WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:03.560 Well, what a couple of weeks. What a couple of weeks for our 2 00:00:03.680 --> 00:00:10.480 national politics, as we almost saw live on TV an assassination of a former 3 00:00:10.519 --> 00:00:21.000 president and the assassination of the leading candidate for president that that was avoided by 4 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:31.440 about an inch two inches. Now, my problem here as the thirteenth straight 5 00:00:31.519 --> 00:00:36.600 hour of talk radio on this fine station. You know, three hours of 6 00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:41.039 Glenn Back, three hours of Clay and Bug, three hours of Trevor and 7 00:00:41.079 --> 00:00:46.200 then me. You know, I'm not sure that I've got anything all that 8 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:52.000 unique to say, but let me let me see what I can find. 9 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:57.640 Let me see what I can scrounge around the edges here to see if I 10 00:00:57.679 --> 00:01:02.520 can have something interesting. Now, first all, we'll get to this later 11 00:01:02.520 --> 00:01:07.599 in the show, but one of the things that's been in the aftermath of 12 00:01:07.640 --> 00:01:12.439 Trump's shooting, and in fairness, we've had about it's only been about forty 13 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:18.480 eight hours since that happened. One of the things that's been discussed is the 14 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:23.319 need to lower the temperature in our politics. Even President Biden sort of seemed 15 00:01:23.319 --> 00:01:26.840 to kind of acknowledge that, and a lot of conservatives point out, well, 16 00:01:27.359 --> 00:01:34.400 if you're going to call Donald Trump an existential threat to American democracy, 17 00:01:37.799 --> 00:01:42.079 then if you're going to repeatedly call him a fascist, if you're going to 18 00:01:42.120 --> 00:01:51.120 repeatedly compare him to Hitler, then of course someone's going to react this way. 19 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:56.079 I mean, if you elevate the stakes of politics to such an extent, 20 00:01:56.159 --> 00:02:01.640 then yeah, someone's going to do that. And if as the Democrat, 21 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:06.719 you think this person has to be gotten rid of at all costs, 22 00:02:06.760 --> 00:02:13.879 even to the point of initiating procedures to try to throw him in jail in 23 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:16.080 order to prevent him from running, which is clearly what the Democrats have done. 24 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:23.560 Joe Biden himself has done this via his Attorney General appointing a special counsel, 25 00:02:23.639 --> 00:02:30.319 Jack Smith, to initiate prosecutions of Donald Trump, either on grounds that 26 00:02:30.599 --> 00:02:38.120 really stretch credulity, as with all the January sixth prosecutions, or for things 27 00:02:38.159 --> 00:02:44.680 that Joe Biden himself did, like unlawfully retaining documents at his home in Florida. 28 00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:50.039 And we'll talk about by the way, Judge Eileen Cannon in Florida dismissing 29 00:02:50.919 --> 00:02:59.639 Trump's case the document's case due to her belief that Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed 30 00:03:00.039 --> 00:03:02.199 as special counsel, which I'll get to later in the show, because I 31 00:03:02.800 --> 00:03:07.520 thought that that was really interesting argument that was made was an argument chiefly that 32 00:03:07.560 --> 00:03:13.280 was put forward in amicus briefs to the US Supreme Court by Ed mess the 33 00:03:13.280 --> 00:03:19.280 former Attorney General, whose opinion really only Clarence Thomas kind of took seriously in 34 00:03:19.319 --> 00:03:28.159 a concurrence with the with the recent immunity case. And maybe i'll talk So 35 00:03:28.360 --> 00:03:32.039 I'm going to talk about the Jack Smith, Jack Smith's qualification Eileen Cannon dismissing 36 00:03:32.039 --> 00:03:35.840 the case and the immunity case. So I'll talk about that in sort of 37 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:39.199 the latter half of the show. But one of the things that people point 38 00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:43.919 out is, hey, you know, it would be a great way to 39 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:49.759 lower the political temperature of the country is maybe dismiss these charges against President Trump. 40 00:03:53.199 --> 00:03:58.560 These are all they're all real stretches. And because here's the thing. 41 00:03:59.319 --> 00:04:08.879 The argument for Democrats is Donald Trump attempted to overturn the results of the twenty 42 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:15.360 twenty election. He interfered with the peaceful transfer of power. In that sense, 43 00:04:15.759 --> 00:04:19.639 he is a threat to democracy, capital D democracy. Now, the 44 00:04:19.639 --> 00:04:26.079 problem is, I think sometimes democrats use the word democracy sort of in ambiguous 45 00:04:26.120 --> 00:04:29.959 ways. Sometimes when they're talking about threat to democracy. What they mean is 46 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:38.639 a threat to liberalism, like the classical liberal order. But basically that's always 47 00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:41.360 been sort of the trump card that they can play is that Trump is a 48 00:04:41.399 --> 00:04:45.680 threat to democracy because he did not proceed with the orderly transfer of power. 