We're back with another edition of The Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Emily Desnski,
culture editor here at the Federalist. As always, you can email the show
at radio at the Federalist dot com, follow us on Twitter at fdr LST.
Make sure to subscribe wherever you download your podcasts, and to the freemium
version of our website. I'm joined today by the Big B. You might
be wondering who the Big Bee is. It is the greatest nickname I've ever
heard. It was sent to us by listener Gregory loved that email immediately forwarded
it to Bedford instead. I'm only calling you the Big Bee from now on
because it's so funny. I not only do I accept, but I insist
that sounds about right. The Big B. Before we started recording, in
the midst of all the upheavle here in Washington, d C. The Republican
House Conference and members of the Senate as well or in some state of upheaval,
fault lines are being drawn over the stat suiling deal people you would have
assumed previously where allies have split. It's sort of Shakespearean in the district this
week. But it's all of this and everything going on with the intelligence community.
Chris had a thought I found to be rather profound. Well, thank
you. My thought on this week's news is that there is Washington DC does
not cut spending. There's simply not a constiterency to do that. And another
truism of Washington DC that the FBI director does not arrest himself. And because
no matter what you conservatives say or what pundits say or whatever, it's really
just comes down to power. So you can find out, well, Kevin
McCarthy has a slim majority, they have the control of the power of the
port purse. A muscular Congress should be able to hold the White House and
the Senator account on that. But not really it's about power does he have
The Republicans want to surrender on spending? Do they want to do any of
this? No? I mean even the seventy plus or so no votes in
the GOP, if it was actually close and their vote was needed, would
not have been no votes. Maybe it would have been like twenty or something.
And just a few months ago when wat's his name from Perceive, Bannon
got arrested for contempt of Congress, the first person to have that happened since
she Gordon lydie in nineteen seventy four, people said, oh, well,
this is a new precedent. You know, I hope there was, but
it's obviously not. Maybe it's a new precedent for when Republicans controlled the DOJ,
but as we saw do Donald Trump, that never actually even happens.
So there were people who are kind of hoping for that when their hold when
the Republican Congress starting to hold Christopher Ray of the FBI in contempt. But
well, that would require the Justice Department arrest in the Justice Department on Republicans
orders for what for doing what the Justice Department felt like doing, which is
not investigating Hunter Hunter Biden. It's just it's all this game. So you
can all these cries of hypocrisy or all these cries of squish or whatever,
but at the end of the day, it just comes down to who's got
power, And well that's a tough one. You know. The argument that
the counter argument not to you, but to Kevin McCarthy would be that he's
not. He has some measure of power that as let's see. I think
I think new Gingrich is the one who said he really because Biden is going
into a presidential election year, McCarthy really had a lot of leverage, meaning
Biden wouldn't want a potential default on his watch going into a presidential election.
Gingrich then championed the deal Kevin McCarthy broker, which lost to you know,
seventy plus Republicans. It may have just been Freedom Caucus people if that was
actually a meaningful vote, but nevertheless, nevertheless, Gingrich said, this was
a great accomplishment because nobody could have foreseen a couple of months ago Republicans getting
anything out of the steal whatsoever. So it's a take it or leave it,
it's better than nothing type situation. And the question, though, then
to your point about power, is whether power or is just being wielded for
the sake of power in Washington, DC, whether it's whether we're talking about
the FBI, whether we're talking about the dj I mean, one of the
things I found most fascinating about the Republican fight over the debt from a very
very thirty thousand foot view, are the fights that Republicans chose to pick.
So this is not even talking about the minutia of the deal that was brokered,
but thinking back a couple of months ago to what could have been.
It's it's very strange to me that this deal had like a three percent budget
increase for defense spending built into it. Why are Republicans not making Joe Biden
defend going into a default over some of the surveillance programs at the Pentagon?
These things that are just there. There's been a lot of reporting on them.
