Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Airport Chaos as Dems Sacrifice TSA Workers & Flying Public to Protect Illegal Aliens plus Trump Ultimatum on Iran

Transcript

Airport Chaos as Dems Sacrifice TSA Workers & Flying Public to Protect Illegal Aliens plus Trump Ultimatum on Iran · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome. It is Vertical Center.
0:02
Speaker 2: Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you and Senator We've got
0:05
Speaker 2: a lot to talk about on today's show, including chaos
0:08
Speaker 2: and anarchy at airports all over the country. Democrats continuing
0:12
Speaker 2: to hold the American people hostage, even after we've paid
0:15
Speaker 2: our taxes and all of these services should be provided.
0:18
Speaker 3: Well, we're three weeks into a shutdown of the Department
0:21
Speaker 3: of Homeland Security. Thousands and thousands of employees continue not
0:25
Speaker 3: to be paid, including especially TSA agents. TSA agents have
0:29
Speaker 3: now missed two paychecks and as a consequence, a number
0:33
Speaker 3: of them are quitting their jobs. A number of them
0:36
Speaker 3: are not showing up, and the burden on them is enormous,
0:40
Speaker 3: and people are saying it. If you're flying, we're seeing
0:43
Speaker 3: lines at airports two, three, as many as four and
0:46
Speaker 3: five hours long. People are missing their flights, people are
0:50
Speaker 3: missing spring break. And what is infuriating this is all
0:54
Speaker 3: men made. This is all the Democrats. They have forced
0:57
Speaker 3: this shutdown, and they're forcing the shutdown because they hate Ice.
1:02
Speaker 3: They're forcing the shutdown because the Democrat Party is entirely
1:05
Speaker 3: about illegal aliens now instead of American citizens. We're going
1:09
Speaker 3: to break down exactly what's going on, what the impasse is,
1:13
Speaker 3: and how this is eventually going to come to resolution.
1:16
Speaker 3: We're also going to talk about the latest of what's
1:18
Speaker 3: happening in Iran, and in particular Iran. President Trump has
1:22
Speaker 3: given Iran an ultimatum forty eight hours to open the
1:25
Speaker 3: Strait of Hormuz. We're going to explain that. We're also
1:28
Speaker 3: going to lay out how Iran has been firing missiles
1:32
Speaker 3: at Diego Garcia, a US British military base, and how
1:36
Speaker 3: that escalation may be bringing the Brits into being more
1:40
Speaker 3: active participants in this military conflict.
1:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's certainly going to be very interesting to see
1:45
Speaker 2: how that breaks down, and we're going to talk a
1:47
Speaker 2: lot about it in a moment. Want to also talk
1:49
Speaker 2: to you real quick about the people in Israel. They
1:53
Speaker 2: are under siege and they are in desperate need of
1:55
Speaker 2: all of our help. And there's a way that you
1:57
Speaker 2: can get involved and have a real impact right now today,
2:00
Speaker 2: and that is with working with the International Fellowship of
2:03
Speaker 2: Christians and Jews. A sacred season is approaching Passover when
2:08
Speaker 2: we remember God's deliverance, the night he brought his people
2:12
Speaker 2: out of bondage and into freedom. This year, many of
2:15
Speaker 2: God's people will observe in darkness under the shadow of
2:19
Speaker 2: war across Israel. Red alert sirens pierced the air, Families
2:24
Speaker 2: run to shelters with seconds to spare, elderly men and
2:28
Speaker 2: women fear they'll be left behind, and parents are comforting
2:32
Speaker 2: their frightened children as explosions shake the night. Sleeplessness and
2:37
Speaker 2: uncertainty have become daily life in Israel, and Passover reminds
2:42
Speaker 2: us that God hears the cries of his people and
2:45
Speaker 2: answers with love and compassion. And that's why the International
2:49
Speaker 2: Fellowship of Christians and Jews is on the ground in
2:52
Speaker 2: Israel right now. They're providing food and emergency supplies, equipping
2:57
Speaker 2: bomb shelters, and caring for elderly Holocaust survivors, just as
3:02
Speaker 2: is people once cried out for deliverance. Vulnerable Israelis need
3:06
Speaker 2: your help today with your generous Passover gift. It shows
3:11
Speaker 2: you stand with God's people. And if you are ready
3:14
Speaker 2: to stand with the people of Israel, then stand with
3:17
Speaker 2: the IFCJ and help. You can call them eight to
3:20
Speaker 2: eight four eight eight IFCJ.
3:24
Speaker 1: That's eight eight eight four eight eight.
3:27
Speaker 2: IFCJ to rush your gift right now, or you can
3:31
Speaker 2: give online at IFCJ dot org. That's if CJ dot org.
3:38
Speaker 2: All right, Senator, so let's break down kind of where
3:41
Speaker 2: we are with this chaos at airports. I think the
3:45
Speaker 2: media has been very disingenuous about this. Republicans, you've voted
3:50
Speaker 2: now how many times to fully fund DHS.
3:54
Speaker 3: Seven different times, and so look, the way federal funding
3:58
Speaker 3: works is that every cabin agency either has to have
4:01
Speaker 3: an appropriation, which is Congress voting to give it the
4:05
Speaker 3: money to spend its budget, or there has to be
4:08
Speaker 3: what's called a continuing resolution, which is just kind of
4:10
Speaker 3: maintaining the status quo. Without one or the other, you
4:14
Speaker 3: have a shutdown. Now, we previously managed to pass appropriations
4:19
Speaker 3: for every cabinet agency in the federal government except DHS,
4:23
Speaker 3: and the Democrats held DHS out, and it's because, look,
4:28
Speaker 3: they are the open border party, and so we funded
4:30
Speaker 3: the rest of the government. So the good news in
4:32
Speaker 3: this shutdown is our military they're getting their paycheck, Our
4:36
Speaker 3: FBI agents they're getting their paycheck. Everyone in the other
4:39
Speaker 3: parts of the federal government are getting paid. But at
4:42
Speaker 3: the Department of Homeland Security there are hundreds of thousands
4:47
Speaker 3: of employees, many of whom are going into work but
4:51
Speaker 3: are not getting their paycheck. So for example, the Coastguard,
4:54
Speaker 3: they're still required to keep us safe or FEMA disaster relief.
