Harlan Hill in The Hut

lot of ground to cover. There's lots of breaking news from the confirmation hearing on the Hill today for the incoming Attorney General William Barr, to this critical Brexit vote and much more. I mean, this week and this year really is off to a blistering start. But to start the show, I wanted to address the Democrats who elected to go to Puerto Rico to play on the beach and drink with lobbyists instead of getting to work for you, instead of working to get the government back up and running.

I'm gonna talk to them directly. Shame on you, guys, Shame on you guys. President Trump, the President of the United States, has been sitting in the Oval office through the holidays. He didn't go spend time with his family. He didn't leave Washington like you guys did through the new year too, well, Yo, were gallivan all over the country. Are you kidding me? You guys are still doing it.

You're going to Puerto Rico on the beach. I'm thinking of syndatam Anendez, that criminal on the beach hanging out with that blond boy. I'm sure you guys saw the pictures. I mean, this guy's out of control. I mean, if you've read anything about him, you know at least she

was of age. While they're playing politics, while these Democrats are playing politics politics, they just want to blame the president for this shutdown entirely, while they won't make the smallest compromise, These congressional Democrats won't the smallest compromise to get this thing back up and running again, to get eight hundred thousand Americans, eight hundred thousand government workers their paychecks,

including TSA workers, including air traffic controllers, including Secret Service agents. They're playing politics with these people's lives, all while they blame the President who's sitting there waiting, and even today Congressional Democrats refuse. They're boycotting meeting at the White House. They don't want to talk about it anymore. All he's

wanting is a measly five billion dollars. And in the context of all the money that Democrats just flushed down the drain all the time and have for decades, they can't cough this up for a real solution to a crisis at the border. Are you kidding me? I'm sure we'll get a lot of footage and Buck will have a lot of firsthand experience about what it's like down there, because he's down right now at the border in San Diego, between San Diego and Tijuana. I mean, I can only

imagine what he's seeing right now. But this problem is out of control. These Democrats returned from their holiday in Puerto Rico over the weekend. They said they were working, but we had all these pictures of them at the beach and the bar and everything else. Not to make some serious concession and get government back up and running, Not to go to the White House and sit down with the President and say, hey, how can we strike

a deal. No, they returned to the Hill to viciously tear into a proven Attorney General NAP nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the Justice Department, William Barr. And that's despite the fact that mister Barr on the Hill today pledge to allow the Muller probe to move forward and to be reported, the findings of the Muller probe to be reported without any interference by him or the White House. I mean, this guy couldn't gone anyfore. He's

bending over backwards to make them happy, to reassure them. Listen, I'm just going to administer and then stand by the rule of law. I'm not looking to tip the scales either way. That's not enough for them. You know, him over the last year writing op ed saying that he doesn't think the president's in the wrong, there's no evidence of coclusion. All these things that are absolutely true, Democrats try to use against him today and they want him

to recuse himself. I mean, it's just it's just so disingenuous. They know they know better, they know better, but this isn't governing to them. This is a circus. This is a political ploy. As they're all announcing their intentions to run for twenty twenty, that's all this is. Lots of grandstanding. So I wanted to play a clip from it today so you could hear mister Barrn his own words, and

I think you'll be impressed. If confirmed, I will not permit partisan politics, personal interests, or any other improper consideration to interfere with this or any other investigation. I will follow the Special Council Regulations scrupulously and in good faith, and on my watch, Bob will be allowed to finish his work. My goal will be to provide as much transparents as I can, consistent with the law. When his report comes to you, will you share it with us

as much as possible, consistent with the regulations and the law. Yes, I am going to make as much information available as I can, consistent with the rules and regulations that are part of the Special Council Regulations. I'm in favor of as much transparency as there can be, consistent with the rules and the law. See a case where the president

could claim executive privilege. In theory, if if there was executive privilege material that to which an executive privilege claim could be made, it might know someone might raise a claim of executive That would be pretty difficult of following the US versus Nixon, and mister Giuliani said the president should be able to correct the moral report before any public release. So, in other words, you could take this investigative report, put his own spin on corrected before its release.

You commit that would not happen. If you're attorney in general, that will not happen. Joining me now to discuss is Victoria Tunsing, a former Justice Department official and a former Chief Council to the Senate Intelligence Committee, so she's got experience both at the Justice Department and on the hill. Victoria, thank you for joining. Oh what's fun? I listened to the earrings today. By by the way, I do want to take issue with you. This is not a circus

raided democrats. This is about power and that's what it is. Yeah, they miss their power. I think you're right. I think you're right. But in the process they've turned this into a circus. Maybe we'll split the hair there now we're in agreement. Okay, there so, but this gives me some serious pause because I'll be honest as a Trump oilist, which is what I am. You know, I didn't like some of the things that mister Barr said today, but he bent over backwards a comedy Democrats and say, look,

I'm going to stay above this. I'm not going to interfere. I'm not going to allow this report that comes out of the Muller probe to be edited, you know, so you know whatever can be didn't Rudy really didn't mean editing it. He thought he wanted to look and see if there he could there were things that would be

in dispute that he could bring back. This has done all the time, was done under the Independent Council law when there was a required report and everybody who was a target or a defendant in the case was allowed to review the report and come back with saying, hey, here's a mistake here. Well, and so to clarify that I got you got one hundred percent. And so I mean, what was your read on mister Barterday, I mean, how

did you think his performance was? He was excellent? I mean, and Joe and I supported him, my husband Joe to Jenneva and law partner and I supported him from the get go. We think that he was just he's the perfect person. Look, he gave where he had to give. There was no way he come there and say no, I'm going to stop the Muller investigation this minute. In fact, for all of us who support Trump, that would not

be a good thing. Mueller's would would be in glory if that happened, because he has got nothing, so then he can say like he's wont to do Oh my, they interfered with me. I really had all this stuff. Yeah, make him take it to the end. And Shobe has nothing. Well,

and that's that's the frustrating bid here. I mean, so obviously the Special Council has not been around for um, you know, three years, but this talk of Russian collusion and these these accusations predate the election of President Trump. I mean they started to plant the seeds of doubt to undermine the credibility of the incoming administration even before

election day. I mean I can remember being on CNN. Yeah, yeah, Joe and I have been calling it a brazen plot ever since they went after George popa dope as I call him, because so stupid to lie about something that was not criminal. Yeah, and I want to take issue. I mean it just drives me crazy. Pat Lahy who did the clip, and he says, oh, somebody would have a hard time in the report, claiming executive privileged j after US versus Nixon. He doesn't even understand this basic

Supreme Court decision. The Supreme Court in that decision said, in a criminal case where there's an ongoing trial, if the White House has information that is material, it has to be turned over. It didn't say, well, when the media or crying out to know what's in a report, there's no executive privilege. Right now, I'm embarrassed, right, Pat Lahy, Well, Patton know is better, doesn't He probably not? Kind of learning his words? So, I mean, so where does this go?

I mean when is Muller going to wrap this thing up? I mean, are we talking about another couple of years of this? Is this gonna get dragged within a month? I'm told, really those are my source? Wow, you know it. He's got too at a certain point, I mean what Rod Rosenstein, may he be forever damned all did by authorizing a special counsel on for counterintelligence basis not a criminal,

it's just what the regulations require. Has has harmed the presidencies ever since um January of twenty seventeen, and it's got to stop. It's got to stop. Is this the new normal? Is this the I mean, so as we move eventually, you know, President Trump will not be a president anymore, I mean twenty twenty four. Um, So I mean, but is this the new normal and how we handle um incoming presidents? I mean, will there be efforts to

de legitimize my god, No, this is not this. Don't this will all go away if the Democrat is elected. I mean, when you were you were talking about the Democrats, you know, gallivanting and Polosi off to Hawaii, the others off to Porto Rico. I'm sure CBS led with that right and not at all. I mean the account on the mainstream media to be complicit. That's that's what it's all about. Complacent and complicit. So I mean, but you know,

I'm not so sure that I believe that. I mean, I think that there's going to there will be elements of the Republican side of the aisle that it will seek retribution for what Democrats have done here. And I'm not saying that that's a good thing at all. I mean the way that that they have for their own political expedients delegit attempted to delegitimize a president of the United States and undermine the very institutions of our democracy

is unacceptable. But I fear, but I fear that there will be some people that seek retribution and it will fall for the same trap that the Democrats have. Well, do you really think Republicans are capable of that? That's why they're in the minority. They didn't act like they were in the majority when they were, and now they're not even acting like the fighters the Democrats are. Well. Stephen King and I have no great a love for

Stephen King. I always thought he was rather off dase, but they allowed him to be whatever the vote was today, whatever the Democrats took over. And yet the woman whose name I don't have in my brain right now from Michigan, who yeah, the Muslims bio thing about the president and is clearly anti Semitic. Nothing nothing, well, I mean, what's wrong with them? Right? I mean? And she had a devout um, you know, anti Zionist at one of her parties, anti Semitic. Yeah, And and they don't and they don't

want to go after her. There should have been that should have been joined. Yeah, is it right? All right? Stephen King didn't, No, no, But here's somebody else who did. And it's one of yours. Let's take the vote. And to your point, I mean, you know, if you had a fervent uh anti semitic at a Trump party, I mean, it would be Walter wall on CNN for weeks, right, I mean, and there's not There has not been a

single tweet we confirmed this earlier. Not a single tweet from CNN, not a single report on the fact that that anti semitic gentleman attended her party. Not a single one. No, And this is why if we just elect a Democrat president, will all go away? Yeah, yeah, I fear that you're right anyway. So Victoria, I'm gonna bring you right back after this break, Everyone stick around. We've got a lot more to discuss, lots of breaking news. The phone lines are open, so give us a call at eight four

four nine hundred two eight two five. That's eight four four nine hundred buck stay tuned to the buck Sexton Shop. In the midst of all the whining coming from the left, I mean, it's just crazy these days, right, They're chasing people out of restaurants, yelling at you in the coffee shop, acting like a bunch of maniacs. You have to wonder why in the world. Would anyone act this way? My guess is they're just not getting their daily dose and

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four nine hundred two eight two five. That's eight four four nine hundred buck. President Trump has asked Congress for five point seven billion dollars to build a wall along our southern border, and he said that if necessary, he may declare a national emergency to act unilaterally, and that he has the authority to do so. He's walked it back a little bit, saying that it shouldn't be necessary, that Congress should just act and help him build this

wall together. But as is the case any time a president attempts to circumvent Congress and act unilaterally, there's a legal question about whether he should do so and whether he can do so. I personally think that the President Trump has a very strong argument to make here and that he does have the authority to act unilaterally. But I want to talk to an expert on this to help me break down some of the specifics of it.

