Speaker 1: He's night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's radio.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Dan Watkins. We are going into
Speaker 2: at nine o'clock hour, and I'd like to introduce you
Speaker 2: to the newest member of the Board of Directors at
Speaker 2: the Kennedy Institute for the US Senate, David Urban. David
Speaker 2: Urban is someone who you may have seen on CNN.
Speaker 2: He is a commentator on CNN and I think he's
Speaker 2: just gotten off a plane somewhere, I believe in Washington. David,
Speaker 2: how are you tonight?
Speaker 3: I'm good, Dan, How are you? I mean Philadelphia today.
Speaker 2: Philadelphia, Washington, they all look the same.
Speaker 3: I hope you Hilly, New York, Boston, and he kind
Speaker 3: of you know, I know, I know the sports teams
Speaker 3: are different, but it all blends together after a while.
Speaker 2: It certainly does. You can always just ride the Essella sometimes,
Speaker 2: and that's just as quick as the airplanes, that's for sure.
Speaker 2: So first of all, I wanted to do to the audience.
Speaker 2: I know that you're on CNN and you've been very
Speaker 2: much involved in politics, and I want to talk about
Speaker 2: the Kennedy Institute and really a good or a good
Speaker 2: wonderful organization, which is a very bipartisan board of directors,
Speaker 2: which which is interesting and and I think commendable. Just
Speaker 2: a little bit of background yourself. You're a West Point graduate,
Speaker 2: and you have your law degree from Temple, and you
Speaker 2: have a master's degree from University of Pennsylvania. You served
Speaker 2: in the Gulf War, Bronze Star recipient in the in
Speaker 2: the Gulf War, and spent obviously the requisite five years
Speaker 2: of active duty military service after after your graduation. Uh So,
Speaker 2: congratulations on those accomplishments. Let's talk about the Edward and
Speaker 2: Kennedy Kennedy Institute for the US Senate. I actually had
Speaker 2: the pleasure in honor of moderating a conversation with Natan
Speaker 2: Sharansky there several years ago. That room is beautiful. I
Speaker 2: assume you have already physically been to the.
Speaker 3: It's a great space, it's a great building. It's a
Speaker 3: great space, a great organization, and I'm really proud to
Speaker 3: be proud to be associated with and on the board now.
Speaker 2: It's interesting because the board, I think it has seventeen
Speaker 2: members at this point, including the UMass Boston president, but
Speaker 2: also more importantly, several former senators and political leaders, both
Speaker 2: Republicans and Democrats, it's a very balanced represent representation. I
Speaker 2: looked at the board today and I was very pleased
Speaker 2: to see people who I know well, certainly former Congressman
Speaker 2: Joe Kennedy, but also some of the representatives former US
Speaker 2: Senators on both sides of the aisle. There's a real
Speaker 2: effort there, it seems to me keep that Board of
Speaker 2: directors balanced.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so a lot of credit goes to Bruce and
Speaker 3: the board. So what what you didn't get my my
Speaker 3: lengthy bio was that a long time ago, I used
Speaker 3: to work for a guy the name of Arlen Spector
Speaker 3: Philadelphia who at Pennsylvanian, who was was kind of a curmudgeon, contrarian,
Speaker 3: but but noted for his his his bipartisanship. And I
Speaker 3: got to do a lot of work when my time
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety seven to two thousand and two with Senator
Speaker 3: Kennedy in his office. And so when I had the
Speaker 3: opportunity to join the board, I jumped at it because
Speaker 3: I think that that bipartisan nature, the bipartisanship that used
Speaker 3: to exist in this Senate. Oops, sorry about that that
Speaker 3: used to exist in the Senate is uh? I hope
Speaker 3: you know, I hope Walking on no, no, no, But
Speaker 3: that Byparson used to exist in the Senate is you know,
Speaker 3: always always at risk of vanishing and disappearing, right, And
Speaker 3: so I think there needs to be a real focus
Speaker 3: on on making sure that that that that is not forgotten.
Speaker 3: And Bruce and the and the team at the at
Speaker 3: the Institute have done a nice job of putting some
Speaker 3: programming together in the past, and it's something aboard which
Speaker 3: I think really is focused on that. You know, Senator
Speaker 3: Kennedy and my former boss, Senator Spector and Senator Hatch
Speaker 3: and others back in the day used to work hand
Speaker 3: and glove to get a lot of good things done.
Speaker 3: And and as you know, in the Senate with a
Speaker 3: fillbus or the sixty vote rule, the only way to
Speaker 3: get anything done is to do it in a bipartisan manner.
Speaker 3: You have to have support from Republicans, you have to
Speaker 3: support from Democrats, and you have to come together. And
Speaker 3: and today that may not be super popular, whether it's
Speaker 3: Donald Trump or Joe Bidener, whomever's in the White House.