4:59
Speaker 3: The guys at FEMA are not getting paid. And the
5:03
Speaker 3: one that is most citizen facing is TSA because anytime
5:09
Speaker 3: you go to an airport you see TSA. Now, if
5:12
Speaker 3: you remember back in right before November, the Schumer shutdown,
5:16
Speaker 3: which was the forty three days shutdown, the longest shutdown ever,
5:19
Speaker 3: that had a massive impact on airports, and in fact
5:23
Speaker 3: that that was one of the things that caused the
5:25
Speaker 3: Democrats to cave at the end and finally allow the
5:27
Speaker 3: government to be funded. There you had TSA agents not
5:31
Speaker 3: getting paid, and you had air traffic controllers not getting paid. Yep,
5:35
Speaker 3: one bit of good news here. The air traffic controllers
5:38
Speaker 3: are getting paid this time, so we're not facing massive
5:41
Speaker 3: shortage of air traffic controllers. But the TSA they're housed
5:45
Speaker 3: within DHS and they've now missed two paychecks in a row.
5:50
Speaker 3: And look, most TSA agents are not rolling in the
5:53
Speaker 3: cash they are living.
5:55
Speaker 2: In fact, one of them said to me, I made
5:57
Speaker 2: a point when I was at the airport you're not
5:59
Speaker 2: fout all the time in hobby and I was flying
6:03
Speaker 2: out and I looked at every one of them. I
6:04
Speaker 2: was like, hey, thanks for chump for work today, Like
6:06
Speaker 2: I really appreciate it, Like you're keeping America going. And
6:09
Speaker 2: one of the guys recognize me from TV and he's like,
6:13
Speaker 2: hey man, He's like, can you please let whoever know
6:15
Speaker 2: that they're screwing my whole family. He goes like, I'll
6:18
Speaker 2: tell you I make fifty I think he said fifty
6:20
Speaker 2: five or fifty seven thousand a year. He's like, I
6:22
Speaker 2: can't miss a paycheck, man, yep. And I was like,
6:25
Speaker 2: thank you for telling me that. I will absolutely relay
6:27
Speaker 2: your message anywhere and everywhere I can to the point
6:30
Speaker 2: you're making When you're making fifty five, fifty seven, fifty
6:33
Speaker 2: eight thousand a year, he's got a family. He literally
6:36
Speaker 2: cannot miss a paycheck and not have a major consequence
6:40
Speaker 2: on his life.
6:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, And for many of these agents, it means they
6:44
Speaker 3: can't pay their rent, they can't pay their mortgage, they're
6:46
Speaker 3: having trouble putting food on the table. The numbers of
6:49
Speaker 3: TSA agents going to food banks to get food just
6:52
Speaker 3: so they can have dinner for their kids. We've had
6:56
Speaker 3: more than three hundred TSA agents just resign say look,
6:59
Speaker 3: I can't do a job where I don't get paid.
7:01
Speaker 3: I need to go find something else where I can
7:03
Speaker 3: bring home a paycheck and feed my family. Those numbers
7:06
Speaker 3: are only going to get worse. Now, look what is
7:10
Speaker 3: driving this and and what's driving this is the Democrat
7:15
Speaker 3: Party has decided they hate ice and this is all
7:19
Speaker 3: about Ice is evil. We must stop Ice. Now. Can
7:22
Speaker 3: I tell you the most crazy, ridiculous irony of the shutdown.
7:26
Speaker 3: What's that Ice is getting paid?
7:29
Speaker 4: Yeah, they have failed to shut down Ice because last year,
7:36
Speaker 4: when we passed the Reconciliation Bill, we could see that
7:38
Speaker 4: the Democrats were getting more and more unreasonable on border security.
7:42
Speaker 3: So we funded ICE. We funded ICE for several years
7:45
Speaker 3: going forward. So the ICE agents are getting paid. And
7:48
Speaker 3: by the way, the Democrats know this. So understand if
7:51
Speaker 3: you're waiting four hours at an airport, the Democrats aren't
7:55
Speaker 3: doing this because they want to defund ICE. They're doing
7:58
Speaker 3: it just because they want to show their base they
7:59
Speaker 3: hate Ice so much, yep, that they're going to shut
8:02
Speaker 3: down the TSA and it has zero impact on ICE whatsoever.
8:08
Speaker 3: But look, I gotta tell you the amazing thing. The
8:12
Speaker 3: Democrats don't seem to be concerned at all. And there's
8:16
Speaker 3: a big reason for that, which is the media is
8:19
Speaker 3: broken in this country. They don't report facts, and so yes,
8:23
Speaker 3: the media is not explaining to people. In fact, the
8:26
Speaker 3: Democrats are out there claiming they want a fund to
8:28
Speaker 3: the TSA. I mean, I mean, they're just gaslighting like crazy.
8:33
Speaker 3: And when the corporate media goes along with it, it
8:36
Speaker 3: means that that Democrat senators face no consequences for behaving recklessly.
8:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, you're you're right.
8:43
Speaker 2: And one of the things I thought was interesting was
8:45
Speaker 2: Sean Duffy was on TV talking about this on Sunny
8:47
Speaker 2: morning and he was saying like, like, this is getting
8:51
Speaker 2: to the point now where you have to worry.