So I'm welcoming back Victoria Tuntsing, a former Justice Department official and former chief counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee. So Victoria, first of all, can the president do this? I mean, if the shutdown goes on much further and the President just you know, gets set up and says, you know what, I'm going to use my full rights as the president the United States'm gona exercise my full rights. Does he have the legal authority to go and build

this wall under a national emergency? I think he would ultimately prevail. The problem is, and the reason why he's trying to work out something is because it would take so long. And if he can work out in agreement, it's not going to go for months even over a year to get to the Supreme Court, because we have this new phenomena occurring Harlan, and that is a judge out sitting out in Hawaii who doesn't no squat about national security can issue an injunction for the whole country.

I think it is against the judiciary. I think that the Supreme Court is going to talk about it at some point, but they have not addressed that issue yet. See the bottom line is that I think that the president at some point has to say, until the Supreme Court tells me to do X, I'm going to do. Why? Right? And how how long could that injunction last? Well, until the Supreme Court hears it? Got it? When the Supreme

Court hears it, that's the law. But for one judge, you know, the four hundred and some other judges are sitting around the country to say, Okay, here's my ruling, and that goes for the whole country. It's bizarre. And the reason that the left coast, as we call it, California and all of that, the Ninth Circuit is liberal, it's because the practice has been in the Senate. I don't only get it too far down the weeds, but basically that the Democratic senators have to approve of the

judicial nominee, even when it's a Republican president. The Senate works, and so they've gotten all liberal judges out there right. Well, and how does how does the Supreme Court telegraph that they will take up this case? I mean, does the Chief Justice supposibly say they'll take it on? No? No, no, no, no no, no, okay, So how do they telegraph that?

That has to wind its way? Usually usually it has to go through the circuits, and then there has to be a conflict in the circuits or it becomes something that just a ruling in the Ninth Circuit against the administration is enough to make the administration and apply to the Supreme Court for search story got it, search as we call it. But the Supreme Court doesn't signal nothing right.

I wouldn't think so. I would't think so. I mean, so the president is really in a hard place because if he does go that route, I mean, it pretty much destins him to the fact that nothing will happen with this wall for you know, the duration of his first term. I mean, this will probably take some time to find its way, um, you know, to through to the court. M so, and even beyond that, I mean they're going to be all sorts of I mean challenges on environmental grounds and others to any wall that he

seeks to build. And so I mean in a domain as well, Yeah, property along there might say I don't want you to build this. Yeah. So it's difficult in and of itself. So I guess my takeaway is that if you're being pragmatic and forecasting here, it's unlikely. And the quick response he because gonna have a minute left. H Do you think that the wall's gonna get built in the next couple of years. Boy, he's a pretty determined guy. I think he's going to find a way

one way or the other. But the Republicans in Congress have got to get smarter. They've just got to get a little more cohonist Yeah, it's frustrating. I mean, they should we should have started this in the first term. It will be the legacy of Paul Ryan that he didn't take this one, you know, on day one of the Trump administration. But it's the it's what we have to live with. Anyway. We'll be right back after this

quick break with more. The phone lines are open, so give us a call at eight four four nine hundred two eight two five. That's eight four four nine hundred Buck. Stay tuned to the Buck Sexton Show. Welcome back. You're listening to the Buck Sexton Show. I'm Harlan Hill fill in for Buck. The phone lines are open. Give us a call at eight four four nine hundred two eight

two five. That's eight four four nine hundred Buck. I was struck over the weekend by reports in the New York Times of the FBI opening a counterintelligence probe and to President Trump, seemingly in retaliation for the firing of FBI Director James Comey. This is concerning because you should never have a law enforcement agency targeting someone you know without any cause and without any material reason for the investigation.

And I think that that was as evidenced by the fact that so as part of this New York Times report, there was a revelation that Muller took over this probe when the Special Council was instated and decided not to chase this any further. So it's clear that there wasn't much substance this probe to begin with. And so that's why I wanted to bring in an expert to break this all down for me, and it's Ryan Morrow, the

director of intelligence at the Clarion Project. Ryan, thanks for joining me, Thanks so much for having me so right. I mean, this story, this story is bizarre. I mean, it doesn't make sense to me. And what was your take, I mean, what was your gut reaction to this when you first read it? At first? I figure that the headline must have been manipulative. That usually stories like this there will be something buried in the story that helps it make sense, and it's not quite as outrageous as

its found. But I am left more confused, puzzled, just overall discouraged based on what I've read from the various articles about this. Now, I must say I've had a lot of interaction with the FBI over the years since I was a teenager involved in stuff. I know a lot about counterintelligence and foreign influence operations and kindle what's

normal and what is not. And as a result, I am I have not been one of these people where whenever there's a news item like this that just comes out and just bashes the FBI or dismisses the FBI, and but don't I read this and it doesn't make any sense because we were told that for a long time before this period of time when Komey was fired, there was a counterintelligence investigation about Russian influence operations targeting

Trump and probably a lot of other people. But that's not in the news and that's not being leaked out. So how this would be new? And what is it about the firing of Komey and what Trump said after that that would somehow constitute new evidence to suggest that Trump is an agent of Russia, either knowingly or unknowingly, like just meaning he's just being manipulated and doesn't realize it. There's no answer to what that is, what that basis is.

I reviewed everything I could find on what Trump said after firing Komey that could, by some stretch be said to be evidence that he's an agent of Russia, and I didn't find anything. The most you could ever say was is that his comments about how oh I fired Komy so pressure over Russia should be alleviated, and he said that to the Russians. The most you could conceivably argue from that that's evidence of obstruction of justice maybe, but that's it. Well, help me understanding how common are

these counterintelligence investigations into foreign influence or election interference? I mean, how often are do we see these come out of the FBI regularly targeting politicians. This goes on all the time. You just don't hear about it because it's classified information. It's not supposed to be part of the press appearing in the press. There aren't supposed to be these leaks.

But this is a different situation because there was enough open source information in addition to what was classified and leaked or not classified but still confidential and leaked that it made it into this big story, and then it fits a political narrative questioning the legitimacy of Trump's election campaign and his victory. So it's different in terms of

size and how people are reacting to it. But overall, there is there are ongoing FBI counterintelligence operations trying to find out what countries are bribing or influencing politicians or anyone influencing political realm, oftentimes without the target even noting about it. Like not just colluding, but it's common for foreign governments to try to implant someone near someone that's influential, to whisper lines in their ears in order to sway

their opinion. So all that is common. The one big question that I think keeps this going beyond what it should have been and why. And I agree with Andrew McCarthy who basically said that one of the key problems we have is that Trump doesn't help himself. Sometimes are these incidents where when it comes to whether it's Putin or it's Airdwan in Turkey, whatever they're putting out as their spin on world events, it does seem that Trump,

for a certain period of time regurgitates those lines. He doesn't act as an agent or a puppet, he violates their will. So he's not just he's not acting as an agent, but there is. But I still can't and I'm having a lot of trouble getting past the fact that when Ariduan or Prutent says something, then all of a sudden, Trump says basically the same thing, so that there's some level of trust there or there's someone near Trump who is reciting those lines that he trusts that.

I'm not sure what's going on there, but that's a far cry from what the headlines are leading people to believe about this FBI, thinking that Trump was some type of KGB SPI. Right. Well, and I gotta tell you, from a Trump supporter's perspective, this feels like the deep state, right, This feels like um somewhat of a soft coup, you know. And you say that because it's not just one isolated case. I mean you have to also look at the text

messages from Peter Struck. I mean that was infamous. I mean, there's there's a pattern here, and maybe it's fair, maybe it's not fair. But from a Trump supports perspective, you feel like where there's smoke, there's fire, and there are attempts within the government by people that have been there very long time to undermine the incoming president of the of the United States at the time and now the

president of the United States, and that's very frustrating. What do you say to those people, I would say I agree with them. I mean This is one of those things where in a way I agree with all sides

and disagree of it with all sides. But fundamentally, what you said about the deep state, and my definition the deep state is what's more commonly accepted, which is just that there are special interests there, there are career officials in the government who have political ambitions, all these types of things that we've known has gone on for a long time, and then the term deep state is a way of summarizing it all. And I think that when you define deep state in the in those terms, than

what you're describing absolutely goes on. And if you have a lot of interaction with people in government agencies, particularly those like the State Department or the intelligence community, there

is a certain level where the arrogance becomes. Well, first of all, very hard to deal with, but you can tell that these are people who feel that they have been entrusted to lead the country as opposed to implement policy, and privately look at themselves in the mirror and say, you know what, look at all those senators and the presidents. I'd be better than all of them. They may not say it, but you can tell. So that type of arrogance and political agenda, even to the point where they

don't realize it's the political agenda. I come across that in different agencies of government very frequently, and that would include the Justice Department. So those damning texts from Peter Struck where he's even admitting, like I don't think that there's anything here, but he's also earlier texting thing we need to stop Trump. It's like not that surprising to me. Yeah. Yeah, Well, before you go, I wanted to I know you have this new project, Finding the Mountain of Moses, and I

