Dave Smith and Robbie Bernstein dissect the Minnesota ICE shooting, rejecting DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's claims that a suspect aimed to kill officers as "utter bullshit" based on video evidence showing the man was disarmed. They critique Trump's shift from mass deportations to performative force targeting legal residents, noting 72% of detainees lack criminal records per the Cato Institute. The hosts challenge Matt Walsh's assertion that ICE only targets violent criminals and condemn right-wing hypocrisy for restricting Second Amendment rights while ignoring First Amendment violations, ultimately arguing that enforcing immigration mandates requires challenging government lies rather than regurgitating administration narratives. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
|
Time
Text
Surviving the Minnesota Storm00:01:31
What's up, what's up, everybody?
Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem.
I am Dave Smith.
He is Robbie the Fire Bernstein.
The power is still on, so that's good.
It's quite a, we've been through quite a snowstorm.
How about how much you get up there, Rob?
I mean, I think about a foot, but I stayed indoor all day.
I took some Adderall.
I cleaned my apartment.
I watched all the news footage.
So I had a nice day.
Very good.
Very good.
Yeah, I just actually, for the first time ever, I hired a guy to plow my driveway.
That's not an easy plow job because you're kind of on an angle and steep.
It is.
It is a little bit weird, but yeah, I did it.
Got it.
Got it real nice.
So that's good.
But yeah, and I think we're going to get an episode of Legion of Skankson tonight, hopefully, if everybody can get there.
Not at the stamp, though.
I think we're doing it at Lewis's house.
But anyway, guys, by the way, me and Rob will be on the road pretty much for the rest of the year.
ComicdaveSmith.com will be out in Key West is our next stop, which will be better weather than we have here, hopefully.
So yeah.
Come hang out.
It's worth the trip.
It's fun down there.
It is.
It is always a good time when we go down there.
And then we got a bunch more stuff coming up.
ComicdaveSmith.com for all those ticket links.
All right.
So for today's episode, we got to get into a whole lot of what's going on here.
Major, major conversations about this latest shooting in Minnesota have been raging on social media and the news in general.
Escalating Tribal Partisan Shit00:14:11
And then I think just like kind of a broader conversation about Donald Trump's immigration agenda, mass deportations, all this stuff.
Because I think, you know, Rob, it's like, look, we're in a storm.
Like I always say on the show, it's like a bit of a storm, just these moments where everybody is freaking out.
And I really, I had a few posts on social media over the last 24 to 36 hours that got, I pissed off a whole lot of right-wingers.
You know, understandably, I really was trashing ice.
And I think I called them all a bunch of pussy cowards or something like that, which, you know, I stand by.
But I just find this moment to be interesting.
I think there's a lot going on that people are missing.
And so let's just, let's just start it here.
Let's say that, because this is something me and you have talked about quite a bit on the show.
Essentially, when Donald Trump first won the election in 2024, and, you know, in that period of time between when he won the election, when he first came into office, one of the things me and you talked about was that, you know, the Joe Biden years had moved this country far to the right on immigration in a way that really was kind of inconceivable before.
I mean, the American people never like supported the lax border policies of the Biden administration, but you got to a point when Donald Trump is assuming the presidency for his second term, where super majorities of the American people supported mass deportations.
And for anybody out there who is an immigration hawk, as I would consider myself to be, that's a big deal.
It's a big deal that you finally got to a place where like the majority and super majority of the American people support the idea that like, yeah, you don't have a right to be here if you came here illegally.
And as we talked about a bunch, Rob, this was always a very interesting question.
I made the comparison to the civil rights movement a bunch of times where it's like, okay, so we got 30 to 50 million illegal immigrants here.
You know, Donald Trump has a legit mandate to deport them.
However, how do you do that?
And how much violence is it going to take to do you know huge rounds of mass deportations?
And will that number, you know, let's say it's 60% who say they support it.
It's one thing to say you support it.
It's another thing to support it if it's taken a real amount of ugly violence in order to do.
But so Donald Trump had this moment and he had an incredible mandate.
It's really the story of Donald Trump's immigration policy is just kind of like the story of Donald Trump's entire presidency, really.
Unbelievable opportunity, you know, but it was going to take some real skill in exactly how to wield this power, how to get the most juice, the most juice for your squeeze.
And what Donald Trump did, and a lot of people kind of forget this, but Donald Trump took this moment to do two major things.
Now, the two things that Donald Trump did were number one, he immediately jumped on an effort to deport legal residents who are criticizing Israel.
So he immediately took this moment where people were pretty much on his side and went, let me do this in the most controversial way on the most controversial issue that will turn a whole lot of people off and doesn't move the needle one way or the other in terms of demographics.
And then the second thing he did, Rob, if you remember this, was he announced we won't be doing mass deportations.
I mean, the way Donald Trump said it was something like, you know, in the Trumpian way, oh, we got great people in hospitality and farming.
They've been here 10, 20 years.
I mean, aka.
In other words, if you need the political translation to that, Donald Trump didn't just like pick farming and hospitality as the only things that matter.
In other words, Rob, translation, big business doesn't want this.
It's a pretty big dynamic of why we've had the immigration policies we've had to begin with, by the way.
I know when you see 10 million migrants pour over the borders in just a few years, you may go, this is out of control.
Big business sees a lot of cheap labor.
And they like, so just to be clear, Donald Trump walked away from mass deportations almost a year ago.
There is absolutely no plan to do mass deportations.
No one is suggesting that.
Donald Trump's not doing that.
And the reason I bring that up at the beginning here is that this seems to me to be almost the thing that so many people are missing in this conversation.
I can't tell you how many people on the right I've seen who will go like, yeah, I know it's messy, man, but it's like, it's either this or we don't save the republic.
As if they're imagining that Donald Trump is in the middle of some effort that's going to end in the demographics of 1985 or something like that.
But just to be clear, it should be noted, that's not what's happening.
It's not what's happening at all.
What we're doing is we're having this overwhelming performative show of force and these violent interactions in order to deport slightly more people than Joe Biden did in 2024.
Like I'm just saying, like objectively, like though, that is what's happening.
And I don't know.
So I just wanted to start with that because it does seem like so many people are missing that and thinking that in some way, you're like, well, this is just what has to be done in order to get all the illegals who came in under Biden out or all the illegals, period, out, when objectively, that's already been given up on.
Donald Trump's not pursuing that.
So anyway, any thoughts you have?
I just think that's an important point.
So you're saying we got all squeeze and no juice right now.
Yes, essentially that's right.
Yeah, that we're getting, we're, we're, I mean, this was the, the post that I, I made or, you know, I mean, I, like I said, I called ice a bunch of pussies and stuff, but whatever.
But what I said is that, yeah, I go, this, this simply isn't worth it.
You're, you're putting on this huge show of cruelty.
People are dying.
You're activating the worst left-wing radicals.
And at the end of the day, you're not even like, there's not even something to show for it.
So, no, this just makes no sense.
And the speaking for nothing to show for it, their claim is, and I gotta, I just gotta say, they're engaging in such bitch shit with their rhetoric of, well, we're just going for the worst of the worst.
And so we're in these areas trying to round up these violent, illegal criminals that shouldn't even be in the country.
And look at these people in Antifa who are getting in the way of us removing pedophiles and dangerous criminals that nobody wants in the area.
