WarRoom Battleground EP 724: Schumer Caves Leaves Shutdown In Hands Of Progressive Dems
Episode Stats
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Summary
In an exclusive interview with the Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Besson talks about his views on the economy and what it means to be a modern day Treasury Secretary, and why he thinks it's a good idea to let the private sector take up the slack from the government.
Transcript
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You know, when you say that we're in a when we're in a period of detox, you use that word
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on CNBC last week, is that a euphemism for recession?
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It doesn't have to be because it'll depend on how quickly the baton gets handed off.
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You know, our goal is to have a smooth transition.
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But I tell you, Sarah, the easy thing, the easy thing for us to have done would have been
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to come in and just keep this massive spending level going.
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But could we have kept it going for a year, two years, maybe even four?
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And when we get the tax bill done, so if you can change the trajectory, up revenues,
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up economic growth, hold expenses flat or do the unthinkable and cut expenses, then that's
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And, you know, if we go back to the model in the 90s, that's exactly what happened.
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We'd see the private sector take up the slack from the government.
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Because right now, we have excess employment in the government.
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And those people can be moved to the private sector.
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As I told the Business Roundtable yesterday, as I tell your viewers, what we're trying to
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And, you know, I also said to the Business Roundtable, I think it was 135 CEOs yesterday, if you
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came out with a plan similar to what Doge wants to do with the federal government, all
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You know, it would be considered a miraculous restructuring cost savings and put you on
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So, you know, I think we're not getting credit for this yet.
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This audience ought to be very proud because that individual is the Secretary of Treasury
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at the exact moment that we need him as Secretary of Treasury because of this audience.
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Scott came on here a couple of years ago, started talking about capital markets, started
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talking about interest rates, growth, supply side cuts, the debt, issues with the debt,
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et cetera, everything you're hearing today, excess regulation.
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And thank God we have Scott Besson as President Trump's wingman in a time like this.
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Matt Boyle, national political editor of Breitbart, you're actually at the Treasury Department.
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You just finished an exclusive interview with the Secretary of Treasury.
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We are in what's called the Salmon Chase Suite.
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There's a name for then-Secretary of Treasury, Salmon Chase, who later became the Chief
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Justice of the US Supreme Court, who, along with President Abraham Lincoln, in this room
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right here, saved the republic during the Civil War.
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It's here where they developed greenbacks, right?
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They developed maybe not the best idea, but the IRS, but also the Bureau of Engraving and
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It's here where the modern currency in the United States and our monetary system was formed.
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It was formed by the Union side to win the Civil War against the Confederacy.
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And so this was one of the major moments in Treasury Department history, obviously right
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And so I found it fascinating that we did this interview here because it's one of the major
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moments that faces the country right now, because we're about to enter a new golden era of an
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American economy, thanks to President Trump and Secretary Besson and the policies that they're
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Like, it's like, you know, this is another huge moment in world history.
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As a son of the South coming from Richmond, Virginia, it always hurts me.
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Salmon Chase, as you know, was on the Team Arrival's cabinet.
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I said the other day, told a group that the cabinet that President Trump has put together
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today, I think, is as good a cabinet as we've had working with a president since President
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As you know, Secretary of State Seward, right, who is absolutely brilliant, and Secretary of
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Treasury Salmon Chase, who really did come up with a financing strategy because I don't
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You know, we didn't have a central bank at the time.
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Andrew Jackson, President Jackson had gotten away with that.
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I mean, Chase really had to make up the entire thing.
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And if it was not for Chase really being Lincoln's wingman, because President Lincoln, as brilliant
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as he was, he'd be the first to say he was not a high, he didn't understand high finance
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And I mean, you don't really hear that much that the president of the United States comes
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Like, I don't know if other presidents have done that.
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I've asked a few people here today, and we're gonna try to get a clear answer about that.
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But the point is that President Lincoln, this great historic figure, came over from the White
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House here to this room right here to save the American Republic.
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And right now, you are seeing this dire moment in American history where the current Treasury
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Secretary is being called on by the president, by President Trump, to again steer us out of
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a real dark place that Joe Biden and the previous administration left us in, and to again save
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So I couldn't think of a better place to have this conversation.
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You know, today I teed up the show is War and Peace and Prosperity.
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And that's what we've seen today, you know, this hour and 20 minute impromptu press avail.
