Alex Marlowe’s Breaking the Law argues Trump’s second-term first year reflects systemic "lawfare," with 54% disapproval per Real Clear Politics, despite claims like halting border crossings for seven months and deporting criminals. Critics cite rising costs (housing, groceries) and broken promises, while supporters defend his policies—2M undocumented departures, $45B ICE budget hikes—as necessary against left-wing judicial bias. Marlowe dismisses media narratives, like Comey’s leaks or Epstein files, as politically weaponized, framing election victories as the only antidote to conservative legal marginalization. The debate underscores deep polarization over Trump’s legacy, with callers grading him from "A+" for border control and economic shifts to "FFF" for perceived corruption and moral failures, revealing a fractured national consensus on leadership and justice. [Automatically generated summary]
Welcome to Washington Journal's Holiday Authors Week series, where we'll feature live conversations with a new author each day.
Coming up this morning, after a look at the news and viewer calls, we'll welcome Breitbart editor-in-chief Alex Marlowe to discuss his book, Breaking the Law, Exposing the Weaponization of America's Legal System Against Donald Trump.
As we wind down the first year of President Donald Trump's second term in office, what's your take on his job performance so far?
He's made sweeping changes to the size and scope of the federal government, led a nationwide immigration crackdown, and implemented a tariff regime that has had major effects on global trade and American consumers.
Our question this morning, what grade would you give President Trump's term so far?
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One way to grade the President's performance so far is his job approval ratings, which we have a summary from Real Clear Politics, finding that he's underwater at the moment, with a 54% disapproval rate in terms of how people feel the president has been doing his job, and 44% approve of his performance in office thus far in his first second term in office.
When you break it down by some of the top issues that have been on tap this administration, on immigration, 50% disapprove compared to 47% that approve of his performance.
On the economy, 55% disapprove versus 41% approve.
On inflation, 63% disapproval rate there compared to a 36% approval rate.
And on foreign policy, 54% disapprove of the president's performance compared to 43% approve.
Now, the president was summarizing his performance in office so far.
According to him, in the Oval Office this past week, he gave an address to the nation where he touted his accomplishments from this year.
And after just one year, we have achieved more than anyone could have imagined.
Starting on day one, I took immediate action to stop the invasion of our southern border.
For the past seven months, zero illegal aliens have been allowed into our country, a feat which everyone said was absolutely impossible.
Do you remember when Joe Biden said that he needed Congress to pass legislation to help close the border?
He was always blaming Congress and everyone else.
As it turned out, we didn't need legislation.
We just needed a new president.
We inherited the worst border anywhere in the world, and we quickly turned it into the strongest border in the history of our country.
In other words, in a few short months, we went from worst to best.
We're deporting criminals, restoring safety to our most dangerous cities.
Just take a look at Washington, D.C.
It's at levels of safety that we've never seen before.
And they decimated the bloodthirsty foreign drug cartels.
We did that all by ourselves with our people, and we're so proud of it because they were poisoning and destroying our population.
Drugs brought in by ocean and by sea are now down 94%.
We have broken the grip of sinister woke radicals in our schools and control over those schools is back now in the hands of our great and loving states where education belongs.
After rebuilding the United States military in my first term and with the addition we are adding right now, we have the most powerful military anywhere in the world and it's not even close.
I've restored American strength, settled eight wars in 10 months, destroyed the Iran nuclear threat and ended the war in Gaza, bringing for the first time in 3,000 years peace to the Middle East and secured the release of the hostages, both living and dead.
Here at home, we're bringing our economy back from the brink of ruin.
The last administration and their allies in Congress looted our treasury for trillions of dollars, driving up prices and everything at levels never seen before.
I am bringing those high prices down and bringing them down very fast.
Obviously, Democrats have a different take on the president's performance so far.
At a press briefing on Thursday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries criticized President Trump's first year in office and accused him and Republicans of worsening the affordability crisis.
We started a year and Donald Trump promised that this would be the golden age in America.
We're ending the year and the overwhelming majority of the American people, including many so-called Trump supporters, know that this year has been a disaster for the American people.
Last night, Donald Trump once again made it clear to the American people that he apparently still believes that the affordability crisis in this country is a hoax.
It is not a hoax.
The affordability crisis is very real.
And one of the reasons why this year has been such a disaster for everyday Americans under complete Republican control of government, they have the House, the Senate, and the presidency they've had all year.
They've had complete control of government and they've done nothing to lower the high cost of living in this country.
Now, Donald Trump and Mike Johnson and John Thune and House Republicans and Senate Republicans repeatedly promised to the American people last year that they were going to lower the high cost of living.
In fact, they said that costs would go down on day one.
They lied to the American people.
Costs haven't gone down in the United States of America, and everybody knows it.
Costs have gone up.
Housing costs are out of control.
Grocery costs are out of control.
Electricity bills are out of control.
Child care costs are out of control.
And health care costs are out of control.
And about to get worse because of the Republican health care crisis that has been devastating everyday Americans throughout this year.
Those are just some of the questions and issues that have come up in the president's first year of his second term in office.
And our question this morning is what grade would you give the president on his second term so far?
Let's start with Greg in Berea, Ohio on our line for Democrats.
Good morning, Greg.
unidentified
I would give him a Z.
It is absolute kryptonite to listen to that man speak.
On a daily basis, he says something ignorant and asinine, and his decisions lack discernment, which is worthy of critical criticism.
But yet, when we come on this show and tell people the truth, they pivot into Joe Biden, illegal immigration, everything other than the sun than the truth.
When I drive past the gas station and you see the prices fluctuate, it is insignificant to what the prices are at the grocery store and household goods.
So, that being said, America, this is what you voted for, and I'll always leave with my famous Star Wars quote: Who is more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?
Next up is Ron in San Clemente, California, on our line for Republicans.
Good morning, Ron.
unidentified
Good morning, Kimberly.
I just want to give you a kudo because I think you and Tammy have done a tremendous job of coming on board C-SPAN and doing a superb job of taking control of your programming.
I love it.
Anyway, the answer to your question is: I received the answer to the Trump issue back in, believe it or not, in 1959, when I pledged my fraternity and had to learn the Greek alphabet in this five-sentence statement.
Donald J. Trump is beyond the shadow of a doubt the culmination of psychological, irrational, and erroneous behavior, combining the worst phases of infantilism, mother fixation, and a superabundant geniality based on his inability to adjust ego to environment.
And furthermore, from the unfortunate miscomprehension, he's endowed by his creator with superior intellect, which makes him worthy of talking to mature adults.
His only hope lies in adopting an attitude of utter humility and consummate empathy so that his one day, his decrepit mind and fragile body may one day be worthy of the name human being.
You know, they all want to complain or compare Donald Trump to Ronald Reagan.
Ronald Reagan, when he came in, fixed immigration, he fixed health care, he fixed the economy, and he even tweaks the gun control issue after he was attempted to be assassinated.
This guy is so far off the grid that it's amazing.
Just the tariffs alone are going to kill our country and along with AI.
But anyway, I just want to thank you so much for the fine job that you and Tammy are doing coming on board and taking a good place in our C-SPAN family.
Next up is John in Portland, Connecticut on our line for independence.
Good morning, John.
unidentified
Yes, good morning, Kimberly.
Why do you keep repeating this show?
You know it's going to bring negative comments from everybody, like the last gentleman, which was something like scripted comments from Hollywood, California, where he's from.
Why do you keep repeating these shows?
All it's showing is hate in this country by your callers.
I'm hoping that you can give me some examples of what you like.
I'm hoping you can give me some examples of something the president's done in particular that you like.
unidentified
The border's closed.
We don't have people crossing the border 10,000 people in a day.
Gas in my county, where I live in Connecticut, is down to $2.59 a gallon.
Grocery prices are coming down.
I don't know where some of these people shop.
They must shop at the Golden store, but I know prices are coming down.
Not everything is coming down.
I totally agree with that.
And I know that this is going to happen in the first quarter of next year based on what I've been reading and listening to the top people in Trump's cabinet.
What do you think of the president's job performance so far in his second term?
unidentified
Well, a lot of people do like Donald Trump, I must add.
But he said before he even got in office that Mexico was going to build the wall.
He said he's going to get rid of all the bad people, and he's just rounding up everyone.
Because he's been in office.
He's got a big jet from the foreign company.
He's everywhere he's going.
He's grifting.
He's making money.
Coins.
He said, if you want to come in America, if you buy the gold card, you can get in.
Yeah, he said he wants to keep foreigners out.
He wants to keep the good.
All he's doing is making money, and he destroyed the east wing of the cap, of the house of the capital, and he's building a ballroom who none of the people that voted for him are ever going to be able to get in.
The rich people are benefiting from him being in office.
And what's going to happen January when the medical or the health, the Affordable Care Act is slashed, half the people that voted for him are going to suffer.
And I'm afraid some people may die.
Some people are struggling there.
Oh, let's not forget Doge.
He's talking about employment is increasing.
How can employment be increased when so many people's jobs were slashed?
That helped.
I don't think he's getting wise counseling.
But other than that, he gets a big goose egg because he's not unifying the company, especially the way he talked to the female reporters.
Christopher was mentioning some of the efforts that the president has made that Christopher at least believes will benefit wealthier people.
This is something that has been a common refrain amongst some political leaders, including Bernie Sanders, speaking at a No Kings rally in Washington, D.C. in October.
The Vermont senator accused President Trump of protecting the interests of billionaires.
This moment is not just about one man's greed, one man's corruption, or one man's contempt for the Constitution.
This is about a handful of the wealthiest people on earth who, in their insatiable greed, have hijacked our economy and our political system in order to enrich themselves at the expense of working families throughout this country.
Yes, yeah, I am talking about Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and the other multi-billionaires who were sitting right behind Trump when he was inaugurated.
Remember that?
The very same billionaires who funded his campaign, who have bestowed gifts upon him, and who have in CE have seen huge increases in their wealth and power since Trump took office.
Yeah.
Yes, I am talking about the insanity of one person, Mr. Musk, owning more wealth than the bottom 52% of American households.
I'm talking about the incredible injustice of the top 1% in America now owning more wealth than the bottom 93%.
I'm talking about the richest people in America becoming much, much richer while 60% of our people live paycheck to paycheck, struggling every day to pay their rent and mortgages, pay for child care and education, pay for their health care and prescription drugs, afford decent quality food for their kids,
and maybe, just maybe, put aside a few bucks for their retirements.
There is no way in the world that I could ever give this man higher than an F grade if we were talking about grades from A to F, as we know in most grading situations.
I think it's so sad that we've become a country that in every day, almost every day, when he likes to take advantage of his ability to take over the airwaves in every way, he has created chaos in every direction.
And it creates a sadness because we have such disrespect.
We have a situation, and I hope that it will change in my lifetime, but I'm older, and so I don't know if I'll be around to see it.
But we've become a nation where you can't say to a child, for instance, you can't say, I really want you to pay attention to the president because he's such a wonderful example of how we can be respectful toward one another, how we can show love for one another.
And we can remember one important thing.
Everyone was an immigrant at one time.
Everyone in this country, aside from the Native Americans.
I really think that we should think better of the fact that we have people now who are at the top who say things such as, I heard Vance the other day saying, we don't need DEI because it's been so unfair to white men, to white individuals, and they make no bones of the kind of racism that just abounds.
I hope everyone will remember we can begin again.
We can be like some of us were a few generations, not even generations, of course, I'm not that old, but how we were in the 70s when we really did believe we could make a change.
