The Daily Signal - Court of Appeals Stays National Guard Ban, Hakeem Jeffries Denies Troops Paychecks | Oct. 21, 2025

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Starting point is 00:00:25 We'd love to talk. Business. The federal government shutdown continues, and as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries turns down all of branches, Democrats' polls continue to sink. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stays, Judge Karen Immigates' order, banning the National Guard from Portland, and Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy withholds $40 million from the state of California after Gavin Newsom's administration granted commercial driving licenses to illiterate illegal immigrants. I'm Tony Kinnett, host of the Daily Signals, Tony Kinnett cast, syndicated nationally at 7 p.m. Eastern.

Starting point is 00:01:03 It is Tuesday, October 21st, 2025. This is the Daily Signals, top news in 10. A very fine day 21 of the federal government's shutdown as Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Leader for the Democrats, has turned down even more olive branches. This time, a proposal to pay essential federal workers as well as our troops, while this fight continues to drag on. Here was the Daily Caller News Foundation getting a negative response from Hakeem. It's my understanding that that is not a comprehensive bill that actually is designed to reopen the government while at the same time addressing the issues that need to be confronted on

Starting point is 00:01:47 behalf of the American people, which include lowering the high cost of living and decisively addressing the Republican health care crisis. So it's not legislation that I support because it appears to be more like a political ploy to pick and choose, giving Donald Trump discretion, which employees should be compensated, and which employees should not be compensated. While Democrat polls continue to sink, the president has actually gained in the approval ratings.

Starting point is 00:02:21 Here's Harry Enten from CNN on the phenomenon. This shutdown hasn't eaten that Donald Trump support at all. Isn't that approval rating? is actually up a point in terms of his popular support. So the bottom line is this. The first shutdown during Trump's first term, 2018, 2019 was hurting Donald Trump. This one is not hurting him at all.

Starting point is 00:02:41 There's no real reason Donald Trump might say, at least when it comes to popular support, I want to get out of his shutdown. In a two-to-one decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has stayed. Federal Judge Karen Emmergott's order, which had previously banned the Trump administration from dispatching National Guardsmen

Starting point is 00:02:57 to Portland, Oregon federal properties, these being federal facilities like the Immigration Customs Enforcement Facility, which has been repeatedly attacked by violent groups like Antifa over the last couple of months. Immigate had previously not only stayed the Trump administration from sending in the Oregon National Guard, but then the California National Guard and the Texas National Guard. Then on October 15th, just three days before immigrants' initial orders were set to expire, she then extended her orders by an additional two weeks, banning the National Guard from protecting federal property, as is the President's Article 2 authority under the U.S. Constitution. The three-judge panel was composed of two Trump appointees and a Clinton appointee.

Starting point is 00:03:41 While U.S. Northern Command has since said in a statement that they are not conducting any operational activities at this time, meaning that the National Guardsmen are not currently in trucks, APCs, and various military vehicles on their way to point. Portland, the President of the United States is likely to dispatch at least a few National Guardsmen to protect federal facilities. And over the weekend, the President of the United States had referenced possibly using the Insurrection Act in which the National Guard would then be tasked not only with defending federal property, but also dealing with those in the city who have been usurping the local

Starting point is 00:04:17 state and federal government. And lastly, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy has withheld $40 million from California after the state of California under the Democrat Gavin Newsom administration had continued to issue commercial driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, many of those who cannot speak English and who are illiterate in the English language, leading to a series of dangerous and deadly road accidents. We sat down with Jim Paff of the Conservative Caucus and a former logistics expert with FedEx to break down what has become a national crisis. Gone right now. Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, not out on maternity leave, just to, you know, frame him up against old Pete.

Starting point is 00:04:59 He is currently withholding $40 million from Gavin Newsom's California because California doesn't check if their CDL, their semi-truck drivers can speak English or read roadway signs or drive. It is these big 18-wheelerers that we see in our roadways, but these are drivers who can drive your school bus as well. Take your kids to school. Right. They don't speak the language. And again, when they can't understand signs, we saw the infamous crash down in Florida where a truck driver was doing a U-turn on a four-lane highway. That's insanity. But these are the kind of risks that some of these drivers take when they don't understand the rules. They don't understand our culture.

Starting point is 00:05:41 What do you think? Well, I mean, why not? Listen, people are making a big deal about the money that the Trump administration is withholding from various places. there might be a couple of them that are kind of political. But honestly, what's really going on here is that you have had over and over special arrangements out of the Biden administration that have been throwing money at Democrat states, not to Republican states. And that is actually the real issue that's going on. So the Biden administration should have gotten on top of this under Pete Buttigieg. Okay, but they had other focuses.