Speaker 3: Consensus and and and and passing you know, legislation. Uh
Speaker 3: is how this you know how the you remember the
Speaker 3: old school house rock. I'm just a bill on Capitol Hill. Well,
Speaker 3: you know, the world isn't done by eos. Normally, it's
Speaker 3: done by legislation, and the only way that gets done
Speaker 3: is by Democrats and Republicans working together. And I think
Speaker 3: the Institute goes a long way and trying to advance
Speaker 3: that and keep that front and center in people's minds.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I worked here as a TV reporter for thirty one
Speaker 2: years for the CBS affiliate here in Boston, WBC TV,
Speaker 2: and spent a lot of time with Senator Kennedy and
Speaker 2: he was a very reasonable guy who you knew where
Speaker 2: he stood on issues, but we we spent some time
Speaker 2: together socially, and unlike Senator Warren, who is such an
Speaker 2: ideal loogue here in Massachusetts. You know I'm serious when
Speaker 2: I say that.
Speaker 3: No, No, I understand, No, it's just yeah, you can't,
Speaker 3: you can't. You can't legislate from the ends, right, you
Speaker 3: got to come in the middle.
Speaker 2: She's way out there, and she's never been on my
Speaker 2: program and as an musicue, well yeah, he loss not mine,
Speaker 2: but on your board. You know, Joe Kennedy is someone
Speaker 2: who I get along with really well. I've had Patrick
Speaker 2: Kennedy on this show talking about his recovery. Marty me
Speaker 2: and the president of U MASS has been a friend
Speaker 2: for a long time. Marsello Sarezo Rosco at U MASS
Speaker 2: Boston as a as a great friend. I was at
Speaker 2: a dinner with Chris Sanuda on Saturday night. Obviously his brother,
Speaker 2: former Senator John Sanunu is on and then UH many
Speaker 2: many of the others I've interviewed along the way. UH
Speaker 2: and I had the chair of your board on here recently.
Speaker 2: It's it's a very different feel from the from the
Speaker 2: Kennedy Library. They do the Profile Encourage Award every year,
Speaker 2: and whenever they give it to a Republican it's because
Speaker 2: the Republican is strayed from Republican orthodoxy, you know, you
Speaker 2: know Dick Cheney, who would be would be live, would
Speaker 2: from from the Kennedy Library. It's it's a very different feel, and.
Speaker 3: I hope that I think, you know, I think I
Speaker 3: think the missions, I think the missions are a little
Speaker 3: different as well, though. Yeah, right between the Institute and
Speaker 3: in the library.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, when you talk about President
Speaker 2: Kennedy's all too short time in the White House, I
Speaker 2: was very close, very very close for many many years
Speaker 2: with a guy named Dave Powers, who was his right
Speaker 2: hand guy. If you've you know, read the history of
Speaker 2: the Kennedy campaigns, Dave Powers and Billy Sutton were there
Speaker 2: when he ran for Congress, and Dave Powers was with
Speaker 2: him every day until November twenty second, nineteen sixty three.
Speaker 2: So it's it's it's just it's very it's very interesting.
Speaker 2: My guest is David Irbin. I want to talk to
Speaker 2: you about being a commentator on CNN, and sure, you're
Speaker 2: in a minority position of CNN. I don't know how
Speaker 2: many my listeners will recognize you from CNN, but UH,
Speaker 2: to be really honest with you, but but we'll we'll
Speaker 2: talk about that. I also want to talk about what's
Speaker 2: going on with the Trump administration because uh, and and
Speaker 2: I've been critical of the Trump administration. I just think
Speaker 2: that they're maybe biting off a little bit more than
Speaker 2: they can chew. I suspect you're going to disagree with
Speaker 2: me on some of this, but I think the royal
Speaker 2: of the stock market, there may be some areas where
Speaker 2: we agree on not that. Okay, I'm not a Republican,
Speaker 2: David Urban, Yeah, I'm a conservative. I'm a conservative and Uh, okay,
Speaker 2: good good place for me. Yeah, well that's it, you know.
Speaker 2: And I and I have a lot of friends on
Speaker 2: both sides of the aisle, and uh, as I say,
Speaker 2: we should have a good conversation, and I'm going to
Speaker 2: get some of my listeners involved here as well. My
Speaker 2: guest is David Irban. He is the newest director at
Speaker 2: the Ted Senator Edward Kennedy uh Institute for the US Senate,
Speaker 2: a fabulous institutution out on Columbia Point, right next to
Speaker 2: the JFK. Kennedy Library Kennedy Presidential Library. I would recommend
Speaker 2: that you make a day of it and visit both
Speaker 2: both locations because they are both wonderful, you know, wonderful
Speaker 2: institutions in our community, memorializing the political history of the
Speaker 2: twentieth century and with Senator Kennedy's case, into the twenty
Speaker 2: first century. We're back with David Urban. If you'd like
Speaker 2: to call and ask him anything about what it's like
Speaker 2: behind the scenes at CNN, You're more than welcome to
Speaker 2: do that. We'll talk a little politics and talk some
Speaker 2: issues as well. Back on Night Side with David Urban.
Speaker 2: Coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: Now, back to Dan Ray Live from the window World
Speaker 1: to night Side Studios. On WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: We're talking with David Urban. He's the newest most recently
Speaker 2: elected nominated member of the Edward M. Kennedy isitude for
Speaker 2: the United States Senate. But you have had besides the
Speaker 2: military career, you have been an early supporter of Donald Trump,
Speaker 2: going back I guess to twenty fifteen, twenty and sixteen. Uh.
