Ep 91 | What Now?
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Summary
Robert Mueller's summary of his report on his investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia does not find any evidence of collusion or obstruction of justice, which is what many have been looking for. This is a major breakthrough for the media, who have spent years perpetuating the idea that Trump and the Russians conspired to steal the election from Hillary Clinton.
Transcript
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Hello, relatable listeners. Welcome to the podcast. It is Wednesday, which means that it's
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news day and we do have a lot of news to cover. If you have been alive at all this week, you've
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probably heard at least murmurs of what's been going on. And of course, if you listen to the
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podcast on Monday, then you heard me at least briefly summarize Attorney General William Barr's
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summary of Robert Mueller's report on his investigation into Trump and his campaign,
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possibly colluding with the Russian government to steal the election from Hillary Clinton.
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And in fact, you didn't have to just be alive this week. If you just had a pulse for the past
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couple of years, you have heard this narrative spun by every single media outlet, probably besides Fox
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telling you that Donald Trump, yes, definitely, probably, absolutely colluded with the Russians
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because they cannot get over the idea that not just a Republican beat a Democrat. I think that
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was astounding enough for them, but that Donald J. Trump, this guy who had an Access Hollywood tape
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come out just, I think it was a month before the election saying that he wants to grab women by the
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genitalia that he beat Hillary Clinton, who really does have all the experience in the world. So now
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they are having to reconcile with the reality that they should have reconciled with a long time ago,
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that Hillary Clinton was such a terrible, unlikable candidate that she could not win. It's not that
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Donald Trump was awesome. I don't think it's not that he was such a strong candidate. Hillary Clinton
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did win the popular vote, but that she wasn't likable enough to enough people in the right places to win.
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They're finally going to have to come to terms with that. Now, whether or not they will come to terms
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with that, it's really hard to say. We haven't seen the media take a step back and choose humility
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in their wrongs in a really long time. And this is definitely an example of them kind of doubling down
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on something that they have pushed for the past two years. Okay. And so as you already know, Attorney
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General William Barr's summary outlined what Robert Mueller found and did not find and what Robert Mueller
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did not find was collusion or any grounds for indictments for obstruction of justice.
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So here are the big takeaways from this summary, from what we know from Robert Mueller's report or
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the summary of Robert Mueller's report by Attorney General William Barr. The special counsel employed
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19 lawyers, that's Robert Mueller, 19 lawyers assisted by a team of 40 FBI agents, intelligence,
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intelligence analysts, forensic accountants, and other professional staff. The special counsel issued
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2,800 subpoenas, executed nearly 500 search warrants, and obtained more than 230 orders for
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communication records, issued almost 50 orders authorizing use of pin registers, made 13 requests
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to foreign governments for evidence and interviewed approximately 500 witnesses. $25,215,853 were spent by the
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special counsel's office in investigating Donald Trump and his campaign for colluding with the Russians
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and possibly obstructing justice. And after all of that, all of that time, all of that effort,
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all of those questions, all of our taxpayer money, they did not find anything. Now, it is important
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to say that this summary doesn't necessarily exonerate the president. It doesn't mean that the
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president didn't do anything wrong. But what we know, at least from what we can tell from this summary
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of the report, there was no collusion, which is the thing that we've been looking for. And there was
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no grounds for indictment for obstruction of justice. But we don't have people taking this
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very well. And we'll get to that in just a second. So the report outlines that the Russian effort to
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influence the election in documents, and it documents the crimes committed by persons associated
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with the Russian government in connection with those efforts. And so the report does say that Russian
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efforts were successful in hacking the DNC and getting certain emails and then disseminating those
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emails. The special counsel did not find, though, as we've said, the Trump campaign or anyone
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associated with the Trump campaign. Not a single person associated with the Trump campaign conspired
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or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 campaign. This is a quote.