49 00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:53.759 He believed, without sufficient evidence, that the twenty twenty election was fraudulent, 50 00:04:54.439 --> 00:04:59.480 that its results were the result of voter fraud. He did not have sufficient 51 00:04:59.519 --> 00:05:02.560 evidence to established that. He tried all the legal means, legal challenges in 52 00:05:02.600 --> 00:05:05.800 different states, etc. All of which went nowhere. And then when he 53 00:05:05.800 --> 00:05:13.120 couldn't do that, he tried to pressure Vice President Pence against certifying the election 54 00:05:13.240 --> 00:05:20.160 results, and his conduct led to the crowd getting unruly on January sixth. 55 00:05:20.199 --> 00:05:25.000 Now, the problem with that narrative, well, and the narrative is donald 56 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:30.439 Trump incited the January sixth riot, which was designed to violently block the peaceful 57 00:05:30.439 --> 00:05:33.120 transition of power. And the problem with that narrative is that it just isn't 58 00:05:33.319 --> 00:05:39.879 really quite backed up by the facts. Notice that Donald Trump has not been 59 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:45.680 charged with anything relating to the violence on January sixth, because quite simply, 60 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:51.959 he didn't order the violence, he didn't encourage the violence. He just maybe 61 00:05:51.959 --> 00:05:57.000 you can argue he encouraged it, but he explicitly told the crowd go and 62 00:05:57.079 --> 00:06:06.079 peacefully make your voice known. The idea that Donald Trump getting elected is going 63 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:11.639 to lead to the end of American democracy, I think is preposterous. It 64 00:06:11.720 --> 00:06:20.240 just does not. I just don't think it makes sense, even the whole 65 00:06:20.240 --> 00:06:25.519 thing with you know, Mike Pence trying to influence Mike Pence not to certify 66 00:06:25.519 --> 00:06:30.279 the election results. First of all, it didn't work. Secondly, even 67 00:06:30.279 --> 00:06:34.000 if it did work, the role of the vice president seemingly is a ceremonial 68 00:06:34.079 --> 00:06:39.800 role anyway, And so whether or not Mike Pence agreed to do what Donald 69 00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:43.560 Trump wanted, I don't think it would have actually altered the results of the 70 00:06:43.560 --> 00:06:46.759 election. And by the way, what Trump was doing was I think it 71 00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:57.040 was incorrect, but he was following it legal advice from a highly respected law 72 00:06:57.079 --> 00:07:04.959 professor advancing a certainly minority legal theory that the vice president had this ability to 73 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:13.560 do this. So I guess I just don't agree. I think we have 74 00:07:13.720 --> 00:07:18.879 this slide from is this so implausible illegal theory as to slip into criminal conduct, 75 00:07:18.879 --> 00:07:24.279 And that's certainly what the left has embraced that this was such a spurious 76 00:07:24.399 --> 00:07:27.480 legal theory that it's just criminal conduct. And I don't know, I think 77 00:07:27.480 --> 00:07:32.519 it can be an incorrect legal theory without being criminal conduct. Anyway, I 78 00:07:32.639 --> 00:07:40.199 just don't believe that Trump winning presents this existential threat to democracy. And why 79 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:43.600 do I not believe that, because we lived through four years of Donald Trump. 80 00:07:43.959 --> 00:07:47.439 He didn't even prosecute Hillary Clinton. In those four years, he didn't 81 00:07:47.480 --> 00:08:00.160 prosecute anybody. He didn't instigate like violent reprisals against his political foes. He 82 00:08:00.199 --> 00:08:09.319 didn't do horrific, evil punitive measures against immigrants or violate people's fundamental liberties. 83 00:08:13.560 --> 00:08:22.519 He just didn't. The kids in cages stuff at the border was initiated under 84 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:28.079 Barack Obama. Where the I mean? I think every president has had serious 85 00:08:28.120 --> 00:08:37.080 problems with the manner of enforcement of immigration law. It's a fundamentally broken system 86 00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:41.320 because American law says you have to detain people who come seeking asylum, and 87 00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:43.120 we don't have enough cells to detain everybody. There are a lot of these 88 00:08:43.159 --> 00:08:48.759 fundamental things, but the idea that Donald Trump's presidency represents something uniquely bad relative 89 00:08:48.840 --> 00:08:54.720 to the utter chaos and insanity that we've had at the border for most of 90 00:08:54.759 --> 00:09:09.960 Biden's presidency. I just don't think is right. So and this kind of 91 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:16.360 brings to mind for me sort of these Roman parallels, where so the Roman 92 00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:22.440 Republic was this very complicated governmental mechanism. Sort of the mechanisms of the Roman 93 00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:26.679 Republic were very odd and developed over the course of history, and it was 94 00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:31.759 kind of this very complex, complex, complicated legal constitution that the Roman Republic 95 00:09:31.799 --> 00:09:37.200 had. But basically one of the most significant things that happened was around one 96 00:09:37.240 --> 00:09:43.960 hundred and twenty five BC. There were there was a pair of brothers, 97 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:52.759 the Groki brothers, who were Plebeian politicians. The older Groky brother was elected 98 00:09:52.759 --> 00:09:56.600 to be one of the tribunes of the plebs, so a representative sort of 99 00:09:56.600 --> 00:10:01.360 of the plebs who had the ability to veto certain kind of legislation and introduced 100 00:10:01.360 --> 00:10:05.799 certain kinds of legislation, but through a different means, not directly, not 101 00:10:05.960 --> 00:10:11.840 through the Senate. The Senate was the more established, often more wealthy class, 102 00:10:11.879 --> 00:10:15.879 and traditionally any legislation passed in Rome would go through the Senate first. 