Latest / Booker Scott: Truth Be Told / Socialists Sweep NYC

Transcript

Socialists Sweep NYC · Booker Scott: Truth Be Told

0:06
Speaker 1: Is it even possible for the left to lurch further
0:07
Speaker 1: to left? I'm not sure.
0:32
Speaker 2: But it seems like the Democrat Party is gone, at
0:35
Speaker 2: least the Democrat Party that we used to know. They
0:38
Speaker 2: have gone so far to the left, and it has
0:40
Speaker 2: never been more evident than it was Tuesday in a
0:43
Speaker 2: primary election in New York City. New York City is
0:47
Speaker 2: going the way of communists and socialists. Ma'am Donnie's candidates,
0:52
Speaker 2: they swept New York City. And they are on their
0:55
Speaker 2: way to Washington, D.C. as well. I'm Booker. This is
0:59
Speaker 2: The Truth Be Told. And thank you for joining us
1:02
Speaker 2: wherever you are joining us, whether you're listening on a
1:04
Speaker 2: podcast or you're listening live. I appreciate it. Thank you
1:07
Speaker 2: for doing that. What do we make of this? I've
1:10
Speaker 2: been talking about this for a while. I do it
1:12
Speaker 2: when I speak in public. I spoke Tuesday night and
1:16
Speaker 2: mentioned this and talked last week and talked about it
1:19
Speaker 2: a lot. The thing that we are fighting against is socialism.
1:24
Speaker 2: is doing away with our individual liberties and freedoms and
1:30
Speaker 2: collectivism and intersectionality and the things that are used by
1:33
Speaker 2: the socialists that have been used in this country over
1:36
Speaker 2: the last decade, much longer than that. But we all
1:40
Speaker 2: feel it, really, over the last five or six years.
1:43
Speaker 2: During the Biden years, that's what we were living through.
1:46
Speaker 2: That is what we need to safeguard this country from.
1:51
Speaker 2: But yet, Tuesday, that was not the case. you had
1:55
Speaker 2: three Democrat socialists, admittedly, that's what they are, Democrat socialists,
2:00
Speaker 2: with weird ideas that have been indoctrinated and believe that
2:05
Speaker 2: no borders are the right thing, no jails. One of
2:08
Speaker 2: them actually doesn't want any jails, doesn't want anybody prosecuted
2:12
Speaker 2: for anything. What will society look like when that happens?
2:18
Speaker 2: And if this spreads across this country as a result
2:21
Speaker 2: of these elections, What does this country look like in
2:25
Speaker 2: the future? That's what we're up against. We're up against
2:29
Speaker 2: an ideology under the age of 43, 44 years old
2:33
Speaker 2: that believe that this is the way that the country
2:36
Speaker 2: should go. It's not the way the country should go.
2:42
Speaker 2: John Fetterman is a Democrat senator in Pennsylvania. He seems
2:46
Speaker 2: to make a lot of sense, although he still votes
2:48
Speaker 2: almost always with Democrats. He happened to be on with
2:52
Speaker 2: Sean Hannity on Tuesday night. Here is what he said
2:55
Speaker 2: about these candidates and now these winners of the primaries
2:59
Speaker 2: in New York, which means they will end up in Congress.
3:03
Speaker 2: Here's Senator John Fetterman.
3:05
Speaker 3: No, that doesn't surprise me.
3:07
Speaker 4: I fully expect that.
3:08
Speaker 3: And I think you're going to see, I can almost guarantee,
3:11
Speaker 3: you know, the one that calls to abolish police, abolish
3:16
Speaker 3: the border. There are no reasons to ever to deport
3:19
Speaker 3: anybody and abolishing prisons.
3:23
Speaker 4: I mean, she said all of this. She's someone, she
3:25
Speaker 4: actually said F Kamala Harris.
3:28
Speaker 3: I mean, these are the people who we are electing
3:30
Speaker 3: and they're going to send them here to Congress. Someone
3:33
Speaker 3: who wants to abolish our border and abolish prison.
3:37
Speaker 2: The squad is getting bigger in Washington, D.C. You know,
3:40
Speaker 2: the AOCs and the Talibs and what's the Somalian in Minnesota?
3:46
Speaker 2: What's her name? Ilhan Omar. That squad is getting bigger. Meanwhile,
3:51
Speaker 2: the conservative side is getting smaller. And this is a
3:54
Speaker 2: concern here in America. John Fetterman, again, he's making sense,
3:58
Speaker 2: but pay attention to how he votes. But let's listen
4:01
Speaker 2: to a little more of John Fetterman.
4:03
Speaker 4: You know, that's not a Democrat. That's a full-on lunatic.
4:07
Speaker 3: I can't imagine. you know, this is the kind of
4:10
Speaker 3: model that we're going to win real elections. Yeah, you
4:14
Speaker 3: can elect someone like that in a district in New York,
4:18
Speaker 3: but when you're in a state like Pennsylvania, that's going
4:22
Speaker 3: to keep you honest. And my views now have put
4:25
Speaker 3: me out an outlier, but that is beyond absurd. Now,
4:29
Speaker 3: as we continue to witness it, what's happening, whether in.
4:33
Speaker 2: Again, in And it's happening in California as well. As
4:36
Speaker 2: John Fetterman says, he is an outlier in the Democrat party.
4:39
Speaker 4: He is.
4:40
Speaker 2: Dan Goldman, he is one of the first impeachment attorneys
4:45
Speaker 2: that prosecuted the impeachment to get Donald Trump out of
4:49
Speaker 2: office in Donald Trump's first presidency. He lost. He lost
4:53
Speaker 2: to one of these Democrat socialists. His name is Dan Lander.
4:57
Speaker 2: He is the former comptroller of New York City, and
5:01
Speaker 2: he won this election, and he proudly says, I am
5:03
Speaker 2: a Democrat socialist. He beat Dan Goldman. Dan Goldman, not
5:09
Speaker 2: one of my favorite guys, but That's surprising, and it
5:11
Speaker 2: wasn't even close. It was 65% to 35%. Dan Goldman
5:16
Speaker 2: is an incumbent. He is there in Congress now, and
5:20
Speaker 2: he got killed by Lander, 65% to 35%. That shows
5:25
Speaker 2: you where the Democrats have gone as a party, at
5:29
Speaker 2: least in places like California, New York, New Jersey, places
5:33
Speaker 2: like that, even Virginia, the governor of Virginia, Spanberger. We
5:37
Speaker 2: have this indoctrination problem in this country, and You know,
5:41
Speaker 2: that's what this election is coming down to, this midterm election.
5:45
Speaker 2: It's going to come down to which way this country
5:48
Speaker 2: is going to go. And as I mentioned, the indoctrination
5:50
Speaker 2: of the young people under the age of 43, 44,
5:54
Speaker 2: most of them believe that socialism is the way to go.
5:59
Speaker 2: They think that it's the only answer for America. What's
6:03
Speaker 2: wrong with socialism, they'll say. Go look at places like Venezuela.
6:08
Speaker 2: Go look at Cuba. if you want to know what
6:11
Speaker 2: happens in socialism in time. But there's a bigger problem here,
6:16
Speaker 2: I believe. I believe that these people under the age
6:19
Speaker 2: of 43 or 44 have become very frustrated with the
6:23
Speaker 2: government of America as well. And so they're looking for answers.
6:27
Speaker 2: Things in their life have not gone the way that
6:30
Speaker 2: they want them to, for whatever reason. Maybe they couldn't
6:34
Speaker 2: find a job coming out of college. They have a
6:36
Speaker 2: lot of student loan debt because colleges and universities have
6:40
Speaker 2: sold them on that. So they end up with $ 200, 000, $ 300, 000
6:45
Speaker 2: of student loan debt with a $ 50, 000 a year job,
6:48
Speaker 2: and they end up in their parents' basement. They can't
6:50
Speaker 2: afford a new home because new homes have continued to increase.
6:54
Speaker 2: The interest rates are high, and they're frustrated, and they're
6:57
Speaker 2: looking for an answer. Someone comes along and says, I'll
7:01
Speaker 2: give everything to you free, like Mam Donnie in New York.
7:04
Speaker 2: That seems to be a pretty good answer, wouldn't it?