8:52
Speaker 1: It's a dangerous factor. Here. Have a lot of irritated.
8:55
Speaker 2: People, you have a lot of people gathering, You have
8:58
Speaker 2: a lot of people gathering outside. I worry about the
9:01
Speaker 2: soft target aspect of this. We know about soft targets.
9:05
Speaker 2: I worry about that many people gathering outside of an airport.
9:08
Speaker 2: You got to worry about about tensions rising. And then
9:11
Speaker 2: you also have to worry about the other issue, and
9:13
Speaker 2: that is what is this doing to the economy. It's
9:16
Speaker 2: going to start hurting the economy. You and I before
9:18
Speaker 2: the show today, we both are speaking of an event
9:21
Speaker 2: this week we have the conversation about is it better
9:24
Speaker 2: to drive? Because it's just so insane what everybody's having
9:27
Speaker 2: to deal with right now. How many people are going
9:29
Speaker 2: to cancel trips, not spend money, not go to events, tourism,
9:33
Speaker 2: spring break, the list goes on and on.
9:35
Speaker 3: Well, that's right, and again, the Democrats are doing this
9:39
Speaker 3: because they know their bases is acutely attuned to anything
9:43
Speaker 3: that is attacking Ice, anything that is attacking Trump, anything
9:47
Speaker 3: that is fighting for open borders, and they feel confident
9:51
Speaker 3: that the press will be their petrorreon guard, will protect
9:55
Speaker 3: them from the voters know what they've done. So, for example,
9:58
Speaker 3: I went on Red Events Western Show on Newsmax this week. Now,
10:02
Speaker 3: now Greta Newsmax is not some left wing outlet, but
10:06
Speaker 3: Greta did her entire opening monologue saying Congress has failed
10:11
Speaker 3: and the TSA is defunded because Congress has failed. Congress
10:15
Speaker 3: is not doing his job. And she says says it
10:17
Speaker 3: like eight times that it's Congress as a whole that
10:20
Speaker 3: has failed. Never once does she say that it's the
10:24
Speaker 3: Democrats who are voting no unfunding and the Republicans who
10:27
Speaker 3: are trying desperately to get it funded. I pushed back
10:30
Speaker 3: pretty hard. Give a listen to the back and forth
10:33
Speaker 3: between gret and me.
10:35
Speaker 5: Oughtreach Texas Republican Center Ted Cruz joins me, nice to
10:39
Speaker 5: see you, sir. Your what were you doing about TSA?
10:43
Speaker 5: What were you doing about TSA not getting paid?
10:47
Speaker 3: Look, we need to fund them, and we need to
10:49
Speaker 3: fund them now. I just heard a minute ago what
10:51
Speaker 3: you said. I would respectfully suggest that your remarks should
10:55
Speaker 3: should be edited slightly. I agree with every sentiment you
10:57
Speaker 3: said except one. You said, Congress isn't paying them. Congress
11:01
Speaker 3: isn't paying them, Congress isn't paying them.
11:03
Speaker 1: To be accurate, what.
11:04
Speaker 3: You should should say is Democrats aren't paying them because
11:07
Speaker 3: Republicans have now voted six consecutive times. I voted two
11:11
Speaker 3: hours ago to fund the entire Department of Homeland Security.
11:14
Speaker 3: I voted over and over and over again. Why are
11:17
Speaker 3: they not funded? There is only one reason, because the Democrats,
11:21
Speaker 3: on a party line vote are refusing to fund the
11:24
Speaker 3: Department of Homeland Security. It takes sixty votes to pass
11:28
Speaker 3: the funding legislation. We only have fifty three Republicans, so
11:31
Speaker 3: saying Congress is not doing its job is inaccurate. The
11:35
Speaker 3: Republicans we are here, we are voting. And the reason
11:38
Speaker 3: this shutdown is happening is because Chuck Schumer and the
11:42
Speaker 3: Democrats care more about their radical open border extremists than
11:46
Speaker 3: they do about doing their job. And it's resulting in
11:49
Speaker 3: a lot of people hurting right now.
11:51
Speaker 5: All right, I considered saying that, but I'll tell you
11:53
Speaker 5: why I didn't, because part of the job being a
11:57
Speaker 5: Republican or Democrat and a Congress is you've got to
12:00
Speaker 5: figure out a way to resolve things with your opposition.
12:03
Speaker 5: It can't just be that they're obnoxious or they're obstinate.
12:06
Speaker 5: There's got to be some way to get them to
12:09
Speaker 5: do that. That's just part of the job. And it's
12:11
Speaker 5: of course you're gonna of course you're going to run
12:13
Speaker 5: into these walls a lot. There's got to be something
12:16
Speaker 5: to be done. I mean, I mean, it's just you
12:18
Speaker 5: can't just you can't can't just let these people starve.
12:21
Speaker 3: Greta. You're assuming that that that the two parties are reasonable.
12:25
Speaker 3: The Democrats want a shutdown, and I'll tell you candidly,
12:29
Speaker 3: I think they're happy to shut down the Department of
12:31
Speaker 3: Homeland Security for the rest of the year. We had
12:34
Speaker 3: just just a week ago. Brian Shotz is considered the
12:37
Speaker 3: Democrat leader in waiting. He told a reporter he said,
12:40
Speaker 3: we are serene. That's the word he use, serene about
12:44
Speaker 3: the DHS shutdown. And mind you, we have had four
12:48
Speaker 3: terror attacks from radical Islamic terrorists in the last two weeks.