103 00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:22.919 The Graki brothers introduced this sort of innovation by when the Senate rejected their desire 104 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:31.600 for certain kinds of land reform bills bypassing the Senate and going directly to one 105 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:35.240 of the popular assemblies who could it's an assembly of a group of the population 106 00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:43.279 that was able to vote directly on legislation. They bypassed the Senate. The 107 00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:48.039 reaction from the senators was to kill the one Gracchus brother and then to one 108 00:10:48.039 --> 00:10:52.279 of the two Groky brothers, and then to kill the second one about a 109 00:10:52.320 --> 00:11:01.080 decade or so later, several years later, and that act killing someone because 110 00:11:01.120 --> 00:11:09.080 they introduced innovation in politics and shook up politics and did something that was radical 111 00:11:09.120 --> 00:11:15.559 that like the Roman word for revolution was literally resnove, which means new things. 112 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:18.960 Romans were very conservative. They they were very suspicious of anything that was 113 00:11:20.159 --> 00:11:26.559 innovative, that was sort of deviating from the most majoram the way of the 114 00:11:26.600 --> 00:11:35.919 ancestors. But the introduction of violence as a possible solution for political problems that 115 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:43.799 started in one twenty five BC, and it would continue to be an essential 116 00:11:43.039 --> 00:11:48.759 element of Roman politics, an essential and terrifying element of the Roman Republic for 117 00:11:50.399 --> 00:12:00.200 the next century until finally Octavian beats marc Antony and becomes the first princeps or 118 00:12:00.279 --> 00:12:11.240 Emperor of Rome Augustus. Once violence gets introduced into politics, it's very hard 119 00:12:11.919 --> 00:12:16.440 to eliminate it, and you start this slide. And I've been thinking over 120 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:20.840 the last you know, or three years or so, four years or so, 121 00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:31.240 starting with the George Floyd riots, going from the George Floyd riots to 122 00:12:31.320 --> 00:12:35.679 the obvious threatened riots that were going to happen around the country if Donald Trump 123 00:12:35.759 --> 00:12:43.879 won the twenty twenty election that were clearly being planned two perhaps January sixth. 124 00:12:45.720 --> 00:12:52.519 I just see that violent, that the hatred the two sides have for each 125 00:12:52.519 --> 00:13:00.480 other, which media has sort of fanned the flames of this. I think, 126 00:13:00.759 --> 00:13:05.480 you know, calling one side calling the other side traders, using that 127 00:13:05.559 --> 00:13:13.559 kind of rhetoric is bad and it spurs the worst impulses of both sides. 128 00:13:13.960 --> 00:13:18.799 Now, Frankly, I think the left is trying to paint this as well. 129 00:13:18.799 --> 00:13:22.159 It's really only a problem on the right because of January sixth, and 130 00:13:22.279 --> 00:13:28.679 January sixth is the one expression of heated political rhetoric, and nobody on the 131 00:13:28.759 --> 00:13:33.080 left ever did anything like this, overlooking the whole George Floyd riots, which 132 00:13:33.159 --> 00:13:39.440 obviously went way beyond the George Floyd stuff into you know, Portland you know, 133 00:13:39.519 --> 00:13:46.799 lefties in Portland trying to firebomb federal courthouses. Lefties. Anytime a leftist 134 00:13:46.840 --> 00:13:52.120 group trespasses into a state capitol to protest something, it's never a big deal. 135 00:13:52.600 --> 00:13:56.600 January sixth is the only big deal. So I think the media has 136 00:13:56.639 --> 00:14:03.399 this myopic focus on January sixth, ignoring all of the bad stuff that liberals 137 00:14:03.440 --> 00:14:16.200 have done. So I think that maybe the assassination attempt on President Trump, 138 00:14:16.799 --> 00:14:20.919 maybe this is an opportunity, and Trump is sort of really saying this. 139 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:26.120 He's saying that he wants this to be a moment of national unity. Maybe 140 00:14:26.159 --> 00:14:31.720 this can be a moment where both sides can kind of take a breath and 141 00:14:31.799 --> 00:14:35.759 really forcefully disagree with each other, really forcefully disagree with each other's policies, 142 00:14:37.240 --> 00:14:43.279 but maybe try to change the tone a bit, try to change things for 143 00:14:43.320 --> 00:14:46.679 the better. And maybe this can be a moment to shift away from that 144 00:14:46.840 --> 00:14:52.879 historical norm of violence just growing and increasing until the system collapses. All right, 145 00:14:52.879 --> 00:14:56.279 When we return, a couple of little random thoughts about the shooting event 146 00:14:56.600 --> 00:15:01.200 itself, especially a couple of little random thoughts of about the Secret Service, 147 00:15:01.240 --> 00:15:03.879 before we talk about the dismissal of the mar a Laco case. That's next 148 00:15:03.960 --> 00:15:11.039 on the John Girardi Show. All Right, my random thoughts, random thoughts 149 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:16.840 my wife and I sort of expressed to each other following President Trump's assassination attempt. 