And that's not true.
We've seen footage of you guys just basically harassing random individuals, asking them for ID.
So this is not targeted.
You guys aren't just going for illegal criminals.
They keep publishing these lists of like the worst and the worst.
And from what I understand, a lot of those people, they literally just collected from prisons.
And so if you guys are just going for criminals, then you're doing it in the worst possible way that even people who would not object to rounding up the criminals, you seem to have activated.
So not only are you not engaging in the mass deportations, but then even on this storyline of, well, we're actually just trying to get the criminals out of the country.
Well, then you're doing it in a profoundly stupid way if people are out in the streets objecting to it.
And it sounds to me like that's not what you're doing.
It sounds to me like you've gone into these areas looking for a fight.
Well, I mean, there was this one story which included, you know, several people, several eyewitnesses and images and video and all of this.
Darryl Cooper posted it, who's about as right wing as you get.
Darrell Cooper's the guy who they all tried to say was like a Hitler-loving Nazi for the last year, which he's not that either, but he certainly is a real right-winger.
And even he posted, and he's a real immigration hawk.
And it was, there was like a 16-year-old kid who was a U.S. citizen who they fucking tackled like at a Walmart.
And then they just released him at another place.
Yeah, they check his papers.
They fucking find out, oh, shit, he's a U.S. citizen.
He's got ID right here.
Yeah, he's USA.
And they just released him at another parking lot, like eight miles away.
And then residents found him just crying.
It was like, they slammed me on the ground.
His face is all bloodied and shit.
You're like, yeah, I'm sorry.
And again, for people to feel this need that you have to defend that.
This is what's been so funny about the whole response to all of this.
It's just everyone.
And I've just, I don't know, I've been through this enough times.
I know, I know.
Everybody, everybody who fell for the COVID bullshit and fell for the Ukraine bullshit and fell for the Israel bullshit and fell for all, you know, everyone who gets everything wrong.
They all come to you right away.
You're getting this wrong in the heat of the moment.
Like, no, I'm sorry.
I'm not.
You don't on every angle, by the way, I got the open borders libertarians come back to me.
See, Dave, we told you this is why you came.
It's like, no, open borders is still retarded.
That makes absolutely no sense.
It's still retarded to say you could just let the whole world flood in here.
That makes no sense at all.
This, you know, was it Matt Walsh came and he told me, I'm siding with the open borders communists.
Like, what?
No, I'm not.
I'm not suggesting we should open the border.
And this is a bunch of people on social media go, oh, so you're saying we should just give up.
We just shouldn't just because, so if the left is violent, then we just give up and I should never deport people again.
It's like, what?
This is like on the level if the cops just murdered some guy and you were like, yo, that's horrible.
And then they went.
So you're saying we shouldn't arrest murderers anymore.
You're like, no, I'm not suggesting that at all.
I'm just opposing this action.
And look, I will say, I'm pretty good about this.
I think when it comes to people who do big news shows, I think me and you are typically don't fall for this, right?
So I try my best to not comment on videos of like incidents, like the videos of shootings.
We've all, we've all been burned a time or two.
I'm not even saying, like, with a public comment, but just like what you thought a situation was.
And then there's more context and you go, oh, okay, well, that does actually totally change what happened here.
It's, you don't want to like, I don't know, you don't want to jump to conclusions when if there's more information that you could, you could gather.
But look, that video in Minnesota the other day, from what we see, looks about as bad as it could look.
You know, like this isn't even the one from a couple weeks earlier where the chick tries to drive out and there's at least a little bit of a bit.
I mean, what we see in this in the video, what you have there so far is essentially we got the okay, you got the pretty guy.
He's in the street and then an ICE agent starts walking him back and he's retreating.
He's walking back and he walks back to the sidewalk.
The man then shoves a woman in a way that like, I mean, look, we don't know exactly what preceded that, but you better, any law enforcement, you ever have a damn good reason to fucking ever put your hands on a woman like that.
It was a shove where it's like, yo, dude, she could have cracked her head and died on the sidewalk.
Like, and I don't care.
I'm sorry.
That is law enforcement's job.
I don't know what the situation was there, but you better have a damn good reason for ever doing that.
And I got to say, again, I'll maintain, we don't know, maybe more information will come out.
But from all the videos that I have seen, and I know you've seen a bunch of them too, Rob, this is the type of shit I'm seeing them do.
Go around escalating situations where it's like, dude, what the fuck?
Like you, you should always be trying to de-escalate unless there is a really good reason for why this was the only way to handle it.
But so immediately what you see is they shove this woman on the ground.
He goes to reach for her.
They like, I'm going to say pepper spray, but it's like bear spray, whatever that big canister of some crazy chemicals.
It's like literally the shit you use to bring a bear down.
They spray him in the face with that.
Then immediately seven guys are on him.
While you see the officer take his gun out of his waist while they're doing that, Rob, if you're watching the video, there's a bunch of guys on him.
The guy in the front is pounding on him as the guy is.
Now, also, by the way, Rob, we have the audio of this.
No one is screaming, you're under arrest, stop resisting, or anything like that.
It's not even clear whether or not they're trying to arrest the guy.
Then after they're beating him, they've pepper sprayed him.
They got at least seven, eight guys on him.
They take, they disarm him.
They take his gun.
And then some agent just starts shooting and puts like nine bullets in him or shoots like nine bullets.
Okay, Rob, just on the face of it, anybody seeing that, who you immediately knee-jerk to defend them, where you're like, dude, I mean, look, maybe some more information will come out that will make this somewhat more defensible, but it's just like the level of idiotic tribal partisan shit where you're just going to defend your side no matter what.
It is, as far as a video of a killing goes, it's about as bad as they come, like as far as what it looks like right now.
And I say that with some degree of humility, like maybe more information comes out, but they haven't even made a claim like the guy was going for one of the guns of the officers or something like that.
And that's why they lit him up.
Instead, what the government and then a whole bunch of right-wing pundits have done is just repeat utter bullshit, utter bullshit about what actually happened.
Conflating Violence and Self-Defense00:16:07
All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Body Brain Coffee, the brainchild of Luis J. Gomez.
Really thrilled to have them on board.
Guys, it's a new year.
A lot of people make resolutions that have to do with feeling better, with doing things that are better for yourself.
And there's nothing that's more basic to that than how you fuel your own body every morning.
Body brain coffee is real Colombian coffee, not some watered-down mushroom sludge.
It tastes like actual premium coffee because it is actual premium coffee, but it's also blended with adaptogens and nootropics that support healthy testosterone levels, mental clarity, and sustained energy without jitters or crashes.
Body Brain is designed for men who take responsibility seriously, men who want to think clearly, train hard, and still have something left in the tank at the end of the day.
There's no sugar bombs, no gimmicks, just great tasting Colombian coffee with functional ingredients that actually do something.
I can tell you, I've been drinking Body Brain Coffee regularly for a couple months now, and I love it.
It's delicious and I feel great.
So I highly recommend it.
And of course, Luis J. Gomez, it's his company that he created.
And he literally is the guy who's backed this show since the very beginning, the guy who convinced me to do comedy and podcasting.
So make sure you go support this company.
We're going to blow this thing up and make sure that he knows it's us who did it.
