Man who made show firing people begins... firing people (01-21-2025--Hour1)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalinarshow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] The email is pete at thepetekalinarshow.com. You can also hit me up on Twitter, at Pete Kaliner. And no, Elon Musk did not do the Nazi sign at the rally. He was throwing his heart out. He put his hand on his heart and he like threw his heart. He was thanking people. He did it several times. It's not... Oh my God. Are we still doing this? Are we still doing this? Like the OK symbol? Like when you do an OK with your hand?

[00:00:58] He's like, oh, there's white power. Like, are we still doing this stupidity? Lefties, come on. So Donald Trump signs 33 executive orders yesterday. There's plenty of material for you guys to go after him over. You don't have to do the, oh my gosh, that hand signal was something I think it is, even though it wasn't. You don't have to do that. Okay? You could just like, look at the substantive issues.

[00:01:25] Also, people are very concerned. That's a capital V in very and a capital C in concerned. It's trademarked slogan, by the way. People are very concerned that the guy who made a whole TV series around firing people is, let me see here. Yeah, firing people as president. Who could have seen that coming?

[00:01:54] Donald Trump posted on his truth social platform. Our first day in the White House is not over yet. My presidential personnel office is actively in the process of identifying and re... He didn't write this. You know how I know he didn't write this? The capitalizations are correct.

[00:02:17] There aren't like randomly capitalized words in the middle of his post. Anyway, he says they're removing over a thousand presidential appointees from the previous administration who are not aligned with our vision to make America great again. Let this serve as official notice of dismissal for these four individuals with many more coming soon. And then he names four people.

[00:02:46] And then he says, in all caps, you're fired.

[00:03:13] That would be a good hook for a TV show that where you fired a bunch of people like that. That could work. Reuters reports it thusly. President Donald Trump said he plans to remove over a thousand appointees from the administration of former President Joe Biden, announcing four dismissals on social media, including the celebrity chef Jose Andres and former top general Mark Milley.

[00:03:37] The step is likely to reignite concerns that the president aims to replace Biden appointees with individuals faithful to his agenda. Well, actually, he says it right there in that post. He says he's removing these appointees who are not aligned with our vision.

[00:04:08] So, I mean, I don't know why it would like it's not likely to reignite concerns. You're already very concerned. So it's not likely to do anything. If you are already very concerned, it shouldn't reignite anything. That fire is already burning. Right. Reuters. I mean, he says it right there. That's the reason they're not aligned with the vision.

[00:04:31] Which, by the way, I think the last time a president removed appointees from the administration when they took over, you got to go way back in the history books to Joe Biden four years ago. For the exact same reason, by the way. Exact same reason. I've got the receipts. We'll get to them.

[00:04:56] The portrait of Milley, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who Trump has suggested should be executed for holding back channel talks with China, was removed from the Pentagon. OK. I don't know if he said he should be executed. I don't know. Maybe he did. It would not surprise me if he did. Let me be clear. But I suspect he said something along the lines of that's treasonous. He should be tried for treason. And the punishment for that could be execution.

[00:05:26] So. But I don't know. I did not go deeper into the into the Reuters language there. But the thing to keep in mind here. And we're going to come across it again in a bit is if you only got your news from Reuters. Just kidding. Nobody only gets their news from Reuters. But Larry, let's just say that you got your news from a news entity that relied heavily on Reuters. OK.

[00:05:55] And Reuters is like the Associated Press or the AFP. It's this, you know, international news gathering and dissemination platform. And a lot of news organizations will pay to be a member to subscribe, basically. And then you get all of the the rights to publish their stories. So. If you were only consuming media and we're relying on Reuters.

[00:06:24] You would not have the full context of this story of what's going on. And we see it again in another piece later on. I'll point it out when we get there. So the portrait of Millie, Mark Millie. Was removed from the Pentagon shortly after Trump's inauguration on Monday. And by the way, he swapped out the portrait in the Oval Office of who is a Teddy Roosevelt.

[00:06:53] I think that that Biden had hung up there next to the desk next to the resolute desk. And that has been removed now and replaced with another portrait of Andrew Jackson. Not the portrait of Andrew Jackson that Trump had before. But now it's Andrew Jackson in retirement. It's an older. He went with an older portrait of Jackson. Well, because Trump's older, too, you know. So I guess that makes sense.

