Congressman Buddy Carter on the Fair Tax Act and Keeping Republican Momentum Alive
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Welcome to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. As always, jumping right into the deep end, our friend of the show, Congressman Buddy Carter represents Georgia's 1st Congressional District. You can follow him on X at RepBuddyCarter. Congressman Carter, welcome back to the program. Oh, thank you for having me. Always a pleasure.

but let's start with the uh a first a irrelevant issue republicans are going into dc president trump has a 56 approval rating um for his transition 50 approval in the country it's high biden leaves the lowest um for the first time since the cold war beginning the cold war democrats are very low in public opinion how do republicans keep this momentum with the american public to going forward

Well, the one thing that we can do. Having a little bit of technical difficulty there.

I apologize, Congressman. We missed that, what you just said, if you could start from the beginning there again. Sure, sure. Well, the first thing we can do is to push forward President Trump's agenda. I mean, after all, he was given a mandate. Seventy-seven million people voted for Donald Trump for president. You know, he got more votes than the Republican members of Congress got, than the Republican members of the House of Representatives got.

And I think that that says something right there and something we should pay attention to.

he won the popular vote he won obviously he he won the the vote as well the electoral college but he also won the popular vote and people understand what he what he is saying and what he is trying to do we in congress we in the house specifically in the first 100 days we need to pass and we need to extend the tax cuts in the jobs act if we do not do that

That's going to result in the highest tax increase ever in American history, and we can ill afford to let that happen. That's why the next 100 days are extremely, extremely important.

And it's particularly critical, I think, because so many Americans are still suffering from the effects of inflation. Even having, you know, with Trump coming in and getting inflation down further than where it is, those effects are going to take years to overcome. So if you're adding a big tax increase on top of that, it's hitting people hard right in their wallets.

You know, there's no good time for a tax increase, but now is the worst time because of the cost of living and how high it is. I mean, people are really hurting out there. We get calls in our office all the time from people who are trying to figure out how they're going to afford gas, how they're going to afford groceries. And

That's a result of the Biden-Harris administration policies. Well, now Donald Trump has campaigned on the fact that he's going to decrease inflation. He's going to decrease the cost of living. He's going to secure our border. He's going to make sure that our cities are safe. He's going to make sure that we're respected on the world stage again. All of those things are things that, yeah, he's going to sign 100 bills.

executive orders come Monday when he's inaugurated. But he's going to have to have the help of Congress as well, specifically at the House of Representatives, where in the House of Representatives, we have less of a majority than they do in the Senate. The Senate's got a three-seat majority. We're going to be down to a one-seat majority. That's the least you can have and still be in the majority. And you've got some real feral cats in the caucus. Yeah.

I've never heard it put that way before, but I like that.

And you're absolutely right. We do. We do have some bomb throwers who think that you've got to blow it up. Look, I respect my colleagues, particularly my colleagues in the Republican conference. I serve on the budget committee as well as the energy and commerce committee. I understand how dire a situation we're in with our debt. You know, the fastest growing portion of our budget right now is the interest on our debt.

We're spending more on the interest on our debt than we are on defense. The number one responsibility of our federal government is to protect our homeland. And you can only do that through a strong defense, yet we're spending more on the interest on our debt. I get it. But at the same time, we've got to cooperate and we've got to work with the president.

We've got to raise the debt ceiling so that he can do things that he needs to do. You know, I was in business for 32 years and I will tell you, sometimes you gotta spend money to make money. And right now we're gonna have to spend a little bit of money in order to save some money later on. And we can do that. If you look back at the Tax Cots and Jobs Act that was passed in 2017 under the Trump administration,

The revenues skyrocketed after that. And that's what's going to happen again if we can continue it, if we can extend them, and especially if we can make them permanent, which I hope we can do. I think that's important because Democrats always seem to ignore the Laffer curve where we've kind of passed the point where if you keep raising taxes, you're actually going to generate less revenue.

The avatar for that right now is probably I believe it's Norway where businesses are fleeing like crazy from a tax that Democrats have proposed here, a wealth tax on unrealized gains. Everything they're doing seems designed to tank the economy more.

whereas you've come forward with a tax plan that's very aggressive. You don't have to be a bomb thrower to put together good legislation. Tell us a little bit about the tax plan you've promoted. Well, this is a Georgia plan. It's called fair tax, of course, and it's essentially a consumption tax. Look, people don't like paying taxes. We all understand that. I don't like paying taxes. However, given the choice between a property tax –

or an income tax or a consumption tax, people prefer consumption tax because they're in control. They can decide whether they want to pay the tax or not. I give the example all the time because you know, you hear about the Dems always saying, well, the wealthy, they don't pay their fair share. They don't pay their fair share. Although they pay, I think 70% of all the taxes, nevertheless, that's what the Democrats like to holler. I give the example.

You know, if a Democrat's going to buy a boat, they're going to buy, or excuse me, if a wealthy person is going to buy a boat, they're going to buy a yacht. Now, if I buy a boat, I'm going to buy a John boat. The taxes on a yacht are a lot more than the taxes on a John boat. I will tell you that. Well, and one of the things that makes sense about that to me in terms of a consumption tax model is,

is kind of the issue with our current tax system on income taxes is that most people, it comes out of their paycheck and they just see it as a line on paper. Whereas when you're talking about a consumption tax, when the tax rate goes up or down, boy, you know it. We're having a little more technical difficulty. We've had some issues with the studio today. I very much apologize for that. Congressman, are you still there with us?

Yeah, I'm still here. Okay, go ahead. We cut out for a moment there. Okay.

You know, and thank you for mentioning that because, you know, when you ask somebody how much they make, they may say, okay, I make $50,000 a year. I make $75,000 a year. But that's not what you take home. And we all understand that. Now, with the fair tax, if you make $50,000 a year, you'll bring home $50,000 a year. If you make $75,000 a year, you'll bring home $75,000 a year.

