Nick Shirley Testifies Before Senate Committee

Your education is more than a path to a degree. At Regent University, it's an important step in God's plan for your career. It's where you'll be equipped to lead and serve with purpose. It's where 40,000 graduates have prepared to fulfill their callings, and so can you. Choose a top-ranked program from over 150 areas of study on campus or online and watch what God will do. Learn more at regent.edu. That's regent.edu. News, politics, entertainment. This is O'Connor and Company. Good morning, it's Larry O'Connor here in Washington, D.C., your nation's capital, on our flagship station, the Mighty 105.9 FM, WMAL. It's the Relief Factor Studio. Good morning, O'Connor and Company, ready to go for the next three hours. I'm wearing a jacket and tie. and it's radio. That tells you how seriously I'm taking today's show. As, well, we should, by the way, coming up in our next hour, Congressman Marlon Stutzman from Indiana is going to join us. Plus, Matt Schlapp is actually taking the CPEC show on the road. He's in London. telling the Brits about conservative values because I don't know if you've been seeing London recently. They need a lesson. Also, Senator Ron Johnson in that 7 a.m. hour. 8 a.m. hour brings us former Congressman Mike Rogers, who is the presumptive nominee for the Republicans to be on the ticket for Senate in Michigan and the craziness of that race. And then the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Jason Smith, looks like we got another reconciliation bill going through. This time, point people will be in the Budget Committee, but you know that the Chairman of Ways and Means will have something to say about it as well. So we'll talk about that. That's a lot. And there's even more because yesterday on Capitol Hill, independent journalist Nick Shirley testified before a Senate hearing. By the way, I believe, and I just want to double check this and triple check it because we'd like to lead with facts here. This isn't MS now. I don't believe one Democrat senator showed up for this hearing. If we can just... double check that but that's what i saw buzzing about on the uh oh there you go yeah there's the headline democrats unite to boycott hearing on emerging threat facing america what's that threat the threat is fraud welfare fraud, Medicare fraud, Medicaid fraud, all of the fraud that's been uncovered by, not by CBS, not by Washington Post, not by the New York Times, by an independent journalist who operates on social media and on YouTube. He's in his early 20s. His name is Nick Shirley. And for those of you who say, oh, this is just a stunt for YouTube and there's nothing real here and he's not really uncovering anything. Well, first of all, it led to the resignation. Let me be clear. It led to Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, removing himself from the campaign in Minnesota to run for re-election. He was planning on running for re-election. He would have been on the ticket to run for a third term right now this November, and he removed himself from the ticket. This is the guy who was the presumptive vice president, should Kamala Harris have won the presidential election in 2024. He was chosen by Kamala Harris and nominated by the party.

to be one heartbeat away from the presidency, and weeks after Nick Shirley's investigative report broke, he removed himself from contention for re-election. Also, earlier this week, a daycare owner in Minneapolis that was featured in Nick Shirley's video from December pled guilty for a $4.6 million fraud scheme. Again, not the New York Times, not 60 minutes, not the Washington Post, Nick Shirley. Independent journalist. There's a lot of admiration for this guy. Ever since this story first broke, we've been highlighting it here on this radio program, on the network that you're hearing us on, and certainly at the town hall websites where I serve as the editor. On my town hall daily show at noon, we covered Nick Shirley and continued to cover his investigative reports because not only did he do this work in Minneapolis and they're just now bearing the fruits of that work. with convictions or guilty pleas. He also exposed fraud in the same realm in California. In Ohio, he just dropped a story over the weekend in New York. It's very real and why the networks aren't following suit. It really does make you wonder what those real and true big journalism degrees from a liberal arts college, well-funded, big massive legacy media outlets, what they really think their job is. Why did they think they're there? Because it seems to me this is exactly what you want journalists to do. So Nick Shirley, of course, for his troubles, has been slimed. He's been called racist. He's been called a fraud. They actually proposed a law in California to make what Nick Shirley is doing illegal. And that thing that he's doing is standing in front of a government-funded fraud machine. stand there with a camera microphone and ask people questions. You know, it's called journalism. It's what 60 Minutes did for decades. They don't do it anymore. Now they just want to trap Republicans and conservatives and try to make them look like fools. So here was Nick Shirley, part of his opening statement yesterday in the Senate hearing, that Democrats refused to participate in. Go ahead. By exposing the fraud, I actually also expose the politicians and media who worked for years to cover it up. Governor Tim Walz labeled my work as white supremacy and called me a far-right delusional conspiracy theorist. Meanwhile, he dropped out of re-election, and he even said he has ended his political career. Now the highest government-funded daycare in Minnesota has pleaded guilty to daycare fraud and the largest autism busts. in America history has been exposed. Where is Tim Walz in the media now? It just so happens that over 80% of the fraud committed in Minnesota is by the Somali population. And Nick Shirley, by the way, I think he's 24 years old, maybe 23 years old. That's Nick Shirley. reading from his statement and telling you exactly what happened to him and what he was able to do with his investigation. Senator Ashley Moody, who was one of the senators who called for this hearing, she had something to say as well. Let's go to her.

Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota. Do you remember when he wanted to be our vice president? It was bragging that all of these types of new small businesses were reasons why he should be trusted with leading. And now we're determining what all these small businesses like the Learing Center were. He used this as a... A reason that he gave the American people of why he should leave. So why are we surprised that immediately he's defensive and comes after a young kid that's trying to point out on behalf of his generation where this money is really going and this fraud? And look at what the leader of California said. Did he really slay in response to you uncovering just astronomical fraud and waste? And I want to quote this because I am appalled by it. Did he really say slow, surely is the fraud? Yes, he did. Yeah, that's Gavin Newsom calling Nick Shirley slow Shirley and saying that he was the real fraud. This is the man who wants to be president. You see the pattern developing here, right? And this is such an important part that Senator Moody pointed out because, you know, Minnesota was supposed to be this huge success story. The Minnesota miracle under the watchful eye and guidance and leadership of Tim Walz. Look at all of these new small businesses that have been created. And so many in our poor refugee and immigrant community, look at all these Somalis who come here. We welcome them. We don't need walls in this country. We welcome people from war toward nations like Somalia, and we give them a chance, and they've started their own businesses. They're so American. They're so entrepreneurial. They're frauds. Not the people. The businesses were frauds. Tim Walz knew it. They looked the other way. They didn't prosecute it. And then instead, they used the fraudulent learning centers and home hospice care and welfare, Medicare, Medicaid, fraud-related businesses. as statistics to show how the businesses are growing in Minnesota, to make it look like Tim Walz as a hero of the entrepreneur. And it was all built up with your tax dollars and did nothing. And then there's the question of where that money went as they were defrauding Americans of millions and millions and tens and billions of dollars of tax dollars. Did it just go into the pockets of those Somalians living here in Minnesota? Or maybe did that money go back home? That's where Senator Ron Johnson picked up the questioning. Senator Ron Johnson joining us, by the way, in our 7 o'clock hour. Let's go to that part of the hearing. I mean, $700 million in cash flowing out of the Minneapolis airport back to, you know, countries in Africa, have either of you, gentlemen, kind of investigated the foreign sourcing or an organization of a lot of this fraud? I mean, we're opening it up to foreign governments to fund their own operations. Well, yeah, it's been proven that a lot of the money in suitcases that left Minnesota went back into the hands of people inside Somalia.

And for instance, in New York City where I just did an expose exposing this adult daycare fraud, nobody at these daycares actually knows who the owner is. A lot of them had just been hired within the past month. In Miami, you have the Cuban government running these DME companies that are fleecing and quite literally looting from Medicaid. A lot of foreign governments have infiltrated our Medicaid because it's so simple and so easy to defraud. By the way, we know it's $700 million is because government watched it go out. They let it go. They didn't even put the IRS on the case. It's truly remarkable what we're allowing to happen here. So again, Mr. Chairman, I'd... I commend you like Senator Ernstead for holding this hearing and, you know, Ashley Moody, this is an incredibly important hearing and it speaks volumes. Yeah, it speaks volumes, all right. And also as you look at this and you start seeing the exposure of all of this fraud, you may be yelling back at your radio or your television or your device. Why aren't they doing anything? Why aren't they passing any laws? Why aren't they? Well, hold on. They did do something. In California, in fact, they mobilized and they did pass a law to stop all of this. Now, not to stop the fraud, to stop Nick Shirley. Watch, listen. You mentioned the Stop Nick Shirley Act. What is that? I mean, can you describe that in greater detail? Yeah, so that's a bill that's been created by Mia Banta, the wife of the Attorney General of California. And the official title is AB 2624, and it's to provide make it. essentially illegal to expose and to film outside of immigration support service providers. That means any entity that... Yeah, the Stop Nick Shirley Act. They don't call it the Stop Nick Shirley Act, but it would make it illegal to film outside of any of these so-called support centers, these institutions of fraud, but only if they supply services to immigrants, which I think is interesting too. If you want to expose fraud where they're catering to U.S. citizens, go right ahead, but not the immigrants. That's Nick Shirley. He's a hero. A hero. For nearly 3,000 years, Homer's The Odyssey has shaped Western imagination. It tells the story of Odysseus as he faces monsters, shipwrecks, false comforts, and impossible choices on his long journey home. As one of the foundational works of Western literature, Homer's epic is more than a mythology, it explores permanent questions about courage, duty, loyalty, family, leadership, temptation, and the search for home. In one of the epic's defining moments, Odysseus rejects the offer of immortality from the goddess Calypso, choosing instead the long and difficult journey home. His decision reveals one of the central themes of the Odyssey that a life of duty, family, and home is greater than a life devoted to comfort or glory. Achilles chose glory. Odysseus chose home. That's why Hillsdale College has released its newest free online course, The Odyssey. Top by Professor Benedict Wayland.