7:06
Speaker 2: It would be appealing to me if I were 28,
7:10
Speaker 2: 30 years old and living in my parents' basement. You know,
7:16
Speaker 2: we need solutions from our government, and we aren't getting
7:20
Speaker 2: a lot of them. Everybody's just going against each other. Meanwhile,
7:24
Speaker 2: solutions for things like Social Security that will be insolvent,
7:29
Speaker 2: by 2034. You know, that would be important to start
7:33
Speaker 2: working on Social Security, but they've talked about it for
7:36
Speaker 2: years and they haven't even tried to do anything with
7:40
Speaker 2: Social Security. What about health care costs? That's another one.
7:45
Speaker 2: We have no help from our government. They're not looking
7:48
Speaker 2: for solutions for these things. And then you look at
7:52
Speaker 2: the fraud. Look at the fraud in this country. It's disheartening.
7:58
Speaker 2: Speaking of fraud, there was $ 6. 5 billion that was brought
8:03
Speaker 2: to our attention in medical fraud. This happened on Tuesday.
8:07
Speaker 2: This is AG Todd Blanche.
8:10
Speaker 5: Today we are here to announce the results of the
8:12
Speaker 5: 2026 National Healthcare Fraud Takedown. This announcement marks the greatest
8:19
Speaker 5: combined federal and state effort in combating healthcare fraud in history.
8:26
Speaker 5: Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and the Vice
8:29
Speaker 5: President and all those folks standing behind me and next
8:32
Speaker 5: to me, we are more united than ever before. This
8:37
Speaker 5: team is working tirelessly to take down fraudsters who steal
8:41
Speaker 5: from taxpayer-funded programs and prey on vulnerable Americans.
8:46
Speaker 2: Six and a half billion dollars of your tax money
8:50
Speaker 2: is gone. And we have kids, you know, sleeping in
8:52
Speaker 2: the basement. They can't find a job. They can't pay
8:55
Speaker 2: off their student loans. Because your tax money is being
8:59
Speaker 2: stolen by other Americans in this case. This was not Somalians.
9:04
Speaker 2: This is people all over the country. I forget how
9:06
Speaker 2: many states. What did he say? There were a lot
9:09
Speaker 2: of states involved in this. This started back on June 11th.
9:14
Speaker 2: That's when they started arresting these people. Over 400 people arrested. $ 6. 5
9:17
Speaker 2: billion in Most of it in the medical field is
9:23
Speaker 2: where they stole money. This is doctors that are stealing.
9:26
Speaker 2: They're driving Rolls Royce. And then you have kids living
9:32
Speaker 2: in their parents' basement at 30 years old, and you
9:34
Speaker 2: wonder why they look to Ma'am Donnie for answers and
9:38
Speaker 2: the Democrat Socialist in New York City. Because the people
9:42
Speaker 2: that we have elected in the past, they've not been
9:45
Speaker 2: stewards of our money, good stewards of our money, have they?
9:48
Speaker 2: They have allowed the fraud that we have seen in
9:51
Speaker 2: places like Minneapolis and now even across the country. We
9:56
Speaker 2: had $ 500 billion worth of fraud. during COVID with PPP
10:02
Speaker 2: and unemployment. It is disheartening when you see it. And
10:06
Speaker 2: I know when you are listening to this, and I
10:08
Speaker 2: know this is where I come from, we want answers.
10:12
Speaker 2: We want our country back. We want this republic back.
10:18
Speaker 2: And we have been electing the wrong people. They become
10:22
Speaker 2: part of the machine in Washington, D.C. The Uniparty. You
10:26
Speaker 2: want to call them the Uniparty? Okay, sure. I look
10:28
Speaker 2: at the SAVE Act and, you know, what better way
10:34
Speaker 2: to show how the people that we elect don't represent
10:38
Speaker 2: the people of America? You have 80% of Americans that
10:43
Speaker 2: want voter ID. They want citizens to vote. 80% of Americans.
10:48
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter race, gender, sexuality, political party, ideology. None
10:54
Speaker 2: of that matters. 80% of Americans want that. And yet
10:58
Speaker 2: the SAVE Act can't even pass in the Senate with
11:01
Speaker 2: 60 votes. What does that say? Well, it says that
11:06
Speaker 2: we have a bunch of people in Washington, D.C. that
11:09
Speaker 2: really don't take care of our money. They really are
11:11
Speaker 2: working for themselves and for the establishment. That's what that says.
11:17
Speaker 2: And so does this that Todd Blanche is talking about.
11:20
Speaker 2: They don't put the safeguards in the laws. They appropriate
11:23
Speaker 2: all of this money, the money they don't keep up with,
11:27
Speaker 2: and we lose $ 6. 5 billion again. It's amazing. It's amazing
11:32
Speaker 2: how our government thinks they work. They don't work for
11:37
Speaker 2: you or me. I don't even think they work at all,
11:40
Speaker 2: except for the fraudsters. They seem to work pretty well
11:43
Speaker 2: for them.
11:44
Speaker 5: Today, we are announcing federal and state charges, all of
11:47
Speaker 5: which were charged or unsealed at some point over the
11:50
Speaker 5: past two weeks, the past 14 days, coordinated nationwide action.
11:57
Speaker 5: Since June 8th, we've charged 455 defendants across 56, like
12:03
Speaker 5: I said a minute ago, U.S. attorney's offices and 45 U.S.
12:06
Speaker 5: states and territories. As alleged in the various indictments, these
12:11
Speaker 5: individuals participated in health care fraud schemes involving over $ 6. 5
12:17
Speaker 5: billion in false claims submitted to Medicare, Medicaid, and other
12:23
Speaker 5: health care programs. The team around me will get into
12:26
Speaker 5: more specifics, but here are a few points that stand out.
12:30
Speaker 2: Now, the team around him is RFK Jr., And also Dr.
12:35
Speaker 2: Mehmet Oz is standing there, and there's about 15 people
12:39
Speaker 2: standing around him. The FBI is not there, but again,
12:42
Speaker 2: 455 people they have arrested, $ 6. 5 billion. I said June 11th.
12:48
Speaker 2: It was June 8th. I'm corrected on that. But since
12:52
Speaker 2: June 11th, or June 8th, I'm sorry, I did it again.
12:56
Speaker 2: Since June 8th, they have arrested $ 455, 6. 5 billion. Listen to
13:02
Speaker 2: what AG Todd Blanche says here.
13:05
Speaker 5: In one indictment, we're bringing charges against a corporate executive
13:08
Speaker 5: in Arizona in connection to over a $ 1 billion fraud
13:13
Speaker 5: involving unnecessary moon graphs.
13:17
Speaker 1: This alleged scheme.
13:19
Speaker 5: Costs Medicare over $ 1 million per patient.
13:23
Speaker 2: He said wound grafts is what he said. See, that
13:27
Speaker 2: should be a red flag to me. If I'm working
13:29
Speaker 2: in government and all of a sudden a billion dollars
13:32
Speaker 2: goes out to one doctor in Arizona, one company, I guess,
13:38
Speaker 2: that would be a red flag. It should be a
13:40
Speaker 2: red flag. We have the technology now where that should
13:44
Speaker 2: be able to be identified quickly, shouldn't it? A billion dollars.
13:49
Speaker 2: For one fraud there. For wound grafts. That's what that
13:53
Speaker 2: was for. That's pretty specialized. That seems like a lot
13:56
Speaker 2: of money going to one specialist, doesn't it?
13:59
Speaker 5: In total, our indictment charges 11 defendants for over $ 2
14:03
Speaker 5: billion in fraudulent claims in connection to alleged wound care schemes.
14:10
Speaker 5: The indictment also alleges that these individuals then used... the
14:14
Speaker 5: taxpayer money to bankroll multimillion-dollar homes, luxury vehicles like a $ 135, 000 Maserati,
14:21
Speaker 5: jewelry like an $ 865, 000 Bulgari necklace, and to top it
14:27
Speaker 5: all off, to fund the construction of a $ 4. 6 million
14:31
Speaker 5: hotel at a beach resort in the Philippines.
14:34
Speaker 2: That would be nice, wouldn't it, to live like that? Well,
14:37
Speaker 2: when you're living off other people's money, their tax money,
14:40
Speaker 2: your money, my money, it's pretty simple. We'll just buy
14:43
Speaker 2: luxury cars, a Maserati, a $ 900, 000 necklace. Why not? The
14:50
Speaker 2: government's never going to do anything. And until now, I
14:53
Speaker 2: think that that's probably true. The amount of fraud that
14:55
Speaker 2: people have gotten away with is incredible. And when you
14:58
Speaker 2: listen to the amount of money that they have collected,
15:01
Speaker 2: they are going to collect all of this. They're going
15:03
Speaker 2: to collect the hotel. They're going to collect the houses,
15:06
Speaker 2: the jewelry, the cars. It's pennies on the dollar. $ 6. 5
15:11
Speaker 2: billion was taken, and I think they claim that about
15:17
Speaker 2: $ 400 million they have recovered. That's a drop in the bucket,
15:22
Speaker 2: and money is gone forever. It's in the economy.