Now, how much are you going to pay in taxes? You get to decide how much you're going to pay in taxes. Now, you're going to have to pay a certain amount. We understand that. There's going to be a certain amount because you're going to have to have staples. You're going to have to have groceries. You're going to have to have gas. You're going to have to have those things. And those are the kind of things that... But the other things, if you want to buy a new washing machine and dryer, you're going to pay taxes on that. And

And it gives you the opportunity, the taxpayer, to be in charge. And you can decide how much you want to pay in taxes as opposed to an unelected bureaucrat who's going to be deciding how much you're going to pay in taxes. You know, the best thing about the fair tax is the fact that we can do away with the IRS.

You won't need the IRS anymore. You know, there was a study done in 2016, a survey that said that 27% of American citizens would be willing to have IRS tattooed on their body if we could do away with the IRS. Ha ha ha!

Probably a lot of my Jewish brethren would be willing to fork over our religion on that one. That's the other tenet of our religion. Oh, goodness. My goodness.

You know, one of the things about your proposal, and we want to talk also a little bit about what you've been proposing for health care, but one of the other elements of this that people are perhaps underestimating is the drive, the incentive this gives for people to save money, which you're talking about is not spending that on that new washing machine unless you really need it.

That's an important concept we've gotten away from, isn't it? It is absolutely an important concept and something that needs to change and change as soon as possible. We do need people saving more. If you look at – and particularly after the last four years of what we've experienced where, as we talked about earlier, the cost of living is so high now and people – credit card debt right now I think is at an all-time high.

People have maxed out their credit cards and of course they're paying interest on that too and paying it through the nose. And that's a problem as well. But yes, this will encourage people.

And it will give people the opportunity again to control their own destiny. They can decide. They can decide. And that's why, and another thing, you know, President Trump has proposed to do away with the tax on tips. Well, this is an opportunity to do just that. You do away with the tax on everything except for when you buy something.

And remember, this brings everybody into the equation, drug dealers, off-the-book workers, everyone who buys something, tourists. Whether you're in this country legally or illegally, you're going to pay a consumption tax. If you have to buy something, you're going to pay a tax on it. So it gets that underground market as well, if you will.

Absolutely. One I touch, we have just about a minute left here. You have a proposal to reinstate a Trump-era policy on health care. Can you tell us real quick what that is? Well, what we want to do...

You know, I'm a pharmacist by profession, and I've witnessed what has happened here with the PBMs, pharmacy benefit managers, the middlemen. And the president has come out, and he has also mentioned this, that that's where the problem is with a lot of the drug pricing. That's something that I've worked my –

my whole career, both in the state legislature in Georgia and in Congress, to do something about that, to give more transparency and to stop this vertical integration where the insurance company owns the PBM so that if you're getting a discount on the drug, it goes to you, the

the patient and not to the insurance company. And that's one thing that I'll continue to work on. I love that. Thank you so much, Congressman Buddy Carter. Folks, you can follow him on X at Rep Buddy Carter. We always appreciate having you on the program. We need more members in Congress like you looking for good alternative solutions. So thank you once again. Thank y'all. Folks, stay tuned. We've got a lot more coming up. Breaking Battlegrounds. We'll be right back.

Folks, this is Sam Stone for Breaking Battlegrounds. Discover true freedom today with 4Freedom Mobile. Their SIM automatically switches to the best network, guaranteeing no missed calls. You can enjoy browsing social media and the internet without compromising your privacy. Plus, make secure mobile payments worldwide with no fees or monitoring. Visit 4FreedomMobile.com today for top-notch coverage.

digital security, and total freedom. And if you use the code BATTLEGROUND at checkout, you get your first month of service for just $9 and save $10 a month for every month of service after that. Again, that's code BATTLEGROUND at checkout. Visit 4freedommobile.com to learn more.

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Continuing on, our next guest is Armando Ibarra, leader in government affairs and public policy, serves as chairman of the Miami Young Republicans and advisor to Hard Tech Miami and Cuba Decide. And he is a key voice on tech, trade, Latin America and tourism. You can follow him on X at A Ibarra. Armando Ibarra, thank you for joining us. A pleasure to connect with you guys. Thank you for the invitation.

Amando, first question that is totally different than the subject we're going to talk about. How is the tech industry doing in Miami?

Well, it's doing great. We've seen such massive growth in the last five years from anything from software to hard tech as I'm part of. And it's two to one is the business environment in Florida, but also the way that other states, blue states, have made it really difficult to do business. And Miami has really hit its own in the last five years as a center for business, a center for innovation. And

We'll see in the next decade as Florida grows in its activity in space and aerospace and engineering, where we see the growth of SpaceX and Blue Origin and manufacturing leading the way.

Armando, one of the things that I've been wondering about, here in Arizona we get a lot of business from California leaving there. But New York about 30 years ago created an enterprise zone that was very effective in bringing in a lot of tech to upstate New York. Those agreements are all kind of running out, and I'm hearing that a lot of those companies are looking for alternatives. Are they actively moving some of those industries into Florida right now?

New York is one of the largest sources of people moving to Florida, of companies moving to Florida, because the business environment is so much better here, because taxes are lower, and because we have built a pipeline for an educated workforce who are universities.

And so we're seeing such a huge growth in that. But also because Florida is leading the way in innovative public-private partnerships such as Space Florida. We're building, we're designating space zones across the state in areas where there are going to be incentives and infrastructure built to support innovation. And also because our higher education and our universities across the state, but also here locally in places like Florida International University and Miami Dade College,

that are building programs to develop next generation industries like artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing and aerospace. And so, you know, we're beginning to see just this is just the beginning of the fruits of space.

in a decades-long development in our capacity here in Florida, and we think that states like New York or California fail to make their business environment favorable, we'll continue to benefit from their failures and benefit from what we've done to advance our workforce and our infrastructure.

Go ahead. Go ahead, Tim. Swishing topics. So Joe Biden unilaterally this week removed Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism. He lifted sanctions on companies run by Cuba's military, which are probably all the profit generating ones. And he suspended a provision in the law that allows Cuban-Americans to seek compensation for confiscated property on the island.

