The Chris Cuomo Project - Tom Homan on ICE Under Fire

Episode Date: March 1, 2026

Chris Cuomo brings together key moments from this week’s Cuomo Mornings on SiriusXM, featuring conversations with White House border czar Tom Homan, Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA), and callers weighing in on immigration enforcement and the State of the Union. Homan responds to criticism over ICE training standards, detention facilities, recent use-of-force incidents, and calls for greater transparency around ongoing investigations. Cuomo presses him on accountability, coordination with local law enforcement, and whether ICE must do more to rebuild public trust. Dean reacts to President Trump’s address, arguing Democrats must focus on health care costs, Medicaid cuts, tariffs, and the kitchen-table concerns voters are feeling. Callers from across the country challenge both parties — questioning Democratic tactics, rising costs, immigration policy, and whether the president actually addressed what working Americans are experiencing. Join The Chris Cuomo Project on YouTube for ad-free episodes, early releases, exclusive access to Chris, and more: https://www.youtube.com/@chriscuomo/join Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday: https://linktr.ee/cuomoproject Get 20% off your first order of Lucy nicotine pouches at https://lucy.co with code CUOMO, or find a store near you at https://lucy.co/stores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Many promotions are available both in-store and online, though some may vary. Let's discuss what matters to everybody else list in right now. which is to me it's not an issue whether there we need ice. Of course you do. There's no reason to have laws if they're not going to be enforced. How you do it matters. So Tom, two things have come out recently. We had a couple more examples of guys doing the job in a way that you would certainly never

want to justify or teach, whether they're tackling an 80-year-old or smashing a window and just doing things the way we would never accept from cops in any other situation. And then we find out this whistleblower comes out and he says, They cut the training and they cut it almost in half. And that's going to make a difference in terms of the ability of people to de-escalate, understand when they've gone too far, how to do the job. Do you agree with that criticism? Let's start there.

I agree that we shouldn't slack training at all. I mean, I went through a 20-week training program way back in the day, plus the police academy. But I believe training is extremely important, probably the most important. part of the job. And it just isn't the academy training, Chris, it needs to be ongoing training. For instance, Fourth Amendment training should happen every six months to update people on what do you need to make an arrest and detain and questions away. So training is extremely important. And as a matter of fact, when I left Minneapolis, we had a great success up there. I just finished a hot wash report, like an after action report. What I see went right, what went

wrong, what do we need? And I just put the finishing touches on yesterday. And we've been would be meeting with POTUS either today tomorrow on the way forward. Do you think that one of the things that has to change is more training? I think training, it should be paramount. I think there's never too much training. And if we can get more training in, absolutely, why wouldn't we? Because, you know, look, you guys are in fixed mode right now, right? And ICE is going to be going other places in the country.

Hopefully you now understand, or you always understand, understood this just so the audience gets that, that you got to work with the locals before you get there so you don't set you so you set yourself up for success, not failure unless that's what you're looking for. And I will remind people and Tom, this is not a question, so don't respond. There's a reason Tom Holman wasn't on the ground initially in Minneapolis when this was done the way it was done at that time. This was not Tom Holman's operation. He wasn't there. It's not how I've seen him do things in the past. Let me just put that out there. But, More training is always better, true. But the fact that training was reduced, do you believe that may be a reason that we're seeing these guys overact so frequently? Well, I've asked that question because I was... Look, again, on this training thing,

I'm just getting weed on that now, but watching the director's testimony, he says the training was taken out of the academy and taken to the field, on, you know, especially for those who were prior law enforcement officers. So I'm digging into that now. But you hit a good point, and just a few minutes ago, when you said cooperation, coordination, local authorities, that did not occur the way it should have in Minnesota.

And that's one of the points in my hot wash was that when you bring thousands of detailed agents into a city, into a state that is not familiar with local law enforcement. and with all the rhetoric out there that law enforcement won't assist ICE, there need to be better coordination because that wasn't true. I didn't meet one chief of police or one sheriff that wouldn't do their job when called upon by ICE in the public safety issues. So that's one of the things in the hot watch is that we need better coordination with the state and locals when we're out there doing these large-scale operations.

