Erick Erickson HR 3 09-24-25

Another one I like besides the Weber Slate is the rec tech. Get a wreck tech, don't get a Trager. Traker's a cheaper bill. The rec tech is phenomenal. They're made in Augusta, Georgia, and they're just great people. It's a pellet grill. It gets hot. It's just my buddy Joe, program director, KPL and Lafayette, got one. I lured him into my cult. I love my rec tech smoker. I used to have a big green egg. I used to do the full thing. And then I was like, you know what? I just want something. I can push the button and turn it on. And I don't have to keep fighting it for an hour to get it to temperature. And, man, I get great results with it. The slate, the weapon. Then I've also got a professional. I don't have an outdoor kitchen. I'm not rich enough to have an outdoor kitchen. I just have everything piled in the backyard, much to my wife's chagrin. I did years ago buy a professional... grill. It's called the DCS made in New Zealand. It is, I've had this thing now for 12 years, and it works just as good as it did 12 years ago. Gets up to 1,500 to 2,000 degrees. Can Sierra steak corner to corner? It's fantastic. It has a 50-pound rotissory. Although the rotissory is broken. At some point, it's starting to get old. I need a new DCS, but they are super expensive. My wife has no idea how much I paid for this thing or that I might have been irresponsible and used the home equity line on the house to actually buy it years ago. I didn't just say that on radio. I love my grill. Now, we must move on. Yeah, Dave Ramsey, please don't shoot me. We got to move on to the president in Ukraine because there has been a dramatic shift with that. But first, we got to have a lighthearted moment here. And I'm going to put this on live stream. I'm live streaming on Twitter, for those of you who can see it on Twitter, through my flagship station. If you follow me on Twitter, you see the live stream. And this is too funny not to share. The President of the United States has ordered his staff. to put a essentially hall of presidents when you walk the colonnade from the White House over to the West Wing that's outside by the Rose Garden. And there are now portraits of every single president lining the lining the colonnade there. The White House has released this video from George Washington all the way to two pictures of Donald Trump. Sandwiched between Donald Trump's images is Joe Biden's presidential portrait. which is actually of the auto pin. Yes, yes. When you look at the portraits of all the presidents from George Washington all the way down, you get to George W. Bush, and you're starting to go up the steps of the West Wing, so they're getting higher and higher. George W. Bush, and then Barack Obama, and then Donald Trump, and then the auto pin of Joe Biden's signature, and then another picture of Donald Trump. It's actually very, very well done.

Now, we got to talk about Ukraine because it's actually a pretty big shift for this White House. I have said all along much to the chagrid you should understand of friends of mine who hate Donald Trump. And I have dug my heels in for a very long time on this. Donald Trump, contrary to what so many people who hate Donald Trump believe, has never been the friend of Russia that they wanted you to believe. We got to step back a little bit on this, because this is very important that you understand this. You see, the left could not accept that Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump. So they had to invent a fictitious mythology to explain it. They could not get Icarus flying too close to the sun that the wings melt and he fell out of the sky. They had to get Vladimir Putin. paid for Donald Trump and had a peatate blackmail so that he was a Russian agent. That's the only way he could have beaten Hillary Clinton as if it was the Russians. They could not acknowledge, and notice how that's now faded because he's won the popular vote this time. They can't go with the Russian thing, but they still believe, just as the left will always believe Tyler Robinson was on the right, and the shooter in Texas who killed the illegal immigrant had to be a white nationalist. They will never, ever... ever be able to process that Donald Trump actually beat their beloved Hillary Clinton. It had to be the Russians. Had to be the Russians. So when Donald Trump takes office his first time, he did more sanctions on the Russians than Barack Obama ever did. He threw more Russian diplomats out of the country than Barack Obama ever did. He took a tougher line on the Russians than Barack Obama ever did. And he even mocked Hillary Clinton giving the Russians a reset button with a relationship that never actually reset. They can't handle that he was harder on Russia than they were. And the result was that... Vladimir Putin never invaded Ukraine when Donald Trump was president. They invaded Ukraine when Barack Obama was president and took Crimea. And if I'm really honest with you, I think might as well give them Crimea. Their Navy was there. Historically, it was Russian territory. Give them Crimea. But then when Joe Biden became president, they invaded again. They never invaded when Trump was president. And the left has concocted mythology. Oh, they didn't need to. Donald Trump was given what they want, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, except it doesn't hold water under inspection. And I have said this entire time that Trump came into the White House that what Trump was trying to do with Russia was trying to signal by his attacking Volodymyr Zelensky, by his questioning Ukraine, by his refusing to give Ukraine arms, what they were trying to do at the White House was trying to signal to the Russians. There's a new sheriff in town.

