Breaking news about a national security threat all over cable: Is it space aliens? Is it some sort of new pandemic? Here's a Fox News report on the latest on the matter. And a look at why the White House is taking so long to declassify information on the threat, and why it may not even be a real threat at all. And why Congress should be paying attention to the matter at all, and not just on Fox News and CNN. What's the deal with this new threat? What does it have to do with space, aliens, pandemic, or something else entirely? And what's the difference between space aliens and a pandemic from Russia? What are the best ways to deal with it, and how can we prevent it from happening in the first place? All that and much more on today's show with John Avlon and Lauren Boebert. Subscribe to our new show, "The Avril Lavigne Show," wherever you get your shows, wherever you consume your favorite news and information, and wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Thanks for listening and share the podcast with your friends and family! Cheers, John and Jon! Jon and Jon -- Sarah John Steve Tim Evan Rocha Lauren Michael Kristian Michelle Matt David Jack Jeffrey Amy Rachel Patrick Chris Jake Tom Emily Mark Jason Julian Joe Mike Josh Andrew Ben Brad Brian Chad Ian Justin Thanks to our sponsor, Alex Sam Adam Zachary and James Jordan Paul Our thoughts on this is it's a good one? Can you do it better than this? Thank you so much, you can't we do it Better than that? Thanks, John ? - Thank You? - Tom - Thank you for listening to the podcast? -- Thank you, Jon -- John & , & much more! - The Daily Mail Please rate us out of the podcast Subscribe, tweet us out! and we'll see you in the next episode
00:02:39.000In the last 24 hours, House Republicans blocked sending nearly $100 billion of your money to prolong foreign endless wars.
00:02:53.000And just now, we impeached Secretary Mayorkas, who's endangered our country by deliberately handing over control of our southern border to the cartel.
00:03:03.000Now that's delivering for the American people, and I'm proud to be a part of it.
00:03:08.000...and risked some sort of terrible accident or conflict in Russia.
00:03:44.000So an update for you now on this new national security threat that the head of the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Mike Turner, is urgently warning about.
00:03:51.000He and the other members of the Gang of Eight have got a meeting with the National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, I believe it's tomorrow night.
00:03:59.000But ahead of that meeting, Turner is saying that the White House needs to declassify information on this new threat so that everybody in Congress can have a look at it.
00:04:09.000We're working our sources to try to find out what this is all about.
00:04:13.000Jackie Heinrich has been doing that as well.
00:04:18.000Well, John, I've just been speaking with a Pentagon official and they confirmed to me that this has to do with a threat related to space.
00:04:29.000We already have from our other sourcing that there has been reporting on the Hill That sources here have confirmed is in the ballpark, which is that it has to do with an emerging capability from Russia that would be of grave seriousness potentially, but that the threat is not immediate.
00:04:53.000My sense in the briefing, it seemed like Jake Sullivan was there today to talk about other issues.
00:04:59.000He was there to talk about the need to get the foreign aid Passed in Congress.
00:05:05.000He was there to talk about the FISA bill that needs reauthorization.
00:05:09.000And there is opposition really across both parties to certain pieces of that bill that they think would undermine national security if it were not to happen.
00:05:19.000So he was making that case to the press as he's been making that case to members of Congress.
00:05:23.000And I think this question kind of came out of nowhere.
00:05:25.000And it was all prompted by this press release that Mike Turner sent out warning folks that The Biden administration needs to declassify urgently this information so that conversations can start.
00:05:36.000That's the piece that I paid attention to in that release, was that we need to be able to have a conversation with our allies and partners about how we're going to deal with this threat.
00:05:45.000And that tells me that they Haven't dealt with it just yet.
00:05:50.000And so if you cast that against the reporting that we have from our source saying that this is an emerging military capability from Russia, reportedly, involving space, according to a Pentagon official, we're getting the building blocks of what this might be.
00:06:06.000But the president and relevant agencies are going to have to address a lot of questions that we have about them now.
00:06:15.000The game you are watching is not the game that is actually being played.
00:06:19.000I think it was incredibly irresponsible for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner to go out and gaslight the country alleging this national security threat and of course there are real threats going on all the time that we want our committees and our congressmen focused on but Without being able to discuss the country or the matter, here's what I can say.
