Defense Funding, Iran & Ethics Debate On The Brett Winterble Show

Welcome. It is the Brett Winterbull Show. It is great to be with you. Boy, we got a lot of stuff that we're going to be tracking. Looking live there in Washington, D.C., we're going to see, I expect, because the case has got to be made to get more money, $90 billion coming in from that area. And we're going to be seeing Secretary of Cheath and, of course, General Kane, who are going to be coming in there to try to press the case. This is going to be a very, very tension-filled sort of back and forth because you have Patty Murray and you have... A number of other people who do not want to see this war continue on. And there's going to be a whole lot of pushing and shoving when it comes to people who have lost their lives, all this sort of stuff. And so I just want to tell everybody out there, if you're driving around in your car or you're in your office or whatever you're doing, we may go to that fairly quickly as... We're going to want to know exactly how they're going to press this case. And look, let's be honest here. I'm looking at General Kane, and he's moving down the line. I have not seen Pete Hegseth yet, but he might have come in already in a different time. But this is going to be a big deal. And it's going to get contentious. And so we're going to be monitoring that for this entire feed. Here's the other story. And this is one that I just, I can't believe this. I can't believe that we have people who are in the Congress, who are in the Senate, who are in all of this sort of stuff. And all they want to do is act like horn dogs. And I'm sorry, I don't mean to say a bad word, but horn dogs. What are these guys doing? Speaker. The Speaker of the House has endorsed a ban on lawmaker relationships. With all staff, not just subordinates, you know, this all happened because of Gallego and Eric Swalwell and all this other stuff. This is not what you're going to Washington, D.C. to do. I'm sorry. And I have a commentary on this. I think this is an important thing to kind of take a look at. Speaker Mike Johnson said today that he supports a more extensive ban on lawmakers having sexual relationships with any congressional aides, not just subordinates in offices or on a committee. So.

I like Johnson. I think Johnson is a good speaker, and I think he's a decent man. And this is the kind of stuff that this guy's got to deal with. Stop hopping from bed to bed. Johnson replied, yeah, when asked at a news conference, whether he's on board with remarks made over the weekend by the House GOP conference chair, Lisa McLean, no relationship of the Nakatomi Tower, of Michigan, in support of establishing new rules barring members from having sex. With those people. You get up in the morning. You get dressed in your nice suit. You go to the Congress and you think you're going to legislate. You think you're going to get a bill. You think you're going to do this. And you don't. You got a bunch of horn dogs running around inside the Congress. And yes, I understand that this has happened from time immemorial. But for goodness sakes, keep it in your pants. What are you doing? Continuing, it's unclear what the path forward for such a change, but it would require a revision of the House Code of Official Conduct. Well, was it an official conduct or was it just conduct? I don't know. In the wake of the Me Too movement, you would have thought they would have taken a chill pill there in the house back in 2018 opted to formally ban members from having intimate relationships with their subordinates in personal offices. My gosh. It's the Democrats that are the people that did this. Ruben Gallego, Democrat from Arizona. He outlined a whole lot of stuff. He had videos. You had pictures. You had all this sort of stuff going on over there. Then you had Eric Swalwell. Then you had Tony Gonzalez who drove a woman to lose her life. I mean, this is terrible. If you want to get busy, get busy. But if you want to get busy... Go home. You're not necessary. You're not important. We can work without you. I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry. Pete Hegseth has just gotten the first thing that they've thrown up in the air talking about war crimes and loving the Iranians. We'll continue to march down this road. We're going to dip in on this as he gets set back up, and then we're going to go ahead and take a look at what this is going to look like. But this is a very, very important time. This is about funding the rest of this war.

They're looking for $90 billion, $90 billion plus plus plus. Senator, heck Seth is testifying now between the committee. We'll get a break here in. I'll get it early so we can come back and listen to the back and forth. Welcome back. It's the Brett Wooderbill Show. Great to be with you. Oh, you know, one of the things that struck me earlier today was the administration of our government, right, President Trump's administration, pausing over $1 billion in Medicaid payments to Minnesota. And of course, California over fraud compliance concerns. Here we go. Here we go. This is how you get to the place that you need to be. The Trump administration is freezing more than a billion dollars in federal Medicaid funding to California and Minnesota over the suspected fraud that's been in effect. for a very long time. With HHS secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.., warning that the states will not receive another taxpayer dollar until they prove that the payments were legitimate. See, this is how you get them to pay attention. You say, wait, we're turning off the spigot. The spigot is being turned off immediately because you guys are not stewards in the best and the brightest and all that sort of stuff. So the Trump administration is now freezing more than a billion dollars in federal Medicaid. Funding to California and Minnesota over the suspected fraud, the HHS secretary is right there alongside with them, co-signing this. If Governor Gavin Newsom or Governor Tim Walz wants the funding released, all they have to do, very easy. is to provide basic documentation showing that these services are legitimate and not fraudulent. And that's common sense. You know why they don't want to do this, though, right? Does anybody, you want to put your hand up and I can call on you? Why do you think they're doing this? The reason why Gavin Newsom and Tim Walz are the poster child or the poster children for this is because it's all about illegals. It's all about illegals. You can go to a state, any state, pick a state, and you can find people who are going to do the right thing. They're going to spend the money in the appropriate way. Okay, there's going to be some money that's going to go out the door. Okay. That's, that's, you can't have it.

completely in order. But I'm telling you this right now. You imagine all that fraud going out the door? The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, CMS, is withholding roughly $867 million from California and more than $200 million from Minnesota. while federal officials review what they describe as high-risk Medicaid claims and documentation deficiencies. Now, I got a question about this. What would be, what would be? deficiencies? What would a deficiency be if you're just trying to get money so that you can get your people to get where they need to be? Oh, it's fraud. It's always fraud. The answer is always fraud. And now you've got somebody who's honchoing this in a big, big way. And you're seeing the CMS administrator, Dr. Mechmet Oz, saying, Got a lot of money going out the door. You're not documenting any of this sort of stuff. According to the CMS, California accounted for the largest share of the funding freeze with $646 million tied to the in-home. supportive services and another 221 million associated with individuals that Dr. Oz described as unsatisfactory. It is unsatisfactory. That's your money. That's my money. That's our money. That's the money that this money is. So what are we doing? How is this happening? Oz said that California spending on in-home supportive services increased 24% over the past two federal fiscal years. So they haven't cleaned up. There's no cleanup there. And I'll tell you this right now. You're going to see walls. He's going to fly the coop. Gavin Newsom's going to say, what? No, I never heard of it. Never heard of it at all. No, no, sorry. I'm out there running for the office of the presidency. Yeah, I don't really know anything about that. Oh, that's just a rounding error. That's all that is. No, it's not a rounding error. It's theft. It's theft. If you know you're supposed to get paid every week, say to the tune of $1,000 a week, okay? And you open up your check and you look at this and it's $400. There's only $400 in this check. It's not $1,000. It's not $1,000. It's only $400. That's theft.