You don't have to be standoffish. You can actually sit down and negotiate, and we will seek peace. He had Vladimir Putin come to Alaska and flew the B-2 bomber over his head, only a week or so after, a couple weeks after they dropped bunker busters on Iran. And still the left won't be persuaded. He's anything other than a pawn of Russia. Yesterday, last night, I guess it was, or late yesterday afternoon right after I got off the air. Of course he waited until after I got off the air. 301 p.m. That's what Donald Trump tweeted. After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine-Russia military and economic situation and after seeing the economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and win all of Ukraine back in its original form. Massive departure from what he was saying that they would have to give up land. With time patience and the financial support of Europe and in particular NATO, the original borders from where this war started is very much an option. Why not? Russia has been fighting aimlessly for three and a half years, a war that should have taken a real military power less than a week to win. This is not distinguishing Russia. In fact, it is very much making them look like a paper tiger. When the people living in Moscow and all the great cities, towns, and districts all throughout Russia, find out what is really going on with this war, the fact that it's almost impossible for them to get gasoline through the long lines that are being formed, and all of the other things that are taking place in their war economy, where most of their money is being spent on fighting Ukraine, which has great spirit and only getting better, Ukraine would be able to take back their country in its original... and who knows, maybe even go further than that. Vladimir Putin and Russia are in big economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act. In any of it, I wish both countries well, we will continue to supply weapons to NATO for NATO to do it as they want. Good luck to all. Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America. I'm only disappointed he didn't end with. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Essentially, he's signaling, we are done. No more peace deals, no more trying to get peace deals. We're going to let them fight, and we will be the arsenal of democracy. Yet again, we will continue to supply weapons to NATO for NATO to do what they want with them. Key language there, that NATO allies will be buying our weapons, giving them to Ukraine. This is great for Boeing and Lockheed and Raytheon and all the other American weapons manufacturers out there. Good business. The isolationists are upset. They shouldn't be. Trump is structured in such a way that we're not going to send our troops to Ukraine. We're just going to send our weapons to NATO allies, and they can send them to Ukraine. Major policy shift here. Volodymyr Zelensky was in town for the United Nations. He sat down with Brett Barry yesterday.

