Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Shutdown End Analysis, Democrats Still Fighting Over Who Gets the Last Soapbox

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Shutdown End Analysis, Democrats Still Fighting Over Who Gets the Last Soapbox · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: The government is starting to reopen.
0:03
Speaker 2: The big question that so many of you have been
0:05
Speaker 2: asking me on social media is all right, well, when
0:07
Speaker 2: are we going to get back to normal?
0:09
Speaker 1: When am I going to get paid?
0:11
Speaker 2: Many government workers asking that question, and how much longer
0:15
Speaker 2: will there be chaos at America's airports and the cancelations.
0:19
Speaker 2: A lot of those questions are needing to be answered.
0:23
Speaker 2: Senator Cruz, join me to talk about this and exactly
0:26
Speaker 2: how this is going to be rolled out in Washington,
0:29
Speaker 2: d C. I want you to hear what Center Cruise
0:32
Speaker 2: had to say about the timeline about when this will
0:35
Speaker 2: get to the President's desk, and Speaker Johnson making it
0:38
Speaker 2: also very clear that he is in a situation where
0:43
Speaker 2: Democrats have been holding us hostage, but not only holding
0:46
Speaker 2: us hostage. There's a very good chance we could have
0:49
Speaker 2: another government shutdown within the next three months.
0:53
Speaker 1: We'll explain that part as well.
0:55
Speaker 2: Take a listen to What'senter Cruise had to say about
0:58
Speaker 2: the government shutdown moving forward.
1:00
Speaker 1: Center, we are in.
1:01
Speaker 2: A government shutdown that is ending, and the official vote
1:05
Speaker 2: on that's going to take place today. For most Americans,
1:10
Speaker 2: that means things will get back to normal pretty soon.
1:12
Speaker 1: But it's still chaos in the skies as well. Well.
1:15
Speaker 3: That's right. The shutdown very likely ends today. The House
1:19
Speaker 3: of Representatives is going to vote later this afternoon on
1:22
Speaker 3: the appropriations package and the continuing resolution that the Senate
1:26
Speaker 3: passed on Monday. Our podcasts that we put out, we
1:30
Speaker 3: predicted that the government would open on Wednesday, and I
1:33
Speaker 3: think it's very likely too. When the House passes it,
1:36
Speaker 3: I expect the President to sign it pretty much immediately.
1:38
Speaker 3: And once it's signed, the funding has returned now and
1:42
Speaker 3: now it will take a little bit of time. I
1:44
Speaker 3: don't know how quickly paychecks will process. So for the
1:47
Speaker 3: federal employees who haven't gotten paychecks now for forty four days,
1:53
Speaker 3: they would really like their paychecks. And I'll tell you
1:55
Speaker 3: there are a lot of places like I'll give you
1:57
Speaker 3: an example, Capitol Hill. There are a lot of people
1:59
Speaker 3: on Capitol Hill. Staffers who have not gotten paid, Capitol
2:02
Speaker 3: police that have not gotten paid, all of the employees,
2:05
Speaker 3: the employees who drive the subways have not gotten paid.
2:09
Speaker 3: Everyone who's an employee of the federal government, the custodians,
2:14
Speaker 3: the electricians, they have not gotten paid. And look not
2:17
Speaker 3: to mention the TSA agents and the air traffic control
2:21
Speaker 3: agents and the border patrol agents, and throughout the federal government.
2:25
Speaker 3: Thousands and thousands of people have not gotten paid, particularly
2:28
Speaker 3: for some of the younger ones. Like on Capitol Hill,
2:31
Speaker 3: you've got you know, young men and women that are
2:33
Speaker 3: twenty two, twenty three years old. This is their first
2:36
Speaker 3: job out of college.
2:37
Speaker 1: There.
2:37
Speaker 3: You know, some of them may have some savings, but
2:39
Speaker 3: many of them don't have any savings at all. And
2:41
Speaker 3: I'll tell you they're stressed. I mean, they're very stressed.
2:44
Speaker 3: So my hope is the paychecks will come very quickly.
2:46
Speaker 3: I don't know if they will come as quickly as Thursday,
2:48
Speaker 3: or how long it will take actually the pipes to
2:52
Speaker 3: do the direct deposit, but my hope is it will
2:55
Speaker 3: be quite quick after the government opens, sometime when day evening,
3:00
Speaker 3: when I anticipate the President will sign the legislation. Some
3:04
Speaker 3: of the other delays will take a little bit more time. Presumably,
3:09
Speaker 3: when the government opens Wednesday, each of the cabinet agencies
3:12
Speaker 3: will send out emails and notify the non essential personnel,
3:16
Speaker 3: the personnel who'd been furloughed come back to work. And
3:19
Speaker 3: so I'm anticipating they'll come back to work. Thursday morning,
3:22
Speaker 3: because everyone's knowing this is coming. So I think you'll
3:25
Speaker 3: see full staff now. It may take a little bit
3:27
Speaker 3: of time to start government services flowing at the same
3:31
Speaker 3: speed that they normally flow at, and something like air
3:35
Speaker 3: travel in particular, my suspicion is there'll be more of
3:38
Speaker 3: a lag in air travel. I anticipate that we'll continue
3:42
Speaker 3: to see delays and cancelations for several days beyond today,
3:47
Speaker 3: because what's driving the delays and cancelations is that a
3:50
Speaker 3: lot of the air traffic controllers and TSA agents have
3:53
Speaker 3: been calling in sick. Maybe that immediately turns around on Thursday,
3:58
Speaker 3: but that depends up the decision of fifty thousand TSA
4:02
Speaker 3: agents and fourteen thousand air traffic controllers, and the FAA
4:06
Speaker 3: is not going to return to full capacity flights until
4:11
Speaker 3: we have sufficient numbers of controllers in the air traffic
4:13
Speaker 3: control room to ensure that people are flying safely.
