7-30-26 Hour 3 - Rand Paul Very Unhappy with Fauci

I am very happy to testify before any congressional oversight committee. I have nothing to hide. I can explain and validate everything that I've done. So, you know, it's going to be inconvenient if they actually are out there essentially threatening to make my life miserable. But it's, I mean, I'm going to do what I need to do. And that is cooperate fully because we have nothing to hide at all. He has nothing to hide at all because he represents science. Remember that? I represent science. He represents science. Oh, my goodness. What a difference a couple of years make. Good news, everybody. One more hour. One more hour. Hey, I'm Brian Wilson filling in for Chris Plant. Chris Plant is off today. He'll return at his normal time. And I'm sure he'll be back by Friday, by Monday. No doubt at all. He'll be back. Everything's good. Nothing going on there. If you do remember, I used to work at WMAL where this show is being carried, of course. out of the flagship station there, WMAL in Washington, worked there in the mornings and worked with Larry O'Connor and Brian Neiman and a whole bunch of different people there. And then I retired and then I spent another six years after retirement. I got to pulled out of retirement. and have been working in the Nashville, Tennessee area, which I dearly love. I'm coming to you today from my home studio in Watertown, Tennessee, just outside of Nashville. So you heard Anthony Fauci there talking about how he has nothing to hide. And yet yesterday, when he came to testify on Capitol Hill before Rand Paul's committee, he did this 111 times. On the advice of counsel, I respectfully declined to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. Yes, he pleaded the fifth. He looked like a mob boss up there, taking the fifth. A hundred and eleven times, according to some accounts, well more than a hundred. It seems completely believable. Seems about right. So I'm going to go with 111. That's what the Associated Press is saying. I think he had every opportunity to go in there and provide us with real information. I mean, we didn't gain, we didn't cling one bit of information out of his appearance yesterday. And we have real questions. Did we make the right decisions during COVID? Did we do the right thing by shutting down our schools? Did we do the right thing by this, that and the other? And was it really gain of function research that caused this that was paid for by the United States government? There are a lot of really legitimate questions. A million Americans died as a result of what happened in COVID.

Did we do it right? Could we have done it better? Were there lessons to be learned? All of these things were the kinds of things that we should have been hearing about in this hearing. But no, what we're hearing is this. On the advice of counsel, I respectfully declined to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment by the Constitution. It got ridiculous. Here is Tom Cotton, Senator from Arkansas. trying to get some information out of Anthony Fauci. I respectfully declined to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. What color tie you're wearing? On the advice of counsel, I respectfully declined to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. What colors the carpet in front of you? On the advice of counsel, I respectfully declined to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment. Now, he wasn't going to answer anything. He's going to be all Fifth Amendment all the time. I mean, he got ridiculous here. But I think some of the, like the Tensis Exchange is mostly one-sided, was Senator Bernie Moreno, a Republican from Ohio, going after Anthony Fauci. This is a very long piece of tape, but I think it really gets to suggest how silly this whole process was yesterday. On the advice of counsel, I respectfully declined to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. Do you know who wrote? The Fifth Amendment? On the advice of counsel, I respectfully declined to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. So you're invoking a right that you don't know who wrote it or what it says. Is that correct? On the advice of counsel, I respectfully declined to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. Wow. Do you feel like you're a deep... On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. Clearly, what you think today... is that somehow you're above reproach. Somehow you feel like you don't need to be treated like a normal American. Dr. French, can you just turn around and look at the people behind you? You're not willing to do that? It's not a question. It's not a question. It's not a question. It's a request. All you have to do is look up from your lawyers and look at the people who were absolutely shamed for saying what we know now to be the truth. You can't even look at them. Those policies were put in place because you had moronic politicians that listen to the words of a megalomaniac who was more interested in having met a Kardashian. than the suffering of the American people. Now, there's something you may not know is that the reason we know so much about what Anthony Fauci was thinking in real time is that we've gotten a look at his personal diary. that has been obtained by Rand Paul and has been issued out there. And it's just filled with giddy writing. Oh, today I was with Julia John Roberts in a video thing. And oh, and this and the other. And I got to meet a Kardashian. And, you know, I was, you know, basically idolized around the world and around the country. People are looking at me as a hero. I mean, it was very, I mean, it's actually very, it seems very quite unhealthy.