They said that they want peace, but it's not truth. Since that time... Yeah, please. Since that time, he also has gone into other NATO countries. Three jets into Estonia, drones into Poland. Do you think that's part of a plan today? President Trump said those NATO allies should shoot down those plants and drones. Denmark. was yesterday Denmark, Baltics, Nordics, Romania already, a lot of countries. So what Vladimir Putin is doing for today, he is, first of all, this his signals to NATO. He wants to feel how they can defend their countries, and he feels that they can't. Not enough air defense. They are not well trained. It's understandable. They are very good professional guys, but they don't have war. Russia in this war more than 10 years. So if these attacks are increasing, if these excursions and intrusions into other NATO countries are increasing, what do you think it's going to take to change Vladimir Putin's mind that he can't win militarily or that this war needs to come to an end? I think he wants it. He wants to go to other territories. As I said to my colleagues, I said them one year ago, look, don't wait when he will finish the war in Ukraine and he will continue somewhere. He can continue somewhere not finishing in Ukraine. Because he understands that he needs for his war machine, for his factories, for his close circle of businessmen who are in defending military sector, have money, big money. He wants to show that they will continue. And that's why he postponed meetings, any kind of meetings on the level of leaders with me. Trilateral, bilateral, doesn't matter how many leaders. Listen, I have long supported Ukraine in this. I'm glad the president is now there. I have long said we did not need to send our sons and daughters to Ukraine to kill the Russians. Just let the Ukrainians kill the Russians. They've proven to be quite effective at killing the Russians. Vladimir Putin is at this point overplayed his hand, and he has made a mockery to a degree of the President of the United States who extended a hand to friendship in exchange for peace and got back a middle finger. I got to tell you something. The President tweeted at 3.01 p.m. yesterday that... Russia clearly doesn't want peace, and if Ukraine wants to take back all of its territory, go for it, and he's going to keep selling arms to NATO. I do not think it is a coincidence at all. The President of the United States had such an abrupt change towards Ukraine yesterday, and it comes on the heels of the Secret Service.

finding the thousands of cell phone servers and 100,000 SIM cards in New York City surrounding the United Nations within a 35-mile radius. I don't think it's a coincidence at all. This is informed speculation on my part. Speculation, but it is informed by talking to senior people with knowledge and information related to the terror plot. The Secret Service disrupts this massive what would have been a cyberterrorism attack on the cell service in New York City. And some hours later, the President of the United States has a dramatic shift in his view on Russia. I suspect the two are related. I have reason based on conversations to believe they are related. I think the Russians well overstepped and overplayed. They have sent incursions into Poland and Romania and Denmark and Finland and Norway. They have harassed NATO allies. They have sent drones. They have caused sabotage in European nations. And now suddenly we find this massive plot to disrupt. sell networks in New York City as the United Nations is meeting, which would have given Donald Trump a black guy had it happened, and the Secret Service disrupted it, and suddenly he dramatically changes his position on Russia. I think that inside the administration, they suspect the Russians were the ones behind what they uncovered in New York yesterday, and that that has finally persuaded the president. The Russians are not in this for peace. They are in it for war, and he aims to give them what they want by providing arms to Ukraine that they can use to take out the Russians, which is a good thing. Follow Eric on X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Rumble. Search E.W. Erickson. I need to play for you this clip of Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, who was on television last night. Very important you hear him refusing to lower the temperature after claiming to be deeply impacted by the assassination of Charlie Kirk and recognizing we needed to lower the temperature, he can't go there. I fear that we will not have. an election in 2028. I really mean that. And the core of my soul, unless we wake up to the code red what's happening in this country and we wake up soberly to how serious this moment is. The crowd goes wild there on Stephen Colbert. Gavin Newsom doesn't believe that he's running for the election in 2028.

