The Daily Signal - Democrats Try to Deflect Shutdown Blame by Claiming Republicans Want Kids to Starve | Oct. 30, 2025

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Starting point is 00:00:25 We'd love to talk. Business. Congressional Democrats go all in on claiming Republicans want to starve children. Climate change fearmongering loses out in the public eye to Teddy Rooseveltian conservationism, and the Trump administration and allies set sights on corporations using tax subsidies for ESG and debanking. I'm Tony Kennett, host of the Daily Signals Tony Kennett cast, syndicated nationally at 7 p.m. Eastern. It is Thursday, October 30th, 2025. This is the Daily Signals, top news in 10.

Starting point is 00:01:04 As the SNAP food assistance benefit deadline closes due to the government shutdown, Democrats have now adopted a new strategy amid sinking poll numbers, claiming that Republicans are trying to starve children. Here's House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries making this claim. The administration is clearly trying to weaponize hunger as part of their effort to continue to try to jam their right-wing ideology and this partisan, bill down the throats of the American people. Democrat representatives Angie Craig of Minnesota and Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut attempted

Starting point is 00:01:39 to do kind of an influencer comedy sitting down with your youth pastor vibe to the claim that children are going to starve because of Republicans. This administration is refusing to send out SNAP benefits for November. It is illegal. It is immoral and it may be one of the most disgusting things that President Trump and Secretary Terry Brooke Rollins has done since they've been in power. You know, it's unbelievable. We passed a law, and this is Democrats and Republicans

Starting point is 00:02:08 coming together in appropriations bill. And we said that if we have a difficulty, if there is some sort of an emergency, that there is a contingency fund of between $5 and $6 billion in order for us to take care of the food stamp program. And now they have just, they refuse to acknowledge it. They just put it aside and say, no, we don't want to do that I'll let the money go, it is illegal.

Starting point is 00:02:32 It's illegal. Other Democrats like Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey, Representative Sean Kasten of Illinois, and quite a few others, have also attempted to make some kind of case that the Democrats are not responsible for the shutdown and it's Republicans who are responsible for the clean resolution not being passed and therefore snap benefits ending.

Starting point is 00:02:56 Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer didn't respond particularly positively when a reporter asked him about this yesterday. We are saying the Republicans can fund it now, and they're using these people as hostages. Plain and simple. Next, that's the answer. The answer is they can fund it right now. And in a shock to many, Bill Gates, the billionaire responsible for founding Microsoft

Starting point is 00:03:19 and quite the social progressive activist over the last couple of decades, has come out in an interview saying that, sure, climate change was a big concern of his, but now he doesn't see it as an inherent threat. to humanity anymore and humans could probably outgrow some kind of an issue with the climate. Climate is a super important problem. There's enough innovation here to avoid super bad outcomes. In a surprise to probably no one, Harry Enton over on CNN citing new poll data showing that climate change fearmongering over the last couple of years, especially on the left side of the political aisle in the United States, is not resonating with voters.

Starting point is 00:04:00 A lot of people will agree with Bill Gates that maybe this wouldn't be the end of humanity. And I think, you know, we've been talking about climate change now for decades upon decades upon decades. And the worry in terms of climate change, simply put, hasn't shifted. It has not reached the majority of Americans. What are we talking about? Greatly worried about climate change. You go all the way back to 1989.

Starting point is 00:04:20 It was 35 percent. 2,040 percent. 2,020, 46 percent. And in 2025, look at that. It's 40 percent. The same number as we had 25 years ago back. in 2000. To talk more about this with the counter to this particular movement, we sat down with

Starting point is 00:04:37 America Conservation Coalition Florida Chair Danny Lindsay to discuss what the alternative is, both in regard to youth addressing conservation and stewardship, as well as the counter narrative to the climate change fear-mongering. And the head of the American Conservation Coalition, people who like Teddy Roosevelt actually want people to get out and enjoy and take care of nature, that being Florida's chair for it. Danny Lindsay joining us now. She's not shocked by the polling data either, are you, Danny? Absolutely not. I mean, we've been saying this for years and years and years since we started in 2017, and I'm glad now we're finally vindicated. It's our time to shine. It's time to take

Starting point is 00:05:15 conservation back as a conservative value because it's ours to have. And it's time to make some real difference, some things that make real change and stop campaigning on this doom and gloom. We're all going to die in five years. So give me several hundred million. to do absolutely nothing. It's our time to shine. We also got a chance to sit down with OJ. O'Leika, the CEO of the State Financial Officers Foundation, who was hosting a major financial conference in Washington, D.C.,

Starting point is 00:05:41 to discuss the Trump administration's lockstep approach with allies both in state governments and internationally to target organizations who have mishandled tax dollars in order to debank political opponents and to encourage environmental social governance, or ESG, a series of pro-LGBQ and climate change alarmist policies that go against the grain of certain tax funder priorities. Here was a bit of that interview. One of the guys leading the charge against this massive debanking, incredibly corrupt political regulation on the internal

Starting point is 00:06:17 side of the finance system in this country is none other than OJ. O'Leica. Of course, he's the chief executive officer over at the State Financial Officers Foundation. don't let the name put you to sleep. This is the guy that make sure that the acts y'all have been grinding over the last couple of years when those big corporations and corrupt politicians have gone after you. This is the man who makes sure that doesn't roll under the refrigerator forgotten forever. OJ, thanks for joining us. It is good to be with you. Well, let's dive right in. I know you're holding a big conference in Washington. There's a lot that's going on behind the scenes because this may be the first 27 front administration we've ever had in the country.

