A Break Down About Trump's Big Speech: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

[00:00:12] Welcome to The Break Down with Brodkorb and Becky, a weekly podcast that breaks down politics, policy, and current affairs. I'm Becky Scherr And Michael Brodkorb This week we are focusing on all things national. We are pleased to welcome John Rouleau and Julius Hernandez back to the show. As a reminder, John is the Executive Director of the Minnesota Jobs Coalition and has long been active in Republican politics and campaigning. Julius serves as the Director of Advocacy for the Institute of Digital Humanity. He has been heavily involved in DFS and the National Public Policy.

[00:00:40] NFL Politics, working on races from the Minneapolis City Council, State Legislature, and Congress. With John and Julius, we are going to break down the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to President Trump's joint address to Congress. We will discuss what guests the Minnesota delegation brought with them to the historic event. We will break down the tone, theme, and demeanor, hit on the policy, and some standout moments. And of course, we will get into the circus of it all with the auction paddles, members removed, and reactions from folks both in and out of the House chamber. Thanks for joining us and enjoy the show.

[00:01:09] So, we are in Trump's era, right? We are in his second term. Here we are. I'm going to hit on a couple of the nerdy moments of last night's address, starting with, it's not a State of the Union, though a lot of people refer to it as the State of the Union.

[00:01:25] I looked up some of the historical context of this. So, the Constitution does require the presidents to update Congress and recommend policies as their State of the Union, but it doesn't entail the time. So, it just has traditionally been January or February, reflecting on their previous year and outlining their policy priorities for the upcoming year. However, in 1981, President Reagan addressed a joint session of Congress, and that's been the regular thing to do in the first year after presidents are sworn in. Now,

[00:01:55] Nerd. Thank you. President Trump is not known for his brevity, and a lot of speeches that he gives definitely came in on the longer end here. He spoke for an hour and 39 minutes last night. This is a pretty close to 40 minutes longer than any other president in modern history since 1981. We had Biden for 65, Trump's first joint address was 60, Obama 51, Bush 49, and goes on.

[00:02:22] Reagan's was the shortest with 32 minutes, but pretty much 40 to 60 minutes was about average. We got 100 from the president, which wouldn't surprise me if they planned 100 days, 100, 100 minutes here. But it was lengthy. And let me tell you, I did not watch it all live. I had to circle back this morning because my bedtime is far beyond 930 or whenever it actually concluded Central Side last night.

[00:02:46] So, I want to get into the Minnesota delegation, get some of these nice, easy conversations out of the way before we really get into it here. So, starting on the Republican side, Congressman Tom Emmer brought Speaker Lisa Damon. He and Stauber also jointly had three members of the Miracle on Ice hockey team, so that's always a good win.

[00:03:07] Stauber also brought newly sworn in Secretary of State Pete Hegstest's wife Jennifer. Congressman Fishbach brought Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson. And then on the flip side, Klobuchar brought Minnesota Farmers Union President Omar and Tina Smith. Both brought federal workers who have been laid off in the new round of efficiency under Elon Musk Doge, but under a layoff that often happened under a new presidency.

[00:03:35] McCollum brought Ramsey County Commissioner Mary Jo McGuire. Angie Craig brought Education Minnesota President Denise Beck. And Morrison brought her husband. It's her first term, brought her husband. He is also an Army combat veteran. So, this is a nice little thing that members of the delegation across and across the country obviously get some allotment, usually one, sometimes a little bit more for senior members or leadership, and can be used as a political win, as a political ploy.

[00:04:02] Any, John, I want to start with you. When you look at this, any standout as political statements from the get-go? I think anytime that somebody brings a guest with them to one of these, we largely see that it's political in nature. It's working on trying to advance your messaging. I thought Wip Amher's list was much less political than some of the others.

[00:04:25] And he's really focused on doing work for Minnesotans, but it's reflective of the fact that the speech was overwhelmingly popular things that everyday Americans, everyday Minnesotans agree with. And I thought that was interesting. I always enjoy a good Miracle on Ice tie-in and a hockey tie-in being the state of hockey, especially tournament week.

[00:04:47] So, I like that. One that I chuckled a little bit about was Angie Craig with the rumors that she's looking at a U.S. Senate run, bringing the head of the teachers' union out with her. An important ring to kiss and certainly seems to indicate that maybe there's a little bit more to those she's looking at rumors than she's letting out publicly. Julia, see your take. Any that stand out as great wins or any that you'd roll your eyes at?

[00:05:14] Yeah, I rolled my eyes at all the Republican ones and John made a really good point. Of course, why would not? And John made a really good point. Tom Emmer and some of these other Republicans didn't actually want to bring people that are political in nature because they don't want to highlight what's going on in Trump's administration. These first 43 days that aren't actually popular, like firing veterans and federal workers who also voted for Trump and are now losing their jobs.

[00:05:39] I think it was generally like interesting night. That speech was anything but popular, I think, with a majority of people. And listen, I see you guys giving me weird faces. That's all right. We'll get into it. But I thought it was like important for someone to highlight that there's workers in our own state that are getting affected just like normal everyday people that are getting affected by what Trump is doing. And I think that was a good way to point it out, even though I'm not a fan of some of the people that brought them on the flip.

[00:06:07] And one thing I do agree with is Angie Craig's guest was super interesting. I was like, all right, she's in. We might as well just all start saying that. I don't know. That was an interesting one. But overall, I thought it was. And Speaker Dameth was an interesting one, too. I guess highlighting the first black woman speaker in the state of Minnesota, speaker name only, as I like to call her. But that's just me. So I thought it was there wasn't anyone overly controversial. There wasn't anyone overly political in nature outside of maybe Andy Craig's guest.

[00:06:36] So there you go. It was a good list of people. We are five minutes in and I feel the spiciness that this episode is going to be. I am excited. Michael, your thoughts? I agree with John and Julius on the significance of Angie Craig, Congresswoman Craig bringing the head of Education Minnesota there. Julius, I was smirking because I've never seen anyone in the state of hockey attack someone, attack the miracle on ice team in a partisan way.

[00:07:02] But you want to die in that, he'll go right ahead and attack the attack, the miracle on ice team. I didn't attack Tom Emmer. In the week of the state high school hockey tournament, you go right ahead. That's a great deal to die on. It's very clear that the people that are being selected, the congressional offices are aware of the significance, that there's going to be some discussion on that. And clearly everyone is putting thought into who they want there, whether it's political or American patriots like Todd Emmer did

[00:07:31] and Congressman Emmer did in having the miracle on ice, members of the miracle on ice team there. But even that type of situation still lends to someone weaponizing it politically. And it's unfortunate that Julius did that. I think it's actually, Julius had mentioned that he was not surprised that the Republicans didn't go more political. I actually am surprised they didn't go a little bit more political.

[00:07:55] I think there were opportunities if you want to make a big case like Omar and Smith did. I think there are certainly members who work in fossil fuels that were laid off under Biden's policies that now have jobs again. I think there are individuals who life has been impacted by illegal immigrant criminals being allowed in this country. I think there are a lot of different guests that could have been welcomed that align with Trump's policies, align with what Republicans are doing.

[00:08:23] And I do actually applaud. I think that we've seen the delegation lean more into pushing back on Governor Walz. And so the inviting of Senator Johnson and Speaker Damath, I think are great welcome, showing that cohesion that our state and federal Republicans really are working together is a good representation. I applaud them for taking a little bit maybe more of a calm approach to this when there are certainly many opportunities that I think could have sung politically like those Democrats did. How'd that work out for you, Julius?

[00:08:53] She just, that's called a mic drop. We're going to have lots of those from I think all of us today. Oh, yeah. So I want to start because I know it's the elephant in the room and going to be hanging over the entire night. Before we get into the bulk of the speech and the tone and the theme and everything that he spoke about for those hundred minutes of the speech, let's talk about the Democrat side of things. OK, so I'm going to start with a few of the things. I love that Julius is already giggling.

[00:09:23] He's raring up for his defense's scare. First off, I thought it was interesting. Antifa tried to block Trump's motorcade. The Secret Service was prepared for this because they are the Secret Service and they know all. I'm putting nine percent of the time, right? They had a decoy motorcade. Trump took a different route and they were able to get there without being interrupted. Bravo. Love that. We have some Democrats that protested entirely, did not show up. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, handful of other members who just said, nope, not going to be there.