The course reveals why Homer's masterpiece remains one of the greatest works of Western literature. Find this free course at Charlie for Hillsdale.com. That's Charlie for Hillsdale.com. Read the classics. Study the West. The Odyssey from Hillsdale College. Go to Charlie for Hillsdale.com. It's the 16th day of July. We've got like three weeks left until the big last round of primaries. That includes Michigan, where all eyes are on that Senate Democrat primary race. The Republican in the Senate primary race, it's pretty much cleared the field. I think there might be a couple of people on the ticket, but really it's Mike Rogers. He's going to win that nomination. Former Congressman, former FBI agent, he's going to be joining us today coming up in the 8 o'clock hour on the East Coast at 805. future Republican nominee for Senate and Michigan, Mike Rogers. Also, by the way, Missouri is having their big primaries in three weeks in Missouri. And any listener of this program for a long time knows that Christa Gall is a dear personal friend of mine. Krista Gall appeared on a regular basis on my DC WMAL program. In fact, he was my guest host when I was on vacation for several years there. Ironically, before I got my job at WMAL back in 2011, I was his guest host when he would go on vacation from his program that he used to host out of Philadelphia. He left the radio business in March. and is running for Congress in Missouri, Missouri 6. He's got a primary. Anyone in the Missouri area, or if you have family or friends in Missouri, if they live in that district, vote for Chris DeGall. And we've got a Missouri congressman joining us later in the show. The Chairman of Ways and Means Jason Smith will be joining us. So a lot of action in Missouri and in Michigan, and we've got key players in those states coming up on this show today. One other thing I want to say about Nick Shirley, just to button up our conversation yesterday. You want to meet Nick Shirley. If you want to thank him for the great work that he does, if you want to praise him, I'm actually appearing with him at an event in September, September 26th in Pasadena, California. It's connected to our station there in Los Angeles, KRLA, the morning answer, the host Jennifer Horn there. It's going to be a great event. It's called Town Hall, 2026 in Pasadena. It's going to feature Nick Shirley. It's going to feature Adam Carolla. It's going to feature the Republican nominee for governor in California, Steve Hilton, our friend and colleague, Alex Marlowe from Breitbart and from Salem, Jennifer Horn, of course, the host of the Morning Answer in Los Angeles, and yours truly, Larry O'Connor. That's on September 26th, all-day event at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena. It's going to be big. And if you're in the Southern California area, or if you want to travel to Southern California, it's not a bad place to visit, wouldn't want to live there. Come and visit Nick Shirley. We're going to have a lot of praise for this young man and we'll be really getting into what he's been able to accomplish. That's September 26, you can get information out there on the interwebs, certainly at KRLA's website. Just look it up AM 870, the answer. So I consider this to be the most important story of the day, what we're about to tell you about.

Let's start with a woman who is the victim of what many are calling government abuse. This is a woman in her 70s, just trying to retire and have a good golden year era in Florida, as so many other people go to Florida. And we love Florida. We love Ron DeSantis. We think Florida does so much right. But boy, did they mess up here. She gets a new car. She orders her license plate. She gets the license plate in the mail. And, well, the license plate, I'm going to spell out what it says. In Florida, they have their little oranges in the middle of the two little oranges on the logo of the state of Florida. It's the Sunshine State. And so the letters and numbers of the license plate are separated by that little cluster of oranges. And on the left side, as you're reading the license plate, it's got SQZ, which obviously if you're doing a personalized license plate, SQZ reads squeeze, right? And then on the other side of the little cluster of oranges, it's A55. But of course, any child knows, any child that's goofed around with the calculator knows that the five can also be used as an S. And so read it along with me. The license plate says squeeze ASS.

Imagine getting that license plate in the mail. Imagine the government sending that to you. This woman, she raised the issue with media because she was so outright. She immediately called the local television station to express her outrage. And she is upset. Here she is. I'll let her speak for herself. I don't think a woman that lives in a senior community that's going to be 77 years old next month will be driving around with what this plate has to say. Well, let me just say there are some women in Florida who would be just fired driving around with what that plate has to say. And from what I hear about what goes on at the villages, there may be plenty of 77-year-old women who are willing to do that as well. She went ballistic, she said. She wonders how that passed inspection. I think everyone at the DMV in Florida knew exactly what was going on, and they thought it would be funny. But she's going to keep it. She said, I'm resigned to it. Maybe it was destined for it to be on my car. I'll even get some honks. Yeah, you will. When it comes to supplements, two things matter most, that it works and that you can trust it. And I love telling you about Relief Factor and what it's done for me, got me up out of the bed with my sciatica. I'm back on my feet without the pain and I'm running and training for a marathon. I want to tell you about other people who have been just absolutely rescued by Relief Factor like Mark. Mark was actually in tears because of his daily hand joint discomfort. He started taking Relief Factor, and in a week he felt 50% better, and now he barely notices any pain at all. He also loves our customer's service. He's so happy he's spreading the word to everyone, and so am I. They make it easy to find out if you'll be the next person telling us Relief Factor gave you your life back because the first three weeks are just $17.76. Just go to Relieffactor.com or call 8004 relief. That's relieffactor.com. Your education is more than a path to a degree. At Regent University, it's an important step in God's plan for your career. It's where you'll be equipped to lead and serve with purpose. It's where 40,000 graduates have prepared to fulfill their callings, and so can you. Choose a top-ranked program from over 150 areas of study on campus or online and watch what God will do. Learn more at regent.edu. That's regent.edu. It's Larry O'Connor on O'Connor & Company. Good morning. I think I told you on Monday I was able to join about 30 other colleagues, radio hosts, podcasters, influencers, I hate that word, and some pastors. We had a private reception with Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. Congressman Merlin Stutzman was there as well. He's joining us on the program at 705 out of Indiana. It was a great little event. We got a tour of the Capitol by the speaker. But we were able to.

have a lot of conversations, exchanges with him. And I want to tell you, the Speaker of the House, he is looking at these midterm elections, obviously important for the future of the country, the president's agenda, trying to keep the momentum going for a Republican majority. But he is very well aware of this new crop of Democrats who are about to join him. in the House of Representatives. These new Democrats, I'm talking about the ones who have just won victories in deep blue districts picking off senior Democrats who have held office for many, many years. You can call them establishment Democrats if you want, but these were incumbent Democrats running for re-election who had to fight off and in many cases lost in primary challenges against socialist, Marxists. These are people who who are aligned with the Democrat Socialists of America, who then run as Democrats and openly explain how they want to dismantle the Democratic Party and, by the way, dismantle our way of life in this country. They say it out loud, what their strategy is. And if you're a Democrat, you have two choices. You can either fight them and say, no, you are not us. We are not the same. Our party may be liberal and progressive, and we may flirt with certain socialist government programs, but we are not socialist. You could do that and try to make that case. Or you can be like Gavin Newsom, who has never had really a real job except for owning a winery out of high school because he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and he was given a lot of money by the Getty family. And then was mayor of San Francisco, then was lieutenant governor of California, then was governor of California. And, well, you know, if you want the next gig and you don't want to just live off of the money your wife makes doing documentaries after she worked for Harvey Weinstein and turned the other way when she saw everything he was doing, well, then you've got to get the next job and that's being president. Gavin Newsom is a lot of things. He's slimy. He's a sociopath. He's a narcissist. He's a liar. He's got great hair. And the hair gel budget in Sacramento must be astronomical. But Governor Hairgel is not stupid. And he sees, he sees the playing field. He sees where the lines are being drawn in his party. And he knows, given the field of other candidates like Josh Shapiro and Pete Buttigieg and maybe Kamala Harris and. J.B. Pritzker and whatever names you might hear as potential nominees for the Democrats. He's right now leading the pack. He's got the highest profile. He's the governor of the biggest state. He's raising a lot of money. He's got a great television presence. But he knows that if he wants that nomination, he's got to appeal to those Marxists. He's got a signal to the socialist that he's their guy. You see, Bernie isn't running. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn't running. Zohran Mamdani can't run. All these socialists, all the Marxists at the moment are sitting this out. So they're going to align around someone. They're going to align around the candidate who will wink, wink, nudge, nudge just enough to them to let them know that if they back this guy or this gal, he's going to let him into the room. He's going to put them in the cabinet. He's going to slowly but surely transform this country into a Marxist utopia.

Gavin Newsom knows he's got to do that. He's got to audition for them so he can get the part. So here he was earlier this week at a forum in California. Listen to the words he chooses because he goes through this entire process explaining that our economic system in America, our free market system, our capitalist system is broken and it's not working. Now, if you make that statement, you've got to replace it with something, right? Listen to what he says. Something's fundamentally broken here. And that wealth is creating power, power locking in rules and regulations, locking everybody else out. You can't play in the margins anymore. We can't fail more efficiently. Certainly nostalgia is not working. I would argue socialism is not going to work. But capitalism as we know it doesn't work either. Capitalism as we know it doesn't work is the definitive statement along with our system is broken. He gives a little lip service and says, I could argue socialism won't work. He says it with a chuckle in his voice. But then... It's noteworthy that he doesn't actually argue at that moment that socialism won't work. See, he could have. These things aren't working. We got a problem, but socialism isn't the answer. And now let me explain why, but he doesn't. He just brushes it off with a chuckle. I could argue. You could argue? Well, why don't you argue? Well, he doesn't argue that socialism doesn't work. because he needs the socialists. He needs the Marxists. Anyone who gets the nomination needs these people. They need Bernie Sanders. They need his support. Now let me remind you who the Democrats are allowing into their club. And it's not like they're sneaking in the back door. Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, Gavin Newsom, they're opening the front door wide and they're saying, come on in, folks. Here's Fox News breaking down exactly. And you've heard me talk about this too, but it's nice to get validated by other media outlets. We've talked about it a lot on this show, and you better get used to it because we are fighting Marxists right now, and we're not going to let it go. Here's Fox News breaking down exactly what the Democrat Socialists of America, the DSA's platform is. They just voted on this. This is what they stand for. Go ahead. Who is representing people of America on the Hill? They want to eliminate the U.S. Senate. They want to replace the president and the U.S. Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by a subordinate to Congress. They want amnesty for all immigrants. And they want to defund the Department of War. This is going to a source inside the DSA. Yeah, but the main point is... there was this massive talking point that this is just liberal states and, you know, liberal districts where this has happened. I'm sorry, this is happening all across the country. And they have some platforms that a lot of young people and a lot of people that have grievances with the rich are going with. It's anti-American, it's anti-Jews, anti-Israel, is anti-the foundation of how this country was built. They believe that our country

is deeply flawed, and they're winning. So you've got to have a Republican party that speaks truth to power on all of it. They don't even want the police. That's what you need. Listen, a lot of you're saying, how are these young people embracing Marxism? How are they saying, oh, yeah, this is a good idea? And the answer is because not enough of us are standing up and pointing out how evil these ideas are. In fact, we, sadly, too many of us, are ignoring who they are and what they stand for. They're not even telling you what you just heard from Fox and what I've been telling you about what their platform is. But here's the problem. They're very good at propaganda. They're very good at pushing back against any criticism. Marxists, you know, they end up being authoritarian. They're pretty good at silencing their critics. And so they'll just wave this away and say, oh, that's just Fox News. They're crazy right. But that's just Larry O'Connor. That's that just talk radio. That's just, you know, that's not true. That's not who we are. That's not what we stand for. That's not, no, no. Okay, fine. Don't listen to Fox News. Don't listen to Salem Radio. Don't listen to Salem News Channel. Don't read Town Hall. Don't listen to talk radio. I've got an idea. Let's listen to them. Let's listen to the leadership. of the Democrat Socialists of America because they're telling you who they are. Let's start with clip 20. And, you know, we have a unique responsibility to act from the heart of empire, the belly of the beast. The most important thing that we can do is take that empire down from within. Our role ultimately is to facilitate our own empire's failure in ways that we can, ultimately to overthrow our own empire. Imperialism is, U.S. imperialism is not a thing that can be reformed away. It has to be. overthrown through revolutionary struggle. And to build a mass movement that can use the leverage of workers to hit the kill switch on American imperialism here within the American Empire. These are the radicals who are part of the Democrat Socialists of America leadership. And this is a great video montage put together by the folks at the Canary Mission. You know, Canary Nicomime, they're trying to warn everybody of what's happening here. It's happening right now. This election, right now. is America, our freedom, our ideals that have withheld for 2050 years versus Marxism. You just heard the voices of Francis Gill from DSA Los Angeles, National Political Committee. Also, Amy Wilhelm, DSA Seattle, Hazel Williams, DSA San Francisco, Sarah Anastasia Miller, Milner, DSA Portland. Why are they all young, educated white women? Good question. Here's a little montage more of them. Here is clip 21, please. This is them. This is them telling you, not me, not Fox News. This is them. Go ahead.

