
The first thing that should have happened that didn't happen, that would have been very helpful... Musk should have done personally what he's doing with these agencies. What money do you get from the government? What are your relationships? What information are you accessing? And what does that mean to your businesses? That's my only concern about Elon is I don't want him. I don't know him.
I'm not judging him. But you're giving a private citizen access to information. and dynamics when they are in the business of information and those same dynamics. That's all. So I just think he has to be transparent.
But here's what I would say to you. When you're saying that, to me, everybody gave the Democrats... many years to prove that they were right. And guess what ended up happening? They were wrong. About what? About God knows how many things they were wrong about. By the way, don't ask me. I'm just a regular guy. Don't ask me about how I think about it. You are not just a regular guy.
But when you look at the data and you see... It's saying that the trust in the Democratic Party is the lowest in 16 years. How did that happen?
Because they lost to somebody they thought they were told. Democrats were told they were going to win. And people get really angry. I disagree.
Why do you think it is? Let me tell you why I disagree. We're going here. I've got a couple things. Let's stay on USAID, and then I'm going to go to the Democratic Party, 16%, to address what comments you just said. So let's stay on the... Because we have Epstein we've got to get to, we've got the Democratic Party, and we've got to finish up USAID so we can go to the next one. All right.
Do you think USAID has had more good or more abuse there? Do you think they've done more good or abuse with the money that they've got? Good. You think more good? What percentage is more good?
I have no idea. I doesn't it's not a relevant metric to me. The metric would be go through it line by line. Yeah. And then prove me wrong, because I think that Democrats and Republicans have contributed to their budget since 1961. So you're going to have to look at it and you can go through it. And I don't have any problem with any of that. Yeah. I do think, look, there's always politics at play.
The idea that, you know, Trump was there 2016, 2020. OK, what? There was no waste, fraud and abuse there at USAID. So the idea that this is new.
No, I don't agree. That's not it, though. No, this is not about 2016 versus 20. The difference in that argument would be Trump when he went in 2016. He had no clue what he was doing. He knew nothing. He knew not what the bodies were, who to trust, who not to trust. Four years later.
He went in there saying he was going to drain the swamp. He was going to do exactly what he's doing now.
Four years later, he looked at everything. He says, so the strategies I used wasn't effective in the first term. Okay. But this time around, some could say he's done more in his first – three weeks than he did the first year when he was president, what he's doing the first three weeks. Yeah, I agree.
He's actually doing what he said he was going to do in the first term, but the first time he didn't know where the bodies were. So let's go to the next one with the Democrats, right? Where the story comes up here, Rob, can you tell me what page that is where it says the Democratic Party's trust is at the lowest in 16 years? I think I read it.
One of you guys had that as a story that you wanted to give comments on. Bottom of 11. Bottom of 11. Okay. Thank you, Tom. So It says Democratic Party unfavorable rating hits 16 year high. OK, 16 year high. Let's read this.
Good.
And it's my reaction. OK, great. But I'll give you why I think because you said something else. They thought they were going to win. So here we go. A Quinnipiac poll finds the Democratic Party unfavorable rating at 57%, the worst since the poll began, tracking while only 31% of voters view the party favorable, leaving them 26 points underwater.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party is in a much stronger position with 43% favorable and 45% unfavorable. making them only two points underwater, a 12-point advantage over the Democrats' favorability, and 12 points lower than unfavorability. Trump's numbers are stronger than both parties, with a 46% job approval rating against 43, placing him three points above.
In real clear politics, poll average, Trump is doing even better at 49.4% approval, 44.8% disapproval, giving him a 4.6% lead. Even Trump's favorability in the RCP average is positive at 48.9% approval and 47. Anyways, we see all these polls. But here's where I go. So would you consider Martina Navratilova conservative? No. Absolutely not.
Would you say she wakes up in the morning and her screensaver has a Trump picture on there, you know, fight, fight, fight? What are the chances of that?
It's probably with Kathy Griffin holding his head off of her.
Something like that, right? So Trump yesterday is at his... at his office, okay, with kids, Rob, if you can actually pull up, is this the video of the kids coming there?
Yes.
But is Trump speaking there? No, I have a better video of that. Get the one of him signing. So for me, I'm going basic common sense. I just came from this morning. I came from Dylan was singing. So I went to church to be with Dylan, and he's doing his thing, and I come out. We had a very interesting morning about what he should wear. That's a complaint.
My biggest debates are dealing with this guy's fashion because he's so firm on what he wants to wear. Where is the one, Rob, with him around the kids signing the order? You just had it. There you go. Watch this here. Watch this. Go ahead.
Watch what I do, and then I'm going to give you some pens, okay?
Who relates to this? 100% of common sense parents.
Who relates to this?
Girl dads. Girl moms. Who relates to this? Anybody and everybody that wants their kids to be able to compete and do what they want to do. Right? So... Common sense, women's sports compete against women. Oh, I think we have a 10. And a lot of sports and men are open, meaning if you want to compete as a woman, you can. All right, so now watch this. Go to Martina Navartalova.
Go to Martina Navartalova's tweet if you could, Rob.
If that was Joe Biden, Pat, he'd be smelling all those kids.
Watch this here. Watch what she says. I hate that the Democrats totally failed women and girls on this very clear issue of women's sports being for females only. Says... I believe she's a lesbian tennis player. And by the way, go in the comments section. Go in the comments section. I'm with you. However, I truly believe that the trans and sports issue was blown way out of proportion.
A successful tactic by ours, Republicans. Media won't tell you. And woke liberals are clueless. If you keep going down, you would see folks who are liberals... who are liberals, okay? I'm so glad the movement has you. Never stop trying to change their minds. Remind them that the movement is filled with Democrats and liberal women. I'm trying to just do that. Thanks, right?
They're going through, and she's responding. Easiest way to include everyone is staff. COED, intro, what is that word? Intramural sports on all levels. They should have universal scholarship. What does that mean, universal scholarship program? So she's responding. She actually wants to hear people out. Guess what? When you say... This isn't a Republican or Democratic thing.
Chris, Democrats had four years to sell their ideas. Vaccine, you take it, it won't spread. Bullshit. Trump, Russia, bullshit. Hillary Clinton, $35 million. Nothing wrong with puberty blockers. It's not fair. The state of Florida, we may have to move. Because my daughter, who, you know, he knew he was a girl. He can't take his, she can't take her puberty blockers. And we have to watch his video.
Puberty blockers at 16 years old, at 10 years old. What are you talking about? Guy sends me a picture yesterday. Says, Pat, I don't think you understand what was really going on on Manect. And he sends me this picture of an organization called Plume. P-L-U-M-E. Can you type this, Rob? Go to P-L-U-M-E. P-L-U-M-E. Right there. You have it right there. Just type in. Go to the website.
Gender-affirming hormone therapy and everyday care. Right? And you go lower, and guess what it says? With or without insurance. Essentials you need to get your gender journey. So these moments, Chris... They lost so many people that even the common sense Democrats said, I'm out of here.
So Stephen A. said something great on Bill Maher the other day. The truth is rarely easy for everybody to hear. He said, for all of these people trying to wonder how you could vote for someone like Donald Trump, change the question. The question is, what does it tell you that more people in America saw Donald Trump, for all we know about him, as closer to normal than the Democrats?
That's the question you have to be asking. And once you ask that, a lot of things start to be very clear to you. This issue, OK, what's the strength of this issue? It is a common sense vibe, not just for girl dads. You know, I mean, you and I are girl dads, but I don't think you have to be. You don't want somebody like you or like me playing against a female. OK, that's a no brainer.
The Democrats miss that because of what? The nuances of the issue. You have a better chance of being struck by lightning than playing against a transgender female athlete. That this is a very bullied class of people and the last thing they need is more pressure on them as being a problem. Those are fair points, but they don't remove the common sense aspect of what this is.
And if it happens so rarely, then don't worry about the prohibition then. Because you're not really affecting that many people anyway. So you might as well do what seems to be common sense to the majority of the country. That's what this issue is about. And the left found itself in a dynamic that we've seen the right in also. This is the problem with the binary system.
They are co-opted by their fringe. radicals that fight their own culture wars their own way, which is not that everything is okay. If somebody wants it, it's okay. Okay, that's America. No, that's not what I'm saying, Pat. You have to say it the same way. You have to believe it the way they want you to believe it.
You have to let your kids use the vocabulary and the ideas that these people want for themselves. You have to use it also. If they want to be called something, you have to say that. And your kids have to be taught that. That's where the left lost the country, was that you do not do this in this country. You do you, I do me.
That ends as soon as what you do for you becomes what I have to do for me. That's where they lost the narrative. And we saw that with canceling. So if I were to question this, look, you know how many times I've said this? You don't want somebody my size playing against your 16-year-old girl. And people come, show me somebody your size doing it. I don't have to show you.
I'm telling you, you don't want that. So to the extent that it's possible, you don't want it. You're a bigot. Why am I a bigot? Because you're basically saying that all trans females are your size. No, I'm not. I don't know that any are my size. I'm saying that as a possibility, it's something that you should rule out. It offends common sense. No, you're putting your mores on these other people.
You're judging. You should be canceled. You shouldn't be in your position. It happened immediately. That's why their numbers are where they are. That's the answer for the left. The question is, how do they get back to what makes sense?
Let me follow up with that. Your entire family, life, politics, Democrat, you've seen things change. Mario Cuomo, your father.
The party doesn't even resemble his party. Trump's base was Mario Cuomo's base.
So watch what you just said right there, okay? So two-term, your father. Two-term, three-term, your father. Two-term, your brother. Also three terms? Yeah, his got cut a little short. I'll tell you the story later. You may not have heard.
I'll tell you.
I haven't, but maybe one of these days if we have time. No, but the point is, here's the question for you. Tell me why people voted Democrat when your father was a governor in New York, and why, where Democrats were winning then, and where are Democrats winning today? Like, if you were to say, I still believe the Democrats have the edge with the American people in 1, 2, 3, okay?
So go Pops first term, go now. Okay.
So the theory, the argument for Democrats with Pop, okay? What was Pop? He was you. Not even, right? Because you were born somewhere else. Pop was first-generation American, not seen as white. Pop got described a lot of the ways that you deal with when people start exposing you, right? Well, he's an ethnic. He's swarthy. You know, he's an other, right? I'm a white guy, okay? My father wasn't.
So he was speaking for people like that. They say we're not good enough. They say we don't belong. They say that they get to tell us how to be and who we are and that we don't get to succeed or fail on our own merits. I'm going to fight them. He was the original anti-elitist. When my father found out I was being recruited, I wanted to go to an Ivy League school. He was so disappointed.
He was only disappointed that much one other time in my life. which was when I decided to leave the law and finance and go into the media. His joke was, why can't you do something that matters more to society, like sell crack? That was his feeling when I went into the media. But when I wanted to go to an Ivy League school, he was like, do you know what they think of me?
Do you know what those people thought about me? And that was his sell to people. I know they think you're not good enough. They're wrong. And their rules will not apply to all of us. That was the sell, the working man. What was the union about? Civil liberties. And what is the government keeping us from? That was his sell. And it was what was his tagline?
All the government you need, but only the government you need. That was his tagline. What is it now? It's welcome to the freak show. The Democrats flipped their narrative to, hey, this culture war keeps beating us. So let's have our own version of it, which is inclusion, acceptance. And anybody who doesn't want to include and accept as we do, we'll get rid of.
And that's why their numbers are where they are. The AOC mentality. Look, I'm not a straight hater on AOC. I respect success. She's built a real following for herself. There's no question. You got to respect that. She's got passion and she's got purpose. But this is politics. And her calling Musk an idiot.
But why are they winning today, Chris? Well, they win. They still win. If you were to say these are the two issues. Okay. They were the anti-war party. Okay. Well, they killed the guy that didn't want war. Okay. They were the little man party. Let's take care of the little guy. The guy that, you know, that's not the case anymore. Right. They were the. So what is their party now? Who are they for?