[00:09:51] I would say probably less less members than expected or even in recent State of the Union's under Trump had protested. So the Democrats definitely tried to go in with a cohesive tactic strategy of what they were going to do. And I want to start with let's start with Al Green. Right. So he was kicked out very early. Trump said that there was a mandate made by the American people. He said you have no mandate to cut Medicaid. Although I read that in articles. You didn't.

[00:10:20] I don't know about you guys. I didn't actually hear him say that. Speaker Johnson was very quick and swift in his decision that decorum of the House is going to be upheld. And if members continue to disrupt, they are going to be asked to leave by the Sergeant of Arms, gave a warning, gave a second warning. And then he was kicked out. The resolution has already been introduced this morning. There were a couple of them bouncing around, but already been introduced this morning to censor Al Green. Green says he would do it again.

[00:10:49] Julius, what do you think about Al Green? Hey, I'm really glad to hear that Republicans actually care about decorum because they didn't seem to care when Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert were doing the same thing in the House. So I'm really excited to hear that finally Republicans are owning up to decorum of House rules. And that will not happen on the Republican side ever again when there's a Democrat president. I can't imagine that would actually be the case.

[00:11:10] But listen, I am actually, and you guys know, I love to be radically moderate on a lot of issues and see both sides. I virtually have no reason to believe that Democratic leadership is happy with what's going on. And I honestly thought that no Democrats should have showed up to the speech. I really do. And I really think there should have been more interruptions and more calling out of Donald Trump's. By the way, let's get something clear. This was not a joint address to Congress.

[00:11:40] This was a campaign speech. And this was a red meat speech to give to his base 40-something days in. And I don't think Democrats should have showed up and dignified. That was garbage. That was one of the worst things I've ever seen in my life. Oh, and also, I think it was Democratic leadership. They are totally out of touch, I think, even with normal day-to-day Democrats, by the way. So I think that interruption, I would have loved to see it again. I would have loved to see more people call him out for his lies. And Democrats shouldn't keep playing by a set of rules that aren't there anymore.

[00:12:09] There is no set of rules of House decorum. And that standard has been set by Donald Trump and Republicans. So good on Al Green and sticking up to that and then taking his L and walking out the House chamber. Standing up for what he believes. I would like to circle back to my first comments on this. The Constitution requires the State of the Union. While this wasn't a State of the Union and was a joint address, they do historically represent what has been accomplished thus far by the president

[00:12:38] and his goals and priorities for the upcoming year. While you call that a campaign speech, this is what he was elected to do. I'm not the biggest Trump fan, but he did go up there and talk about, we'll get into some of the specifics, but what he accomplished in the first 100 days and his request to Congress. And that aligns almost to a T with what the Constitution lays out these speeches to be. Yeah, absolutely. Legislative priorities. That was not legislative priorities. That was lying. That was an absolute, like, farce. Such a dirty word.

[00:13:09] It's such an ugly word. No, it was. I mean, come on, please, let's get serious. That was not just laying out your legislative priorities. That was just a total disregard for any sort of truth, disregard for any sort of, I don't know, accountability for what he has done that's been awful. And I just think it was, I think it was, I think it was the worst thing I've ever seen from Trump and Republicans. That was not, that was a joint session of Congress, but that was not the coming of a president. So that's all.

[00:13:38] I'll let you guys go and then I'll come back. I have plenty of time to get into the nitty gritty of what I actually got into substance wise. John, your take on Al Green and the initial disruptions from the Democrats. Julius's take on this just goes to show how sour, out of touch the Democrats are with America. To say that was a red meat speech is just not the case. Donald Trump's superpower is that he can throw these 80, 20, 70, 30 issues where the American people are lockstep with his agenda out there

[00:14:07] and convince the Democrats that sitting and not applauding or standing up for a 13 year old kid with cancer, getting made an honorary secret service agent is something that's worth claiming as a red meat campaign speech. What we saw was a hundred minutes of Donald Trump and doing what Donald Trump does. He had energy. His speech was cohesive, coherent. It ran through his accomplishments and a number of these issues that are incredibly popular. And really, this is Donald Trump's superpower.

[00:14:34] He could go out and say the sky is blue and the Democrats would shout you lie. This is he has found a way to get them to embrace the most radical elements of their party that are deeply out of touch with the American people and think that they're the moderates and they're like heroes and firefighters running in to do this. I thought it was an awful night for the Democrats, if we're being honest. And really, how far we've come from 2009 where Representative Wilson in 2009 interrupted

[00:15:02] President Obama's State of the Union or actually it was his joint address. It was in September of 2009. And he shouted, you lie. That led to him having to send a handwritten apology note to President Obama. It led to him being sanctioned in a bipartisan vote of Congress. And sure, he raised some small dollar donations off of it. He was part of the charge from the Tea Party surge that we saw in 2010.

[00:15:30] But there were consequences in the fact that the Democrats are out there rooting on and cheering somebody out there interrupting the speech so egregiously who refuses to apologize. He should absolutely be censored. And I look forward to the House doing that in the coming days. Michael, we've talked about a number of different issues at the state and federal levels lately about those 80-20 issues, because I agree with John on this.

[00:15:57] And I have a nice list of some of those issues that I'll hit here shortly. Trump Snow, when it comes to the theatrics of this, was this him baiting the Democrats into doing just this, into the poor optics that come from sitting and not applauding, not reacting, and not standing behind some of these 80-20 issues. Yes, and it was a masterclass in it. And I, in the interest of full disclosure, remind our listeners that I was a Republican for Harris.

[00:16:24] I did not vote for Trump and take my analysis with a grain of salt or whatever. But I think John said it the best. I think John has really laid out the reality. It's all I watched. And Becky, we've talked about this. Everything that the president does is political and has, in essence, a campaign element to it. We've discussed state of the union's joint addresses that occurred under Biden. And we discussed that this was the start of the campaign, that these were kickoff speeches.

[00:16:50] I don't think anyone expects there not to be an element of electioneering and campaigning and promoting in these joint sessions of Congress or in the formal state of the union. There's no expectation that I think that's not going to happen. I think what Trump did last night was significant because he did a very good job of, I think, as John said, baiting the Democrats into talking about some issues. I think he said it directly last night that he could come out and have a cure for some disease

[00:17:19] and they still wouldn't stand for him. And let me just say, and Becky, we've talked about this. And I think maybe with John and with Julius, I've also made this claim. I've always come from the position of after the election is over, independent of who the candidate that I wanted to win, if they won or lost, but even if the candidate that I was supporting didn't win, I would want the incumbent president to succeed because if they're succeeding, America is succeeding.

[00:17:46] And at some point, I do honestly believe that some of the campaigning and the rhetoric should stop and that we should get. And so I understand that Donald Trump, I'm not trying to be naive and Pollyannish, but to see some of the things that we're going to talk about go on, the paddles, the disruptions, at some point, the election's over with. And I understand the disruptions and I understand the paddles and all that stuff.

[00:18:12] I understand that the Democrats want to do something, but I think that to use an analogy, they're falling down the stairs. I use this a lot to say, when I was at a house once with my parents, they were looking to buy it. I fell down the stairs and I tried to grab the railing, but I'd actually grabbed all the pictures on the right side and knocked them all down. And I was just falling and flailing down the stairs. I think the Democrats, you saw us in a little bit of them falling down the stairs.

[00:18:38] They want to do something, but just like me grabbing all of the pictures on the wall and trying to grab them when I should grab the railing, you sometimes do the wrong thing. And I think last night that was on display. They wanted to do something, but honestly, I don't understand what points you're scoring when you won't even stand for a 13-year-old kid who's struggled and is getting recognized and acknowledged in the crowd.

[00:19:03] That is where I think there should be a filter that, like a little light switch that goes on and says, hey, maybe we can at least stand for this. And that wasn't done. And I think overall, I think based on what I've seen in the results of the polls and on messaging, I think the president came out ahead last night. And I think that's a great question. Julius, I'm very curious on your take because you were having lots of giggles and smirks in the last couple of answers here.

[00:19:29] And in particular, even when Michael was saying that if our opponent wins the presidential election, we should hope that they do well. What is your take on the optics of this? You said you wish the Democrats didn't show up. Do you think they come out looking positive for not standing up for? And let me just read off some of this list here because I know you're anxious to comment on some of them. They refused to stand. And this is all coming from, yes, the White House did maybe a petty move this morning and

[00:19:56] released a list of some 35 different moments that the Democrats refused to stand and or clap for, including. Well, I don't think it's petty. I don't think so either. But I want to give that option. The petty part was refusing to stand for a widow of a police officer who was murdered by an illegal immigrant and an 18-year-old child. The deporting violent criminals, capturing of ISIS terrorists behind the Abbey Gate attack, the young boy fighting brain cancer who was made in honorary Secret Service members,

[00:20:25] Americans joining the military in rhetoric numbers, turning down illegal revenge or taking down illegal revenge porn, the return of American Mark Fogle, the announcement of the student being accepted to West Point, honoring Lakin Riley, just among, again, those 35, 40 different situations, moments where Democrats refused to give any acknowledgement to Donald Trump and being a president who led to successes in these areas. Julius, where's the win?