Starting point is 00:06:21 I mean, seven chargers he had to build like three and a half and, you know, several years with seven billion dollars, big things he was working on. Yeah, it's such an efficient use of government money. By the way, that that money they pulled away from New York State recently, or New York City or New York State recently. I mean, that was just a big transportation infrastructure boondoggle. In fact, that entire infrastructure bill was a boondoggle. Right. And Donald Trump is riding the ship here. Now, when it comes to this California thing, how absurd can this be?

Starting point is 00:06:53 Not only did we have that person who couldn't speak English and apparently couldn't read signs, doing a U-turn with an 18-wheel tractor trailer in the middle of an interstate, like it's dangerous enough to do it with your car, much less than 18-wheeler. It killed somebody. I just saw a video, I think it was over the weekend. There was a guy with an 18-wheeler who could barely speak English, driving on the wrong, on the wrong, side of the interstate and another truck driver pulled aside him. There's a video of him talking to him, what are you doing here? And instructing him on how to fix it. And he ended up calling the police on this guy. That is now, when you've got two videos of it, that's a pandemic of this problem.

Starting point is 00:07:35 Because that's only scraping the surface. How much of this is happening? And yet Democrats are willing because of issues like DEI and immigration policy. They're willing to destroy the country. for some, you know, a boutique political take that they have. It's absolutely crazy and the Trump administration's right to push back on it. It's really wild when you consider that even the left can't get

Starting point is 00:07:59 the whole workers' rights thing down pat. I mean, that's supposed to be the thing that they get and they don't. You have Brandon Johnson getting up in front of Chicago old people and yelling about how Trump is taking money from the working class and giving it to billionaires when right now all I am seeing is the Democrat Party taking money and safety.

Starting point is 00:08:18 away from the working class in their states and giving it to whoever wanders across the border with the right skin shade they're looking to hire. It's bewildering to see. The question that I have for you is, do you think that we'll ever see the heads of some of these trucking companies prosecuted by the federal government for providing licenses

Starting point is 00:08:37 to those who fail to verify? Well, we have some reason to be hopeful that some of that might happen. But honestly, even though the Trump administration is doing a pretty decent, job, getting DOJ back in order, notwithstanding all the lies that were on that sham 60 minutes thing over the weekend where they brought out these radical leftist former DOJ people to try to say that the Trump administration is breaking all standards. They're destroying the DOJ.

Starting point is 00:09:07 Well, actually, I think they're fixing it. And so I do have some hope. But I will say this. They better be serious even about whether, even if it is a Republican-aligned owner of a trucking company or a Democrat-aligned donor because this is serious safety issue. You know, Tony, you're probably aware. I'm one of the original employees of the FedEx Hub in Indianapolis there. Yes. And the reason I bring that up is because the requirements for me doing, I did weight and balance on aircraft. I was the guy who did the weight and balance, but I also loaded trucks as well. We had a large trucking facility there as well, too. It's probably much bigger now. The requirements that you have to secure safety in our transportation systems are very, very purposeful.

Starting point is 00:09:53 They are well established because we are one of the safest countries in the world when it comes to that, even with all these recent problems. And those standards have been broken down by these boutique DEI things. And this is a serious, serious issue. And I've got to tell you, I had to do a lot of training and certifications. And I'm just a college kid. at the time. And I appreciate how important the transportation system is. So yeah, I think that this is absolutely something that I'm pleased that Sean Duffy is addressing, even in the midst of this

Starting point is 00:10:29 government shutdown where he's got a lot of challenges with keeping air traffic controllers active. And there are other people other than air traffic controllers that help manage a lot of this stuff. So key issues and I'm hopeful we get it fixed. That's precisely the right approach. And I'm going to make a lot of. this clear. I think it's very important that we manage air travel effectively in this country. The airline problems in this country have been a long time coming. They're going to have to be dealt with. They're going to have to be met by a coalition of people willing to fix a massive problem. But let me be clear, my first and foremost concern as someone who has grown up in the

Starting point is 00:11:07 Rust Belt who continues to see transportation poor through our interstates and our state roads, It is our interstate system. It is our trucking system. It is our train systems. Because without those, American industry dies. Before you go, head down to the description and make sure you're subscribed to the Tony Kennedcast. And join us tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern for a roundup of the day's news and nonsense,

Starting point is 00:11:29 as well as live coverage from Turning Points event that would have been hosted by Charlie Kirk down at Indiana University, Bloomington. I'm Tony Kennett, and this has been the Daily Signal's top news in 10. Take care. Thank you.

The Daily Signal - Court of Appeals Stays National Guard Ban, Hakeem Jeffries Denies Troops Paychecks | Oct. 21, 2025

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