The Great America Show - February 15, 2025


Saturday Headlines： February 15, 2025


Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

170.35701

Word count

913

Sentence count

53

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Trump reverses Joe Biden's ban on oil drilling in the United States, the IRS announces 9,000 more layoffs, and Jack Smith may have received a gift of $140,000 in pro bono legal services from a high-powered D.C.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
00:00:00.000 Hello, everybody. I'm John Fawcett with This Great America Show midday update for Saturday,
00:00:04.360 February 15th. Happy Saturday, folks. I hope your weekends are off to a great start.
00:00:08.820 If you're like me up in the Northeast, expecting some snow over the next few hours,
00:00:12.980 nothing too crazy, but some flurries hitting the Northeast.
00:00:16.660 President Trump taking the battle to the oil fields. President Trump signing an executive
00:00:21.040 order reversing Biden's ban and opening 625 million acres across America for drilling.
00:00:28.420 President Trump announcing this executive order alongside Interior Secretary Doug Berkwam.
00:00:34.280 Now, Biden, in one of his final acts as president, I don't know if you can even call him a president,
00:00:39.260 acting president, impersonator-in-chief, whatever you want to call him, in his final days had ramped
00:00:47.140 up his war on oil, probably doing all he can to drive fuel prices and oil prices through the roof
00:00:53.560 before President Trump came in, just so he can blame him for one more thing.
00:00:58.820 But the American people know better than that not to fall for that scam.
00:01:03.160 So President Trump opening that 625 million acres for drilling again that was previously opened,
00:01:09.200 but shut down by the Biden regime, as I said, to probably drive oil prices through the roof
00:01:15.720 and putting a burden on the American people for not voting for Kamala Harris.
00:01:19.620 President Trump also planning around 9,000 layoffs at the bloated IRS.
00:01:25.980 Redundancies already are underway.
00:01:28.740 The IRS is the latest federal agency to likely get a major, major, major face job with some cuts.
00:01:35.320 According to a report from the Washington Post, the administration is planning to cut around 9,000 jobs
00:01:39.460 at the agency, specifically targeted at employees who are still on their probationary period.
00:01:44.540 So those are folks who just got hired over there.
00:01:47.200 The number is not immediately confirmed, but they're rounding it out that that'll be about 9,000,
00:01:53.900 according to a spokesman for both the IRS and the Treasury.
00:01:57.380 The layoffs are likely targeting tax collectors.
00:01:59.960 Several of the people briefed on the matter had said, indeed, associates of Musk's team
00:02:04.560 are beginning meetings with high-ranking IRS officials about what can prove to be a dramatic change for the tax agency.
00:02:11.140 I think Republicans and Democrats alike could all agree on one thing.
00:02:16.120 Cutting jobs at the IRS is probably among some of the best things that can possibly be done.
00:02:22.660 And the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, also known as HUD,
00:02:26.120 has launched a Department of Government Efficiency Task Force, also known as DOGE,
00:02:31.300 that has already identified, folks, you ready for this?
00:02:33.220 That's $260 million in savings, according to Secretary of HUD, Scott Turner.
00:02:40.760 Unbelievable, folks.
00:02:42.580 The internal task force will be composed of HUD employees will examine
00:02:45.720 how to best maximize the agency's budget
00:02:48.300 and ensure all programs, processes, and personnel are working together
00:02:53.040 to advance the purpose of the department.
00:02:55.720 Huh, $260 million, folks.
00:02:58.560 Imagine if you can cut $260 million from every agency, some even more.
00:03:03.460 Think about the debt maybe we can start paying off
00:03:07.020 or the relief of the burden that we can relieve on the American people.
00:03:12.920 Unbelievable.
00:03:14.360 Jack Smith, you know him, the former junkyard jackal, the special counsel, big Trump hater,
00:03:21.420 apparently received a gift of $140,000 in pro bono legal services
00:03:26.180 from a high-powered D.C. firm before he resigned.
00:03:30.900 Legal services were labeled as, quote,
00:03:32.560 gift on Jack Smith's financial disclosure,
00:03:35.040 obtained by none other than Politico.
00:03:38.120 Politico probably trying to get back in the good graces of the Trump administration.
00:03:41.480 The reason for the legal services was not immediately clear, of course.
00:03:45.660 However, it's previously reported that Jack Smith's prosecutors
00:03:48.520 sought legal counsel from high-powered D.C. law firms
00:03:51.920 as Trump's new DOJ was set to take over.
00:03:54.920 It was previously reported that Jack Smith's investigators were, quote,
00:03:58.640 fielding calls with lawyers in D.C.
00:04:00.900 Rolling Stone at the time also reported that Jack Smith's prosecutors
00:04:03.900 were afraid they were going to go bankrupt
00:04:05.820 and were inquiring about taking steps to protect their family assets.
00:04:11.480 Huh.
00:04:12.320 What can they be so afraid about?
00:04:14.900 If they apparently followed the law like they said they did
00:04:17.480 and did an honest job, quote, investigating President Trump,
00:04:21.340 what did they have to be so worried about?
00:04:23.280 Well, it beats me, folks, but apparently there was some money to be spent
00:04:27.220 and Jack Smith may have gotten some kickbacks.
00:04:30.160 We'll have to make sure Pam Bondi takes a look at that, 1.00
00:04:33.760 sees just exactly what went on and where the money was spent
00:04:37.020 and was it well spent.
00:04:38.660 Perhaps Elon Musk can check it out as well at the DOJ committee,
00:04:41.880 make sure it was, as I said, money well spent.
00:04:45.260 Folks, please be sure to join us each and every day,
00:04:47.640 every weekday and weekends for The Great America Show
00:04:50.780 and each and every day for The Great America Show midday updates
00:04:54.500 where you bring the latest news, news of the day, news of the week,
00:04:57.520 breaking headlines, all the news that you need to know.
00:05:01.120 If you're not already, please be sure to follow us on Twitter
00:05:03.420 at JohnFawcettNY on Truth Social at John Fawcett.
00:05:07.180 You can always shoot us an email, folks, info at lewdobs.com.
00:05:11.420 Our staff gets all the questions to me
00:05:13.260 and we see everything you guys are writing in
00:05:14.660 and we truly appreciate it.
00:05:16.540 I'm John Fawcett with this midday update, folks.
00:05:18.940 Have a great, great weekend and stay warm out there.