[00:20:53] Explain to us how this was a win in their strategy from the Democrats, because I don't see it, and the exit polls of this don't show it. First of all, I want to clarify one thing before I answer this question. One, my giggles come from Michael and John and what you say is because I firmly believe that you are all very extremely smart people and I have a ton of respect for what you say. And I'm always thinking like when I'm laughing and giggling, it's, oh man, of course they're going to say this because they're so good at what they do. And I have to be on my feet, right? So listen, that was a sign of respect.

[00:21:22] I wouldn't give you the, I wouldn't give it if I didn't think so. But here's the other part of this. I'm really glad that Republicans care that Democrats clapped or didn't clap for a 13 year old kid that is struggling with cancer, but that they actually just made 800 and what, 880 billion dollars in Medicaid cuts over the next 10 years. So it's like Donald Trump brought all these people because he knew that they would be these extreme issues that people are going to like use as some sort of political move. I think it's pretty disgusting.

[00:21:51] And I think it's pretty gross that the president of the United States is using all these people's personal tragedies as a way to divide us more and use it as a way to prop up policies that are disgusting and that are inherently just gross to, and using these personal tragedies to divide Americans rather than unite them behind good policy that isn't like, you know, demonizing multiple different communities based off of these people's issues. I think that's really gross.

[00:22:21] I think that's disgusting. Take issue with something that Julia said. But you're claiming that bringing these people is to divide us. Nobody forced the Democrats to stay seated and to choose to divide themselves. They could have shit up and said this is a woman's deal to agree on. It's disgusting that he is using a woman's daughter who died, who was tragic, and that's awful, and it should never happen, to advance a policy and a law that is meant to demonize the immigrant

[00:22:50] community and take their due process rights. It's disgusting. But you're not. But let me be clear with something. He didn't do that in absentia. That family was there. They support what the president is doing. Absolutely. Who are you to take, let me know for a moment here, who are you to take the ownership of that victim and say that it's inappropriate for that family to apply the grief that they want and the comfort that they want to not have other families do that in that circumstance, in that situation?

[00:23:19] The president of the United States just didn't randomly mention something. He addressed people who were in the House chamber. In 1982, there was a plane crash in Washington. A plane took off from Florida and slammed into a bridge. And Ronald Reagan recognized a worker that had swam out and rescued someone from the water in the aftermath. And he recognized that worker. It was some civil servant who dove in on live TV and saved a woman who was drowning in the

[00:23:49] water. And she was in a gasoline and struggling. He praised that worker, that hero that saved that woman. Everyone stood in Congress and applauded what that was. Where are we in a country when a 13-year-old kid and his dad and he's voluntarily there and they want to be there gets treated and gets recognized in a way? And we as Americans can't unify and say that's something that we should be positive about and just cheer that moment.

[00:24:18] I think this whole conversation is based on this false reality that Donald Trump is somehow using these people for the good of the country. Listen, like I said before, that is a tragedy. That girl should never have died. That 12-year-old girl should never have died. And the kid that has cancer that's going through that battle, I'm sure every Democrat in that room believes that he's brave, that he's a strong kid. And they would have under any other circumstance.

[00:24:45] They have respect for him and they appreciate his story. And you can't argue the morality of that. But what you can argue is that using all of these people's individual struggles to prop up and use it to advance these policies that are, again, inherently divisive among a majority of people in this country is gross and it's disgusting. And those people were there because they believe in what he's doing.

[00:25:10] But again, the Lake and Riley Act, which takes away due process for all immigrants, whether they're here, like asylum status or not, and it takes away their ability to have due process is gross and it's divisive. And like you said, Reagan honored someone who used a personal tragedy to bring the country together, not to divide it. And that's what Donald Trump and Republicans are doing. And he's been doing this since 2017. I didn't actually hear any Republicans take issue, a majority of MAGA Republicans,

[00:25:40] and I'm not saying you guys, I'm not saying normal Republicans, who had an issue when he was attacking a Gold Star father that appeared at, what, the DNC? Because this false idea, this false idea that somehow Donald Trump is this great human using this to be like positive. It's not. It's not. And he has every, he has done this multiple times over and over. And I think it's gross that he's using people's personal tragedy to divide people. And that doesn't deserve clapping.

[00:26:06] Their stories, their stories are important and they could be honored by people, but not in that capacity, the way that Donald Trump is trying to like utilize them. It's gross. It's disgusting. This is just another example of how out of touch with the American people, the Democrats are. Very out of touch. And we have the Lake and Riley Act, which passed on a bipartisan basis with a dozen Democratic senators voting in favor of it.

[00:26:30] That simply says, if you are an illegal immigrant here and you commit a violent crime, if you commit a SEP related crime, you get detained by ICE and the Department of Homeland Security. That's common sense. There's a reason that 12 Senate Democrats voted in favor of this. This polls, it's like 75, 80 percent. And the Democrats are, Julius, you're a smart enough guy. You know that this is a loser for you. That you guys are on the losing side of this issue.

[00:27:00] That you're on the wrong side of this issue. That this is about protecting Americans, putting America first and ensuring that violent illegal criminals and illegal aliens are not re-released back into our society where they can do things like murder people. Yeah. Yeah. Donald Trump is sorry. Go ahead, Becky. I just want to even if we take away the specifics of some of these things we want to talk about that I just listed off and that we're getting into. We legislate because of stories.

[00:27:29] In all of my work, in my 10, 15 years of politics and public affairs and PR, it is the stories that why we make change. The stories of a single mom who is struggling to pay her bills. Of a father who lost his wife at war. Of a father who lost his wife at war.

[00:28:16] So this is something that take away the controversial, which I don't think a lot of these are controversial issues. But if you take away even the substantive policy behind these situations, I just have to firmly stand against that Donald Trump is using these tragic stories. It is the reason why we legislate. It is the reason if you work in any legislative office, you have individuals with disabilities, individuals with diseases, individuals who have come on hard times. They are coming in to share their stories.

[00:28:46] And that is why 80 percent of bills are written and brought forward and one on the House and Senate floors, both in the state and the federal government, because of the stories and the real impact of the farmers and the small business owners, the entrepreneurs and who they impact.

[00:29:02] And so I just have to that is something that I just needed to get in there, because that's where I think that the optics of this are really hard on the Democrats, because it is going against these people's truth and what they represent and what they've endured. And something that because of President Trump's policies, because of Republicans and Democrats and some bipartisan nature and because of largely the majority of voters in this country have pushed for.

[00:29:30] And so you them refusing to even clap and acknowledge some of these hard times and things that have changed because of them and during really tragic situations. Are Democrats given a middle finger to these families and their stories? Please, please. That's such a crazy insinuation. But here's and I don't even want to.

[00:29:51] Here's what I'll say. Republicans and what they're doing is so popular that the head of the House campaign committee told them to stop doing town halls because they were getting swamped by people who were pissed off about the Republican agenda. So that's first what I have to say, right? This idea that they're extremely popular policies that seems to be going against with what they're what they're seeing on the campaign trail and back in their own districts, which is why they're not going back anymore. But again, no, it's not giving a middle finger to these people specifically.

[00:30:18] And I think like the insinuation that, oh, yeah, all Republicans, every Democrat sitting in that room was like, we don't give a shit about your story. We don't care what you have to say and that your story doesn't matter. It's just ridiculous. It is ridiculous. And again, like you said, Democrats voted for the Lake and Riley Act. But this mother was sitting there barely holding it together because her daughter was lost in a tragedy. And yeah, she supports this bill. But that doesn't mean that that he gets to go and use it to be divisive and gross.

[00:30:45] And again, spew this nonsense about an entire community that is inherently and factually and statistically untrue. So we can go again around with the semantics of, oh, Democrats are giving the middle fingers. They're not. That's just absurd. And that's ridiculous. But again, the only time that this comes up is when it when Democrats do something like this, whether the optics are good or not. But as soon as Republicans do something as awful and disgusting and ridiculous, that every other Republican is, no, we didn't mean it like that.