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And I keep telling the audience, if you come to Real America's Voice, we're going to show
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as much of this as live as possible, whether it's a Word or a Postal or a Charlie Kirk show.
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The reason is you're seeing history in the making.
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President Trump is inviting you into the room to actually see it with world leaders.
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He's he's showing you how he puts things together, particularly on a day, Matt, when Putin
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couldn't have been, I think, more blunt about what he's looking took a full maximalist position
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of what he needs for a ceasefire capital markets around the world.
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President Trump not not folding it all on tariffs.
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In fact, he says, I will not bend on steel and aluminum tariffs.
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I will not bend on April 2nd of reciprocity to all of our trading partners.
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In the same time, India punched out of the bricks today.
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Initial report that Modi said, hey, we're not going to play around with trying to do something
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One thing I liked, Matt, when I heard you were doing the exclusive interview, I've been
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a big advocate of Secretary of Treasury Besant getting out there more, not just with the
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financial press, but with the grassroots and the and the political press, people like you,
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the national political editor at Breitbart, to really get the message out.
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Yeah, well, look, I think that it was an important moment because, look, I think that part of the
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jitters you see in markets and whatnot out there, you know, you see the stock market go up and
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And it's because, you know, they think that they're going to be able to create some kind
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of uncertainty or, you know, lack of resolve in President Trump.
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I think that, you know, it's abundantly clear now.
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He's going to do the tariffs and bring the companies back to America, whether they like
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And I think that, you know, that's the message I heard from Secretary Besant is that they're
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So we went through several examples of several companies.
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That's going to be one of the big stories that we're going to come out with about this.
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But also, they're reorienting the American economy off of government spending.
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The Biden administration was entirely government spending dependent.
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And one of the things the Secretary of Business is trying to do is what he calls reprivatize
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Get the money coming from the private sector, from American businesses, from American banks,
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And I think that, you know, those goals are all laudable, and they fit together with a
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You hear the establishment media and the fake news.
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And this was another big thing we talked about.
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The Secretary was very much aggressively criticizing the fake news.
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He said that he's like, you know, I used to, you know, now that I'm Secretary and I see
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how it really works in here, and I just see how, I see all these fake news outlets out there.
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He's like, I don't think fake news is a strong enough term.
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He said he doesn't think fake news is a strong enough term to describe the establishment
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So what I'm getting at, Steve, here is that these people are trying to lie about President
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Trump and act like he doesn't have some grand vision here and that everything's just retaliatory
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There is a grand vision here for the Trump economy.
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And as it's playing out, you're seeing major companies make major decisions, right?
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GE, Arrow Dynamics just announced a major reinvestment of a billion dollars in the United
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You're seeing all these other companies, right?
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And I went through a list of them with Secretary Besant that are either coming back to the United
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States or just coming to the United States to get around the tariffs.
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And I think that you're going to see that happen more and more across the board.
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I mean, Honda and Hyundai are expanding operations here in the United States rather than Mexico
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And I think that as you start to see that long term play out and you see this vision really
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take hold, the jitters are going to fade away and things will sort themselves out and
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And the American public is going to enter this, what President Trump calls his new golden era.
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I want to go back to something right there, because I've been a big advocate for the
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Like this morning, go to the White House, you breathe the president, come to the sticks.
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He says, you guys are running around with the hair on fire on tariffs.
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You better be focused on the Schumer shutdown that could happen momentarily.
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We know that he's Cade, and we're not going to have a government show.
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Well, he's going to deliver a handful more Democrat votes, but Schumer just came out
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and said he will vote for cloture on the House-passed Trump-backed bill.
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So assuming Schumer has the command of a handful more Democrats in the Senate, there will not
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I want to go back to what you just said about what Besson said.
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The reason he has a job, he's a very steady Eddie, very calm, probative capital markets
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So these are guys that make one or two big bets a year, and those bets can take years
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So you have to be really confident in your ability to see, analyze the situation, look
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When Scott Besson says that fake news, and he's talking about the business press that
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When he says that the business press and the mainstream media, fake news is not stronger,
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and this is why I've been telling those guys, disintermediate them.
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Get the best of this new ecosystem of reporters.
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Talk directly to them and get to that audience.
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And what Besson says, fake news is not strong enough a term.
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Well, I mean, I think he's saying that the entire narrative that you see out there, we
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But the point is, is that he was like, look, the establishment media went nuts with this
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whole price of X thing when they were on the way up.
