64 people were on board an American Airlines passenger jet with 64 people on board when it collided with a military helicopter attempting to land at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. No survivors have been found and the cause of the crash is not yet known.
00:00:00.000Well, folks, horrible, tragic situation in Washington, D.C. According to the UK Daily Mail, an American Airlines passenger jet with 64 people on board crashed midair into a military helicopter while attempting to land at Reagan National Airport.
00:00:13.000This is one of the most heavily policed areas of the sky in all of America.
00:00:18.000Reagan National, of course, is a very sensitive security site, given the fact that it has close proximity to pretty much all of the major American security sites in Washington, D.C. The tragedy is just shocking.
00:00:30.000You can see on video as this American Airlines passenger jet, a small passenger jet that was taking off from Kansas, is trying to land at Reagan National.
00:00:39.000And a helicopter, which was swirling around in the area, a Black Hawk military helicopter, flies directly into its path.
00:01:28.000That includes members of the U.S. figure skating community who'd been returning home from the National Development Camp, which is an advanced training camp for promising young athletes held in conjunction with U.S. figure skating championships.
00:01:40.000As many as 15 people on the flight may have been involved in figure skating, according to the reports.
00:01:45.000It included a married couple, a Russian married couple named Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who apparently won a world championship in figure skating.
00:01:54.000Back in 1994. Again, there were three soldiers who were aboard the Black Hawk helicopter.
00:02:32.000The United States does have the safest aviation system on planet Earth.
00:02:37.000So when this sort of stuff happens, it is truly, truly shocking, horrifying, and tragic.
00:02:42.000Once again, our prayers go out to the family.
00:02:43.000We'll bring you more information on how people can give charity and help out as time goes on, as that information becomes.
00:02:50.000Okay, meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., the big story of the day was that RFK Jr., Bobby Kennedy, had his hearing for Secretary of Health and Human Services.
00:03:00.000He, of course, is one of the more controversial nominees by President Trump, both from the right and from the left.
00:03:05.000From the left, there are a lot of people who question Bobby Kennedy's association with President Trump, the fact that he gave a pretty bang-up speech leaving the race.
00:03:13.000He was running originally as a Democrat.
00:03:14.000He was basically barred from the Democrat primaries because the Democrats were trying to rig it for Joe Biden.
00:03:18.000And then, He ran as an independent, and he was picking up a not insignificant portion of the vote, and he decided to drop out and endorse President Trump.
00:03:24.000In that speech, he went after many of the Democrat-controlled systems, ranging from the media to academia.
00:03:30.000So there's a lot of ire from Democrats who used to love Bobby Kennedy at Bobby Kennedy.
00:03:35.000On the right side of the aisle, there's some dyspepsia over many of Bobby Kennedy's prior positions, ranging from abortion to his sort of broad position on vaccines.
00:03:43.000So his hearing yesterday was, I think, an excellent job by Kennedy.
00:03:48.000of walking back some of the positions that are more extreme, generally anti-vaccine positions, or positions that suggest that he's going to outright work to ban foods that he doesn't like.
00:03:59.000The implication had been, from many people, that make America healthy again, was really going to be a sort of Michael Bloomberg effort to ban you from buying a soda or buying a hamburger.
00:04:12.000And Bobby Kennedy said, no, that's not the case.
00:04:14.000He said right off the top, listen, I'm not interested in taking people's food away.
00:04:18.000The president of the United States is Donald Trump.
00:04:19.000That dude loves, that dude loves McDonald's.
00:04:22.000He loves Diet Coke and he loves cheeseburgers.
00:04:26.000I don't want to take food away from anybody.
00:04:29.000If you like a McDonald's cheeseburger or Diet Coke, which my boss loves, you should be able to get them if you want to eat.
00:04:41.000Hostess Twinkies, you should be able to do that, but you should know what the impacts are on your family and on your health.
00:04:48.000Okay, the fact that he's pushing for more information being available is not a terrible thing.
00:04:53.000He says that his tenure at the head of HHS, if he is confirmed, will be marked by radical transparency, which of course would be a major shift from the past.
00:05:01.000The Democratic Party, of course, has not embraced radical transparency in any area of administrative law.
00:05:05.000All the administrative agencies have basically been opaque.
00:05:08.000You only find out when you violated a law because...
00:05:10.000You had a summons from some sort of executive branch agency.
00:05:14.000Here is RFK Jr. suggesting that the hallmark of his tenure will be radical transparency.
00:05:20.000My approach to administration, HHS, will be radical transparency.
00:05:28.000If members of this committee or other members of Congress want information, the doors are open.
00:05:34.000I've spent many years litigating against NIH and its sub-agencies.
