Erick Erickson 1-27-26 HR 3

Hello and welcome. It is Eric Erickson here across the United States of America. The full number is 877-9-9-73-725. I apologize. My coffee is broken today. I am not quite firing on all cylinders, and that's still better radio than you're going to hear anywhere else. All right, we've got to get into, well, the press score. Mark Halperin had his show on Monday morning, and Mark Halpern asked me to come on with him for the hour. It's going to be a regular thing now, I think. He enjoyed it. It's Halperin, and he has a guest. It's like a mass Zoom call, and people come on, ask questions, and it's you and someone on the other side, and Halperin moderates and steers, and he's got the best sources out there in the administration and elsewhere. I mean, everybody talks to him. It was a fun time. And we were talking about trust and distrust. It does not help the Trump administration to have Kristi Noem come out right after Mr. Pretti has been killed and say he was a domestic terrorist. We'd have Gregory Bovino come out and say Mr. Preddy wanted a mass casualty event. We now know, and CNN is reporting, that Alex Prettie was involved in an altercation with the Border Patrol last week. He was injured and possibly broke a rib or cracked a rib. He clearly had gotten himself in the mix with Border Patrol. He wasn't just being a passive bystander last week. And this week, he did enter into the fray with his phone to video them and tried to position himself between someone who Border Patrol shoved over. I've had a lot of conservatives come after me for my take that he was not directly at fault for getting shot. And I don't care because I'm telling you the truth. You can watch the videos for yourself, unless you're completely jaded partisan. The fact is he was on the ground and disarmed, and then they shot him. He was disarmed, and that's the relevant point here. He was disarmed, and then they shot him. I don't care whether you think Alex Pready was involved or not or stirring up trouble or not. And last week he got a broken rib in an altercation with Border Patrol. And this week he certainly put himself more at risk by bringing a gun. It was his right to do it. But, I mean, with your right to carry a firearm, sometimes there can be escalations and incidents with you there. But he was disarmed. And then they shot him. And I'm just here to tell you what's going on not to give you your tribal spin or scratch your ears or tickle your ears or what have you. And this gets to the trust issue with the government. And the way Noam handled it, the way Stephen Miller handled it, the way Gregory Bovino handled it, they were wrong. They were absolutely wrong. And they waited in before the facts could possibly have been known. And they said things that simply were not true and that they could not have been known by them at the time. But they did it anyway.

And so I'm talking to Mark Halper about this. I said, this goes back to COVID. A lot of the advice given during COVID turned out to be wrong, and we now know they had no basis for the advice to begin with. Two weeks to stop the spread, in theory, makes a lot of sense until you realize that people were not actually going to isolate from their family in the way the government wanted us to. Also, I mean, even I, who was willing to take the government at its face with a lot of its advice up front, knew and said that the data already shows that COVID doesn't affect young kids. So why are we keeping them out of school? And look at the ramifications of it. We also now know that as the virus evolved over time, the masks simply did not work. And they doubled down on it even after it was by that point known that the particulate of the virus were so small that it was penetrating the masks. We know that the vaccine wasn't actually a vaccine. It certainly minimized infection. You know, there is actually disinformation on the other side, too, that people who had the vaccine disproportionately died. That's not actually true. And some of you think it's true because you've heard this repeated online, including by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but the data doesn't actually bear that out. But the experts got a lot of stuff wrong in COVID. And instead of having the humility to say they are wrong, they either doubled down or they ran away to avoid accountability. Kristi Noem and Gregory Bovino and Stephen Miller are not going to come out and say they were wrong. They are not going to apologize. But they were wrong. You can't trust the government to tell you the truth. They aren't able to tell you the truth on COVID. They aren't able to tell you the truth on this. We still have people in the government who refuse to acknowledge that the lab leak was most likely with COVID, and we still have members of the press who refused to acknowledge that the lab leak theory was the most honest theory of what happened. We still have people in the press who refuse to acknowledge it. So now comes word that the Washington Post is about to engage in mass layoffs. And they're mad at Jeff Bezos. The Washington Post reporters are mad at Jeff Bezos. And they're mad at Will Lewis, who is the editor. And they're claiming that these gentlemen, the owner and the publisher, they're bad stewards of the Washington Post. I don't know if y'all know this or not. But the Washington Post... is not an entity to be stewarded. It is a for-profit corporation. It is not a non-profit. It's a for-profit business. It is owned by Jeff Bezos. who wants to make a profit. He's not there to steward an entity. He's there to try to make it make money and become an entity worth reading. And the prior publishers and owners of the Washington Post made a whole lot of mistakes while the New York Times was thriving and growing. The Washington Post was scaling back. And these people are upset that people are losing their jobs. They're upset. They're losing their sports section. Why does the Washington Post need a sports section?

