Trade deals, hostage rescues, lower drug prices, and more! Meanwhile, Democrats are spending their time trying to break into ICE detention facilities. And we have a major story surrounding the blatant hypocrisy surrounding refugee resettlement groups who are changing their tune. Plus, FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty McCary and Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak join me to talk about it all.
00:06:23.000Hey guys, and welcome to another huge episode of Triggered.
00:06:27.000I hope you all had a nice weekend and an incredible Mother's Day.
00:06:32.000I'm doing this a little bit early this afternoon, doing it beforehand, because my oldest daughter, Kai, is turning 18, so I just want to let her know how proud I am.
00:06:42.000I'm looking forward to having dinner with her, probably as this is airing, but I also can't believe that I have an 18-year-old.
00:06:49.000It makes me feel really old, but Kai, I love you.
00:08:21.000For all the headlines that we spotlight here on the show, go over, check out my news app, MXM News, Minute by Minute, where you can get the mainstream news without the mainstream bias.
00:08:36.000And don't forget about our incredible sponsors, sponsors who have the guts to support this show.
00:08:42.000So remember to protect yourself in a time of crisis and doing it with companies who actually support you.
00:08:49.000That's why I've partnered with Berna, a leader in self-defense as an alternative to lethal force.
00:08:54.000It was created by an avid group of gun owners.
00:08:57.000Berna provides civilians, law enforcement officers, and security professionals with a safe, reliable, and effective non-lethal alternative to traditional firearms.
00:09:10.000The Burna launchers are effective, easy to use, and legal in all 50 states.
00:09:16.000And most importantly, they will stop a threat when it matters most.
00:09:21.000And with no background checks and the ability to ship directly to your doorstep, Burna ensures that safety is never out of reach.
00:09:29.000Burna is American-made in Fort Wayne, Indiana, so have peace of mind and protect yourself.
00:09:35.000Visit Burna, B-Y-R-N-A dot com slash Don Jr., D-O-N-J-R, and receive 10% off the Burna bundles.
00:09:43.000Again, that's B-Y-R-N-A dot com slash D-O-N-J-R.
00:09:47.000And now, let's take a look at some of the top headlines.
00:09:52.000And I actually want to start with a look at the blatant hypocrisy and the scam surrounding refugee resettlement groups called, namely, the Episcopal Migration Ministries.
00:10:08.000Under Biden, they were the front lines, basically saying we need to take in as many refugees as we can.
00:10:17.000And they're pretty much for open borders.
00:10:19.000And they claim to be all about tolerance and protecting the most vulnerable.
00:10:24.000But now, guys, they're changing their tune, announcing that they're terminating their partnership with the federal government to resettle refugees.
00:10:40.000Because the moral opposition that they're really upset about has to do with resettling white South African farmers who have been victims of discrimination and are now classified as refugees by the Trump administration.
00:11:35.000Of these left-wing groups being nothing more than arms of the radical social justice wing of the Democrat Party.
00:11:44.000And it's why their non-stop hysteria over anything and everything the Trump administration does, even when it's a resounding win, even when it's an 80-20 issue, never stops.
00:11:58.000Which brings us, guys, to big news on trade, where stocks surged after the United States and China agreed to a 90-day pause, which each side agreeing to slash reciprocal, you got to remember it's reciprocal tariffs, by more than 100 percentage points, bringing China's duty rate down to just 10%.
00:12:21.000Here's my father with more details from earlier today.
00:12:26.000In addition, yesterday we achieved a total reset with China.
00:12:31.000After productive talks in Geneva, both sides now agree to reduce the tariffs imposed after April 2nd to 10 percent for 90 days as negotiators continue on the larger structural issues.
00:12:46.000And I want to tell you that a couple of things.
00:12:50.000First of all, that doesn't include the tariffs that are already on, that are our tariffs, and it doesn't include tariffs on cars, steel, aluminum.
00:13:01.000Or tariffs that may be imposed on pharmaceuticals, because we want to bring the pharmaceutical businesses back to the United States, and they're already starting to come back now based on tariffs, because they don't want to pay 25, 50, or 100% tariffs, so they're moving them back to the United States.
00:13:18.000I spoke to Tim Cook this morning, and he's going to, I think, even up his numbers, $500 billion.
00:14:11.000Because for far too long, China has flooded our nation with drugs.
00:14:15.000And it's cost hundreds of thousands of American lives.
00:14:18.000Here's Treasury Secretary Scott Besant on why this matters.