know it's a new film on the Exodus story. Can can Can you tell us a little bit about it? Yeah? So this is an independent project completely unrelated to what we're just talking about, but you can look it up on YouTube by searching finding the Mountain of Moses, order the website sinai in Arabia dot com and basically over the past two years, um, I've been doing some covert filming in Saudi Arabia. Wait, so you you actually went to Saudi Arabia to shoot some of this. Yep. I

took three trips there. That's part of the reason I haven't been on Fox and these other places. Is often because that's where I was. But tell me about that before. I mean, so, tell me, like, what was it like going to shoot a documentary about Moses and Saudi Arabia? How how welcoming were the people of Saudia to you to film this? Well, if this is what'll what'll blow your mind because Moses is part of Islam right in

northwestern Saudi Arabia. Where we found um, well not found, but we got evidence of these sites that are said to be linked to Moses and the Exodus story and really bring the story to life in a way you've never seen before. The Salities all run up to you because they haven't seen an American in person, and one of the first things they'll say to you is, did you know Moses was here? Did you know that Moses

and the who the Jews were here? And they just love talking about it and want the world to know about it. They're proud of the fact that there is a significant Jewish history in northwestern saw. But yeah, but the problem is is that the archaeological site, most of them are covered up by facalities with fences and police patrols, and so until now, there hasn't really been compelling video

and photo evidence out there for people to see. But once you watch the film, if you read the Book of Exodus in the Bible, you'll be able to envision most of the events described. Now, what did you what did you uncovering? What were the big revelations? I mean, did you get actual access to these sites or footage from the sites? I mean, what did you What did

you find? Oh? Yeah, yeah I did. Um. Previously, there was a handful of Americans that were trying to get into follow this theory, but they kept getting arrested and their stuff taken, and that luckily did not happen to me, although I did have some encounters with police, but I there were ways around it. But uh, the bottom line is, in terms of evidence from where we think the red seat crossing happened, there's some evidence that we show there.

The Bible says they then go to a place called Elam where has twelve wells, and that's where they start to get water. Um, you follow the past described in the Bible, you come to an oasis just like the Book of Fact that it says that still has twelve wells. You go to where Moses met his wife in the land of Jeff Row and just geographically where it should be.

There's evidence of the Golden Calf warship scene that some people might remember from the Bible, where so Moses followers are worshiping golden cast and there's a fenced in spot where you can see where that probably happened, right in front of what we think is the real Mount Sinai, the place where Moses climbed up and got the tenth Commandment. So, um, is the is the documentary done now? Is it? Is it up for people? Don't yep? Is out there now?

It's got about four hundred thousand views, which for a poor guy like myself who can put I think I'll put twenty bucks into promotion. Um, that's that's pretty awesome. And Glenn Vex saw it and he's promoting it, and the endorsement he gave is uh he actually said this, he said, it's the game changer for man kind. Wow, that's how praise. Yeah, Well, Ryan, I really appreciate. I mean, you have so much perspective. You're from you know, foreign policy and national security to now you know Moses. I

mean it's uh, you're a renaissance man. So Ryan, I appreciate your time and your perspective. Where can people find you if they want to learn more? The best thing they could do is, well they get us go to Ryanmorrow dot com, where that's kind of like where all my work is. And then the name of the documentary again is Finding the Mountain of Moses. Easy enough? Easy enough? All right, Ryan, thanks so much. We'll talk soon everyone. We'll be right back after this with a quick break.

The phone lines are open, so give me a call at eight four four nine hundred two eight two five. That's eight four four nine hundred buck. Stay tuned to the Buck Sexton Show. Welcome back. You're listening to the Buck Sexton Show. I'm Harlan Hill filling in for Buck. The phone lines are open, so give us a quality eight four four nine hundred two eight two five. That's eight four four nine hundred buck. You're probably familiar with AARP. You or someone you know might already be a member.

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benefits are great, but the cause is even greater. Tell your family and tell your friends. Join right now at AMAC dot us slash buck. That's AMAC dot us slash buck. AMAC is better, better for you, better for America. So today, British lawmakers have soundly rejected to recent may Is Brexit deal over in the UK. It's the biggest de eat

for any UK Guy government in modern UK history. Over two hundred speeches across eight days of debate, members of the House of Commons ignored the Prime Minister's final pleas to support her plan and threw it out by four hundred and thirty two votes, two hundred and two. That's crushing. That's crushing. That's a margin of defeat greater than the

previous record, which is set in nineteen twenty four. Means that the Prime Minister now faces a deep political crisis with no clear way forward and the opposition to the Labor Party there are the opposition. Labor Party immediately triggered a vote a no confidence in Teresa May's government. Now what does that mean. It means that in a parliamentary system, you could, you could, you could, you could push for a no confidence vote and seek to remove her from office.

If her party and a majority of Parliament no longer have confidence that she can do her job, they can remove her and they could put in someone new. The Labor Party can't do it on their own, but as as part of a larger coalition including members of Teresa May's Conservative Party, they could pull her out. So she's she's in a perilous state, and the trajectory of the United Kingdom, because Brexit is such an important issue for them,

is really in question. And acknowledging the scale of the defeat, the Prime Minister said she would allow time for the House of Commons to debate that motion tomorrow on on whether the Parliament has confidence in her. The Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who's kind of like a Bernie Sanders style socialist, called the defeat catastrophic and said the vote of no confidence would allow the House of Commons to quote, give its verdict on the sheer incompetence of this government. Yeah.

He may be a crazy left wing socialist, but given how resoundingly she was defeated today of this Brexit vote, because she has totally mismanaged it, he might actually have a point. May urged lawmakers to listen to British citizens who voted to leave the EU, and she said, quote, I ask members of all sides of the House to listen to the British people. Now listen. Nobody is really questioning, or at least none of the conservatis of vote against this today are questioning whether or not to leave the

UK or leave the EU. They're questioning the deal that she struck. And now here's a great example of why her deal is so bad. It would provide for the ability for the United Kingdom to trade with the European Union. But if the UK wanted to do a trade deal, with the United States, which obviously would they obviously they would want to do were one of their major trading partners, that would have to be approved by the EU. No one in their right mind would ever agree to that.

So the fact that Teresa May even had the guts to take this to the floor, it just shows how, to use Jeremy Corbyn's own words, how incompetent she must be. Now, listen, guys, I want to hear from y'all. I'm gonna take some calls, so make sure that you call in. The phone lines are open. We're gonna be taking some calls soon. Eight four four nine two eight two five. I want to

hear what you think about this government shutdown. I want to hear about what you think about all these Democrats running off on vacations to Waii and Puerto Rico while President Trump has to stay back in the White House and try to work out a deal. So call us eight four four nine hundred Buck, stay tuned, welcome back. You're listening to the Buck Sexton Show. I'm Harlan Hill in for Buck. The phone lines are open, so give us a call at eight four four nine hundred two

eight two five. That's eight four four nine hundred buck. With the media hyperventilating about Russian collusion and the government shutdown, one thing we don't hear much about it anymore from the media is the VA, a department that has let our veterans down at every turn for decades and which is arguably the single best example of socialized medicine just

not working. Joining me to discuss that and many more as an expert on this, Chris ny William He's also a good friend of mine and he's the vice president of Next Veterans as well as an Iraq War veteran. Chris, first of all, thanks for your service and thanks for joining us. Great to be with you, Harland. So, how many understand what's happening right now? Is this still an issue the VA? Like the wait times and all of that.

The VA still is having a lot of problems. President Trump has made some major changes early and it's been very effective at giving VA the authorities needs to less than the healthcare weight times, give veterans a choice between local VA hospitals and private care providers if they can see a doctor sooner, cutting down on the union bureaucracy, getting things right, and that's been encouraging, but I still think a major issue with the VA are Obama holdovers

and union bosses that are still dragging their feet, delaying the president's agenda and still kind of just being bureaucratic. So that's going to continue, and that's been an issue in many respects. But I do think the President is moving in a good direction and the VA is trying

to reform. So you're telling me that, I mean, well, this actually makes sense because we hear this from every different department across the federal government that there are Obama holdovers that are in there that are undermining the mission of this administration to make some meaningful reforms and changes. And you're saying the VA is no different. It's exact same thing there. It's exactly the same. And the VA is also the second largest federal agency next to the

looking at three hundred thousand employees. It's a very very large arch bureaucracy, and there's a lot of high ranking federal employees that frankly just want to kind of keep things the same, and there's really no incentive to improve and change processes, so there's a lot of finger pointing, and the veteran ends up being sort of second to

the bureaucrats. It's the VA before the veteran. I think the Trump administration has tried to put the veteran in front of the VA, and I think putting the veteran in front of the VA is the real trick to the reform and I think the President's working on that now. So, I mean, what are the biggest pain points for the VA? If you had to identify the three biggest problems, what

are they? Number one is continued healthcare weight times for veterans and trying to get the bureaucracy to allow veterans to have these private consults when the VA line is too long so they can see a doctor. Number two is staffing because of long bureaucratic rules to actually fill doctor positions, which I think if you get the more bureaucrats out behind desks and more doctors in there will solve that. And the third one is twofold one. The

canine testing program is a big distraction. It's a total disaster. It needs to be shut down. The canine testing program. What is that? So the can testing program is essentially these these painful tests the VA was doing in science labs with federal tax money to you know, allegedly create new discoveries for veterans health around cardiac and other things. But they never got any results out of it. There were a lot of scandals around it, and Congress and

the President shut it down. But there's one waiver authority in the law that allows the VA Secretary to continue the programs. It's about a million dollars a year, and the current secretary is allowing the experiments to go forward, and I think he's really making a mistake. I think he's listening to some very bad advisors, and I think

eventually it's going to be shut down. But it's just another example of VA bureaucrats and probably doctors getting paid a lot of money, and lobbyists in the space that just want to continue bad disaster programs because it's a benefit to them. So well, I think the President's drained the swamp at VA. The swamp has been there for so long and there's so many bureaucratic rules that it's

going to take a little bit longer. But this is one program, the knine testing program, that we need to shut down in twenty nineteen, and I think we're going to get it done. So what about making available more private access to care for veterans. I mean, do you think that's an important option across the board or in specific areas. I do. I certainly think, and we have the stats. I mean, certain vas do better than others. We call these citizens of veteran integrated service networks basically

hospital systems for the ones that struggle. A veteran needs the option to say I can use the VA or I'm going to go to a private care provider. And the program exists, but there's been a lot of problems around the rules of when you're allowed to use it, when you're allowed to get a consult and so. And there's been a lot of division in the veteran community about private privatization. But it's not privatization, it's choice. It's

limited private care. When VA still is the overall healthcare provider, it should work. It is working. But the President's got this right, most of Congress has got this right. But again, when you're dealing with the breacracy that big, you're dealing with regulations and rules and federal money, there's still a lot of delays. But I think that's been a key issue. It's been improving and I think that the VA committees

have got to work together. You know, Democrats are going to have the House Committee, Republicans have the Senate Committey have got to work together and have hearings to get the healthcare choices right so we can lessen those wait times, improve healthcare, and also prevent veterans from from having mental

health issues. Well, let's talk on let's such on the mental health issue right now, because arguably, I mean, that's one of the most visible issues or a most vocal issues that we're starting to hear more and more about. What is the VA doing to treat that as an issue of priority programs in place? What are they doing?