Look. It's I know their numbers are very underwater. And again, it makes sense. By the way, nobody's doing well. Republicans just had an historic victory that nobody thought would happen. They're underwater. Trump has better numbers. Let's see where he is in five months. You know, he's at 46. He could easily be at 42, which is where most presidents are.
So but within that structure, what do we see? OK, they lost this election by like this much, but they never lose the popular vote. It's very rare.
I want to ask this one question, Chris. This is the only thing I want to get an answer on. I asked Ian Bremmer. He couldn't answer it. Where are they winning? What is the issue, one, two, three issues, that the average day-to-day person says, I agree with the Democrats on these three issues?
The issues that they campaigned on to win are, are in the major population centers that minorities are disadvantaged by Republican policies, that the working class are disadvantaged by Republican fiscal policies, and that Trump is crazy.
and that you have a brand of conservatives that are radical Christian, and if they're not Christian, they're just radical conservative that is bad for America as a place for everyone. Those are their three big spots.
I don't know if I agree with—let's just say the first one. I'm not saying that they're right. I'm saying that's their pitch. No, but that's not what I'm asking. What I'm asking is where are they winning? Nowhere. Where are they?
Well, they just lost this. But look, look at the House. They lost by one seat. So obviously they're winning campaigns. Right. Right. They're winning campaigns. You have a Senate advantage. This was supposedly historic. Trump says he has the biggest mandate ever. OK, you adjust for hyperbole. He's got a three seat advantage in the Senate. It's nowhere near a historic margin.
He has like a one or two seat, depending on how you look at it, advantage in the House. So the idea that, well, the Democrats are losing everything all the time, we're not seeing, except at the state level. You look at governorships and state houses, the Democrats have been getting their clocks cleaned. Why? Because what they say doesn't match what they do. And that's their problem.
They are not for the working man. They're not for regular families. They are for small percentage niche cultural agendas.
Tom. Chris, you said a couple of things and let's let's unpack it. You said we are for the you poor people that have had injustice, you know, and you've you've suffered and they think that Trump is crazy. Well, wait a minute. There's there's a little bit of a hypocrisy, not you, but in within the argument with them on trans.
Injustice is exactly what Leah Thomas delivered to women that had been training as swimmers for their entire, you know, not adult, but their entire developed lives.
And suddenly they felt this terrible injustice, not by Renee Richards, who, by the way, deeper into Martina Navratilova, she played tennis against someone who went through a full physical and hormonal transition, not a change of mind, and then shocked physically. female athletes looking over there and says, as Leah Thomas changed the locker room, he says, those are male genitals.
She's still making testosterone. He. He just changed his mind. And they're like, this is a terrible injustice. I get it. This isn't protecting Renee Richards. And by the way, Martina Navratilova and Renee Richards came of age and came out of the closet at a time when it was really hard to do so. And we can talk about bravery and guts on something different. But this was a terrible injustice.
And then America said... Wait, we're crazy? You're crazy. A girl gets knocked out in a high school volleyball. I agree. America went the other way and says, injustice? This is injustice, and you are crazy. And isn't that what flipped?
I get it. I just don't get the America thing. This is a niche issue. It was used very well in the campaign. It is a common sense issue. I don't disagree with your rationale. I'm just saying the idea that this is why people voted, I don't think so. I think it was more of a feel issue.
I'm going to lower your taxes.
Make people feel that you're not really in touch with me. I care about the economy. I care about immigration. Those are my two big ones. Foreign, depends on what we're talking about. This is a feel issue. I don't think we're on the same page. I care about other things more, but this makes me feel like you're not getting me. And that matters in politics.
I'm just saying the idea that this is like the 1965 Voter Rights Act, I don't think that that's what it is. You don't have the numbers of people expressing this reality That would make it something where you have to do something about it right away. I'm not arguing with the rationale. I get it. I get what the concern is. I'm just saying I see it as more political than practical.
OK, then what what are the black and white issues like Arizona people in Arizona? They saw the homelessness. They saw the immigrants in there. That's a better one. That's not feel when I see these people. That's a better wall. OK, that's a better one. Your taxes are going to go down. We're going to take your taxes down and we're going to fix immigration.
What are the Dems saying in a very black and white way like that?
That is a much, much better argument for you guys to be making. Immigration is the biggest failure for Democrats since the New Deal.
What are the black and white issues that the Dems are making right now? Right now, right now, they're not. That's a better way. You should listen to hold on.
First of all, as with people saying, let's judge what Trump has done since he's gotten in office. Why aren't eggs more less expensive? That's not fair. What are Democrats selling right now? Nothing. They're reeling. I'm still getting emails on my phone this moment from Kamala Harris, the fight fund. So they have not moved forward.
OK, they are in a paroxysm of pain and self-doubt and blaming in-house USAID money. These people took in billions of dollars. They don't know where it went. And now they're asking me for more? I mean, look, everybody, I get the Trump ones. I get all of them. But my point is, they're not selling anything right now. They're figuring it out.
That's not an unusual place to be after you got knocked out.
By the way, 60 Minutes, did you see the unedited version they released?
It opens up with her going, I missed the bowl.
What do you think about the whole 60 Minutes situation?
My problem with that story from the beginning was, you edit every interview. You edit every interview. I've edited every interview I've ever done with Trump, unless it was live. Why? Because that's what you do. You have a certain amount of time. You're trying to fit it in.
Yeah, but there's editing versus putting a different answer in to make that answer. Everybody knows you're not allowed to do that.
Everybody knows you're not allowed to do that.
Did they do that?
And here's the standard. It's subjective, but here's the standard. So I ask you, how are you doing? You say, good, but the other day, and then you go down a road. I have to use the beginning of the answer. What you can do is then edit within that answer something that makes a different editorial point that you want to make. That's okay.
There is an argument here that that's not what was done, and by 60 minutes of all people to be in this position is really embarrassing, and it is a clear indication. 60 minutes isn't what it was anymore, okay? They don't have people who are recognized as the best in the business, doing the job on issues that are topical, and everybody wants to be there. It's just another media product now.
It's not what it was. And they have things to answer for here. And the silence shouldn't be acceptable. Just like it shouldn't be acceptable for anybody else. When they ask them their questions, you get a no comment. They're not explaining it. And that's on them.
Can I say one quick thing to the... women, male, transgender, LGBT. It wasn't, Chris. I completely disagree. It's not a niche thing when you have one out of four kids now in high school are either what? Non-binary, gay, in that community. The White House flying the LGBTQ flag, bringing transgenders at the White House. They're flashing their breasts.
All the push on all these kids and all these drugs. It's not a niche issue. It was just an issue that Republicans and the conservatives... put their hand down. They're like, no, no, no, you're not going to F with our kids. But the left kept pushing. They're like, no, a six-year-old can decide.
The far left.
And the main left was quiet.
Would you say Kamala's far left?
Kamala's just supporting them.
I think she moved, like they all do, right? Well, this was weird, because it was an artificial process. Pre-election. Pre-election, she was left far left. And then, you know, she does what a lot of politicians do. She moves to where she needs to be to win that particular thing. So when she was running for Attorney General in California... She was saying one kind of thing about law and order.
Then when you want to be on the national stage as senator, you say something else about law and order. That's typical politics. But they are absolutely co-opted, or they have been, by their left fringe. And they have to deal with it and figure out what they want to do.
But I haven't heard one Democrat go anti-LGBTQ pushing it on the kids. I haven't heard one.
There's no need. There's a difference between being anti-diversity of type and what you force on people. There's a very stark difference. And Democrats or anybody, you're not going to be successful in American politics if you think in any way you get to tell people what to think or how to feel. Of course. You will lose.
Of course. And when it comes to – because you guys have kids. I don't. But pushing it on the kids – and we are. And again, and they push the homophobic. That's all transphobic. That's all BS. We're not. But you're pushing it. And to pretend that it's a niche thing, we are the gayest we've ever been as a nation. And that's just a fact. So I don't think it's a nation.
Not as a podcast, as a nation.
No, no, as a nation. But possibly as a podcast, too. Maybe. But there's no judgment.
That's true. We're not going to judge you. It sounds like a judgment. I don't think it should be a judgment. If you know anything about PPD, he's never going to judge you. Never judge me. I wouldn't do that. How long you know me, Pat? Look, Pat asked a very simple question. Where are the Democrats winning these days?
I think there's only one answer, and it's with woke liberal women who are pro-abortion, who are anti-capitalist, pro-socialist, pro-DEI, anti-MEI. It's glaringly apparent that they've lost... Regular dudes. They've lost families. They've lost people with kids. Just anyone with common sense looks at the Democratic Party and they're like, where the hell do they even stand for these days?
I think that's true. You tried to basically say.
Although I don't think people, I don't think women see themselves as pro-abortion.
I think a lot of women who men don't even want to have sex with or basically saying no sex, no relationships, no dating, no kids. They're like, we're not going to do that during the Trump administration. You take a look at what they look like and you're like, yeah, nobody's going to date you anyway, honey. Sorry, baby.
But, you know, we tried to equivocate by basically like Republicans are underwater. Democrats are underwater. Republicans are underwater 2%, Chris.
2%.
That's within the margin of error. Hold on. But you're fighting about it against a chump. Democrats are 26% underwater. Don't act like that's the same. I'm not saying it's the same. That's like saying, hey, we played a football game. I lost by two points. Man, close game. I'm not saying it's the same. That's like saying the other team lost by 26 points and you're acting like it's the same.
I understand. No, it's not. And the louder you keep saying it, it doesn't make it any more cogent. What I'm telling you. Are you saying that two points is the exact opposite, exact same as...
No, I'm saying that trust is at an all-time low. And that's why my point was that Republicans, after an historic victory that wasn't supposed to be able to happen, they're still underwater. Why? The American people are very disenchanted with the two-party system.
Trump is not underwater, though. Trump is plus 5%. He is.
He is. But by the way, that's not historically. But hold on.
Trump is plus five. Democrats are minus 26. I'm with you. How is that even the same?
They're not the same. I'm saying look at them in context. The president is where most are when they just win. OK, so it's not out of the ordinary. Are the Democrats down lower than ordinarily? Yes, for good reason. What are they going to do about it? I have no idea. Well, I'm in the business of watching and making sense as we go. But the idea of why are they so low, I think it makes perfect sense.
And I think you're basically articulating it. I think that what are they going to do about it? I don't know.
Let me give you a quick little story. This is about a year ago. I'm in Miami. I'm with a girlfriend of mine. And she goes, hey, real quick, I'm going to go to the bathroom. I go, okay, cool. I'm waiting for the bathroom. She walks out of the bathroom and literally one second behind her. And she has a penis. No, she definitely does not have a penis. That was the other one.
Behind her walks out a dude in a dress with a full-on beard, like a Vinnie beard.
Like one of my relatives.
Sure.
Yes.
And I go, me, I'm very basically unshy. I go, well, what is this? What is this all about? She goes, no, man, don't say anything. Don't say anything. I go, don't say anything. It's a dude in a dress with a beard. And he just walks the other way. And I go, hun, how do you not? She's like, stop it. Don't be mean. Don't be mean. I go, don't be mean. What is this? It's clearly not a woman.
It's Vinny in a dress. She's like, stop it. You're being mean. I go, who gives a shit about mean? It's a full-on dude. So who's right and who's wrong? Am I in the wrong because I want to say something or is she in the wrong because she doesn't want to offend this guy? That's basically the parable of what's happening right now is that me being mean.
I don't know the point of that story.
The point is that's the conversation that's being had. That's the conversation that's being had.
He just wanted to give the girl a shot.
No, no, not at all.
The one with the beard, not the girl. The one with the penis.
He's a fan of the show. But that's exactly what's happening right now.
As a matter of fact, he's here. Come on in, John. Bring your balls in here. I think it's fair. This is the reason. I think it's fair. I get what you're saying. Tampons in men's bathrooms.
There's no question that, again, like I said about 15 minutes ago, the left went way too far. on what they wanted to describe as normal, and what they wanted to insist everybody else must agree with. And that's where they lost the country.
There's one big difference, and this is what I think, and we'll move on to the next story. The only big difference to me is I think this is a 1965 type of moment. I think this is a, you know, Barry Goldwater, Lyndon Johnson type of a moment where the voter rights and civil rights and African-Americans voting 30 percent more on the Democratic side.
