LIVE: MAGA gets UNCOVERED as PARTY REVOLTS over Trump Moves

What this episode is about

The discussion reveals a significant rift within the Republican Party regarding legislative decisions surrounding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, highlighting the struggles of Speaker Mike Johnson to maintain control as a faction of Republicans and Democrats push for change through discharge petitions. This internal conflict illustrates a broader failure of Republican leadership to unite on key issues, ultimately leading to a loss of power and direction within the party.

Key takeaways

• Discharge Petition for Speaker: Johnson's backing down empowers bipartisan ACA subsidy extension.
• Hakeem Jeffries: Mastering political chess with a 'no-strings-attached' ACA win.
• Swing District Swing: Moderate Republicans cede victories to mitigate reelection fears.
• Political Malpractice: GOP refrains from ACA vote, amplifying internal discontent.
• Holiday Health Drama: Senate faces festive ultimatum on ACA extensions — Grinch or gift?

Who speaks in this episode?

• Anthony Davis (Host) · 32 min speaking
• Ron Filipkowski (Guest) · 48 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 10:00: Mike Lawler, Speaker of the House, Christmas recess, continuing resolution
2. 10:00 – 20:00: boat strikes, Dan Bonino, Heg Seth, Midas group chat
3. 20:00 – 30:00: COVID vaccine, dentist office, Five Minute News, Jackos
4. 30:00 – 40:00: ballroom, architect, dictatorship, military parades
5. 40:00 – 50:00: ballroom, Uncovered, code uncovered, American companies
6. 50:00 – 1:00:00: Heg Seth
7. 1:00:00 – 1:10:00: demilitarized zone
8. 1:10:00 – 1:19:38: ballroom, Dan Bonino, Keystone Cops, Uncovered

Notable quotes from "LIVE: MAGA gets UNCOVERED as PARTY REVOLTS over Trump Moves"

• Welcome to Uncovered. It's Wednesday.

  about Uncovered · at 0:12

• In those swing districts, probably more now, could not go home during this Christmas recess without extending these credits. They just couldn't do it.

  about Christmas recess · at 3:03

• That's the one good thing about him. let's take a look at Mike Lawler saying it was political malpractice to not allow a vote on the ACA subsidy extension.

  about Mike Lawler · at 5:01

• The only one who didn't was Heg Seth.

  about Heg Seth · at 13:46

• I think the reports are Bonino is out.

  about Dan Bonino · at 15:03

• Meanwhile, he's focused on the ballroom.

  about ballroom · at 32:15

• His health and the and the dictatorship, which will last longer. It's completely terrifying as a thought. But I Yeah, I'm in complete I'm completely of the opinion that this stuff is for him forever. And.

  about dictatorship · at 37:54

• Aura's bestselling Carver matte frames, named number one by Wire Cutter by using promo code uncovered at checkout. That's a rafra.com.

  about code uncovered · at 44:35

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Steve Witkoff — Person · 4 mentions
• Heg Seth — Person · 3 mentions · first at 13:46
• Attorney General Pam Bondi — Person · 3 mentions
• Mike Lawler — Person · 2 mentions · first at 5:04
• Dan Bonino — Person · 2 mentions · first at 15:03
• KJP — Person · 2 mentions
• Jackos — Person · 1 mention · first at 21:50
  Hardcore Trump I the paid influencer types you know your Laura Loomers your Jackos they immediately reversed their positions and started attacking Reiner along the same lines…
• Jean Thoon — Person · 1 mention · first at 29:26
  President's attack? What about the president's attack of him? And also the Senate majority leader, Jean Thoon, the top Republican in that chamber, also declined to comment.
• Manu Raju — Person · 1 mention · first at 29:30
  Okay. Well, my favorite reporter, Manu Raju, everybody knows how much I love him because he's so relentless.
• Richard Dixon — Person · 1 mention · first at 31:28
  Weren't nice people. Andrew Jackson there have been quite a few over the years that were Richard Dixon that were jerks. Woodro Wilson I would put in that category as well. And…
• Woodro Wilson — Person · 1 mention · first at 31:29
  Jackson there have been quite a few over the years that were Richard Dixon that were jerks. Woodro Wilson I would put in that category as well. And but they none of them none…
• Jamie Raskin — Person · 1 mention · first at 42:06
  Yeah. and Jamie Raskin introduced a bill yesterday in Congress to because the White House grounds are the only thing that falls is exempted from review by the.

Companies & orgs

• U.S. House of Representatives — Company · 6 mentions
• Uncovered — Company · 5 mentions · first at 0:12
• Midas group chat — Company · 1 mention · first at 15:32
  Time, soon as it came out and we both texted our takes on it to our Midas group chat and they were like exactly the same and Brett and I agree on most things which is, there's…
• Five Minute News — Company · 1 mention · first at 23:12
  In reality who recognizes that Trump has crossed the line. I mean to say I've actually made a whole video on Five Minute News about it this morning just talking about the…
• auraframes.com — Company · 1 mention · first at 44:31
  But you can frame it. For a limited time, save on the perfect gift by visiting auraframes.com to get $35 off Aura's bestselling Carver matte frames, named number one by Wire…
• indiclouds.co — Company · 1 mention · first at 45:53
• Indicoud — Company · 1 mention · first at 46:08
  Enjoy responsibly and thanks to Indicoud for sponsoring today's muchneeded quiet.
• American companies — Company · 1 mention · first at 49:13
  Oil fields. at least a big chunk of them for the United States, for American companies. And whether he's going to get a kick back from this somewhere, some downward down the…
• MSN — Company · 1 mention

Products & tech

• Aura — Product · 6 mentions
• Carver matte frames — Product · 1 mention · first at 44:35

Concepts & topics

• ballroom — Concept · 12 mentions · first at 32:15
• arch — Concept · 6 mentions
• ark — Concept · 5 mentions
• Speaker of the House — Concept · 3 mentions · first at 0:50
  Just crushing. We have really no speaker of the house at this point. We have discharge petitions. Johnson won't bring anything to the floor that the majority wants. And when I say majority,.
• dictatorship — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 37:56
• continuing resolution — Concept · 1 mention · first at 0:33
  Of course something that Republicans and Donald Trump were trying to prevent from being in this kind of continuing resolution. Just bring us up to speed on what's changed.
• Christmas recess — Concept · 1 mention · first at 3:09
• Press — Concept · 1 mention · first at 9:38
  He's not a wartime speaker, and it's sort of like my take on KJP, the Biden press secretary. I said she's not a wartime press secretary. She wasn't a good press secretary…
• Trump cabinet — Concept · 1 mention · first at 13:36
  And I was Wait a minute. And I checked and it was literally every single member of the Trump cabinet instantly, like within 10 minutes of each other, put out a post supporting Susie Wilds.
• boat strikes — Concept · 1 mention · first at 13:52
  And that's because he was in the middle of briefing Congress, which we may talk about later, on the boat strikes. And so, but then as soon literally five minutes after he got…
• COVID vaccine — Concept · 1 mention · first at 24:57
  Saw them like 80% negative was it's been like three or four years was when he was bragging about the COVID vaccine developing. That was the only other time I'd seen them react…
• dentist office — Concept · 1 mention · first at 26:06
  Don't aren't into politics at all and aren't on social media. I was at my dentist office this morning. I was asking them, did you see the Trump thing about Ryan? They 100% of the people I talked to saw it, knew about it, and were.
• military parades — Concept · 1 mention · first at 33:39
  Talked about building a lot of monuments all over the country, having the military parades. He absolutely talked about that during the campaign.
• architect — Concept · 1 mention · first at 35:00
  Around it. It's not gonna it's not going to look good. But so he fired the architect, not the contractor.
• commission — Concept · 1 mention · first at 42:19
  Grounds are the only thing that falls is exempted from review by the commission, the panel that has authority over buildings in DC. the White House grounds are exempt from…
• gunboat diplomacy — Concept · 1 mention · first at 49:24
  I have no doubt. So, so that's really what this is all about. This is like oldfashioned gunboat diplomacy. the stuff that you know we used to do a hundred years ago in Latin…
• demilitarized zone — Concept · 1 mention · first at 1:06:31
  And we'll we'll give him this we'll take back this we'll create this buffer zone this demilitarized zone and you know sometimes the Russian negotiators they act like they're they're oh yeah we're interested in this but it's always.
• Keystone Cops — Concept · 1 mention · first at 1:17:57
  The weapon outside the classroom area. they look like the Keystone cops. This FBI has lost so much juice and so much reputation damage over these cases since Cash took over. Again, I don't see how he survives. I don't understand how he.

