Speaker 1: You're listen Saints KFI AM six forty the Bill Handles
Speaker 1: show on demand on the iHeartRadio f KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: Bill Handle here on a Friday morning, January thirty one.
Speaker 1: Some of the big stories we are looking at. The
Speaker 1: confirmation hearings continue on and they are I would use
Speaker 1: the word hilarious. And the aftermath of the collision. Now
Speaker 1: the investigation truly begins. So right after midnight, a few
Speaker 1: hours after the collision, President Trump felt it was the
Speaker 1: right time to go on truth Social and his post
Speaker 1: it is a clear night, the lights on the plane
Speaker 1: were blazing. Why didn't the helicopter go up or down
Speaker 1: or turn?
Speaker 2: Good questions?
Speaker 1: Why didn't the control tower tell the helicopter what to
Speaker 1: do instead of asking if they saw the plane? Also
Speaker 1: a question that's going to be asked. This is a
Speaker 1: bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented.
Speaker 1: We're hearing that across the board from aviation experts.
Speaker 2: And then he finishes with.
Speaker 1: In cap letters and three exclamation points, not good, totally appropriate,
Speaker 1: and then then noon happens. Okay, and he says at
Speaker 1: a press conference, we do not know what led to
Speaker 1: this crash.
Speaker 2: But we have some very strong opinions and ideas.
Speaker 1: And then, as usual, he has his press conferences, which
Speaker 1: tend to go off script and rambles a bit, and
Speaker 1: his opinion is that the cause was a diversity push
Speaker 1: in the FAA's hiring process, the diversity push DEI diversity
Speaker 1: equity inclusion, which is a mantra, less so in certainly
Speaker 1: less so in business these days and in schools, but
Speaker 1: still there in the federal government. Effectively, what he's doing
Speaker 1: is he's blaming the DEI programs in the FAA as
Speaker 1: the cause of what happened. And he intimated that he
Speaker 1: didn't say it outright, but a reporter said, are you saying,
Speaker 1: are you do you have any evidence?
Speaker 2: No, but I have some strong ideas. This is what
Speaker 2: I've heard.
Speaker 1: And then in a live broadcast from the Oval office,
Speaker 1: he signs the executive.
Speaker 2: Order and, in the words of an off camera VP. JD.
Speaker 2: Vance totally pin the responsibility for the crash.
Speaker 1: This is Vance on the Biden administration's DEI and woke policy.
Speaker 2: That is who to blame.
Speaker 1: And Vance is saying to him, and this is off camera,
Speaker 1: as you said in your inaugural it is color blind,
Speaker 1: merit based. Pete Hegsith, who was also at the press conference,
Speaker 1: said the era of DEI is gone at the Defense Apartment.
Speaker 1: We need the best and the brightest, whether it's in
Speaker 1: our air traffic control, or whether it's in our generals,
Speaker 1: or whether it's throughout the government.
Speaker 2: We need qualified people in government.
Speaker 1: All right, President Trump, Let's talk about who he nominated
Speaker 1: and confirmed. Pete Hebsith, right, professional qualifications include mismanaging two
Speaker 1: small lobbying organizations. His entire career in the military was
Speaker 1: as I think he got as high as lieutenant. And
Speaker 1: then his history of drinking. He admitted that mistreatment of women,
Speaker 1: he denied that.
Speaker 2: Well, there you go. And who else, let's go through
Speaker 2: the list.
Speaker 1: Patel, there's some issues there. Telsea Gabbert with her defense
Speaker 1: of letting out the secrets of the United States.
Speaker 2: Right. Remember, and here's one of my favorite ones.
Speaker 1: Linda McMahon, who happens to be the wife of Vince
Speaker 1: McMahon of wrestling fame. She has been nominated as Education Secretary,
Speaker 1: not to run the Department of Education, but to dismantle
Speaker 1: the Department of Education.
Speaker 2: And how much how much experience does she have? Well?
Speaker 2: Not much? Yeah, and the and the cabinet posts.
Speaker 1: If you talk about a meritocracy, it's it's completely crazy. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's not a meritocracy. This is not what this president wants.