The detention facilities have come under scrutiny. What is your comment about the criticism they're receiving about how people are kept and who's in there and what level of regard there is for those people? Well, look, and I mean this, I think our detention system, if anybody can go to ICE.gov, go to ICE.gov and look at the detention standards of ICE. those these tension standards are higher than any state or federal facility or county facility in the country. You can't compare them. I mean, when I was a lot of the district, we spent over a billion dollars just on health care in these facilities. Matter of fact, when I was in Minnesota, there's a tension facility at the Whipple Building. And then I got there, we had two representatives call me and wanted access to the buildings.

We gave them access. I walked them through, and we had a nurse on staff. And look, it isn't, it isn't, you know, a fancy hotel. It was a holding center. You can only hold people there less than 24 hours, and they go to one of our bigger detention facilities. A holding facility where you would get processed and fingerprinted and have your first medical check is not the standard ICE facility

with the higher detention standards. So there's different standards for different facilities. The one in the Whipple building was just a holding center. Of course, you're not going to have a law library. and, you know, the dentist and, you know, and, you know, the three squares a day that are served in a cafeteria. It's a different type of setting, but I think our detention facilities have the highest standards in the industry. Anybody go look at, okay, go to ICE.gov, look at the attention standards. Look at what, performance-based detention standards, and I think a lot of taxpayers would be upset.

Matter of fact, when I was ICE director, Chris, I had county sheriffs who we had contracts with, end our contracts where they couldn't afford to get those detention standards in their county jail so they simply ended the contracts. What do you think of the New Jersey law that they just passed, which is called the fight unlawful conduct and keep individuals and communities empowered act, which happens to just line up with the acronym for the call to blank ice? What do you think of them passing that law? I think it's a bad move.

I think we all can agree, and I hear the vast majority of Democrats say, we want ICE to concentrate on public safety threats. We agree with ICE to arrest public safety threats. As a matter of fact, yesterday I had a phone call where Governor Hockel. I'll be meeting her next week where we talked about prioritized public safety threats. If you really mean what you say, then you can't lock us out of the jails. You can't lock us out of prisons.

You can't end the cooperation between local state law enforcement ice. If you want us to concentrate on criminals, then don't lock us out. Because I've said many times, more agents in the jail means less agents on the street. And we can, one agent or two agents can arrest a bad guy in the safety and security to jail. And it's just common sense. It's safer for the alien. It's safer for the agent. And certainly safer for the community work with us.

I was hoping what we did in Minnesota would open the door to other states. And again, I had a call with Governor Hockel yesterday. Now, we haven't agreed to anything, but we agreed to me. And I'm hoping to move forward to New York. I was born to York, raised in New York, went to college in New York. I will retire in New York and I will die in New York. New York is, you know, that's my home. So I'm hoping that we can sit down and come to some sort of agreements like we did in Minnesota.

You know, I think that when the locals don't do that, there's no compliance on the level of how they handle criminals in custody, for example. It's a bad look for them. They lose with the American people. We see that consistently. I think that on the other side of the ledger, the fact that we don't see outwardly levels of condemnation and accountability when ICE officers are doing things that I hear all the time from brothers and sisters on the job,

that they would be fired if they ever did it, whether it's, you know, shooting a suppression round right into somebody's face or how they take people down. or how they bring people into custody. And I'm not saying all the time. I'm saying even the two homicides that we saw in Minneapolis, we haven't heard anything about those investigations for weeks about whether they were justified or unjustified and what the basis is.

Do you think that you guys have to do a better job of calling out, when you tackle an 80-year-old man, like I don't know if you've seen this latest thing, but you know, you tackle an 80-year-old man. You break the window of a lady who's a citizen. You find her passport. You dump it on the floor and you just leave. Don't you think you guys should follow up on those and say more than, yeah, you got to do it the right way and we'll look into it? Well, what happened when you look into these events?