Places & events

• Arc de Triomphe — Place · 2 mentions
• Rubicon — Place · 1 mention · first at 41:12
  But this is when we cross the Rubicon into the dictatorship. And this is you know this is the barometer for what is a functioning democracy versus a despot in an authoritarian takeover. You know.
• White House grounds — Place · 1 mention · first at 42:11
  Yeah. and Jamie Raskin introduced a bill yesterday in Congress to because the White House grounds are the only thing that falls is exempted from review by the commission, the panel that has authority over buildings in DC. the White House.
• Donbas — Place · 1 mention

Sponsors

• code uncovered — Sponsor · 2 mentions · first at 44:40
• promo code uncovered — Sponsor · 1 mention · first at 44:40
  Aura's bestselling Carver matte frames, named number one by Wire Cutter by using promo code uncovered at checkout. That's a rafra.com.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:12 Welcome to Uncovered. It's Wednesday. I'm Anthony. Here's Ron. And together we're about to uncover the MAGA propaganda that is not covered by the mainstream and corporate media. Uh Ron, should we start with this uh kind of semi-breaking news about the kind of reversal of the ACA subsidies? This is of course something that Republicans and Donald Trump were trying to prevent from being in in this kind of continuing resolution. Just bring us up to speed on what's changed.

0:39 Well, you know, I followed this every first of all, let me just say this is a tremendously huge defeat, humiliating defeat for Mike Johnson today. Yeah.

0:50 Just crushing. We have really no speaker of the house at this point. We we have discharge petitions. Johnson won't bring anything to the floor that the majority wants. And when I say majority, Republicans are are never able to get a majority on anything. The majority right now in the House is all the Democrats and a handful of Republicans who are worried about losing reelection. That's the current majority in the House. and Mike Johnson does not want to bring anything to the floor that that particular majority wants. And so he's blocking everything. And so what is happening whether it's on Epstein or now the Affordable Care Act subsidies is that group is going around him with with a discharge petition. That's why I posted on social media that the the current name of the speaker of the house is not Mike Johnson. It is discharge petition. That's the name of the speaker. Discharge is the speaker's

1:49 first name. Petition is the speaker's last name because that's how things are getting done now. And so what happened was I mean this goes back to the this goes back to the shutdown. Uh what Democrats have always wanted from day one going way back to the beginning of the shutdown was a three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act. And they even even back then Jeff said he was willing to do one year. even back then. And no, no, no, no. Rejected by both Senate and House Republicans. So, we had this long government shutdown over it.

2:24 So, they finally come back and nothing gets done in the Senate. Uh they had their vote, got shot down. So, what happens is we go right to the right to the right to the wall on this thing. Uh Hakee Jeff says, "Nope, you know, I'm done talking about one year. I'm done compromising. Republicans want to make all these changes. They want to add all these conditions to subsidies, uh, capping it at a certain income level, all this kind of stuff. And I think Jeff, you have to say, huge win for Jeff. I mean, he knew that he was sitting in a strong position. He knew that those two dozen or so Republicans in those swing districts, probably more now, uh, could not go home during this Christmas recess without extending these credits. They they just couldn't do it.

3:14 And so at least not before the end of the year. And so Hakee Jeff just played hard ball and said, "I'm not backing off. It's three years. It's no conditions, no strings attached, and that's it." And you know, those handful of Republican moderates in those swing districts whined and cried and complained about Jeff and they complained about Johnson and ultimately what happened is they caved and they agre they they today they agreed to sign on to the three-year discharge petition which means it has to be brought to the floor. Now this the next thing is that Democrats are saying you need to bring it to the floor right now before we break for Christmas. But under the rules, he could drag it out for nine days, which takes us till after Christmas, which means that there will be most likely a lapse. If if Johnson plays games, there will be a lapse in coverage for some people. Uh, so I can't imagine him playing games at this point,

4:09 but who knows? But the bottom line is this is a complete humiliation. And now this is going to go to the Senate, a three-year clean extension, and they're basically going to be daring Republican senators after the House just passed it with bipartisan support to as a Christmas present to the country vote against this and kick 20 million people potentially off their health insurance. So huge win for Jeff. You got to got to give him all the credit.

4:36 He sometimes pulls it out the bag. You know, we're often critical of him because he doesn't go far enough, but he does have this kind of softly softly approach, doesn't he? And then eventually he either snaps or he just kind of holds his position, which is what he's done on this occasion. Um, this clips of that superpower is stubbornness.

4:56 You know, when he digs in, he digs in. He does not move. And it, you know, that's the one good thing about him. You know,

5:04 let's take a look at Mike Lawler saying it was political malpractice to not allow a vote on the ACA subsidy extension.

5:11 Thank you, Mr. Leader. This morning, Congressman Mike Lawler said that it was political malpractice to not allow a vote on the ACA subsidy decision this week. What's your reaction to that? And will Republicans suffer any political blowback for not allowing something like that to come to? Well, Mike Lawler is a very dear friend and and a close colleague of mine. I ironically uh weekend before last I was in uh New York uh in his district on Long Island and we were campaigning together uh ensuring that he gets reelected. Mike Lawler fights hard for New York as every Republican in this conference does for their districts. The districts are different. they have different priorities and and ideas, but we do have there's about a dozen members in the conference that are in these swing districts who are fighting hard to make sure that they reduce cost uh for for all of their constituents and and many

5:59 of them did want to vote on this Obamacare, you know, co era subsidy the Democrats created. We looked for a way to try to allow for that uh pressure release valve and it just was not to be. We worked on it all the way through the weekend in fact. Um and uh and in the end that there was not an agreement wasn't made. Now, everybody was at the table in good faith. Uh, and I certainly appreciate the views and the opinions of all every member of this conference, but I will tell you one thing they will all join in unity on is voting for this bill that we've been discussing this morning because again,

6:31 Mike Johnson has this interesting way of kind of wriggling out of everything, doesn't he? He kind of rewrites the narrative, shunts the timeline, and and tries to deflect anything from looking bad on him. That's like one of the skills he brings to the table, but that's kind of where it ends.

6:48 Well, and he always acts like he's trying to a golly g I'm just trying to make everybody happy and do the right thing. I mean, the reality is 90% of his caucus is with him on this hardline. They don't like these subsidies. They don't want these subsidies. They don't like the ACA. They didn't vote for the ACA. They don't like any of this. And they're not in swing districts. They're in districts where, you know, they they don't even have to campaign and they win by 30 points. So why do they care? Uh they don't care about compromising with Democrats on this. And so Mike Johnson is with them because if he wasn't with them, he wouldn't be speaker. And so he just refuses to budge. The problem is, you know, he won't let anything come to the floor is is really the issue. And that and that gives leverage to the Democrat. In other words, he could he could allow this stuff to come to the floor, allow it to pass, allow his

7:44 members to vote against it, his 90% of members to vote against it, and he could say, "Hey, you know what? Uh, that's the will of the majority. I was against it. I voted against it. You know, we've seen Democrats do this many times before. You know, I was against it, but you know, the majority passed it and there's not much I can do." But he doesn't he refuses to do that. And so that basically makes Jeff speaker. As long as Jeff can grab four or five Republicans on him, whether it's on Epstein or whether it's on this, then he can go around Mike Johnson. And that's why they were talking about after Epstein passed doing away with the discharge petition.

8:23 Uh which which kind of infuriated a lot of members. And keep in mind these discharge this never happened before. I mean discharge petitions happens like you might get one every 20 years. It's extremely rare for the rank and a majority of the house to over go around over the head of the speaker and sign these things, but it's starting to happen with regularity now. And that's why I say discharge petition that the actual members, the inmates could be taking over the asylum. The actual members could be running the house.

8:57 Well, desperate times call for desperate measures. I mean, this is not a normal government. This is not a normal administration. It's not a normal Congress. Trump doesn't bother with Congress half the time anyway. So, it seems like people are going to have to step up. It's almost like a kind of mini revolt from the inside.

9:16 Exactly. Yeah. Exactly right. And so, you know, it just it just makes Johnson look completely weak and ineffective. They can ignore him. So, whatever he gets up and says to the press, I mean, it's just it's just spin. It's just irrelevant. But this also is is a problem with

9:32 he's not a wartime speaker, you know, and it's sort of like my my take on KJP, the Biden press secretary. I said she's not a wartime press secretary. She wasn't a good press secretary during a presidential campaign year. Like it's all right to have somebody like her as as like your presidential secret press secretary your first year or something, but you don't have her during an election year. And so that's what we had. And you know, I think it hurt us somewhat. And so here you have Mike Johnson who has never had to run in an election. I mean, he's never even had an opponent. He is one in one of these districts where any person with an R next to their name is going to win by 50 points. He's in the Shreveport area of sort of northern Louisiana. And so he's never had to fund raise. He's never had to run tough campaigns himself. So he really, you know, his political skills are not great.

