The Great America Show - July 15, 2026


YIKES! GOP Looks to EASE TENSIONS as Midterm is Fast Approaching!


Episode Stats


Length

33 minutes

Words per minute

208.69

Word count

7,037

Sentence count

479

Harmful content

Misogyny

5

sentences flagged

Toxicity

16

sentences flagged

Hate speech

16

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 hello everybody and welcome to the great america show it's great to have you with us on yet another
00:00:06.720 beautiful day in america thanks so much uh for being with us tonight live for the great america
00:00:11.180 show as always we're live for the great america show so let us know where you're tuned in from
00:00:14.700 if you're enjoying the great america show uh and be sure to hit that like subscribe and follow
00:00:19.020 button you can catch us each and every night live 6 p.m eastern time for the great america show
00:00:23.840 there's so much going on in the world there's so much going on right here uh in america another
00:00:29.920 very very very busy week for president trump and every another very busy week for america
00:00:34.620 on the world stays as we try to figure out our issues abroad and uh back here at home which
00:00:41.020 we still have quite a few issues to work out to try to work some of them out i want to bring in
00:00:46.000 our guest today he's a friend of mine he's host of this is america with rich valdez valdez with
00:00:52.000 an S. You can catch Rich each and every day on his show, www.richvaldez.com, or you can
00:01:00.180 go wherever you guys get your podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, Apple, whatever. You get it. Rich,
00:01:07.060 how goes it, my friend?
00:01:08.680 John Fawcett, good to be here with you.
00:01:10.860 Always a delight to have you, my friend. Let's kick it off with first the news of the week,
00:01:15.720 I think President Trump, Rich, he ran on two huge issues, the economy, right, saving us from
00:01:23.020 the mess that Joe Biden got us into, whether it be inflation, gas prices. By the way, we got a
00:01:27.300 really good inflation number out this week. The first big drop, the biggest drop in six years at
00:01:32.120 three and a half percent drop. The economy and immigration were two of President Trump's big
00:01:37.140 issues. It was what Mark Mitchell from Rasmussen polled on and what voters told him were their
00:01:43.320 biggest issues. They wanted the largest mass deportation in the history of this country,
00:01:47.940 and they wanted him to fix this economy. Both things are a little bit lagging. He's there,
00:01:53.780 right? We have the border shut down. We have the border secured, but they're lagging in
00:01:56.780 deportations. And the economy has taken a little bit longer to recover because we had to take this
00:02:03.260 detour in Iran. I get that. Let's start with first the immigration aspect. We're told this week that
00:02:08.640 ICE is to stop all missions on which they're to get criminals that they're going to deport
00:02:16.520 in the cars. Your thoughts on this? Well, listen, I think politics is politics,
00:02:22.240 right? And politics one-on-one is you're managing expectations for your electorate,
00:02:26.380 for the media. Lamentably, that's just how it is. We look at how Bill Clinton governed.
00:02:30.660 And when Bill Clinton governed, he didn't make any decisions without a poll saying if it was
00:02:33.660 positive or negative for his presidency, right? I think President Trump shoots from the hip a lot
00:02:37.560 more. But I think being around the block as many times as he has at this point, he's probably one
00:02:43.360 of the more seasoned and elder statesmen in Washington. I think people still think of him
00:02:47.080 as that businessman from New York, but he is a president two times over with a four year layover
00:02:51.840 in between in the third election that he actually won. Right. So when you look at it that way,
00:02:56.280 you say, you know what? He knows a thing or two. He knows how far to push and pull back.
00:03:00.760 Now, there's some reality in the Trump approach, right? The Trump road doctrine, the Don road
00:03:05.220 doctrine, excuse me. When you look at that, you say he's doing what he said he's going to do.
00:03:10.300 Some people say, but he's going against his word. I don't think so. I listened to so much of what
00:03:14.460 President Trump talked about. And yes, he said no more forever wars. And I just saw a reporter
00:03:19.300 beating him up. It was yesterday or today saying, you know, the war seemingly unending. And he says,
00:03:25.840 hold on a second. We were in Vietnam for 19 years. We've been in Iran for four months.
00:03:31.540 incomparable. Right. So I think the the idea that people have just fabricated this this narrative
00:03:38.360 saying that, oh, my gosh, we're in Iran. And I get it. I have an SUV. I don't like my trip to 0.64
00:03:43.520 the gas station more than anybody. But I also understand this is an ill that is literally I
00:03:48.380 turned 48 this year. I have been seeing Iran take advantage of this country since I was a kid. 1.00
00:03:53.280 I remember watching the TWA stuff that that that they talked about for years after it happened. 1.00
00:03:59.780 So Iran is no no angel here. And President Trump, I think, has been extraordinarily even handed, maybe not with his mouth or his truth social, right, but with his actions.