15:25
Speaker 5: We're taking back the money, the luxury cars, the jewelry,
15:30
Speaker 5: and these alleged fraudsters will face justice.
15:32
Speaker 2: And it's about time they face justice. Unfortunately, our neighbors
15:37
Speaker 2: and our doctors, obviously, Our friends, a lot of people
15:41
Speaker 2: just out here in our communities, they are the ones
15:44
Speaker 2: that are doing this fraud and taking our money. And finally,
15:47
Speaker 2: they are going to be held accountable. Thank goodness for that.
15:50
Speaker 2: Real quick, I want to go to Iran because there
15:52
Speaker 2: are mixed messages coming out. And it looks to me
15:55
Speaker 2: that J.D. Vance is taking the lead here. Maybe Marco
15:59
Speaker 2: Rubio is stepping back a little bit, allowing J.D. Vance
16:02
Speaker 2: to be the messenger as he is the one that
16:05
Speaker 2: has been negotiating with the Iranians. Pete Hegseth has also
16:09
Speaker 2: stepped a little bit back. I think that's probably a
16:11
Speaker 2: good idea. Let's put J.D. Vance out in front so
16:14
Speaker 2: he can be the singular message that the world is hearing,
16:17
Speaker 2: because we're getting mixed messages from Iran. We heard on
16:21
Speaker 2: Tuesday that Iran says there's nothing in the memorandum about
16:26
Speaker 2: us not having nuclear weapons. We never said that. We're
16:29
Speaker 2: not going to have an agreement that says we're never
16:31
Speaker 2: going to have nuclear weapons. And as we go through
16:34
Speaker 2: these 60 days, to me, I think Iran is just
16:38
Speaker 2: playing a game here. I think this is what they do,
16:42
Speaker 2: and they will continue to do that as time goes by.
16:45
Speaker 2: It's going to be up to Trump. What does he do?
16:47
Speaker 2: What is he going to do here? He obviously wants
16:51
Speaker 2: to get out of this. I think he has a
16:54
Speaker 2: hard time ahead of him, and we hope that this
16:57
Speaker 2: ends and we can bring the troops home and The
17:01
Speaker 2: street of Hormuz will be open, the oil will stay
17:03
Speaker 2: down low, and prices will come down for us at
17:07
Speaker 2: the kitchen table, especially before this midterm election that's coming
17:11
Speaker 2: up in November. It is so important that this get
17:15
Speaker 2: over with before this midterm election. And I do want
17:17
Speaker 2: to bring up again, and I talk about this quite
17:19
Speaker 2: a bit, and if I talk about it too much,
17:21
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, but I think it's really important. And that
17:25
Speaker 2: is passing a reconciliation with all 12 appropriations done before
17:30
Speaker 2: September 30th. It really doesn't matter what any of us
17:33
Speaker 2: talk about, about politically, about this midterm, if that's not done.
17:38
Speaker 2: Because when the government is shut down in November for
17:42
Speaker 2: this midterm election, it's going to be a bad day
17:44
Speaker 2: for Republicans, which means it's going to be a good
17:47
Speaker 2: day for Ma'am Donnie's Democrat socialists across the country as
17:52
Speaker 2: they come into Congress. And as John Fetterman described there,
17:55
Speaker 2: these nutjobs, They become congressmen in the U.S. House of Representatives.
18:03
Speaker 2: That's what's coming unless the Republicans can do the job
18:07
Speaker 2: that they are supposed to do, which is pass all
18:09
Speaker 2: 12 appropriations by September 30th. Or there will be a
18:13
Speaker 2: government shutdown on October 1st. There will be no continuing resolutions.
18:17
Speaker 2: The Democrats will not have any part of it. It
18:20
Speaker 2: takes 60 to get that, 60 votes in the Senate.
18:24
Speaker 2: And the Democrats won't play along. They want the government
18:26
Speaker 2: to be shut down at that time. But the Republicans
18:29
Speaker 2: hold all the control right now, and I'm not hearing
18:31
Speaker 2: anything about a continuing resolution with all 12 appropriations being
18:36
Speaker 2: done before September 30th. It is crickets with regard to that.
18:42
Speaker 2: I guess I should mention that coming up next weekend,
18:45
Speaker 2: July 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in Nashville, America Out Loud
18:49
Speaker 2: talk radio is going to have a big event there
18:52
Speaker 2: and the great fireworks in Nashville. I really don't know
18:55
Speaker 2: much about it. I haven't gotten an email, but It
18:57
Speaker 2: appears that there will be maybe a live feed or
19:01
Speaker 2: something on America Out Loud Talk Radio, so we probably
19:04
Speaker 2: won't have a show next Friday night on July 3rd.
19:08
Speaker 2: But please tune in because something is going on on
19:12
Speaker 2: America Out Loud Talk Radio. I just don't know what
19:14
Speaker 2: it is other than the advertisements that are on the
19:17
Speaker 2: website at americaoutloud.news.
19:21
Speaker 1: More truth in minutes on America Out Loud Talk Radio.
19:26
Speaker 2: All of us were told from a very early age,
19:29
Speaker 2: you are what you eat. And if that's the case,
19:31
Speaker 2: don't you want the best for you and your family?
19:34
Speaker 2: Let me tell you where you can go do that.
19:36
Speaker 2: You can go to beefinitiative.com. That's beefinitiative.com, where they will
19:41
Speaker 2: connect you with a rancher somewhere in your state. And
19:45
Speaker 2: it's more than just making sure you're eating the right
19:47
Speaker 2: things and your family is. It's about America. Let's be honest.
19:52
Speaker 2: It is. America's farmers and ranchers are the backbone of
19:56
Speaker 2: this great nation. And now more than ever. Supporting local
20:00
Speaker 2: agriculture matters. The American Beef Initiative USA is dedicated to
20:04
Speaker 2: strengthening food independence, protecting generational farming families, and reconnecting communities
20:11
Speaker 2: with trusted local food sources and food security. This isn't
20:16
Speaker 2: just about beef. It's about protecting independence. Go to beefinitiative.com.
20:22
Speaker 2: That's beefinitiative.com. Right now in the U.S. Senate, there are
20:36
Speaker 2: a lot of questions about a lot of things, mainly
20:40
Speaker 2: the SAVE Act. It's going to be brought for a vote,
20:42
Speaker 2: and I would suspect that it's going to go down
20:46
Speaker 2: in flames after sitting in the Senate for about a
20:48
Speaker 2: year and a half. And there are other questions, too.
20:51
Speaker 2: You have people like Rand Paul that is against what's
20:53
Speaker 2: going on in Iran and thinks the War Powers Act
20:56
Speaker 2: should be enacted before we do an incursion or an
21:00
Speaker 2: excursion or a conflict, maybe even a war. Maybe you
21:04
Speaker 2: call this a war. We also have the Senate scores
21:07
Speaker 2: from the Liberty Caucus, the Republican Liberty Caucus. They are out.
21:11
Speaker 2: John Dennis is here to visit with us again. He
21:13
Speaker 2: was here a few weeks ago when we talked about
21:15
Speaker 2: the House. And now the Senate scores are out. And
21:18
Speaker 2: looking at them, they're nothing to be encouraged about. And, John,
21:22
Speaker 2: welcome back to the program. It's always great to have
21:24
Speaker 2: you here.
21:25
Speaker 4: The pleasure is always mine. Thanks Booker.
21:28
Speaker 2: Let's get into this because, and let's start with the
21:31
Speaker 2: highest scores in the Senate. And this year we have
21:34
Speaker 2: Rand Paul last year, I believe he was over 100,
21:37
Speaker 2: maybe 102 as I remember it. And this year he's
21:40
Speaker 2: right at 100. He's at 99 behind him. There is
21:44
Speaker 2: no one, no one else is passing in the Senate.
21:47
Speaker 2: Let's talk about Rand Paul.
21:51
Speaker 5: Yeah.