Speaker 2: And you also are a regular contributor on CNN. What's
Speaker 2: that likes the panel? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Okay, well usually usually, as you point out, usually the
Speaker 3: conservative on the panel. Look, I'm grateful that the seeing
Speaker 3: the folks at CNN give me the time to get
Speaker 3: on there and trying to make you know, trying to
Speaker 3: make my base. I think it's a you know what,
Speaker 3: what I think Americans want to see is kind of
Speaker 3: a marketplace of ideas. They'd like to hear both sides.
Speaker 3: They don't want to see Jerry Springer with you know,
Speaker 3: people arguing and yelling at each other. I think constructive
Speaker 3: informative debate is helpful public in public discourse, in the
Speaker 3: public square. That much more on on many shows, you
Speaker 3: can tune in and get your your bias affirmed on
Speaker 3: whatever network you'd like. But I think CNN of the
Speaker 3: at least makes an effort right and trying to kind
Speaker 3: of be kind of down the middle on on on
Speaker 3: on these things. It gives myself and others, other conservative
Speaker 3: and Republicans and opportunity to go on there and make
Speaker 3: the case. Judging by the by Twitter feed, I must.
Speaker 3: I don't think I do a very good job most
Speaker 3: of the time because a lot of the people don't
Speaker 3: seem convinced. But I try to be respectful and and
Speaker 3: present the other side. I'm hopeful at some point some
Speaker 3: people the message gets through, because I think it's important.
Speaker 3: It's important to here here from disparate views and and
Speaker 3: uh and kick it around. You know you you're you
Speaker 3: pointed out earlier about President Kennedy. You know, President John F.
Speaker 3: Kennedy couldn't get elected in today's Republic, I mean today's
Speaker 3: Democratic Party, right it is. It's a different place. I mean,
Speaker 3: if you look at talk about Joe Kennedy. I have
Speaker 3: great deal of respect for Joe Kennedy, and and he
Speaker 3: lost in Massachusetts because he wasn't liberal enough, you know,
Speaker 3: and and and you know there is if you look
Speaker 3: and you know, I am friends with Kim Ryan Democrat,
Speaker 3: Tim Ryan, who great congressman from you know, from Ohio
Speaker 3: with Kurston, Cinema of Joe Mansion, with a lot of
Speaker 3: common sense Democrats, and and you know, they're kind of
Speaker 3: leaving the party. They left the Senate, they're leaving the party.
Speaker 3: They lose in primaries, and I'm fearful that that middle
Speaker 3: and both parties. You know, there's there's not many quote
Speaker 3: unquote moderate Northeast Republicans anymore like there used to be.
Speaker 3: John Hines and Ile Inspector and others, John Chafey, you know,
Speaker 3: just to name a few, dwindled away as well. And
Speaker 3: the party's kind of gone to there there there there,
Speaker 3: they're neutral corners to you know, fight for another round.
Speaker 3: But I think America served best by by that middle right.
Speaker 3: And unfortunately, what we have every ten years a census,
Speaker 3: and then you have a redistricting process by which congressional
Speaker 3: seats are drawn safer and safer in America. So have
Speaker 3: the four hundred and thirty five members of Congress, you
Speaker 3: have roughly, you know, thirty thirty five seats that are
Speaker 3: competitive maybe out of four hundred and those in the Congress,
Speaker 3: then you are more afraid of losing in a primary
Speaker 3: than you are in a general election. So that doesn't
Speaker 3: really help, you know, bipartisanship if you are if you're
Speaker 3: more afraid of losing in a primary than you are
Speaker 3: and signing onto legislation with a you know, with somebody
Speaker 3: in a different party, that may be a good piece
Speaker 3: of legislation, because you fear getting primaried. That's not good
Speaker 3: for America. So we have to figure that out. We
Speaker 3: have to figure out what we do and how we
Speaker 3: address that. Because those congressmen then grow up to the senators, right,
Speaker 3: those those partisan congressmen grow up the centers, and they're
Speaker 3: tempered somewhat by the nature of their state. So you know,
Speaker 3: you get in these big states and may have you know,
Speaker 3: a little bit more of a blue tint to that,
Speaker 3: and the senators become purple because because they have to survive,
Speaker 3: I represent their their constituency.
Speaker 2: So well, we started here in Massachusetts, not only in
Speaker 2: the Kennedy market fight. You know, Joe Kennedy, in my opinion,
Speaker 2: is a liberal Democrat, and it was basically the progressives
Speaker 2: on the far end of that party who turned against him,
Speaker 2: uh and re elected you know, Senator Marquee, who's also
Speaker 2: a friend of mine. But in the Democratic side, what
Speaker 2: happened to Congressman Mike Capauana up here shortly after what
Speaker 2: happened to Murphy in New York. He just was blindsided
Speaker 2: in the primary. This twenty years of his experience in Congress.
Speaker 2: Uh And certainly there were times when Mike Capajuana was
Speaker 2: my friend, fire breathing liberal. I mean, you didn't want
Speaker 2: to get into an argument Mike Capawana because sharp as
Speaker 2: attack and and and very committed to his views. What
Speaker 2: I do on my show, David is I tried to
Speaker 2: have both sides. I'm competing every night from eight to midnight,
Speaker 2: not only again at CNN, but I'm competing against Fox.
