The Young Turks - DOGE Gets Leashed

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

Inside Trump’s TYRANICAL Attack on Free Speech. Trump BRUTALLY THREATENS Republican for Crossing Him. Judge Hits DOGE Over “UNPRECEDENTED” Power and ’UNUSUAL SECRECY.” Hosts: Ana Kasparian SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE ☞ https://www.youtube.com/@TheYoungTurks FOLLOW US ON: FACEBOOK ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER ☞ https://twitter.com/TheYoungTurks INSTAGRAM ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕MERCH ☞ https:/www.shoptyt.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Book club on Monday. Gym on Tuesday. Date night on Wednesday. Out on the town on Thursday. Quiet night in on Friday.

It's good to have a routine. And it's good for your eyes too. Because with regular comprehensive eye exams at Specsavers, you'll know just how healthy they are. Visit Spexavers.cavers.cai to book your next eye exam. Eye exams provided by independent optometrists. You know, I'm going to be able to be. The Republican Party in the House has officially passed a continuing resolution.

It's now on the way to the Senate, where they will vote. We'll see what happens there. But that's a longer story that we're going to get to later on in the show. If you're watching TYT, I'm your host Anna Kasparian. Man, there's a lot of news to get to. One of the stories that didn't make it to the rundown. today is the mass killings of all the white Christians in the coast of Syria by, you know, supporters of the new regime. I wanted to cover that story a little more deeply. Maybe we'll be

able to do so tomorrow. But as you guys know, every single day, you know, I tell my team, it feels like we have a bucket under a waterfall trying to catch all the water. That's what the news cycle feels like. But I'm doing my best here, folks. And I hope you guys enjoy the show today. We've got a lot to get into, including the update on what has transpired with Mahmoud. Khalil, he is the Palestinian graduate student from Colombia, who has been arrested by the Trump administration. And they're saying that they're now going to deport him and revoke his green card. There are some pretty big updates to that story. We're also going to discuss, you know, some of the losses that Doge has just experienced with the federal courts.

We'll give you the details on that. In the second hour, Wazni Lombray will be joining us for an update on Andrew Tate and his brother, who did not have a warm welcome here in the United States. And not just from members of the left, it turns out that the treatment they received from those on the right, particularly people like Governor Ron DeSantis, have made them decide maybe it's better that we go back to Romania where we're facing those serious criminal charges. So we'll give you that story and more. So stick around for that.

As always, just want to encourage you all to like and share the stream. If you're watching us live, you can also support TYT by becoming a member. I don't know if you guys have heard. We can really use membership right now, considering the fact that Jank Yugar has fled the country, according to some. He fled to various political conferences in Europe. And I think he's also speaking before Oxford, if I'm not mistaken. But that's what fleeing the country looks like these days, I guess. But anyway, without further ado, let's get to our first story. He came here on a student visa. He's paid by a terrorist organization. Excuse me. Is there evidence? What evidence do you have? I have evidence. So I'm sorry, just to be clear, you're alleging that he's paid by- He's a paid protester. By who? Well, I didn't ask my intelligence division exactly who paid for him, but he's being paid by- That's a pretty explosive allegation. Who is he being-

paid by? Yeah, who is he being paid by? And who are we talking about? We're talking about Mahmoud Khalil, who is the graduate student from Colombia, Palestinian protester who led some of the protests that took place on that campus. The Trump administration decided to arrest him. And despite the fact that he has a green card, which would require a judge to weigh in to adjudicate whether or not that green card should be revoked, the Trump administration announced that they would be revoking his green card unilaterally, but is that even allowed? We're going to get back to that question in just a minute. But first, I want to just hear more from NASA County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who has the audacity to accuse someone of being funded

by terrorist groups without providing a damn shred of evidence. And you're about to get a taste of that right now. Here's more of what he had to say. Who is he being paid by? Can I ask you a question? No, you said you had evidence. Who is he being paid by? He's being paid by organizations that are anti-American that are engaged in nefarious activities. I don't ask my intelligence division to give me- Then don't come on national TV and say on things where don't come on national TV.

Do you know he's being paid by? I don't. And I'm not alleging that he's being paid. Are you okay with what he's doing? I'm not alleging he's being paid by because I don't know. Are you okay with anti-Semitism? What an absolute clown. No, no one's okay with anti-Semitism to answer your question,

you absolute monster of a person. You can't go on national television and declare that someone is being funded by terrorist groups without a shred of evidence to reinforce the garbage you're spewing on CNN. And I commend that panel for holding his feet to the fire here. Because there, again, we are waiting to see any evidence. that Mahmoud Khalil did anything wrong, anything harassing toward Jewish students at Columbia, any type of, you know, by the way, even hate speech is protected by the First Amendment, but there isn't even any evidence of him engaging in hate speech.