[00:31:13] So please give me a break. This is this is absurd. It's absurd that, again, he's using these people's stories to make divisive policy and using it to his political advantage. And those people's stories matter. But it's not fair that he's using that to divide a country, not bring it together. Most presidents have done that, brought them together through these painful, tragic stories. He has not done that. He's never done that. And I don't think that all of a sudden this speech is going to change like his out his outlook on policy and like legislation.

[00:31:43] It's just it's beyond me that people are giving him credit in any way, shape or form. So I do want to move forward because obviously I don't think we're all going to come to an agreement here. And I would. Yes, let's just let's. Can I add one thing? Sure. I think you made a really good point, Becky, on storytelling. And I just want to say, I thought as you were explaining, like you're making a really good point. You understand this from the comms perspective. You understand that.

[00:32:11] And the one thing I would say is that and I've done a lot of victim advocacy in volunteer work that I do. The bottom line is I think that families get to decide in many ways how these stories get told. And it would be one thing, I think, if the president of the United States was coming in and just using them without the family support and talking about them in particular ways. But that's not what's happening.

[00:32:38] And these families are looking for to their government, to their leaders for help and assistance. I just have to say, even as someone who didn't vote for Trump and didn't want him to be elected to office, it's really hard for me to wrap my head around.

[00:32:56] You have such contempt for the president of the United States and who he is that you can't stand and you can't acknowledge, independent of him, what these families and struggle they're going through. Partisanship, I just think that's really sad. And I think it's really sad that, and to the degree which it happens on the other side, four years from now, if we still have this podcast, I'll call it out that.

[00:33:22] But the reality is that there was a lot of ugliness on display last night. And simply standing and applauding and recognizing the pain and struggle that a family has gone through and they're going through in that moment, let me be very clear with you. That family is being re-traumatized again. They're very brave for coming out and telling those stories again. Many people can never talk after they lose a loved one.

[00:33:50] They can never choose to speak up. They can't do media interviews. They can't do it. That family is being re-traumatized. Every time their loved one's name is used in any context, that family is being re-traumatized because they're going out there and they're entering a political arena. And for their names to be heard and then to not, it was just really disappointing to see. And I approach that as someone who's helped families out with their victim advocacy, understand the relevance of the stories.

[00:34:18] And Becky, they made a great point on the storytelling. But understand that the bottom line is these families are looking for help. And the president is responding to their concerns. And I just think it's a bad, we're in a bad place where we can't set aside partisanship and we can't acknowledge the grief and tragedy and loss that a family has endured. Moving into, thank you, Michael. I think I put a fine point on that.

[00:34:45] I'm going to move into kind of the bulk of the speech now, the tone, the theme, the demeanor. And Julius, this is where you're really going to shine and have the opportunity to push back on what Trump has done thus far. And his requests are asked to Congress for the coming three, almost four full years here. The theme was the renewal of the American dream. And he started with America is back. Now, fun fact, according to an article I read, that was one of the first lines of Biden's speech four years ago as well,

[00:35:13] when he did his first joint address to Congress and following Trump's first term, which I love a good little, a good little poke there. So America is back. The speech in total featured four main sections, the first being accomplishments from Trump's second term thus far at home and abroad. The second, what the Trump administration has done for the economy. The third, the president's renewed push for Congress to pass additional funding for border security.

[00:35:41] And four, the president's plan for peace around the globe. Obviously, this does have a partisan tilt. Elections have consequences. President Trump won the election and he gets to come out here, has a prerogative to address and say what he wants to do. And I want to, before we get into some of the policy things, he did mention Biden 13 times. To me, it's actually a little less than I expected him to mention Biden. So I'll take that.

[00:36:07] But starting with some of the accomplishments hit on the first 100 executive orders that he has accomplished or signed into effect so far. Obviously, the U.S.-Mexico border and immigration being a big part of that. John, sing the president's praises for a little bit, talking about the accomplishments that he has had so far and those he highlighted in his speech. Look, so it's clear that America's renewal is absolutely underway.

[00:36:36] The president's restoring order, cutting reckless spending and government bloat and delivering real results for the American people. And when I say delivering real results, you know, I think it's going to take a little while for this to cut through. But so far, President Trump has secured $1.7 trillion of investment into American jobs and manufacturing.

[00:36:55] It is a huge number and a huge deal, whether it's a half trillion dollars to lead the AI revolution and massive investments into the chip space. Whether it's Apple saying that they're going to invest a half trillion dollars and hire thousands of Americans to get them to work. And what we're seeing across the board is that the president is taking action. He's getting things done. And the American people are in favor of this.

[00:37:23] He is near all time highs in his approval. He has made a lot of common sense move that I think people will like. Things as simple as stopping minting the penit, right? It's worth one cent. It costs $3.7 to make. That's common sense. And the Democrats are going to say he's firing these probationary government employees. Look, the reality is that under President Biden, we saw a 50% increase in government employees.

[00:37:53] We went from 2 million government employees for the first two and a half years of President Biden's administration to over 3 million government employees. Getting rid of a handful of those probationary employees is getting us back to right size. The government was operating fine under all of the previous administrations. The massive growth was really out of control. And it's something that's simply unsustainable.

[00:38:19] But the work that Doge is doing and working on eliminating a bunch of wasteful contracts, he is doing what he campaigned on. He is doing what he said. He is doing what the American people elected him to do when he won the popular vote and won all of the battleground states. If the Democrats wanted to have a say in this, they should have run a better campaign. Julius, all you.

[00:38:47] We had a lot of Elon Steeles, Musk lies. How do you feel about Trump leaning into Doge and the accomplishments thus far in reducing waste and increasing efficiency in federal government? Yeah, I think firing nuclear scientists and then having to bring them back because you realize how bad of a mess up that was is really what the American people voted for. Firing 80,000 veterans from Veterans Affairs. I think that's really what American people voted for. Very common sense.

[00:39:16] By the way, Elon Musk is so good at what he does yesterday before this addressed to Congress. He had to delete from Doge's website billions of dollars of contracts that didn't actually exist or that they didn't actually save any money on. Here's Democrats are not in touch. Right. Sure. OK. Again, Republicans won't go on the campaign stump and go to their districts anymore. And they have put a halt to that because people are so pissed off with what they're doing that they can't face their people without getting shouted out of the room. And that's very clear, obviously.

[00:39:44] But here's the other part of this is they didn't they didn't vote for Donald Trump to fire hundreds of thousands of regular everyday Americans. They voted for what? To decrease the price of eggs, to decrease the price of groceries, to lower the cost of gas. Guess what's gone up since he's been elected? The price of groceries, the price of eggs and the price of gas. Oh, and by the way, those tariffs that he just did are going to increase the price of gas even more.

[00:40:11] However, he's putting us into a reckless trade war that is literally destroying farmers like ability to do anything with their crops, to grow their crops, to have the financial resources to do what they need to do to feed us, which, again, is going to raise prices. And by the way, he said he was going to do this all on day one. It's day 43 and he hasn't done any of it. So it's yeah, Republicans should have won or Democrats should have won in all these states. No, I'm good with this.

[00:40:36] I'm good with showing the American people that the Republican Party doesn't actually care about responsible governing. Oh, and let's be really clear about something, too. The $880 billion they did to Medicare cuts, while they also did is they did more tax cuts along with that bill. That's going to add $2.4 trillion to the national debt. So for the oh, hold on.

[00:40:59] Sorry, I just keep thinking of things that are just so ridiculous that he said he's adding more tax cuts that he wants to pass in this legislative session with this Congress. That's going to add $10 trillion in the next 10 years to the federal like the federal deficit. So it's hey, you guys are the party of fiscal responsibility. So you want to hire or I'm sorry, fire everyday Americans from jobs that they're just trying to do to make the government work. But you're adding trillions of dollars to the debt because you're cutting taxes where they shouldn't need to be cut.

[00:41:27] But you're making these false promises that don't work and you're getting us into trade wars that are actually like making us less like this country less affordable than it already was. So it don't make the claim that you're going to do it on day one and then not actually do it and make it worse and then try to campaign and say that you're cutting government waste. You're not cutting government waste. You're it's just like virtue signaling. It's garbage. Oh, and one more thing before I'm done. Trying to illegally get rid of all these departments, including the Department of Education is not what they voted for.

[00:41:57] So I think that's I think that's a crazy claim. And John's extremely smart. And so are you and Michael. But come on, there's this is crazy going into a trade war with Canada, who, by the way, we have a trade surplus on a fifty five billion dollars a year. What are we doing? Can someone explain to me how that's government efficiency? Because to me, that seems like it's making things worse.