Speaker 2: And there are a lot of people who like call it.
Speaker 2: They like to sit in their silos, whether it's a
Speaker 2: Fox silence.
Speaker 3: Well and also and also people are getting their news
Speaker 3: in different places. Right, people are getting the news on TikTok,
Speaker 3: on Twitter, on their on substack. Right, people are consuming
Speaker 3: news differently these days. Radio talk radio is still very popular,
Speaker 3: fortunately for you. But the way that news is assimilated
Speaker 3: and you know, when people when the President Trump did
Speaker 3: his you know, address to Congress the other night. Nobody
Speaker 3: probably watched it for the entire you know, hour and
Speaker 3: thirty minutes, but people consumed it and snippets here and
Speaker 3: there and so other than you and myself and maybe
Speaker 3: some of your listeners, right, maybe listen to the whole thing.
Speaker 3: But most people today just get little sound bites and
Speaker 3: they make their decisions based upon snippets of what they
Speaker 3: see and hear, but not they don't consume, you know,
Speaker 3: five thousand word Nobody writes five thousand word articles anymore.
Speaker 3: Nobod writes big articles anymore. Anywhere. You don't see that
Speaker 3: newspapers are dying. And it's it's really interesting how I
Speaker 3: don't want to say democratized, but how democratized news has become.
Speaker 3: And the interesting part is the velocity at which it travels. Right,
Speaker 3: And so when you know, you said you're a reporter
Speaker 3: for a very long time. You know, you used to
Speaker 3: be able to work on a story for a while.
Speaker 3: Now it's the the urge is to get it out quickly.
Speaker 3: You may not be one hundred percent correct, but to
Speaker 3: get it out quickly, to be first rather than invest.
Speaker 3: And it's just it's very interesting. I see this a
Speaker 3: lot and you kind of have to. You have to
Speaker 3: be very careful when you consume and what you consume,
Speaker 3: and if you're not educated about it, you know, you
Speaker 3: see so much misinformation out there. I think that's a
Speaker 3: real challenge for for everybody, everybody is interested in the
Speaker 3: political process.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I asked listeners who will call and they'll say
Speaker 2: something that is that's insane or crazy, and I will say, simply,
Speaker 2: where'd you see that? You know? And I show it
Speaker 2: on Twitter, uh or and it's like, oh, well, that's
Speaker 2: a good source. And I have most trouble with the
Speaker 2: people on the far right and the far left, which
Speaker 2: I'm sure you probably do as well. And what I'm
Speaker 2: trying to do is make people if possible. I want
Speaker 2: my ten to invite as many people as possible. I
Speaker 2: had an email exchange today with a guy up in
Speaker 2: New Hampshire who is very far right wing, and he
Speaker 2: was upset that I was a matter of fact, I
Speaker 2: can't find it real quickly. I should have had it
Speaker 2: in my hand available. But he was upset that I
Speaker 2: had told him not to say certain things. He would
Speaker 2: call up and say crazy things and I'd say, that's
Speaker 2: not true. Well, that's my opinion and say, well, you
Speaker 2: could have your opinion, you can't have your facts and
Speaker 2: you don't have right to facts. And anyway, let's do this.
Speaker 2: We got to take a break for ninth third here,
Speaker 2: I want to open this conversation up to our audience
Speaker 2: and give them a chance to talk with you. I
Speaker 2: maybe will take one more or just a few minutes
Speaker 2: and talk about what's going on in Washington, d C.
Speaker 2: Obviously we've watched the stock market the last few days
Speaker 2: really take a dive. I was appalled at what went
Speaker 2: on in the Oval office the other day with Zelinsky
Speaker 2: and I just so you could pull your thoughts together.
Speaker 2: I attribute that to some really bad staff work on
Speaker 2: behalf of the Trump staff. Those documents should have been signed, sealed,
Speaker 2: and delivered before Zolensky set foot in the White House,
Speaker 2: and I don't think that helped the president. So I
Speaker 2: just would love I know that you're a big supporter,
Speaker 2: and I want to get your point of view, and
Speaker 2: I want my to incorporate the audience as well. My
Speaker 2: guest David Rban he's the managing director of a group
Speaker 2: called BGR, the BGR Group. I didn't look that up.
Speaker 2: Is that a financial organization political organization.
Speaker 3: Because no, no, it's a it's a bipartisan by cameral lobbying
Speaker 3: government affairs shop in Washington and the third or fourth
Speaker 3: largest in Washington, depending on on on how you measure things.
Speaker 3: And wait when the snapshots taken. So founded by a
Speaker 3: couple of gentlemen. The initials used to be Haley Barber
Speaker 3: from who was the governor of Mississippi and the former
Speaker 3: chairman of rn C and h the founder of the
Speaker 3: Republican Governors Association, who's one heck of a guy. Ed
Speaker 3: Rodgers another just outstanding individual working in the Reagan White House,
Speaker 3: and uh and Landy Griffin and they were all friends
Speaker 3: and started this firm. Uh, you know, many years ago,
Speaker 3: so still going strong.