Why do you think he did that, and how much does that upset the Cuban-American community in Miami-Dade and elsewhere? I believe that it was an outgoing shot to harm the interests of the incoming Trump administration to set back their policymaking as they take office. And it's an insult to Cuban-Americans, but also to Venezuelan-Americans, Nicaraguan-Americans, and Floridians.

who have voted overwhelmingly to support policies that hardline policies against the Cuban dictatorship, not only because it's a dictatorship and it hates America, but because it is a threat to our national security and to our hemispheric stability. The Cuban regime has not only supported terrorist organizations like Hezbollah or Hamas,

or the ELN, which is a terrorist guerrilla in Latin America. But it also maintains dangerous alliances with U.S. adversaries like China and Iran and Russia, and has propped up and essentially kept afloat the Venezuelan regime that has threatened U.S. interests. And so the Cuban dictatorship will use these concessions as appeasement

not to improve the conditions of the Cuban people that live in the most abject poverty and oppression, but they're using it to finance the Cuban military's capabilities and to fund foreign interference with the aim of destabilizing our region. In addition,

We've seen that the Cuban regime has very close and growing collaboration with China, for example, where just a few years ago we had photos coming out of Cuba of Chinese troops and military advisors on the island. And more recently this year, it was reported that there are at least...

four major electronic warfare bases controlled by China on Cuban soil that they use. They could use not only to spy or surveil, but they can use it as part of military capabilities during conflict to help China target missiles, to disrupt our U.S. satellite communications and GPS.

and even to disrupt or sabotage U.S. space launches out of Cape Canaveral. And so the capabilities of the Cuban military in partnership with U.S. adversaries such as China really threaten U.S. interests, national security, but also our economic interests because Cuba abuts the airspace.

entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, where the U.S. has major energy production and from where we also export our agricultural production through the Mississippi River. And so by abutting the Gulf of Mexico and putting Cuba in close vicinity to be able to disrupt

maritime traffic and commerce that is just pivotal to U.S. economic interests. Armando, we have just a little over a minute left in this segment. When we come back, we want to talk with you a little bit about the Marco Rubio confirmation hearing and some of the challenges ahead for him. But real quick before we finish, one of the things Chuck and I have talked about on this program is that for Cuba in particular, Cuba and quite frankly, I think North Korea,

These are countries where their population, if you gave them any real freedom, if you gave them a way, their entrepreneurial hardworking, these populations would be some of the most successful on the planet and their government continues to hold them back. Is there any hope that that will change anytime soon?

I have all the confidence that the incoming Trump administration is going to implement very strong, hard-line policies against the Cuban dictatorship in order to advance U.S. national security and economic interests. And so what I believe is that our national security and economic interests are aligned.

with the interests of the Cuban people. Freedom for the Cuban people is also going to be good for American national security interests because the Cuban people, if given the opportunity to decide their own leaders and to live in freedom, will choose to be aligned with the U.S. and will choose to advance economically in partnership with the U.S. And so I think that it would be a win-win for the Cuban people and for American people

to be able to isolate and hopefully to eliminate the dictatorship in Havana. Absolutely. We're going to be coming back with more from Armando Ibarra here in just a moment, folks. Stay tuned for that. You can follow him on X at A Ibarra. Breaking Battlegrounds, coming right back.

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your digital information and your digital footprint in a world where there are hackers tracking your every move. So check them out for freedom mobile dot com. We're continuing on now with Armando Ibarra. He is a leader in government affairs and public policy, serves as chairman of the Miami Young Republicans.

an advisor to Hard Tech Miami and Cuba Decide. When we went to break, we were talking primarily about Cuba, but I know Chuck had some questions about Marco Rubio and the challenges in front of him. So Armando, Marco Rubio had his confirmation hearings this week. He is the one committee, one person assigned by Trump that doesn't seem to have any problems getting confirmed.

What does it mean for the world as Marco Rubio being Secretary of State? Well, I think Senator Rubio in his confirmation hearing really delivered a master class in understanding the changing geopolitical landscape and understanding the importance of restoring our national interests and national sovereignty.

as the leading sort of guideposts for our policy, the world is changing. And the international order that existed just a decade or two ago is fraying under geopolitical competition, under the emerging power of the Chinese totalitarian state. And the United States has to adjust

policies in order to live up to this new reality and to ensure that our national interests are protected. And he showed that he understood this and he showed that he understands and I think is one of the best people in our government in explaining and articulating and implementing the vision that President Trump has put forward for the United States and for our foreign policy.

Armando, he has some particular challenges in Latin America where China has been increasingly muscular and increasingly active in recent years. Venezuela, we were talking previously about Cuba. How does he lead U.S. efforts to counter that and begin restoring U.S. interests on the Latin American continent?

Well, I think first he understands the importance of strengthening American leadership in our hemisphere and in eliminating Chinese influence in our hemisphere. And we've seen the Chinese dictatorship has made major inroads in trying to supplant American leadership in our hemisphere, not only in supporting China,

dictatorships like those in Cuba and Venezuela, but also in trying to subvert democracies around the hemisphere by through coercive trade, by investing as well in infrastructure that

is dual use ports around the hemisphere that are going to be used not only for trade, but potentially could be used by China for the military. And they're also trying to take control of key choke points like the Panama Canal or the Arctic in order to strangle America in our own hemisphere. And as Secretary of State, I think Secretary Rubio said,

is really going to articulate and implement President Trump's vision for our hemisphere, which is to strengthen American influence, to ensure that these choke points like the Panama Canal or the Arctic don't fall into the hands of China, and to protect our hemisphere from foreign interference, a sort of revival of a Monroe Doctrine to ensure the faraway powers do not come into our hemisphere to harm American interests.

We have just a minute and a half left. Is this – I'm sensing a real shift in the Republican Party when it comes to foreign policy and finally re-acknowledging the need to go and engage in some of these countries. Are you seeing that and do you think that will be a major focus in this next administration?