00:14:25.000This does not include any sector-specific tariffs that have been put across all of our trading partners.
00:14:36.000And as the ambassador said, I think he would agree with me that the upside surprise for me from this weekend was The level of Chinese engagement on the fentanyl crisis in the United States.
00:14:53.000They brought the Deputy Minister for Security for Public Safety, who was not traditionally part of the trade team or the negotiating team, and he had a very robust and highly detailed discussion.
00:15:15.000All of the trade news followed by another historic actions from the White House as my father is putting real pressure on Big Pharma to lower the cost of prescription drugs and to end the status quo of Americans paying sky-high prices while simultaneously essentially subsidizing lower costs to the rest of the world.
00:16:04.000It means drug companies can't charge Americans more than the lowest drug price they sell abroad.
00:16:11.000And it means we're not going to let Americans be ripped off any longer.
00:16:15.000And it's yet another 80-20, frankly this should be like a 100% issue, but at least 80-20, because there's some Democrats who are insane and probably on the take, issue that Democrats want to be on the wrong side of.
00:16:28.000And it's just another example of how the status quo is no longer the status quo in Washington, D.C. Here's White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt breaking down the details.
00:16:41.000So this pharmaceutical deal, I'm just going off the Truth Social post.
00:16:45.000It says, it's a long one, but he says, I'm pleased to announce that today the White House at 9 o 'clock will be signing one of the most consequential executive orders ever.
00:16:53.000They'll be reducing pharmaceuticals by about 80 percent.
00:16:57.000Essentially, we are going to pay less than the country that's paying the least for pharmaceuticals from here on in.
00:17:06.000First of all, it cannot be overstated how big of a deal this executive order that President Trump will be signing in a couple of hours is for American families, and especially our seniors, who have been ripped off by very large and rich pharmaceutical companies.
00:17:23.000The United States of America is less than 5% of the world's population, yet we purchase 75% of big pharma's profits.
00:17:31.000We pay an astronomical amount in comparison to other countries around the world.
00:17:36.000So the president is signing an executive order today that is going to implement most favored nations' drug pricing and is going to reduce the cost of drugs in this country by more than half at least.
00:17:47.000America is going to pay a better rate and a fairer rate to the rest of the world.
00:17:52.000That's what the American people deserve.
00:17:56.000And also, I will add, we know that health care costs and drug prices were the number one driver of Biden's inflation.
00:18:01.000So not only are we bringing those down, but we are ending Biden's inflation.
00:18:06.000But guys, the major wins don't stop there, because we're also seeing the results all across the world under the Peace Through Strength Trump agenda.
00:18:19.000For example, American citizen Eden Alexander is being released by Hamas after being held hostage since October 7, 2023.
00:19:26.000The news follows an announcement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the successful rescue of all hostages held by the Maduro regime at the Argentinian embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, in what was described as a precise extraction of the United States.
00:19:44.000Meanwhile, it's looking like Russia and Ukraine will meet in Turkey this week, and my father is signaling that we're not going to spend endless amounts of time on a peace deal, and that the clock is ticking for both Putin and Putin.
00:20:04.000And in between all of that, guys, Vice President J.D. Vance and the Secretary of State have negotiated a ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
00:20:15.000Check this one out If you don't stop it, we're not going to do any trade People have never really used trade the way I used it that I can tell you and all of a sudden they said I think we're gonna stop and They have and that they did it for a lot of reasons, but Trade is a big one.
00:20:33.000We're going to do a lot of trade with Pakistan.
00:20:36.000We're going to do a lot of trade with India.
00:20:37.000We're negotiating with India right now.
00:20:39.000We're going to be soon negotiating with Pakistan.
00:21:20.000And we're not going to be pushed around on the world stage by other countries, by rogue regimes, by corporate America, or anyone else.
00:21:30.000And this applies to every issue, every sector, every department, especially on the issue of American energy dominance.
00:21:40.000As Energy Secretary Chris Wright is revealing that the Biden administration pushed out $93 billion, okay?
00:21:49.000$93 billion in green energy loans at the very end of 2024.
00:21:57.000All while Biden and his auto pen enablers killed pipeline projects here while buying up oil from America's enemies and providing hard currency to rogue and often terrorist regimes.
00:22:12.000Here's the energy secretary yesterday laying it all out.
00:22:17.000A little over $40 billion was supplied in support through the loan program office in its 15 years of existence, a little over $40 billion, and then almost $100 billion in the 76 days after they lost the election and before President Trump's inauguration.