150 00:15:18.679 --> 00:15:24.080 So let me sort of go through these in no particular order. First, 151 00:15:24.120 --> 00:15:30.960 there's those female US, the female Secret Service agents who are there with 152 00:15:31.039 --> 00:15:39.679 President Trump. Now, I believe that men and women are different. Okay, 153 00:15:39.720 --> 00:15:46.080 there are physical differences between men and women. This is seen in the 154 00:15:46.120 --> 00:15:52.639 military, where physical fitness standards and things like that are different from men and 155 00:15:52.679 --> 00:15:58.279 women. I am not saying that every man is stronger and more capable than 156 00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:00.879 every woman. I am sure there are some unbelievable kick ass women out there 157 00:16:02.360 --> 00:16:07.679 who are able to rip, you know, rip me in half from my 158 00:16:07.799 --> 00:16:11.720 torso, who are strong and fast and capable. Okay, I acknowledge that 159 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:17.080 it can happen. But men and women are different. And some of those 160 00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:22.039 women who are assigned to President Trump's Secret Service detail were clearly not that. 161 00:16:22.559 --> 00:16:26.159 I mean, some of them frankly looked like a lot of people have joked 162 00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:30.600 that some of the women on Trump's Secret Service detail looked like Melissa McCarthy, 163 00:16:30.639 --> 00:16:37.080 the sort of chubby comedic actress from like the Ghostbuster movie whatever. It was 164 00:16:37.159 --> 00:16:40.720 not a great look, and my wife and I were sitting there asking ourselves, 165 00:16:42.159 --> 00:16:48.799 why are there any women in a detail assigned to Donald Trump? Right 166 00:16:48.840 --> 00:16:53.440 now? I was gonna go to the point of why are there women in 167 00:16:53.480 --> 00:16:56.039 the Secret Service at all? My wife did point out though, that, 168 00:16:56.480 --> 00:17:00.159 well, no it. You know, you have Secret Service detail assigned to 169 00:17:00.240 --> 00:17:04.519 like the first lady. You have Secret Service detail assigned to like the president's 170 00:17:04.599 --> 00:17:08.880 kids. If the president has kids, you know, there are probably some 171 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:14.799 legitimate reasons why you might need some women as Secret Service agents. And I 172 00:17:14.839 --> 00:17:18.119 was like, okay, that's fine. But I also sort of noticed, 173 00:17:18.160 --> 00:17:23.000 like Donald Trump's a big guy. Donald Trump's like six foot three. Why 174 00:17:23.039 --> 00:17:29.319 do we have someone who looks like she's five foot four assigned to be standing 175 00:17:29.359 --> 00:17:33.839 in front of this person and willing to take a bullet for him when she's 176 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:41.039 a foot shorter than he is. Doesn't seem to make sense. I now, 177 00:17:41.160 --> 00:17:44.400 all this video has been circulating about the woman who's the head of the 178 00:17:44.480 --> 00:17:49.279 US Secret Service, whose prior job had been head of security for PEPSI doesn't 179 00:17:49.519 --> 00:17:52.759 seem like it seems like maybe this is a slightly different kind of job. 180 00:17:53.480 --> 00:17:57.599 The security needed for the president of the United States seems a little bit more 181 00:17:57.640 --> 00:18:03.519 secure than you need for soda. And one of the things that she kept 182 00:18:03.519 --> 00:18:07.000 talking about in all these videos of hers, oh, the need for heightening 183 00:18:07.119 --> 00:18:10.960 diversity within the US Secret Service. For the love of God, there are 184 00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:15.920 some jobs for which there is absolutely no need to focus on Well, maybe, 185 00:18:15.920 --> 00:18:21.319 frankly, for any job, if you want it done competently, you 186 00:18:21.359 --> 00:18:29.039 shouldn't be focusing on diversity. Diversity should be a happy byproduct of a meritocratic 187 00:18:29.480 --> 00:18:33.400 approach to whatever the job is. But if the job is literally protecting the 188 00:18:33.400 --> 00:18:40.279 president from life and death, then boy, do I really not care about 189 00:18:40.359 --> 00:18:48.319 diversity. Every single person in the security detail assigned to the president one of 190 00:18:48.319 --> 00:18:52.079 the two major presidential candidates, in this case, a former president who is 191 00:18:52.119 --> 00:18:56.559 a major presidential candidate. Every person assigned to it should just be, you 192 00:18:56.640 --> 00:19:02.359 know, a former United States marine who's a six foot two inch tall killer, 193 00:19:02.799 --> 00:19:07.519 Like, that's who I want guarding the president. I don't care about 194 00:19:07.559 --> 00:19:12.200 diversity. I don't care if that six foot two inch killer is black or 195 00:19:12.279 --> 00:19:18.799 white, or Asian or Pacific. I don't care. I don't care where 196 00:19:18.839 --> 00:19:26.079 they're from as long as a they're a dedicated American citizen who loves this country 197 00:19:26.240 --> 00:19:30.319 and is willing to take a bullet for the president and is a six foot 198 00:19:30.400 --> 00:19:33.960 tall six foot plus tall killer. Okay, I should not be a Secret 199 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:41.039 Service agent. I'm a shrimpy little five foot nine torp okay with a little 200 00:19:41.119 --> 00:19:44.720 pudge in his stomach. Okay, I should not be a Secret Service agent. 