10:26 I was just going to say I kind of miss carrying Jean Pierre compared to Caroline Levit. I know which one I would take any day.

10:35 So bear that in mind. At least she didn't lie. You know, I just I felt like she wasn't always an effective communicator, but at least she wasn't a habitual liar,

10:42 right? Well, this is it. Let's talk about talking of the kind of behind thescenes crew. Uh and it very much is a theatrical production. So that is probably a good way to a good analogy for it is the Susie Wilds interviews. She's done 11 meetings with Vanity Fair and they've basically given it's a is it currently a two-part or have they added parts three and four yet? I'm not sure.

11:07 Two parts. Yeah, one and two, right? And so they're basically charting Trump's second presidency. And so they've been to visit her 11 times. And you know, people always said this about Michael Wolf, like why would they let these people in? and then afterwards complain that they don't like the coverage because of course she's now saying that it's a hit piece and all that kind of stuff but it's actually a very accurate portrayal of what's going on behind the scenes and and just to summarize I mean the vanity fair piece says that the whole government is basically run by half a dozen people and you know that there is this kind of group of of nutters of of like far-right nationalists who are just have taken in control of America. Uh, and and she's complicit. So, what's your what's your take on what she said? Because the controversy really is that she's been referring to Donald Trump as behaving

12:02 like an alcoholic and she references her own father amongst other things. What was your take on on these on these pieces?

12:09 Yeah, my two my two takes was first of all, yeah, I think what everybody was taken back was was how honest she was about a lot of people. And you know, there's two sides to that, too. A lot of there's one side saying, "Well, she thought some of that was off the record. She didn't realize a lot of that was going to be used. Maybe she talked too much." And then there's the other side which says, "Oh, no." You know, she knows exactly what she's doing. This was very calculated move on her part, you know. And I kind of like, you know, think I'm maybe somewhat inclined to believe the second part, you know, which is I think that she did this on purpose and and and and you know, to consolidate power. And I think if you look at what the fallout has been, it w it isn't that she's in trouble. It's the exact opposite. It's that, you know, she by by putting this story out, it it really has caused the whole cabinet to sort of

13:07 publicly pledge their support of her because that's what they've been ordered to do by Trump in the wake of this story. And she's clearly she supposedly had a private meeting with Trump. Yeah. So, what I noticed was right after the story broke, all of these cabinet secretaries, cuz I follow all of them, uh, started posting all these posts like immediately, like one after the other, like right together.

13:31 And I was like, "Wait a minute." And I checked and it was literally every single member of the Trump cabinet instantly, like within 10 minutes of each other, put out a post supporting Susie Wilds. The only one who didn't was Heg Seth. And that's because he was in the middle of briefing Congress, which we may talk about later, on the boat strikes. And so, you know, but then as soon literally five minutes after he got out of that meeting, he posted his So 100% of the cabinet posted their support.

14:04 So, was it Trump that dictated that? I I think it was Trump to Susie Wilds to Caroline Levit. I think I think the email went out from Caroline Levit that CCD basically Trump and Wilds and they were all

14:20 forced I mean whether they wanted to or not forced to the the shortest one everybody wrote these like long paragraph things. The one who wrote the shortest like little one sentence was Cash Patel. His his was very like tepid like yeah yeah she's fine you know she's all right. But [snorts] we'll we'll talk about Cash Patel later, but you know I you know they can't all be great fans of hers surely.

14:47 No. And uh so that that was the interesting thing was like how how candid she was. The reaction was just way over the top uh as far as people cried her defense. I will say I don't think she's going to be there that long. I think the reports are Bonino is out. I've always believed that Patel is out soon and I think that Wilds is probably got another six months in her and then she's out and then who knows who knows what'll come after after that. But the my other takeaway so that's my first takeaway. But my other takeaway was this. I read the whole thing and Brett was reading the whole thing at the same time, you know, soon as it came out and we both texted our takes on it to our Midas group chat and they were like exactly the same and Brett and I agree on most things which is, you know, there's this myth out there that she is like the responsible den mother, the the the normal person, the moderate person

15:47 that sort of keeps all these nutballs in line And I think that that is not true. I mean, I think that after reading this, I never really thought that for sure. I was I questioned that narrative, but that seems to be like the conventional wisdom in the media. But after reading this story, I feel like no, she's she is one who is able to recognize when some of these guys are going too far, but then she goes right along with what they're trying to do. So, it's like she'll push back and she'll say, "Well, maybe we shouldn't do this." But then if if they dig in, then she goes, "Okay, well, let's find a way to make it happen." So, so I don't think she's like a hero, good guy, reasonable by any means. I think she's 100%, you know, in the Trump cult. Maybe she just might be slightly more normal than the rest of them.

16:41 Could I make a prediction as to who will get the chief of staff job after Susie Wilds?

16:45 I have no idea. So go ahead. Caroline Levit. Oh god. Caroline Levit 100%. No. Oh yeah. She She is his star. She's [clears throat] And I think she's getting a bit sick of doing press conferences.

16:59 Well, I look forward to it. I'm still, by the way, I still maintain my position because I was reading some stuff about this the other day cuz you and I, we know, we talk we talk about this a lot, but I maintain my position that that Ton Donald Trump Jr. will be on the ticket with uh with

17:15 I know you you said that for a while vice president you know I tell you I we I I don't comment on people's looks you know at all I don't I don't do that you know I don't judge but I'll just say like except for like plastic surgery we'll do we'll comment on that but you know which Caroline Levit has certainly had plenty of she got the Michael Jackson nose you know deal but you know you look at her and she is I said this yesterday the guys she's like 27 going on 40 and I think it's because of the stress of the job it it she really does look worn out stressed out because I think when you knowingly have to lie day after day after day I think even someone who lies as easy as her it does get to you after a while it does wear you out and she's just constantly getting beat up

18:06 by reporters which is you know they they should beat her up uh because she's lying all the time, but but you notice like she's literally aged like 10 years this year, I think.

18:19 Um, let's talk about what is really the most tragic and saddest story of the of the week, and that's the the death of Rob Reiner and his um wife and uh and we now know at the at the hands um allegedly of his own son. There isn't a more tragic story to come out of, you know, American popular culture. The Hollywood is devastated. You know, everybody is stepped up with their thoughts and condolences, except for Donald Trump, of course, who decided to take it upon himself to write the most abusive truth social post. So completely offensive that we won't even repeat it here. But basically to paraphrase, he said that that that Rob Reiner was killed because he had Trump derangement syndrome and that, you know, this is a this is as a result of of that and and have just basically completely abused him.

19:19 Is this a new low for the presidency or is this just what we've become accustomed to now?

19:26 Yeah, it's I it's the worst. I think it our consensus ammonitas was this guy's posted a lot of like really horrible things over the years and terrible nasty things.

19:40 This is probably his worst post that he's ever made. I just talk the whole context everything. I'll say this, you know, we all woke up to this Monday morning and you know, of course, as you I've covered the MAGA movement, the Republican party for many years and so I follow all these people, all their influencers, podcasts, all that. So, I woke up and and you know, I wanted to see what they had to say about it as well. So, I was checking them and you know, they had arrived at sort of a consensus by 9:00 a.m. which was we're not going to go there. We're we're And this is before Trump posted anything.

20:13 You know, they said we're we're going to show that we're not like the left celebrating Charlie Kirk. You know, we're going to be better than them. We're going to we're not going to do that. Blah blah blah. You know, even though again no elected Democrats anywhere celebrated Charlie Kirk, no prominent Democrats, no members of the media, no influencer with over 100,000 followers. It was uh it was fringy people, people with small accounts, like random people. There was no prominent Democrats out there doing that, but that's the narrative that they want to say. So they were like posting like things sort of lukewarm, tepid praise.