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The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with
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the Russian government in its election interference activity. So the Russian government did interfere
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in our election, which should be a huge concern for us. I mean, that is the integrity of our
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republic. We should care about that. But Donald Trump, nor anyone associated with his campaign
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did anything to conspire with the Russians. Yet this is what we have been hearing for the past two
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years from the leftist media, from pundits and of course, Democrats in Congress saying that not only
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not only might this have happened, but this definitely happened, this absolutely, probably 100 percent,
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maybe we don't have all the facts, but totally happened. Donald Trump is guilty of this. I mean,
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you've had people say it like it is the gospel truth. And now now they're not taking a step back
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and saying, OK, maybe we jumped the gun. They're saying, well, well, and we'll get to all of that
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coverage in just a second on the full Mueller report. This is a quote, the schedule for processing
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the report. So this is this is Barr responding in the summary of Mueller's report. This is this
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is Barr responding to Democratic and even Republican requests to make the report full because that's the
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thing or make the report public. That's the thing that Democrats have been asking for. They've been
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asking, OK, we need to see the full report. We don't just want to see the summary by AG Barr.
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This handpicked attorney general is something that Elizabeth Warren and other people on the left
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have been saying, because, of course, the the thing that they're connoting there is that he
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might be telling a lie, that the summary of the report might have huge discrepancies between the
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report itself. And so they have been demanding that the report go public. But Barr says in his
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summary, the schedule for processing the report depends in part on how quickly the department can
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identify the 6E material that by law cannot be made public. I have requested the assistance of
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the special counsel in identifying all information contained in the report or all 6E information
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contained contained in the report. Separately, I must all I must also identify any information that
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could impact other ongoing matters, including those that the special counsel has referred to other
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offices. As soon as that process is complete, I will be in a position to move forward expeditiously
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in determining what can be released in light of applicable law, regulations and departmental
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policy. So basically, he's saying, I am going to release the report in its fullest form that
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legally I can as quickly as possible. But y'all just got to be patient because we have to go through
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a particular process in order to make that happen. But this is the talking point that we're hearing
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from Democrats over and over again, that we cannot trust Attorney General Barr and that we need to see
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the full report. And you know what we're going to hear once we see the full report and we see that,
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yes, in fact, Barr was telling the truth, which is just a ridiculous idea that he wouldn't tell the
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truth and risk his job and his reputation that much, knowing that the report is probably going to be
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made public as fully as possible. They are going to say, they're going to say, well, can we even trust
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Robert Mueller? Robert Mueller is a Republican. Can we really trust that he did a full and thorough
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investigation? Yes. Tens of millions of dollars were spent. Yes. Twenty eight hundred subpoenas
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were issued. Yes. They investigated for almost two years. But can we really trust him? No, we're going
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to have to investigate this ourselves. Just wait. That's going to be the talking point. So we know that
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the left has been obsessed with Mueller investigation for a long time. It has been the
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road that they've decided to go down to say that this is an illegitimate president. He's not my
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president. We heard for a really long time and that we need to make sure that he is impeached and we
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need to reinstate the rule of law that has been the Democrats talking point for a while. Here is
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Beto O'Rourke, Andrew McCabe, a former the former FBI director, chairman of the House Intelligence
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Committee, Adam Schiff, John Brennan, who is the former CIA director and DNC chair Tom Perez in this
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order, all saying that collusion between Donald Trump, his campaign and the Russian government in
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the 2016 election for sure happened. You have a president who, in my opinion, beyond the shadow
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of a doubt, sought to, however, hand-handedly collude with the Russian government, a foreign power
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to undermine and influence our elections. Do you still believe the president could be a Russian
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asset? I think it's possible. I think that's why we started our investigation. And I'm really
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anxious to see where Director Mueller concludes that. I think there's plenty of evidence of collusion
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or conspiracy in plain sight. Well, I called his behavior treasonous, which is to betray one's trust
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and to aid and abet the enemy. And I stand very much by that claim. And over the course of the last
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year, we have seen, I think, a mountain of evidence of collusion between the campaign and
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the Russians to basically affect our democracy. So that is an amazing compilation. And that just
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scratches the surface of how definitively, definitively people on the left have been speaking
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about this whole Russian collusion scandal. And after two years of investigations and tens of millions
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of our taxpayer dollars, no collusion was found, no obstruction of justice was found, nor is there any
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possibility of further indictments to the left's dismay. David Brooks is an opinion writer at the New York
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Times, and he wrote an article entitled, We've All Just Made Fools of Ourselves Again. And here's a quote
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from that. Democrats might approach this moment with an attitude of humility and honest
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self-examination. It's clear that many Democrats made grievous accusations against the president that
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are not supported by the evidence. It's clear that people like Beto O'Rourke and John Brennan owe
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Donald Trump a public apology. If you call someone a traitor and it turns out you lacked the evidence for
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that charge, then the only decent thing to do is apologize. Of course, this is true. Of course,
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this is true. If you're a mom and your kid accuses his sibling or accuses his friend of of doing
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something, punching another kid in the face of breaking a lamp, whatever it is, and that turned
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out not to be true. And that kid was lying. He was basing his allegation on something that was actually
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false or that he didn't know. You expect that kid to apologize. Why? Because that's a rude thing to do.