But see, when you don't know who you're stealing from, when you don't do anything like that, it's easy to let this go. And I got to tell you this right now, okay? I am so happy that Trump is cracking this open because this is how you begin to show these socialist losers that we're going to play. by the real rules, not by the it went out the back door rules. This is what's important. Not a lot of people want to talk about that. What is Toyota affordability? It's buying smart. Your local Toyota dealer has great deals available today on RAV-4, Grand Highlander, Camry, and Corolla, with the features and style you deserve. It means driving for less, with hybrid and plug-in hybrid options across the lineup, delivering great MPGs. And it means trading for more. Toyota is known for building long-lasting vehicles, meaning your car will hold its value for years to come. Shop Toyota.com to find out more. Toyota, let's go places. Not a lot of people want to talk about it. And the reason why is because it's not your money. It's not my money. It's just the money from the government. That's all that is. That's the money from the government. I mean, that's all you got to do. You got to wet your beak. You just got to wet your beak. Just do what you think. And then that's it. And you know what? It comes back around. You'll get some money. You'll get some kickbacks. You'll get some stuff. I'm done with this. Mr. Shirley did a huge favor for us. The people who are out there looking at the leering places and all this sort of stuff, this is how you break them down. The socialists. are ready to bankrupt us at any moment. We have to stand strong. We have to be committed. And you know what else we have to be? Ready to call out the liars and make no mistake. These people trying to steal the money from the till, they're the liars. And that money can go to many other good causes. But it's got to be vetted. And it's got to be clear. And it's that simple. Welcome back. It's the Brett Winterbull Show. Great to be with you. Let you say, what do you say we dip into this? back and forth with Pete Hegseth and John Ratcliffe. And, of course, you can't have somebody like Susan Collins without Susan Collins. Let's pick this up. Let's check it out. Last year in the Republicans, Big Beautiful Bill. It also received a record $839 billion for fiscal year, $26, more money than you asked for last year. Combined, that is a trillion dollar budget for the year. And as I already mentioned,

has yet to spend half of the reconciliation funds. And despite that, you are here today asking for tens of billions of dollars more for things that you've already asked for in your FY27 request or that have nothing to do with Iran. This administration has tried to sell this as an emergency request, but it may be better understood as an attempt to skirt the normal appropriations process. Here are just a few of the things requested in this Iran supplemental. $800 million for the National Guard to patrol D.C. even longer. Over $1 billion for the Army to patrol the southern border, which is DHS's job. $900 million to support the administration's illegal boat strikes in the Caribbean. Over $18 billion for munitions, which you've already requested in your FY27 budget request, and $1.7 billion to pay for your decision to recruit more people than the services need, which was not contemplated by the FY26 funding bill Congress recently passed. Now, you've already submitted a reprogramming request on this that our subcommittee is considering now, which really underscores the point I made in my opening remarks that the problem is not a lack of money, but poor planning. So I'll be blunt. The truth is your request does not make a lot of sense. So let me ask you a simple question. Why exactly are billions of dollars more for the National Guard and this administration's illegal strikes in the Caribbean urgently needed for the Iran War? Well, Senator, I wouldn't, of course, agree with your characterization, but why this kind of spending is needed is because of the gross negligence and neglect of the Biden administration inside our department. Ran it like a bureaucracy, abandoned our strength posture around the world, so we're having to reestablish deterrence. You mentioned the end strength numbers, and I will acknowledge that we are ahead of schedule on end strength in recruiting. 8,000 in the Navy, 6,000 in the Army, 4,000 in the Air Force. Because under President Trump, there's been record and historic over 30-year recruiting records inside our department since he won the election because the American people didn't want to sign up for what Joe Biden was providing our military. And they want to sign up for what President Trump is doing in his leadership. And so those are good problems to have that we need to fund and a reflection of momentum. And this budget will allow us to continue the kind of momentum that gets us ahead. My point is that a lot of this request does not feel like an emergency. And let me move on. Like most Americans, I've had a lot of trouble following this administration's contradictory statements about the war. On April 8th, you said, and I quote, their missile program is functionally destroyed, launchers, production facilities, and existing stockpiles depleted and decimated and almost completely ineffective. Mr. Secretary, Iran has been firing at U.S. military bases in the region and ships for the last week. How is it possible if their capabilities were, quote, functionally destroyed three months earlier, as she claimed, for them to be doing this now?