When you actually hear the things that he was writing about how great I am in his personal diary. How wonderful it is to be me. His ego was tied up in all of this. And yet at the core of it, I think there's a great deal of evidence that suggests he knew full well what was going on at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. He knew this didn't come. It's in his diary. He said, well, it looks like that the market nearby was an amplifier, but not the source of the virus. He knew it, and yet he kept trying to push it because he knew deep down. This did not look good for him. The allegation is that he funded gain of function research that got out of the lab and killed millions of people around the world. This is a huge story. Have we already forgotten how bad it was back then? And the things that were placed upon us by our government, the burdens that were placed upon us, were no longer free to go. and travel as we see fit. We couldn't go out to eat dinner. We couldn't get our kids into class. All of the, and we had to shut down work. Businesses went out of business because of this. We needed to learn from this experience. We needed to know what we did wrong so that we can know how to do it better. And, I mean, that's a very noble pursuit, none of which was accomplished yesterday by this appearance, this appearance by Anthony Fauci. Here's more with Bernie Moreno. And that is you. It was about six years ago today that I decided. I'm going to give up my businesses, sell them all, run through the United States Senate. Here I am sitting in front of you six years later saying, who the fuck do you think you were for doing that? It is a total disgrace what you did to this country. And if my Democrat colleagues are standing there defending you, I hope the voters, the United States of America, watch the clips of every one of you, doting on a guy who was more interested in being a celebrity. than saving American people. I will make it my mission to make certain that every single one of those Democrats who did that. will see that clip over and over and over again. Because there is no defense of what you did. On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. Will you apologize? I mean, you can't make this stuff up. As the business owners that lost their business shattered their lives and they'll never recover.

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully declined to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. Will you apologize to the moms who had to force their infant children, two, three, four-year-olds to put masks on, and what that did and how that traumatized those kids? Were you apologized to the family members of the people who died because they took your advice and not only got the first vaccine, but the five, six other boosters that they did not need? It's no secret why you have to hire the biggest dirtbag attorney on the planet because of what you did. I hope you're paying him well. And I hope that one way or the other, somewhere, sometime you answer for your crimes. Well, it wasn't going to be yesterday, but maybe we'll get something out of this. Senator Rand Paul, by the way, don't we owe Rand Paul a debt of gratitude? I think we do. I mean, he was, he was, he called this right off the bat. He kept saying gain of function research was taking place at the Wuhan lab. And now that seems to be very much true, even though we heard it time and time again denied by Anthony Fauci and people of his ilk. Oh, no, no, no. He doesn't know what he's talking about here. Apparently, he knew exactly what he was talking about it. Apparently, he got it very much right, is the way it appears to me. But Senator Rand Paul, who was in charge of this hearing, says there is a very real chance Anthony Fauci could be prosecuted after taking the Fifth Amendment in the Senate hearing. Hours after Dr. Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to all questions during a Senate hearing, Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky told CBS News, he believes the former infectious disease official could be prosecuted for not answering questions. Testimony follows years of fiery disputes between Paul and Anthony Fauci, both medical doctors, over the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the origins of the virus that caused it. Anthony Fauci has long defended his handling of both issues, and Paul has repeatedly accused him of lying. Last weekend, Paul's office released a trove of journal entries pinned by Anthony Fauci. Um... In an interview on Wednesday, that was yesterday, on CBS News with Major Garrett, Paul argued Anthony Fauci's lack of answers could lead to federal criminal charges for contempt of Congress or obstructing a congressional proceeding. I think there's a very real chance he could be prosecuted for that, said Paul. The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution grants people the right not to incriminate themselves, which generally allows them to decline to answer questions. But in this case, here's the key part, Paul argued...