[00:42:20] I certainly think that tariffs and trade needs its own segment in a future episode because there is going to be a lot going with this. Two things I'm going to say before, Michael, I want your input. One, avian flu is still alive and well. Eggs prices of eggs are don't really rise. That is the amount of birds that are being killed off because of that. A supply demand baby. And then no, shoot. Now I'm going to forget my other one. But, Michael, we recently talked about, oh, the town halls.

[00:42:45] All I got to say about the town halls right now is as somebody who worked for Congressman Emmer for a number of years, every year he did one town hall in every county that he represented in seven counties there. So he do seven at least in person a year in addition to somewhere between five and ten virtual town halls. It's not because they don't want to talk to their constituents. It's because that the largely the radical and far left Democrats have taken over those events and made them. Julius, you need to go up to CD6 to a comment on an event.

[00:43:15] Are you kidding me right now? No. You're telling me that. They have to hire private security to show up at these things because their people are so disruptive. They are not interested in waiting in line, standing behind a microphone and asking their questions. They're interested in being Alry last night and making that happen.

[00:43:33] But, Michael, I want your take on this because we talked recently about the humor within the Republican Party when it comes to adding Doge, a new agency to cut government, and how that so many Republicans. I'm sorry, my dog is barking. So many Republicans find issue with this thing, but how you and I agree that there are times where you have to add to subtract.

[00:43:56] Talk to us a little bit about what John and Julius have said about Doge, about Elon Musk and Trump's efforts thus far to reduce weight and waste and increase efficiency. I think it's let me offer a little historical context. So I was I worked on the 98 gubernatorial race. I worked on Norm Coleman's campaign and I was at an event in northern Minnesota in Hibbing where Jesse Ventura was debating with Mayor Coleman and that Skip Humphrey.

[00:44:23] And we were at an event at Hibbing High School and he Jesse Ventura was asked a question from the audience. They said, what's your take on the IRRRB? And we're in Hibbing in a school that was probably built with taconite funds in a community that a lot of their economy is supported and driven by the IRRRB. And Jesse Ventura said, I don't know what it is, but if it's a government program, I'm going to cut it. And the place erupted.

[00:44:53] And I looked around and I said, do they understand what's going on? That was a lesson for me to know that people think the government is too bloated. They think there's waste, fraud and abuse that's going on a pretty regular basis. I understand Julius's point about some of the concerns about some people who have been let go. But the bottom line is. I think that this is a truth in advertising effort.

[00:45:19] I think that the president, we saw Elon Musk on the campaign trail prior to the election. There was talk of cutting waste, fraud and abuse. There was talk of the creation of this agency. And this isn't a situation. And Becky, we've talked about this before, where candidates run for office, say they're going to do one thing and then do another. This is a situation where I it's hard pressed for me to see a situation where this isn't an exact follow through on what he said.

[00:45:46] Sure, some of the specifics, it gets more real when people start to lose jobs. But the bottom line is this is what he was elected on. And I don't see this being a situation. I think there's a reality of what he was elected on that may be coming true. But it's certainly not a matter of him being dishonest about what he was saying with the election. And I think I followed it pretty closely. Now, the other point I will say to you about the town halls.

[00:46:10] I remember being when I was the deputy chair of the party, I was asked a question about Colin Peterson not wanting to have town hall meetings. And my position was, if you don't want to meet with your constituents and you don't want to have town hall meetings, don't run for office. That was going to be my take on this. But I did a little research and looked into this stuff. And I would agree, I wish that we were in the type of political environment where members of Congress and people could have town hall meetings and they could be thoughtful, interesting discussions.

[00:46:37] But with and I hope that we can get back to that point. I still believe that members of Congress should be accessible as every member, as everyone who serves in elected office should be accessible to their constituents. But I think because of the rise of social media and other topics that we've discussed, it's very difficult right now for those to be thoughtful, productive meetings.

[00:47:00] And I think the best example of how those meetings could not be thoughtful and productive is that there was a joint session of Congress last night that was televised across all platforms, across all networks, carried live. And members of Congress didn't stand for a 13 year old kid who had brain cancer, who was being awarded, being awarded a badge from the United States Secret Service. That's how bad we've gotten with our partisanship.

[00:47:25] And so I'd like I always want to be on the side of transparency and in democracy and people engaging with their constituents. But we all, I think, have a responsibility to elevate to raise the discourse, to highlight the discussion and make it be more productive. And it's unfortunate, but that's just sadly the political reality we're in right now. Elevate, elevate the discourse. There you go. Sorry, elevate the discourse.

[00:47:52] I know one of the main crux of the speech is something that Republicans and Democrats, in particular on this on this podcast today, have very different viewpoints on, and that is illegal immigration. John, I'm going to start with you here. There was more time spent on illegal immigration than economy and prices, something that did surprise me a little bit, but not necessarily so much based on what the polling shows. The CBS poll shows that 64 percent of Americans believe in Trump's policies on illegal immigration.

[00:48:21] His deportation program has a 59 percent approval rate currently. Talk to us about why this is something that President Trump has pushed so hard on in his first few days here, what the popularity is and why that more time was spent on that than, as Julius mentioned, the price of groceries and the price of eggs and the price of gas. Look, so I think that as we look at this as something that President Trump got to work with on day one,

[00:48:47] and it really provides an excellent contrast with the weakness that we saw under the Biden administration, where their excuse over and over all throughout the spring and the summer was that they needed to pass this soft on immigration bill in order to get illegal immigration under control. And the reality is that President Trump has shown you that you don't need to pass a bill in order to do this.

[00:49:13] Illegal crossings are down 94 percent from what we saw last year. He declared a national border emergency. Over 20,000 illegal immigrants have been arrested by ICE, which is a over 600 percent increase in arrests compared to Biden and is nearly the entirety of the total of illegal immigrant arrests in Biden's entire last year. He's taking on the cartels.

[00:49:39] He's designated them as terrorist organizations, and he is making a real impact on this. Now, things like the economy, things like the cost of goods and inflation, he is certainly he is certainly working on those things. Doge is working on getting rid of some of that unnecessary government spending.

[00:50:00] They're working on getting rid of those burdensome regulations that cost American families over $15,000 every year and are working to crack down on those, eliminate those. But we haven't had a chance to see a budget pass from President Trump yet. Right. And he can get to work on the economy. He can get to work on securing that investment. You can get to work on bringing Biden's inflation back down to reality.

[00:50:28] But these are things where there are real measurable impacts that he was able to have a direct hand in in a very short period of time. And I think that it's something that the American people showed they were very much in alignment with him on through his first administration, through the campaign. And now they're with him again.

[00:50:46] I think that this event presented a excellent opportunity for the president to claim some wins, to show that his action is having an outcome that is directly related, and to go out there and just really contrast with what we saw under the Biden administration. Julius, I want your take on this.

[00:51:07] Again, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say, why don't a month from now, when we have a little bit more evidence of the tariff situation and stuff, I'm going to bring you guys back and really get into all of that. But specifically on the illegal immigration and what the poll numbers show, what's your take on how the president presented it, how he talked about it and his actions thus far, highlighted in the speech last night? Well, you know, you're going to hear the same thing that I say every time because I'm a partisan hack.

[00:51:35] The president and Republicans don't actually care about solving immigration because it's a great issue for them to continue to campaign on. Everyone relax. Let me use my numbers, my statistics. And if you still disagree with that, then God save your soul or something. Because in Donald Trump's, what, 40-something days that he's been president, he's really cracking the whip on immigration so much that he's actually deporting less people than Biden was in his last year of office. 57,000 people every month for the last year of Biden's administration.

[00:52:05] Donald Trump's actually at a whopping 36,000. That's fascinating stuff for a party that really wants to deport millions of people per year. That's actually going to equal out to probably about 250,000 in his first year. So again, it's all virtue signaling. It's not actually getting to the root cause of the immigration issue that we have here in our country, which is very real. So you'll never hear me deny that. Listen, I'm from Chicago. Every time I go back, I see the effects of it. Absolutely.

[00:52:34] And it's an issue that, one, is affecting American people. And it's also affecting this community that's coming here because for a multitude of reasons. The issue is our immigration system, our system as it relates to asylum, our system as it relates to getting through these people who have court dates that have to wait six or seven years because we don't have enough judges.