Senator, Iran is at the weakest point militarily it has ever been in in the past decade, certainly maybe in 47 years as they've gathered effectively a terror army. And that terror army was built to try to create conventional capabilities to defend against a pursuit of nuclear weapons, which meant thousands of ballistics missiles, many of which we have destroyed, others of which they have put inside facilities and hidden in underground facilities. That's what... terror regimes would do. So I acknowledge they still have capabilities, no doubt. But the amount of damage that we've done to them over the course of these series of operations has put them in the worst place they've ever been. Okay, well, let me move on. On May 5th, you claim that Iran doesn't control the strait, and you said that there was a quote, powerful red, white, and blue dome over the strait. If that was true, how did Iran shrink ship traffic in the strait to a trickle again last week? We pushed almost, I believe. between 400 and 500 million bearers of oil under the nose of Iran over the course of Project Freedom, which went underground, which I acknowledged after we did so covertly because it was more effective to do so quietly than to do so publicly. So we've been in control of moving traffic through there for quite some time. Will they retain the ability to recklessly shoot at commercial shipping? And that's what happened. We had a ceasefire, and then they shot at commercial shipping. Well, you also said at that same press conference, and I'm going to quote you, You urged Iran to, quote, let innocent ships pass freely. These international waters belong to all nations, not to Iran, to tax, toll, or control. Last week, President Trump said the U.S. would charge a 20% toll to each ship to pass through the state. So based on your opposition to tolls, did you talk to the president out of that idea or did someone else? Iran's not charging tolls, and they're shooting at ships right now. But Trump said that he wanted to charge a 20% toll. We have a blockade right now of all Iranian ships and Iranian ports, and it's effective. My time is out. All right, so we'll pick up Senator Lisa Murkowski. We can move down the line there. Look, there are people that are supplying the... The folks, the Iranian folks, they're getting stuff in. It's not like a, it's a static situation. The situation is they're bringing in missiles. They're getting them from the Houthis. They're getting them from, you know, other allies. They're getting them from, obviously, you heard last week. There was stuff coming in out of China. And even... speculation that you've got stuff coming out of Russia. So this is not a, this is not a, uh, a, uh, a shocking reveal. And sitting here and, and looking at Senator Murray, I don't think, I, I, I think we want to have our, our most important city, Washington, D.C. to be protected.

Why wouldn't you want to be protected? Why wouldn't you want to protect these people who are walking around who are working? I mean, for goodness sakes, it's not hard. It really isn't. Compare this to all the money that's going flying out around the room. Come on. This is an easy, easy thing to deal with. Welcome back. It's the Brett Wooderbill Show. You know, looking at the back and forth that's going on here between Pete Hegseth and the questioners that are going back and forth with the supplemental ask and all this sort of stuff, it just shows you. It just shows you. It's so interesting to see how effective that... General Kane is the Joint Chiefs of Staff guy. He is very, very, very effective. Pete Hegseth says too many things in one sort of package. And he almost gives you the feeling that he's, yeah, we can do that. And then we can do that. We can push that. We can do that. But look, the reality is the president of the United States picked him. This is his position. This is what he's doing. But I do think as they're doing it right now with Dick Durbin, you are hearing from Dan Kane, who's the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman. If you want to pull this up for just a quick second, just to hear what he's saying. Can you do that for me? Thank you for your attention to disaster assistance. Hugely significant and important in many states represented here, but across the country. And it is as challenging circumstances as I've seen farmers in in my time and representing them in the United States Congress. And I appreciate my colleague, Senator Rounds, for making that case today. I appreciate the efforts by Senator Bozeman at the chairman of the Ag Committee and Senator Rounds and his vice chairman, Jeanne Shaheen, for their efforts here on this committee for that effort. Secretary Pete Hegseth, let me ask you about your recent visit to the 101st Airborne Division. You saw the MV-75 Cheyenne. You saw it firsthand and heard from soldiers, as I understand it, about the next generation capabilities, how they will transform the way we fight. The Cheyenne has broken through, and it appears to me, in the acquisition bureaucracy to deliver a capability for our war fighting much faster than it otherwise would have happened. As you look across acquisition, I mean, we're here talking about appropriations, but the ultimate success we'll have in defending our country is putting that money to work as quickly as possible. So as you look at acquisition.

What would you tell me we learned from the Cheyenne? Is it a model how the department can, it intends to field the next generation of capacity going forward? What does the program need from this committee to meet both the schedule and the necessity of its capabilities? Senator, I appreciate the question. I think it's part of one of the untold stories of our department is how we've tried to revolutionize the speed and scale of new acquisitions and procurement. Some of it through munitions and ensuring that companies pay for building their own factories and their own assembly lines so that we're saving billions and billions as taxpayers while companies invest. And when you invest in something with your own money, you want to see it succeed ahead of schedule and on time. Also opening the aperture so it's not just the prime contractors that are competing, but new entrants who make high cost and low cost capabilities. I think in particular on the Cheyenne and the Black Hawk and the replacement. The gap that some have identified could exist based on the... hesitation on speed and replacement, exists because of an austerity mindset, again, that goes back to the Biden administration of divest to invest. And so you end up divesting in certain systems like the Black Hawk before the next one is online, creating gaps for actual operators. And what we're funding in this supplemental and across this budget is the ability to do both. Make sure the systems we rely on in the battlefield right now are delivered and that newer entrance that we're going to need for... long-range fight to deliver, to be more survivable in contested environments, which you're talking about, and what I had a chance to see it, the soldiers were proud to be in it because they felt like it would give them greater advantage in the future. We need to accelerate the timelines of those and deliver them even more quickly. And when you allow new entrants, Withdraw all the right incentives, those things happen. And it's happening in that. All right. So we're going to pull out of this here because we're going to be due for the break in a couple of moments here. But that was Jerry Moran. What is Toyota affordability? It's buying smart. Your local Toyota dealer has great deals available today on RAV-4, Grand Highlander, Camry, and Corolla with the features and style you deserve. It means driving for less with hybrid and plug-in hybrid options across the lineup, delivering great MPGs. And it means trading for more. Toyota is known for building long-lasting vehicles, meaning your car will hold its value for years to come. Shop Toyota.com to find out more. Toyota, let's go places. He's out of Kansas. They're developing a whole lot of weaponry out there. And that's what was being discussed as we jumped into that in that one. We'll obviously just keep an eye on this moving forward in the next two hours. If anything, getting big sparkles or explosions or anything like that.

