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Dec. 19, 2024 - Sebastian Gorka

02:52:41

Chris Stigall LIVE: DOGE's first strike - government shutdown looming

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	Thank you.
	The one and only Chris DeGall.
	Never.
	There is no replacement for Dr. G. We can only hope...
	To do our level best to fill in.
	How you doing?
	Chris Stigall, live from Phoenix, Arizona and AmFest 2024. We are saddled up for what is going to be a big, big weekend.
	And Seb gave me a call, said that he's actually now going to be on the main stage because, as you know...
	You're not just dealing with any average talk show host in Sebastian Gorka.
	Now we're talking about the deputy assistant of the president.
	I wrote this down so I wouldn't screw it up.
	And now senior director for counterterrorism.
	So when the new senior director for counterterrorism calls you and says, can you fill in for me?
	I said, sure, whatever you want.
	Just don't hurt me.
	So he's actually going to be coming by tomorrow here at AmFest.
	We're on Media Row, day one, getting started out here, and it is quite a scene.
	It's going to be a who's who, but you know who's not showing up today?
	It probably won't surprise you.
	Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.
	It's just been announced.
	He was originally scheduled to be a speaker here this week, this weekend, and the post today on X says that given the events of the last couple of hours, I guess the last day or so since Elon Musk blew up this omnibus,
	porculus, Christmas tree, whatever you want to call it, continuing resolution, Now, he's become one of the least popular figures in the Republican ranks, and a lot of people were afraid if he showed up here, he'd get an earful.
	I should mention to you, by the way, a beautifully decorated convention center here for AmFest, and one of the things that you will see all over this convention hall are the words, give Trump his cabinet.
	Confirmthemandate.com, the website.
	It is everywhere.
	Give Trump his cabinet.
	Confirmthemandate.com.
	So, suffice it to say, if you are a member of Congress, And you're not willing to play ball, let's say more specifically, if you're a Republican member of Congress and you're not willing to play ball with this incoming Trump administration and their agenda, you'd better not be showing your face at the turning point USA AmFest 2024 here in Phoenix.
	And it sounds like Mike Johnson has decided against visiting today.
	What an unbelievable 24 hours.
	You know, I do a morning show in Philadelphia every day on Seb's Affiliate.
	AM 990 The Answer.
	And I was gone this morning from my show because I was traveling here to Phoenix to do this show today.
	And I'm really glad that I was able to be with you here live today.
	And I want to hear from you, too, at 833-33-GORCA. 334-6752.
	I want your reaction to what we've just experienced in the last 24 hours.
	This is something unlike anything we've ever seen.
	The presidency, the election of this president, historic.
	The way in which Donald Trump won this election, historic.
	Everything about this game has completely changed.
	We're now talking about elections won not by traditional media outlets.
	We're talking about elections now won by going on podcasts like Joe Rogan's and non-traditional media.
	Much of which, you know, Seb does here, we do here with Salem Media Group, as well as all of what you would know as alternative media today.
	Well, as Elon Musk says, we are the media now.
	And these old fossils, and you can see it.
	I woke up in my hotel room this morning and I was watching CNN and you could see them all just throwing a tantrum.
	Freaking out that this porculous spending bill is not going to be rubber-stamped, and they're all screaming the same thing.
	We had a bipartisan deal!
	We had a bipartisan deal!
	Elon Musk killed the bipartisan deal!
	I don't think they remember exactly who they're dealing with.
	Seventy-six million Americans.
	Who said no to business as usual.
	And Mike Johnson, I'm sorry to say, and I guess many Republicans, I'm sorry to say, although I won't pin it on all the Republicans because I'm not sure they necessarily knew what was in this thing.
	Once it became clear what was in it, and you know how we found out?
	Much like Donald Trump won the presidency in an unconventional way, we're now finding out about the way they do business on Capitol Hill in an unconventional way.
	As I understand it, and I'm working to get more information on this, but as I read it, Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, head of the new Doge Committee, took this 1,500-page monstrosity and processed it through X's AI program called GROC. And,
	as I understand it, a 1,500-page piece of garbage legislation was pumped through AI, was quickly read, and it spat out in a format, easily understood everything that was in it, and broken down without all the legalese and all the technical jargon, the way you and I could really understand what was going on.
	Let that rip on social media.
	It spread like wildfire in a no-time flat.
	Members of Congress had their phones ringing off the hook on Capitol Hill from you.
	And the thing lost support.
	Immediately lost support.
	And mainstream media freaking out.
	This was a bipartisan deal.
	This was a bipartisan deal.
	Who cares what kind of bipartisanship support it had?
	Who cares that there was a deal struck?
	Do you people forget?
	Who governs this place?
	It's we the people.
	It's literally on the escalator side here at AmFest.
	People coming down the escalator in front of me here at this show.
	It says the words, we the people.
	And the problem with much of this 535 member Congress on Capitol Hill is they've forgotten those three words, we the people.
	We decide, we dictate, we control whether you're going to spend a gazillion dollars of our money or not.
	And if we don't like it, if we could ever figure out what the heck you were up to, we'll shut it down.
	But that's the dirty little secret, isn't it?
	They've been doing this stuff in secret with a lazy, complicit, compliant media that will not tell you what's in anything.
	They're not curious about what's in anything.
	They'd rather be invited to parties with members of Congress than they would scrutinize members of Congress.
	So members of Congress come out and say, well, we've got a continuing resolution to get us through Christmas.
	It'll be fine.
	And the traditional old lazy media says, well, they've come to a bipartisan deal to get us through Christmas.
	It'll be fine.
	Along comes AI and Elon Musk and Vivek and they run this garbage through AI and they say, oh no, this is far from fine.
	This is a disaster, and everyone should know it, and we should stop this immediately.
	And really what you're seeing is the final nail, one of many that have been driven into the coffin of traditional mainstream media, and they're furious.
	We are the media now.
	We don't need them anymore.
	When they're not lying, they're just lazy and not willing to do their jobs, and we don't need them.
	And so that's what you're seeing across the board.
	I just saw Neil Cavuto just quit.
	Fox News today.
	Coincidence?
	Who knows?
	I'll let that be for now.
	But let me tell you one other thing before we go to break, and I want to get you in here at 833-334-6752.
	One thing that is abundantly clear to me, Democrats are great at one thing, they're on message at all times.
	They never, ever stray from the message.
	And they've gotten together and they've decided, here's the message.
	And will this work?
	I'm asking you.
	The message is, Elon Musk is really the president.
	Donald Trump is subservient to Elon Musk.
	And Elon Musk is running everything now.
	And you will hear this over and over.
	You've already heard it.
	You've been hearing it over the last 24 hours.
	And what they're trying to do is drive a wedge in between Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy and Trump.
	They're trying to play...
	To Trump's ego, frankly, a lot of people believe that Trump could be goaded into getting mad at Elon for getting the kind of attention or credit.
	And so Democrats are goading Trump by saying he's the president.
	He's clearly the one driving.
	He's clearly the one in control.
	They're hoping Trump will actually distance himself from Elon.
	And if they can make the American public dislike Elon, too, all the better.
	Let me hit a couple of these to make my point.
	Democrat Dan Goldman on MSNBC. Take a listen.
	Cut to...
	And I gotta tell you, Lawrence, it's scary that you have the world's wealthiest man, who supported Donald Trump with nearly $300 million, is rumored to be ready to give Donald Trump a financial windfall by using his ex-company to purchase Truth Social, having so much influence.
	This is an unelected oligarch who appears to be running our government.
	Yep.
	Eric Swalwell, cut three.
	Same deal.
	Why are they taking orders from Elon Musk?
	Why is Speaker Johnson?
	Who's the speaker?
	Is it Elon Musk or is it Mike Johnson?
	It's Speaker Musk right now.
	All right.
	There you go.
	That's enough.
	That's my point.
	That's just some of it.
	What do you say?
	833-33-GORCA is the number.
	My name's Chris Stegall.
	In for Seb from Amfest in Phoenix.
	Sit tight. Sit tight.
	Sit tight.
	You've heard it before.
	There are known unknowns and unknown unknowns.
	And then there's Chris DeGal.
	Philadelphia's AM990 The Answer, and we're delighted to have him with us today.
	Thank you, Seb.
	It is great to be with you live at AmFest 2024. We're in Phoenix where Seb is going to be speaking this weekend as well as Donald Trump and virtually a who's who of every conservative name you know and care about.
	They're all here.
	Huge convention.
	The place is busting at the seams.
	The crowd is already pouring in and we've got a great front row seat for it all here today and tomorrow.
	Just a thrill to be with you.
	You know, we're only one week Away until Christmas.
	And I want to take a minute to pull back the curtain on what a blessing our Angel Tree campaign continues to be, thanks to the infusion of gifts from folks that listen to this show, like you.
	Our colleague Trish Regan from the Salem Podcast Network, if you don't know her, she's fantastic.
	She's an award-winning financial journalist and author.
	She's also embraced the Angel Tree program in a really personal way.
	Take a listen.
	I have three little kids and I was telling them about the angel tree program and how important it is and this week especially we should all just take a moment to think how lucky we are but what about the little kids out there who don't even have a parent right now because they have a parent that is incarcerated in prison and it's not the little kids fault it's so important right now to the kids to me to everyone here at Salem we all want to do our part Yeah, you can hear how passionate Trish is about this.
	She is so grateful for the help still being provided, thanks to generous listeners just like you.
	And with Christmas only a few days away now, I'm asking you, go right now if you can.
	Go to SebGorka.com and click on the Angel Tree banner.
	At the top of the page.
	And for a gift of just 30 bucks, you can change a prisoner's child's life.
	Or for 150 bucks, you can bless five children of prisoners with personalized Christmas presents and a personal note from their incarcerated parent.
	Plus, every Angel Tree family is also given access to a Thank you for joining Dr. Gorka's campaign to help prison fellowship.
	We head to...
	Capitol Hill now, where our friend Matt Boyle, he's the Washington Bureau Chief at Breitbart, has been reporting on this unbelievable development over the last several hours, I guess days, 24 hours or so, since Elon Musk and Vivek.
	As I understand it, Matt, first of all, welcome into America First.
	I'm Chris in for Seb today.
	Hello.
	Hey, how's it going?
	Doing great.
	Am I right in what I read that Elon Musk plugged this 1,500-page monstrosity of a CR into his AI program and outspat something very easy for civilians to read, and that had a huge hand in blowing this thing up?
	Is that what you're hearing?
	Is that true?
	Yeah, I think Elon Musk's voice here is extremely important, but I don't think, like, the Democrats' view of this or the establishment media that, like, Elon Musk is somehow the shadow president or something like that is right either.
	I think that Elon Musk is a weapon, right?
	Like, I think that—but he's Donald Trump's weapon, right?
	Like, Donald Trump is the one who didn't want this plan to go through, and that's abundantly clear.
	The president-elect and former president of the United States and his vice president-elect Issued a joint statement yesterday afternoon making clear they do not support this legislation that Mike Johnson spent three months negotiating.
	It's a 1,500-page bill.
	It's filled with all sorts of nonsense, like the first congressional pay raise of 40% in 15 years.
	They haven't had a congressional pay raise in 15 years, and they want to give themselves a 40% raise right now?
	Well, Americans are struggling.
	It's insane, right?
	Like, they want to exempt themselves in Congress from Obamacare for the first time ever.
	They want to fund censorship of conservative media and the efforts to shut down Elon Musk's ex or Twitter or whatever you call it, et cetera, all packed into this legislation that Mike Johnson negotiated with Democrats and agreed to and tried to sell to Republicans.