21:51
Speaker 6: Well, I mean, the thing about the Republican Liberty Caucus, uh,
21:56
Speaker 6: scores is we do not lobby for particular bills. We
22:01
Speaker 6: don't give our positions prior to the vote. We don't
22:07
Speaker 6: give a heads up to any of the senators. We
22:09
Speaker 6: just let them do what they're going to do and
22:13
Speaker 6: then rank them afterwards. If a year were to come
22:18
Speaker 6: up where we are not in alignment with Rand Paul
22:21
Speaker 6: for some reason, it would be reflected in his score,
22:24
Speaker 6: but I think our values are are virtually identical. And
22:30
Speaker 6: Rand navigates some tricky waters and seems to always come
22:35
Speaker 6: up with the right vote, at least as far as
22:37
Speaker 6: we see it. So Rand comes in again at a
22:40
Speaker 6: high score of 99.
22:41
Speaker 2: Let's talk about your values, though. I think it's important
22:44
Speaker 2: for people to understand how this is graded. And we've
22:47
Speaker 2: talked about it before, but specifically when it comes to
22:51
Speaker 2: the values for the Republican Liberty Caucus, you're looking for
22:54
Speaker 2: small federal government, You're not looking for wars around this world.
22:58
Speaker 2: And I think those are the big things. And please
23:02
Speaker 2: fill in the blanks where I have left quite a few.
23:06
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, I mean, if people want to learn about us,
23:08
Speaker 6: they can go to rlc.org. We have a statement of principles.
23:12
Speaker 6: And the underlining principle is that of the founders, that
23:17
Speaker 6: individual liberty is the highest political value, that the goal
23:22
Speaker 6: of government is to do one simple thing, and that
23:24
Speaker 6: is just to protect your liberty. Liberty as opposed to freedom,
23:28
Speaker 6: and there is a distinction. Freedom is doing what you
23:32
Speaker 6: want to do, but liberty is a reference to the
23:35
Speaker 6: restraint of government. And so that's what we look at.
23:40
Speaker 6: We look at what the founders had in mind when
23:43
Speaker 6: they wrote the document based on the ideas of the Enlightenment.
23:46
Speaker 6: And that's what we're proposing and advocating for. And so
23:53
Speaker 6: anything that enhances liberty, We're for and anything that opposes it,
23:57
Speaker 6: we're against.
23:59
Speaker 2: And Rand Paul gets that 99, which I don't know
24:02
Speaker 2: how he lost one point because you give five points
24:05
Speaker 2: for everything that is aligned with you politically. And there
24:10
Speaker 2: are 20 different votes that you look at, just like
24:13
Speaker 2: in the House. So how did Rand Paul lose that
24:16
Speaker 2: one point?
24:17
Speaker 6: Because there was a cloture vote to advance the NDAA,
24:22
Speaker 6: National Defense Authorization Act.
24:24
Speaker 4: And that one, I think we gave a smaller, a
24:27
Speaker 4: lighter weight to.
24:30
Speaker 6: And so Rand voted to advance it. I haven't discussed
24:35
Speaker 6: it with him. We had him on an X-Space. It's
24:39
Speaker 6: an incidental vote. It's around the margins. I suspect that
24:43
Speaker 6: he voted to advance the NDAA so that they could
24:46
Speaker 6: have a discussion on the floor. about why it shouldn't
24:50
Speaker 6: be voted on or voted, you know, why he would
24:54
Speaker 6: oppose it. But it's sort of like a thing on
24:58
Speaker 6: the margins. It's probably a difference in terms of, you know,
25:03
Speaker 6: a strategic decision.
25:06
Speaker 2: Let's talk about the Senate real quick in general, because
25:09
Speaker 2: there are a couple of things coming up. You have
25:11
Speaker 2: the SAVE Act that is going to be voted on,
25:14
Speaker 2: and this has been there for a year and a half.
25:17
Speaker 2: Multiple times it's been passed. The 118th Congress, the 119th
25:21
Speaker 2: Congress has now done it a couple of times. John
25:23
Speaker 2: Thune has never brought it for a vote. He says
25:26
Speaker 2: he will now. We've had discussion about nuking the filibuster,
25:29
Speaker 2: which I believe is a terrible idea, probably the worst
25:32
Speaker 2: in American political history. I would prefer that There isn't
25:35
Speaker 2: even such thing as cloture. I wish we would go
25:38
Speaker 2: back 100 years, get that away and have a talking
25:41
Speaker 2: or standing filibuster. There was discussion about having a talking
25:45
Speaker 2: or standing filibuster to pass the SAVE Act. And that
25:48
Speaker 2: would get you to a point of having 60 votes.
25:51
Speaker 2: But by the Democrats really relinquishing the debate at that
25:56
Speaker 2: point because they lose in a filibuster. I would prefer
25:59
Speaker 2: that it go back to those things. How do you
26:01
Speaker 2: feel about that? Do you like cloture? Do you like
26:04
Speaker 2: the filibuster, the way they change the rules?
26:09
Speaker 6: You know, I, I haven't dug into, into that. I mean, I,
26:13
Speaker 6: I'm a little, I have reservations about getting rid of
26:19
Speaker 6: the filibuster.
26:20
Speaker 4: It's there for a reason.
26:23
Speaker 6: On the one hand, on the other hand, I think
26:25
Speaker 6: from a practical perspective, The Democrats are going to are
26:29
Speaker 6: going to nix the filibuster as soon as they come in.
26:32
Speaker 4: I think that's I think that's inevitable. And then they
26:36
Speaker 4: will pass all sorts of.
26:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that's my fear, John. I think I don't
26:41
Speaker 2: think I don't think any of us know that it
26:44
Speaker 2: will happen. They were given they had that opportunity three
26:47
Speaker 2: years ago. And everybody says, well, they had Manchin, they
26:49
Speaker 2: had Sinema at the time, and both of them were
26:52
Speaker 2: against it. I don't think John Fetterman would be for it.
26:55
Speaker 2: I think you may only need one other Democrat to
26:58
Speaker 2: prevent them from nuking the filibuster. When you look at it,
27:02
Speaker 2: it's the only voice that the minority party has to
27:06
Speaker 2: prevent the majority party from doing anything they want. And
27:10
Speaker 2: I think if you nuke the filibuster, you're giving the
27:12
Speaker 2: Democrats exactly what they want without them having to do
27:16
Speaker 2: it themselves, which could be a problem for them. And
27:18
Speaker 2: you're guaranteed absolutely nothing. except for everything that we don't want,
27:22
Speaker 2: which is censored speech, mandated vaccines, everything that we didn't
27:27
Speaker 2: want over the four years of Joe Biden, we're going
27:30
Speaker 2: to get. And we're going to get a packed Supreme
27:32
Speaker 2: Court if the filibuster is nuked. But I think that's gone.
27:37
Speaker 2: I think the conversation about nuking the filibuster is gone.
27:40
Speaker 2: And now we come to a standing filibuster, which it
27:42
Speaker 2: doesn't seem like Thune is going to do. There's a
27:44
Speaker 2: lot of frustration among the American people when it comes
27:47
Speaker 2: to the SAVE Act, because 80% of Americans, regardless of
27:51
Speaker 2: what political party you're in, they want you to show ID.
27:55
Speaker 2: They want you to prove that you are a citizen
27:57
Speaker 2: before you vote in a federal election. And yet somehow
28:00
Speaker 2: the Senate doesn't reflect that in our Republic. They are
28:05
Speaker 2: no longer representing the wishes of the people. That's the
28:08
Speaker 2: way I see this.
28:10
Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree with you.
28:11
Speaker 6: And it's a weird thing because I'm in one of
28:12
Speaker 6: those states where you don't have to show your ID
28:16
Speaker 6: to vote. And it's the oddest thing to walk into
28:20
Speaker 6: a polling station and And they just ask for your
28:22
Speaker 6: name and you sign in a book and then they
28:26
Speaker 6: give you a ballot and you vote. And it's just
28:28
Speaker 6: the strangest thing. So, you know, I'm clearly in favor
28:33
Speaker 6: of voter ID. And it's just a question of what
28:38
Speaker 6: do we do to the republic? I mean, the republic
28:40
Speaker 6: has already been weakened. I mean, the 17th Amendment weakened it.
28:44
Speaker 4: You know, we.
28:45
Speaker 2: Have arguably the worst amendment ever.
28:49
Speaker 6: You know, and it's it's one of those under the
28:51
Speaker 6: radar ones. I remember when I first ran against Nancy
28:53
Speaker 6: Pelosi in 2010, I had to run in a closed
28:55
Speaker 6: primaries before California went into top two. And my opponent
28:59
Speaker 6: put out a really vicious mail piece attacking me for
29:04
Speaker 6: wanting to repeal the 17th Amendment.
