On today's show, we have Rachel Maddow join us to talk about the massive amount of illegal immigrants getting food stamps and other food assistance from the federal government. Rachel is a former federal prosecutor who served as a prosecutor in the late 1980s and early 1990s and served as the head of the Justice Department's Office of Criminal Investigation. She is now a senior advisor to President Donald Trump and is a member of his transition team.
00:00:28.780On my first day, USDA, we told every state to send us their snap data so we can make sure illegal immigrants aren't getting benefits meant for American families.
00:00:38.70029 states stepped up, 21 blue states refused, and the two sued us for asking.
00:01:03.000We asked every state for the first time in history, and this was in February, to send us their data and let us, with Doge and a war room, actually start going through this data to better understand how this explosion of SNAP benefits happened under Joe Biden.
00:01:18.540We increased almost 40 percent on this program in just a couple of years under the Biden administration.
00:01:24.880Of course, we know they were trying to buy the election, but that's a conversation for another time.
00:01:28.580And since we have asked for that data, 29 states have complied, of course, almost all the red states, a couple of the, you know, a couple of blue states, too.
00:01:38.640But in that data, and I haven't talked about this yet publicly, in that data, we have found, we've studied about $100 billion in spend.
00:01:46.420We have found thousands and thousands of illegal use of the EBT card.
00:01:54.100We have been moving people off of SNAP.
00:01:55.780We've got almost 700,000 people, I think.
00:01:58.120We've moved off just since the president took office.
00:02:05.060But, Rachel, to your point, what this conversation has allowed is a national spotlight on a broken and corrupt program.
00:02:13.940We found one guy in six different states getting a benefit.
00:02:17.420We found about 5,000 people that are dead who are still getting benefits.
00:02:21.580Like, it is time to drastically reform this program so that we can make sure that those who are truly needy, truly vulnerable, are getting what they need,
00:02:30.400and the rest of the corruption goes away, and we can serve the American taxpayer.
00:03:23.700Elon even called it, we're a magnet because we incentivize these illegals, and the moment you try to stick up and say, wait a minute, they're raping young girls around the country.
00:03:33.020Wait a minute, they're taking money from this.
00:03:34.560They're taking this money from this program.
00:03:36.040We're labeled racist, and we hate Mexicans, and we hate Venezuelans.
00:03:39.180It's bullshit, and I'm sorry for my language, but that's what it comes down to.
00:09:50.180But, Brandon, how are you processing all of this yourself?
00:09:53.420So I think a good way to think about it in regards to the snap payment stuff, I mean, like, everybody hates paying taxes.
00:09:59.360But when you get taxed, just imagine 70 percent of that goes to people who might not even be part of the country, people who don't work by choice because they know that they have entitlements coming to them.
00:10:08.940So, I mean, how productive is that for a country that wants to be the best possible country?
00:10:13.680If 70 percent of the money that gets taken from us just gets thrown to people who are going to spend on frivolous things that don't work, that are perfectly capable of working.
00:10:21.420I mean, I don't find that good or optimal.
00:10:23.500I think one of the saddest things in the world is wasted potential.
00:10:25.900And there's an infinite amount of wasted potential for the United States.
00:10:29.040Like, think about where we could be if we treated the money, like, the tax revenue of the country the way that, like, a business treats investment money.
00:10:35.420If you're spending it towards good return on investment things instead of just, like, making it a marketing pitch to attract people from other countries to come here and leech off of us so that a certain party could stay in power.
00:11:28.080But I don't know—I think what I'm getting from them right now is how far left the Democratic Party is going, and they don't know what to do.
00:12:05.660So, officially, the only sizes that we have left are 9, 9 1⁄2, 10, and 11.
00:12:11.080But I believe that effective here in the next 24 hours, okay, you can go place the order now because I was under the impression that it was already up, Rob.