20:53 Well, I liked his movie or I liked this about him or, you know, and I was like, okay, maybe maybe that's where they're going to go with this. But then, of course, you know, here comes Trump and and we all I figured he was going to do something like take a little shot at him and yet say something positive, but maybe take a little backhanded jab at him being the classless jerk that he is. But it the whole thing was just and I'm sure everybody's seen it so that's why we don't need to rehash it but it was just one of the most repulsive, disgusting, horrible things. And then of course what I had to do is then go back and check the Republican MAGA reaction to what he posted. And that was incredible just to go through that whole process because you know the real hardcore Trump I the paid influencer types you know your Laura Loomers your Jackos they immediately reversed their positions and started attacking Reiner

21:56 along the same lines as Trump but that was that was maybe 20%. The other 80% were 100% even hardcore Trump supporters were just like, "This is wrong. This is not it, man. This is terrible." And I chronicled all of those in my Substack on Monday. And then I went over to True Social. I think we have like one post that I pulled just to represent that because, you know, that's again is hardcore QAnon nuts are over there. And this is representative of the kind of post that were there.

22:29 Yeah, I'll read it. It says, "A man and his wife are dead. It was a a horrific act of violence. I appreciated his work and not his politics to align their deaths with TDS only in sight. Please show some humility. Say you are sorry for your thoughtless words that undoubtedly hurt his fans and loved ones. I know you were doing a great job and I'm guessing you didn't actually write this post. #fire Susie Wilds. She gives horrible advice. God gives grace to the humble, but he opposes the proud, praying for you through the days and nights. So yeah, I mean that is a a perfect example of of somebody who lives in reality who recognizes that Trump has crossed the line. I mean to say I've actually made a whole video on Five Minute News about it this morning just talking about the depths of depravity that a an individual has to go to to have no humanity. It's almost like he has taken a leave of absence from

23:29 humanity to be able to sink so low as to use language about that about someone who had been slain early hours earlier

23:38 hours before. Yeah. Right. It it is it defies and what and what it also does is it really shows the measure of the man to the rest of the world. Again, you know that the office of president is not enough. You have to inhabit the office of president with some dignity. And I think, and this is what my video is about, he he kind of relies on on the the sanctity of the office, but he doesn't think that he needs to step up, that the office, him having won the presidency is enough and he can just say anything. And you know, even previous presidents who might not have been up to it, you know, George W. Bush, for example, at least they tried to act like a president as often as they could.

24:26 Sure, occasionally they would let it slip, but this guy doesn't even know where to start. He is literally from the gutter and and that was on full display this week.

24:36 I mean, you look at that post from that that woman. I mean, that is a hardcore Trump supporter who's active on true social

24:44 saying like, "What are you do?" And that was like 80% of the replies over there. And I I have not seen The last time I saw them like 80% negative was it's been like three or four years was when he was bragging about the COVID vaccine developing. That was the only other time I'd seen them react to him in that particular way. And I I actually kept checking to see if he would delete it because

25:08 he has rarely deleted tweets. Like, you know, couple every year he will delete when he goes too far. This one, nope. Nope. Nope. He did not delete. So, so that was uh that that was certainly very interesting. But um yeah, it was um it was beyond the pale. You know, the other thing is I always um when it comes to things like this, I want to find out what the non-political, non-social media, nonline people if if they know about this, you know, because we always we always talk about that lowinformation voter, the person who doesn't watch CNN, MSN, doesn't watch Fox, uh doesn't follow the news, you know, and they just go about their lives, watch sports, raise their kids, right? So, I'm always curious of if things like this ever filter down to those people. So, I I actually spent the last couple days, you know, just talking to those people who don't aren't into politics at all and aren't on social media. I was at my

26:06 dentist office this morning. I was asking them, you know, um did you did you see the the Trump uh thing about Ryan? They 100% of the people I talked to saw it, knew knew about it, and were repulsed by it. So again, why why why did he It's just because it hurts him politically. It hurts the Republican party

26:29 and and because then when they go to Mike Johnson and they ask him for his take on it

26:35 while while many other Republicans were condemning Trump's remarks, Johnson of course won't. You know, he's just like, I didn't see it. I don't know anything about it. you know, that's Trump being Trump, you know, and so it hurts them and it's unnecessarily it unnecessarily hurts them, but he does it anyway.

26:54 But that that shows the level of of mental illness that Trump is dealing with. The fact that he's not able to even temper his language in these moments. He can't think far enough ahead to know that it's going to hurt him. He has to score that point to own the libs because Robin has said stuff about Trump. You know, Rob Rhiner was an activist as well as a an actor and a director. And so he he he cannot handle any criticism. He's never ever been exposed to the kind of criticism that he's facing with, you know, activists who who cut through. You know, when celebrities speak up against Trump, then Trump is more likely to hear it. Probably less so from regular people, but it really hurt him. And so that's how he chooses to deal with it.

27:42 Um, we have a we have a clip, a little a little montage of uh, you know, Republicans um, reacting. Let's take a look.

27:51 It's just classless. It's not it's not appropriate. Uh, it it's not presidential. I mean, they're real people. They were brutally murdered. It's not It's not a laughing matter. I

28:00 I found it extremely distasteful and uh, I completely inappropriate. I liked his last sentence. That was about all that needed to be said. What

28:07 about the rest of it? It's very disappointing. A wise man once said nothing. I think President Trump should have said nothing.

28:17 Now, this is a rarity in Donald Trump's time in politics, seeing Republicans, particularly here on Capitol Hill, pushing back. Donald Trump posted on social media in the aftermath of Rob Briner's alleged murder, saying that the famed Hollywood director was a quote struggling and tortured once talented movie director and also saying that his death apparently came because Riner was infected with quote Trump derangement syndrome. The speaker of the house, Mike Johnson, wanted absolutely nothing to do with this controversy. In fact, I tried to ask him on multiple occasions about this and whether it was appropriate for Trump to post this.

29:00 It's another reminder of just the senseless violence and and evil that is so rampant in our society. So, our prayers go out to the Reiner family, the survivors, and uh everybody who's affected by this. We're coming upon Christmas. We have to appeal to our better angels and we have to I think we've got to amplify those voices and those sentiments. So, that that's my that's my position on it. I don't think that's probably a spread. What about the president's attack? What about the president's attack of him? And also the Senate majority leader, Jean Thoon, the top Republican in that chamber, also declined to comment.

29:30 Okay. Well, my favorite reporter, Manu Raju, you know, everybody knows how much I love him because he's so relentless. You know, he hides behind doors, he hides behind walls, the guy's everywhere, you know, and he can really get people to talk to him. He's he's really good, you know, good at that as you can get. But yeah, I mean, you know, you just have one Republican after another that was very critical except for Mike Johnson who refused to say anything and John Thun as well. Look, I understand these guys, they don't want to deal with it. They don't want to deal with, hey, Trump just posted something crazy. How what do you think about it? Cuz they get this stuff all they went through four years of it before and here they go again. But he's the leader of their party. They all support him. So that's part of the deal.

30:20 And I understand that they don't want to they don't want to answer for, you know, comment on what he has to say, but you know, I think that that's their responsibility as leaders, but they've shown time and time again that they're they're not leaders. They're not moral leaders. They're not Christian leaders, and they're not really political leaders. They're just sick of fans of Trump. Af and afraid of Trump.

30:44 This is not really going to change anything though, is it? I mean, you know, you in any other country, anywhere else in the world, uh, a leader posting something as offensive as this would require his resignation. There wouldn't really be any question about it. He would absolutely have to resign. He would have to make a apology to the family and probably a donation to a charity and then they would go into exile and you would never see them again. But with Donald Trump, this isn't really going to dent his trajectory at all. Yeah. because we've completely rewritten our standards for him. We have we've we've had some presidents who weren't nice people. I mean, Andrew Jackson there have been quite a few over the years that were Richard Dixon that were jerks. Um Woodro Wilson I would put in that category as well. And but they none of them none of those people would ever have said anything like this. And

31:42 this is just an everyday occurrence for him. None of them would call a reporter piggy, you know, like but he has held to a different standard which is no standard. And as we've said many times, it is up to members of his party to police this behavior. And the fact that they have not done that and [clears throat] the fact that they refused to stand up to him is the reason why he get continues to get worse and worse and worse besides his dementia and mental illness. Meanwhile, he's focused on the ballroom. Uh there's more controversy over that is being sued over it now. But also the arc to Trump, which is the other thing that he again, these things are the seem to be the only things he really gets excited about. You know, he doesn't have any energy for any subject. You really have to kind of push him to get him to take any interest on anything that's important. But these terrible kind of trivial

32:44 symbols of authoritarianism to him are the most important things. And so, you know, now he's on about the the the ark. I mean, you couldn't make this stuff up really. What's what's your take on the reason for the ark to Trump in addition to the ballroom? Is it that he got criticism over the ballroom, so he's just doubling down and that's what petulant narcissists do? No, I think he had this like Hitler, you know, he had this massive building uh projects in mind. I think he had these in mind cuz I I heard him talk about this stuff last year and the year before uh wanting to do all of this stuff. So, the ballroom I don't remember him ever talking about, but the arches and all he he talked about building monuments. Absolutely. He talked about building a lot of monuments all over the country, having the military parades. He he absolutely talked about that during the campaign.