use a preemptive pardon that former President Joe Biden issued to Anthony Fauci just hours before leaving office could prevent Anthony Fauci from invoking the Fifth Amendment since he cannot be prosecuted for any of the issues that the lawmaker was asked about. See, that's what was going on here. You heard early, when we opened up this hour, you heard him say, I got nothing to hide. I got nothing to hide. I can tell you everything. I'm happy to talk. Happy to appear before Congress. Happy to answer questions. But then he got the, you know, the, what do you call it, the pardon from Biden. He gets the pardon from Biden, and he decides, well, I'm covered for anything I might have done when I was in that position. But he knows he is not covered if he lies to Congress. He cannot perjure himself before Congress. That would not cover him. So rather than answer the questions, he simply took the coward's way out. The Fifth Amendment. I declined to answer that question based on my Fifth Amendment rights on advice of my attorney. Okay? My attorney, you know, he told me I should not say anything. I'm not going to say nothing, nothing at all. Here's what Rand Paul says. I don't think this issue... has ever been truly and fully adjudicated there aren't that many people with pardons who have come before a congressional committee and refused to testify a court ultimately would have to determine does the fifth amendment apply to someone who already has a pardon The federal law often cited here as the contempt of Congress proceedings makes it a crime for witnesses to willfully refuse to answer questions when called to testify before Congress, another bar is obstructing an investigation by Congressional Committee. So much to learn here. So much to learn. It is 20 minutes now past the hour. Brian Wilson in for Chris Plant on The Chris Plant Show.

It is 26 minutes past the hour. You're listening to The Chris Plant Show. I'm Brian Wilson filling in for Chris. All kinds of things have been talking about here today. Spent a lot of time talking about the midterm elections. Spent some time talking about Anthony Fauci yesterday. And, you know, just the situation in general that's going on right now. We haven't been to the phone lines. Let's go to the phone line right now. They're open at AAA 630-9625. That's 888630-9-625. Start with Rob in Ohio. Rob, you're on the Chris Plant Show. Brian Wilson filling in what's on your mind, Rob. How are you doing? Doing well. I'm an old acquaintance of yours from back in the Toledo day. We used to meet up at the Rosen Pistle. No, you know what? I'm going to stop you there because it's not the same Brian Wilson. It's not? No, no, it's very interesting. You know, I work for Cumulus Radio and have worked in, you know, Cumulus is a WMA is a Cumulus Station, WTN, where I most often heard in the Nashville, Tennessee area, is a Cumulus Station. When I first came to work at Cumulus, we had real problems because they were like six guys within the company were all named Brian Wilson. Well, you sound just like Brian I knew that worked at the... Toledo Ohio State. I think that guy worked in Baltimore for a while as well. And so, yeah, I know of who you speak, but I'm not him, but it's real interesting. I apologize. No, it's all right. I had a guy when I came to Nashville one time when I was working at WMAL to attend an event and they let me give the studios out of Nashville so I could be on back in Washington. And the program director of the radio station at that time here in Nashville was named. Brian Wilson. And I said to him, I said, hey, you know, how do you get through that, you know, that thing that happens, that awkward things? Because my name's Brian Wilson. You know, there's a very famous Brian Wilson Beach Boy, who was, you know, the writer of all those great songs. And I said, what do you say to people when they say, hey, I love your music with the Beach Boys? Because I hear that all the time. How do you get through it? He said, oh, I have a great answer for that. I said, well, what do you say? I look at them in the eye and say, oh, you know, Brian Wilson is my on-air name. And that leads to the inevitable question. Well, what's your real name? He said, my real name is Eric Clapton. And so that's how he dealt with it. And so I used to just say, I'm not that Brian Wilson, but I get around.

And that usually get a laugh. But, you know, everybody thinks they're the first person to ever say anything about that. So they always say that I have a quick and ready answer for it. They sort of get the hint real quick that I've heard that one before, as they say. But now there were really, no kidding, six different people. And we all got each other's emails. They could never get the emails straightened out. So that was the thing that I had to deal with when I first came there. I mean, what are the chances that you have a company? with six people have identical same names. And in fact, some of them had the same middle initial. How weird is that, huh? Well, you're listening to the Chris Plant here. We've got another half hour to go. Thank you so much for listening. And we'll have more coming up in just a moment. What are we talking about? We'll talk about situation in Iran and John Fetterman. What's up with John Fetterman? It's all straight ahead right here on the Chris Plant show. Brian Wilson filling in for Chris Plant. 35 minutes now past the hour of the hour wherever you are because we're all over the country. 34 minutes past the hour is what it is on the Chris Plant Show. I'm Brian Wilson filling it for Chris Plant. Back to the phone lines, a lot of people want to talk about Anthony Fauci. And I think Kim in Indiana has a question that's a pretty good question. Kim, you're on with the Chris Plant Show. I'm Brian Wilson. What's on your mind? Hi, Brian. Well, since Bouchy has this pardon, and some states are, thankfully, like Florida, are starting an investigation, can't individuals who lost their businesses go after him personally for damages? Can he be sued? I'm not a lawyer. I just play one on the radio occasionally. And, you know, I think actually I think Jerry on line eight may have a pretty good idea. Yeah, I think there are things you can do. And many callers have pointed out that one of the reasons why Anthony Fauci was perhaps not too forthcoming is because he might face a civil lawsuit. That's the point that Jerry wanted to make. Hello, Jerry. You're on with Brian on the Chris Plant Show. No, no, thanks. Yeah, my comment is that Anthony Fauci has said that Paul has slandered him. Of course, he won't start a suit there or anything like that because that would lead the discovery. So why doesn't Rand, Rand Paul, start a suit in Kentucky, a civil suit against Anthony Fauci there? and accuse him of slander, that would lead to discovery, and that would be really exciting to watch. Yeah, that would be an interesting thing. You know, look, I mean, I think it is possible that there could be a civil suit here brought, and that's probably why he didn't want to talk to, too forthcoming, but he didn't answer anything. And you know what? I think if he truly is a public servant, I mean, he's made millions in that job as being in charge of infectious diseases, he's had a hell of a career, and he's made a lot of money over the, but he has a real obligation to.