12:52
Speaker 3: We have a heightened risk of terror attacks right now,
12:55
Speaker 3: and the Democrats keep voting to defund the agency that
12:59
Speaker 3: is designed to prevent terror attacks. It is reckless and
13:02
Speaker 3: irresponsible from the Republican side. Do you know that for
13:05
Speaker 3: two and a half weeks, the Democrats refused even to
13:08
Speaker 3: sit down and talk with the White House. They just
13:10
Speaker 3: voted no, no, no, And their position is we won't
13:13
Speaker 3: talk to you. We're not interested to compromise. Our answer
13:15
Speaker 3: is no, shut it down. We don't care. It is
13:19
Speaker 3: not This is the equivalent of political terrorism. And by
13:24
Speaker 3: the way, Greta, if you look to the last shutdown,
13:27
Speaker 3: the last shutdown was right before the election last year.
13:29
Speaker 3: It was the Schumer shutdown. It was forty three days.
13:32
Speaker 3: It was the longest shutdown in American history. Do you
13:35
Speaker 3: know what one Democrat aide told a reporter during that shutdown?
13:39
Speaker 3: That Democrat aid said, we will keep the government shut
13:43
Speaker 3: down until airplanes begin falling from the skies. Look, that
13:50
Speaker 3: is wildly irresponsible and reckless. And you know why they
13:53
Speaker 3: get away with it. They get away with it because
13:55
Speaker 3: they're confident that the press will do Greta with respect
13:58
Speaker 3: what you just did.
13:59
Speaker 1: Well, it's Congress who's doing it.
14:01
Speaker 3: No, it is not. Republicans are voting to fund it
14:04
Speaker 3: and Democrats are voting not to. And the reason Democrats
14:07
Speaker 3: keep doing this is because they don't get held to
14:11
Speaker 3: account if I vote against funding, hold me to account.
14:14
Speaker 3: But when when they're the one shutting it down, we
14:16
Speaker 3: need to take the American people. It is Chuck Schumer
14:19
Speaker 3: and the Democrats. The White House has giving them a tongue.
14:23
Speaker 3: Have you seen what the White House is given them?
14:24
Speaker 1: Yeah?
14:25
Speaker 5: No, no, But is there anything here? Says this is
14:27
Speaker 5: the top, I'll tell you what's going to happen.
14:29
Speaker 2: By the way, let's just stop there and go back.
14:31
Speaker 2: She's like, can you give them anything? Like it's you're
14:34
Speaker 2: the one holding this up? That is the part that
14:37
Speaker 2: frustrates me the most. Center is that she's like, well,
14:39
Speaker 2: is there anything you can do? Go over the list
14:42
Speaker 2: of what has already been given? As you're being held,
14:45
Speaker 2: I say, as you, as the American people, as the
14:48
Speaker 2: travelers are being held hostage.
14:50
Speaker 3: Well, and let's take more fundamentally, the DHS appropriations Bill
14:56
Speaker 3: was a bipartisan bill negotiated between Republicans and Democrats that
15:00
Speaker 3: came out of the Appropriations Committee with bipartisan support. So
15:05
Speaker 3: the Democrats had all of these different reforms that they
15:08
Speaker 3: put into DHS that Republicans agreed to. By the way,
15:12
Speaker 3: none of those reforms have happened because they won't allow
15:14
Speaker 3: it to be funded. Yeah, the White House has been
15:18
Speaker 3: trying to negotiate with Democrats, although, as I said, for
15:21
Speaker 3: more than two weeks, the Democrats wouldn't even meet. They
15:24
Speaker 3: had nothing to say. This was while TSA was not
15:26
Speaker 3: getting paid, while DHS was not getting paid. The Democrats
15:29
Speaker 3: position was no, we won't even sit and talk. And
15:32
Speaker 3: it's why I said.
15:33
Speaker 1: Well, and that's you know, it's premeditated.
15:35
Speaker 2: The point that you made earlier, like this is clearly
15:38
Speaker 2: they decided this is the issue we're going to go on,
15:42
Speaker 2: and we are premeditating this and we wanted to hurt.
15:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's actually even different from premeditated. I think to
15:50
Speaker 3: some extent they're in a box. Okay, their base hates ICE.
15:54
Speaker 3: If you're a Democrat senator, look here, I'm gonna tell
15:57
Speaker 3: you what. John Fetterman tweeted tweeted This weekend, Elon Musk
16:02
Speaker 3: stepped in and said, I would like to offer to
16:04
Speaker 3: pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse
16:08
Speaker 3: that is so negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans.
16:11
Speaker 3: It was incredibly generous. Elon is a patriot. Here's what
16:16
Speaker 3: John Fetterman said, This is incredibly generous. TSA agents across
16:21
Speaker 3: the country are relying on food pantries and community donations
16:25
Speaker 3: just to get by. I remain the lone Democrat to
16:29
Speaker 3: vote with my Republican colleagues to fully fund DHS and
16:33
Speaker 3: get people paid. It should never come to this point,
16:37
Speaker 3: So Fetterman speaking the truth. Here's the problem. Most of
16:41
Speaker 3: the rest of the Democrat senators. They're in a situation
16:44
Speaker 3: where they feel if they vote to fund ICE, their
16:48
Speaker 3: angry open border activists will never forgive them. And I
16:52
Speaker 3: think a lot of them are engaged in political cowardice.
16:56
Speaker 3: They're unwilling to vote to fund ICE. Mind you, that
16:59
Speaker 3: literally means means that they don't want murderers arrested, they
17:03
Speaker 3: don't want child rapists arrested, they don't want gang bangers arrested, ices,
17:09
Speaker 3: narco terrorists. I mean, the ICE is who is arresting
17:13
Speaker 3: criminals in the interior of the United States. The Democrat
17:18
Speaker 3: political reality is their angry base hates them so much. Look,
17:21
Speaker 3: these are the same people that are abolished the police.