[00:52:59] By the way, the bipartisan bill that was going to be passed last session that Donald Trump killed addressed all of that. It's you guys want it. Republicans are always screaming illegal immigration. And then when there's an obvious answer to the core issue, the core problem and the core thing that's causing all of this, they don't want to solve it. But throw more agents all around the country that keep barging into people's homes. That's really going to help solve the issue. Yeah. So border crossings are down.

[00:53:29] But again, you're deporting less people than Joe Biden and you're so tough on immigration. And by the way, when you have to like start raiding people's homes to find them and doing all this crazy weird stuff in all these cities to show you're this tough administration, it's just, again, goes to show you don't actually understand the issue at hand. He has some Tom Holman. I have a lot to say about him. Isn't doing what he said he was going to do, which was deport more people.

[00:53:55] And the numbers show the numbers continuously show that Donald Trump at this point is not on pace to do what he said he was going to do. So why don't Republicans do what they want to do, which is solve the core issue of fixing our immigration system, not just deporting people because they a lot of them are just going to end up coming right back.

[00:54:14] But fix this issue at hand, which is the courts, which is funding for these judges, funding for the asylum system and changing how that works so that we don't actually have to just say, oh, hey, you want asylum because you're scared of this. OK, cool. And by the way, and this is what I'll end with. I don't want to be long with it anymore.

[00:54:33] The other part of this equation that's not being answered is there is a very serious problem with how we keep track of these people. And that problem stems from a lack of funding and budget cuts by Republicans. Anyways, that's all I wanted to say. I actually I mean, look, I've got to I've got to take some issue with that where Biden getting credit for deporting illegal immigrants.

[00:55:00] Reality is that last February, one hundred and forty thousand illegal crossings occurred. That's a lot of people crossing that you get a chance to deport 40,000 of them. This month in February, eighty three hundred. The idea that Donald Trump hasn't secured the border and isn't working and following through on his campaign promises is absolutely ridiculous.

[00:55:29] And the data fleshes it out. That's a ninety four percent increase in illegal crossings. We are seeing that he reinstituted remain in Mexico. Julius talks about losing track of people. Remain in Mexico is a great way to get through that. We're seeing an increase in arrests and we are seeing countries being forced to take their criminally legal alien back.

[00:55:54] Once they're deported, the idea that we get to go and send ICE to homes and jails where we can find these violent criminals, violent criminal aliens and get them off the street in a secure area rather than a police officer having to pull them over, putting them at risk. They are doing a absolute great job doing exactly what they said they were going to do. They're deporting less people. I just don't understand how that's you can take.

[00:56:22] But if there's ninety three percent you were crossing into there's still as many there's still as many illegal immigrants as there was during Biden's administration. There's millions of illegal immigrants. If you really were solving the issue, you wouldn't be deporting twenty thousand less people per month than the guy you were slamming for being not tough on immigration. Again, we can all agree that there's an issue with immigration, but the numbers don't lie and you can't spin them to say that, hey, there's less people coming in. So we're deporting less.

[00:56:49] There's still as many illegal immigrants in this country that he was planning to deport. Sorry, go ahead. Julius, I wanted to I was going to say I actually agree with a lot of your statement. The justice system is completely broken. We do need more funding for that. A lot of the reasons these raids and some dramatic things are going on is because the prosecution system is so deeply flawed and folks have not been prosecuted for their crimes in this country. So they have to go out and find them because we don't know where they are.

[00:57:17] But to John's point and to put a point on what you were saying as well is the deportations are the bandaid to this whole thing. To be able to reduce the overall number of deportations that we have, we do need to stop the crossings. And so that's where I got to give my back up to John here, because if you don't have if you're continuing to allow one hundred thousand people to come, it is easier to have forty thousand people to deport where you have eight thousand people coming over.

[00:57:46] Yes, you're going to have three thousand people to deport. So we need to go and toward the actual problem at hand. And that is our broken border system. Securing that will overall help. But you're right. I think we can agree that million deportations in the first year look at unlikely. But I do think we're going to see successes here. Michael, your thoughts on this before we move on. I think I think it's a situation of looking at the data numbers. I think if your basement is flooding, you have to stop the water coming in before you repair it.

[00:58:14] And so logically, I think that's the first priority. Again, I think immigration is it was a centerpiece of the campaign. And I think that it's I just would again, I didn't vote for Trump. I didn't support him. But I think it's pretty I think it would be pretty hard pressed for there to be a balls and strikes analysis on what's going on with immigration and say that Trump isn't following through on what he said.

[00:58:38] I think we need to get I think there needs to be let's I think it's I think it's a little premature to talk about the numbers yet. But we'll see where we are in a month or so. But I think from just from a balls and strikes standpoint, it's tough for me to think that this isn't that he's not following through on this being a priority in the initial days of his administration. Well, balls and strikes would be 50,000, 57,000 is more than 37,000. Sure. Julie, I just know.

[00:59:05] Julie, speaking of numbers, have you figured out what the polling is on not standing for a 13 year old kid who cancer survivor? I am going to keep us rolling here because we are already coming up on an hour and a couple of things that I think we need to hit on first. Julius, I'm going to start with you because I think this is something that you probably rolled your eyes on quite a bit. Donald Trump, President Trump had said we will be woke no more.

[00:59:33] Now, we know that the woke agenda is something that Democrats under Biden have been playing a lot of spending a lot of time on, spending a lot of money on. And something that I will say a lot of virtual signaling has come in the last 43 days from Democrats based on President Trump's movements here. A couple of the things he spoke on were men and women's sports, the DEI programs, returning Mount McKinley to being Mount McKinley. Tell me your thoughts. I think you have a few.

[01:00:03] Yeah, I have more than a few. We could probably just do an hour of that, but I'll keep it short. It's like it's first of all, I want to point something out about the Republican Party. Their new way of saying that they want to return to pre-DEI America is just to say, hey, we're going to use DEI as a way to say that brown and black people are disqualified from the jobs that they're doing. Donald Trump's entire administration and cabinet is a bunch of DEI hires, including P. Ed Seth.

[01:00:31] But that's a different story for a different day. I want you to also acknowledge that Donald Trump called a member, a sitting member of Congress, a very offensive thing that he's turned into and can be called and can be claimed to be a very offensive term, which is he called Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas as like an insult in front of all these people. You look at the Republican Party and what it's trying to do with DEI and claiming that critical race theory was in classrooms.

[01:00:57] It's all a bunch of, again, red meat to a bunch of people that don't actually care about the issue. They're just trying to create culture wars out of things that aren't actually happening. Hey, men's men and women's sports isn't actually happening. The Republican governor of Massachusetts, who's now the president of the NCAA, testified in front of Congress that out of 550,000 active athletes in this country in the NCAA, less than 10, potentially less than five are transgender. It's not happening here in the state of Minnesota.

[01:01:27] Republicans can't even point to where it's happening. Scott Jensen claiming that schools are so woke they're putting cat litter in bathrooms for kids to use it. You guys look ridiculous, honestly, honest to God, truly. And it's gross to me that, again, the sitting president of the United States and this unserious party continue to use these issues to divide rather than bring together. Should, and I want to say this too, to end with, I coach high school age girls in volleyball.

[01:01:53] So I have the perspective of someone who's probably in the middle about what this should look like. But demonizing a bunch of 1% of the population for an issue that isn't actually happening to throw red meat to your base to get that browed up. It's gross. It's disgusting. And again, it's another way that Republicans use these bullshit garbage culture wars to continue to amplify this disgusting messaging that demonizes a group of people that really aren't creating any issues anywhere.

[01:02:23] John, rebuttal. The Democrats are welcome to die on the 20% of every losing issue that they can think of. I find it fascinating that the offensive part is President Trump calling Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas and not the fact that she used one 1,024th of her family maybe being Native American based on lore to advance her career. That's the offensive part of that.

[01:02:49] And it's time that we end those DEI programs and end the place where having one 1,024th DNA that maybe is Native American gets you into a college ahead of anybody else purely because of that. It's time to get back to the basic common sense that you should be judged on the content of your character, what's going on in your brain, your qualifications, and that is it. That's something that the American people agree on.

[01:03:18] It's something that we should all be able to agree on. And really, what we're seeing across the board is that, yeah, we're going to get rid of all of the woke nonsense that is coming out of the only people who agree with it are liberal activists and academics. This is out of touch with what the American people believe, and we're getting back to exactly what they want. Which, by the way, is code word. I just want to be very clear.