So Khalil's arrest is the latest escalation by the Trump administration and what he calls the first arrest of many to come to crack down on pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses and comes days after he vowed to deport foreign students and imprison agitators involved in illegal protests. Now, look, this is rich coming from the right, especially when you consider the fact that the right wing, you know, made a big to do about conservative speakers and conservative guests being, you know,

chased out of college campuses, which I agreed with them was wrong. You should allow the freedom of expression, especially on college campuses. Like, what are you going to college for? To hear opinions that you agree with, that's what adulthood is for. That's what you get to do when you're an adult and you get to live in your little filter bubble and hear all the opinions you already agree with. But at least have a little bit of critical thinking experience on a college campus where you're going to hear different ideas. And that's different.

A peaceful protest, obviously, very different from harassing students, from blocking Jewish students from being able to move about the campus. There were examples of that. And when those situations occur, the individuals participating in that behavior should be punished, the individuals. But I don't believe for a second that this is really about anti-Semitism. Because if it was really about anti-Semitism and valuing the freedom of peaceful expression and protests and speech, well, then you would go after the people who are causing problems. You wouldn't shut down these student protesters and make a point. to send like threatening letters to all of these other universities,

letting them know, hey, the education department's going to come after you if you don't immediately squash these pro-Palestinian protests. It's insane, it really is. Because the very people who make a big deal about DEI, who make a big deal about certain protections for certain minorities or vulnerable groups of people, all of a sudden have no problem trampling over the First Amendment rights of students who are doing nothing wrong, who are not harassing anyone, who are not causing any acts of violence. They're going after them. For what? On behalf of whom? I think we all know. And it's pretty gross to, again,

go on national television and accuse someone without any evidence of taking money from terrorist groups to do these protests. Because there's no evidence of that. But there is evidence that a major PR firm for the Democratic Party just, just had to register as a foreign agent because it turns out that they have close ties to Israel. So if you want to talk about where the funding's going, let's talk about this. So the firm is called SKDK. It was founded in 2004. SK.D.K., according to Sludge, just informed the Department of Justice that last month, it began work to shape U.S. policy And public perception on behalf of Israel. Nice. Okay. So that's according to Farah filings. Farah, if you're not familiar, stands for Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Look, I got to at least give them credit for doing the bare minimum and registering as foreign agents because a lot of politicians have gotten in trouble for failing to do so. You know, some military generals who were in Trump's first term got in some trouble for failing to do so. But SKDK has numerous ties to establishment figures within the Democratic. Democratic Party. For instance, it was co-founded by Anita Dunn, a former senior advisor to Joe Biden. Justin Goodman, an executive vice president at SKDK since 2002, was Senator Chuck Schumer's communications director for almost a decade. And SKDK partnered by the name of Hillary Rosen campaigned as a surrogate for both Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and the list goes on.

So yeah, there's definitely foreign influence and foreign money flying around. But let's actually provide the receipts. And that's exactly what the reporters over at sludge, specifically Donald Shaw did in this incredible report. So what exactly is SKDK doing? Well, since mid-February, SKDK has conducted outreach for Israel to dozens of media outlets, including NPR, Axio, 60 Minutes, MSNBC, Fox News, The Daily caller, PBS News Hour, and the lead with Jake Tapper. The filings also indicate that SKDK has conducted outreach to Elon Musk's X. Now, during the 2024 elections, according to this report,

SKDK earned more than $80 million from its political work or for its political work for Democrats and pro-Israel super PACs, and that's according to Open Secret. So you want to talk about money? Let's talk about the money. The money that's flowing into the United States to have political influence over our media, over our general public in regard to the ongoing war on Gaza, the ongoing occupation and war on Palestinians in the West Bank. But this story, you're not going to hear it pretty much anywhere else. If you read sludge, you'll read it there. You'll hear me talking about it.

But other than that, you're not going to hear a single politician pull their hair out, scream at the top of their lungs about how foreign money is influencing what's happening, you know, on domestic soil. It's just, it's wild. It's wild. Here are the receipts. Let me give you more. So it's a large PR firm, okay? And its clients really do include some big name figure. So for instance, you have Senator Ruben Gallego, a Democrat from Arizona. They worked on his campaign. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, also known as APAC, they've done work for them. The Super PAC, United Democracy Project, Future Forward's Super PAC, and the PAC affiliate

of the nonprofit Zionist movement, which that makes sense. That makes a lot of sense, right? Now, SKDK also operates the October 7th project. What's that? So that's a communications operation, which was established by APAC, the Anti-Defamation League. It was also the Jewish Federation of North America's involved in other pro-Israel groups. The project was announced in December of 2023 as a centralized communications operation to promote continued U.S. bipartisan support for Israel, push for accurate, complete coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, and a stronger focus on October 7th victims. Never mind the tens of thousands of women, children, elderly Palestinians who have been slaughtered, whose remains are still under the rubble in Gaza in many cases. I mean,

Israel just announced that they're cutting off electricity entirely to Gaza. Gee, I wonder why they would want to do that. And look, you can have all of the PR firms you want, Israel, you can. Go ahead. But you're never going to be able to stop the shocking images that continue to come out of Gaza. You're not going to be able to stop the reports of the blockade of humanitarian aid. into the Gaza Strip, you're not going to stop the reports of all the children who, you know, if they're lucky enough to still be alive after the aerial bombardments, after maybe losing a limb or two, you know, they'll probably die of starvation because of that humanitarian aid

blockade. So look, PR firms might be able to help someone's image or a country's image a little bit. But if you're carrying out atrocities, there isn't a PR firm in the world that's going to provide cover for that, or at least launder the reputation of the government that's carrying out those atrocities. I don't think there's a single PR firm that can launder the reputation of Hamas, for instance, and what they did on October 7th. But what we've seen from the Israeli government and the IDF is sustained, persistent acts of war, violence, atrocities against civilians. It's been going on for well over a year now. So let's get back to Khalil, shall we?