00:06:41.000And while, of course, these types of things require us to keep an eye on them, it was not like markedly different than other similar types of intelligence analysis that we have received that I have been briefed on for several years now as a seven year member of the House Armed Services Committee.
00:06:59.000And so then it really begs the question, Why?
00:07:05.000Why was there this big overarching claim of the eminency of some harm to the American people?
00:07:12.000And it's exactly what Congresswoman Lauren Boebert was briefing you on at the top of the show.
00:07:17.000You see, in the House of Representatives, we are working to block a nearly $100 billion deficit spend.
00:07:24.000And we're concerned that that deficit spend isn't going to make the world safer.
00:07:29.000Giving money to Ukraine, any other kind of provocations around, it could actually make the world considerably less safe.
00:07:35.000And so you had Boebert saying conservatives stuck together, killed this bad bill, and then right on the heels of that, You have Mike Turner out there saying, oh, this big national security threat.
00:07:47.000They'll try to use the veneer of this threat to try to justify spying on you, spending your money, driving up prices, and being inflationary.
00:07:56.000So we're joined now by Congresswoman Boebert.
00:07:58.000Congresswoman, how would you encapsulate The victory of the House of Representatives against this bad, nearly $100 billion bill, because as you and I both know, Mitch McConnell wins a lot.
00:08:09.000When he stitches together a deal, he often prevails, but we have the strength and the fortitude.
00:08:16.000Well, first of all, I don't think that this is over.
00:08:18.000Mitch McConnell certainly is not going to give up on his lifelong dream of funding Ukraine and endless foreign wars.
00:08:27.000But this was a massive victory for conservatives, and we are proving that when we stick together, we can block bad legislation, bad deficit spending.
00:08:35.000We're $34 trillion in debt, more than $2 trillion annual deficit.
00:08:40.000And this proves that we can kill things in the Senate.
00:08:58.000And sometimes, like, there is such an anxiousness in this town to just be for something, be for some deal, pat yourself on the back and act as if that's something that is accomplished.
00:09:09.000But oftentimes, having the ability to resist corrupt, bad, and dangerous things help us out a great deal more.
00:09:16.000How would you apply that analysis to this government funding fight we're in?
00:09:19.000Because you and I, I don't think are, we are not cheerleaders for shutdowns.
00:09:24.000We would like to see the government actually work on behalf of the people.
00:09:28.000We care about our troops, our veterans.
00:09:29.000But at the same time, we are potentially faced with a really high spending bill, increases to a lot of the priorities that we don't care for.
00:09:40.000A lot of the amendments that you offered to get accountability at the Bureau of Land Management, the Department of Interior, those were rejected by Republicans.
00:09:49.000How can we balance our goal of ensuring that the government does what we need to do while at the same time not just falling into the trap of acquiescence and surrender?
00:09:59.000Yes, well, it seems here in Washington, D.C. that bipartisan is actually a very dangerous thing.
00:10:06.000You know, we want to make anything bipartisan to show that there is support on both sides of the aisle, but that doesn't mean that it's good for the country.
00:10:13.000You and I have been battling the spending, certainly since I've been here, but especially last January when we stood up to Kevin McCarthy and said we wanted rules changed, we want individual appropriations bills.
00:10:24.000We want to go line by line with this programmatic spending and get our spending under control back to pre-COVID levels.
00:10:58.000And now that we have these national security supplemental aids that are coming up and they're being pushed into a place of fear to want to support these things.
00:11:45.000Well, of course, it's the reckless spending in Washington, D.C. that is impacting Coloradans, their inability to afford groceries the way they once did, pay their utility bills, afford gas to get to work, to run their kids around to different sporting events or to school or whatever it may be.
00:12:03.000And even back home, the answer is, well, can the federal government just give us more money to make housing affordable?
00:12:10.000No, the answer is not to throw more money at a problem.
00:12:13.000We actually need to take care of our deficits here in Washington, D.C. And B, we need to be good stewards of the tax dollars that come our way.
00:12:22.000And of course, we need to ramp up our American energy We have got to start producing more here if we are going to make living affordable once again.
00:12:33.000So with all of this deficit spending, just like you, I'm for actually paying for it.
00:12:39.000We voted in favor of cutting the 87,000 IRS agents just by enough to fund Israel.