We thought we could make a change.
If we work together, I hope that everyone will have a good holiday season.
But remember, this hatefulness, who was it that Harry, I think it's Harry Truman who said he had paperweight on his desk and it said the buck stops here.
Unfortunately, we have a president now who thinks that all we can do is blame the previous president.
And frankly, though I wasn't someone who was an outright fan, I do think that the gentleman was at least that.
He was a gentleman.
What happened to our country?
Thank you very much, and happy holidays to everyone.
One of the issues that Jane raised was immigration, which has been a big focus of President Trump's second term.
Here's a story in USA Today that 2 million undocumented immigrants left under Trump, Christy Noam says.
Noam says an additional 10,000 immigration and customs enforcement officers have been hired with the latest starting work within 10 days.
This is a story from back on December the 2nd, that 2 million immigrants without legal authority to remain in the country have gone home during the first year of President Donald Trump's second term, according to Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noam.
2 million have gone home already, people that were here illegally.
You have removed and sent home, Noam said at a cabinet meeting December 2nd.
We're going to send more home for the holidays, too.
The push to reduce illegal immigration was a top priority for Trump.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has hired 10,000 officers, with the latest who arrive in 10 days, Noam said.
Now, the Migration Policy Institute has been following this as well.
This is the think tank that focuses on immigration issues, finding that U.S. immigrant detention has grown to record heights under the Trump administration.
This is a report from back in October, finding that the number of unauthorized immigrants and other non-citizens placed into immigration detention has grown to the highest level in history in the first 10 months of President Donald Trump's second term.
It could nearly double in the months to come.
Again, this story was from back in October.
With the budget for immigration detention growing by $45 billion over the next three years, at least approximately $14 billion per year under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act enacted in July.
This represents a threefold increase over the $3.9 billion detention budget that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement received for fiscal year 2025, turbocharging what already stood as the world's largest immigration detention center.
It also means that the annual budget for immigration detention is now on pace to be 62 percent larger than that of the entire federal prison system, which was $8.6 billion in FY 2025.
Again, we're looking for your grade of the president's performance in office so far in his second term.
JJ is in Hollister, California, on our line for Republicans.
Good morning, JJ.
unidentified
Good morning.
Merry Christmas, and thank you for taking my call.
My position is you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please everybody all the time.
And the more people that complain, 100% they'll be a Democrat.
And I just don't understand what they don't see.
Trump, majority of America, voted for Trump.
We voted for him to stop the gas.
He lowered the gas, to close the borders.
He closed the borders to lower the crime.
He's working on that.
And then the economy, you have to understand, the economy just didn't happen the way it did in one day.
He can't just, Democrats call and they say, well, he says you're going to fix the economy.
And he's been in office one day and they're going to change it.
Took four or five years to get where we are now.
And I give Trump, you know, then they complain about the rich people.
If you look it up, most of all the rich people are Democrats.
He's cleaning up the deep state.
How much corruption?
You know, my position is they got by last administration spent so many trillions of dollars.
And you know why?
Because the power people, they were, if they spend trillions of dollars, maybe we won't notice a million dollars being put in their pocket.
I can count on just recently how many corruptions are coming to light.
And it all starts with a Democrat.
And now all these people are complaining about the immigration.
He closed the borders, but when you got 20 million people, how are you going to know which one to pick and which one not to pick?
It's just cost of doing business.
And then we do find out we cut him loose, but we don't go and have margaritas down here in Venezuela with that one MS-13 guy.
And he said he promised to clean up the crime, and he's doing that.
And then you find out the police chiefs are padding the results of the crime statistics.
You know, it's coming to light.
So that they tried to lower it.
But I give, matter of fact, I think Trump should be on rush.
What do you think of the president's performance in his second term so far?
unidentified
I think it is very lousy and arrogant.
This nation, I do not vote.
I have never voted.
Let me make that clear.
And I am not affiliated or associated with any religion or denomination.
But his performance, this whole nation has lost the way.
The way the law kept peace and order for all the neighbors, for all colors, for all immigrants, aliens, for the land, for the bears, for the mountain lions.
Who is thy neighbor?
Well, when the Almighty created the trees and the fruits and those animal kingdoms, Christ, he imaged them and he said, let us make them in our image after our likeness.
So he gave them their glory.
This nation has become like Babylon, Sodom, Gomorrah, Egypt, and Rome, and Israel and Jerusalem.
William, are there particular policy issues that the president has been active on in his second term that really affect you or that have caught your attention?
unidentified
Yes, ma'am.
I just said the way was applying the law that keeps peace.
How can you keep Christless peace throughout all the kingdoms by making war, being so arrogant, and listening to these antichrists, these false preachers, false prophets, false religions whispering in your ear who do not know the way either?
This is a corrupt, immoral nation and the doctrine that y'all teach.
So, William, you were talking about war and peace.
There has been quite a bit of movement lately, including as recently as yesterday in the Caribbean with the president's ongoing strikes on boats as well as nuclear strikes that happened.
Strikes on nuclear sites in Iran that happened earlier this year.
And that was back in June when the president announced that the United States had launched strikes on three nuclear sites in Iran.
Here's the president speaking about that at the time.
A short time ago, the U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime, Ford, Natanz, and Esfahan.
Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise.
Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror.
Tonight I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success.
Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.
Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace.
If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.
For 40 years, Iran has been saying, death to America, death to Israel.
They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs.
That was their specialty.
We lost over a thousand people, and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate.
In particular, so many were killed by their general, Qasem Soleimani.
I decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen.
It will not continue.
I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.
We worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before.
And we've gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel.
I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they've done.
And most importantly, I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades.
Hopefully, we will no longer need their services in this capacity.
Next up is Gail in North Carolina on our line for Democrats.
Good morning, Gail.
unidentified
Good morning.
Well, maybe I can tell this guy why us Democrats are against Trump because for some reason the Republicans just don't get the facts about what's really going on with Trump.
First of all, we'll start with his character, which is I give him an F for everything.
But when he first came into office, the first thing he did was he pardoned all those insurrectionists that broke into the Capitol.
But then again, he comes back and pardons all these drug dealers, which is hypocritical.
And another thing is he's getting rich over the presidency, selling stuff, which I think is wrong, scamming the American people, always asking for money.
The way he talked about the movie star that just died from All in the Family, Reiner guy, just how disgusting for a president to say that what he said, which was disgusting.
The way he degrades immigrants when 70% of the people that they're arresting have no criminal record.
And then he's separating families, terrorizing kids, not wanting to go to school, and then breaking into apartments in Chicago and zip-tying kids.
And it's just absolutely horrid to terrorize children that way.
And I don't care if you're a Democrat, Republican, or Independent.
These children don't deserve this.
We don't deserve a president who calls women little piggy, calls them ugly inside and out, tells them to shut up on camera.
I mean, what kind of person can support that to sit there and call a reporter ugly?
You're ugly inside and out.
I mean, the man is disgusting.
And also, he had to bail out the farmers.
You know, he claims he did all this money for the farmers, but the reason the farmers were in a bind was because of his tariffs and they lost their losing money.
And then USAID, when he canceled that, over 600,000 people have died because of starvation.
And they had the food ready to go for the people with USAID overseas.
And all these people died.
And they had the food in warehouses.
And the United States was paying $10,000 to keep that food in the warehouse to stay in there and rot while the kids died.
All these people, I think Trump is a death president because there's a lot of people that have died because of him.
And now that the insurance people are going to lose their Medicaid, and oh, Mike Johnson says it's only 7% of the population.
Okay, with those 7%, what are they going to do when they are on a fixed income and they need to get their insulin and they need to survive and they don't have Medicaid?
There's going to be so many people hurt by them not being able to get their insurance.
I want to highlight some information about just one of the topics that Gail raised there about Trump's farmer aid program, which Gail referenced.
That has $11 billion in one-time payments to crop farmers through a new Department of Agriculture bridge payment program.
And the remaining funds will go to other crops not covered by that program.
And the funding for that will come from U.S. tariff revenues, according to the White House.
Next up is Mike in Stockton, California, on our line for independence.
Good morning, Mike.
unidentified
Good morning.
So I give him an F minus, minus minus.
Because as an African American, as a bleeding Negro or a black person, whatever you want to call it, when he came on TV and said about the S-hole countries, as a president of the United States, I believe the man is a degenerate when he came in and the people following him are degenerate-minded.
Now, if you're not following him, it's okay.
I fight for you to have a right to be a Republican.
The right.
I fight for people's rights, whatever.
You have a right to be the Ku Klux Klan.
You have a right to be a Nazi.
I don't like it, but you have that right.
Okay.
Number two, I was told growing up self-respect and all this, you know, he's up there cussing and calling people names.
And then when somebody calls him a name, every Republican under the sun gets up there complaining.
The virus is messed the economy up, and you keep blaming Joe Biden.
Trump didn't deal with the entire virus.
And I mean, you guys mix, take part of the truth and part of a lie, and you mix it together.
It don't work that way.
Half the truth is half a lie.
Tell the whole truth.
Can you do that?
Now, there's a lot of things to talk about here when you talk about Donald Trump.
But degenerate is the most thing that I could think of.
Of course, he's evil.
He came in office owing $400 million.
It'll never happen again.
No one will ever be able to run for president owing somebody half a billion dollars.
Soon as that comes in, I mean, you're broken and broke.
Are there particular other policies that the president has moved on in this term that?
unidentified
Okay, the DEI, the DEI policy.
I sit here and you guys had a congressman on, and I asked him, what's this about DEI?
He literally told me out of his mouth: well, people feel like the mediocre white person has to suffer.
Look, man, we made laws.
If every last class of white person had a job first, and then minorities get a job, we'll never get a job the day after slavery.
What jobs did black people have the day after the stock market crash?
What job did we have?
Every time we try to build our own stuff, they tear it down.
You can't even use your tax.
The billionaires, The multi-millionaire blacks, they can't even use their tax, charitable tax money to give to a black cause without a bunch of problems.
Mike mentioned the Trump administration's actions on DEI, which is one of many different executive orders that have come out thus far in this term.
And some of those include just some of them: executive orders on securing our borders, a national emergency declaration, which came very early in the administration, as well as establishing the Department of Government Efficiency,
an executive order unleashing American energy, which encouraged energy exploration and production on federal lands and in waters, as well as, as Mike was referencing, ending federal diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and preferencing.
There was an executive order pardoning January 6th rioters, another executive order withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement, and then one where the federal government would only recognize two sexes, executive order, including the Reciprocal Tariff Act implementation.
Folks might remember that as the Liberation Day announcements.
An executive order with restrictions on birthright citizenship that's being debated at the Supreme Court at the moment.
And revoking another executive order revoking 78 Biden executive orders all at once, an executive order that eliminated USAID, which a previous caller referenced also.
And then an executive order requiring independent federal agencies to submit their rules to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review.
Those are just some of the executive orders that the president has signed thus far in his second term.
Let's hear next from Jeffrey in Texas on our line for Republicans.
So Josephine mentioned the ongoing action in the Caribbean related to Venezuela and their oil.
There was a story in the Washington Post about that just this morning with some recent news that U.S. forces boarded a commercial vessel off Venezuela early Saturday, days after President Donald Trump announced a total and complete blockade on all oil tankers under U.S. sanctions entering or leaving Venezuela as part of the administration's mounting pressure campaign against the government of President Nicholas Maduro.
U.S. Coast Guard members boarded the oil tanker Centuries, which the Department of Homeland Security said was suspected of carrying oil subject to U.S. sanctions.