29:06
Speaker 4: And I and, you.
29:07
Speaker 6: Know, she didn't understand what the implications were. The Senate
29:13
Speaker 6: is supposed to represent the rights of the states.
29:15
Speaker 2: Yeah.
29:16
Speaker 6: And um by going to a popular vote they've completely
29:19
Speaker 6: dismissed that and took away one of the the the
29:22
Speaker 6: legs of the of the beautiful beautiful construction of the
29:25
Speaker 6: republic so um we really should go back to that and.
29:30
Speaker 2: Um and for people that don't know the 17th amendment
29:33
Speaker 2: it made it a popular vote for the senate before
29:37
Speaker 2: that it went through state legislatures and that's how that happened.
29:41
Speaker 6: Senators were effectively appointed through legislative vote in your state capitol.
29:49
Speaker 6: And so they had to go politic with the various
29:52
Speaker 6: bodies in the states to be the Senate representing the
29:58
Speaker 6: interests of the state and Washington.
30:00
Speaker 4: And the House is supposed to represent the people.
30:03
Speaker 6: And, you know, the executive, you know, is in charge of,
30:06
Speaker 6: you know, operating the government and making the decisions the
30:10
Speaker 6: executive makes mostly.
30:11
Speaker 4: On foreign policy.
30:12
Speaker 6: So so we we took away the state's rights. And,
30:18
Speaker 6: you know, that's led to a degradation in the in
30:21
Speaker 6: the republic and the initial founding ideas of it.
30:25
Speaker 4: Yeah.
30:26
Speaker 2: Real quick about the SAVE Act. I've mentioned this several
30:28
Speaker 2: times on my show. I think people's expectations of what
30:32
Speaker 2: it actually will do is a lot less than what
30:35
Speaker 2: they expect. Because when you layer state laws for getting
30:39
Speaker 2: a driver's license or an I.D. with election laws, there
30:43
Speaker 2: are just a few states that it will actually affect.
30:46
Speaker 2: And those happen to be states like California, Illinois, New York,
30:50
Speaker 2: where it's heavily registered Democrats over Republican. In some cases,
30:54
Speaker 2: it's two to one. So there are 36 states that
30:57
Speaker 2: require an I.D., to vote. And those states also require
31:03
Speaker 2: birth citizenship when you get a driver's license. So when
31:07
Speaker 2: you layer those on top of each other, I think
31:10
Speaker 2: that a lot of people believe that it's going to
31:11
Speaker 2: do a whole lot more than it should. It's no
31:13
Speaker 2: problem for me. I support the SAVE Act. I just
31:16
Speaker 2: don't think that it's going to do anything for this
31:18
Speaker 2: midterm because you're going to have about 18 states that
31:21
Speaker 2: are going to sue and it's going to end up
31:22
Speaker 2: in court. Eventually, the Supreme Court will make a decision.
31:25
Speaker 2: Who knows when that will be? Maybe prior to the
31:27
Speaker 2: 28th election. And the decision that will come down will
31:31
Speaker 2: be that the states that continue to allow illegals or
31:35
Speaker 2: anyone to vote in municipality elections, they'll require that state
31:40
Speaker 2: to have a different federal election day. So that's what
31:44
Speaker 2: the remedy will be eventually when we get to it.
31:46
Speaker 2: And that's what will happen should the SAVE Act pass.
31:49
Speaker 2: I don't think it passes today. in the Senate anyway.
31:52
Speaker 2: And that's what we're here to talk about is the Senate.
31:54
Speaker 2: Let's look at some second place finishers, second and third place.
31:58
Speaker 2: Senator Mike Lee from Utah. He's a guy that I like.
32:02
Speaker 2: I love the way he talks. I think he's legitimate.
32:04
Speaker 2: He's for real. But he came in with a 65
32:07
Speaker 2: this year. Last year, he was much higher than that.
32:09
Speaker 2: What does that mean for Mike Lee?
32:12
Speaker 6: Well, what it means is that when your party is
32:18
Speaker 6: out of power, it's much easier to vote with your principles.
32:23
Speaker 4: So you'll notice, for those.
32:25
Speaker 6: Who have followed us over the years, if you go
32:28
Speaker 6: back and look at our older Liberty scorecards, you'll notice
32:34
Speaker 6: that when we're out of power, the scores are really high.
32:37
Speaker 6: But when you're in power, there's a lot of pressure
32:41
Speaker 6: to go along with the agenda of the executive, especially
32:46
Speaker 6: when you have a strong figure like Donald Trump. So
32:51
Speaker 6: Mike has taken some positions in the last year that
32:55
Speaker 6: I think he wouldn't have in earlier years because he
32:59
Speaker 6: wants to go along with the team, which makes Rand's
33:03
Speaker 6: score so much more impressive because he's willing to fight
33:08
Speaker 6: for the ideals that we hold while still being a
33:13
Speaker 6: Republican and navigating those waters where others haven't.
33:17
Speaker 2: I think it's a really important point that you're making
33:20
Speaker 2: there about the score. When Donald Trump is president and
33:23
Speaker 2: you're a Republican senator, it is likely that your score
33:27
Speaker 2: is going to come down. You mentioned that when we
33:29
Speaker 2: went over the House scores, because I see a lot
33:32
Speaker 2: of people on social media that use these Liberty scores.
33:35
Speaker 2: I don't know if you have seen this. I've seen
33:37
Speaker 2: it quite a bit lately, especially about Senate Majority Leader
33:40
Speaker 2: John Thune and I think he graded a 51. And
33:43
Speaker 2: they're using that Liberty score as if that means something
33:47
Speaker 2: really bad. And in the case of having Donald Trump
33:51
Speaker 2: as the president, a lower score actually could mean a
33:55
Speaker 2: good thing. Isn't that correct? I mean, we have Rand
33:57
Speaker 2: Paul with 99. You just explained Mike Lee at 65.
34:01
Speaker 2: And the reason why he's 65 this year and not
34:04
Speaker 2: at 100 is because he supported things that he normally
34:07
Speaker 2: wouldn't because he's going along taking one for the team.
34:10
Speaker 2: Is that accurate?
34:11
Speaker 4: That's accurate. There's a correction of Thune was actually at
34:15
Speaker 4: 45 this year and he's been a perennially low score, um, in,
34:18
Speaker 4: in the Liberty index.
34:20
Speaker 1: Uh, yes.
34:21
Speaker 4: And so, um, sure.
34:23
Speaker 6: He's advancing the president's agenda and that would be okay,
34:28
Speaker 6: except the president is sort of has gone back on
34:31
Speaker 6: what he campaigned on, uh, in a number of circumstances,
34:34
Speaker 6: a number of areas. And so, um, The president's agenda
34:40
Speaker 6: has moved, let's be kind and say it's moved more
34:43
Speaker 6: towards the center. And he's taken Mike Lee along with him.
34:49
Speaker 2: But yet, even though he has moved more to the center,
34:51
Speaker 2: he still can't get anything passed in the Senate or
34:54
Speaker 2: the House when it comes to codifying anything in his agenda.
34:58
Speaker 2: It's sort of strange, isn't it? Because if you go
35:01
Speaker 2: back in history, I think the case could be made
35:03
Speaker 2: that Bill Clinton moved a lot after Monica Lewinsky and
35:07
Speaker 2: when the Republicans... took control of the House with Newt Gingrich.
35:11
Speaker 2: And they got a lot accomplished at that point. But
35:14
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people forget that. Let's go
35:16
Speaker 2: on to Ted Cruz. He came in third.
35:19
Speaker 4: Can I just one point on this? Yes.
35:21
Speaker 6: I mean, if Clinton's history, if you go back to
35:24
Speaker 6: when he was governor of Arkansas, you know, he won
35:27
Speaker 6: and then he had voted out of office and it
35:29
Speaker 6: was a real, you know, dressing down and he came
35:30
Speaker 6: back and won again. And when he won in Arkansas,
35:34
Speaker 6: he actually had to work with the Republican legislature. And
35:37
Speaker 6: that taught him how to do that and how to
35:40
Speaker 6: work with Republicans to accomplish things. And so, you know,
35:44
Speaker 6: after he tried to pass national health care and the
35:48
Speaker 6: country rejected it and gave the Republicans the House in,
35:53
Speaker 6: I want.
35:54
Speaker 4: To say that was 97.
35:54
Speaker 2: 97, I believe.
35:56
Speaker 4: No, it was before that.
35:58
Speaker 2: It was 95. I want to say they took over.