We've never heard anything. Yes, 100%. We need to be better at transparency. We need to be better at letting people know when someone gets out of line, you know, that the investigation has been open. And they need to know what the outcome that investigation is. We need to be transparent. I said from day one, I first came into this administration. We need targeted enforcement operation.

We need to prioritize the worst first. And we need to be transparent. We can't lose the faith of the American people who put President Trump in the office, number one issue, being, you know, secure the border and having immigration enforcement. We have to be transparent. And that's, again, one of the things in my hot wash, my after action report that we got to be better at. We got to let the American people and all that. for that minority or that percentage of aliens agents that walk outside of policy or committed a crime they need to be held accountable.

American people need to know what's happening with that investigation. They need to know what the outcome of that investigation is. I'm agreeing with you 100%. The vast majority's men and women are doing a great job. They're putting their lives on the line. Right now they're not even getting paid. They're out there doing the job. And that few that step over the line, they make it rough for everybody.

and it helps feed the anger and it helps feed the protests and it helps feed, you know, it gives, I feel it empowers that small percentage of people who aren't all there to begin with to do something really stupid like, you know, sniper at the ice facility in Dallas, Texas. We got to be transparent and that's one of the things I'll be talking to the front office about later this week as part of the hot wash. I know a lot of people in my audience are looking forward to hearing about the results of those two shooting investigations and some of these. use of force issues. I mean, look, this is why you got to do it, Tom, because it hurts law enforcement everywhere. I mean, look at what happened with those guys in the city the other day. The mayor in New York City wants to call it a snowball fight, whatever. When I was a kid, we would throw a snowball at a passing cop car and run for our lives. The idea of standing there and throwing snowballs and mashing them in the face of a New York police department officer. And those officers did nothing. Yeah,

they pushed a couple of people out of their way. But if those were ice guys, the chance that it would have been a lot more, it may not be fair for me to say, but it feels fair, which is, you know, they don't act the way the NYPD guys did. But the reason I think those guys are getting hit with snowballs is echoes of ice. That's why it's got to be in check. That's why there's got to be a standard. No, I agree 100%.

And as far as to be, The shootings, I mean, that is with DOJ. DOJ does those investigations. The FBI is working with internal affairs on that. So I'm not in the weeds on that. I support, like I say, internal affairs does their part of investigation, have an outside H.C. FBI doing the investigation. So I know they're ongoing.

And I also can tell you this, where we have some of the reports you talked about in the last show where, you know, agents violated policy or, or, you know, did things that are a violation of law. They're being investigated. I talked to the U.S. attorney up there and there are open investigations. And again, we need to be transparent. And that's one of the things we need to get better at in the next three years. We need to let the American people know exactly what we're doing and exactly who we're arresting. We need to get data out there on who we're arresting.

And, you know, we should have nothing to hide. I don't think we have nothing to hide. But when you're not as transparent, as you could be, then people think you do. So I'm pushing that, Chris, and I think we'll get to a better place real soon. Tom Holman, thank you for the time. Thank you for doing the job for the American people. And acknowledging it's got to be done the right way.

I'll talk to you soon and thank you. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. You like that taste of Cuomo mornings? That's my new show on Sirius XM, the POTUS channel, 124. Every weekday morning, 7 to 9, Eastern. But if you want to just join here on my YouTube channel, you'll be getting a steady diet of selects. And depending on your subscription level, you can have priority call in on that show.

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You've got to be of legal age, okay? You've got to be responsible to be in the nicotine game. I think it's the only way to do it, and I want that there. And again, you know what happens when you take a product that has nicotine in it, right? It has nicotine. And nicotine can be addictive. We know that. Be aware. All right. Representative, are you with us?

I hope you didn't hear us talking about you because it was flattering. So I'll have to be really tough on you. I'm with you. And I think it can only go down from here. Thank you. It is time for you to say you have a communications issue and you have to go. So we had you on before the state of the union. Your predictions were spot on, especially where Epstein was involved.