And I think the left lost a chunk that I don't think it's coming back. I think they lost a chunk that's not coming back.
And look, I hope that that's true for another reason, by the way. What else did we see in this election that we've never seen before? More people voted as independent than did as Democrat, almost as many as Republican. That is your no longer black swan. People are sick of the parties. You know who else is sick of the parties? President Donald John Trump. He is not really pro-Republican.
You hear him talk about Republicans, Very rare. I agree. So that's the best hope for us.
I think he's the first independent president we've ever had. I don't think he's Republican.
I think he is damn close, certainly in our lifetime.
Who else would you put him as an independent president? Reagan wasn't independent.
I think that you've had a couple. I think that if you looked at Clinton, Clinton could have made a case. I don't disagree. Of being in either party. It was a different kind of case. He wasn't an outrage guy.
He was a conservative Democrat.
Yeah. So I think that most people have fallen along that line, which is why they used to get so much done. There wasn't that much daylight between them.
Just to add a little bit of fuel, fire to the fuel here. Can you go to this Jersey story guy? So New Jersey governor Murphy comes out and says, you know, is this the one him saying it? Yes. And then they backtrack, by the way. Go ahead and play this clip, Rob. Go ahead.
I don't want to get into too much detail. but there's someone in our broader universe whose immigration status is not yet at the point that they are trying to get it to.
Illegal.
And we said, you know what? Let's have her live at our house above our garage. Wow. And good luck to the feds coming in to try to get her.
Oh, my God. Okay. But pause it right there. Pause it right there. No, no, go back to the video. I just want to zoom in on something. You act like a tough guy.
You can't sit like that.
Those shoes, the socks, the way you're sitting, the way your hands are on your knee, it's like the movement. What? I don't know. I just think there's a different... Pat, it's the least of his problems. No, you understand what I'm just saying. What are his testicles doing in this? Where are they? Let me just read this. Mashed up in there. So, by the way, he says this.
Then the office backtracks his claim. Do you have the backtrack claim, Rob?
They released a statement. There's no video to the backtracking.
What is Tom Holman saying?
Yes, it's Tom Holman saying they're going to possibly prosecute Phil Murphy.
Go for it. Well, I think the government's pretty foolish, saying what he said, because... I've gotten old of it. Won't let it go. We'll look into it. And if he's knowingly harboring, concealing an illegal alien, that's a violation of Title VIII United States Code 1324, I will seek prosecution, or the Secretary will seek prosecution. So maybe he's bluffing. If he's not, we'll deal with that.
And as far as suing sanctuary cities, well, get in line, because the Trump administration is going to do that already. Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals. One example, right? The young... Sanctuary cities in New York City. If they would have gave us over the killer of Lake and Riley when he got arrested in New York City for endangering a child, he would have been in jail.
They would have never killed Lake and Riley. Sanctuary cities are responsible for deaths of thousands, thousands of young children throughout my career. And we're going to sue them. We're going to hold them. And look, if he's got to go to Supreme Court, that's what President Trump wanted to do. He will end sanctuary cities.
And by the way, while he's saying this, Rob, do we have a clip of Pam Bondi with Sanctuary Cities, what she just did that, Chris, you were talking about earlier?
The only clip that I could find was her. This is a dated clip, but this is her talking about ICE arrests in the state of Florida.
Okay, well, no, she definitely just signed an order that she is going to halt specific funding that is under her purview, obviously, for sanctuary cities pending a review of what they're doing and why they are sanctuary cities. And this is a very intelligent position.
It's all over the place, Rob. I just saw it right now.
Very intelligent position for her. The way she worded it shows why she was, of course, compared to Matt Gaetz, you know, she was going to be a much easier course of choice. But there's an intelligence to her position. She's not saying it even the way Holman is. She knows, you know, she's a good lawyer, Pam Bondi. She knows why Sanctuary City started. They didn't start as what they are right now.
So municipalities were getting jammed up because ICE wasn't funded or staffed in a way to do the job they were supposed to do. So what would happen is you would get these illegal entrants, okay, and you'd be holding them for a really long time because ICE couldn't get it together to come and get them. And these municipalities started getting sued.
And they were losing because they were holding people too long. And that was the birth of it. What it has become is an open hostility towards the existing policy. They're going to lose. And you cannot stop, a state can't stop a federal law from being executed. So if the federal law is we're coming to get them, and it is now, then you can't say no.
And if you do, you're going to lose your federal funding. You're going to lose in court. And this is a no-brainer, and Bondi is doing it the right way. She's not just doing it blanket across the board. She's going to say, I'm going to look at each one of them. We'll see why they're doing what they're doing, and then we'll proceed.
Didn't Homan invite you to go see some of the ICE raids? Did you take them up on his offer? Yes.
I mean, I kind of forced the invitation. Did you go? I kept saying, I want to go. I want to go. No, I'm working on it now, because what I don't want is what I saw with Dr. Phil, OK? No disrespect to Dr. Phil. That's not what it's about. But I'm not going there as a propagandist for ICE raids. I want to show the reality over time.
of what they're dealing with, where they're going, what they're getting. And I think it would be really helpful to the American people. And NewsNation is willing to invest. And I think there's a bigger production to be done here of allowing transparency. Because what's going to happen is you're going to be hearing stories.
Murphy's playing on something that's not a bad game, which is you're also going to sweep up the wrong people. You're going to people who entered here illegally, but they've done everything right since then. And that is not the threat to the country that was being initially articulated. That'll happen. But I don't want this to be a one-off every time where an exception is being made the rule.
And I think the more transparency there is, the more fair an assessment the American people have.
Aren't they going after criminals, people who have done some bad things, some bad hombres?
Yes, but here's the thing. And this is why they've been a little slow coming out with their numbers. Where they're going to get people, it's not like they're doing what I thought they were going to do, which is the police tell us this is where the MS-13 guys are hanging out. This is where they live. We know where they are. We just don't go after them because it's like a big deal. Yeah.
And that's what they're doing. They're going to a place and they're getting people who are also there with other illegal entrants. So they're getting like eight people when they were looking for one specifically. What do you mean they're there with other illegal entrants?
They're in that house. They're at that business. Oh, so they're harboring criminals. No, no.
They're illegal themselves. They're all illegal.
Illegals are hanging out with illegals.
Yeah, they live there. They work there. They're hanging out there. Whatever it is.
I get it.
I get it. I get it. But the idea of what the law is is pretty clear. The idea of whether everybody is the same within that bucket is not true. For instance, Dreamers. I only feel complete compassion for this group of people
who have, through no will of their own, have been put in a position where they are not able to succeed or fail on their own merits in this country because of their designation as Dreamers. Trump agrees with that. He was going to do it as a one-off in his first term, and the Republicans wouldn't let him, if you'll remember. Why?
Because they had givebacks that they wanted, chain migration and other things. The dreamer should be taken care of and taken out of this equation. And the fact that it's not is just ugly politics.
How do you define dreamer versus legal alien?
DACA has a specific legal definition.
I want to go to the next story. I'm going to go to the next story. So Trump prepared to majorly revamp Department of Education as math reading scores show stunning lows. Rob, if you've got a clip on that, go for it. I'll read this time. I'm coming to you first on this one. No need for the eyes. I'm just saying, look, I'm going to come to you. So.
All right, so President Trump is preparing a major overhaul of the Department of Education after math and reading scores alarming lows with 40% of the fourth graders, 33% of eighth graders. Readings below basic level, only 28% of eighth graders proficient in math. That is insane. Only 28% of eighth graders are proficient in math, according to the National Assessment of Education Progress.
Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice told Fox & Friends that Trump met with governors who were not only furious about academic failures, but also about the toxic soup of SEL, DEI, CRT being pushed in schools, refreshing to see social economic learning being pushed in schools. Justice claimed governors urged Trump to give states more power, telling them parents want more choice.
Let's help parents to put them in driver's seat so they can make the best decisions for their kids. Go ahead, Rob.
Why nominate Linda McMahon to be the Education Department secretary if you're going to get rid of the Education Department secretary?
Because I told Linda, Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job. I want her to put herself out of a job, Education Department. So we're ranked number 40 out of 40 schools, right? We're ranked number one in cost per pupil. So we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world. And we're ranked at the bottom of the list. We're ranked very badly.
And what I want to do is let the states run schools. I believe strongly in school choice. But in addition to that, I want the states to run schools. And I want Linda to put herself out of a job.
Do you think that's something you can do with an executive order?
I'd like to be able to. Look, if I could give the schools back to Iowa and Idaho and Indiana and all these places that run properly, there's many of them. So if you look at the list, Denmark, Sweden, Norway. Believe it or not, China's doing very well on that list. A list of well-educated, you know, where they run their school system well. You have A lot of countries, not surprising names.
I think that if you moved our schools into some of these states that are really well-run states, they would be as good as Denmark and Norway and Sweden and some of the other states. And then you'd have the laggards. And you know who they are. I don't have to go to it. But you'd have the laggards, the same laggards that are laggards with everything else, including crime.
Tom. But even then, you'll... Thoughts? The Department of Education is a national bureaucracy that attempted to make an average-sized shirt and send it, and it doesn't fit anybody. What they have done, there were some well-intended things and national test standards and stuff, but they're absolutely correct.
This bloated bureaucracy has got all this money, and you're telling me that Mississippi has got the same challenges that Connecticut does? They don't. And so the national body is actually two steps away with governors of those two states saying, hey, I've got different problems that I have here with single parent households and things in Mississippi that have been going on generations.
I need to do this, this, this, this and this. And this is what I need to help these students in Mississippi. And I got it. And it's bad here and here. Massachusetts says, well, Connecticut says, well, my problems are a little bit different. I got this going on and that going on. I actually got pretty good math and English scores, but I've got these other things going on in the schools here.
There are regional issues that go on that the national. This is why we have governors. The reason the president doesn't.
you know run the entire country without governors is because each state needs its leadership to act local so you can think global act local so but the department of education has has presided over this i mean by definition just look at the test scores look at what he said about international okay who's been in charge department of education okay inherently you're fired
You're done, and we're going to do something else with the money, and we're going to move it around.
Here's what Ro Khanna said.
Here's what Ro Khanna said about it.
He's got a completely different perspective. Go ahead.
ABC News is reporting that President Trump plans to eliminate the Department of Education with an executive order. This is an assault on every young American who went to public school like me. This is an assault on every American family who has someone who is disabled and needs the IDEA program to provide education.
Chris, your thoughts on this?
You can't spend your way out of the problem. And it is a great, if misleading, statistic that we pay the most and we get the least. There are a lot of problems with the cost structure, and that is also state by state.
What do you mean misleading?
It's misleading in that the reason it is expensive is because what goes into government funding in the first place. If you look at the funding, it's not that the kid gets $9,000 a year. It's that the system of what the unions have to – what the unions get out of it. and what all the staffing is, and the transportation, and the physical plants.
There's all this other stuff that goes in it that's all very expensive in America. So that's not why you're failing. Why you're failing is very complicated. Getting rid of the DOE isn't going to necessarily automatically make things better because the states will have more control. Milton Friedman was very good on this. Get rid of the Department of Education.
He would say yes, but then when you asked him for the rationale, he would wind up really just, it's about scaling. And again, these are political choices. Can Trump do it alone? No, that's easy. That's Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. If Congress funds it, Congress controls its existence. So you need Congress to get rid of a government agency.
What percentage? What percentage vote do you need to get rid of it?
Oh, just like any other law. You don't need a supermajority or anything like that. But you need a congressional act. But that's not the point. He doesn't have to get rid of it to gut it. So he could get rid of it. He could scale it down, but he cannot eliminate an agency. And that's okay, because that's not really the debate we're having. That's the debate they'll make.
That's what Roe is doing, whom I also think is a fair broker, and I love having him on my show. But it's not about him overtaking constitutional power. That's not where we are. It's about how do you do this better? And everybody knows, look, I'll tell you what a taxpayer wouldn't argue with, okay?