4:16
Speaker 2: That's going to be a really important part of the
4:18
Speaker 2: equation as you described it there, and it's a smart
4:20
Speaker 2: way that I think what we've really seen is true
4:22
Speaker 2: leadership from the Transportation Secretary on that issue and the
4:27
Speaker 2: Trump administration to make sure hey, yeah, there's some delays,
4:30
Speaker 2: but we're going to make sure you're safe from the skies.
4:32
Speaker 2: And that is one of the caveats to all of
4:35
Speaker 2: this is at least you know that someone's kind of
4:37
Speaker 2: looking out for your well being. And look, there's one
4:39
Speaker 2: party just playing pure politics trying to hurt people. There's
4:42
Speaker 2: another that's playing defense and trying to protect you. That
4:45
Speaker 2: is I think the takeaway from this shutdown.
4:48
Speaker 1: I think that's right.
4:50
Speaker 3: We also saw that the President called for ten thousand
4:54
Speaker 3: dollars bonuses for the air traffic controllers who work during
4:57
Speaker 3: the shutdown. That's a great policy. I think that that
5:02
Speaker 3: makes an awful lot of sense. I would like to
5:05
Speaker 3: see the law change so that air traffic controllers get
5:08
Speaker 3: paid whether there's a shutdown or not. And as you know,
5:12
Speaker 3: I voted multiple times for Ron Johnson's legislation that would
5:15
Speaker 3: pay all essential employees so that you don't have federal
5:19
Speaker 3: workers forced to come in and work but not to
5:22
Speaker 3: get a paycheck, because that's what drives things like the
5:25
Speaker 3: sickouts and people not showing up. And so I think
5:29
Speaker 3: it would make perfect sense to to have written as
5:33
Speaker 3: a matter of law that regardless of whether there's there's
5:36
Speaker 3: a shutdown. Soldiers and sailors and airmen and marines and
5:40
Speaker 3: FBI agents and border patrol agents and ice agents and
5:43
Speaker 3: air traffic controllers and TSA agents, and everyone who is essential,
5:47
Speaker 3: who is required to work, they get paid. The problem
5:50
Speaker 3: has been that Democrats have voted against that over and
5:53
Speaker 3: over and over again. I don't really see that changing
5:58
Speaker 3: because look, one of the consequences of this, we have
6:02
Speaker 3: funded three appropriations bills. We've funded the Agricultural Appropriations Bill
6:07
Speaker 3: that includes the programs for farmers and ranchers, that includes snaps,
6:11
Speaker 3: so food stamps is funded. All of that's funded for
6:13
Speaker 3: a year, so there won't be a shutdown on that
6:16
Speaker 3: going forward. We have also funded military construction in the VA,
6:20
Speaker 3: so that's really important both for construction projects at military
6:24
Speaker 3: bases across the country and that's a job driver, and
6:27
Speaker 3: it's important for our military defense. That's funded for a year,
6:31
Speaker 3: and the VA obviously caring for our veterans is critically important.
6:34
Speaker 3: That's funded for a year. So that's good news. It
6:37
Speaker 3: means the next shutdown will have a smaller impact because
6:40
Speaker 3: those three appropriations will continue. But the continuing resolution we
6:45
Speaker 3: passed expires January thirtieth, and I got to say I
6:50
Speaker 3: will be very surprised if the Democrats don't force another
6:53
Speaker 3: shut down on January thirtieth, and so these battles have
6:57
Speaker 3: not gone away, but they're at least delayed till January thirtieth.
7:02
Speaker 3: Then we may be right back with the same problem
7:04
Speaker 3: with flight delays if the Democrats do it again.
7:07
Speaker 2: Senator, I want to ask you a question that you
7:09
Speaker 2: just mentioned earlier, and that is, how do we take
7:12
Speaker 2: some of this insanity off the table? You talked about
7:16
Speaker 2: there being real, you know, conversations about making some of
7:19
Speaker 2: these workers where they would be essential, they would get
7:22
Speaker 2: paid in future shutdown, so they wouldn't be we wouldn't
7:27
Speaker 2: have the problems of the airport we have now, but
7:28
Speaker 2: also safety and people that are forced to show up
7:31
Speaker 2: to work. They're going to get paid on time. If
7:35
Speaker 2: this is brought up after the shutdown. What is the
7:38
Speaker 2: main reason why Democrats are against it? Is it just
7:40
Speaker 2: pure leverage at this point?