Speaker 1: He wants fealty. He wants loyalty.
Speaker 2: It's that simple. By proof.
Speaker 1: For example, the FBI, he has just cleaned out some
Speaker 1: senior FBI officials and investigators who investigated him. Gone, DJ gone,
Speaker 1: but a dozen of those attorneys, even though it was
Speaker 1: their job. You go against me, you are gone now.
Speaker 1: To be fair, the civil service, which the FAA has,
Speaker 1: has some issues, they really do. And I have no
Speaker 1: problem with the government looking at the issues of civil service,
Speaker 1: which was created to keep corruption out because it was
Speaker 1: all patronage prior to the civil service in government.
Speaker 2: So I'll tell you what's going to happen.
Speaker 1: People engaged in directing air traffic coming up, testing for
Speaker 1: food safety, safety, preventing terrorism, vital public functions. It's going
Speaker 1: to change traumatically. It is not going to be a meritocracy.
Speaker 1: I guarantee it. It is not, especially if you look
Speaker 1: what's going on right now. It's going to be loyalty.
Speaker 2: And Trump has.
Speaker 1: Made that crystal clear. I want loyalty. That's what I want.
Speaker 1: Chrispher Ray, who was the FBI head of the FBI,
Speaker 1: straight out Trump said, I need loyalty from you. That's
Speaker 1: what I want now. To be fair, the presidents do
Speaker 1: put in people who tend to be pro president, although
Speaker 1: some have not, some have kept many have kept cabinet
Speaker 1: positions through another administration, a Democrat of a Republican, or
Speaker 1: a Republican keeping Democrats.
Speaker 2: But this is on a whole new level.
Speaker 1: Now, let's go to Washington for a moment and talk
Speaker 1: about the airspace above Reagan National Airport. Okay, two days ago, Wednesday,
Speaker 1: seven hundred planes had already taken off and landed at
Speaker 1: Reagan the airport when the collision happened. American Airlines Flight
Speaker 1: five three four to two is a Canadian jet and
Speaker 1: it's a regional jet smaller than seven thirty seven. And
Speaker 1: then the military hospital, the military helicopter, Army helicopter, because
Speaker 1: the Army is one of the flies helicopters. Okay, so
Speaker 1: the catastrophe is now drawing attention to safety warnings that
Speaker 1: have been going on for.
Speaker 2: Years about the busy airspace.
Speaker 1: The increasingly busy airspace above the nation's cast capital, Reagan
Speaker 1: Airport is on seven hundred and thirty three acres right
Speaker 1: next to the Potomac River River.
Speaker 2: That's a small footprint for an airport that is this busy.
Speaker 1: It's across from downtown Washington, it's across from the military's
Speaker 1: joint base, the Ana Costilla Bowling Space, and space is
Speaker 1: so tight that the regulators actually dole out takeoff and
Speaker 1: landing rights, I mean really tight. Now every airport does that,
Speaker 1: but not like this. And why do they keep on
Speaker 1: adding flights? Well, because you have congress people and senator
Speaker 1: senators who go back home, and it's a lot easier
Speaker 1: to go to Reagan, which is right next to downtown,
Speaker 1: than go over to Dulles, which is a lot farther.
Speaker 1: I have that right, that is Dulles, right, I believe
Speaker 1: that is or am I conflating the airports?
Speaker 2: I don't think so.
Speaker 1: And so that's convenient. And so last year, for example,
Speaker 1: six flights were added or attempted to be added.
Speaker 2: Because it's just so convenient.
Speaker 1: I mean, legislators go home on the weekends, they go
Speaker 1: home during recesses. And why would you go all the
Speaker 1: way across town and take a forty five minute drive
Speaker 1: when you can go ten minutes to the airport. And
Speaker 1: at the same time, you have all these airplanes flying
Speaker 1: above since you have that military base right next to it.
Speaker 2: You got helicopters that go across the.