17:24
Speaker 3: These are the same people that are abolish ICE. And
17:28
Speaker 3: so I'll tell you this week, Republican Senators, when we're
17:33
Speaker 3: in session, we have lunch together every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday,
17:36
Speaker 3: and then actually we were here throughout throughout the weekend.
17:38
Speaker 3: We were in DC, so we had lunch Friday, Saturday,
17:41
Speaker 3: and Sunday as well. And what I'm arguing to my colleagues,
17:45
Speaker 3: I said, Listen, I think the Democrats are so wildly
17:50
Speaker 3: unreasonable that they may be content to leave DHS defunded
17:56
Speaker 3: for the entire year.
17:57
Speaker 1: Really, they don't.
17:59
Speaker 3: Care about the concert sequences of what they're doing. They
18:01
Speaker 3: don't care about the fact that every tsa agent would
18:05
Speaker 3: have to quit, and you would literally shut down every
18:07
Speaker 3: airport in the country. Like it's there. They believe we
18:11
Speaker 3: can blame it on Trump and the Republicans and and
18:15
Speaker 3: and that they are there's not a common ground of reasonableness.
18:20
Speaker 1: Well, let me ask you, Sean.
18:21
Speaker 2: Sean Duffy said on I think it was facin Nation
18:24
Speaker 2: Sunday morning that he said, if you if you think
18:26
Speaker 2: it's bad now, wait till this coming week when you
18:30
Speaker 2: missed another it's it's gonna be worse. And his point
18:33
Speaker 2: was you will have so many people quit that now
18:37
Speaker 2: you've got a problem that you don't have a big
18:39
Speaker 2: enough workforce even when you get back to being funded.
18:42
Speaker 1: How concerned are.
18:43
Speaker 2: You about that? Is that part of the Democrats plan?
18:45
Speaker 2: Like yeah, like it's it's kind of the the way
18:47
Speaker 2: that they did would defund the police. Well, if we
18:49
Speaker 2: can't directly do it, we'll just drive them so crazy
18:52
Speaker 2: they quit their jobs.
18:53
Speaker 1: They don't want to be police anymore.
18:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, I think plan is giving them too much credit.
18:57
Speaker 3: That they don't have a plan. They're obeying their angry
19:01
Speaker 3: activists who are just screaming. They're just engaged in a
19:04
Speaker 3: primal scream and So what I told my colleagues is, listen,
19:07
Speaker 3: if we're working with people who are objectively unreasonable and
19:12
Speaker 3: who may well say, we will never vote to fund
19:14
Speaker 3: ICE again, here's what I've suggested. All Right, fine, if
19:18
Speaker 3: that's the reality, we should get the Democrats to fund
19:24
Speaker 3: all of DHS except Ice. Carve Ice out. Now you
19:28
Speaker 3: might say, Okay, that's a terrible idea, because then ICE
19:30
Speaker 3: doesn't get funded. Remember we've already funded ICE for four years.
19:33
Speaker 3: So agree to fund everything, accept Ice. And then when
19:36
Speaker 3: I urge my colleagues is if they force us to
19:39
Speaker 3: do that, we should immediately take up a reconciliation bill
19:44
Speaker 3: and fund ICE for the next ten years and what
19:47
Speaker 3: I advocated for, and we should increase ICE's budget by
19:49
Speaker 3: ten percent. So if that's going to be their price,
19:52
Speaker 3: we Democrats will never again vote for border security, we
19:56
Speaker 3: will never again vote for Ice. Yah Then, at the
20:00
Speaker 3: end of the day, the only way I see to
20:02
Speaker 3: solve this problem reconciliation. Remember we've talked about this before.
20:07
Speaker 3: It is the one procedural mechanism the Senate can use
20:11
Speaker 3: that does not require sixty votes, that just Republicans can
20:15
Speaker 3: pass it. And so if the Democrats would agree, we'll
20:19
Speaker 3: fund all of DHS except ICE. The next week, we
20:22
Speaker 3: should come back and do a reconciliation and fund ICE
20:25
Speaker 3: for a decade. Because I'm not convinced that these loans
20:29
Speaker 3: are going to change their mind in the next ten years.
20:32
Speaker 2: I want you to pause what you're doing for just
20:34
Speaker 2: one minute, and I want you to hear about Alejandra.
20:38
Speaker 2: She lives in a remote community with very few resources
20:41
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20:46
Speaker 2: her parents have no real options, no doctors in their community,
20:50
Speaker 2: and no money for real medical care. By the third day,
20:55
Speaker 2: her body was shutting down. She woke up and just
20:58
Speaker 2: long enough to tell her mom, I can't take the
21:01
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21:06
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21:09
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21:13
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21:18
Speaker 2: Now through Compassion Alejandra was treated and against all odds,
21:23
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21:27
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21:32
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21:51
Speaker 2: help a child just like Alexandra. Today, you can visit
21:55
Speaker 2: compassion dot com. That's compassion dot com for people that
22:01
Speaker 2: are going to be traveling this week. What is your
22:02
Speaker 2: gut do you think there's a what are the chances
22:05
Speaker 2: that we could actually get something done here where then
22:07
Speaker 2: things could start to go back to normal, say of
22:09
Speaker 2: going in the in the direction they're going now, which
22:11
Speaker 2: is these two three and four hour plus waits.
