States prepare for The Return of Trump (01-14-2025--Hour2)

[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 thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] Yeah, so Pete Hegseth on the hot seat up on Capitol Hill at the Senate confirmation hearing. Democrats are against him. Surprise! And I've been playing a lot of the, or some of the clips here from the Democrat senators going after Hegseth. Now, I just saw this get posted. I have not watched it, so I don't know.

[00:00:55] I'm not sure what all is going to get covered here, but this is Senator Mark Wayne Mullen and his defense of Pete Hegseth. I feel it's necessary because the whole first hour I just played clips of people attacking Pete Hegseth. And so now here is a clip in defense of Pete Hegseth.

[00:01:15] You know, there's a lot of talk going about, talking about qualifications and then about us hiring him if we are the board. But there's a lot of senators here I wouldn't have on my board because there is no qualifications except your age and you got to be living in the state and you're a citizen of the United States to be a senator. Other than the fact we've got to convince a lot of people to vote for us. And then when we start talking about qualifications, if you're qualified for it, could the chairman tell me what the qualifications are for the Secretary of Defense?

[00:01:46] Mr. Chairman, could you tell me what the qualifications are for the Secretary of Defense? I'd be happy for you to do that. Let me read it. I was getting some advice from my second in command. Yeah, but I'm just making a point because there's a lot about qualifications. I think it's so hypocritical of senators, especially on the other side of the aisle, be talking about his qualifications, not going to lead the secretary or be the secretary of defense.

[00:02:15] And yet your qualifications aren't any better. You guys aren't any more qualified to be the senator than I'm qualified to be the senator, except we're lucky enough to be here. But let me read you what the qualifications of the secretary of defense is, because I Googled it and I Googled it and went through a lot of different sites. And really, it's hard to see. But in general, the U.S. Secretary of Defense position is filled by a civilian. That's it. If you have served in the U.S.

[00:02:42] Army forces and have been in the service for you have to be retired for at least seven years and Congress can can weigh that. And then there's questions that my that the senator from from Massachusetts brought up about serving on a on a board inside the military industry. And yet your own secretary that you all voted for, Secretary of Austin, we had to vote on a waiver because he stepped off the board of Raytheon.

[00:03:12] But I guess that's OK, because that's a Democrat secretary of defense. But we so quickly forget about that. And then Senator Cain, or I guess I better use the senator from Virginia, starts bringing up the fact that what if you showed up drunk to your job? How many senators have showed up drunk to vote at night? Oh, have any of you guys asked them to step down and resign for their job?

[00:03:39] And don't tell me you haven't seen it because I know you have. And then how many senators do you know have got a divorce before cheating on their wives? Did you ask them to step down? No, no, but it's for show. You guys make sure you make a big show and point out the hypocrisy because the man's made a mistake. And you want to sit there and say that he's not qualified? Give me a joke. It is so ridiculous that you guys hold yourself as this higher standard.

[00:04:08] You forget you got a big plank in your eye. We've all made mistakes. I've made mistakes. And Jennifer, thank you for loving him through that mistake. Because the only reason why I'm here and not in prison is because my wife loved me too. I have changed, but I'm not perfect. But I found somebody that thought I was perfect. And for whatever reason, you love Pete, and I don't know why.

[00:04:38] But just like our Lord and Savior forgave me, my wife said to forgive me more than once too. And I'm sure you've had to forgive him too. And so thank you. So before I go down this rabbit hole again, tell me something about your wife that you love. She's the smartest, most capable, loving, humble, honest person I've ever met.

[00:05:06] In addition to being incredibly beautiful. All right. So there you go. That was Mark Wayne Mullins. And good for him. So I think in the first hour we had a phone call from John, if I remember, who said, you know, where are the Republicans standing up for this? Well, there you go. There's one of them calling all these Democrats out. And rightfully so. That's what I have wanted to see for a very, very, very long time.

[00:05:31] Kudos to Senator Mullin or Mullins, Mullin, Mullins, Mullin. Mark Wayne. His first name is Mark Wayne. It's all one word. Mark Wayne. Mark Wayne Mullin. Do you think he got that name because like his parents were trying to placate two different like fathers or soon to be grandfathers and like, we can't choose Mark or Wayne. So just all one name. But Mark Wayne Mullin. Good for him.

[00:06:01] And for calling out the hypocrisy. By the way, Doug Collins, Department of the VA of Veterans Affairs. He had his hearing at 9 a.m. Hegseth started at 930. I think they're still going. I can't tell who's questioning him now. I saw Ted Budd just questioned him for a little bit. Doug Burgum for Interior Department is on deck for today as well. Tomorrow, Kristi Noem for Homeland Security.