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And the kid who was accused was probably going to get in trouble and get punished for something that
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he didn't do. It's the same principle here. We know that, of course, when we're parenting our
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little toddlers, that's something that we teach them from an early age. But apparently we forget it
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when we become adults and enter into the halls of power. Are we going to get an apology from people
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like Beto O'Rourke and John Brennan? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. And that is revealed
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by someone like Cory Booker, who is a Democratic candidate for president. He said that he now
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suspects, he now suspects, Cory Booker, Spartacus, that the attorney general and the special counsel
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may be wrong in their findings of the specific, quote, fact pattern. Here's a video of him saying
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that. When I have a attorney general who, in my opinion, is suspect filtering a report that I have
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not seen, I'm not willing to conclude anything yet based upon a letter that he wrote. This is an
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issue for Congress. Let's look at the fact pattern. Let's look at the report and come to our own
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conclusion. Okay, Cory Booker, you're right. You're right. You probably know more. Now, to be perfectly
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fair, if it came out that Robert Mueller, that he did come out saying, okay, there's going to be further
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indictments. And yes, there was collusion. And yes, there was obstruction of justice. You would have
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Republicans saying Robert Mueller isn't right, that after this long investigation, this isn't right
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because Republicans have been calling this a witch hunt for a long time. And now all of a sudden that
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it kind of went in our favor, you have Republicans who were calling this a witch hunt saying, well,
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Robert Mueller, of course, is trustworthy, which I'm not even sure that's hypocritical. I think you
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can simultaneously say that this was a witch hunt, that this investigation never should have happened
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in the first place because there wasn't even just cause to investigate and still agree with the
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findings of the Mueller report. But that said, you would definitely have Republicans if this did not
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end in the president's favor saying, well, no, Mueller is absolutely wrong. And you would have
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Democrats and people on the left laughing at Republicans saying, wow, you just, you're so post
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truth. You don't believe in facts. You don't believe in this investigation. That's what Democrats would be
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saying if this went the other way. But now that the shoe is on the other foot, you have Democrats saying,
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well, this guy, Mueller, that we've hailed as a hero for the past two years and have said is going
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to save the Democratic Party and save America from the wily and evil Donald Trump. Maybe not. Maybe we
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need to spend more taxpayer money. Maybe we just need a little more time. And maybe, maybe we in Congress,
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maybe we need to take this on because Robert Mueller, now that I think about it, probably can't be
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trusted. So here's Democrats strategy going forward besides not, not apologizing and not, um, and not
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showing any humility whatsoever. By the way, I do think maybe not with their base, but I do think that
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if someone like Beto came out and said, you know what, I said this at one point and I've been proven
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wrong. Uh, and I actually regret that because I wouldn't like it if someone accused me of something
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that wasn't true. I personally think that that would gain you a lot of integrity points and that
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that could work well for you, but maybe not with the Democratic base. I mean, the Democratic base is
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so deranged. Some of them, not all of them, some of them with their hatred of Trump that they probably
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wouldn't respect that little bit of humility and honesty. I personally would, but I'm not voting for
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Beto O'Rourke anyway. So I guess it doesn't really matter, but here's Democrat strategy. Number one,
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like we already said, they're going to beg for the full report. Uh, the, the Democratic committee
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chairs wrote a letter to the attorney general saying to the extent that you believe applicable
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law limits, uh, limits your ability to comply. We urge you to begin the process of consultation
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with us immediately in order to establish shared parameters for resolving those issues without delay.