These are offices that are set up basically with the purpose of surveilling American
citizens. They're extra constitutional. Clearly, why are Republicans not making Biden threatened
played default, chicken threatened default for specific over some of the woke programs baked
into the federal budget that folks like Russ b would have called attention to.
That is the what could have been in my mind, rather than saying we
wanted defense and but it sounds naive obviously to the people who were in the
back rooms where these this deal was being brokered, because you can't cut defense
spending period. That is a truism in Washington, d C. To your
point, Chris, but then what is the point of the power. There's
none, and Repulicans aren't against that. That's the problem, Not against Pentagon
surveillance programs. Half of the American Surveillan state was built under Republicans watch,
and rest Republicans got it. I mean, I went to UM years ago
when I was in college and interning for Homeland Security Today magazine. I went
to which is an awesome internship by the way, big By. I went
to a meeting at a press conference held at Heritage Foundation where then Secretary Chertoff
was touting these new TSA scanners that were going to be put in. They
could take perfect images of your naked body. And it was applauded like I
steady innovation and people people on the audience. So the Heritage Foundation conservative back
then, supposedly, we're like, why aren't these already in place? Why
isn't exactly why isn't TSA already taking naked pictures of us? This is insane.
As quickly as possible, they built this state. It's of course they're
not against it. And you know, even before the budget deal was actually
struck, when McCarthy was still trying to negotiate, you were having congressmen out
there and being like, well, we're going to get some more money to
Ukraine. Of course, we're gonna have to get some more money to Ukraine.
It's uh, it's absolutely wild that they want it. I mean,
the unit, it's uh. My wife told me it was lazy to call
it the UNI Party of the day, but it truly is. It's just
like, yeah, right, sweet, there's just a bunch of Republicans out
there who are like, they just want to spend and everyone's got their programs
and I mean, for the right, it's defense. For the left,
it's really everything else. Yeah, but it's it's so to your point,
I think, which I think is a really good one power for the sake
of power and also incompetence at wielding that power in it or incompetence at even
like your own, because for instance, the security start the intelligence community is
actually a real threat to Republican power like they potentially with. I mean,
when was the last time the intel community took down a president? It never
bombed well, the CIA, like so Sean Davis, obviously there's our CEO
of the Federalists, had a great report a couple of weeks back about how
the CIA there was an there was somebody using their CIA email address to solicit
signatures for the nonsense letter that hunter Biden's laptop. The new York Post story
looked like Russian disinformation, so you had the CIA actually involved in that.
Beside the fact the fact that it was fifty one former intelligence guys, we
now know that somebody literally in Langley was soliciting signal. Rising star Anthony Wiener
had been busted a few weeks later. Yes, that appears to be a
picture of my member, but it's really just russ disinformation. I mean,
Hunter got away with that right a riddle. I know it looks like a
naked picture of me smoking back with the prostitute taking itself that I had on
my laptop. Who keeps naked pictures themselves on the laptop. Let's not,
let's say, like a dude thing, but totally seems like a dude That
seems like exclusively a dude though of themselves. I don't know, Oh my
gosh, well the but man, if if only Anthony Winner, who was
recently spotted again at his once a strange wife's side, Um, if only
that happened a few years later, because now, I mean, the Clintons
used to be able to say it's either a right wing vast right wing conspiracy,
or it's old news. Those are like their two responses. But now
it's just it's just the Russians. It's always the Russians. Yeah, the
Russians love naked pictures. I believe that. But this is seriously this conundrum,
um, I think is a really real one that you have Republicans who
are increasingly whare aware of the fact that the intelligence community, as you rightfully
pointed out they helped create, is being wielded against them. And you've talked
about this before. It's from Lee Edwards book that actually Lyndon Johnson had I
believe the CIA spy on Barry Goldwater's campaign, maybe in the FBI, the
FBI. Yeah, Okay, for some reason, I was think you CI
they had the FBI spy on Goldwater's campaign, and going back all of those
years, and if you look fast forward to now, Kevin McCarthy is pretty
aware and he talks a decent game about the threats that the intelligence community poses
to Republican power. So if you're going to make any type of power grab
with your House majority, why are you not touching any of this stuff?