7:42
Speaker 3: Yes, No, that they want to inflict maximum pain. They
7:46
Speaker 3: want to shut down to be painful for the American people,
7:52
Speaker 3: and it's so they don't want that. They were furious
7:55
Speaker 3: when Trump paid the military and he had enough funds
7:57
Speaker 3: from the one big beautiful Bill that he could shift
8:00
Speaker 3: around and pay the military. They wanted the military not
8:02
Speaker 3: to be paid. They're looking for maximum pain because and
8:08
Speaker 3: they've said this, They've been very candid. They say that's
8:10
Speaker 3: where they get leverage. You know, tonight it's it's it's
8:13
Speaker 3: Tuesday night, it's Veterans Day. So so I want to
8:17
Speaker 3: say to everyone who defended this nation, every veteran, we
8:20
Speaker 3: have thank you. We are we are grateful for your
8:22
Speaker 3: your service, your sacrifice. Our liberties are here because of you.
8:27
Speaker 3: I am rutting right now.
8:28
Speaker 1: Today.
8:29
Speaker 3: I'm in I'm in Miami. So this evening I spoke
8:31
Speaker 3: at the Miami Dade County Lincoln Day Dinner. Uh it's
8:35
Speaker 3: a huge event, over one thousand people. You know, Miami
8:38
Speaker 3: Dade County has been a Democrat stronghold for for decades.
8:42
Speaker 3: This last cycle, we flipped Dade County red. It is
8:46
Speaker 3: a Republican county. Republicans won multiple elections up and down
8:51
Speaker 3: the up and down the slate. There was a lot
8:53
Speaker 3: of energy there tonight. But but I got to say
8:56
Speaker 3: ben I started by telling everyone and I said, last
9:00
Speaker 3: night I was on the floor of the Senate Bernie
9:03
Speaker 3: Sanders was screaming, Elizabeth Warren led out an angry war hoop,
9:09
Speaker 3: Corey Booker curled up in a ball Adam Schiff was pounding,
9:16
Speaker 3: and Chuck Schumer was crying. And that's not exactly right.
9:19
Speaker 3: But I said, you know what all of that says.
9:22
Speaker 3: It was a great day for America. The Democrats were
9:26
Speaker 3: consuming each other because there were eight Democrats that finally,
9:31
Speaker 3: after forty two days, showed the courage to say, enough
9:34
Speaker 3: is enough, Let's reopen the government. And the Democrats turned
9:38
Speaker 3: on each other with a viciousness that is truly extraordinary.
9:45
Speaker 3: So here was a major story in the Washington Post headline,
9:49
Speaker 3: Democrats pushed for a ruthlessly pragmatic approach to counter Trump.
9:53
Speaker 3: And here's what the Post reported. The fury at eight
9:56
Speaker 3: Democratic alligned senators who voted with Republicans to end the
9:59
Speaker 3: longest y government shutdown highlights the dramatic shift in the
10:03
Speaker 3: Democratic Party less than a year into President Trump's second term,
10:07
Speaker 3: as voters and lawmakers argue that the party needs to
10:10
Speaker 3: adopt a more ruthless tactics to counter the president and
10:14
Speaker 3: claw its way back to power. So listen, the Democrats
10:17
Speaker 3: are saying the longest shutdown in history wasn't ruthless enough.
10:20
Speaker 3: It needs to be worse. Post continues. The reaction to
10:24
Speaker 3: the two votes on Sunday and Monday, which provide a
10:27
Speaker 3: pathway for the government to reopen after more than forty days,
10:30
Speaker 3: was fierce. Representative Roe Kanna, Democrat from California, called for
10:35
Speaker 3: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to be replaced, suggesting he
10:39
Speaker 3: was an ineffective leader. Even though Schumer opposed the government
10:43
Speaker 3: funding measures. So Schumer voted no, but it doesn't matter.
10:46
Speaker 3: They want to throw him out anyway. House Minority Leader
10:49
Speaker 3: at Keem Jeffreys, Democrat New York, blasted the eight senators
10:53
Speaker 3: and said the House Democrats would not support a government
10:55
Speaker 3: funding bill that did not include the healthcare measures the
10:58
Speaker 3: party has demanded. So today the Democrats, presumably all or
11:02
Speaker 3: virtually all, are going to vote to keep the shutdown going.
11:05
Speaker 4: Now.