I'm going to raise your taxes and we're going to have kids in school longer than anybody else in the world. And we're going to have the school day longer. We're going to feed them differently. We're going to educate them. We're going to exercise them. And we're going to do all these things that aren't getting done by families in this country anymore.
I don't think taxpayers would have the same kind of problem that they do right now because it's about the return on investment. All these kids are failing in the schools. Why? Because the standards have sunk. They're dealing with all these things that aren't education related. And there is no real incentive to succeed for any of these places. Nobody gets punished if their kids don't do well.
That's the budget right now. K-12, $612.7 billion annually, about $12,612 per kid. Federal, state, and local governments spend about $720 billion annually, which makes it $14.8 billion. Federal government provides 7.7% of funding, state provides 46.7%, and local governments provide 45.6%.
This is of the funding. Now, you want to talk about that's the funding. Now, let's talk about the influence and CRT and DEI and the SEL and the things that are going in there that the government is invoking. So the government's, you know, if you take a look at the influence and control, it's not 7.7 percent. It's greater than that.
And I think that what Ro Khanna is doing is he's standing up there, and it's a little bit of grandstanding. He was just here. Respect him. Thank you for being here. But to stand up there and saying this is terrible, this is public. I was a public school kid.
And what he's saying now, he picks out a program that is doing some good, IDEA, and says without IDEA, then these kids, that's a very political thing. That's a very populist thing you can say. OK, Roe. But now let's go back to it and let's look at all the other things that aren't working. And we want to release the states to not be under the thumb of the DEA. The DEA, they need that.
The schools actually need DEA, unfortunately. The DOE. And so to give the local, you know... magistrators, you know, and the governors and the mayors and everything to do it. And what that's going to do is that's going to force the states to come head to head with the unions in their state and things like L.A.
USD, which is the largest school district in the United States, Los Angeles, and by its own admission and the admission of people that have been there on city council, probably the poorest run city. school district in the United States. So, okay, now let's move all this down local, and let's see if we can get some change out of it. It's not just about setting standards.
It's in dealing with all the issues, and rather than IDEA coming from the federal government, Roe, we don't want it to go away. Something's going to have to replace the programs that are good, but let the state do it. They're at 93% of the total spend, 46% from the state and 44% from the local, right? Right. But take the 7.7.
You can keep something else with the money, but let's not have the government with the huge influence. It's not a lot of money.
Take the 7.7 out. It's not the money.
It's the control.
I totally get that. Yeah, I totally get and understand what you're saying.
So you can do it without getting rid of the DOE. You can keep the parts that work and you get rid of the parts that don't. And these are political judgments. The president can do a lot of it on his own. If he can't, then he turns to his party. and says, this is what I want.
And you're going to find unions that are screaming at senators who are screaming. I think that's massive for the future if they get rid of it. I think DOE getting rid of DOE would be massive for it.
I don't think they're going to get rid of the entire agency. But again, you don't have to to make the kinds of changes that are being discussed.
But you almost have to for the next administration to come in. You need to show the example of, if you don't, the next guy can come in and say, no, let's impose DEI. Let's bring back all the mindsets that we had before. Let's bring that back again. Yeah. Somebody can bring that back. It's been proven it didn't work. Adam, your thoughts on this?
Would you agree that there needs to be a dramatic change here? It's not like these are small numbers. Alarming lows. 40% of fourth graders. That's not 4%. 40% of fourth graders and 33% of eighth graders below basic levels. Basic levels. Almost half. Below. I posted this the other day because I want to give a shout out to hopefully the Eagles can beat the Chiefs this week.
Do you remember when the mayor came out last week and she was basically saying, let's go Eagles. E-L-G. No, she didn't. Watch this.
Let me hear you all say. E-L-G-F-E-S.
Eagles.
Wow. There she goes right there. Do you think she can't spell Eagles? I'm just saying it's anecdotal. Do you think she can't spell? It's not anecdotal. It's bullshit. But you know what? Before I posted that ridiculousness, I said, let me actually find out what the hell's going on. How to spell Eagles?
According to 2022 National Assessment of Education Progress, the nation's report card, Philadelphia's fourth grade students had an average reading score of 195. That's below the average of large cities. Only 13%, 13% of Philadelphia's fourth graders was considered proficient reading. Well below the 40% that we talked about earlier. Over there. Adult literacy is pressing concern in Philadelphia.
Approximately 52% of adults in the city are functionally illiterate, meaning they struggle with basic reading. That's adults, 52%. These statistics highlight the urgent need for comprehensive educational reform and literacy programs. Let's go E-G-L-S-E-S. I know that's anecdotal, but the numbers don't lie. This is not new. Tom says it all the time. Words talk, numbers scream.
We got some dumb ass people in this country. Yeah. And it's not a Democratic thing or Republican thing. No, it is not. Because if you look at what states are doing well and what states are not doing well, they all stupid is and stupid does.
Yeah. But this has existed for a long time. And we have a culture of accommodation, not of excellence. One of the reasons you guys have been able to distinguish yourselves is that Pat is so results focused and oriented. You do not have that in our culture in a lot of places, specifically within our systems. You don't have it. You don't have it in our government.
You don't have it in our education system.
Vivek, could you unpack that for me a little more?
Look, I mean, I don't think these are new arguments. The question gets into, well, how do you change it? And the biggest thing in politics that people don't want to touch, you will not hear, whether it's Trump, I don't care who the politician is, no one's going to say, You know, Pat, your kids aren't doing well. You're not getting it done as a parent. How much phone time you letting them have?
How much do you make your kid read every night? Well, I got to work. I got to do this. No, I understand. But, you know, it's on you. Your kid is a reflection of your efforts. You're not going to hear anybody say that. You're not going to hear anybody say that. Why? Because you're not voting for me now. So our politics is about giving somebody an excuse for their own behavior.
And, you know, oh, we don't we spend too much money if we spent less and we did it differently or the states had more control. If you don't raise your kids right, it doesn't matter what school they're going to. I've had my kid, my oldest kid went to what some think anecdotally, to your point, is the best high school in the country. OK, Trinity in New York City, private school.
I'm telling you, as somebody who watched her go through that school from K to 12, okay, she's only going to do as well as we make her do. She was blessed with a good brain. What she's going to make of it is about what her mother insisted on every freaking night and in the fights that we had over this stupid thing. And the best thing a school has ever done for me?
Was what my public school in Sag Harbor did of Long Island of making you not allowed to have this phone in school. My kid has changed academically because the environment has changed. She doesn't have to compete with her friends about this distraction machine. And that is something that a school can do. But otherwise, it's on parents. You know, we're trying to absent them from this.
It's not fair. We are on the same page on the responsibility where it's at. I mean, look at your kids. Look how you are with them. What do you think? It's just genetics that they're doing what they're doing at this young age? You're making it happen for them.
Great point, Pet. I know you want to move on, Pet. This is one of our stories, but we don't have to get into it. Teens spend more than a quarter of their time at schools on their phones.
A quarter. I believe it. Holy moly. A quarter of the, what did it say? Teens spend what?
Teens spend, it's on miscellaneous. The first one, teens spend more than a quarter of their time. So Seattle Children's Hospital tracking 115 students, 8 to 12. 25% they spend two hours on their phones in a six hour day. Six and a half hour day.
Have you watched this generation watch a movie at home?
Oh, forget it.
They watch the movie and they're on the phone. At the same time. And if you say, do you not like the movie? Do you want me to pick another one up? Oh, no, no, I like this. Nothing's happening right now in the movie. I said, what are you talking about? The movie is happening. That's what's happening. No, nothing's happening when something happens.
I'm telling you, I know our parents were the same way with the TV, the boob tube. Nothing like this. Nothing like this. And the research is all over the place, but we don't deal with it. Why? Because it's hard.
We like to pick on Colorado, at least I do, because it's a big blue liberal state and a lot of things. But they just became the 20th state to put in cell phone restrictions at high school. Phone goes in a Faraday bag during class and you have to be 100 percent paying attention. And, you know, it's a good thing.
No social media until 16. That should be the national law. Well, what did DeSantis impose here?
Was it 15 or 13? Australia was right.
Social media, yeah.
What did DeSantis impose here in Florida? Was it 13 or 15?
Whatever he did is good. I don't even know. I haven't heard of it. But anything, I'm telling you, if I could go back in time and fight one fight, And when? I would have never given my kids a smartphone. What age did you give them a phone? Whatever they wanted it. Whenever the other kids started getting it. And it got younger and younger with each kid. Do you remember what age?
Bella didn't get it until she was 13 or something like that. Mario was probably then going to be like 12 because she had it. Cha-Cha was going to be like 11 because her friends had it. And you lose because you're weak and you want it easy. And you want to pick your fights. And it's a mistake.
Have you read Anxious Generation?
You're right. And the less and less I go on, you know, Pat was joking around with me when I came in saying, hey, you look good today. I'm telling you, I have made a conscious decision. Now, my timing's not great because social media is more relevant in our world than it ever has been in media. But I have made a conscious decision to not be on it as often. And I've seen the change in my search.
My search thing is now dominated by car restorations and changing shoes on horses and dealing with problems with cows. I could be a farrier. I watched so many videos about how to deal with ulcers on cow hooves. Why? Because I am making a conscious effort. I'm doing homework all day for my shows.
You got an exciting life, Cuomo.
But I'm telling you, the more I disengage from what's happening on social media, the happier I become.
Have you read Anxious Generation? You need to.
I have not read it.
It's amazing. You wouldn't be able to put it down. Yeah. You wouldn't be able to put it down. Yeah. By Jonathan Haidt. Phenomenal book. Guys, if you... Oh, yes, yes.
I have this book. I have not read it. Somebody just sent it to me. You will not be able to put it down.
I don't know how many times we talk about this thing. It's a must-read for every parent to go through. The guy's got systems on how to deal with it. Which I think is fascinating.
And you see parents adjusting. These new groups, you probably see them here a lot in Florida. Remember when we used to have the girls wear the promise rings and I'm not going to have sex until this age or whatever it was?
There are kids now who are agreeing not until high school or something like that as middle schoolers where we're all going to stay with flip phones or we're all going to not have social media as a group, as a team until this age. And it's a great way to counter something that you cannot convince me
is good for kids i absolutely love that idea okay rob let's go to the president's visit with net yahoo if you can prepare some of the clips one by one by one if you can go through it uh president trump is with net yahoo um and it's there's multiple comments here some people were not happy about the fact that he pulled the chair if you want to play that clip rob um They're having a visit.
So this is the first one that takes place. This went all over the place on the internet. Go ahead and play this clip. Do you have a problem with that, Chris?
Of course not.
Vinny, do you have a problem with that?
I mean, I've never pulled out a chair for another man in my life.
Adam, do you have a problem with that? So you have shitty manners? Can I see the rest of the video? For a man? Can I see the rest of the video?
He's a guest in your house.
That's all that they had posted.
That's all there was? Yes. Oh, so he just pulled the chair. So he was just being hospitable? Do you have a problem with that?
No. And I've seen this now two times from two angles. And I'm like, it seemed like a split second. He was just being nice. Have you had your chair pulled off?
I mean, if he started wiping his face and massaging him, I'd have an issue.
I have a huge problem with people who have a problem with it.
I don't have a problem with it. Don't act like you've never pulled it. You pulled out the chair for Quorum of the Day.
Hey, sit here. Guys, I didn't have a problem with it. I'm just saying I've never seen a guy pull a chair out for a guy. That's all I said. I don't have a problem with it. I've never seen it before. You did it for Quorum of the Day. No, I didn't.
I moved it out of the way. Yeah, you did. Nah, nah, nah.
You pulled it out. Yeah.
He pulled it out.
And then he goes, why don't I get the black chair? Let it go viral. That's it.
You pulled it out, tiny Jesus.
But can I tell you something about that? Can I tell you something about that? I'll push your stool in for you. The pulling chair situation. For example, you know, for me, Vinny, like, Vinny always gets me gifts. If there's a competition on who's gotten who more gifts, Vinny's gotten me more. There's one in my car right now. No, no, but for example, when I went on Joe, I brought those gifts.