I think a lot. I think there's probably a lot of fear. And
also they just ignore you. I mean a muscular Congress of the seventies or
the eighties, I think would have probably had the power or the x for
tease in the oversight to really do something about an out of control executive or
forget about an intel. That muscle no longer exists. I mean, as
in front of mine said to me last night when were arguing, I thought
McArthur should have gotten a better deal than he did, should have fought it.
And she said, what power does even have. Well, he's got
the power of the purse. Yeah, I mean Congress has largely forgotten.
I'm granted he's got a slim majority and he's got he'd have to really work
hard to keep Republicans online, but that is your traditional power. It's been
given up. I mean Congress. Congress is largely a fundraising and re election
machine where expertise and growth machine, and people, even if they're very good
it could potentially be very good, often leave their positions in their late twenties.
There's at least in the House, there's not a lot of people in
their thirties and forties and fifties, and in the Senate there's some more.
But even then, like the old the old teams that used to I used
to exist for these top senators. They don't have the pay, they don't
the expertise doesn't come with the same level of respect that it used to come
with. And I think that's really just her Congress, and it's part of
like the Congress dumb self of Republicans cutting their own budgets, et cetera.
But General has to spend the muscle. I don't even know how to use
the muscles anymore. They don't know how to do. They don't know how
to use proper oversight over over organizations and the federal government that are public.
Well, it's an organized can oversight hud forget about the CIA. Well,
so that's exactly it. If you're using crutches for years, your muscles are
going to atrophy, and the administrative state has become the permanent crutch essentially for
the for Congress and Richel Bobard our friend has talked about this for a long
time, that there's no way you can get back to like really legislating well,
well, Congresses muscle reflex is just to punt to the administrative state on
issue after issue because they'll always have their back and remember when they couldn't get
gang of eight immigration through the Elbama just use the executive use an executive order.
So much of our poorest border walk or our poorest border is being enforced
right now by the administrators. I mean, basically all of it is being
enforced through the administrative state. And they're poking a million little holes in the
supposed wall, the metaphorical wall of our policies through the administrative state, because
Congress has made the decision to punt all of those duties to the administrative state.
So Combers decided to go after Ray, and McCarthy's backed him, which
is great to see. But I mean, here they've got someone where the
FBI is supposedly, according to this whistle blower, varying evidence of actual corruption
that ties back to the president in their states, millions of dollars in deals
when he was vice president, actual bribes that were paid. So he's been
a mystery how he became a multi he went from one of the poorest members
of the Senate to one of the wealthier so quickly. But this was a
blowers proposed to solve some of that. Now. The only reason anyone even
knows about that because the FBI has been slow drag is because he went to
a senator. The senator wasn't able to subpoenat him because the Senate Republicans aren't
in charge and Democrats aren't going to let it, so I send it down
to the House Comer did the investigation. They threatened to hold the whole Ray
in contempt. Now that that would really do anything other than this be like
a little chapter in his Wikipedia page. And thus they took the set the
sergeant in the arms down there to arrest them. But I think that'd be
that'd be wild. And they meet last night to kind of discuss, all
right, how do we how do we hold this off? And Ray said
basically says, here, I'll give you a little peekaboo at these documents.
You can you can look at them, but you can't take him home.
You can't make photo copies. Obviously you can't take a picture. But here's
the document. And that said, there's no more talking. It's an ongoing
investigation. Forget about the fact that ongoing investigation. They never once said we
can't comment an ongoing investigation during a single one of the January sixth areas,
because those are hearings that the FBI wants politically prosecuted with this something they're trying
to sit on, and they claim that they go after that. But that's
what as far as you can go, I mean, and that's on domestic
stuff with a whistleblower with proven documents showing wrongdoing. Yeah, how much further
are they going to really get against the deep state than that? And that
this shows you, This shows you just the limits of their power. The
Watchdot on Wall Street podcast with Chris Markowski. Every day Chris helps unpack the
connection between politics and the economy and how it affects your wallet. How is
retail theft affecting inflation? Target says they've lost almost a billion dollars in inventory,
and this is just Target. What did Target lose money or did you?