But Gavin Newsom has to say stuff like that because the left wants to hear it and hear the passion. Democrats can't tone down the rhetoric because they're afraid that they will be abandoned by the base if not shot for not being fighters enough. They're scared of their base. They have their tiger by the tail and they can't let go. Gavin Newsom is irresponsible in that rhetoric. We have now seen people shooting ice agents on the left, shooting TV stations from the left, attempting to assassinate the president from the left, assassinating Charlie Kirk from the left, killing Israeli embassy staffers from the left. There's a violent poison on the left, and it is irresponsible for a leader of the Democratic Party, the governor of a state, to say, I fear we're not going to have an election in 2028 when only the most rabid, insane partisans believe stuff like that. Nobody else does. The Constitution has survived Woodrow Wilson. It will survive Donald Trump. There will be an election in 2028. He will be term limited and not on the ballot. But you can't admit the truth if you're a Democratic leader right now because your base wants to be lied to. And in the process, you make it even more and more incendiary and ratchet it up and turn the left even more violent. That's on the Democrats, not on Donald Trump. Now, it's on you, if you're having tech problems, to call Vision Computer at 404 compute, any one of you nationwide, including those of you out in Sacramento listening on KSTE. Thank you for listening. You can call Vision Computer at 404 Computer. Go to Vision Computers.com, and they can build you computers. They can upgrade your computers, and they can be your managed IT service for any company in the United States, where your employees get a phone number they can call. Instead of having to file, either use an AI chat or an email to file a ticket, you actually call a phone number when you have a problem. problem. 15 seconds or less, they answer the phone. So you get a live human being on the phone. You don't have to try to explain what's going on on the email. They can remote in. They can fix your computer. They can answer questions for you, whatever you need. Printer support, email support, you name it. Call them at 404 compute. Tell them Eric Sinchia. You could save even more money. They're really good people to work with. Their customer service is fantastic. We have one of their computers in our house. I know how good their customer services. If you're a company and you can't afford an in-house IT guy, Vision Computers is a no-brainer wherever you are in the United States. 404 compute or VisionComputers.com. Give them a call. Say Eric. Call. Sit you. Hello, welcome. It is Eric Erickson here. The phone number, 877973-745. Should you wish to be on the program, I would be very, very happy to have you call in. Do not forget, please, that you can text Eric E-R-I-C-K to 33777. If you want to get the show notes, the live stream, the podcast, a whole lot more. The President of the United States has canceled a meeting with Democrats.

regarding a potential economic problem due to a shutdown. The president of the United States was willing to meet with Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer. But Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are making demands that they make very clear they're not going to waver from. And the president saw no reason to go into a negotiation when the Democrats really weren't there to negotiate. They want a government shutdown unless Republicans extend COVID payments on health care. You're not going to hear this from the National Press Corps because the National Press Corps is in the tank for the Democrats, but here is the God's Honest, Cross My Heart, Hope to Die Truth about the Democrats. They extended a bunch of health care payments during COVID. and then they themselves voted repeatedly to cut those payments. But now that Republicans are in charge, Democrats wish to add the payments back in that they themselves voted to cut, claiming that they're fighting to preserve Obamacare. The Republican position has always been, let's do a clean continuing resolution, that is, no additional spending. And then we can discuss it once we funded the government at the basic level to keep it from shutting down. But the Democrats can't do what they themselves have insisted must always be done, a clean continuing resolution. Because the Democrats have decided they must fight. They must show themselves that they are fighting for their base. They must show themselves. that they themselves are the virtuous, righteous ones. The president has had enough. He's not going to negotiate with people who aren't negotiating in good faith. He's not going to negotiate with people who only want to negotiate because he is scared to death. Because they are scared to death of their base. The President of the United States has been on social media and said this. The Democrats want illegal aliens, many of them violent criminals, to receive free health care. The Democrats want $500 million to help radical left news outfits. The Democrats want to leave dead people on Medicaid and Social Security roles so that criminals can continue to be allowed to receive that payment and steal the money. The Democrats want to cut billions of dollars from our once vulnerable rural hospitals, which we fixed by giving them the largest cash infusion ever. The Democrats want men playing in women's sports, transgender for everybody, open crimes, and perhaps most importantly of all, a five-letter word, crime. They like it and we don't. And so many other things that will destroy America, we cannot let this happen.

He also tweeted after reviewing the details of the unsurious and ridiculous demands being made by the minority radical left Democrats in return for their votes to keep our thriving country open, I've decided that no meeting with the congressional leaders could possibly be productive. They are threatening to shut down the government of the United States unless they can have over a trillion dollars in new spending to continue free health care for illegal aliens and monumental costs, forced taxpayers to fund transgender surgery for minors, have dead people in the Medicaid roll. allow illegal alien criminals to seal billions of dollars, and American taxpayer benefits try to force our country to again open our borders to criminals, allow men to play in women's sports, and essentially create transgender operations for everybody. These radical left views and policies is what allowed me to win the presidential election, including all seven swing states and the popular vote in a historic landslide. There are consequences to losing elections, but based on their letter to me, the Democrats haven't figured that out yet. They're trying to eliminate the popular $50 billion rural vulnerable hospital fund, which was passed with only Republican votes and proudly signed it law by me. The Democrats in Congress seem to have totally lost their way. They obviously have no idea what it means to put America first or to make America great again. All congressional Democrats want to do is enact radical left policies that nobody voted for. And on it goes. You know what?