201 00:19:45.319 --> 00:19:48.880 Everyone on the Secret Service should be six foot two and an absolute killer. 202 00:19:49.279 --> 00:19:55.519 Now, the other thing I noticed, Twitter is big on this where 203 00:19:55.920 --> 00:19:59.480 something will happen, people will have a reaction, and then someone will come 204 00:19:59.519 --> 00:20:03.119 on with a long thread saying, Hi, I'm an expert on such and 205 00:20:03.160 --> 00:20:07.759 such. Here's something to explain what's going on. And then often it's interesting. 206 00:20:08.880 --> 00:20:11.839 The thing I've noticed is that all of those kinds of threads about oh, 207 00:20:12.200 --> 00:20:15.799 as a former US Secret Service official, here's what I think. First 208 00:20:15.839 --> 00:20:19.079 of all, don't call us the SS. That's offensive, all right, 209 00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:25.480 Sorry to offend the guys who just let a former president and current presidential frontrunner 210 00:20:25.519 --> 00:20:29.000 almost gets shot in the head, actually gets shot in the head. Sorry 211 00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:33.960 to offend you with an acronym. Yes, I know it sounds like the 212 00:20:33.079 --> 00:20:37.200 SS like you know that yes, bad bad World War two parallel, but 213 00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:47.000 you know, chill out, guys. And all of those threads I've read, 214 00:20:47.599 --> 00:20:49.920 they all suspiciously seem to point to, Oh, it's not the Secret 215 00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:56.640 Service's fault, and it leads me to think it's kind of a resips a 216 00:20:56.640 --> 00:21:02.319 lockwitter situation. So resips a lockwitter is the legal term if you're accusing someone 217 00:21:02.359 --> 00:21:06.759 of negligence of negligent conduct that harmed you, and you're trying to sue them. 218 00:21:07.079 --> 00:21:14.079 Sometimes there's a thing that happens that the only way it could possibly happen 219 00:21:14.759 --> 00:21:18.279 is through negligence. There is no if something is completely within the control of 220 00:21:18.359 --> 00:21:26.039 the defendant, the thing caused harms you, and there's no way that such 221 00:21:26.039 --> 00:21:32.599 a thing could possibly happen without negligence. So like you're walking down the sidewalk 222 00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:37.240 and a piano falls on you, Well, there's no way a piano could 223 00:21:37.279 --> 00:21:42.240 fall on someone unless somebody screwed up, unless someone definitionally did not exercise the 224 00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:48.240 level of caution that's needed for handling a piano, the level of caution that 225 00:21:48.279 --> 00:21:57.680 a normally prudent person would exercise in transferring a piano Okay, a president of 226 00:21:57.720 --> 00:22:03.759 the United States getting shitt a former president and current presidential candidate being getting shot 227 00:22:03.160 --> 00:22:11.240 is almost definitionally something that indicates that the US Secret Service screwed up, given 228 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:15.279 that that's their only job is to make sure that the president doesn't get shot. 229 00:22:18.839 --> 00:22:23.400 So, I don't know, I just feel like there's this this gets 230 00:22:23.720 --> 00:22:27.799 you know, especially with the Secret Service, they're just trying to seed thing. 231 00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:33.319 It's almost it almost feels to me the way like intelligence agencies would possibly 232 00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:37.640 work. Oh, we're just gonna spread throughout the internet these narratives that actually, 233 00:22:38.160 --> 00:22:41.279 no, no, no, US Secret Service didn't screw up. Well, 234 00:22:41.279 --> 00:22:45.960 who did the snipers saw the guy before he fired at Trump? He 235 00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:48.680 had him in his sights. Oh, the Secret Service isn't supposed to shoot 236 00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:52.480 until someone else shoots. Really, if I have a gun that's pointed at 237 00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:56.440 the President of the United States, you're really you don't think the Secret Service 238 00:22:56.480 --> 00:23:02.559 is supposed to shoot me? First? Pretty sure you're not supposed to be 239 00:23:02.920 --> 00:23:06.240 shooting. Second when you see someone with a gun pointed at the president. 240 00:23:07.519 --> 00:23:11.880 So again, I'm not getting into like conspiracy theories that the Secret Service was 241 00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:15.559 into in it, in on it or anything like that. But boy, 242 00:23:15.599 --> 00:23:18.200 it doesn't really inspire a lot of confidence. And it's one of these things 243 00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:22.599 where it feels like it's another thing. This happens all the time in the 244 00:23:22.640 --> 00:23:26.240 Biden administration, where you know, we have the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, thirteen 245 00:23:26.599 --> 00:23:33.160 soldiers die, we abandoned tons of weaponry and machinery that costs billions of dollars. 