Because there's more to talk about there. So as for an update on Khalil, after we covered the story yesterday, a federal judge in New York stepped in and blocked the Trump administration from deporting him. Now, since Khalil was a green card holder, as I've mentioned before, the revocation of his green card really does depend. on a judge. A judge needs to adjudicate that. So that is why the judge, in his ruling, said, to preserve the court's jurisdiction, pending a ruling on the petition, petitioner shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the court orders otherwise. Kaleel, by the way,

is currently being held at a detention facility in Louisiana. Yesterday, when we shared this story with you, we had mentioned that authorities had told his wife, who's an American citizen, eight months pregnant, that he was being detained in New Jersey. At that point, his wife, along with his lawyer, go to that detention facility in New Jersey, and they're told, oh, he's not here. So for a while, no one even knew where Khalil was being detained. But now it's become clear that he's specifically at that detention facility in Jenna, Louisiana. His lawyers asked the court to issue an order reserving, I'm sorry, reversing his transfer to Louisiana, because they're arguing, and I think this is a good argument, that this is hampering his access to counsel

and also to access to his family. And according to court filings, the night before Khalil was arrested, he actually reached out. This is so sad. He reached out to Columbia's interim university president, her name is Katrina Armstrong, to ask her for help because he was dealing with sustained harassment campaigns. He was being doxed. He was worried about his safety. his wife's safety. He sent an email to her. In the email, Khalil said people were falsely labeling him a terrorist threat and calling for his deportation.

Yeah, it's kind of sad when your own federal government is engaging in those smear tactics against someone who, I mean, if he's engaged in terrorism, if he's a terrorist threat, why haven't we seen the goods? Why haven't we seen any evidence of that? One of the funniest things that happened during the White House press conference today was, you know, the press secretary was asked about the evidence. And she's like, oh, you know, he was passing out flyers. And those flyers were real bad, okay? They were real bad.

They had some nasty stuff on them. They were so nasty that I didn't want to show you guys. So I didn't bring them with me to provide the evidence. Sure. Okay. Now, it appears that what the Trump administration is kind of leaning on to justify the arrest and deportation of Khalil is the Immigration and Nationality Act. So let's get into that. So the Immigration and Nationality Act states an alien whose presence or activities in the United States, the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy. consequences for the United States is deportable. The term alien refers to anyone who isn't a citizen or national of the United States. So it really does appear that this is what Trump is going to use, or at least the administration is going to use to justify Khalil's deportation.

So that provision of the law was used as grounds to detain Khalil. A judge now has to decide whether or not there's any merit to that claim and whether or not Khalil does in fact need to have his green card revoked and whether or not he should be deported. So we're going to wait and see the judge's ruling essentially blocks his deportation until a federal judge can weigh in on whether it makes sense to take away his green card and deport him. But you're not seeing any remorse from the Trump administration, and I'm honestly not surprised by that at all. I really do think that Trump's been compromised by pro-Israeli campaign cash. I mean, not only for Miriam Adelson, I think he's surrounded by

pro-Israel zealots who will literally trample on the rights of Americans, including our free speech rights, in order to avoid hurting the feelings of Israeli supporters here in the States and, of course, the Israeli government. So I do want to talk a little bit about another angle to this story because Linda McMahon, Education Secretary, is now getting involved. So let's talk about it. I don't have a readout on how many arrests will come, but I do know that DHS is actively working on it.

And I also know that Columbia University has been given the names of other individuals who have engaged in pro-Hamas activity, and they are refusing to help DHS identify those individuals on campus. And as the president said very strongly in his statement yesterday, he is not going to tolerate that. And we expect all America's colleges and universities to comply with this administration's policy. Well, as you just heard from White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt, they are obviously very focused on expending some of our resources, on arresting pro-Palestinian protesters from college campuses. In a country that is supposed to have constitutional rights to freedom of expression,

freedom of speech, no one has the right to physically harm anyone, to engage in discriminatory activity and harass someone, especially if we're talking about a college campus that's taking federal money. However, in this case, the Trump administration has failed to provide any evidence for the first targets of their arrest and deportation. a green card holder by the name of Mahmoud Khalil from Columbia University. And so students should be concerned. I mean, this is this is obviously meant to paralyze freedom of expression in regard to one specific issue on college campuses.