00:05:39.000I mean, it's HHS and its sub-agencies, NIH, CDC, FDA, on FOIA issues, trying to get information that we, the taxpayers, paid for, and oftentimes getting back redacted copies after a year or two years of litigation.
00:06:04.000By the way, one of the things Bobby Kennedy pledged is that...
00:06:07.000Null studies, meaning studies that come out that are basically file-droored.
00:06:12.000What that means is very often the studies that tend to get a lot of play are the ones that have quote-unquote new results.
00:06:17.000And very often those new results are not duplicated in other studies.
00:06:20.000And so if somebody tries to put forward a result that basically shows no impact, a void impact of a drug, for example, that is file-droored.
00:06:36.000That, of course, would be very, very good.
00:06:38.000RFK Jr. also walked back some of his pro-choice positions.
00:06:42.000Not that he has suddenly become pro-life, but he does work for the Trump administration, which is a pro-life administration.
00:06:46.000He's not going to use HHS to promote abortion.
00:06:49.000That was one of the things that he said yesterday, which I think quieted a lot of concerns from the right about his anti-life positions in the past.
00:06:57.000Of course, he had said on many shows, including my own show, I've interviewed him, that he is fully pro-choice, but he says...
00:07:04.000He is a member of the Trump administration.
00:07:05.000Minimizing abortion would be the idea.
00:07:08.000I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy.
00:07:12.000I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions here.
00:07:19.000I agree with him that the states should control abortion.
00:07:24.000President Trump has told me that he wants to end late-term abortions.
00:07:30.000That he wants to protect conscious exemptions and that he wants to end federal funding for abortions here or abroad.
00:07:37.000That's Title X. I serve at the pleasure of the president.
00:07:44.000Again, that I think is aimed at the Republicans in the Senate who are likely to vote for RFK Jr.'s confirmation.
00:07:50.000He also mitigated his own statements with regard to vaccines.
00:07:59.000Far too broad-reaching, suggesting, for example, at one point that vaccines, there was no such thing as a safe and healthy vaccine.
00:08:07.000Now, he says he meant for everyone, meaning that every single vaccine has some sort of side effects for someone, which, of course, is true.
00:08:13.000He was asked about that, and he said, listen, if you think I'm taking away the measles vaccine or the polio vaccine, that is not what I am in favor of.
00:08:28.000That makes it difficult or discourages people from taking either of those practices.
00:08:32.000Anybody who believes that ought to look at the measles book you wrote saying parents have been misled into believing that measles is a deadly disease.
00:08:41.000Okay, so, again, he was browbeaten by Democrats on that particular list.
00:08:45.000He spent a lot of yesterday walking back old comments, which, of course, is not a shock considering that he has said a lot of controversial things in the past.
00:09:13.000Agreed with me on all the environmental issues that I've been working on for my whole career.
00:09:18.000Now they're against me because anything that President Trump does, any decision he makes, I mean, again, he's right about that.
00:09:34.000If President Trump wants to snuff out all of his opponents, all he has to do today is come out in favor of breathing oxygen.
00:09:39.000All his opponents will immediately denounce breathing oxygen and put plastic bags over their heads.
00:09:43.000And that is the oppositional nature of our politics at this moment.
00:09:47.000Well, RFK Jr. may be confused by how many of his former friends have now become his enemies, but there are people out there who actually don't want the best for you.
00:09:55.000Did you know that American homeowners have over $32 trillion in equity and criminals are targeting it with a growing scam the FBI calls house-stealing?
00:10:01.000scammers can transfer your title out of your name using a one-page document they file at the county then they can take out loans against it or even sell it behind your back the most concerning part you won't find out about it until collection or foreclosure notices start arriving in your mailbox leaving you with financial and legal nightmare the best way to protect your equity is with home title locks exclusive million dollar triple lock protection this service offers 24 7 monitoring urgent alerts and if fraud should occur their u.s based restoration team will spend up to 1 million dollars to fix the fraud and restore your title Our own senior video editor, Adam, trust them to protect his home?
00:10:31.000So when was the last time you checked on your title?
00:10:34.000If the answer is never, that's exactly what scammers are counting on.
00:10:36.000The good news is we've partnered with Home Title Lock to offer you 25% off their services.
00:10:41.000Go to hometitlelock.com, use my promo code Shapiro25 to save 25%, and you'll also get a free title history report to ensure you're not already a victim.
00:10:48.000And make sure you check out the million-dollar triple lock protection details when you get there.
00:11:44.000For a complimentary consultation, call today 1-800-958-1000 or visit their website at tnusa.com slash Shapiro.
00:11:52.000That's 1-800-958-1000 or visit tnusa.com slash Shapiro today.