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Well, Barr already said that he was going to do that. He said that in the summary, this is just a
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talking point for them. This is a way to show that they're pushing back against this to
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show the Democratic base that they're not going to take this lying down. But attorney general
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Barr already said that that's exactly what he is doing. He is working within the parameters of the
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law to make sure that the fullest extent of the report that is legally possible to be exposed
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is exposed or is, is made public both to Congress and to the American people. And so this is just
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kind of a waste of time. Like he is already going to do what they're saying, but again, this is just
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a fighting tactic. This is not something that's actually going to have any real effect or change
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anything. And then their second strategy is to insist that the president, uh, wasn't fully
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exonerated for obstruction of justice, which yes, this summary doesn't, um, that's not the purpose of the
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summary to, uh, exonerate, to exonerate someone. But it does declare that the report from Mueller
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doesn't say that there is any justifiable cause to charge him for obstruction of justice. So I'm not
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really sure how Democrats are going to make this case. Well, here's Charles Blow from the New York
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Times. He said that it report did not, however, exonerate Trump of obstruction of justice. I submit
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that we witnessed that Trump obstruction, obstructed justice in open view from the white house and on
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social media. Okay. So this is kind of the Cory Booker take that Robert Mueller must not really
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know. Oh, he's old. He doesn't get Twitter. I mean, we all, all of us, Twitter, Twitter warriors,
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we know better. We, we journalists fighting out here for truth. We know that Trump obstructed justice.
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Oh, Robert Mueller in the past two years must have missed the tweets. He must've missed that. He
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probably just wasn't thinking about that. You know, he probably spent all this taxpayer money in the
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past two years and he's probably realizing that he probably woke up in the middle of the night last
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night, Charles Blow and said, Oh my gosh, I totally forgot to look at Twitter. Thank you, Charles Blow.
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Thank you so much. We need your investigative expertise. I mean, this is just all ridiculous.
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All of a sudden, everyone's an expert. All of a sudden, no one on the left trust, trust Robert Mueller.
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Jeff Zucker is the CEO of CNN. He, uh, he said, because, you know, the media has been really
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suffering a really big blowback from this completed total failure of reporting for the
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past two years. Uh, he said that he was entirely comfortable. That's a quote with the network's
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coverage. He stated, we are not investigators. We are journalists. And our role is to report the facts
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as we know them, which is exactly what we did, but that's not what they did. That's not what they did.
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Some of the clips that I just played you were on CNN, uh, we're on CNN, CNN's primetime shows. I mean,
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these are discussions that have been happening over the past two years that Donald Trump definitely
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colluded with the Russians and that it's such a scary time to be alive. And it's such a scary time,
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uh, to be in America. Zucker later said in an email, a sitting president's own justice department
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investigated his campaign for collusion with a hostile nation. That's not enormous because the
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media says so that's enormous because it's unprecedented. Yes, you're absolutely right.
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And if that's all you said, if that's all that was said about this, if those are all the facts
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that you reported, or you truly only reported on the facts as they came out, okay, then you could
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say this, you could say this justifiably, but that's not actually what happened. And yes, journalists
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are supposed to investigate for the fact. So you're just telling me that what the CNN hosts, and I don't
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think this is true, but is, is this what Jeff Zucker is saying that CNN hosts just like read
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mother Jones and the Washington post and say, I'm not going to investigate that any further.
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I don't know if that's factual. I'm just going to report what I read. Um, I would like for
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journalists to actually investigate what's true and what's not. Wouldn't you? I mean, I don't want
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them to learn secondhand about something and say, well, that sounds about right. That fits into the
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narrative. So I'm just going to keep going. But look, this was never a good look. I don't think for
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the leftist media. And even if I were a Democrat, I think that I would be saying the same thing.