Absolutely. I think that really represents one of the major breaks of this administration with the prior administrations, which is that prior administrations neglected geopolitics. They believe that the U.S. could take a vacation from geopolitics, but President Trump understands the importance of geopolitics and the actions our country must take to strengthen our position

in our hemisphere and globally because we cannot just stick our heads into the sand and ignore the geopolitical landscape and how it's developed in the last few decades, really leaning against American interests. We have to ensure that our country is prepared to take the necessary actions to strengthen our position and it's really also recognizing reality.

Geopolitics is back, great power competition is back, and the United States must be prepared to lead in the 21st century. And that'll be a big break from how prior presidents have neglected our interests and geopolitics over the last few decades.

Absolutely. Amanda O'Bara, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate having you on the program again, folks. You can follow him on X at A. O'Bara. Stay tuned. We have Ken LaCourte coming up for our next segment, Breaking Battlegrounds. We'll be right back.

Folks, this is Sam Stone for Breaking Battlegrounds. Discover true freedom today with 4Freedom Mobile. Their SIM automatically switches to the best network, guaranteeing no missed calls. You can enjoy browsing social media and the internet without compromising your privacy. Plus, make secure mobile payments worldwide with no fees or monitoring. Visit 4FreedomMobile.com today for top-notch coverage.

digital security, and total freedom. And if you use the code BATTLEGROUND at checkout, you get your first month of service for just $9 and save $10 a month for every month of service after that. Again, that's code BATTLEGROUND at checkout. Visit 4freedommobile.com to learn more.

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All right. Continuing on, our final on-air segment today is with Ken LaCourte, friend of the show and host of the podcast Elephants in the Room. He writes about censorship, media malfeasance, uncomfortable questions, and honest insight for people curious how the world really works. Ken, thank you so much for joining us and welcome back to the program.

Hey, love to be here. You had a piece that I thought was important and fascinating recently talking about Newsweek beclowning itself in relation to homeless people cause most L.A. fires. I think this is something that people do not understand the scope of this problem. So if you can give us a little insight into what you're talking about there.

Let me walk through how I found it. So I saw the Newsweek headline, and it had in quotes, the latest conspiracy theory was that satanic meth addicts were causing the fires in Los Angeles. And I was like, okay, you know, they found somebody silly to say it. And then by the first sentence, I knew something was crazy because they were talking about Harper Carlson. And journalists just...

Their brains short circuits when they talk about journalism. They just set all logic and reason aside, and they just go blah, blah, blah, and Newsweek did the exact same thing. And what they cited, and I actually went and listened to Tucker's segment, he had Michael Schellenberger, who's actually a very good, he's kind of a fearless reporter. He was part of the Twitter files. He does a lot of stuff on San Francisco. He's excellent.

And for background, he was, I think, a high-level staffer with Nancy Pelosi. Like, this is not a right-wing conspiracy theorist. Yeah, well, he's become right-wing as the wings all move. And he stood in the same position. And he became conservative, I think, just by the process of not going crazy. We adopted him by default.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You know, I saw a picture of it. It was like Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Kennedy, a handful of other people. So it was like, you know, 15 years ago, every one of these guys was a Democrat. It was kind of an eye-opener. Anyhow, so back to this. So I listened to it, and this really isn't hidden data out of there. NBC had done a report on this. Even the New York Times, about three years, had done a report on this and found two things. One is, man,

Meth addicts actually do like to set a lot of fires. It's just one of the things that short circuits in their brains. And you just type in the word methamphetamine and arson and then like search out the ones where it was meth labs blowing up because that happens a lot. Happens once to me in a neighborhood in Malibu. Somebody rents a house. They start cooking their drugs in there and the house blew up.

But there's a secondary thing that just when they arrest a lot of arsons, they search them and methamphetamine on them is a common occurrence. And that has to do with paranoia. It has to do with, you know, it brings in schizophrenia. It does all sorts of things. And that's a result of that, as is just alcohol.

plain old like violence. I mean, a lot of the property crime and people crime is by people who are on hardcore drugs and have scrambled their brains. But the larger issue is

Homeless, according to the LA Times study that they did in 2021, they caused about half of the fires in the city of Los Angeles. Now, most of those are accidental. They plug into the power grid. They're cooking in butane inside of a tent. They're starting fires or cooking their own mess up in the hills. But a lot of times that craziness just kind of goes hand in hand. I live in Sausalito, California.

We had a COVID-era homeless camp for a little bit before my city bought them off. And, you know, they had multiple fires there. We had an explosion when one of the gals was mad at one of the guys, and she lit his propane tank on fire, which makes a big noise, I discovered. So...

And we're talking thousands. I don't have the article right in front of me right now, but we're talking 38 fires a day over the last year were caused by homeless people in Los Angeles. That's just a mind-boggling number. And you combine that, of course, and nobody knows yet how these current fires started, but you combine 38 fires a day in Los Angeles with 80 miles an hour winds,

that's just a recipe for badness. And so it's like, you know, you can't, people like to point a lot of fingers and there's some fingers to be pointed on these fires, but the breakdown of civilization that they have allowed in some of our major cities are definitely a strong hand in this. Without a doubt. And that's something we've seen here in Phoenix and we've seen in other cities, all the same conditions you're talking about.

And the impact of this rampant homelessness, the drug-addicted homelessness crisis that we have

extends to so many areas of society people don't consider like this one, like the strain on EMS and fire resources for going out and constantly being tasked with saving these folks' lives, dragging them into the hospital over and over again every month. It's really straining resources in a huge range of areas.

Yeah, it's horrible for the people that they're allowing to live like that, and it's horrible for everybody else. Yeah, unbelievable.

So Donald Trump is going to be sworn in Monday. We just reported that they're going to be doing it inside because it will be so cold in D.C. He's going in with pretty high approval rating. And we should note that while Chuck was invited by many people many times, he is staying here in Arizona because he's not a fool. I literally sent an email this morning, said, you coming to the dinner Sunday? I said, no, it's cold. I will be in Arizona. Good luck. Yeah.