00:11:57.000Don't let the IRS take advantage of you.
00:11:58.000Get the help you need with Tax Network USA. RFK Jr. also went after the kind of spending that we've been doing on our public health care system.
00:12:07.000In fact, every single public health care system on planet Earth reaches a point of diminishing returns.
00:12:13.000You can increase the health of your population only to the point of the baseline health of the population, meaning that if you have a deeply unhealthy population that is, for example, obese, ridden with diabetes, has too much sugar, never exercises, no matter how much money you sink into Medicaid, it is not going to fix those problems on the back end.
00:12:45.000We need to listen to what people, they would prefer to be on private insurance.
00:12:50.000Most Americans, if they can afford to be, will be on private insurance.
00:12:55.000We need to figure out ways to improve care.
00:12:59.000Particularly for elderly, for veterans, for the poor in this country.
00:13:04.000And Medicaid, the current model, is not doing that.
00:13:07.000I would ask, you know, any of the Democrats who were chuckling just now, do you think all that money, the $900 billion that we're sending to Medicaid every year has made Americans healthy?
00:13:24.000He's right about this, although when he talks about premiums on Medicaid.
00:13:27.000He was banged about for this in the press because it turns out that there are no premiums in Medicaid, right?
00:13:32.000I mean, when it comes to premiums in Medicaid, Medicaid is not a private health insurance system.
00:13:37.000One of the problems with Medicaid is that typically the reimbursement rates are so low that many doctors won't even take it in the first place.
00:13:42.000But his point, which is we spend billions, hundreds of billions of dollars on these gigantic health care systems when we should actually be encouraging people to do healthy things on the front end.
00:13:53.000Now, the Democrats made fools of themselves.
00:13:56.000One of the things that helps RFK Jr. in this hearing is that whatever mistakes he made were quickly covered up for by the fact that Democrats are out of their freaking minds.
00:14:07.000I mean, listen, it's not our fault on the right that you guys decided to tout Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren as your champions of diversity, of inclusion, of economic wherewithal.
00:14:24.000You chose the form of your destructor, and it turns out it was a bunch of geriatric socialists with no relationship with the real world.
00:14:31.000The funniest moment by far of the day came when Bernie Sanders started questioning RFK Jr. about a onesie for a baby that said, unvaxxed, unafraid.
00:14:42.000And apparently, Bernie doesn't like the onesies.
00:15:46.000Bernie2028, will you denounce the onesies?
00:15:48.000By the way, one of the funniest things that I've ever seen in a congressional hearing like this.
00:15:53.000It was Megyn Kelly, who showed up, and Megyn, of course I'm friends with Megyn, Megyn showed up directly behind RFK Jr., right?
00:16:01.000She considers herself a maha mom, and she was sitting behind RFK Jr., and during this exchange, if you can't see it, she bursts out laughing.
00:16:08.000It's really funny, and it's everybody's thought.
00:16:53.000I would say it's different because with free speech it doesn't cost anybody anything, but in healthcare, if you smoke cigarettes for 20 years and you get cancer, you are now taking from the pool.
00:17:11.000And so are you guaranteed the same rate or is there also a duty?
00:18:17.000How did you turn Republicans into the cool kids?
00:18:19.000Well, probably with the lecturing school marm, fake Native American, who is the senator from Massachusetts.
00:18:26.000Mr. Kennedy, it's just a really simple question.
00:18:29.000You've taken in two and a half million dollars.
00:18:32.000I want to know if you will commit right now that not only will you not go to work for drug companies, you won't go to work suing the drug companies and taking your rake out of that while you're a secretary and for four years after.
00:18:47.000I'll commit to not taking any fees from drug companies while I'm secretary.
00:18:52.000I'm asking about fees from suing drug companies.
00:18:59.000You're asking me to not sue drug companies.
00:19:02.000No, you can sue drug companies as much as you want.
00:19:06.000I'm not going to agree to not sue drug companies or anybody.
00:19:11.000I mean, first of all, it's kind of amazing that what Elizabeth Warren is doing there is what she's what she's trying to do is she's trying to suggest that RFK Jr. would be corrupt if he sued the companies that he is regulating as HHS.
00:19:26.000normally, The corruption allegation is that you go and you work for the companies that you're regulating at these various agencies.
00:20:04.000So Big Pharma does bad things, just like every other corporation does bad things.
00:20:07.000But this notion that Big Pharma is uniquely bad when they develop literally all of the life-saving things that surround you in the world is a bizarre one to me.
00:20:15.000Nonetheless, Elizabeth Warren was attacking him from the right there.