We'll certainly go and take a look at that and see what folks have in mind. But let me just say this. Everything is fair game if you want to talk about what I started with in the program. What if you want to talk about the differences that are happening between the United States and certainly some of our allies, all this sort of stuff, very important stuff. We certainly want to take your thoughts on that as well. And welcome. Hour number two, Brett Winterbull Show. And it's great to be with you. Over the course of this hour, we're going to play you some sound that you have to hear. I'm going to make you listen to this probably two or three times because I can't even believe how dumb this guy is. Stick around for that. But I want to go out and reach out to Craig, who's been very patient. putting up with me, and he wants to comment about the Senate staffers and illegal fraud and all this sort of stuff. Go ahead, Craig. What's on your mind? Hey, good afternoon. I'm going to have to disagree with you on the people not sleeping with their staffers. It's been an unwritten code in Washington for decades that... A lot of these staffers are hired for that specific purpose. What? They know they're going in there for that job. And some of them, they take a chance on because they look just so good. They're willing to take the chance. I mean, these are people given the jobs monkeys can do as a cover for what they're really there for. And I'm not surprised that Mike Johnson, he's playing politics. He's purchasing, and he's not letting a crisis go to waste. Um, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's got him on his staff as well. So it's just, whoa, he's, he seems like. There's a perk of the job. It's a perk of the day. No, no, no, no. Hold on a second. Be honest here. Okay. Just, just you and me talking, okay? Um, have you ever seen the staffers? I mean, you ever take a look? I mean, honestly, you don't let the ones that they're using that way get into the public eyes. Wait, wait, wait, hold on. You had, you had, you had, you had, but wait, you had, you had, you had, you had, you had, you had, I mean, he was a sexy one, wouldn't he? Uh, Gallego. There's another one for you. Then you get, then you got, oh, don't, don't forget, Teddy, Teddy, uh, Teddy, you know, the guy who was making, you know, waitress sandwiches and all that sort of stuff. I mean, my goodness, this is terrible. But we were told, we were told that people were going to get paid, that they were going to be put and made, you know, the way you would want to be. And on top of that, that you couldn't do this anymore. But this is like the fifth time of the third time. that we've had these people still be getting action. I don't understand this. Why aren't they doing the business instead of getting the business? They're just bad at their jobs, I guess, but they're still going to revel in the perks of it. Oh, gosh. Yeah, I just, I don't know. It's who.

Shocking. It's always going to go on. I don't see anything necessarily too wrong with it. And if you do, you might need to go to the low men's clinic or something. Well, okay, fine. I appreciate the call. I'm going to, we'll just have to be, we'll just have to be, you know, we'll go in a different direction. But I appreciate the call. Look, if you're going to get a job, think about this. This is going to be kind of dangerous, okay? I'm sorry. Everybody who's listening, it's going to be kind of dangerous. But I got to ask the question here, okay? You wake up in the morning and you realize when you woke up in the morning that your Maytag... was not working there, right? You could, so you got to call the guy and you got to call the guy and you say, hey, can you come and fix my, you know, my appliance? And the guy says, yeah, sure, what time? What time do you want me to come by? Uh, 10 o'clock. So he's going to come over and he's going to work on your dishwasher. Okay? Now. This guy's doing a job. He's got a nice business. He's doing the job. He's doing the thing. Now, at what point do you say, hey, you did such a great job for these people or for me? What do you say, we just, we start dating each other? See, that doesn't, that doesn't, that's terrible. Just do your business and then go about your business out far away from wherever you're doing your stuff. And so I think if you're going to Washington, D.C. with all the stuff that's available there. Why would you want to just go and party? I understand they're 20, they're 25, they're 37, they're whatever. But do your business. You're going to work. You're going to work and you're trying to get something, something, which I, that to me, I think is absolutely, it's just awful. You know what? I'll put a poll up. I'll put a poll up right here. I'll give you five thoughts on this. If you want to opine on this, this was the very first story that I did before even Pete Hegseth or any of the stuff that we were talking about, it's because there is now a ban, a ban at the Capitol, no funny business with funny people. And so this is a problem now. Or it's not a problem. I go to work. I do my work. I go home. I spend time with my family. This is how it's supposed to be. Why are we not? And I'm serious about this. Why are we not dealing with real stuff? Do you have to go everywhere? What are you? Groupies? Are they groupies?

I mean, I don't understand this. Get up in the morning, shower, shave, shampoo, whatever, go to work, get a cup of coffee, do the stuff that you're hired to do, go back to your house, and do not show up anywhere else. You need to be in the business of business. That's what I say. Maybe I'm wrong. It's entirely possible. It's been known to happen, but I'll tell you this right now. If you go out there and you comport yourself as a professional, you don't have to worry about looking over your back. You don't have to worry about any of that. Just do the job like the nice guy did who fixed the entirety of my incredible, brand new, beautiful, now working right now, that's all I need. I don't need any fun. We don't need any fun. We don't need a cup of coffee. You know what we need? We need to get back to business. I'm Brett Waterball. I approve that take. Welcome back. Brett Waterball show. Our telephone number is always. You can reach out to us. You can, you can comment. You can get on the comment line. You got all those, you got all these options. I mean, when I was growing up, I didn't have all these options. But there's a lot of options that we can do. 704-5701079. 704-5701079. At the end of this hour, or I should say in the last segment of this hour, we'll be joined by Beth Troutman. Looking forward to the conversation, looking forward to seeing what's going on out there. You know, it's really, it's a lot of fun. And it's good to be kicking it with all you people. All right. Now, I got to tell you something. They've been doing this thing in Washington, D.C., and it's the young, I don't want to say commies. But it's the young group of people who are the Democrats who are doing their thing in Washington, D.C. today, this week. And it's a meetup. They do these meetups. And they talk about all the sort of things that you would not want to talk about, but they want to talk about. It's really good. Same thing with the Republicans do them the same way. The Democrats do the same way. Yeah, they just gather together. They just stay close. away from each other, because, you know, you're going to have people getting arguments. But here's a thing that I thought is kind of interesting. So, you know, Hasan Piker? You guys know Hasan Piker? He's like the second coming of the once and forever Zohran Mamdani, right? He's kind of like Zohran Mamdani, but meaner. And so there's Hasan Piker. And he comes out and he speaks to these young people who are not being chased by the staffers on Capitol Hill. I can tell you that as much, okay? That is not happening. This is all about business and all about getting involved with politics and stuff like that. So Hasan Piker.