00:22:34.000Like, if those were great ideas that were benefit to the America, why didn't they do it in the two and a half years after the Inflation Reduction Act was passed?
00:22:42.000Why did they wait till they lost the election?
00:23:17.000I mean, look, this has been a 25-year problem now.
00:23:20.000Venezuela was a wealthy, prosperous society and a great ally of the United States and a huge energy producer.
00:23:26.000Then they adopted, you know, they had Hugo Chavez and now Nicolas Maduro, two just awful, tyrannical leaders.
00:23:33.000President Trump wants to use United States force or energy independence to force a change in Venezuela.
00:23:40.000Chevron's a great American company, a little bit caught in the crossfire there, but we need to change the situation in Venezuela, not just for Venezuelans, but for all the gang members and refugees fleeing that country and millions of them ending out in the United States.
00:23:55.000But I think peace through strength is going to be the winning strategy here.
00:24:00.000But what are Democrats spending their time, guys?
00:24:03.000What are they spending their time doing?
00:24:04.000Well, they're apparently storming ICE facilities and getting arrested to stand up for their newest allies, their best friends, illegal immigrant gang members.
00:24:16.000And that seems to be who the Democrat Party wants to support the most.
00:24:20.000MS-13, Trendelaragua, bad people from bad parts of the world who've done a lot of bad things.
00:24:27.000They want them living in your backyard.
00:24:30.000Here was the scene last week at a Newark ice facility where the mayor of Newark was actually arrested for trespassing while Democrat members of Congress staged their latest political stunt.
00:24:45.000Here was the scene outside the facility that day.
00:24:49.000Here was the scene outside the facility.
00:25:19.000If you're an American who wants lower drug prices, who wants violent criminals deported, who wants peace and prosperity, the Democrats don't have much to offer you.
00:25:32.000But, guys, if you're a criminal, illegal alien, they will try to break into a federal detention facility at any length.
00:27:19.000And there's no reason for it, except that in the United States, nobody has really been standing up for everyday Americans.
00:27:25.000So this executive order says that's going to stop.
00:27:29.000This executive order starts with a request to these pharma companies to play ball and level the playing field.
00:27:35.000Giving Americans the best prices that they offer for wealthy countries like Germany and France and in England.
00:27:42.000And if they don't play ball, then we've got the full regulatory authority of this administration to use everything at the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Trade Representative, the DOJ looking at monopolistic pricing.
00:27:57.000And at the FDA, we have a role as well, as well as Medicare, which is the biggest payer of these drugs.
00:28:03.000So this is a comprehensive strategy that we've never seen before.
00:28:07.000President Clinton talked about it a lot.
00:28:10.000No one had the courage to do it until today.
00:28:12.000So I guess the obvious question, Marty, and you sort of hit it on a little bit, is why are costs so high for Americans, but we're apparently essentially subsidizing low-cost drugs in the rest of the world?
00:28:31.000I mean, I can understand if they want to overcharge other countries because it's an American company, but if they're actually screwing the American taxpayer from American companies with American dollars, how did we ever get here?
00:28:46.000Because we've been asleep at the wheel.
00:28:47.000I mean, the same reason I think the instincts of the president...
00:28:51.000Realize that we're getting a raw deal on NATO fees, on WHO membership fees, on tariffs.
00:28:57.000And so when you actually look at it from the standpoint of the everyday American worker, it makes no sense.
00:29:03.000When you look at it from the standpoint of large corporations, then the system's working kind of as broken as it's designed.
00:29:10.000So I think politicians have come to Washington, D.C. and have said, you know, this doesn't look right, but in the end they have to make a decision.
00:29:18.000Do they go with the lobbyist money or do they go with the interests of the everyday American?
00:29:22.000And here's one where everybody has swam, has been swimming downstream.
00:29:27.000And we've got now somebody swimming up current that says we're not going to do this anymore.
00:29:33.000Yeah, I mean, it sounds so much like, I remember my father always told the story when he was sort of renewing the Air Force One contract.
00:30:08.000And he asked like, well, how is it possible that you can do that?
00:30:12.000If you could show me the line items, I can understand if it, you know, I'm sure there's...
00:30:15.000You know, better communications and maybe some anti-missile defense systems or whatever it is, but not $4 billion worth or, you know, an extra $2 billion worth.