00:20:23.000The senator from New Hampshire, she was ripping on RFK Jr., suggesting that he had sold out his life's work by now suggesting that he would be part of a pro-life administration.
00:20:35.000When was it that you decided to sell out the values you've had your whole life in order to be given power by President Trump?
00:20:43.000Senator, I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy, that we can't be a moral authority in this country.
00:20:50.000Right, but that isn't what you said back in New Hampshire.
00:20:53.000In 2023. My question is exactly when did you decide to sell out your life's work and values to get this position?
00:21:01.000Senator, I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy.
00:21:06.000So what you're telling us, just to be clear because my time is limited, is that regardless of what you believe, regardless of what values you have, if President Trump tells you to do something, you're going to do it.
00:21:45.000It's non-GMO, vegan, allergen-free, and thoroughly tested for safety.
00:21:48.000Which means you and I can both feel confident giving our kids vitamins made to this high-quality standard.
00:21:52.000Are you tired of battling with your kids to eat their greens?
00:21:54.000Haia now has Kids Daily Greens Plus Superfoods, a chocolate-flavored greens powder designed specifically for kids, packed with more than 55 whole food ingredients to support brain power, development, and digestion.
00:22:49.000It takes just two minutes on the phone or at carsforkids.org to donate.
00:22:53.000They'll take over from there, getting your car picked up as soon as the next day.
00:22:56.000No haggling, no scheduling conflicts, no paperwork nightmares.
00:22:59.000You'll receive a vacation voucher and maximum tax deduction while supporting proven programs that help children reach their full potential.
00:23:05.000With over a million successful donations over three decades, Cars for Kids continues to be a trusted partner for car donors all across the country.
00:23:58.000Sorry, Democrats do not get to complain about their own nominees when they nominated people like Rachel Levine to the assistant HHS secretary.
00:24:43.000Through our Office of Climate Change and Health Equity and the Office of Environmental Justice, we're working with providers and community leaders to identify innovative approaches that empower communities to address to health consequences linked to climate change.
00:25:08.000I might have respected that position if you guys weren't so weird yourselves.
00:25:11.000And again, there are going to be questions about how RFK Jr. does his job.
00:25:15.000I hope that he is held to the standard that he set for himself in the hearings, meaning no cramdowns on Americans' ability to choose what kind of foods they want to eat.
00:25:23.000No attempts to simply punish companies for not doing the will of HHS. No shutting down of R&D that would actually be useful.
00:25:32.000I mean, there's some R&D that really is counterproductive, as we saw from Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
00:25:38.000But not attempting to shut down research.
00:25:40.000You're going to judge him by the fruits of his labors over at HHS. But I don't think Democrats really laid a glove on Bobby Kennedy yesterday, which is indicative of their total failure across the board since they lost the last election cycle.
00:25:51.000Meanwhile, speaking of that failure, President Trump continues to succeed along the lines of cracking down on illegal immigration.
00:25:57.000Yesterday, he signed into law the Lakin-Riley Act.
00:26:00.000The Lakin-Riley Act, of course, was designed to crack down on criminal illegal immigration in the United States.
00:26:07.000In doing so, he praised Democrats who signed on to the act.
00:26:09.000the act many of them did. - I very much especially appreciate the bipartisan support.
00:26:15.000The Democrats, really a big percentage of them came through and plenty of them wanted to, they probably felt they couldn't but they really wanted to.
00:26:23.000That they don't understand that would have made them a lot more popular, would have made them a lot better with their people.
00:26:30.000The ones that didn't are gonna be, they're gonna be sorry because the people are not gonna forget that they wouldn't sign This is a perfect, incredible tribute to an unbelievable young lady.
00:26:43.000So, what exactly did the Lake and Riley Act do?
00:26:46.000Well, it orders ICE to detain illegal immigrants for crimes like theft, and it allows states to sue the Department of Homeland Security over harm caused to citizens by illegal immigrants.
00:26:55.000That obviously is a strong act that had a bunch of Democratic support.
00:27:01.000Trump is winning on this particular issue.
00:27:07.000So yesterday, President Trump announced that Gitmo would essentially be turned into a housing facility for the worst criminal illegal immigrants in the United States.
00:27:16.000According to the Wall Street Journal, he ordered the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security to construct a facility for holding as many as 30,000 migrants at Guantanamo Bay.
00:27:24.000The U.S. Navy base in Cuba, the site of a prison for more than two decades, where terrorist suspects would instead be used to contain the worst criminal illegal immigrants.
00:27:31.000Here's President Trump announcing it yesterday.
00:27:33.000Today I'm also signing an executive order to instruct the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay.
00:28:10.000Okay, well, this, I think, is going to be a popular notion for Americans who don't wish to see violent illegal immigrants in the United States.