But so, so Trump's going, so 56% of the nation approves of his handling of the transition. Um, he's got 50% approval. Biden leaves with the lowest approval rating for president. All good news for Republicans. And as all three of us know here, if there's a way to screw this up, Republicans are going to screw it up. Ken, what do Republicans need to do to keep the momentum? To me, it's just simply being competent and making people's lives better. What are your thoughts?

Yeah, I mean, they're going to have to keep kind of the – they've got a narrow coalition in Congress, certainly in the House, that they're going to – I think it's going to be the trickiest thing to deal with. How do you move forward on all of these things when you have some of the – I even hate to call some of the Marjorie Greene-Taylors far-right conservatives. You've got a –

a subgroup of that caucus that I think is more interested in how they look on, on dare say, TikTok or Instagram or social media than they're, than they're, than they're concerned about actually getting stuff done. And I hope that they can be kept under control. That's, that's, I think the Republicans biggest challenge is to make sure that they don't allow them to get too much on talking about bathrooms all day and thumping that great to pass that good. But, but there's going to be a lot of,

performative crap by the, you know, the Kerry likes of the world. And so I think that's their biggest challenge. Their second biggest challenge is to remember...

there and why they were sent to Congress and to keep their eye on those balls. You know, the concepts of corruption and of people doing favors for others and for people who who are politicians who who value their their own district ahead of the good of the world so that they are good of the country so that they they put in spending things that will get them fork inside of those. Those those impulses aren't going to disappear just because they're in the majority.

And that's what needs to be fought against. All that said, Trump is handling the inside game

in a night and day way than he was able to handle the inside. Right. Right. He's not, he's not this kind of like, you know, successful New Yorker who shockingly probably to him to won the presidency. And now how do you run it? He's, I've not seen in my lifetime and I'm 60 years old. I've not seen an administration come in with this kind of like one

We're ready to go on day one with the types of people they pulled in. He knows what he wants to accomplish, and he has a good team to do it. So that's an encouraging sign. It really is. Well, it's like when they had the speaker election still in the first round, and he got Congressman Norman and one other congressman on whose name escapes me, and the speaker won the first round. I mean, and that's because he called.

And his comment to him was, hey, I got elected. We got elected to get something done. We don't have time for this. And I'm interested if he keeps that up because I do think it's powerful. Just saying we have an agenda we've got to press forward. You need to play ball and play as a team. We're not going to –

It's an interesting new Donald Trump world. And I think that it's also interesting for guys like you and media outlets like this. If I'm the comms director working for Trump, I know that there's not going to be one day a week where the formerly mainstream media, the left-wing media, isn't going to find a reason to attack him. So I think that they will be offering up...

a lot of red herrings up there. Let them attack me. I'm not going to, he's not going to overrule whether he's going to use the military to take back the Panama Canal. Okay, there's a perfect example of let them talk about that for a week as you are winding down DEI in the military, as you are opening up drilling and a lot of carbon-based energy resources that we need for this country. You're doing all those things. So I think that

one of the interesting things for, for kind of like, like I consider you like a secondary form of, of, of media out there is to say, okay, here's kind of the national conversation. And it's, it's not really, and this is the first time it's not going to be driven by the NBCs and Washington posts of the world. It's, you know, we've, we're finally at parity with the alternative media to the formerly mainstream media and, and otherwise Trump wouldn't have been elected. Right. And, and,

And I think it'll be interesting for guys like us to say, what's really going on instead of just that narrative that you're supposed to hear from NBC or from the New York Times that they want to go? Because there's going to be fascinating things that are happening in this administration that...

The New York Times, the Washington Post, all of those guys are going to completely miss because they're going to be bobbing after the weenie of Panama or whatever, whatever the Trump administration is kind of deciding to to throw at them to to keep them off of their off of the trail of stopping real reform. Ken, is is that going to happen?

One of the things that I think we've all seen in the media in recent years, if you go back 20, 30 years ago, media was far more versed in policy than they are today, quite frankly. And is that kind of a weakness you're talking about that they're able to exploit? They don't really understand a lot of in-depth policy, so they're chasing these shiny balls.

That's 100% true. You see articles sometimes these days. I mean, you used to see – I mean, look, there are some smart outlets out there, right? I mean, I still read the National Review every morning. I watch the two ways is Mark Halperin and Sean Spicer and Dan Turrentine.

excellent excellent analysis but but people who like right up most of what like what stuff you see in n_b_c_ often not always they still got specialty people there but a lot of times it's written by a twenty five-year-old kid who the next article that he or she is going to write is about uh... is about skydiving and the one after that is going to be about cholesterol in french fries and then they're gonna write what is dead and it

there is such a lack of depth in, in, in the reporting and such a copy paste attitude towards it that yeah, you have to, you have to make a concerted effort to find smartness in the world. So, um, president Biden gave this farewell address, which was just the most, it was the most disillusioned. We just got a minute 30 left. So yeah, it's just the most delusional thing with our minute 30 left.

Ken, what are one or two points he made that you just shook your head and said, is this guy stoned? Is he what is he? I mean, what stood out to you that was just so crazy about it? You know, I'm guessing for the last six months, Biden kind of read whatever they put in front of him.

Yes. You know, he was elected to be kind of the, there was a Joe Biden that I liked. He was always goofy. He was always a blowhard. But when he was elected, it was like, okay, yeah, I want Trump. But at least he's going to bring a jocular, easier going attitude. He's not going to be playing these flamethrower wars. And then when he first gave that speech, and it was years too into his presidency, where he was in front of the blood red thing, where he basically said all Republicans were Nazis.

and whatnot. From that point on, I was like, okay, he is... I think we lost Ken, but we... He was saying...