11:05
Speaker 3: I fully expect House Republicans will provide the votes needed
11:08
Speaker 3: to send this to the president. But here's what the
11:13
Speaker 3: post continues. Democratic advocacy groups, politically vulnerable lawmakers, potential twenty
11:19
Speaker 3: twenty eight presidential candidates, and voters all followed suit, lambasting
11:24
Speaker 3: those in the party they saw as caving. The desire
11:27
Speaker 3: for Democrats to hold firm despite the pain inflicted by
11:31
Speaker 3: the shutdown, even though the party's prior posture was that
11:36
Speaker 3: shutdowns are self destructive, was the latest sign that the
11:40
Speaker 3: party has decided it must adopt an altogether different playbook
11:44
Speaker 3: given Trump's willingness to resort to unprecedented measures to consolidate
11:48
Speaker 3: and maintain powers, rather than try to uphold norms as
11:53
Speaker 3: the president shatters them, they have decided to fight Trump
11:56
Speaker 3: with tactics they previously disdained, and they have excoriated those
12:00
Speaker 3: who stood in the way, whether on redistricting or candidates
12:04
Speaker 3: with problematic pasts. And here's one of my colleagues, Chris
12:09
Speaker 3: van Holland, one of the more liberal Democrats, quote, early on,
12:13
Speaker 3: there were not enough members of Congress who recognized the
12:15
Speaker 3: magnitude of the threat Donald Trump poses to our democracy
12:18
Speaker 3: and constitution. That has changed. Van Holland said that there
12:23
Speaker 3: were a few senators in what he has dubbed the
12:25
Speaker 3: quote no business as usual caucus at the beginning of
12:28
Speaker 3: Trump's term, but it has since grown dramatically in response
12:32
Speaker 3: to energy from the party's base. Quote the lesson is
12:35
Speaker 3: there is power and unity and in members of Congress
12:38
Speaker 3: working in partnership with the grassroots community. This is why
12:42
Speaker 3: so many people are feeling let down at this moment,
12:44
Speaker 3: because that unity was important. This is the reaction on
12:48
Speaker 3: the Democrat side. They are Schumer is besieged from all sides.
12:53
Speaker 2: There are Democrats now that are basically like off with
12:56
Speaker 2: his head and leadership. They want him gone. They're publicly
12:59
Speaker 2: saying no, oh, yeah, this is the end of him.
13:01
Speaker 2: He has done. MSNBC said it multiple times. CNN commentators
13:04
Speaker 2: said the same thing, like he's done. They got to
13:06
Speaker 2: get rid of him. His career's over. This goes back
13:09
Speaker 2: to the being held hostage by the Marxists, the socialism
13:12
Speaker 2: and communists of the Democratic Party. Now they didn't police him.
13:15
Speaker 2: Now they're running the party and they're anarchists. And Chuck
13:18
Speaker 2: Schumer shut down the government for the longest period in
13:22
Speaker 2: history of this country, and that wasn't good enough for them.
13:26
Speaker 3: And he still voted no on reopening it. So he
13:28
Speaker 3: shut it down for the longest in history. He voted
13:31
Speaker 3: no consistently, and yet they're still off with his head.
13:34
Speaker 3: It really is the crazies are driving the Democrat party.
13:38
Speaker 3: And look, if you don't believe me, maybe you will
13:42
Speaker 3: believe John Fetterman. I want you to listen to this exchange.
13:45
Speaker 3: Senator John Fetterman, Democrat from Pennsylvania, was on the view
13:50
Speaker 3: and Sonny, you know, one of the left wing hosts
13:55
Speaker 3: there comes after him and comes after him hard. Listen
13:57
Speaker 3: to her unhinged question and then listen to Fetterman's response.
14:02
Speaker 5: Well.
14:02
Speaker 6: Senator Bernie Sanders said the vote was a horrific mistake.
14:06
Speaker 6: Governor Gavin Newsom called it pathetic and a surrender. Poll
14:10
Speaker 6: after poll found more Americans on both sides of the
14:14
Speaker 6: aisle blaming Republicans. Even Marjorie Taylor Green blamed the GOP.
14:18
Speaker 6: As you mentioned, Democrats have big wins last week, so
14:21
Speaker 6: you had momentum. Why give in now? Why bring a
14:25
Speaker 6: butter knife to a gunfight. Are you willing to gamble
14:29
Speaker 6: that the GOP will negotiate on healthcare in good faith
14:33
Speaker 6: once the government reopens? Because if that gamble is wrong,
14:36
Speaker 6: half a million Pennsylvanians that you represent, their healthcare cost
14:40
Speaker 6: will skyrocket if you are wrong, and I believe you
14:44
Speaker 6: are wrong.
14:47
Speaker 7: Well, for first of all, MTG is quite literally the
14:51
Speaker 7: last person in America that I'm going to take advice
14:53
Speaker 7: or to get their kinds of my.
14:55
Speaker 4: Leadership and values from.
14:57
Speaker 7: And now if Democrats are celebrating crazy pants, that then
15:00
Speaker 7: that's on them. And now I don't need and I
15:03
Speaker 7: don't need a lecture. I don't need a lecture from
15:05
Speaker 7: from whether it's Bernie or the governor in California, because
15:09
Speaker 7: they are representing very deep blue blue kinds of populations
15:14
Speaker 7: and a lot of those things, a lot of those
15:17
Speaker 7: things were part of the extreme. And I'll remember what
15:20
Speaker 7: really needs to win, to win the big win is
15:23
Speaker 7: involving my state and other states and those things. And
15:28
Speaker 7: why have we arrived here after the election a year ago.
15:32
Speaker 7: We want to forget, we got to forget some of
15:34
Speaker 7: the things that cost us that election are now for me,
15:38
Speaker 7: it's like, that's why I'm trying to remind people that
15:41
Speaker 7: kinds of the extreme extreme newsm we can't return to
15:44
Speaker 7: those kind of things and realize we need to find
15:46
Speaker 7: a way forward. And I would like to rather than
15:48
Speaker 7: cite MTG, I'm going to cite one of the new
15:51
Speaker 7: governor elects saying that my election is not a green
15:54
Speaker 7: light to continue this shutdown, because I promise you, this
15:59
Speaker 7: isn't a political game. It is viewed by that by
16:02
Speaker 7: many of us. But the reality is forty two million
16:05
Speaker 7: Americans now not sure where their next meal is going.