[00:06:30] Pam Bondi for DOJ. Sean Duffy for the Transportation Department. I don't know if we'll ever find anybody better than Mayor Pete, though. John Radcliffe for the CIA. Marco Rubio for State. Chris Wright for the Energy Department. Russell Vogt for OMB, Office of Management and Budget. That's tomorrow.

[00:06:58] Thursday, it'll be Scott Turner for HUD. Lee Zeldin for the EPA. Pam Bondi goes for Day 2. Scott Besant or Besant for Treasury Department's head. Those not yet scheduled. Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence. RFK Jr. for HHS. Howard Lutnick for Commerce. Linda McMahon for Education.

[00:07:28] Brooke Rollins for Agriculture. And Elise Stefanik for the U.N. Ambassador. So all of those are still unscheduled. All right, we'll jump on here and get a quick phone call. I've got to move on, though, but Joey, welcome to the show. Hey, Pete. Hey.

[00:07:50] Real quick, what Senator Mullen said, which is, I like it, but the insinuation is that Pete showed up drunk for work. So I got a problem with that, right? Well, I know the allegations against Hegseth. And so I think Mullen, who also says, give me a joke. You know, I think he meant to say, give me a break. So these guys, look, they're human and they get up there and they get nervous. I mean, what's her face? Duckworth was, I mean, like her voice was cracking.

[00:08:19] She was so flustered and nervous during her rant. And so I suspect when you lie, you get nervous. Well, but I suspect, well, I suspect what Mullen was talking about was the allegation of infidelity, which was true, by the way. Like he did have affairs. That's what he was. And that's what he was talking about. Right. No, I'm with it. I'm totally for Pete. Yeah. I'm not aware of any proven allegations on the showing up to work drunk thing.

[00:08:46] And the one video clip that they were circulating that the left and the media, but I repeat myself, that they were circulating was he was doing like some sort of like a Veterans Day special on Fox and Friends. And they were sitting around and he poured them all like like one finger or two fingers of whiskey. All of his guests, he poured them all some whiskey. And I don't even think he drank anything at that set. So that's yeah, I'm not aware of. But here's the other thing, too.

[00:09:16] The guy was a combat vet coming back from his tours. Are we to believe that the stuff that you see over in the theater of operation, that that doesn't sometimes lead to people drinking alcohol when they return in order to forget the things that they saw over there? Yeah, Pete, I'm saying with a smile on my face, I'm saying Mullen is like, yeah, you shouldn't have said it that way. But no, I got you. No, I understood. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:09:42] I mean, if he had if he had say more artfully scripted his comments, maybe he could have given some more separation to the two things. Yes, I do. I get your meaning, Joey. I appreciate the call. Right. Yeah, man. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in Western North Carolina? Just a quick drive up the mountain. And Cabins of Asheville is your connection.

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[00:10:56] And they have pet friendly accommodations. Call or text 828-367-7068. Or check out all there is to offer at cabinsofashville.com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. I do have some messages I will read here before we shift gears and move on. Do the kids even know what shift gears means anymore? Right? Because it's all like there's so few stick shifts anymore.

[00:11:26] So it's just you put your foot on the gas and it goes. Like do you understand? Like you actually had to shift the gear. So you shift gears up, you know, upshift, downshift, whatever. Do they call it upshift? I've never heard that term actually now that I say it out loud. I'm patenting that. That's mine. A little late. A couple decades too late. By the way, that's a great anti-theft device. Manual transmission. Yeah. Because nobody knows how to drive them anymore.

[00:11:54] So you get yourself a stick shift. And they used to be cheaper than the automatic transmission. Although now I think it may have inverted. I think maybe now the sticks are more expensive. Which is weird because it feels like there's way less machinery necessary for that. But whatever. I'm on a tangent. Let me get to some messages. Before I shift gears. That's how I got there. Russ says, the more I hear these people in various hearings, the more I realize how worthless they all are.

[00:12:24] Even the ones on, quote, my side. I wouldn't trust any of them to help move a couch. Much less make major legislative decisions. There's an extreme irony that they are having a hearing to determine anybody else's fitness to serve. And Keith says, because I said I'm not rich. And Keith says, but Pete, you are rich in knowledge, in wit, in insight.

[00:12:53] So smile. After all, you are on the radio. That's right. That's one of the things. Oh, yeah. You don't get paid a lot. But you get paid in limelight. People in the biz have heard something similar to that line before. Or, like, we're compensating you in a way that we know you like. That you're on the radio. That maybe somewhere somebody might have heard something about your name but don't know what it's about.

[00:13:23] Like, that kind of limelight, you know? Although I would point out I've never had a landlord that has taken limelight for the rent check for some reason. All right. I'll get Doug on here before the break. Hello, Doug. Welcome to the show. Hey, man. Look here. I'm glad these people don't know how to drive a stick shift anymore because they don't know how to drive a rig automatic. I don't need them out here in the stick shift. That's fair.