So go to bodybraincoffee.com and use the promo code Dave20 to get 20% off a monthly subscription plus free shipping for life.
That's bodybraincoffee.com, promo code Dave20 for 20% off plus free shipping.
All right, let's get back into the show.
You know, any thoughts on this, Rob?
Well, I guess the two claims that I've seen to try and justify it is one that he actually branded is the term, which essentially brandish the weapon, which is basically, you know, if you're, it's like the mob movies when you're standing and you're guarding the thing.
It's kind of like when the Godfather, good fellas, no, Godfather, yeah, when he tries to pretend like he's got the gun to scare people off.
I have yet to see a video that showcases that interaction.
Well, but brandishing it isn't just that.
That's like that, what Michael Corleone did is like bluffing.
So brandishing refers to pulling it out and letting it be seen.
No, I think if it's in your holster and like you pull up to show you got a gun there.
If you show it, if you show the gun.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
That's true.
Okay, fine.
But again, we've seen no evidence of that.
We've seen no evidence that it's been asserted.
And now the, I think, bigger bullshit claim is that he was guilty or there to provoke trouble.
And the evidence isn't the fact that he had a gun at the time.
I mean, it's just unbelievable.
Dude, it does.
It reminds me of like, I know some people have made the Kyle Rittenhouse comparison.
Now, obviously, it's a different situation.
In some ways, it's a much different situation because in the Kyle Rittenhouse situation, essentially law enforcement had stood down to the rioters.
And so he was going out to like protect people and property when law enforcement refused to.
It's a different thing to show up to a protest of law enforcement, like fair enough.
But I guess the thing, the commonality was just like the way leftists talked about Kyle Rittenhouse after the thing.
It was like, they just lie through their teeth.
Just make, I remember like watching like Joy Ann Reed or whatever.
And he'd be somebody on the news.
Like it was like, you know, you're a person who has a show on the news.
And she would just say things like, I mean, this is years ago, but it was like, she'd be like, she'd be like, this kid carried an AK-47 across state lines to go kill black people.
And you'd be like, it wasn't an AK-47.
He didn't take it across state lines.
None of the people he killed were black.
Like, what the fuck?
You know what I mean?
Like, you just get to like make up whatever you want to.
And then, but, and, and in the case, it was on video and it was clearly self-defense.
Like it was, I mean, it was like the Rittenhouse thing was almost like the you couldn't find a video that was more clearly self-defense.
The kids on his back on the ground, a dude with a gun runs up to him and he shoots the guy.
Then a guy with a skateboard runs up to him and he shoots him in the hand just to drop.
Like it was clean self-defense, obviously.
And that's what the courts ended up ruling.
But like in the same situation, you just see people saying like, oh, this is why you don't pull a gun on law enforcement and assault them and blah, blah, blah.
And you're like, yeah, but none of that happened.
Like that's just not.
And then, I mean, some of the other claims, I mean, here we could, we could go into some of them.
Well, I guess let's think about the order of this here.
Let's go.
Let's do the Kash Patel video first.
Cause here's here's the to me, this should be grounds for Kash Patel to be terminated from any government position, let alone the one that he has being the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
This is insane that the, that, this is insane that any educated American would ever say this, but the head of a federal law enforcement agency saying this is just unbelievable.
Let's, let's play the clip.
I mean, thousands of people are marching through Minneapolis.
They are targeting the Border Patrol.
I mean, it feels like the rhetoric and the protesting is only ramping up.
What is your advice to the people right now who are outraged that this is a second killing at the hands of Border Patrol in two weeks?
As Christy said, you cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want.
It's that simple.
You don't have that right to break the law and incite violence.
We will, of course, always protect your First Amendment speech.
And if you peacefully protest, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
But you have seen a trend here, not just in Minnesota, but across the country in these protests turning into violent scenarios and people attacking law enforcement.
That's when you go over the line and that's when law enforcement steps in.
Well, you know, I mean, thousands of people.
Yeah, that's not fucking true.
Like, that's just completely made up.
And what, did the head of the FBI just say that we'll protect your First Amendment rights as long as you give up the Second Amendment rights?
Is that his claim here?
His claim is that you're not allowed to bring a gun to a protest.
Like, it's so funny because I mean, look, you just see so much of this right now, too.
Also, it's, it's really quite amazing.
I mean, like everybody involved, there's hypocrisy all over the place, right?
Because you have, you have, you know, Democrats standing up for gun rights or something like that.
But there's also a huge amount of hypocrisy for any, all the right-wingers who talk all this shit about the Second Amendment wasn't written so we could go hunting.
You know, the Second Amendment was written so that, you know, you could shoot at the government when they become tyrants.
And like, that's right.
But since when is there a clause in the Second Amendment that says, but not if law enforcement feels icky about the situation?
Then you can't, then it matters whether the gun was loaded or not or the magazine count.
What type of, what type of like leftist gun control nut are you now?
That that's the, that's the territory you're getting into.
Look, I don't know.
I mean, I don't think it's, I've seen it reported whether or not this guy had the proper, like, like whether his gun was registered or he had a permit or whatever.
I don't know.
But I know it is legal to carry in the city he was in.
So there's absolutely no reason to presume that that means anything at all.
And listen, I don't know if people want to say it's like, I see a lot of this stuff being asserted without any evidence behind it.
People be like, oh, he was a member of Antifa.
He was a this.
He was a that.
He was a part of this network.
He goes, guys, there is no evidence here that this guy was in any way, shape, or form showing up here to look for some type of violent confrontation.
Now, again, if evidence of that emerges, then fine.
I'm happy to consider it.
But as of right now, there's just nothing pointing in that direction.
It also, it stands out to me when Cash, I forget exactly what he said there, but as far as I know, there hasn't been a single incident of a protester purposely showing up to a place with a weapon and then shooting at law enforcement.
And he's kind of conflating, like, yeah, I think there's a bit of a hostile climate and a problem of people being violent towards law enforcement.
And I'm seeing videos where the people who are upset with law enforcement, it's not easy to tell who's always instigating, but it does look like there's some scenes where instigators are showing up and provoking or getting in the way of ICE.
And if they are throwing things at them or engaging in violent activity, that's wrong.
But no one's been shot at by protesters yet.
There's no epidemic of protesters showing up to places with guns and shooting at ICE.
I mean, or shooting at law enforcement, or maybe I missed a news story here, but it kind of sounds like you're conflating violence from protesters, which is wrong.
And protesters shouldn't be violence, but creating like an image as if people are showing up to sites with guns and shooting at law enforcement that we have a problem in this country of violent, violent protest shootings at police officers.
That hasn't happened in this country.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, this is just totally like, oh, they found a gun on him.
So we'll, we'll, after the fact, use that as the excuse for why this happened.
Even though, by the way, again, another major problem you have here is that like also all of that would be irrelevant to the actual question here.
Like, what, even if he was there to try to do something violent, well, you had him on the ground with seven or eight guys around him and had disarmed him before a shot was fired.
Not looking good.
Also, unless there's unless there's a longer video, he also didn't start the confrontation.
He's there with a phone.
Yeah.
He's trying to keep his distance.
And then they engaged the lady standing next to him and shoved him over.
It's not like it's, you know what I mean?
Like you can, it's not really, it's within your rights to film these people.
And it's within your rights to be in public locations and film these people.