Well, I'm just, I'm not going to color this for you. I'm not going to make you believe what you're going to hear, but you're going to sit there and say, I can't believe what I'm hearing. This is Hasan Piker. He loves Mao. This is cut number eight. Prepare to be amazed. Go. I got stopped by a cop who thought I was like making fun of Mao Zedong, which I never would and never will. Mousa Dong is one of the great leaders of this world, okay, a man who changed the entire universe, the entire planet. Hmm. Moussay Tong, this guy is giving the speech. to the kids from the colleges, and he is selling them on Mao. Now, I have a question for you. I have a very important question for you. When I say Mao, no, we're not going to chant. It's not going to be like, when I say Mao, you say mm. What comes to your mind, you know, fire it up again. Why don't you do this again so everybody can hear this again? Hasan Piker loves him some Mao. Listen to this. I got stopped by a cop who thought I was like making fun of Mao Zedong, which I never would and never will. Mao Zedong is one of the great leaders of this world, okay, a man who changed. the entire universe, the entire planet. Yeah, he did. Yeah, you certainly did. You killed millions of people. Mao. I'm not saying Hasan Piker did it. I'm saying Mao murdered like. 400 million billion trillion people. This is not a guy that you would ever want to be around. He was a communist communist. I mean, he was absolutely horrible. And by the way, by the way, I mean, if you're driving in a car, don't look it up. Look at that terrible haircut he had. His haircut, it's like he's got a divot on the front of his head. And that's... Probably people walked in and they said, what the heck is that kind of haircut? Look at Stalin. Stalin's got a decent haircut. Who else has a better haircut? You could say, you know, anybody else. But when you look at Mao? No, Mao. Now, that, that you got, you got a five head. You don't have a, you don't have a forehead. You got a five head all the way back. And that was not a good look. And I'm probably telling you the truth. People probably saw him come and walking. They started laughing and they go, yeah, lock him up. Lock him up. He's laughing at Mao's haircut. That Mao haircut, it's no good. Can we just, can we just glue it on right there? And he was, you know, he was part of the gang of four. The gang of four, the murderous regime as bad as it could have possibly been. And it's awful. But these people.

They're worshipping Mao. What does that mean? What is that? If your kid came home from school, if your kid came home from school and you said, hey, what did you learn about today? Mao? What about Mao? He's a great person. He was a great human. He's not a great human. He's a murdering maniac wanting to kill people. I mean, you sit back there and you just say to yourself, wait a minute, what are you doing with this? Let's go to Nicole Maliatakis. She loves to take swings at the commies. This is cut number seven. This will be something that'll get you ready to go. Cut number seven, go. I don't care what they call themselves, but when you're taking pages. What is Toyota affordability? It's buying smart. Your local Toyota dealer has great deals available today on RAV-4, Grand Highlander, Camry, and Corolla, with the features and style you deserve. It means driving for less, with hybrid and plug-in hybrid options across the lineup, delivering great MPGs. And it means trading for more. Toyota is known for building long-lasting vehicles, meaning your car will hold its value for years to come. Shop Toyota.com to find out more. Toyota, let's go places. At the playbook of Karl Marx, pushing for abolishing private property rights and seizing the means of production or Hugo Chavez in packing the Supreme Court, that's what you're going to get. So they can call themselves Democrat Socialists, but the reality is, is that the Communist Caucus, the commie caucus is coming to Congress. And it's going to be a rude awakening if we don't all pay attention. And that includes the press. Think about what's happened in those countries where they've had socialism and communism. The press is the first one to go. When they finally consolidate that power, the media is the first one to go and it is a state-run media. So it's incumbent upon all of us to get the truth out there about the threats that we are facing as a country with these radical people that want to bring this horrific ideology here.

So I got a question that came in through the transom. And Mike was somebody who I was going back and forth during the, you know, the intermittent, you know, time. And he says this, and I think this is very interesting. He says, I don't, I just don't remember it being this bad in the past. I feel this one of the biggest issues with politics today. So do you think that this is the worst time that you have lived through? And I think. There are people who are going to have different answers based on what you experienced in your life, right? So like, for example, and certainly, you know, we're, we, we are losing more and more of these incredible men and women who are still alive, who saw what happened. with the attack on Pearl Harbor and World War, World War II, right? That would be something that would be a very shocking sort of thing. You might think about the assassinations of political heroes, and you can name who you want to name, but with the assassinations that took place in the 50s and the 60s. right, where there was violence. You could see Vietnam tearing apart so many people who are dealing with that sort of a thing, right? You might have somebody who didn't want to go to serve and they would go to Canada or something like that. You might think about the Cold War. You might think about what happened on September 11th, there's a lot of touchstone moments that make you feel some way inside of your body, right? And every generation, I would guess, every generation has to go through. a gauntlet and you have to find a way through this. And then I think about the people who came through COVID, who came through the lockdowns, who came through all of that stuff. Have you noticed with younger people, have you picked up... The resilience in these younger people, they want to go out and start a business. Some of them have multiple businesses. There are people who are not just sleeping on the couch, smoking weed all day. This group of young people today, they may not necessarily understand all the nuances of politics, but you cannot deny.

the resilience of these young people today. You got weirdos in every generation. You got losers in every generation. You hope that they're able to pull out of the dive or something like that. But when you really think about this, for all that we've been through, and I'll just take it from September 11th, right? So we're almost 25 years to the 11th. And you think about all of the people who lost their lives in the dangers that they had to go and spend time in Afghanistan and to go into Iraq and all of this sort of stuff. And you think about all of these people. And they came back. And the world has changed. To me, I feel like there's no going back. It's just it's impossible because you can't, you can't do this. It doesn't work that way. Josh, with a comment for me, Politics is worse now for sure. It comes down to one thing. The left hates Trump so bad that they have to disagree with everything he does. The Chuck Schumer clip from yesterday, he couldn't say the world is a better place now that Iran's military is decimated. Because if he did, that would be admitting that Trump did something good. Well, that's true. But in so many ways, in so many ways, we have different things that percolate across the time. Once upon a time, you know, you'll have an argument with your dad or your mom or your loved one. And then you wake up in the middle of the night and you say, you know what? I think I was wrong. What I see in this world today is they've amputated a very important piece. that we don't have anymore. And do you know what that is? The ability to say, I'll think it over. I'll be a bigger person. I'll apologize. I'll try to see it from your perspective. All of that is gone. Because we've got these handheld devices in our hands, and it's about owning the libs and owning the MAGA and all this sort of stuff. But the reality is when it comes back to the most important messaging, the most important messaging is not to break off with a friendship that you've had for a long time. It's...

sitting back and deciding whether or not the person that you're talking to is going to be worth trying to rebound. Right now, in this day and age, it's just every man for themselves, every woman for themselves, And unfortunately, we miss out on a lot, I think, because we don't have that opportunity to have that last conversation or that next conversation. People just walk away. 704-570-1079. My good friend, guess who's coming by? Yes, you know the morning show lady. I always love talking to her. It's going to be great. I can't wait. Dick. Beth Troutman's in the house.