I gave them to Andrew Jackson, all this stuff. Oh, you're shocked.
Lenny Bruce microphone.
Lenny Bruce microphone.
It's like, oh, my God.
A Hendrix pen. But when I had Mark Cuban on the first time, I gave him a first print, first edition of Atlas Shrugged that he didn't have. He's like, you're kidding me. I said, oh, I have this book all over the place. Not this one. I said, it's first print, first edition. Rob, can you pull up the Cuban thing? And he's kind of like, this is a first print, first edition? I said, yeah.
Wow, I don't have this, right? You know, whether it's Kobe, you know, Kobe's reaction after the interview, the late Kobe, whether it's President Bush when we had him, whether it's, it doesn't, you know, sometimes people don't want gifts. Like DeSantis wasn't happy about my gift. He hated those gifts.
He's got that restriction.
I get that. I get that. But the point being, you know, you have that. There's mannerisms for somebody older than you or somebody that's in a more, what do you call it, like not an elderly, somebody that they are. Veterans. Respect. Yeah. So that's the only thing about it, which was kind of a go all the way to the end. All the way to the end. Yeah, right there where you see even the spikes.
Go up when you see the view spike right there. That's probably where it's at. Go up right there. Keep going, keep going, keep going. Keep going. That interview is in 20, right there. Oh, look at that. Don't you love that orange shirt? I mean, you were probably honoring Trump with that shirt. 1957, I found it from Beverly Hills. Not that he can't afford it. He's had a hard time finding it.
Original. No, but you're showing respect. You're showing affection. So that's the part. But the reason for that is because he gave me his time. I asked for his time. He gave me his time. That's the only thing. I don't know who asked who to come. So maybe it's I asked you to come visit me. You came to my house. Let me serve you. If I come to you, you serve me. If that's the dynamic.
It's hospitality.
People are making the point. that he is subservient to Israel. That's what they're trying to do. And look, again, you can feel that way. We have never had an American president, and Bibi admitted it on the stage, that he feels more supported by Trump than ever before. That's right.
Can you dislike that? Of course. Let me tell you what I absolutely love about what Trump did. I can't even tell you guys. When I watch this, I'm like... Listen, when you're the greatest country in the world and when you have a lot of money, directly and indirectly, most people around you feel you... Like, they can take something from you. What can I get from this guy? Right?
That are not in the inner circle. Not the inner circle. Inner circle is a very different story. Inner circle is, you know... But everybody else is kind of like, let me see what I can get from here. Let me see what I can get from there. From other countries. Israel is not U.S. You know, EU is not U.S. Any of these countries are not U.S. Relationship. Hey... Colombia did this.
Panama, yeah, we're not going to be doing this relationship with China. Of course, you need the U.S. business, and now you're allowing our naval ships to go through, which is saving us millions of dollars of fuel per year. That's what you're supposed to do, right? When he's giving this message and he throws this curveball, BB doesn't know what to do. Nothing.
You can tell he had no clue about this.
No idea. Rob, is this the clip? So there's two clips. I don't have the isolated. This is the isolated version of BB's reaction. But do you want Trump making the announcement and then we play BB's?
Is this with the announcement? You can hear it very lowly in the background. Okay, let me. Does the other one have what Trump says? Yes. Okay, play the other one. Watch this.
The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for
The people of the area do a real job, do something different. Just can't go back. If you go back, it's going to end up the same way it has for 100 years. So now go play the clip with his reaction.
Watch this.
The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site. Okay, you're not comfortable. Is this the same guy that pulled out my chair?
He pulled it out from under him.
Look at that.
He's looking because he does not know he's going to be saying that.
Of course. I don't think anybody knew Trump was going to be saying that. It wasn't what was written for him. He had just said the language where he's like, everybody's going to have to be part of this thing and doing it. And then he says it. I'm supposed to have his hostage envoy, who's his Middle East envoy, come on my show right after this. I get a call. Really sorry.
I got to go into an emergency meeting. I got to go. I got to go in. I can't talk to you right now. I have nothing to say about this. This is what Trump does. OK, now, what I don't like about it is and I got killed for this last night and that's OK.
Anybody who heard this, and certainly anybody in my business, knows that Trump was going off the cuff and saying something that was never going to be official U.S. policy. But everybody played it to advantage. On Fox, they started saying what a good idea this is. And then on MSNBC, you got Joy Reid, who's in outrage. This is ethnic cleansing.
Both of these entities knew that Trump was just riffing. Right. But it works for their agendas. And that's the problem with our whole dialogue. God forbid you say anything that shakes it up and makes something happen and you get attacked from both sides. I don't see Trump as the problem on this one. Yes, he said something that nobody wants.
Levitt came out right away and said, no boots on the ground and we're not paying for it. Well, that's not what he suggested. Yeah, I know. But that's the difference between official statement and when he's just pushing the envelope and rough it.
And I think everybody jumped on. I agree with you on a couple very key points there. And one of the things that people jumped on, he said, we're going to own Gaza. That's not what he said. Listen to what he said in full context. We're doing a very good job there. We're going to do a good job and we'll own it.
What he's talking about is when somebody says, you know what, I'm going to clean up that mess. I'm going to own it. I'll take care of it. It doesn't mean that you're taking possession and like physical, legal, tacit ownership of it. That's not what he was saying. He was in the middle of a rift.
But even in the middle of the rift, saying we're going to own it didn't mean that we're going to make it like Puerto Rico or Guam or a 51st state. No, that's not what he said, but it was a riff, and everybody jumped on those angles. But guess what? You know what? It's because they have no other news, and they have no other position.
I have one thing that I love about this. Adam, I'll give my thoughts.
Yeah, well, is this idea completely out there? Is it outrageous? Is it completely preposterous? Yes, but is it the best idea I've heard so far? Straight up, yes, it is. Because you know how Winston Churchill said, democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others that have been tried? Show me an idea that has been proposed that is actually possible. Show me an idea.
Because all the ideas that I've heard... are the river to the sea chant. I've heard the global intifada chant. I've heard the two-state solution that has basically been hinging on nothingness since for the last 75 years and has not happened. Where the second state gets a headquarters in Jerusalem. Yeah, exactly. So what viable solutions have ever been proposed? Nothing.
So what Gaza, what they basically said, what he didn't show here was Gaza could and should be a Middle East paradise. I believe he called it the Riviera of the Middle East. It could be what Singapore is in Asia. It could be what Dubai is. It could be what literal Tel Aviv is. If you've ever been to Tel Aviv, it is literal paradise. It's like if New York met Miami on the beach. It's incredible.
Gaza could be that. But instead, Hamas and the Palestinians have squandered Gaza. Billions and billions and billions of dollars by building down instead of building up. Their tunnel infrastructure is bigger than the New York tunnel system. Are you kidding me? So they've taken billions of dollars that have been given to them and they built basically a terror network.
And it's the same vicious cycle. They start a war. They lose a war. They cry foul. They sacrifice their martyrs. And they get... They wait a few years and then they do it all over again. And then the last point is this. The Jordanians don't want them. The Egyptians don't want them. They forget that Egypt has a border right next to it. They're not taking them in. The Lebanese don't want them.
Well, they have millions and millions of Palestinians already. So do Israelis. That's right.
There have been problems with the population.
People don't forget that there's 2 million Palestinian Arabs that live in Israel. Say that again. What do you mean they live in Israel? Yeah, they're Israeli citizens. Every single country in the Middle East has basically kicked out all the Jews, and they've moved to Israel. But Israel has absorbed 2 million Arabs. So why don't the other Arab countries take in the Palestinians?
Unfortunately, it's because no one wants them.
I mean, it's a no-win situation, plain and simple. The only problem is the non-jihad terrorists, just the regular Palestinians that had to leave because Gaza was going to be leveled, and we knew it was coming, what are they going to come back to? Are they going to be able to come back to their home? Meaning, hold on, there's no more Hamas. Everybody's gone. The leadership has changed.
Do I get to come back to my house that was leveled? Yeah, I lost my son. I lost my daughter. Me and my wife are still here. Can I come back? If they're going to rebuild and make a high-rise Trump Tower, can we get an apartment in there? Because my home was here. That's the only problem that I'm saying. And I get it. People are like, they won't take them, and they won't take them. Wait a minute.
That's their home. Nobody should have to take them. They should be able to come back home. And I think if you're going to rebuild and make it nice, I should be able to come back and live where I was living.
Look, that was the message that Trump articulated before he started riffing. And now I'm told after the fact that the motivation here was the Arab community has to step up. They call the Palestinians brothers all the time until it's time to pay or to play. And if they don't step up, it's 100% true.
If they don't step up and pay for, you don't want them in your country, you think you have enough, that's fine. Pay, because there's no reason for America to pay for it. And look, what also doesn't work, and this won't be as popular, Israel being in control of that as an occupied territory doesn't work.
So you need an international consortium there to make it work until it can establish itself as a standalone entity. And if Trump provokes that through this, then fine.
But the idea that America is going to put boots on the ground, there's going to be ethnic cleansing, you're not allowed to come back, I think all of that is just to motivate left and right in proving which one is worse, and it's not the reality.
It's called art of the deal. You're starting with something, and then we'll see where it ends up.
Pat, you were going to say something? I think it's a little bit of that, to be honest with you. I think it's a little bit more than a little bit the art of the deal. I think Trump knows exactly what he's doing. He may have been riffing a little bit. I think he's got underlying thoughts. And to Chris's point, you know, hours, not days, hours after the election when it was time to pay or play.
What did Qatar what did Qatar say? Qatar. It's like. Yeah. Congratulations on your victory. And then they turn around, look over their shoulder and say, all of you Arab Brotherhood that are here, your visas are expired in 14 days. Get out. Because Qatar is like, OK, Mr. President, Mr. New President, congratulations. We're good. And we don't have any of those guys. Yeah. But meanwhile, guess what?
Those people were legal immigrants that were living in Qatar. But when it was time to pay or play, what did they do?
You know, this is a very simple thing. When it's like, hey, if you guys want to stay quiet and you want to defend them, it was similar to what Kyle from Nelk Boys did where he said, hey, are you about the open border? He says, yes, it should be open border. And, you know, Trump, you know, he's going to be kicking people out. This is their country. And what's wrong with that and open borders?
They say, man, we're so glad you feel this way. We have 20 illegal immigrants on the bus right there that we would like to bring into your house since you agreed. No, no, they can't come in. No, no, you agreed because let them come into your house. And we think this is a great idea. So they got caught, Vinny. That's the challenge. They got caught knowing they don't want it.
So now, to me, there's a part of it where it's kind of like, okay, go visualize U.S. has a whatever you want to call it. What do you call that land if we take it over?
Occupied?
We occupy Gaza. Let's just see. Guys, this is spitballing, guys. Don't jump to conclusions. Let's build it into Dubai. Do we have the money to do it? Sure. Is the guy a real estate guy that can do it? Sure. Did Jared Kushner talk about how beautiful the water is?
Yes. Yes.
But then you build that, they come back, they don't know how to handle that. They don't know. It's like a lottery winner. What percentage of lottery winners after they win become drug addicts, destroyed, divorced? Your money, the identity is not there. It destroys life. So if you do and they don't come back, that's the only way it'll work.
But then if you do and they don't come back, are you kidding me? The stuff you're going to have to react to? Is this a top... Five issues? Is that top ten issues? I don't know. However, what I love about what he did is the following. Here's what I love about what Trump did. You know, Netanyahu, and especially him, his mindset, when you're that smart, you think you can outsmart everybody.
And it's kind of like, oh, he's on our side and he's this, he's that, he's this. I don't think he's on Netanyahu's side. I think Trump is on the Israeli people's side. I think Trump is on Israel as a nation's side. I don't think Trump's on the political gamification, power brokers behind closed doors side. I don't think he's on that side.
And the best part about being a great general and a leader is you need two things, and it's so hard to balance. You need an element of being very predictable. You need an element of being very unpredictable. As a parent, it's great as well. You also need to be like this as a husband. You need to be predictable. Your kids need to see you there. Okay, I'm there. Boom. Hey, boom. I'm here.