00:04:10.720 And I think that's what matters most. There was one world leader, I forget who I wish I could quote him appropriately, but he said, you got to take Donald Trump seriously, but not literally.
00:04:21.760 And I think that's an under I get that, right? Because of my upbringing and talk radio, if you will, you know, you hear Rush Limbaugh, you hear Mark Levin, you hear a lot of people say a lot of bombastic things.
00:04:32.460 But it doesn't mean what they're saying is wrong, even though they might embellish and there might be a little bit more meat on that bone.
00:04:38.800 It doesn't mean that it doesn't make sense. So I think that's where we are with Trump.
00:04:42.160 And again, that was a roundabout way of saying if you see your numbers are doing terribly with with getting beat up on ice, on ice, there's shootings here, there's shootings there.
00:04:52.240 Christy Noem is out. Now you've got then Christy Noem's husband has this whole thing with these bananas.
00:04:58.600 Right. What does Trump do? He doesn't want to be anywhere near that because it's not good for him politically.
00:05:02.640 So I understand all of that stuff. I have to say also, very early on, we secured the border.
00:05:07.840 right so we fixed a big part of our problem early on we don't have the influx so now it's the
00:05:14.040 cleanup the cleanup is going to be difficult and you could quote me as far back as when when i said 0.99
00:05:18.620 it's going to be really tough getting people out of this country uh because it's an extraordinary
00:05:23.640 cost it's an extraordinary amount of manpower and not only that it's just it's tough you see what
00:05:29.920 they're going through you've got four or five vehicles with four or five ice officers in each
00:05:33.280 one going after one guy this is a heavy lift and i think the expectation is outsized in this
00:05:39.920 particular situation the problem is rich though they're not going after a good old uh johnny who's
00:05:45.440 working at home depot they're not going after good old johnny who's laying bricklayers yeah he
00:05:49.560 committed a crime he came to his country illegal he's a criminal as well they're going after these
00:05:53.580 real gangbangers the people that are rapists taken out yeah so we saw as far back as the
00:05:59.580 election rich 78 of americans 78 of americans overwhelmingly support president trump's mass
00:06:08.120 deportations as far back as just a few months ago still 73 agree that uh entering the united
00:06:14.940 states without permission is breaking the law 61 support deporting illegal aliens to their home
00:06:20.000 countries 58 democrats uh reject democrats extremist calls to defund ice that's another
00:06:27.340 big one that we've we've seen now so the support is still there president trump's base voted for
00:06:35.340 him based on this as we saw i they're eating the cats and the dogs i i mean we saw all throughout
00:06:41.580 the campaign rich that this is what the american people wanted president trump won the popular vote
00:06:47.600 the overwhelming support from the american people the majority of the american people
00:06:52.200 were in favor of this i don't think that that that appetite for deporting these criminals has
00:06:58.780 went out the window what i do think is there's a lobby in this country who have spent a shit ton 0.62
00:07:04.680 of money there's a mainstream media that's corrupt as hell in this country who's doing all they could 0.97
00:07:09.800 to try to support and and and do all they could to obfuscate to protect these criminal illegal
00:07:15.400 aliens i don't think america's appetite for deportations is gone we've got four months
00:07:21.780 until a general election more or less uh so i think every time we're four months away from a
00:07:27.380 general election you're going to see things pivot when it comes to policy politics and optics in the
00:07:31.640 media that's just kind of how the political cycle works so uh you're right that the base has not
00:07:37.160 changed their appetite but the appetite has certainly changed with the independents because
00:07:41.980 they follow the way of the media
00:07:44.160 and the media, like you said, has been in overdrive
00:07:46.380 in fake news mode, lying to people
00:07:48.460 and when you give them something
00:07:50.340 and I'm not saying this is bad or good, I'm just saying when they have
00:07:52.300 something they can grab on
00:07:53.420 Alex Preddy, the 0.96
00:07:55.780 gay woman that hit the cop 0.99
00:07:58.280 with the car, the ice cop 1.00
00:07:59.280 and these two new ones now
00:08:01.180 this here is
00:08:02.700 a wet dream
00:08:05.760 for the fake news media, right? They're going to town with this
00:08:08.300 they're like, oh my god, look at this, what we got
00:08:09.880 I mean, the Gestapo is back. They're killing Americans. This is what they want to do. So they're very good at what they do. And I got to be very frank with you. We're not very good at that. I don't get on the mic every day. I get on the mic and and push back. Right. It's reaction. I'm defending a position I believe is right. I'm not out here telling you that I think you should believe in capitalism. 0.98