22:14
Speaker 3: Look, I don't know. I think there is a real
22:17
Speaker 3: urgency in the Senate to try to get this resolved
22:21
Speaker 3: before the Easter holiday. Yeah, the question is are the
22:25
Speaker 3: Democrats going to budge that. There are a few of
22:28
Speaker 3: the kind of the Democrats who occasionally will reach a deal,
22:35
Speaker 3: who are making noises like they want to, But Chuck
22:38
Speaker 3: Schumer doesn't care. Chuck Schumer is terrified of being primary
22:43
Speaker 3: from the left. And in fact, I want to I
22:46
Speaker 3: want to read a little bit from a story in
22:49
Speaker 3: the in the wash in the Wall Street Journal about
22:51
Speaker 3: Chuck Schumer. So he has been wildly left wing. Yeah,
22:56
Speaker 3: so much so that he's now done the longest shutdown
22:58
Speaker 3: in government history. And then he turned around and turned
23:03
Speaker 3: around and has shut the TSA down and refused to
23:06
Speaker 3: pay them. Here's a story that just came out in
23:09
Speaker 3: the Wall Street Journal. Growing frustration with Chuck Schumer spurs
23:13
Speaker 3: talk of replacing him. And you might say, oh, thank god.
23:17
Speaker 3: Maybe some Democrats are saying this is too obstructionist, you're
23:20
Speaker 3: too unreasonable. Nope, nope. You know who wants to replace him,
23:25
Speaker 3: the left wing because he's not burn it down enough.
23:30
Speaker 3: And let me read the beginning of this article. Senator
23:33
Speaker 3: Chris Murphy was dining with progressive activists at a French
23:36
Speaker 3: restaurant in Washington's Georgetown neighborhood. Could you be more cliche
23:40
Speaker 3: as a Democrat than that? I suppose? You know, maybe
23:43
Speaker 3: a vegan French restaurant would would make it even better.
23:47
Speaker 3: When their conversation about how to advance their legislative priorities
23:51
Speaker 3: turned to a thorny question what to do about Senate
23:55
Speaker 3: Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. To the surprise of some attendees,
23:59
Speaker 3: the Connecticut Democrat, at a rising star in the party's
24:02
Speaker 3: left flank, responded that some lawmakers had been doing informal
24:06
Speaker 3: counts to see whether enough votes existed to remove the
24:10
Speaker 3: New York Democrat from his leadership position, According to people
24:13
Speaker 3: familiar with the mid February dinner, Murphy explained that Schumer
24:17
Speaker 3: had enough backing to remain as leader, but the disclosure
24:21
Speaker 3: stood out nonetheless because it revealed the frustration inside the
24:24
Speaker 3: Senate had reached a high enough level that some Democrats
24:28
Speaker 3: were actively contemplating how to al Schumer.
24:31
Speaker 1: Wow.
24:32
Speaker 3: Murphy is among a group of senators and top advisers
24:34
Speaker 3: who have grown increasingly dissatisfied with Schumer's leadership, According to
24:38
Speaker 3: people familiar with the conversation who else. That group includes
24:43
Speaker 3: Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who has been initiated conversations
24:47
Speaker 3: with other senators to gauge frustrations with Schumer. Some of
24:50
Speaker 3: the people said Senator Tina Smith at Minnesota has also
24:54
Speaker 3: been active in discussions whether frustration was Schumer. In an interview,
24:59
Speaker 3: Murphy said he free frequently asked about Senate leadership, but
25:02
Speaker 3: he doesn't have account of who would vote to remove
25:05
Speaker 3: Schumer and doesn't recall mentioning one. In more than four
25:09
Speaker 3: dozen interviews with Democrat senators and others. Many said the
25:14
Speaker 3: concern about Schumer's leadership was widespread, but what are they
25:19
Speaker 3: mad at? And this is where it's amazing. Murphy, Warren
25:23
Speaker 3: and Smith are part of a batch of senators dubbed
25:28
Speaker 3: fight Club, who are particularly incensed by Schumer's approach to
25:33
Speaker 3: the midterms. This group of progressives believes that Schumer favors
25:38
Speaker 3: centrist candidates in some key races, so their whole argument,
25:43
Speaker 3: even though Schumer is just saying let it burn, I mean,
25:46
Speaker 3: reminds me of Heath Ledger in the Dark Night as Batman,
25:49
Speaker 3: just saying let it burn. Who cares what happens if
25:52
Speaker 3: their terror attacks not Chuck Schumer's problem. If every airport
25:55
Speaker 3: is shut down, not Chuck Schumer's problem. If people can't
25:59
Speaker 3: pay rent or mortgage, not Chuck Schumer's problem. And yet
26:03
Speaker 3: the Elizabeth Warrens of the party say not enough, You
26:07
Speaker 3: need to do more. I don't even know what more
26:09
Speaker 3: would look like, but that is the reality of where
26:14
Speaker 3: Democrats are. And as long as the media does what
26:17
Speaker 3: Greta did and what so many other CNN does an
26:21
Speaker 3: MSNBC does, as long as they keep covering it up
26:25
Speaker 3: and pretending no, No, it's not the Democrats who are
26:27
Speaker 3: shutting it down. They'll keep doing the exact same thing.
26:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, they really will.
26:31
Speaker 2: I got to ask you an audible question real quick,
26:33
Speaker 2: because you mentioned you're in DC over the weekend. Give
26:35
Speaker 2: us a thirty second update on where we are with
26:38
Speaker 2: the Save Act.
26:39
Speaker 3: We are continuing to debate it, but right now every
26:43
Speaker 3: Democrat votes no, and we are not doing a talking filibuster.
26:48
Speaker 3: We are not requiring the Democrats to a talking filibuster.
26:51
Speaker 3: So I think the expectation is we're going to vote
26:54
Speaker 3: on it this week and if nothing changes, the vote
26:57
Speaker 3: is going to go down. I'm President Trump is deeply frustrated,
27:01
Speaker 3: as you know, as I talked about, and we did
27:03
Speaker 3: an earlier podcast which if folks want a deep dive
27:06
Speaker 3: on the Save America Act, you could have have an
27:08
Speaker 3: entire podcast last week devoted to explaining what was going on.