Go ahead, Ken. Oh, shoot. Oh, the stuff that he said in this was so devolved from reality and anything he did as president, it was just bizarre. It was a very strange, very strange final speech. Folks, if you're not already downloading the podcast, be sure you do that. We're on Substack, Spotify, everywhere else. We want to thank Ken LaCourte, the author of Elephants in the Room. You can find him on those same platforms. Breaking Battlegrounds will be back on the air next week.

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Welcome to the podcast segment of Breaking Battlegrounds with yours, Chuck Morin. I'm Sam Stone. We're going to launch into Kylie's Corner, get all our murder and mayhem update here in one moment. But in the meantime, folks, if you're listening to this, it means you're a podcast subscriber, podcast listener. Send this to one other person. Do us that little favor. If you think Breaking Battlegrounds has value to you, see if perhaps one of your friends can find some value in what we're talking about each week here as well. Thanks.

So thank you so much. We all appreciate every one of our listeners. And now we're going to try to turn your stomach, I guess, Kylie. What do we got? I actually have some less stomach turning things today. So wait, this is not a normal? No. This one, like my first topic is actually kind of fun. I don't know. I did this big build up about, you know. Sam, it's a new morning in America starting Monday. That's right. So Kylie is setting the tone for America.

Yeah, I felt like there was enough negativity lately that I would bring some more fun convo. I mean, we used to do this as the sunshine corner and have a fun story each week. Yeah, we need to start that again. Kylie's interest did not lie in the sunshine. Yeah, this is sunshiny. So Trump and his family actually make history, but not just for the reasons that everyone else thinks it's for. It's actually for their height. And I really resonate with this because I stand six feet tall.

Even though when guys sometimes they ask me how tall I am, I say six feet. And how tall is your husband? He's six four. So you guys are going to have some very lengthy children, I think. Yes. Don't get her started why she doesn't want daughters. It's a whole height issue. The people don't have time for this. Yes, but I need it sometimes to justify the shopping. Like, who am I going to give my bags to? You know, I don't know.

But anyway, so we're going to start with Melania. So Melania, she's 5'11". And there's a three-way tie for the tallest first lady. It's her tied with Eleanor Roosevelt and Michelle Obama.

I didn't know Eleanor Roosevelt was that tall. Yeah, actually, the Roosevelts were known to be the tallest family for quite a while. The sons were the tallest until the Trumps came along. Yeah. They were around 6'3", and then Eric Trump came, and he was 6'4". Right. And that was until Barron Trump grew up, and he is now 6'9". That is astounding. Yeah. So for the tallest first daughters, it was...

Yeah, who cares who it was before? But it was it was somebody it was somewhat taller than Saul. But so Malia Obama, when she was 10 or she was 10 when they first took office and when she left office, when Obama left office, she was 5'11".

Okay. Along with Sasha. Sasha and her are both 5'11". I mean, they're both tall. The parents are tall. Yeah. Yeah. And then Ivanka Trump, she came along. She's also 5'11". So there's a three-way tie there. If my dad was president, I would be the tallest. But, you know, I'm not. I mean, she can't slip in a half inch and just claim the title somehow. Right. But there's a half-inch debate right here. So Trump, he's 6'3". Tallest president is Lincoln. He's 6'4". So there's no debate there. But the second place, there is a debate because –

Lyndon B. Johnson, they're saying he was 6'3 1⁄2", according to the Wikipedia Heights of Presidents page. But Trump argues that Johnson's 1941 physical exam for military service has him recorded as 74 1⁄2". So there's two points about this. First of all, there's a Wikipedia page dedicated to him. So that's item number one. Number two, Trump has looked it up to argue the point. That is the two novel points here today. Yeah, so...

His military record at one point said he was 6'2 and a half, and then another record said he was 6'2, and this was when he was 33 years old. So he was well done growing, he is claiming. So if anything, there's a tie for second place. Okay. Well, I don't know. I feel like the military measurement's probably pretty darn accurate. I would assume too. Yeah. Yeah. More accurate than the Wikipedia page of tall people. Yeah.

I mean, so that's one thing. They're not playing games with that, right? Like that's something that they're doing as part of their intake process and it's pretty – Yeah, and I had to put it – he was 33. I had to make sure he wasn't 18 because he could still be growing. Right. Well, and 33 is great because you're not shrinking yet either. Exactly. Yeah, because they tried to say – so Trump has –

arrest records said he was 6'3". So we got that cleared in 2023. Okay. Those are his records. He might have been 6'3 and a half when he was younger. Yeah, because they're saying you are between 30 and 70, you lose an inch as a male. So you might be losing an inch or two. Oh boy.

Yeah, that's bad when you start at 5'6". Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's not good. Actually, I have a very interesting thing that I don't think many people have been hearing about. And it's about there's been some train heists in Arizona. Have you guys been hearing about this? No. Really? Yes. So this all started in October when the Arizona Republic reported supposedly the first train heist that has happened in over 100 years.

But there was a report of another one that was in July. But really, they're getting this information from the arrest reports. And it wasn't until the Homeland Security got involved. So, yeah, well, trains don't want to report that. Right. If you remember, I don't know if you saw the movie, but Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid is

The train companies do not want to report those robberies, right? No. Because they're targets. They're easy targets, actually. Yeah, and it's actually getting out of control up here. I know it had gotten out of control in Los Angeles and some of the areas in California. And I wonder if it's the same here. They are really easy targets, unfortunately. Are they cartels? Yes. Well, they are to believe to be cartel members, yes. Because the most recent one – I'm going to go through the most recent three that just happened. Yeah.

In October, the first two suspects were caught because Homeland Security did start getting involved and they were chased from the train and two people were caught. And then in December, there was a train heist that happened in Mojave County. There was four people arrested and they got caught stealing $50,000 worth of Nike shoes that were headed to a Dick's Sporting Goods here in Arizona.

which was coming from California. So they're saying they're connected that way. Well, I don't care because every Nike shoe is too narrow. They can have them. And then on Monday, this past Monday that just happened, 11 people were

were arrested for stealing $300,000 worth of Nike sneakers from a train. So according to the arrest records, they were breaking the air hose, which then cuts the brakes to the train. And investigators, because Homeland Security had gotten involved, actually placed tracking devices in the cases of these Nike shoes.