36:00
Speaker 6: Yeah, they won it in 94 and took hold in 95.
36:06
Speaker 6: He found himself in a comfortable situation from when he
36:10
Speaker 6: had at least dealt with before, and that moved him
36:13
Speaker 6: to the center. And it can be argued that the
36:15
Speaker 6: Republicans winning the House gave Clinton the most successful presidency
36:22
Speaker 6: that he could have.
36:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree.
36:23
Speaker 4: So, yes. Yeah, let's see.
36:28
Speaker 2: But drawing the parallel here with Donald Trump and making
36:30
Speaker 2: the suggestion that he has moved to the center, it
36:33
Speaker 2: really hasn't helped him in the same way. Because he's
36:36
Speaker 2: not getting the help from the Democrats is the point
36:38
Speaker 2: I was making.
36:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's a good point.
36:41
Speaker 6: And it's also because the today's Democrats in the House
36:45
Speaker 6: have a completely different composition than the Republicans in the
36:49
Speaker 6: House had in, you know, when they won in 94
36:52
Speaker 6: and took office in 95.
36:53
Speaker 4: Right. So there's not a lot to to compromise. The
36:56
Speaker 4: agendas are so polar.
36:58
Speaker 7: I don't know about you, but the one thing the
36:59
Speaker 7: last five or so years has taught me is that
37:02
Speaker 7: there's a lot, and I mean a lot, of companies
37:04
Speaker 7: and services out there that don't share the foundational values
37:07
Speaker 7: of this country and we the people. And I've spoken
37:09
Speaker 7: to a lot of you about it who share the
37:11
Speaker 7: same concerns, and you wonder where to shop. where to
37:14
Speaker 7: spend your hard-earned money without feeling gross about it. It
37:17
Speaker 7: can be frustrating, but here's the good news. You don't
37:19
Speaker 7: have to do the research yourself and you don't have
37:21
Speaker 7: to tie yourself up in knots any longer because we've
37:24
Speaker 7: done the legwork for you. At mammothnation.com, we have thousands
37:28
Speaker 7: of vetted, freedom-loving, pro-America companies.
37:30
Speaker 2: Who actually share your values. So now the ball's in
37:33
Speaker 2: your court.
37:34
Speaker 7: Keep spending money with companies that frustrate you and then
37:36
Speaker 7: use the proceeds to fund initiatives that are in direct
37:39
Speaker 7: competition with your values or be a part of something better.
37:42
Speaker 7: I think the choice is pretty easy. Come be a
37:44
Speaker 7: part of the solution. Join Mammoth Nation today and you
37:47
Speaker 7: can save 30% off your membership by using promo code USA.
38:01
Speaker 2: And welcome back to The Truth Be Told and I
38:03
Speaker 2: am Booker Scott along with John Dennis. Always great to
38:06
Speaker 2: have him educate us on what these Liberty scores are
38:09
Speaker 2: about and who is doing what, whether they're doing good
38:12
Speaker 2: or bad, what that means to you and what it
38:14
Speaker 2: should mean to the country. Let's get into some of
38:16
Speaker 2: these low scores. We have, I don't think this is
38:19
Speaker 2: any surprise, Lisa Murkowski at 30. I think she might
38:23
Speaker 2: be a little bit higher this year than she was
38:25
Speaker 2: last year, and I'm just doing from memory there. But
38:29
Speaker 2: she comes in at 30, Kevin Kramer, 32, Dan Sullivan, 30.
38:34
Speaker 2: And here's one that may be surprising to people listening,
38:37
Speaker 2: not surprising to me, is the new DHS secretary, as
38:41
Speaker 2: long as he gets confirmed, Mark Wayne Mullen from Oklahoma
38:44
Speaker 2: came in at 32.
38:44
Speaker 4: Yes, and that's... That's discouraging.
38:50
Speaker 2: It's not surprising to me, though, John. I'm not surprised
38:53
Speaker 2: by that.
38:54
Speaker 6: No, no, not surprising. He's not been a very strong senator.
38:58
Speaker 6: I have to say Senator Lankford isn't particularly strong either.
39:02
Speaker 2: Oklahoma, somehow, they have two really bad senators. I don't understand.
39:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I have to go back and repeat that.
39:10
Speaker 6: For those who didn't catch the congressional version of the
39:13
Speaker 6: Liberty Index that we discussed last month, On the flip side,
39:17
Speaker 6: you have the Arizona delegation in the House, which is
39:20
Speaker 6: very strong. Yeah, I mean, these are folks, they are
39:27
Speaker 6: clearly not on the same page. with, uh, the, the
39:31
Speaker 6: Liberty agenda and what the role of government ought to be. And, um,
39:35
Speaker 6: you know, we don't do an index for the Democrats,
39:38
Speaker 6: but maybe, maybe I can, I can.
39:40
Speaker 2: Uh, that would be interesting. I think it would be
39:42
Speaker 2: our team to, um, to.
39:46
Speaker 4: Take a look at it. The House, I think, is
39:48
Speaker 4: a big ask, but maybe we can get them to
39:49
Speaker 4: do the Senate.
39:50
Speaker 6: And I suspect that the low scorers, the Murkowskis and
39:54
Speaker 6: the Sullivans and the Markway and Mullins and the Kramers,
39:58
Speaker 6: I suspect that some Democrats are.
39:59
Speaker 4: Going to have results.
40:02
Speaker 6: I mean, I would not be surprised if, for example,
40:03
Speaker 6: Fetterman had a higher score in our index. And then,
40:07
Speaker 6: you know, we have some other folks here who are low,
40:10
Speaker 6: but we didn't highlight them on the front page.
40:12
Speaker 4: But, you know, the perennial low scorer, Lindsey Graham, there's
40:17
Speaker 4: really not very much that's good about Lindsey Graham.
40:20
Speaker 6: No, he's a big spender. He wants to he wants
40:23
Speaker 6: to bomb every square inch of earth. And he was
40:28
Speaker 6: bad on torture. He's just bad on everything. Even John
40:30
Speaker 6: McCain was at least good on on torture. But Lindsey
40:34
Speaker 6: Graham is is, I think, a very talented guy. And
40:39
Speaker 6: that's one of the reasons why he wins reelection. But
40:43
Speaker 6: he's unfortunately really misguided and a bad apple in the
40:48
Speaker 6: Republican Senate.
40:49
Speaker 2: Well, I think Lindsey Graham drives MAGA supporters, the base
40:53
Speaker 2: of Donald Trump. I think he drives them nuts. And
40:56
Speaker 2: for Donald Trump to endorse him, I think that drives
40:59
Speaker 2: them crazy also. And while you bring up the intervention,
41:03
Speaker 2: international wars, because I know that's something that you guys
41:06
Speaker 2: don't want to see America do. Let's get into Iran here,
41:10
Speaker 2: because I know Rand Paul was... a huge person talking
41:14
Speaker 2: about the War Powers Act and that it should be
41:16
Speaker 2: enacted before we do this. Where are you from a
41:20
Speaker 2: national perspective with the Republican Liberty Caucus when it comes
41:24
Speaker 2: to Iran and what's going on there?
41:28
Speaker 6: Well, we put out a very well-received position a couple
41:32
Speaker 6: of weeks ago. And our thoughts are there are really
41:37
Speaker 6: two sides of this, two elements of it. One is
41:40
Speaker 6: the procedural side. And that is, does the president have
41:45
Speaker 6: the authority to do what he did? I mean, they
41:48
Speaker 6: can call it by any name they like, but this
41:51
Speaker 6: is in.
41:51
Speaker 4: Fact a war. And even though there are.
41:55
Speaker 6: Yet to be boots on the ground, he's committed the
41:58
Speaker 6: nation to military action and there are consequences for everyone involved,
42:02
Speaker 6: which is the reason why I think the founders, and
42:05
Speaker 6: they wrote about this in the Federalist Papers, they wanted
42:09
Speaker 6: the people's house to make the decision so that we
42:13
Speaker 6: could be unified in taking on these sorts of adventures.
42:18
Speaker 6: So there's that side of it.
42:20
Speaker 2: John, let me ask you a question on that real quick, though,
42:23
Speaker 2: going back to a Federalist paper and the founders. Could
42:27
Speaker 2: they have envisioned the way the world has become now
42:31
Speaker 2: with hotspots here and there? And every once in a while,
42:33
Speaker 2: every president going back for 50 years has had to
42:37
Speaker 2: do one of these. Now, a couple of times it's
42:39
Speaker 2: turned into Vietnam. It's turned into Afghanistan. But a lot
42:42
Speaker 2: of times it doesn't. It's Grenada. It's things like that.