It was a second ship boarded by U.S. forces off Venezuela this month.
The ship was last docked in Venezuela.
Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noam said a video she posted on social media shows military helicopters approaching the vessel and then hovering in place as service members rappel down to the deck.
The administration is increasing pressure on Venezuela's drug trade and economy in a broader effort to force Maduro from office.
Next up is Linda in Ponca City, Oklahoma on our line for Democrats.
Good morning, Linda.
unidentified
Good morning.
Merry Christmas.
Also, so I have a list here.
President Trump gets a big fat F. He's alienated all of our allies with this tariff business and beyond.
He sent $40 billion to Argentina rather than support health care.
Our national parks are being devastated, and they're going to cut more people from there, more funding, and they've made them whitewash.
They're taking down history at the national parks that they've taken forever to collect.
There's the tariffs, which I don't think are working and have put our farmers at risk because China wasn't buying our soybeans and is in fact buying a third less.
There's the murder in the Caribbean, which I think that's what that is.
I think that's unlawful.
I don't know what they're doing shooting fishing boats, which I think looks like what they are out of the high seas, killing people.
But I will say on the DOJ issue, we'll have a segment coming up later in the show on that topic, in particular, looking at what many call the lawfare and the way that the DOJ is being used in politics these days.
But please continue.
unidentified
All right.
Well, that's about it.
I'm embarrassed that he destroyed USAD.
There's people that are starving.
He could have used all that money, given it to the farmers in a legitimate way and fed the world and made us proud again.
But no, he's an embarrassment to us.
I just am appalled at his behavior, his speeches, anything I listen to.
Next up is Rick in Erie, Pennsylvania on our line for Republicans.
Good morning, Rick.
unidentified
Good morning.
Thank you, and Merry Christmas, if we're still allowed to say that.
Number one, you know, I would give the president a A plus, but I would back it down to an A. You know, number one, look at how many immigrants were lit into our country over the past four years under Biden.
And we know the only reason he opened those gates was so they get more seats in Congress.
I mean, people don't understand when you have the way they give people is that you have to, they count everybody.
Number two, you know, immigration is down to zero, and they're complaining about people being deported out.
Well, let me tell you, I would rather deport people out and take care of the veterans and take care of the homeless people.
And they're complaining about bombing these drug boats.
The ones that I see they zoom in on, they're carrying 55-gallon drugs of chemicals, or maybe they're 55-gallon drugs of fish.
I'm just, but I didn't see any fishing poles.
I must have missed that part.
I just think that under Joe Biden, if anybody looks at the CPI rate for the past four or five years, under Joe Biden, that rate at one time was eight, let me see, in 2021, it was 4.7, it was 8%, 4.10%, 2.9%, and then 2.7% under Trump.
So I'm just crazy that they don't give him a chance.
He's only been in office for a year.
You know, we need to give him another year or two years.
And then what about, you know, these companies that are going to build the plants in America now?
You know, nobody is saying anything about the jobs that those are going to create.
Yes, he laid off a bunch of people from the government, but maybe the government was a little bit too big for the regular working man.
And the ones that complain all the time, you know, the Democrats, you know, I love, I have a lot of Democrats' friends.
I love them.
But, you know, sometimes the hate that comes out of the Democrats' mouths, you know, with these Epsteins file, there has to be something in there with Trump.
Next up is Anthony in South River, New Jersey on our line for independence.
Good morning, Anthony.
unidentified
Good morning, Kimberly.
Thank you for coming in.
And I love what you do.
Your hair always looks great.
I'm going to give President Trump a A plus plus plus plus.
That's five pluses as on the Shasha Burns interview.
Of course, Camel Harrick counted them at the Democratic Party.
But anyway, I'm going to give you a lightning round of the great things that he's done.
Number one, he rescued all the American hostages and got a ceasefire in Gaza.
He obliterated nuclear weapons from Iran.
I paid $2.61 for gas last week, and that's down about 20% from what I paid last year.
It was $3.25.
So if you divide $0.60 by $3.25 for all the kids that didn't learn math in school.
Okay.
We are $38 trillion in debt.
So by closing the border, he's saving us billions on money we have to pay to support people that don't have support here in the country.
Then also, when he's bringing the tariffs into the treasury, he's also bringing down the debt.
And then now he has $18 trillion in investments coming in.
That's going to take two to five years to hit the pavement, but that's something that's really good.
So that's all going to bring down the debt.
If we don't address the debt, we're going to go bankrupt.
And, you know, so let me talk about my next grade.
I want to give the media and the press an F for failure.
And the reason that is, is because they just post this narrative.
So let's, what I wanted to talk to about the, I just lost my transform.
So they will constantly, they'll put out this thing that we are the richest country in the world.
Well, no, we have the higher credit card debt in the world.
England has the next highest credit card debt, national debt, which is at $9 trillion.
We're at $38 trillion, and we're going to go bankrupt.
So you won't hear that.
Also with the ACA, the press.
Okay, Hakeem Jeffries, if he said affordable care subsidies 100 times, he maybe said he has subsidies less than 10 times.
And if you have people out here saying that you're going to eliminate the ACA subsidies, well, no, that's not true.
The problem with the ACA subsidies that you don't hear about in the press, and I did the research too, and I have the ACA for the last three years, Blue Cross.
And what the last two years, the insurance cost for the premium went up 6%.
That's reasonable.
This year, it went up 18%.
So it's not all due to the subsidies.
It's due to the insurance companies price gouging.
And the press will never say that because everybody's in cahoots over that.
So Anthony, I want you to finish the rest of your points.
But on the issue of those ACA subsidies, I want to show you some recent polling from the health policy outlet KFF, which did a poll asking folks who is to blame for those ACA, as you mentioned, enhanced subsidies not being extended.
39% of people say President Trump is responsible.
37% say it's Republicans more broadly.
And 22% say Democrats.
What do you think of those numbers, Anthony?
unidentified
I think that that is a bad poll because what you have to do is the math, which I just did for you.
Again, I had the same policy, same income and everything for the last three years.
My policy, Blue Cross raised it 6%, 6%, and now 18%.
That's where the problem lies, but you're not hearing that in the thing.
So, yeah, we could have all these polls saying who's to blame.
Did they even ask, are the insurance companies to blame in that poll?
I wasn't able to find the exact question in that poll, but the KFF has quite a bit of polling on their website if you want to go and check it out.
Rhonda is in Coon Valley, Wisconsin on our Line for Democrats.
Good morning, Rhonda.
unidentified
Good morning.
Thank you for having me.
Well, as a retired teacher, this one is something that comes by me pretty naturally as I've done thousands of report cards over my career.
I give President Trump a failing grade in many areas because he is failing us.
When I do a report card, there are different categories.
There's academics, there's attitude, work habits, and citizenship.
And for me, that's what I tend to start with as I give a grade, as I'm doing my report cards, because it seems to be the one that is easiest and jumps out at me as an overall performance for a child.
And quite honestly, that's what parents are most interested in as well: how is my child getting along with others?
How are they contributing to the classroom?
Quite honestly, what they're actually learning is not as always what they're as concerned about.
So, when we talk about attitudes, work habits, citizenship, respects others.
He gets a failing grade.
He is not respectful.
He has made fun of people.
He demeans women.
He demeans people with special needs.
He is not respectful to his reporters.
He calls them piggy.
Those are things that would be absolutely unacceptable when given a grade.
Listens attentively.
He is terrible at listening.
He interrupts.
He cuts people off.
He deflects.
You know, just overall character is something that he would definitely be failing in.
And for me, character precedes your actions.
And so I don't find him trustworthy.
You know, respecting property, school property, he's now torn down part of the White House.
He is not thinking of others.
He does things without consulting.
I don't find him credible.
And when you can't trust somebody in those respects, I don't trust him in his policies either.
And I don't agree with the things that he's doing.
So in my opinion, he does not get a passing grade.
Well, that is all of the time that we have for this segment.
But coming up, we are going to launch Washington Journal's annual Holiday Authors Week series.
It's going to kick off this morning.
We are going to have nine days of authors from across the political spectrum whose books we think shine the spotlight on important aspects of American life.
We're going to start this morning with Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlowe on his book, Breaking the Law.
We'll be right back.
unidentified
C-SPAN invites you on a powerful journey through the stories that define a nation.
From the halls of our nation's most iconic libraries and institutions comes America's Book Club, a bold, original series where ideas, history, and democracy meet.
Hosted by renowned author and civic leader David Rubinstein, each week features in-depth conversations with the thinkers shaping our national story.
Among this season's remarkable guests, John Grisham, master storyteller of the American justice system.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, exploring the Constitution, the court, and the role of law in American life.
Famed chef and global relief entrepreneur Jose Andres, reimagining food.
Brita Dove, Hulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate.
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C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered.
Tonight, on C-SPAN's Q&A, in his book, Taking Religion Seriously, political scientist Charles Murray discusses his decades-long evolution from happy agnostic to Christian.
He also talks about the foundations of human morality, the Big Bang, and the authorship of the Gospels.
Some of us have access to spiritual acquisition of knowledge that others of us do not.
In the case of spirituality, I don't have an ordinary level of spiritual perceptiveness.
If you put it in IQ terms, I have a spirituality score of about 70, which is way low.
unidentified
Charles Murray, with his book, Taking Religion Seriously, tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN's Q ⁇ A. You can listen to Q ⁇ A and all of our podcasts on our free C-SPAN Now app.
Joining us to kick off our Holiday Authors Week series is Alex Marlow, who's the editor-in-chief of Breitbart News and the author of the book, Breaking the Law.
So I was watching the law fear against President Trump play out and I'm editor-in-chief of Breitbart News.
I have a very powerful newsroom.
We have millions of readers on radio.
I get to do podcasts.
You can speak to all sorts of interesting people.
I would like to think I'm not a stupid person.
And even I was having a hard time of keeping track of all the major cases against President Trump.
There were six in all.
I think if you polled your average person who even reads the news, I don't think they would have known there were six major cases against President Trump.
A couple of them were civil cases.
The rest were criminal cases.
And I found that even some of these basic details were getting muddled in my mind.
And I thought, well, people need help to understand what's actually going on and what it all means and what we can extrapolate out from some of the clear change in our judicial system and the way we've approached it, where it's not necessarily just about law and order, that laws are being selectively applied based off of people's political purposes, where that came from, and is there any way of stopping it, et cetera.
But also helping people understand all the efforts that were being made by the Joe Biden justice system against President Trump and whether or not they were unprecedented, trying to answer some of those basic questions.
No one had done that in book form.
And so finally, when I saw that Trump, I think it was the moment where he got the 37 odd convictions, I thought, this is crazy.
Someone's got to write this, and I'll be the one to do it.
Both sides of the political aisle talk a lot about lawfare, this term in particular.
And you have a definition for it in your book.
You define it as the use of the legal system against political and cultural adversaries and the weaponization of the legal system for partisan political purposes.
Can you talk about why we're hearing this term so much and why that's your particular definition of what it means?
Yeah, so one thing that's really important to state at the outset is I love C-SPAN.
It's one of the networks I watch the most often because I do feel like you get, if you watch an hour C-SPAN, you tend to get all perspectives, which is pretty rare across the TV dial and radio dials.
And so I will say that law fear is something that both sides use.
This is not something that is only used by Democrats.
Republicans use as well, but it's using the legal system against political cultural adversaries, weaponizing the legal system for partisan political purposes.