00:30:42.000I mean, I look at some of the prescriptions I have to fill, whether it's for me or for five kids every once in a while, and it's like, how is it possible that it's this expensive?
00:30:51.000Yeah, I think because we've had middlemen that have basically said...
00:30:57.000Look, keep your eyes off of what's going on here.
00:31:22.000If you bought a Ford vehicle for $175,000 and found out it's $10,000 in London every day, all day long, you'd be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, can we have a talk with this company, with the car maker?
00:31:35.000And can we have a level playing field?
00:33:00.000We are looking at every single thing in the U.S. food supply, every one of the root causes of our chronic disease epidemic, and we're going to keep going.
00:33:09.000Yeah, I've had Bobby on the show, and we've talked about that.
00:33:16.000Petroleum-based things in our food, it's wild.
00:33:19.000Because, I mean, I go to Europe a lot, and you look at the same product, and the ingredients list is like a third the size, and you can actually pronounce these things.
00:33:28.000How did we get to the point where all of those things got switched out?
00:33:31.000When the rest of the world sort of acknowledges it as poison, and we're just like, eh, we just won't test it, so it's probably fine.
00:33:37.000I mean, the notion of all that, whether it's seed oils or whatever, but basically things that were designed to be industrial lubricants during World War II.
00:33:44.000We decided to start cooking with, I guess, military surplus lubricants.
00:34:04.000How did we get so far behind, quite candidly, even second and third world countries?
00:34:10.000Well, I think the industry has captured some of our regulatory bodies.
00:34:15.000You look at the FDA's history, OxyContin, for example, getting approved based on a 14-day study for chronic pain.
00:34:23.000That was an illegal approval, in my opinion.
00:34:26.000And then the regulator goes to work for Purdue Pharma immediately afterwards.
00:34:30.000So we are doing a lot now to make sure we've got scientific integrity.
00:34:34.000We're using common sense and gold standard science both.
00:34:38.000When it comes to everything and when it comes to food, who really thinks we need a randomized controlled trial where we inject Half of the kids in the study with petroleum in their blood system and half without and then wait 10 years to see what happens.
00:34:55.000We have to use more common sense at the FDA.
00:34:58.000And that also means addressing rare diseases with drugs where there's a plausible mechanism that it works.
00:35:04.000We've got to implement both the spirit and the letter of right to try in everything we do.
00:35:10.000So I don't think there's been a lot of that common sense governing things like the grass standard where industry is...
00:35:16.000It's just been able to say, hey, if we say it's safe, it's safe, and we're putting it in our food.
00:35:20.000I mean, heck, yellow dye number five, tartrazine, was a coal ash byproduct from coal tar.
00:35:28.000And somebody noticed it's bright yellow, and then they put it in fabric, thinking, oh, you know, it should work well in fabric.
00:35:36.000Yeah, because our Froot Loops absolutely have to glow in the dark to have the proper marketing effect on our children.
00:35:41.000I mean, it's insane, but, like, I grew up eating Froot Loops.
00:35:45.000You know, I'm sure, you know, I try to let my kids not eat this crap, but it's, you know, it's definitely, but, like, I honestly don't think that more kids or parents are buying Froot Loops because they glow in the dark versus being a slightly more natural hue of neon green.
00:37:06.000You know, issue, but I guess I gotta ask, how is HHS and the FDA specifically engaging, you know, with the pharmaceutical industry and those companies?
00:37:16.000Again, this is one of these 80-20 issues.
00:37:20.000You see it, you see when people, you're watching TV, you see the reaction, like, wait a minute, that's happening?
00:37:25.000And it's like, of course it's happening.
00:37:26.000It's like, this is one of those across-the-aisle issues.
00:37:30.000But you talked about lobbyists, you talk about the swamp, you know, it definitely has teeth.
00:37:36.000How do you engage with these guys to get enough stuff done?
00:37:40.000Not just through executive order, but to make sure that it's lasting.
00:37:42.000That it's not like, okay, we'll do this.
00:37:45.000We'll use up the surplus, and in four years we'll start our same old crap practices again.
00:37:50.000The richest country in the world can also be the fattest and least healthy.
00:37:54.000Well, we have more and more giant food companies coming out now and signing on to this pledge to remove all the petroleum-based dyes, not just one in three or four years, but all of them by the beginning of the school year next year.
00:38:13.000We've got more and more companies now interested in partnering with us on the ingredients in food.
00:38:19.000And with pharma, we've got great relationships.