00:28:18.000According to the Wall Street Journal, opening 30,000 additional detention beds would almost double ICE's capacity to hold migrants ahead of their deportations.
00:28:25.000Congress has allotted funding for detaining as many as 41,000 immigrants.
00:28:29.000At a time, a historically high number Trump's team considers inadequate as it tries to carry out mass deportation.
00:28:35.000This is not the first time Gitmo has been used this way.
00:28:37.000It was used this way during the 80s and the 90s.
00:28:39.000Kristi Noem, the newly approved head of the Department of Homeland Security, she said, listen, this is something we've done in the past.
00:28:47.000There is already facilities there that are housing illegal immigrants, and it's the worst of the worst that are kept there.
00:28:53.000Many times those who are sent there are gang members, you know, people that have created terrorist activities in the United States of America and have been a real danger and threat to our people.
00:29:04.000So what we'll be doing is utilizing our resources to expand the capacity there and to make sure that as we continue to do what President Trump has talked about and in deporting people who are here illegally and are making our streets much more dangerous is that we're going to utilize Guantanamo Bay to a more expansive purpose.
00:29:23.000And that we will be going and putting resources there to make sure we have the space to getting people out of this country right away that will make sure our country much more safe.
00:29:34.000Well, again, I think the entire administration is on the same page.
00:29:38.000This is very different from Trump 1.0.
00:29:40.000Everybody is moving in lockstep inside the Trump administration.
00:29:44.000Pete Hegsat, the new Secretary of Defense, he said something similar.
00:29:47.000He said, listen, we're ramping up mass deportations.
00:29:49.000This is a plan in movement, but not in movement because we're behind, but because we're ramping up for the possibility to expand mass deportations because President Trump is dead serious about getting illegal criminals out of our country.
00:30:02.000And the DOD is not only willing to, is proud to partner with DHS to defend the sovereignty of our southern border and advance that mission.
00:30:10.000Now, again, this is a whole of administration approach.
00:30:14.000And President Trump is not slowing down on any of this.
00:30:17.000Now, Colombia had, of course, talked back to the United States, suggested they weren't going to take illegal immigrants that were deported from the United States.
00:30:24.000Trump said, you're going to take exactly what we send you.
00:30:26.000For the first time in history, we're loading dangerous and illegal aliens into military aircraft and flying them back to the places from which they came.
00:30:36.000You probably read about Colombia two days ago.
00:30:47.000By the way, it is worth pointing out here that Democrats, again, have very little response to any of this other than to claim that you won't be able to get blackberries or blueberries in your smoothies because the illegal immigrants are picking all your fruit.
00:30:58.000Again, it is kind of incredible that this is the only comeback they've been able to come up with after, what, 30 years of this conversation about illegal immigration?
00:31:06.000Is your mangoes might be more expensive?
00:31:38.000It's just going to become even harder to solve the problem.
00:31:42.000It doesn't make sense to punish individuals and people when there is a broken system.
00:31:49.000Well, actually, it does make sense to actually fight the broken system by unbreaking the system and deporting the people who are illegally here.
00:31:56.000Again, if your white lady privilege, which is we have to absorb 20 million illegal immigrants so that your blueberries can be a little bit cheaper for your protein smoothie.
00:32:12.000Meanwhile, the President of the United States continues his spate of very strong executive actions.
00:32:16.000Yesterday, he issued an executive order ending racial indoctrination in K-12 schooling.
00:32:22.000This, of course, is designed to end DEI indoctrination across the public school system.
00:32:27.000The executive order suggests, quote, imprinting anti-American, subversive, harmful and false ideologies on our nation's children not only violates longstanding anti-discrimination civil rights law in many cases, it usurps basic parental authority.
00:32:39.000For example, steering students toward surgical and chemical mutilation without parental consent or involvement or allowing males access to private spaces designed for females may contravene federal laws that protect parental rights.
00:32:50.000My administration will enforce the law to ensure recipients of federal funds providing K through 12 education comply with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination in various contexts and protecting parental rights.
00:33:00.000So this means no more if you're receiving federal funding.
00:33:03.000of this nonsense where you socially transition a child.
00:33:06.000No more indoctrinating kids at school to believe that they are inferior based on their white skin color.
00:33:13.000Meanwhile, the president issued another executive order attempting to broaden the possibility for school vouchers.
00:33:19.000According to this brand new executive order, parents want and deserve the best education for their children.
00:33:24.000Too many children do not thrive in their assigned government-run K-12 school.
00:33:28.000According to this year's National Assessment of Educational Progress, 70% of 8th graders were below proficiency in reading, 72% were below proficiency in math.