Let's be clear about that. Now, unfortunately, this is an all-hands-on-deck situation. Last week we shared with you that the head of Health and Human Services, RFK Jr., announced that he was going to be using his federal government agency to root out anti-Semitism. And now we're hearing that the education secretary, Linda McMahon, is pretty much doing the same. So she has decided to send 60 universities threatening letters about what will happen to them if they don't immediately tackle this made-up problem of anti-Semitism on their college campuses. And yes, I'm saying made-up problem. Because what they really want to do is

Just end any type of demonstration that calls to question the conduct of the Israeli government, the atrocities that the Israeli defense forces have committed as a result of this war in Gaza and the atrocities that have been committed by both settlers and the IDF in Occupied West Bank. That's what this is really about. So CNBC interviewed Linda McMahon today. Let's hear what she has to say about this effort. You do have peaceful protests. No one is arguing that that's not a right.

The First Amendment right clearly should be on campus. Campuses and universities should be about open debate and discussion. What they should not be about is violence, attacking other students, attacking faculty to put forth, you know, their anti-Semitic views. These are attacks on Jewish students, Jewish faculty. That cannot be allowed and the president has been incredibly clear that he is not going to tolerate that kind of attacks on campuses and that he will defund those universities. And so we took that action against Columbia. I mean, look, Trump wants to defund the universities anyway. And in fact, we learned that Colombia will be deprived of $400 million in federal funding. But I like that little game

that we just heard from Linda McMahon. You know, the surface level, you know, protections for freedom of speech. It's all talk. I mean, you're talking about some of the students who allegedly attacked Jewish students, okay, they should be arrested. They should be dealt with. And if you're going to arrest and deport a green card holder, you need to provide the American public evidence that that individual engaged in criminality, engaged in attacks against Jewish students, something. Because we're talking about a violation of constitutional rights here. So if you're not going to provide any evidence to the American people who are supposed to be protected with those constitutional rights. We've got a problem. Well, we're supposed

to take your word for it. Oh, okay. The government is telling us that Khalil is a dangerous guy, that he's in line with Hamas. Okay, I mean, if you're so sure about that, that means you must have some evidence. Show us. But we're not seeing any evidence. Instead, universities are getting threatening letters from the Department of Education in what might be their final act since they're working to dismantle the Department of Education. And they're just threatening these universities. So the universities take it upon themselves to squash their own students if they engage in freedom of expression on one specific issue. One specific issue. Don't make a mistake of thinking this has to do with any other type of protest. One issue. Criticism of Israel

and the atrocities that they're committing against the Palestinian people. You're not allowed to speak about that. You're not allowed to protest that on college campuses. You might get your federal funding taken away. So in this letter that McMahon sent to 60 universities, she wrote that the Education Department is deeply disappointed that Jewish students studying on elite U.S. campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless anti-S.-Semitic eruptions

that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year. U.S. colleges and universities benefit from enormous public investments funded by U.S. taxpayers. That support is a privilege, and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal anti-discrimination laws. I agree with that. I agree that any institution that is receiving taxpayer money, public money, must not engage in discriminatory behavior, must not allow students in this case to harass, target any group of students based on the color of their skin, their religion, their ethnicity, all of that. I agree. But to squash pro-Palestinian protests entirely and not specifically target individuals who are causing problems, communicate something else to

me. It's not really about the handful of individuals causing problems. And by the way, I just, I know I've said this before I'm saying, I can't stand those people. Those people are selfish, narcissistic wreckers. I mean, they're so toxic to any movement that sometimes I wonder, like, is that CIA? Like, what is that? Who would be dumb enough to think that they're going to win over hearts and minds by being little S heads to Jewish students? They disgust me.

I hate them. Okay, I want to be clear about that. But to conflate all of the protesters with those wreckers, with those loathsome human beings, I think is wrong. I think it violates our constitutional rights. And it absolutely discussed me. And by the way, every demonstration, every protest, unfortunately has those types of people involved. But we've never had a situation in which the entirety of a movement, the entirety of a protest just gets shut down over a handful of people. That's crazy. So six out of the eight Ivy League institutions, institutions that receive these letters are on some sort of list that I guess the Trump

administration has been watching closely. These are campuses that, you know, they're alleging had anti-Semitic issues. And so there's going after the Ivy League, six out of the eight Ivy League institutions are on the Trump administration's list, including Columbia University and Harvard University. And look, even though Israeli non-students showed up, to protests at UCLA and then proceeded to physically assault the pro-peace, pro-Palestinian protesters. Nothing happened to them. However, UCLA announced today that they are going to do everything they can, use up their resources to root out anti-Semitism on their college campus. Okay, great. I'm sure all your students feel real safe, knowing that, you know, non-students

can just show up on campus and assault them over their own personal values and opinions about what's happening in the Middle East. Awesome. We got to take a break when we come back some big news about the continuing resolution to keep the government funded. Turns out that there are some Democrats who voted along with Republicans because Democrats are useless. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the show, everyone. I'm going to read one super chat from Stinky Stinky Feet, who says Tesla stock is down 30% over the past month. My instincts tell me this unelected oligarch might have finally overstayed his welcome.