16:08
Speaker 4: To come from.
16:08
Speaker 7: And because we vote like that, vote like that or
16:12
Speaker 7: people that haven't been paid for five weeks now and
16:14
Speaker 7: that kinds of chaos. Those workers are more than half
16:18
Speaker 7: a billion dollars, you know, from their credit union just
16:20
Speaker 7: to pay their bills.
16:21
Speaker 2: Now you with him talking about paying their bills, and
16:25
Speaker 2: I love that from Fetterman. There, they also were very
16:28
Speaker 2: quiet because I didn't think I don't think they realized
16:31
Speaker 2: he was going to come back with facts that way
16:34
Speaker 2: and describe it. I jokingly said to you before the
16:37
Speaker 2: show started, When's John Fetterman going to join the Republican
16:39
Speaker 2: Party because he's been speaking an awful lot.
16:42
Speaker 1: Of truth about the reality this shutdown.
16:44
Speaker 3: Well, look, I like John Fetterman, and I will tell
16:48
Speaker 3: you Republicans actually treated much more nicely than the Democrats do.
16:51
Speaker 3: The Democrats are mean to him, they're vicious to him.
16:54
Speaker 3: They that they really have a deep antipathy to him.
16:59
Speaker 3: And the amazing thing he votes the overwhelming majority of
17:04
Speaker 3: the time with the Democrats. You know, he's on the
17:06
Speaker 3: Commerce Committee with me. On virtually every vote he votes
17:10
Speaker 3: party line with the Democrats. On most votes on the floor,
17:13
Speaker 3: he votes party line with the Democrats. He has a
17:15
Speaker 3: few defections. So he did vote to open the government,
17:19
Speaker 3: and that's viewed as this great heresy because he didn't
17:23
Speaker 3: want to have a force a government shut down and
17:25
Speaker 3: hurt millions of Americans and continue the longest government shut
17:29
Speaker 3: down in history. And the main area that he's been
17:32
Speaker 3: willing to dissent from. Virtually every other Congressional Democrat is
17:37
Speaker 3: in support of Israel. And we've talked about before that
17:40
Speaker 3: there is a real and cognizable pro Hamas caucus in
17:45
Speaker 3: the Democrat Party. It rose up about ten years ago.
17:49
Speaker 3: The Democrats did nothing, They look the other way, and
17:51
Speaker 3: it's now taken over their party. And Fetterman is a
17:55
Speaker 3: massive outlier because he is genuinely pro Israel. He is
17:59
Speaker 3: vocally pro Israel, and the radicals in the Democrat Party
18:03
Speaker 3: hate him for that. And again, if you don't believe me,
18:08
Speaker 3: listen to what John Fetterman said on exactly this topic.
18:11
Speaker 5: You are not Jewish, at least as far as I know.
18:15
Speaker 5: Feel free to come, feel free to come out here
18:17
Speaker 5: to me right now. But you have been one of
18:19
Speaker 5: the most outspoken. It's beyond Washington, it's beyond politicians. You
18:24
Speaker 5: have been one of the most outspoken people in American
18:27
Speaker 5: life on the issue of anti Semitism.
18:30
Speaker 1: Why is this issue so important to you?
18:34
Speaker 4: Ironically I did that twenty three and me I'm ninety
18:38
Speaker 4: seven percent German and three percent Neanderthal, and it's like,
18:43
Speaker 4: maybe it's ironic that a big German guy from Pennsylvania
18:48
Speaker 4: has been very absolutely devoted to Israel and to experience
18:52
Speaker 4: the kind of anti Semitism and in my life, I mean,
18:55
Speaker 4: you know what you know, the Tree of Life, I mean,
18:57
Speaker 4: that's that's where you're from, too. Absolutely appalling, and my
19:01
Speaker 4: heart breaks for what the Jewish communities suffered, especially after
19:06
Speaker 4: ten to seven. I've had the honor of meeting, you know,
19:10
Speaker 4: members of the hostages, former people that were kept underground
19:13
Speaker 4: for five hundred days. Five hundred days. I mean, those
19:16
Speaker 4: are heroes. I've met with widows their husbands were lost
19:20
Speaker 4: in the gods of war and they have eight children,
19:24
Speaker 4: raising eight children by their own. That's a hero for
19:27
Speaker 4: all of it. So so for me, it's heartbreaking, and
19:32
Speaker 4: that's been. What's so difficult for me is like being
19:35
Speaker 4: devotion to Israel becoming increasingly incompatible with being a proud
19:39
Speaker 4: Democrat now too, and that's put me at odds. And
19:43
Speaker 4: the things that put me at odds have all converged
19:45
Speaker 4: at the same time, you know, the gods of war,
19:48
Speaker 4: the peace deal, and then we moved right into a shutdown,
19:51
Speaker 4: you know, like now Democrats might not be allowed to
19:55
Speaker 4: hold these views, and I'm not changing my party. And
19:58
Speaker 4: you know, run the numbers, run numbers, you know, you
20:01
Speaker 4: would find that I'm a I'm a Democrat.