00:33:36.000Moreover, geographically based school assignments exacerbate the cost of housing in districts with preferred schools.
00:33:42.000It is the policy of my administration to support parents in choosing and directing the upbringing and education of their children.
00:33:47.000Within 60 days of the date of the order, the Secretary of Education shall issue guidance regarding how states can use federal formula funds to support K-12 educational choice initiatives.
00:33:57.000The Secretary of Education shall now include education freedom as a priority in discretionary grant programs as appropriate and consistent with applicable law.
00:34:05.000So the idea here would be to promote, as far as possible, the spread of school choice across the country, the great civil rights issue of our time, allowing children to go to the best school available to them, facilitating that.
00:34:16.000We have universal school choice here in my wonderful home state of Florida.
00:35:17.000to force universities to actually enforce the civil rights law that they enforce on campus with regard to black students or Mexican students or Asian students to also apply to Jewish students.
00:35:28.000So if you violate the Civil Rights Act, then you will lose your federal funding.
00:35:32.000Again, this is a lever that the administration is using to go after these ridiculous Ivy League institutions.
00:35:45.000That is not what it is designed to do.
00:35:47.000Instead, what it is designed to do is go after the universities by suggesting, quote, a Trumpy, the policy of the United States to combat anti-Semitism vigorously using all available and appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold accountable the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.
00:36:01.000Unlawful being the key word right there.
00:36:04.000Specifically, within 60 days, the head of each department or agency shall submit a report to the president identifying all civil and criminal authorities or actions within the jurisdiction of that agency Now,
00:36:28.000again, this executive order specifically, specifically, goes out of its way to point out that it is not, in fact, dealing with speech issues here, that it is simply applying the Civil Rights Act.
00:36:42.000Which, of course, was always the design of orders like this one, despite, I think, some misrepresentation in the media.
00:36:48.000And meanwhile, some controversy has broken out.
00:36:51.000Yesterday, the White House rescinded its order to freeze federal assistance and grants.
00:36:55.000It didn't actually rescind the order to pause the spending.
00:36:58.000What it did do is rescind the Office of Management and Budget memo that ordered the thing.
00:37:03.000It is a little bit confusing, but according to the Wall Street Journal, the Trump administration rescinded its memo calling for federal agencies to pause potentially trillions of dollars in federal grants, loans, and other financial assisted programs as they, after a federal judge temporarily blocked the directive.
00:37:17.000So the White House just withdrew the memo.
00:37:20.000In order to prevent an injunction from stopping us from pausing the spending, we'll remove the memo that was too broad and could be easily construed wrong.
00:37:29.000Instead, what we are going to do is we're going to go with much more specific and targeted actions, which, of course, is the proper response.
00:37:35.000The memo was a good window into what the administration is likely trying to do.
00:37:39.000But to remove it is a way of mitigating its legal effect.
00:37:44.000And instead, specific rescissions or specific grant pauses are going to be pursued by the administration.
00:37:51.000Chuck Schumer, of course, took a victory lap on this one, even though he really shouldn't.
00:37:59.000Now he should rescind the nomination of Russell Vogt.
00:38:03.000When the Trump administration announced...
00:38:06.000This awful directive on Monday night, we knew immediately it was short-sighted, disastrous, cruel, and dumb.
00:38:15.000It was clear then, as it is now, that the directive was given without any comprehension of what it actually called for, let alone the ramifications on literally hundreds of millions of Americans.
00:38:30.000Again, this sort of exaggeration and craziness is really not going to have its intended effect.
00:38:42.000These spending pauses are still going to continue with regard to DEI and trans propaganda and with regard to grants to foreign sources like the World Health Organization.
00:38:53.000Stephen Miller said, quote, it became clear bureaucrats are still trying to funnel unapproved discretionary grants and funds to their pet projects.
00:39:22.000The Wall Street Journal, I think, gets this right on its editorial page.
00:39:25.000They say, quote, Trump's executive actions need to be nailed down and carefully explained, or they'll be torn apart by courts and agents of the status quo.
00:39:33.000And I think that that's what you're seeing here, is a recognition in real time that the memo is going to be used as a weapon more by the left and the courts than it would be a weapon in favor of the Trump administration agenda.
00:39:43.000And so they did the smart thing, they withdrew the memo, and now they're still moving forward with many of those same spending pauses.
00:39:49.000The same holds true with regard to the offer of retirement to millions of federal employees.
00:39:54.000Here's President Trump yesterday saying, listen.
00:40:07.000if they don't agree by February 6th to show up back to work in their office, they will be terminated and we will therefore be downscaling our government, which is something that the last 10 presidents have tried very hard to do but failed.