They will tell you, I've seen in about a dozen different videos now, they will tell you you don't have that right.
They're going around, these guys are like in masks going around telling American citizens they don't have the right to film them in public, which you absolutely do.
So it's crazy thing.
I'm just saying, like, by the way, this is, and it's the same thing with Kash Patel saying this.
It's like, this is just like, just saying legally, they're wrong.
They're both saying you don't have a right to do that.
Kash Patel just blatantly said you don't have the right to do this when you do.
And the same with the ICE agents.
I don't know.
It's anyway.
Well, so it's just, it's hard to argue that the first confrontation or escalation here wasn't at the hands of ICE, unless you want to take the perspective that if law enforcement decides that they can take down an entire city area, you're at the disposal and whims of law enforcement, or that a federal agency can roll into your town and decide, hey, we're shutting down the whole town.
And now wherever they are, you're now disrupting their workflow.
And I don't think any of us are advocating for that kind of federal or police state.
Yeah, well, I'd hope not.
Here, let's play because also Christy Noam had a good one.
Let's play her response to this.
An individual approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a nine millimeter semi-automatic handgun.
The officers attempted to disarm this individual, but the armed suspect reacted violently.
Fearing for his life and for the law.
I got to pause already.
I'm sorry.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Just pause.
I mean, this is just the idea.
The idea is lying through her fucking teeth.
The idea, firstly, when you say approach law enforcement with a pistol, if I had watched a video, I think a guy has a gun out and he's approaching officers.
So maybe it's technically accurate that he had a gun on him, but also to say that he approached so misleading.
Yeah, you know what I'm saying?
If there was no video of the incident and you just heard this report because they had seen it and you hadn't, you know, but especially, but it's even worse, Rob, because she says, she says that he approached law enforcement with a gun.
So there's the part you said, and then she says they then tried to disarm him and he got violent.
Like she's telling you, obviously, the image you're creating is guy walks up with a gun.
We tried to take the gun and he got violent, but that's not what happened at all.
Particularly the he got violent claim.
Like there's just nothing.
If you look at through the whole video, look again, maybe there's something that's not on video, but everything through that video is just, dude, it's, it's also the thing, like I've talked about this a lot before.
It's insane the standard that like law enforcement has in these situations when they're escalating, because it's like, again, like they, you're going to look at that and say, he got violent.
You knock this chick over, then spray him.
You got to think about like what's actually happening.
Like, I don't know, have people ever been in a fight before in their life?
You ever been jumped before in your life, like had more than one person attacking you?
Because it's very disorienting.
It's, it's not like you, you're not sitting here watching the video later.
And so like, I'm just trying, you try to imagine, right?
This fucking thing goes down, this chick is thrown, you're reaching.
Now you're fucking just got sprayed directly in the face.
Now there's like a bunch of dudes on top of you.
And then they go, he got violent.
Like all we saw him do is essentially fall down.
But like if there's one time where he went like this or something, they're like, oh, violence.
Like that's essentially what they have at one point when he's on his feet.
He kind of does this.
But like, dude, you know, like in the UFC, you know, it's a rule and they'll quite often take a point for holding the cage.
For, you know, fighters still do it all the time.
And they don't want to lose the point.
But the thing is that if I rip your legs out from under you, you're just going to grab.
That's your instinct.
Like it's in a situation like this, you're, it's not even like clear that you could like, like, it's not if a cop goes to you and you're 15 feet away and he goes, hands up, hands behind your back, get on your knees, blah, blah, blah.
You can very clearly show him, I am not resisting.
I'm going to get down on my knees and submit to your request.
But when they're on you in that moment, it's not like you even have an option to like put your hands behind your back or whatever.
You probably can't even get this hand out or know where this hand is.
So anyway, to describe this situation as a man with a gun approached law enforcement and they moved to disarm him.
They found out he had a gun after they had taken him down to the ground and one of them saw it hanging out of his waist.
They didn't.
Anyway, yes, it's just incredibly misleading.
I don't, I also don't know if the framing of him approaching law enforcement is accurate.
Yes.
If you're standing next to a lady and the law enforcement shoves them over, you instinctively put an arm on him, which was a mistake, but he instinctively tries to kind of, you know, break it up on pushing over a lady and then they instantly seize him.
I don't know that it's accurate to say he approached law enforcement.
No, no, that's a that's a good point too.
And again, these are questions that you'd go like, well, maybe they're like, what was happening before the cameras started rolling?
And perhaps someone was taping and some of these videos will emerge, you know?
I got a gun, I'll fucking shoot you.
Yeah, I haven't seen that video yet.
Also, then why wouldn't any of them say that?
Like at this point, if you're given these press conferences, instead of just lying and claiming the guy was a domestic terrorist or the guy attacked law enforcement, why wouldn't they have just said that at this point?
The Lie About Gun Rights00:03:26
But I guess, like, I have, I have more of a beef in a way.
Well, I shouldn't say that.
Let me walk that back.
Not more of a beef, but there's a whole different beef.
And there's something that's particularly infuriating about like the commentators who just like will like eat up these lies and then just serve them to their audience, like just serve them this slop and be like, you know, the administration comes out, the head of the FBI, the head of the Department of Homeland Security come out and they just lie through their fucking teeth, obviously.
Literally, lie, lie, not even a lie that a right-winger likes.
A lie about where you have a right to bring a gun, you know, like a lie that a right-winger should see right through.
But then as soon as they lie, you just parrot that same lie to all of your fucking people.
It's like, Jesus, man, like talk about having zero integrity.
All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is CrowdHealth, longtime sponsor of this show.
I've always been really proud to have them on.
They're a great company and they've come up with a real alternative to the broken health insurance system.
And now they have their Black Swan membership, which is the healthcare alternative for people who want autonomy over their care, their costs, and their lifestyles.
It's only $95 a month.
And for that, you get a team of bill negotiators, access to low-cost prescriptions, lab testing, and a curated database of high-quality, low-cost doctors vetted by CrowdHealth.
So there's no insurance middleman.
There's no network saying you can see this doctor, you can't see that doctor.
You're in the driver's seat.
And if a major black swan event happens, you cover the first $15,000 and the crowd steps up to help fund the rest.
So it's kind of like the freedom we used to have before Obamacare, you know, made all of these plans illegal and turned health insurance into a bureaucratic nightmare.
So start 2026 the right way on your terms by escaping the health insurance system.
Go to joincrowdhealth.com and use the promo code P-O-T-P and you'll get your first three months for just $80.
That's right.
Kick off the new year with healthcare that puts you first.
Crowdhealth is not insurance.
Opt out, take your power back.
This is how we win.
All right, let's get back into the show.
And, you know, I think there's like one of the things like that I've always really admired about like great right-wing thinkers.
But, you know, like I just loved reading like Pat Buchanan and Sam Francis and Paul Godfried and just like a bunch of like really, really brilliant like conservative right-wingers.
The paleo-conservatives were always like my favorite.
And one of the things that I always loved about them was it's like there was always like wisdom and like sober practicality and just kind of like a certain level of maturity.
And, you know, I was talking about this with a friend of mine who's a very, very right-wing guy.
And I said to him the other day, I said, it's almost like because all the good right-wingers were like censored and banished and just completely taken out of the American tradition, it's almost like this new generation of right-wingers is like a 15-year-old who didn't have a dad trying to figure out how to be a man.