00:12:47.000We passed that legislation, sent it over to the Senate.
00:12:50.000The Senate looked at it, ignored it, said, to heck with you guys.
00:12:53.000Yeah, because they only believe in foreign aid that has no other reduction in funding anywhere else.
00:13:14.000About one of the antidotes to that inflation being our strategy on energy.
00:13:19.000And we passed HR1. You were one of the principal architects of that legislation on the Natural Resources Committee.
00:13:26.000Do you think we need to leverage that more?
00:13:28.000We passed it and we sent it over to the Senate and we talked about it.
00:13:31.000And this is the big House bill on energy.
00:13:32.000I want you to talk about some of the features.
00:13:34.000But to me it almost seems like Everything that Joe Biden wants or the Senate wants, we should be putting our energy legislation on it and then making that argument about prices.
00:13:44.000But if people don't know about HR1, tell them what's in it that actually unlocks this potential.
00:13:50.000Well, H.R. 1 is our most important bill in this Congress because it does unleash American energy production.
00:13:55.000Coming from rural Colorado, from Western Colorado, I know all about energy development and the way it benefits all of us here at home.
00:14:05.000Currently, we are funding both sides of this war with Russia and Ukraine.
00:14:08.000We need to ban that energy from Russia and develop our own.
00:14:13.000President Trump had us energy independent.
00:14:15.000We had energy security and that's where we need to get back to.
00:14:18.000And we need to pursue energy dominance so we can liberate our allies across the world, literally export freedom to them by producing our resources.
00:14:28.000But now Biden has said we're not even going to export liquefied natural gas.
00:14:51.000He deplenished our strategic petroleum reserves in the name of a midterm election, not in the name of an emergency, in the name of an election.
00:15:00.000And that goes against everything that we stand for, everything that we've done to produce that and store that up for the American people.
00:15:07.000But if the activists are going to win, if the leftist extremist argument on energy is going to win, well then we need to start exploring uranium.
00:15:17.000And go nuclear on a lot of this stuff.
00:15:21.000I think the reason we don't have modular nuclear in this country is because the Nuclear Regulatory Commission doesn't want to approve it because then people wouldn't have to build $16 billion reactors.
00:15:34.000You could have cheaper, smaller reactors and rural America could be powered by nuclear.
00:15:39.000Well, something that I'm pushing in Craig, Colorado, small little town, coal mining town, the Democrats have certainly won this argument with their climate change agenda that is so extreme.
00:15:51.000And they are shutting down this coal-fired energy power plant by 2028. And they want to demolish $3 billion in infrastructure.
00:15:59.000And he said, well, wait a second, let's look and actually see if we can Develop and implement a small modular reactor there, rather than just loading up Craig, Colorado, this beautiful mountain town with solar panels.
00:16:14.000Well, let's do something that's actually efficient and good for the environment.
00:16:18.000It is heartbreaking when I was traveling in Montana recently and you see some of the beautiful landscapes of our nation carved up for all of these Green New Deal energy credits.
00:16:29.000And it's a distortion of the energy market.
00:16:32.000It's a destruction of so many beautiful natural spaces.
00:16:35.000And a bunch of Wall Street guys are getting rich on it.
00:16:37.000It's not even something that's really, in all cases, inuring to the benefit of the people in these communities.
00:16:43.000So I wonder How much that Green New Deal is going to be stretched over these remaining years of the Biden administration where I think it was like $400 billion in credits and now Wall Street's planning for $2 trillion in credits.
00:17:24.000Sure, it may seem cheap, but it's not free.
00:17:26.000This is American tax dollars that are funding this and these corporations are getting rich off of it.
00:17:32.000We're joined by Congresswoman Boebert of the great state of Colorado.
00:17:35.000We're talking about the big issues Congress is facing from our debt and our spending to get that process back on track.
00:17:41.000Also this national security threat that I tend to think is more about influencing people in Congress to support what they otherwise wouldn't than it is about like warning the American people.
00:17:56.000House Intelligence Chair speaking out about a imminent or he doesn't say imminent serious national security threat the lack of your ability to say anything has the potential to raise distress for some Americans in the simplest of terms can you tell Americans that there's nothing they have to We are back.