You're plenty of other entities out there that can cover the sports, including the sports radio people. And now at CBS News, they're upset with her as well, Bari Weiss. You know, to Bari Weiss's credit, I've heard more about CBS News in the past three weeks than I have in the past three years. More people are talking about CBS News right now, and most of it is the reporter and journalist class, and they're all talking about it as if they have ever thought it mattered. It's always been the third-ranked, or third-ranked news outlet. Of CBS, ABC and NBC, CBS has been in third place since Dan Rather took over from Walter Cronkite. Back when I was a kid, you had Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings and Dan Rather. Peter Jennings died after 9-11 had lung cancer. Tom Brokaw stayed. Dan Rather was forced out after 2004 because he lied about George Bush's military record. Tom Brokall was the only one of the three who retired gracefully. Jennings died. He otherwise would have retired gracefully. Dan Rather is now just a bitter leftist. We always knew he was leftist. But Dan Rather presided over the decline of CBS News. It was in third place. So along comes Bari Weiss. She puts a new anchor in, and now everybody in the media is talking about it, and they're talking about it in the negative. They don't like the changes she's making. Tim Carney, he put this tweet, they're complaining saying that the internal staff at CBS is, well, how do you respond and say you're doing it to a right-wing network? Tim Carney writes, what's the old saying when you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression?

That is the change that's happening at CBS News. See, let me tell you, one of the biases in the press is not what you cover but what you don't cover. And one of the other biases is who you let's speak for a side. What the mainstream media likes to do, is find the fringiest fringe person. I say this as I'm going to be on CNN with Aaron Burnett tonight. They'd like to find the fringiest fringe person and have that person speak for the right. When I was at CNN, when I was a paid contributor at CNN, they always wanted me to come on as the pro-life person to talk about abortion. And I had a standard policy when I was at CNN. I refused to talk about abortion if the person on the other side was female because that's what CNN liked to do. They like to have a female pro-abortion advocate against a man who is pro-life. And every time I would send them a list of the pro-life women I knew, whether it was Marjorie Danesfelder at Susan B. Anthony or Charmaine Yost in American United for Life, or you name it. There was a lot of them, Penny Nance at Concern Women of America. I gave them a list of the women and said, here are the pro-life female leaders in Washington. If you're going to have on the female leader of now, or the female leader of Planned Parenthood, you should have on the female leader of the largest pro-life group in the country, and CNN almost always refused. They'd find another man. because they wanted the image of it being a male pro-lifer telling a female pro-abortion person what they could or could not do with their body. That's what they wanted. And they wanted the pro-abortion person to make the attack that how dare you a man tell me what I can do with my body? That's the way they told the stories. What Bari Weiss wants to do at CBS News is match the competencies of the left with the competencies of the right. So you have a good qualified pundit on the left. They want a good qualified punant on the right. They don't want just to throw away radical who's just going to say the Trump line. They don't want that anymore. And the left believes that's a sign of bias. Because the dirty little secret is the left is not really good at making arguments against someone who's competent on the right. And at the Washington Post, They think that they should be subsidized for losing money. Bari Weiss in her meeting with CBS News employees today said that people are not willing to pay for the product that CBS is producing, and they're not willing to watch it.

That's insane. The athletic deficit has totaled $516.9 million since it joined the Big Ten in the 2014-2015 year. There is a $47.2 million shortfall right now. How does an athletic program lose that much money? It's not in the SEC, that's why. I just, I'm flabbergasted. Although I got to say that given Indiana, I mean, the SEC has had a good run, but it's getting some competition in the era of name image and likeness. You know, Congress is still trying to get Nick Saban to tell them what to do on NIL stuff. And Saban has kind of washed his hands of it. Ted Cruz and I think Chris Murphy, the progressive senator from Connecticut. Our hatchet playing. Maybe it's, maybe it's Coons from Delaware, but, but, um, Cruz and a big lib in the senator trying to work out name image, lightness stuff, because it is a real problem now. As schools are just throwing money as students, there was one I saw the other day. Some kid, he's been like every school in the SEC, and then you got the Miami quarterback, Carson Beck, who he's done with school, but he's still playing on the college football team and not going to the NFL. College sports is just becoming the minor league of the NFL, the college football, and I don't like it. And you got a team, and the team is based on your college, and the players have no loyalty to the school. College football in particular is fundamentally broken at this point, and it's a shame to see, and hopefully someone can fix it, and maybe that'll help Rutgers with their, good Lord, $78 million deficit in their athletic program. Ugh. It'll fix it by building team loyalty again. Now let me tell you about my bank, old glory bank, old glory bank.com slash Eric, old glory bank.com slash Eric, they are my bank. I've got a checking and account with them. You can too. You can get the cheap accounts like I have that have no fees checking and savings. You get the premium accounts that bear interest. If you're active to be military, they'll waive the fees on those. You can do mortgages. You can do CDs. Whatever you need, old glory bank can take care of you. If you're a business, they are online bank, but they're highly, highly engaged with their businesses. They take the time to know you and learn your business if you ever need lending from them. They're just phenomenal people to work with, and you don't have to worry about being debanked. You don't have to worry about invasions of privacy. They'll stand up for you and you're right to bank with them. Oldglorybank.com slash Eric. Oldglorybank.com slash E-R-I-C-K. Should you wish to find a new bank?