33:43 Not many people listened to him, but I did. And you know, so I I expected that. I didn't expect the ballroom next to the White House, this massive thing. He never really cuz he never really went into specifics. But as far as the, you know, couple things as far as this goes.

33:58 First of all, this thing is already a boondoggle that is going radically over budget and radically behind schedule. And and when he unveiled this, he said, "This is going to cost $200 million. It's not going to cost anybody anything that he this is, you know, people forget the evolution." He said he

34:18 he was going to pay for it. Yeah. Then it became donate donors. Then it became 250 million. Then it and and also he said the existing structures are not going to be affected. Right? Then he tore down the east wing and didn't tell anybody. Right?

34:35 Then he ended up firing the original contractor that he hired. He got rid of him because that contractor

34:43 uh expressed dismay over that Trump kept increasing the size and the scope of this thing. and he the contractor felt this is not going to be in proportion to the White House or the other buildings around it. It's not gonna it's not going to look good. But so he fired the architect, not the contractor.

35:01 Oh, I'm sorry. The architect. Yeah. Yeah. Fired the architect. So the the the ark, first of all, we say here in America, I don't know what they say in England, we call it an arch [snorts] c. We don't call it arc. That's French. So

35:16 yeah, the French is the arc to tri. He's got the arc the triumph. So, so now whenever he refers to it cuz he's got arc the triumph in his head because what he said is he wants it to be like double the size of the cuz we have to be like bigger and better than France.

35:30 So since that's the most famous arch or arc in the world arguably he wants to have one double the size. So he's got that in his head, but he but here we call it an arch. And he continues golden arches, right? But he continues to refer to it as ark like the ark of the covenant because he's got arc to triumph in his head. So that that's just another little thing that I notice.

35:59 Yeah. Well, he's just an idiot, isn't he? Let's let's uh let's take a look and see if this one would be the greatest ballroom anywhere in the world. But I said, "Who else but in our country would sue to stop a $400 million beautiful ballroom that people have been after for the White House? The White House has wanted a ballroom for 150 years."

36:23 Well, that was the other thing I was going to say was Yeah, I can't stop it once I started.

36:28 Okay. That was the other thing I was going to say was, you know, it started out as 200. I I posted these clips because each month it's gone up 50 million. And I posted I posted four clips on social media this morning where he said 200 million. A month later he said 250. Then he said 300. Then he said 350. And then last night he said 400 million. Now and and by the way uh it is way behind schedule. The earliest they're saying now it can get done is summer of 2028, which would be what, six months before he leaves. I I really find it hard to believe that he's doing this where he can't be the president. I mean, I guess I guess maybe it's enough for him to to have the ballroom for six months. I don't know.

37:18 But I would be shocked if it gets done during his presidency. I cannot. And and he also bragged, by the way, when he first announced this $200 million project that it would probably come in under budget because all of his projects come in under budget. And here we are millionaire because he doesn't pay the contractor. That's why he says it's under budget, but half of it he's not giving them. Um, he's not leaving, Ron. I mean, you must know this now. He there there is absolutely no way this guy is clearing off in 2028. So if he lives that, it's like a race. He may not live that long.

37:54 His health and and the and the dictatorship, you know, which will last longer. It's completely terrifying as a thought. But I I Yeah, I'm in complete uh I'm completely of the opinion that that this stuff is for him forever. And that's just the sad reality that we're going to have to

38:11 I mean, what is deal with? Can you see him building something for somebody else to enjoy?

38:16 No, of course not. Not him. Dream of it. Dream of it. President Nuome the new ballroom gets unveiled.

38:24 That's right. President Nuome takes office. That would that would hurt him more than anything.

38:29 Yeah. 100%. It's so interesting that we are it's you know I mean we talk like it's you and me but literally the entire nation is in a state of anxiety that no statistics are designed to cover. You know, we always talk about jobs numbers and we talk about, you know, approval ratings, but you know, if there was a measure of this sense of impending doom or anxiety about Donald Trump and his tenure, and I'm not even just talking about immigrants and people worried about their their immigration status. I'm talking about regular Americans, citizens, patriots who are struggling with with extreme levels of anxiety and and fear because they care so much about their country and this guy one solitary man is tearing it down. And let's I mean and let's talk about the politics of this because you know we we said there are some things that Trump does that only his base supports like that 30 35%.

39:35 I think his strong armed immigration tactics is one that's polling at that about that number right now where I think there's a majority of Americans have no problem deporting people who have committed crimes but they don't want the rest of them deported but you know Trump doesn't care. This is an issue where there's 0% support for like you could secretly poll members of his cabinet and they would 100% of them would say they don't want this. They don't want the arc to Trump. They don't want the ballroom. There isn't a single member of Congress that wants this.

40:13 There isn't a single American other than maybe the contractor who who wants this. There's literally nobody wants the ballroom. And yet he is going to spend a huge chunk of his time talking about and working on the ballroom at a time when the economy is going in the tank. And so again, if you're a Republican running in the midterms, your opponent is like, "Hey, the leader of your party is building a $400 million ballroom right now, and you won't even speak up about it. You won't even criticize him for it." So again, like this is not a 6040 issue. This is not a 7030 issue. This is a 100% of the country is against this.

41:02 There's only one person who wants a ballroom and it's Donald Trump. So politically this is this is horrible. But this is when we cross the Rubicon into the dictatorship. And this is you know this is the barometer for what is a functioning democracy versus a despot in an authoritarian takeover. You know we've already arrived in it. This is not something that we are we are looking at you know coming down the pike. it's already here. And so, you know, we struggle to analyze it and make sense of it. But to people who have lived through authoritarian dictatorships in their own homes, they recognize this behavior quite normally. In fact, The Guardian did a very good report this last week where they interviewed a dozen people who have lived in former dictatorships.

41:53 And the question they asked them is, "What do you wish you would have known earlier?" And I really recommend that people read it because everything they say chimes with what the United States is experiencing right now.

42:06 Yeah. You know, and Jamie Raskin introduced a bill yesterday uh in Congress to because the White House grounds are the only thing that falls is exempted from uh review by the the commission, the panel that has authority over uh buildings in DC. the White House grounds are exempt from that. And he introduced a bill to include the White House grounds as part of that where that committee has to approve all building plans. Of course, it's not going to pass. But his quote was, you know, he views this as his property, his ballroom. That's what kings do. Kings view public property as their own.

42:47 That's that's what that's how kings think. When it's not his property, it's the people's house. It's the people's property. He doesn't have any right to go ahead and make these radical transformations to the people's house and the people's property unilaterally without getting any input from Congress or the people. But that's what he's doing and that's what kings do. So, I thought I thought it was a really good um even though he knows the bill isn't going to pass, it gets him some attention to the issue.

43:16 Yeah. Terrifying. Okay, we need to take a quick break, but we'll come back and uh talk more. We've got Pete Hex to look at and him refusing to release the videos of the second strike on those uh on those small boats. Uh and a whole lot more. We'll do that next here on Uncovered. This year, I'm going above and beyond and skipping the gift card gifts because I found something that I can actually give to just about anyone and they'll really enjoy it. An aura frame. It's hard to find a gift that's memorable, personal, and thoughtful. So, we tend to lean to gift cards, but they often end up lost or in your purse and wallet.

43:53 That's why I'm choosing to gift Aura frames this holiday so my family and friends can be reminded of the memories they create throughout the year. It only takes about 2 minutes to set up a frame using the Aura app. Just download the app, connect to Wi-Fi, preload your photos before it ships, and keep adding them from anywhere, anytime. Add a message before your gift arrives. Then share photos and videos effortlessly straight from your phone all year long. Every frame comes packaged in a premium gift box with no price tag so it's ready to gift. You can't wrap togetherness, but you can frame it. For a limited time, save on the perfect gift by visiting auraframes.com to get $35 off Aura's bestselling Carver matte frames, named number one by Wire Cutter by using promo code uncovered at checkout. That's a rafra.com.