We all do this, but it was very clear to me that this was egregiously ramped up in the interim between President Trump's two terms.
And trying to understand how that accelerated was a really big point and to try to make a convincing case to people that this is inappropriate.
And in fact, I believe it's actually unconstitutional.
It's pretty clear that equal protection under the law is protected under our Constitution.
Due process rights are protected.
And President Trump was not afforded any of that.
And it amounted in total to legal harassment, which was done in order to try to, I believe, subvert the democracy and make us that he couldn't run for president or was hamstrung when he ran to the point where he was being forced to campaign from a courthouse, was on the brink of, I don't know, perhaps going bankrupt if all the fines were assessed and the way they were.
And this was something that we'd never seen that before ever.
And there's nothing even close comparatively.
And so going through that history, and I do quite a bit of history, the first couple chapters of the book, to give people a sense of how accelerated things got over the last few years.
You also talk about something called lawfair superstructure, which you describe as the constellation of principles, people, and entities that the left has used to break our legal system as we once knew it.
Kind of getting to that point that you were just making about your assessment that this is a pretty unprecedented change in the way that the legal system is being used.
Can you describe what you see as the elements of this lawfare superstructure?
I kind of map out all the various elements of what I regard as the superstructure.
But a lot of it starts from my research and my prior books.
And a lot of what we do at Breitbart is we start with following the money.
And then we do think money is an outsized influence in politics.
Again, this is a nonpartisan thing.
And just looking at who's funding this stuff.
And you start, it starts answering a lot of questions when you start seeing things like the Eugene Carroll case against President Trump that was dormant for so long.
And then you realize that the person who was bankrolling it was Reid Hoffman, who is a huge Joe Biden ally, someone who's a regular visitor to the Joe Biden White House.
He's a billionaire known for founding LinkedIn, but has also been involved in many other big Silicon Valley businesses.
He's known as the most connected man in Silicon Valley and a card-carrying Trump hater.
And when he was putting up the money to go through, it was actually two different cases against President Trump from this.
pretty obscure columnist over allegations that may or may not have taken place with no witnesses, statute of limitations that had run out from a couple decades ago.
You think, how is that possible?
That's completely bizarre that's happening now.
They even skip, she skipped the whole Me Too cycle, didn't say anything then.
And then finally it comes up while he's getting ready to run for president again and think, oh, why is that?
Well, you follow the money and you sort some of these things out.
If you see online targeted attacks on Supreme Court justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, they're actually bankrolled by this thing called the Sandler Foundation, which was banking money from this guy, Herb Sandler, started a foundation a long time ago, was a billionaire, and used a lot of that money through his foundation to fund left-wing apparatus.
And that's what I'm talking about.
It's not just the lawyers who you might see commenting on MSNBC, that they're a part of it.
It's not just the DOJ from Joe Biden.
A lot of the names that come up repeatedly in the book are people who occupy those sorts of jobs.
It goes beyond that.
It's law schools, it's bar associations, it's funding mechanisms.
All of this is what enables the lawfare superstructure to operate and to get victories.
Now, at the same time, in President Trump's first term, he did nominate quite a few judges, and this was a big topic at the time of his influence on the legal system.
How do you think that influenced, you know, this lawfare superstructure, as you describe it?
Yeah, I'm very realistic about what can be done about lawfare in general.
And some of it is just innate to the system.
And this is something that I don't shy away from.
I don't think anyone else should as well.
And I am writing the book.
I know that my audience is largely going to be conservative.
I would like to think if you're not a conservative person, you would still get a lot out of the book, would be entertained by it and would have good insight into what MAGA people think about these things.
But overall, the key to winning more court cases in America is winning elections.
And this is kind of crazy to say, but I don't really see a path away from that.
And one of the conclusions that I draw is if you're not happy with lawfare, this is a left or right thing, though hopefully this is more resonant with my core audience of conservatives.
But if you really want to see more victories, then you have to win all elections.
And you can't opt out of midterm elections and off-year elections and down ballot elections and only focus on the top tier elections because a lot of these judgeships are appointed by people who are political or they're voted on by the people.
And it depends on where you are.
If you're in a blue area, you're going to get more liberal judges, things like that.
And so a lot of lawfare really does.
There's a political element of it.
So when Joe Biden, who a lot of people mock him, which I don't, I wrote another book about Joe Biden.
He does mockable things.
But overall, he and Chuck Schumer were able to put together a massive slate of left-wing judges that give conservatives a hard time and give Donald Trump a hard time now, even though Biden's out of power is kind of disgraced.
His legacy is he's got all these judges that are in there.
And conservatives and Republicans need to take that seriously as well, that there's a lot of opportunity to gain from our values by simply winning elections.
Yeah, and being focused on that and being efficient on that is that's advice I would give to any political person, any new administration, because that's just part of the system.
It is part of, I would say, broadly under my definition of lawfare, but overall, to the victor goes the spoils in this country.
That's the way it works.
So if you get elected, you can appoint whoever you want to appoint.
And if they can get confirmed, then they're good to go.
And I like to operate under a constitutional premise.
And you see a lot of with President Trump's judges that they consistently have, in many cases, not operated from a partisan fashion.
In fact, a lot of conservatives get frustrated with some of Trump's appointments because they do tend to let the Constitution be their guide.
I demonstrate a pretty clear pattern that a lot of those judges appointed by Biden and Obama have taken a much more political lens to a lot of their legal cases.
And there's example after example to back this up in the book, but it really is a political act to appoint many of these judges.
Both sides do it, but I do think overall, the Democrats have taken a much more political approach.
Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor and a contributing editor over at the National Review, wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal back in October on the Trump administration's targeting former FBI director, James Comey.
And, you know, in it, he says, among other things, as a former federal prosecutor, I see Trump's campaign against Comey as a flagrant example of what has come to be called lawfare, the selective use of the law as a political weapon.
But it's also true, as any schoolyard fighter might claim, that the president didn't start it.
Trump may have won a second term in part because the electorate was disturbed by the specter of an incumbent government's leveraging of law enforcement against its partisan opponents.
But taking back the Oval Office has not satisfied his taste for retribution.
The cycle of lawfare thus persists.
And, you know, the headline on this is Trump is waging lawfare after being its target, its target himself.
I wonder if you think that this is appropriate for the Trump administration, for President Trump to also be engaging in lawfare in the way that you describe Democrats as doing.
Well, I don't think there's a really big comparison considering that the Joe Biden DOJ and the Biden White House were involved in all six of the major cases, which I believe make them all unconstitutional.
And we've learned that a couple of them have been deemed unconstitutional, in particular, Jack Smith's two cases.
And we can get into some of that later if you want.
But James Comey, as the FBI director, leaked records of his interactions with Trump in order to gin up the Russia Gate controversy, which is completely phony.
He disclosed this memo to his friend who's a professor at Columbia Law School.
And the plan was they were going to share it with the New York Times.
And Trump's, Comey's intention was that would be used to prompt a special counsel into Trump's ties to Russia, which we now know were virtually non-existent.
And we wasted years of our lives debating this stuff.
Even though it was pretty clear within six to nine months of Trump's first administration, there were no meaningful ties between him and Russia.
And yet we kept going down that road.
It was basically an extension of Hillary Clinton's political campaign against Trump.
And it got all the way to the very top echelons of the FBI.
And from Trump's perspective, though this may be uncomfortable to hear, that if you don't hold people accountable for such behavior, then it just rubber stamps that behavior.
And the next person who is an appointee from a former administration that's held over into a conservative Republican MAGA person's administration has been given the green light to engage in that same sort of interference again.
So with Comey, his behavior as FBI, that was completely ridiculous that he would do that and kind of frankly stupid because he got found out and has now been made, his legacy is pretty disgraced because of it.
So I think Trump having a trying to hold people accountable for past wrongs, I don't even see that as really problematic at all.
So long as there's legitimate pretext.
If there's no evidence, then of course it's inappropriate.
But there's tons and tons of evidence.
Comey used his perch at the FBI to make political acts against President Trump.
There have been a lot of different pieces reporting on what many call President Trump's campaign of retribution.
And there's a recent article in NBC News talking about that Vanity Fair article that just came out a bit ago, in which Susie Wiles said that Trump will, quote, go for it when there's an opportunity for retribution.
And this idea that the president is sort of on a campaign of retribution against his enemies, how does that factor in with this concept of lawfare?
So, yeah, so the Jack Smith cases, so this is the January 6th case that was going to be tried in the D.C. area, and then the Florida case, which was the classified documents cases.
So his special counsel was in charge of both of those, even though his special counsel did not exist at all.
And that's why it ended up, all of them got thrown out.
But he was appointed to investigate a former president.
This was unprecedented.
Typically, special counsels would be appointed to investigate current presidents.
And to investigate a past president looks like an act of retribution.
And in this case, that Biden's DOJ allowed that to happen, I believe was not only retribution, but it was a preemptive strike to try to stop Trump from running again.
And I think it was pretty clear it was both.
So special counsels are expected to bring charges.
So the expectation by appointing Jack Smith, as Joe Biden's EOJ did, was that they were going to make charges against a former president who is about to run.
This is clearly meant to make it so that Donald Trump could not be president again.
Anyone who is in denial of the appointment of Jack Smith was intentionally designed as a political act to stop Donald Trump is living in a complete dreamland.
And so considering that was what preceded whatever President Trump is dealing with now, I don't have a lot of concern for anything Trump might be accused of retribution for looking into people who were trying to destroy him using lawfare to do so.
I think that there's a element of lawfare that takes place by both sides inevitably because it's built into the system.
And that's something that you don't have to like it.
But I do encourage people to accept that that is not entirely going away so long as the system is the way it is.
There's always going to be an ability for people with more political clout to also carry more legal clout.
And in that sense, you can be engaging in lawfare and still going abiding by the law and the Constitution, et cetera.
So that technical sense, sure, to some degree, but it's a fraction of a fraction of what he endured just personally.
Forget about a lot of his supporters, such as so many people who were disbarred and targeted that I mentioned in the book, particularly those associated with January the 6th.
And I'm not someone who walks around excusing everything that happened at January the 6th.
I thought it was a pretty bad move by MAGA to have let it get to where it was.
But still, the overcharging and the absurd restrictions on rights for people who were wandering around the Capitol that day was, I think, a massive mistake for anyone who was trying to keep, who wanted any sort of semblance of equal protection under the law for people who support President Trump.
It's kind of the way Rush Limbaugh really made talk radio a major thing for conservatives.
Andrew made web news what it is.
And there's thousands of people, whether they know it or not, who are prominent voices in the conservative movement, who are really walking in Andrew's footsteps.
And what he did is he thought that there was, he was a revolutionary in a couple ways.
Having web-based news was something that was pretty new.
All the major outlets were either radio, TV, newspapers.
When Andrew came around and launched Breitbart.com, which was going to be web-based, going to be more fast-paced.
He also, we're openly partisan.
We admit that we're conservatives.
Now, we would like to think that we call things straight.
We call them as we see them.
But overall, we admit that our biases are, you can judge us accordingly.
There's a huge premium on accuracy for us.
But he was going to, he did something revolutionary, which is that he said, we're going to just state where we're coming from.
Unlike the New York Times, unlike the Washington Post, places, unlike NBC News, which everyone knows that they have a bias, but who's paying attention?
But they don't admit it.
And we think that's dishonest and unfair.
So we admit where we're coming from.
And he also was a pioneer and that he saw the culture wars as really upstream of politics.
And that being culturally persuasive, being someone who was leading the culture and leading those various battles, were actually more important than winning political battles.