Speaker 1: Potomac every day, and a lot of them are military
Speaker 1: flights from the Pentagon and government agencies, and all of
Speaker 1: them are flying together, and they have different air corridors
Speaker 1: and different heights altitudes that they fly at, and usually, well,
Speaker 1: it's not easy. If there is a screw up, well,
Speaker 1: this is what happens. We don't know if this has
Speaker 1: grew up with air traffic controllers yet they're investigating it
Speaker 1: right now and pilots.
Speaker 2: So I've been complaining for decades about this.
Speaker 1: So we heard this yesterday from our KFI aviation expert
Speaker 1: who we talked to, and he agreed and he parroted
Speaker 1: what Army Secretary nominee Daniel Driscoll said. This is an
Speaker 1: accident that seems to be preventable. That's the word we're
Speaker 1: looking at, preventable.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: The pilots on the helicopter were all very well experienced
Speaker 1: trained pilots, so we're not talking about new pilots.
Speaker 2: This was not a new pilot training.
Speaker 1: These were training exercises by seasoned pilots.
Speaker 2: There is an issue.
Speaker 1: We do have the air traffic controller and this as
Speaker 1: usual asking the helicopter do you see that jet specifically?
Speaker 1: And you hear the pilot in the airplane go yes,
Speaker 1: I see it. Now there's an issue as to whether
Speaker 1: he really saw that plane or not, because there was
Speaker 1: another plane right near it. The collision happened instantaneously, the fireball.
Speaker 2: No one survived it.
Speaker 1: And yesterday I mentioned that if there is a silver lining,
Speaker 1: a tiny little silver lining of sixty four people dying
Speaker 1: or sixty seven people dying, it's that no one knew
Speaker 1: what happened. It was instantaneous and so no one suffered.
Speaker 1: No one anticipated the plane going down. I mean, can
Speaker 1: you imagine you're on an airplane and it's going down,
Speaker 1: and you've got a minute or two before it hits
Speaker 1: the ground. What goes through your mind? I mean, I
Speaker 1: can't even imagine that. Just enough to say I love
Speaker 1: you to someone near you, or try to call and
Speaker 1: tell us spouse, the child, I love you.
Speaker 2: None of that happened. So we're going to find out
Speaker 2: what did happen.
Speaker 1: And you will see there are also allegations, but these
Speaker 1: are facts that one air traffic controller was doing the
Speaker 1: job of two.
Speaker 2: Was that unusual? Maybe not?
Speaker 1: It was relatively calm. We're gonna hear a lot more
Speaker 1: over the next few days as to what happened. That's
Speaker 1: going to be a big story. Okay, tonight or tomorrow.
Speaker 1: The President may or may not put a twenty five
Speaker 1: percent tariff on Canada and Mexico, and he threatened tariffs
Speaker 1: having to do with illegal immigration and the smuggling of
Speaker 1: chemicals used for fentanyl. But what he said was it
Speaker 1: really has to do with oil coming from Canada and Mexico.
Speaker 3: This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area
Speaker 3: which we call the twilight zone.
Speaker 1: Yep, that pretty well says it, doesn't it. So the
Speaker 1: twenty five percent tariff may kick in tomorrow.
Speaker 2: He hasn't sided yet.
Speaker 1: He said he's going to decide tonight, but he's still considering.
Speaker 2: We don't know.
Speaker 1: We may we may not, and tonight is going to happen.
Speaker 1: So this one now is based on the price of
Speaker 1: oil charged by Canada New Mexico, where we get.
Speaker 2: Oil, we also sell oil.
Speaker 1: But that's besides the point, and it's I guess not
Speaker 1: illegal immigration. Even though that was a major point. Illegal immigration,
Speaker 1: of course, coming from the southern border, the smuggling of
Speaker 1: chemicals used for Sentinel coming from.
Speaker 2: The southern border. Canada. Who the hell knows.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's lumber that's coming in and we're going to
Speaker 1: grow our own trees. Canadian lumber is a huge, huge
Speaker 1: one that we buy. Now, a quick word about twenty
Speaker 1: five percent tariffs on the oil that's coming in. And
Speaker 1: I'm going to just talk about reducing energy costs. Forget
Speaker 1: about reducing wood prices for a moment, all right, Who
Speaker 1: pays the tariffs?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: The president has said that it's the country that sells
Speaker 1: us products.