The president ignored it entirely. What did you believe the net effect was of what you heard from him last night and what you heard from the Democrats last night? Well, I have to admit to you, Chris, it was good to talk to you last night. And I had, you know, aspirational ideas of what I had wished the president would speak about, knowing he would not. But upon reflection, I'll tell you what, I knew at some point I would fatigue of just the lies, the misinformation, the disinformation, the repeated lies, which I did. I fatigue within about 57 minutes. But you know what I realized was the more disheartening? His speech was flat.

They tried to make him empathetic with the number of compelling stories. But his lies about the basic economy, insane. And what was most disheartening to me was the sycophants, the jumping up of the vice president. president, the shrinking speaker of the House, and of course, the vast majority of Republicans in the room, the sycophantic applause for lies to their constituents. That was the most disheartening thing to me. There is a game afoot, as you will know, a representative. And boy, the way, if we can, if we can capture it, I'll send it to you. One of your constituents called

in earlier today. And he, articulated perfectly how people are processing what this president is doing set against their real concerns in their own lives and it was really interesting because he he said look i care about epstein i get it if i were in charge it would have been done already i i care about everyone he was given the awards to last night and yeah i i get it i get why he got the democrats because they didn't stand but my checks are getting thinner and thinner man and i just I don't know how I'm going to be able to keep doing it. And I don't think that anybody really cares about that because of this other stuff.

And he reflects how most people, as you know, every time you go home and talk to the constituents feel. But I do think that there is a game being played. And I do think the Democrats tend to give Trump what he's asking for. I get why they didn't stand. I get why you left during the Somalian stuff. I get it. But you know how it's going to be used. I left during the corruption piece.

I'd love to get that clip of, yeah, I'd love to get that clip of... I will say, we'll isolate it and we'll send it to you because you need to contact this guy. I'm going to send it to. I'm working on it now. I'd like to reach out and hear what he says and reach out. Yeah, and I have his number, which I'll send along to. But what do you think about this, representative, the idea that, you know, you guys gave him what he wanted? I don't think so at all. We stood at appropriate times, the Congressional Medal of Honor, the 100-year-old extraordinary veteran, the current member of the military who so heroically brought that helicopter team in.

So the hockey team, that was probably one of the highlights of the night, very exciting. Now, the president did do it in a game show-esque kind of thing. You couldn't tell who was going to come out of what door next. But I don't think we gave them anything. I think we were appropriate. I was there to be respectful of the institution and the requirement of an address to Congress, to a joint session of Congress. So I don't agree with that at all.

And to John's point, if I understood it correctly, the president didn't speak to people's kitchen table. reality his nonsense about the stock market his his false numbers whether it was on jobs or GDP he didn't speak to the reality of for example my guests and her health care costs going up tenfold so I think the the speech was rather flat and lazy and as I say the most troubling thing to me and I think it's a sign of the poll numbers The Republicans are just standing up cheering, hoping to retain some of that juice that the president has had in the past, which now 11 years in, he's certainly lost.

Well, the people have a binary proposition. Midterms reflect the president, certainly the first midterms after the term has begun. Now, you do have to counter that with what works in each one of these shrinking number of competitive races that we have, right? Because the retention rate is well over 90% now. How do you balance Trump sucks with and here's why we would do better for you? Because obviously, we're always heavy on the negative. But I think people increasingly want to hear the alternative. Oh, Chris, you are absolutely right. It's not enough to just be against Mr. Trump and his acolytes.