Donald Trump, the president of the United States, was shot by probably a progressive, though motive is still outstanding, but someone who wanted to shoot Donald Trump and no one else, which suggests he was progressive. Another, we know, progressive activists attempted to kill Donald Trump and was found guilty of the plot to assassinate Donald Trump yesterday. Donald Trump has literally taken a bullet from the left. Democrats to this day still deny what everybody saw happen live on TV. Quarter of an inch more, Donald Trump would have been dead. Democrats fear what happened to Donald Trump from their own side. The Democrats are willing to take this country off a cliff because they have to be seen as fighting for criminals and illegal aliens. The base expects them to fight for the criminals and the illegal aliens. Their base does. And Chuck Schumer coveted his leadership position relentlessly and now has it. And there's a story in Axios. that it's actually becoming increasingly toxic among Senate candidates. Chuck Schumer is losing support among the Democrats who want to join his caucus. In Maine, for the Democrats running to unseat the GOP's most vulnerable senator, have already pledged not to support Chuck Schumer's leader. Three other candidates refused to commit. In Illinois, the three leading Democrats vying to secede Chuck Schumer's retiring. Number two, Dick Durbin, say they're keeping their options open. And in Ruby Red, Iowa, where Democrats are eyeing a longer shot flip, two of the party Senate candidates aren't mincing words. Hell no, Nathan Sage, one of the handful of Iowa Democrats, vying to replace Jody Earts, told Politico, when asked if he backed Chuck Schumer for a leader. It's about time he seems like he's starting to fight for, Sage said. It's almost too late at this point. Chuck Schumer is running into a wall of resistance from a crop of largely insurgent Senate candidates in key races as he hustles to recruit a slate of strong contenders to compete across an unfavorable map. The American Press Corps, since Donald Trump got reelected, has insisted that Republican senators find the courage to defy Donald Trump. Not a single one of these members of the press have insisted that Chuck Schumer stand up to his base and defy them. The press corps is on the side of the radicals of the Democratic base who want Chuck Schumer shot if he doesn't fight. They want physical violence to happen. And don't believe me on that. I'm not being hyperbolic. I know some of you have left. They go, Erickson's making this up. No, no, no, no, no, no, my friends, Democratic members of Congress talked to Axios back in July, and several of them said that their base really does want Democrats to bleed as proof that they're fighting Donald Trump.