I recommend Old Glory Bank. I've really enjoyed working with them. I could even deposit cash even though they're an online bank. Oldglorybank.com slash Eric is the website. Oldglarybank.com slash ERICK. Member FDIC, Equal housing lender, terms and conditions apply. Let Old Glory Bank help you. They're about to be traded on the NASDAQ, too. They just keep growing. Engaging and fearless. The Eric Erickson Show, tackling politics and culture with clarity. We've got some news happening now. There's been a Border Patrol shooting in Arizona. We are trying to get the details here as to what actually happened. And we will see. This happened in Arizona, not in Minnesota. Also, there is a... story that the Democrats are announcing that they will impeach Kristi Noem. If they get back control of the House of Representatives, it's going to be one of their campaign cries. If she's not fired, they will impeach her. I got to tell you, so here's my overarching theory. This is my overarching theory. The president has made changes on how he wants to deport people. I don't think the progressives are going to change strategies. I think they're still going to agitate. I think they're still going to be in the streets. And they're still going to call for defunding ICE. You need to know if you are a progressive or a Democrat right now that ICE is being funded separately from the Department of Homeland Security. The president's team got ICE funded to the tune of $18 billion through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and that funding is going to keep going until after 2028. But the Democrats have now decided they want to defund ICE, and they want to take it on. This is Democratic Representative Garcia talking to CNN. I think government shutdown should absolutely be on the table. if we can use it as a way to ensure that we stop killing American citizens on our streets across this country. What's happening to Ms. Good, what happened, obviously, and it continues to happen in Minneapolis.

Those are murders. Those are murders by our federal law enforcement agency against our own people. So we have to use every single lever that we have to ensure that this stops and ends. Donald Trump is creating his own militarized national police force. with ICE. That's exactly what he's doing. That's only accountable to him. So Democrats have to be forceful in this moment. We have to move forward and impeach Kristi Noem. We have to move forward and demand that Donald Trump do the right thing in this moment. And Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats have the opportunity to actually get some reforms in this moment. That's Representative Garcia of California. Basically, we need to shut down the government to do this. We've got to impeach Christenome, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. They're not going to get the reforms they want on this. They're simply not. But it's not just him. This is Senator Amy Klobuchar who's now going to run for governor in Minnesota. We want immigration enforcement. We want order at the border. But what we don't want is groups of basically thugs roaming our streets, not following the law, not wearing body camera, ramming into people's offices without judicial warrants, picking up legal citizens, not getting the proper training. They're down to 47 days of training from five months. And then just too much money in their budget. They increased their budget. this by three times. They are now bigger than the FBI. They have $75 billion, and you can see the results of it with this search. I would rather use that money for local law enforcement. Let's give this to the police officers in our state and help our state another way with health care and the like. We're always going to have immigration enforcement. We should, but the way it's being run now is just wrong. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait. So you want to send the ICE money for local law enforcement, but cities don't want to pay local law enforcement. You know, the mayor of New York is now cutting the police department. So you're going to want, what, 10 guys who make seven figures, I guess, on the police department and say you haven't cut the budget? That's the play, but also Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, who's in the Senate now where the Homeland Security Budget Matter is. How do you feel about calls among some, not all Democrats, to abolish ICE? I think it requires radical reform, but because what we're witnessing right now is it's completely out of control. But, of course, a lot of that, John, is the messages they're getting from Donald Trump and Steve Miller and Kristi Noem. I mean, Kristi Noem should be out of there, right? Steve Miller should be out of there because they've been lying through their teeth. They're the ones calling, you know, these victims domestic terrorists. They're the ones that are just lying to the American people. They must think we're all stupid because we can see the video.