I mean, every president since the founding of the country has been super evil. But somehow we have like one that is even more evil. And people get that. Like even your normie Democrat understands that that that Trump is super evil and that probably there's a system that created a person that is doing these things, you know? And we can we can pull back and say like, wait a second, you know, it's it's this political system that we've created that is concentrating power in the hands of the presidency. And that is a huge problem. young white college-educated women. Just so you know, if you look at the exit polls in New York, Colorado, other places where these socialists have won, the diversity, the diversity vote, the black vote, the Latina, it is going for the Normie establishment Democrat. It's the educated white, not very diverse. College-educated voter that's voting for the Marxists because they think they're helping the poor. And just to mix things up, we do have a leader of the National Party for DSA, the co-chair. He is not a white-educated young woman. His name is Ashik Siddique. But he appeared on a show called Democracy Now, Left Wingers, and, well, he doubled down on the message. Go ahead. Our goal is to reframe politics around class lines in the United States, which is what the ruling class has been doing forever. We want to transfer power from the 1% to the working class and to replace capitalism with socialism, which means expanding democracy in every part of our lives. And that's how we're organizing people together. In other countries that got more expansive things like universal health care, it happened with class struggle, and that's with organized workers with the majorities of the population. Power is not conceded without struggle, and that means people have to organize in our own interests to win these things. This is who they are. This is their words. They're telling you in real time right now what their plans are. And this last one, Cut 23, is really telling. So would you like to abolish the Senate? That's part of our platform. And we don't think that's extreme. We think it's a change that would help make this country more democratic. We don't think it's extreme. We want to abolish the Senate, but we don't think it's extreme. This is who Gavin Newsom and the Democrats are cozying up to. Just so you know, it is extreme. You know, you can't amend the Constitution to get rid of the Senate. It's one of the things that can't be amended. So if you do get rid of the Senate, it means you're getting rid of our Constitution. There's a revolution happening right now. And we're fighting it. Are you with us? Whether you're preparing for exams juggling career and family or you're just looking to stay sharp as you age, Think Factor is here to help. It's created by the same company that makes Relief Factor, Think Factor, support sharper focus, stronger recall, clearer thinking. It's a natural way to give your brain the daily nutrients it needs for memory, attention, and even vibrant vision. I take Think Factor every day. I want you to as well so you can stay focused during demanding tasks, keep your memory strong, and maintain mental energy for whatever's ahead.

including this fight against Marxist. Think Factor. Call 800 the number four relief or visit ReliefFactor.com. Your first bottle, just 1995. Relieffactor.com, 800, the number four relief. Think Factor. Think clearer. Perform better daily. Your education is more than a path to a degree. At Regent University, it's an important step in God's plan for your career. It's where you'll be equipped to lead and serve with purpose. It's where 40,000 graduates have prepared to fulfill their callings, and so can you. Choose a top-ranked program from over 150 areas of study on campus or online and watch what God will do. Learn more at regent.edu. That's regent.edu. Big day yesterday on Capitol Hill. We just gave you the highlights of Nick Shirley. Also, Todd Blanche, currently the acting attorney general, has his confirmation hearings yesterday. We'll give you some highlights of that. Also, new revelations, speaking of the Justice Department, of what happened under Joe Biden and Merrick Garland. Jack Smith, the Inspector Javert, Special Counsel to prosecute Donald Trump in an election year. That didn't go very well. for Jack Smith. And now we're learning more and more about his investigators. Apparently, not only did they acquire private text messages of dozens of Republican lawmakers that they said under oath was just for metadata. They were just trying to figure out the timing of messages. We didn't look at the actual messages. Well, now we've got witnesses saying, you bet you, we read those messages. Biden's Justice Department through Jack Smith, the special prosecutor. was spying on elected members of Congress. for his January 6th jihad. We will talk about that in just 60 seconds. First of all, I want to give you an update on our campaign here for food for the poor. One of the people helping coordinate delivery of the emergency relief to Venezuela from your donations is Cesar Guevara. In addition to being a director at the Christian nonprofit relief organization, he also has a family living in earthquake ravaged Venezuela. So our emergency effort over at Larry O'Sho.com. It's very personal to him. Over 18,000 people that have lost their houses. And as you know, the economic conditions in Venezuela are not very good. They were not good before the disaster. So this has made things worse. What food for the boy is doing is focusing on the first phase of the response, which is the humanitarian response. We're sending container loads of hygiene, kids, food and medicine and other items. Thousands of buildings that have been affected. Again, over 18,000 people that have lost their houses.

I mean, he has lied and lied about it. And I want to just make good that claim. Here is a record. I'm going to read it to you, a record of Jack Smith's responses under oath now to members of Congress. He has asked question as it relates to members and their staffs and senators. It's just the toll records as far as you remember. Smith, that is my recollection. Question. Did the records that you requested include the content of text messages? Smith, answer, no. Now, maybe there's some nuance I'm missing here, but it sounds a lot to me like this guy didn't tell the truth. Have you thought about investigating this guy for perjury? We take testimony in front of this body very seriously. Yes. Good. Well, I think he absolutely should be investigated. I think he absolutely should be prosecuted, if at all possible. And based on his response is under oath, I think he should be. And I think it's time that we say that these people who did this, who engaged in this mass illegality, blatant violation of separation of powers, blatant violation of the Constitution, we know what they did to President Trump. We know what they did to. As usual, Josh Hawley of Missouri is right about that. And later in the hearing, actually, Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed that Mr. Smith is under investigation for all sorts of things. We've got Senator Ron Johnson, who is part of that body. He wants Jack Smith investigated. He'll be joining us in the next hour. We'll talk about that and a whole lot more. Keep it here. All right, buckle up, everybody. We've got a very busy two hours ahead of us, final two hours of O'Connor and Company. Thanks for joining us, letting us be a part of your morning routine and starting the day the right way here from your nation's capital on our flagship station, WMAL, but heard all across the nation, really all across the universe, if you think about how radio waves work. It's O'Connor and Company and the Relief Factor Studios coming up in just a bit. We're going to speak with Matt Schlapp, Chairman of the American Conservative Union. He's doing CPAC UK, and they're facing some very real issues in England right now. But it looks like the tide might be turning a conservatism might be coming back into the fold there in the United Kingdom. We'll talk to Matt about that. Also, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, about a very busy day in his life yesterday in the Senate. Also... Former Congressman Mike Rogers, who is poised to be the Republican nominee for Senate in Michigan, will be joining us, as well as Jason Smith, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee out of Missouri. Well, that's a whole lot of Midwest. Ron Johnson, Mike Rogers, Jason Smith. Let's finish it off by bringing Indiana into the fold. Congressman Marlon Stutzman of the Hoosier State, still basking in the glow of their national championship. Congressman, thanks for joining us, sir. Hey, great. Good to be with you this morning. Larry, I was going to say, that sounds like a pretty strong lineup. But, of course, as you mentioned, it's all Midwest. That's why I know every one of those guys, great guys, and great to be with you this morning on WMAL.

You bet. And listen, Congressman Susser, it was great to see you Monday at the Speaker Johnson's event that he did for so many of us sort of leaders and... radio hosts and pastors. I'd love to start there, actually, because it was a very faith-based journey. And I get the sense from this Republican caucus and from speaking to you at dinner that these Republicans, this breed of Republicans right now on Capitol Hill, do not shy away from signaling that their faith does, in fact, inform their politics. And by the way, if you go back 250 years, that's nothing new. That's how America was founded. Yeah, no, that's exactly right, Larry. And it was great to see you all as well. And what a great room and a great tour. I didn't join the tour with Speaker Mike Johnson of the Capitol. My wife, Christy was along. But I tell you, first of all, Speaker Mike Johnson is the difference maker. He has been such a great leader through these very difficult... margins, you know, we only have a couple of vote margin in the House of Representatives as well as the Senate. And, you know, oftentimes everybody's like, well, you'll never get stuff passed through the House. It's going to be the Senate where it's going to be a little bit easier because they've got, you know, 53 Republicans compared to our 218, 19. Sometimes it depends on the day. But Speaker Johnson really is a man of faith, and he leads that way. And he's... Not apologetic, but he doesn't just walk around, you know, hitting people over the head with the Bible. He really just lives it out and is very strong about leadership. And so that room, of course... being filled with great leaders in media across the country was just good to be together and realize that, hey, we're all in this together, and that if we stand together, and if we're bold, great things happen. I think that's what we're all realizing is that this is still a battle of good and evil. Good ideas, bad ideas are against each other. And so when people are willing to stand up, and, you know, say who we are. I mean, I'm a believer. I'm a Christian. But that doesn't mean that I can't be friends with, you know, other people of other faiths. We're always going to be there. In fact, being a Christian, by definition, means we are holding out our hand to people of other faith. We want to engage and be friends with everyone. That's exactly right. Yeah. Well, the Christian faith has done so much for the world in giving and giving and giving. That's the fact I grew up going out on the mission field, helping people, whether it was in Haiti or Russia or Guatemala or other countries, because we want to help people. And I did the same thing at home. It's not like I have to go to the mission field.