00:08:32.100 I already believe in capitalism, but they're out there telling you you should believe in socialism. 0.75
00:08:36.340 They're out there telling you that women should marry women. Men should marry men.
00:08:39.580 Your young boy should become, you know, your young daughter.
00:08:43.260 The things that are coming from the left are way over the top.
00:08:46.800 And they're the ones that are punching up and punching faster.
00:08:50.700 And this is why I think we we we need to get it in gear. Right.
00:08:54.540 We've got it. It's not just pushing back. We have to get on.
00:08:57.440 This is why I think Trump succeeds. He's not. He fights back for sure. But he when he can take a shot at you, he's taking it, not waiting for you to get to him. And that's the type of offense that we need.
00:09:09.420 The problem is, Rich, is you had mentioned four months. Here's where I disagree with you. Yes, it's literally four months. There's 22 legislative days left in the House from now until Election Day.
00:09:20.540 and from my standpoint i came from a background of working campaigns running campaigns right so
00:09:26.180 this is what i did grassroots and all that good stuff people are tuned out right now i'm surprised
00:09:31.300 you and i even have like one person joining us on this show i think it's because they actually
00:09:35.440 genuinely like us but people are tuned out july and august people are tuned out right they don't
00:09:41.260 want to be bothered with this i'm i'm taking some days off next week in the following week
00:09:44.760 to enjoy the summer a little bit uh people take these times off to spend time with their family
00:09:50.080 Guess what? September comes around. Kids are back in school here in the Northeast. We start a little bit late. So first week of September, family's getting the kids back to school. So really, maybe they'll tune back in mid-September. At that point, you've probably got three or four or five legislative days left. So all of that is out the window. People are tuned out right now. It might be for the best that people are tuned out because the Republicans literally have their shoes untied and they keep tripping over their own shoelaces. Maybe it's for the best. Maybe it's a godsend. I don't know.
00:10:20.080 But we are running short on time because it's 22 legislative days where they're not going to pass the Save America Act.
00:10:29.200 They're not going to guarantee our elections are secure.
00:10:32.380 That's a problem, Rich.
00:10:34.320 Yeah, listen, I'm not going to disagree with you on a lot of those points.
00:10:37.760 I think this is a tough fight that we're in.
00:10:40.080 We're in a tough fight and we've got the McConnell scenario.
00:10:43.140 We've got the Lindsey Graham scenario.
00:10:44.800 We've got this thing. It's tighter and tighter every time we look at it right here in New York.
00:10:48.660 You know exactly what's going on. 0.56
00:10:49.860 We had a great candidate in Stefanik and because she's got to defend her seat because we need it that badly.
00:10:55.540 She's not the person I like Blakeman. But I think, again, this is going to be a tough battle.
00:11:01.100 We've got a lot of fights on a lot of fronts. I think part of what you're saying is in your disagreement with me is what I agree with.
00:11:07.760 I think because we're in the I'll call it the the moot part of the year.
00:11:13.780 This is when you hear the administration say things like, hey, we're going to be easing up on ice.
00:11:17.820 We're going to give the media, the media is thirsty right now.
00:11:20.340 And you know that better than anybody.
00:11:21.540 They're not going to cover it, honestly, but they do because they can't not help cover
00:11:26.560 what Trump says.
00:11:27.800 So if Trump says we're going to slow down on ice, oh, even the administration, they're
00:11:31.200 going to run with that for a little bit, try and get those numbers right again on independence.
00:11:36.000 And then come September, we do what we got to do again, right?
00:11:39.120 Because you just got to, it's politics, right?
00:11:41.720 You just got to, you got to be able to get through to the finish line.
00:11:44.140 And so I think, you know, if 90 days from an election is when we decide to hit the brakes to go, you know, we're not going to deport as many people.
00:11:51.340 We're not going to be as aggressive. I think I can live with that personally, because I know that we've got to win the election.
00:11:57.140 What do you say to the voters, Rich? If you're running a campaign, if you're out there stumping, right?
00:12:01.860 What do you say to the voters who say, listen, I voted for Donald Trump, the populist.
00:12:05.940 I didn't vote for Donald Trump, the globalist. He has spent a lot of time overseas.
00:12:09.440 Yeah, I've spent a lot of time over in the Middle East, over in Europe, trying to make things right.
00:12:14.460 Now, granted, you know, a safe Middle East, a safe Europe is a safe America.
00:12:19.680 I get all of that. But what do you say to the people who say, you know, we wanted Donald Trump to be back here raising wages for the middle class American?
00:12:27.800 We wanted Donald Trump back here getting our food prices down.
00:12:31.140 We wanted Donald Trump back here, you know, having our gas prices down.