44:46 Promo code uncovered. This deal is exclusive to listeners and frames sell out fast, so order yours now to get it in time for the holidays. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Every year ends the same. More opinions, less peace. This time, reach for calm you can sip. Intercloud is your online cannabis dispensary for quieting the noise. Gummies, curated flour, pre-rolls, and now zero sugar, zerocalorie THC sodas. All federally legal THC. DEA certified, lab tested, shipped discreet because some headlines deserve to be ignored and some days deserve bubbles. Policy debates, family debates, internal debates, all handled by one bipartisan solution, in the cloud. Gummies, sodas, and pre-rolls for the moments democracy wears you out. And $70 ounces, that's what we call economic relief. This is how adults log off mindfully and maybe with a little fizz. If you're 21 or

45:53 older, visit indiclouds.co and use code uncovered for 25% off and free shipping. That's indic.co. Code uncovered. 25% off, free shipping and one less headline in your head. Enjoy responsibly and thanks to Indicoud for sponsoring today's muchneeded quiet. So Ron, let's uh let's talk about Pete Hegsth for a moment, shall we? Because he's been getting himself into all sorts of uh trouble um not not least over the uh missile strikes on these boats from from drones. There's a lot of talk now that this and in fact some of this came off the back of the Susie Wilds interview that that you know regime change in Venezuela is the end goal here. And for some reason Donald Trump thinks that by executing people in boats under the guise of a kind of drugs bust that that is going to somehow make Maduro hand over the the keys to the oil in Venezuela. I mean, what what's your take on this? Well, because you think about this. Yeah.

47:04 First of all, the the first justification was it's about fentanyl, right? But what what do we know? We know no fentanyl comes from Venezuela out of Venezuela. None. Zero. Okay. So, that's not it. Um, a small amount of cocaine comes out of but very small. Like literally like 5% of the cocaine that comes out of South America comes from Venezuela. Why are we focused on Peru? Why aren't we focused on Colombia, the countries that produce way more? Why Venezuela? So then you could say, okay, well, because and and the small amount of cocaine that they do have goes to Europe, by the way, does not come to the United States. So literally there's almost zero drugs come from Venezuela to the United States. We have we are a country a wash in drugs. We have been for many decades. It doesn't come from Venezuela. So, what's really what's really going on here? What's really going on? People said regime change. He

48:05 doesn't like Maduro. Well, you know what? Um, wh why why why is that the case? In other words, does he want There are some people, particularly some of the people in South Florida, who want Maduro out because they're pro-democracy and they're pro Venezuela and they want to have the real legitimately elected Democratic leader who won the Peace Prize there. uh to to take power. That's not what Donald Trump wants. Don Donald Trump isn't a pro-democracy regime change kind of guy. We know what he wants because he said the quiet part out loud yesterday or was Yeah, it was yesterday when for the first time I mean he had some of his henchmen that were out there in interviews hinting around the edges that this was really about oil, but he came out and just laid all his cards on the table. in a truth long true social post and said this is about oil, you know, I mean, he's made it clear that he wants to seize Venezuela's

49:08 oil fields. I mean, at least a big chunk of them for the United States, for American companies. And I mean, whether he's going to get a kick back from this somewhere, some downward down the line, I have no doubt. So, so that's really what this is all about. This is like oldfashioned gunboat diplomacy. the stuff that you know we used to do a hundred years ago in Latin America uh which is take over these countries to exploit their natural resources rather than trade with them through trade and commerce. We used the point of a gun and here we are doing it again under the president who who lobbies for the Nobel Peace Prize constantly and vowed no new wars uh is about to go to war with a South American country over oil.

50:01 They've already seized an oil tanker uh a big one that is considered and a lot of kind of experts in this field have said that that really designates this an act of of war when you kind of seize property in that way. Um how do you think this is going to play out with Trump supporters who when you when you know when pled or interviewed they're always like well you know he ends wars he doesn't start wars. How's how's how's he going to sell this to them? Uh because it's obviously happening and and what is their reaction likely to be?

50:37 Again, they're they're they're not happy. Uh there, you know, of course, again, there's that hardcore group that whatever Trump does, they're going to go along with like Laura Loomer, but there is a the vast majority of his own MAGA movement is not about this. They are not about wars. They do not want to have anything to do with Israel, Gaza, Greenland, Venezuela, Ukraine, you know, the whole, you know, their objection. Many of them see, we always chalk it up, I think a lot of us, we always chalk it up of like MAGA is pro Putin. And there's definitely a segment of MAGA that is pro Putin, but I would say the vast majority, it's not necessarily pro Putin. It's just anti- helping anyone.

51:21 It's anti- international treaty. It's they they want fortress United States. They want troops to come home. They don't want us around the world doing collective security and all of that stuff. So that's his own movement. And so I think many of them are just like scratching their heads going, "What are we doing here?" Again, you know, it's it's one thing after another where he is going against his own hardcore base. And this is yet another example of of him going against his hardcore base. They don't want this. But it appear and and I don't believe some people say, "Well, this is just a distraction from Epstein.

52:01 Distraction from this distraction." It's not a distraction. I mean, this is a major operation. We have built we've got like a third of our entire US Navy. We're going to spend billions of dollars on this. It's not a distraction. This is a specific goal to seize their oil. And by the way, how did World War II start? We did an oil blockade of Japan and they attacked Pearl Harbor in response. So, I mean, this is where we're at.

52:30 I'm not comparing them with Japan, but you know, but it it is an act of war. So, let's just go back to these small boats, which is how we got to this point. A lot of people are saying, "Oh, Pete Hgsth won't last. you know, he'll end up taking the the flak for this and and he'll be out. But I don't see it that way. You know, I see Trump very much dug in with all of these nut jobs that he has in these various departments because they're loyalists and they blow smoke up his backside and they, you know, so Trump doesn't see a problem and he doesn't feel really any of the feels that, you know, he should feel if he was a a fullyfledged human. There have been 90 people killed now in international waters by the United States. In the name of what? I mean, it's it's ridiculous.

53:22 No due process, no court hearing, no detainment or even an arrest. And so these are going to continue. I mean, we heard of two more the other day. So Pete Hexth is now saying, "Of course, we're not [snorts] going to release a top secret full unedited video of of that to the general public." This is regarding the second strike after people were seen clinging to remnants of the boat, clearly still alive, and then the United States killed them uh for a second time. Why Why is he so adamant that that the public shouldn't see this?

54:01 Well, again, so much of what the Trump administration, there's so many lies, there's so much stuff that goes on that it's all a blur for a lot of people. And so I really feel like it's my job both on social media, in my daily column, and on this show to hit the rewind button and say, "How did we let's let's review let's review how we got here because I think that that's important to see how we So when this news broke that there was this second strike, killed people in the water, etc., etc., And we heard that there was a video. Every Democrats and the media were like, "We want the public was like, "We want to see the video."

54:40 And Trump was asked about it twice. And he said, "Absolutely, no problem. We'll release the video." Right. And then

54:48 Yeah. Then after five days went by, remember the reporter uh I forget her name, the the woman uh asked him, he said, "You know, you said 5 days ago you were going to release that second video. What's can we get an update on that?" And that's when he started yelling and screaming at her. Okay. And then the next day he gets asked again and what does he say? It's up to Heg Seth. Oh, I knew right then it's not coming out. That's that cuz that's like how he that's how he does it's the same thing with the Epstein files. It's up to Bondi.

55:20 You know, at first he's like, "Yeah, we're going to release everything and then it's it's up to Bondi." And then Bondi says, "No, we're not releasing it because Trump told Bondi not to release it." That's how he does this stuff. So clearly he claimed that he wants it out. Of course he can order it out anytime he wants and Heg Seth uh you know they're pestering him pestering him. It's up to Hegsth. That's his new line. So finally Hegth hides from the press. He doesn't talk to the press. He hides in the Pentagon. He doesn't do any press conferences or speak to anybody. And so finally he has to go to Capitol Hill to give a briefing about this to Congress and play the he's going to at least play the video to the members of Congress, right? So he's there going in with Rubio to give this briefing and the press, you know, tries to ask him about, hey, what's going on with the second strike?

56:13 And and for the first time yesterday, he said, nope, I'm not releasing it. And the excuse that he gives is it's top secret. It's top secret. They release every video of every strike. They've released, I think, 19 videos. This is the only one they won't release because it shows them killing survivors in the water and they don't want the American people to see the cruelty of that.

56:42 Is this why the Pentagon has started doing its own press briefings and has a dedicated kind of press person for that? Because Hegsth doesn't want to face the press.

56:53 Yeah, he he does not want to talk to the press at all. Zero. In fact, when the Wilds thing came out, you know, his take was, I don't know why she even talked to that guy.