00:18:20.000I think we had a little issue with that clip, but Sullivan essentially doesn't elaborate, but he says he, I think, undercuts the Turner argument on how immediate this threat is.
00:18:31.000And so if you're watching the program, you don't have to go like hide under your bed tonight as a consequence of somebody trying to get us to vote for a bad FISA bill, which is what I think this is all about.
00:18:41.000So you mentioned Congresswoman Boebert in our discussion about The need for reform on these spying authorities.
00:18:48.000And very personally offensive to you and to me that these were the exact authorities used against President Trump illegally, without consequence.
00:18:57.000Where do you see the FISA battle right now?
00:19:01.000Well, you know, the bill is off the floor this week for a vote.
00:19:05.000And it's really interesting that we have this new national security threat.
00:19:10.000You know, there's an imminent danger The folks back home.
00:19:14.000And I'm tired of politicians governing by fear, trying to make afraid the people that they are here to protect and represent.
00:19:21.000Well, the argument is we have to surrender our constitutional rights.
00:19:24.000We have to allow the government to be able to scoop up anything on a Starbucks Wi-Fi or without a warrant.
00:19:46.000It's not just because we have this one threat that, oh, well, just for a little bit, we're going to spy on you and we need all of your information, all of your data, all of the phone calls and text messages that your phone carriers record and store.
00:19:59.000And now the government needs to look into those.
00:20:01.000Nothing in the federal government is temporary.
00:20:05.000There's nothing more permanent, right, than a temporary government program.
00:20:22.000Federal government, if you want to spy on someone, you better go get a warrant.
00:20:25.000You better have a darn good reason to do it.
00:20:27.000But also we have these amendments that we're wanting to place in there that mimic one of the better FISA reform bills that you and I supported, the Jim Jordan and Andy Biggs FISA reform bill.
00:20:38.000And we have these amendments, like Warren Davidson's, the Fourth Amendment is not for sale.
00:20:44.000Yes, so that's a really important bill.
00:20:45.000The features of the Fourth Amendment are not for sale act prohibit the government from doing an end run around the courts and your rights by just buying data from commercial data brokers.
00:20:56.000So, data brokers are collecting data on all of you, on all of us, and they sell those to people who want you to like something or click something or purchase something.
00:21:06.000Now, our government goes and buys data on you and they do so as really a substitute for actual legal analysis and law enforcement work.
00:21:18.000And so, We want that included in any reauthorization of FISA. And frankly, Congresswoman, I have sensed a lot of resistance to that from some of our colleagues.
00:22:02.000The American people or the deep state?
00:22:05.000And if you ask the American people, especially in my district, they do not trust this place.
00:22:11.000They don't trust what the FBI has been doing.
00:22:15.000They don't appreciate the actions towards their free speech or towards their religious liberty.
00:22:24.000Whenever you hear examples of the FBI investigating the Catholic Church, the American people should start having questions.
00:22:33.000You, the press, should have questions.
00:22:35.000Which is why this FISA reauthorization went through the proper process.
00:22:42.000It went through the Judiciary Committee.
00:22:45.000It went through the amendment process in that committee, and it had all eyes on it, and it went through a vetting process.
00:22:53.000The question is to those members on the intelligence community, what are you so afraid of in the reforms?
00:23:03.000What are you so afraid of getting a warrant and justifying your actions before you, as was mentioned, continue to abuse the law every two seconds?
00:23:15.000and violate someone's rights every two seconds.
00:23:18.000Look, I wish that this town and that the resources in the town dedicated enough time and attention to fix the border as they do to reauthorize FISA or to take down a good FISA bill.
00:23:36.000So we're here to make sure that the American people know exactly where we stand and we want the American people to pay attention And ask themselves, is my elected official, are they with the deep state or are they with me?
00:23:53.000Stark terms from Congressman Eric Burleson.
00:23:55.000You're with the deep state or you're with us.
00:24:02.000Are we going to build a durable coalition to try to reform these authorities?
00:24:07.000I'm pretty optimistic about it because actually the Democrats are with us.
00:24:11.000You know, I think a lot of the Democrats don't want to see the Fourth Amendment trampled like this.
00:24:16.000So this would be actually a rare instance of good bipartisanship, but we're not deficit spending the country.