Corporations don't pay taxes because their customers pay those taxes and what they buy
driving the prices way up. Whether it's happening in DC or down on Wall
Street, it's affecting you financially. Be informed. Check out the watchtot on
Wall Street podcast with Chris Markowski on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get
your podcast. That's sad because it's it's really a point where you need to
have the presidency um, and that is not how our system is designed,
is not what the Constitution prescribed for the American people. I hope that the
next Republican president kind of learns the lessons of Donald Donald Trump's administration that you
must completely and totally ignore the shrieks of the blob and the and the and
the absolute panic and shrieks of everyone around you, and decapitate the administrative state,
including your defense, as soon as you get in Like no, this
nonpartisan FBI head and this nonpartisan said, none of those people state. All
of them are gone. Every general over three stars. I accept your resignation,
and I mean, just it has to be a full on this is
over. Politicization is over, or a hyper politicization, as some people advocate
for, like all right, this is over. Right now, I put
my people in charge, which is dangerous, but that's right now. With
the level of capture that the left has, I mean, it's it's just
it's responding to fire. It's not star the new one. And there are
some groups that have I mean obviously in the sort of professional political class on
the right in Washington, DC, among the kind of movement conservative wing of
that professional political class. There's a huge awareness of prepping for a potential Republican
administration. There's actually across the room from us. You see that massive,
gargantuan book that's the Heritage Foundations, like policy prescriptions for going forward, American
Compass, other groups are working. Yeah, you can see it's it's massive,
um, and they put a ton of time into it. But you
can see like people are trying to develop roadmaps with this awareness that Republicans can't
just come in and do what For instance, it seems like Tim Scott thinks
that he can do, which is take the driver's seat, hit the gas
and keep going. Um, you know, you can just take the wheel
of the federal government without you know, doing anything dramatic and just hit the
gas, keep going and steer it in a better direction. It actually needs
an overhaul in and of itself. That car is the flawed the car itself.
While I'm torturing this amountiford to death. But um, it's true that
like you you hear Tim Scott and Nicki Haley and the way they talk about
it, their plans, it's going, it's just got going in the right
direction. And yeah, but this system has been it's like I'm trying to
think of how to make this Mountiford more ridiculous. The system. It's like
when people add, you know, like things that make the car not work
right to make it. You know what I mean, you put diesel in
your car. I haven't done that been of you. It seems like maybe
that it's definitely a check move. I wouldn't do that, but almost once
owned a car for a week, by the way, so I don't have
an amount of time to be aware of the diesel pumps. Also, if
I can give you a piece of advice for men to women, you have
to take the gas out of the car and put it back in the nozzle
before you drive away from the gas station. It's funny. If my mom
is listening to this, that's really going to resonate with her. But it's
it's also somewhat rich coming from from you kind new mother in law has done
that twice. Isn't to stake It's an easy to say. We're not saying
that it's it's just women who make that mistake. But I think actually maybe
Chris is saying that, well, one way to avoid it is to look
over your left shoulder and check your side mirror, which is two other habits
that you should be in the habit of otherwise, just bring them up,
just keep it in the trunk along with your cigarettes. Said you're lighter.
But to keep going with should I should I go back to torturing the metaphors?
Should I go back to elongating this joke? It's a now I met
a fork in the road, Chris the car is that wow? Wow,
No. But I think when you hear Nikki Hill and Tip's got and you
know, maybe Chris Christy would ever talk about their plans for a potential presidency,
they're not talking about things like Schedule F right, which says we need
to actually radically deconstruct the administrative state. We need to reign in executive powers,
we need to restructure the way that the federal government works and delegate powers
once again and the tradition of federalism, etc. Etc. Chevron Doctrine is
on the Supreme Court docket that's up for a decision that we'll know about soon.