That's a great question. They're providing a lot of funding, But the problem is the VA spends so much money on ads and marketing and all these PR people, and the PR people really just run around and talk about things that half the time aren't even Germaine. The other challenge is most of the veterans that take their life, sadly, they're not enrolled in VA. These are veterans that aren't

enrolled in the system. We've got about twenty two million veterans, only nine million or enrollment VA and around four million regularly use it. Some veterans don't like to use it, others do. But the point is a lot of those veterans aren't even in the VA. So why isn't the VA brand strong enough to attract veterans is a whole other issue. So veterans issues. I'm glad you're you're you're

covering it. It's so great to be on because, you know, Harland, veterans issues just don't get the attention they need most of the time. You know, in our busy lives, I mean Veterans Day, Memorial Day, we take that moment, but the day to day there's a lot of issues that need to be fixed. I think the President's focused on it. I think Democrats usually try to get it right, but I think they need to learn that the Union, the American Federation of Government Employees are a bunch of hacks.

I mean, they're they're president non vet he's anti reform. He put bureaucrats over the interest of veterans that died on secret waiting lists in Phoenix. And we really need to make sure we keep slamming that union. And frankly, I don't even know why VA gets to have a union. I mean I think so you're telling me the head of the union for the VA, is it even a veteran. No, so that the union afge. It's a big union that

includes VA but also other federal agencies at large. They have they have a large membership, but not all VA employees are members. But the lead of that is not a VET. I believe he was a VA nurse at one point. But again that's what we're dealing with. We're dealing with people that don't understand how it is. Secretary Wilkie does get it. He is at he comes from a military family. But again, the union has been an issue. The union has AFG. He has been a big, big issue,

and they've been big union people. And President Obama said he was going to reform the union and then he backed off. Back in the last session two sessions of Congress ago HR nineteen ninety four, he issued a veto threat. So luckily President Trump got that done in the first year. It's called the VA Accountability Act. It allows the employees to be fired without you know, waiting years and years and appeals if they do. If you, if you mistreat our veterans, you should be fired and maybe even have

the door hit you on the way out. And that's the way the Trump administration is taking on the unions. Now, well, Chris, I mean this has been great. I'm glad we could shine a light on this. I know this is something you spend every day working on and and I really appreciate it, and I appreciate your service. Where where can people find more about you? They can find me at my name and Twitter. It's c H R I S N E I W E E M like Mike Niwaim

Chris Niwaim. I am the vice president of Next Veterans and work a lot of veterans issues and I'm always happy to hear veterans issues, try to work them out and hear different perspectives on these VA policy issues. Thank you so much, Chris. As always, I really appreciate your time. Thanks for having me early. We'll be right back after this quick break. Make sure that you dial in give us a call at eight or four nine twenty eight twenty five. That's eight four four nine hundred buck Stay tuned.

The Russians exploited a massive backdoor into the foundation of our democracy. Then Moscow's attack on American democracy, the work by Russian agents to try to destabilize American democracy. It's everything you need to know about the threat to our democracy. You have Republicans who are silent and seemingly okay with this kind of attack on our democracy. There is no

question that Russia attacked us. We're at tax ladies and gentlemen on our constitution, attack on the integrity of our elections, an attack on our democracy. The first time we've had an adversary attack us that we have not responded. This is Harlan Hill. I'm back in for Buck Sexton while he's on assignment down there in California on the border. We wanted to play that clip because this is just an endless barrage of mainstream media attacks against the president

that are almost word for word identical. And it's not just the media. I mean it's also democratic leadership, people like Barack Obama, Hillard Clinton, others. Right where they say that, you know, this Russian collusion that has still not been substantiated, is quote to stabilizing democracy, an attack on our democracy and attack on us blah blah blah blah blah. And they do it because if they repeat it enough, they

think that it will become truth. And at its core, this is an attempt did delegitimize the president of the United States, and it started long before even the election. And if you were here for our first segment in the A block that you heard the great conversation that I had with a former official at the Justice Department about this. But this process of delegitimizing the incoming president

United States started even before the election. I can remember being on CNN in I think it was October, either late September, early October twenty sixteen, and I said on there that the reason that this Russian colusion story came up was quote to plant seeds of doubt in the event that President Trump want wins and Candidate Trump. And I gotta pat myself on the back on that one. I get some things wrong, but I got that one right. You know, that's exactly what this was. That's exactly what

they've turned out to do. And it's only been turned out they turned the dial up by orders of magnitude after his election and then again after his inauguration, and now with every quarter that passes. I mean, it has ratcheted up precipitously. And that's all while we don't have a shred of evidence to substantiate the accusation of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Not a shred, zero nil, nothing.

There's nothing there. So we're three years into this process, three years since they started playing the seeds of doubt undermine Trump, and they say that they're smoking guns. Watch Rachel Maddock. I know it's insufferable. Okay, I get it, I get it, I get it. She's really annoying. Okay, but just turn it on. Turn it on for a couple of minutes. Any given night, she will be on breathlessly talking about this as if there's a smoking gun and we're on the verge of the annihilation of the

Trump campaign. Every single night for years, it's been like this. It's like the Little Boy that Cried Wolf every night. And it's not just Rachel madd out to be fair, I mean, don Lemon Cuoma whatever, I mean, even after

the presidents. This is how I knew the President had a good job the other night in the Oval Office address, is that instead of talking about it, Cuoma sort of shifting back to talking about Manaphort that night, like almost immediately, like you know, so they're like, okay, we can't win on the wall shutdown issue. Let's go back to talking about Russia. Let's pull that out of the archives. It's pathetic, really,

it's pathetic. I mean, if there was anything here, if it was as someone that was involved with the Trump twenty sixteen campaign, as somebody that's now on the advisory board for Trump's twenty twenty reelection campaign, I can tell you that if something like this happened at the level that they were saying it happened, it would be out by now. Okay, it would be out by now. There would be smoking guns. Mueller wouldn't be taken all this time to come to some sort of we would have

already have indictments and arrests for collusion. We don't now do we have other I mean, did they get Mana for it on some of his personal dealings? Oh yeah, yeah. Did they get some Trump people for you know, allegedly lying under oath? Yeah? Okay, yeah, they perjured themselves, you know, not on this issue, but you know, on a variety of issues they made mistakes. Yeah, totally they got them. Fine, okay,

you got you got manip because he didn't pays taxes. Great, what does that have to do with the charge of collusion against President Trump. Nothing nothing, but this is nothing new. I mean, we're gonna keep hearing them the stabilizing democracy and attack on democracy. The people that are actually destabilizing and undermining our democracy are the Democrats, and they're actively

doing it every day. They're tearing this democracy down to its foundation because it is for their own political expedience. They cannot believe. They cannot believe that there was this revolution that happened in twenty sixteen and they didn't see it coming. They don't believe it. They still don't believe it, so it'll keep happening. And it's not just the Democrats, to be fair, it's not just the media, to be fair. I mean, there's people in the establishment of the Republican

Party too, and some people come around to it. You have a second clip here and include some top Republicans, including Mitt Romney from twenty sixteen, and let's see what they have to say. He'd rather have a puppet as president, and it's pretty clear puppet. What Donald Trump is saying is that he would unilaterally surrender to Russian Putin, give Putin a massive foreign policy victory. This is a race between a man who praises Vladimir Putin, pursues Putin, and

he thinks Putin's a good guy. So I just can't go there. Donald Trump says he admires Vladimir Putin. I do think that trump victory is a gift to Vladimir Putin. It's like they're on the same page. And now you have Vladimir Putin basically pulling out the old KGB book on how to manipulate Donald Trump, and it appears he's fallen right into it. Mister Trump's continued flattery of mister Putin and the degree to which he appears to model many of his policies and approaches to politics on mister

Putin is unprecedented in American politics. Well, I gotta give a couple of people in there some credit for coming around seeing the light, because those those those latest clips were from twenty sixteen. You know, Synator gram and Senator Cruz. You know, they've both seen the light, right, and they're firmly on the President's team, and they know that this Russian collusion accusation is totally unfounded and unsubstantiated. So I give them credit for that. But the rest of them