We'll see if it continues. So we do have a story about that later in the show. I'm really excited to share that with you. For now, though, there's also some big news in regard to keeping the government open. And so far, it does appear that Republicans in the House have succeeded in passing something. But before we get to the details on the continuing resolution, what's in it, who voted for it? I do think it's important to talk about the catfights between Donald Trump and Thomas Massey. Because this might be one of the few times where MAGA appears to be.

siding with Massey. And honestly, I'm here for it because I think they're right. Let's do it. You're looking here at the holdouts and there they are. Call them the budget rebels, at least for now. This group right here on your screen, not making it easy there in Congress. Everyone on this list seems to be on the fence except for Congressman Thomas Massey from Kentucky who says count on him for a firm no. In fact, he's so emphatic about that. He said it's a no unless he gets a Lomotomy. And statements like that from Congressman Thomas Massey from Kentucky led to President Donald Trump targeting him, attacking him, and threatening to primary him. Now, I'm going to give you the details on all of that. It's super juicy. But before I do, there's a big update to

this story, which is Trump got what he wanted. The House of Representatives, of course, under Republican leadership, did manage to pass a continuing resolution, which will keep the government funded through September. I'm going to give you details on what is included in that continuing resolution in just a moment. But, you know, it's something that Donald Trump certainly wanted Congress to pass. It's now headed over to the Senate. They will now vote on it and we'll see if the Senate approves it. But before I give you all the details on that continuing resolution, let's just quickly revisit this, you know, I guess conflict between the president and Congressman Massey. Now, Republicans in the House did vote on that continuing resolution today.

But prior to the vote, there was a lot of worry that, you know, the far right super conservative members of the House Freedom Caucus who are like the deficit hawks were just going to vote no. And remember, Republicans only have a slim majority in the House of Representatives, which means, you know, Mike Johnson could only afford to lose the vote of like one Republican lawmaker. And so you have a handful of Republican lawmakers who are saying, eh, we're on the fence. But there was one guy who's like, no, I'm not on the fence. I'm a big fat no on this. So it would slightly decrease spending overall, according to original reporting from the New York Times.

That might actually have changed. But they claimed that it would not include funds for any projects in lawmakers' districts or states, and it would force a cut of more than $1 billion. from the District of Columbia's budget for the rest of the fiscal year. But I should also note that initial reporting indicated that this continuing resolution included an additional $6 billion in funding for defense. And by the way, I want to know where that money goes, right? So if that's indeed going to be included in the final version of the continuing resolution,

the $6 billion in defense, where is that money going? Is it going to Israel? Is it going to, I don't know, defense contractors, defense contractors that Elon Musk is the executive of? I don't know, but that's something that needs to be investigated. So, as I mentioned earlier, Thomas Massey was not in favor of because he is an actual deficit hawk. And I don't agree with Massey on a lot of things. But he is an honest actor. He is a man of principle.

And when you're dealing with someone like that, you can at least have a conversation and you at least know that this is an individual who is motivated by his principles and not by lobbyists. Okay, so I value that even if like 99% of the time I disagree with him. Now with that in mind, he had said prior to today's vote, unless I get a lobotomy Monday that causes me to forget what I've witnessed in the past 12 years, I'll be a no on the continuing resolution this week. It amazes me that my colleagues and many of the public fall for the lie that we will fight another day. Now again, Massey has frequently gone against his own party on fiscal matters. You know, a lot of Republicans love to talk about their fiscal

conservatism. They're not conservative in their marriages and they're not conservative when it comes to, you know, the fiscal issues impacting our government at all. Okay. But Thomas Massey is a completely different story. He's not just talking to talk. He's walking the walk. But Trump didn't like that. So he decided to post on X all sorts of threats against Thomas Massey. And I think what's really interesting about this story is how it seems like MAGA actually sided with Massey over Trump on this. So here is what Trump wrote. Congressman Thomas Massey is an automatic no vote on just about everything, despite the fact that he has always voted for continuing resolutions in the past. I don't think that's true, by the way. He has typically

voted against fiscal matters, as I mentioned earlier. But let me give you the rest of what Trump had to say. He should be primaried, and I will lead the charge against him. He's just another grandstander who's too much trouble and not worth the fight. He reminds me of Liz Cheney. Really? He's like not like Liz Cheney at all, but okay, it reminds me of Liz Cheney before her historic record-breaking fall loss. The people of Kentucky won't stand for it. Just watch. Do I have any takers? I don't know if anyone raised their hand and said, I'm a taker, Trump. But Thomas Massey responded to it and says, someone thinks they can control my voting card by threatening my reelection. Guess what? Doesn't work on me. Three times I've had a challenger who tried to be more MAGA than me, none busted 25% because my constituents prefer transparency and principles over blind allegiance. And by the way, I should note, Trump has actually attempted to do this before. I'm going to get to that in a minute. So let's get to that. In 2020, apparently Trump was not happy with Massey for a different reason. He says,

looks like a third-rate grandstander named Thomas Massey, a congressman from unfortunately a truly great state, Kentucky, wants to vote against the Save Our Workers Bill in Congress. He just wants the publicity, he can't stop, only delay, which is both dangerous and costly. Anyway, in the same attack, he basically says that he should be thrown out of the Republican party. And obviously, 2020 has come and gone. Thomas Massey is still a Republican lawmaker in the House of Representatives. So it didn't work in 2020. I don't think it's going to work now.