help us get this right the next time. I mean, I hope there's never a next time, but there probably will be a next time. I would like to think that we learn from our mistakes. There's a lot of real valid reasons that we should have a very, very serious after-action report on what happened with COVID, because I don't think we did particularly well. I don't think we made the right decisions as a country. And so it's such, it is important to go back and look at it. I mean, yeah, a lot of you want to point the finger of blame and, you know, a million people died. And, you know, that's all, I mean, what can we do to make sure we don't make those mistakes again? He has an obligation. a moral obligation, if nothing else, to come forward and say, I was there at a very interesting time. And, yes, you know, this is a fact and this is fact and this is fact. And, you know, let's get to the bottom about this whole thing at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. What really happened there? Was there gain of function? Where did the money come from? Did you authorize it? I know these are incredible things that you don't want to announce and you don't want to admit, especially after you sent a... this time. But I've got to tell you, as I look at the history in the course of this thing, there was a time when nobody believed Rand Paul was right. And now there's a fair number of people who've looked at what Rand Paul has been saying and have come to the conclusion that he had it right all along. Maybe we ought to take a moment, take a deep breath, and figure out what we did right and what we did wrong and what we can do better. I certainly hope that as we go forward. that we have a better response should this ever raise its ugly head again. And, you know, it's entirely possible that it will. You know, I've been looking around, noticing that I know that this radio station carries on. This program goes on. in the Washington, D.C. area, it goes into the Chicago area and other places around the country. Apparently, we have listeners in Virginia and Arkansas and all over the country. And I'm finding a continual thread around the country as I look at stories from outside of the Nashville area, outside of the Washington, D.C. area. There's a lot of people who are very interested in these dead gum data centers that have become such a big deal. I mean, here's a story. that I got from one of the websites in D.C. Montgomery County Council approves 18-month moratorium on data centers. Unanimous of both, the 11-member Montgomery County Council approved an 18-month moratorium on the development of data centers in the county. The move comes after Montgomery County Executive Mark... Elrich instituted a six-month moratorium and an executive order in June. We've got that going on right here in Nashville, Tennessee at the moment. In fact, I think there's a lot of these stories all around the country of people who are against these data centers because they say, you know, they're just not good neighbors.

Here, they wanted to build one next to a zoo, and they got 500,000 people to sign a petition against it. So, I mean, this is happening everywhere. And on one hand, you look at it and you say, well, I understand the importance. of winning the AI battles. We've got to have better AI than the Chinese do and better AI than the Russians do. It is a national security thing that we have the best AI and that we stay ahead. It's a race just like the military arms race. We've got to have the best AI. But to do that, we need the data centers. And nobody seems to want to have a data center in their own backyard. Here's a new name to add to the list of people who are against these so-called data centers. Texas country music legend Willie Nelson has taken to social media to voice his distaste for an AI data center being built near his hometown. Nelson called on the community in Greg Abbott, Greg Abbott, Texas, to fight a new data center plan there. Here's what Willie had to say. Now our community, like many others, needs to fight against data centers invading our land. The last thing we need is a loud, water-thieving, light-polluting data center anywhere near our town or any others, for that matter. The Hill County, where Greg Abbott is located, became the first county in Texas to place a moratorium on data center construction in May before a lawsuit from the developers caused county commissioners to rescind the moratorium. This according to a report on Live Now Fox. Willie says the strength of rural America has never come from big industrial footprints. It comes from generations of people, open spaces, local businesses, and connections to the land. I mean, it is true. I mean, it is objectively true that if you want to run one of these data centers, you need a lot of electricity. It is also true that most of the new data centers are being put in with their own electric generating plants, gas turbine engines, et cetera, so that they can carry. But there's the other thing about these data centers. They require a great deal of water. to cool the data centers because they run really, really hot. So you need electricity, and the electricity that you're burning creates heat, and when you create that heat, you've got to dissipate that heat, and that takes water, so it's water and electricity, two things that we don't always have an abundance of.