Speaker 2: That's not true. We pay the tariffs.
Speaker 1: The manufacturers, the factories here pay the extra amount of
Speaker 1: money the tariffs, and then we end up paying the tariffs.
Speaker 2: And what did he.
Speaker 1: Say in a twenty twenty four town hall in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: And he kept on saying this one year from January twentieth,
Speaker 1: we will have your energy prices cut in half all
Speaker 1: over the country.
Speaker 2: Okay, I mean it worked.
Speaker 1: Eighty percent of the voters identified gas prices as a
Speaker 1: concern during the election. He won six in ten of
Speaker 1: voters who said they worried about prices at the pump.
Speaker 2: That's a sixty percent rate.
Speaker 1: And what we did is four point six million barrels
Speaker 1: of oil daily coming from Canada, and this is October
Speaker 1: five hundred and sixty three barrels from Mexico. US daily production,
Speaker 1: by the way, during that month was thirteen and a
Speaker 1: half million dollars. According to Matthew Holmes, the Executive VP
Speaker 1: and chief of Public Policy at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce,
Speaker 1: he said straight out, this is a lose lose.
Speaker 2: Now we're going to lose, and you're going to lose.
Speaker 2: This is going to make life a lot more expensive.
Speaker 1: Adding to the cost of energy does not make energy
Speaker 1: less expensive. I don't know how that works. I went
Speaker 1: shopping for eggs yesterday or the day before, and I
Speaker 1: was stunned at the price of eggs.
Speaker 2: I mean stunned. However, according to the administration, the.
Speaker 1: Higher the price of eggs that I pay, the lower
Speaker 1: the cost to me. Do we play that twilight zone
Speaker 1: again just for the purposes of this show, Yeah, let's
Speaker 1: play it again.
Speaker 2: Let me rephrase, okay, or say it again.
Speaker 1: The higher the price of eggs, the lower are cost.
Speaker 3: This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area
Speaker 3: which we call the twilight zone.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: So gas prices average three dollars twelve cents a gallon
Speaker 1: across the US, not the same as last year, and
Speaker 1: according to Trump, it's going to go down to a
Speaker 1: dollar sixty a gallon. Here in California, we're already at
Speaker 1: twenty two dollars a gallon anyway, so it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: what we pay.
Speaker 2: And there are other issues.
Speaker 1: I mean, you've got the world pretty upset about all
Speaker 1: of this and what's going on where you have these
Speaker 1: arbitrary tariffs being thrown out at countries. He made the
Speaker 1: same threat in November against the Bricks Group of Nations, Brazil, Russia, India, China,
Speaker 1: South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates. Putin suggested,
Speaker 1: because he's under some very serious sanctions, let's forget about
Speaker 1: the dollar as the international currency. Let's come up with
Speaker 1: our own currency that will be used as a basis
Speaker 1: for international trade. Right now, everybody that sells oil, it's
Speaker 1: through something called the Swift system, and it's all dollars, okay,
Speaker 1: everybody you buy in dollars, and doesn't matter what country
Speaker 1: you're buying from from any place, because that's the international currency,
Speaker 1: and we'll see what happens with that.
Speaker 2: Is that going to happen? I don't think so, but
Speaker 2: just insane?
Speaker 1: Okay, what else is going on in the world of Well,
Speaker 1: the nominees that are in front of the Senate Committee
Speaker 1: right now on Capitol Hill and the read.
Speaker 2: That are kind of fun Robert F.
Speaker 1: Kennedy, Junior Tulci Gabbard for National Intelligence, Head of National Intelligence,
Speaker 1: Cash Betel for the FBI, and there's a lot of
Speaker 1: fireworks going on there.
Speaker 2: So what is going on?
Speaker 1: Well, they're in front of both Democrats and Republicans in
Speaker 1: the Senate, and we're talking about the Senate committee that moves.