I think are largely um. I think the rest of the people in there comprised the establishment that is grasping at straws for some way to delegitimize this president. And I'm frankly sick of it. And I brought up in the in the in the in the people that my concern is that this, it could become the new norm, right. I mean, Democrats have clearly overstepped their bounds here. They have worked to chip away at the foundation of democracy

purely because they don't like Trump. Right. It wasn't enough to oppose him and obstruct him on all of his policy, but they've got to like tear him down as a person and as the president. And my concern is that, you know, this could play both ways, because you know, as a Republican, I'm gonna want some retribution, and I think that's bad for our democracy. It's a real shame. Anyway. This is once again Harlan Hill in for Buck Sexton here on the Buck Sexton Show. I want to thank

you all for tuning in. We'll be right back after this break. Make sure you tune back in. Welcome back. You're listening to the Buck Sexton Show. I'm Harlan Hill filling in for Buck. The fund lines are open, so give us a call at eight four four nine hundred to eight two five. That's eight four four nine hundred Buck. We have a government shutdown, contentious hearings on the Hill, Democrats announcing for president left and right in an economy

that many viewers precarious. Jointing me to break all of this down is Ryan Grodski, a senior political reporter and a political consultant. Ryan, help me understand with all this happening, how the president starts to pivot to focusing on a general election bid. Hey, Harlan, so, yeah, you know twenty

twenty Blue or not is just around the corner. Um Democrats are jumping in Kerson jail, Brand, Amy Klobacher, Kamala Harris are all preparing a launch, and several of like a little Bourne already has the good thing for Trump. Trump's entrepreur writings have fallen in during the government shut down to the very low boies, which is not a great place to be. But there was a public policy polling,

a research paper done. They are a liberal organization and they tend to skew more liberally, so they had they sampled out the votes in North Carolina and they found it basically a tide between Trump and the major competitors Democrats, and all the all the major Democrats were within the Jim error from him now the pole over sample Democrats, so it leans a little heavily Democrat. But the most important part was among independents. In this poll, Trump was

clabboring major Democrats. It with Biden, who is the most viable Democrat running for president right now, he's beating him with independence by fifteen points. Among Corey Booker it's twenty one points. Beto O'Rourke it's almost thirty points, Elizabeth Warren it's twenty points. So Trump seems to have a major edge with some independent voters. And if that's true nationwide, like it is in North Carolina, if it's true in Florida, if that's true in Ohio, Trump's really in a much

better position for reelection. I think he is what he needs to do with after this this government shutdowns over with, after he gets some money for wall funding, I think he really needs to start pivoting towards really popular middle ground issues, one being drug prices that sending him in Nancy Pelosi very much agree on that. The second will be infrastructure spending. And the third and this thing he promised on the campaign and it still hasn't happened. He shouldn't.

He needs to reform common Core. It's wildly popular among women. Wiley. Common Core is wiley, unpopular among women, among mothers, among teachers, major major constituencies that have a very negative opinion about Donald Trump. He promised to overturn common Core two and a half years ago. I don't know what Betsy Divace is doing in her spare time besides buying new designer glasses.

She needs to be reforming common Core or ending common Core or throwing to the States something, because it would be a major, major boost, in my opinion, to Trump's reelection. So let's just take a step back and look at that poll out of North Carolina. So what you're telling me is that a liberal poll administered by a liberal consultant, Public Policy Polling PPP, which we used to use. You know, I'm a former Democratic consultant. We used to we used to hire them, we used to pay them to conduct

our polls. So this is hardly an you know, not that any of the polls that we typically read about her, are are independent? I mean, I think that everybody that conducts a pole has some sort of editorial been to them, but this one is particularly slanted to the left, but is widely respected. I'll give them credit for that. But what you're saying is it even though they're oversampling Democrats, they have democratic heritage. They still show that the president

is in on very solid footing in North Carolina. Right, that was the takeaway. Well, he's tied. So look, yeah, Kamala Harris, they're at forty five forty five in the full, Kamala Harris is winning Democrats by sixty one points. Trump is winning Republicans by seventy simo points. But Trump is then winning independence by twenty two points. So they've clearly oversample Democrats to make it seem like it's a tied race.

If Trump is winning independence by twenty two points, and he's winning fourteen percent of Democrats eighty one percent of the Republicans, as the pole states, he's winning by more by he's more than just a tie. That is clearly an oversample of Democrats, but by twenty two points, a gigantic margin. Yeah, absolutely, So what about this shutdown. I mean because I'm starting to read more and more that people are blaming the President and Republicans more than Democrats.

You know, The Washington Post and ABC News conducted this poll from January eighth to the eleventh among seven hundred and eighty eight Americans, and it showed that overall, fifty three percent of people are blaming Trump and the Republicans, compared to twenty nine percent for Democrats in thirteen percent. You'd both equally at fault. This can't be good? Or am I over? Am? I over? Am I inflating the significance of this polling, particularly this early in an election cycle. Well,

I think one, it's not good for the president. But also people are very forgiving about government shutdowns. You remember twenty thirteen when Ted Cruz really shut down the government and Republicans swept the Senate. In twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, twenty seventeen, rather, Chuck Schumer shut down the government and Democrats won the House back. I think people are very forgiving about government shutdowns. It doesn't really stick in people's

mind very often. Most people don't understand it, and most people aren't affected by it. So I don't hold that this will be a long lasting sting for the president, but if he gets Wolf funding, this will be the biggest booster to his base to show that he's actually the real deal, that he's not, you know, one of these weaker Republicans who could pitch. So it's worth the cost, that's your point. I mean it's worth the cost, I

think so. Yeah. I do think I think something needs to happen very soon, but I do think that it's worth the cost right now. I don't think that this should go into the summertime though, or or summer time. I don't think this should go into the spring. I don't want this to go for months and months and months, but hopefully within another week or two, I think something's

going to break. You have to remember there are thirty five House Democrats in Trump's states, and Trump didn't sorry in Trump districts, And there are a number of Democrats in the Senate who are in Trump's states or swing states, or who have an enormous amount of government workers in

their states. So I think properly applied pressure on those Democrats, you might see some people like Doug Jones already says he'll vote for the Wolf funding, and I think that maybe some applied pressure on Mark Warner, you might see him sit there and start to break with Chuck Schumer, given the fact that he's got a huge amount of government workers in his state in Virginia. Well. And one concern though, is that Democrats are applying a lot of pressure on the back end from what I've heard, to

the public sector unions representing TSA workers and air traffic controllers. Now, under current federal law, these unions are barred from striking, but I think that Democrats and the unions want to test that in the courts. And if you had air traffic controllers and TSA officials striking, that would bring this country to a halt, the ability to travel and conduct business to a halt. I can't forecast what the political consequence is going to be for both sides if that

weren't happen. I mean, that is apocalyptic, and I think that's what Democrats know, and they figure that they're going to end up on top there. I mean, the Washington posted a little bit of reporting on this today. I think that this is distinct possibility, maybe not right now, but the further we go into this, I think that the Democrats are going to get more aggressive, and I don't see them backing down and giving even a modicum

of concession to the President on this. I mean, they know that that would be too much of a political loss for them, and and they know that they have the president kind of pinned in here in a way, and they have some of these these outside players, like these public sector unions in their back pocket that they can probably bring a little bit more pain to bear. I mean, how concerned are you about that? Um? I

had not heard that story. That is concerned. But if you have to go to a court case and it have to work its way through the course before they could strike, so I mean that would take some some period of time before they could actually move on that. Well. The alternative, though, I'll push back a little bit, is that you may just have some of these federal workers start quitting. You know, if you're a TSA worker and you and you haven't paid in weeks, that we happen, Yeah,

this is that could apply. They won't show up for work like that, and such has happened in certain areas. But I don't think that, um, I don't think that that necessarily is going to be enough to bring the economy to its knees or or affect travel um to the extent that people are saying it, well, um and

at that and it worse comes to worse. I think that Trump really then should um bulk his his um, his his advisors and sit there and do a and do an executive order, an executive order, but a an emergency, an executive emergency stating that, um, you know, we need to build a wall or have have have the CBS build a wall. I mean, there are a million things that Trump could do, but he still has not done yet. And I think that that's really where you know he's got.

He is much more cars than his pile than Democrats have in their pile. And if you look at where a lot of these government workers are in, isn't a lot of Blue states. I mean, these are a lot of Democrat constituents who are going to be hurting, and I do. I mean, I have heard of more Democrats that they are and say that they are going to vote for wall funding of certain types than I have

heard Republicans. I mean, you have Katie Hill from California, you have a new woman from Virginia seven both slaying they vote for wall funding. And you know I and you've done jing a vote for wall funding. I do think that there's an opportunity to sit there and start breaking with these moderate Democrats in these Trump districts where if you have a majority plus all Republicans voting for wall funding. UM, you may be in a situation where Nancy Pelosi is dealing with a with with minority of

Congress on this position. So I certainly think that that that may change the media fight, and that may be Trump's best bet is that Nancy Pelosi is doing it against the will of her own Congress or of her own House rather um. And you also Trump State of the Union going forward, which will give him a huge chance to speak to the American public. But yeah, other than that, I think that he should declare an EMERGENC. I think why doesn't he declare an emergency or you know,

deploy the US cord years. I know, I personally know that people inside the administration and senators like Lindsay Gram. Lindsay Graham is all over television saying that he supports an executive emergency. I know for a fact from people on the Hill it does not actually support that. In this whole Trump not to do that an executive emergence. An executive emergency is wildly unpopular in polling. But I just don't believe many people are following this story of

whether or not the wall is being built. I just I don't believe that you know, the country is going to be in rage or not in rage based upon something that ninety nine point eight person in the country will never see. Most of us will never go to the Tucson area of the border to sit there and see the wall being completed or not completed. I just I just don't think. I don't think that this is as big of a story or as big of a political battle as Democrats are making it out to be.