Emotional Reactions to Brutality00:07:21
And I'm just seeing like a tremendous amount of like emotional reactions and immaturity.
Like just the thing of like, like, just kind of cheering on the brutality of it all and then going like, yeah, you don't fuck, you know, sorry, dude.
This is what has to be done to save the country.
And you're like, this is what has to be done to get deportations up like 20,000 more.
Like, it's not, you're not even, you're not even making a dent.
And so I'm not saying they are for don't do anything, but I'm saying like, let's approach this in a, in an intelligent way, in an ethical way.
Like, yes, the, the administration has the right to deport every illegal person who's in the country, all of them.
They have, and if they want to actually come up with a plan where they're going to do that, okay, let's hear the plan.
But they've already admitted they're not doing that.
So again, that's not what's going on here.
But even if it is, even if you were, okay, well, we still have a constitution.
You still like U.S. citizens still have rights and you have to work within that framework.
Okay.
You, that's the challenge is to figure that out.
But again, like as we've talked about before, Donald Trump had a huge opportunity last year.
You know, we're in a different situation now.
But last year, Donald Trump had the Congress, he had the House and the Senate.
He had his Supreme Court in there and he had a mandate on this specific issue with popular support.
He could have put all types of pressure on Congress.
He could have put all types of pressure.
Like if he had done this in a smart way, we could have had really meaningful legislation where you were like, yo, there's no more welfare going to illegals.
There's no more illegals voting.
There's no more this.
And we were going to really work in deporting as many as we can.
But of course, Donald Trump didn't even want to try to do that.
Instead, he tried to do everything through executive fiat because he likes that because then he can say, I did it.
It's all the credit is his, not Congress's.
Of course, the problem is that the second a Democratic foot touches the Oval Office again, he can in one day undo everything that Donald Trump's done through executive fiat.
But again, there's just, it seems like there's no type of real strategy here of how to actually implement a policy that might actually improve the situation.
Because I don't think we want to just try to stoke like some type of civil war or something like that for no results.
How is that wise?
How is that conservative in any sense?
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
All right.
Let's let's let's listen to the rest of this bullshit.
Yeah, yeah.
Let's let's get back into Christy Gnome.
An agent fired defensive shots.
Medics were on the scene immediately and attempted to deliver medical aid to the subject, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The suspect also had two magazines with ammunition in them that held dozens of rounds.
He also had no ID.
This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at this scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.
An individual approaches.
Okay.
All right.
So that's the end of it there.
I mean, dude, this is just, I'm sorry.
This is ridiculous.
This, who in the world could fall for this bullshit?
And come on, man.
Like I, like I say all the time to you guys, like, why degrade yourself into supporting this shit?
Why do it?
Dude, there's, she's saying clearly he was there to kill as many law enforcement officers as he could.
And the evidence is he had a gun.
Like, I mean, I don't know then, like, well, then why didn't he pull it out and start shooting?
I mean, he's standing there, right?
Like, he had, if that was his thing, like, I heard other people refer to this as a suicide by cop.
Like, well, if he was trying to commit suicide by cop and take out as many as he could, he had plenty of opportunities right there, but he didn't.
I'm sorry.
What can you even say about this, dude?
This is fucking just blatant lies, pure lies.
This sounds like it should be the press conference for a guy who drew his weapon and shot at law enforcement.
And then after the fact, we got a clear, We got a clear case of a person who showed up with dangerous and criminal intent and tried to kill as many officers as he could.
And luckily, we were quick on the scene and took him down before he was able to do so.
That's when you would say these words.
But if a guy has a loaded weapon and at no point in time drew the weapon or made an attempt at killing somebody, it's hard to claim that they were clearly there to do so.
Well, then I guess the guy's really bad at pulling out his intentions.
Yeah, you know, dude, you know, I met Christy Noam once.
I introduced her at an event in South Dakota.
That's because she was good on COVID and crypto at one point.
Well, that's so she, it was her and her husband.
They gave the speech together.
It was in South Dakota, I want to say, in 2021.
And she went out.
Yeah.
And look, so, but by the way, that is kind of why I don't like particularly wish to like, I wish she was better.
So I didn't have to hate her so much because I do, I will say that the thing, she opened her speech by saying, she goes, I'm the only governor in the United States of America who never had one day of lockdowns or one mask mandate or any mandate.
And like got a huge ovation from the crowd.
And I remember even myself thinking like, yeah, you know, you can't take that away from her, man.
Now, okay, part of that is because it's South Dakota and there's approximately one person for every 17 miles, but still, she is the, she was the only governor in the United States of America who didn't have a lockdown for one day.
A lot of people forget that, that even though DeSantis and Abbott and a lot of those guys turned around and became the anti-lockdown governors, they had lockdowns in their states.
She's the only one who didn't.
And then she said some good things about Bitcoin.
And then, you know, the rest of her speech, it was, it was pretty clear that she's retarded and doesn't really know anything.
You know what I mean?
But I was like, ah, whatever, you know, she's an isolated.
But man, why she had to go be in charge of the Department of Homeland Security is just, but like, I don't even have like, again, I own in my heart of hearts, I kind of want to love everyone who was good on COVID, but this is just insane.
This is insane.
And it's an insane thing.
This is a crazy response to have to that shooting.
Because again, if you, if you want to generally support the police and say, hey, the police have a really important job of arresting murderers and rapists, but then there's an incident where they just kill someone and it seems like a bad shooting.
You don't have to defend that.
And you don't have, and you certainly don't have to have this dumb knee-jerk reaction of like, if someone goes, oh, that was a bad shooting, you go, so you're saying we shouldn't arrest murderers and rapists anymore?
Like, no, it's not.
This is a ridiculous, false binary.
But for like, say, the chief of police to come out and look, they could easily come out and go, we're doing, we're having an investigation.
Rejecting False Binary Choices00:02:22
We will be looking into all of this.
We will find out.
But to like a few hours later, come out and go, that guy came there to go on a shooting rampage when you have no evidence to present to back that up at all.
That is just dirty.
And look, at the very least, like I would say to Trump supporters or two right-wingers who are upset with me, because I certainly there are a lot of them who do not agree with me on this.
But I'd say to all of them, well, could you at least agree that like the administration shouldn't just be lying to you?
Like they're treating you like you're a fucking idiot if you would actually believe this.
And I don't know, man.
I just don't know.
I don't know how anyone could look at that and not go like, yo, that's like wildly inappropriate and unprofessional for the head of the Department of Homeland Security to be saying when we don't even know.
I mean, I don't even know if there's going to be an investigation to this or anyone will be charged or anything, but like certainly you don't have anything to present to back up this claim.
All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is MASA Chips.
You don't have to overhaul your whole life in 2026.
Start with simple swaps, like upgrading the snacks in your pantry to ones with real ingredients like MASA.
It's the easiest way to eat clean without feeling like you're on a diet or giving anything up.
You're gaining something.
Massa chips contain just three ingredients, and there's no seed oils, no mystery chemicals, just real food.
And they're made with 100% grass-fed beef tallow.
These chips don't only avoid all the bad stuff, they taste incredible.
Snacking on MASA chips is nothing like eating regular chips.