	And the whole thing blew up in his face because The fact of the matter is that the American people saw the truth, and President Trump and Elon Musk, And others were out there criticizing it and ripping it apart.
	So the plan is dead.
	So now we are a little over a day away from a government shutdown.
	The government is shut down tomorrow night at midnight, Eastern Time.
	That's all the funding runs through.
	Just to be clear, my interpretation is Democrats are eager to try to drive a wedge in between Elon Musk and Donald Trump.
	I think they're trying to goad Trump by continually saying, well, it's clearly President Elon.
	It's clearly President Musk.
	Is that going to work?
	I don't think so.
	I don't think so.
	Because everybody that needs to know knows the truth, and it's President Trump that's in charge.
	And President Trump is putting his stamp on these negotiations.
	He is driving the conversation.
	Look, Donald Trump, when he first came to Washington in 2017, after he won the 2016 election, was a newcomer in the land.
	He didn't know how Congress worked.
	He had to figure out how the system worked and all that kind of stuff.
	He knows how the system works now.
	And he is demonstrating that he is in command of the system.
	I've talked to President Trump about this repeatedly.
	One of the things he always brings up is that it took him a little bit to figure out how D.C. worked.
	He'd only stayed there overnight.
	He'd only been to D.C. a dozen times in his life, and I don't think he ever stayed overnight before he was elected president the first time.
	So now he knows how this works, and he is driving the conversation.
	So what he's done is he's put forward his own plan, which is A debt ceiling increase along with the clean CR, because he wants to get rid of the leverage that Chuck Schumer is going to use against him later next year, like when the debt ceiling comes up in June.
	So if they can do that now, and either abolish the debt ceiling altogether or do a long-term extension of it, then they take away the Senate Democrats' ability to extract concessions out of Republican Senate and Republican White House and Republican House.
	The mess we're in, though, is a direct result of the incompetence and corruption of Speaker Mike Johnson.
	And so the big question now that's circulating on Capitol Hill is, will Mike Johnson be the speaker again when the new Congress is seated?
	When January 3rd rolls around, there is a vacant chair.
	Mike Johnson is not the incumbent Speaker of the House on January 3rd.
	Nobody's Speaker of the House.
	On January 3rd.
	So who will be the Speaker of the House is the big question.
	Thomas Massey says that he's against Mike Johnson.
	And if one more member joins because of vacancies and absences, it looks as though Mike Johnson will not have the votes to be elected Speaker again.
	It's not so much reelected, it's elected Speaker again on January 3rd.
	Matt, if I could, I want to hold you over for another break if you have time for it.
	I know you're busy, but I did want to ask you one quick question with about a minute, less than a minute.
	Mike Johnson's not coming here to AmFest now.
	He was scheduled to be here.
	He's been hanging out with Trump a lot.
	What happened there?
	If you can truncate that, or maybe we have to come back.
	Well, I think that it's a sign that Mike Johnson's political future is in question and in doubt right now, in that I do think that Mike Johnson is reeling.
	He is in serious trouble.
	He's in the most serious trouble he's ever been in.
	Now, look, cockroaches have survived, you know, at the nuclear apocalypse.
	So it wouldn't surprise me if, you know, Mike Johnson has demonstrated an ability to survive like a cockroach at a nuclear apocalypse.
	So it wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't come back from this.
	But that being said, he's in a very bad way right now, and that's why he's canceled on the event there.
	And I think that he's going to have real trouble covering together the votes to win the speakership.
	The big question would be, does he resign between now and January 3rd to avoid putting the Republican Party and President Trump and its movement through chaos?
	Matt, thank you.
	If you can hang on for me for a minute, I want to come back with you as we take a break.
	We are live at AmFest out here in Phoenix.
	It's at the conservative confab to beat all conservative confabs.
	Seb's going to be here speaking tomorrow.
	He'll be joining me on his own show as a guest, which is wild.
	I want to hear from you at 833-33-GORCA if you want to weigh in.
	More from Capitol Hill and this unbelievable story on America First. . .
	. . . .
	.
	Thank you.
	Chris Tagolf filling in for Dr. Sebastian Gorka, who will be speaking here, where is here, where I'm sitting, in Phoenix, Arizona at AmFest 2024. It is, well, it's just a big old conservative party is what it is.
	And I'll tell you who's not welcome, Mike Johnson.
	And I guess he got the memo because he's not coming.
	We're back with Matt Boyle, who is the Washington bureau chief at Breitbart.
	He's been covering this blown-up CR.
	And now the question before us is, with 24 hours to go or a little less now, can they get this what's basically called clean CR to a vote?
	That's what a lot of people are suggesting.
	I've heard many Republicans, Matt, and I welcome you back, have said, just get a clean CR to the floor and vote.
	We don't have to shut anything down.
	Clean CR. Define for people that don't know what that means.
	What is a clean CR and are you optimistic something like that would even work?
	Democrats probably don't want to help Mike Johnson.
	Yeah, I would say it's a cleaner CR than the one that they put forward because they tried to call it what they put forward.
	The other day, a CR, and that's not a CR, that was a bigger omnibus spending bill, because it tacked on all sorts of different things.
	What an actual continuing resolution or CR is, it just is a simple piece of legislation that says we fund the government at the current levels until a later date.
	And they don't add new stuff into it or whatever.
	And so when I say cleaner CR, The one thing that you will hear from both sides on Capitol Hill, Republicans and Democrats, and even some of the great conservatives, is that we need to have more disaster aid, right?
	Like after the hurricanes that we saw, the fires in Hawaii, et cetera, the hurricanes that hit North Carolina and Florida.
	So when I say cleaners, they will probably tack that stuff on.
	But other than that, that's the question.
	Now, there's talk that they may be closer, close to a deal possibly today.
	I don't know.
	Like, it's a very fast-moving situation.
	As we're talking right now, they don't have a deal.
	But they are running in and out of them.
	Sorry to interrupt.
	Is it to Democrats' advantage now at this point to try to hang this around Mike Johnson and Republicans' necks?
	Or is that going to work if they just say, nope, you know, we had a deal and they don't want to work with us, so unless we get that deal, we're not helping.
	Is that a wise play by Democrats?
	I think what the Democrats want is Mike Johnson to emerge from this as Speaker of the House.
	They do not want a strong Republican Speaker.
	There's a reason they voted to save him when Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Bassey brought the motion to vacate against him this summer.
	After the Ukraine situation, they like Mike Johnson, the Democrats do, because they know they can work him.
	They know they can roll him.
	So the question is, will the Republicans allow Hakeem Jeffries and the Democrats to dictate to them who their Speaker of the House is going to be if they reelect Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House?
	They're allowing Hakeem to run the show.
	If they elect an actual Republican, then they could change the game.
	So, look, the big thing I'm watching for right now is, first off, do the contours of a deal come together?
	Secondly, does the deal match what President Trump is talking about, or is it some cave from Johnson again?
	And then thirdly, we're eagerly awaiting to hear from most Republican members If they intend to vote for Mike Johnson or somebody else on the floor of the House of Representatives, people should be calling their congressman right now and their congresswoman and asking who are they going to vote for for speaker.
	Will they vote for Johnson or will they vote for someone else?
	And as soon as one more member says publicly what Thomas Massey has said, that they will not vote for him, they will vote for somebody else.
	And voting present doesn't count.
	It has to be vote for somebody else.
	As soon as that happens, Mike Johnson doesn't have the votes in the current situation to win the speakership election on January 3rd, and pressure will intensify on him immediately to resign his position, stand down from the election so that Republicans can find a new speaker that will actually be able to execute Donald Trump's agenda rather than be in Hakeem Jeffries' pocket.
	Do you think this will continue to happen?
	Whoever is speaker, will it continue to be that Ilan and Vivek watch legislation as it makes its way through Congress, through the House, they'll plug it into Grok, and out it will spit the breakdown, the simple breakdown of what it reads, and the public will get a chance to react?
	Do you think this is the new way forward of doing business?
	Well, I think it's been something we've been doing for a long time, right?
	Whenever the swamp tries to do bad stuff, right?
	You know, we just didn't have Grok as a tool before, but we would go through the bills.
	I have a team of reporters here at Breitbart that works around the clock going through this legislation.
	They read it all.
	And we're trying to make sense of it.
	And Senate staffers and congressional staffers are doing the same thing.
	Just Grok is an extra tool here.
	But the fact is that with Grok analyzing it and then the platform of X, formerly Twitter, as a weapon, and loud voices like Elon and Vivek joining the cause, we have a better chance.
	Look, we've beaten the establishment in the swamp a bunch of times over the last decade-plus.
	I've been doing this a long time.
	I've beat the swamp plenty of times, but the swamp wins a lot of the time, too.
	I just think that the odds have shifted now to the average person away from the swamp.
	Well, I've got to tell you, Matthew Boyle, we are grateful for your dogged determination and your work.
	I hope you get to go home, but we'll stay close.
	Back tomorrow if necessary,
	Matt. Back tomorrow if Matt. Back tomorrow if necessary.
	Back tomorrow if necessary.
	Back tomorrow if necessary.
	Back tomorrow if necessary. Thank you.
	Thank you.
	Trump's agenda.
	And, of course, it's all just weeks before he takes power, and it's a stuffed stocking spending bill.
	It's monstrous, disastrous policies that expand government intervention in the private health care market.
	It hands Big Pharma a massive profit, windfall, all at the expense of you.
	And this sneak attack's got to be stopped.
	And of course, you're the key.
	You have been so far.
	We heard it about the CR. Because every year, Big Pharma hikes prices on hundreds of thousands of prescription drugs.
	And they do it by more than the rate of inflation.
	Drug companies set the price and hike the price.
	And worse, they ensure Americans stay locked into paying their high prices by blocking competition and spending billions on obnoxious ads pushing high-priced drugs on patients who may not need them.
	While Americans subsidize low prices for the rest of the world.
	And so now big pharma executives have the champagne ready to pop over this $50 billion money grab from American employers, patients, and taxpayers.
	The GOP takes control in just a few weeks, folks.
	So Republicans shouldn't be letting people like Chuck Schumer force through this massive big government, big pharma scheme and tie their hands on health care costs on the American people before then.
	Conservatives for lower health care costs wants to remind you it's not too late to stop Big Pharma from putting a lump of coal in your holiday stocking.
	Go to pharmawindfall.com.
	That's pharmawindfall.com.
	Sound the alarm to stop Big Pharma and the far left from getting their stuffed stocking at your expense.
	That's pharmawindfall.com.
	Chris Stegall in for Sebastian Gorka today.
	We're live at AmFest 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona at the Phoenix Convention Center.
	Just getting underway.
	It's a who's who of speakers this weekend, including Dr. G, who will be here.
	As you know now, the Deputy Assistant to the President, Senior Director for Counterterrorism.
	That gig starts on the 20th.
	He called me up to fill in for him here for a couple of days from AmFest.
	Honored to do it, and I think Seb is going to stop by at his own show tomorrow so we can talk with him a little bit.
	But let's head to the phones in the meantime, because I wanted to get your reaction to what has been an unbelievable development, and that is Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and frankly, you.
	Citizens finally getting involved and shutting down what was a sure-fire fast-track pork barrel-laden CR. It shut down in its tracks, and now there's question if Speaker Johnson's going to survive it.
	He's canceled his appearance here at M-Fest out of fear of being booed right out of this place.
	So what's your reaction to this?
	Do you like the way it's playing out?
	Are you optimistic about a new speaker, if not Mike Johnson?
	Where does Trump come into all of this?
	Do you want a government shutdown?
	Do you support the idea of it?
	I'd love to know.