00:40:23.000Most of the people we're talking about have not been going to their federal offices in many, many years, from even before COVID, but they have nevertheless been paid.
00:40:35.000Some have worked, some haven't worked, and most of the studies say that some have just gone through the motions.
00:40:43.000We may ask these people to prove that they didn't have another job during their...
00:40:49.000So-called employment with the United States of America, because if they did, that would be unlawful.
00:41:36.000There are law enforcement officers and teachers and nurses across the country who showed up to the office today.
00:41:42.000People in this city need to do the same.
00:41:44.000It's an overwhelmingly popular policy with people outside of Washington, D.C.
00:41:47.000President campaigned on this and his administration's keeping the promise.
00:41:51.000Again, Carolyn Lovett happens to be correct about all of this.
00:41:54.000Meanwhile, Democrats are freaking out over Caroline Lovett.
00:41:58.000It is amazing what kind of sexism you can get away with if you're a Democrat.
00:42:00.000Joy Behar yesterday on The View suggested the only reason that this press secretary was hired by Trump is because, quote, she's a 10, which I'm not sure if that's an insult.
00:42:08.000It feels like kind of a backhanded compliment.
00:42:10.000Also, Joy Behar is from Hollywood, where literally everyone gets cast, except for Joy Behar, apparently, based on the basis of some sort of physical appeal.
00:42:21.000I mean, you don't see a lot of normies making it big in Hollywood.
00:42:25.000She's probably been put in there because according to Donald Trump, she's a 10. You know that's what it is.
00:42:48.000Okay, so apparently it's bad that Caroline Lovett is pretty.
00:42:52.000It would be better if she were hideous.
00:42:54.000We need like a hideously ugly person to be the White House press secretary.
00:42:58.000I mean, if a Republican said that about a Democrat, that the reason that a woman was picked was because she was pretty, then probably the world would cave in about their ears.
00:43:10.000Now, the reality is that Democrats do pick people based on external characteristics all the time.
00:43:16.000They constantly do that sort of thing.
00:43:19.000There's this bizarre sense among the Democrats that...
00:43:23.000Finally, for the first time, they are beginning to recognize that they may have alienated traditional basic standards of beauty.
00:43:28.000One of the big controversies that's broken out over the course of the last 72 hours is this New York magazine cover that shows a bunch of very attractive young people at C.J. Pearson's party, his inaugural party, last week.
00:43:39.000And the idea from the Democrats is these are all cruel kids, but all they are is just normal, good-looking young people who are partying for Trump.
00:43:47.000If those are the people that you guys lost, that's kind of your fault.
00:43:49.000If you're the ones who decided that you wanted to steer directly into the Our mainstream base is going to be blue-haired lesbians with seven earrings and a navel piercing and seven tattoos on the neck.
00:44:00.000If that's what you guys, like, no one made you do that.
00:44:22.000Meanwhile, Jerome Powell has paused rate cuts over at the Fed.
00:44:25.000I suggested this was going to happen, that the rate cuts were going to be ramped up just before the election in an attempt to get Kamala Harris over the finish line, inject a little bit more money in the economy, hope to blow up the stock market a little bit just in time for the election, and then the inflation would kick in, and then the Federal Reserve would stop.
00:44:50.000Preemptively cutting the interest rates was not going to be a good idea.
00:44:54.000It was going to artificially boost more air into an already inflated economy.
00:44:58.000But Jerome Powell is doing this a little bit belatedly.
00:45:02.000Again, this idea that low interest rates is sort of the only thing that creates a workable economy is very far from the truth.
00:45:09.000Interest rates need to float with the level of risk in the economy, obviously.
00:45:14.000Jerome Powell says, quote, with interest rates now significantly less restrictive than they were before last year's cuts, we do not need to be in a hurry to adjust our policy stance.
00:45:21.000So apparently, the central bank will likely hold at its meeting in mid-March.
00:45:26.000And Powell said that the Fed would need to see real progress on inflation or unexpected weakness in the labor market before considering further rate reductions, which again, I think makes a lot of sense.
00:45:35.000I just wish she had done it earlier and not artificially lowered those interest rates in an attempt to boost Kamala Harris just before the election.
00:45:44.000Joining me on the line is the newly confirmed administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin.
00:45:50.000Lee, congratulations on the confirmation, and you've got a big agenda ahead of you.
00:45:56.000Looking forward to hitting the ground running, Ben, and great to be with you.
00:46:00.000So let's talk about your top priorities for the EPA. Obviously, the EPA has been used as a tool of the left for a very long time in order to cram down environmental policies that really are less about the environment and more about damaging the American economy or reshaping how the American economy is done.
00:46:13.000What are your top priorities as the new EPA administrator?