Speaker 2: The nomination forward to the vote in the House or
Speaker 2: on the.
Speaker 1: Senate floor, and it is controlled both the Senate and
Speaker 1: the committees are controlled by the Republicans, which means I'm
Speaker 1: guessing I'd be surprised if all three.
Speaker 2: Weren't confirmed, no matter what the problem is.
Speaker 1: So we start with Kennedy, the master of the anti
Speaker 1: vaxx world, and one of the people that are really
Speaker 1: upset about this is the chair of the Committee Health Education,
Speaker 1: Labor Pensions Committee, Senator Bill Cassidy, who is a lawyer,
Speaker 1: who's a doctor, Republican.
Speaker 2: He is not happy with.
Speaker 1: Kennedy's position at all, and he said, I've been struggling
Speaker 1: with your nomination.
Speaker 2: So what is the situation? Well, how about the autism issue? Right?
Speaker 1: He has said many times that vaccination cost cause autism.
Speaker 2: By the way, he didn't back down from that either.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't say no, and was asked outright, does it
Speaker 1: cause autism?
Speaker 2: Does it cause autism?
Speaker 1: He wouldn't say. Total deflection at all points. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's pretty crazy stuff. That's Kennedy. And you know, I
Speaker 1: could go on for two segments on that one. How
Speaker 1: about cash Ptel with the FBI. Now, for years he's
Speaker 1: been a maga flamethrower social media right wing shows. He
Speaker 1: called the service Howard's in uniform and violated the chain
Speaker 1: of command. In discussing the response to the January sixth insurrection,
Speaker 1: he now says, wait a minute, I really didn't mean
Speaker 1: that this had to do with senior officials failing to
Speaker 1: deploy the National Guard.
Speaker 2: That's really what I meant. And he has called for.
Speaker 1: Going after people quote in the media criminally or civilly.
Speaker 1: He said, no, no, it was only a partial quotation,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to take retribution against those people at all.
Speaker 1: And he said he will specifically go after people that
Speaker 1: were against Trump specifically, Well, not really, Senator Sheldon White House, Democrat,
Speaker 1: this is a quote. There is an unfathomable difference between
Speaker 1: a seeming facade being constructed around this nomination today and
Speaker 1: what he's actually done and said in real lif life.
Speaker 1: Conduct shows character. Although Patel did break with the President
Speaker 1: on pardoning those individuals who harmed the police officers, one
Speaker 1: hundred and forty seven cops were wounded, some grievously. Now
Speaker 1: you have Tulca Gabbert, former Democrat now Republican.
Speaker 2: How is she going to oversee US intelligence? Right?
Speaker 1: Republicans kept nailing her on her praise of Edward Snowden,
Speaker 1: who leaked this trove of classified and top secret information
Speaker 1: and he fled to Russia before getting arrested. She described
Speaker 1: him as a brave whistleblower. These were secrets, and she
Speaker 1: didn't disown any of this. She wouldn't call him a trader.
Speaker 1: She only said he broke the law and the import
Speaker 1: and the information that he revealed was important, I mean
Speaker 1: really crazy stuff. And this is the one I really
Speaker 1: love even as he broke the law, he released information
Speaker 1: that exposed egregious, illegal, unconstitutional programs that are happening within
Speaker 1: our government that led to serious reforms. This whistleblower, who
Speaker 1: is a good guy, who is now in Russia evading arrest.
Speaker 1: It was a good thing what he did because it
Speaker 1: led to reforms, and she wouldn't call him a trader.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you, you got Republicans that are really pissed
Speaker 1: off at this one. And probably her nomination is I
Speaker 1: think in the most danger because you know, Republicans don't
Speaker 1: like classified secrets being released by anybody. They are not whistleblowers.
Speaker 1: By the way, she wouldn't come.
Speaker 2: Back on that. Okay, we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: So this is KFI AM six point forty. You've been
Speaker 1: listening to the Bill Handle Show. Catch My Show Monday
Speaker 1: through Friday six am to nine am, and anytime on
Speaker 1: demand on the iHeartRadio app.