	So that's 833-33-GORCA, if you want to get in here.
	833-334-6752.
	We go to Central PA and talk to Craig about it.
	Craig, Merry Christmas.
	Welcome into America First.
	I'm Chris in for Seb today.
	Hi.
	Yeah, thanks for taking my call, Chris.
	Just as I was waiting there on the break, it just dawned on me, you know, the best thing about this whole deal is that Doge works, and the muscle has been flexed there, and it's clear where the authority is.
	And I had some advice for Speaker Johnson, too, if I could get to that.
	Please.
	May I ask you first, and I want you to get to that, but this wedge, it's very clear Democrats are trying to drive.
	They're trying to goad Trump into distancing himself from Musk, you know, saying, well, I guess we know who the real president is.
	Do you think that's going to work?
	No.
	The old media doesn't even realize still that nobody cares about them.
	The new media is way more powerful than The amount of people that are paying attention to Musk is so big that it's basically irrelevant what they're saying.
	And frankly, Trump used Musk and Joe Rogan and others to great effect to win.
	So I think Trump knows the score now.
	He's not going to be divided that way.
	Great point.
	So please give me your other thought.
	Yeah, so on Johnson there, in what world do you get yourself defending the Democrat policies after the last election?
	And I just want this to be a lesson to other Republicans, especially ones that are in authority or leadership.
	Look where you stand, and look who you're standing with, because things have changed, and we don't have time for people that are in it halfway.
	Beautiful point, Craig.
	I couldn't say it any better.
	I have nothing to add.
	We're going to see really quick what kind of leverage, if any, Mike Johnson has here with not only Donald Trump, but the rest of the House Republicans.
	Is he going to be able to pull a rabbit out of his hat before Christmas?
	Thanks for the call, Craig.
	Let's go to New York.
	Talk to Ted next on America First.
	Ted, Chris Stegall, in for Seb today.
	Welcome in.
	Well, to comment and piggyback off of the last caller, Johnston or whoever's going to be Speaker of the House, whether you're a Democrat, Republican, you need to start thinking differently.
	It's about time, and I'm glad that Elon Musk is involved, that the people are able to tell the government through media what we want you to do, rather than the government telling the people through media what we're going to do to you.
	In fact, yes, Ted, that's right.
	Yeah, Ted, listen to Nancy Mace here.
	Let me go to this cut, fellas.
	Which one is it?
	Number seven.
	This is Nancy Mace talking about how this CR went from 21 pages to the over 1,500 pages, to your point.
	Take a listen.
	Okay, so we printed off the CR that dropped last night and the last CR that Congress did.
	And wouldn't you know, the CR that was done in September went from September 26th to December 20th, 84, excuse me, 85 days for this CR. It's 21 pages.
	Now we have the next CR that we're going to be voting on in the next day or two.
	It is 1547 pages.
	And wouldn't you know, It lasts for a shorter period of time.
	Yeah, that's the point that she's making here is, do average Americans typically get to know that kind of thing?
	I mean, if members of the House are barely aware of it, how 21 pages can explode to 1,500 pages within hours sometimes, and they don't even know?
	How are we supposed to know?
	And that's what's so amazing.
	I mean, we're really living through something revolutionary.
	Artificial intelligence, this is one of those things, while we lament it in a lot of ways, this is the good it's done for the American public.
	We're able to see things and understand them and process them in real time.
	These disgusting spending bills are now a thing of the past.
	They are not going to be able to snowball us and slip it in in the dark of night without us knowing first.
	It's a tremendous development.
	Quick break here from AmFest.
	Dr. G speaking this weekend.
	I'm Chris Stegall filling in for him in Phoenix on America First.
	Sit tight.
	Thank you.
	Hey, Merry Christmas.
	Chris Stegall in for Doctors G. Now, for those of you who don't know me, and I would assume that's a good number of you, I'd like to introduce myself because starting January 13th, I'm sure you've heard...
	Dr. Gorka's promotion to the White House, which we're all thrilled about, and America's going to be better off and safer with him heading up counter-terrorism efforts in the White House with President Trump.
	And as you know, our colleague and friend Hugh Hewitt will be taking this time slot from coast to coast in the new year after Seb is sworn in with President Trump.
	But that left a morning slot on the Salem radio network from coast to coast, and I'm honored and pleased to say that yours truly will be taking that slot starting in the new year in january 13th as a matter of fact so if you happen to be around early in the morning i know hugh is thrilled to have the opportunity to leave the morning slot and come here in the afternoons to talk with you but i too am thrilled you know i've been doing mornings in philadelphia on our affiliate seb's affiliate am
	990 the answer for a few years now and I was just ecstatic to get the opportunity to join you in the morning.
	So if you're up and around and you're listening to a radio station that carries Hugh Hewitt in the morning and you enjoy Hugh in the morning, you'll enjoy him here.
	You'll enjoy me, I hope, and our show in the mornings from 6 to 9 Eastern, coast to coast on great radio stations, Salem carries and others all over.
	You can follow me, too, if you'd like.
	And I'm going to try to post some photos and some video from what I'm seeing here at AmFest as I'm filling in for Seb today.
	This was a really exciting opportunity.
	When Seb said he was speaking, I said, oh, well, I'm absolutely in to come out and cover the event.
	And so we're sitting in the main hall at the base of the escalator where all the convention attendees are pouring in.
	So we're right here on Media Row, and it's just an unbelievable onslaught of people pouring into Phoenix.
	The vibe is intense and excited, happy.
	Everyone's upbeat.
	The breaking news today, of course, is Mike Johnson, who was scheduled to be here, Speaker of the House to Speak, Canceled.
	Probably a good idea, given the passion that you hear in the hall already, and it's just getting started.
	It's going to be a really impressive roster of speakers.
	As I said, Seb is going to be one of them here.
	He'll be with us on his show with me tomorrow, and we'll talk, maybe get a little preview of his remarks.
	But I want to keep hearing from you while here, because this development...
	With the CR blowing up because of Doge, Elon, Vivek, and you, what this means for Mike Johnson's future, what this means for Trump's influence, really your influence, what this says about the future.
	Is really sort of unclear at this moment.
	And what we don't know is if they don't get this thing done in the next 24 hours or less, there will be a, quote, shutdown.
	I don't buy into the hysterics of what a shutdown means.
	I mean, Christmas is next week, so this whole, oh, families won't go with food and they won't get Christmas gifts, that's nonsense.
	Christmas is next week.
	So we're going to cover all that here, and I want to hear from you at 833-33-GORCA today.
	All right?
	833-334-6752.
	as America First continues from Phoenix.
	Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.
	Merry Christmas.
	Welcome back to AmericaFest with me, Sebastian Gorka.
	You've heard it before, there are known unknowns and unknown unknowns.
	And then there's Chris DeGal, Philadelphia's AM 990, the answer, and we're delighted to have him with us today.
	It is my honor, Seb.
	Thank you for the invitation.
	The next, I can't believe it, the next Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism.
	It's so exciting.
	And of course, he's going to be here.
	You wonder what all that noise is behind me.
	I'll tell you what it is.
	We're here in Phoenix, Arizona for AmFest.
	I'm Chris Stegall, as he said, filling in.
	Honored to do so.
	And starting January 13th, if you're a regular listener to the Salem Network, You know Hugh Hewitt will be stepping into this time slot for Seb permanently.
	I will be stepping in for Hugh Hewitt permanently every morning, going by East Coast time.
	That's 6 to 9 a.m.
	East Coast every morning on great stations all over the country.
	So if you happen to be up and around in the morning starting January 13th, it would be an honor to wake you up each and every day.
	Or if you're working overnight or whatever the case may be, it'll be great to get to know you a little better.
	And I'd love to hear from you today on a huge, busy, breaking news day.
	We haven't even gotten into the Fannie Willis stuff yet, which we will in a little bit.
	833-334-6752, the telephone number.
	833-33-GORCA, the number that remains the same.
	Seb's going to be here with me tomorrow, by the way, from MFest before he takes the stage.
	And we'll get a preview of some of his remarks.
	And never know who's going to stop by.
	It's a who's who of people walking through this hall and quite literally at any moment people could just pop up here on the show.
	So it'll be fun for the next couple of days.
	I'll be as surprised as you will be sometimes at who might show up.
	So I can't wait to find out along with you.
	But I do want to play for you one of the most insane things that I've heard to date and that's saying something.
	The ladies over at The View, the gals have cooked up a new scenario.
	I told you, if you were with us previously, I told you that it is clear the Democrats are all on message with one consistent theme, and that is, Elon Musk is now the president.
	Elon Musk is running everything, and Donald Trump no longer matters.
	They're trying, and I fully believe this, they're trying to goad Trump We're good to go.
	To sandbag these guys, get jealous of the attention or what have you.
	That's their goal.
	Now, if that doesn't work, they're going to try another thing.
	And that is, I guess, try to make Trump paranoid.
	Listen to this crazy suggestion this morning from the ladies on The View.
	Who is in charge?
	Because I've been saying it for a while.
	Yes, you have.
	I've been saying that I think Elon Musk believes he's president.
	I do.
	Well, you can call him Vice President.
	I've called him Vice President, I've called him President, because I don't know what J.D. is doing.
	I hardly ever say, I don't remember last time we even talked about J.D. You're right.
	He's planning the presidency when they get rid of Trump.
	So you think it's Musk Vance?
	Possible.
	Hey, you know who?
	Stay away from the stairways.
	You know, people put their leg out to a trippy boy down the stairs.
	Watch out!
	These are easily the stupidest people ever given a microphone and a camera.
	I mean, by a lot.
	I know you probably know this.
	These women qualify as ABC News products.
	This is the same division that just had to settle for $15 million to help build Donald Trump's presidential library.
	And it's why they have to keep issuing legal corrections.
	These women are nuts and just ignorant.
	But they believe it.
	They do believe it.
	Let me help you with something here.
	Do you want to know what J.D. Vance is doing?
	It's not January 20th yet, and I think that's kind of what I wanted to say broadly about this whole thing.
	We're still a full month away from Donald Trump placing his hands on that Bible and being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States.
	It's still a month away.
	I can excuse you for being confused that you don't know that Donald Trump is president now because of this senile, feeble, old fool that we're pretending is president.
	Isn't doing anything, isn't running anything.
	People have long forgotten him.
	We actually do, supposedly, have a sitting president right now who's doing nothing.
	Donald Trump is accomplishing more at this hour, sitting on the sidelines, posting on social media, and his associates and allies in Vivek and Elon and others What are they doing?
	They're working Capitol Hill.
	They're his eyes and ears.
	And they're letting the American public, most importantly, they're letting you and letting me know what's going on rather than letting them rush it through just before the holidays while everybody's distracted.
	It's the same old game they've always played.
	And these people are blowing it up.
	And official Washington and the media who's in bed with them are just flummoxed.
	They don't know what to do with it.
	Now, J.D. Vance, let me help you with this whoopee.
	What's J.D. Vance doing?
	He's a United States senator, lady.
	He's actually a voting member of Congress.
	So yes, he is, one, working the back channels of his colleagues trying to help make sure that all of Trump's picks are going to be confirmed, which, by the way, is one of the big messages here at AmFest 2024 in Phoenix, and that is confirm Trump's picks.
	It's everywhere.
	Confirm his agenda.
	There's even a website dedicated to it.
	So the message here at AmFest is all of these people that are going to be here this weekend from all over the country, They're being encouraged to go back home and ring Congress's bell and make sure they know we don't want this pork barrel spending.
	We want Donald Trump's nominees confirmed.
	We want the agenda that 76 million people voted for and put back into office after you railroaded him out the last time.