Starting point is 00:06:58 There's a lot to do. What are you focused on right now you can give us a bit of a taste of? Sure. Well, you mentioned the kind of 27 front push the administration is doing. We actually have a 39-person front at the State Financial Officers Foundation. I get to be blessed to run the organization, but it's really our financial officers who are on the ground in their states every single day fighting for the American people. And what we're doing is being in lockstep with the president on the issues, fighting back against ESG to make sure that your dollars aren't weaponized for the left's goals.

Starting point is 00:07:30 And also pushing back against debanking to make sure that just because you're a conservative or a Christian, a financial organization or institution can't refuse to do business with you. Our folks have been fighting on the front lines for this every day. And those are the things that we're really focused on right now because we know we've got friends in Washington who can fight alongside us. And I mean, it definitely has some momentum to it because now we have. have individuals like Bill Gates coming forward and saying, well, you know, if we don't magically reverse the climate with one flick of the Wizards won, nobody's going to die. You know, maybe capitalism can actually grow us out of any environmental changes from his perspective. That kind of a reversal that we talked about earlier in the show with Danny Lindsay, that kind of

Starting point is 00:08:09 a reversal would not have been possible unless you actually had a coalition of conservatives and independents who actually knew what they were doing. Everybody wants to run for office these days, but you actually need to know how things work so that you can beat the left at their own game when they get into these ESG grants and subsidies and give me your monadies. You know how it is. Yes, that's right. The vibe shift is real, as they say. And the benefit that our folks have is that since their financial officers, they're well trusted. There was a poll that came out earlier this year that said that state financial officers are the most trusted elected officials on financial issues, more so than their governor, more so than their members of Congress, because people believe in

Starting point is 00:08:52 them. So when our folks were pushing back saying, look, we study this stuff all the time, we aren't coming at this from a partisan perspective. We're just saying that if you're going to invest funds, you should do so to get the best possible return. It shouldn't be, again, for some political, ideological push from the left because they couldn't get it passed at the ballot box or it's too expensive to get passed through the legislature. But that's what ESG is. So when our folks started talking about it a few years ago when showing the data and then moving the money, literally putting the money where their mouth was, as you said, these corporations, the federal government voters started to take notice and it culminated in the reelection of President Trump.

Starting point is 00:09:30 There's a really great point that you hit on there that may not be, you know, the most network TV of interview points to make here. When I was little, my grandmother was on the board of this perfect circle credit union kind of organization in eastern central Indiana. And we went to a little board meeting of sorts. And I remember, she just, you know, I tutted along with Nana, you know, how things are when you're a kid. And as I, I tutted along with her, I noticed there was one person in the meeting. When she started speaking, everyone got quiet in a way that when others spoke, they didn't. And she wasn't loud just when she spoke, people listened. And I asked her what that was about. Because just as a kid, that was what I gleaned from it. She said, oh, that's because she's

Starting point is 00:10:09 important. She actually knows how things are running here. And I think of Scott Bessent, now in the administration who is like you said you look at these financial officers who aren't sleazy skeezy you know go give a really used car salesman smile to the camera that's right but when besent talks he leans back he folds his hand across his chest and he makes some acute financial statements and points that i mean i tell you what i mean you know dave ramsay could run with those you know what i'm saying so those kind of of actions are needed if you're going to get in there you need the scalpel that's right because if we're going to go after esg there's a detailed cv list length of receipt issues that have been brutally measured against the American people.

Starting point is 00:10:52 What are some of the things that you guys have had to tackle so far? Maybe some of the things your officers have brought to you that are either getting solved or especially egregious. What's kind of like on your dinner plate right now? Yeah, there are a number of items on the dinner plate. To catch the rest of our interview with OJ as well as Danny Lindsay, head down to the description and we've got that linked for you. Also down in the description is a little.

Starting point is 00:11:15 link where you can subscribe to the Tony Kennedcast and join us tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern for a roundup of the day's news and nonsense. I'm Tony Kinnett and this has been the Daily Signals. Top News in 10. Take care.

The Daily Signal - Democrats Try to Deflect Shutdown Blame by Claiming Republicans Want Kids to Starve | Oct. 30, 2025

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