[01:03:47] I'm accusing the whole Republican Party of this, which is code word for any time they see a black or brown person in a position of power, they somehow had to have a leg up on some white person. And that's all it is. That's all it is. It's race meeting. No, that's absolutely. It's garbage. It's garbage. You're telling. Okay, so let's be very clear about something. Again, the president using another tragedy to continue to divide this country. When those planes crashed over Washington, D.C., what's the first thing the president went out there and said?

[01:04:15] Oh, that DEI was the problem, and the reason these planes crashed is because these pilots did some DEI program and they weren't qualified to fly. Guess what? They were both white people. They were all white people, and they were extremely qualified. What did he do go? Oh, he went out there and said, oh, because we think that these people are under DEI programs that somehow they're unqualified to fly planes. It's disgusting. It's garbage.

[01:04:37] And by the way, most of the country is not with you when it comes to saying, hey, we should stop using these, giving people at equal chances to get in these positions of power. If you're not qualified for the job, you're not going to get it. And there's no evidence to prove that DEI programs are giving unqualified people an opportunity at this. So it's just garbage. It's really garbage. And it's honestly super gross. And I'm not saying you specifically, but I'm saying these talking points are based in not in reality and not in fact.

[01:05:05] And the president, again, has done it time over time where he uses this as a talking point to a tragedy like in Washington, D.C., and ended up actually being wrong and looked dumb. It's always nice talking to an undecided voter. Go ahead, John. Look, when we look at this, the fact that DEI and all of these woke trainings are a part of this is a distraction from what folks' jobs should be, right?

[01:05:32] This is about getting our military back to being the most lethal military in the world. This is not about having totally rainbows and soft animals and whatever in the military. Our military exists to go kick ass if we need it to. And that is what it should be focused on. Our air traffic controllers, our pilots, whatever it is, I want the most qualified, competent person, regardless of what they look like, what their gender is, what political persuasion they're from.

[01:06:01] I want the most qualified person. And that's something that we see. And the idea that this means that Republicans somehow believe that anybody who is a minority or comes from a different background wasn't qualified for their job without the handout, that is not what they are saying.

[01:06:21] In fact, in Minnesota, Republicans just selected a fantastic Speaker of the House, Lisa Dingmuth, who happens to be the first African-American to be the Speaker of the House. She didn't get that because she's a woman or because she's Speaker of the House. Well, she got that because she is immensely qualified and really good at what she does and has the respect of her colleagues.

[01:06:43] The idea that we would say that minorities can only get ahead, that they can only secure these jobs if we require affirmative action, that if we require DEI initiatives, is really insulting. And saying that somehow we believe that they are less than and need a shortcut in order to get involved instead of saying, I want the best people regardless of what they look like, where they come from or who they are.

[01:07:11] And the president going out and saying that the only way that qualified brown and black people are in positions that they are is because they went through the DEI programs is a little absurd to me, too. And Republicans continue to be that talking point. John, or actually, Becky and Michael, can I ask a question? If we want the most lethal military force in the world, how does denying transgender people who want to serve this country in uniform and are willing to give their life for this country when this country is continuously attacking them for their personal expression?

[01:07:37] Can someone explain to me how that is making our country safer and how cutting them out of the process of becoming a part of our military is making us safer? Because it seems to me it doesn't, actually. So I'm just curious, like, how you justify that? Because it doesn't seem like what you're saying is lining up with what the president is doing. So I believe you have good intentions and believe that.

[01:08:00] But the president, by cutting transgender individuals out of the ability to participate in uniform and be in the military to give their life for this country, potentially, doesn't actually line up with that. So can someone explain that to me? Because I'm pretty confused, actually. I can't explain it. I didn't make the cuts. And I'm not the commander in chief. I've never worn our country's uniform. And, Julius, I understand the question and I understand what you're doing. But the bottom line is I'm just not in a position.

[01:08:27] I just I'm such an amateur on when it comes to matters related like that. And I understand your principle and I understand your points you're trying to make. But the bottom line is that elections have consequences. He's the commander in chief. And let me just say overall, I think you know me, Julius, enough to know, and you've been a guest of this podcast a number of times and have listened, that my approach is always to take a thoughtful, deliberative approach when discussing these types of issues. I understand what you're doing and I understand.

[01:08:56] But I just am I'm not going to accept the premise that I'm in a position to answer that. But my my I will say to you definitively that I hope that everyone in this country and across the world is treated with dignity and respect based on who they are. And I'll just follow up by saying I completely agree with Michael here. I also did not vote for Donald Trump this time around. And I have said a number of times that I am pretty socially liberal on a lot of issues.

[01:09:25] And this is one that I think if you are willing to serve our country and put your life on the line to protect our way of life and our democracy and our homeland, I think you should be able to do that if you are a fit, able bodied American to be able to do that. So that is something that I certainly don't agree with. I will just put a bow on the woke side of things before we get on, because, man, if you're still hanging on here listening to this podcast, I appreciate it. We are definitely getting into it.

[01:09:53] But this is something that I think we saw the president start with his accomplishments, love him or hate him. Get into the red meat, right? He's got to throw some of this meat to his MAGA base and to his red Republican supporters. And that's exactly what he did here. And he additionally knew that he was going to get the ire. He was going to get the scowls. He was going to get the faces from the Democrats sitting there on their hands, just bursting at the seams. And that's clearly what he did when he got into a lot of these woke policies he wanted to talk about.

[01:10:22] I do want to move forward and talk about one of the things that he rounded out his speech with, and that is his asks of Congress. And this kind of, again, lines back up with what the State of the Union is meant to do, and let's lay out those policy positions of the coming year and what he desires to work with Congress on. And again, because elections have consequences, he is working with a Republican Congress. And so a lot of these align with the Republican Congress's priorities as well.

[01:10:49] A couple of these asks that he did make specifically where it was more money for deportations, another round of tax cuts, enhanced police protection, a new crime bill, mandated death penalty for anybody who murders a police officer, and creating a Golden Dome missile defense system. John, I want to start with you. I don't think any of these are outside of the realm of what we heard from him on the campaign trail, what we know President Trump and Republicans stand for.

[01:11:14] Anything catch you off guard, or is this kind of aligned with what we expect President Trump to focus on for the next year before we get him back for the State of the Union in 2026? No, I think that's right, that very much the president is focused on delivering for the American people, but wanting to work with Congress. And I think that's something that he learned during that first term, is that he needs to work with them.

[01:11:42] And I think he's focused on congressional accountability, asking them to pass a balanced budget, asking them to increase border security funding. I think it's always an interesting process as we start to go through. But I think some of these ideas will find their way in, some aren't. You're working with narrow majorities in the House, narrow majority in the Senate, slightly less. And so I think, God bless Whip Amaris, he gets to try and navigate this and hold his caucus together.

[01:12:11] But I, for one, was really impressed last week that they were able to move the rule and get this process started, which was something that I think there were people who had doubts on whether or not the caucus was going to hold together. So I expect that we will see a lot of President Trump's priorities and policies reflected in that resolution. Julius, we know you don't love what he has accomplished thus far. What are your thoughts on his plan for the upcoming year?

[01:12:39] And does any of it go against what the American people elected him to do? Listen, I think I wrote down specifically what he said, which was, we are going to get Greenland one way or another, which, by the way, he was very serious about. And then talked about taking back the Panama Canal. I think, I just think that's, I've learned, and I think we've all learned that when Donald Trump says something, most of the time, he's very serious about it. And I think that's like a ridiculous policy point.

[01:13:08] Right. And questions, it makes me question what, why we're, is he going to invade Greenland? Is that like in his plan? But no, I think some of the budget, I think some of the stuff that he's coming, that is happening currently is a little concerning. The stuff with Ukraine obviously is interesting. I think one of the bills that he said he wants to pass that strikes me the most is the death penalty for anyone that kills a cop. And then qualified immunity. I think that's a really interesting, that's going to be a really interesting one there. But on the opposite of what John was saying, I think you got two votes.

[01:13:38] You got a two vote majority. You got to really be really careful about how you push, how you put stuff in this bill and what you put in this bill. Because Freedom Caucus members like, what's his name, Massey from Kentucky and Chip Roy, they are not playing games. Right. They're serious about cutting, cutting the deficit, which to give them credit, they've always been consistent on.

[01:13:57] But I think generally it's going to be interesting to see if he can, if Johnson can hold that caucus together as they start to put these things in that, you know, might or might not be detrimental to the deficit and add more to the debts. But yeah, that Greenland thing was interesting. I'm surprised no one's talked about that. Or Panama. Taking back the Panama Canal. That's an interesting one. It's tough to break through on the headlines when members of Congress are refusing to stand for a 13-0 break. Oh my God. Give it a break, man.