I think at the heart of it, if you look at the ABC poll, the one major drop support for the wall had it increased from I think thirty two percent to forty two percent or something around at the number, but the one major drop was people extremely against the wall, drop from fifty four percent to thirty eight percent. I just don't think many people support this wall. And also in the ABC poll, forty five percent of people who

oppose the building of the wall. Why Democrats that they're in support wall funding because they just want the government to open back again. Only fifteen percent fifty percent are asking Democrats to hold their ground, So it's about twenty five percent of the country or we're something or telling democrats, you know, don't don't give any concessions, don't give any concessions. You know, almost half the people who are opposed to the wall are now for building it just to reopen

the government. I don't think that nance to Pelosi's I think Pelosi has overplayed this where where people where people where people are actually opposed to the wall as much as she thinks they are. So let me ask you to make a prediction. I mean, four weeks out from now, is the government back up and running. Are we in the same spot we're in right now within a month? I do think so, I think something. I think something

has got to give within a month. I think that within a month you're going to have Because the most important thing that's going to be happening come November of twenty nineteen is you're going to have major elections in the legislature in Virginia, and you're going to have a lot of Republicans pushing on Trump to um to give

concessions in for Republicans in Virginia. So I think that by the spring, I think the government will within four to six weeks, I think the government will be up and running again, and we will have some type of money for border wall, whether it's through an emergency action or through through the Democrats in Congress giving something up. All right, Ryan, where people find if they want to learn more? My website Ryan Grodusky dot com or Twitter

at Ryan Grdusk here on Facebook Ryan Grodusky. Awesome, Ryan, thanks so much for joining me again. I'm sure I'll see you soon. We'll be bragged back after this quick break with more. The phone lines are open, so give us a call at eight four four nine hundred two eight two five. That's eight four four nine hundred Buck. Stay tuned to the Buck Sexton Show. Welcome back to the Buck Sexton Show. I'm Harlan Hill filling in for Buck.

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dot com slash buck. I started the show by addressing the way that the Democrats elected to go to Puerto Rico to play on the beach and drink with lobbyists instead of working to get the government back up and running. Shame on them. I mean, it's just ridiculous. And in the last segment, if you heard it with Ryan Gerdusky, we sort of addressed the fact that you know, there's no winner here. If you look at the polling, you

know it's divided between Democrats and Republicans. More Republicans blame democ for the shutdown, more Democrats blame Republicans for the shutdown, and independence don't know which way to go. In the meantime, you know, all these workers that you know, from TSA to air traffic controllers to even secret service agents are going on paid and what the presidents asking for is something relatively mild. He's asking for a fraction of what Democrats all voted to give to border funding just ten

years ago. You know, all throughout the Obama administration to appease Republicans, Democrats cast votes in supportive border security funding

because they wanted to look strong. But Obama wanted to look like he was tough on security, even though you know he was letting millions in he wanted to look tough, and now that the presidents actually wanted to do something constructive to target specific areas of the border to prevent just the total unimpeded trafficking of people and drugs into this country at points of entry, Democrats are nowhere to

be found. All of a sudden. They've decided that walls are racist and they're offensive, and they say that we want other forms of border security, but they won't articulate with what those forms of security are. So the casualty in the meantime is that we have a lack of direction. That it's undermining the foundation of our markets. It's hurting, you know, eight hundred thousand families across this country. They don't know whether or not they're going to get their

next paycheck. And it stands to get worse. I mean, we saw just last week that leading credit agencies are considering downgrading America from Triple A status to something lower. Now, who knows what that'll be. I mean, in large part that depends on well when does the government get reopened. One. If it goes much further and we hit the credit ceiling, then you know we have a much bigger problem on

our hands. We're playing with fire here. We're playing with fire, and so you know, I talked with Grudski a little bit about the polling and the winners and losers of it. But my concern is that government, for the first time in a long time, is undermining the very foundation of our economy deliberately, and there are people to blame, both in the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. And we can't take this back. Once you open this can of worms, once you open this can of worms, you can't put

them back in. I'm really frustrated. This is serious. We're playing with fire, and I want to hear what you all have to say about it. So we'll be right back after this quick break with more. The phone lines are open. Give us a call eight four four nine hundred to eight two five. I hope you're as mad as I am. That's eight four four nine hundred Buck. Stay tuned to the Buck Sexton Show. Welcome back. You're listening to the Buck Sexton Show. I'm Harland Hill filling

in for Buck. We're over six hundred days away from the election. But believe it or not, this is true. More than four hundred and fifty candidates have already read with the FEC to run for president twenty twenty. That's the vast majority of those people are lunatics, are not serious people, but but they're about twenty to twenty five names of very serious contenders that are starting to take shape. Some of them have announced, some of them are still

on the sidelines figuring things out. And I wanted to talk about who those people are, what their strengths and weaknesses are. And I'm looking specifically at people like Tulsa Gabbert Whole and Gastro Castro, Elizabeth Warren, char At Brown, John Delaney, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, beat A Rourke, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Corey Booker, Kirsten Jillibrand, and even Hillary Clinton. Now, there are a lot of names there, and it's gonna make for a very crowded field for Democrats. Heck, as

they just look to put together debate stages. I mean they have, they have a struggle ahead of them. So joining me to discuss and break down this field is Democratic consultant John Rally, the founding partner of Counterpoint Messaging. John, How you doing, Harlan? That was quite a list who ran through that was pretty impressive. That's not even that's not even half of the series of contenders. It's just the ones I'm taking out. But uh so, who's the

front runner, John, Like, who's the guy or a woman? Well, I mean I think as of today, I mean, let's let's almost think about it the way you have to look back and think about Trump when he was in a fourteen to sixteen person field. I mean he began that race, and the thing that he was that he was wildly underestimated for is he had a multi billion

dollar brand. So when he made errors, he made mistakes, he just had enough whether you want to call it brand equity, goodwill, or just knowledge build up that he was was able to sustain you know, a lot of errors and things that almost nobody else in politics. I think right now you've got two Democrats, uh Biden and Bernie who have billion dollar brands. I mean, they they are super well known, their supports deep, they'll be able

to raise money. But at the same time, I mean, I don't know that anybody wants to be a frontrunner for any office these days in politics, especially over a two year period. And so I think if you're in their chair. And I mean if it is a super crowded race like it was last time, I think that

could benefit Biden. And Bernie just says the super credited race benefited Trump the ups and downs and and and if you only have that brand, you don't have the ability to energize and raise money, it won't be that helpful. And I think one of the hugest things Hillary's team underestimated last time was I mean, anybody who's run a one thousand vote city council race knows if you're the incumbent and you're going to have challengers and you've got

a base, the more challengers the better. And at the end of the day, if there would have been five or six relatively modest to strong challengers, I mean Hillary probably would have run away with the primary last time, even though Bernie Sanders ran a great race. I mean, just creating that one on one environment coalesces there are going to be known almost any candidate and a primary. Um, So, I mean I think that's where you would start. I mean,

that's I think they have huge advantages. But um, I don't know, I don't know anybody that would want to run and intense to your presidential campaign as the front horse right now. Well, and the added pressure there is that you can only raise, you know, for the primary cycle. So there's the financial question. If you get in now and you start burning capital, well, yeah, you have an advantage and that you're already out there and you can start building the fundraising machine that you need to run

for president. But once those dollars are spent, you can't go back to the well um inventional wisdom in a lot of races, if you're the front runner, you want a shorter race, but yeah, you have to you have to begin that exposure and attack. You have to light that fuse, and then you also have the money fuse as well. So it's a real challenge absolutely. So maybe the better question than is instead of who is the front runner, what faction of the Democratic Party is going

to win here? And and this is going to really boil it down. It's gonna be kind of simplistic, but is it the moderate wing of the Democratic Party that's a little bit more pragmatic or the progressives like um, you know, Corey Booker or um a cast A quartet somebody like that. Which wing of the party is gonna win? Well, I think I think all of the presidential candidates are pretty progressive and are going to run is pretty progressive candidates.

I mean, I think you've got some slight variations, but I mean, I mean, you know, from Biden to Beto to I mean, you know a lot of the different senators, I think they're all going to run is pretty progressive candidates. I don't I don't think there's going to be dramatic ideological differences. I don't think we're going to have a conservative Democrat or even somebody who's the cautious moderate really

in terms of policy. And uh, I think also a misconception about a lot of dimocratic primaries is just going furthest to the left ensures victory. I mean, I think you have to motivate. You have to communicate that you've got a connection with the electorate and you're inspiring people and you really believe whatever your rap message or lane is. I think it's one of the amazing things about Beto

O'Rourke's rise right now. I mean, he does not have the billion dollars long term relationship brand that a lot of the others do, so we could certainly see him flame out quicker, but I think he's got this connection right now, and it's not just in Texas with Democratic voters and a lot of primary voters. And the other challenges is there's going to be a lot of floating around in any primary where you've got well known candidates, whether it's a race for governor or mayor or the

presidential race. We're going to go into Iowa with a number of candidates that all of the Democrats like, and so I think the you know, some late momentum could be big as well. And I think I think the other thing that people don't think about right now is everybody's matching up the candidates against each other and against Trump right now, but trying to imagine outside events that

impact the campaign. I mean, if if the investigation heats up, if we have an impeachment hearings, what that does to us senators opportunity versus you know, many of them have a ways to go still, and so trying to anticipate

those sort of events. And I think also is there somebody who could be the RFK candidate and time this to get in at the moment where a couple campaigns collapse or a front runner has a bad run and kind of make the late RFK style in nineteen sixty eight entrants at the right time to conserve resources, conserve energy, and that's also a risky strategy in a ten to fifteen person field well. And so one thing that strikes me is that you had California move up its primary date,

it'll coincide with Texas and Florida. That seems to me that it would advantage Kamala Harris and her bid. Beto will have obviously an advantage in Texas, and he has national name ID, but the fact that he was just on the ballot there and almost executed in an upset of Ted Cruz in a solidly Republican state and he's a dynamic figure leads me to believe that he should fare very well there. And then Florida's you know, and unknown.