42:47
Speaker 2: So do you think they could even envision this happening
42:50
Speaker 2: where there are these little hotspots that do mean something
42:53
Speaker 2: to American national security? Maybe sometimes it's hard to see,
42:56
Speaker 2: but they do. What do you think? Do you think
42:59
Speaker 2: they could see that?
43:00
Speaker 4: Well, I forget who said it, which one.
43:02
Speaker 6: It might have been Madison who said that the reason
43:04
Speaker 6: why they put the war power in in Article I,
43:08
Speaker 6: Section 8, and gave it to the Congress was because
43:13
Speaker 6: the executive would be more likely to be seduced into
43:18
Speaker 6: taking on military adventures. And so that's the reason why
43:25
Speaker 6: they did it. I mean, there are those who even
43:27
Speaker 6: argue that the War Powers Act is constitutional.
43:31
Speaker 4: But I kind of don't want to go down that
43:32
Speaker 4: rabbit hole. We'll accept it as it is. You know,
43:35
Speaker 4: the president, in a way, he's very aware of this
43:38
Speaker 4: and his team is as well. And they actually oddly
43:42
Speaker 4: showed an offhanded deference to it in the in the
43:46
Speaker 4: Venezuela situation when they went and kidnapped Maduro. They actually
43:52
Speaker 4: they said that this is not a war and it's
43:54
Speaker 4: not a military action. They called it law enforcement, a
43:58
Speaker 4: police action, a police action. So they.
44:01
Speaker 6: So they actually were, in a weird way, being deferential.
44:04
Speaker 6: They recognized the limits, which is, I suppose, a good thing.
44:07
Speaker 6: But the Iran attack is completely out of bounds. If
44:14
Speaker 6: you look at the War Powers Act, the War Powers
44:17
Speaker 6: Act just reiterates Article 1, Section 8 in its first point.
44:20
Speaker 6: There are three points, situations under which the president can
44:24
Speaker 6: go to war. One is with authorization from Congress. OK,
44:28
Speaker 6: the Constitution already covered that. to another type of authorization
44:32
Speaker 6: from Congress, like they did with the AUMF back in 2001, 2002, 2001.
44:39
Speaker 4: And then the.
44:44
Speaker 6: Third is when there's an imminent threat against America or
44:48
Speaker 6: its interests. And so the Iran action didn't cover that. Now,
44:53
Speaker 6: they've been backpedaling and trying to fit that in, but
44:55
Speaker 6: the messaging has been um, at best, uh, chaotic and,
45:00
Speaker 6: and very confusing out of the administration.
45:02
Speaker 4: What was the reason why we did that?
45:04
Speaker 6: I mean, Marco Rubio said that he, that we went
45:07
Speaker 6: into Iran because Israel was going to do it anyway.
45:10
Speaker 6: So we might as well, you know, go in there
45:12
Speaker 6: with them and protect our interests because it would automatically
45:15
Speaker 6: trigger attacks on us. Um, you know, Iran and, and, uh, Israel,
45:20
Speaker 6: apparently that's not the first time they've, they've, um, They've
45:24
Speaker 6: used that positioning.
45:27
Speaker 4: This is the first time they've succeeded with it.
45:28
Speaker 2: Could the argument be made that it is an imminent threat?
45:36
Speaker 2: Because for 47 years, over 1,000 Americans have been killed.
45:41
Speaker 2: It continues today by Iran. So is that not an
45:45
Speaker 2: imminent threat? Because it has been for 47 years. Could
45:49
Speaker 2: that argument not be made that every president along the
45:51
Speaker 2: way should have done what Donald Trump has done?
45:54
Speaker 4: Well, the argument can be made. It has been made.
45:56
Speaker 4: I don't know how convincing it is, though.
45:58
Speaker 6: I mean, I've tried to steal a man of myself,
45:59
Speaker 6: and I just don't see it.
46:02
Speaker 2: Well, what about this? It's not terribly persuasive. No, you're
46:06
Speaker 2: not persuaded by that. How do you go to Congress
46:09
Speaker 2: and say, okay, here's what we're going to do? Because
46:12
Speaker 2: someone in Congress, as boneheaded as they are, they're going
46:15
Speaker 2: to leak it to the press, and whoever you're going
46:18
Speaker 2: to go invade or drop a bomb on is going
46:21
Speaker 2: to know it before you do it.
46:24
Speaker 4: Well, but that's the president's job. That's what he's supposed
46:28
Speaker 4: to do.
46:28
Speaker 6: Look, I mean, he's not just putting American servicemen in jeopardy,
46:37
Speaker 6: which is a big enough responsibility. But we just had
46:41
Speaker 6: a situation where 20 million people came across our border unvetted.
46:46
Speaker 6: I mean, who knows who's at threat here in this country?
46:50
Speaker 6: And other areas around the world.
46:53
Speaker 2: We're seeing it. We're seeing it every week. We're seeing
46:56
Speaker 2: it already.
46:58
Speaker 4: And so that's the reason why it should be open.
47:00
Speaker 4: I mean, make these.
47:02
Speaker 6: Arguments before you do it in the House. That is
47:05
Speaker 6: the role of the president. That's what his responsibility is.
47:09
Speaker 4: And Iran can't stop us from bombing them anyway. So
47:17
Speaker 4: don't just do it in private with with the House.
47:19
Speaker 4: Let's have a public discussion. It's the nation that needs
47:23
Speaker 4: to be.
47:23
Speaker 6: Behind this, these kinds of actions, because we're all in
47:27
Speaker 6: jeopardy when someone takes them. And to take them without
47:31
Speaker 6: is not only not it's it's it's it is a
47:35
Speaker 6: dereliction of duty to the oath sworn to the Constitution.
47:39
Speaker 4: But practically, it's also very dangerous. And that's the reason
47:42
Speaker 4: why the founders wrote the Constitution the way they did.
47:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I'll accept your answer there. Let's move on.
47:48
Speaker 2: Let's get back to the scores. We talked about the
47:50
Speaker 2: low scores. What about those in the middle? What are
47:52
Speaker 2: some names that would surprise some people? Maybe they think
47:55
Speaker 2: they're higher than what they are. They're sitting there at 45, 50, 55,
48:00
Speaker 2: somewhere in that ballpark. Someone like Tom Cotton. Yeah, exactly.
48:05
Speaker 6: That's the one I was thinking about. He's a higher
48:06
Speaker 6: profile guy.
48:07
Speaker 4: He seems like he's a very serious guy and a
48:14
Speaker 4: vocal defender of The U.S. was a vocal defender of
48:17
Speaker 4: the president, but year in, year out, he has had
48:21
Speaker 4: low scores. He's in that bottom tier at 40 out
48:25
Speaker 4: of 100, you.
48:27
Speaker 6: Know, a disappointment. Another one that stands out, too, is
48:31
Speaker 6: as entertaining as he is, he's just and he has,
48:34
Speaker 6: you know, he's a law professor, but his voting always disappoints.
48:39
Speaker 6: That's John Kennedy out of Louisiana.
48:41
Speaker 2: I remember him last year when we did this. Last year,
48:44
Speaker 2: he was low as well.
48:46
Speaker 6: Yeah, he's out of 50, and he's a fun guy,
48:50
Speaker 6: and he's super interesting to watch when he's doing his
48:55
Speaker 6: interrogations and his various committees. But ultimately, he's.
49:03
Speaker 4: Not a strong defender of liberty.
49:05
Speaker 6: Another one who went down a bit this year and
49:07
Speaker 6: is a guy that Senator Paul told me personally he
49:10
Speaker 6: can work with on some issues is Rick Scott.
49:13
Speaker 4: Rick Scott came in at a 52. And Rick kind
49:16
Speaker 4: of gets it.
49:18
Speaker 6: But again, I think he's he does the team player thing,
49:22
Speaker 6: and I suspect that some.
49:23
Speaker 4: Of his votes he does with a bitten lip.
49:27
Speaker 2: Well, Rick Scott is one that I wanted to be
49:29
Speaker 2: the majority leader when they had that vote. It was
49:33
Speaker 2: between John Cornyn, John Thune, and Rick Scott. And I
49:37
Speaker 2: thought that if Cornyn or Thune, either one of them,
49:40
Speaker 2: that would be a terrible thing for America because nothing
49:43
Speaker 2: was going to be accomplished. With John Thune, I don't
49:46
Speaker 2: think anything has been accomplished at this point. As we
49:49
Speaker 2: look forward in coming up in this year, I think
49:52
Speaker 2: it's going to be very important for the House and
49:54
Speaker 2: the Senate to pass another reconciliation, and it has to
49:58
Speaker 2: get done before September 30th. before the government would shut down.