[00:07:21] There were a bunch of other. Oh, Trump also ordered federal workers to return to the office five days a week. And weakened job protections for civil servants on Monday. The first salvos in his campaign to gut the federal bureaucracy, a.k.a. the deep state or the ministerial class, if you will. Trump's allies have said the return to work mandate and the stripping of civil service protections,

[00:07:46] widely known as Schedule F, is intended to help the president replace long serving government workers with loyalist. Note, there is an assumption built into that sentence that anybody who has been a longtime government worker is not a loyalist to the Democrat Party, is not a loyalist to any other president. And of course, that is not correct. There are people in the bureaucracy.

[00:08:12] We heard about them the first time Trump won when he beat Hillary Clinton. And we heard this term being bandied about the resistance or, as I call it, the resistance. Well, it's a tribute to the French and their highly successful resistance. But the number of people that work in government, look, they're just like everybody else, right? People have their political opinions and beliefs and ideas and such.

[00:08:42] And if you are in a position, as these bureaucrats are, to throw sand in the gears of what the incoming administration wants to do, because you believe it's, you know, literally Hitler, because you've been reading a lot of Reuters, I guess, and the Associated Press, well, and the New York Times, and the, well, well, okay. So mainly a lot of the mainstream media. But if you've been reading that stuff and this is what you believe, then why wouldn't you try to stop Hitler, right?

[00:09:11] Everything's on the table if you're trying to stop the rise of Nazism and fascism. I mean, aside from, like, the Hamas holies, aside from them. Like, that's a different kind. That's an okay form of authoritarianism. So here is how the New York Times reported this story.

[00:09:37] President-elect Donald Trump, oh, by the way, this was last month, okay? Trump has moved to install loyalists, there's that word again, in jobs that Congress did not. So a loyalist is what? Somebody that's loyal to Trump or somebody that is of a like mind on what Trump wants to do? They make no distinction here, because how could they? They're talking in these sweeping generalities, right? Assuming that anybody who gets hired to go to work in the government under a Trump administration

[00:10:06] must obviously be a, quote, loyalist to Donald Trump, the man, and not to any idea of rooting out the deep state, quote, unquote, the ministerial class, to rooting out the corruption. What it is, is a form of shut-uppery. It is, you don't belong here. This is our realm. We'll keep our hands on the levers of power.

[00:10:32] You don't come into here, into our agency, and start trying to curtail the overreach that we have enjoyed for a very long time. We've been working very hard to get into all facets of the economy and people's lives. You don't get to come in here and undo all of that progress that we have been making. That's what this is. This is an underlying assumption that a, quote, loyalist appointed by Trump somehow or another

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[00:12:22] Charlie Savage writing at the New York Times back in December about Trump's moves to replace officials. And this was of great concern to Democrats and media, but I repeat myself, because traditionally you let these people serve out their whole term. For example, the FBI director, right? The FBI director gets appointed to a 10-year term,

[00:12:50] and Trump's like, no, I'm going to fire Christopher Wray. And in this New York Times article, it said, under federal law, none are supposed to be treated like ordinary political appointees whom incoming presidents immediately replace with their own selections as a matter of course. While Mr. Trump has the legal power to do so, so he is allowed to do this,

[00:13:17] he is violating a norm of self-restraint that past presidents, including himself, adhered to. Yeah, except there are, like, lots of examples of people not doing this. Including, way back in the historical annals, if you will, Joe Biden in his first year and just laid waste to all of these appointees under Donald Trump. Oh, and by the way, speaking of the FBI,

[00:13:46] I see here at hotair.com that Christopher Wray made his intention known to publicly and publicly to resign last month, and he apparently lined up his deputy director, Paul Abadi, to assume the role of acting director. Abadi took over for a day, and now he resigned. Like, what are you guys even doing over there? Did you not talk to Abadi before you, like, why would you line up a guy to do one day?

[00:14:16] Just, yeah. They're, yeah, they're draining themselves. The swamp is draining itself. All right, I hope you had a happy holiday season, but tell me if something like this happened at your house. Your family and friends are gathered around, maybe y'all are in the living room, you're laughing, swapping stories, reminiscing, and then somebody says, hey dad, remember those old VHS tapes? Did you ever get them transferred?