But I should also note that Massey has decided to use this beef with Trump to remind everyone where he likes to raise his money from. And so he posted this on X. Why don't more representatives stand on principle? Because telling the truth can get you in hot water. I'm going to need your help. I will run again because we need at least one person in Congress who won't cave. Can you show support by contributing now?

And, you know, better to raise from the people as opposed to, let's say, foreign interests. And by the way, here's what Thomas Massey's, like what his door to his office says. Let's take a look at this. No foreign lobbying. If you enter this office seeking funds on behalf of a foreign nation, you may be in violation of. And then he does like the, you know, specific code that they would be in violation of. And it's the Foreign Agents Registration Act. And remember, Massey is probably the only Republican who has spoken out candidly about the influence of APAC, you know,

the APAC babysitters he referred to them as during a conversation with Tucker Carlson. And so I love the fact that he's not some, you know, wilting flower and super scared of Trump. And but what I like even more guys is the fact. that we're talking about a politician, you can disagree with him on everything. Put that aside, though. He does right by his constituents. Like his constituents really do love him. So much so that they will side with him over Donald Trump, even though I'm sure all of them voted for Donald Trump. And it's because they look at Massey and they see a lawmaker who's actually listening to them, delivering for them, someone who's actually principled, even in times when it's

difficult to be principled, even in times when the entirety of your party is going after you. So I love that because it shows you, you know, even when you're dealing with a cult of personality like Donald Trump, and he is tremendously popular among Republican voters, if he's in a beef with another politician, but that other politician has really delivered for the people, the people are going to side with that other politician. But all these other Republican lawmakers, I mean, they're just as useless as corporate Democrats who have been bribed by, you know, corporations, big money. They don't do right by their constituents. I mean, oftentimes, you know, they're fundraising or they're lying to their constituents, but never delivering on things that they ran on.

And so those are the types of politicians on the left and the right that are far more vulnerable to attacks from a cult of personality like Donald Trump. So that's for now what we have on the back and forth tit for tat, you know, beef with Thomas Massey and Donald Trump. But I do want to take a few moments just to give you what we know so far about this continuing resolution. So this will be funding the government through September if it passes in the Senate. It has not passed in the Senate yet, but the House did pass it today. Now, the bill effectively doubles a previous $20.2 billion cut in internal revenue service enforcement funding. So you have Doge firing a bunch of IRS workers. You already had a pretty fat cut in revenue for the IRS that was approved under the Biden administration. Now you have a doubling of that $20.2 billion cut to the IRS.

And look, if that's made permanent, the repeat cut would almost entirely reverse the enforcement boost that the IRS received back in 2022 under the Biden administration. The change would lower the number of audits and reduce federal revenue by $66 billion. Because remember, the whole point of the IRS is to catch the tax dodgers. If you're low income, it's very, very easy to audit low income people. They don't have complicated taxes. So when you have an underfunded IRS, they focus all of their auditing behavior on low income people because rich people have complicated taxes. It costs more resources to audit them. And so these are the people who get away with dodging. These are the people who get away with not paying their taxes. And I mean, we have a system

set up that gives them all sorts of cookies, all sorts of deductions, but it's still not good enough. We're still talking about people who aren't satisfied with that system and seek to further avoid paying their taxes. And so these are the people who the IRS was able to begin auditing in order to recoup some of that lost revenue to the tune of $66 billion. So the idea that we're wasting money in funding the IRS is hilarious to me. But look, I also know not a popular political message to go around, you know, cheering on the IRS. Everyone hates the IRS. Everyone hates paying their taxes. I get it. But I really hate the fact that I'm expected to pay my taxes. I'm not supposed to dodge. I'm not supposed to do anything like that. If I do dodge my taxes, I have no doubt that I'll get audited. But if you're a billionaire, if you're a multi-millionaire with super complicated taxes, it's unlikely the IRS is going to come for you. You're too expensive to audit. And that's a problem. So I should also note that the House of Representatives was able to pass this continuing resolution with the help of Democrats.

So there was one Democrat who voted in favor of this bill. Let me find that information for you. So only one Democrat voted in favor of it. And it's Democratic Representative Jared Golden of Maine. He voted yes. Thomas Massey was the Republican who voted no. And the bill also reduces a billion dollars in spending for Washington, D.C. for whatever reason. So the GOP proposal would also extend funding through September 30th at fiscal 2024 spending levels. But it includes a $13 billion in cuts in non-defense spending and $6 billion in increased military spending. So those are the final numbers in the House version of the continuing resolution. We'll see what happens with it in the Senate, but there you have it.