With MASA, you feel satiated, light, energetic, and there's no crash, bloat, or sluggish feeling afterward.
And because these chips are made with real food, they're more satiating.
So you don't find yourself uncontrollably binging and then still feeling hungry afterward.
And if you love Massa, you'll also love Vandi Crisps.
Vandi is MASA's sister company and they make the most delicious three-ingredient potato chip I've ever tasted.
If you're ready to give MASA a try, go to massachips.com/slash Dave and use the promo code Dave.
That'll get you 25% off your first order.
Or you can just click the link in the episode description.
That's massa chips.com/slash Dave, M-A-S-A-chips.com/slash Dave.
Promo code Dave for 25% off.
Machiavellian Spin Tactics00:15:34
All right, let's get back into the show.
Yeah, I mean, but just out on the news and spewing some nonsense, whatever they can to spin it.
Yeah, I mean, it's just, it really is, I don't know, just unbelievable.
Where was the, let's play the other one, the Scott Besson clip, because this is the with a treasury secretary, um, but he had a good, he had another fun one.
Let's go, uh, let's go hear what he had to say.
I am sorry that this gentleman is dead, but he did bring a nine millimeter semi-automatic weapon with two cartridges to what was supposed to be a piece of protest.
I think that there are a lot of paid agitators who are jenning things up, and the governor has not done a good job of tamping this down.
Yeah, I mean, as you know, he was an ICU nurse, worked for the Veterans Administration, and there's no evidence that he brandished the gun whatsoever.
The fact that he brought disarmed before a gun.
Have you ever gone to a protest, John?
I mean, we do have a second image in this country that John, Jonathan, have you ever gone to a protest?
I mean, have you gone to a protest?
I mean, I've, I know, actually, as a reporter covering it.
Okay, I've been to a protest.
Guess what?
I didn't bring a gun.
I brought a billboard.
Okay.
I am sorry that.
Wow.
Well, I guess that's what passes for an argument these days.
Well, who gives a shit if you've done it or not?
Is it legal?
You guys are government employees.
Is it legal or not?
Is the question.
Not have you done it.
Who cares if you or the guy at CNN have done it?
And by the way, like, it just, this just seems like something a Democrat should be saying, right?
Like, I don't know if you brought a gun to a protest.
That's, that's your right to bring a gun to a protest.
What does this even mean?
And then to get into this, like, oh, oh, Rob, I didn't realize it was semi-automatic because that changes nothing at all.
Like, I mean, it's just like, I don't know.
What can you say about this, Rob?
What isn't a semi-automatic?
I'm not that good with what is it, a single shot thing?
No, a semi-automatic is still.
No, it's not.
I'm still saying every pistol is a semi-automatic.
There's like, it's just well, pretty much, pretty much most handguns that you're going to get today, yes, are going to be semi-automatics.
Yeah.
They're playing this line of reasoning as if guns are illegal.
And the only reason why you should or would have one is because you're looking to engage in violence.
And I thought as conservatives, we were trying to push out against that idea and that you have a right to own a gun.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, you would think.
Well, no, I mean, it does seem though, like there's we've gotten to a point that's a very disturbing point where it does seem like, I don't know like what percentages this represents or whatever, but it does seem like there's a whole bunch of people, man, who essentially will just support you murdering someone on the other side.
You know, like if you're just, if you're viewed as the other side, then they'll essentially celebrate, support, you know, and we saw a whole bunch of people celebrating after Charlie Kirk got killed.
Now, look, I'm not saying any of these situations are quite like that because they're not.
It's not like there was a guy speaking and then someone just executed him.
But I mean, seeing the way that people would just go, oh, they just go, oh, he's domestic terrorists.
He was there to kill people.
What's our evidence?
He had a gun.
Translation, he's on the other side.
He's on the leftist side.
So we don't give a shit about that.
And like, I understand.
I do understand, obviously, like there, they're probably, look, when he says there are, there are paid agitators out there, like, okay, I mean, you don't have any evidence that this guy was one, but I certainly, I'm sure there are paid agitators.
And if he wants to say that Tim Waltz has done a really bad job in stoking up tension, sure, absolutely.
And more than that, Rob, I do think there's a very fair point that right-wingers have when it comes to the whole deportation, you know, dynamic.
And I think like what a lot of right-wingers would say, or hell, me and you would certainly agree with this, is that it's like, look, not, we're not like just little D Democrats who are saying democracy is perfect, but like whatever, that is the system we have here is that we hold elections for president every four years.
And the, you know, the, the leftists are the ones who are always screaming about democracy and fascism and Nazism and all this shit.
And it's like, okay, well, we had an election and this was really the central issue of Donald Trump's campaign from all three terms was immigration.
I mean, certainly 2016 and 2024 were major, major issues.
You know, 2020 was a little bit different because it was the immigration was really slowed down that year, mostly over the virus.
And, you know, there were just other issues going on.
But in 2016, Donald Trump ran on immigration.
And in 2024, he was following the Biden years.
So it was a huge repudiation of that policy.
And like, there's something to the dynamic of, okay, so we had an election.
Trump wins the popular vote for the first time, wins all the swing states for the first time, comes in really with a mandate.
And as I mentioned earlier, super majorities of the American people supporting mass deportations.
And then you have leftists who are still going to like protest and obstruct.
And it does get to a point where you're like, well, hey, you kind of don't get to make this decision for everybody.
You know what I mean?
Like the right wingers played by the rules here.
And this is the policy that they wanted.
And they kind of, in a way, have a right to this policy now.
And so I understand that's very frustrating.
And, you know, I saw, I saw some people making the point, you know, like this, more broadly speaking, talking about this.
And I'm like, well, look, yeah, I agree with you, but also that's a cost that you got to factor into what your next move is because you're wielding power.
You're trying to be Machiavellian with this shit now.
This isn't just a game of principles.
This is a game of like, how do we get the best outcome here?
Now, part of the reason, and of course, none of them want to admit this, but it's like part of the reason why Donald Trump gave up on mass deportations and why that's not happening.
Part of it is because big business doesn't want that.
But another part of it is because like, well, I mean, it's actually not feasibly possible for us to deport like 50 million people in this manner.
They simply don't have the people.
They're struggling to give out enough bonuses to get enough people to sign up for ICE to do the numbers they're doing now.
It's not feasible that we're going to be able to deport 50 million people this way.
It would take a multi-pronged approach in order to actually get anywhere near those numbers.
I have an idea here because sometimes I see people saying, you know, in the areas where nobody's protesting, they don't seem to have these problems.
So here's just, here's an idea.
Let's say you wanted to get the 20 million people estimate that came in over the Biden administration.
Why not do this?
Why not just start with all the areas that are more compliant and want ICE in their area, getting rid of all the illegal aliens and do the hard areas last?
I'm just saying if you want more deportations, why not go into the areas where local law enforcement will invite you in?
They'll actually have, you know, ears on the ground to be able to tell you where the people are hanging out.
You might have landlords who are willing to just go, yeah, I got eight people in this in this one apartment.
You might just have more people who are on board.
And then you might be able to get a higher volume of people.
Now, this stat is from the Cato Institute, so maybe it's not accurate, but I think their number is that 72% of people rounded up by the current administration do not have criminal records.
So you're not targeting criminals, right?
And you're not going after the low-hanging fruit to get a large volume of people out.