20:05
Speaker 1: You know, he is a Democrat.
20:06
Speaker 2: But you've walked past his Senate office countless times. I've
20:11
Speaker 2: walked past it probably dozens of times when I'm up
20:14
Speaker 2: in DC, and he had all the hostage pictures up
20:17
Speaker 2: in his front office, which I thought was incredible.
20:21
Speaker 3: Look, he has been genuinely courageous and sincerely courageous on Israel,
20:27
Speaker 3: and it's earned the absolute ire, hatred, animosity, venom of
20:35
Speaker 3: the radical left in the Democrat Party. I mean, you
20:37
Speaker 3: heard what he just said there, that that that being
20:40
Speaker 3: pro Israel is becoming incompatible with being a proud Democrat.
20:45
Speaker 3: I mean, that's a that's a tragic statement. I wish
20:49
Speaker 3: that statement were not true, but it is the biggest
20:53
Speaker 3: reason why their radicals hate him and much of You know,
20:58
Speaker 3: when he was first elected and he came into office,
21:02
Speaker 3: he had a stroke during the campaign, and the stroke
21:05
Speaker 3: was very debilitating. When John showed up, the stroke really
21:10
Speaker 3: limited Like when I first met him. What the stroke
21:14
Speaker 3: did is it limited his ability to process auditory input.
21:18
Speaker 3: So you would talk to him and his brain was
21:22
Speaker 3: not able to process the words he was hearing, and
21:26
Speaker 3: so he would carry with him an iPad that had
21:29
Speaker 3: a translator because it just this is one of the
21:31
Speaker 3: consequences that can be from a stroke, is your ability
21:34
Speaker 3: to process words that you hear. Your brain just can't
21:38
Speaker 3: put them together. So you would talk and he would
21:40
Speaker 3: read it. But when he first got there, you would
21:43
Speaker 3: talk to him and he would literally he was not
21:45
Speaker 3: able to understand what you were saying. And I mean
21:47
Speaker 3: it hurt your heart. I mean, this is a is
21:49
Speaker 3: a very bright man. The man's a Harvard graduate, but
21:52
Speaker 3: he had a medical issue that he had real consequences.
21:56
Speaker 3: Early on, the Democrats all circle around him and said,
22:01
Speaker 3: you know, he's perfectly capable. There are no issues whatsoever,
22:05
Speaker 3: because they assumed he would be a left wing Democrat,
22:07
Speaker 3: that's what they expected of him. That was not a
22:09
Speaker 3: crazy expectation going in. And then when he started standing up,
22:15
Speaker 3: particularly on Israel, standing up and defying the Prohamas Caucus,
22:20
Speaker 3: you started seeing the Democrats leaking and planning stories and
22:24
Speaker 3: really attacking his mental capability. And the irony is, look
22:28
Speaker 3: you heard in those exchanges. He's now able to have
22:31
Speaker 3: a conversation. He still is a little halting in his communication.
22:36
Speaker 3: I think that's some of the aftermath of the stroke.
22:38
Speaker 3: But the difference is night and day. You can now
22:40
Speaker 3: have a conversation and he can hear you in a
22:43
Speaker 3: way that when he showed up in the Senate he
22:45
Speaker 3: was not able to. And yet Democrats are running to
22:49
Speaker 3: reporters to plant negative stories attacking him. Many of his
22:54
Speaker 3: colleagues want to drive him out of the party, and
22:58
Speaker 3: at least on the Republicans side, I like John and
23:02
Speaker 3: I think consistently all the Republicans are just trying to
23:04
Speaker 3: be nice to him. By the way, they did the
23:06
Speaker 3: same thing to Joe Manchin, they did the same thing
23:08
Speaker 3: to Kirsten Cinemon. They succeeded in driving both of them
23:11
Speaker 3: out of the party because they want no dissent. You
23:14
Speaker 3: must obey and follow orders or they'll do everything they
23:19
Speaker 3: can to drive you out. And to be honest, both
23:21
Speaker 3: Cinema and mentioned I think Republicans were much nicer to
23:24
Speaker 3: than Democrats were, and the consequence was they were both
23:28
Speaker 3: driven out of the party.
23:30
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25:46
Speaker 2: on this as we move forward, what does your gut
25:50
Speaker 2: say about another gouvernment shut down early next year?
25:53
Speaker 3: I think it is very likely when the CR expires
25:57
Speaker 3: on January thirtieth. I don't see a fundamental dynamic that changes.
26:02
Speaker 1: Now.
26:02
Speaker 3: Maybe maybe maybe maybe the eight Democrats who cut the deal, now,
26:08
Speaker 3: maybe on January thirtieth, they cut the deal at the
26:10
Speaker 3: front end. That's possible, I can tell you. As we
26:14
Speaker 3: were sitting there on Monday and they had cast the
26:19
Speaker 3: initial vote on Sunday and they were getting savaged on
26:23
Speaker 3: the Republican side, we felt a real urgency a vote
26:26
Speaker 3: now now now, because look, we were very afraid one
26:32
Speaker 3: of them would flip. I mean, I mean it. There
26:34
Speaker 3: is typically a limit to how much abuse an elected
26:37
Speaker 3: official can take, and the left wing base was savaging
26:41
Speaker 3: those eight.