27:13
Speaker 3: I think we should use the procedural rules to force
27:16
Speaker 3: the Democrats to stand and talk and talk and talk
27:18
Speaker 3: and do a full talking filibuster, but we're not right now.
27:21
Speaker 1: So has Trump waited on that idea? By the way,
27:24
Speaker 1: I mean, oh you me, yeah? No, what does he say?
27:27
Speaker 3: He's vocally in favor of it. But in order to
27:30
Speaker 3: do it, we have to have fifty Republicans stand together,
27:33
Speaker 3: and we don't have fifty that that's the fundamental problem.
27:37
Speaker 1: Is is is it two or three?
27:40
Speaker 3: Look, it's hard to tell. We have fifty three Republicans,
27:43
Speaker 3: which means we can lose at most three. There are
27:47
Speaker 3: at least four and potentially more that are knows and
27:50
Speaker 3: and the problem is you have in particular Republicans who
27:53
Speaker 3: are retiring, so they're not going to be on the ballot.
27:56
Speaker 3: That makes it very hard for the White House to
27:58
Speaker 3: pressure them. If they're not they're not up for reelection.
28:01
Speaker 3: There's not a whole lot There's not a whole lot
28:03
Speaker 3: of leverage there.
28:05
Speaker 2: All right, I want to move to what's happening in
28:06
Speaker 2: Iran right now and some new developments that have taken place.
28:10
Speaker 2: You have a new threat from the President of the
28:12
Speaker 2: United States of America giving Iran and I'm quoting forty
28:15
Speaker 2: eight hours to reopen the sort of horror moves or
28:17
Speaker 2: the US will obliterate Iran's power plants. Explain why that
28:22
Speaker 2: has not already been done. I've actually had a lot
28:23
Speaker 2: of people asking me. They're like, well, why didn't we
28:25
Speaker 2: hit those right away. There's a lot of people that
28:29
Speaker 2: don't understand the nuance of that. One reason is when
28:32
Speaker 2: you do these types of attacks in war, you don't
28:34
Speaker 2: want to punish innocent people, and so many times you
28:38
Speaker 2: won't go after those power plants unless those power plants
28:41
Speaker 2: are directly being used by terraces or by the enemy
28:46
Speaker 2: to harm you. That's when it can come into an
28:48
Speaker 2: XYZ kind of debate. But explain now why the president
28:52
Speaker 2: has ratched this up. And look, every time he gets
28:54
Speaker 2: a timeline, he doesn't ever bluff. It seems like there's
28:57
Speaker 2: one thing that's consistent. You got ten days to figure
29:00
Speaker 2: something out or forty eight hours, you better listen to president.
29:03
Speaker 3: So what the President put out on truth Social He said,
29:06
Speaker 3: if Iran doesn't fully open without threat the Strait of
29:09
Speaker 3: Hormuz within forty eight hours from this exact point in time,
29:14
Speaker 3: the United States of America will hit and obliterate their
29:18
Speaker 3: various power plants, starting with the biggest one first. That's
29:25
Speaker 3: a very specific commitment. Yeah, time frame is exact, and
29:29
Speaker 3: you're right, there is a long pattern of those who
29:31
Speaker 3: test President Trump's time frame ending up on the losing
29:35
Speaker 3: end of things. This military conflict to date and in
29:40
Speaker 3: the three weeks that we've been engaged in, the US
29:43
Speaker 3: military has been focused on military targets. It's been focused
29:46
Speaker 3: on air defense systems. It's been focused on short and
29:51
Speaker 3: medium term ballistic missiles. It's been focused on launchers for missiles.
29:55
Speaker 3: It's been focused on factories and production facilities for missiles.
29:59
Speaker 3: Same thing for drone. It's been focused also on Navy ships.
30:02
Speaker 3: It's been focused on top personnel, and many of the
30:05
Speaker 3: top personnel have been taken out. Look in military conflict,
30:10
Speaker 3: it is a significant thing if you destroy the economic
30:13
Speaker 3: infrastructure of a country, because when this military conflict ends,
30:18
Speaker 3: presumably Iran is going to be able to need to
30:20
Speaker 3: function as a country, and if it's ability to provide power,
30:24
Speaker 3: if it's ability to its main source of revenue is
30:28
Speaker 3: selling oil, if we take out the ability to generate
30:33
Speaker 3: oil production, that would have a devastating impact on the
30:38
Speaker 3: economy of Iran, much more so than has already happened.
30:41
Speaker 3: If all of that infrastructure is taken out, and once
30:43
Speaker 3: it's taken out, it can take years and years and
30:47
Speaker 3: years to rebuild, and one of the challenges look with
30:51
Speaker 3: ordinary leaders, cost benefit analysis can work. Here, you've got
30:57
Speaker 3: radical Islamist Claire who frankly don't give a damn if
31:04
Speaker 3: the people suffer. And so I'm not sure if this
31:09
Speaker 3: threat will produce produce different consequences. I think everything that
31:13
Speaker 3: has unfolded over the last three weeks was reasonably able
31:18
Speaker 3: to be anticipated. And yet the Iatola and the Malas
31:21
Speaker 3: they charge down the road anyway, But I think the
31:27
Speaker 3: President is frustrated with the Strait of Hormuz being shut down.
31:30
Speaker 3: That's having significant effect on oil prices and gasoline prices.
31:37
Speaker 3: I will say, also, if you look at what we
31:42
Speaker 3: have done in the navy, here's what the chief of
31:46
Speaker 3: SITCOM said. More than eight thousand Iranian targets have been hit,
31:52
Speaker 3: one hundred and thirty vessels have been destroyed, which is
31:56
Speaker 3: the largest elimination of a navy since World War Two.