The political battles would come after the culture wars were won.
Now you see everyone online seems to be a culture warrior first, and all of that was preceded by Andrew.
So he was a true visionary.
He passed away over 10 years ago, and we miss him every day, but he was a once-in-a-generation figure, and we owe a huge debt to him.
Andrew Breitbart has several videos in the C-SPAN library.
Let's look at a clip of him on the program back in 2011 talking about his book, Righteous Indignation.
unidentified
Mr. Breitbart, what makes you indignant?
Well, the book is built around this construct called the Democrat Media Complex, which I describe as the natural alliance of the mainstream media, the Democratic Party, and liberal interest groups.
Why did I come up with that construct?
I used to be what I refer to in the book as a default liberal.
I grew up liberal in the west side of Los Angeles.
And what I learned in my prep school, what I learned through my American Studies degree at Tulane University, what I learned from my MTV, what I learned from ABC, CBS, and NBC is that liberalism is righteous and that anybody that disagrees with it is somehow against the children, against the environment, against all things good.
And I happened upon conservative, I tripped upon conservatism during a time when I was driving scripts around Hollywood.
And when I discovered AM radio Rush Limbaugh Dennis Prager, I started to hear a perspective that I had never heard before.
And it made a lot more sense to me than what I had been growing up, that I had grown up with.
And so I'm indignant about the fact that the mainstream media pretends to be objective when in fact it's a cudgel that the left uses against the American people.
And I'm a Tea Party guy, and I'm righteous about what their cause is, limited government.
I'm righteous about the cause of fiscal restraint.
And the idea that the mainstream media, the Democrat media complex, would frame the Tea Party from the get-go as a potentially violent threat and a racist threat shows how frightened the Democrat media complex is of its own citizenry, of the American people.
I think a lot's changed in terms of the way people get their news, gather their news.
I think that a lot of the most effective journalists, I think, out there are hyper-aggressive and are motivated by trying to score political victories, which I think is great.
I think that the information still has to be solid, but I think that it is it's it's clear that there's a more aggressive nature to some of the journalism that's performed online, which I think is very interesting and good.
And I think that a lot of these news brands have lost almost all their credibility.
A lot of them have become really running jokes and they've been surpassed by new media and anti-establishment media.
And I think people now see that the media's credibility and all the polling backs this up, the establishment brands in particular, have never been lower.
And looking at polling from Gallup saying that trust in media is at a new low of 28 percent in the U.S., with Republicans' confidence in mass media to report news fully, accurately and fairly is now at just 8 percent.
Yeah, I think this is really, it's really important.
And I think part of it is, so what you're doing today is you're talking to me and I have a perspective that's different than I heard a caller the last hour, which was making a point about how Trump's Department of Justice is targeting people.
But I walked through and breaking the law.
One of the main points that when I wrote the book is that all six of the major cases against President Trump had White House coordination from the Alvin Bragg case where a person in the DOJ, the number three, a guy named Matthew Colangelo, took a much lower paying job in a district court in New York to try to take out Trump.
Kish James visiting the White House multiple times during that case against President Trump.
Fonnie Willis' boyfriend in the Georgia case, a guy named Nathan Wade, who was a family lawyer.
He was doing divorces and prenups.
Now all of a sudden he's on a RICO case trying to take out the former president and he's getting White House visits.
Jack Smith's wife made a documentary about Michelle Obama, which even Michelle Obama fans thought was a little too on the nose and how obsequious it is.
The list goes on and on about how the DOJ under Joe Biden was political.
And you're having me on so I can share these things.
I can share this perspective.
But over at the New York Times, if they write up a story, they'll just write that Trump is doing retributive action against people.
He doesn't point out that he was targeted by the entirety of the Joe Biden legal apparatus beforehand for completely illegitimate reasons.
And there's no perspective that's offered.
And people are just completely fed up about that stuff.
Well, let's get to the people and their questions and comments for Alex Marlow of editor-in-chief of Breitbart News.
Ralph is in Tombsboro, Georgia on our line for independence.
Good morning, Ralph.
unidentified
Yes, well, Ralph, I'm in London, Robin, Georgia.
Please, I would like to make three quick points right now.
I understand you say people out to get Trump.
Trump has been involved in over 4,000 lawsuits or court cases in his lifetime.
That means where there's smoke, there's fire.
I understand Trump can do no wrong.
That retribution.
But what about if he says he's against drugs?
Why is it that he didn't use the opportunity when the actors, when this writer's son killed him to say, hey, this is what drugs do to you?
This is why I'm doing what I'm doing.
Why is it okay?
He pardoned several drug dealers.
He parted, I mean, that were found guilty.
He pardoned several people that were Medicare fraud that are in and out of the government.
And one, and I'll say this because I know I'm going to be cut off there.
Other people come in.
But what I hear is that if a lie travels around the world before I can finish getting dressed for church this morning, how is it that this guy can pardon the people that were found guilty of entering into the White House found guilty by a court of law?
This is what I'm saying.
And the last thing, please let me get this out.
You talk about DEI.
DEI is another word for the original affirmative action.
Affirmative action didn't say you must hire a minority.
It says that you must consider a minority, which were never being considered before.
And if you have 30% of the people that are minorities in a company, at least 30% of people should be.
Now, if they are hiring people because I want to put on the topic of the lawsuit, go ahead.
Let me say this, please.
If they hire these people because they have a racial background, then that's on the person that does the hiring.
So the points that Ralph was raising about Trump's pardons in particular were echoed by Jimbo in Bakersfield, California, who texted us as an independent voter.
Can Mr. Marlowe explain President Trump's use of the pardon privilege?
My favorite Trump pardon was for one of the largest cocaine dealers on the planet.
Can your guest explain why this is good for Americans?
And Ralph also referenced the January 6th pardons as well.
First of all, Ralph's initial point about how Trump has been sued a bunch of times.
I mean, but these are not criminal suits for the most part.
These are just kind of common things when you've major business empire.
But the whole point, I go through this, that a lot of people who, a lot of people presume there's something called the affirmation of the consequent, which is a logical fallacy.
It's very similar to the bandwagon fallacy.
And the thought of this is that our legal system works, that if there's smoke, there's fire.
If there's a bunch of allegations, that's sufficient to conclude guilt.
That's not how our legal system works.
So you actually need to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt or beyond a preponderance of evidence in a civil court, or else you're not guilty.
So you can't just say, well, a bunch of people sued him before, so that means he must be a bad guy.
If we had a legal system like that, then it would be highly manipulated by people who are trying to stop anyone.
Anyone who is doing any good that goes against the grain in any way, enough people get in a bandwagon, point a finger at him, and do a Salem witch trial on him.
So that doesn't work.
I mean, if you want to talk about, you brought up Rob Reiner that he should have been nice to Rob Reiner.
I mean, there's really far afield from the point of my book, but Rob Reiner was a big Russia hoaxer.
He made some funny movies, but Trump doesn't want to talk about those.
He wants to talk about that this guy worked with John Brennan and James Clapper to try to boost the signal of the Russian collusion hoax, which turned out to be completely false.
So Trump was preoccupied with that.
I didn't love what Trump said on a personal level, but I understand it because Rob Reiner tried to make Trump's life very difficult.
In terms of pardons, I don't love the way the president uses pardons, but I'll explain the J6 pardons.
All the J6 people were way overprosecuted.
Most of them were not doing much.
Some of them weren't doing anything.
And there was a systematic effort by our government to try to make it so that they couldn't have a bank account.
They couldn't hold a job.
It was just such a massive overreaction.
And I wasn't expecting Trump to pardon all of them, but he was saying that these people have gotten such a raw deal that I'm just wiping everyone's slate clean.
And it irritates all of his haters, which he loves to do that.
He does troll.
He does do that.
So remember that if you're feeling irritated, he wants you to feel irritated by him some of the time because maybe you deserve it.
Honestly, that's how it is.
And you can't ever again talk about pardons after Joe Biden and after he preemptively pardoned his family members for crimes dating back 10 years.
So specifically to when they started their influence peddling operation overseas.
So so long as Joe Biden was allowed to do that, then you can never again complain about any pardon Trump does, including me.
I'm a pro-law and order guy.
I don't want him to do a million pardons.
But even I can't say anything after his predecessor set the predicate that if you're president, then you can just determine where law and order doesn't apply.
The pardons of drug dealers in particular, several folks have commented that this runs counter to, in particular, what's happening in the Caribbean and the attacks on drug boats there.
Some of these pardons he's even said in the Oval Office he wasn't very familiar with.
I'd have to take them one at a time, and I would like to research them individually.
But I heard a caller last hour saying that the drug boats were fishing boats.
I mean, that's such willful ignorance.
It's these boats operate like drug boats.
Even Venezuelan media acknowledges they're drug boats.
It's very easy to track how boats move.
And the drug boats and the fishing boats do not look the same from any sort of vantage point, from technology tracking, radar, sonar, et cetera.
We know exactly what those boats are.
And this is a trap.
So if you guys don't like Trump trying to protect Americans when 100,000 of us are dying of fentanyl overdoses every year, if you're objecting to Trump blowing those boats out of the water, you're falling for his trap.
I'm trying to help you on this.
This is a 97-3 issue.
The vast majority of people in this country do not want a bunch of fentanyl coming into our country, killing people and ravaging our communities.
Trump got you guys to fall for this again with the Brego Garcia.
Those of you on the left, you acted like he was a saint.
I think there's the issue that folks have been raising about these pardons in particular, that the president has made so many strong statements related to the fentanyl crisis and the drug issue in the United States in general.
So, John, I would be happy to sign a copy of Breaking the Law for you.
And I would love for you to read it.
And I think after you read it, you'll understand the extent to which Joe Biden's government dedicated time and resources to attacking Donald Trump, his family, and their closest allies, trying to make it so that they could not be welcome in polite society, that they were in jail, that they were bankrupt.
And I think that's very divisive.
And so I know that that might be a new perspective to you, but I have millions of readers, and people listen to my content and read my books and things like that.
And we come from the exact opposite perspective.
We think that it is the lawfier superstructure, which is overwhelmingly run by the left, that has tried to use our legal system to divide the country.
And so you might disagree, but you should get that perspective first before you lecture me on television.
It's my personal opinion there.
And I think the first question was about the inner workings of the Supreme Court.
I don't know.
There's only nine Supreme Court justices.
I don't think they take up every case.
So sometimes they just say this is thumbs up or thumbs down.
That just seems like a bandwidth issue.
So you're going to have to take that up with the framers of the Constitution.
Mike is in Heartland, Wisconsin, on our line for Republicans.
Good morning, Mike.
unidentified
Good morning.
I just want to bring up that, you know, it's interesting how Washington Journal, the only time you want to talk about the rule of law and this type of topic is when it's Trump-based.
But yet there's all this evidence from the left breaking the rules.
For the last couple weeks, we've heard about what's going on in Minneapolis with the Somalis frauding the state and the federal government.
You guys have been silent until we conservatives bring it up.
Just this week, I'd like you to know if you're familiar with this case, Alex.
In Milwaukee, a judge was found guilty of playing games and sneaking an illegal criminal who was in court that day for a violent offense.
She snuck him out the back door, played games with the federal government, with the ICE agents, and she just was found guilty.
Hopefully she gets at least a year.
She can face five years of prison for this.
So, Alex, I hope you know about that case, and please comment.
First of all, let me defend the Washington Journal briefly because this is the second hour I've done on my book.