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I think, although it's of course impossible to put myself in that kind of crazy, crazy
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position, but I don't think this was a good look for the left. Uh, you notice that over
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the past few weeks, Nancy Pelosi and other people have started to say that impeachment,
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maybe not so much. Now, if they really thought, if they really thought that Donald Trump colluded
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with the Russian government to steal the 2016 election, then of course he should probably be
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impeached or if he obstructed justice, uh, he obstructed this investigation into collusion,
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then of course you would want him impeached. But now, uh, over the past few weeks, she and others
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have been saying, oh, maybe impeachment isn't the best, isn't the best thing. Maybe we have
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more to worry about. So that tells me they didn't really think that there was going to be anything
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that came out in these findings. I mean, James Comey had this whole op-ed that said, you know,
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even if nothing comes out here, the things that we should still care about. So you wonder
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how, for how long some of the people in the know, some of the people in Washington knew that there
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was really nothing that was going to come out of Mueller's report. And so they've been backtracking,
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uh, ahead of time, coming out in front of it and saying, oh, you know, impeachment, impeachment,
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maybe, maybe not so much. That tells me that they know that collusion, uh, didn't happen and
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they're wasting their time. At this point, they look like crazy people. I mean, there's just
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nothing more to prove. The number of Americans that are hanging on to this story that really care
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about this story anymore and really probably ever cared about this story is so small. I just don't
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think it's going to win Democrats an election. And with that logic, I would say, okay, keep going
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then. If this is what you want to run on, that is, that's totally fine. But I do feel badly
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really. I do. I feel a sense of pity for the people who have spent so much mental energy over
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the past two years, insisting that this happened and putting these pieces together in this grand
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conspiracy theory to insist that Donald Trump is an illegitimate president because of this
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collusion. I really feel bad for them that maybe they sometimes woke up at night and thought that
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they found another clue that some of these people probably have padded rooms where they have,
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put all of these different pictures and articles up on the wall and they have strings attached to
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different thumbtacks trying to weave this large complex web of collusion with Russia and Donald
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Trump's campaign. I really, I really feel bad for them. I really do. And they really thought that they
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came up with something. And now, of course, they're going to become these crazy conspiracy theories for
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the next like 75 years. And they're going to say that Robert Mueller was really working for Donald
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Trump this whole time. And it kind of makes sense. Like they don't want to believe that this thing
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that they have put so much hope in is wrong. But the reality is this is a good day for America.
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It is. It's a good week for America. It is a good week for the rule of law. Shouldn't you be happy?
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And a lot of people have said this. I'm certainly not the first person to ask this question. But
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shouldn't you be happy that the president of the free world or the president of the United States,
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the leader of the free world, wasn't in cahoots with the Russian government to seal the election?
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Like, isn't that a good thing? Shouldn't that give you peace of mind? Shouldn't you have a sigh of
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relief? Now, like I said, I don't think a lot of people have been holding their breath for the past
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two years. Like, I don't think a lot of people have really cared about this. I mean, you got to put
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food on the table. You are worried about your kids, about your family, about your job. You're probably
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happy that the economy is doing well. Like, you're probably not wondering what Robert Mueller
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is is up to. And so there's been a lot of people that have been saying, oh, this totally changes
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how the country thinks about the president. I think a lot of people didn't think about this.
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Now, there is a radical base of Democrats, again, that have cared about this, who are going to keep
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pushing for this. But do those people really matter? And do they represent the rest of the country?
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I don't think so. You know, I've always wondered, I've always wondered if a guy was going to this is
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what I kind of asked myself in the very beginning and then decided, OK, I really don't want to think
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about this until I know the results of the investigation. But the question I asked myself,
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if a guy was really going to go through all of the trouble of stealing the election, don't you
00:23:41.080
think he would have tried to swing the popular vote? Like, if you're really in collusion with the
00:23:45.700
Russian government to win in 2016, don't you think a guy like Donald Trump would have been like,
00:23:50.840
oh, we need the popular vote, Putin? Like, I'm not just going to win the electoral vote. Like,
00:23:55.280
do you think that that's been fun for him over the past two years to say he lost the electoral vote
00:23:59.740
by or the popular vote by something like three million votes? I just feel like if you're going
00:24:04.820
to cheat, you might as well go all the way and get the popular vote, too. So it never just it just
00:24:09.340
didn't make that much sense to me. And plus, Democrats, Democrats have other things to be
00:24:15.160
concerned about. I mean, they have a very winning platform of killing newborn baby socialism and open
00:24:22.380
borders. I mean, that is a winning message. Why would you why would you ever need to talk impeachment
00:24:27.740
when you've got things like killing babies and opening opening the borders and confiscating
00:24:33.580
private property to run on? I mean, come on, Democrats, you don't need this. Some people
00:24:38.620
have taken a satirical spin on the whole situation. The New York Post recently published their own
00:24:45.220
bracket of March Madness, but this time it's called Mueller Madness, the media pundits who got it most
00:24:50.640
wrong. That's really difficult game to play. Who got it most wrong? I would say it was the people who
00:24:56.840
were most confident that this happened no matter what. But here's what Donald Trump needs to do.
00:25:03.260
Here's how he needs to use this. I think it would be better for him if he did not let this go away.
00:25:08.220
I think he should hold on to this because Democrats are going to pretend once the president is totally
00:25:13.860
cleared, once they feel like, OK, they've gotten the full report to its fullest extent, which,
00:25:18.320
by the way, they're going to say that they never got the full report because it's going to be redacted.