00:12:34.440 We wanted Donald Trump back here securing our U.S. economy.
00:12:37.480 What do you say to those people?
00:12:38.500 Yeah, well, listen, I've been telling them and it's that we've got four months to an election.
00:12:45.440 And trust me, if Trump wants to see a victory in the House of Representatives, in the midterm elections that are coming right now, these things will change.
00:12:54.600 And it's a very finite time. This is the time. If one month from today, this is the middle of July.
00:13:00.680 If in the middle of August we haven't seen real wages continue to go up again, which they have.
00:13:04.940 But to see them go up again, we just saw this three and a half drop, three and a half percent drop in inflation.
00:13:09.660 This is what I've been seeing all along. This is the dog days of summer are going to be the pivot.
00:13:14.520 As soon as we come back from Memorial Day, Trump is coming out saying, well, I hope you enjoyed your summer because inflation's down.
00:13:21.780 We're hot, baby. We're hot. It's the hottest country ever. Guess what?
00:13:24.960 We killed everybody in Iran. There's nothing left. Right. 1.00
00:13:27.780 And he's just going to go. And we took another 19 million barrels of oil.
00:13:31.460 So your gas is going down again. And that's how he's going to come out swinging.
00:13:35.180 It's my belief in in in early September.
00:13:38.240 So now we can say, all right, September, October victory.
00:13:41.700 It's the only way. Yeah, because the other way is everything gets worse in Iran. 0.95
00:13:47.000 Steak is twelve dollars a pound and gas is five dollars a gallon. 0.73
00:13:52.760 Guess what happens? We lose. And once we lose, we say, oh, let's tune into the front row seats of the Trump impeachment.
00:13:59.180 because we'll be watching that until the end of his term.
00:14:02.940 Yep, 150%.
00:14:04.940 It's bad.
00:14:11.620 What do we do about John Thune?
00:14:13.640 I mean, Thune has just been sitting there, Rich, on his hands.
00:14:16.980 Now, I was glad Trump got rid of Massey and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
00:14:21.660 They got too big for their own good.
00:14:24.080 They were patting their own selves on the back.
00:14:25.900 I couldn't stand them anymore.
00:14:27.080 I was tired of it.
00:14:27.920 massey uh we're gonna release the epstein list okay tom where is it buddy where is it you lost 0.91
00:14:32.900 your election where where's the epstein list you promised i want to see it put the freaking thing 0.99
00:14:37.500 on the house floor like you promised us i want to see it because he's a liar he's lied and he lied 0.98
00:14:42.300 and then marjorie got too big for her own good she didn't like that donald trump was more popular 0.86
00:14:47.440 than her she didn't like that she was the only person in the georgia delegate who didn't out 0.60
00:14:52.000 perform trump another one narcissist ego whatever you want to call these people but then you've got
00:14:57.740 And Trump went after them rightfully so. But then you've got this guy, John Thune, who's sitting over in the Senate side.
00:15:04.160 Well, I think President Trump has gone way too easy on. And John Thune is a man who's got a lot of power, perhaps more power than President Trump.
00:15:13.140 Make no mistake about it. He's responsible for judicial appointments. He's responsible for budgets.
00:15:17.760 He's responsible for the filibuster that we're going to see go bye bye as soon as the Democrats take over.
00:15:22.120 And Rich, he has nothing to show for President Trump's time in office.
00:15:27.740 And President Trump had to play games with Bill Pulte in the DNI and hold up Clayton because he knew that Dune wasn't going to be able to get somebody to replace him in the Southern District of New York.
00:15:40.480 That's not how a president should have to do business.
00:15:43.200 He's got to worry about his Senate majority leader.
00:15:45.520 Why is he giving him so much leeway?
00:15:48.600 You know, John, this is an interesting one, because I'm going to say President Trump has never had a good Senate majority leader.
00:15:53.820 He had Schumer and he had. Right. So what is he going to do?
00:16:01.320 This is the game. Trump knows how to play. So he's playing the game and he realized I think he's realized in the past.
00:16:07.420 I might have went too hard at these guys. I got to keep this guy good because he's got too much of what I need.
00:16:12.260 So he's got to play this game. But he's playing hardball right now. He said, hey, I'm holding you hostage over here.
00:16:17.160 But you're right. It's this is politics and we're seeing it in such a raw form because Trump doesn't go along to get along.
00:16:25.620 I think ultimately he wins because why? Trump has always had one superpower, a secret weapon.
00:16:33.340 The Trump rally. When things go sour, he does one. North Dakota, Staten Island, Jersey Shore, wherever he decides to do it.
00:16:42.240 And all of a sudden, the numbers start to have the groundswell.
00:16:45.880 People say, oh, but Trump doesn't have coattails.
00:16:49.040 Well, guess what?
00:16:49.540 When Trump is on the ballot, he does well.
00:16:51.500 When Trump is at the rally, he does well.
00:16:53.500 When Trump is in your face, when he's on your podcast, when he's when you're pressing the flesh, he excels like no one else.