They want Democrats to bleed physically, not metaphorically, physically, to show their fighting Donald Trump. So the Democrats have to shut the government down. They think, they know, they expect that the American Press Corps will be on their side. and will deflect and say, well, Republicans refuse to negotiate. Donald Trump canceled the meeting. It's their fault. And the media is going to do that. But just think about this. The media has been on their side on corruption and everything else, and yet Republicans are winning the polling on who's better able to tackle corruption. Republicans are winning the polling on who's better able to respond to political violence, despite the National Press Corps echoing the Democrats' talking points that all these shooters are on the right. You know what's going to happen when the Democrats shut down the government? My good friend Russ Vought, the head of office of management and budget, will be in charge. And it will be, for the average American, the least painful government shutdown we've ever seen. You know, when the Democrats are in the White House and Republicans are in Congress and the government shuts down, the... Office of Management and Budget goes first for Parks and Rec. Shut down the Smithsonian, shuts down the Lincoln Memorial. You can't even walk on the National Mall when a Democrats in power. The government shuts down. We saw in 2019 with that government shut down with Donald Trump in charge that you could still go to Washington, you go to the Smithsonian, you could go walk on the National Mall, you could do pretty much anything you wanted to do in D.C. unimpeded. You could get on a plane and travel, a train and travel, whatever he wanted. It was as if the government didn't matter. When Democrats are in charge, they wanted as painful as possible. With Republicans in charge, it's going to be painful for the Democrats. The Office of Management and Budget will target the public sector unions. employees that are needless, duplicative. The public won't feel it, but the government sector will. The public unions will. The Democrats will feel it. Not you, not me. Not the average American. The Republicans are going to make the shutdown so painful for democratic constituencies that have wanted the fight. And no one else is going to feel it. I told the Boston Globe yesterday, a reporter for the Boston Globe called me and was asking about the government shutdown and my thoughts, and I have a friendship with Russ Vought, the OMB director. We've known each other for, gosh, 20 years now. And I said, if I were a Democrat thinking of shutting down the government, and Donald Trump is in the White House. I would pause and consider the implications of a government shutdown where Donald Trump gets to completely wield the levers of government in a shutdown. But if I were a Democrat in Congress thinking of voting to shut down the government, knowing it's not just Donald Trump in the White House, but it's Russ Vought at the Office of Management and Budget, I would have nightmares about what Russ Vought can do.

that the Democrats won't be able to undo when the government opens back up. The reporter kind of laughed and said, I haven't had anyone put it in the words you just put it in, but everyone has kind of suggested the same thing. You see the Democrats in Washington, D.C., they don't want to shut down the government because they know what will happen, but they can't tell the base because the Democrats are trying to explain something that they can't see. It's like when the isolationists are talking about how great it would be if America pulled back and didn't manage the Western world, they can say it and you've never experienced it so they can tell you it's going to be great and you can't really see it to see how bad it would be. The Democrats can tell their base you don't want this government shutdown because of what Russ Vought will do, but they don't know. They've experienced government shutdowns before. They always blame the Republicans. Surely the Republicans get the blame this time. They have no idea of the trap they're walking into with the government shutdown. And the irony here is it's the Democrats who set the trap themselves. When I was a kid, my parents were building a gazebo in a wood panel fence in our backyard overseas, and someone kept stealing the boards at night. We didn't know who was stealing the lumber. And my next door neighbor and I decided we would set a trap. And we dug a hole and we put down a little board that had nails going up through it. And we figured the person would come walk to where the pile of lumber was. They would step into the hole and fall over and get a nail in the knee. We'd trap them. The next day we were playing soccer in the backyard, and I forgot about the hole and went down in the hole and got the nail right through my knee. Trap worked exactly as we planned. So if I fell into my own trap, by the way, it turned out it was the next door neighbor's housekeeper who was stealing the lumber. The Democrats have dug a hole thinking that they're going to get Donald Trump stuck in the trap. They're going to fall into their own trap, just like I did when I was in fourth grade. They don't understand they're about to empower a man who, for reading pleasure, reads the federal budget. Russ is a nerd. I love him. He's a whiz at fantasy football. The only time in my life I have ever won a fantasy football championship, I let Russ pick the players for me, and I won, and I was thereafter banned from ever doing fantasy football again since I didn't even pick the team. I'm not good at fantasy football. He's a genius. I would be in Washington visiting and Rush would walk around with a copy of the federal budget he was reading. He knows where the bodies are buried. He knows how to bury the bodies and how to dig them up. He knows how to hide the bodies. He knows what to do with the federal budget. and with the federal government when it's shut down. And the Democrats are about to let that man wield a massive amount of power by being the person. The federal government charges by law with managing orchestrated and overseeing a government shutdown. He is the one man Democrats should have nightmares about being in charge of a government shutdown. And the Democrats are instead having nightmares about what will happen to them physically if they defy their base and allow the government to keep going. The Democrats painted a...

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