	We want control of the country back.
	We the people.
	That's what we want back.
	And that's what you women should want over there at The View if you had half a brain, but you don't.
	You actually think the idea of the people controlling what's going on in Washington, D.C. is somehow a threat to you.
	And in their crazy way, they think they're reaching Trump by saying, watch out for J.D. Vance, watch out for Elon Musk.
	They want your job, Trump.
	Now, look, I don't know Trump intimately well.
	I've met him a few times.
	Trump seems like a different cat, too.
	He doesn't seem like the guy he was in his first term.
	He doesn't seem as easily irritated or goaded.
	The guy seems as calm.
	He looks like a guy who has truly won the day.
	And you know that feeling when there's nothing more to win?
	Like, the ultimate point has been made.
	I mean, yes, he wants legislative victories.
	Yes, he wants to make America great again.
	He wants to get the wall built, the budget reined in, reduce taxes.
	And I think he will.
	And he's going to work hard on that.
	But he's focused on his agenda.
	He's not focused on settling scores.
	And that's what all these people think he's there to do.
	And I really believe, and I earnestly mean this, I believe in my heart and soul, Donald Trump is not the least bit interested in the Hens at the View, or Joe and Mika over at MSNBC, or all those unwatched losers over at CNN. He's not concerned about settling scores with them.
	And when they ask antagonistic questions of him, he smiles, he shrugs, and he goes, well, that's a pretty stupid question.
	He doesn't have anything to prove anymore.
	He survived two assassination attempts.
	This Fannie Willis story, what a perfect ending to the year.
	What a perfect Christmas gift that Fannie Willis has now been thrown off of the case that was fraudulent to begin with in Georgia.
	Completely delegitimized.
	Jack Smith tucked his tail, packed up, and went away.
	There's only one guy hanging around out there left, and it's Judge Mershon and Alvin Bragg, and they're going to try to stick around after four years.
	That'll blow up, too.
	Trump has weathered everything.
	He has quite literally survived near death.
	And he won a historic going away election.
	76 million strong, both the electoral vote and the popular vote.
	He has a mandate.
	He's gotten his second term.
	He's survived.
	He's cheated death.
	He's escaped people trying to bankrupt him and defame him.
	He's gotten the media to help pay for his presidential library.
	All of these vultures who've tried to use lawfare against him, he's weathered it all.
	Don't you imagine if you're Donald Trump at his mature age, don't you imagine at this point in his life he's sitting back and thinking, it doesn't get sweeter than this.
	It doesn't, I've reached the top of the summit.
	Now all I gotta do is govern.
	And that's not a small task, but I think all of that peripheral stuff that might have distracted him before is over.
	He is the ultimate victor.
	He's the ultimate winner.
	There's nothing more to win.
	You can't win bigger than Donald Trump has won.
	Everything.
	On every front.
	So, this worry that Donald Trump's on a vengeance tour, I'll just say, not that I really care, I think it's hilarious that the left is panicked about it, but I just take it easy, you people on the left.
	He's not interested in you.
	You're a waste of time.
	He doesn't have time to waste on fighting with Joe and Mika and Whoopi.
	He's focused on us, you, me, the American people, which is why this CR was blown to bits.
	And Mike Johnson, as the speaker, is now on shaky ground if he doesn't get things in line.
	And he's going to come here to Amfest in Phoenix in a couple of days, and he's going to blow the roof off of this place.
	This place cannot wait to see him roll into Phoenix and speak triumphantly.
	You will hear a roar wherever you are anywhere in the country.
	You'll hear that roar from Phoenix, I believe.
	It's a great, great time to be an American.
	It's a very Merry Christmas, and I'm glad you're here.
	My name's Chris Stegall, in for Seb today.
	It's America First, live from AmFest in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona.
	Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.
	Merry Christmas.
	Live from AmFest here in Phoenix, Arizona.
	Chris Stigall in for Seb today.
	Glad to be with you.
	You know the number.
	833-33-GORCA. That stays the same.
	833-334-6752.
	Got a line open for you if you want to weigh in today on some big, big breaking news.
	That we're covering here from AmFest.
	And you know that Christmas music, it's close.
	We're really close.
	We're less than a week away now until Christmas.
	And I'd love to take just a minute or two to pull back the curtain on what a blessing our Angel Tree campaign continues to be.
	If you don't know about it...
	I hope you'll get familiar with it.
	It's the infusion of generous gifts from people like you that are making it happen.
	My colleague, Trish Regan, who's part of the Salem Podcast Network, she's a fantastic financial journalist and author.
	But she's also really embraced this Angel Tree program.
	It's really personal to her.
	Take a listen.
	I have three little kids and I was telling them about the angel tree program and how important it is and this week especially we should all just take a moment to think how lucky we are but what about the little kids out there who don't even have a parent right now because they have a parent that is incarcerated in prison and it's not the little kids fault it's so important right now to the kids to me to everyone here at Salem we all want to do our part Yeah, we do.
	She's right.
	You can hear how emotional Trish gets about this sort of thing.
	It's because she's grateful.
	And so am I, so are all of us, that you are so generous in your giving.
	Because with Christmas now just days away, if you go right now to SebGorka.com and click on that Angel Tree banner at the top of the page, if you give just $30, you can change a child's life, a child of a prisoner.
	For a long time.
	I mean, the impression you're going to make is unbelievable.
	A $150 gift.
	You can bless five children of prisoners with a personalized Christmas present and a personal note from their incarcerated parent.
	And I don't have to tell you what that means.
	Every Angel Tree family is also given access to a free, easy-to-read copy of the Bible in English or Spanish.
	Again, with Christmas right around the corner, there is still time.
	So I hope you'll go to SebGorka.com, click on the Angel Tree banner to make your gift.
	And thank you for joining Dr. Gorka's campaign to help prison fellowship.
	Again, our telephone number is 833-33-Gorka.
	Let's head to the phones and check in in San Jose.
	With Franklin this hour.
	Franklin, glad you called America First.
	I'm Chris in for Seb today.
	Hi.
	Chris, I want to strongly suggest the first thing the new government must do after its inauguration.
	It's more important than the border.
	It's more important than energy.
	It's more important than crime.
	It's more important than election integrity.
	It's called the Truth in Legislation Act.
	When a bill is submitted, it's Given a CRC number, that cycling redundancy check, it's a digital fingerprint of that file.
	After that number is issued, it's sent to all members of Congress.
	Once that number is issued, that bill cannot be voted on for 10 working days.
	If there's a change made to the bill, a new CRC number must be issued and sent to all members of Congress.
	If there's any change in the bill, a new number will show that the bill is different.
	This will stop all lying and subterfuge and hiding in the bill.
	And Franklin, the point of what you're describing is ultimately transparency.
	I think that's what you're driving out, transparency, right?
	Absolutely.
	Are you optimistic about Doge, Elon, Vivek?
	Do you like the concept?
	By the way, do you like this CR blowing up and the fact that everybody was made aware of it so quickly?
	Do you like what's happening here?
	Absolutely.
	Shut the government down.
	Okay.
	All right, man.
	Franklin, Merry Christmas.
	Thank you.
	Shut it down, he says.
	There is nothing worse to mainstream media than the idea of a, quote, government shutdown.
	They're all this morning, I was, again, I was watching it in my hotel room this morning, getting ready to come here to the convention center at AmFest.
	I turned on CNN very specifically to watch them, and here's the word they said over and over again.
	Well, Donald Trump is back, and it's chaos again.
	Donald Trump is re-injecting chaos.
	They think it's chaotic.
	Not that we're about to spend extraordinary sums of money we can't afford that will make the country insolvent if it's not already.
	That's not chaos to them.
	Chaos to them is interrupting the destruction of the country.
	That's chaos.
	It's bass-ackwards, but then you understand that.
	In Florida, David is next on America First.
	David, glad you called.
	Hi, Chris.
	I just was wondering your thoughts on my thinking that there's really not a shutdown going on because they end up getting paid in the long run.
	Either they don't come to work on the days that the supposed government is shut down and they take the day off as a vacation day, or they don't get paid for that time.
	I'm just wondering what your thoughts are on it.
	No, it's, you know, you mean actual teeth in a shutdown.
	You want to see teeth in a shutdown, not back pay.
	Is that your point?
	Yeah, absolutely.
	Well, look, when you have as many people drawing their income, their salary, their living from government, this sort of thing works for Democrats time and again.
	They always go to that emotional well of, oh, it's the holidays.
	Do you really want to rip presents out of children's hands with the family?
	Overall, that's what I'm hopeful Doge does, is calls attention to the fact that we have entirely too many people earning their livings off of the rest of us as taxpayers.
	And I'm not picking on you if you're one.
	I don't think you're a bad person because you work for the government.
	But there are entirely too many Americans making their living from government.
	And so this sad sack routine that comes along is, oh no, if we have a shutdown, then people won't be able to feed their families.
	We shouldn't be in a place where government is its own employment agency.
	That conceptually drives me crazy.
	We've got building after building after building throughout Washington, D.C., completely empty, with now 45,000 people at least grandfathered in by the husk, saying they can stay home and work from home for the next five years.
	It's insane.
	And it's got to stop, of course, and we're just all kind of waiting for that January 20th A shotgun start for the new administration so that we can get things, of course, reversed here.
	It's going to be hard.
	This is not going to be easy.
	I would love to say with a magic wand or a quick flip of the switch or a quick passage of a piece of legislation, this is going to be undone.
	But boy, are there a lot of people who draw their income from the government.
	Good conservatives, by the way.
	I mean, I have very good friends who work for places like the USDA or HHS or the Federal Reserve or whatever.
	I have great friends that hold government jobs and they're great people and they vote Trump and they vote Republican and they too, they sweat about the idea of a furlough or a government shutdown or being forced to go back to work.
	But it's going to be one of those conversations we're going to have to have as a country that's going to be very tough.
	And I hate to even say his name, but the last time we tried to have any kind of serious discussion about this was with who?
	Do you remember?
	That's right.
	Captain Widow's Peak.
	Paul Ryan.
	And Paul Ryan, as much as I can't stand the guy for a host of reasons, I'll give him credit for one thing.
	He tried to discuss the fiscal cliff.
	He tried.
	But he did it the wrong way.
	He did it the way Republicans have always done it.
	He brought out the charts and the graphs and he said, well, in quarter two, you see, nobody wants to hear that.
	The Elon way, the Vivek way, the Doge way is the way to communicate to people in a plain way that everyone can understand.
	But it's still going to be tough.
	Conversation.
	Tough love is what we all need right now.
	Merry Christmas.
	833-33-GORCA, our phone number, live from AmFest in Phoenix. . live from AmFest in Phoenix. .
	. . .
	. .
	Thank you.
	Merry Christmas.
	Glad to have you here on America First.
	Chris Stegall in for Sebastian Gorka today.
	I host the morning show at Philadelphia's AM 990, a SEB affiliate, proud SEB affiliate.
	And beginning in the new year, as you've probably heard, some changes around here as Dr. Gorka moves into the White House as the Senior Director for Counterterrorism and Deputy Assistant to the next President of the United States, Donald Trump.
	What an honor that is for him.
	I know he's thrilled.
	Of course, that means he had to step down from this show to take that gig.
	And that means Hugh Hewitt, our friend and colleague who's mornings on the Salem radio network all over the country.
	He'll be stepping into this time slot.
	and that left his morning show open, and I would just invite you, if you happen to be around at that time of day, and you can find the show, I would love to have you aboard, because starting January 13th, while Hugh comes here, I'll go to Hugh's old time slot, and I'll be doing my morning show, syndicated coast to coast, on Great Salem radio stations, and syndicated coast to coast, on Great Salem radio stations, and other great stations all over the country, so look it up.