My home is also a place where I can help people. Well, let's talk about yours and the speaker's determination to continue to do good, despite the odds, despite the numbers. Passing the SAVE Act continues to be a priority. The speaker reminded us they passed it three times, what's this next version of the SAVE Act, and how are you guys going to make it thoon-proof? Yeah, great question. And the reason the Save Act is a really important piece of legislation is because there are people out there, as we're just talking about good and evil, that are taking advantage of people who don't have the ability to defend themselves. In fact, I'm going to have breakfast this morning with another gentleman that was in the room, Pastor Lorenzo Sewell from Detroit, who is fighting to protect his congregants and his community. uh... in uh... in urban detroit where uh... the folks are losing their ability to vote because uh... the democrat party is going in voting for people once his uh... he has people in his congregation that go to the ballot box to vote they're like well you've already voted so like no we haven't well somebody's already voted for them that's stealing their vote that's why the save america act matters so much is because we have to be sure that it's only citizens voting and that they have a photo ID, and that they are legally properly vetted to vote. I mean, that's one of the sacred rights that we have as Americans is to vote. And so taking the SAVE Act, we've passed it four times in the House of Representatives. Speaker Mike Johnson has committed to this. President Trump has committed to this. We have a couple of senators in the U.S. Senate that aren't. But that's the issue. We've got to get it through the U.S. Senate. And so we're attaching it to a couple of pieces of legislation this week to get it over to the Senate and let them fight it out. So, and in fact, you're attaching you to the appropriations bill, which is a fascinating strategy, because basically if the Senate wants to vote to basically keep the government funded, I suppose. But Democrats are going to try to filibuster this again, I'm assuming. So what's the end game here? Well, the endgame is to get it to the president's desk, and whether it's using the reconciliation package to do that. Now, you know, the real problem here, Larry, is, you know, four senators, Republican senators, Thom Tillis, Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski won't vote for a traditional Save America Act bill because they're not willing to break the filibuster. Well, again, that's a whole other topic. I think we need to move beyond the filibuster. And, you know, let's go back to the talking filibuster of Mr. Smith when he came to Washington and actually stood on the Senate floor instead of this zombie filibuster. But, you know, the zombie filibuster, they don't have to go to the floor. They don't have to talk about it. They can just stop the legislation they don't like, and they often go back to their. They just say, yeah, we claim filibuster. It's like Michael Scott on the office declaring bankruptcy. It's not just saying, okay, filibuster, no, no, no. I go ahead and filibuster. We'll wait. We'll wait all night.

Yeah, exactly, yeah. You know, stand there on the floor and talk about it. But in this case, with the reconciliation process, we only need 51 votes to pass a bill, and we've done it now twice. Of course, the big beautiful bill was the first one, and then we had to get the government open back up again, and we used one of those strategies of Reconciliation 2. Now this is Reconciliation 3, and we move these through the budget committee, so we're going to have markup this morning in the House. uh here to a to mark up reconciliation three and we're going to attach the the policy and the funding for uh the safe america act and then once it goes over to the senate they're going to go through their uh what they call the the bird bath and the parliamentarian and what's what's in what's out and You know, and that's what gets frustrating, Larry. I mean, I grew up on the farm in Indiana, still live on the farm, and we just get the job done. And in this case, there's so many rules and traditions of the Senate that everybody points to, like, well, we can't do that because we have this tradition in the Senate. And at the end of the day, the American people want to know that our election process is safe, if there's integrity, the illegals aren't voting in our electoral process. and that you are who you say you are. And so we have the policy, we have the funding in this bill today. Hopefully we get it passed out of committee and to the floor. I know we will. We're going to find a way to get this done. And then it's going to put all the light is on the Senate in order to pass it. As you heard, we've got Senator Johnson coming up. It looks like he's poised to replace the late Senator Lindsey Graham as the chair of the Budget Committee. So he'll be a point person in the Senate on this for reconciliation. We'll talk to him about that, too. I did want to touch on one other issue that's affecting Indiana's Hoosiers, and that has to do with the treatment of Caitlin Clark and the WNBA. This is something that we've all been witnessing, and I've seen you use your social media platform to speak out against this. Is there some sort of, should there be a hearing or something about this? Because it sure looks like that Caitlin Clark is suffering from some equal protection bias from her employer, the WNBA or the NBA writ large. And they're treating her differently and frankly abusing her because she's white. Yeah, no, that's what we're all asking. A group of us from the Republican Study Committee, myself included, you know, being a Hoosier and excited to have, you know, WNBA was, nobody watched the WNBA five years ago. Nobody cared about the WMBA until Caitlin Clark. Nobody. And the thing that people need to remember, especially the WNBA, that this is business.

And if they want eyeballs, that's what makes them popular, is to have a player on the court that people want to watch. And Caitlin Clark can shoot the daylights out of a gym, you know, with threes, and she's an exciting player to watch. And she just wants to play basketball. She's not even out there with a political agenda, which I think is her problem. She doesn't have a political agenda, a woke political agenda, and that's why they're targeting her. In fact, even last night, a hard foul. and the referee doesn't call anything. She's going to get hurt, and then she's going to be sitting on the sideline. And, you know what I told some folks is like, look, if there was an attack the way that it was on the floor a couple of weeks ago when Alyssa Thomas put a fist into her neck, there would have been an assault. But again, the WNBA is going to lose a great player either to injury or she's going to go to Europe and say, I'm not putting up with this stuff. Congressman Stussman, sadly, I've exceeded my 120-second rule on talking about the WMBA. But it was vibrant and it was engaging. And I appreciate you joining us, sir. Always great. Thank you. All right. More to come. Keep it here. Can we deliver a little Critter News to you here? Because we've got a couple of things that we need to share with you involving our four, or in this case six-legged friends. Critter News is a fan favorite here on this program. Critter News is a big part of our presentation, of all the news that's important to start your day, or at least put a smile on your face as you're trying to start your day in these trying times. And I turn to a reporter. on KTLA, independent station in Los Angeles, California. I think it's owned by Tribune, if I remember right, maybe Sinclair. Anyway, she's reporting on a heat wave in the valley, Sherman Oaks neighborhood, to be specific. And while she was reporting on the sidewalk in Los Angeles, a giant, and I mean like two inch long roach. was crawling on her, like on her skin, on her neck. At one point, it takes a dive into the cleavage. The cockroach, as we used to say in high school, got to second base. This is a disgusting, horrific, right out of a horror movie moment. And I got to tell you, this reporter, her name is Rachel Menatoff. She didn't flinch. She didn't budge. And in fact, it was so remarkable that later on, I don't know if this was later that evening or the next morning, her colleagues in studio actually did a segment on the roach and on her professionalism. Here, take a listen to this. And it's a lot more comfortable at this hour, but we're still in the 80s here in the valley. So overnight temperature is not necessarily dropping. And this leads to less recovery time from the daytime heat. Oh, my gosh. I have to hand it to her. She was really calm. I don't know if she knew that was there at that point. So those fly?

They do fly. That's like a flying cockroach. Oh, Eric. It is. Okay, that's our Rachel Minotov, who is so professional. She kept her cool. There's no way. I would have been able to keep her cool on this. No way. She probably wasn't sure what it was. You just know there's something. Oh, my gosh. At the end, I have to say, I'm so relieved that it jumped onto the mic because it looked like it was going to crawl like. In her shirt or in her hair. And I was like, oh. In her mouth. Yeah. That's terrifying, though. And that's one of those things that several hours later you're still feeling it. Totally. Right? You still feel like it's on your body, maybe even several days later. Now we're all going to have nightmares about flying cockroaches. Let me just say every single person on the team on this show right now, they're all shuddering. They're all just from watching this thing. You've got to see the video if you're not watching our live stream right now. And you can hear the reaction from her colleagues as well. I do love also they show immediately after her live hit is done. They kept the camera rolling. It wasn't shown at the time, but they showed it when they were just reviewing it. And she did what all of us would do, which is her entire body just started shaking. And she started brushing imaginary bugs off of her body. It is horrible. Here's what's not being discussed. See, if I were on the news panel there at KTLA and we were watching our colleague get accosted by a two-inch roach. for merely standing on the sidewalk in Los Angeles. Can we just point out the obvious? What kind of pig style Los Angeles has become? Do you know why roaches are so ubiquitous in the city of angels that merely standing on the sidewalk, they come and land on you and start crawling all over your body? That doesn't happen in most cities, okay? That doesn't happen in most places. Do you know what you call a city where that happens? You call it roach infested because that's what it is. It's infested with roaches. Why? You know why? Because the same political party, one party rule, has controlled that city for decades and they have let it go into decline. Decline is a choice. Decline is a political choice that leaders make. And part of that decline is allowing your city to be roach infested. That's sort of the unspoken story here that news people at KTLA probably should have pointed out. Case in point from the New York Post. Los Angeles blew $60 million on their latest homeless fixed. Just three out of a potential 2,000 apartments have been used to relocate the homeless. in a failed $60 million project to get people off the streets. Council member Nithya Raman, that's the socialist who beat out Spencer Pratt to be on the ticket for mayor this November. Council member Nithya Raman, the chair of L.A. City Council's Housing and Homeless Subcommittee, introduced the time-limited subsidy program back in September as a cheaper alternative to Karen Bass's Inside Safe program. It was meant to get homeless people into an established residence. They spent $60 million to help 2,000 people, and so far it's accommodated three. So they continue to live on the streets. They continue to encourage people living on the streets. And the next thing you know, you're getting attacked by roaches. Welcome to Los Angeles.

When it comes to supplements, if you're evaluating various supplements that you want to take to stay healthy and in this case with Relief Factor to stay pain-free, two things matter most, that it works and that you can trust it. Well, you can trust Relief Factor. And I want to tell you how it works because we hear from people every single day whose lives have changed, like Joni. Now, Joni shared that before Relief Factor, her husband couldn't even open his hands when he woke up in the morning. Because of that, he had to give up his love playing guitar. Well, now he wakes up with full flexibility and he's back to playing music. And they're both recommending Relief Factor to friends as a way to enjoy the things they love again. I want you to join Joni and her husband. I want you to try Relief Factor, and it's really easy. Right now, your three-week quick start is just $17.76. Call 1-800, the number four, relief, or go to Relieffactor.com. That is correct. And we've got a powerhouse 30 minutes ahead of us. In a moment, we're going to check in with our friend Matchlap Chairman of the American Conservative Union, bringing American conservative ideas to jolly old England with CPAC Great Britain. And then the presumptive chairman of the Budget Committee in the Senate, that'll be the point person for the reconciliation package, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. There's a ton to get to with him, including the spying of Jack Smith, the persecution of Nick Shirley, and a whole lot more. That's all coming up. I do want to take a quick moment, though, to give you an update on our campaign for the earthquake victims in Venezuela, the great Christian charity that we've partnered with, Food for the Poor. They are helping coordinate delivery of emergency relief to Venezuela. Your donations are supplying people like Cesar Guevara, who is not only a director at the Christian Nonprofit Relief Organization there on the ground, but he also has family living in Venezuela. Take a listen. Over 18,000 people that have lost their houses. And as you know, the economic conditions in Venezuela are not very good. They were not good before the disaster. So this has made things worse. What food for the boy is doing is focusing on the first phase of the response, which is the humanitarian response. We're sending container loads of hygiene, kids, food and medicine and other items. Thousands of buildings that have been affected. Again, over 18,000 people that have lost their houses. Listen, Venezuela is just emerging from the totalitarian Marxism of Maduro and Chavez. America is part of the solution there, and you are part of the solution. We need to demonstrate to them our Christian charity and our support for them in their greatest need. So please help food for the poor, deliver all of this aid to these victims in Venezuela. Go to my show's webpage. It's Larry O. Show. there's a banner right at the top that says help venezuela or if you'd rather you can just text text my name larry to 51 555 larry to 51 555 or go to larryosho dot com to help venezuela god bless you thank you for that