It is not enough. We have to stay focused on what you saw us remain focused on for the past year, I would say. The cost of health care, the cost of utilities, the cost of housing, and putting forward legislation, especially when we are back in the majority, to ease those burdens. One of the most aggravating pieces of this economy, of course, one of the greatest aggravating pieces of this economy, of course, one of the greatest aggravating pieces of this economy was the illegal, unconstitutional, chaotic tariff policy that the president put in place. And thank God the Supreme Court, 6-3, recognized the unconstitutional, illegal nature of those tariffs. Those tariffs are responsible for 86% of the increases of cost that people are suffering. So we would have smart tariff policy, smart trade policy, as we have had in the

passed to combat the high cost of living that has only been made worse by this president. I look forward to full refunds to every business and every individual who paid the illegal unconstitutional taxes. And did you see how sad it was that the Speaker of the House stood up and clapped when the president said he really didn't need Congress? No. Article 1, Section 8, the Supreme Court said, you don't have that power, Mr. President. And as our power is whittled away, the Speaker of the House stood and applauded. We will turn that around when we're in the majority. The health care issue, I think, is the most fertile ground for the elections upcoming

because it's a looming boogeyman in an increasingly number of Americans' lives. whether it's health insurance, for most of us, it's health insurance, but all the insurances are going up. But here's my question. It's to the president also. I love his challenge that he's going to bring in all the big shots and tell him that this is what's going to happen and read him the Riot Act. And then I would hope he would point at you guys and say,

now do your damn job and bring me something to sign, but it just hasn't happened yet. And there's a reason. And it's the same reason that I wonder, you know, whether you have the spine to go after these people. I mean, even in your district, By the way, Madeline Dean is representative, Pennsylvania, Democrat, fourth congressional district, mostly Montgomery County, parts of Berks County, if you're from Pennsylvania. Anyway, you've got a lot of health care jobs, and you know what these people are going to do.

Not only are they going to spend against you in your next primary, not only do they lobby with the most dollars, but they have jobs and they're going to say, well, you know, Representative Madeline Dean, what she wants, you know, we're going to have to cut a third of our workforce there. And I would I you know the numbers better than I do, but they employ like tens of thousands of people in your district. They'll do that to everybody. What do you do when they say we'll take the jobs out of your district? Well, I'd say go back to some of the root causes. Number one, what you said, that the president should come up with a plan. He has had a concept of a plan for a long time around making health care more affordable. But guess what he did in the big, beautiful bill?

He cut people from access to health care. Massive cuts. Medicaid, Medicare. That's what my constituents are upset about, that his actions, the Republican majority, and this president signed into law, massive cuts to Medicaid. And he brides last night, twisted it, about getting people off of SNAP, denying food to seniors. I have met with my constituents, veterans,

seniors, families being tossed off snap. He bribed about that. So health care is a problem. Access to it is a problem. I had a physician group in, many of them from my district, from Abington Hospital, you know the area. And what they were talking about is, A, they're not getting reimbursed well enough

and with the serious cuts to people's access to health care, affordability of health care. We have many people in Pennsylvania. who as a result of the increased premiums just aren't renewing, that more people are waiting to see doctors, don't have primary care doctors, and are now crowding. Our ERs with worse outcomes, of course. So I'm not worried about that. Healthcare lobby against me.

I stand with my constituents who want affordable, full access to health care that their family can rely upon and not be worried about. And also that we make sure that we follow Matthew 25. I was hungry and you gave me to eat. Here's the thing, though, and it's one of the big rubs with Christianity or any religiosity in America right now. The American people have been consistently sending messages that they ain't with it. They'll say they're Christians. They'll put the crucifix in their little emoji list after their name. or they'll list it in their bio, but they are not into this suffrage movement.

They do, they see people on SNAP as lazy. They see people on Medicaid as scammers. They say even if they're the ones on Medicaid, they think other people on Medicaid are scammers. They think illegal entrants are basically all drug dealers and bad people and you broke the law and you have to go. they are not doing the Matthew 20 whatever oh i'm going to disagree with you if you don't mind please i love it i know a lot of people in my district uh of whether they have a or of a christian faith uh mine is a catholic faith uh that um that really do believe in Matthew 25 so i would be very careful to not whitewash anybody who hold out his or her face to not be a believer in those things.