	Again, my name is Chris Stigall, S-T-I-G-A-L-L, you can follow me on X, I'm also on Substack at the Harumph Society, We have a lot of fun there.
	And if you are a regular Substack subscriber, you will love this newsletter.
	I hope you'll check it out.
	But again, Twitter is a great way to find me.
	Instagram, too.
	I'm going to be posting, once I get done with today's show, I'm going to run around and post some of the sites here from AmFest.
	It has just been an unbelievable start.
	The news, of course, today, for those of you just joining us, that Mike Johnson, Speaker Mike Johnson, was scheduled to be here to speak.
	That has been canceled.
	Speaker Johnson is no longer going to appear at AmFest, and the conventional wisdom is, well, he's not really welcome at AmFest.
	And given the state of things, I suspect that's probably right, because this crew, they're not messing around.
	If you look around the hall, it's decorated beautifully by the AmFest folks.
	And one of the huge banners everywhere is Give Trump His Cabinet.
	The website, confirmthemandate.com.
	Give Trump His Cabinet is one of the big takeaways already, I can tell you, from AmFest 2024.
	This group, they are fired up.
	And it's going to be a who's who of folks coming through here to speak, including Dr. G, who's going to be with us tomorrow.
	As a matter of fact, he'll be stopping by his own show here, and I can't wait to talk with him.
	And I hope you'll be here with us, too.
	There is a couple of other stories besides this CR blowing up, and I'd love to hear from you at 833-33-GORCA, 833-334-6752 if you want to weigh in.
	The other big news today, the really big news today, is that Fannie Willis has been disqualified from the Trump case in Georgia.
	Now, Fannie Willis, as you remember, and I know it's funny, but I like calling her Fannie because I think it's funny.
	I'm 12. What do you want from me?
	Fannie got spanked time and again, but it's not just because she's a hack.
	She's that.
	But you'll remember that Fannie was paying off her boyfriend while they were screwing around trying to prosecute Trump.
	And the beauty of this upper court ruling today, and if you missed it for some reason, A Georgia court of appeals, I believe, issued a ruling today that said Fannie Willis, as the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, is now disqualified from prosecuting anyone, not just Trump, but all the others.
	I think there were something like 18 in total that she tried to bring charges against for election interference.
	She has been thrown off that case.
	Now, you remember, she brought in a boyfriend who she was paying and sleeping with, with taxpayer money, hundreds of thousands of dollars, He got thrown off the case by the judge on the case, but by her actions, paying him, sleeping with him, this higher court today told Fannie herself, you're also disqualified, you're out.
	So effectively, this thing has crumbled.
	It's completely fallen apart.
	There is really no more case in Fulton County, and I assume, I'm not really clear on this to be sure, but I assume it's not just Trump, but the other...
	15, 18 people that were brought up on charges from Fannie Willis' office.
	I assume they're all basically free and clear as well.
	So we'll continue to follow that here.
	It is a fascinating development today, and the news just keeps getting better and better and better for those of us who love the country, and worse and worse and worse for the establishment that's trying to destroy it.
	Justice is prevailing.
	It feels almost divine and providential, doesn't it?
	It's spectacular, frankly, to see.
	And we have just been having so much fun covering it.
	The mood in this hall, folks, at AmFest, it's hard to express.
	It's patriotism.
	It's happiness.
	And frankly, by the way, it's a lot of young people.
	And that's what gives you hope more than anything else.
	You saw it in the returns in this last election.
	Young people, particularly young men.
	Young women continue to be an issue.
	We'll get into that in another show.
	But young men in particular are gravitating in big numbers to the MAGA agenda.
	And you can see it in this place.
	Phoenix, Arizona is where we are.
	AMFEST is the event.
	My name is Chris Stigall in for Seb today.
	and this is America First. America First.
	America First.
	Hey, Merry Christmas.
	You know, we're just a few days away from it now.
	And before Congress heads home for its holiday break, Chuck Schumer and Democrats are trying to push through this monstrous 600-plus page, $50 billion.
	Year-end spending bill, that's separate from the CR mess that we've been talking about.
	Of course, that's also set to undermine President Trump's agenda.
	It's just weeks before he takes power.
	It's a stuffed stocking spending bill, more disastrous policies, and it means, inevitably, as it always does, dramatic expansion of government intervention in the private healthcare market.
	It hands Big Pharma a massive profit windfall, all at the expense of you.
	And that's why you are the key in stopping it.
	Every year Big Pharma hikes prices on hundreds and thousands of prescription drugs by more than the rate of inflation because drug companies set the price and then they hike the price.
	And worse, they ensure Americans stay locked into paying these high prices by blocking competition.
	And they spend billions on obnoxious ads pushing high-priced drugs on patients who may not even need them.
	And Americans subsidize lower prices for the rest of the world.
	So, big pharma executives, they have the champagne ready to pop for this $50 billion money grab, all coming at the expense of you.
	Well, the GOP is taking control in just a few weeks, as you know.
	And Republicans shouldn't let Schumer force this thing through, this big government, big pharma scheme, and tie their hands in health care costs on the American people.
	So, conservatives, for lower health care costs, wants to remind you it is not too late to stop Big Pharma from putting a lump of coal in your holiday stocking.
	Go to the website, pharmawindfall.com.
	That's pharmawindfall.com, and sound the alarm to stop Big Pharma and the far left from getting their stockings stuffed at your expense.
	windfall.com.
	Chris Stegall in for Seb today.
	America First continues here at AmFest 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona.
	It's just getting underway, this four-day conservative confab.
	Seb will be speaking here.
	He'll be dropping by his own show here tomorrow to join me.
	I can't wait to talk with him here at the desk.
	If you're not streaming the show, you can watch it there at the Salem News Channel.
	Hope that you will.
	And I think we're...
	We're in a dozen different places.
	You know all of Seb's social media.
	You can follow me also at Chris Stigall, C-H-R-I-S-S-T-I-G-A-L-L, on Twitter and Instagram.
	I'll be posting some video and pictures of things I'm seeing and doing while I'm around here, too.
	Meanwhile, we go to the phones.
	833-33-GORCA is the number in the Garden State.
	I hope you're staying clear of all the drones.
	It's Frank.
	Frank, thanks for your patience.
	Welcome into America First.
	Hey, Chris.
	Hey, I didn't realize you were on today, and I turned, and I was like, oh, man, Chris is taking over the airwaves in the morning and in the afternoon.
	I was like, this is great.
	I'm like a bad house guest.
	I won't go away, Frank.
	You're one of our friends there at Philadelphia's AM 990 The Answer.
	I'm glad you called, my man.
	Oh, cool.
	You know what?
	I'm really happy with the continuing resolution getting shot down.
	I love the idea that it's going to be some accountability.
	However, I hate the idea of this Republican cannibalism, which we always do.
	Do we really want to go through another two to three weeks of confusion?
	And, like, hate and not knowing who our speaker is going to be.
	I mean, let's be honest, and it's funny because I didn't think he was doing a horrible job, Johnson, and now all of a sudden everybody hates him.
	And I'm like, that's so typically Republican, man.
	And I wouldn't even want that job if I were a Republican.
	I'm going to be honest with you.
	Make a mistake, man, and you're out.
	It's getting harder to want that job, that's for sure.
	It is curious to me.
	I mean, that's the one thing I can't quite figure out, Frank, and maybe you can take a guess.
	He's been hanging around Trump a lot.
	You've probably seen Trump at the Army-Navy game, and wherever Trump goes, his election night victory, everywhere Trump's been in a public spot, there's old Mike, Mike Johnson, Speaker Johnson's right there.
	Now, he's either tagging along and Trump's like, well, you're Speaker of the House, so I gotta let you tag along, or Trump really likes the guy.
	What do you guess?
	I think Trump does like the guy, and Trump loves loyalty.
	And I'll be honest with you, in a circumstance like this, it's always best to be close to the king.
	And I figure as long as Trump likes him, he's okay.
	I really look at it that way.
	Yeah, and to your point, who would be next in line to be speaker if not him?
	And can Republicans get in line to make that happen?
	We saw how ugly it was to get to Johnson, right?
	Absolutely.
	I mean, I love Jim Jordan, you know, and I mean, there's a whole bunch.
	I even hear, too, people are talking about even Musk, because apparently you don't have to be in Congress to get the position.
	So, you know, I've been hearing a lot of names being batted around.
	Frank, thank you for your call.
	Merry Christmas, my man.
	Glad to talk to you.
	Thanks for calling.
	By the way, there are more than a few people that feel this way about Johnson.
	That he shouldn't go, that people are being unfair to the guy, that he's done a fairly solid job.
	And Richard, I think, is one in Louisiana here on America First.
	Richard, it's Chris in for Seb today.
	Thanks for calling.
	Hi.
	Hello, Chris.
	Thanks for taking my call.
	And before getting to Johnson, you are spot on, I believe, about the Democrats wanting to goad Donald Trump over this President Elon Musk nonsense.
	They literally think they can get under his skin.
	One way to respond, I believe, is to make light of their hysteria, to satirize it.
	One thing the left cannot abide is being laughed at, and this is a perfect opportunity.
	Amen.
	Yes.
	I don't think it's going to work on Trump this time.
	You agree?
	No, no, no.
	He's smart.
	He's going to be fine.
	But, you know, the left keeps giving.
	They hate to be laughed at, but they keep giving so many punchlines.
	And so I think one strategy for Donald Trump is just to keep laughing at them because they're a bunch of idiots.
	But, look, I had to respond to the interview with Michael Boyle of Breitbart News.
	I read Breitbart.
	I like it.
	But I'm frankly disgusted with the way some conservatives are crucifying Mike Johnson over this, what to me seems like an untenable situation.
	And they're impugning his integrity.
	They're implying he's treacherous.
	Boyle compared him to a cockroach.
	I mean, that's uncalled for.
	How would Boyle like it if somebody said, hey, dude, you look like a cockroach?
	That's just the wrong way to approach it.
	I'm not arguing with you about it, but I'm curious.
	I think the thinking is that he tried to pull a fast one with this spending bill, tried to ram this thing home and do a bunch of favors and big spending in secret.
	And I think that's where all the newfound anger is.
	Do you see it that way or no?
	Well, the first thing I would look for is motive.
	I mean, what in the world does Mike Johnson have to gain?
	Is he taking money from some lobbyists?
	No.
	He's in a tough situation where there's unrest in this very razor-thin Republican majority.
	Listen, I've got to cut you off, Richard.
	I don't mean to, but I got your point, and I appreciate it.
	I don't think you're the only one that feels that way.
	Maybe at AmFest, though.
	Chris Stegall in for Seb on America First. . . .
	. . .
	Thank you.
	Mm-mm.
	It is a very Merry Christmas at AmFest.
	That's where America First and Dr. G's show is coming to you from today.
	Chris Stegall in for Seb.
	Seb will be here tomorrow, not on the show.
	Well, he'll be visiting his show.
	But he's actually going to be on the main stage, the big stage.
	It's a who's who, and Seb's going to be one of them as President Trump's new Senior Director for Counterterrorism.
	So I'm here in his stead and honored to be here.
	You know, Johnson, a caller in the last segment said that Mike Johnson, you know, is an all-around good guy and what's his motive.
	And I've heard people say that, that he's in a tough position and that it's a hard job and that compromise is part of the deal.
	But the problem is, Mike Johnson's huge problem is he didn't explain anything to voters.