So when you go into an, and also go after all the fraud.
You don't, by the way, you can cut off funding to all of these areas without actually violently being in the streets and make it less hospitable to be here and clean up the bigger issue that everyone was, that everyone was upset with in this area was look how much money is being wasted on fraud.
You do not need boots on this on the ground in this capacity to get rid of the fraud.
And then just one more thing.
I was reading Stockman over the weekend and I got to reread it.
But even the crime stats for Minnesota from violent from illegal aliens are minuscule.
You're not talking about a large number.
So just recap, recap what you're looking at here.
They're not actually going after the illegal criminals.
There's not a high volume of them in Minnesota.
They're not rounding up a high volume.
The majority of people they're rounding up are not are not criminals and they don't even have a high level of deportations.
So what is this current thing doing other than provoking local areas that aren't interested in this policy and kind of provoking a fight and showing an authoritarian nature of, no, we're shoving this down your throat, which what you said at the top of the episode, you're not even deporting a large volume of people.
Yeah, it's really unbelievable.
You know, I've seen people saying that too, where they go, okay, they'll say things like, right, like they go, well, Dave, what's the common denominator here?
You know, people aren't being killed when ICE is deporting people in Texas.
And that's because local law enforcement is cooperating with ICE.
And I have the same reaction you have.
It's like, okay, great.
So get all of them out of Texas.
Wait, what?
Like, what are we talking about here?
So you're saying, so essentially we could remove the people who are here illegally, who don't have a right to be here.
We could remove them from all the red areas and only the blue areas would then have this problem.
Okay, that sounds like a great start.
So like, let's do that.
And then like, all I'm saying is like, you got to jiu jitsu this shit a little bit.
You got to have somewhat of a game plan.
And again, I'm not claiming that I have the perfect fucking game plan, but also I'm not the president of the United States of America.
And if I was, that's what we'd be coming up with.
And like, I'd have a good team of people to do it.
Yes, Rob.
You attack the areas where you have, you're going to have overwhelming popular support that will result in the least amount of unnecessary blowback.
So, yes, going after cutting federal funding for any of the sanctuary states, absolutely.
Going after any of the fraud, absolutely blow this thing up.
But hey, what's the thing here, Rob?
Doge did find a whole bunch of fraud, right?
Trump just didn't have the balls to go through with it.
So he signed the next spending bill that didn't have any of the Doge cuts in there.
He didn't, his Justice Department is too busy burying the Epstein story to be going after any of these people committing these huge amounts of fraud.
I mean, I know you've looked at this stuff too.
I've seen estimates up to 50% of government spending.
Maybe it's not that high, but even if it's 20%, it's in the trillions of dollars of fraud.
You bust this shit up and then you're real.
Even if you can't get to the deportation numbers, then you're at least you've made the situation a lot better.
You've busted up the magnet that's bringing so many people in here and you've busted up their mechanism by which they're defrauding the American taxpayer.
But yeah, I mean, if there are other areas, look, one of the things, and this is why, I mean, look, obviously, we can't go back in time.
And Donald Trump could still turn around and do some of this shit now.
But man, it's hard to not look at just like, what a wasted opportunity he had.
Because, you know, one of the most incredible things, we talked about this a lot on the show, but one of the most incredible thing about Donald Trump's 2024 victory was it's not only that he came back and won this amazing victory, this amazing comeback story, but like the left actually wasn't freaking out.
Like, it wasn't like we were seeing big protests.
Donald Trump was like speaking at Madison Square Garden and there wasn't even violent protests outside.
Now, we talked about this at the time.
There were a lot of factors for that.
One of the major factors was the war in Gaza and that the left wingers were too busy protesting that.
And they were protesting a genocide going on in Gaza.
So they weren't, you know, like they weren't like on board with the administration enough to pretend to be outraged by Tony Hinchcliffe or something like that.
But so you had this situation.
And it's like, look, that's a really important piece to this puzzle because yes, there are crazy left wingers.
All of us would rather there weren't, but we got a deal in reality.
And so, yeah, what you're doing right now is you're getting a thing that's getting maximum provocation, maximum activation of the left-wing protesters for very, very little squeeze.
Now, if you want to say that that means I'm siding with the open borders communists, that's retarded.
And I don't, you know, I'll say another thing here, man, because I saw some people.
This is kind of funny, man.
Maybe because it's like, I just, I spent a lot of last year winning over the crowd on a lot of these arguments.
Like I did, I did a lot of debates where I like, you know, I would win with the audience.
The audience agreed with me and our show got bigger and like, so people were like kind of pointing out that I was losing this argument with the crowd, which is like, was true.
Like me and Matt Walsh went back and forth on Twitter a little bit and he was getting more likes on his tweets than I was on mine, which is like, okay, fine, you know, he's, he's winning over with the audience.
But I think it's almost like people would be like, well, Dave, read the room, man.
Like you're losing this fight.
And yeah, but I'm quite comfortable in that position.
And in fact, I also think sometimes like, because we got like, we got a lot of people who started listening to this show over the last year.
Like we did bigger numbers this last year than we've ever done before.
And so like maybe some of them who might be like loosely familiar with our track record, maybe they don't realize, but like, yeah, dude, like when we were against the COVID shit in like March and April of 2020, it was wildly unpopular.
We were losing the argument amongst the people.
When I was against fucking RussiGate and I was calling that out for bullshit, when I was saying in 2017 that Russia didn't interfere in the election, that was a very unpopular position.
Being against COVID was unpopular.
Being against the vaccines was actually really unpopular.
By the way, all the people dogpiling me right now, all those right-wingers, go see what they were saying about the vaccine when it first came out.
It was a very unpopular position.
Saying January 6th was no big deal, was a very unpopular position.
Like there's been issue after issue after issue.
We're like, I don't give a shit about taking the unpopular position here.
Listen, what these guys do, and you watch it, and I do find it to be, and look, I kind of like Matt Walsh.
I'm not even like against him, but there's something that's kind of snakish.
And you see this, it's the Josh Hammer thing.
It's like what Ben Shapiro and Steven Crowder all try to do to me.
They ignore you until they think they got you on one.
You notice if you remember the first time Ben Shapiro ever said my name, he had done like four segments on me, the comedian.
And the first time he ever said my name was when I called for Donald Trump to be impeached because he goes, ooh, I got him.
Snakish Political Maneuvers00:03:53
I know my audience doesn't like this.
And so I see, I felt like that was kind of a snakey thing Matt Walsh did too.
Like, oh, I'm going to come in now when I see that you're weak.
It's like, all right, dude.
And that's why I told him, I go, why don't we have a conversation?
Come on the show.
And then he responds.
He goes, not everything needs to be a podcast, Dave.
That was his response.
Or you're like, wait, hold on.
Well, look, that's true.
Not everything needs to be a podcast, Matt.
Not everything needs to be a post on social media either.
But like, we both do shows.
We're having a disagreement.
Is it really that crazy for me to go?
Let's have a conversation about this so we can hash this out.
And he goes, no, we'll keep it to Twitter because that's a better way to discuss ideas.
It's like, oh, no, you don't actually want to come defend this shit.
You were just trying to pile on.
I see it with all of them, Dan Bongino's retweeting people who are shitting on me and stuff.