This is what's going on. This is food, schedule, reading, this. They need an element of predictable. But then kids sometimes get so comfortable with daddy, they're like, oh, boom. Oh, shit. Oh, he's still in there. No matter how much I love you and I kiss you, that guy's still in here. It's like, oh, okay. So every 90 days this needs to be seen a little bit, right? Trump is dancing with Netanyahu.
Come on in. Let me pull the chair for you. Oh, on the big stage, let me make you feel like the king. So, yeah, here's what we're going to be doing. We're going to be taking over Gaza. And what the – we didn't talk about that. Yeah, and it's going to be great, you know, and here's what – That's the beautiful part about him being unpredictable.
You got to love how he makes everybody uneasy to realize, hey, man. I like you. We have a relationship. But you're in America. It's America first. And that's the most beautiful thing that I like seeing on how that is managed. If he stays like that, he's going to win people like me over every single day by making them feel uncomfortable. And that's the right thing to do.
By the way, flip side, you ought to have a good relationship with them as well. You ought to try to have a good relationship with... Russia, you ought to do your best to have a good relationship with Zelensky. You ought to try to have a good relationship with China. You ought to try to have a good relationship with Israel. but not at the cost of them thinking they own you and they control you.
And I think he, man, this guy, he's in such great flow state. I just love seeing that. Now, let's go to another thing. This clip, Rob, if you don't mind playing this clip, I just love this clip because it kind of goes to what Cuomo said. It prompted me to watch this clip. We're not going to get into it, but this is what Scott Jennings, who is the current owner of CNN, he said this.
If you want to play this clip, go for it. Go ahead, Rob.
what is currently the dumbest strategy in politics, which is Democrats taking the 20% side of every 80-20 issue in America. USAID, people want this pared down. They want it streamlined. They want to know where the money is going. Democrats have a meltdown. Today, Donald Trump signs executive order on keeping boys out of girls' sports. Democrats take the 20 side of that issue as well.
All these issues, this is like Trump's superpower, finding a bunch of 80-20 issues, getting on the 80, and everybody who's sort of reflexively against him gets on the 20. And now the Democratic Party has like a 31% approval rating. This is why. He's described.
Oh, they lose their minds every single time.
13.
Yeah, and this one's kind of weird. Very. Because at one point, I was kind of like, you know, why aren't they getting behind Josh Shapiro? During the election. Yeah, why aren't they getting behind Josh Shapiro? Talented, capable, speaks well, sounds reasonable. Game changer. Game changer. And then you hear some stories there. Rob, you want to take the lead on this story?
With a PA official reverses suicide ruling for women with 20 stab wounds previously upheld by Democrat Josh Shapiro. What's the story about?
Yeah, so this teacher, Ellen Greenberg, was found dead in her Philadelphia apartment back in 2011. And her family has been fighting the state of Pennsylvania to have the case reopened. They originally, the medical examiner in the case, ruled that the death of Ellen Greenberg was a murder. However, he then met with the police and the district attorney.
who at the time overseeing that case was Josh Shapiro, and that ruling was overturned, and she was listed as the cause of her death as suicide. But we have some images, and I'll pull those up real quick.
Can you please show this? So it was, remember, initially they were like, oh, yeah, homicide, 100%. Then how long, Rob, a week or two weeks? I'm not sure about the actual timeline. They changed it. They changed it. They go, no, no, no, she killed herself. And this, just really fast, you guys tell me, that is all the stab wounds and the head gash.
You mean to tell me that you're the district attorney and this is all happening, and that you consider that a suicide?
Go ahead, Rob. So the fiance of this woman, Ellen Greenberg, his name is Sam Goldberg. He is the one that discovered her body. According to Sam Goldberg, he went to the apartment, was with Ellen the night that she was murdered, went downstairs to their apartment complex's gym, worked out for 45 minutes. When he came back upstairs, he found Ellen Greenberg and called 911.
However, according to an investigative reporter named Gavin Fish, before Sam Goldberg called 911, he made two phone calls. Those two phone calls were to two prominent Philadelphia attorneys, one James Schwartzman, and then his son, Kamen Schwartzman, who happened to be Sam Goldberg's cousins. This is where it gets weird. The family of Schwartzman.
the same family that Sam Goldberg called, they have direct ties to Josh Shapiro. Dating back to high school, James Schwartzman's daughter, who is Cayman Schwartzman's sister, Kimberly, I forget, Kimmel Schwartzman, she went to high school with Josh Shapiro. Her daughter goes to the same high school or Hebrew Academy that Josh Shapiro's daughter goes to now.
Josh Shapiro was the district attorney overseeing the case at the time. And there are financial ties to Josh Shapiro's district attorney campaign from both Sam Goldberg, the fiance's family, his father, as well as the Schwartzman's, the family that is connected to Sam Goldberg. So what it looks like to people who are
looking into this case is that there were calls made behind the scenes before 911 was alerted. If you believe the investigative reports into this, that there were calls made to 911 before that to family members who may or may not have contacted Josh Shapiro, but definitely have ties to Josh Shapiro. And there's, I mean, here's the financial records from open secret.
So you can see, but these are, and they're small, small contributions, $250 from the father of Sam Goldberg too. And then there's another financial contribution as well.
And then show the body image of just the body straight up, Rob, on the left side. So, Pat, if you're, God forbid, going to commit suicide, why are you stabbing yourself in the legs? It's everywhere. And then there's no way you're stabbing there in the back of the head. And apparently, Rob, when he went down to the gym for 45 minutes, he came upstairs. The door was locked.
So do they know who killed this person?
No, they just overturned the ruling and reopened the investigation into the death. What's super interesting is that all of this came out on August 8th of last year. But if you remember, this video was released and we'll play it real quick. We don't have to play the whole thing.
But do you remember when the mayor of Philadelphia accidentally tweeted a campaign video announcing support for Josh Shapiro as vice presidential candidate with Kamala Harris? We played it. This video comes out on the 5th, and then the news breaks on the 8th that this investigation may be reopened, and all of a sudden the Josh Shapiro for VP candidate rumors disappear.
Yeah. That's just bad news.
I'm Mayor Sherelle Parker, here with leaders from across our region. Kamala Harris is on the road to victory.
And the road goes to Pennsylvania.
And in Pennsylvania, we're united behind her. The woman that's tough and can lead. Are we ready to fight for it?
She is the right person at the right time for this job. It's going to do right by labor. It's going to do right by working people.
of a better partner than our Governor Josh Shapiro.
So this comes out, Rob? That comes out, and then people are saying that that's the main reason, because that story would have been, he would have to answer.
I have different questions here, but Chris, what do you know about this story?
Nothing other than what's being said now, and they're reinvestigating it. It certainly doesn't look good. I don't think it's why Shapiro wasn't picked.
Why do you think with the timing, Chris? Because that story was coming out, and the moment it comes out, they just announced he's not going.
So fifth, eighth, whose pick was Tim Waltz? That was the last second. No, but for some, when you hear about J.D. Vance and everybody said, who's going to be the VP? Tulsi, you know, hey, could be, what do you call it, Vive? It was never going to be Tulsi. No, but Tulsi was in the discussions. Oh, you mean on the right? On the right. And then you hear J.D.
Vance, and some people said, well, that was Peter Thiel, that was Don Jr. that really liked J.D. Vance. Whose pick was Tim Walz?
Great question.
I don't remember. Maybe Ilhan Omar's? No, no, I'm actually not being sarcastic.
Thank you.
It was Harris' pick.
Who brought Harris to her?
Who brought Walls to Harris? Yes. The DNC and a couple of Harris' Biden crossover advisors, when they were looking at the map of where they needed somebody, they were trying to get a Midwestern vibe, but it was a makeup choice. It was Shapiro. Shapiro was the obvious choice. He was the best choice.
But you know where I'm going with this. Where I'm going with this is whoever... broad waltz that didn't want josh could have been the reason why this story became public two three days later because josh was the leading guy to be the vp of kamala and this was one way to just say hey listen you better step out of the way if you do we won't make the story public
And he stepped out, and then nobody heard anything about the story.
Well, no, because the story could have come out anyway. Look, I think that she didn't pick him because he had a couple of negatives. One, he's better than she is, okay? He's better on his feet. He's not even close. He's a better messenger. The other thing is, he's a Jew, and he's a Jew who was aggressively pro-Israel during a time that the far left part
of the Democratic Party was decidedly against it. And now, as a basic sell proposition, you are offering America a black woman and a Jewish guy. And those are not minority groups that have absolutely killed it in the electoral process nationwide. And I think it was too much for Democrats to swallow, and I think it made Harris' people nervous. So they didn't pick him.
I thought it would have been a special moment of a first, like,
Indian and Jewish. I don't know about black. I thought she's Indian. Jamaican Indian. It was a Jamaican Indian.
She's not African American. What's Jamaican?
Yeah, Adam, are you trying to say something?
No, I just, I mean, other than this Goldberg-Greenberg situation, it seems like it's like a Jew-on-Jew crime situation that happened in 2011. But what exactly is Josh Shapiro's involvement in this? He was the DA. He was the DA? Yeah. So my question is this. How does this fall on him personally? 15 years later, what is it?
Because the office made a determination that it was something that it doesn't look like it was. So why would you do something like that?
Why would you change it from? OK, it's homicide. We all know. And now it's a fact. It wasn't a homicide. It doesn't take a genius. What what type of power does it take?
Ultimately, doesn't this come down to the judge being like. What are we talking about here, guys?
We're getting too technical. It's, did Shapiro help a couple boyhood friends and their wealthy, influential father who had been supporting him? Did he, as DA, allow it to flip to suicide? Or his fingerprints on pushing or his thumb on the scale pushing that? That's what it was, Adam. That's it. Not about the judge. It's like, did Shapiro help this out? How are you getting the wealthy thing?
They donate 250 bucks. No, but he knows the whole... No, no, you look at the position of him. It's not what he gave. You look at the position of the father in the community and the people that are there around him. It's like, hey, you're boyhood friends. This is now a family of some repute here. You know, we need a hand.
Gotcha. So it sounds like Josh Brewer has some explaining to do.
Yeah, and last, because I know, Pat, you want to move. And guess what? Nobody's looking for the killer, like with OJ. Where's the killer? Is anybody looking for the person that freaking killed this poor girl? No.
I mean, you know what O.J. would always say? He's like, what hurts his heart the most is that the killer's still out there.
Yeah, yeah.
The killer's still out there. O.J., we're going to find him.
It's the best question. It doesn't look good. I like that.
Your question was awesome.
Yeah, I mean, to me, it's who's behind it. Because, one, isolate. If that's the case, he's the D.A.,
Not good.
Damn. Okay.
Yeah.
But the other side, everybody has been hanging on to this for a while, waiting for his day that he's going to run. And someone had a file saying the day he runs, this is going to be public. Trust me, he's not going to be the one. You don't have to worry about Josh.
And that file came out. Before he runs for governor, though?
Yeah. I don't think that this is his big problem. But, you know, the Democrats misplayed it. I'm not saying that it would have made a difference in the outcome. This was a grievance election.
He's a capable guy.
And they own the status quo, but he is a capable guy.
He's a capable guy. Let's go to him. By the way. Whether you agree or disagree with Chris, you can always Manec them. Okay, Rob, put the Manec right there. Look at that stud. Look at that guy. Manec Chris. Many of the Manecs I get are disagreeers.
Are disagreeers?
Yes.
And I like how they believe they can punish me with their reviews. Is that what they do? Yeah.
And you said many of them in X do what?
They are coming to disagree about something that they either perceive I would support or they want to see whether or not I support something that they obviously don't like. And they're often very engaging. That's why I get back to them so fast. And I do like that in the... It's only a handful of occasions where I knew I was giving this person an answer that they did not want to hear.
And I knew they were going to ding me with the review. Yeah. And sometimes I'll answer him back and be like, you dinged me with the review, you punk.
Raise your prices. Raise your prices.