	And in today's ecosystem of fast-moving social media in particular, where everybody learns everything in real time, and there is no sitting around waiting for the stately news anchor to tell you what to think about what happened on Capitol Hill today.
	Everyone in real time knows what's going on.
	A member of Congress can pop off on X, and within minutes, millions of people can know what's going on without waiting.
	And so when Johnson doesn't get out ahead of that, when Johnson tries to put together a CR like this and thinks, well, I'll just hurry it up and get to Christmas, Nobody's going to be paying attention anyway.
	That's his fatal mistake.
	That's not going to fly anymore.
	Compromise?
	Okay.
	I accept that.
	You know, I'm not one of these people that says, shut it all down if you can't get everything you want.
	We don't have a majority like that in the House.
	However, if you're going to compromise...
	What's in it?
	What's in the bill?
	Just tell people.
	And the fact that he didn't do that, that's the problem, I think.
	I don't mean to speak for you, but I think most people have with Johnson and why he's now in the hot water he's in.
	But anyway, I'll continue to listen to what you have to say specifically about this guy because he's going to be the story in the coming days and weeks.
	And if we come back, well, we may not leave if there's a government shutdown.
	They may not get to leave Washington.
	The quickest way you can get these knuckle-draggers on Capitol Hill to get something done is to threaten their time off.
	They're just like any of the rest of us.
	They love that vacation time.
	They love to get home.
	And if they're told they got to stick around, that's the last thing any of them want.
	That's a bipartisan agreement.
	So, I don't know.
	Maybe Johnson can herd the cats and get something accomplished here.
	That remains to be seen.
	But I know where he's not coming is AmFest.
	Although, you know, to be fair to him, maybe he canceled his appearance here because ultimately he decided he has to be in Washington to get the work done.
	Hard to know for sure.
	But anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts, whether it's here today at 833-33GORCA or whether you want to...
	Shoot me a note on X or maybe Instagram or really any social media platform.
	Just look for my name, which is Chris, C-H-R-I-S, last name Stigall.
	S-T-I-G-A-L-L. That's how you spell it.
	Seb back here tomorrow with me from AmFest.
	And still to come, you know the lovely Katie.
	Katie Gorka, she co-authored a book with a gentleman called Mike Gonzalez, who's going to join us.
	Next-Gen Marxism, that fantastic book, one of the brains behind it, joins us at AmFest as America First rolls on.
	Thank you.
	We got him now.
	All good.
	Okay.
	Welcome back to AmericaFest with me, Sebastian Gorka.
	You've heard it before.
	There are known unknowns and unknown unknowns.
	And then there's Chris DeGal, Philadelphia's AM990 The Answer, and we're delighted to have him with us today.
	Hey, welcome back to America First.
	We're live at AmFest, and boy, I tell you, it's just, it's crazy.
	It's bedlam.
	It's chaos.
	It's nuts.
	Larry Elder just stopped by, and God bless him.
	He said he was willing to hop on the air, but he's literally, we're all trying to get situated, Larry.
	It's kind of you to pop in here, but I know you don't have all the stuff going on.
	It's nuts.
	You know, people are screaming and yelling.
	Chris, come on.
	It's fine.
	My middle name is chaos.
	You didn't have to come from it.
	I'm with Chris.
	I knew it was going to be chaotic.
	Are you kidding me?
	We had to come from the east.
	This is down the street for you, isn't it?
	Yeah, I walked.
	I walked from L.A. And boy, am I feet hard.
	No, this is...
	My little brother used to live here in Phoenix.
	Is that right?
	Yeah, so it's turf that I'm familiar with and very exciting.
	I hear that Mr. Trump is going to be speaking on Sunday.
	Yes.
	As opposed to Friday or Saturday, which he was originally supposed to do.
	Did you also hear who's not coming?
	Um...
	I heard Jossie Smollett cannot make it.
	Mike Johnson has decided not to attend.
	Liz Cheney, for some reason, canceled at the last minute.
	Adam Kindergarten can't make it.
	I just can't believe the man's being dissed like this by all of his buddies.
	Well, it's good to hear you.
	Chris, you know what I think?
	Yeah.
	Since you brought it up.
	Please.
	I think Trump has like a trophy room.
	Yeah.
	And he just hung up Fonnie Lewis right next to Adam Schiff, right next to Liz...
	Cheney, right next to Peter Strzok.
	Yeah.
	And then he's got his golf stuff over here.
	But over here he's got all these heads.
	And you know what he's going to do?
	He's going to put them in the $15 million presidential library that they're building for him.
	It's just one victory after another after another.
	$15 million plus legal fees from ABC for George Clintonopolis.
	And then Fonny Lewis now is off the case.
	You know what I said that Trump, remember how he said Mexico's going to pay for the wall?
	The media's going to pay for his library.
	Right.
	That's what I think.
	Larry, listen, Arizona is a critically important state.
	You know the West.
	You know California certainly well.
	I'm intrigued, you know, Turning Point is headquartered here.
	This is a hotbed of activity.
	Is that a smart play?
	There's logic to that, people should know.
	Well, the logic is this is where Charlie Kirk is.
	That's right.
	And Charlie Kirk, from what I can figure out, it was his ground game that really helped Donald Trump win.
	Yes.
	He convinced Donald Trump to do a lot more digital stuff, do a lot more podcasting.
	And this door-to-door stuff that people were doing, Trump was accused of not having a good ground game.
	And these young people figured out people aren't answering their door.
	And when they do, as Van Jones pointed out, they answer it holding their cell phone.
	That's right.
	They figured that out.
	This is the thing that is really remarkable about just what we've seen in this CR. The fact is, it was AI. Elon Musk put this 1,500-page bill through AI, and it spat out common sense stuff that everybody could read and understand.
	Technology is winning elections, and it's killing bills.
	This is a new place we've never found ourselves before.
	Well, the number one goal of a politician is to get elected.
	The number two goal is to get re-elected.
	And once they realize the wind's blowing another way, and people began to realize that this Christmas tree thing that they put together, the CR, was completely inconsistent with what Donald Trump said he wanted to do, which is streamline government, lower taxes, lower regulations.
	It blew up.
	Politicians got scared.
	And all of a sudden, they don't know what to do.
	Larry Elder is with me live here at AmFest.
	Elder in the house.
	I'm Chris Stegall, in for Seb today.
	Now, Larry, I need some advice, because starting January 13th, you know, Seb's going to the White House, Hugh Hewitt is moving into Seb's time slot, and then we've been honored to be asked to step in and do Hugh's syndicated morning slot.
	You've been doing syndicated radio for a long time, so could you give me some advice, words of wisdom?
	What do I need to know?
	Well, people ask me that a lot, and I always tell them, what would Chris Stegall do?
	Yeah.
	That's all I can say.
	I think they make bracelets, right?
	That's all I can say.
	No, you just returned not too terribly long ago.
	Right.
	I think I came back in August.
	I took about a two-year break.
	I ran for governor, as you know.
	And I ran for president briefly, not because I wanted to displace the man, but I wanted to talk about the number one issue, in my opinion, domestically, that the country is facing, which is the epidemic of fatherlessness, which even the man wasn't talking about.
	I had a meeting with him in Mar-a-Lago.
	I said, you need to start talking about this.
	He said, you're right.
	He tweeted it right away.
	The other issue, though, Chris, Given we're talking about the budget, the only real way to get the country under control, turn the debt and the deficit, the only real way is to reform the so-called entitlements.
	Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, and now Obamacare.
	And if you try and do that, because these programs are popular, you will lose elections.
	So the only way to do it is with an amendment to the Constitution that fixes spending to a certain percentage of GDP. The politicians can say, you know, I had to reform this.
	I didn't want to, but by law, I had to.
	Otherwise, they won't do it.
	You can trim this.
	You can trim that.
	And I'm cheering on Elon Musk and Vivek for trying to reduce $2 trillion in excessive spending.
	But the real problem with really driving the country is that the so-called entitlements are on automatic pilot.
	Bill Clinton said it.
	Obama said it.
	It is true.
	States, most of them, I think all of them, or at least the vast majority of them, have balanced budgets.
	They have to, by law, balance their budget.
	You think we could ever get there?
	You know, Chris, even if we did, balancing the budget is not really the issue.
	The issue is the budget is too damn big.
	The country is too big.
	The country is 80 percent bigger than I think the founding fathers ever intended.
	So the founding fathers intended for the limited duties, responsibilities of government to be funded by taxes and duties, by tariffs and duties.
	Believe it or not, there was no income tax.
	There was no FEMA, no Social Security, no Medicare, none of this stuff.
	So until we get a handle on that, you can raise taxes to balance the budget.
	It's still too big of a budget.
	Larry Elder with us.
	Larry Elder here with his pristine logic, his compelling knowledge, sex symbol.
	You are a sex symbol.
	People can't get enough.
	You walk through this hall, people want a piece of Larry Elder.
	There's Elvis.
	There's Frank Sinatra, and then there's Elder.
	And not necessarily in that order, Chris.
	They're going to make a biopic of you soon.
	Bob Dylan.
	I will play the race car if you'll put me first.
	I have no shame.
	Larry, here's the other delicious thing we've been watching.
	George Stephanopoulos paying settlements.
	Hold on.
	You mispronounced his name.
	It's George Clintonopolis.
	George Clintonopolis, my apologies.
	Remember when he was maligning all the women that made accusations against him?
	He maligned Paula Jones.
	He maligned Juanita Brodrick.
	He maligned Kathleen Willey.
	Now he's sitting up there and he's the voice of America.
	Are you kidding me?
	I just read today in Variety that now he's pouting and he's thinking about quitting because he's very upset with ABC for settling the lawsuit.
	They gave him a new contract.
	Yeah.
	Did they?
	Yeah, they just did.
	Just yesterday.
	And I think ABC did that.
	Disney did that to let everybody know we're not being pushed around.
	So they gave him a new contract.
	By the way, when he was hired, ABC News says he's not going to do news.
	He's going to do commentary.
	He's not going to do news.
	And little by little, he started doing news.
	And now he is the chief legal director.
	Chief news analyst at ABC News.
	Well, listen, I mean, the View ladies are considered the news division.
	That's true.
	Seriously.
	They are.
	It's outrageous.
	And they were today just opining that J.D. Vance and Elon Musk might be plotting to kill Trump.
	Yep.
	This is the thing that I wonder if you think will work.
	They all think they're going to play to Trump's ego and attack Elon as the real president.
	That's their play.
	You think that's going to work?
	No, it's not going to work.
	The reason they lost, I mean, the Democrats lost, is because of people like The View, because of people like Whoopi Goldberg, The Joy Reads.
	Everything is racist, everything is sexist, everything is homophobic, everything is DEI, climate change, and people are sick of it.
	I remember watching Morning Joe, and he said, you know, I got a friend, he told me that That butter was $3 a stick.
	And I said, is that why you're not voting for him?
	And Mika said, seven.
	He goes, what, what, what, what, what?
	Seven dollars.
	That's why you lost.
	That's right.
	Speaking of them...
	You can see who does the shopping in the Scarborough household.
	Yeah, right.
	You know, because you've been to Mar-a-Lago, what an impressive place and scene that is.
	Isn't it interesting, all the people, from global leaders to Joe and Mika, they're all...
	Bezos was just there.
	They're all going to meet with him.
	How do you read that?
	If I were Trump, I'd make sure nothing is stolen.
	Because I don't trust these guys.
	Make sure all the salt shakers are there.
	Make sure all the glasses are there.
	Does it tick you off that Trump hosts all these people that have been hostile to him, or do you like that?
	No, no, I like it.
	Trump is a negotiator.