It's like, okay, I get you guys think this is your moment.
Fine.
I don't give a shit.
I'm not.
Listen, I'm not in this game.
And I really mean this to the person listening to the show.
Whether you agree with me or don't agree with me on this, I'm not in this game to like gargle the administration's balls.
That's never what you're going to get from me.
I'm not in this to like when the director of the Department of Homeland Security comes out and lies through her fucking teeth.
I'm not there to like just regurgitate that lie to you.
If you're looking for someone to do that, then go find, go watch Matt Walsh.
It's fine.
But like, I'm just saying, like, I would, I would think I think it's my job to sometimes take positions that even my own audience might disagree with.
And in fact, like, I think you should almost demand that of anyone you listen to in this world.
All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Sheath Underwear, the most comfortable pair of boxer briefs you will ever own and a longtime sponsor of this show.
It's a great company run by great guys and it's a really incredible product.
So go check them out.
Try to support our sponsors and especially the ones who have been with us for years and years.
And as I said, it's also just the best pair of boxer briefs you're ever going to get.
It's literally, I wear them every single day.
They're the only underwear I own.
Go check them out, sheathunderwear.com and use the promo code problem for 20% off your order.
That's sheathunderwear.com, promo code problem for 20% off your order.
All right, let's get back on the show.
Well, the part of the, I have the Walsh tweet in front of me and the part that really spoke to me is he said they aren't even rounding up normal legal aliens.
They're almost exclusively targeting violent criminals, gangsters and sex offenders.
Leftists are out in the street breaking about 10 different laws in an attempt to interfere with law enforcement.
I would just like to know, because what I've seen, and I only researched this on Sunday, so I could be in the wrong and I love an education.
I love being wrong.
I would like to know what evidence there is that they aren't even rounding up normal illegal aliens and that they're exclusively targeting violent criminals, gangsters and sex offenders.
Because at least the one stat I saw was 72% of people that have been scooped up by this administration were not violent criminals.
And I also did some digging and found out that a lot of the violent criminals that they have scooped up and then claimed as the worst of the worst, they scooped up from prisons and jails and they didn't actually do operations in the streets.
I've seen footage of random stops of accosting random individuals.
The most flagrant example is the one you spoke about at the Walmart and then dropping them off as a target.
So I'm just saying you made a factual claim here of that they're almost exclusively targeting violent criminals, gangsters and sex offenders.
What is the evidence to suggest that their efforts in Minnesota are exclusively targeting criminals and that there's people in the streets that are objecting to it?
Ruining the Paleo Alliance00:05:32
And then I'll put one more on that.
If that's true, then this administration is doing a horrible job of notifying people in residential areas that they're looking to remove criminals.
If you're actually doing something so noble as to come to an area and scoop up a violent criminal that has been left in the streets by local law enforcement and the entire community is getting out there to oppose your efforts, then you're not doing a good enough job of explaining what you're there to do.
Well, I mean, that certainly is possible.
Well, the thing is, you know, you make all types of factual claims and then Rob's saying, oh, let me ask for some evidence.
Like, yeah, that's the type of thing that might get asked if you're willing to have a conversation about this rather than just make these claims on Twitter, but whatever.
I don't think Matt Walsh is going to end up doing that.
Happy to host or do his show or a neutral platform if he wanted to.
But I do think that, you know, there's one other thing.
There was Peter, oh, God, I'm blanking on his name.
Brimley.
He was just Tucker Carlson just interviewed him recently.
And he was the guy.
Like, I don't know him as well.
I've never read any of his books or anything.
But he was another guy, like a paleo-conservative guy who got drummed out of national review.
And he, William F. Buckley, like ruined him.
And his big crime was essentially that he was an immigration restrictionist.
So they called him like a bigot.
And, you know, it's just a kind of funny dynamic that like essentially the camp that I'm in was like, well, they used to refer to themselves as the paleo-libertarians when they made that alliance with the paleo-conservatives.
And it was like, you know, my favorite guys, like Ron Paul and Murray Rothbard and Hans Hermann Hoppe and Lou Rockwell, they essentially like they were like the right-wing libertarians.
And then they made an alliance with Pat Buchanan, Anton Francis and Paul Godfrey and all those guys who were like the paleo-conservatives.
And essentially what the alliance was about was that they were, this was in 1992 when Pat Buchanan primaried George H.W. Bush and he opposed George H.W. Bush's war in Iraq.
Now, Pat Buchanan, I'm not sure about the other paleoconservatives, but I know for a fact Pat Buchanan, he was a cold warrior.
Like he was, he supported Vietnam.
He was in the Nixon White House.
But his thing was that we agreed we would become like a global power, but because there was an emergency, which was the Soviet Union.
So when the Soviet Union collapsed, he was like, oh, great.
Now we can go back to being a regular country.
Now we can be the United States of America again.
And then the neocons were like, no, we got to go fight wars everywhere.
And he was like, screw that.
So the paleo-libertarians really loved that about them, that they rejected the empire.
and wanted to return to being a republic.
And the paleo-libertarians, all my guys, rejected the other libertarians because they were open borders.
And they were like, no, no, no, we're not buying that shit.
Like that does, that's not going to work.
And so essentially the whole paleo alliance was formed around not wanting to fight wars and being border hawks, being essentially America first.
That no, we got to worry about America.
We can't go wasting resources everywhere.
And we can't just bring in the world to jump on our welfare dole.
Like we got to worry about our country.
And this is what all the neocons hated about them.
Anyway, the reason why I brought up this Peter guy who was interviewed on Tucker, because he says, because you could imagine from his perspective, so he gets ruined for being an immigration hawk back in the day.
They ruined his career.
Never writes for national review again.
And then he said he heard Ben Shapiro talking about Tucker Carlson and how awful he is and what an anti-Semite he is.
And then he said, look, Tucker Carlson's good on some issues.
And they were like, well, what issues is he good on?
And he goes, well, he's good on immigration.
And it's like, oh, oh, now you guys get to come back and pretend that you're the ones who always really cared about this issue or something like that.
It's like, no, We know what's happening here.
You're trying to feed red meat to your base.
Go listen to what Ben Shapiro was saying about immigration just a few years ago.
Listen to what he was saying about immigration in 2016, 2015, 2014.
They were never immigration.
They were never immigration hawks.
They were never border restrictionists.
These guys loved Reagan's amnesty.
They loved George W. Bush's lax immigration policy.
They had no interest in that.
It's just that that's where the base is at.
So they like throwing red meat to their base now.
But again, like I said, this isn't a question of, hey, there's this brutally violent thing that has to be done.
And it's going to get Americans killed.
It's going to lead to more violence, but we get our country back at the end of the day.
At the end of the day, we're back to 1980 or something like that.
That's not what we're talking about here.
And I think there's no reason to not like just think of this in a somewhat nuanced, fair way.
Like just call balls and strikes, man.
Like there's no reason if even if you support ICE to the fullest, you can still go, ah, they were wrong here.
Now, actually, Kash Patel's wrong.
Actually, it's not a crime to have a gun.
That's actually not a crime.
And to the extent that it ever is a crime in this country, we're the ones who think it shouldn't be.
All right.
I guess we could wrap on that.
All right.
Thank you guys so much for tuning in.
Appreciate it very much.
We will be back tomorrow with a brand new episode.