Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / House Speaker drama continues into Day 5

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House Speaker drama continues into Day 5 · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: It's still going on, folks. Ballot after ballot has been cast,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: vote after vote has been tallied. Kevin McCarthy still not
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the Speaker of the House. The House has adjourned after
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the eleventh failed vote for Kevin McCarthy. He says it
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: may take Dayscarthy and House Conservatives have been inching towards
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: a deal. We've also been told in the late night
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: hours a deal that would elect a potential Speaker McCarthy.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: McCarthy offered conservatives even more concessions, which include one member
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: motion to vacate instead of five more House Freedom Caucus
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: members on the House Rules Committee, promises to whole votes
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: on controversial term limits as well as border security bills.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: And the conservative activist group Club for Growth and the
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Congressional Leadership Fund that's super Pac, aligned with Kevin McCarthy,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: struck a deal to prevent the Conservative Leadership Fund from
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: weighing in on any open seat primaries and safe Republican
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: districts trying to tip the scales to one of their guys.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Those are the concessions that have been made. The question
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: is is that enough to get this done? Based on
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: what we've seen so far. No Matt Gates made it
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: clear that if Democrats join up to elect a moderate Republican.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Has he described it, He said, look, I'll resign because
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: that's been one of the I guess you could say
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: scenarios that has been presented. What if that happens? Take
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: a listen, hey, Congressman, will you be okay? Then if
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: there's ultimately a deal struck with moderate Democrats that give
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Democrats kind of co control of the committees, you're fine
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: with that? No, absolutely not that that will not happen.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: They're two No, listen, I'm on the floor, Laura. These
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: two hundred twelve Democrats are going to vote for Hakim
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Jeffries every single time. He is a historic candidate for them.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: They are not going to cleave off under any circumstance.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I assure you that if Democrats join up to elect
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: a moderate Republican, I will resign from the House of Representatives.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: That is how certain I am. I can assure your
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: viewers that won't happen. Now, you listen to what Gates
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: just said there, and I agree with him. I don't
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: think there's a possibility of this happening yet. Anything's possible.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: We're talking about Washington, DC, but there is a lot
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: of now fear mongering going on. There's a lot of
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: people in the media that are wanting you to believe,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: and a lot of commentators in the Republican movement right
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: that are wanting you to believe that things are really, really,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: really really bad, and then it's going to be the
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: worst it's ever been, and then we're going to lose
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: a speakership to some moderate Republican or even to some Democrat.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: I don't believe that's going to happen. Matt Gates said
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: if that happened, I'd resign Congress. I don't think you'd
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: actually resign because he's Matt Gates. Let's just be honest
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: about that. But I do believe that he's right when
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: he says, look, I'm not doing that now. These Alah
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: branches have been given to conservatives. I believe it should
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: have been enough to get this done. There are some
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: that are just going to dig in no matter what.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: There are some that are just going to say no,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: no matter what. To Kevin McCarthy. There are weaknesses and
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: a weekend speaker, I think now no matter who gets it.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Yesterday Brett Baar talking about this, saying, hey, is this
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: gonna make him a weaker speaker? That's actually what I
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: think some Republicans wanted. Take a listen, you know Washington
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: as well as anybody that I know, and if you
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: look at the investigations, that they're all pretty much a lock.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: If I'm wrong, tell me, I look at the commitments
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: to America. I've asked Kevin repeatedly, put it in writing,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: put his signature on it. That seems to be the agenda.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: So isn't this all cement? Well? I think that there
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: is just this fear that there's going to be some
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: deal that they sign on to that doesn't come to fruition,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: that they don't deliver on everything. That's why they're trying
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: to get it all locked down. I also think that
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: the criticism inside from Republicans who have problems one way
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: or another with McCarthy is that he's really good at
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: raising money, he's really good at recruiting candidates, but Nate
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: may not be good at legislating and getting votes together.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: You know, the fact, as you pointed out, that this
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: hasn't been all locked up before January third. You know,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: we knew the results in November. It took a little
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: bit longer to get all of the volts, but we
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: knew it was heading that way to majority. And the
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: fact that it took this long to get this negotiation
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: started or locked in bring some criticism. And I think
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: the real question is, say McCarthy gets this, and he
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: may very well get it. He will be weakened by
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: this process and it will be tough Sean to deal
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: with big issues like the deadlimit and other big controversial
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: issues because of what he's giving up. Concession was. I
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: go back to the question that so many been asking
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: me yesterday today, you know, what are we doing here?