00:38:24.000They know what's going on They've got kids They see what's happening, and they know that they have been gouging the American public with prices 10 times higher than prices overseas in some cases.
00:38:36.000And so they recognize that there has been this disparity.
00:38:39.000They recognize that people are onto it now, and they recognize now there's actually some action with some teeth on it.
00:38:45.000So I think we're going to see good cooperation.
00:38:47.000Look, I want American pharma companies to thrive.
00:38:50.000I want to see companies that do business in the United States to thrive.
00:38:58.000We're simply asking for a level playing field so they can thrive with a level playing field with other wealthy countries overseas.
00:39:05.000Well, I mean, you bring up the overseas component.
00:39:07.000I think that's an important one as well.
00:39:09.000You know, what's your oversight scope in looking at these Chinese research centers that we're apparently funding, you know, and protecting our food supply chains?
00:39:18.000You know, whether it's food supply or, frankly, you know, pharma stuff, where so many of our antibiotics and everything, I believe the number was like 93% are coming from...
00:39:26.000China, who I imagine in a time of crisis or a time of war, is not going to be on our side on anything.
00:40:12.000Paid for by the pharma companies, we're picking up our FDA inspectors overseas and taking them to the manufacturing plants to do the inspection.
00:40:21.000Well, they know the exact ETA from the limo drivers.
00:40:28.000They've been laughing at us paying 10 times more for the same drugs, and it's really no different.
00:40:34.000From, you know, us paying the disproportionate fare of WHO membership fees or NATO or anything else.
00:40:39.000And so we are now moving to surprise inspections overseas.
00:40:44.000Our inspections are not going to hang out for three and four weeks.
00:40:48.000They're going to be in and out, and they're going to look for major stuff, and they're going to do more inspections.
00:40:53.000How do we work about diversifying the overall supply chains?
00:40:55.000Again, it seems like we're, you know, like with so many other things, we're so critically dependent on...
00:41:00.000One actor, in most cases it's China, but whether it was semiconductors, it'd be Taiwan.
00:41:04.000But Taiwan is 69 miles, 68 miles from China.
00:41:08.000It doesn't seem like a great place to have all of our strategic reserves for semiconductors and other microchips vested in that place alone.
00:41:18.000How do we encourage other countries to start picking some of this up so that we know we have a supply if we're not necessarily getting along with our allies or not so much allies?
00:41:27.000We need to make it clear to manufacturing companies that if you manufacture in the United States, that includes medical devices, it includes food production, it includes drugs, that we're going to take care of you.
00:41:38.000That's what we want, and you're in good standing with the FDA if you're moving your manufacturing to the United States.
00:41:43.000We're going to cut the red tape, get rid of as much regulation as we can do within our safety limits, and we're going to encourage that.
00:41:53.000A number of large pharmaceutical companies have announced moving their manufacturing to the United States.
00:41:57.000Now, it's going to take a couple years because these plans take a while to stand up.
00:42:02.000But we're seeing a response to the call.
00:42:04.000And we are doing, I mean, it is like the number one focus at the FDA is to remove this unnecessary red tape that stops this good stuff from happening.
00:42:14.000Well, I think, listen, I think we really need a whole team who share that sort of same mission.
00:42:20.000And we seem to be assembling the right people in the right places.
00:42:23.000You know, again, Washington, D.C. has a lot of permanent people, people who are probably very well paid to make sure that some of these agenda items don't get rolled out.
00:42:33.000Can you talk about how to combat that stuff internally?
00:42:36.000Gosh, you know, we hear it all the time.
00:42:38.000We hear, yo, well, this congressman's going to be upset or this senator might be upset.
00:42:53.000And so the only way you can be bold in a position like mine, like that of Mehmet Oz at Medicare, like Jay Bhattacharya at NIH, is if somebody's got your back.
00:43:03.000And we have air support and cover that no one's had in these agencies.
00:43:09.000And so we're going bold on every single thing we can.
00:43:15.000I guess I guess one last thing when we're talking about these is, you know, there's always the thing, you know, big pharma sort of gets grouped as big pharma and everything like that.
00:43:22.000But you also have a lot of stuff in biotech.
00:43:24.000And there seems to be a concern, you know, the guys that are actually coming up with some of this stuff, you know, investing a lot of money to come up with these next generation cures and everything.
00:43:33.000And they sort of seem to be grouped together.
00:43:35.000How do you handle the big pharma side of stuff to keep the cost down for Americans while simultaneously not...