Everybody keep it down. Beth Troutman, welcome to the program. It's good to be with you. How are you? Oh, stage, steam, whatever it is. It's good to talk to you. What's going on? Talk a little bit about this. You know, it is a gorgeously hot, humid day. Oh, my gosh. North Carolina, but you know what? I will steal a line from David Chadwick and say the sun has come up. The sun is up, so there's always hope. That's exactly right. And moments of hope are always available for you right there. You know what I'm saying? So let me, let me, I'm just going to hit you with a, you know, we go to different directions here with this sort of stuff. So here's the question that I have for you, okay? I make you. The person in charge of the Iran thing, whatever this Iran thing is, because it seems to be kind of moving this way and that way, okay? So what is the first thing? What would be your first order of battle? I don't mean like necessarily you're bombing any place, but you know, what is your first order of battle to try to... delocate the different problems that we're dealing with. How do we fix this? Do we just split and leave them to their devices or do we do something else? What is happening here? It feels... A bit like a quagmire right now because we keep vacillating, not we as in the United States, but just in general right now, we're kind of vacillating between peace talks and attacks and then... more attacks, and I am just, you know, heartbroken over the fact that we've lost more service members, one, from Fort Bragg in Fayetteville. You know, that part of it certainly breaks my heart. But it has been, I think one of the biggest things that happens is when there's not a consistent... consistent story being told or consistent messaging, I think, especially in this day and age, whether it be influencers or podcasters or, you know, news pundits. People start filling in the information, you know, because if there's an information vacuum, people start filling it with all kinds of different information over what the truth is about, you know, how much weaponry is left in Iran, you know, what kind of uranium capabilities they have, what really is happening with the supreme leader and who is actually in charge, who are we?

supposed to be negotiating with. Who are we supposed to be having the conversation with? And who is that person that can actually make the decision? So I would imagine Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio and Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff, you know, people like that are probably going back and forth with some of the same questions and how much do you tell the American public. how much of the information that gets told is leaked information, because I know they've been looking for specific leakers so that certain information doesn't cause problems with any mission that is happening. So it feels like a... I think a lot of people, a lot of Americans now feel like, well, what if we end up in a scenario that is similar to Iraq? You know, what if we end up in a war that lasts longer than we thought? You know, because we had a similar scenario in Iraq. If you remember back in the early 2000s, we had a kind of a declaration of victory. And then the war continued. And there's something that feels a little bit deja vu-like about all of this. Right now, Americans are a bit on edge. They are. They are. And exhausted about prices and exhausted about, you know, the cost of fuel and goods and, you know, the potential that we might have to consistently use taxpayer dollars to do things like help farmers, which I'm all about helping, you know, if there's a struggle, especially when it comes to feeding the American population, you know, that's something that we can't ignore. But all of it plays into something that I think makes people feel a little. What is Toyota affordability? It's buying smart. Your local Toyota dealer has great deals available today on RAV4, Grand Highlander, Camry, and Corolla with the features and style you deserve. It means driving for less with hybrid and plug-in hybrid options across the lineup, delivering great MPGs. And it means trading for more. Toyota is known for building long-lasting vehicles, meaning your car will hold its value for years to come. ShopToyota.com to find out more. Toyota, let's go places. But overwhelmed and unsure of what the future holds. And I think that has a lot to do with the vacuum. All right, with all of that, what do you got coming up tomorrow morning? Well, tomorrow we are going to have Governor Pat McCrory on our show to talk about his new book that is coming out. So that'll be a fun conversation. He'll be in studio with us for a full hour. So we have a lot of a lot going on, plus all the news headlines coming up. Looking forward to it. Enjoy the night. It's been a real pleasure to kick it with you. Thanks so much. That's Beth Troutman. I'm Brett Wooderball. Let's head on out. Get another bit of time. Welcome back. It's our number three. It's great to be with you. It is the Brett Wooderable show. We've got incredible sound that you've got to hear. This is something that, look, I have made no, you know, no, if, I'm going to tell you something. Scott Bessent is still my guy.

I love Scott Bessent. Scott Bessent is playing with the Ayatollah's money. Scott Bessent isn't just playing with the Ayatollah's money. You know what he's doing? He's sticking it to China and Iran. It is so good. Now, you've got to hear this because you're not going to hear this on any of the other channels. Listen to this. This is cut number two. Scott Bessent is grabbing the Ayatollah's money and he's taking it from them. They're not going to be able to use any of the money. Cut number two, Scott Bessent go. most, if not all of their capability to rebuild. And then we moved on to what we call economic fury. And that's a one-two punch. It's the blockade. And then what we're doing at Treasury, and we are tracking these accounts all over the world. We froze a crypto wallet linked to the IRGC the other day, about $130 million. We have found the money man for the Ayatollah. And we are tracking the IATO. of properties around the world. We hope to soon be able to print his $100 million plus properties and show the addresses. And we're preserving this money for the American people, but most of all, we are constricting the regime. Their currency has collapsed. It is at an all-time low versus the dollar. It's in free fall. And we think the inflation rate is upwards of 180%. All right. Think about this for a second. You've got... the kinetic part of the fight that we're dealing with here. Right. So you've got our military. You've got our allies such as they are. They don't necessarily want to be our allies sometimes. But when you think about the different phases of a war, right? So you have a kinetic part of the war that's bombing, blowing stuff up, occupying territory, all this sort of stuff. What else do you have? You have, the difference maker, which is the ability to pull the strings and figure out how you can impact the best possible way against the Iranians and their allies. So remember, I've told you this in the last, oh, what, four weeks? You have a group of countries that want to work with the United States. You just saw earlier today the gathering together with Lebanon and all that sort of stuff. But you also saw something different. You saw the Chikams not really rearing up their heads so that they can help the Iranians. They don't want to do that because...