00:24:22.000But I'll give you the last word on FISA. Yes, so I certainly hope that we could get to a good place on FISA, and if anyone is wondering, you know, what is really going on here with FISA, it is about growing the federal government, and that's what we are here to stop.
00:24:38.000If we can ever prevent bad things from happening in D.C. and protect you, then we are doing our job.
00:24:44.000We don't need to pass new legislation necessarily to do that, but this needs to be reformed.
00:24:51.000We need to have These amendments that allow for warrants, we need to have the amendments that do not allow the federal government to purchase your constitutional rights and make you susceptible to forfeit those, certainly in the name of fear.
00:25:07.000And so J.D. Vance here, he wrote a fantastic memo.
00:25:10.000The senator He outlined that the Democrats' initial grounds for impeachment was the Impound Control Act.
00:25:19.000And they were saying because President Trump was withholding funds from Ukraine, that this was the grounds that they took immediately to impeach him.
00:25:30.000And they said he withheld these funds from Ukraine.
00:25:33.000And if these funds are still If we were to pass more funding for Ukraine this Congress, and President Trump assumes office in January 2025, which we know he will, then they would be ready to impeach him again because he would again pause funding for Ukraine because of the corruption that we know that we have seen.
00:25:55.000He just wanted a simple answer about the prosecutor, Victor Stokin.
00:26:11.000And President Trump wanted this investigated and they said since he paused this funding to Ukraine that that is why they impeached him and that is ultimately what opened up all of this FISA for them to spy on President Trump.
00:26:25.000Kind of seeing the field in that particular way.
00:26:28.000We do want to end the program with some bizarre news coming out of the Congressional Archives where some whacked out activists in like Tevas went and covered themselves in pink paint and attempted unsuccessfully to desecrate the beautiful Constitution of the United States.
00:26:47.000We are determined to foment a rebellion.
00:26:49.000We will not be held upon two laws in which we have no voice or representation.
00:26:57.000This country is founded on the conditions that all men are created equally and endowed with the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
00:27:06.000We're calling for all people to have all these rights, not just wealthy white men.
00:27:11.000We all deserve clean air, water, food, and a livable climate.
00:27:18.000If Firebrand's executive producer Joel Valdez were at the archives during this moment, there wouldn't have been just pink paint flying around a great deal more.
00:27:26.000Lauren, I know we cherish and love our Constitution.
00:27:29.000We believe all Americans ought to have access to our great archives and our great documents.
00:27:35.000It's heartbreaking to see those two people, obviously, who've never had a girlfriend, just using what should be a celebratory place and a celebratory piece of American history for whatever that was.
00:28:00.000Anybody who's trying to tarnish the Constitution gets no more.
00:28:03.000Well, you know, we were deeply offended when Nancy Pelosi ripped up President Trump's State of the Union address right there in the House chambers.
00:28:10.000And, you know, all of these documents, you know, they have a sacred place, especially our Constitution, that we fight for each and every day to uphold and defend.
00:28:19.000And to see someone attempting to desecrate it in that manner is absolutely shameful.
00:28:24.000They were wearing Tevas, I believe, which might be punishment enough, but they deserve all the punishment they get.
00:28:41.000Even when we don't have you on the show, we're often playing your work in committee and on the floor.
00:28:45.000And I think if people are really trying to figure out the news of this week, Like you said, you've got a government trying to grow.
00:28:51.000You've got a group of people trying to protect folks' liberties.
00:28:54.000And at the end of the day, far too many in this town are worried about things going on oceans away that have little direct impact on American life.
00:29:04.000And we just want the people here to be focused on what matters to the American people.
00:29:08.000And it often is a challenge, but I'm glad I have you as a great partner in that endeavor.
00:29:14.000Matt, it's an honor to serve with you, to fight next to you.
00:29:18.000You know, it's often you and I back to back to the very end of the thing.
00:29:23.000And, you know, when we hear things trying to make afraid the American people to say that there's a national security threat and gaslight the American people, we know the real threat is our wide open southern border.
00:29:35.000There have been more red flags because of our wide open southern border and the folks that are on the terrorist watch list coming in.
00:29:41.000And that needs to be our priority, securing that border And making sure that we are protecting our people, not creating endless wars and sending our money all over the world that's not paid for.