Speaker 2: And I know I know your roots are in Western Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2: And when he's talk about the Reagan White House, I
Speaker 2: interviewed President Reagan many many times. Uh, and uh was
Speaker 2: a huge Ronald Reagan fan. Okay, Uh, did you happen
Speaker 2: to know Frank Donatelli, who was another Western Pennsylvania guy.
Speaker 3: I sure do, I do know, Frank. I am. It's
Speaker 3: by Pittsburgh's like Boston, right everybody there?
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, well, Frank Frank and I. We're we're going
Speaker 2: friends for over fifty years, so that's that'll tell you
Speaker 2: a little bit about where I come from. We've been
Speaker 2: friends since we both were in law school. Actually different
Speaker 2: law schools, but both when we were in law school. But
Speaker 2: take it break my guess. David Urban, Managing director of
Speaker 2: BGR Group in Washington, also the newest member of the
Speaker 2: Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, the
Speaker 2: newest member of the board of directors, very active in
Speaker 2: the Trump campaign, and also a CNN commentator. So he
Speaker 2: is an individual who has lots of contacts throughout the
Speaker 2: political system. If you want to ask a question, throw
Speaker 2: the numbers out six one, seven, four ten thirty six
Speaker 2: one seven, nine, three thirty. My name is Dan Ray.
Speaker 2: This is Nightside, be Back talking politics with David Urban.
Speaker 1: Here on Nightside night Side with Dan Ray on w BZ,
Speaker 1: Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: This is David Urban, a CNN contributor, but for our
Speaker 2: purposes tonight, the newest board of directors of the Edward M.
Speaker 2: Kennedy Institute for the US Senate. I know that you
Speaker 2: have been with President Trump to thick and thin. We're
Speaker 2: about sixty days into his second term. Boys, they're doing
Speaker 2: a lot, are they. My opinion is they should slow
Speaker 2: it down. That they're biting off more than they could chew.
Speaker 2: So tell me why I'm wrong.
Speaker 3: Yeah, listen, I think that they I think this administration
Speaker 3: feels that they have a limited amount of time. They
Speaker 3: have eighteen months for all intents and purposes, right to
Speaker 3: get their agenda through. And every day that they're not
Speaker 3: moving forward with something of the day that's lost and
Speaker 3: you know they're not going to ever get back. You know,
Speaker 3: this isn't you know Trump two point zero. It's not
Speaker 3: just a redo of the first administration. It is a
Speaker 3: completely divident different administration. I think that the you know,
Speaker 3: they have the House and Senate actually kind of working together.
Speaker 3: You saw, you know, we have this continuing resolution to
Speaker 3: fund the government runs out of money, right, they kicked
Speaker 3: the can down the road. I think Republic has made
Speaker 3: a mistake. I think Republic has made a mistake in
Speaker 3: the last administration by not making not passing spending bills
Speaker 3: during the Biden administration. If I were the Speaker, I
Speaker 3: would have I would have gotten these bills down and
Speaker 3: got them off the desk, cleared the cleared the plate
Speaker 3: for all these other all the other important thing issues
Speaker 3: they're dealing with, like debt ceiling and tax increases and
Speaker 3: the tax bill which is going to be coming up,
Speaker 3: and and a school of other things. And so unfortunately
Speaker 3: now they have to pass this continuing resolution to fund
Speaker 3: the government for through it. You know, it expires and
Speaker 3: on the fourteenth, but they're going to they will pass
Speaker 3: this in the House and Senate, and they'll get it
Speaker 3: and move on. They have to re revisit at some
Speaker 3: point in the future. So I think that you know,
Speaker 3: the agenda that the president's undertaking is aggressive, but you
Speaker 3: know what's getting motion notices is really Elon Musk's doze
Speaker 3: in them to reduce the size of government. Right, So,
Speaker 3: as you and your listeners may know, a lot of
Speaker 3: the people who have to implement these things, assistant secretaries,
Speaker 3: deputy assistant secretaries, under secretaries, they haven't not only have
Speaker 3: they not been named yet, but they're not even well
Speaker 3: they're not sworn in. They haven't been sworn in, or
Speaker 3: they haven't had their hearings that they A lot of
Speaker 3: them haven't just been named. So a lot of these
Speaker 3: agencies are pretty hollow still so a lot of this
Speaker 3: thing is a lot of these things you're seeing are
Speaker 3: kind of headline grabbing, but they're going to take some
Speaker 3: time to get accomplished. So all the things that you're
Speaker 3: saying on you know, the funding cuts and reductions in personnel,
Speaker 3: they're going to be challenging courts. They may have to
Speaker 3: have some legislative action to back them up. Some other
Speaker 3: people are gonna have to get in place to actually
Speaker 3: effectuate these because currently of acting you know, assistant secretaries
Speaker 3: and deputies and secretary who may may not be up
Speaker 3: for getting these things done. So I think moving with
Speaker 3: alacrity is uh is a good thing. I don't think,
Speaker 3: you know, on some things, I think it misfire clearly,
Speaker 3: and there's been some reports that that those folks have
Speaker 3: this reported things they have to go back and clean
Speaker 3: it up. But I think the American people, I think
Speaker 3: the American people are excited about change. They want Listen,
Speaker 3: the government's too big. Whether you're Democrat or Republican, the
Speaker 3: government's just too big. It's too it's too unwieldy. It
Speaker 3: doesn't it's not responsive to people in you know, in Framingham.