The Iranians are malign actors. And even the, even the, the chikoms understand that they're malign actors. They're not going to do what they're supposed to do. And so they're just kind of floating around there. So what do you see with the Iranians? The Iranians are kicking it with the Houthis. But the Houthis aren't really doing a whole lot. They're threatening to do a whole lot, but they really haven't done a whole lot. And a lot of that goes back to we hit them pretty hard back in the day. And now we've got the stuff that's going to be coming out of the Straits of Hormuz. Now, there's a lot of countries in this particular part of this neighborhood. And some of them might be allied with the Iranians. Some of them might be. kind of mutual. Some of them might be, well, maybe we'll help you out if you need money or something like that. But when you look at all this other stuff, the one thing the Iranians are stuck with, they don't have any way to print any more money. Remember when we had the MOU? The MOU that everybody was talking about. Well, when we come back, I want to go back to that issue because the Iranians, they got some money, they pulled some money, they squirled some money, but they're using it up very quickly. And I'm telling you, I think this is the end run that is going to come. I absolutely believe it. Stick around. It's the Brett Wooderable show.

Welcome back. It's the Brett Whirlable show. Good to be with you. All right. So let's go back to where we left off. And one of the things that I think are particularly important is the ability to utilize leverage. And the leverage that we're talking about is actual money. It doesn't necessarily have to mean that the money is going to be coming in in gold bars or, you know, cryptocurrency or whatever it is. But right now, as you just watched this morning, the, you've had an opportunity to see that Donald Trump is going to put. pressure on the country up north from us, right? Canada. And he's, he's hitting him. And I watched the availability that was going on there. And they are going to hit the Canadians. Because they're not playing the same sort of fight that we are playing, right? Canada's not really helping us. The Europeans are not really helping us. We have a lot of people who want to benefit from a different sort of approach, but they don't want to lift the couch when it's time to move down the stairs. And so with that in mind, Listening to Scott Bessent, he's got incredible communications. He's also got great resiliency that he can put together. And. hurt the Iranians, not hurting the Iranians like the regular people who were being murdered in the streets and all that sort of stuff. He has the ability to hurt the Iranians where it hurts in the most. You can't store your money anywhere. And whatever that money is that that's floating around, that's all you're going to get because we're not going to give them any more money. That's the MOU. allowed them to get what, $6 billion or something like that? And they've burned right through that. They're not able to get any kind of, you know, return on that investment in that regard. They're going to burn every one of those things that they can possibly burn. And they can walk around and they can say, well, look at how strong we are. Look at how great we are. Look at how all this sort of stuff is happening. And so when you look at The one thing that the Iranians do not have access to. Vladimir Putin doesn't have access to. The chikoms have a little access to is the money supply. And so...

You hear Donald Trump talking about they're going to go with the pickax and they're going to go blow up all this stuff and they're going to go kill all this, you know, all these things that they want to do. They want to bury everything and make sure that they can never, ever, ever get, you know, get back to that particular point where we saw what we did see a couple of years ago, right, with the attacks knocking all that stuff out. Now we hit them. And I think this is part of what Trump is talking about. Because if you see the meeting that he had earlier today, you're looking with the guy who's coming in from Lebanon. And Lebanon is now coming into our camp. And you had that guy sitting in that room. And there's Donald Trump. And you have all of these weirdos yelling and screaming, asking, why is the war still happening? How come this is still happening? You have to build together. Remember, Lebanon has been occupied territory by Hezbollah. And, you know, unfortunately, the president of the United States, you know, I think it was a slip of the tongue where he said, oh, I can talk to the Hezbollah guys. I can cut a deal with the Hezbollah guys. No, you don't want to have, that's the Iranians. The Iranians and Hezbollah are the same. We don't need that. That's like saying we're going to talk to, we're going to talk to Hamas. We don't need to talk to Hamas. We don't need any of that stuff. We are on the good foot. And I think that's one of the most important things that should be understood because there's a, there's an unwinding that's happening now. You know, the Saudis have been pretty quiet. You're seeing all these other countries, the Kuwaitis and all of those people are doing what they're doing. But what we haven't seen, and I harken back to yesterday, and I thought the man's name was Brad. Maybe it might have been Brad when he called in and he said, we got the best trained military in the world. We can take over Karg Island if we want it. And they can't do anything about it. See, a lot of this is kinetic, right? You have a lot of kinetic energy. You've got all this stuff where you're able to kind of stop this, to make this, you know, look one way while you're trying to do it the other way. And I'm just telling you right now, I don't know where the money's going to be coming in. None of these countries want to give money. to the Iranians, especially with them in this particular iteration. So what are they going to do? How are they going to do that? How are they going to fix that? Can't print money. You just heard from Scott Bessent. Oh, we've got a hundred billion dollars or we got, you know, whatever the amount of money that they want to do. And now they're minting it. They're minting it and we're going to be holding that money. See, dollars are nice. But you know what's nicer? Having access to all of the big cahoonas that are out there in the world who have the money, who can turn it on and who can turn it off. And so I think, I'm just guessing.