And they caught two box trucks driving on Interstate 40 in Kingman. So they stopped those, got the drivers. There was two people there that had about half of the stolen things. And then there was another rented U-Haul that apparently had broken down. They said there was like a damaged oil pan. And then a SUV that drove away from the U-Haul to which CCSO deputies stopped that SUV, which had nine people.

And they were all arrested. Cochise County Sheriff's Office, by the way, for those who. Cochise County. Yep. Sorry about that. Southern Arizona. And then but this past one was stolen shoes from unreleased Nikes. They were the Nigestal. Oh, my gosh. I put two words. Nigel Sylvester Air Jordan for Brick by Brick, which isn't supposed to launch until March.

Okay. So let's just talk about shoe naming conventions for a moment. See, that's why I was stumbling over it. I don't even blame you. That's ridiculous. Yeah. But the Homeland Security is not knocking the fact that there could be an inside, someone working from the inside. Oh, sure. Because all of the robber, they hit the trains with Nike stuff and seem to know exactly which containers to hit.

Well, it's interesting little statistic I just looked up. Approximately 28% of all freight in the United States is transported via trains.

Well, 100 trains go through Arizona a day, more than 100. It's also an avenue, by the way, because semi-trucks are weighed so carefully. Like you can't weigh a pound of drugs in a semi-truck. Like even one pound in a semi-truck, you're at risk because they weigh them in just about every state they go through. The same is not actually true of trains. Right.

So in terms of smuggling and counterfeiting, that's actually an avenue that Homeland had previously identified as a weakness. Wow.

Well, I'm telling you, I could see this happening more and more because they are easy targets. They go through very desolate areas of the country. Yep. And there's not like a bunch of armed people on them. I think it's harder to rob a diesel transporting something than it is to train, frankly. Much. And not only do they go through areas where there isn't much around, but even when they go through like metropolitan areas –

They have very large areas that they own around the tracks for loading and unloading that are – it's not well lit. They're in low-income areas for the most part. There isn't great security around it. So getting access to a train that's stopped on the tracks is not that difficult. Well, and also for our green-loving friends –

Rail transportation contributes just 1.8% of U.S. greenhouse gases despite moving 40% of all long-distance freight. It's super. So it's economical. It's clean. You're going to see this more. It's super efficient. It's actually one thing that, you know, the green lobby loves to talk, Chuck, as we all know, about high-speed rail.

But if you really want to cut down carbon footprint and improve goods, the cost of good transportation of goods in this country, expanding commercial rail, cargo rail, it makes far more sense than trying to worry about building high-speed passenger trains. So we need to start putting mounted machine guns on top of these trains. Yeah.

I mean, we did that in World War II and I, you know. You may see it again. I'm all for it. People may think that's crazy, but you may see that again. Be a good way to employ some veterans. Yeah. I mean, let's be honest. It's great if the Red Baron attacks you also.

I'm having a little fun with this picture of machine guns mounted on top of trains here in this country because, boy, there's all sorts of crazy mayhem we could have with that. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's fascinating. Boy, I feel a Hollywood movie coming out of that that continues. Right? Yeah. Maybe already in the works. And actually speaking of Hollywood movies, Chuck, you actually had sent in our little group text a thing about Lord Cochran.

About what? Lord Cochran, the British sea captain. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And that I do not – you made the comment and I agree 100%. I do not understand how that guy's life is not a miniseries.

No, I mean it's perfect for like Netflix or Hulu. I mean it would last seasons because of all the various adventures he's on. I mean it's almost like somebody wrote down this adventure novel for kids that lasts – it's like something – frankly, I should talk to Richard Paul Evans about it. Yes. Because it's a brilliant idea, and it's just –

I mean, you know, he wasn't respected, so the Italians hired him, the Chileans hired him. I mean, all these neighbors, all these navies hired him when they were in trouble and he won. Then he got hired someone. I mean, he's almost a mercenary because England didn't want him for a while. Yeah, and he was kind of a wild child captain of a frigate captain in that era of sailing ships.

And of the several hundred years of that general, you know, general era, he is by far the most successful frigate captain in naval history. One hundred percent. Just yeah. No, it's incredible. In case people don't know, they're moving the inauguration Monday.

because it's going to be so bone-chilling cold. The last time they did that was 1985 for Ronald Reagan, where temperatures dropped to seven degrees. The thing we were talking before the show today is all those people who have gone out there at great expense to watch the soiree in, and I'm not sure they're going to be able to see it live inside the Capitol Rotunda. Are you, Sam? No, and I think you're going to have to feed it into...

You're going to have to feed it into like one of the stadiums or that kind of thing, because most people aren't going to see the thing they're actually there to see. Capital One Arena there could probably seat about 20,000 people if you put them on the floor. I mean, I think still I think reasonably nobody wants Donald Trump. Well, nobody on the right of the center right now would like Donald Trump to become William Henry Harrison, who speaks for three hours in the cold, gets pneumonia and dies. No, it's not only that you're going to have some older people there, but you got to think about this.

You have a couple hundred thousand people that are not going to be able to see this swearing in who went to D.C. this weekend to see it. Yeah. This is a big deal, actually. I mean, you get why they made the move, but my goodness, that's...

A lot of people are spending a lot of money to be there for something they're not going to be able to watch. I know. And dear listeners, again, this shows the great wisdom of myself for not traveling out there because it was too cold. Well, look. I mean, you bounce between Utah and Arizona, but let's face it. You're basically Arizona at this point. Yeah. No, my blood's too warm. I'm walking around. It's 50 degrees this morning. I'm walking around literally in short sleeves and shorts, and I'm watching people walk by in winter coats.