Speaker 3: They're not you know, they you may think that the
Speaker 3: federal government's helpful, but it really is kind of MUCKs
Speaker 3: up the work for a lot. You know. Being a
Speaker 3: Republican and in the true sense of the word right,
Speaker 3: you believe in limited government right in states, right, so
Speaker 3: that the local governments, whether it's in Braintree or Wellesley
Speaker 3: or Weston or Framingham or wherever where the Lesseners live,
Speaker 3: they should have first bite at the apple and sixing problems.
Speaker 3: Then the state should be the next the next kind
Speaker 3: of level and find the federal government should be there
Speaker 3: for you know, safe skies and defense and clean air,
Speaker 3: clean water kind of things, and shouldn't be meddling in
Speaker 3: all these kind of really local issues. And what the
Speaker 3: Trump administration doing is trying to write that right size
Speaker 3: of government that's been bloated for for generations, right and
Speaker 3: trying to do it pretty quickly. So we'll see if
Speaker 3: they're successful. I think the American people, if you look
Speaker 3: at the just kind of snapshot polls, I think they're
Speaker 3: pretty pretty pleased with that. But you know, you every
Speaker 3: day things change, right that the stock market's kind of
Speaker 3: taking a turn here because of tariffs, right, which are
Speaker 3: not something that the President campaigned on. Super aggressively. He
Speaker 3: mentioned that he's gonna he's gonna have tariffs and kind
Speaker 3: of level the playing field with our economic competitors. But
Speaker 3: now you know, the market has not viewed that favorably.
Speaker 3: And we'll see if that's something that's can adjust. I
Speaker 3: think the President thinks that he can have some There
Speaker 3: might be some short term pain for longer term gain
Speaker 3: in terms of reshoring American manufacturing and right sizing some
Speaker 3: of those things. That we'll see how the market reacts,
Speaker 3: and if it continues to react negatively, maybe the President
Speaker 3: and the administration to rethink some of those things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so let's talk. I was on the Dog's website
Speaker 2: today and one of the things that I'm looking for,
Speaker 2: perhaps because of just my personality, I'm looking for real specificity. So,
Speaker 2: for example, I noticed two things today which I don't
Speaker 2: think my audience is aware of, but I just want
Speaker 2: to mention them real quickly to make my point. Secretary
Speaker 2: of Brook Brook Rawlins, she's the Secretary of Agriculture. She
Speaker 2: canceled a six hundred thousand dollar grand to study menstrual
Speaker 2: cycles in transgender men. Yeah, I mean, I mean, okay,
Speaker 2: so that we can leave We could just leave that there,
Speaker 2: and let's let that. Let that simmer, and then the
Speaker 2: VA canceled a fifty six thousand dollars contract to water
Speaker 2: eight plants for five years.
Speaker 3: This is I did see that. That was I did.
Speaker 3: So those are the kind of thing great American people,
Speaker 3: you know, who are struggling to pay their bills, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but by the way, struggling to fill their
Speaker 2: gas tanks. Yeah, hold on just one second. I want
Speaker 2: to do the math for people.
Speaker 5: That's fourteen hundred dollars per plant per year, and Doe
Speaker 5: says they will now water those plants free of charge.
Speaker 2: I made the vall water those plants free of charge.
Speaker 2: I'm a little concerned about the the comments, and I'd
Speaker 2: like to get your reaction to this and help me
Speaker 2: out what the president when he's talked about, you know,
Speaker 2: one hundred and I don't know, you know, fifty thirty
Speaker 2: seven thousand people over the age of one hundred and
Speaker 2: twenty whatever the number is that he talked about, who
Speaker 2: are security rules. I understand that is indicative of them
Speaker 2: an efficiency, but but I think that it's better to
Speaker 2: deal on these specific concrete examples of absurdity because my
Speaker 2: suspicion is that's probably a coding error. To be really
Speaker 2: honest with you that, Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, I think I think I think you're correct. I
Speaker 3: think that's exactly what they found out right, Some of
Speaker 3: these some of the three hundred year old people were
Speaker 3: simply fat fingered and they weren't actually receiving benefits. There
Speaker 3: were just people who were who didn't exist, and who's
Speaker 3: whose you know, things were put in there. But listen,
Speaker 3: you know you do here And I'm so that is
Speaker 3: your point is well taken on me. We need to
Speaker 3: make sure these things we we we attach real specific
Speaker 3: issues and examples. Because one of the things that I
Speaker 3: heard it on Musk say at a press conference was that,
Speaker 3: you know, the Department of Treasury issues you know checks
Speaker 3: without like a subject line. Right, there's no like the
Speaker 3: checks just squad the door. No one really knows why
Speaker 3: they're going, right, And so so so that part is
Speaker 3: I think they really need to kind of understand there
Speaker 3: should be you know, when it check goes out the
Speaker 3: door from the US government, people should really be able
Speaker 3: to track it and know what's going on. Right. The
Speaker 3: fact that the Department of Defense can't pass it on
Speaker 3: and I don't know if you've your viewers or you
Speaker 3: have seen this in the last administration to sit down
Speaker 3: John Stewart did with then the Deputy Secretary of Defense,
Speaker 3: the number two persons at DoD where she kind of
Speaker 3: laughed at John Stewart because he was saying, you know, look,
Speaker 3: you guys are spending nine hundred billion dollars a year.