00:25:21.940
And they're going to claim that the parts that really indict Donald Trump are going to be the parts
00:25:25.940
that are redacted. But once we see, again, reiterated, confirmed as much as possible that
00:25:32.200
Donald Trump didn't collude, didn't obstruct justice, Democrats are just going to want this to go away
00:25:36.920
because it's embarrassing. CNN, these other outlets are going to want it to go away because
00:25:40.700
it's embarrassing. But Donald Trump needs to hold on to this. He needs to go in on this during the
00:25:46.320
debates and in on the campaign trail. He needs to say that Democrats hate America so much,
00:25:52.440
so much that they wanted to believe that their own president was guilty of obstruction of justice
00:25:57.400
and collusion. And Democrats think that you this is also what he needs to say. Democrats think you
00:26:03.780
American people are so dumb, are so stupid and so naive that you are willing to believe a narrative
00:26:10.400
that is not based on fact. They hate America and they think that you're stupid. Now, I don't think
00:26:16.420
that it's true that all Democrats hate America and think that you're stupid. But if Donald Trump were
00:26:21.540
going to use a line and use this whole narrative spun for the past two years as a foundation for that,
00:26:30.220
then if that's effective, then that's probably if that's what he wants to do, if he wants to go down
00:26:35.480
that road, then he needs to hang on to this to prove that point. They're going to Democrats are
00:26:43.880
going to just go back. I think they're just going to go back to the tactic of calling President Trump
00:26:50.020
an evil bigot. They're going to go back to the kids in cages stuff. They're going to go back to
00:26:54.540
saying Republicans hate all minorities. Well, look, unemployment for Hispanics, for black people and
00:27:01.300
for women. They're at an all time low. This is a good time for every single person in this country,
00:27:07.160
no matter who you are, where you come from. In general, of course, people have their own
00:27:10.860
personal issues and things like that. But in general, statistically, this is a good time to be an
00:27:16.000
American. But Democrats, they they can't accept that because then they have really nothing to run on.
00:27:21.760
So you're going to see them painting continually this dark picture of where America is. This is what
00:27:27.600
AOC does. So poignantly, they're going to say that we are going back to the times of slavery and the
00:27:34.980
Jim Crow South. They're going to capitalize for the next couple of years or the next year and a half on
00:27:40.240
every single tragedy that occurs from now until the election, every single mass shooting, every single
00:27:46.640
so-called hate crime, every single instance of Islamophobia, racism, sexism, whatever it is,
00:27:51.860
they are going to harp on this stuff until the cows come home so they can say, look, we live in a
00:27:57.100
scary country because of Donald Trump and white nationalists and white supremacists are winning.
00:28:02.640
And if you have any ounce of compassion in you, then you need to vote Democrat. That's the road
00:28:07.460
that they're going to go down. They're not going to be able to use this Russian collusion stuff
00:28:10.540
anymore. And so they're going to try to make you very, very scared, very scared of living in the
00:28:15.860
country. This is their tactic. It's one of bullying. It's one of emotional manipulation and it's one of
00:28:20.920
fear. Now, do Republicans also employ fear in their campaigning? They absolutely do because fear
00:28:26.800
objectively is an excellent motivator. It is. That's part of why I voted for Donald Trump and
00:28:32.060
not Hillary Clinton, because I was afraid of what the country would look like under four more years
00:28:36.780
of a radical leftist. And yes, I do believe Hillary Clinton would have governed like a leftist.
00:28:42.380
She is seen as by a lot of Democrats as more moderate. But no, I think that she would have
00:28:47.340
been just as left if not even pushed it further to the left than Barack Obama if she had been elected
00:28:52.440
to office. But yes, Republicans, they do use fear. One example is the border crisis. Democrats say
00:28:59.520
that the right just stirs up outrage and stokes fear about what's going on at the border. But the
00:29:04.560
difference is illegal immigration is a real problem. But the idea that this is the most racist and
00:29:10.240
horrible and scary and frightening time that America has ever been in is not a real problem.
00:29:16.240
That's just not true. That's not reality. So right now, you can probably bet that Republicans
00:29:21.700
or Democrats are pulling their teams together to go over their talking points. They're going to say,
00:29:27.400
OK, what's going to be the message going forward? They don't have any positive messages. Really,
00:29:32.360
socialism is like the only policy position that they've got right now. So I say, sure,
00:29:37.060
run on that. But right now, right now is a good week for Republicans from the perspective of most
00:29:43.480
people. So here are a few other things that happen. This is according to The New York Times.