Now, let's go through it. FCC launched probes into Soros-backed radio station that revealed live locations of undercover ICE agents. FCC Chairman Brandon Carr appointed by President Trump launched an investigation into the San Francisco-based
Radio Section 8, backed by left-wing billionaire George Soros, after it broadcasts a live location of undercover immigration and customs enforcement agents conducting deportation operations in San Jose, the FCC Enforcement Bureau sent a letter of inquiry to KCBS questioning whether it violated the FCC license agreement to serve the public interest.
Noting the ICE agents were in the area with violating gang activity. The January 26th edition of KCBS. Is this it, Rob?
So this is actually the audio from KCBS where they issued a warning about the ICE raids. Okay, go for it.
The chances in just a moment. First, though, I'm Brett Burkhardt, and here's what's happening. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and Councilmember Peter Ortiz confirmed today that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are currently carrying out an operation on the east side of town.
The Santa Clara County Rapid Response Network, which is a community defense projecting system for immigrant communities against deportation threats, it first reported the activity on its platforms. That was the mayor of San Jose. Tom, thoughts on this story?
Yeah, so there's a couple things going on here. The first is, should a radio station be saying, hey, you on 3rd Street where there is a crack house, you got the cops coming up the alley right now. Do you really want that to put the... Put the authorities in danger so that they don't have the surprise on their side.
Instead, you have a criminal element or people that don't want to be caught pre-reacting. Do you want that? And obviously, the FCC, no. But the greater thing is this is all part of... Is this now a tactic that's being used? Because September 26th of last year, everybody got very upset. Like, not everybody.
Half of Congress got upset because the FCC fast-tracked George Soros buying 200 or so radio stations that were assimilated under a group, says Odyssey, A-U-D-A-C-Y, Odyssey, I think, if you say it that way. And he went and bought it. Not that he bought it. That's not unusual. You know, billionaires buy Time magazine, billionaires buy The Washington Post.
And then they put their thumbprint and their influence on coverage. That happens all the time. But this was fast-tracked. in September ahead of the election. And so people are saying, hey, is Soros getting an unfair advantage here to fast-track this? Because the people that were currently at the FCC were giving him the ability to get this so he could put his influence on the coverage.
And now people talk about, well, you know, he was supporting BLM and he was supporting DAs that were catch and release. Is his radio stations now, are they out there? telling people where law enforcement are going to be to interfere with law enforcement's job and potentially even put law enforcement at risk. And that's the story, and that's what's going on. It certainly looks like it.
You don't want a radio station to tell the criminals, hey, here they come, because they could prepare themselves. What a shit.
Shitty move.
Take action against the law enforcement guys.
Shitty move. Sabotage plain and simple. It's not journalism. It's aiding and abetting, just like, if it's true, the governor of Jersey. But, like, these guys are out there, you know, enforcing the law. And instead of supporting him, you have a major radio station putting a target on their back. And the real thing is, Chris, how long are we as Americans—
Going to let this one freaking guy, George Soros. You keep hearing this freaking guy. And it's always negative. And this guy goes around with impunity. And his son is going to be taken. If you want to talk about the face of evil, Rob, just show that face. I'm not judging or being. Like when you think of an evil guy. But Chris, no. I'm not judging, but look at pure evil in the face.
No judgment here. But evil, devil, demon. But no judgment.
If you were watching a movie and that face showed up, that face, would you think he was a good guy or a bad guy? What do you mean? The guy on the left right there looks great. The guy on the left. That guy on the left. He's 94.
He's looked like that since he was 16. If he's paying my bills, I think he looks just fine.
Yeah, but he's been fueling chaos for years. He funds riots. He installs radical DAs. George Soros? Stop it.
He's a beacon of amazingness.
And now he's doing this. And the fact that people talk shit about Elon Musk, who gives us X. Elon Musk is enemy number one to the left. Musk is the enemy?
He gave us free speech, and now he's cleaning up the government. Musk did not give you free speech. He bought it. For us. Natural rights gave you free speech. What do you mean natural? And the Constitution codified them. You know what I mean. He is pushing what he likes on a platform that he bought, which is his prerogative. Soros is a little bit of a boogeyman.
There are a lot of people with a lot of money that inject their will on our politics. Now, today, we call them oligarchs. It's not new. It's why I did what I did at the political conventions. The people with the money push the agendas. It is very rare that you hear any Republican or any Democrat come out with policies that wind up hurting them.
Even their fair share shit that they say on the left never winds up manifesting itself in any real reason. You could not like what Soros funds. That's fine. Correlation isn't causation with this radio thing. I don't think it was rammed in at the end so Odyssey could be like a big player in the election. I think that this was a bad move.
I think it's likely illegal for them to do what they're doing on the radio station. And it's certainly a bad look for the radio station, KCBS, in that market. But there are a lot of guys who put their money in it. We've never seen anybody do what Elon's doing. That's why I think he's got to be careful to make sure he does everything in a way that's beyond reproach.
And he doesn't make it easy for people to take down his efficiency efforts. But telling people where the authorities are is a really stupid thing to do. Really stupid.
Why is that? What do you mean?
Because you're hindering prosecution. You are obstructing justice by definition.
For example, let's just say three guys are being accused of rape or something in Miami Realtors. And you're reading a text Let's not do this. And then somebody on the podcast says you're probably going to get it.
No, I don't know what you're talking about.
But the point is, like, that's what that is. That's where it kind of stops. Let's just cut this thing off. I just want to make sure that you got the point.
You get it, then we get it.
Are those your boys? No.
Vacation.
You've done so much, Adam. Why not have a subpoena vacation?
Tom, let's just stick to the Mambo No. 5, buddy.
5.
I have no idea what that is. Let me see what the schedule is. Give me one second to see what I got after this because I got two stories I'd like to go. What is that? Okay. Rob, can you text Mateo to text me to tell me what my 1130 is? Let's go through the story. I love the story. and I think it's important for us to go through it, and then we'll do a Super Bowl to wrap it up with.
Army recruitment hits major milestone, but it may not be enough. Okay. So remember a couple years ago where guys, where parents would menace me and they would say, why should I let my kids join the military? I mean, why would you do that? Because I'm afraid of sending my kids to the military. It's not the same military that you join.
Well, Army recruitment hits major milestone, but it may not be enough. Defense Secretary Pete Hex had announced that the Army achieved its best recruiting numbers in 15 years with 55,000 recruits. In fiscal 2024, but Daniel Driscoll, Trump's nominee of Army Secretary, warned that it's not enough. By the way, that's under Biden if they're saying 2024. It's not enough.
Driscoll, a former Army Cavalry scout platoon leader, testified at his confirmation hearing that we have the fewest number of active soldiers that we've had since World War II. Even as conflict is erupting around the world, we need to fix that. The Army recruitment efforts has improved thanks to initiatives like the Future Soldier Preparatory Course launched in 2022.
which provides academic and fitness training to lower-performing recruits. Despite these gains, only 23% of young adults meet the military's physical, mental, and moral standards for enlistment, with disqualifications ranging from drug use and criminal records to gang affiliation. In 2020, the Army fell 15,000 recruits short.
From a 60,000 goal, recruiting just over 50,000, 2023, below his target of 65,000. Vinny, thoughts on this story?
I just, I don't know, Pat. I just think the sentiment just of people in the military has been low for a long time. The standards have dropped. And again, we keep going back to that LGBTQ. I saw multiple stories of people that were joining just to get the transition surgery. And then once you leave the military, you get connected. Yes.
You're saying they're joining the military?
They joined 1,000% men that wanted to transition at them. They joined for like a four-year contract. They come in. They get the surgery. Then they're like, you know, I have problems. And they leave. And guess what happens? They're connected because you need the therapy. You need the thing for a long time. So anything with numbers going up for our service.
And the VA is there to help you.
And the VA, yeah, guess what? Yeah, and forget about all the spending that we spend and all the crazy stuff. As a veteran, if you guys want to talk about, because, Matt, I deal with the VA all the time. It is the most depressing thing when I walk into a VA to see the level of freaking care that we're getting. So I think, you know, I'm hoping that the numbers go up.
I get messages on my neck all the time of actual people like, hey, listen, I want to join. What should I do? We have a valutainer here that's, I think, boyfriend? A sister's boyfriend. Oh, Daniel. Daniel is here. Daniel's sister's boyfriend is joining the Air Force.
I'm going to give him all the pros and cons and everything like that, but I'm just happy that the numbers are freaking finally going up.
Well, the question is why they're going up, what the enticement is. I would like to see Doge take on the military-industrial complex. And this is the first time we've had a Republican environment where they're open to it. Usually the Pentagon has been sacrosanct for them.
You can take the high-end estimate with trans people in the military is somewhere between 2,000 and 15,000, depending on whose number you want.
Yeah.
You have over 2 million people. I don't think that's the issue. But the idea of what are you doing with your defense department and what are you funding and why are you funding it, I can't think of an agency that needs it more than that one does.
It's hard to find special operators these days, which is really the majority of our presence and what we're doing, who don't believe that you're about 20 years past due when we needed to completely shift what our military does. So now, why are you starting somewhere else? Well, I think you want some early wins. And you want where it's manageable and there's going to be less pushback.
Can you imagine if President Trump, let's not see Elon Musk because he's too easy to push back again. The guy hasn't even been vetted, let alone have that kind of authority. But if Trump says, I want to go line by line in the Defense Department and DOD, Pentagon, all of it. And I really want to cut things. And I'm not just talking about $300 toilets.
I think that there would be a lot of Republican pushback. And the question is, well, then establishment Republican pushback or Republican pushback? Members of Congress whose constituencies eat from that trough heavily. And you know who else is going to come into play? The oligarchs, the real ones, the guys who get the real big contracts, which are defense contractors.
And they're going to come in and say no. And that's a really interesting fight. I don't have a problem with that. I know, but we're also not having to do it. You know what I mean? That's a lot of money, a lot of power.
It's a second term. It's a second term. And if there's a guy that has enough of a brass to be able to pull that off, it's this guy. There's a guy that if you – now, don't get me wrong. There's a part of Trump that, you know, where we're investing our money into the military is what I care about. What is it going to? Yes. How new is it? How strong is it?
Are we ready to fight future wars to prevent them or previous wars? Are we tech savvy enough to prevent a cyber attack or a, you know, any of power grid? Like how are – like they're talking about putting a – And Iron Dome, what are we doing that's futuristic to protect future attacks? I'm interested in funds going into that.
Stuff that we did in the past to just give a contract to someone, I'm not interested in.
It's where we're farthest behind, and we live this all the time. We have real, easy hacking access. People take down our companies, our platforms all the time. And it is the most ignored thing. I mean, just think about it. If guys went to a railway station, they went to Amtrak, and they took over Penn Station, it would be a national story for three days.
It would be a huge thing, and everybody would have to die, right? They take it offline on a regular basis. China takes our power grid offline in different areas on a regular basis. And we never even talk about it. And then the only pushback, well, we do the same stuff to them. I don't care what we do to anybody else in this context. So it's a real conversation to have.
I don't know that it gets had. I think you start with USAID for a reason. It's easy pickings. It's low fruit. This would be a real fight.
Well, I have immense respect for the people that serve in the military. Pat was in the Army. Vinny was in the Air Force. There's so many people I've met. through being at Valuetainment, that have served in the military, Marines, Matsapala, the list goes on. I never served. I played college football, but I have so much profound respect. You served. I served in the locker room. It was great.
Me and Arnold Palmer. It was great. But is there more an important... yet detached branch of the country that gets overlooked than the military. I think less than half a percent of Americans active serve in the military, right? And then 7% overall have served in their lifetime. World War II.
In some capacity, yeah.
Vietnam, the Desert Storm, the list goes on. So, you know, my grandfather served in World War II. He would tell me stories about literally fighting the Nazis. But it was an honor to do that. And now it's so detached from American lifestyle. Like very few people you know serve. Oh, it's those people. Depends which part of the country. Exactly.
I Ain't No Senator's Son. That song, when they wrote it in the 60s, is applicable today. I Ain't No Senator's Son. Who was it? Creedence Clearwater Revival?
Is that Sweet Home Alabama? Tom? That is correct. Sweet Home Alabama? It's called Fortunate Son.
I Ain't No Fortunate Son.