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: We look like idiots? Is this is terrible? And I
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: keep saying the same thing. Do not buy into these
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: media lines. Do not buy into their hysteria. Do not
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: buy into this Oh wow, things are melting down there.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: You want to know where all the congressmen would be
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: and this is as a Thursday, just so you know,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: and it's Friday. Now, do you know where all the
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: congressmen would have been if they would have voted on
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: a Speaker of the House. They would have been back
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: home in DC right now. So this idea that works
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: not getting done right now is also again laughable. Okay,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: it's laughable. There are people out there saying, wow, this
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: could become a national security issue. There are still senators
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: in the Senate. Spoke with Senator Ted Cruz and the
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: podcast that We Do Verdict. You should listen to what
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: he had to say about this. He's like, look, they're
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: still senators being briefed. If there was any issues with
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: national security, we would know about it, and things are
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: going to be okay, okay, we would know about this.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: It's a line the media is trying to get us
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: end up. They're trying to act like this is the
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: fiasco of the decade, a fiasco that we're never going
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: to be able to come back from, that this is
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: gonna put people in harmed way. It's not true. Do
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: I think this is gonna keep going for a little
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: bit of time. I do. If they figured out quickly, great,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: they figure out at noon on Friday, in the first
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: vote after coming back, great. I don't think that's probably
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: going to happen. But there's also some antics in here,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: and I do think we need to be clear about this.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: One of those antics is and this is what the
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: things I do think make us look unserious. You have
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: had people in the Party who have actually nominated Jim
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Jordan early on, who then was the same guy that
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: nominated Kevin McCarthy. You have a president of the United
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: States of America from President Trump, who has come out
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: and said very clearly on his social media platform Truth
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Social that Kevin McCarthy is the guy. It's time to
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: have some fun with it. Okay, Kevin McCarthy is a
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: nice guy. That he's the guy that we want and
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: we support him. That's what Donald Trump has said. He
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: said it's time to move on. And then you have
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Matt Gates and I think this is not serious. Okay.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: I want to make that clear. Who went out there
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: and nominate Donald Trump after Donald Trump has said he
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: is wanting Kevin McCarthy to be the Speaker of the House.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: These are the unserious moments. Take a listen. This government
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: for far too long has been deeply corrupt. This town
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: has been deeply corrupt. The way people get leadership positions
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: and chairmanships and opportunities to be able to morally preen
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: has been by accepting lobbyists and special interest money and
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: redistributing that money as currency for favors. And that is
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: not a criticism of either political party. It is a
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: criticism of what we have allowed to happen in this place.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: And if we just go next man up on our
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: side of the aisle, we will reaffy that corrupt system,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: and we will abandon the people who are expecting us
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: to fight for them. I have heard from my colleagues
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: about all the important work we have to do, and
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: it is my sincere fear that if we were to
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: allow mister McCarthy to assume the speakership, that would not
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: get done, that it would be business as usual, and
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: the very same things that have paralyzed progress for both
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: parties would continue to shackle us to never ending failure.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: We can be better than that. We can raise our gays. Indeed,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: we also have to restore to the Speaker's office an
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: actual person that ought to be in the Speaker's office,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: not the squatter who is currently there. And if the
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: architect of the Capitol is listening, I sent a letter
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: and I would like to know what the basis is
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: to allow somebody to occupy the Speaker's office who comes
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: in second place and straight times? Is there like some
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: basis in law or rule or precedent for that? And
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: so I nominated President Trump because we must make our
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: country great again, and he can start by making the
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: House of Representatives great again again. He didn't want it,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: He told everybody vote for Kevin McCarthy. These are the
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: un serious moments when you call your colleagues squatters. These
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: are the un serious moments. Now, could this have damage? Sure?