	Trump is a smoozer.
	He invited Xi Jinping to the inauguration.
	Doesn't mean that he's going to suddenly change his view on China.
	He's a rock star.
	I've never seen the like of it.
	You know, I was running briefly for president.
	Thank you for knowing.
	I was talking to the governor from Florida, Ron DeSantis, who ran.
	And a lot of people thought for a moment, because he won Florida by 20 points, he won Miami-Dade, that he would challenge Trump seriously.
	So I'm on the campaign trail for about three, four, five months, and I'm watching this, and nothing's happening.
	And then you start reading articles that he's not a good people person.
	He's not good retail politics.
	That's not it.
	I went up to him and I said, I hope you're not being bothered by these articles saying that you're not a good people person.
	He goes, well, I said, this dude, I point to a picture of Donald Trump, is a phenomenon.
	He is a rock star.
	We're never going to see anything like that again.
	Don't compare yourself to him.
	It's a one in a million phenomenon.
	So if you compare yourself to him, you're going to put yourself into a deep depression.
	Don't do that.
	And he said, I appreciate that.
	Thank you.
	And I'm sincere about that.
	Have you seen anything like that?
	Normally when you're a one-term president like Jimmy Carter, you can't get a table at Fatburger.
	George Herbert Walker Bush, nobody wanted to smell him.
	His dog wouldn't sniff him.
	And now Trump loses, retains grip of the party for four years and comes back like this?
	Are you kidding me?
	Biggest comeback since George Foreman.
	It's amazing.
	Larry Elder is here live today.
	And Larry's trying out all his new material with Chris.
	No, it all works.
	Thank you.
	It kills.
	So far, yes.
	Now you're going to hit the floor for a while.
	You'll be back here live for your show.
	That's your way of saying get off my...
	Get off the show.
	Get off my set.
	It's not my show.
	It's Seb's show.
	Get off my set.
	I'm just renting it.
	Thanks, Larry.
	Thank you.
	Great to see you, brother.
	God bless, brother.
	Larry Elder will be here live.
	I'm here live in In For Seb on America First from AmFest in Phoenix.
	It's 833-33-GORCA. That's the number to reach us.
	We'll be right back.
	We'll be right back.
	We'll be right back.
	We'll be right back.
	We'll be right back.
	We'll be right back.
	We'll be right back.
	We'll be right back.
	We'll be right back.
	We'll be right back.
	We'll be right back.
	And thanks so much to all the generosity of people like you listening to this show.
	You know, Trish Regan, our colleague at the Salem Podcast Network, She's fantastic.
	Not only is she a great financial journalist and author, but she's also really put her arms around this Angel Tree program, and here's some of what she's had to say about it.
	I have three little kids and I was telling them about the Angel Tree program and how important it is and this week especially we should all just take a moment to think how lucky we are but what about the little kids out there who don't even have a parent right now because they have a parent that is incarcerated in prison and it's not the little kids fault it's so important right now to the kids to me to everyone here at Salem we all want to do our part Yeah, you can hear how passionate Trish is about it.
	And, you know, she's grateful.
	We're all grateful that you have been so generous in support of it.
	And with Christmas just days away now, we're asking, all of us are asking you to go to SebGorka.com, click on the Angel Tree banner at the top of the page, and for just 30 bucks, you can change a prisoner's life.
	The child of a prisoner, in particular.
	You know, and that's what matters most, isn't it here?
	$150?
	You can bless five children of prisoners with personalized Christmas presents.
	And, more importantly to these kids, a personal note from their incarcerated parent.
	Every Angel Tree family is also given access to a free, easy-to-read copy of the Bible in English or Spanish.
	Again, with Christmas just around the corner, there's time for you to act, and if this is something that tugs at you the way it does Trish and so many of us, go to sebgorka.com, click on the Angel Tree banner to make your gift, and thank you.
	For joining Dr. Gorka's campaign to help prison fellowship.
	Again, my name is Chris Stigall here at AmFest.
	And I've got to tell you, Phoenix is hopping.
	It is a who's who of people coming through the convention for the next few days.
	Seb being one of them, as a matter of fact.
	He'll be here tomorrow.
	He'll pop on the show.
	And we're looking forward to talking with him about what he might say now that he's on his way to become the Senior Director for Counterterrorism.
	The news continues to be in flux about what might happen with this continuing resolution and if, in fact, they're going to reach some kind of compromise here.
	Pay raises, I guess they've come up with something new from what I understand here today.
	Just literally reading this as it's breaking across social media because that's how we get all the information now.
	Link to this new spending bill before and after Trump and Ramaswamy and Doge got involved with it.
	On Wednesday it was 1,547 pages.
	Apparently there is a new version out that just came out this afternoon.
	This new version is 116 pages.
	That's all.
	So in a matter of just a couple of days, we managed to get some 1,400 pages of a slush fund bill cut.
	So what we know about it for sure is congressional pay raises have been removed from the spending bill.
	So, a lot of transparency, a lot of action from people like you listening to this show called and rang the bell of your member of Congress, and now we're down to 116 pages.
	Apparently Chip Roy of the Freedom Caucus has said no.
	He's a no on this spending bill.
	I don't know all the particulars on it.
	We'll continue to learn more about it, and certainly I'm sure Larry and other shows later this afternoon and this evening will have plenty more.
	And of course tomorrow here on America First, we will continue to cover the developments as well.
	Apparently it has Trump's support, this 116-page new bill.
	So we'll see.
	The one thing we all know is members of Congress want to get out of town.
	They want to go home for Christmas.
	They don't want to hang around.
	That is a bipartisan agreement.
	So if they can figure out how to get it done...
	And if Donald Trump signs off on it, then it looks like they may have done that.
	Meanwhile, your reaction to it, I'd love to hear.
	833-33-GORCA is the telephone number if you want to weigh in on this.
	Do you like the way it's playing out?
	Some of you are actually pretty ticked off at the way Mike Johnson's being treated in all this.
	So we go to Dale in Georgia, who's been waiting very patiently.
	Dale, I'm glad you called America First.
	I'm Chris in for Seb today.
	today what do you say Dale have we got you in Georgia you No?
	If not, we'll move on to Victor in Silver Spring, Maryland.
	Hi, Chris.
	It's good to hear your voice again.
	Used to hear you on Larry O'Connor's show before you went on the air.
	Oh, the great Larry there at WMAL in Washington, D.C. Yes, indeed.
	Okay.
	I was a federal worker.
	I'm retired now.
	But I worked for the National Library Service for the Blind, checking the tapes to make sure that the producers that duplicated the tapes for the talking book program for the blind, unblind, met specifications.
	One thing I do remember, do you remember Senator Proxmire and the Golden Fleece Awards that he would hand out back in the 70s?
	I can't say that I do.
	It precedes me a little bit, Victor.
	Okay, but I definitely do remember that.
	And some of the craziness that you read, like the sex life of the monarch butterfly, or why do fleas like to do something?
	I mean, it was ridiculous.
	And I hope that this CR doesn't have any stuff like that in it.
	So do you support the idea of shutting it down if we have to?
	Oh, I lived through a couple of shutdowns.
	Once when I was working and once after I retired.
	All it was was a vacation.
	Well, that's honest of you, Victor.
	Thanks for the call.
	Let me get Tom in here in Arizona if we have time.
	Hey, Tom, I'm glad you called America First.
	Hey, Chris.
	How you doing?
	It was great with you and Elder Ebony and Ivory.
	That was awesome.
	He's the best.
	Thank you, man.
	Yeah, he was good.
	You're good.
	I was just talking about, in the beginning of the show, CNN or whoever you were talking to, a bunch of morons, they said that an unelected oligarch is telling us what to do in our government.
	And the first thing that came to my mind was, who just ran against Trump last year?
	I mean, she wasn't elected.
	She wasn't even voted on.
	So I don't understand what they're saying.
	It's ridiculous.
	I'm stealing the thought, Tom, but it was a great thought.
	Somebody had on X yesterday.
	They said, so let me get this straight.
	The same people who were crowing and excited that George Clooney...
	Told Joe Biden to step down without a single voter having a say in it.
	Those people that were excited about George Clooney's influence are now mad at Elon Musk's influence.
	Pretty fantastic point, right?
	Yeah, and Facebook went behind everybody's back to collude with Biden.
	You know, at least we're open and transparent with Doge and, you know, it's open.
	We're not hiding anything.
	Hey, by the way, your state is beautiful here.
	How far are you from Phoenix?
	I'm about 30 miles north of a little city called Cave Creek, Arizona.
	You've got to make your way down here to AmFest, man.
	This place is jumping.
	I've never been to Phoenix.
	In fact, this is my only second visit to Arizona.
	This is gorgeous.
	It's warm.
	It's clean.
	Everybody's happy.
	It's a great early Christmas here, man.
	Yeah, the weather's nice.
	It's great.
	I love it here.
	I don't have time for it, but my daughters are going.
	I have three daughters, and they're going to AmFest for a couple of days.
	Oh, fantastic.
	Well, we'll look for them.
	Tell them to stop by and say hi, Tom.
	Thanks for the call.
	I appreciate it.
	No, I can see why Charlie Kirk calls this place home.
	It's just a tremendous amount of fun.
	Love to hear from you today.
	833-33-GORCA. My name's Chris Stegall.
	In for Seb today, we'll talk with Mike Gonzalez.
	He's the co-author of that great book called Next-Gen Marxism.
	The other author.
	Whose name you might know?
	Mrs. Gorka?
	Yeah.
	That's coming up.
	Coming up, Mike Gonzalez next on America First. . . . . . . . . . . Mike Gonzalez next on America First. . . . . . . . . . . . .
	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thank
	you. Thank
	you. Thank you.
	Thank you.
	Hey, Merry Christmas.
	Welcome back to America First.
	Chris Stegall in for Dr. G today.
	We're live at AmFest in Phoenix, Arizona, right here on the convention floor.
	It's packed and it's just getting started.
	And I'll be here again today, tomorrow, not only today, but also tomorrow for Seb, who is going to be speaking here at AmFest.
	And Seb will be popping by to talk with us a little bit, too.
	We're looking forward to that.
	Can't wait to hear his speech on the big stage where, of course, Donald Trump We'll be speaking this weekend, as well as just kind of a who's who of folks.
	I think J.D. Vance is scheduled to be here.
	I think I saw Vivek is supposed to be here.
	Trump Jr., among many others.
	So stay here.
	I think tomorrow promises to be a really interesting day here on America First.
	And we always welcome you in as well.
	833-33-GORCA is the telephone number.
	833-33-GORCA. I want to turn to Mike Gonzalez whose name you probably know if you're a regular listener to America First.
	Seb's lovely wife, Katie.
	I was fortunate enough to spend some time with the Gorka family this spring on a beautiful cruise to Alaska with many of you in this audience.
	And I got to talking to Katie about Next Gen Marxism, her fabulous book that she co-authored with Mike Gonzalez.
	Katie has done remarkable things.
	In politics on the ground in Virginia, and her message, along with Mike's message together in this book, it's just invaluable to really understand what we were battling.
	I think this book probably was a handbook and a great bit of information for people to understand and aid in the battle in this election that was ultimately successful.
	So, Mike, I welcome you to America First, and thanks very, very much for your time, and congratulations on the success of the book.
	Mr. Stigall, Chris, thank you very much.
	It has been very successful, and it's all Katie's doing.
	She was a fantastic co-author.
	She, very specifically, when I heard her speaking to the crowd while we were on the cruise, it was important to her, just on a very basic level, that she helped people understand Well, your book, Next Gen Marxism, has permeated the culture, particularly in our schools.