[00:14:45] And then the room gets all quiet, all eyes are on dad, who says, oh, you know, well I've been meaning to, but I just haven't gotten around to it. Look, don't let those priceless memories sit in a box for another year. All right, Create A Video has been helping families in the Charlotte area preserve their history since 1997. Simply bring in your old camcorder tapes and Create A Video will transfer them to a USB flash drive for just $14.95 per tape. You have a big collection? They've got a discount for you.

[00:15:15] And next year, instead of talking about those memories, imagine gathering the family to watch them together. Talk about a memorable gift. So do what I did. Trust the experts at Create A Video, conveniently located in Mint Hill, right off I-485, and online at createavideo.com. I do have some massages here on the Twitter from Eric. It's a Pete tweet. He says, so Pete, you mean to tell me

[00:15:44] that it's gone from impossible to fire Democrat bureaucrats who are actively impeding the president's reforms to nearly, oh, it's gone from impossible to fire them to nearly impossible to fire them. Right. These people would never last in the private sector. Um, and Eric then says that the norm is that Democrat appointees get to serve forever, but Republican appointees can be fired immediately.

[00:16:13] I can't believe you missed that in Civics 102. That's fair. Uh, that's fair. Um, right, because, right, it's different when Democrats do it. See, it's different. Um, let me go over here and get Ed. Hello, Ed. Welcome to the program. Thank you. Yes, sir. Uh, you were talking about the, uh, FBI director, uh, resigning and, another one coming in for one day. Yeah.

[00:16:42] Sole purpose in that was just to fatten up that individual's retirement plan. Uh, that probably added another $50,000 to $100,000 a year to his pension. Uh, that could be the case. I've seen people raise this as a, uh, potential explanation. Uh, but I, I don't know what the rules are if you just get to be in there for one day or if there was a certain amount of time you have to be in a post for it to be, uh, uh, because what you're talking about is pension spiking is the, is the term that they do that,

[00:17:11] that is used for this. And it's not just at the FBI level, like it happens all across public sectors. Yeah. We'll wait and see what happens to the military. Now, anybody, uh, that await level and higher, uh, you can be sure there's going to be a, a rush and a rash of promotions, uh, in the, for the same reason, just about. Yeah. I, yeah, maybe so. Uh, maybe so we'll wait and see. I appreciate the call, Ed. Yeah. Uh, pension spiking is,

[00:17:40] it is a thing. It does occur very often. People get promoted by, you know, a manager that likes them and they, they quote reward them. They give them a promotion. Um, but when it became so obvious that this pension spiking was occurring, a lot of rules got put in place at like state and local levels. So you have to be in the position for a certain amount of time. I don't know if that's the case for this, uh, for this gig. Um, but it, it, that could explain why.

[00:18:10] And that would be even more egregious than just simply the clown show, um, explanation. So the leaders of the FBI, as well as the IRS serve a fixed term that does not align with changes in administrations. Uh, both of the terms of the current people. So you got Christopher Ray, the FBI director, although now he's gone and the IRS commissioner, Danny Werfel, they both expire in 2027. Uh, they just happened to line up.

[00:18:39] the IRS guys got a five year term. The FBI guys got a 10 year term. And so they were both set, uh, to, uh, to, to see their terms expire in 27. Um, the New York times report says the practice by incoming presidents of letting officials in positions with legally defined terms, finish serving them out, does not adhere to all positions in the executive branch. even though a federal law says U S attorneys are appointed to four year terms,

[00:19:09] it is routine for all of them to offer their resignations when new presidents take over no matter how long they have served. Yeah. So it isn't like, that's an interesting thing. Remember George W. Bush and he fired like 13, I think U S attorneys and outrage ensued. How dare he? These are public service. You know, there's always this crying and gnashing of teeth when a Republican does this. And when Democrats do it, it's well, you know that that's part of the gig.