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: If this is the only thing that the American be
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: able here from the media, and this is exactly the moment,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: and these are the exact times when that's exactly what
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: they'll do. They'll take these moments, play them and act
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: like this is the whole ball game, which clearly it's not.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: You gotta understand something about the media. Any time they
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: can use any story to make things bad for Republicans,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: they'll do it. And if they and if they don't
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: have the story, they'll just make it up out of
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: thin air. They'll make up Russian collusion, They'll make up
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: a dossier, they'll make up a fake bank account with
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Alpha Bank, They'll they'll they'll work with a deep state
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: to silence and censor conservatives on Twitter. That all happened,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: so right now they're not having to make it up,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: and they're loving it. But they'll go back to making
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: it up because that's what the media does. Tucker Carlson
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: last night after this eleventh you know, speaker vote loss
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: for Kevin McCarthy, he put it this way when he said,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: it's not a disaster. This is literally how the system
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: is supposed to work. And that's I go back to
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: what I said earlier. Go listen to what Center Ted
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Crews had to say on this on his podcast. This
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: is not disaster. Again. I remind you, these congressmen would
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: be home right now if we had a speaker. So
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: let's not act like there's some massive amount of work
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: right now that's not being done because we don't have
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: a speaker. They would have allowed on Thursday, many of
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: them would have left on Wednesday. It would be hard
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: to become Speaker of the House in this country, very hard.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: It's a big job. It's one of those powerful jobs
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: in the world. It's not one of those positions you
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: give to elderly men who have campaigned from their basement.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: If you want to be the guy who's second in
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: line from the presidency in America, you got to work
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: for it, and Kevin McCarthy certainly has worked for it.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: This week, whatever you think of him. To get the feeling,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: McCarthy would crawl naked through a sewer to get this gig.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: And that's not necessarily an insult, by the way. It's
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: what it takes. Obviously, maybe it's what it should take.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: So if you take a deep breath and you think
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: about it for a second. Nothing we have seen in
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Washington recently, the supposedly apocalyptic world ending drama of politicians
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: arguing with each other, none of it qualifies as especially
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: unusual or even bad. This is what democracy looks like
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: when you get up close. I want one thing, you
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: want another thing. We schedule a vote to see who
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: gets it, or in this case, eleven votes. But whatever,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: how is that a disaster? Well, it's not a disaster.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: That's how the system is supposed to work. But don't
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: tell the moron community that they're too overwrought to hear.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: You watch an epic fail and stunning humiliation for Kevin McCarthy,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: who took the knee for Donald Trump then gave away
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: the store to the cuckoo fridge of his party. You
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: couldn't construct a narrative that combines the elements of extremism
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: election denialism and incompetence more perfectly than the last twelve
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: hours on the Republican side in the House. It's embarrassing,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: I do, and there's now there's a lot of hard
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: feelings on both sides. Again, you have ninety percent of
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: the caucus, ninety percent of the caucus standing firmly behind
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy. They looked ketty. I mean, they're putting out
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: a show. I'll call it political paw. He decided instead
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: to pull the pin on the grenade and toss it
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: among themselves. What an extraordinary moment of political failure by
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: a political It's either personal against Kevin or remember that
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: this is the same brain trust that brought to almost
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: two years ago January sixth. The way that they've gone
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: about trying to achieve these demands has resulted in essentially
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: this terrorist standoff between them and the overwhelming majority of
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: people in their conference. They're so excitable. Are you following this?
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: The failure to make it super easy and simple for
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy is extremism, declares Nicole Walls. It's just embarrassing,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: says Ryan Zinki. It's pornography, says another pearl, Charlie Sykescott
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: so upset watching the proceedings that he compared a vote
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: in Congress to an exploding hand grenade. There were smoke
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: and fire and shrapnel in the shrieking of the dying,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: calling out for their mothers because some people would not
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: vote for Kevin McCarthy. That's what it was like in
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: their ladies and gentlemen. Some of us will never recover.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Then another one of the buffoons in the clip you
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: just saw went further and called the whole thing terrorism,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: which is the remorseless use of violence against the civilian
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: population to affect a political goal. So Chip Roy is
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Osama bin Laden. Now I'm timped down in his cave.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Dan Crenshaw of Texas, filling the role recently vacated by
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: his friend Adam Kinsinger, said virtually the same thing yesterday.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Anyone who doesn't support Kevin McCarthy for Speaker is a terrorist,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: and Crenshaw's voice seemed to crack with emotions. He said,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: he meant it. We talked about that yesterday. There are
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: moments that are happening right now that should be turned
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: into a master class what to do and what not
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: to do if you ever get into politics. And you
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: need votes on something, don't send out one of your