Joining us right now, Matt Schlapp, he's the chairman of the American Conservative Union, and they are in the midst of CPAC Great Britain. And, of course, his wife, friend of the program, Mercedes-Lap, who would probably correct my pronunciation there. It's not Venezuela, it's Venezuela. Or, I don't know, how does Mercy pronounce it? She's very good at the Latino thing. She's very good, and she doesn't want to make people like you and me say it correctly so she can just correct us, right? Oh, she's one of them. There's no private lessons. Yeah. She's a shamer. Listen, man, I think it's amazing that right after we celebrate our independence from Great Britain, you're bringing our freedom, our liberty, and our conservative principles to the mother country to Great Britain because England is in a little trouble right now, aren't they? They are. You know, I was able to talk to the opening of CPAC with Liz Trust, the former prime minister. You know, basically Daddy's home is kind of the theme here, which is they're actually all look at Keir Starmer, Prime Minister Keir Starmer famously referred to Trump as Daddy. But, you know, they're looking at America. Conservatives definitely in Great Britain are looking at America and saying, we got to do what you guys are doing over in America. We're about ready to lose our country. You know, we just spent a couple days in Paris as a family and now over in London and spent a lot of time with our Italian friends. It is really a scary thing to see what's happening in this country. There has just been an overwhelming... influx of migrants, mostly Muslim, who really don't share the same cultural values as they do in these countries. And it's created a huge tumult. I mean, most of these Muslim immigrants, you know, they're in separate neighborhoods. They believe in Sharia law. They believe in polygamy. They believe that women, by and large, you know, can be sexually exploited at will. I mean, it's a real crisis over here in these countries. And finally, the Western Europeans are waking up to the fact that if you're going to have immigration, you've got to have laws-based immigration. You ought to have immigration. That makes your country better. Yeah. Imagine that. Why is that such a radical idea, by the way? And I should ask, Matt, did they, you know, did you use a fake passport when you went in there? Or did they like think? Because no, with your social media presence and you expressing your opinion because we have a First Amendment over here on this side of the Atlantic, you can't do that over there in England. We've seen them go after people because they use social media to express their opinion. Look, we just had a former minister of the British government be bludgeoned to death in her home by a radicalized leftist. The hate is not coming from the right. The hate and the violence is coming from the left, certainly in Britain, and we've seen this in America. And, you know, it starts, all the violence, I believe, starts when you lose the fundamental respect of having to listen to another person's point of view, even when you don't agree with.

And that those political views are enshrined with political protections. And so, Larry, where you're bringing up with the fact that people are being arrested for literally putting out a Facebook post that's contrary to EU orthodoxy is really, it's a very, very critical moment. But I want to get some hope. I think Nigel Farage will be the next prime minister of the UK, and I think we're going to have conservative victories. in France and I think maybe even Germany. So like the tide is definitely turning, but wow, after so much tragedy. Yeah, I'll say. But here's the problem. It's almost like when people say, will we ever have a Republican governor in California or a Republican mayor of New York? My answer is always, yeah, when things get so bad. that people finally realize, oh, geez, this is awful. I think things have gotten that bad. We've seen the protests in the streets where people are fed up in England. And then you've got the police, you know, cracking down on demonstrations because they're literally waving the flag of England. They're waving the union jack. And that apparently is a provocative act, Matt. That's how bad it's gotten. That's how bad it's gotten. Now, look, in our own country, we can't brag too much because we've allowed our election system to be polluted into our laws to be weakened. We have our own lawfare where the government goes after people with traditional values in blue areas, including the federal government and Joe Biden. You know, they don't have this election problem in Europe yet. But they are copycatting what in some of these countries, what Gavin Newsom and others have done in America. I mean, these left us, they meet, they plot together. It's the same tactics they use in all of our countries to undermine it and starts with making us feel like our views are racist, hateful, shameful, and illegal. changing the voting system and putting their political opponents in jail. Think about this. This is happening all over the place. B.Benjamin Netanyahu has to go to courtrooms every week for ethics charges. Marine Le Pen in France has to wear an ankle bracelet, and they almost took her off the ballot. They tried to take Trump off the ballot in two states in America. Jair Bolsonaro sitting in a prison in Brazil. I mean, this is the tactic of the left. civilization is at a breaking point everywhere We're speaking with Matt Schlapp. He, of course, is the chairman of the American Conservative Union. He runs CPAC conference famously here in America, but now there have been multiple international versions of CPAC around the world. Currently, he's in England for CPAC Great Britain. You mentioned that Liz Trust, the former Prime Minister, is co-chairing with you, and you also mentioned Nigel Farage. And can you, it's hard on this side of the Atlantic to really understand the parliamentarian system and the various ways they have their elections because it's not on a regular scale.

schedule. But you just predicted that Nigel Farage would be the next prime minister. And yet he just announced that he was stepping down from his seat in parliament and putting himself back up to his voters and constituents to be reelected because there's some scandal or they're trying to create a scandal about his finances. Can you sort of explain as best you can the arcane way that this is happening and what the timing looks like? Two simple things here. Nigel Farage. is not being protected by the national government here for his security, even though he gets a lot of death threats. So this is the same problem we had when Trump, when he was out of the presidency. And his security was at risk, even though he did have some secret service protection. So Nasal Nigel Farage has had to go get private sources so that he doesn't get assassinated. And now the left is saying, oh, you did it in the wrong way. So now we're going to, you know, prevent you from running, essentially. So he has used his own tactics to be alive and well to run to be the next prime minister. But the scandal is really... is deflating because they just had this former minister assassinated in her home and everyone's realizing, including the people coming up to CPAC which started this morning in London, everybody's showing up with security because people are beginning to realize once people start getting assassinated, I mean, you'd have to be insane not to realize that political violence is a real issue. By the way, you were there in the wake of England losing in the semifinals of the World Cup. I'm sure that was a bit of a downer. But now they can stop focusing on this fake version of football, and they can focus on CPAC and your event. So I guess the timing actually worked out. Nobody's going to watch, you know, Spain versus Argentina there. They're all going to be focusing on what you're doing. I'm three for three, Larry. I watched America lose in America. Then I went over to Paris and watched France lose to... Spain and then I came to England and watched England lose to Argentina. So nobody should want me in their country in the World Cup. I'll just say that. It was like a remake of the Falkland War, except Argentina was a little bit better prepared this time and better armed. They've learned. They've learned. Listen, before we're gone, Matt, congratulations are in order. First of all, you and Mercy just celebrated your 24th wedding anniversary. Congrats. But the real focus now is the next wedding. Actually, the next couple of weddings. Your eldest of five girls is getting married next month. Congratulations. Are you prepared? How are you going to England a few weeks before your daughter gets married? This is our crazy life. But yeah, you're right. The oldest, she and her fiancé both work for President Trump, and they're getting married on their college campus at the University of Notre Dame next month. So that's pretty cool. Then our number two, who's a junior, or I guess an incoming senior in Notre Dame, just got proposed or just got engaged. So that's big news. So I hate to tell you for all the slap haters.

out there's going to be more of us the slaps just keep growing it's true you're going to you're going to start being grandparents like i'm on the verge of being a grandpa matt you that's the next step i would say it'll make your hair turn white but too late for that You know, Larry, there's a lot of things you're going to have to teach me. One of them is trying to get over this idea that you're a grandpa. That's an interesting one. No, what's worse is Meredith will be a grandma, but that's a whole other problem that we're going to have to deal with. Well, congratulations. Very excited about the wedding. It's going to be great, but you have work to do. Listen, you have to pay for all these weddings, so you need to get back to work and you express gently and with charity and love to our cousins there. that America is the way, our American conservative principles that we learn from them, let's face it, originally with the Magna Carta and all of the great freedom fighters of England's history. We perfected it here in America, and we're more than willing to bring them along. Larry, let me just say real quickly as we end that America remains our focus, and Mercy has her fourth annual human trafficking summit on the hill this week on the hill. So if anybody wants to come join us and fight this really evil scourge, go to our website and join us. Yes, yeah, that website is conservative.org, right? That's right. That's simple. Or follow us on Twitter and get all the info. Yeah, that human trafficking, it's been very effective and you're really making a difference there. God bless you guys. Have fun in England. Get back safe. Thanks, Larry. From Washington, D.C., but broadcasting across the fruit of plane, it's O'Connor and Company, start in your morning the right way. And we're joined by friend of the program and one of the real warriors on Capitol Hill, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Senator Johnson, I know it's a busy week for you, and you had a busy day yesterday. I want to get to as much as possible. Thanks for joining us this morning. Thanks, yeah, Mary. Quickly, one moment here in the confirmation hearing for acting attorney general, Todd Blanche. Take a listen to this, and then we'll comment. Did Jack Smith read my emails? I'm not sure, Senator. I don't know. Would you check for me? We will check, Senator, yes. That's your colleague, of course, a distinctive Cajun genius there, John Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from Louisiana. But it's an important question because last I checked, Jack Smith, claimed that he was just gathering your text messages and your email, Senator Johnson, for metadata, just to find out, you know, times and places and locations.

But now it appears that, in fact, no, his team did read the content of that emails. Have you gotten to the bottom of that yourself? Well, again, to be precise, what we knew is they gathered our metadata in terms of our phone calls surrounding January 6th. Now we found out that the filter team did not filter out text messages, which, you know, they did read. Yeah, I'm not sure that Jack Smith read them, but members of the investigatory team, again, because they took such cavalier attitude that they weren't following the Justice Department rules. These filter teams are put in there as they subpoena information to, you know, make sure that the investigatory team does not get, for example, attorney-client privilege type of thing. Well, I mean, at minimum, They should have also been filtering out the separation of powers, the speech and debate clause of members of Congress. They didn't do that, but the members of the investigatory team should have had their radar up as well. But again, these were political hacks. They're on a mission to destroy President Trump so he can ever become president again. And they didn't follow the rules. They don't believe the rules apply to them. And, of course, because Jack Smith testified in front of the House, you're strictly that they did not gather up texts. He was asked specifically, did you gather up texts? No. Well, we did. We'll see what comes with that. All right, let's move on to the other big hearing yesterday that the Democrats chose not to participate in. That had to do with fraud in Minnesota, California, other states that has been uncovered by independent journalists like Nick Shirley. What an impressive young man he is. But you made the point specifically with the Somali community fraud in the Minneapolis area that it appears that a lot of that money ended up going back overseas, possibly to terrorist organizations. Is there any more information about that, Senator Johnson? Well, what drives me nuts is we know the $700 million worth of cash... left the Minneapolis airport. How do you know that? Because Customs and Border Show saw it. And they kept track of it. But we didn't do anything about it. We didn't turn that over the IRS and say, investigate this. We didn't turn this over to DMS and go, something's going on here. I mean, where are they getting all this cash from? Why are they transferring it over to back to Somali or whatever after nation they sent it to? Again, it's just completely asleep at the wheel. I don't understand this. Didn't we put protocols in place after 9-11 where if you do an international wire transfer of anything over, is it $10,000? It pops every red flag in the book. Eyes have to be dotted. T's have to be crossed. But you put $700 million on a plane and fly it out of the country and they just look the other way?