[01:14:26] Michael, we know you were a Republican for Harris. We're not supporting President Trump on his campaign trail. What are your thoughts about his initial ask, requests of working with Congress to pass in the next year or so? I think it was, as John laid out, a lot of issues that are going to pull very well with people.

[01:14:44] And giving Congress a to-do list and a punch list to do and say get it done, I think is another example of how what was on display last night was Trump understanding the electorate. That's the one thing I think I'll close my remarks with on this subject is, I think what you saw last night was, I think you saw the Republicans. And obviously, I've disagreed with some of their agenda.

[01:15:09] But it's pretty clear to me that they understood the audience, the venue, and the opportunities that they had to message. They message to those opportunities. They message to where they want to be and what they've accomplished. And we can disagree on whether we agree or we can disagree on the policy. But I think it's pretty fair to say, I think in a balls and strikes analysis, that the Republicans showed up and pitched a complete game.

[01:15:37] That they did a good job in terms of hitting all the points they needed. And I still think that the Democrats are still struggling from the election. They still haven't found their compass, their center, where to go. And they tried some things last night. It didn't work. I don't think they landed well. Whether it's the paddles, whether it's the other things that we've discussed in messages. Sure, I don't have an expectation that Donald Trump is going to be perfect, nor do I have it on the Democrats.

[01:16:01] There's some things that he said last night that don't resonate with me and some of his approach doesn't resonate with me. But I got to tell you something. When Donald Trump comes in, and I'm going to say it one more time. When he comes in and recognizes a 13-year-old brain cancer survivor and gives them, and they get awarded a Secret Service badge, he understands the message, the opportunity, and that connection to that story, to Becky's point.

[01:16:27] And for Democrats to sit and not stand during one of those or other examples shows to me that they have not still understood what occurred this past election cycle. That's honestly my take. I agree completely. I'm going to round it out by kind of a quick round robin here. General reactions coming out of the speech last night. CBS poll of speech watchers say that 76% approved of Trump's speech.

[01:16:54] A CNN poll found that 69% of speech watchers say they viewed the speech as at least somewhat positive. But Julius, I'll start with you. I'll let you do a quick round robin here, ending with our, I would say, maybe more even partisan member of the panel with John. So let's go through here. Julius, what do you think about these reactions? Does it surprise you that these numbers are so high, or you just don't believe them? Nice little shot there, Becky. I like that. No, I'm sure I believe them.

[01:17:24] I don't have any reason to disbelieve them. I think it'll be interesting to see what he said he's going to do and what actually transpires and then what happens there and how people feel about that. Because, again, the American people voted for a lot of things that they haven't got yet, and they seem a little bit teed up and pissed off about that. But I think it'll be really interesting to see if he, how people feel when the fall is who happens, if it happens. And that's a big if. But no, I will say this, and I want to give some credit really quick.

[01:17:49] But to give him a lot of credit, and I don't ever, this will never happen again, ever. He was actually, besides the Pocahontas thing and whatever, I think he actually was well restrained, and he stuck to that script really damn well. And it made him look serious for an unserious person. That's all I got to say. He looked good doing it. And if I was a Republican, I'd see why we were happy about that. I'm not, and I'm not.

[01:18:18] But generally, he did a really good job of sticking to the script. And I think it's because he understands this time around to get stuff done, he needs to be, you know, stick to it, stick to the script. So he did good. And I appreciate that, because as a Republican who did not vote for him, these are the things I need to pull me back over. I want to see. I want to be proven wrong. And him looking presidential up there and hitting on these and being restrained is a great stepping stone for me.

[01:18:47] Because, again, I've very much often said a lot of so much of his policies I agree with. It's a lot more of the demeanor and how he conducts himself that I have big issues with. And so that I thank you for bringing that up, Julius. I think it was a really great point. And folks like me, and I think there's a good chunk of folks like me out there, do see this as a win. Michael. Yeah, I think, yes. I think that the, I would, John, and I know that we've discussed a lot of polls with John, so I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to throw out a comment.

[01:19:17] Maybe he, when he responds, he can give his perspective. But I think that these are probably some of the highest approval numbers we've seen for anything related to Trump. And I'm waiting for the poll to come out about the 13-year-old brain cancer survivor named DJ who got a Secret Service badge last night. I'm sure that polling is going to frustrate the heck out of Julius.

[01:19:36] But I'd be very curious because I think that what we've seen here is I'd also think on display was a more scripted, aside from correctly, what I think Julius pointed out. But someone who came in with a mission, an agenda, stuck to it. And what it shows is that when he, when there's a little bit of prep work, that the numbers will reflect that. And when you have some messaging, and to me, I'll just go back to it one last time.

[01:20:04] It's an understanding to me that the Republicans and to some degree the Trump White House have a real appreciation and understanding of where the electorate is right now. John, let's round it out here. Tell us about those poll numbers and what the American people think. I think you guys hit on it, and that is that this White House administration is running very well. It's a well-oiled operation. They got 19 cabinet secretaries through in record-breaking time.

[01:20:34] They have their policies. They're ready to rock and roll. And right now it's an exciting time to be a Republican. It's an exciting time to be an American, right? We are on the five-yard line of a 21st century economy on the verge of an AI revolution.

[01:20:49] This is something once in a generation, the opportunity to take advantage of this, to drive investment into America, to advance our country and re-solidify ourselves as the leader of the free world, both from a foreign policy, a policy standpoint, but also from an economic standpoint. And we are seeing a White House that understands that, that is very focused on that.

[01:21:13] The caution that I would throw out to the White House on this is that those numbers on approval rating after a State of the Union or after a joint address in this case. Remember that a good State of the Union is what saved Joe Biden's candidacy and allowed him to limp along until Donald Trump ended that campaign in a debate in June.

[01:21:37] I think keeping their eye on the ball, remaining focused and continuing to operate like this on a day-to-day basis is something that's going to be critical for them. I thought it was really interesting today that we continue to see a vice presidency on anything else as J.D. Vance hit the road and went down to the southern border to continue to make those messages. But I expect that we'll see J.D. or Vice President Vance on the road quite a bit more, that we will see these cabinet secretaries out.

[01:22:06] I believe Friday we have the first ever Crip Summit at the White House that David Sachs is running. So I look for them to continue to drive these things home and to continue to focus on what the American people are telling us that they want the administration to do. But a huge shout-out to the team in the White House. They did an awesome job last night. You could see the staff lurking in the background as they were making these introductions.

[01:22:33] And a huge shout-out, I saw Brett back there when she introduced, brought DJ Daniels down and made sure that he was taken care of. And they did an awesome job. Shout-out to the staff behind the scenes because having all of those guests, having all of those pieces ready to go is not an easy thing to do. And they pulled off a masterclass. If I could just add one thing, too, really quick before you close out, Becky. All I want to say, I appreciate you guys and what you do.

[01:22:58] Listen, I am fundamentally in disagreeance with all you guys on pretty much everything you said. But I know you are all great people who have the best interests of this country at heart. And even though what you said fired me up and pissed me off a little bit, made me a little chippy, this is what we should be doing. Congress was not a great example of that yesterday. And I think conversations like this are what the country should look like. This is how we should be able to sit at a table and disagree.

[01:23:24] I would have clapped for that 13-year-old child, but congressional Democrats didn't. And that's their prerogative. So listen, I just want to say I appreciate you guys bringing on people who are very fundamentally different and believe things that are opposite of, at the polar opposite. But we can still sit here. And I have a deep respect for John and Becky and sometimes Michael. But it's what makes us country great is we can disagree and do this. And our government needs to get back to that. Wanted to get off my soapbox.

[01:23:52] And we appreciate the spiciness. I know it's not always easy. I've been there as well. But we do think it's important to have these conversations and to have folks like you both willing to be on here and sometimes be out on that limb alone. Thank you, Julia. Thank you, John. And of course, thank you, Michael. All yours. We want to thank you both and everyone, including you, Becky. This was, hands down again, one of my favorite episodes. Probably the spiciest. And I'll have to warn my mother about some of the language. But it was well worth it.

[01:24:19] And I want to thank you all and our listeners for joining us for another episode of The Breakdown with Brodker and Becky. Before you go, show us some love for your favorite podcasts by leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts or on the platform where you listen. You can also follow us on our website or across all social media platforms at BBBreakPod. The Breakdown with Brodker and Becky will return soon. Thank you so much for joining us today. Bye. Bye. Bye.