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: surrogates like this idiot Dan Crenshaw and call your own party.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: The people that are voting not the way you want
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: them to vote, terrorists, like, don't do that. Okay, that's
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: a bad idea. That's something that you shouldn't do. It's
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: really stupid. And then you have other people that you
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: might be surprised. Majorie Taylor Green ripping some of her
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: colleagues Bobert's opposition to McCarthy as not serious, accused her
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: of instructing progress. Yeah. Again, welcome to politics. This is
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: not abnormal. This is normal. There has been tension growing
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: on the right. I just had a chance to speak
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: to one of McCarthy's allies. It's staunch conservative Marjorie Taylor Green.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: He was allied with many of these on the far
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: right who are blocking McCarthy's ascension. She said that does
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: not make the Republican Party look good, and she's brushing
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: her colleagues to allow McCarthy to get into the galv Listen.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: I think the American people, no matter how you vote,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: are sick and tired of drama, and this is nothing
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: but drama. We're on multiple days now with multiple candidates
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: from this group. So I'm not sure how Lauren Bobert,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: on one hand, can demands so much out of Kevin
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: McCarthy but then demand nothing out of someone else and
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: be willing to vote for them to be speaker. That's
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: not serious. I don't think that's leadership, and I really
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: see it as more obstruction than progress. So the last
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: part referring to a similar conservative congresswoman from Colorado, but
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: someone who's been on the other side on this issue,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Lauren Bobert, who has been one of the people who've
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: seen is almost certainly there's no chance of Kevin McCarthy
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: winning her support. Bobert has nominated another person, Kevin Hearne,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: as her candidate. He's the chairman of a separate Republican
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: caucus within the larger Republican conference. But Marjorie Taylor Green,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: they're taking aim at Boubert, suggesting that she should she's
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: not being serious and pushing a candidate who has no
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: chance and getting the two hundred and eighteen votes. But Jake,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: that is where we are right now. Kevin McCarthy has
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: the most votes of any Republican, but he does not
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: have a path yet to two hundred and eighteen votes.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: He is not dropping out of this at the moment.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: People like Marjorie Taylor Green are sticking with Kevin McCarthy,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: and those hardliners are not backing off. They're pushed for
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: an alternative candidate. So this is expected to drag on,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: potentially through the day to day, potentially beyond Jake, with
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: no end in sight. As McCarthy believes, eventually they'll get there.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: It's just not clear how and when. That's right. In
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: eighteen fifty six it went to one hundred and thirty
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: three balance. It lasted two months, lasted two months then
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: and guess what Americas survived, right, I mean Americas survived that.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: We were fine. This is just watching this sausage be
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: made and that's okay. Is national security at risk because
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: of this? No? Would the Congress people be home right
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: now if they were sworn in? Yep, this is absurd.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Now there's another scandal that's brewing. It has nothing to
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: do with this, by the way, and that is the
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: fact that the president nine States of America is going
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: to go to the border. There's a civil war that's
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: broken out between the cartels and the government in Mexico
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: right now. And you've also got Mayor Pete on criticism
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: about not being present during multiple transportation crisis is he
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: wants you to know that's nonsense. He's also been busted
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: for flying on private jets on taxpayer dollars. Take a
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: listen to that. That's twenty fourth right. Here's the other criticism.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: You've been a big advocate for the environment, the administration's
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: climate change policy. What do you say to people who
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: ask is it environmentally responsible to fly on private government
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: jets when commercial options are availped Well, when we're making
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: a decision about what kind of aircraft he use, we
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: weigh a lot of things. That's one of the things
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: we consider, so was saving taxpayers money. Now, I fly
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: the majority of the time in economy class on an airliner,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: just like everybody else. I think I should say that again,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: because you know, I'm not sure everybody has read past
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: the headlines, but as you know, even this network's reporting
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: has made clear that the majority of the time I
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: travel on an airliner in economy class, just like everybody else.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: But there are cases where we use an FAA jet,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: a jet that's assigned in my department. UM giving an
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: example what to Wisconsin recently. We this is last year.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of good paying jobs that are
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: coming in. We're working with the operating engineers there to
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: make clear to high school students that whether they want
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: a college degree or not, they can get good paying
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: construction jobs because of the work that that we're making possible.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Understand and we say taxpayers two thousand dollars by using
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the fah to Nevada, Florida, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Ohio, New Hampshire
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: using a private flight to travel to Montreal understaircraft. Well understood,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: But the taxpayers are still paying for it, right, and
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: the taxpayers are usually saving money when we do that.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: You know. That is one of the controversies that led
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: to other secretaries leaving. For example, Secretary Price of HHS