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But now that they're lower than when President Trump took office and on the way down, you
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Like same thing with what you see with the markets, right?
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If the market starts going well, then all of a sudden they're going to find something
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The fact is, is that the, you know, we mentioned a couple other examples, like a New York Times
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And I think that, you know, when you start seeing very serious people like Secretary Besson
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and others, and I know that he's in communication with several leading financial world folks,
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right, from the banks to the private sector to other folks in other governments around
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In fact, we talked about his meeting with Vladimir Zelensky, the president of Ukraine.
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And the fact is, is that when, you know, there are serious people that are now beginning
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to realize that the New York Times and the, you know, the CNBCs and like all these other
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places, they're not that, they're so far off from reality.
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It's, I think that these established media outlets are losing their credibility in a significant
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I think that the more that these people do serious interviews, like what we did, I'm not
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If you go down my list of stuff, when you see the actual interview, we'll start coming
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out with pieces of it tonight and over the coming days on Breitbart.
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And so people should be on the lookout for that.
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But the point is, is that, you know, I mean, these are serious journalistic stuff, right?
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Like I'm asking him to explain it and I let him explain his piece and I, you know, but
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I think that the, frankly, what you have is this Trump derangement syndrome that's infected
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These people are like, you know, the walking dead or something, right?
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Like they're like zombies walking around infected with some killer virus that's just affected
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their ability to think clearly like human beings.
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Like, so I think that what's going to happen here is that as they fade more and more and
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they keep spreading more and more inaccurate information and fake news, we're going to continue
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And we're going to talk about accurate stuff and we're going to replace them.
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Like slowly, but surely we are moving into the void that has been left behind by the fake
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You actually were able to film part of this interview.
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Is the film part going to go up sometime tonight?
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Can our audience anticipate they can go to Breitbart?
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Our camera guys are here in the room right now.
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The great Matt Purdy, who's standing right behind the camera here, is working on this with
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And I got to give a shout out to the whole Treasury Department staff.
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By the way, Secretary Besson has a huge, great team.
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Rebecca Karabas, who's here right now in the room with us.
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And a ton of great folks, like Sophie, and I'm not going to mispronounce her last name,
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but Delqui, and Samantha Schwab, and so many others.
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But the point is, is that our guys are going to cut a video, this video.
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We're going to roll it out in installments, like the interviews I've done with President
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Trump or Vice President Vance and others over the years when we do them on camera.
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So what we do is we come out with a little clip, a little clip here, here, there, here,
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And then we roll the whole thing out over several days.
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We're going to move as fast as we can once we get out of here tonight.
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What Scott Besson said to CNBC earlier, he said, look, we could have continued this massive
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Keynesian exercise, this massive stimulus, we could have run up debt, we could have done
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this for two, three, four years, but it's not sustainable and it would have led to a
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That's President Trump, the detox they're doing, this intervention in this out-of-control
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Give me a second on that, your thoughts on that, because that shows real heroism.
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You could have gone the easy path, but he decided to go the hard path.
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He, it's literally one of the core parts of the interview that I talked with the secretary
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It was one of the first big, I mean, first I got his reaction to the latest CPI and PPI
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Like, and some of the critics out there got some stuff wrong on Trump on prices, but then
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went right into the reprivatizing of the economy is the way he talks about it.
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And they said that it's a priority of his and President Trump's, because they know that
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this was entirely fake, it was manufactured, there was no economic growth, Steve, right?
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We're talking about funny money, not real numbers.
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And what was happening is, because it was the government, it was entirely the government,
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and they want to leave the country better off than they found it.
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He said that, what you just said, he could have took the easy way.
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He could have went just for a couple years, four years, kick the can down the world, keep
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the government spending going, and keep the fake stuff going on, and not get the economy
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back to being an actual economy, using real world, real money, right, rather than funny
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And he talked about that, he could have took the easy way out and just kicked the can down
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But the problem is, is that that's not sustainable for a nation.
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Like, it's not sustainable for a nation in the long term, and he knows that, and President
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Trump knows that, and that's why they are focused on actually turning this around.
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And it was really refreshing to hear someone with the clinical, you know, the detailed, and
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again, like, to your point, Steve, he's not a bomb thrower, he's not a fire breather,
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Like, he's, you know, he's a very clinical, straightforward, facts-oriented guy.
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And, you know, he's like, all right, this is what we're going to do.