	She understands that, especially in Virginia.
	Virginians understand that.
	Can you talk a little about the book itself and the motivation for the book?
	Yeah, I mean, the country we thought was under ideological attack.
	And many people did not understand it that way.
	They thought it was many good, you know, people of goodwill.
	They think that the other side really is fighting for social justice.
	They do want to have an equitable society.
	None of that is true.
	They're fighting for power.
	And they're using these labels as a tool to manipulate themselves into power.
	And we need to understand it that way.
	We need to understand their tactics, how they got to be that way, what happened in the 60s, how Marxism has transmogrified from an economic system to a cultural system.
	And Katie and I laid that out.
	It really is the handbook for the moment that we're living right now.
	We're right now, because of Donald Trump's victory, What could be a vibe shift.
	We could win back the country.
	We need to be very smart and act with precision and with courage, changing policy that has been changed in the last 10 years.
	Mike, the victory in November, do you think that that is long-lasting, or was it just a lot of very focused hard work that could backslide if we don't remain focused?
	Because this cultural fight that you've been writing about, I don't think it vanishes with one election.
	No, no, no, no, not at all.
	The election affords us the opportunity To claw back ground that we have lost to the cultural left over the last 10 years, over the last 30 years, but especially over the last 10 years, since the inception of Black Lives Matter.
	So we have to do that through policy, through changing the climate of opinion, through exposing who they are, what they do and how they do it.
	That's what we'll try to do in our book, Next Gen Marxism.
	But not at all.
	I'm not being Pollyannish here in saying this election changes everything.
	The election, however, does give us an opportunity to fight, to take background.
	And the other side knows this.
	Is it the young people, Mike, that we need to most focus on, It seems clear to me.
	I've spent a lot of time talking about the fight in public school with my wife.
	We're really encouraging people to get into the Christian education space if they can.
	With about 30 seconds, I just ask you, should the focus really be on K-12 and college education in your view?
	Yeah, absolutely.
	That's the case.
	The question is, have we lost a generation or two with nothing to do about that?
	I don't think we have.
	I think we need to change the incentive system in the workplace and that generation and a half.
	That was indoctrinated will have to change their actions in their desires according to the new incentives that are given to them.
	But look, the fight is very much in the educational system because that's the terrain that the other side took, the educational system.
	They acted there.
	They took them over.
	Yeah.
	Mike, I'm going to break for a moment.
	Next Gen Marxism is the book, and when we get back, Mike has been tracking this very thing on one college campus.
	You'll need to hear about it next.
	Thank you.
	MICHAEL West: Yep, it's that time of year.
	Christmas is just a few days away, but before Congress heads home for the holiday break, Schumer and the Democrats trying to push through a monstrous 600-plus page, $50 billion end-of-year spending bill, completely undermining Trump's agenda just weeks before he takes power.
	And that stuffed stocking spending bill includes disastrous policies, which means dramatic Expansion of government intervention in the private healthcare system as well as Big Pharma with massive profit windfall at the expense of you.
	And this sneak attack must be stopped.
	You're the key to the whole thing.
	We know Big Pharma hikes prices on thousands of prescription drugs by more than the rate of inflation and drug companies set that price and then they hike that price and the worst part of it all Is you stay locked into paying high prices by blocking competition and then spend billions of dollars on obnoxious ads pushed by high-priced drugs on patients who may not need them, all the while we subsidize lower prices for people all over the world.
	It's outrageous.
	And now Big Pharma executives have the champagne ready to pop and toast their $50 billion money grab from American employers, patients, and taxpayers.
	What you can do before the GOP takes control in just a few weeks is lean right now.
	Conservatives for lower health care costs ask you to lean on Congress and the Senate specifically.
	It's not too late to stop Big Pharma from putting a lump of coal in your holiday stocking.
	Go to PharmaWindfall.com.
	That's how you can get active here.
	PharmaWindfall.com.
	Sound the alarm to stop Big Pharma and the far left from getting their stuff stocking at your expense.
	That's PharmaWindfall.com.
	As we continue here...
	On America First, live at AmFest in Phoenix, Mike Gonzalez continues with us, co-author with the lovely Katie Gorka, co-author of the fabulous bestseller Next Gen Marxism.
	Mike, we were just talking in the last segment, I welcome you back, about K-12 education as well as collegiate education being infested in the ways in which you wrote in Next Gen Marxism.
	You have chronicled Not just this, but also anti-Semitism.
	We know it's beginning to become more rampant in many university settings.
	I saw today in the Daily Signal a piece authored by you.
	Headline, is the D.C. area university, one D.C. area university, is it becoming a hotbed of terrorist supporters, Mike?
	So I welcome you back.
	Explain, please.
	So Chris, just to, because you mentioned our book, the funders and the fiscal sponsors of these anti-Israel groups are the same funders that have kept alive and channeled a lot of money to Black Lives Matter, to all the Marxist, anti-capitalist groups that we deal with in next-gen Marxism.
	So yes, it just so happens that in the space of two weeks, we discovered that three students at George Mason University, which is in Fairfax, Virginia, in Northern Virginia, have had You know, have had run-ins with the police.
	The police raided the house of two of them, two sisters named Noor and Jenna Chana, and discovered how their leaders, one is the co-president and the other sister is a former president of Students for Justice in Palestine, one of those radical groups that led the protests at Columbia and at GMU. And then the police discovered armament.
	They discovered AK-47s.
	They discovered multiple rounds of ammunition.
	They discovered flags for Hezbollah and Hamas.
	They discovered signs that said, death to the Jews, death to America.
	And then it just happened yesterday that an Egyptian-American student also enrolled at George Mason Has been arrested by police in New York.
	His name is Abdullah Izzeldin Taha Mohammed Hassan.
	From this point on, I will refer to him as just Hassan.
	And he was arrested for trying to get an FBI informant to participate in blowing up the Israeli consulate in New York.
	Because as he said, that's where the Yehud are.
	That's the Arab word for Jewish.
	Out of curiosity, Mike, I don't mean to get too speculative here, but there have been people who are speculating that these drones that we're seeing all over Manhattan and North Jersey and other places, maybe it's us, but maybe it's us looking for...
	Terroristic activity, perhaps even nuclear material.
	Now, I know I'm not necessarily linking this story to that, but I am asking you, with the infiltration of these radical Islamists, these Islamo-supremacists in our colleges, is it too big a stretch to wonder if that's infested some of our major cities and maybe doing something nefarious that our government's trying to track?
	I'm just asking aloud.
	Well, I mean, you can't exclude anything.
	You can't even exclude that this is all normal activity.
	It could be normal planes and normal drones that private Americans have the right to fly or it could be I guess I will broadly say, Mike, and I don't mean to stretch to make the connection, but it's obvious from what you've documented here, it's not something we talk about a lot, but there was a stretch of time where we were talking about people with box trucks mowing over people.
	Radical jihadists have not been on the front page of our news for a while.
	But what you're saying is this kind of stuff in our colleges is real and it's growing and it's right under the noses of some of our most prestigious universities.
	And it's just a half hour away, Chris.
	It's a half hour away from the nation's capital.
	I mean, Washington, D.C. was one of the targets of 9-11.
	Yeah, so it's not a small thing.
	And what do you anticipate George Mason is or will do about it or should do about it?
	Well, I've been very critical of the president, Gregory Washington, but apparently he's doing the right thing this time.
	They're taking it very seriously.
	I was in touch with the university yesterday.
	They confirmed to me that the student was enrolled at George Mason.
	I haven't seen that anywhere else.
	And we'll see what happens once his bail hearing takes place.
	All right.
	Well, Mike, I know you've been a little under the weather.
	You've been kind to give us time today.
	This story at The Daily Signal, his commentary headline, Is This D.C. Area University Becoming a Hotbed of Terrorist Supporters?
	Mike is also co-author with the great Katie Gorka of Next Gen Marxism.
	Grab that book and feel better.
	Merry Christmas to you, Mike.
	Merry Christmas to you, man.
	Happy, a great New Year.
	And we continue wrapping up here for Seb.
	I'm Chris Stegall at AmFest in Phoenix.
	Sit tight as we close it up today on America First. . . . . . . . . . . .
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	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thank
	you. Thank
	you.
	Merry Christmas!
	Amfest.
	What a party.
	Larry Elder is holding court.
	You wouldn't believe this scene here.
	If you're coming, look us up.
	I'm Chris Stigall in for Seb today.
	I'll be back here again tomorrow.
	Seb's going to be popping by here.
	We'll chat with him before he takes the big stage.
	83333-GORCA, the number.
	Keep that handy tomorrow, too.
	You can follow me on X on Instagram and other places.
	My name, Chris Stigall, C-H-R-I-S-S-T-I-G-A-L-L, as we go to my home base of Philadelphia and talk to Nancy, who's been patient.
	Nancy, welcome to America First.
	Greetings, Chris.
	I recommend everybody listen to your show in the morning.
	Well, thank you so much.
	We start that brand new show nationwide on the 13th as Hugh moves into this slot, Hugh Hewitt.
	So thank you, Nancy.
	What's on your mind today?
	Well, a couple things.
	So I'm wondering whether Speaker Johnson has been invaded by the spirit of Nancy Pelosi.
	You know, because she said you have to sign bills before you ever read them to know what's in them.
	Yeah, that's a great point.
	She sure did.
	Yeah, and thank you, Nancy.
	Speaker Johnson has canceled his appearance here at AmFest, interestingly, so we don't know if that's because he's been working on a bill or he doesn't think he'll be welcome.
	Thanks for the call.
	Let's go to Joe in Los Angeles.
	Hey, Joe, glad you called America First.
	I'm Chris in for Seb.
	Hi.
	Hey, very simple.
	One thing to remember, a quote from the great Dick Morris, and that is that A government, so-called government shutdown, is actually only a slowdown of a 15% fraction of the government.
	Not to be worried about, I've survived exactly about 43 of them in my lifetime.
	So the speaker needs to get his fine and not be afraid of a shutdown.
	As a matter of fact, the more Democrats that go home for Christmas break, I'm sure we can pass a great bill, and we don't even need them.
	So let them go home if they want to.
	Let's have a set down.
	I'm not worried about it.
	If they get this 116-page bill passed through, which I guess has Trump's support, is that sufficient?
	Does that please you?
	And does that please you to let Johnson stay around?
	I'd say, well, we need to scare Johnson, give him a spine, and remind him that a so-called shutdown is only a slowdown.
	Yeah.
	Okay.
	Well, look, it's going to be interesting.
	I mean, it is reported today, and I appreciate the call, that, in fact, they have landed on a 116-page version that has Trump and Vance's backing.
	I think it has Elon's backing.
	We'll keep watching it, but the interesting thing now is, if, in fact, that's true, and they have, I think Chip Roy is the only Republican that said he won't support it, So time will tell.
	If that's the case and everybody else holds, they'll get it passed.
	But Democrats now are suggesting they're going to fight it.
	And so turnabout's fair play.
	They've been running around saying, hey, we had a deal here.
	And now Republicans want to shut down the government just before Christmas.
	I mean, I hope that the Republicans will respond in kind and say, hey.
	We've got a clean deal that's not going to blow a bunch of money.
	We've got it figured out, and we want to do it before Christmas.
	Let's not shut down the government.
	Democrats want to shut down the government.
	Two can play this game if they play it smart.
	Republicans aren't typically smart.
	We'll see if they figure it out.
	Back at it tomorrow.
	Merry Christmas.
	We'll see you bright and early, I guess, if you want to call it that, in the afternoon out in Phoenix on America First tomorrow.

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