The $10,000 is with banking transactions, and cash, again, if it was $10,000 cash, it gets booked at, but there's, no, it's, it's insane, okay? It is, you know, government is stupid. Government is awful, okay? And so the lowest estimate in annual fraud is $250 billion a year. We have the CEO Alexis Nexus does research of this, it's a trillion dollars a year. And as you mentioned, and this is outrageous. People need to pay attention to this. Chairman Call called a great hearing with Nick Shirley, James O'Keefe, they had somebody from Pogo, which is a good organization. The only Democrat that showed up was ranking member Peters and mainly to denigrate Nick Shirley. Not one Democrat showed up on a hearing talking about this massive fraud that puts at risk the benefits to people that we want to help. They could care less about fraud. I mean, the fact that they didn't show up, didn't ask questions, speaks volumes. And by the way, Nick Shirley also reported that California, in reaction to his investigatory journalism, is proposing the stop Nick Shirley Act, which in the hearing I said would really ought to be named, Protect Medicaid Fraudsters Act. Right? That's what this is about us. It's protect the fraudsters. That's what California Democrat politicians want to do. They want to protect the Medicaid fraudsters. They're not interested in protecting taxpayer money. Senator Johnson is our guest, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Senator, we've got a minute left, but we've got a new reconciliation package coming out of the House. Speaker wants to get it done in a couple of weeks. It seems like the Budget Committee is going to be the center point of this package. You're on that committee, and first of all, obviously a great loss with Lindsey Graham suddenly and tragically. But when you turn to the business at hand, do we know who's going to replace him on that budget committee as the chairman? And how does that look right now in terms of getting reconciliation done and specifically getting the SAVE Act in there? Well, that'll be me. It will be. That's official? All right. Yeah, no, you know, I'll become chair. So, you know, my main task is to get everybody on the same page. I've been talking to Jody Arrington, the chairman of the House Budget Committee. I'll be having extensive conversation with the rest of vote today, meeting with John Thune. We need to get everybody on the same page, understand what constraints are just in terms of our members, in terms of what they'll vote for, constraints within the reconciliation process itself. But I will say, you know, Democrats are becoming so obnoxiously obstructionist. They've been that way. they're going to force our hand into doing things that I think some of my colleagues wouldn't want to do normally, but we're going to have to govern. I love hearing that. The National Defense Authorization Act, they're shut down the appropriation process. So I think all best are off the table. I'm not sure how this can turn out, but I'm dedicated to helping President Trump achieve his agenda. We're glad we got you there, Senator Johnson. We love having you on the show. Thanks for joining us this morning. Have a great day.

Quick word for Think Factor, whether you're climbing the corporate ladder, launching a new project, or just looking for that extra edge. Your brain is your most valuable asset, and you've got to support it every single day with Think Factor. Come from the makers of Relief Factor. Think Factor is built to help you stay sharp, nurture your memory, boost your attention. It unlocks the mental clarity and precision you need to stay ahead of the game, no matter the challenge. I take Think Factor every day, and it helps me do what I got to do, and it ain't easy. Call 800, the number four, Relief, or visit ReliefFactor.com, to get Think Factor. Your first bottle, just 1995. Relieffactor.com Think Factor. Think Clearer, perform better daily. And it's a very good morning here in your nation's capital, Washington, the District of Columbia. We're live on our flagship station, and it's a mighty one at that. 105.9 FM, WMAL. We're making sense in the news there, and we're the answer everywhere across this nation where you're listening to this, your national America's Morning Show. O'Connor and Company. I'm Larry O'Connor in the Relief Hector Studio. Coming up in 30 minutes, one of the most important, influential, pivotal, and, well, frankly, powerful members of the United States Congress will be joining us. House of Representatives, Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Jason Smith. from the great state of Missouri. We're going to take his temperature on a whole lot of stuff going on. And most specifically with Ways and Means. Listen, last year, Ways and Means was the pivot point for the reconciliation bill, the big, beautiful bill, that ended up getting all the tax cuts through and getting all of the various reforms that now is keeping this. You wonder why the economy and the fundamentals of the economy continue to remain sound, like why last month's inflation number came down where people have more money in their pocket. And yes, it's not fixed. It's not great. But we had a big hole to dig out from during the Biden administration. You wonder why with the... conflict in the Middle East and the fluctuation of oil prices globally and gas prices locally, why the economy still seems to chug along, the market continues to do well, unemployment still stays steady, and inflation is dropping. I wonder why? It's because of the big, beautiful bill. It's because of those tax cuts. It's because you have more money in your pocket. It's because more people are getting hired. Not in the government. They're getting hired in the private sector. Well, that's all because of that reconciliation package. Jason Smith, the man who shepherded that through last year from Ways and Means, he joins us coming up in 30 minutes. Right now, though, we're joined by a veteran of the House of Representatives, and now... He's got his site set on the other chamber, the United States Senate. His former Congressman Mike Rogers. Sir, thanks for joining us. I'm a Michigander, as you know, so I'm sort of pumped for your chance here to bring a Republican back to the Senate for the Wolverine State.

I am pretty excited about bringing a Republican back to the United States. And we haven't had it in 32 years was the last time we elected a Republican here. But things are a change and we're ready for a change. And by the way, it's been a while since I've seen you. You clean up pretty well. Look at that suit and tie. This is very impressive. As you know, I'm a radio guy, so this is under duress, Congressman Rogers, as you know, but I appreciate that. I don't want to know what you're wearing below the best. Tell me, please, as you're campaigning this time around, Congressman Rogers, and you know the drill, and you've run statewide before, and you've come just short in the past, you just said it's time for a change. You said it's different. What is different right now? What are you hearing in Michigan right now that tells you things have changed? Yeah, and if you look at the polling, Larry, we've defied gravity here in Michigan. We are beating our opponents, even when Trump's numbers dip down a little bit, our state up. And part of that reason is we're talking about solutions for Michigan problems. The Democrats have had those two Senate seats, two people talking the same way, vote in the same way for 32 years. And the Democrats have controlled Lansing, our state capital for about a decade. Nothing good has happened. All your costs have gone up, but we have the, you know, 20% higher than the national average utility costs. Our education went from top tier to 45. We've lost defense industrial based jobs in manufacturing. Matter of fact, we lost the main battle tank. We used to produce it here in Michigan down to just Ohio, like 75 miles away. And so I think people are ready for this change. We're offering real solutions. to their problems here in Michigan. And they know that you send me back to the Senate. We're going to get Michigan up off her knees. We'll be the envy of manufacturing again in the country and the world. And I'm just the guy to go back and get that done. Well, and Congressman Rogers, I'm sure you're aware, obviously, that Michigan did go for President Trump this last time around. And if you look at the numbers in Wayne County in particular, I was struck by the African-American vote that really did swing bigger for Trump than anyone had expected, considering the lock the Democrats have had on that voting block and Kamala Harris being on the ticket. Are you seeing... A fresh set of eyes from the black community is specifically in Wayne County in Detroit. It's a very critical part of the state. Trying to say, you know, we've been going down this road for so long and it ain't working for us. Maybe it's time to go another direction.

Well, we're making an effort there. I mean, I have a housing stock solution for the city of Detroit. That's, by the way, free market generated and free market led, not a big government bureaucracy out of Washington. And that seems to be catching on. And listen, I did about 15% with black males in the city of Detroit last time. I hope to hold that, and we're trying to grow that a little bit. And that's a good number. Doesn't sound like a lot, but that's a good number. And we're showing up. And I think that's what they're seeing. that we're showing up, we're having conversations about, hey, how can... Other than what the Democrats have promised you for decades is more government, you know, more government assistance. Just stay where you are. Your kids can't read, by the way. I mean, only 15% of eighth graders in the city of Detroit can read and do math at the eighth grade level, which I think is criminal. We're there showing up saying we can do better. We will do better. And let's work together to get it done. And I think we are making progress. And I think that's why the Democrats are in meltdown over this race in Michigan. They can't figure out why are we winning against both of the Democrats who are still fighting it out in the primary. And why are we connecting to working people? I worked on the shop floor in an auto factory. I built, you know, Chrysler convertibles. which was great work, helped me pay for college. I know what's going on here. I know these people. They're my people. My brother was a UAW member. So we can have conversations in a way, I think, that Democrats are scratching their head. They've walked to the coasts, walked right by working people, and I just don't think they've looked back for a long time. And I think it's starting to get ready to pay that price. You obviously spent a lot of time as a former FBI special agent. When you were in the House, you spent a lot of your time on the Intel Committee, of course. And right now, we're a nation, not officially at war, but we're certainly in a protracting conflict with Iran. Would you agree with the president's assessment that really this is a conflict that's been going on for decades and we've just now resolved to bring it to an end? Is that how you view our current circumstance with Iran? Absolutely. Matter of fact, if you recall, Hillary Clinton said when she became president, she would bomb Iran. I think the Democrats conveniently forget that. They were a problem then. When I left as chairman, Larry, it was pretty clear. I mean, there's three components to a nuclear program. You have to have a missile program that you can set a device on and fly a long distance and go off accurately. You have to have enrichment, and then you have to have the shaping of the charge. So there's three big components to that. And when I'm meeting by the shaping of the charge, you have to form that uranium.

in a form that sits on the top of that missile that will explode and give you the detonation that you hope to do with a nuclear weapon. They had all three of those in 2015. They just didn't have the programs put together. And so the big debate back then was, is it weeks? Is it a month? Is it a year? And that was the debate in 2015. Well, they didn't stop clearly. And I think when the president sent his negotiators in, And they scoffed at those negotiators by telling them, we have enough uranium for 10 nuclear bombs. Now, remember what I knew in 15. They had all the capability already. That tells you that they were much further along and much more dangerous. And I think the president said, you know, listen, we can't continue to do this. I tell all the folks around Michigan, you want to stop sending money to Israel for their weapons? If we have a peaceful Iran that isn't worry about hurting its neighbors, then guess what? You probably don't have to send money to Israel. So if you want to get this, you don't want to support Israel anymore? I happen to support Israel. You don't want to do that anymore? Guess what? Let's take care of Iran. That is the single biggest exporter of terrorism in that region and destabilizer and chaos. And they are a brutal, brutal terrorist supporting state. Let's fix that. And guess what? We go back to the table and expand the Abraham Accords. Yeah. Well, man, it was fantastic. Well, since you raise that issue, it really has become a spectacle to behold over in the Democrats' primary. It's now boiled down to two, Haley Stevens, and this Abdul El-Sayed person, where not only is our support of the state of Israel and whether that alliance that we've had for so many decades in question and whether it continues to be valued by the Democrats. But if you hear what Abdul El-Sayed's rhetoric. It almost appears as though he's taking the side of the terrorists. I know that that sounds volatile, but I mean, just take a look at his positions. And are you concerned about the direction of the party right now and specifically in the state of Michigan? Because that's not the Democrat Party I remember when I lived there. Oh, this is not the party you remember. It's not your grandfather's Democrat Party, not your mother's Democrat Party. They have shifted so far to the left. They're very radical. And this is nuts. The crazier he talks, the better he does in the Democrat primary here in Michigan. So we've been telling people listening, you're going to have two clear choices here, crazy or common sense. And Michigan needs a dose of common sense. We haven't had it in 32 years in the United States Senate. Well, we're going to get some. I mean, think of the things he's said here in this community. He's brought Hasan Piker to Michigan, and Hasan Piker is obviously a radical influencer. And who does it for clips, by the way, he's a socialist who makes millions on his podcast hating on America. Please tell me how that works. The socialists all end up being millionaires. Have you noticed that?