00:17:00.640 And he's out there.
00:17:01.960 I mean, I went to a thing with him in New York just a few weeks back.
00:17:04.680 He's out there.
00:17:05.560 He's hitting the trail because he knows that this is the one.
00:17:07.960 So once he pulls his secret weapon, his Trump card, that's something Thune will never have.
00:17:14.020 Thune just has some power in the Senate and power in Kentucky, which is, you know, the McConnell power.
00:17:19.660 It's a lot. But he's got to be able to leverage himself.
00:17:23.400 And like he did with Massey, right, Massey or even Justin Amash.
00:17:27.080 I'm old enough to remember when Justin Amash was a hero.
00:17:30.420 People love Justin Amash, right? People love Thomas Massey.
00:17:33.260 These were the guys that we loved. And people, some people say, oh, but they went against Trump.
00:17:37.740 And they did what they did. I think a lot of it may have been ego driven. Some of it might have been ideological.
00:17:44.080 But at the end, it was all like, no, because no, because I don't like him, you know, and that cost them.
00:17:50.480 So ultimately, I think Trump knows what he's got to do. And he's saying, look, I'm going to use the summer when nobody's looking.
00:17:55.060 We're going to nail out this foreign policy stuff. We're going to get this thing done. Right.
00:17:58.320 All this Netanyahu's in charge. We're doing the Israelis bidding, this and that and that. 0.85
00:18:02.760 he started to nip that in the bud. We've seen addressing I've seen both Netanyahu address it 0.75
00:18:08.060 and I've seen Trump address it. And he went right over to Turkey and pulled all sanctions on Turkey
00:18:12.980 as what we're told is a middle finger to Netanyahu to let people know he doesn't control me. I don't
00:18:18.020 and I never I never subscribed to that bullshit. I never either. I think that was, you know, 0.98
00:18:21.940 that was that's actual propaganda. Yeah. Propaganda that's working in our country and we got a lot of
00:18:26.760 it. So I think now that Trump has made all of these things that he's positioning himself well
00:18:31.160 to come kicking the door, waving the 4-4 right after Memorial Day or Labor Day.
00:18:36.100 I hope so, man.
00:18:37.020 But the problem is, is if we lose the Senate in November, that's a free pass for Thune. 0.99
00:18:43.040 And, you know, Thune will just continue on his scumbag. 0.98
00:18:46.620 And he can make friends with President Newsom. 0.99
00:18:49.420 Well, oh, God, I don't think there'll ever be a President Newsom.
00:18:52.880 We saw what happened to Eric Swalwell.
00:18:54.160 We find out that Newsom's campaign was maybe wired legitimately, by the way.
00:19:01.160 Right. So I don't think I'm going to go out on the women's say Newsom never runs for president out of good measure for himself. 0.51
00:19:10.620 We spoke about the media, Rich. And the problem is, is Trump never gets a fair shake in the media.
00:19:15.200 And I think some of his best cabinet and employees, I guess you can call them, who are not in the cabinet, have been RFK Jr.
00:19:24.300 and Dr. Oz. Out this week, HHS projects that they're going to recover near $6 billion,
00:19:32.720 recover $6 billion in Medicaid and Medicare fraud in the last six months. Now, people say,
00:19:38.640 $6 billion on a $40 trillion balance sheet isn't much, but if you get six plus six plus six,
00:19:45.760 you understand how compounding works. You start to see some real money, but it's not even that.
00:19:49.700 It's that these people are actually doing their job.
00:19:52.640 Think about that, Rich.
00:19:53.500 People are doing their job in Washington, D.C., and it gets absolutely no media coverage.
00:19:59.300 If this were Joe Biden and we found out that they just saved six billion dollars and they're going to recover six billion dollars.
00:20:04.600 Oh, man, it would be on the front page of every single newspaper, Rich.
00:20:10.420 You know, what was it?
00:20:12.600 He raised taxes, right?
00:20:13.920 I think it was he raised taxes and threw a huge party in the White House.
00:20:17.040 Joe Biden had a wicked agenda. But you're 100 percent right.
00:20:21.420 There's never been a president. And this is why I guess I give Trump a lot of leeway and I'm on board the way I am, because I realize every day, even if he does something good, they find something bad to say.
00:20:32.680 And that blows me away. I mean, it's just phenomenal.
00:20:36.920 So when you have a situation like that, you have to effectively toss the media out the window and realize Trump has to be able to get directly to the people, direct to consumer, cutting out the middleman every step of the way because they're out to get them.
00:20:52.480 So I think, again, this is the strategy form. You take it easy now. Once that comes, you've got to give them things they can't ignore. And there's a few tricks up his sleeve he hasn't used.
00:21:01.900 Right. He hasn't done what Biden's done and release several million barrels of oil to bring down the price of gas.
00:21:08.320 He can definitely do that in October. October surprise himself.
00:21:11.660 Right. There's a whole lot of things that he can do to make sure things go really well.
00:21:15.380 He's pushing back on Netanyahu now. He can call in Netanyahu tomorrow and say, guess what?