00:43:42.000What I hear from my friends who are either biotech investors, it's like, hey, China's just scooping up all the scientists because they pay them three times more.
00:43:50.000They let them do what they need to do.
00:43:52.000It does feel like we don't want to give up our strategic advantage in ingenuity from the biotech side, which, again, I think gets grouped a lot with that.
00:44:54.000AI machines that help doctors and clinicians and CAT scan reads.
00:45:00.000We don't know what to do with it because we have this system where you have to apply for an approval for every one of the 200 answers the AI can give you.
00:45:20.000I guess as we wrap up, We see all these joint research projects between even major corporations and American universities in places like China.
00:45:29.000Does that also need a similar overhaul?
00:45:32.000Is this the kind of place where we're funding it, but they're getting all the upside of our R&D dollars or stealing the IP and all of the usual practices that we've seen elsewhere?
00:45:44.000Yeah, look, we are not going to tolerate studies that are done behind closed doors only in China where they're giving us results that are not believable.
00:45:53.000So we've got to safeguard the American public against false claims.
00:45:57.000And that means we want to see good, comprehensive gold standard science open in plain view.
00:46:03.000And we want to use common sense as well.
00:46:08.000FDA Commissioner Dr. Marnie McCary, thank you so much for joining us.
00:46:11.000Look forward to seeing all the stuff you're rolling out in the next few weeks, and we'll have to have you back on once that stuff is in process.
00:48:23.000The administration only got in through the federal marshals forcibly opening the doors.
00:48:28.000And so a lot of people heralded this agency for speaking truth to power and standing up for their principles and all this stuff.
00:48:34.000But one of the things that Elon says is if people resist an audit, it's probably because they have something to hide.
00:48:40.000And so I decided to look into this agency because I never heard of it, just like most people never did.
00:48:45.000And it didn't take long to figure out, mostly by talking to the employees there themselves, that this thing was corrupt from top to bottom.
00:48:53.000And the first thing that they did is obviously they're supposed to give money to Africa.
00:48:57.000But what they would do is have the African entities give it back to them under the table.
00:49:01.000So in some cases, they were literally just like paying, like wiring money into the bank accounts of bureaucrats in D.C. while Congress thought.
00:49:08.000This is all money that's going to Africa.
00:49:11.000I mean, what kind of money are you talking about here?
00:49:14.000So the agency itself only has a budget of $45 million.
00:49:17.000A lot of that goes to overhead as it is.
00:49:20.000But then the portion that goes over to Africa, a lot of it was coming back.
00:50:43.000Because, yeah, I mean, it to me seems just outright criminal.
00:50:47.000There's not even like, there's no other way to imagine this, I don't think.
00:50:51.000Yeah, so I think everyone's been placed on leave right now to be laid off.
00:50:56.000But I think Congress needs to act to make sure this doesn't come back.
00:51:01.000Ted Cruz has introduced a bill to abolish this agency permanently.
00:51:07.000Yeah, whether there's criminal, certainly the CFO, I think, is, you know, there's a very credible criminal case against him, probably others as well, to ensure that there's accountability here.
00:51:18.000We don't just put this behind us, but there's a deterrent effect for other people.
00:51:22.000But I also think it's a lesson for, it is sort of a vindication of what people were saying about USAID and is this money basically being laundered to consultants in Bethesda.
00:51:32.000This is very strong evidence that this is...
00:51:37.000Another thing that I think is a lesson here moving forward is there's a racial component to this.
00:51:43.000The general counsel basically turned whistleblower for this agency saying, I'm the top lawyer here and I'm saying you guys are constantly breaking the law with everything.
00:51:52.000Personnel, procurement, all this stuff.
00:51:55.000Ethics, you know, conflict of interest.
00:51:58.000And basically, they tortured him for being white.
00:52:01.000They put him on leave to prevent him from exposing his investigation.
00:52:05.000And he actually has a sworn affidavit from a black staff saying, yeah, they straight up said we won't hire any white people.
00:52:11.000But the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rejected his complaint.
00:52:15.000So there is an element of is there going to be a recourse for people who are white, who are discriminated against in federal employment?
00:52:25.000I imagine that if it was anyone other than white men, It would be a serious problem.
00:52:30.000And yet, in this case, like all things that are against MAGA or common sense or basic fairness, as long as it's not a white beneficiary, it's totally fine to just break the law, to disregard practices, and to have a whistleblower who, you know, I definitely remember all the whistleblowers against Trump were beyond reproach, even if they were basically criminals themselves.