246 00:23:33.559 --> 00:23:37.000 Nobody gets fired. Mark Milly doesn't get fired. Everyone keeps their jobs. 247 00:23:37.240 --> 00:23:41.319 It's what it feels like is going to happen here with this Trump thing. 248 00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:44.880 A former president, current presidential front runner gets shot in the ear, 249 00:23:45.160 --> 00:23:49.279 and no one's gonna get fired. When we return, we're going to talk 250 00:23:49.279 --> 00:23:53.640 about Eileen Cannon dismissing the mar A Lago case against President Trump and why I 251 00:23:53.640 --> 00:24:00.759 think it's legally interesting. That's next on the John Girardi Show. Very interesting 252 00:24:00.799 --> 00:24:04.839 today as Judge Eileen Cannon, the federal judge in Florida who is overseeing Trump's 253 00:24:04.960 --> 00:24:08.920 mar A Lago case. Judge Cannon has gotten a lot of flack from liberals. 254 00:24:08.960 --> 00:24:18.359 She's a beloved punching bag of the left. Has dismissed the charges against 255 00:24:18.359 --> 00:24:23.039 Trump in for the mar A Lago Documents case on the grounds that Jack Smith, 256 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:34.759 the special prosecutor, was unlawfully appointed. Now, let's talk about this 257 00:24:34.880 --> 00:24:40.880 whole issue. This has been a brewing legal argument, a legal argument that 258 00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:48.960 was sort of discussed during the Trump immunity decision from the Supreme Court, and 259 00:24:48.039 --> 00:24:53.000 one of the big proponents of the idea that actually Jack Smith was illegally appointed 260 00:24:53.039 --> 00:24:56.720 now and then, and I kind of need probably a little bit of background 261 00:24:56.759 --> 00:24:59.319 to explain everyone who Jack Smith is and what he's doing. All Right, 262 00:25:00.440 --> 00:25:10.240 So President Biden comes into office his attorney general, with or without direction from 263 00:25:10.960 --> 00:25:15.440 Donald Trump, from Joe Biden, although clearly simpatico with Joe Biden that Donald 264 00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:19.359 Trump is a horrific threat to democracy and needs to be stopped. Biden very 265 00:25:19.440 --> 00:25:26.359 explicitly said things like we need to stop him from running again. He cannot 266 00:25:26.400 --> 00:25:30.640 be allowed to run again. Biden said several things like this, and Merrick 267 00:25:30.680 --> 00:25:36.720 Garland clearly is completely in agreement with Joe Biden on this. Merrick Garland wants 268 00:25:36.759 --> 00:25:41.400 to prosecute Donald Trump. Joe Biden wants to prosecute Donald Trump, but it 269 00:25:41.400 --> 00:25:48.440 would look to Banana republic ish to just do it, to just have the 270 00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:55.480 Department of Justice directly under the control of Merrick Garland, prosecute Donald Trump through 271 00:25:55.680 --> 00:26:02.240 the normal mechanisms, having, you know, the having the Department of Justice 272 00:26:02.559 --> 00:26:10.839 directing the prosecution via the US attorneys that Joe Biden is appointing, having just 273 00:26:10.920 --> 00:26:15.200 the US attorney for the District of DC prosecute him, et cetera. They 274 00:26:15.200 --> 00:26:18.799 were thinking about when Biden took office, thinking of prosecuting Trump for all the 275 00:26:18.799 --> 00:26:25.200 stuff relating to January sixth, if there was a case there, But Biden 276 00:26:25.359 --> 00:26:30.440 was afraid that this would look too nakedly political. If one president is prosecuting 277 00:26:30.880 --> 00:26:38.160 his immediate predecessor and likely next upcoming opponent, So what do they do. 278 00:26:38.200 --> 00:26:44.359 They try to create some degree of separation by having the Attorney General appoint a 279 00:26:44.400 --> 00:26:52.880 special council. Now, the special council is kind of a successor to what 280 00:26:52.119 --> 00:26:56.319 used to be called the independent Council. And some of you might have remembered 281 00:26:56.319 --> 00:27:06.000 this. There was an independent council mechanism back in the Clinton both looking at 282 00:27:06.079 --> 00:27:11.400 Nixon and looking at Clinton, and the law authorizing an independent council was changed 283 00:27:11.440 --> 00:27:15.039 due to a lot of constitutional concerns and some agreement from both Republicans and Democrats 284 00:27:15.079 --> 00:27:19.799 that this kind of sucks to being a special council. So Jack Smith was 285 00:27:19.799 --> 00:27:26.720 appointed a special counsel. And what is a special council? What's the idea 286 00:27:26.839 --> 00:27:34.960 When the Department of Justice feels that it has an internal conflict of interest such 287 00:27:36.039 --> 00:27:47.160 that it cannot prosecute a case without there being an obvious conflict, Okay, 288 00:27:47.720 --> 00:27:53.920 in that situation, the Department of Justice could appoint someone from outside of the 289 00:27:53.960 --> 00:28:03.039 mainstream of the DOJ to come in and be a quote special council. So 290 00:28:03.200 --> 00:28:07.599 the special council would have the kinds of authority that say a US attorney would 291 00:28:07.599 --> 00:28:15.240 have US attorneys who are the chief federal prosecutors for different regions of the country. 