Well, if you remember when Bernie Sanders started, it was millionaires and billionaires. And now he became a millionaire. So it's just billionaires. Right. I mean, this is the whole new thing for these Democrats. And by the way, when Hasan Piker came here, he said, he asked Abdul. The press asked Abdul. Would you disavow that America deserve 9-11? He wouldn't do it. Yeah. That's the stakes here in this race. And Mike Rogers, I think you're perfectly poised and the right man to take on this argument this year. Good luck with the primary. Can't wait to have you back. Thanks. Thanks, Larry. Look forward to it. Coming up, we've got an update on that parasite that is causing violent diarrhea in various areas of the country, including right here in the mid-Atlantic, the D.C. area. In fact, we might have found Patient X, as it were. for these digestive intestinal problems. A prominent name in the United States Senate will explain coming up in just one minute. But I do want to give you an update on our campaign with the Christian Charity Organization Food for the Poor because they're the people helping coordinate the delivery of emergency relief to Venezuela right now. Your donations are supplying people like Cesar Guevera. Not only is he a director at this Christian nonprofit relief organization, but he also has family living in earthquake ravaged Venezuela right now. So this emergency effort that we're heading up at Larry O'Sho.com, when you click on that banner that says, help Venezuela, it is very personal to Cesar. Over 18,000 people that have lost their houses. And as you know, the economic conditions in Venezuela are not very good. They were not good before the disaster. So this has made things worse. What food for the poor is doing is focusing on the first phase of the response, which is the humanitarian response. We're sending container loads of hygiene, kids, food and medicine and other items. Thousands of buildings that have been affected. Again, over 18,000 people that have lost their houses. As the people of Venezuela emerge from decades of the kleptocracy of the Marxists Chavez and Maduro regimes, we Americans are here to help. Let's show them how free markets work. Let's show them great Christian charity. Let's go to Larry O'Sho.com and click on that banner, help Venezuela, and give whatever you can to food for the poor. Or if you'd like to text, you can. Text my name, Larry, to 5155. Next to my name Larry 55 or go to Larry O'Sho.com. Click on the banner to help Venezuela. Yesterday on the Senate floor, the leader of the Democrats, Chuck Schumer, was giving remarks and then something extraordinary happened. Here, take a listen. The American people need to know, of course, how and why this chaos is spreading through their streets, and we need a complete investigation that's independent. Now on Iran and the NDAA, when all the Trump administration can say about his disastrous war with Iran... That was not, you know, one of our goofy sound engineers just inserting some whoopee cushion, flatulent sound there in the audio, although I wouldn't put it past Alex Stark to do that. Alex, you've got to watch yourself there. He would do that. He would doctor the audio, but no.

That happened in real time. You remember Eric Swalwell did a similar situation there when he was on with Chris Matthews many years ago. And for his effort, he was called Eric Swalwell by many unkind observers on social media. Now, Chuck Schumer is referred to as Chuck Schumer the Tudor. You heard me right. Chuck Schumer the tutor. But listen, let's get back to the audio engineering part of this because he's wearing a lapel microphone. For a lapel microphone. picking up the audio of Leader Chuck Schumer's speech to then also pick up that violent gastric explosion from his nether regions. That had to be like a 6.3 on the rector scale. This was not just some passing fancy that, you know, you just sort of try to... Give it a squeeze and mitigate the damage. No matter what he attempted to do, this was a biggie. This was the Mount St. Helens of flatulence. He, by the way, has been roundly mocked, as you can imagine, on social media, even from the White House's account. Are they? They put a sombrero on him, as they always like to do, and just let the clips speak for itself, or let the flatulants speak for itself. Which brings us, by the way, to a disconcerting update on that parasite, the cyclosporiasis, known as violent explosive diarrhea, which for all we know, Chuck Schumer's patient X, right? That didn't sound like just a typical gas pass. That was big. There was some action going on there. There was some movement. So maybe he's patient X with this parasite that causes explosive diarrhea. We should probably check what he's been eating. And if he's big on salad, there's your culprit. Apparently it's the lettuce. As you heard from Dr. Kelly Victory a couple of days ago on this program, she said it's going to be fresh produce, vegetables, and most likely lettuce. And yeah, the latest now is that lettuce or salad greens are the source of the current outbreak. It's especially vulnerable because the parasite can contaminate it through water during growing and processing. And the greens are usually eaten raw. So if you're going to eat lettuce, if you're going to have salad, make sure you wash it. Otherwise, you'll have a Chuck Schumer moment and worse. You don't want that. You don't want that at all. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Good morning, thanks for joining us on O'Connor and Company. The Way to State Start Your Day the Right Way. We're live in your nation's capital in the Relief Factor Studios on WMAL. Joining us right now, as we are heard now coast to coast across the country, including in Kansas City, Missouri. Well, here's Kansas City's own, well, actually he's not from Kansas City. It's from Salem, I believe. Salem, Missouri. Jason Smith, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Is that right, Salem, Missouri?

Salem, Missouri. That's it, Larry. And here we are on the Salem Radio Network. You see how that works? It's synergy, my friend. It's absolutely perfect. Salem's a wonderful name. Thanks for joining us. Listen, you were the busiest man on Capitol. Well, you and Speaker Johnson, maybe, shepherding the reconciliation package through last year, Ways and Means was sort of the center of that because so much of it had to do with tax policy. We're now told that there's a third reconciliation in the works, but is that one going through your committee or the budget committee this time? Well, the Budget Committee always handles reconciliation, and then the Budget Committee does a resolution that assigns the committee's jurisdiction. And so the Budget Committee is always involved, and they're marking up a budget resolution today, and today they'll decide what committees will be part of Reconciliation 3.0. And so there's a lot of discussion going on right now about what to put in it. Of course, the Save America Act is the number one priority of the president. And this is something that we're trying to jump through the hoops in the United States Senate between their rules to try to get the Save America passed. You know, the House has passed four times. It's time for the Senate to pass it. Yeah, I'll say it is. And also this is also important because I would think now that we're heading, it's the dog days of summer, but starting next month, your members are all going to be going home. They're going to go to their districts. A lot of them are running in very tight races. The majority in the House is at stake, and it would be great for Republicans to be able to go back and not just say, hey, look at this great thing we did last year. What about what we do now, what we're doing now? And that's where this comes in, because to remind everybody, reconciliation will only need 50 votes in the Senate. You don't need that filibuster-proof 60 votes. So is there any chance that there's going to be more aggressive tax cuts or some other priorities that conservatives care about that go even beyond the Save America Act? What would you like it to have? Larry, if I had my way, you bet it would. And that's some of the stuff being discussed right now. uh... myself and ways and means republicans and also just um just All the other Republicans are very interested on how to give tax relief because the affordability issues that Americans have been facing, they're real. Like gas prices, you name it. And I mean, I think it would be a great idea that all Americans were no taxed on health care. Like, you know, you have no tax on tips. We did that. You have no tax on overtime. What about health care? Health care is the largest expense. Everyone is... of Americans deal with. And why should you be taxed on it? Some aren't, some aren't, Larry, but others are. So why not everyone? So what would that look like? Basically, whatever you spend on health care would then be deducted from your return?

That would be the proposal that people are talking about. Or just making sure everyone has health savings accounts. Like right now, it's limited who can have health savings accounts because that is a mechanism that allows people to choose their own health care tax-free. Actually, it's like triple tax-free. So it's a huge benefit. And so there's so many different options and alternatives that you could do. But it's all about affordability. We need to make the burden of the cost of health care less for Americans. Well, listen, people are saying affordability. You could call it cost of living. You could just say things cost too much. And in the cases where things cost too much directly because the government has gotten in the way and they make it more expensive, seems to me that our members of Congress could fix that problem. especially uh... chairman smith as i see a study coming out of your committee that so much of the cost of health care linked to obamacare is actually fraud widespread obamacare fraud that you're looking at It's crazy. Myself, the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee and also the chairman of the Judiciary Committee a couple years ago started pushing the government accountability office to look into the waste, fraud, and abuse within these Obamacare exchanges, the marketplaces. And it is phenomenal of what their reports are showing. For example, their report showed 59,000 dead people. are on Obamacare. That means that the government is subsidizing insurance companies with 59,000 patients who are dead, who will never claim anything from the insurance companies. And we wonder why the insurance companies are having record profits the first quarter of this year. Like, I mean, let's get real about it. We even found where the government accountability office... um did 20 fake accounts 20 fake accounts with fake social security numbers and 18 of the 20 were approved and a year later they were still being subsidized like the the waste fraud and abuse it's within the system whether it's the front end or the back end of the process we have to clean it up fix it because that is billions of tax dollars that are being wasted and and who's being rewarded the fraudsters and guess what the insurance companies. So GAO, the government accountability office, obviously they have to have a hand in overseeing this, maybe auditing it, and the government certainly should as well. But shouldn't it be also incumbent on the insurance companies? Listen, if I had that kind of fraud on my tax return, Lord knows I'd be answering to the IRS. Why is it the insurance companies are allowed to have that level of fraud and abuse that we're subsidizing? And they just say, hey, what do you want from us? I mean, don't they need to submit some sort of oversight checks and balances so that they can maintain to the government?