00:29:47.180
On Monday, Patrick M. Shanahan, the acting defense secretary, authorized the first transfer of
00:29:52.960
Defense Department money to fencing construction. That's a border wall at the southwestern border up
00:29:58.100
to one billion dollars from military personnel funding toward the construction of 57 miles of
00:30:02.640
border wall, improving roads and adding lighting to Yuma, Arizona and El Paso, Texas, according to a
00:30:08.600
letter sent to the Department of Homeland Security. And so a lot of people are seeing this as a win.
00:30:12.380
Now, you probably remember that there was a fight in Congress over President Trump's emergency
00:30:17.380
declaration to build the wall, both Republicans and Democrats. Some Republicans, all Democrats had
00:30:22.940
a problem with that. So we'll see where this goes. You've got a lot of people pushing back on this as
00:30:27.120
well. But right now, it looks like this one billion dollars was authorized for the building of a border
00:30:33.360
wall. This is a win in the eyes of a lot of Republicans. And then you also have a story about
00:30:38.860
Obamacare. The Justice Department sides with court ruling Obamacare is invalid. So here are the points
00:30:43.600
on that. The Department of Justice on Monday announced that it is siding with the district court that
00:30:47.760
found the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. This is a move that is an escalation of the Trump
00:30:53.380
administration's legal battle against the health care law. Judge Reed O'Connor ruled in December of
00:30:59.120
last year that the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate is unconstitutional and the rest of the law is
00:31:04.980
then invalid. A lot of legal experts are saying that legal precedent shows that even if the mandate
00:31:11.480
is ruled unconstitutional, that the rest of Obamacare should remain unharmed. That is what
00:31:17.200
Congress voted to do in the 2017 tax law that repealed the mandates penalty. But we'll see what
00:31:22.260
goes on there. People have been saying on the right that Obamacare is unconstitutional for a long
00:31:26.500
time. They have been saying repeal and replace or just repeal period for a long time, and they haven't
00:31:31.580
been able to fully do that. And so this could be, um, they're hoping, you know, a step in that
00:31:36.900
direction. Of course, there is going to be pushback on that, but that's another, that's another win.
00:31:42.440
A lot of people are saying for the right. And here is just a beautiful, a beautiful example of what
00:31:48.700
goes around, comes around in some cases. So remember Michael Avenatti, you might want to close your kids
00:31:54.480
ears for just a second. I don't know if you permit them to say this name, or you might just want to
00:31:58.300
hit that 15 seconds forward. But Michael Avenatti is known as the creepy porn lawyer, um, at least by
00:32:05.620
Tucker Carlson on his show, he represented porn star Stormy Daniels. Um, when she said that, uh,
00:32:13.980
you know, she slept with Donald Trump and they paid her hush money, all that good stuff. Michael Avenatti,
00:32:21.160
real standup guy. He was on the circuit, MSNBC, CNN. He was a good friend of the leftist
00:32:28.280
media, partied with them. They took him seriously when it came to, uh, his attacks on president
00:32:34.040
Trump. And of course he was the one that represented Julie Swetnick. That is the woman who came forward
00:32:38.940
and said, Oh yeah. Uh, Kavanaugh was part of this gang rape crowd at all these parties that I went to
00:32:45.180
in college. And Oh yeah, he was definitely there gang raping people. And then she went on, I think it
00:32:52.660
was MSNBC and said, Oh, actually, I'm not really sure. I don't really know if Kavanaugh was a part
00:32:58.200
of that. Well, Michael Avenatti represented her and insisted that she was telling the truth. Even
00:33:02.660
after she said she wasn't telling the truth. Also, I think that she and he need to be a charge for
00:33:08.080
that. I mean, that's absolutely ridiculous, but he has now been charged by federal prosecutors,
00:33:12.980
uh, for extortion and conspiracy. This is according to the wall street journal,
00:33:17.240
um, federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged Mr. Avenatti with extortion and conspiracy alleging
00:33:22.500
he told lawyers for Nike that he and an unnamed co-conspirator would release damaging information
00:33:28.860
about the company. If Nike didn't pay them to conduct an internal investigation and to settle a