There are some things that are being planned. There's an awareness, but
then again, you still have Tim Scott and Nikki Haley talking like it's twenty
twelve and Kevin McCarthy broke. You know who made a really good point.
Oh, I won't say who made the really good point, but someone we
know made a really good point that there's a difference between McCarthy saying, hey,
you have to make you like, we just have to swallow this deal.
It's Biden's fault because he won't negotiate with us, Like it's ridiculous that
we're even debating a debt ceiling lift when our debt is this high, that
we're even debating whether to cut spending. It's it's a sign of a broken
government. But Joe Biden is not going to let's do anything else. So
we're going to take this tiny win but acknowledge that it's a tiny win,
as opposed to going out and trumpeting it as a huge achievement for reigning in
the federal government, which is what most of the press releases I've gotten in
the last twenty four hours have said, you've heard that from Republicans, this
is a big achievement. Yeah, Kevin McCarthy, that's what McCarthy himself is
saying that why didn't McCarthy just say, like, this is Biden's fault,
that we have to swallow the steal. But we got a little bit and
that's the best we can do, as opposed to saying, how dare you
not vote for this amazing accomplishment? So going after but I haven't read my
email as much this morning. I haven't read the press releases. I watched
the vote last night, but I was just thinking, all right, I
would I don't know. So it's funny that they would brag about it.
It's funny that they also would send out Sarah Guts to whisper At a playbook
and to other newsletters that hey, this was actually a genius stroke of genius
by McCarthy. That really, look, he offered some things that weren't even
ever going to be on the table or make the freedom cock is happy.
And then obviously they weren't on the table, but he out smart at them.
He's and he's smart. I don't know, it sounds really stupid to
me. The whole thing is rather embarrassing me. It's like, it's like
today, when you're on your way to this podcast and you're scooter broke.
There's nothing to be out of you run a scooter down, just walk away.
I wasn't proud to walk away. I was really actually, I was
so unhappy to have to send that signal message because I was like, this
is very embarrassing, deeply embarrassing. Yeah, a press release world. In
the podcast, I will take the press releases back, I said, a
citywide press release about my scooter breaking down. No, this is the the
McCarthy comber ray, you know, twenty twenty four. All of this comes
down to, I think it a very relevant and interesting point, which is
that the Freedom Caucus comes out of this with a big W. I think
a big old W. Because whether you're playing poker or buying used card,
negotiating you know, the fate of the United States of America, there's always
some theater involved, and necessarily so um and the theater is actually important.
So, you know, the kind of establishment folks griping about the Freedom Caucus
folks going out there and demanding more from McCarthy is just as theatrical as the
Freedom Caucus folks demanding more from McCarthy. If you put the screws to him,
you can get more out of it, possibly, but either way,
you're dramatically on the right side of this conversation as far as your constituents go
and to that point, they got to vote against this bill. McCarthy,
who I think had very little leverage because the media is always going to take
Biden's plan and a shot is going to take Biden's side in a default,
just like they do every time there's a shutdown. They will make the Republicans
look like evil obstructionists. Voters don't like that. No matter what. I
don't think Biden was going to get the blame for a default. We already
saw the hostage narrative playing out across the corporate press. So all of that
is to say Freedom Caucus, you know, got a little bit. I
don't Knowcarthey, McCarthy got a little bit out of Dems. I don't think
he was ever going to get much more out of that. Doesn't mean that
he shouldn't have tried, doesn't mean that the deal wasn't as good as it
should have been. But Freedom Caucus gets to vote against it, get a
little bit out of it. And now, because McCarthy is so worried about
the motion of Vakate, he's giving them stuff. We saw Marjorie Taylor green
As at the time we're taping this say that he's giving January six tapes to
some news outlets, um including I think Julie Kelly and John Solomon are getting
January six tapes. So now there they went on offense and now they're getting
stuff out of the establishment. And I don't know how much that's going to
be, but I think the point remains, like Comber, for instance,
putting Ray in this situation, you know, you're at an impast, but
it's an impast that shows how broken the government is. So offense is the
answer, you know. And I don't know why we're so we're so hesitant
to prosecute and hall people before before judges after they're out of office. I
mean, like, where's fout you right now? Is he allowed to retire
next ra his garbage pool and Northwest EASTA with all of that money? That's
completely insane? Like I think there's one, Yeah, I don't. I
don't know if many Republicans have the guts for US. I think maybe de
Sanis and Trump apossible would potentially, and but they should just once they actually
have the DJ and take it go after these people, take take advantage of
the precedent set by the January sixth arrests and all that insanity go after them,
hauled them for it, Like all right, now you're not in power.