of Alex Pready and we can see the video of Renee Good. We know they're not domestic terrorists despite the lies coming out of the White House. And I just think this is going to require dramatic change before we can really move forward with the funding for these pieces of the Department of Homeland Security. You say radical reform for ICE, does that mean defund ICE? It means not another dime for ice until some of the changes you and I just talked about take place. See that, no more money. And so they must really think progressives are stupid here. They must really think the progressives are stupid because they're not going to get any ice reforms. ICE is fully funded. You know what's not funded in the Department of Homeland Security? The Department of Homeland Security is not going to have TSA funded, the Coast Guard funded, or FEMA funded. You're going to get ICE funded because ICE was already funded. ICE was funded in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. So now, this is where we are. Democrats insist they won't the last government shutdown. Ladies and gentlemen, do you believe the Democrats won the last government shutdown? Some of you probably do, so I have a question for you. If you believe the Democrats won the last government shutdown, where's the extension for Obama care health subsidies? Hmm?

You think the Democrats won the last government shutdown. What were they shutting the government down to extend Obamacare subsidies? Where are they? Now the Democrats say they're going to shut down the government to get rid of funding for ICE, which has been funded already through 2028, so there's no way to shut down the government and pull it back. There's this dream that both sides have, and I know the dream. because I have had the dream because I love government shutdowns. And the dream is that, gosh darn it, we're just going to shut down the government and we're going to keep it shut down until we get what we want. We're going to shoot the hostages. We're going to take the government hostage. We're prepared to shoot it. So you will give us what we want or we shoot the hostage. I am perfectly fine with that. And I've been through multiple government shutdowns, and you know what happens every time? The shutdown drags out. Your allies start selling you out, and you get nothing in the end. Happens every time. The only time Republicans were able to get anything out of it was the rescission package, where they call it, sequestration, and that involved raising the debt ceiling. Republicans refuse to raise the debt ceiling without spending reform. The debt ceiling is now raised. You're not going to do that again. You're not going to get ICE reformed. So the Democrats believe they can do these things, and they know privately they can't. So they're in this weird situation. In a very weird situation. This is the situation for the Democrats. They shut down the government, and you and I, Can't go through TSA. The lines back up. Everything slows down. We can't get on planes. TSA stopped showing up for work. The public gets mad. Airlines get mad. The economy gets impacted. And there's a backlash from voters against the Democrats. Or the Democrats cave and reopen the government and they get nothing from the shutdown. And the progressives get mad at them. Either way, someone's getting mad at the Democrat. So I really do hope they take this tactic. I really do hope they take it. They've already seen ICE funded. They're lying to their base insisting that they can stop ICE from being funded even though the money's already allocated. They're going to slow down TSA. God forbid there's a natural disaster, and FEMA is unfunded. They're going to slow down the Coast Guard because they're not going to fund the Coast Guard. And meanwhile, ISIS fully funded. So is the Border Patrol. I personally think that, I mean, I just think this is a very funny solution to the whole thing of the Democrats out there insisting that they're going to fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight. There's nothing to fight. It's already funded. So now they want to do impeaching Christine Home. I kind of hope they do impeach Christine Home. I think she deserves to be impeached. I think she's done a terrible job. And, by the way, it's not just this. Across the board, Kristi Noem has done a terrible job at the Department of Homeland Security. She's done a terrible job with the Coast Guard. She's done a terrible job with FEMA. She's done a terrible job with the TSA. Kristi Noem has not been a good secretary of Homeland Security. The president's not going to fire her. So? Okay. Impeach her. But we get close to the election.

The election is coming. Do you really think this is the galvanizing issue? For most Americans, do you really think the galvanizing issue for the United States of America is impeaching Christenome? Not groceries, not the cost of living, not even the deportations, and yet most Americans support the deportations. Most Americans want illegal aliens deported. They don't like what Border Patrol is doing. And again, I got to say, I keep seeing all these people hating on ice. Ice is not the one doing it. In fact, there's a CBS news story out. of the ICE agents are complaining that they're getting the blame for things that are not even their fault. Ice agents are getting blamed for what Border Patrol is doing, and they're mad about it. And by the way, who are the ICE agents blaming? Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski and Gregory Bovino. They're not happy, and they're starting to speak out. You know, this has been a pretty well-loyal machine for a while. There have been very few leaks from Border Patrol and ICE. But after the Saturday shooting of Alex Preti, they're starting to complain and say they knew this was going to happen all along. Here's the thing you need to know about Alex Prattie. We now know that he was engaged in anti-ice operations before Saturday. had a rib cracked or broken in an altercation. He previously was obstructing, and he was an agitator, not just a protester, last week. Now, a lot of people on the right are throwing this at me today, say, look, he clearly was anti-ice. He clearly was agitating. He clearly was doing more than protesting and had a history of it. I don't dispute that at all. I don't. He clearly was in the mix. But on the day that he was killed, he was filming. And he was trying to position himself between someone who a Border Patrol agent had shoved over in the Border Patrol agent. And they pulled him away. And they held him down. And they disarmed him. And then they killed him.