I think that this has always been an us and them situation. I think if you talk to the men and women in the military, they'd be the first ones who would want to see the agencies that control their existence reviewed. And again, but it's a really hard fight. And you've got to think. Right now, and again, this is not a criticism, okay?
You would be foolish to begin an administration taking on fights you may not win. That's silly. Build up some momentum, get some cachet that you can get things done. Smart.
When are you interviewing Trump?
That's his choice. I think he has made a mistake ignoring News Nation. I don't care if he does an interview with me or not. But ignoring an outfit that oversamples to independents who are the fastest growing part of the electorate doesn't make any sense.
Got it. Okay, so we'll see.
He's not a guy that'll back down, but maybe that's why it's not getting done. It's not a threat at all. No, that was a threat. I would pull his chair out.
Well done, Cuomo.
That's the approach.
I'd give him the shake hug. You know, when I first met him, he used to not shake hands. And I totally get it, man. You're around as many people as he is. You know, you'd be sick all the time shaking everybody's hand. But now, you know, he'd get the shake hug. You know, somebody gives you that kind of opportunity. You should show them respect. Also, I'm just that way.
I get told that every once in a while when people see us or I'm hugging and saying hello to you. They'll be like, oh, wow, you really like that Pat guy. I'm like, well, that's what I do when I like somebody.
Well, you and Vinny wrestle half the time you see each other. That's fun, though. I would not wrestle with Vinny. Vinny would not pull your chair out.
I feel like he would absolutely dislocate my knee in about 18 seconds.
He's exactly that kind of guy.
You're going to go high.
He's going to go low.
Strong and supple is what I was looking at. Let's do this last story. Oh, my God. Fox News says Bret Baier will interview President Trump during the Super Bowl pregame show. But at the same time, the NFL is doing a few different things, which is kind of weird. They're removing the end racism phrase from the end zone for the next Super Bowl that's coming up. And is this her, by the way, Dear Abby?
Yes. OK, go for it.
Millions of fans tune into the Super Bowl. They will not see this, the end racism slogan and the back of the end zone. Instead, one end zone will say choose love and the other says it takes all of us. The elite explains that the change is about capturing the moment of time in the country. and nodding to the turbulent past few weeks of fires, plane crashes, and tragedy.
They don't mention, though, the VIP who is going to be attending the big game. That is Donald Trump. Trump has made erasing every trace of DEI initiatives a focal point of his first few weeks in office.
Yet you have a job at CNN. Yeah. Making a lot of money for yourself.
Yeah.
And Super Bowl ticket prices have plummeted 58% in a week. They have 50-yard line seats dropping from $56,000 to $23,000. That is unfreakable. And the cheapest tickets on Game Time fall from $64,000 to $4,600. Prices on StubHub now range from $30,000. You can buy a ticket at $3,300. Wow. Are you kidding me? From $3,300 to $21,000 while Vivid seats, you can get a ticket for $3,100 to $21,000.
Game time prediction tickets will hit their lowest on February 5th and February 9th game day with a slight price increase expected. Why do you think? Wow. I mean, I have my own opinions. I think the NFL fans are not happy with the Chiefs and the same folks from two years ago being there. And I think they're not happy about the fact that... Some of the referees, the calls are a little bit suspect.
Pro KC?
Yeah. Did you see the – because you know they're all at the Super Bowl. Where is the Super Bowl being held this year?
New Orleans.
They're all in New Orleans sitting around. Did you see what some reporter or somebody asking questions that went up to Travis Kelsey and said? Rob, I just slacked it to you. He asked him – let me just play. I don't want to give it away and listen. Kelsey is not happy about this. Rob, go ahead. Put the volume up.
Travis, Travis, Travis, Travis, what do you love more? Taylor Swift or Phantom 15-yard roughing the passer penalties in the playoffs?
That's a cool question. Anybody else? Anybody else? He doesn't want to. Phantom 15. I mean, listen, it's undeniable that the Chiefs are favorite. But my thing is because Taylor Swift is anti-Trump. But the, what's his family? Mahomes. Mahomes' family, him, his wife, they're all.
Did you see what he said in the interview yesterday?
No. Because they asked us – wait.
Yeah, Mahomes yesterday was asked about – he openly talked about his faith. Yeah? Yeah, openly, which was – is this it?
Is this where he talks about playing in front of President Trump or –
Play this clip. Is this one playing in front of President Trump? Let's hear what he says.
Yeah, I mean, it's always cool to be able to play in front of a sitting president, someone that is at the top position in our country. And so I didn't see that clip, but obviously it's cool to hear that he's seen me play football and respects the game that I play.
Respects the game that I play. Gotta love it. It's good. And he's in a rough position, by the way. Yeah. But your thoughts on who's going to be winning. Let's do predictions and we'll wrap up.
Okay, we got predictions. Here we go.
And with score. Actually, give the prediction and your score. Oh, wow. Rob, write it down somewhere so we can kind of...
So let's see. I really have not analyzed this the way I usually do. Stop it. You have a PowerPoint early this morning. You're showing it to us. No, I mean, the way I would normally go into it. But I think this is going to be a high scoring game because I and both these defenses have shown over the course of the playoffs that.
They're on the field, I think, more than they really forecasted or wanted to be. And so they haven't been just shutting people off the field. And neither one of the offenses are these long grinders. And I think that the Phillies got a lot of balance. So I'm like 31-28 Kansas City because I just think that, you know, you can't get away from those game-winning drives where Patrick Mahomes has had –
Just unprecedented success. And, you know, that's what I think.
You seem nervous. I don't know why you seem nervous.
It's just a basic prediction. So I'll go with that. Vinny, where are you at with this? People aren't going to want to hear me say three-peat and everything. By the way, the Rice Sports Management Department is down there helping out with the Super Bowl this weekend. Oh, no way. Yes, they are. Is she going? Yeah, she's not going to the game, but there's a whole bunch of events that go up.
I love it. Tom, Vinny, where are you at?
That same reporter does something with Patrick Mahomes. I'll have him play it after this. Listen, and I've been saying this for a long time, and our viewers know this. I am that guy. They've invested way too much time and money in the Travis Kelsey, Pfizer, Taylor Swift following. She's brought hundreds.
How much money do you think Taylor Swift, being a football fan, going up there, has no idea what's going on, has brought to the NFL?
Do you see anything that isn't a conspiracy?
I would never say that word.
I know you wouldn't because it would be self-owning.
Nobody's saying the C word, but here's my question. You think that relationship is weird? Did you see the allegedly leaked stuff from their PR people saying this is when we're supposed to break up?
Would you call it the lowest form of intelligence? Skepticism. Skepticism is the what? Lowest form of intelligence. Not my Vinny, though. No, I love Vinny. No, no, listen.
But he's not exactly a rock for brains. I think he sees some things.
Oh, yeah, like what CNN talks about, fake Russian collusion. Anyway, listen. Let's talk about something serious right now. I think there is no way Kansas City loses, just like last year. Remember, Adam? Yeah. They were winning all the way to the end. Kansas City wins. The score is going to be 27-24 Kansas City.
And my other prediction is that Travis Kelsey takes nine boosters at the 50-yard line because he's promoting Pfizer. Give me the score. 27-24 Kansas City.
You got 27-24 KC. 27-24 KC. So we're both field goal guys. You're 31-28.
I have no idea. I'm a Bills fan. I do not think that the refs are why the Bills lost the game. You're a Bills fan? Yeah. I feel horrible for you. You know how to spell Bills? They won against Baltimore. You know how they spell Bills these days?
B-I-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-S.
Listen, I am also a Jets fan, so the Bills are like high cotton for me. But I'll tell you what. They won against the Ravens because a tight end dropped a pass. They lost against the Chiefs because a tight end dropped the pass. So that's football. I have never seen in the modern era a running back dominate the way Saquon Barkley does. Supposedly, you're not able to run in the NFL anymore.
And I mean, what this guy is doing is amazing. I am not impressed by the Chiefs run defense. I think Jalen Hurts is good. I believe the Eagles are going to win. I don't know the score. I'm not good enough. But I do not believe that they're going to lose because of Pfizer and Taylor Swift.
Okay. Well, you can't deny the calls that people have been talking about. Can we play this?
There are bad calls all the time.
But they go towards the Chiefs a lot of the times. A lot.
They used to say the same thing about Jordan.
Yeah, I mean.
And Brady. But go ahead. Let me see this one. This is actually a funny one, too.
He actually plays it good.
Patrick, Patrick, for your whole career, you have had so many great people help you win. So who is your favorite ref?
That's so funny.
He's cool, though. Don't you want this reporter to get punched in the face?
Yeah, he probably will.
We'll go out there and play the game the right way.
Is there one that you give a Christmas card to every year, possibly? Look, look.
Not that I can remember. Not that I can remember. Some of my teammates have been kind of bigger.
Wouldn't you like if he just got up and did what Jim Everett did to Rome? Say it one more time. Oh, Chris Everett.
Say it again.
Can you not say that anymore? There's no denying this guy's greatness. I mean, if you're going to beat them, it can't come down to the final play because they're going to get – perceived every single close call, whatever it ends up being.
I don't know that they're going to get every close call. And look, I should be saying this, what you guys are saying, because the bill's lost, right? But I'm just saying, if you get to a game where you're down to the end and you're given this team a last drive, then you're asking to lose. That's true. You know, win so that there is no doubt.
Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment. I keep rooting against these guys. You know, I always root for Tom Brady, and it worked out well for me, and I always root against Patrick Mahomes, and it doesn't work out well for me.
We only have 27 minutes left. Make your pick.
This guy goes on a whole rant, and I'm three seconds in, old man. So I think for the first time that they're actually going to not pull it off in the end, and if I'm going to quote the Philadelphia mayor, let's go Eagles. Eagles. L, G, S, E, S. I think they're going to win 27-26 by one point. Who? Philadelphia. Philly? Yeah, Saquon Barkley.
So what happens if Philadelphia wins 50-10? If Philadelphia wins 50-10, does Vinny come on here with me next week and say, see, they had to make it so obvious because... Of course, because of the Pfizer vaccine.
No, no, no. That's exactly. We're going to make him eat his words. PBD, do you want to give your prediction?
Listen, I think there's never been a three-peat in the history of football. I'd like to see a three-peat. I'm a history guy. I want to see a three-peat so the next guy can beat it, okay? I will tell you, the most exciting quarterback ever I've ever seen play is this guy. He's so exciting. He's falling on the ground, throws the stuff that he does. I've never seen before.
There's something very special about this guy. Very special about this guy. But I will say what he said about Saquon Barkley. I mean, it's not supposed to happen. No, it's not supposed to happen. 2,000 yards. Coach shouldn't let him play game 17. He was kind of upset. He had a shot at breaking a record. I'm going to go 35-28 Chiefs. Wow. I think it's history.
And by the way, I actually do think the NFL wants the three-peat. Thank you. I think the NFL wants the three-peat, but I think there's also part – This is one of those things where the villains, they become the villains. Everybody wants to see them lose. Of course. Everybody wants to see them lose.
You're rooting for the Chiefs.
I'm not rooting for the Chiefs. I'm telling you, it's history-making.
You're saying, let's go, Chiefs.
C, E, F, G. No, this is like all of them do it. Like in college, Baylor, Baylor, B-A-R-E-S, go Bears.
I'm just happy, though, that end racism, which is the most unattainable goal, as much as we want it, you're not going to stop some guy in Mississippi stopping racism. That's like saying stop ugliness. You can't. So the fact that they finally took that stupid-ass thing out of there.
Choose love. Choose love. Gang, gang, have a great weekend. And to all the people that disagree with Chris, go Manecta guy and tell him how much you disagree with him.
Go Bill.
Shoot him a Manecta and tell him.
L-L-G.
Rob, pull up this QR code at the end for those that want to go to download the app. I mean, by the time Rob gets it, it's going to be tomorrow. How long do you take? Come on, Rob. Get it already, Rob. I answer every one. I know you do. There you go. There's the QR code. We love you, buddy. Take care, everybody. God bless. Bye-bye, bye-bye.
I got to pee like a maniac.