I'll tell you, I had this book was a New York Times bestseller, and it's my third New York Times bestseller.
I have a very large audience.
A lot of people read these things, which I'm very blessed to have that I've earned over a long time in journalism.
And I got exactly zero minutes of coverage from CBS, zero minutes of coverage from NBC, zero minutes of coverage from any of the major networks.
It was even ones that are leading to the right sometimes ignore these things.
And there's a lot of revelations in this book that I think are pretty blockbuster.
I think it's the scandal of the century, the way Joe Biden's White House orchestrated a political attack using the legal system against their top political opponent.
Never seen anything like that, even close to it in the history of the country.
The Somali story we have talked about here on C-SPAN, but I want to give the update that the guest, the caller, was talking about to the Milwaukee case.
This is reporting from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan was found guilty of a felony count of obstructing federal agents seeking to make an immigration arrest outside her courtroom, a precedent-setting case that has been closely watched nationally and drawn passionate protests.
A jury of seven men and five women deliberated for more than six hours before delivering a split verdict.
They found the judge not guilty on a lesser misdemeanor charge of concealing a wanted person.
The case thrust Dugan, a judge for nine years, into the center of the clash between the judiciary and the Trump administration over its crackdown on illegal immigration.
So the Hannah Dugan case, I want to bring that one up in Milwaukee.
That one does come up in breaking the law.
This case is unbelievable.
And if you all read this, I would like to think, even if you're someone who doesn't agree with me politically, that this judge, that the FBI or that she's arrested by the FBI, but it was because immigration and customs officials had come to the courthouse to try to apprehend someone who was an illegal alien.
And she literally opened the side door, not figuratively, literally opened it.
She directed this illegal alien, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, to leave through a side door of the courtroom while agents waited to arrest him.
This is so lawless.
It's also very stupid because there are cameras everywhere.
But here's the reason why the ICE officials and the FBI officials show up at the court.
They show up at the court because the alternative is they show up in your communities.
So anyone who doesn't want to see illegal aliens apprehended at the Home Depot or at the school or anywhere that they might have to be apprehended, the best thing is when the law enforcement knows that they're at the court, that's the most peaceful, simple, least disruptive way for the community.
And Judge Hannah Dugan is literally letting the illegal alien out of the side door.
It is a mind-blowing case.
I do touch on it in breaking the law.
I, of course, did not have the fresh update from this week, but there is so many things like this that really deserve more attention than they get in the establishment media.
Comey, a Republican appointee who made Clinton, Hillary Clinton, lose the election.
Now, you know, it's now supposed to be waging a lawfare.
And, you know, Trump is like somebody who was brought in to kill a mice.
And he came in with a nuclear weapon for that mice and decided to inflict, I mean, I don't know how to put it, shut out the whole, because right now, the Republican Party wouldn't even know where to start from.
He has messed up all their numbs, everything they ever worked for, every, every, every point.
Yeah, I'm saying, imagine all these financial improprieties.
You know, Trump has been into all these gifts here and there, all these different selling.
I'm trying to, you know, it's so enormous.
I really wish he would jail Biden, come up with some slimcy or, you know, excuse to jail Biden so we can actually start this fight when Trump leaves office.
Because I bet you there'll be a whole lot, you know, to dig up in all this finance.
The first one on Comey, it's the, I think this has been pretty clear since Trump came down that escalator that Republicans, moderate Republicans, and former Republicans have been some of Trump's biggest political enemies because he really overthrew the Republican establishment.
So just because Comey at one time was a Republican is pretty irrelevant here.
I already gave the example earlier in the show how he worked very hard to try to use the Russian collusion hoax, which is completely fake, to try to get a special counsel appointed on President Trump, which would be designed to get criminal charges against him.
So that's what Comey was doing.
And we all know that now.
And that's why he's in big trouble.
And with regards to him getting Hillary Clinton elected, you know, that was very bizarre, that press conference right before the election 2016.
I'm not denying that, but also he did kind of let Hillary get away with maintaining a primary private email server with 13 devices that was in a bathroom in Colorado and had classified information on it, and there were zero consequences for her.
There haven't been.
And remember, the Jack Smith special counsel, one of the two cases, was trying to bust Trump on classified documents.
Yeah, Alex, first of all, a liberal with a Democrat with common sense.
That's an Archimoron a couple of callers ago.
But anyway, my question to you, sir, is that it's kind of funny, you know, like in the First Amendment, and I don't know if you cover this in your book, but you know, the liberals always say the separation of church and state.
Why don't they have a separation of mosque and state or a synagogue and state?
It's always church.
And why do Christians get offended by that?
But here's a point.
It says Congress shall make no law with respect to an establishment of religion or the free exercise thereof.
It's got nothing to do with separation of church and state.
It's a point I make a lot: we're not supposed to have a state-sanctioned religion, which means that you're forbidden from practicing whatever faith you want to practice.
But it doesn't mean we shouldn't have God in the public square.
It doesn't mean we can't celebrate Christmas versus the generic winter solstice or whatever we do in some corners of the world.
But I feel like people are making a comeback.
And I just think if diversity really is our strength, then I think we're better off learning about all the individual religions that are a part of this mosaic of this country and learning to appreciate all of them.
And sometimes appreciating them means you have to acknowledge they exist.
So I would much rather everyone be much more fluent in various faiths and theologies than letting that play out in the public square than us trying to act like they don't exist.
And we do have a very high standard of accuracy at Breitbar.
That's always the premise that I tell my newsroom to approach every story.
The facts are way more important than any sort of underlying agenda that might be there.
So in terms of a lot of all of the Trump cases that he lost are at some level of appeal.
And he's doing well in all the appeals.
We just saw last week that the Fonnie Willis case was completely thrown out in Georgia.
And that was one where I predicted this in Breaking the Law.
I wrote about this, that I thought that case should have been thrown out a long time ago.
I know we're getting relatively short on time, so I'll let readers get all the details.
But I said that that was okay because it will get thrown out, and that'll be another great news day for Trump, which is a really great selling point for the book.
If people are interested in seeing where some of the investigations are going to go, seeing where some of the appeals are going to go, because a lot of these things are still happening.
With the Tish James case, Trump had to put up $175 million on bond.
I don't know if he got that money back, which is crazy because no other president in history could have survived that.
But he had a bond up, at least until recently, and certainly as a press time for the book, which was just a couple months ago, that they were holding $175 million of his money, which is just beyond comprehension for any other president and the vast, vast, vast majority of Americans.
And then he's supposed to be the leader of the free world with all that going on.
So anything where there was, including the criminal convictions, one of the things that took place, and there's a lot of detail in this in Breaking the Law, is that basically the case was put to bed by Juan Mershon, who was the judge over the case in the transition between Biden and Trump.
And this made it so that this will maximize the amount of time the appeal process will take place because Trump's got other stuff on his plate now, but he will be appealing all those convictions.
All of those will have a chance to get thrown out.
I argue that's one of the weaker cases of the six against Trump in the book.
And again, you can read it for all the detail why I argue that at this point in the conversation.
But we can look forward to that in years to come and way more investigations into the people who brought the law fear.
The caller also mentioned some of the other projects that you do.
You and Scott Jennings were just named co-host of Salem Radio Network's noon to 3 p.m. Eastern time slot, which is formerly held by Charlie Kirk, and that's going to be starting on January 5th.
Can you talk about that programming and what that takeover means to you?
He got his start writing at Breitbart News, and he came to us with an idea for a story that we would report.
And we said, well, we're citizen journalists here.
Why don't you write it up and we'll edit it for you?
And the story was lightning in a bottle.
It caught fire.
He was all over television.
He was all over the radio.
And he got the bug.
And that really is what propelled him to launch Turning Point and to make it as big as it was.
And of course, he went on to do a million things beyond that.
But we maintained a friendship.
I was a regular guest on his show once a week in the last year of his life.
And then he was assassinated.
He was taken from us.
And he was on the air live on the Salem stations, which is a set of conservative talkers, very thoughtful, intellectual people who are just wonderful people.
Larry Elder, Dennis Prager, Mike Gallagher, some of these people are some of the best people that I've met in conservative media.
And so one of those two hours I'm going to be hosting, and the other one is going to be hosted by Scott Jennings, who you guys see on CNN and all over X, the Everything app.
And that starts January the 5th.
And thank you for, if you have a Salem station on your dial, then I'll be there.
We have a question on X from Kurt who says, Can the author differentiate a law fair and a law carnival?
Or is it just another baby word the right uses to get their supporters to mindlessly repeat terms like weapons of mass destruction, woke, DEI, et cetera?
Janice is in San Diego, California on our line for Republicans.
Good morning, Janice.
unidentified
Good morning.
The first thing I'd like to say is I absolutely love this guest.
Kudos.
Everything you've said is spot on, and I 100% agree.
And it's about time for the Democrats to open their eyes and realize that all of the total dysfunction and corruption is not on the right.
It is on the left.
At the end of the day, but what I would like to know is how come you guys are not talking more about Minneapolis and what's going on in Minnesota?
And my question to you is, is there any truth to, I don't know if it's a rumor or it's a fact, but the real reason for the search and invasion of Trump's monologue home was because they were looking for specific information that was going to incriminate some of the Democrats,
specifically the word came down from Barack Obama that they wanted to search looking for those something in the files that would have incriminated some higher up.
I believe it might have been Biden or Obama.
I don't really know the facts on that, but that's what I was told.
Because when it came to Biden, it was totally different, totally biased.
I don't understand how Democrats don't see the hypocrite.
So this is sort of the precursor to Jack Smith cases.
And this is, again, another Biden-White House connection.
And there's a lot of mystery around the origins of the raid.
But this is a guy, Jonathan Sue, who was then Biden's White House deputy counsel.
He paved the way for the raid by waiving Trump's claim of executive privilege surrounding these documents that Trump had in his possession.
And so it was clear law fear emanating from the White House, probably rubber stamped by Merrick Garland, if not one of his deputies.
And so again, this is completely crazy that that happened.
And we all just blew through it that a White House organizing a raid by the FBI where they had an order where they could shoot to kill if there was any sort of resistance, which is all part of it.
And that all happened in this country recently.
And just think about that.
If any of you are frustrated with Trump, that that really did happen to him.
They were in Melania's underwear drawer.
They were in Barron's Peloton room looking for state secrets, and then they found these documents, which a lot of them, I mean, we've learned nothing that they were a big threat, that Trump had them.
I don't defend everything Trump did in this one.
You guys can read it for my full analysis, but you had a Biden White House official who would basically pave the way for this to happen.
And just considering all we knew about the laptop from hell, Hillary Clinton servers, and just so little that was done to hold others accountable for mishandling classified information.
And then the one guy who had the broad declassification privileges, the infinite declassification privileges, Donald Trump, this is how he was treated.
We've never seen anything like that.
And it does feel like we should be talking about it a little more than we do.
Thank you so much, Alex Marlow, who is the editor and chief of Breitbart News and author of the book, Breaking the Law, the first of our Holiday Authors Week series.
You see, I didn't even know that it was something that you could do and live with your life.
I thought that, and I was writing poetry from the age of 10, I guess, but it was always a secret thing.
It was a thing that I wrote and thought, okay, this is my secret.
It was my thing that I enjoyed.
I didn't realize that a little black girl could become a poet.
unidentified
Watch America's Book Club with Rita Dove today at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN.
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Next week, on a special edition of Ceasefire, host Dasha Burns features key moments from Ceasefire's inaugural season, highlighting moments of friendship and humor, respectful disagreement.