[00:13:53] No, no. That's fair. But although I would, yeah, because there would be a lot more people. Gosh, what would happen at the red lights? Because if everybody were still driving stick shifts, how would they be able to text at all the red lights when the light, you know, you're sitting at the red light, the light turns green. And everybody is just stationary. Nobody is moving. Because they're all on their phones. I guess it probably wouldn't have an impact there. But, I mean, it could.

[00:14:22] Like, a whole bunch of cars start rolling backwards. I used to love doing that. Somebody gets up too close to my bumper, and I would, you know, engage but not give it any gas. And so I would just start rolling backwards a little bit just, you know, just to give them a little something to think about for the next time they're at a stoplight and they want to get up on somebody's bumper. You never know. That car in front of you might be a stick shift, and they might be slow to gas it, and then they bump into your car.

[00:14:51] Granted, this technique really works only on nice cars. So if there's a jalopy behind you, that's not, it's probably not going to. But also, then they're too close, you know. 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?

[00:15:21] 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.

[00:15:51] 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. States are preparing for the return of Trump. This time it's personal.

[00:16:16] For example, Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, is calling the state legislature back into a special session in order to help carry out President-elect Donald Trump's promises for a swift crackdown on immigration. This is according to the Associated Press.

[00:16:37] But he's facing pushback from the legislature's Republican leaders who have pledged their support for the incoming president but said a special session would be premature and irresponsible. So obviously, the AP is going to make this into a civil war inside the Republican Party because that's what the Republican Party is known for.

[00:17:02] It's civil wars that don't occur inside the Democrat Party. They just are in disarray all the time. Democrats are very sensitive to that branding, by the way. So Trump is preparing more than 100 executive orders starting day one of the new White House administration in what amounts to a shock and awe campaign. See there again, war. It's like war. Shock and awe. We're going to overwhelm you. Ah, I'm so scared.

[00:17:32] You're going to kill us. Okay. Going to focus on border security, deportations, and a whole bunch of other policy priorities. Yeah, so this is part of the problem is when, like, you have somebody who serves four years and then they're out and then they have four years to contemplate what they would do, what they might have done differently. Although Trump would never admit that, I'm sure, because he did everything perfect the first time.

[00:17:58] But this time he's coming in and if it's a shock and awe campaign, that honestly makes sense. Right? Just throw so many things out there rather than do it one or two or five at a time because that then gives your adversaries more time to coordinate responses, draft litigation, all of that stuff. So just come at them with 100.

[00:18:27] Just bury them in paperwork, basically. So they have to go through. It's like a really big omnibus bill, if you will. You have so much stuff in there that it takes a while to get through it to see what all it says and how it would be applied and how can we challenge it, how can we stop it, all of that. So just overwhelm them.

[00:18:47] So if this is, in fact, a deliberate strategy, kudos to them because as a strategy, it makes a good bit of sense. While Trump and his advisors have pledged mass deportations, many questions remain about how they would deport anywhere close to the 11 million people estimated to be in the country illegally. By the way, that's most likely an undercount.

[00:19:14] 11 million is probably not the actual number. It's probably about double that. So how would he deport anywhere close to the 11 million? I'm not sure. Just spitballing here. But I'm thinking that his that Donald Trump supporters are going to be OK with him making progress towards that number, even if it doesn't happen all at once. What do you think? You think that's a fair guess?

[00:19:43] I think it's a fair guess. I think Trump supporters are going to be OK with movement in the direction of lots and lots of particularly the criminal element that has infiltrated our borders to start deporting a lot of those people. First, you start making inroads there and and then you start clearing out some backlogs and stuff. And I think people on the right are going to be pretty happy with any movement in that direction.

[00:20:14] DeSantis, meanwhile, announced that he is scheduling a special session for the week of January 27th, which will be the week after Trump is sworn in so that state lawmakers will be poised to help implement whatever the president's policies are immediately. Which makes sense. Because otherwise, I think they're coming back into session. Right. The regular legislative session begins March 4th.

[00:20:41] So what DeSantis is doing is saying, no, you're going to come back in special session immediately. And if the shock and awe tactic is, in fact, a deliberate tactic, then it makes sense to have states move on this stuff immediately to start doing this stuff immediately. Whatever they however they can help, whatever they need to do, they're going to be ready to assist. That's what DeSantis is promising.

[00:21:06] The Republican governor said he's prepared to suspend elected officials from office if they are neglecting their duties under the new immigration mandates. DeSantis has already removed multiple officials from office, including two state attorneys, arguing that they were failing to prosecute certain crimes.

[00:21:26] DeSantis says he also anticipates allocating tens of millions of dollars in new funding to help state and local officials expand their enforcement and detention efforts and said he would even consider activating the Florida National Guard and the Florida State Guard to carry out in-state enforcement measures. So how much of this is posturing? I don't know, but let's say 50 percent of it.