292 00:28:15.240 --> 00:28:21.079 So the whole country is divided into these different federal regions. Some states 293 00:28:21.119 --> 00:28:27.319 just tore the whole state is just one federal region. So for example, 294 00:28:27.359 --> 00:28:33.359 I think Alaska is just one federal region. There's one US attorney for the 295 00:28:33.400 --> 00:28:40.480 state of Alaska, Okay. Whereas California has multiple federal judicial districts. We 296 00:28:40.559 --> 00:28:44.519 in Fresno live in the Eastern District of California, and there is one US 297 00:28:44.559 --> 00:28:48.240 attorney for the Eastern District of California, And what can US attorneys do. 298 00:28:48.359 --> 00:28:52.119 They have some ability to direct, just like a DA does. They have 299 00:28:52.240 --> 00:29:00.039 some ability to investigate and then prosecute crimes, investigate and oscute federal crimes. 300 00:29:00.720 --> 00:29:07.000 But US attorneys are part of the mainstream of the Department of Justice. So 301 00:29:07.160 --> 00:29:10.480 if the Department of Justice as a whole has some kind of conflict of interest, 302 00:29:10.519 --> 00:29:17.119 they can bring someone else in from the outside to come in. They 303 00:29:17.119 --> 00:29:22.039 make them a special council, and this person has the ability on his or 304 00:29:22.039 --> 00:29:29.079 her own to investigate alleged criminal conduct and prosecute alleged criminal conduct. They have 305 00:29:29.160 --> 00:29:37.519 prosecutorial power kind of the same way that a US attorney does. Jack Smith 306 00:29:37.799 --> 00:29:41.519 was appointed to be that special council. The Biden administration's theory is that, 307 00:29:41.680 --> 00:29:45.920 listen, it would look to politicize. There's kind of a conflict of interest 308 00:29:45.920 --> 00:29:48.319 for the Department of Justice to prosecute President Trump, given that you look at 309 00:29:48.359 --> 00:29:51.839 the org chart of the Department of Justice, and who is at the top 310 00:29:51.880 --> 00:29:56.720 of that org chart. Ultimately it's the President of the United States. Okay, 311 00:29:56.799 --> 00:30:00.079 the President of the United States is the head of every single executive department 312 00:30:00.079 --> 00:30:06.799 of the federal government. So if Joe Biden's the head of the DOJ. 313 00:30:07.039 --> 00:30:10.640 It would be a bit of a conflict of interest for him, or the 314 00:30:10.680 --> 00:30:15.359 appearance of a conflict for him to prosecute Donald Trump. So they appoint Jack 315 00:30:15.400 --> 00:30:19.680 Smith, and this gives Biden a kind of political cover. Oh, it's 316 00:30:19.720 --> 00:30:23.839 not me prosecuting Donald Trump, it's the Special Counsel working totally on his own. 317 00:30:25.400 --> 00:30:30.359 Now, Joe Biden could shut down the Special Council Investigation with the snap 318 00:30:30.359 --> 00:30:33.880 of his fingers. He doesn't direct its day to day proceedings, but he 319 00:30:33.960 --> 00:30:37.400 is in charge of it. He oversees it, His Attorney General oversees it, 320 00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:41.759 and he oversees the Attorney general. President Biden could shut down the whole 321 00:30:41.799 --> 00:30:45.200 investigation tomorrow. If he could shut it down today, if he wanted, 322 00:30:47.119 --> 00:30:52.799 he might be in bed by this time. Yeah, well it's past nine 323 00:30:52.839 --> 00:30:55.960 pm on the East Coast, so he's clearly asleep. Anyway, Tomorrow he 324 00:30:56.000 --> 00:31:03.160 could shut down the Special Council Investigation. So that is the mechanism that was 325 00:31:03.240 --> 00:31:08.559 put together by Merrick Garland for prosecuting all of Trump's alleged federal crimes. So 326 00:31:08.599 --> 00:31:17.359 everything having to do with January sixth plus added on to it were all the 327 00:31:17.359 --> 00:31:25.039 allegations of Trump violating federal law by his retention of classified documents in his home 328 00:31:25.240 --> 00:31:33.400 in mar A Lago, Florida. So you have The special prosecutor nominated was 329 00:31:33.519 --> 00:31:41.880 Jack Smith. Now, Smith was obviously picked because he is a very very 330 00:31:42.119 --> 00:31:48.599 aggressive Liberal who has clearly done everything along a very politicized timetable. Smith has 331 00:31:48.640 --> 00:31:56.880 been urgently trying to get a case to trial before the election. That's clearly 332 00:31:56.920 --> 00:32:05.400 been what he's doing. His timeline clearly aligns perfectly with Joe Biden's political interests. 333 00:32:07.759 --> 00:32:13.519 Now, some conservatives, chief of whom has been the former Attorney General 334 00:32:13.839 --> 00:32:24.359 Ed Mess So Attorney General Meis he served as Attorney general under President Reagan. 335 00:32:27.039 --> 00:32:35.759 Attorney General Meie has argued and argued this during the Supreme Court proceedings regarding the 336 00:32:35.799 --> 00:32:42.000 president's immunity from prosecution. Attorney General mess argued that we shouldn't even decide this 337 00:32:42.039 --> 00:32:47.839 because Jack Smith is not lawfully appointed. He's not the right kind of person 338 00:32:47.880 --> 00:32:55.319 who can serve as a special prosecutor. Why. Well, basically, he's 339 00:32:55.400 --> 00:33:01.839 exercising the authority of an officer of the United States, which is what all 340 00:33:01.839 --> 00:33:07.680 the US attorneys are. They exercise the the work of being officers of the 341 00:33:07.759 --> 00:33:12.680 United States. But to be an officer of the United States, you need 342 00:33:12.720 --> 00:33:16.839 to be appointed by the president, and your appointment needs to be confirmed by 343 00:33:16.880 --> 00:33:20.880 the United States Senate by a vote of the Senate. It's you know, 344 00:33:20.960 --> 00:33:25.359 how like when the president nominates his secretary of state, for example, he 345 00:33:25.440 --> 00:33:35.440 nominates and then the Senate votes on the confirmation. And often when a president's 346 00:33:35.480 --> 00:33:37.960 trying to appoint