I was a stranger and you welcomed me. So I completely disagree with you on that. Those who put up a false face and somehow twist it to deny food to children, to deny housing to the unhoused, to be bigoted against the stranger, the immigrant, That's false faith. That's not faith. Well, I'm with you. I agree with everything you just said. I'm saying that the voters have been sending messages, especially Trump voters. You've got a lot of Trump voters who say they're religious, who say they're Christians,

who do not exercise the counsel of Matthew when they're looking at undocumented immigrants. And I will say something. You know, you mentioned the homeless, and I do think that's an issue. I think that they've been politicized. and demonized in my opinion. But there is one part of it that bothers me when it comes to the Democratic stance, which is, yeah, you know,

you got to give these people their personal agency, you can't make decisions for them. They're living on the street in their own refuse. These are not people who in a lot of cases can make decisions for themselves. Why are Democrats so strong against taking people off the street, insisting they go to treatment,

insisting that they get institutionalized and get back on their feet and helped. Well, this is also interconnected, connected to the fact that our mental health care system lags behind, is underfunded, is under-supported. Of course, people who are struggling on the street, struggling with addiction, you know my connection to the disease of addiction and how much I care about it. By the way, in Pennsylvania, 100,000 people get help with addiction and mental health through Medicaid, all at risk as a result of Trump's big, beautiful bill. Speaker Johnson's big, beautiful bill. So I'm a Democrat who believes every person is worthy of access to housing and programs that will support that person.

You can't just institutionalize and then do nothing with them. We have a chance, and government has an important role to play to show our values through how we spend. Do you want to give massive tax cuts to the billionaire class and take health care, take food, away from the middle class and the poor? Those who are struggling, that's a set of values. That's what the president and the Republican majority stands for, not supporting mental health. saw he tried to gutt to hamsa. Just all of the things that as an appropriator, I take a look at and it just reveals one's values. So again, broad swath on Democrats don't want to do this. Democrats want reasonable, appropriate mental health, physical health.

Understood, Representative. I love how you make the case. And I love that you tell me I'm wrong all the time and you're mostly right about that as well. But I do like you, Chris. Well, listen, I'm an acquired taste, as I was told by another caller today. This guy said, you know what, you, my wife, and Trump all have in common? I said, no. Oh, my God. He said, you're very tough to love. Hard to love.

But, Representative, I appreciate you. You do it in a thoughtful, affable way, and you don't mind the challenge. So I appreciate the conversation. It's never too early to plan your summer story in Europe with WestJet, from rolling countryside to cobblestone streets. Begin your next chapter. Book your seat at westjet.com or call your travel agent. WestJet, where your story takes off.

Tyler in Texas, and there is a Tyler, Texas. What did you think of the State of the Union? There is, and yeah, Tyler by the TOTES is one of my favorite songs. Anyway, this is more of like a critique about the Democrats' response of the State of the Union because Trump is Trump. You know what you're going to get when you're going to go into it. The problem that I think with the Democrats is having the alternate state of the Union or doing, you know, kind of the heckling that they did with Trump, here's the problem. That's the same kind of crap that Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Boehbert did Biden in 2021, 2022, and the Democrats lost their mind over it. And here they are falling into the same trap.

So if they want to be the unity party, they can't be doing the exact same thing that Trump's team did four years ago. They got to rise above it. You had me until the last line. You had me until the last line. Here's why. Full disclosure. I agree with Tyler. However, they go low, we go high.

Got to be better. Got to rise above. being the business of better. I've tried it all. Rejection across the board. Democrats want to see, this is what they believe, the lawmakers, Tyler, they believe what the voters want is for them to fight Donald Trump on his own terms. Language, any topic, anytime, anywhere. Why do you think James Carville, he chooses his word carefully, right? He's been doing this a long time. You fat, soury sack of shit.