But you know, if you have big delegate holes getting split up between these major candidates early, it's going to be very difficult for a front runner to emerge. And it strikes me that that means that not only are you going to have a crowded field, you're gonna have a very long primary process, and that this will go all the way to the convention. One does that concern you too? Are you concerned about the potential for a

brokered convention? Not really. There's been lots to talk of that in the last couple of decades on both sides. It hasn't really happened. Same with the primary process, we haven't. We had the most contentious, most number of candidates, most spending in the primary, we've ever had a Democratic Party this year at the congressional and other levels, and it cycle turned out pretty well for us. I think that energy should translate into the presidential race and could be

a real advantage. I've rarely seen a hot contested primary that so wounds a candidate that you regret it looking back. I mean, every candidate would love to run unoppost or or your you know, kind of walk through a primary. But that doesn't mean it's good for the Darwinian process that is running for president. I don't think it hurt Obama. I think it I think it helped them. I don't think it hurt Trump. I think it helped him, and so I'm not that concerned about it. You know, it's

hard to tell. I mean that you would certainly think instructurally it helps Senator Harris in California or Orbato in Texas. But if you look back to ninety two, I mean what happened when Tom Harkin ran Is everybody just said, well, why try in Iowa? The real battles New Hampshire, and so it kind of it it almost made those states made Iowa the sort of state that everybody was greating on a curve now a lot less. I mean, Texas and California are much bigger, delicate, rich states than than

Iowa was. So but it you know, it could also be sweet relief. I mean, if you don't have to spend media and field another dollars in the two biggest states or two of the three biggest states, that might be the saving grace for a couple of these other campaigns.

And then they may just make a strategic decision to m to um, you know what, the national media helped communicate and more efficient ways communicate in Texas and California and to not essentially maybe spin down your whole campaign you I mean, for Al Gore and Bill Bradley didn't raise enough money together to run campaigns in Texas and California in twenty twenty, I don't think so. Um, I

mean That's that's one factor. Well, thanks, Sean. I know you're gonna stick around for the next segment, So thank you for that, and we'll be right back with you. Guys. If you're familiar with AARP, and you probably are, either you or someone you know is already a member. But did you know did the ARP lobbies for a lot of progressive causes. They fought tooth and nail for a

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better for you, better for America. You're listening to the Buck Sexton Show. We'll be right back with more after this quick break. Welcome back. You're listening to the buck Sexton Show. I'm Harland Hill filling in for a buck. I'm back with Democratic consultant John Rally. He's a partner

at Counterpoint Messaging. John. Over the weekend we had footage of Democrats like Senator Menendez from New Jersey parting with lobbyists on the beach, heading on the beach in Puerto Rico, and in context of the shutdown, it kind of struck me as a little tone death. Is that the vibe that you got from the other side of the aisle?

Or are we over reading this year? Well, I mean, you know, I think the Democrats had done about any everything they could do to put a deal on the table for the President, and he just kept saying no. And so, you know, I mean, whether Puerto Rico was

a strategic flourish that will be a positive. You know, whether going to Hamilton or not was a good idea, but also that's a that's a place where they put some money into the economy that had been hard hit by the hurricane, and also a huge failure of the president. So I think the biggest challenge is that the president owned the shutdown up front, and he is and I think most polling is showing that even beyond Democrats, among

even Republicans and independence people are playing at his feet. Well, I gotta take issue there with your assessment of Democrats willing to come to the table and work out a

deal in the shutdown. I mean, they're not willing to compromise at all on funding for the border wall, which I kind of think is very interesting because in twenty thirteen, all fifty four Democrats in the Senate voted to pass the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act, which included forty six billion dollars in border security improvements and added seven hundred miles of border fencing, exactly what the

present's looking to do today. So the presence asking for five billions to day back in twenty thirteen, every single Democrat voted for forty six billion dollars. Where's the difference here? Like, what changed since twenty thirteen that Democrats don't like fencing anymore. It's not the exact same wall. But I am glad you're emphasizing that Democrats are for border security used to be well, and they still are. I mean, the ridiculousness

of the wall. I mean, even most of Trump's supporters don't believe he's actually going to do it, and you know, I guess, I guess we're never going to get Mexico to pay for it either. I mean, it's just, I mean, his whole thing was a pitch. It wasn't an actual policy, and I think even a lot of I mean a lot of his supporters were caught on tape even in the primary and general saying he's just he's just saying that he doesn't really believe he's going to get it done.

And so you know now that we're, you know, weeks into the shutdown over something that this wasn't a believable policy. I mean, gosh, at least, whether you just agree or disagree teriffs and taxes and things like that, or at least believable policies. This has always just been a fandom, It's been a sales pitch. Well, now Democrats are saying, including Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi saying that walls are immoral. Well, you guys voted for seven hundred miles of it in

twenty thirteen. Like, I just don't understand. Forgive me, I don't understand the discrepancy. It comes off as very disingenuous of Democrats and now oppose fencing, steel slat fencing exactly what the President is proposing now, not a concrete wall, when you guys supported it just a couple of years ago. I don't, I really, I earnestly do not understand how they weren't immoral back then but now they are. Well, I mean, there's so much of the President's policy it's

a it's a moral around this. I mean in terms of the in terms of the families and the detainees and the people that have been harmed and injured. I mean, there's a I think I think the Democrats listen, and you know, I am a frequent critic often when Democrats dropped the ball on things, whether it's policy or politics, But on this one, I think, you know, digging in

on a matter of principle. When the when the president shutting down the government is the right human move, it's the right policy move, and I think it's the right long term political move, maybe the right political move for Democrats, but I struggle to understand how it's the right moral one.

I mean, when two thirds, according to a report the CBS had to to publish as a correction to one of their fact checks, two thirds of the women and children that are coming across the border or molested at some point during their journey through Mexico, and women and children are being trafficked over the border illegally. Um, there's clearly a crisis of morality at the border that we could address by having a more secure border, right, I mean, if we cut off the source for these people that

are that are traveling people across the border. So and why the president can't come together on strategies at work? I mean the old build a ten foot wall and there's gonna be a twelve foot ladder at some point. I mean, is the sort of thing that John McCain and Lindsey Graham and a lot of other Republicans have

embraced over time. And I mean I think time and time again over the last ten to fifteen years, Democrats have been at the table to finally have an immigration reform Bill and the extreme right wing, the Tea Party wing, the Trump wing of the Republican Party has blown up deals that some of the top Republicans, most well known Republicans in the country had had pre negotiated and everywhere, but John I gotta pushed back everywhere that there's a

border wall, some sort of fencing. Illegal crossings are down materially. And we saw that play out in San Diego where CNN asked a local station, Hey, can we get a reporter to talk about how the border wall doesn't work there? They're like, oh, no, it actually works here. CNN says, Okay, never mind, We're not interested in having one of your reporters come on air. So border walls do work. So what's like, what's the problem now, I'm really trying to

drill down here. If you have to give some concessions, and the president's willing to give some concessions, He's even willing, he's even willing to work with Democrats and give them permanent status for DOCCA recipients. If the presidents willing to give that much up to Democrats, why can't they give him a measly five billion dollars less than point one percent of our annual budget, which is three point eight

trillion dollars. Why can't they give that very small concession just to appease the president, even if you don't think it matters. I mean, the Democrats have been at this table, and they've also been clear all along this is this is not going to happen. I mean, so if it's that easily of amount of money, um and and there's a huge consensus that it won't work, I mean, why would we shut down the government. But there is consensus that it does work where crossings are down everywhere we

put up these border walls. So we just can't agree on the facts. That's the problem. That's the problem, and maybe that's why Washington is broken. But John, Hey, I really appreciate your time today. I think we had a good, good to be a good conversation on the on the makeup of the twenty twenty field, and on the shutdown. Here Where can people learn more about what you do? Sure? My company's website is camerapoint Messaging dot com. And yeah, if we have another hour, we could maybe get through

the rest of the democratic field. We we sped through it pretty well, that's right. Thanks John, you're listening to the Buck Sexton Show. We'll be back with more after this quick break. Welcome back. You're listening to the Buck Sexton Show. I'm Harlan Hill filling in for Buck. The phone lines are open to give us a call at eight four four nine eight two five. That's eight four

four nine hundred. Fuck. Even before the government shutdown, the markets were under considerable pressure in the last quarter of twenty eighteen, and as a Trump supporter, this gave me some serious heartburn as we looked at twenty twenty, because frankly, I believe that old trope it's the economy stupid, and so I thought I would have somebody come in who's an expert at this to talk me off the ledge. So I've got John Hartley. He's an economics commentator that

you'll find Informs magazine and on Foxnews dot com. John, thanks for joining me. Thanks for having me, Harland. So first, I'm just going to ask a very simple question. Are we headed for a recession between now and the twenty

twenty presidential election? Harland, I think it's unlikely. I think if you look at heart economic data where we're at today, the unemployment rates below four percent, unemployment, insurance claims are at a post war low, and GDP growth is looking like it they're going to come in at around three percent for twenty eighteen. All of these things are evidence

of what I would call it a gangbusters economy. I think there's a lot of people who have become somewhat concerned about what's been happening in financial markets as of late. I think there's a lot of reasons why financial markets have been somewhat disconnected from the macroeconomy, one of them being what's happening on the global on the global stage is happening with the global economic growth. China has been adversely impacted by the ongoing trade negotiations between the US

and China. It's important to remember that forty percent of SMP five hundred earnings come from overseas, and so the US stock market, while it may seem like it's specific to the US, is actually can van flow depending on what's happening in international markets. If you look, as of right now, the US economy stands above and beyond all

the other country. Most other economies around the world are certainly and developed an emerging markets, and so I think what's happening is there's a big disconnect between what's happening in financial markets and what's happening in the US economy. I wouldn't be too concerned about what's happening as it right now as it relates to whether we're heading toward a recession or not. On average, recessions happened approximately fifteen percent of the time, and so I think I wouldn't

be too concerned between now and in twenty twenty. Certainly something that I think you want to keep an eye on, but it's not something that I'm too worried about. I think there's a lot of Democrats out there that maybe are hoping that a recession could happen, but I think

it's unlikely. Well, and one thing that was sort of a silver lining is that, you know, every time the Bureau of Labor Statistics comes out with a report like yeah, then they came out the report for December, I mean, the jobs growth looks solid, you know, I mean and even wage growth and so yeah, so it seems like despite the termolile and the markets and this this correction,

I mean, that's what it is. It is a market correction. Um, you know, it seems like the underlying economy is solid, I mean, and this underlies the longest expansion in post war history. UM. And so do you think that at least that is what is what you're projecting, is at least that trend continues or are you seeing that things are starting to slow down in terms of you know,

the microt I mean answer that the macro economics as well. Yeah, I think that I tenderly agree with you that, uh, you know, the longest post war uh, the longest post war expansion. UH, doesn't seem to show any signs as slowing. I think unemployment claims over the past few weeks have been flight like slightly elevated, but it's still very close to post war lows. Uh. I think one thing that you're seeing, and I think that one thing that positively

contributed to economic growth last year. Many forecasters would agree that tax reform, the Tax Custom Jobs Act, which was passed at the end of twenty seventeen. This is President trump signature tax law and signature legislative achievement, had a lot to do with writing investment or writing cabacs. So that those are things like factories, new equipment purchases that that US companies have made. That all played a lot into the wonderful economic numbers that we saw last year.