I mean, you're going to have all these people the David French is
probably the Wall Street Journal, probably lets a host of Fox News saying well,
you can't go after unpunish your political opponents bus why they did wrong,
and they refused to be held to account because they used their power. When
you're out of power, you don't get that protection anymore. They're wielding the
powers their political opponents. I mean, it's James call me out there going
this week seeing Donald Trump presents its existential threat to the rule of law.
Remember when they rated Marlago for what they they No one believed it for a
heartbeat, and then they were like, oh, it's nuclear coach, really
because zero that ever ever the case, and everybody knows the nuclear code is
just zero zero zero zero. Yeahs, passwork and your bike lock. They
completely mowed down that president. They're going after the president. They're going after
him everywhere. I mean, just all right, just just take their gloves
off. And by the way, I mean you got to wonder how many
how tribal has just the voting gotten. I mean you look, you look
at the Chicago, where where there was someone who was supposed later formers saying,
Hey, this city has gone complete out of control and your kids are
getting killed. I want to run for office. Yeah, but they went
with someone who's, you know, more of the machine. They look at
Philadelphia. I mean, it's just American politics have gotten extremely tribal and the
left has gotten very good at retribution and the right isn't very good at wielding
power. But maybe they'll take a few lessons. I'm not very hopeful,
but maybe, yeah, who knows. I mean, it's one of those
things where like they're so we've talked before about how we are coming to a
reckoning with the garbage that we put in our body for years, food wise,
big Big Pharma, all of these things, and I mean the schedule
F stuff is just the beginning of what you would need to do. I
mean, it's a revolving door that favors industry. There are no free markets
in some of these really top industries that affect the everyday lives of average Americans,
what they put in their body, what they eat, how they raise
their kids, Big Ed for instance, and our government right now, even
if you have a Republican president unless that person is willing to make dramatic changes
and has the winds at their back and a Congress that's actually listening to its
constituents. Good luck. But you did get a new car stuff some goodness.
You know it's a used it's a new used cars. Thank you.
Than buying new cars is that's for suckers. I wouldn't buy anything that's that's
younger than nineteen ninety four. I don't like the look of new sub SUVs.
I don't like how they're rounded. I think it's a trout. Yes,
it's appalling. Um so I had to go back more than ten years
to get one elect but it's say, hey, it's already been camping,
it's doing great. Yeah, you gotta drive a nineteen ninety four land Cruiser.
Far from having the new congressionally mandated breath elizer. I can't even start
it without a beer. It's back from America or America? Am I right?
And then you pour the beer into the gas beeps at me when I
buckle my seatbelt. It hates safety. Yeah, that's probably true. Well.
Christopher Bedford, executive editor over at the Common Sense Society, Thank you,
as always big Bee for joining us. That's how I go. Now,
all right, you've been listening to another edition of The Federalist Radio Hour,
and then Lashinski, culture editor here at The Federalist. We'll be back
soon with more. Until then, be lovers of freedom and anxious for Frey