57:02 I mean, that that's their mentality that Well, not all of them cuz many of them are happy to talk to the press home and yeah, you know, is on Fox every day and so is Steven Miller and, you know, Gnome. Many of them are happy to. But Hegathth, oh no, no. Hegs does not want to talk to anybody. He will talk to a few people at Fox and that is it. He will not he will not talk to the press. So even this when he when he said this, he just said it and then he ran away. I mean he did not take any questions even when he was in the halls of Congress.

57:38 Let's take a look at Donald Trump's social. Yes. You know who did ask him a question was Senator Mark Kelly in that meeting and they had a very heated exchange behind closed doors where Kelly tried to, you know, call him out on some of this and then Hegathth went back at him over the the video that he did telling people not to follow unlawful orders and they supposedly went back and forth at it pretty good. So he he he did take one question from Mark Kelly and that didn't go so well.

58:10 Yeah. Well, he didn't have a choice there, did he? Um, let's take a look at this posting from Donald Trump on Truth Social where he writes again a completely insane posting. Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America. It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before. Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the oil, land, and other assets that they previously stole from us, the illegitimate Maduro regime is using oil from these stolen oil fields to finance themselves, drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder, and kidnapping for the theft of our assets and many other reasons, including terrorism, drug smuggling, and human trafficking. The Venezuelan regime has been designated a foreign terrorist organization.

59:04 Therefore, today I am ordering a total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela. And it continues, but uh he go moves into immigration there. I mean, this is him effectively declaring war using Truth Social. It's it's the same exact thing we did to Japan in 1941. It's a an oil embargo. So with our Navy and that led directly to Pearl Harbor. I'm not saying that like that was justification for a Pearl Harbor. I'm just saying that's what was the precursor to it.

59:39 So here we are and um and it's clear we're going to war. It's clear we're going to have regime change. I know he's been talking to the Maduro regime trying to get him to abdicate, leave the country, go who knows where. I don't know, Spain, Russia, who who knows. Uh but uh doesn't seem like Maduro especially wants to leave. And so, you know, and he's got he's got his cheerleaders down in South Florida, the Venezuelan Republicans down there, many of whom are very upset at him over deportations, uh who are cheerleading him on this because they hate Maduro. Many of them fled Venezuela because of specifically Maduro. So, you know, they they I think they felt like, you know, once again, we're we're putting Democrats in a tough position politically because they're defending drug traffickers and they're defending a dictator, Maduro. And Democrats don't like Maduro. In fact, um you know, when I think when both Schumer

1:00:36 and Jeff were asked about should we do regime change, both of them had no comment about about this because look, I don't like Maduro either. But the question is, is this what the United States needs to be doing around the world? We've done this before and it never works out.

1:00:54 Is anybody asking who Trump does want to lead Venezuela? Because he probably doesn't want the person who stole the Nobel Prize from him, right? So, so is he going to install his own person?

1:01:09 She has made a lot of very uh bad statements lately. uh since then uh as far as like

1:01:19 she's clearly allin with Trump because I think she views Trump as the key to liberating her country and putting her in power because that's the only way it's going to happen in her view. So she's she's all in with this. She has been cheerleading this too, saying she wants the US to invade her country. She wants the US to take out Maduro. So yeah, it seems like she has gotten fully on board the Trump train uh in order to get him to put her in power.

1:01:52 It's it's quite kind of nonlinear, isn't it? You know, there there is there is a lot to this and I guess that

1:01:59 I don't know. I just feel that you would always expect Trump a not to want a female to lead a country. So that's my first feeling.

1:02:06 His mentality is that she's going to owe him, right? That's how he thinks. Yes. Right.

1:02:10 I put you there. Yeah. I You're only there because of me. Therefore, you now owe me,

1:02:17 you know. Yes. And he what does he want? He wants oil. It's so weird. I mean, how much oil does the United States want? For goodness sake. I mean, Trump's always boasting about how much oil we have and how incredible.

1:02:31 Yeah. But he's I just feel like this is an unraveling now. You know, this this kind of They talk about power going to somebody's head. what we're experiencing now. He says he's been given the power. He's been given the immunity. And so he just he's just running with it. Like this is not going to stop. And this is what happened with Hitler and and you know started with Poland and then before you knew it the he had this taste for for absolute power. He he doesn't want the Venezuelan oil for the United States. That's not why he's doing it's not like to help American consumers somehow. He wants it for the international oil companies that are going to sell it on the international market,

1:03:17 possibly even to China or other places because that's who he that's who he really is president for is the oligarchs. It's I mean the stuff that we're saying out loud now is stuff that we were we feared would happen you know a couple of years ago and here we are like living in this reality where the the president of the United States has gone rogue is basically working with the with the Russians and you know former adversaries of the United States and the last people who will benefit from any of this action are the citizens of America. Yeah.

1:03:57 You know, one thing I found very interesting was Putin spoke this morning. Um because, you know, the uh Zalinsky has been in some very lengthy negotiations with Jared Kushner and Witcock over the last few days. They they've been in Ukraine, I think.

1:04:14 And um so Putin was uh I gave a little presser this morning in in Moscow and he just said, "I don't care about any of that." you know, this is they're going to surrender and they're going to give us everything we want or uh that's it. We're we're not negotiating with them at all. So, you know, he it's sort of like at every turn Putin just like gives an FU and gives the middle finger to Trump. Trump always tries to tell the American people, Putin wants peace, you know, it's it's Zinsky that's the problem, you know, and then Putin always comes out and goes, no, no, I don't want peace, you know.

1:04:54 It's just like Trump's not fooling anybody because Putin is doesn't even try and play play along. He doesn't even try to pretend that he wants peace. It's the only person out there who's saying that Putin wants peace is Wickoff, Rubio, and Trump. Right.

1:05:13 Putin himself is saying he doesn't want peace. Putin was very critical of the European leaders today. Was, you know, used really aggressive language about them.

1:05:23 So he got that. He called them like or something. Yeah. Really bad. So, right. So maybe he got that from Trump and Piggy. You never know. But so you've got that going on, but then you've also got this kind of play acting where two property guys, Kushner and and Wickoff, just two realtors, estate agents as we would call them in the UK, just going and trying to negotiate uh like it is a property deal. Meanwhile, Putin isn't selling. He the property is not for sale. In fact, it's never he's buying. He's buying everything and he's not paying for it.

1:06:04 And it it was never about land for Putin. It's not about that. He wants to control the Ukrainian government um and the people. It's not about Donbos. I mean that and that's the fundamental error that the Trump team came into this with thinking

1:06:24 yes this is just a real estate transaction and we'll we'll give him this we'll take back this we'll create this buffer zone this demilitarized zone

1:06:33 and you know sometimes the Russian negotiators they act like they're they're oh yeah we're interested in this but it's always because they're trying to stretch out the sanctions from being imposed because Trump talked about has talked about these sanctions and he keeps extending extending extending because every time the sanctions are supposed to take place or every time a new weapon system is supposed to go to Ukraine then that's when the Russians suddenly act like they're interested in negotiating and then once that dies down they're right back to beating the drums of war right

1:07:08 they're never never going to agree to anything remotely reasonable Zalinsky knows that. Europe knows that and it just seems like Trump and and his team I think Rubio now knows that because I read some of the comments from Rubio that Rubio made and I think he's he's now reality has now set in for Rubio that this deal is not happening.

1:07:34 Well, maybe that's why he's been staying out of it and just leaving it to the realtors to deal with. But I always try to remind people that how Putin is selling this war to the Russian people. He doesn't describe it as a war. He describes it as a special operation. And he says he's trying to denazify Ukraine. and he's claiming that that that Zalinski and his government are Nazis and that that Russia is doing a good thing by seeking to liberate it and give it back to the

1:08:05 which is why he's so insistent on elections because he wants to try and install a pro-Russian regime.

1:08:12 Yeah. Yeah. So, and and and maybe Trump doesn't know this bit about the storyline, but it is just embarrassing watching this kind of amateur diplomacy go on. Oh, we're meeting in this country now. We're meeting in that country. They're coming to Florida. We're going to go to It's all nonsense.

1:08:32 You know, I think I was reading some Ukrainian reporters this week, too, who said Zalinsk's finally figured out the formula here. The formula is just agree to everything.

1:08:45 Everything the United States comes up with. Just go, "Yeah, fine. We're in. Whatever you guys want." Because knowing that Putin is not interested in anything.