So the thing that I'm concerned about is, do we need them? Yeah, I think we've got to have them. I think, you know, we need them, and we need to be on the cutting edge of AI. Good, bad, or ugly, I think, you know, it's better for us to be on the cutting edge and to be ahead of our counterparts on the world stage, China and Russia preeminently. I think we need to be ahead of them. We're going to have to have the data centers to do that. So we're going to have to find some place where these things can be built. Elon Musk has an idea. He says, let's build them in outer space and let them be cooled by the dark coldness of space. Not a bad idea. I don't know if that works or not, but there's one idea. Some say we should go to Antarctica and put them there, that that's a way to cool them. And then you have all that cold sea water there that you can chill them with. And the problem is, of course, what kind of electricity do you have on the cotton of Antarctica? But, I mean, these are the kinds of ideas that are being discussed. Do we need them? Yes. How are we going to have them? I'll be honest with you. I don't really want one in my backyard. Somebody said they're going to build one just down the road from you there. I probably would not be real thrilled about it. This is one of those things that we're going to have to. But, I mean, they do take electricity and they do take a tremendous water. I've read it, but I think it's like to do like, you know, some little silly thing that you do on AI, make me a cartoon of this or a caricature of that. You know, we've all done that. I've read somewhere that that takes like a liter of water to do. So, yeah, where's the water going to come from? And I guess where I really come down on it is if we have a situation where water comes in short supply, we have a drought. We have a drought going on in many parts of this country right now. So we have a drought. And so who gets the water? Do the people get the water or do the data centers get the water? If we have a situation where we have to run our air conditioners because it's 110 degrees outside, and they're saying, well, we may have some rolling brownouts. Well, who gets the electricity? Do the data centers get the electricity? Or do the people get the electricity? These are the kinds of questions that I think are very interesting. But it is, I mean, I'm telling you, everywhere you go, this is becoming the big thing. You know, nobody wants them in their backyard. I mean, here in Nashville, I'm not real sure. It makes a lot of sense to build one of these things right next to a zoo. Maybe there's another place we can put it. But I guarantee you, you say, okay, now we're going to put it over here. We're not going to build it there. We're going to build it over here. And then those people say, well, I don't want that thing built here. It's near a school. It's near this. It's near that. Now, so, you know, how are we going to resolve that issue, I think, is one of the big things. But, I mean, I think virtually I could go to any major market in this country and find a story like this one I found in Montgomery, Karen County, Maryland. You know, this story in Greg Abbott, Texas. The story right here in our own backyard, Nashville, Tennessee.