We are back with our question from earlier in the show.
What grade would you give President Trump on his second term so far?
Our phone lines again for Republicans 202-748-8001.
For Democrats, 202-748-8000.
And for Independents, 202-748-8002.
Now, we've had a couple of callers throughout the show reference the ongoing scandal in Minnesota over food aid that was illegal.
There's a fraud case there.
And here's some reporting on the latest on that from Fox News.
The alleged mastermind behind Minnesota's $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scandal tied to the Somali community is accused of wielding extraordinary power through threats and what the government described as fake claims of racism.
Amy Brock, who founded the Feeding Our Future nonprofit in 2016, used her growing authority to silence dissent, discourage scrutiny from state regulators, and cut off operators who refused to comply, prosecutors said.
While other defendants splurged on luxury homes, cars, and overseas properties, Brock prosecutors said, Brock instead controlled the levers of approval and reimbursement that allowed the scheme to flourish.
One witness even described Bach as a, excuse me, one, Bach is her last name, my bad, as a god in how she enforced her authority.
Court records show that more than $1 million flowed to Bach's longtime boyfriend, who appeared in trial exhibits posing inside a Rolls-Royce with Bach standing nearby, underscoring her alleged proximity to wealth, the wealth generated by the scheme.
Trial evidence painted a picture of a dramatic rise with Bach going from running a little-known nonprofit to overseeing one of the largest federal meal sponsors in Minnesota as she gained influence, visibility, and access to powerful political circles.
And that's Amy Bach, who founded Feeding Our Future nonprofit in 2016.
Now, earlier this month, President Trump attacked the Somali immigrant community in Minnesota, as well as Somali-born Representative Ilan Omar about the scandal.
But when I watch what is happening in Minnesota, the land of a thousand lakes or however many lakes they have, they got a lot of lakes, but this beautiful place, and I see these people ripping it off, and now I'm understanding.
And you're going to look at Janet Scott.
I hear they ripped off Somalians, ripped off that state for billions of dollars, billions, every year, billions of dollars, and they contribute nothing.
The welfare is like 88%.
They contribute nothing.
I don't want them in our country, I'll be honest with you.
Somebody would say, oh, that's not politically correct.
I do want to point out that there have been these accusations, but thus far, none of those accusations have actually been found to be legally valid so far.
unidentified
Well, I don't know what you saw, but I saw some tapes and themes of him with a child.
So I'll just say again that those accusations have not been proven out in court at this point.
But here's some reporting about those Epstein files.
This is from CNN back on December 12th.
New photos released from Epstein's estate showing Trump, Bannon, Bill Clinton, and other high-profile people.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released photos from Jeffrey Epstein's estate Friday showing many powerful figures in the late sex traffickers orbit, including President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton, Steve Bannon, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and others.
Many of the men have been previously linked to Epstein, though the photos may shed new light on the extent of those relationships.
Taken collectively, the images which Democrats on the committee said came from Epstein's estate reinforced the financier was tied in the past to a wide variety of powerful and high-profile people whose ties to him are now under significant scrutiny.
Let's go to Eric in Damascus, Pennsylvania, on our line for independence.
Good morning, Eric.
unidentified
Hey, good morning.
I just had a comment from a book I read the day hell was in session.
The comment stuck with me.
It's the best propaganda is the truth.
But I'm wondering, I used to believe it, but now I'm starting to wonder.
It seems like half the country believes things that aren't true.
And how do we know what's really true?
So I guess my question is: is half the country like why is there so much disinformation and why do people believe it and how we can correct it, I guess.
Well, Eric, before you go, I'm wondering if you have a grade for President's job performance thus far in his second term.
unidentified
Oh, I'm sorry.
Well, I think he's done a great job, but obviously a lot of things he says people don't like, so they hate him.
So I'd give him a good grade, but I wish he could find a way, or I guess we have to find a way to prevent the media from distorting so much of the information that comes from the media is just, I don't know, it's one-sided.
Next up is Carlos in Washington, D.C. on our line for Republicans.
Good morning, Carlos.
unidentified
Yes, seasons, greetings to everyone.
To answer this previous caller, I would say that misinformation and disinformation have replaced civil disagreement in our world today.
But regarding the achievements of Trump, he's only been in office for 11 months, and yet, big picture.
I see Venezuela and now Cuba.
If you read in today's Wall Street Journal, Cuba depends half of its oil comes from Venezuela.
So if Venezuela were to be liberated, and it's a darn shame those people for a generation have suffered so much, nine million of them have left Venezuela.
And with all its resources, it should be number one in this hemisphere, and yet it's not.
But if the liberation of Venezuela comes, and then before President Trump leaves three years from now, the liberation of Cuba would elevate him to, I think, being the most transformational figure of our time in this century, quite a liberating figure, and particularly for this hemisphere.
And I just wanted to give that bigger picture.
And if by the midterms in November we don't see a change in prices at the grocery store, then I think the Republicans will be lamenting having had control of both houses of Congress and the White House and not having done something to relieve, bring relief domestically at home as far as in inflation.
So, that story that Carlos was referencing from the Wall Street Journal is here.
U.S. oil blockade of Venezuela pushes Cuba towards collapse.
The communist-ruled island was already suffering from food shortages, blackouts, and an exodus of people.
Now it faces the loss of cheap oil from Nicolas Maduro.
Cubans are going hungry, suffering from spreading disease, and sleeping outdoors with no electricity to power fans through the sweltering nights.
A quarter of the population has fled during the island's most prolonged economic crisis, and it's about to get worse.
The U.S. is ratcheting pressure on Havana's key benefactor, Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro's regime, which has kept the communist-ruled nation afloat with cheap oil.
Now, Venezuelan oil exports are at risk thanks to a partial blockade targeting sanctioned tankers, the kind that carry about 70% of the country's crude.
One tanker that the U.S. has already seized was en route with almost 2 million barrels of Venezuelan oil.
The blockade adds to a U.S. pressure campaign on Maduro that also includes a major military buildup in the Caribbean, airstrikes on boats allegedly connected to Venezuelan drug trafficking, and threats of bombing the country itself.
Were Venezuela's oil shipments to stop or sharply decline, the Cubans know it would be devastating.
Next up, on our question of how you would grade President Trump's second term so far, we have Cindy in Englewood, New Jersey on our line for Democrats.
Good morning, Cindy.
unidentified
Good morning, Kimberly, and Merry Christmas to all.
So, Kimberly, these things that you play as far as the Somalians, I feel as if I would give Trump an FFFFF.
He seems to not want any brown people, first of all, in this country.
Second of all, if this insurance was called Trump Care, I'm pretty sure that it would be no expiration.
And the other thing, if this man was such a deal maker, why doesn't he go out to the insurance company and make deals on how our insurance should be?
I just feel that this man is just awful to us.
He does nothing for the country.
He just does separation for us all the time.
And for the Republicans that think this man is doing something, I'm sorry.
I think it's a shame how he does not want brown people in this country.
Next up is Bobby in Houston, Texas on our line for independence.
Good morning, Bobby.
unidentified
Hey, good morning.
As far as a grade, we have Donald Trump F minus minus minus.
I look at what he's done.
I looked at the outcome of his actions, and most of his actions have been bad.
I'm looking at everything objectively.
The economy is horrible.
My pocket tells me that when I go into the grocery stores, my pocket is screaming because everything is so expensive.
And as far as the deciding factor for me, and the reason I think he has no business being in charge of this great country is he has no morals or values.
He would do anything to hurt, to make a dollar for himself, and not for his family, but for himself.
And, you know, at the end of the day, I want my children and my children's children to say that my grandfather, my father, stood up for this country and not be a part of the demise of this country.
And that's what's going to happen if people don't stand up to this tyrant that we have in the office.
Next up is Dowd in Miami on our line for independence.
Good morning, Dowd.
unidentified
Yes, good morning, America.
Good morning to all.
I'm giving this man an F, an FFF.
When he came in in January, he said that he was going to make things slow.
I went to the grocery store when I was in Miami two weeks ago.
What I spent for $50, it gave me less than what I spent for a year ago.
And how can he say he's going to make this country great when his family was just given $2 billion from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and other kingdoms all the way with Jerry Kushner?
And that's telling me, this man stood in America and said he trusts Russian spies more than American intelligence in Russia.
This told me everything but Donald Trump right there.
He's a disgraced man, an uneducated man, and this man has no account for moral compass.
He went to court.
How can you claim 55,000 feet for your billion when it's time to pay taxes?
But then when it's time for you to get your taxes back from IRS, you claim 75,000 feet.
You can't do that.
This man is a criminal, and he is the first American president with 34 convictions to sit in our warehouse.
Jim is in Winter Park, Florida on our line for Republicans.
Good morning, Jim.
unidentified
Good morning, Kimberly.
I just got a, I'm going to give Trump an A.
And I've got to go back.
You left, every time we watch the TV, King Jeffries comes on and just spews lie after lie after lie.
When Trump did say that he was going to bring cost prices down, the problem is that we had four years of huge inflation.
Thousands of people crossing the border.
Actually, millions of people crossing the border.
You can't stop, you can't turn the thing around in 11 months.
But what he has done so far is he has gotten the economy to where the inflation is down around 2%, which is where they want it.
Now, of course, that doesn't erase the 20% that went up during the Biden administration.
That's why all your food prices are expensive in the stores.
There's still 20% of inflation from Biden's administration.
So, you know, I would love to see a negative inflation.
I would like to see it where it goes down because the prices change.
One of the things that is going to happen, all right, you asked this morning a question about what has Trump done that gives him NA.
Now, let me just say it.
Democrats handed him an economy that was riddled with high inflation, Unaffordable Care Act, and a border that was worse than Swiss cheese.
In less than a year, the border is closed.
The cost of gasoline is cut in half in most states.
Not the Democratic states, not the ones where they bang the taxes up, like California and New Jersey and New York and Illinois.
Those people are suffering because of their governors, not because of Trump.
And when the price of gasoline comes down and the price of fuel comes down, the trucking industry, which gets everything to the stores around this country, will lower the price of transporting the food.
And what will that do?
It will drive the food prices down.
It doesn't happen overnight.
It's going to take a while.
Everybody complained about the price of eggs when Trump became the president.
I was going to the store and there were $7 and $8 a dozen.
Now they're $1.99 a dozen.
They complain about coffee.
Well, you know, you've had shows on where they talked about that South America, where most of our coffee comes from, has suffered a wet, wet season, and it has caused the coffee to not be produced like it was.
So this is not being driven by Trump.
It's being driven by the weather that they had in South America.
Price of coffee will come down as the weather gets better.
Some of the increase in the price of coffee had to do with tariffs, though.
What do you think of the president's overall tariff strategy?
unidentified
I don't believe it has to do with tariffs.
And you've got to remember, he played with the tariffs because what he was trying to do is he's trying to get these countries to have the value-added tax on everything that America sends over there, 7% and 8% and 9%.
Why should we, as a country, get charged or not be able to sell product into a country that we're buying their products?
And we don't charge them a tariff, but they hit our stuff that we send over there with tariffs that people don't buy it.
So, Jim, I want to let you finish your point, but I do want to give you some information related to coffee prices and tariffs.
This is a story from Reuters that came out just a few days ago.
And it says here, U.S. coffee lovers hoping President Donald Trump's tariff rollbacks last month will soon lower the cost of their daily caffeine head had better think again.
The widespread import tariffs imposed by Trump mostly over the summer, which included top coffee producers such as Brazil, boosted the price of raw coffee beans.