his cabinet, members of the other party will be you know, 347 00:33:38.000 --> 00:33:42.680 they'll kind of give more leeway. The idea in Washington, it's always 348 00:33:42.759 --> 00:33:45.440 kind of been well, you know, look, the president should be able 349 00:33:45.480 --> 00:33:49.160 to have the cabinet he wants. You know, it's his administration. And 350 00:33:49.279 --> 00:33:52.240 yes, I disagree with this person obviously, but you know it's the president's 351 00:33:52.319 --> 00:33:55.720 cabinet. They're exercising his decisions. He won the election. I mean, 352 00:33:55.799 --> 00:34:00.279 if we don't confirm this person, then the president will have like interim appointments 353 00:34:00.279 --> 00:34:04.519 who will just be doing the same thing anyway. So generally, unless someone 354 00:34:04.599 --> 00:34:12.440 is like manifestly unqualified for the job or has some real like personal baggage or 355 00:34:12.440 --> 00:34:16.480 something that comes out during the confirmation proceedings, the Senate will kind of reverstamp 356 00:34:16.760 --> 00:34:21.440 the people that a president picks, although Democrats really slow roll things with a 357 00:34:21.440 --> 00:34:30.239 lot of Trump's appointments now they Basically what Edmes is pointing out is that Jack 358 00:34:30.320 --> 00:34:37.920 Smith was not already serving as a federal prosecutor of some sort. He's not. 359 00:34:38.440 --> 00:34:45.880 Basically, he's never received any Senate confirmation. So if he's never been 360 00:34:45.960 --> 00:34:49.320 confirmed by a vote of the Senate to be an officer of the United States, 361 00:34:50.119 --> 00:34:58.639 he can't exercise special prosecutor powers. This is a constitutional basically, Basically, 362 00:34:58.679 --> 00:35:02.119 this is an inadequacy. For this inadequacy, the lack of having been 363 00:35:02.159 --> 00:35:07.760 confirmed by the Senate renders all of Jack Smith's actions. Should render all of 364 00:35:07.760 --> 00:35:10.639 his actions null and void. He's not fit to be a prosecutor in this 365 00:35:10.840 --> 00:35:17.400 case if he hasn't received Senate confirmation. Now, this argument was put in 366 00:35:17.400 --> 00:35:27.400 front of the US Supreme Court in the immunity case about again Jack Smith bringing 367 00:35:27.519 --> 00:35:32.039 charges against President Trump for stuff relating to September eleventh, excuse me relating to 368 00:35:34.119 --> 00:35:39.239 January sixth. The Supreme Court ruled that President Trump has a certain degree of 369 00:35:39.280 --> 00:35:45.079 executive immunity from prosecution, but one of the arguments that was raised was does 370 00:35:45.199 --> 00:35:50.760 Jack Smith have any authority at all to serve as a special prosecutor. Clarence 371 00:35:50.800 --> 00:35:55.679 Thomas issued a concurrence agreeing with that position, but none of the other justices 372 00:35:55.719 --> 00:36:05.960 really took up that question. Cannon in Florida has bought that argument completely and 373 00:36:06.039 --> 00:36:08.599 so she's dismissed the case in Florida. Now Jack Smith's going to appeal. 374 00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:15.480 But I think this is a pretty significant moment. If this gets to the 375 00:36:15.519 --> 00:36:22.000 Supreme Court, it could result in maybe all of Trump's federal prosecutions going Wait, 376 00:36:22.039 --> 00:36:27.760 now, this doesn't get rid of the state prosecution that's taking place in 377 00:36:27.760 --> 00:36:31.119 Georgia that Fanny willis so royally screwed up. This doesn't get rid of the 378 00:36:31.159 --> 00:36:37.119 state prosecution in Manhattan, where we're still waiting on the sentencing. But it's 379 00:36:37.119 --> 00:36:43.639 a pretty significant development and for a pretty I think, interesting legal question. 380 00:36:45.360 --> 00:36:49.880 When we return, just a quick thought on the RNC and my hopes about 381 00:36:49.960 --> 00:36:53.000 some shift on the Republican platform. That's next on the John Girardi Show. 382 00:36:57.159 --> 00:37:00.119 The Republican Convention is starting, and one of the things that I'm sort of 383 00:37:00.159 --> 00:37:06.360 interested in is the desire from a lot of Republicans to alter the Republican platform. 384 00:37:06.440 --> 00:37:08.280 Now, I've talked about it a lot on this show, how dissatisfied 385 00:37:08.280 --> 00:37:13.960 I am with the twenty twenty four Republican Platform. One of the things I 386 00:37:14.039 --> 00:37:20.199 also noticed about it is that has no mention of Second Amendment. So it's 387 00:37:20.239 --> 00:37:22.199 not just the pro lifers who are upset here. This is a very different 388 00:37:22.320 --> 00:37:27.679 kind of document, and maybe that's the thing I this is one the aspect 389 00:37:27.719 --> 00:37:30.199 of it that's maybe mitigating a little bit my concern with the lack of pro 390 00:37:30.280 --> 00:37:37.000 life language and any language about the abortion issue that's in there was pretty darn 391 00:37:37.039 --> 00:37:42.519 inadequate. My hope is that there are enough Republicans at the convention who care 392 00:37:42.559 --> 00:37:47.079 about the life issue who will be able to, if not demand, at 393 00:37:47.119 --> 00:37:53.360 the convention some alteration to the wording about life at the very least to get 394 00:37:53.440 --> 00:37:59.400 from President Trump some commitments which I don't think he's boxed himself out of, 395 00:38:00.360 --> 00:38:07.000 to greater protection for abortion during against abortion during his administration. That's my hope. 396 00:38:07.840 --> 00:38:10.239 Peace for America, that's the big hope. Thank you all for listening. 397 00:38:10.320 --> 00:38:13.079 This is the John Girrardy Show on Power Talk.