Speaker 3: You can't you don't know where your tanks are. And
Speaker 3: she's like, oh, she kind of laughed it off. And
Speaker 3: and but that's serious. It's serious business. When when the
Speaker 3: government's spending that much money, they should be able to
Speaker 3: account for it. These are people listen when you know
Speaker 3: Robert Kennedy Junior. I listened to him a couple of
Speaker 3: lots during the debates, and he had pointed about interesting
Speaker 3: statistic that some there was some the number he'd reference
Speaker 3: to something like fifty six percent of Americans can't put
Speaker 3: their hands on a thousand dollars tomorrow. If they woke
Speaker 3: up and needed a thousand bucks, they don't have it.
Speaker 3: And they're checking their savings account. They don't have a
Speaker 3: thousand dollars liquid to go take care of their lives.
Speaker 3: That statistic should be really, you know, troubling for for Americans,
Speaker 3: because when you when the government is taking so much
Speaker 3: of your money and your check engine comes on, it's
Speaker 3: a crisis for your family. Maybe the government is getting
Speaker 3: too much, right, Maybe we should let people keep more
Speaker 3: of their paycheck. Maybe we should figure out how to
Speaker 3: right size the government so they're not so big. And
Speaker 3: I think that's what the Trump administration is trying to do.
Speaker 3: And whether they're doing it, you know, a little too aggressively,
Speaker 3: it'll all listen, the courts and the Congress, it'll come
Speaker 3: out in the wash. I suspect that, as you said,
Speaker 3: a lot of these specific things, while they're small, right,
Speaker 3: they add up. And I suspect that, you know, there
Speaker 3: will be some reduction, but a lot of things will
Speaker 3: be restored because the courts won't let them go through
Speaker 3: or the Congress won't let them go through the cuts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I hear that. But I do think that
Speaker 2: the specificity of is what people can identify.
Speaker 3: With, and it makes it makes the point much more,
Speaker 3: much more realistic, and it drives it home when you're
Speaker 3: talking about you know, museums or in mole rats and
Speaker 3: people spending money on silly things. Your your listeners and
Speaker 3: viewers at home, and people think like, wow, what could
Speaker 3: we do, what can we do in our community if
Speaker 3: we had that money here and for and.
Speaker 2: For example one of them and then I got to
Speaker 2: go to break here quickly. But one of them, I
Speaker 2: think it was two billion dollars for the former Democratic
Speaker 2: candidate for governor down in UH, down in Georgia Abrams, right, yes,
Speaker 2: Stacy Abrams. Now I really want to see that. I
Speaker 2: want to know what that What are we talking about there?
Speaker 3: The figure was monumental E that's money out of E
Speaker 3: p A with the E p A shoved that out
Speaker 3: the door. You you saw the one the Biden administration
Speaker 3: officials said, it was like they're throwing gold bars off
Speaker 3: the Titanic. Right. That doesn't that doesn't that doesn't make
Speaker 3: that shouldn't make any American right feel comfortable with their government,
Speaker 3: right and how they're how they're being good stewards of
Speaker 3: your money.
Speaker 2: Just so you know, I watched the indictments out of
Speaker 2: our federal UH Federal Justice Department office here in Boston,
Speaker 2: the US Attorney's office, and there are a lot of
Speaker 2: people who get indicted for some abuse UH and and
Speaker 2: some of it is UH. They're all legitimate indictments. But
Speaker 2: I'll tell you if you're talking about someone getting two
Speaker 2: billion dollars that needs to be investigated. What was that
Speaker 2: money for, where did it go, what was served? Uh?
Speaker 2: And how much of it actually got you know, on
Speaker 2: for the mission that it was.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you're sounding crazy. You're sounding crazy right now, man,
Speaker 3: I don't know. I'm very trumpy in there.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, I'm I'm I think at this
Speaker 2: point it's time to figure out who got what and
Speaker 2: uh and if if there's fraud, if there's if it
Speaker 2: if it reaches criminality. That's why we have a justice. Robert.
Speaker 2: Let's take a break. You and I will come back
Speaker 2: and we'll wrap this up. If someone like to jump
Speaker 2: on board and say hi to David Urban. If you've
Speaker 2: seen him on CNN, you certainly know at this point
Speaker 2: where he's coming from.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: He is a terrific spokesperson for the cause that many
Speaker 2: of you support. Six two, five, four ten thirty six
Speaker 2: one seven, nine, three ten thirty back right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on w b Z the news radio.
Speaker 2: My guest is David Urban. He is the newest director
Speaker 2: of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the US Senate.
Speaker 2: He's also a CNN contributor and a I'm going to
Speaker 2: say Republican, David Urban, I assume.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Dan absolutely been a Republican, been a Republican for
Speaker 3: for a long long time. Dan.