It's happening everywhere. Everybody's trying to get rid of the things. And then the question is, well, if we don't build the data centers, are we at a strategic disadvantage? I think that's true. Love it or hate it, we're going to need this AI to be as good as it can be. And we definitely don't want our competitors to have AI that is superior to ours. So I don't know how you resolve it. But don't get in Willie Nelson's way because, you know, he said once these water thieving data centers in our particular area. And he's probably going to be successful. I think there's a lot of people who support him in this. And a lot of people who say, I don't want it in my backyard. But what happens if everybody says we can't have it in our backyard? I'm afraid that's not going to work out. Before I go, I want to spend a few moments talking about the situation and Iran, as you know, it's heated up again and that has caused gas prices to jump again, oil prices to go back up. They're very volatile right now. And as I look at this thing, people are saying, Brian, what is your sense about the war with Iran? You know. I know that in many quarters right now, it's not popular. A lot of people are saying, why are we doing this? It's so expensive. Why are we spending this money? And I would answer to that, how expensive do you think it would be if Iran lobbed a nuclear weapon at Israel? How expensive do you think it would be if the capitals of Europe could come under attack, and now we know that they can? I mean, the Iranians showed off a little missile they had that can fly 4,000 kilometers. You marry that with the nuclear weapon that they were trying to build and they could have held Europe at bay. And they would have, I think, gone a step further and done everything they could to have an intercontinental ballistic missile that could have delivered it right to the doorstep in America. And there we go. So I think that would have been very expensive. So I think we had to do something. And it really has come down to how are we going to get out of it now? What's going to happen? How do we end this thing? On one hand, the Iranians know that if they stretch this out, it hurts Trump and they want to hurt Trump. They want to hurt Trump bad, and they think that the way they can do that is by stretching this out and dragging their feet. And so that's what they're trying to do because they feel like Trump wants to get out of there before the midterm elections, and he probably does in a perfect world. But if I'm reading the T leaves correctly, he's made a decision that for him and the long-term interests of securing peace in that part of the world is of greater importance right now than perhaps the mid-term elections. especially when, you know, looking back at what we were talking about earlier, it doesn't look as if the Republicans are going to be doing all that badly. They may actually be able to survive this thing. Still, in a perfect world, Trump would like to be out of this thing, and the Iranians know that, so they're dragging their feet. When is it going to get resolved? I don't know. It has, as you said, it has sort of increased and heated up in the last few days.

So it'll be interesting to see whether or not that gets resolved or whether we're in this for a while. I think it was Newt Gingrich, you said, show me the price of gasoline on Labor Day, and I'll tell you how the election's going to go. That's a very important thing. Hey, listen, I've got to go. Thank you so much for letting me be here and be a part of the program. Great filling in here on the Chris Plant Show. Ryan Wilson in for Chris Plant on this beautiful Thursday, July. It's called at 55 minutes past the hour. Brian Wilson in for Chris Plant. Last waning moments of the Chris Plant show. So glad that I could be here today. And thank you for having me. And you want me to step in here, Chris. I'm Phil Inns. Great. I hope we can do it again. I hope we can catch up at another time. Very quickly, I'm going to run through some things while we got a minute or two left in the program that are happening in the swamp. First of all, the Fed decided they're going to keep interest rates about where they are. Somewhere between 3.5 and 3.75%. There were three dissenting votes in favor of an increase in the Fed rate. That is not going to happen. And for now, this is the first time that they've taken a look at Mr. Kevin Warsh and see what he was going to do with regard to interest rates. The message that is being seen by most people is that the Fed has always said that the inflation target is 2%. and not a little over 2%. I think inflation right now is like 3.5, I want to say, somewhere in that neighborhood. So they want to get it down to 2%, and so they're not going to raise the rates as yet. Maybe we'll get one more here before the election, but it doesn't seem likely. The markets did not like that news yesterday, but they have rebounded somewhat now. Markets, the Dow Jay Jones Industrial, up 341 points on the news today. Oil, by the way, with what's going on in the... in the mid-east. Oil is down a bit. It's falling, despite the fact that there are escalating tensions between the United States and Iran. West Texas intermediate crude selling for $83 a barrel. Brent crude selling for $89. You know, at one point, I think Brent crude was well over $100 a barrel, so not the worst that we have seen, but still enough to keep gas prices up higher than probably the president would like to see them as we head into a midterm. collection. The Senate voted yesterday to confirm Jay Clayton as the Director of National Intelligence. The DNI sits at the very top of the food chain for all intelligence. All intelligence agencies report to the DNI, and this person is supposed to be sort of post-9-11. This person was put in there to be sort of somebody who would look at all of the intelligence to make sure that intelligence agencies were sharing with one another because it was.

During 9-11, we determined that perhaps by not sharing intelligence, we put ourselves at risk. And so the DNI, very important position, it will be Jay Carson, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York will become the next DNI. Senate voted to confirm him 5147 along a party line vote. They are working also to renew at this time the FISA Act. I don't know whether that's going to get through or not. Meanwhile, there's a real question about what's going to happen with Todd Blanche, who has been nominated by President Trump to be the next Attorney General, and not clear whether that's going to happen or now or not. That to vote is on hold. Well, that completes it for me. Thank you so much for allowing me to share a part of the day with you. And thank you to Chris for letting me be your substitute host of the moment. Glad to fill in. Hope to do it again soon. See you very soon. Everybody, you're listening to the Chris Plant radio program.

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