The Great America Show - March 18, 2026


Mid-Day Update： March 18, 2026

Mid-Day Update： March 17, 2026 Mid-Day Update： March 19, 2026

Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

179.3

Word count

1,065

Sentence count

57

People

Hosts:
John Fawcett
Also mentioned:
Donald Trump Joe Kent Colsey Gabbard Pam Bondi Tucker Carlson Todd Blanche Chuck Schumer James Comer Joe Ken Epstein Marx

Harmful content

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The departure of Joe Kent from the National Counterterrorism Center means one less leaker in Washington, D.C., according to multiple reports. The White House also told DNI Tulsi Gabbard that she should be fired for suspected leaks, but she never did, and he has not been part of any Iran planning discussions or briefings since they started planning them. President Trump says the United States will not be sending troops to the Strait of Hormuz to protect civilian ships and tankers from Iran and their radical Islamic regime. The House Oversight Chairman James Comer subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bondi for a deposition on Tuesday as she comes under continued scrutiny for her handling of the Epstein files.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hello everybody, I'm John Fawcett with this Great America Show midday update for Wednesday, March 18th.
00:00:04.840 Happy Wednesday, folks.
00:00:06.340 The departure of Joe Ken, who's now the former director of National Counterterrorism Center,
00:00:11.100 means one less leaker in Washington, D.C., according to multiple reports.
00:00:15.200 Ken's writing on Twitter in his resignation last night, quote,
00:00:17.900 I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran.
00:00:21.920 Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it's clear that we started this war 0.99
00:00:26.800 due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.
00:00:30.860 Now, the problem with his statement is, if that's the only statement he's made, then
00:00:35.560 fair enough.
00:00:36.980 But Kent, over the last couple of years, as recently as 2024, has made multiple, multiple
00:00:43.040 statements praising President Trump, doubling down that Iran needs to be held accountable. 0.97
00:00:49.120 So why the swift change and why the all of a sudden leaks?
00:00:55.220 I guess we're going to have to get to the bottom of that.
00:00:56.800 Now, senior administration officials inside the White House say that Joe Kent was, number one, a known leaker and he was cut out from President Trump's intelligence briefings months ago.
00:01:06.880 So I guess that tells you a little bit of what you need to know.
00:01:09.940 The White House also told DNI Tulsi Gabbard that he should be fired for suspected leaks, but she never did.
00:01:16.000 And he has not been part of any Iran planning discussions or briefings at all since they started planning them.
00:01:22.180 So I think that all tells you a little bit of what you need to know about who this fellow was.
00:01:27.300 I never met him or anything, but I think it tells you who his character is.
00:01:31.840 Now, Director of National Intelligence, Holsey Gabbard, swiftly crushed the narrative pushed by the outgoing counterterrorism director,
00:01:39.660 making it crystal clear that President Trump acted lawfully, decisively, and with full intelligence backing when he ordered strikes against Iran.
00:01:47.220 And Gabbard put out a statement saying,
00:01:48.980 Donald Trump was overwhelmingly elected by the American people to be our president and commander-in-chief.
00:01:54.000 As our commander-in-chief, he is responsible for determining what is and what is not imminent threat
00:01:58.980 and whether or not to take action he deems necessary to protect the safety and security of our troops,
00:02:05.860 the American people, and our country.
00:02:08.220 The Office of DNI is responsible for helping coordinate and integrate all intelligence provided
00:02:12.720 to the President and the Commander-in-Chief
00:02:14.780 with the best information available to inform his decisions.
00:02:18.840 After carefully reviewing all information before him,
00:02:21.920 President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamic regime in Iran
00:02:25.240 posed an imminent threat, and he took action based on that conclusion.
00:02:29.660 Doesn't get much more simple than that, folks.
00:02:32.460 Joe Kent, I think, is probably going to have to explain himself,
00:02:34.880 and from what we're being told, he's joining Tucker Carlson tonight at 6 p.m. Eastern Time,
00:02:40.280 So maybe we'll get some answers to figure out what exactly his deal was.
00:02:45.680 President Trump expressing great displeasure with other countries for turning down his request to send their militaries to the Strait of Hormuz to protect civilian ships and tankers from the radical Islamists in Iran and their minds that they're placing.
00:02:59.900 President Trump is not asking these countries for boots on the ground.
00:03:03.420 He specifically called out China, France, Japan, South Korea, and the UK,
00:03:07.320 and a few others that are affected by this artificial constraint is what he's calling it.
00:03:13.700 They should have always been an effort and a team effort is what President Trump says.
00:03:17.560 And he says the United States will be sure to remember their refusal
00:03:21.160 should they not want to help and they haven't helped.
00:03:24.000 And he's not asking for boots on the ground, as I say.
00:03:25.740 He's asking for air patrol.
00:03:27.800 He's asking for boats, mind-sniffing devices to not protect anybody but civilians who are passing through the strait to ship oil or other commodities that are needed to get in and out of the strait.
00:03:39.600 So a great disservice those countries are doing to the rest of the world.
00:03:44.340 House Oversight Chairman James Comer subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bondi for a deposition on Tuesday.
00:03:49.600 as she comes under continued scrutiny for her handling of the Epstein Files
00:03:53.740 and potential noncompliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
00:03:58.800 The deposition is now scheduled for April 14th of this year.
00:04:02.260 Bondi and Deputy AG Todd Blancher also scheduled to give a private briefing
00:04:05.340 to the Oversight Committee later on this afternoon.
00:04:09.340 In an attached letter to Bondi, Comer expressed concerns over noncompliance
00:04:12.800 with her Transparency Act that they had passed
00:04:14.880 that was signed into law by President Trump last November
00:04:17.460 and possible mismanagement of the investigation into Epstein and his associates.
00:04:23.480 Going to be an interesting one to see, folks.
00:04:26.120 The Senate finally doing a little bit of work.
00:04:28.620 Last night successfully launched their floor takeover
00:04:31.320 to put the Senate Democrats on the record against President Trump's backed voter ID legislation.
00:04:36.400 It's a move to shift the spotlight from the internal GOP divisions
00:04:39.880 over Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Act.
00:04:42.900 and the Senate Democrats were ultimately withholding the needed votes to pass the bill.
00:04:49.540 Senate Marx's Dem dictator Chuck Schumer saying, quote,
00:04:53.660 not a single Democrat will support the SAVE Act. It's a radical bill.
00:04:58.340 Yeah, that's their puppet master.
00:05:00.600 The Senate, of course, advanced the SAVE Act in a vote of 51 to 48 late last night.
00:05:06.460 Now we wait and see what the Democrats want to do.
00:05:10.000 Speaking of the Democrats, there's one who might be in a little bit of trouble.
00:05:12.900 if the democrats by i don't know some kind of like two percent chance take back the house in
00:05:18.480 november one of their first casualties might actually be hakeem jeffries as their uh i guess
00:05:24.620 their role leader axios is reporting that more than 80 democrat house candidates for 2026
00:05:29.800 are either non-committal or outright opposed to jeffries becoming the next speaker of the house
00:05:34.540 characterizing the development as a rebellion so i guess jeffries doesn't really have the support
00:05:41.260 of his people, or the American people, for that matter.
00:05:46.460 Folks, please be sure to join us tonight
00:05:47.760 and each and every night, 6 p.m. Eastern time
00:05:49.500 for The Great America Show, Rumble, YouTube, Twitter.
00:05:51.920 Wherever you guys join us, we'll see you there.
00:05:53.700 I'm Jon Fossil with this Midday Update.
00:05:55.560 Happy Wednesday, folks.