Yeah, no, no. They got they got parkas. I remember my daughter was going to law school and she picked me up one day and it was 70. She was wearing a hoodie because it was so cold out. One last thing I want to discuss about a little bit here. Joe Biden's farewell address where he bid adieu may have been the most dishonest, delusional presidential address ever. Dishonest, delusional and bitter.

Yes, and the one thing I want to take point of is his attack on billionaires or as he calls them oligarchs now. And basically what Democrats view the billionaire class as palling, as long as they donate to us, they must obviously support democracy. If they support the other guy, they do not. But what people don't understand is –

In this election cycle, Biden had two billionaire donors versus Trump had one. Seventy-five percent of hedge funders gave to Kamala. Nine of the ten richest counties and 65 percent making over $500K donated to Democrats. Every accusation of these Democrats is purely a confession. Yeah, they're staring in the mirror.

Yeah, and I am so appalled by this man. He goes on and attacks these people. And again, look, I don't want oligarchs controlling the country, and they don't. But the oligarchs have been dictating policy. And Sam and I talked about this, and we're going to do our conspiracy theory right now. And Sam sort of gives me credits, but I'm going to say I'm not a conspiracy guy, but I'm going to tell you this. After listening to Zuckerberg on Joe Rogan,

I am convinced he got a call and twisted his arm hard to donate the $400 million and turn out money to the county recorders. I am convinced if somebody really did a deep dive, got some discovery, they're going to find out that he did not do that on his own. That doesn't mean he didn't want Joe Biden to win, but I am convinced to protect his investment in Facebook…

And because how he said how they yelled and swore at his staff, they went bonkers all the time. I am convinced he got a call from somebody very high up.

They said, look, we can make your life easier, but you need to do this. I'm convinced of it. I would generally think you're right about that. And, you know, one of the funny things, Chuck, I've seen all these calls out there by people on the left saying, oh, we've got to ban billionaires from donating this money. Well, go ahead. Go right ahead, because I'll put our small donor base up against the actual Democrat small donor base any day and any cycle possible.

I mean, just come on. Bring it on. I love he's attacking billionaires, but he gave the Medal of Freedom to George Soros, who, through his nonprofits and political donations, easily gave $300 million to $400 million this cycle. Easily. And the last cycle and the cycle before. And by the way,

Who's never criticized in all this is Mackenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos' old wife, who's given $19 billion to activist nonprofits who sway American politics all the time. Bill Gates' wife. Same story. Yeah. It's just this guy cannot get out of office fast enough. No. And the reality is he is – and we listen to Ken say, I like the old bumbling Joe. I think Joe has always been a son of a bitch.

And this is just truly who he is. And the problem is when you get older, you sort of see who somebody really is because their radar is less intent to criticisms and everything. You just say what you want to say. Yes, that's absolutely true. I think –

In Joe's case, this whole narrative throughout his career that this is some sort of good-hearted, well-intentioned man does not stand up to real historical scrutiny because he has been a son of a bitch from day one.

Yes, yes. I want to close a little bit, Sam and Kylie, talk a little bit about, again, Zuckerberg's interview on Joe Rogan. And he confirmed that the Biden White House made censorship their top priority. I mean, this is supposedly the group that loves the First Amendment, right? And they asked and pressured Facebook to remove true information like anything about vaccine side effects, which a free country allows you to have that conversation and make that choice, right? Yes.

And when Rogan asked who was they, Zuckerberg said, quote, it was people in the Biden administration. These people from the Biden administration would call up our team and like scream at them and curse them. Biden, he gave some statement at some point. I don't know if it was a press release or to some journalists where he was basically like, these guys are killing people. And I don't know then like all these different agencies and branches of government basically just like start investigating company after company. It was brutal.

Again,

This goes to my conspiracy, Sam. I am convinced he got his arm twisted so hard to put that $400 million in. And all our friends talk about stolen 2020 election. I think that and the hiding of the Hunter Biden laptop story are the two things that got Joe Biden reelected. I agree. And I would point to two very specific sort of personal things that have happened, right, that helped maybe more than anything else now. One –

Family tragedy or not, Elon Musk's child becoming totally turned into the woke mob and becoming transgender and all that kind of thing, which radicalized him to fight back and buy X and do all that. And then with Zuckerberg, which we talked about a week or so ago, his getting involved in MMA training.

where you're surrounded by people who are legitimate badasses, who are self-sufficient and tough and don't give in to social pressures. That's a totally different environment, and I think that opened the dam to changing his views of the world in a significant way. I agree. One last question for both of you. So they just had breaking news that the CIA analysts pled guilty to leaking top-secret Israeli military plans on Iran. Mm-hmm.

When someone in national security, the sworn oath of the United States does that, should they face the death penalty? I think they should be executed on the Capitol steps as soon as possible. Yeah, I think you guys, if you take a hard line on that a couple times, this nonsense will stop. Yes.

Well, 10 year prison steps have seen. Well, and the fact is, a lot of them have sort of been excused from this. I mean, we know this kind of stuff has gone on for decades now with certain portions of the foreign policy establishment and there have been zero consequences.

Exactly. That also reminds me of who else needs the death penalty. Did you guys see the New York Times article, Pedophilia, a Disorder, Not a Crime? Oh my goodness. Yes, yes, yes. That's disgusting. And here's the thing about it. The New York Times will claim, well, look, we allow free expression. It's an opinion piece. But look, what you put in your paper, something like that, you're giving some sort of

acceptance to it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you're, you're, you're specifically telling the intelligentsia that, I mean, who reads your paper still the, the Ivy league crowd that still follows you and believes in what you're saying. That's who you're trying to influence with it because they have oversized impact on governmental policy. Yeah, no, no, it's crazy. Well, folks, thank you for joining us this week on breaking battlegrounds. Um,

We hope you will share this with your friends. You can always visit us at BreakingBattlegrounds.vote or on Substack or wherever you find your podcasts. On behalf of Jeremy, Kylie, Sam and myself, have a great weekend and enjoy Inauguration on Monday.