1:08:54 Yeah. Putin is not pretty much have done that, haven't they? And so I think that we're we're increasingly we used to see Zalinsky push back on a lot of the ridiculous United States peace terms, but increasingly what we're seeing is Zalinsky call their bluff and say, "Okay, sure. We'll do that. We'll do that." And then they go to Putin and he's like, "Absolutely not." and and it really has just kind of laid bare for everyone, the world and members of the Trump administration,

1:09:24 that Putin is not going to agree to anything. Um, okay, we we don't have long left. Let's talk about JD Vance because he's been trying to push this affordability line, hasn't he? And he's saying if you have fewer people in the US, there'll be fewer illegal aliens trying to buy homes. So that means American citizens are finally going to be able to afford a home again. And it's very simple economics. I mean, how how is it that he's been kind of I I always feel like Trump just gives JD the kind of stuff that Trump doesn't want to deal with to kind of go and sell to the American people. And this affordability one is is up there, isn't it?

1:10:05 Yeah. Well, yeah. There's two parts of it. first one you definitely hit on which is that the administration that the RNC chair, the campaign committees in the House and the Senate have wanted to get Trump out of the White House because they view him as a liability to them and isolated from the United States voter and they want and and his base is disillusioned and they want to get him back out on the road again. And keep in mind, he was out on the road from 21 to he never stopped campaigning when he left office. He was doing rallies for four years. He didn't just run a presidential campaign for a year. He never stopped when he left office.

1:10:48 Right. And a lot of people ignored what he did in all those rallies back then in 2021 and 2022, but I didn't. I followed all of them.

1:10:56 Well, he had a win run, didn't he? He had to. And so that's what they want him to do again. They want him to get out there and hit the road and do these rallies and these swing districts and stuff. And he clearly is not interested. He's like, "I'm done. I I am I won. I'm off the hook. I'm making billions. I'm going to build my ballroom and my arc to Arc to Trump and my projects and have my parades and I'm going to host the World Cup and give out awards and get awards." And that's what he wants to do. he's not interested in going out there. So, so they finally get him to go to Pennsylvania last week and he and he's supposed to go up there and do an affordability rally and you know it's the same old, you know, stolen election, Hillary Obama. I mean, it's like he can't everything he said was wrong.

1:11:49 Everything he said was inappropriate. Everything he said sounded tonedeaf. It's a hoax. This and that. And it was a disaster. And so he I think he came back and said, "You know what? I'm not into this. I'm not I'm not I don't want to do this. So now they send Vance

1:12:04 the other guy. They send and Vance there's two parts. Number one is Vance is doing it because Trump doesn't want to do it. And number two Vance is doing it cuz he's got a run on this record in 2028. And he is he he's got Trump's approval rating 36% now. You know like an albatross hanging around an anchor dragging him down. He knows when he runs for president, he has no chance if this continues to go the way it's going. So, I think he's trying to get out there and stop some of the bleeding. But again, Vance is not especially good at talking about this subject at all either because their talking points are like, "Blame Biden for everything. We inherited a mess."

1:12:46 And every poll shows that the American people doesn't want to hear that. They don't believe it. we're a year in. They understand that it is Trump's policies, his tariffs, etc. that have caused this mess. And so, you know, he goes up there and he tries to do and and by the way, both of their rallies were very small. There wasn't many people that attended. And obviously, it shows you that they're cons they they see Pennsylvania as a key state because they they did both of their they only did one rally each and they were both in Pennsylvania. But Vance's uh appearance was, I thought, as much of a disaster as Trump's was. Maybe not quite as crazy.

1:13:29 Finally, let's talk about Cash Patel and Trump actually kind of bungling this uh university shooting. This is Cash Patel yet again kind of saying stuff publicly as the FBI director far too soon, not waiting for investigations to be complete or indeed for arrests to to be uh qualified and then obviously talking to Trump. I can imagine them just like texting each other going, "Yeah, yeah, we've got him." Or, "Yeah, we've done this." and and them just they have no ability to hold on to that information or respect the process of of an ongoing investigation, especially in the case of a of an active shooter. Just bring us up to speed with how this played out.

1:14:16 Right. Well, they're both very alike in that respect. Cash and Trump, you know, they want publicity, they want praise, they want credit, they want press conferences to make the big announcement, they want drama. That's both they're both very alike in that respect. And so when this happens, obviously it's a big thing. And Patel literally like an hour after it happened, exactly the same as Kirk, what happened with Kirk? He put out, "We got him. We caught him." So he tells Trump this and Trump immediately runs out on True Social and post the suspect is in custody. So, while the Brown authorities and the police in Providence, Rhode Island are telling people on campus to shelter in place, we haven't caught the guy. Nobody leave their dorm. Nobody leave their apartment. Everybody stay put. You have the president of the United States posting, "We got him. We caught him." This literally could have

1:15:15 gotten people killed. Thankfully, yeah, there aren't many people that go to Brown who are on Truth Social. Obviously, they're too smart for that. So, maybe many of them didn't see it, but still, you literally have the main spreader of false information in the wake of a serious uh is not some grumpy person, some troll on the internet. It's the president of the United States. There is a suspect that's

1:15:43 in he posted. Yeah, I have been briefed on the shooting that took place at Brown University in Rhode Island. The FBI is on the scene. The suspect is in custody. God bless the victims and the families of the victims. Yeah, he doesn't know who the victims are. Doesn't know how many victims there are. He doesn't know anything. I mean,

1:15:59 you can tell when he says the FBI is on the scene, that's him basically getting the text from from Cash Patel and just trying to embellish it.

1:16:08 And keep in mind on Kirk, the FBI didn't catch that guy. That guy's father turned him in, right? Catel never caught that the Kirk killer, right? So, he had nothing to do with it. So, but he took credit for it, of course. You know, he flew in there and got the women's jacket and everything. You know, he wanted to take credit, but he had nothing to do with it. So, here we are again. So, the followup to this is all these tips start coming in over the next couple days to a law enforcement authorities, hundreds of tips, and they're they're following up these tips. Well, next thing you know, the FBI arrests somebody, not local authorities. The FBI acted on one of the tips that came in and and rather than, you know, talk to him. And this is a former Army veteran that they arrested, you know, rather and they put his name out. His name is all over the media and social media. The guy's innocent. I mean, they and and so they

1:17:05 went to the local authorities like, "How did this guy get picked up? why was he picked up? And and they were like, "It was the FBI, man. It wasn't us. We had nothing to do with it." So, first they said they had a suspect. They didn't. Then they detained somebody and he was the wrong guy, which they also did in Kirk. They detained an innocent person and put his name out and Kirk. It's just Kirk all over again. And just like in Kirk where during the investigation Cash is running around the country with his girlfriend, he's doing the same thing again now. And they haven't solved the case. The person's still obviously on the loose. I posted a video today showing the FBI guys up there in Providence uh walking around and kicking snow with their feet trying to find the the the weapon outside the the classroom area. I mean, they look like the Keystone cops. This FBI has lost so much juice and so much uh reputation

1:18:05 damage over these these cases uh since Cash took over. Again, I don't see how he survives. I don't understand how he has his job. I got to believe he's gone. I mean, we know Bonino's out that Fox has reported like he's leaving in two weeks or something after the holidays. I believe that report.

1:18:24 But why Cash still has a job. Well, I have no idea. Well, the same reason that Hexath has a job and the same reason why RFK Jr. has a job because these are loyalists and they are as mad as Trump himself and these are the people that he associates with and these are the people that he, you know, he never going to let him down because they need him more than he needs them tragically. Uh, okay, listen, we have to finish, but um it's great to chat. Uh, don't forget to download the audio podcast that drops later tonight.

1:18:59 Check out our sponsors in the description below and we'll come back next Wednesday and bring you another uncovered. Thanks a lot, Ron.

1:19:08 All right, see you next week, everyone.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "LIVE: MAGA gets UNCOVERED as PARTY REVOLTS over Trump Moves"?

Anthony Davis (Host), Ron Filipkowski (Guest).

What is "LIVE: MAGA gets UNCOVERED as PARTY REVOLTS over Trump Moves" about?

The discussion reveals a significant rift within the Republican Party regarding legislative decisions surrounding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, highlighting the struggles of Speaker Mike Johnson to maintain control as a faction of Republicans and Democrats push for change through discharge petitions. This internal conflict illustrates a broader failure of Republican leadership to…

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

47 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including ballroom, arch, Aura, U.S. House of Representatives, Uncovered, ark. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "LIVE: MAGA gets UNCOVERED as PARTY REVOLTS over Trump Moves"?

The episode runs 1 h 20 min; the transcript is about 13,820 words in 157 timestamped sections.

More from MeidasTouch

• All analyzed episodes
• Books mentioned on MeidasTouch
• People mentioned on MeidasTouch
• Sponsors mentioned on MeidasTouch
• Topics mentioned on MeidasTouch