But the added costs are mostly still filtering through supply chains and have yet to reach consumers.
According to brokers, traders, and industry experts, high U.S. retail coffee prices have, in other words, been driven mostly by last year's coffee bean supply shortage, which spurred a doubling in raw bean prices in the 12 months to March, which is what you were referring to, Jim.
But Farron and other industry experts estimate it will take at least nine months from now for raw bean prices to filter through to coffee drinkers due to roasting times and price negotiations, meaning it could be well into next year before prices retreat.
So the tariffs that were paid on coffee beans earlier in the year when those tariffs were still in effect are going to take a while to filter through the system.
Jim, are you still there?
unidentified
Yeah, I'm here.
That is exactly my point.
Everybody's talking about the price of coffee being up because of Trump's tariffs.
You just answered that question.
It's not because of his tariffs.
It's because of a bad season last year.
And the tariffs haven't hit the price of coffee coming into the United States for another nine months.
This is all projections.
What happens in three months when the tariff gets taken off of that coffee before it even starts to make it into the country?
People aren't going to go back and go, oh, wow, he dropped the tariffs and price of coffee didn't go up.
No, they're going to still complain that the price of coffee is up because of his tariffs.
The tariffs haven't caused a penny of the rising coffee prices.
But all of the talking heads, all they do is they talk about everything that Trump does causes everything that happens in this world the next morning.
And it doesn't.
It really doesn't.
And the last thing I'm going to say before I hang up, and I'm glad you gave me this time, Kimberly, I really appreciate it.
For 3,480 days now, since he came down the escalator, 90% of all programming on your show has been about Trump every day.
And why haven't we had a day where there's no Trump and there's Minneapolis where they've taken $8 billion of our tax money across this country and the Somalian people have taken it and they're just ripping us off?
But no, there's no nothing over here.
Let's talk about Trump.
Let's just keep talking about Trump because he's the best target because everybody on the Democratic side wants to hate him.
You know, we had Joe Biden, who literally was the movie Dave was just like Joe Biden.
You know, Biden was in his house in his basement, not doing anything, but he was the president.
Somebody had their hand up his back and they were moving his mouth.
All right, let's go to Linda in Elk Grove, California on our line for Democrats.
Good morning, Linda.
unidentified
Hi, good morning.
Thank you so much for taking my call.
You know, it's really interesting to me listening to everyone's perspective, whether they're Democrats, Republicans, or Independents.
For me, the grade I give to Trump as a Democrat is an F.
It's a little bit different from what some other individuals have said, and even the gentleman who just called in before me.
Okay, yes, the price of eggs has gone down, but I don't know if based on the information that I understand, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but the reason that the eggs were so expensive was because of a chicken virus that was going around that was chicken flu, yes, that was causing a shortage on the availability of eggs.
So that's more of a, what, a scientific, environmental thing.
It's not so much attributed to Trump.
My main gripe with the president is just the way that he communicates with us as Americans, as well as how he's representing us and me around the world.
He's just mean-spirited.
And aside from the policies, he can do a million good things.
But if he talks about people like they're trash and he doesn't want people here, I don't care so much if they're brown or yellow or green, just people in general.
I want us to be a caring nation that we care about people, that we just don't throw people away and disrespect them just because maybe that they're different from us.
And so when I hear Republicans, like when we were having the Venezuelan boat strikes, and there's reports, even though we haven't seen any videos, of two men who are hanging over the edge of the boat, and Republicans just jump on board and say, oh, well, they're trying to flip the boat.
There's drugs there.
They're going to do this and that.
I mean, just for me, I just don't see the proof of that.
It doesn't make sense.
When he goes and renames the Kennedy Center and he puts his name on there, what's the purpose of that?
That's not helping us as Americans or making us seem like an inclusive, welcoming, sane-thinking country.
The plaques that he recently updated in the Hall of the Walk of Fame, I think it was called, in the White House, it's just rude.
It's just mean.
And let me just finish by saying that his statements about sending money to us as individuals to buy our insurance, I think if anybody were to stop and think about it, if you have someone who was in a really tough financial situation, are they going to take $1,000 a month and put it on an insurance premium?
I don't know.
I'm not sure that they would do that.
And can individuals really work with big insurance companies to negotiate a plan that's like just for me?
I don't think so.
I think there are some better ways to handle that.
Linda was referencing how President Trump represents the country around the world.
And in an interview last month with CNN, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi was criticizing President Trump for similar things, his approach to the Constitution as well as the nation's government institutions.
unidentified
As somebody who reveres the House of Representatives itself, I mean, more than just about anybody, how does it make you feel to see what's happening in the House right now?
Back to your calls with your grade for President Trump's second term of office so far.
Steve is in Charlotte, North Carolina on our line for independence.
Good morning, Steve.
unidentified
Good morning.
I was just listening to everyone that was talking.
You know, I've been in this country for 40-something years.
It came in 1971.
I was 12 years old.
Then, now, back then, I look at it as why?
Do I give President Trump?
You might think he's just a figurehead, like every president has been.
It's the people behind him.
It's the people who's actually calling the shots.
You've got to Steve Miller, believe it or not, a person who talks like that.
That makes no sense.
I don't agree with what they're saying.
I don't agree with what they're doing.
My next thing is that I don't agree with is look at the billionaires.
The economy is not based on the president.
The economy is based on companies.
I'm a truck driver.
I've been doing it for a while.
And believe it or not, it is how everything perceives with inside the country as far as the companies is concerned.
The next thing is: is Trump doing a good job?
His mouth is dirty.
That's number one.
Number two, he needs to learn respect.
Number three, he has no manners.
And it goes back to a person who has money or who have the power.
They can say and do anything they want to.
But that's him.
Make a country, as he always said, make America great.
America was great from World War II until the present time.
They're losing it.
Back in the 70s, I remember this: that you could have walked down 34th Street, 42nd Street, and going from one job to another.
They can't.
Because this was said on news back then, if you can probably pull it up, a Chinese guy said the American companies will sell their mother to make profit.
China didn't ask him to come over there.
When Nixon became president, he went and everybody else followed.
China had the people and it was cheaper.
Why can't it be the same way?
Why can't everybody just simply say, sit down and talk around, talk, stop pity pattern like little kids?
That's what they do.
The Democrats and Republicans, honestly, and they've been saying this for a long, they're like crabs in a barrel, just trying to see who climbs to the top.
That's all it is.
As far as his farm's Trump doing what he does, that's him.
That is him.
He's just a person that just feels that he's top of everybody.
He can say and do whatever he wants.
But I look at the people behind him.
Everyone needs to understand something.
To make a country great, it stands from the people inside, not the government, the people.
This whole situation is just, you know, going to pot because of that one man in office, and everybody is falling up behind him like he's some kind of god.
But this, I don't even, I'm so nervous here.
I don't even know what to say.
He has done, I give him a grade of an A, A plus, because he has completed the Jim Crow attitude that these white folks have been wanting to come out with for the last 30, 40 years.
I'm 74 years old, and I have never seen a man that would separate the country the way he has done.
President Trump had some support amongst a lot of different communities now.
unidentified
He's got a bunch of confused, other different races of people that just don't know what's going on.
Obviously, they have never been in the Army or the service or anything to know that we're fighting for a democracy that, you know, goes beyond Jim Crow.
That's the reason why we were fighting to keep Jim Crow in place and feelings like that away from people where they think they're better than other people and they got to put other people down and people taking their money and all that type of old crap.
We were all taking care of each other before Trump came down the elevator talking about there'll be no more political correctness.
We're not going to talk.
We're going to be saying whatever we want to say.
In other words, he's going to, just like he said, he hates Democrats, okay?
John, just because a couple folks have mentioned the money that Nancy Pelosi has made, what do you think of the calls for a congressional stock trading ban?
unidentified
Oh, yeah, that has to happen because she was buying stocks in military factories that were making armaments before they were getting contracts.
When she knew they were going to get the contracts, she made a lot of money.
But they all do it, and it's Republicans, too.
That's all got to stop.
That has to stop.
That's not fair.
That's not right.
I watch the stock market religiously.
So they have an advantage over it.
It's insider trading, which you and I aren't privy to.
So it looks like, according to reporting from CNBC and others, that House Republicans have said that the Congressional Stock Trading Ban Bill is going to get a vote in the new year, and that would ban members from owning or trading stocks in that they, excuse me, the commitment comes as rank-and-file members sought to use a procedural tool to bypass Speaker Mike Johnson and force a vote.
President Donald Trump has said he supports a congressional ban, but has pushed back on versions that include the executive branch.
Okay, let's hear from Ron in Dunn, North Carolina on our line for Democrats.
Next up is David in New York on our line for Republicans.
Good morning, David.
unidentified
Good morning.
Good morning, Kim.
Yeah, I would give Trump an A.
The reason I think that he comes across as mean and things is because he's been attacked for 10 years.
And when they attack him, that's like attacking us.
We believe in Trump for basically the way he's run and what he's said and his goals are.
And those are our goals.
And when they attack him every single day, and it comes through both individuals on shows like this, but it also really comes across on the mainstream media.
And the mainstream media is, I believe, is owned by the Democratic Party because you can tell just by how many of their main people have been fired over the last, and how many suits he's brought against them for lying and what have you.
And he's won.
And they've been firing these hosts left and right.
And half of them are out on the street looking for a job or they're working for the Democratic Party in other places now.
I mean, one thing I disagree with Trump on, especially this, is that he says he's going to bring prices down.
Well, I lived through the 70s.
In fact, I was just coming of age to get a job at that time.
And prices don't come down.
That was after the oil embargo.
Prices do not come down.
The inflation will come down.
But the one thing about that is a drop in current inflation doesn't lower prices.
It does not happen.
The only thing that can lower the prices, some, is the fuel cost.
And that's just making it cheaper to drive things around and deliver them.
And there's, I mean, we went through, we got people like Chuck Schumer and Nancy, you were just talking about.
And, you know, these people are so against everything.
In fact, the whole Democratic Party, they are so together in attacking Trump, every single one of them, except for, okay, the one guy from Pennsylvania there, John Fetterman.
He's the only one with a normal head, it seems like.
And, I mean, Hillary was given a pardon, you know, when she was smashing her communications.
And the people that call in, I just, the hypocritical nature of some of this stuff, do as I say, not as I do.
When they say Trump tells the truth, you fact-check the man and nothing he says is the truth.
Talk about not wanting people in office to make money.
He's made more money in office than anybody in the Congress.
And yeah, I think everybody in the Congress shouldn't make money off their jobs either.
But some of what people are calling and trying to make his excuses, he is unkind.
He never says anything nice about anyone.
People were fired for saying unkind things after Charlie Kirk died, yet he said some really nasty things about Rob Reinhard.
He is the antithesis of anything that we've ever had as Americans.
And when you talk about blaming others or accepting accountability and the truth, he doesn't do that either.
He blames absolutely everything on Joe Biden and doesn't take responsibility for anything or any part of anything he's done.
It's ridiculous.
And I just hope that our country can come out the other side at the end of another three and a half years because he's really brainwashed some people and I don't know what to call what he has going on here, if it's a cult, if it's people who are just ashamed that they voted for him and they're just hanging on till the bitter end.
I'm not sure, but he is the opposite of anything we've ever had and all of our values.
What's your grade of the president on his second term in office so far, Jim?
unidentified
And I think the reason people are now asking us to come back to the middle or even back farther, and that's why people are criticized for being Make America great people.