That's what they're planning to do through September, as I guess they work on a far bigger bill that includes the tax cuts, the additional funding for immigration, all of that stuff will be included in that big, beautiful bill that Donald Trump has been pushing for. We've got to take a break. When we come back, we've got a lot more to get to, including a story involving Doge and the federal courts getting involved. to basically force Doge to do what they're supposed to do as, let's keep it real, a government agency that should abide by freedom of information laws. We'll be right back. before we get to our next story, because Biffantastic, I have not confirmed this, so I just want to give you that caveat. But if this is true, it really does bother me because this is not, this is just hate for hate's sake, right? It's not about the content of someone's character, and that's a problem.

So Biffinastic says BDS called for a boycott of no other land. So no other land was that film that, you know, obviously it was trying to show the humanity, raise awareness. about the Palestinian people and the occupation in the West Bank. Their complaint, the BDS movement, that Israelis were involved in the film. BDS is not interested in peace. They don't want Israelis to exist, no peace without coexistence. Look, I don't know if that's really what everyone who's part of the BDS movement believes. So I don't want to do a blanket statement or broad generalizations, but I will say this. If you're just hateful toward Israelis, period, regardless of what they believe,

regardless of what their character is, that is a problem. Because we're talking about an Israeli filmmaker who was involved in this film. And this film is all about pushing back against, you know, all of the misinformation and all of the BS that we hear in the Western world in the United States in regard to what's happening to the Palestinian people, what Israel's up to. I haven't seen the film, but I've heard glowing reviews about it. And it's amazing to me that anyone would hate on an Israeli filmmaker who's on the right side of this issue. At that point, you're just hating a specific group of people, regardless of who they are, what they believe, what they represent.

And I don't like that. Like, I don't stand by that. So if that is in fact true, if the BDS movement as a whole has kind of taken on this perspective, I'm not in front of. favor of that. I just want to be clear. All right. Well, let's move on to Elon Musk because, well, Doge apparently is not having a great time in the federal courts. I can't wait to see what Doge will do when the government is shut down. If the government shuts down, the amount of things that you can do where the traps just open up, where they can just cut even further than they already are, you'll find out. And it's going to be a lot of fun. How many people are enough for you to get

Fire? What's your goal? How many tens of thousands do you want just fired? Can we can we can we can we start with half? That was conservative Ben Dominic of the you know, rejoicing of the possibility of Doge firing half of the federal workers. And in that scenario, you know, there would be a government shutdown, right? If there would be a government shutdown, it would allow Doge to kind of step in and fire even more of these federal workers. Now, the House of Representatives did just pass a continuing resolution. We'll see if it passes in the Senate. So we might avert a government shutdown altogether.

However, a federal judge did just deal a pretty big blow to Doge and its desire to remain pretty secretive about what it's doing behind the scenes. Now, look, there's this facade of transparency, right? The website that Elon Musk launched where you see the receipts of how much money Doge is saving the American people. We've reported on the inaccuracies found on that website. They're not really receipts. It's all sorts of misinformation, to be honest with you. But if we want the actual receipts, well, we should have reporters who do Freedom of Information Act requests. And Doge actually hands over the documents. That's how it works. That's how a government agency works. But Doge has been avoiding Freedom of Information Act request from reporters. And so there was a suit,

and it appears that Doge so far is losing in this case. So Doge was challenged in court by citizens for responsibility and ethics in Washington. They sued to demand the release of Doge-related documents that were requested through FOIA Freedom of Information Act. The judge deciding the case is U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who said, said that the vast and unprecedented authority of Doge combined with its unusual secrecy warrants the urgent release of its internal documents under the Freedom of Information Act. This isn't complicated stuff, okay? Every government agency is obviously obligated to serve the American people. They're funded by us, right? So in the case of Elon Musk, I don't, I doubt he's

collecting a salary. I mean, he's collecting a lot in federal government contracts, that's for sure, including a $400 million deal that we reported on like a week or two ago. But aside from that, you know, the Doge employees are part of a rebranded federal government agency. They're supposed to be serving us, which means if the American people, if journalists want documents from the agency, as long as there aren't like big secrets, national security risks, whatever, they are supposed to give us those documents and they just haven't been doing it. But in the judge's 37 page opinion, Cooper wrote the authority exercised by USDS across the federal government and the dramatic cuts it has apparently made with no congressional input appear to be unprecedented. The rapid pace of Doge's actions, in turn, requires the quick release of information about its structure and activities.

That is especially so, given the secrecy with which Doge has operated. So the judge is ordering what was referred to as rolling productions of Doge records to begin within weeks. So that just means little by little, they have to start actually fulfilling these FOIA requests. The one thing, though, that the plaintiffs in this case did not get as part of the federal judge's decision was the release of these records, prior to Congress's vote on a spending bill this week. And I understand why. I mean, that really wouldn't have given Doge enough time to provide the documents. The vote happened in the House literally today, and the House of Representatives under Republican leadership was able to pass a continuing resolution to keep the government funded through September. But the judge did agree that there is a need for urgency in, you know, releasing these documents that have been requested.