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Before letting you go, also, you just tied it together.
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What you never see on mainstream media, and we have the multiple TVs consuming this all
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day long, and our staff around, you never hear, oh, sure, I tell you what, Matt,
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we're going to jump to the floor right now and hear Secretary Schumer, Senator Schumer
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Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, have caved to his every whim.
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The grand old party has devolved into a crowd of Trump sycophants and MAGA radicals who want
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Now Republicans' nihilism has brought us to the brink of disaster.
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Unless Congress acts, the federal government will shut down tomorrow at midnight.
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I have said many times there are no winners in a government shutdown.
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But there are certainly victims, the most vulnerable Americans, who rely on federal programs to feed
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their families, to access medical care, and to stay financially afloat.
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Communities that depend on government services to function will suffer, and suffer greatly.
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This week, Democrats offered a sensible way out.
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Fund the government for another month to give appropriators more time to do their jobs.
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Because Donald Trump doesn't want the appropriators to do their job.
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He wants full control over government spending.
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But he's the first president to cower his party into submission.
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So that Republican rejection leads us to a decision.
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That Republican rejection leads us to a decision.
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Either proceed with the bill before us, or risk Donald Trump throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown.
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While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse.
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For sure, the Republican bill is a terrible option.
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It doesn't address far too many of this country's needs.
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But I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.
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And before I explain why, let me be clear about one thing.
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No one on my side of the aisle wants a government shutdown.
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Members who support this CR do not want a government shutdown.
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Members who oppose this CR do not want a government shutdown.
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Members who oppose this CR want the Republicans to take their responsibilities more seriously
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and to negotiate spending bills that will address the many needs of the American people.
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Unfortunately, though, this Republican Party is the party of Trump.
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As bad as passing the CR is, as I said, allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.
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First, a shutdown would give Donald Trump and Elon Musk carte blanche to destroy vital government services
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at a significantly faster rate than they can right now.
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Under a shutdown, the Trump administration would have full authority to deem whole agencies, programs, and personnel non-essential,
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furloughing staff with no promise they would ever be rehired.
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The decision on what is essential would be solely left to the executive branch with nobody left at the agencies to check them.
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In short, a shutdown would give Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Doge, and vote, the keys to the city, state, and country.
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A shutdown would give Donald Trump the keys to the city, the state, and the country.
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And public reporting has shown he is already making plans to use the shutdown
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to expedite his destruction of key government programs and services.
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Musk told reporters, if the job is not essential, or they are not doing it well,
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they obviously shouldn't be on the public payroll.
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Many federal employees and government experts are rightly worried that a temporary shutdown could lead to permanent cuts.
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Third, or second really, second, if we enter a shutdown,
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Congressional Republicans would weaponize their majorities to cherry-pick which parts of the government to reopen.
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House and Senate Republicans would pursue a strategy of bills to the floor
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and would pursue a strategy of bringing bills to the floor
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or to reopen only their favorite departments and agencies
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while leaving other vital services that they don't like to languish.
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Shutdown means real pain for American families.
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I believe a shutdown could cause regional VA offices to reduce staff,
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delay benefit processing, and curtail mental health services,
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abandoning veterans who earned and depended on those resources.
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I believe a shutdown could greenlight Trump to slash administrative staff at Social Security offices,
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and forcing seniors to wait even longer for the benefits they've earned.
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one of the best redoubts against Trump's lawlessness.
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It could require to furlough critical staff at the courts,
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denying victims and defendants alike their day in court,
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and clogging the justice system for months or even years.
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This administration has shown an unfathomable willingness to sacrifice American families and their well-being
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A shutdown positions them to do this on overdrive.
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Finally, there is one more reason I oppose a shutdown.
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President Trump and Republican leaders would like nothing more than to pull us into the mud of a protracted government shutdown.
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It would be the best distraction he could ask for from his awful agenda.
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Right now, Donald Trump owns the chaos in the government.
00:27:01.540
He owns the damage happening to our economy from one end of the country to the other.
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He wants to gut Social Security, hollow out Medicaid,
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slap taxes on consumer goods through his reckless trade wars.
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In a shutdown, we would be busy fighting with Republicans over which agencies to reopen,
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instead of debating the damage Donald Trump's agenda is causing the American people.
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Donald Democrats will continue to fight what Donald Trump is doing.
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Everything that Trump, Musk, and Republicans have done so far has a clear goal.