[00:19:39] They all knew what they were signing on for. But beyond that, the New York times reports, it is difficult to identify any clear modern precedent for Trump's actions. And then they go on to list three actual incidents that are in fact the same thing. Like we can't find any precedent. Well, except these number one, January,

[00:20:09] 1993 officials in Clinton's administration immediately started exploring what to do about the FBI director, William Sessions and Sessions refused to resign. And so Clinton removed him cutting short his term by about four years. Is that different? How is that different? That's the same freaking thing. In January 2021, Biden's incoming team ousted the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board,

[00:20:39] Peter Robb, a Trump appointee whose term had been set to last until that November. They fired him. Is that different? No, it's exact same thing. Also, same month, same timeframe, Joe Biden, well, his handlers sought to remove Michael Pack, the Trump appointed chief of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. That runs like Voice of America and Radio Free Asia.

[00:21:09] So, while the New York Times says we can't find any precedent where this thing has happened, they then list three things of the exact same kind. But maybe it's because he's a Republican and that's why there's no precedent. That's what Democrats did. Joe Biden just did it. He just did this. And by the way, the purges continued for months under Joe Biden. Months. All right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events. And I know you do too.

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[00:22:08] recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The Blind Spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check.ground.news slash Pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get 15% off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape

[00:22:38] more transparent. All right. So back in September 2021 so this is like eight months after Biden got into office and started cleaning house started firing people and such he was still going. In September of 2021 President Biden fired all military academy board members appointed by Trump regardless of their qualifications in a purge drawing stiff pushback because

[00:23:08] their terms were supposed to be three years. Six presidential appointees on each academy board so 18 people in total were told to resign. They were given you know 6 p.m. today or whatever. And one of the board members said I think this complete purge shows that the administration is hell-bent on the woke mob controlling or having input into military education. Right. So these are the boards that review I guess the applications

[00:23:37] or help run the the the schools you know West Point Annapolis or the Naval Academy. Right. This is why it's such a big deal they said historically it has never been done before. Unprecedented is a word you could use here. Some of the people let go include former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster. He was on I think on the West Point board. Kellyanne Conway was on the Air Force Academy board White House

[00:24:07] former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer who's a longtime Navy Reserve officer on the Naval Academy board out. Also removed from the West Point board retired General Jack Keene. Retired Army Army Colonel Douglas McGregor Afghanistan war veteran clinical psychologist Megan Mobs. Bronze Star recipient businessman David Urban retired Army Lieutenant General Guy Swan

[00:24:37] over the Naval Board. Trump's White House budget director Russ Vogt. Jonathan Heiler who worked for former Vice President Mike Pence lawyer John Cole whose wife is TV host Greta Van Susteren. Heiler said it's not clear what the basis for this purge is. A plain reading of the statute that created the board in 1879 talk about norms and all includes traditionally bipartisan

[00:25:06] appointments by congressional leaders and says the president's appointees serve three-year terms. The service academy boards have always enjoyed a tradition of bipartisanship. Former naval officer Anthony Parker and retired rear admiral Joseph Walsh also got the boot from the Naval Academy board and the White House confirmed that. So don't tell me that this is something unprecedented. It's not. I have been paying attention. This has been happening more and

[00:25:34] more and more and really ramped up in the last four years. Back in 2021 before that round of purges but after the first round of purges the left was celebrating this. Mark Joseph Stern leftist who writes slate.com said that you know Joe Biden fired Andrew Saul from the Social Security Administration. It marked the latest chapter in Biden's ongoing efforts to expel Trump

[00:26:04] holdovers from leadership positions in the executive branch. See here it's totally fine right and actually you know who's really to blame here. The Republicans of course Donald Trump is to blame under this theory of unitary executive that's been gathering widespread support on the right scorn from the left. It's like you guys have been saying that the executive office has these powers. Well now here you go. How do you like it?

[00:26:34] We're going to use them. Right. But here's the thing because Stern says if Trump had just put regular competent Republicans which I don't even know what that means to a leftist like Stern in charge of the government Biden might have put up with them until their terms run out. But Trump put arsonists in charge of the firehouse. Like how else do you reduce the power of the ministerial class unless you put people in there with a mission to dismantle it? There isn't any other way to do it.

[00:27:04] This is not some sort of a new philosophy that conservatives have been espousing. It's kind of a hallmark. Limited government. All right that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the Pete calendar show dot com. Again thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.

[00:27:34] Thank you.