He says Congress needs the requested information in a timely fashion to use it effectively. The electorate also requires the expeditious production and publication of this information. Voters may seek to influence congressional representatives to take action responsive to USDS. That's Doge, that's what he's referring to here, at any point along the road and the dissemination of information sought by crew. would contribute to an informed electorate capable of developing knowledgeable opinions and sharing those knowledgeable opinions with their elected leaders. So essentially what he's saying here is, listen, homies, like we've got this freedom of information request situation in which government agencies have to provide, you know, the goods. Once they're requested either by

other government officials, by journalists, by, you know, ordinary American citizens. And you're not fulfilling that. And that is, it hampers part of our democratic process, because you can't really have a democracy unless you have an informed public. Now, as for the Trump administration, the judge did skewer the way they litigated this case. So the lawyers offered little to know evidence to back up their arguments about Doge's operations or management. Now, remember, the Trump administration was trying to make it seem as though like Doge, like, wasn't some government agency and that Elon Musk wasn't the head of Doge, even though it's obvious that's the case. And the reason why they were putting that out there is because the thought was that Doge wouldn't

have to respond to FOIA requests and things like that if it's not considered like a typical federal government agency. But the judge disagrees here, writing indeed the court wonders whether this decision was strategic, Cooper said, noting that Trump administration lawyers had taken competing positions, including that Doge qualifies as an agency under some sections of law, but not others when it suits it. Thus, Doge becomes on defendant's view, a Goldilocks entity, the judge wrote, not an agency when it is burdensome, but an agency when it is convenient. Now, final thing that I'll say about this is, funny enough, Donald Trump did kind of moderate his messaging in regard to the firing of federal workers last week.

He said something along the lines of, you know, we don't, we don't, we want to use a scalpel. Okay, we want to use a scalpel. My cabinet officials are going to be making the decisions on which federal workers will be fired rather than just letting Elon Musk take a hatchet to it. Well, according to the Atlantic, the comments that you're about to hear from Jesse Waters of all people is part of the reason why Donald Trump decided to put out that message. Let's watch. Let me tell you a story about Chris. Chris was a guy I met at a shooting event in New Jersey last year. Is Chris in the interview? Or this is another guy, just Chris. He was a 20 year veteran of the U.S. military. He was one of these guys in one of these elite units, killed a lot of bad guys,

put his life on the line. And now he punched out after 20 years and working for the Pentagon. And he's only been there a few months. So he's probationary. And he just found out he's probably going to get laid off. He's going to get doged. And he texted me and he said, Jesse, you know, this isn't good. I'm upset. This is really sad. And this guy's not a DEI consultant. This guy's not a climate consultant. This guy is a veteran. So when you're talking about doging people, Veterans should get priority. We just need to be a little bit less callous with the way Harold, we talk about doging people.

So I'm just going to say for a second that I'm very jealous that in my lifetime, we haven't had a Democratic president who responds to his constituents, to his supporters, to pundits in the media. I mean, you criticize a Democratic president, as by the way, Jank did during Obama's first term. Like you want to talk about audience backlash today because I don't know, because people think I'm a Trump supporter, even though I do two and a half hours on this show every day criticizing him.

But no, no, no, what we're experiencing now is nothing compared to what Jank experienced in Obama's first term when he was accurately reporting on what Obama was up to. The backlash was fierce because you're expected to be as loyal as possible. Don't ever criticize. And by the way, it was a bottom down messaging thing, right? Jank was moved, they tried to move Jank from a primetime MSNBC spot to a weekend spot because he wouldn't change his tone on Obama. He was still critical of Obama.

Now, in this case, you have Jesse Waters, who's clearly critical of what Trump was allowing Elon Musk to do and firing all of these federal workers. And according to the Atlantic, Trump watched the clip and asked his advisors if that sentiment that was expressed by Jesse Waters was resonating with his base of supporters. Ultimately, he felt that it was resonating with his base of supporters, which is why he put out that message that kind of moderated what he intended to do with federal workers. He says, I have instructed the secretaries and leadership to work with Doge on cost-cutting measures and staffing. As the secretaries learn about and understand the people working for the various departments,

they can be very precise as to who will remain and who will go. We say the scalpel rather than the hatchet. Biden's administration was protested over the fact that he was unwilling to use leverage in the form of withholding weapons to Israel. if, you know, Israel would fail to rein in the atrocities that they were committing against the Palestinian people. It didn't matter. Didn't matter that Biden's poll numbers were going down as a result of that conflict and his handling of it. Didn't matter that he was being protested at every campaign stop. Then all of a sudden you have a newly anointed Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. She gets protested again and again and again and again. Do she change

your message? No, she didn't change her message. Because F the Democratic voters, right? they're going to tuck tail, they're going to show up, they're going to vote for us anyway because Trump bad, except that didn't happen this time around. Did the Democratic Party learn anything? Did they realize that we don't owe them anything, that they signed up to be public servants? Remains to be seen, but I wouldn't bet my money on it. Walsney-Lombay joins us for the second hour. We'll see you in just a few.

I'm going to be Buhn't Bhopin' B'n't B'n't Thank you.