00:52:58.000I mean, I've done stories over the years about there was one story out of the Housing and Urban Development Department where this staff who was black claimed that her boss made some little rascals joke.
00:53:19.000But the other thing is sort of the lecturing and the moralizing that we often receive of if you want to shut down this government agency, You hate poor people or you hate Africans.
00:53:30.000The people that we put in charge, they, in fact, didn't seem to care very much about Africans.
00:54:06.000Again, the other complaint I keep seeing this week, I guess it was Equinox, like the gym company, lost an almost $12 million lawsuit because there was a lady, I guess, of color who was fired.
00:54:18.000And she said it was racism, even though, you know, she was late 47 times in the last year.
00:54:22.000Like, you know, it definitely only seems to go one way.
00:54:25.000But when it does that in these select venues, especially in liberal cities, you know, it's a handpicked jury that's just happy to administer, you know, some sort of level of, you know, social justice, even if it's nonsense.
00:54:49.000And I mean, they basically put this whistleblower through the ringer.
00:54:52.000They actually framed him for making death threats.
00:54:56.000And they just completely ruined his life.
00:54:59.000And there was really nothing they could say that he did wrong other than the fake death threats.
00:55:04.000They also said he was insubordinate for investigating them for breaking the law when they told him not to.
00:55:09.000And so it's just such a flagrant case of wrongdoing.
00:55:13.000And you see the left making this African aid agency into this David versus Goliath story where they're the hero.
00:55:19.000And it is a case of the Democrats stepping on a rake.
00:55:22.000It's always pretty funny when that happens, when they go all in on making this the case study of what government should be, when it's actually the exact opposite.
00:55:31.000And it does make you wonder how often, how many other government agencies operate like this.
00:55:36.000Obviously, I guess this is at DOJ, so hopefully there's...
00:55:41.000There's at least some reasonable, open-minded people looking at this.
00:55:44.000But I guess the process is, hey, in a Biden administration, everyone's a leftist.
00:55:48.000Do it in D.C. They'll find there's no wrongdoing, even if there's flagrant wrongdoing.
00:55:53.000The guy's fired and his life is ruined, even if it is fraud, even if it is waste, even if he's just doing his job and they're breaking the law.
00:56:01.000Yeah, I mean, I wonder about that a lot with the D.C. Juries, people talk about how well if the Democrats, you know, basically target people for their political beliefs, then the Republicans might do the opposite, and that's bad.
00:56:13.000But the Republicans, I don't know, they could be thwarted by a D.C. jury who says, actually, it's totally okay to commit all kinds of crimes when you are a Democrat.
00:56:23.000But realistically, I mean, these are people that were basically, it seems like they were swindling Africans and taking money that was supposed to go to poor Africans.
00:56:32.000And using it for themselves to do luxury travel and to buy, you know, high-end suits and to get their next job.
00:56:39.000And so I don't think they're really very sympathetic to anyone.
00:56:41.000I think it really shocks the conscience for Americans of all political beliefs.
00:56:47.000And, you know, the top guy, C.D. Glynn, I mean, he used government money to buy, basically put himself, pay money to this company that...
00:56:57.000We'll get you on boards using DEI qualifications if you pay them money.
00:57:01.000He used taxpayer money to pay for that, and next thing you know, he's in charge of the PepsiCo Foundation's board.
00:57:08.000So he's in charge of $70 million right now.
00:57:11.000So that's the kind of thing that happens a lot in D.C. is when people do bad things, you're looking for them to get punished, and instead they fail upwards, and they actually go on to do even more prominent things.
00:57:22.000Yeah, I know that you found that federal prosecutors in D.C. say that a senior USAID contracting officer essentially created a fake company to steer himself money via the coronavirus bailout.
00:57:35.000I mean, you know, we've been talking for five minutes, ten minutes, and it's like, here's seven examples of, like, how much, I mean, you know, again, hey, no one knows better than me just how rotten it is, but, like, even I'm shocked at just how bad it all is.
00:57:50.000Yeah, no, I mean, I did a four-part series in the Daily Wire on this little agency, and that's way more than I normally do, but everywhere you turned, there was just...
00:58:53.000So he said, look, I'm going to give you this grant to buy these COVID masks, and then you're going to subcontract it to the Aspen Institute.
00:58:59.000And they were like, we already have COVID masks.