People hate you. That's how he referred to the president of the United States. Now look, I'm not saying, like, people are going to be like, yeah, he is. That's not my point. My point is we didn't use to talk like that. Why? Why are there rules on the floor of Congress? Why are there rules of decorum and debate?

why are there rules of decorum in a courtroom? Because we know that when you get deep into the invective and the insulting, you lose substance. You just do. And we've gone down that road farther than ever before. So here's my problem with what you say, Tyler, and it's therefore your problem as well. Democrats don't like what you just said.

No, we don't want to be better. We want to beat this mofo. He's evil. He's bad. What do you say to that? you know you're probably right just my one issue is going to be is that's just going to open up for the radicals to take over again so now you are going to get the radical left so that's that is my concern you're probably right maybe this is engaging but then again that also was kind of tried in 24 and look how bad Kamala floundered so I'm kind of hoping that's not what's going to happen me too but Newsome you're probably right in the ground he has now makes it more popular, right? And that's why they did the stand in opposition thing,

the bad bunny play or whatever, I guess it's the turning point alternative halftime show last night. And it's interesting where watching big parts of the alternative thing. One, they weren't flooded with better ideas either. It was a Trump sucks show, just to be clear. the opportunity of them to say he's doing this, this and this. He should be talking to you about this, this, this, and this, and here are the ideas to make this, this, and this better. They were light on that, too.

That's the way I saw it. How'd you see it? 866, 9676-6887. Tom and West Virginia, what do you got? Good morning, Chris. How are you doing, brother? All right, good morning. I didn't watch it.

I listened to it. And it was more like a hockey game. And I've never known the state of a union to give out all the awards like it was awards. I mean, like the academy. And I mean, I mean, like I work in this country and I'm not like the six-digit employer. But, I mean, everything he was saying, and I didn't see none of the expression, sometimes it's good just to listen to the state of the union and try to watch it because it was going to. I mean, I figured it was going to be a side show. But I listened to it because he's president of the United States.

States. That's what we're supposed to do. I mean, he is running our country. And, I mean, it wasn't really no plan. What is the Trump? I mean, I mean, what is this Trump Medicaid? I mean, like the medical he's talking about. Health care. Everything got to have his name on it.

Yeah, like the health care deal. And they don't need, I mean, affordability, the ground beef is coming down. And the price of eggs is coming down. But still, they ain't went down to where they was normal. But, I mean, I mean, just like for the. I mean, for the average American that's out here working every day, trying to make a living, it's getting harder and harder. Each paycheck is, I mean, getting skinner and skinnier.

And I just can't see where, I just can't see where he touched all that right there. Man, it was other, I mean, not just skate. I mean, I, I mean, he's our president, and I had to listen to the state of the union. I didn't miss it. I didn't do no alternative. I didn't see all those. I mean, I didn't watch it. I listen to it.

Sometimes it's better to just listen to it to where you can get a better. I think that's a good point. Tom Gaggin did the same thing. One of the team here, he listened to it. Let me ask you one thing. How does it hit you when you hear the president say the economy is doing so much better? Everything has gotten better. How does that hit you?

I mean, like it hits kind of hard, Chris, because like I said, I was a small business person, and when the tariffs came and, yeah, don't you remember, someone I talked to you, they were talking about the shipping containers and all that, and I said, give us more money. Out here in the trucking world, he did mention my profession, but he was talking about the ones you came, but as far as the freight in the smack, I mean, like, far as freight in the country, that ain't went up. It just keeps going down.

They want us to move it for nothing. And it's just like, I mean, I mean, it's getting hard and harder, Chris. It's just like everybody's saying it's good. I mean, you might have a good week. Then you might have three bad weeks. So then, I mean, you ain't averaging out. I hear it from everybody. I hear it from everybody, let alone small businesses.

Small businesses are, you know, people, especially if they have anything to do with import, which is very common unless they're. just a straight service domestic business. There's a lot of concern, and I definitely don't think he addressed it last night. Let's just leave it at that. Thank you very much, brother. I appreciate it. Liz in Texas, you want to talk about Holman.