00:21:19.940 That guy says something bad about your mama. And his name is Ayatollah. 0.71
00:21:24.020 And we have no more Iran problem. And I believe that he's he's really measured in his response.
00:21:28.880 Way measured than me, man, I'm probably mirror the hawkishness of Lindsey Graham because I would have been done with this a long time ago saying, hey, I don't have to get elected again.
00:21:40.060 I'm going to win this midterm.
00:21:41.160 Watch.
00:21:41.600 Watch this red button.
00:21:43.520 I wish he was more hawkish on Iran.
00:21:45.460 This is like a leaky faucet.
00:21:47.200 No pun intended, Rich.
00:21:48.540 The thing just keeps leaking and leaking and leaking.
00:21:50.480 And it's taking far too long.
00:21:52.440 He's got to either wrap up the job or get out.
00:21:54.700 He's got to decide over the next two or three weeks, either finish this job off or take take take your stuff and move on.
00:22:02.120 This can't be whether he decides it or not.
00:22:04.160 That gets decided in the next four months.
00:22:06.600 Yeah.
00:22:06.940 Yeah.
00:22:07.220 Well, we have no choice.
00:22:08.240 It's I think really what it comes down to.
00:22:11.080 You'd mentioned Lindsey Graham.
00:22:12.440 So I guess we probably should talk about him.
00:22:15.640 You know, I never agreed with Lindsey pretty much on 99 percent of things.
00:22:18.760 So I keep her respectful, you know, but.
00:22:21.940 conspiracies i'm a big conspiracy guy i love conspiracy theories because i think like 90
00:22:27.100 90 of the time rich they wind up being like some there's always some truth to it right
00:22:33.000 i guess what they say but the conspiracy theories came out the night after lindsey graham died and
00:22:38.180 that night that he you know he did die i found the 9-1-1 calls and everything whatever and they
00:22:42.960 said no he didn't die in his house he died in ukraine and then they shipped his body back and
00:22:49.780 they put it in the house and then somebody called 9-1-1 to come get the body and it's like why are
00:22:54.720 you doing this like there's real conspiracy theories that we have to worry about like
00:22:59.100 it shouldn't be one of them why are you ruining good conspiracies well listen i'll tell you this
00:23:04.860 uh yeah i don't think lindsey graham died in ukraine uh i would i would jump in a rabbit hole
00:23:11.300 that said lindsey graham was poisoned in ukraine and it took some time i might go down that one
00:23:16.780 I want to respect the debt as much as I can. But I will say I think it's a loss for for the party.
00:23:23.180 I always appreciated his. I agreed with him 100 percent on the hawkishness.
00:23:27.200 He wanted to go to war. I wanted to go to war with him. I've always been that guy.
00:23:31.060 I believe that the war machine must be alive and well for America to be alive and well.
00:23:35.800 And it's going to be very difficult for me to ever change my mind on that.
00:23:39.460 We're watching it right now. We're watching it right now. We tried that. Oh, no more wars,
00:23:44.300 There's no more wars.
00:23:45.300 And guess what happened?
00:23:45.980 They got emboldened.
00:23:46.860 They did this.
00:23:47.420 They're talking about whatever.
00:23:48.900 Best thing that we could do is do what we're doing.
00:23:51.560 Soften them up.
00:23:52.680 The worst thing we could do is let them win the clock.
00:23:57.440 And they're trying to run out the clock right now that Trump only has X amount of time left.
00:24:01.600 And they're hoping that he does.
00:24:02.740 So is Cuba, by the way. 0.95
00:24:04.400 I'm for war when it's warrant.
00:24:05.640 Oh, Cuba's having their own problems right now.
00:24:07.320 They're running out of oil at a rapid pace.
00:24:09.240 I'm for war when it makes sense, like when it actually legitimately makes sense.
00:24:13.160 But, you know, when it doesn't make any sense, you know, this thing, the way I look at it is it's got to be wrapped up and it's got to be wrapped up pretty quickly.
00:24:22.960 Yeah. We're talking about that election that's coming up.
00:24:26.720 We got to wrap this thing up and it's got to get done soon.
00:24:35.240 Let's talk about the other senator who nobody really knows where the heck he is.
00:24:39.360 uh he did put out a a video the other day that uh he's alive and well or put out a picture rather
00:24:46.280 with his wife that he's alive and well but the thing that the picture has raised like
00:24:50.960 speak of conspiracies there's people zooming in rich on the on the newspaper headline they're like
00:24:56.300 that's ai he's only got four fingers uh is mitch mcconnell alive yeah i think mitch mcconnell is
00:25:04.220 alive and i don't think he's going to be for much longer and i don't mean that in a bad way
00:25:07.940 I mean that in a natural progression of end of life. Right. I mean, when he was in office and freezing up and showing those extreme neurological problems, I'm not a doctor and I'm not diagnosing him, but I've had issues with my own family and I've seen a lot of those things.
00:25:22.700 I saw them in Joe Biden as well. And I can tell you that's somebody who's not with it anymore.
00:25:27.440 And it doesn't look temporary. I don't think we're going to see McConnell come back and say, well, you know, I'm back and it was great being here.