But I think this is going to be the next move. I could absolutely be 100% wrong. And I have no doubt about that. But if you sit back and you think about the way you can really hurt these mullahs, and these Ayatollas and these IRG... What is Toyota affordability? It's buying smart. Your local Toyota dealer has great deals available today on Tacoma, Tundra, and Forerunner with the space and features for any adventure. It means driving for less, with available hybrid options, delivering great MPGs without sacrificing power. And it means trading for more. Toyota is known for building long-lasting vehicles, meaning your truck will hold its value for years to come. Shop Toyota.com to find out more. Toyota, let's go places. You see, guys, their money's only going to last for so long. We have the ability to do something totally different. I'd love to get your thoughts. Welcome back. Brett Wooderball Show, great to be with you. Red State has got a shocking story that is posted up over at Red State. The horrible way the Biden administration messed up the strategic petroleum reserve. How could you, how can you break that instrument? How do you break that instrument? How do you break that? How do you break the Strategic Petroleum Reserve? Doesn't make any sense. Let's dive into this. Fox Business correspondent, Edward Lawrence, recently reported on a big problem that the Biden administration left with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the SPR. He explained to Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner, how the SPR was now at a 43-year low. Note him how he, the Biden administration, had drained 180 million barrels before the 2022 midterm elections. Why would he have done that? Why would he have done the drain of the 2020 midterm? Oh, it's the midterm elections. Okay. We understand what that is. It was clearly for political reasons to help in the elections, not for the reason you're supposed to do it for emergencies in the market supply. Biden never fully refilled it. Like, it's like dropping a whole bunch of IOUs in a, in a, in a jar. But it gets worse. It gets worse than that. WTF, it's been exposed that the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve has been destroyed by the Biden administration. With one site left,

Inoperable. Okay, so if you go to the hospital and you go into the hospital and you're going to try to get into an operating room and it says inoperable, what does that mean? Means you're out of luck forcing the president Trump to clean up the mess and surge investments to fix everything. That's from that administration. The previous administration also left one of the four not functional. The current Undersecretary of Energy, Kyle Houtsvite, who is now in charge of the SPR, detailed to Lawrence in a... interview about how the administration even left the one, the one of the four SPR sites inoperable, howtsbite said that Trump now has to fix more equipment that the Biden team that they bought stuff, but it's not, it's not usable. It was left out to deteriorate. Why would you buy stuff and then leave it out? What are you doing? Because of the weather, it's no longer usable. So this is a double, this is a double whammy. The Biden administration completely wasted taxpayer dollars on that, said Howitzvite. And then he sat. on the surface, and they didn't even install the stuff that they were going to install. They also failed to maintain some of the sites. Houts fight also revealed he told Lawrence that he thought the Biden team didn't have any long-term plan for maintenance or working on the sites. So now Trump administration officials have to go in there and try to fix it. Crazy. Not only draining. It was the wrong reasons and putting us in danger, but wasting our money and not even properly maintaining the reserve that needs to come back so that we have the national security. Now that the releasing oil might make sense. Not for political reasons. You do this because it's an emergency. But for all the right reasons, supply issues, Biden actions, all of that stuff, and they let it go. They just let it go down. That's despicable. But you know what? We'll fix it. I hope so. I pray, though. that we do it fast. Welcome back. Brett Winterbull's show. Final segment of the show. If you want to roll pine, feel free. You could reach out. Happy to have it. Let's talk about food. I want to talk about food. Is that food really made with 100% avocado oil?

Likely not. I thought that you could just cook it with the avocado oil. But what's happening here? They're in the beautiful jars, you know, you go to the big jar, you go, oh, this is so healthy, it's so wonderful, it's so great. Avocado oil is having a moment. Browse the aisles of the grocery store, and you'll find packaged goods like chips. salad dressings, and mayonnaise, all boosting that they make it with the olive oil. Now, I'm not talking about Popeye's girlfriend. Not olive oil that way. No, no, no, no, no. But a new study finds consumers who are paying a premium for these foods are probably not getting what they think they're buying. What? Say it ain't so. And at a time when consumer interest in avocado oil is growing because of the perceived health benefits, the findings add to the evidence of the evidence of widespread authenticity problems in the industry. Have we learned nothing? If you're buying avocado oil products, it's very likely that you're not getting what you're paying for, said Selena Wang, a professor of food science at the University of California, Davis, and the lead author of the study which appears in the journal Applied Food Research. In the study, Wang and her colleagues, so it's Wang and her colleagues, purchased 54 products that listed avocado oil as only oil used and submitted them to chemical analysis. The vast majority, 89%. 89% showed signs of it being adulterated. You know what that means? It's cheating on you. With other cheaper oils, such as soybean oil? Soybean oil? Soybean oil? I'm buying olive oil or whatever oil. And I got soybean oil? She says one sample appeared to have basically no avocado oil in it. Wow. And price did not correlate with the authenticity of the oil. UC Davis has posted the full list of the products tested and the results. For comparison sake, the researchers also tested 20 different packaged foods made with olive oil. And one appeared to show signs of adulteration. So this is largely an avocado oil product problem. So they're not trying to stick it to you. They're just trying to stick it to you.

Wang says that the findings were disappointing, but not surprising. Given her past research in 2020 and 2023, she published studies that found the bulk of commercially bottled avocado oils were either rancid. What a bad word. meaning they had started to oxidize or they were adulterated with other oils. Gosh, gone are the days. Since then, a slew of new packaged food products labeled as being made with avocado oil have hit the market. They got her curious about the authenticity of the oil in them. She says, because I didn't think we had this much avocado oil to go around. She said, she said, that new findings are especially disheartening because avocado oil and products made of it are often significantly more expensive than those made with olive oil or vegetable oil. So there you go. The trick is you buy and you get what you pay for. One reason behind the growing interest in avocado oil and products made with it is that it's often seen as a healthier alternative to seed oils such as canola, soybean, saffower, and the rest of that sort of stuff. So there you go. What you got to do is you got to check this out. Got to go figure this out. Maybe you can make your own avocado oil. I don't know. I'm not that kind of a chemist. I just do what I can. I try to keep you informed, try to make you laugh, try to make you have a good time. But you know what? Be careful. I don't want to see you guys getting ripped off. I don't want to see you guys getting ripped up. I want you to be able to get all that stuff that you need. Sometimes you've got to pay to go. That's what you got to do. A lot of times. A lot of times there's no shortcuts. A lot of people don't understand that. If you got a guy on the corner, and he's got a bucket, and he's got a squeegee, do not buy the olive oil, do not buy the avocado oil, do not buy any of his blarney, because that guy's not in the real business. I think you've got to go find a reputable avocado handler. Your mileage may vary. That's going to do it for me. Breaking with Brett Jensen is next. We'll be back again tomorrow. Thanks so much. And don't mind the avocado. Talk to you tomorrow.

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