00:46:18.000So the mission of the EPA is protecting Human health and the environment.
00:46:22.000It's important when you're doing it that you're cognizant of what the American public spoke loudly, clearly as past November.
00:46:28.000They also care about How are these policies applied impacting lives?
00:46:35.000All Americans want clean air and clean water.
00:46:40.000Having the cleanest, safest, healthiest air, land, and water, I think, is a goal, regardless of whether you're a conservative, a moderate, a liberal, a red, purple, blue state, it doesn't matter.
00:46:52.000Common sense, practical solutions that aren't going to result in people struggling to make ends meet, not having choice, being unable to obtain a vehicle that they want or to be able to power their home in an affordable way.
00:47:06.000So it's just really important that we do our job smartly.
00:47:09.000So Administrator Seldon, one of the things you've talked about here is making America the AI capital of the world.
00:47:14.000I hear that and I think a lot of people hear that.
00:47:16.000What does that have to do with the EPA per se?
00:47:20.000AI requires a lot of access to energy.
00:47:23.000And here in our country, there's going to be an increased demand.
00:47:28.000And in order for America to be the AI capital of the world, we're going to have to meet this moment.
00:47:34.000And if we make a strategic decision not to, it's not like the world is going to wait to advance.
00:47:41.000It's only going to be a situation where we're witnessing China get further ahead of the United States.
00:47:50.000Our policies as it relates to the regulation of energy, the president's priority as it relates to making our country a nation that's unleashing energy dominance, understanding that the cleanest forms of energy are coming out of America thanks to American innovation.
00:48:09.000This is a moment for us to meet and to ensure that we are winning this battle, that it is the United States of America that is the AI capital of the world.
00:48:18.000President Trump obviously has a very aggressive agenda.
00:48:20.000One of the things that he's faced in the past are people within the executive branch who may not like that agenda, who may oppose that agenda, and who may do things to get in the way of that agenda.
00:48:31.000You're talking 17,000 employees, an $11 billion budget.
00:48:34.000How do you handle an agency of that size and ensure that actually President Trump's agenda and your agenda as the administrator actually get done?
00:48:42.000Our agency needs to follow the rule of the law.
00:48:45.000We need to follow our obligations under the law.
00:48:48.000We can't be going rogue and interpreting some vague language in some law however we see fit.
00:48:56.000The Supreme Court made very clear in the Loperbright decision overturning the Chevron doctrine that it's important for federal agencies to be following the letter of the law.
00:49:07.000We need to be accountable to the people.
00:49:09.000We need to be transparent with the public.
00:49:11.000And we need to ensure that we're being as productive as possible and operating in a way that the American people can be proud of.
00:49:19.000And it's important that we are doing our mission in the smartest, best way, most transparent way possible.
00:49:26.000That is a commitment across the board they care about.
00:49:29.000And one thing I would add to on top of it, Ben, is cooperative federalism and working with states for there to be a partnership.
00:49:38.000And it's not just all being run out of some headquarters in Washington, D.C.
00:49:43.000That collaboration with the states is going to be important.
00:49:45.000You mentioned before auto jobs and the needs of the American consumer and the American worker.
00:49:51.000Obviously that's high on President Trump's list of priorities.
00:49:54.000Very often these two things are sort of put in opposition to one another, protecting the environment and protecting American jobs.
00:49:59.000What do you make of that and how do you plan to square that circle?
00:50:03.000There's a lot that goes into bringing back American auto jobs.
00:50:07.000The EPA needs to ensure that we're doing our part to assist with that mission.
00:50:12.000We don't want to see our American auto jobs disappearing, getting moved to other countries.
00:50:19.000There is a need for certainty when investment is being made here, permitting reform.
00:50:25.000Research is done within the EPA. Now, the American economy.
00:50:51.000President Trump has already put forth notice that he's interested in cutting wasteful programs implemented by the Biden administration over the course of time.
00:50:59.000I assume that you are going to have a pretty weathered eye when you look at sort of the cost structure inside the EPA.
00:51:20.000Where there was somebody who was a political appointee here at the EPA talking about how they were tossing gold bars off the Titanic.
00:51:28.000And this person in the video said it a few times.
00:51:30.000They were trying to get money out the door, billions of dollars out the door by Inauguration Day.
00:51:35.000When I hear tossing gold bars off the Titanic, to me, gold bars are tax dollars, and off the Titanic means that you know you're wasting it.
00:51:43.000In the video, they also talked about how they were giving out money with an eye towards getting jobs at the recipient NGOs.
00:51:49.000It is so important that not only are we being careful and not wasting billions of dollars, we shouldn't be wasting pennies.