00:25:35.200 And no, I don't think we're going to see that at all. I think we're going to get a statement saying the senator, you know, so grateful to have served and blah, blah, blah.
00:25:42.080 And I hope I'm wrong. I really do. But I think he he's going to be out soon.
00:25:46.100 And we've got to make sure that we we're able to have that special election and do what we got to do to continue the business of the country without, you know, taking a moment to be respectful for his health concerns, of course.
00:25:58.760 But, yeah, you're right. We were in we saw it with was it Feinstein or Boxer?
00:26:03.520 I mean, we've seen this before, and these are not good scenarios to be in one way or the other, right?
00:26:09.080 One party or the other.
00:26:10.320 So I think the sooner we get to the bottom of it and the sooner we get it resolved, the better.
00:26:14.560 This pisses me off so much, Rich, as a millennial myself, like watching these people die.
00:26:20.280 Now, Lindsey Graham, I'm not going to blame him for that, right?
00:26:22.540 Because I think he looked on the outside.
00:26:25.240 He was all there cognitively.
00:26:26.980 He was all there.
00:26:27.580 He looked physically.
00:26:28.520 Obviously, he's very unfortunate.
00:26:29.680 You know, the heart issues is it's a silent killer.
00:26:32.880 And, you know, it gets young people, it gets old people.
00:26:35.300 So I'm not going to group him into it.
00:26:37.120 But this pisses me off no end to watch these people disrespect our country by showing up to work barely alive in wheelchairs and high chairs and diapers.
00:26:49.320 It's like, what the hell have we turned into that this is how we who we have to look to to run our country?
00:26:56.020 And it's no disrespect to elderly people.
00:26:57.760 I said this the other day to somebody.
00:26:58.820 It's like, let's guess what? Today and tomorrow, we're one step closer to meeting our creator.
00:27:03.460 It's what it is. Right. But when I hit that age, Rich, I'm going to go graciously.
00:27:07.420 I'm going to spend every last dollar I have and I'm going to go buy a Cadillac Escalade and I'm going to enjoy the rest of my life with my family.
00:27:15.960 If I have a wife, if I, you know, like, but these people, they're so narcissistic. 0.98
00:27:20.360 It's like they have to die in office. Take your money that you made, the big money you made and retire.
00:27:27.720 pass the torch why can't they do it i don't know if it's narcissism or if it's exactly why they got
00:27:35.820 into politics to have power and guess who you know up until recently mcconnell had a whole lot of it
00:27:41.980 right until he said i'm not running again and then he got you know it became visibly pelosi another
00:27:47.460 one i don't think she wanted to say i'm going to step down from this position as speaker and i'm
00:27:52.280 not going to run again and you know i think these were huge steps that they had to take because
00:27:57.140 what is their purpose in life what do you do at 80 years old when you're them remember this is
00:28:02.140 what they love this is what they do they breathe this so i'm with you i i i'm like that with my
00:28:07.860 work i you know if i could ever die doing an interview like this i would be the happiest guy
00:28:12.120 ever boom but and you get the video to memorialize it but yeah but we're a different industry we're
00:28:19.040 getting paid by other people we're not getting paid by the taxpayer rich right you know it's
00:28:22.940 And Lou Dobbs was the same way.
00:28:25.060 Lou Dobbs worked until the day he died.
00:28:27.320 And God bless him.
00:28:28.080 R.I.P. Lou Dobbs.
00:28:29.460 Absolutely.
00:28:29.960 R.I.P. Lou Dobbs.
00:28:30.600 But guess what?
00:28:31.320 Lou Dobbs was sharpest attack to the day he died.
00:28:34.220 One of his last interviews, Rich, it makes me cry when I listen to it.
00:28:37.640 It was with President Trump.
00:28:38.660 And you could hear in his voice he wasn't well.
00:28:41.080 But he had to get that interview in.
00:28:42.720 It was President Trump.
00:28:43.580 He had to do the interview.
00:28:44.960 And he worked until the last day he died.
00:28:47.100 He was as sharpest attack until the day he died.
00:28:48.640 I think at any given point, Lou Dobbs said, you know, or his wife said, you know,
00:28:52.340 I'm starting to not feel it anymore.
00:28:53.680 He would have pulled the plug and said, you know, John, you take on, you know,
00:28:57.400 you take over the empire and you continue on with the great word.
00:29:02.240 These people are taxpayer funded.
00:29:04.160 Nancy Pelosi, Rich, I hate to break it to you, 1.00
00:29:06.420 isn't flying six hours one way and six hours home each and every week for $174,000 a year. 0.99
00:29:12.400 Look at her husband's stock portfolio.
00:29:15.340 It paints a different picture.
00:29:16.900 But now, as you mentioned, she's going to ride off into the sunset.
00:29:19.160 She's got to go watch her husband who has these nefarious things with other men.
00:29:24.380 I don't know what it is. The guy can't stop drinking and driving.
00:29:27.840 You know, it's a whole total mess. How do we clean up Congress, Rich?
00:29:32.960 Brother, I don't know that we can clean up Congress.
00:29:35.340 I mean, I think this is to get spiritual for a second.