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: sat at this very desk and defended a government trips
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: and he ended Secretary of Price saved taxpayers money by
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: doing it. I don't think he originally said he did.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: You also brought your husband Chasten on a military aircraft
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: to attend a sporting event in Netherlands, have no, but
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: was that reimbursed because that was one of the controversies
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: first cris I led a presidential delegation to support America.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: I love this. You can hear him squirming right there.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: This is straight up abuse of power. Everybody knows it's
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: abuse of power. And it goes back to what Mayor
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: Pete has said. I mean, this is a guy that's
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: just not present when there are major transportation crisis, is
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: pursuing the things that weren't possible before. Okay, I want
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: to deal with a couple of controversies that are getting
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: attention from your critics. Basically, they're saying that you kept
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: a low profile during the Southwest tobacco. I never did
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: a press conference from the Transportation Department. You were in
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Portugal during the rail strike crisis, your opportunity leave during
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: the twenty twenty one supply chain crisis. This is what
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: they say, and that how do you drive that criticism. Sure,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: it's obviously the paternity stuff is you're allowed to do.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: But they say several weeks and it was during the
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: supply chain crisis. It's nonsense. Let's start with the supply
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: chain crisis. I worked that issue before, during, and after
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: the time that I was focusing on my children, before, during,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: and after their hospitalization. And what happened with the supply
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: chain crisis. Well before the holidays last year, there were
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: all kinds of news organizations, not just this one, running
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: stories saying Christmas was going to be canceled. And what
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: actually happened an all time record high in terms of
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: the amount of goods moving through our ports and in
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: terms of retail sales that year. Let's talk about what
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: happened during these travel disruptions. How about rails. We'll go
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: backwards rail strike crisis. This is a guy that you
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: should never take serious. He's never around now while this
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: is happening, there's another story, and that is Joe Biden
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: is going to visit the US Mexico border city of
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: al Paso on Sunday as the White House is going
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: to roll out some new immigration rules that they want
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: you to be proud of. They were also saying at
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: the exact same time they're saying that that there are
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: no issues at an open border. There isn't an open border.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: They actually had the knees to say that, You had
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: the DHS secretary, and this is just obviously there's another
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: way to put it. It's a flat out lie who
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: has come out and said that the border is secure.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: There's not a it's not a crisis either. In fact,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: he refuses to call it a crisis when millions of
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: people across the border, more now than any other time
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: in American history. Would you, Secretary, qualify what is happening
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: on the border right now as a crisis. You know,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: we have seen the situation of the border managed in
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: an orderly way. We have seen it in extraordinarily channel
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: challenging circumstances as well. You can rest assured, Poppy that
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: we're doing everything that we possibly can to build a
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: system that provides humanitarian relief in a safe and orderly
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: way while trying to persuade Congress to fix what is
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: a broken system. I understand that. But just what you're seeing,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: what you've seen the twenty times you've been there. The
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: record number of migrants at the southern border last year,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: it was nearly two point four million. If that's not
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: a crisis, Secretary, what is you know? You know, Poppy,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: we have seen two point four million encounters at our
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: southern border, and it is reflective of the greatest level
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: of displacement of people in the world since World War Two.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: It is reflective of a migration challenge that is gripping
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: the entire hemisphere. When I was in Colombia again, this
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: guy won't even call it a crisis. And the question
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: you heard there was from CNN, like they're not even
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: buying it. He also went on to say in an
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: earlier interview that he said that the border is not open.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Let me be clear, Title forty two or not. The
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: border is not open. We will continue to fully enforce
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: our immigration laws in a safe, orderly, and humane manner.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: That's a lie. The border is not secure. The border
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: is wide open. You can come across the border any moment,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: at any time, whenever the hell you want to. And
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: you look at this cartel civil war that's broken out.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Those are the people that are shipping their drugs across
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: the border. Look at what's happening. Please go look at
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: what is happening in Mexico right now. It is a
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: civil war with the cartels, Lachapo's son being captured by police.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: They're now burning down buildings and cars and attacking airplanes
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: with innocent people on board. They're letting people out of
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: the jails. These are all things that are happening. These
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: are the people running the drugs into America, the fetanel
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: into America. So when you say, oh, there's nothing to
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: do to this issue, yes there is. When you say oh,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: this is not a big deal, yes it is. It's
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: a huge deal. These are the issues, by the way,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: that you need to also be focusing on while this
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: speaker battle, which is completely normal and not crazy, is happening.