[00:21:55] So what? Right. So what? Because the message goes out and that's a very big part of any campaign to limit illegal immigration. It's the messaging. Word gets out and then people relay that word back to their family and friends and cartel members back in their home countries and they say, hey, crackdowns happening in Florida. Don't come here.

[00:22:21] In a strongly worded joint statement released yesterday afternoon, Senate President Ben Alberton and House Speaker Danny Perez, both Republicans, said that without any specific guidance from the incoming administration and only fragments of ideas from the governor, it's too soon for lawmakers to hold a special session. Well, you're going to get that after Trump gives the executive orders, right? Isn't that? They're like, we should just wait to March 4th.

[00:22:49] And so the AP is like, oh, look at this. This is fantastic. Finally, some independence from the legislature, which, by the way, the legislature and the governor, right, are oftentimes, you know, they're going to there's going to be friction there because they're different branches of government. And that's the design of the system. It's supposed to be that way. So, no, I don't have any problem with there being disagreement in the legislature versus the governor. But the governor has the right to call the special session.

[00:23:18] So I'm not really sure what the legislature is going to be able to do, except maybe show up and be like. All right, we're here. We're not doing anything. And maybe they don't do anything. Maybe it ends up not being necessary. We'll see. But message sent. Florida is ready to implement whatever Trump signs into, I don't want to say law, signs on an executive order, which, again, just for the record, I'm not a fan of the executive orders replacing law.

[00:23:48] But everybody else seems to be. So here we are. 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. And you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources. Why? Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with Ground News. It's an app and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place. So you can compare coverage and verify information.

[00:24:15] You can check it out at check.ground.news slash Pete. I put the link in the podcast description, too. I started using Ground News a few months ago and more 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.

[00:24:41] 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 more transparent. So the Associated Press concludes its piece about DeSantis calling a special session to implement Trump's immigration policies.

[00:25:05] In other states, Democratic governors are mounting a resistance movement against the incoming Trump administration, looking for ways to shield their states from potential federal policies restricting abortion and transgender rights, among other things. Like, for example, Governor Gavin Newsom, having successfully fought all the fires back personally himself and solved all of the other problems in California.

[00:25:31] California, he is now hammering out a deal with his fellow Democrats that have so ruined that state for a $50 million set aside that they say will shore up state and local legal defenses against the Trump administration. Half the money will go to fending off any mass deportation plan the new president might enact early in his administration.

[00:25:59] I'm not really sure what this means. Whether this is like, are you going to deploy troops against federal troops or something? Are you like, are you going to resort to government violence in order to prevent government from enforcing law? That sounds kind of insurrection. That's just me to my untrained ear.

[00:26:22] The move, the first of its kind in the nation that positions California to lead a second term resistance against Donald Trump, comes as Republicans bash state Democrat leaders for focusing on a highly partisan issue, even as the southern part of the state suffers from historically devastating fires. Oh, are those still going on? Oh, I'm sorry, because the shift in focus by Newsom and the Democrats makes me wonder. I just I thought they were already all put out.

[00:26:49] The deal includes twenty five million dollars that Newsom wanted for the State Department of Justice to fight the federal government in court. Oh, OK, so they're in court. So this is a this is a bailout for the lawyers, as is most often the case with these things.

[00:27:08] Then there's another twenty five million dollars proposed by state Senate leaders to defend immigrants against deportation, detention and wage theft. The twenty five million dollars proposed by the Senate would fund grants for nonprofits, but not just any nonprofit, legal nonprofits. Not like legal as an undocumented nonprofit, but legal as in lawyers.

[00:27:37] So once again, lawyers coming out ahead in all of this. That's pretty surprising. Who could have seen that coming? Yeah, the nonprofits, the like this relationship, this pipeline is just undefeated. The non the government to nonprofit pipeline of funding floor votes on the so-called special session package could come as soon as this week.

[00:28:00] That would give Newsom some time to sign the deal before Trump's inauguration on January 20th and shift focus away from the session's partisan feud to how Democrats are responding to the unfolding disaster in Los Angeles. See, they don't really want to talk about that because that's still ongoing and that makes them look bad. So here's a shiny object for the media to focus on when they're not focusing on the Republican reaction to the Democrat scandal. Right.

[00:28:28] Newsom and legislators representing Los Angeles have been in Southern California. And. This, however, according to Politico, has not neutralized GOP critiques. See, once again, the story is about the Republican reaction. So Republicans saying, hey, you guys have really screwed up the fire mitigation and response stuff down in Southern California with these wildfires. Right.

[00:28:56] That becomes the story, not the fact that the Democrats have really screwed up the fire mitigation and response efforts down in Southern California wildfires. Like that's that's the scandal. But because it's a scandal involving Democrats, the focus is on the Republican reaction. 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.

[00:29:21] 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.