The bottom line is this. Alex Preddy was a disruptor and agitator. We now know this. CNN, not Fox News, is the one reporting it. He was engaged in anti-ice operations and engaged in more than one scuffle with ice agents, putting himself in a position to try to obstruct ice agents last week. But that doesn't change the fact. that the ICE agents had disarmed him before they killed him. It was seconds and not minutes. There was confusion and chaos. It was not murder. There was no premeditation which you need in murder. It was the heat of the moment in confusion and possibly his gun discharge. We don't know for sure. We know someone yelled gun. And another agent whose back had been to Preddy turns and fires. Pretty's killed. He put himself in harm's way. Like Rachel Good, we now know the week before he had done this as well.

But unlike Rachel Good, or Renee Good, rather, who hit an Border Patrol agent as she was trying to flee the scene, hit him with their car. Pretty was on the ground, disarmed by the ICE agents or the Border Patrol agents and killed. That's a fundamental difference. And if you don't want to see it, that's fine. I'm just telling you, I watched way too much of the video. And this new evidence, people are saying, see, Erickson, he was an agitator. He was an agitator. I don't dispute he got into the mix last week, and he clearly was involving himself in the situation this weekend, although mostly he was just filming. But at the point of his death, he was disarmed and on the ground, and they still shot and killed him. And you should be able to recognize the problem with that. Those of you on Alex Prattie's side, however, should also be willing to recognize the problem of the vigilantes of the left who are deciding to involve themselves in these situations and stop Homeland Security and stop Border Patrol and stop ICE from rounding up actual people who need to be rounded up. Last week, Border Patrol tried to arrest a child rapist. And good white progressives got in the way so the child rapist could escape. How is that justified allowing a child rapist to escape? But that's what's happening. There are problems on both sides here. The problem, however, is not the government's desire to deport bad people. You're at the intersection of politics, news, culture, and current events. It's the Eric Erickson Show.

reasons Democrats are doubling down on the defense of illegal aliens and they are by the way they don't want to cooperate in New York in Buffalo New York the mayor now says that local police are no longer allowed to cooperate in Virginia now they're not allowed to cooperate in a lot of places these sanctuary cities and states are well here's why because when you look at the 2030 apportionment forecast from redistricting analysts. Texas is expected to gain four seats. Florida is expected to gain two seats. Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, North Carolina, Utah are all expected to gain a seat. California is expected to lose four seats. Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. They're all expected to lose a seat in the electoral college, which means not only will Republicans pick up seats in Congress, but in the electoral college, Republicans would be able to win the election for president without having to win Pennsylvania or Wisconsin. Pretty wild. That's the way the direction is going. But keep in mind, illegal aliens are counted for purposes of the United States census. So Democrats are using illegal aliens to offset the citizens moving out of their states for purposes of the census, for the congressional apportionment, and for the electoral college. It's not really about... propping up or defending innocent people. It has everything to do with their electoral states. And you know and I know if they thought that these illegal aliens were going to vote Republican if they became citizens, they'd be trying to get them out of the country as quick as possible. It's all politics. Folks, I'm pleased to announce that Edenpure is back now after the holidays. The thunderstorm air purifier destroy stubborn odors at the source. It's not a cover-up like candles or sprays. It uses two advanced technologies to kill 99.9% of bacteria and viruses. It removes dust and pet dander. Smoke eliminates any odor and no costly filters to replace no more stinky smells from litter boxes, trash cans, cigarette smoke. dirty diapers, stinky shoes, musty basements, the Eden Pure Thunderstorm 3 air purifier. If it can't get rid of the odor, you can sit it back within 30 days for a full refund with Eden Pierce tough odor guarantee. There's no risk of trying it. So how do you do this? You save $200 on an Eden Pure Thunderstorm 3 pack. You go to Edenpuredeals.com and use the discount code Eric. You save $200 on three Thunderstorm 3 air purifiers. Go to Edenpuredeals.com, put in the discount code, Eric 3, E-R-I-C-K-3.