Speaker 2: So let me let me introduce you to another guy
Speaker 2: named Dave. He's a listener, regular listener in San Antonio, Texas.
Speaker 2: And I'm going to sneak him in here. David san Antonio,
Speaker 2: say ahead to David Irban, Go ahead, Dave.
Speaker 4: How are you doing? I uh, I agree with a
Speaker 4: lot of works, say and uh and and those So
Speaker 4: Donald Trump did say those social.
Speaker 3: Security checks were being cashed, that was elderly peaked.
Speaker 4: Some of them.
Speaker 3: I don't listen. I'm sure some of them probably were.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think there were too many people over
Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty years of age are cash and
Speaker 2: social scurity tech stage.
Speaker 3: Well, listen, if they are cashing, I want to lie
Speaker 3: in that where they live.
Speaker 2: And what they're doing, yes, sir, absolutely. Or if someone
Speaker 2: has continued to accept cash checks that were made out
Speaker 2: to their grandfather or their great grandmother, that's criminality, folks.
Speaker 2: I was I did not realize this. But my understanding
Speaker 2: and I could be wrong here, Dave, either one of
Speaker 2: you can respond to this. My understanding is that funeral
Speaker 2: home directors are obligated. Someone told me to notify so
Speaker 2: Security of the passing of an individual.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I know that first hit. Unfortunately, my mother
Speaker 3: passed away last year, and one of the things they
Speaker 3: do is they fill out the paperwork and they send
Speaker 3: it in.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I probably did that for my own parents, but
Speaker 2: but I had forgotten it. And of course that is
Speaker 2: the way in which the flow check should stop, so I.
Speaker 4: Should it should But again, they stopped my wife's check
Speaker 4: immediately when she died.
Speaker 2: Okay, so, but she could be still on that list,
Speaker 2: you know, on the Social Security list. They need to
Speaker 2: clean these lists as well. Then there's some housekeeping as well.
Speaker 2: I've noticed another one here from the Department of Government
Speaker 2: Deficiency Weekly credit Card Update. I guess they have. They
Speaker 2: have basically canceled a hundred or deactivated one hundred and
Speaker 2: forty six thousand credit cards government credit cards that are activated.
Speaker 3: I mean, so there's there's yeah there. Listen again, the
Speaker 3: federal workforce. There are lots of good people who work
Speaker 3: for the federal government. Right, there are lots of good people,
Speaker 3: but then there's also there's also people who probably aren't
Speaker 3: up the standard. And unfortunately, the way the civil service
Speaker 3: system is designed, it's that you know, you can't it's
Speaker 3: it's like your tenured. Once you're employed, it is very
Speaker 3: very very very difficult to fire somebody, even for cause.
Speaker 3: And so unfortunately, what's happening in the current Doge movement
Speaker 3: is the only people you can really get rid of
Speaker 3: in the federal employment system are what are deemed probationary employees,
Speaker 3: So people who are been hired recently. When I mean recently,
Speaker 3: it could be two or three years they've been hired,
Speaker 3: and so you could still terminate those people pretty easily,
Speaker 3: and that's what's happening, and unfortunately, some good people are
Speaker 3: being let go because that is the only way to
Speaker 3: call the herd and this huge federal workforce is to
Speaker 3: take these kind of measures which may not be you know,
Speaker 3: it's maybe a little more meat clean than scalpel, but
Speaker 3: the way the current system is designed, you'd have to
Speaker 3: pass the legislation to reform the civil service system, which,
Speaker 3: as you know, is that is not going to happen.
Speaker 3: With sixty votes. You need sixty votes, right to get
Speaker 3: it done. You're not going to get it through going
Speaker 3: back to the Edward Kennedy Institute of Buy Partnership nature there. Right,
Speaker 3: You've got to get people who are all rolled in
Speaker 3: the same boat to agree that there are problems that
Speaker 3: any time you go to try to change a system
Speaker 3: like that, that's that's that big. You're gonna have lots
Speaker 3: of pushback from afts, me and others who are you know,
Speaker 3: who have have you know, a vested interest in it,
Speaker 3: and so unfortunately Trump administration has left to do this
Speaker 3: with a meat clean rather than the scalpel.
Speaker 2: So all right, David san Antonio, thanks to check it in.
Speaker 2: David against the Dave, I'm up against the ten o'clock news,
Speaker 2: So I got to let you go. But I appreciate
Speaker 2: your call very much. You can explain that to him, okay,
Speaker 2: and Dave Urban, David Urban, thank you very much. I
Speaker 2: thoroughly enjoyed the hour. The hour flu Yeah, I suspect
Speaker 2: we have a lot of mutual friends in our in
Speaker 2: a comparative rolodex is Okay, if you.
Speaker 3: Still have a role, have me back on we will well,
Speaker 3: we'll talk some more.
Speaker 2: I got your number, and we'll as long as c
Speaker 2: and then we'll let you come back on. I'll have
Speaker 2: you back. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: I really enjoyed the hour, Dave David, thank you.
Speaker 2: All Right, everyone here comes to ten o'clock News. We're
Speaker 2: going to be back, going to talk about energy prices
Speaker 2: in Massachusetts.