26:42
Speaker 1: Now.
26:44
Speaker 3: We actually had a delay because John Kennedy, who's a
26:48
Speaker 3: good friend of mine, was put in fact, he's been
26:50
Speaker 3: on the podcast just a week ago. Yeah, John was
26:54
Speaker 3: pressing for a resolution that says, if there's a shutdown,
27:00
Speaker 3: senators will not be paid so long as federal workers
27:03
Speaker 3: are not being paid, and as you know, I voluntarily
27:07
Speaker 3: did that, so I have not taken a paycheck for
27:10
Speaker 3: the entire length of this shutdown. I sent a written
27:13
Speaker 3: letter to the Secretary of the Senate saying, hold my paycheck.
27:16
Speaker 3: I'm not going to be paid as long as their
27:17
Speaker 3: federal workers who are not being paid. So whenever the
27:21
Speaker 3: at some point, I'll get my paychecks from the last
27:23
Speaker 3: forty days in the next presumably few days, whenever the
27:26
Speaker 3: other federal workers do. I don't know when that will come,
27:29
Speaker 3: but many, and I think most of the Democrats did
27:33
Speaker 3: not do that. They continued taking their paychecks throughout, which
27:37
Speaker 3: was an incredible hypocrisy. And so Kennedy was pushing really
27:42
Speaker 3: hard for saying, look, no senators should get paid while
27:46
Speaker 3: there's a shutdown. He wanted a vote when we were
27:50
Speaker 3: taking this up and voting on it. He wanted a
27:53
Speaker 3: separate amendment vote on that. And it was a challenge
27:57
Speaker 3: because the Democrats were refusing to give that amendment vote
28:01
Speaker 3: and saying, if you get that amendment vote, then we
28:03
Speaker 3: want a bunch of amendment votes, and so everything was
28:06
Speaker 3: paralyzed and it could have delayed. Instead of the Senate
28:10
Speaker 3: voting Monday night, it could have delayed till Tuesday or
28:13
Speaker 3: Wednesday or Thursday. And I and many others were really
28:17
Speaker 3: concerned if it delayed till Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday
28:20
Speaker 3: for the Senate to vote, one or more of the
28:22
Speaker 3: eight Democrats would get cold feet and flip. And so
28:25
Speaker 3: actually the way it got resolved as I went to
28:28
Speaker 3: John Kennedy's office, and he and I are good friends,
28:30
Speaker 3: and I said, look, can we work something out? Because
28:33
Speaker 3: he was really mad, he was frustrated that he couldn't
28:36
Speaker 3: get his vote. I said, can we work something out
28:38
Speaker 3: that lets us vote to reopen the government and get
28:43
Speaker 3: you what you want? And so we cut an agreement
28:47
Speaker 3: that next week the Rules Committee on which I serve,
28:50
Speaker 3: is going to vote on John Kennedy's resolution, and I
28:53
Speaker 3: think we're going to vote it out of the Rules
28:55
Speaker 3: Committee and put it on the Senate floor and we'll
28:56
Speaker 3: vote on the Senate floor right after Thanksgiving on Careannity's provision.
29:00
Speaker 3: And I asked him, look, would you be willing to
29:02
Speaker 3: accept a vote on this that it's separate that doesn't
29:06
Speaker 3: delay the overall funding bill, Because if we delay it,
29:10
Speaker 3: if one of these Democrats get cold feet. We could
29:12
Speaker 3: have another week, two, three, four weeks of shutdown and
29:15
Speaker 3: none of us want that. And Kennedy he was angry,
29:19
Speaker 3: but he said yes, he would agree to that. I'm
29:21
Speaker 3: really glad John did that. That was the right thing.
29:24
Speaker 3: But he's fighting for something he really believes in. So
29:26
Speaker 3: I was able to go to leadership and say, look,
29:29
Speaker 3: you guys need to commit to have the vote in
29:32
Speaker 3: the rules committee and the vote on the floor. And
29:34
Speaker 3: leadership did make that commitment, and that was the pivotal
29:38
Speaker 3: piece that got us to a vote Monday night to
29:41
Speaker 3: reopen the government.
29:42
Speaker 2: Thirty days from now. What do you think the fallout's
29:44
Speaker 2: going to actually be. I think people are so fast
29:47
Speaker 2: to get back to normal. The holidays are coming. I
29:50
Speaker 2: think that's going to be sending reputer just like, all right,
29:52
Speaker 2: everything's fine my normal chaos as long as we don't
29:55
Speaker 2: have chaos and the skuy's outside of the normal chaos
29:57
Speaker 2: with it when it comes to Thanksgiving or Christmas travel,
30:00
Speaker 2: I'm good. We're pretty selfish as a people. Now, let's
30:04
Speaker 2: just be honest about it. So it's a lot of
30:06
Speaker 2: it is Hey, if it doesn't affect me, is it
30:07
Speaker 2: really happening? This happens now, and is there going to
30:11
Speaker 2: be fallout or accountability on either side.
30:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, people will remember what impacted themselves and their families.
30:18
Speaker 3: So if your food stamps got delayed, you'll remember that.