00:33:34.580
client's claim, according to a complaint unsealed Monday. Uh, there was also a separate criminal
00:33:40.680
complaint. Uh, the U S attorney's office in Los Angeles alleged that, uh, Mr. Avenatti embezzled a
00:33:46.200
client's money to pay his own expenses. Uh, that was then used to defraud a bank using phony tax
00:33:52.620
returns. Uh, Michael Avenatti was arrested in a steam operation conducted by the FBI alongside of
00:33:58.660
Nike where both Avenatti and his co-conspirator, Mark Gragos, I think that's how you say his last
00:34:03.900
name. He is by the way, a CNN legal analyst that also represents Jesse Smollett. Uh, they were both
00:34:10.280
taken into custody. I mean, this is just all so crazy. Uh, Avenatti could be facing up to
00:34:15.500
107 years in prison. Okay. Uh, however, in a statement he made late Monday, he believes that
00:34:24.740
he will be fully exonerated. This is what he all, this is what he always says of all charges involving
00:34:30.080
the extortion and bank and wire fraud charges. He was released on $300,000 bond on money on Monday
00:34:36.640
night. Oh my goodness. And so this guy is obviously in a lot of hot legal water. I mean, I I'm not
00:34:46.740
rejoicing in this. I truly hope that Michael Avenatti comes to know Jesus and then he is
00:34:52.000
redeemed and that his life has changed. He is a slimy guy and there is joy and found found in, uh,
00:34:58.140
justice being served. And he has tried to ruin the lives of so many people by false allegations.
00:35:03.240
He also had a scuffle with Tucker Carlson. I mean, this guy, he is just, he is no good. He's no good.
00:35:09.940
So it doesn't surprise me at all. And by the way, Stormy Daniels even came out with a statement saying
00:35:13.760
that this stuff doesn't surprise her. It doesn't surprise me at all. This is happening. And I do
00:35:18.260
look forward to justice being served. It doesn't matter who it is or what side of the aisle that
00:35:22.680
they're on. I mean, this guy was going to run for president of the United States on the democratic
00:35:26.020
ticket. That's really amazing. And now he's going to jail for extortion and fraud. Wow. Wow. I I'm
00:35:32.760
glad that the truth is coming out. And, um, I hope that he is given a just sentence, of course,
00:35:39.760
that the punishment fits the crime, but maybe he will learn that being sketchy, being a, um,
00:35:47.080
creepy porn lawyer doesn't pay not for very long. Um, so there's a lot that has happened this week
00:35:53.660
in the news. And a lot of people would say it's a good week for Republicans. If you think Democrats
00:35:57.860
are going to let all of this last, uh, you're crazy. I mean, there are very few weeks though,
00:36:03.900
that things like this happen back to back to back and the media actually covers them. And so we kind
00:36:09.520
of just need to soak it in just for a second. There's just a lot of payback that seems to be
00:36:14.660
happening right now. And I'm not saying that vengeance is good. It's just that truth has come
00:36:20.160
out in a lot of different ways. And of course, Republicans feel like the constitution is being
00:36:25.560
unheld with, um, the, with the department of justice saying that, uh, Obamacare is Obamacare
00:36:34.520
is unconstitutional. And a lot of Republicans think it's a win that the $1 billion was transferred for
00:36:39.520
the building of the wall. And so we'll just see what happens with all of this. But for right now,
00:36:43.780
Republicans, Donald Trump should just take the win, try not to gloat, keep going, keep working for the
00:36:49.320
American people. Democrats are not going to, uh, let you wallow in this for long. And so just enjoy
00:36:56.100
it while it lasts. But that is the news that we are covering for today on Friday. Uh, I have an
00:37:01.940
awesome, an awesome conversation with Eric Metaxas. He is the author of Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther,
00:37:08.680
as well as like 10 other amazing books that you've probably heard of as well as if you can keep it,
00:37:14.400
that's another book that I have by him, but it's a great conversation. We talk about, uh, his,
00:37:19.320
his, uh, faith and his coming to faith in the Lord and just the intellectualism that he has been
00:37:24.640
able to contribute, uh, to Christianity over the past few years and throughout his career. It's
00:37:29.720
really a fascinating conversation. He's a great, uh, a great person to talk to. So I hope that you'll
00:37:34.180
tune in for that on Friday morning and I will see you then.