00:29:38.080 I think this is a condition of the heart of man.
00:29:40.400 I think people who get into politics to serve themselves, to serve this flesh, to serve their own power, their own ego.
00:29:45.740 So that's what happens. And the more they're in Congress, the longer we get there.
00:29:49.560 If we can pass a constitutional amendment that will limit terms to like two, that would be great.
00:29:55.760 A lot of them wouldn't pursue this because it's a horrible amount of work to get elected to a two year term to get to do it more time.
00:30:02.460 And then that's it. I think the people that are more principled would say, I'm going to do it because I want to serve.
00:30:07.020 So I think that would be part of the fix. The other fix, I think America, all of us, starting with me,
00:30:11.600 We all have to turn toward God and really serve with altruism.
00:30:15.940 We talked about Lou Dobbs right now, and Lou Dobbs is a man of integrity.
00:30:19.940 He was passionate in these interviews because he loved this country, right?
00:30:24.840 And I think many of us to get into this business is because we love this country.
00:30:28.640 It's a good business for sure, but it ultimately is about leaving something greater, right?
00:30:35.060 Lou Dobbs is a man, an elder statesman, if you will, and he wasn't doing this for himself.
00:30:41.820 He knew his days were numbered on this money. Yeah, right.
00:30:44.780 He had money and he was he lived his life. Right.
00:30:48.280 He's doing this for tomorrow, for the future, which is what I think so many of us do it for.
00:30:52.440 So ultimately, there is no litmus test other than the campaign cycle that judges who's the right guy for the job.
00:31:00.480 and hopefully in in in hindsight we can learn from from i'll use trump as an example we took
00:31:07.080 a new york millionaire with his name all across the new york skyline and he decided to go to the
00:31:11.400 washington swamp yeah and lose money and maybe now he's making some money but he lost money they
00:31:17.660 wanted to kill him they tried to put his kids in jail i'm sure it took a toll on his health and his
00:31:22.420 life and his family this is something nobody wants right just to say you were president i know i
00:31:27.600 wouldn't want it it's not something i would even volunteer for vice president any day i will be
00:31:32.420 your vice presidential person but president no thank you so i think you know you see that and
00:31:37.400 it takes a special person to have that degree of of altruism that's really looking to do the right
00:31:43.940 thing and hopefully people will see start to see that model they'll say the uh the hannity of the
00:31:50.820 world the limbo the the people that did this for out of love uh the lou dobbs and um of course
00:31:58.060 donald trump yeah i think lou dobbs told me i don't even remember the number but he was making
00:32:02.600 like a few dollars an hour when he started out as a fire and police reporter in yuma arizona and
00:32:07.300 you know it didn't get much better after that when he went up to seattle washington to do local news
00:32:11.340 even still local news people aren't aren't paid what they should be paid it's it's a crazy business
00:32:16.080 And I don't think Lou Dobbs is a poor kid from from Rupert, Idaho or McAllen, Texas, you know, ever thought that, you know, what what would have been been.
00:32:26.000 And I don't think he cared to be because he gave up a very successful job after Harvard as a banker, making a lot of money to come into this business because he believed in a greater America.
00:32:34.500 And I think that's what we all believe it. We're not millionaires by any stretch of the imagination.
00:32:41.080 We do this because we love our country. You're absolutely right.
00:32:43.280 And it really is. It's a great country and it's a country worth saving.
00:32:48.140 Rich Valdez, we can talk for another five or six hours. I'll let you run.
00:32:52.140 Always a delight to have you with us. Where can they catch you each and every day, Rich?
00:32:56.200 Check me out at 9 p.m. I start my show. You can go to richvaldez.com.
00:33:00.160 That's Valdez with an S at Rich Valdez on all of the social media.
00:33:03.380 I tend to go to Truth Social a lot, Instagram a lot.
00:33:06.440 I'm hoping you guys will follow me there and I'm looking forward to you joining the show.
00:33:09.860 You can join the show. Drop a call anytime you like. 877-VALDEZ-1.
00:33:15.120 That's 877-VALDEZ-1. And of course, richvaldez.com, The Mothership.
00:33:19.220 You heard the man. Rich Valdez, we'll talk to you soon, my friend.
00:33:21.780 Thanks so much. Thank you, John. God bless.
00:33:24.100 Thanks to Rich Valdez, folks. And thank you all for being with us today here on The Great America Show.
00:33:27.420 We will see you back here tomorrow for The Great America Show.
00:33:29.500 Stephen Gardner will be with us. And as I mentioned, I'm going to be off a little bit next week.
00:33:33.000 So we'll take that up tomorrow. We'll catch up on everything tomorrow.
00:33:36.660 So we'll see you back here tomorrow, folks.
00:33:38.180 Until then, may God bless you.
00:33:39.300 May God bless America.
00:33:40.300 And may God bless the great Lou Dobbs.
00:33:41.820 Have a great night, folks.
00:33:42.640 We'll see you tomorrow.