What do you got? I really appreciate the questions that you were asking about, you know, being more transparent. Of course, he kind of focused on, you know, the tactics and the optics looking really badly and losing the faith of the American people and how important that was to get it back. What I would like for you and others to really press Holman and other members of Congress and other officers would be the issue of the warehouses

and the building of the new facilities for ICE. And I'm wondering if we're resolving this problem and deporting all these people, why do we need these warehouses and the... eyes facilities, where is the accountability on what's going on on the inside of that, how much it's costing. That's an issue that I would really like to see press. So I guess I'm really calling in to ask you, since you have a public platform, to press, yes, on that issue. I respect the interest. I will do that. And I will tell you now, it's not a reason to

not to do it, but it's not going to be easy, and here's why. The building of the facilities and the cost overruns is the least of our concerns. Now, it matters. I'm with you, and I respect the interest. Why is it the least? Because it's going to be what happens inside them, what is covered up, what they don't deal with. And the comma after what Tom Holman was saying, and look, I've always known, I've known him a long time, okay? We're not personal friends. We don't. We don't. don't socialize or anything like that. But, and that matters that you know that, okay? I'll tell you when I'm friendly with somebody.

And I'm not friends, you know what I'm saying, I'm just saying, I don't know him, I just know him through work. He's not the one calling the shots on these things. It starts, you know, it starts at the top. And you're not gonna hear about, the reason you haven't heard anything about these two shootings in Minneapolis

is because at the top, they don't wanna talk about it. And they don't want to talk about it. And they don't want to transfer. And as Dusty was saying, they don't say, I'm sorry. They don't admit problems. You have ICE officers doing things that police officers never are allowed to do. And if it did happen, again, I just draw this a very simple point to you, Liz, and you're right, and I will do that, and I appreciate you pointing it out. It matters. The stewardship of your money matters. You're right, especially these days. Those NYPDs, those cops, getting pelted with snowballs and handling it the way they did was wildly impressive to me. And I don't think it would have gone like that if it were ice.

I don't think that these guys have the training, have the minerals, have the guidance, have the understanding that you have to hold the line. And this is the job. And the jobs. And look, I also think it sucks, Liz, that anybody's throwing those. snowballs. Let me be honest about that. If that were my kid, if I saw my son as one of those guys

doing that, I would beat his ass when he came home. No joke. I would beat his ass. Absolutely. That's not acceptable. It's not acceptable. But the transparency issue that I was mentioning about the ICE facilities, of course, I feel personally that's way more important than money, of course. But money is part of transparency. How much is this costing and what are they doing inside the ice facility. Who's going to be monitoring that? How are they going to be accountable? And why do we even need them if we're resolving the problem? So that's kind of an issue I would like to see press public platforms. Well, look, they do have to have places to keep all these people that they're arresting. You know, you don't get deported right when they put you in the van,

right? There's there is a little bit of due process. And remember the kids in cages? We need to have places that keep people and keep them in humane conditions. You know, a lot of these people have done nothing wrong except overstay the visa, right? Right. You know, I'm chatting on the side here with a member of the team who really helps a lot on this show in terms of letting me know what's trending and letting me know, like all the videos I'm putting out more and more now on social media, highlighting good stuff and acute problems. You know, a lot of them come from her.

And, you know, she's saying, hey, man, people are getting arrested for overstaying their visa. They're married to citizens. People are getting arrested and thrown out for going to their green card hearing, for going through the process. I mean, WTF. And she's not wrong. And it's not about the worst or the worst. overstay in your visa. By the way, which a lot more people overstay visas than sneak across the southern border.

The best measure of where we are as a society is hearing from other members of that society in conversation that has some cogency to it, some intelligence, not just, what do you think about Greenland? It's not about provocation, okay? It's about conversation. That's what we're getting after here on the YouTube channel for the Chris Cuomo Project, on News Nation, where I'm doing my cable show, and Sirius XM, POTUS Channel 124 for Cuomo in the mornings. Bon Appetit!