Former FBI Agent Mike Rogers Discusses Political Rhetoric and DHS Funding

Well, I got thoughts on Jimmy Kimmel. I don't think he's skating by. Oh, I know you. I'm hot about it this morning, and we're going to talk about it coming up in just a couple of minutes. But first, Mike Rogers joins us because obviously aside from him running for Senate here in the state of Michigan, he's also former FBI. And when it comes to what we saw out at the White House Correspondence dinner, a lot of questions about security, things like that. I guess, Mike, I'm curious to know from you and your perspective on what. your reaction has been post-shooting. What has been your reaction to what lawmakers have said? What has been your reaction to what we've heard out of the media in the wake of this? Do you mean as it relates to the security status of the event? Do you mean that? Not necessarily the security status, but everybody's saying, well, we need to tone down the rhetoric. We're hearing that again, right? In the wake of another potential tragedy. We definitely need to do that. Listen, you can't continue to call the president a Hitler. You can't continue to call him a fascist. Remember, we went to war over a guy named Hitler. And that really sharpened rhetoric. Matter of fact, the shooter used that in his social post, compared him to add off Hitler. And you just can't have that content drumbeat. When you look at these no-kings rallies and you see the... calling them of Hitler and a fascist, and those have really defined things in most people's minds. And if you take some people who are vulnerable mentally, you're going to get this. I mean, think of this, three shootings in less than two years. That tells you something's not right, and I do think the rhetoric has a big part of that. And if you listen to the kind of the politics of today, I mean, you know, it's cool now to preach violence. I worry about it. You know, when President Biden got elected, obviously, I didn't vote for him. I didn't support, you know, 99.99% of his policies. When Barack Obama was elected, you know, obviously I didn't vote for him, didn't support a lot of his policies. You know, you didn't see bus meltdown. You didn't see us march in the streets and call them, you know, fascists and Nazis and all of the other nonsense. I mean, you've got to get on with your life. You try to bring attention to things you have different. That discourse is important in America. And I, unfortunately, when you looked at what happened at the Democrat convention last, whenever that was, two weekends ago, you know, tolerance is out the window. Anti-Semitism on the rise in that kind of fervent rhetoric is what they think is going to win them elections. I think it may maybe even get some people hurt along the way. Mike, the shooting happened in the middle of this prolonged standoff over funding for Department of Homeland Security. Is it fair or not to connect the two? Absolutely. I mean, everyone there is working without pay, at least the certainty of pay for the last two months, over two months now, coming up on three months. And it's ridiculous. I mean, we have real criminals out there around the country trying to hurt people and steal things. And it's that national security infrastructure needs the support. Those secret service agents, including the one that got shot, by the way,

Um, likely, you know, haven't had, you know, the secret sugars hasn't been authorized for pay for over 70 days. I mean, that's crazy. And by the way, they're doing it for political. If they could say that all the Secret Service, that the Coast Guard, that all of these things that aren't getting paid are terrible organizations out to hurt Americans, okay, well, that's a debate to have. It's not even what they're saying. And so to cut off the funding for the folks who are actually putting their lives on the line, I think is... Pretty horrific. And, you know, guess what? They stood there without pay. One of them got shot. Is that true that they're not getting paid? I had read that they were getting paid because they were they were essential workers. So the Secret Service writ large, not funded. What they were doing is trying to find creative ways to pay what they call frontline people. Right. But still, the problem is that they don't have DHS funding. That's the over. That's exactly right. I mean, the whole thing. Now they got to spend their days trying to figure out how to get these folks' paychecks. Right. And how do we secure America? How do we secure these events? How do we stop people from doing exactly what happened the other day on Saturday? And again, we have just more finger pointing in Washington. It's their fault. It's their fault. And at the end of the day, nothing's getting done. And that's the overarching problem here. Which is why you need to send a guy named Mike Rogers back to the United States Senate. There you go. There you go. a candidate Mike Rogers. Appreciate your time as always. Thank you. Hey, thanks, guys. See, Mike. Now, I'll tell you this. I didn't know about this until the first lady put out a statement yesterday on X. Me either. Because I don't watch Jimmy Kim. I don't either. He ain't on my radar. First of all, I'm asleep. Second of all, I don't watch him. He's not entertaining to me. If I was up, I wouldn't watch him either. There are only two ways I consume media. It's if it's entertaining or if I want to learn something or if it's show related, whatever it is. It's the only time. Okay. Right? I don't just watch things because I think they're boring. Yeah. I don't want to do that. Of course. Jimmy Kimmel is not entertaining to me, so I generally don't watch. Except when First Lady Melania Trump yesterday. tweeted out, Kimmel's hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn't comedy. His words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America. She is calling on ABC to take a stand and fire Jimmy Kimmel. Why? Well, because last week, ahead of the White House Correspondents dinner, Jimmy Kimmel did a bit on the show. Yeah. Like he was the host of the correspondent. Like he was the host of the White House correspondence dinner. Generally, there's a comedian there that kind of roasts everybody there. But this time they had Ouse Perlman there, who was actually a Michigan guy, went to the University of Michigan. He's the mentalist. I'm sure you've seen his videos. I have. He's a freak, and I don't know that I trust him. But so he was there. Yeah. And so Jimmy Kimball did this fake.

roast of the dais that would be there. Here's one of the things he said about Melania Trump. Our first lady Melania is here. Look at, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow. Whoa. Oh, no. First thing I'm thinking, when you hear something like that, what, you know, are you trying to say somebody's going to make him out? Yeah. Somebody's going to die. Yeah. Donald Trump's going to die. Yeah. Well, they were cutting in pictures of or video of them at different events. So when he said, oh, the first lady, Melania Trump is here and they showed her at the state of the union sitting up in the box, watching. And, you know, she was just sitting there. Yeah. So she had just a normal look on her face. She wasn't smiling or frowning or anything. She was just sitting there. Yeah. And then Jimmy Kimmel last night, because of this outrage, responded. And we'll play that for you coming up on the other side. Sure. Because I don't have the time now. Yeah. So stay tuned. But. But needless to say, in my mind, his response to the outrage was ridiculous. It's like, come on, bro. Really? We'll talk about it coming up in the 7 o'clock hour because I think we have lost our way once again. And parading around pretending to be something you're not doesn't give you a free pass. Jimmy Kimmel. 7 o'clock hour coming up a lot more to talk about on J.R. Morning.