50:03
Speaker 2: And then you give leverage back to the Democrats, there
50:05
Speaker 2: would be need to be another continuing resolution. So I
50:08
Speaker 2: think it's so important for the Republicans right now to
50:11
Speaker 2: have all 12 appropriations done by the time that they're
50:14
Speaker 2: supposed to have it done before the midterm, which would happen,
50:17
Speaker 2: you know, five or six weeks later, you don't need
50:20
Speaker 2: a government shutdown or passing all the leverage off to
50:22
Speaker 2: the Democrats before the midterm.
50:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a good point.
50:26
Speaker 6: And you know, it's funny, there's a great clip that
50:28
Speaker 6: floats around social media with Thomas Massey talking about calling
50:32
Speaker 6: a theater that every year they do this and they, they,
50:35
Speaker 6: they do the one in the early, early in the year,
50:37
Speaker 6: and then they have to do a continuing resolution, um,
50:40
Speaker 6: in the, um, you know, in, in September. And all
50:44
Speaker 6: they do is they continue the spending that agendas that
50:47
Speaker 6: were set by previous administrations. And it's really discouraging. Now
50:50
Speaker 6: I will say that, um, You know, federal hiring is down.
50:54
Speaker 6: The size of the federal workforce is quite a bit
50:57
Speaker 6: lower than it has been in the past.
50:58
Speaker 4: So I give credit to the president. But, you know,
51:02
Speaker 4: what he could do is he could reset the direction
51:05
Speaker 4: of spending for for the House and Washington that's addicted
51:09
Speaker 4: to these continuing resolutions by actually passing a real budget
51:12
Speaker 4: that sets the sets the the the agenda moving forward.
51:18
Speaker 2: And so, um, I think this year's the time to
51:20
Speaker 2: do it for the 27. Yeah.
51:23
Speaker 6: This is the only, this is the only opportunity because, um,
51:27
Speaker 6: I'm not entirely convinced that, that the Republicans will lose
51:31
Speaker 6: the house, um, this year, but it's probably likely, I
51:36
Speaker 6: think the Iran thing, uh, is not going to help
51:38
Speaker 6: the president.
51:39
Speaker 4: Um, as that, that turns inevitably, I think into a quagmire.
51:43
Speaker 6: Um, but, um, let's assume that the Democrats are going
51:47
Speaker 6: to take the House, then the opportunity to set the
51:51
Speaker 6: agenda is really now, and we may not see it again.
51:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree 100% on that. Let's go back to
51:58
Speaker 2: something you brought up earlier in this conversation. You talked
52:01
Speaker 2: about Doge and the fact that really there hasn't been
52:05
Speaker 2: anything that happened to I think totally it was $ 9. 2
52:09
Speaker 2: billion in a rescission that was done. And Kevin Hazett
52:14
Speaker 2: said at that time, we're going to do many of these.
52:16
Speaker 2: And there hasn't been one more since that time. That
52:20
Speaker 2: was last May or June when they passed that rescission.
52:23
Speaker 2: Rescission only takes 51 votes. And I keep thinking about
52:26
Speaker 2: that as people talk about nuking the filibuster to pass
52:29
Speaker 2: the SAVE Act. I don't even know if you'd have
52:31
Speaker 2: enough votes nuking the filibuster to pass the SAVE Act.
52:34
Speaker 2: You can't even get any more rescissions coming from the
52:37
Speaker 2: White House right now because a memo has to come
52:40
Speaker 2: from the White House that starts a 45-day clock to
52:42
Speaker 2: both chambers in Congress to do a rescission, which is
52:46
Speaker 2: allowed under the 1974 Empowerment Act. I've been really disappointed
52:49
Speaker 2: in that. That's another way to claw back that money
52:52
Speaker 2: that has been appropriated but hasn't been spent yet, and
52:55
Speaker 2: so far all we did was defund PBS and NPR. Yeah.
53:00
Speaker 6: And those are, those are just, uh, you know, uh,
53:02
Speaker 6: you know, publicity grabbers, but, um, they're not really, um, substantive. And, um,
53:08
Speaker 6: and speaking of substance, I mean, um, you know, the,
53:11
Speaker 6: the executive, uh, orders that come from the president or
53:14
Speaker 6: junk food, the, the, the real, the real meat and
53:16
Speaker 6: potatoes are in, uh, you know, passing, uh, budgets that, uh,
53:20
Speaker 6: that makes sense.
53:21
Speaker 4: You know, Senator Paul, we had him on.
53:22
Speaker 6: That X space, uh, earlier this week and, um, we
53:27
Speaker 6: highlighted that he originally came out with what was called
53:31
Speaker 6: a penny plan, I want to say about eight years ago.
53:34
Speaker 6: And if they had cut 1% in spending, I remember
53:37
Speaker 6: that it would have been a balanced budget within five years. Now,
53:40
Speaker 6: in order to achieve that same thing, you have to
53:42
Speaker 6: cut six pennies, six cents out of the federal budget
53:45
Speaker 6: every year. And he couldn't get the votes for that. So,
53:50
Speaker 6: you know, We can say everything we want about the Democrats,
53:54
Speaker 6: but we understand where they're coming from and what they
53:57
Speaker 6: want to accomplish. It's really the folks that are holding
54:00
Speaker 6: us back, I'm sorry to say, are our own party.
54:02
Speaker 6: When he can only get 28 votes, for example, for
54:05
Speaker 6: his six penny plan, that's disappointing to say the least.
54:12
Speaker 6: And we can talk about the threats from foreign actors
54:17
Speaker 6: as much as we like the real threat.
54:18
Speaker 4: To the republic.
54:19
Speaker 6: Is the 38 going on 39, soon to be $ 40.
54:22
Speaker 4: Trillion in federal debt.
54:25
Speaker 6: Debt service to the federal debt now is now the
54:28
Speaker 6: third largest budget item.
54:29
Speaker 4: It's going to be number two very shortly. And that
54:33
Speaker 4: threatens the republic.
54:34
Speaker 6: And the fact that we can't get republicans to behave
54:36
Speaker 6: responsibly is really dispiriting.
54:39
Speaker 2: Well, I know you're going to spend some time with
54:41
Speaker 2: Rand Paul soon. Maybe you should tell him that it's
54:44
Speaker 2: too late to do the penny thing because the federal
54:46
Speaker 2: government has done away with the pennies. He's going to
54:48
Speaker 2: have to go to a dime or a nickel or
54:50
Speaker 2: something because no more pennies anymore.
54:53
Speaker 4: He went to six cents.
54:56
Speaker 2: You still need a penny to make six cents. He's
54:58
Speaker 2: going to have to go to a dime.
54:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I mean, I get it.
55:02
Speaker 6: But we still see the same level of spending. And
55:06
Speaker 6: the spending, I want to just, if there's anything that
55:08
Speaker 6: anyone takes away from this discussion today, just always remember,
55:11
Speaker 6: it's the spending that matters.
55:13
Speaker 2: I think it's clear at this point, people say we
55:15
Speaker 2: have two wings, one bird. I think that bird's flying
55:18
Speaker 2: over the American people and taking a big poop on them.
55:21
Speaker 2: That's why I see it.
55:22
Speaker 6: Yeah, the late, great Butler Schaefer said that there are
55:27
Speaker 6: two wings, the Democrats and Republicans, and two wings of
55:29
Speaker 6: the same bird of prey.
55:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're pooping on us. That's what's happening. That
55:34
Speaker 2: bird is flying over us and pooping on us. John Dennis,
55:37
Speaker 2: thank you so much for joining us again with the
55:40
Speaker 2: Senate scores for the Liberty Caucus. He is the national
55:43
Speaker 2: chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus. His name is John Dennis. John,
55:47
Speaker 2: tell everybody where they can go find the Republican Liberty Caucus.
55:51
Speaker 4: You can find us at RLC.org and on X at
55:54
Speaker 4: R Liberty Caucus.
55:55
Speaker 2: Thank you, John. I appreciate you.
55:57
Speaker 4: Pleasure is always mine.
55:58
Speaker 2: Thanks, Booker.
56:02
Speaker 1: There is only one truth. You've been listening to The
56:05
Speaker 1: Truth Be Told with Booker Scott on America Out Loud.