30:21
Speaker 3: That will abate a real difference. If your paycheck got delayed,
30:25
Speaker 3: that will impact you know. I was having a conversation
30:27
Speaker 3: with the Capitol Police officer yesterday, and this was a
30:30
Speaker 3: Capitol Police officer who was a veteran, had been around
30:32
Speaker 3: a while, and he was talking about how they were
30:35
Speaker 3: giving grief to like some of the rookies who were
30:38
Speaker 3: brand new. He said, there was a class straight out
30:40
Speaker 3: of the academy who started like two days before the shutdown,
30:43
Speaker 3: and you know, these are all really you know, young
30:45
Speaker 3: men and women twenty two to twenty three years old,
30:49
Speaker 3: and this is like their first job and suddenly they're
30:52
Speaker 3: not getting paid. And he did say that the veteran
30:56
Speaker 3: Capitol Police officers were basically giving grief to the young
31:01
Speaker 3: rookies and being like, oh, you're new to this game,
31:04
Speaker 3: and you know, shutdowns are part of working for the
31:06
Speaker 3: federal government, and but you know a lot of these
31:08
Speaker 3: young guys don't have much savings, so they were a
31:10
Speaker 3: little bit shell shocked from it. Those folks will remember,
31:16
Speaker 3: but most Americans, if it didn't impact you. The biggest
31:20
Speaker 3: way that a lot of Americans were impacted was flight
31:22
Speaker 3: delays and flight delays and cancelations. The people who had
31:28
Speaker 3: their trip to visit their mom canceled, the trip to
31:32
Speaker 3: go to a funeral in the family, the trip to
31:33
Speaker 3: go on family vacation, the trip to go on a
31:35
Speaker 3: work trip. People will be annoyed at that. Now, look,
31:39
Speaker 3: it's November, we'll move into Thanksgiving. I think by Thanksgiving,
31:43
Speaker 3: the air traffic we'll be back to normal, so it
31:46
Speaker 3: won't be an additional burden. And then we'll get into
31:49
Speaker 3: Christmas and the holidays. And do I think by December
31:54
Speaker 3: one the shutdown is going to be front and center
31:56
Speaker 3: in anyone's mind. Not really, But then we're going to
31:59
Speaker 3: get January thirtieth, And I mentioned in the last podcast
32:03
Speaker 3: it was really important that we had the continuing Resolution.
32:07
Speaker 3: There was a big push to get it to expire
32:10
Speaker 3: on like December twenty first. Yeah, that was a terrible
32:13
Speaker 3: idea because often if government funding expires right before Christmas. Look, obviously,
32:18
Speaker 3: every member of Congress wants to get home to be
32:20
Speaker 3: with their family for Christmas. That's that's natural. You know,
32:22
Speaker 3: most of us have kids. You want to be with
32:24
Speaker 3: your kids for Christmas. That leads frequently to really bad deals.
32:29
Speaker 3: There's an old phrase that jet fumes get in the air,
32:32
Speaker 3: that people are really anxious to get out of town,
32:34
Speaker 3: so they'll agree to horrible deals. So the Conservatives, I
32:38
Speaker 3: was pressing hard, do not end it right before Christmas.
32:40
Speaker 3: We need to go into January so we don't have
32:43
Speaker 3: that pressure pushing people to make a bad deal. And thankfully,
32:47
Speaker 3: and I'll give John Thune credit, John Thune leaned in
32:49
Speaker 3: and said, we're going till January thirtieth. That's what's in there.
32:54
Speaker 3: We will have this same fight at the end of January.
32:57
Speaker 3: But that at least gives us some more time and
33:01
Speaker 3: some more time to deal with it.
33:03
Speaker 2: You know, it's interesting if you look at the takeaway here.
33:06
Speaker 2: It took forty days, longest shut down in government history,
33:10
Speaker 2: and it seems that Democrats are just saying, we'll kick
33:13
Speaker 2: the can down the road a couple months. We may
33:16
Speaker 2: have another government shut down. We're going to keep holding
33:18
Speaker 2: the American people hostage. We're not learning from any of this,
33:22
Speaker 2: and this is a scary way that the government's being
33:24
Speaker 2: run right now. But this is what happens when you
33:26
Speaker 2: have the extreme left who is hell bent on hurting
33:31
Speaker 2: Americans to get their way when they don't win an election,
33:35
Speaker 2: and that's what this is really all about for them.
33:37
Speaker 2: We'll keep you updated on all of it.
33:39
Speaker 3: Rage is not Rage is not an agenda. Anger is
33:42
Speaker 3: not an agenda. Hate is not an agenda. And unfortunately
33:46
Speaker 3: on the far left in the Democrat Party, that is
33:49
Speaker 3: what they are for is rage, hate, and anger. And
33:52
Speaker 3: we're going to see more chaos, We're going to see
33:54
Speaker 3: more holding the American people hostage because it's a direct
34:00
Speaker 3: outgrowth of that rage and hate anger.
34:02
Speaker 2: Don't forget to share this podcast, by the way, with
34:05
Speaker 2: your family and your friends on social media wherever you
34:07
Speaker 2: can hit that subscribe or auto download button and I'll
34:10
Speaker 2: talk to you again tomorrow.