32:01
Speaker 2: Uh.
32:02
Speaker 3: And and and that was from Central Command Commander Admiral
32:06
Speaker 3: Brad Cooper.
32:08
Speaker 1: This is incredible, staggering.
32:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, and and yet and much of the Iranian military
32:16
Speaker 3: leadership is no longer with us, so so those effects
32:19
Speaker 3: are are are quite significant. We have degraded their ability
32:24
Speaker 3: to wage war massively.
32:27
Speaker 2: Uh.
32:27
Speaker 3: But the question is what is it going to take
32:30
Speaker 3: uh to bring this to an end. And and and
32:34
Speaker 3: I think the objective from the very beginning should be
32:37
Speaker 3: to collapse this regime. I don't particularly care who runs
32:42
Speaker 3: Iran after the Ayatola. I just would like to see
32:45
Speaker 3: Iran led by a leader who is not a radical
32:49
Speaker 3: theocratic Islamist who wants to murder Americans and who is
32:52
Speaker 3: murdering Americans. The reason President Trump launched this attack is
32:56
Speaker 3: because Iran has murdered nearly a thousand Americans. They've been
32:59
Speaker 3: actively funding terrorism, attacking Americans, and this is an opportunity
33:05
Speaker 3: to put that to an end.
33:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is final question on this.
33:09
Speaker 2: You have the real prospect now the UK could be
33:13
Speaker 2: brought into this. I actually think that's a good thing.
33:16
Speaker 2: If they're brought in. We need more people involved in
33:18
Speaker 2: just us in Israel in a big way. Your reaction
33:21
Speaker 2: to that after this base has been attacked. That is
33:25
Speaker 2: a joint base.
33:26
Speaker 3: Well, Diego Garcia is a military base that is in
33:30
Speaker 3: the Indian Ocean and it has a prime location to
33:33
Speaker 3: project power throughout the Middle East and throughout much of Asia.
33:37
Speaker 2: It is a.
33:40
Speaker 3: It is a base of the United Kingdom, a British base,
33:43
Speaker 3: but they share it with the United States, so we
33:45
Speaker 3: both have access and use it. I will tell you,
33:48
Speaker 3: by the way, I've been very active concerning Diego Garcia,
33:51
Speaker 3: because unfortunately chyr Starmer, the very left wing Prime Minister
33:56
Speaker 3: of the United Kingdom, is talking about entering into an
34:01
Speaker 3: agreement to give Diego Garcia, to give the Chagos Islands.
34:06
Speaker 3: Chagos Islands are a series of islands in the in Ocean,
34:09
Speaker 3: give them to Mauritius, a country that is very close
34:13
Speaker 3: to China, and give them the ability to significantly limit
34:18
Speaker 3: our ability to use Diego Garcia. I've laid out that
34:22
Speaker 3: that is a direct violation of the treaty the United
34:26
Speaker 3: Kingdom has with the United States, where under that treaty,
34:29
Speaker 3: the UK committed that Diego Garcia would remain under British control,
34:35
Speaker 3: that it would not not be given to the control
34:38
Speaker 3: of anyone else. And so what happened, I'd been pressing
34:42
Speaker 3: back very hard, by the way, President Trump has been
34:44
Speaker 3: pressing back very hard, saying for the UK to give
34:46
Speaker 3: this away is is lunacy as madness. What happened now
34:52
Speaker 3: is Iran has fired missiles at Diego Garcia and and
34:56
Speaker 3: put that base in jeopardy. And the Brits, remember, at
34:59
Speaker 3: the outset out of this military conflict, Starmer said they
35:02
Speaker 3: would not participate in any way as a consequence of
35:07
Speaker 3: Iran attacking Diego Garcia. Starmer has now said that British
35:11
Speaker 3: forces will assist in defensive efforts to fight back against
35:16
Speaker 3: missiles coming out of Iran. So they're still still not
35:19
Speaker 3: assisting in the offensive activity, but at least the Brits
35:22
Speaker 3: are are coming somewhat to the table, and I got
35:26
Speaker 3: to say that's an improvement, but it's also very disappointing
35:30
Speaker 3: to see the United Kingdom not there at the outset
35:35
Speaker 3: in this military action.
35:37
Speaker 1: Well, and it may be there.
35:38
Speaker 2: Kubaiasm isn't working out for them, so now they're having
35:40
Speaker 2: to deal with reality.
35:41
Speaker 1: We're gonna get by.
35:42
Speaker 3: And by the way, Starmar's Starmer's tenure in office is
35:45
Speaker 3: every bit is imperiled, as as Chuck Schumer's. The British
35:49
Speaker 3: people are very very unhappy with Starmer. He will almost
35:53
Speaker 3: certainly lose the next election in the UK. Chuck Schumer
35:57
Speaker 3: that everyone is very very unhappy with Chuck, and I
36:01
Speaker 3: think he will almost certainly lose his next election. I
36:03
Speaker 3: don't think he can win a Democrat primary, and I
36:06
Speaker 3: think there's a real chance he's on the ballot in
36:08
Speaker 3: twenty twenty eight. I think there's a real chance Chuck
36:10
Speaker 3: Schumer doesn't even run for re election.
36:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, you may absolutely be right on that one. I
36:15
Speaker 2: think that the writing's starting to appear on the wall
36:17
Speaker 2: there for sure. Don't forget. We do this show Monday,
36:19
Speaker 2: Wednesday Friday, So at that subscriber auto download button wherever
36:22
Speaker 2: you get your podcast. You can also watch it on YouTube.
36:25
Speaker 2: If you like to watch the show, do it there.
36:27
Speaker 2: You can see it on Facebook as well, and the
36:30
Speaker 2: Senaer I will see you back here Wednesday morning.