Oh, yeah, every penny you're spending is legit. You're absolutely right. And that is something that Congress is looking into right now, what we're looking into in the Ways and Means Committee. It is not right that those, those 59,000 dead people. their subsidies are going to insurance companies. Those insurance companies should pay that back to the government because that is unlawful and it's not appropriate. And we're looking at different proposals to make sure that we clean this up. Either way, we're speaking with Chairman Jason Smith of the House Ways and Means Committee, Missouri's favorite son, although there are others who might quibble with that, including... I don't know about that. I would think... Travis Kelsey, certainly. By the way, were you invited to Travis Kelsey's wedding, considering how much water you carry for the Kansas City Chiefs? You know, I'll just say the Postal Service has a problem with delayed invitations. And I'm still waiting for mine, but it hasn't got there yet. You know, you should look into that. You're a congressman. You oversee the post office. Oh, you can bet you're looking into that right now. Chairman Smith, whenever a member of Congress or a Republican or a guy like me on talk radio or, you know, on a podcast, whenever we make the charge that we think maybe illegal immigrants are taking advantage of our government programs and they're getting Obamacare. We're told by your counterparts across the aisle, we're told by Democrats all the time and people in the media that were lying. No, that's against the law. No illegal immigrant is getting Obamacare. But you're telling me there are 59,000 dead people getting Obamacare. So do they really know? How do they know that only legal citizens are getting Obamacare? They don't. They're not speaking truth. In fact, in the one big beautiful bill that we passed last July that was signed into law, we had provisions in there to prevent people who are on Obamacare to, in fact, no illegals, no non-citizens can receive it. So that was, it was completely an open range where people could receive it and that they were, in fact, receiving it. But they can't now because it's a big beautiful bill. If I could ask you to pivot a little bit to electoral politics, Chairman Smith, because this is a very important midterm year, as you know. And the redistricting is now done. And it looks like Republicans certainly helped themselves in some of the redistricting to give you a little bit of a cushion, but it's still going to be narrow. You're in a pretty safe district, and you're a pretty popular guy. So I suspect you're spending your time going out and helping other members of Congress, either incumbents trying to protect their seat.

or maybe some new Republicans who are looking to win against a Democrat. What are you seeing and what are you hearing in terms of the energy and the momentum out there from voters? What are they caring about right now? And what are the solutions from Republicans? I mean, Larry, you can better believe I'm out there trying to make sure that the House Republicans stay in the majority because you look what's going on in these Democrat primaries where crazy individuals are getting elected to come to Congress. I'm thankful that we have a great shot. You know, if you listen to, you know, the press, they will try to tell you, Larry, that, oh, Republicans are going to lose majority. But if you actually go district by district, there's 435 different congressional districts. There's 212 to 213 that when you analyze it, Republicans should easily win those 212, 213 seats. And so ultimately there's only 18 toss-up races out of 435 in the country. And of those 18, 13 are currently held by Republicans. We need to win five to six of them to be in the majority. And I'll tell you, I like my colleagues, the candidates that are running, and you better believe you. that I'm going into their districts, I'm helping them, I'm talking to their community leaders, and we're going to pull them across the finish line. We're going to keep the majority. Listen, I've been saying a similar description of this midterm for several months now, and I've been saying, listen, don't tell me that Republicans don't have a chance just because of history. Let's wait, first of all, until redistricting is done. You can't tell me who's going to win the game until you even know what the playing field looks like. But also candidates matter. I keep seeing these polls that show generic Democrat beating Republican. But Chairman Smith, they're not nominating generic Democrats. They're nominating Marxists. How much of the political fight that you're going to take to the voters this November is going to be about that. Not even about candidate or candidate B, but what the Democrats are now allowing inside their big tent, they're allowing the Marxists in. It is, they're not allowing. They're taking over their party, Larry. Like, you see it what happened with the vote yesterday, where the Democrats were so divided on the House floor on funding Israel. Like, it was absolutely crazy. By the way, funding Israel's. Defense. It's for their dome of anti-rocket defense system so that innocent Israelis don't get killed by missiles coming from Iran and from terrorists. And you had a hundred Democrats vote to do that. And you know what? The next amendment was on the floor was to defun Jim Jordan. And guess what? There was like two people that voted against the defund Jim Jordan. It's clearly because of their anti-Semitic measures within their party that's taking control. It is absolutely unconscionable. You have people winning in New York to be a member of Congress, beating incumbents saying that they use the American flag as a napkin. These people are out of touch. And you know what? I question whether these people should even be seated for Congress because these are...

These are people that they look like their intentions is to hurt America. And that is not what members of Congress are supposed to be doing. Chairman Jason Smith, he's getting things done there in the Ways and Means Committee. He is going to be campaigning quite a bit in those key districts to help keep the gavel in Mike Johnson's hand. When he's not doing that, though, he's overseeing things there at the Smith Ranch. By the way, I'm overdue for a box of steaks. Could I get some ribbyes, some New York strips or something from that great Smith cattle there? I'm sure we probably can help you out with. It'll be the best beef. You try, Larry. I believe it. And listen, if I'm transparent about it and I say it out loud on the air, then there's no. suggestion that you're playing favorites or anything like that. I appreciate it. Chairman Smith, always good to talk to you, sir. Thanks for joining. Take care, Larry. Bye. You know, life moves fast and staying sharp, focused and clear-headed isn't always easy, and that's why the same company that brings your relief factor has developed something new. It's called... Think Factor. Think Factor is made to help you think clearer, perform better daily. It's a powerful blend of nutrients that unlock mental clarity and precision, nurture your memory, and boost your attention. With Think Factor, brain power and performance finally meet for lasting daily results. Supercharge your memory and mental sharpness. Your brain is your most valuable asset, powering your creativity, focus, and daily performance. If you're feeling mentally foggy or not recalling things as quickly as you used to, Think Factor could be just what you need to reclaim your cognitive edge. I take Think Factor every morning. I keep it right here on my desk, and it helps me start my day perfectly. Please check out Think Factor. You can try it for just 17, excuse me, 1995. Your first bottle is just 1995, but you got to call 800, the number four, relief, or visit Relieffactor.com. Think Factor, think clearer, perform better daily. We're halfway through our third month now on the... on the network, on the syndication. And so our listeners all across the country are starting to get to know some of the regular segments that we do, like Critter News, for instance. We introduce Critter News pretty early on. This one you're going to love. We haven't done it a lot, but we need to. It's called the Insufferable People Roundup. See, here's the thing. There's a lot of insufferable people out there. And we'd like to remind you of how insufferable they are. And generally speaking, they're all aligned with the political left in this country, the Democratic Party, or they are out of Hollywood, sometimes. and the royal family. Let's start with the Democrats in Washington, not the Democrats in Hollywood. This young man's name is Hunter Biden. And you would think if you were Hunter Biden that you'd be a little chagrined about the life that you've lived.

You'd think that you'd have a little humility and probably say, okay, you know what? Dad's out of office. He's got cancer. It sort of failed the nation. I helped drag him down. I've been a loser. I've been an addict. I've been an anchor around his neck and it kept him damaged his political career. Maybe I should just go in the corner, fix my own problems, and shut the heck up. That's what you do if you were a normal human being with some sense of self and some sense of humility and shame. Not our friend Hunter Biden. Here's Hunter Biden. First off, in Clip 25, he was asked by a podcaster, why is Hunter Biden doing the podcast circuit? He was asked by a podcaster, if Donald Trump were sitting next to him, what would he say to the president of the United States? Well, here's his answer. So if Donald Trump sat down next to you right now, what would you tell? Okay. This is a question. I would tell him to go fuck his fucking self. That's what I would tell him. And please leave. I mean, like, I can be civil and I can tell you like, oh, listen, he's the president. I don't want him going to be pissed off. I mean, you know, like, it's the president of the United States. Well, obviously, wouldn't you want to have a constructive f*** that? This man has tried to torture me for fucking 10 years. He says the shit that he says about my dad. The shit that he says about my dad. His obsession with tormenting my dad. Hanging a picture of an auto pin on the, on the colonnade, demeaning him, and all the things that he said about him. And anyone would expect me to do anything outside of which I would never do is physical violence against that person? Well, what kind of man would I be if I didn't tell him to go fuck himself? What kind of man would I be? And I ask that to all of you UFC fans. I'm a UFC fan too. You know, I've challenged Donald Trump Jr. to a fucking cage match three times now. Never heard back from him. That's how I'm going to pay all my debt. Yeah, he's got debt. It's all Trump's fault. You know, can I just, this is, this is a. This is textbook addict behavior. Oh, he's in recovery. God bless him. This has been amazing. This man is not recovered. Because if you ask any addict or a family member of an addict, one of the telltale signs is that they blame everyone else for their problems. So it's Donald Trump's fault that Hunter Biden had legal problems? It's Donald Trump's fault that Hunter Biden's life was hell. Is that if it weren't for the, and I do love that the first thing he brings up about how mean Donald Trump is to his dad is the auto pen on the collidate, which is exactly why Trump does that, by the way. That's exactly why. But you see, Hunter Biden is the one person who got a pardon in handwriting from Joe Biden. His shaky Joe, Sleepy Joe's shaky handwriting signed it, not the auto pen. because this man would be behind bars if it weren't for that pardon. And he knows it. And it's not Donald Trump's fault. It's his own fault. And he's deflecting. And in between the profanity, which we've got to stop because we're hurting people's ears. That's Hunter Biden. And he is, in fact, insufferable. Let's move on to Michelle Obama.

former first lady of the United States. We can't get enough of Michelle Obama. She needs more podcasts. Could we get her some more? How many does she have now? Four failed podcasts for Michelle Obama. Boy, she's making a lot of money. You know, unlike a lot of us who do our podcast, maybe we get a small stipend, but most of the money that we make is from the advertisements that we sell. We get a percentage of that. No, no, no, no. They write a seven-figure check up front of Michelle Obama. Please, Michelle, do our podcast. Here's a million dollars, and then she just repels everybody. Well, in this case, she's sitting for an interview, and she laments how awful it was to be First Lady. Here, take a listen to her biggest complaint. This is when I understood, like this is politics. Oh, they're coming after me because I'm useful. And they're trying to beat my husband, so they're trying to slow me down, right? And some of those first articles, they would always start. She was wearing a purple sheath and she had on this pair of shoes. It wouldn't matter what I said, Kiki. The article would start with what I had on. Wow. And I realized, oh, this is how they do women in politics. This is how we treat women in public life. We diminish them to just what they look like. And not what I'm saying now. Trust me, we spend most of our time talking about what she's saying, not what she's wearing. Although, if you're wondering, she was wearing a sleeveless black chiffon blouse. with her bare arms. That said, I only do that because obviously it annoys her. She just went on a book tour selling a coffee table book. What were they selling it for like $90 or something that just focused on her clothes when she was first lady? She wrote it. She published it. She's selling it. She's making a mint off of it. It's called The Look, which really does just focus on her clothes. It cannot take enough of that insufferableness. Although she is always outdone. by one Megan Markle, who everyone would agree participated in the very worst reality show of all time on Netflix. And of course, that means that she just got nominated for an Emmy for that very horrible show. Megan Merkel wins the day as the most insufferable person in the world. When it comes to supplements, two things matter most, that it works and that you can trust it. So rather than just tell you about Relief Factor, we like to let our customers do it because we hear from people every single day. Like Jim. Now, Jim ran out of Relief Factor twice, and both times his aches and his stiffness and his pain came back. Once he restarted, he says he felt better again. As Jim says, you know something's working when you run out of it. I know Relief Factor is working because I could barely stand and walk with the painful sciatica I had. in mid-May. Now I'm running and training for a marathon. Thank you, Relief Factor. They make it easy for you to find out if you'll be the next person telling us, Relief Factor, helped you tackle your daily aches and pains. Three weeks for just $17.76.com. Just go to Relieffactor.com, or call them, 800, the number for relief. That's 1776 for your quick start, but you've got to go to Relieffactor.com, 800 for relief.

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