As you pointed out, we had a very strong job to report from December around two hundred and ninety thousand jobs or out of the economy. Also, in wages are passing three percent now, and so that when you take out inflation, that's one percent of real wage growth, something that we haven't seen consistently and brilliant in decades. So I think that, well, when you hop in there real quick, I mean, one of the one of the concerns that

I see is that is this government shutdown. I mean, we're seeing we're seeing the we're hearing the threat of downgrade of US credit rating, you know from triple A U if this, if this shutdown were to continue, and then if we hit our debt ceiling beyond that. Um, that those both seem like triggers that could truly undermine the trajectory of the economy going into twenty twenty. And I don't see the President flinching on this shutdown. UM.

And at the same time, I don't see Democrats flinching either. So, UM, is that reason to be concerned? I mean, do you do you think that that's being overplayed by some of the economists and some of the commentators that I you know here on Bloomberg and c NBC. Um, Or is that a real concern if the shutdown as to continue, Well, it's a great Uh, it's a great question. Uh there are a costs associated with a shutdown, or that there is an impact, But I think as of right now,

I think it's been relatively small. I think it nonlinearly increases over time. So I think if the shutdown, which is I think now twenty four days long, if it were to go on for another three months, I think that's you know, the point where I think you'd want to start maybe being very concerned. Um. But I think as right now, only two or three weeks, I think

isn't something to be overly concerned about. I would agree with you that I think it's been somewhat over hyped, uh in um in the financial press that tries to sort of weave a story around every every daily move in the market. But that that being said, you know, to your point about down grades, Uh, you know the yes that was been downgraded before if you remember in

September twenty eleven, Uh, it was downgraded. Uh. And this has to do with a standoff over a dead ceiling raid UM and what happened there is you actually did have markets um go haywire, but there was no macroeconomic

followed from that event. And so I think, you know, if you look at two thousand and eight where the raiding agencies had so many subprime mortgage, so many subprime mortgages raided triple A, I think the credit agencies can get it wrong, and in my opinion, I think they got it wrong when they deal in graded USB in twenty eleven. And if they do it again now, you know,

I wouldn't be surprised if markets overreacted. There's a lot of behavioral psychology that goes into market movements, and I think that also plays into why we've recently seen the downturn in markets. There's a lot of certain types of traders, momentum traders that can have an impact on markets as well. But again, I don't think any of those individual factors is probably enough to derail the economy. There's really only two reasons why economy will go into recession, at least

in the kind of the postwar history. One of them is the FED when they raise rates very high in response to high inflation, that can put the economy into recession. That happens in the early eighties when you had Paul Volker raising interest rates in early age of twenty percent. And the second cause of recessions in the US and

the post war period has been financial imbalances. So these are things like the tech bubble in the late nineties where you had all your friends were starting to dot com companies in getting bridge very quickly and very weird strange access is happening. Uh in. Similarly, in two thousand and seven and eight you had a housing bubble emerged, and so those are exstinancial imbalances that can that can cause recessions down on top of FED or called policy mistakes.

Those are the two sort of leading causes, and as of right now, I don't really see either of those being the case. Certainly with FED interest rates special term intrates being close to two percent, well below the twenty percent of the Vulgar era, uh IN. I think with stancial imbalances, you know, corporate debt issuance, nonstancial corporate debt issuance is maybe a bit higher than historical norms. But I don't necessarily see that as being a massive financial

access that poses some threat to the macroeconomy. That's reassuring. I mean, and you know, if one takeaway, if if I've had one positive takeaway from all of this, it's that it does seem like in terms of raising interest rates, the Feed is going to take a step back and maybe maybe slow down this year. Is that? Is that

your your read on it too? For twenty nineteen. Yeah, if you look at what both Jeroan Powell or j Powell, Chairman of the Fed's been saying with Vice chair the set has been saying what said funds futures market has been forecasting right now, the market expects around one the two hikes happening next year. Uh. The Fed is now forecasting I think two. I think it's important to remember how low interest rates are compared to their historical norms. Uh,

you know, two percent. You know, it's it's high or sorry, two and a half percent, which is where the upper bound of the FED funds ranges right now. Even though it's high, I think it's still low relative to UH to historical standards. And so yeah, I would agree with you that the FED I think is taking a pause right now, and I think ultimately that'll have a reassuring

impact both on markets in the economy as well. And the reason why they're raising intrace to begin with was concerns about inflation, and that I think have borne out to be someone alleviated as well. If GPI is now around two point two percent year over a year, I'm close to its two percent target, so I wouldn't be too concerned about too many more FED rate heikes causing some sort of a policy mistake. I think they're being very carefully dadependent. All right, well, John, thank you very

much for talking me off the ledge there. I'm feeling a little bit better about our prospects and we'll be sure to have you back on again soon. Thanks for having me. We'll be back after this quick break with more. The phone lines are open, so give us a call at eight four four nine hundred two eight two five. That's eight four four nine hundred Buck. Stay tuned to the Buck Sexton Show. Welcome back. You're listening to the Buck Sexton Show. I'm All and Hill filling in for Buck.

I wanted to thank you guys for your time tonight. It's always great to fill in for Buck, and I give him a lot of thanks and appreciation for trusting me with his mic tonight. By now you have all heard about snippy dot com. It's a new social media site. And if you've looked at snippy dot com and left, look again. Thousands of listeners have joined snippy dot com,

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No shadow banning and no suppression of conservative thought. Ever, now with an updated user interface and exciting new features, It's also available on the Apple App Store and available on the Android Google Play Store. Snippy is your new alternative social media. So tonight we've covered a lot of ground. I mean, one of my biggest takeaways was that there's nothing that the president can do that would appease Democrats. He literally nominated someone for attorney general. The Democrats lauded

right in, mister barr They previously lauded him. They've around the funeral of George H. W. Bush, they lauded him as well, And the President decided to bring mister Barr in as his attorney general. And you would think that with that George H. W. Bush heritage, and given the fact that they were just talking about how great that period of time was, that they would see a lot of virtue in that decision. Nope, if you watch the

hearings today, they did not. They did not. And so what we're seeing is a fundamental breakdown in the way that our government is operating. And I am concerned because I look at what's happening abroad. I look at Britain, for example, where tonight they had a vote on Brexit, and I can see the dysfunction with which their democracy

is barely functioning. And I worry now looking at our government shutdown, looking at the obstructionists and the Democratic Party turning down the President at every turn, even when he tries to do things that they would do, that the Democrats would want to do, for instance, infrastructure spending. When he tries to come to the table with solutions the Democrats should love, with nominations the Democrats should love, they say no, they cry foul, they say that he's a racist.

I mean, this is not hypervle anymore. This is the reality in which we're living. And so I look at that example of Brexit and how dysfunctional they are, and how they're about to potentially toss out their prime minister over this Brexit vote, and I'm like, gosh, Western democracy is in trouble. And it's clear why. The common thread through all of this is that there has been a

push to populous nationalism. There's been a push to give voice to the people of their own to put your own country first, in the case of Britain, to put Britain's first, and in the case of America, to put Americans first, and that's been rejected wholesale by the establishments of both parties, by the establishment of the Labor Party in the UK and by the establishment but the Conservative Party in the UK, by the establishment of the Democrat

and Republican parties here in the United States. And as long as those puishments refused to recognize that there's been a tectonic shift in geopolitics under their feet and they didn't see it coming in either the case of Brexit or President Trump. Until they realize that this has happened, until they come to terms with why it happened, until they start listening, so they start listening to voters, they

won't understand it. They think that these things were flukes, and I believe in the case of American politics that they will be proven wrong in twenty twenty when President Trump is reelected remains to be seen. What happens in the UK. I mean, they've got a big mess on their hands, big mess, much bigger than the one that we have. But it gives me pause because there's not

enough listening. What we see instead is that those establishments try to write off these movements, which are really the product of you of neglect by the establishment of middle class people. As long as they continue to neglect them. You know, I think that people are going to get even matter. This problem won't go away. You can stick your head in the sand. But you know what, the

middle class in the West is being destroyed. And they look at what's happening with mass migration gutting their wages, and they say, what in the world is happening here? Why? You know, like I'm crying out for a job, right and I'm crying out for better wages. I want my kids to have the opportunities that I thought that they would have that I had, and I think they're going to have a worse off chance. They're looking beyond migration.

They're looking towards automation. They have a lot of anxiety about is my job going to be anxiety or is my job going to be automated? That's another problem beyond that, you know, they're looking towards the way that you know, the people and are native people in their own countries have been subjugated. Like enough of this. You know, just because I'm a white male doesn't mean that I have at all benefited from a patriarchy, right. I mean, I'm

out there struggling every day. Don't write off my problems and concerns as less than than others. And so this is a time of a lot of pain and transition, and I hope the establishments of both parties wake up and realize that they need to do a lot more listening. Anyway, I'll be back soon. I really appreciate Buck for his time tonight, and I thank you for listening. If you want to follow me, I'm on Twitter at Harlan h A R. L An. Have a good night. This is the Buck Sexton Show.