00:59:02.000And he's like, don't worry, just take the money.
00:59:04.000So it really does raise a lot of questions about how how common this is in government.
00:59:10.000And certainly the theme that I've seen is if left to their own devices, government agencies will devolve into something that is primarily just an employment center for the state.
00:59:18.000Yeah, I mean, I think we've seen that.
00:59:24.000You saw, you know, when Elon bought Twitter, and he fired 80% of the employees, and guess what?
01:00:18.000Those dudes have badges and they can throw you in jail.
01:00:22.000So one of the things that I think would be cool that would happen is if inspectors general started to become more like Doge.
01:00:28.000Like you can do the inspector general job in sort of an apathetic way or you can do it in a super aggressive way.
01:00:33.000And it would be really cool if we just turned these inspector general things into just engines of just corruption fighting and just throw all these people in jail.
01:00:48.000And again, I mean, it's funny because the left is acknowledging a lot of problems now.
01:00:52.000They'll be like, well, we admit that the government's very inefficient.
01:00:54.000We just think you should go slow in reforming it.
01:00:57.000It's like, wait a minute, you didn't admit that at all when you were in charge.
01:01:00.000After you lost the election, you're saying, oh.
01:01:03.000So, yeah, they weren't going to tell us about any of this.
01:01:06.000The only reason I was able to dig up so much information about this little foreign aid agency is because the employees themselves had been desperately screaming into the void.
01:01:14.000And they actually went to liberal media outlets and asked them to write the story about corruption.
01:01:18.000And the media outlets wouldn't do it because they felt like it would help the Trump administration shut down U.S.A.
01:01:30.000I mean, the suburbs in D.C. have been some of the most expensive and highest income areas.
01:01:34.000In America, I think by a zip code, probably the most.
01:01:38.000How much of it was just the massive transfer of federal dollars to these NGOs, the kickbacks, and essentially taxpayer-funded gravy trains to enrich the so-called D.C. elites?
01:01:49.000I mean, it all feels so completely artificial.
01:02:39.000And I think to get back to your Twitter analogy, you could cut 80% of this and nobody would know that it's missing.
01:02:47.000So on one hand, you talk about, we've got to...
01:02:49.000Cut the deficit because we, you know, we just have to.
01:02:52.000Are we willing to, even if we have to feel the hurt, it's something we got to do.
01:02:56.000But honestly, there's so many things we could cut and nobody's even going to know the difference except for the people that are actually getting paid to be employed by it.
01:03:03.000Yeah, you brought up the Hunter Biden thing.
01:03:04.000I always find it so interesting because I see the amount of hit pieces that are like in process or written about me on a daily basis.
01:03:10.000Like I've been a business guy for 25 years.
01:03:34.000I was like, you mean you didn't see the guy fall down the stairs day in and day out, forget where he was, stop mid-sentence, have to be guided around by the Easter Bunny?
01:03:46.000And, you know, it'll be great to see what's going to come out of the U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. Now, I mean, there was a case on Friday.
01:03:54.000There was a USAID senior procurement official, this African guy that was in charge of giving out hundreds of thousands of dollars to foreign countries.
01:04:01.000And it turned out that he himself defrauded the...
01:04:05.000Pandemic Paycheck Protection Program by creating a fake company and saying he worked there and getting all this money.
01:04:12.000And there was so many, you know, you read the indictment, there were so many obvious red flags and nobody ever checked this application before paying out this money.
01:04:26.000And so this is, again, the kind of thing that Doge is really coming in and using basic database skills, matching up two databases to see whether it even makes sense.
01:04:35.000But yeah, I mean, this is just another...
01:04:37.000There needs to be consequences for people that do it because if they're not going to...
01:04:44.000So it'll be interesting what happens to this African guy.
01:04:48.000Yeah, I mean, Luke, where can people find you so they can follow along?
01:04:51.000Because, I mean, this is important work.
01:04:52.000Again, it's not going to be covered on the nightly news.
01:04:54.000It's not going to be covered in the mainstream media.
01:04:56.000Honestly, mainstream conservative media may not even cover it because I'm sure, you know, I imagine the Democrats are the great beneficiaries of all of these things, but I'm plenty sure there's probably some people allegedly on our side with an R next to their name that are, you know, either okay with it or some sort of beneficiaries as well.
01:05:14.000You know, where can people find you so they can keep up with what's going on?
01:05:17.000Check it out on The Daily Wire, and I'm also on X at Luke Rosiak.