The Rich Zeoli Show- Full Episode (04/22/2024):

3:05pm- Later today, former President Donald Trump returns to The Rich Zeoli Show for an exclusive interview! Make sure to tune in at 5:00pm—you won’t want to miss it!

3:10pm- Jonah E. Bromwich and Kate Christbek of The New York Times write: “The Manhattan district attorney’s office and lawyers for Donald J. Trump presented opening statements to jurors on Monday, with prosecutors accusing the former president of entering a criminal conspiracy while the defense sought to discredit two key witnesses. A prosecutor, Matthew Colangelo, began by telling jurors that Mr. Trump had conspired with his former fixer, Michael D. Cohen, and the publisher of The National Enquirer, David Pecker, to conceal damaging stories during his 2016 campaign.” You can read more here: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/04/22/nyregion/trump-hush-money-trial/the-opening-arguments-gave-a-preview-of-how-the-two-sides-will-present-the-case?smid=url-share

3:30pm- Andrew C. McCarthy of National Review writes of former President Donald Trump’s “hush money” trial which began Monday morning: “Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is an election denier. In the trial that began in earnest this morning, he and his assistant prosecutors are trying to hoodwink the jury into believing that they have formally accused Trump of stealing the 2016 election—as if that were an actionable criminal charge.” You can read the full article here: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/david-pecker-will-be-braggs-first-witness/

4:05pm- On Saturday, the House of Representatives passed four foreign aid bills totaling $95 billion—including a package that would send $60 billion to Ukraine. The bills had cleared a procedural hurdle on Friday with bipartisan support—316 to 94, passing with more Democrat than Republican support. The aid package includes a measure that, if passed in the Senate and signed by President Joe Biden, would force Chinese company ByteDance to sell its popular social media platform TikTok to an American-based company—citing a threat to national security. Refusal to sell TikTok would result in the app being banned in the United States.

4:10pm- Eric Boehm of Reason writes: “Tech companies and First Amendment groups are calling attention to a provision in a domestic spying bill that they say would significantly expand the federal government's power to snoop on Americans' digital communications—potentially by forcing employees of private businesses to become informants. The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), a global trade group that represents major tech companies including Google and Microsoft, is calling for last-minute changes to the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), which could get a final vote in the Senate on Friday. The bill's primary purpose is to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows U.S. intelligence agencies to scoop up communications between Americans and individuals abroad. But the bill also includes a provision that ‘vastly expands the U.S. government's warrantless surveillance capabilities, damaging the competitiveness of U.S. technology companies large and small, and arguably imperiling the continued global free flow of data between the U.S. and its allies,’ the ITI said in a statement this week.” You can read the full report here: https://reason.com/2024/04/19/how-the-fisa-reauthorization-bill-could-force-maintenance-workers-and-custodians-to-become-government-spies/

4:30pm- Dave McCormick—Republican Candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania & former Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs during the George W. Bush Administration—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to preview tomorrow’s Pennsylvania primary, and his campaign to unseat Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-PA) in November’s general election. You can learn more about his campaign here: https://www.davemccormickpa.com

4:45pm- While speaking to the press before boarding Air Force One last Wednesday, President Joe Biden seemingly suggested that his uncle was eaten by cannibals in New Guinea…wait. what? The White House later clarified that Biden’s uncle had not been eaten by cannibals—however, according to reports, the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea is not happy about the unsubstantiated claim!

5:00pm- President Donald Trump—the presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee— joins The Rich Zeoli Show to preview Tuesday’s Pennsylvania Primary. President Trump weighs-in on numerous topics including the Biden Administration’s indifference towards securing the U.S. Southern border, biological males competing in women’s sports, Congressional renewal of FISA, and his ongoing fight against politically motivated legal charges which are preventing him from campaigning in key swing states. President Trump jokes of President Joe Biden’s numerous policy failures: “Jimmy Carter was brilliant by comparison.” Plus, are we on the precipice of World War III? President Trump notes that prior to Biden taking office “you never heard this kind of language. You never heard this before when it was the Trump Administration—nobody talked about World War III.” He goes on to implore Pennsylvanians to “get out to vote!”

5:30pm- Author Les Leopold joins The Rich Zeoli Show to talk about his new book, “Wall Street’s War on Workers: How Mass Layoffs and Greed Are Destroying the Working Class and What to Do About It.” You can find his book here: https://a.co/d/aUfaEoA

6:05pm- Jonah E. Bromwich and Kate Christbek of The New York Times write: “The Manhattan district attorney’s office and lawyers for Donald J. Trump presented opening statements to jurors on Monday, with prosecutors accusing the former president of entering a criminal conspiracy while the defense sought to discredit two key witnesses. A prosecutor, Matthew Colangelo, began by telling jurors that Mr. Trump had conspired with his former fixer, Michael D. Cohen, and the publisher of The National Enquirer, David Pecker, to conceal damaging stories during his 2016 campaign.” You can read more here: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/04/22/nyregion/trump-hush-money-trial/the-opening-arguments-gave-a-preview-of-how-the-two-sides-will-present-the-case?smid=url-share

6:15pm- Speaking outside of the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse on Monday, former President Donald Trump grilled New York Attorney General Letitia James for her refusal to accept his $175 million bond in a civil fraud case. Later in the day, James agreed to accept the bond after minor modifications.

6:30pm- While appearing on Fox News, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) said that Congressional reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)—without new safeguards—is similar to giving a fox the keys to the hen house.  

6:40pm- Irsa Hirsi, the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and a student at Barnard College at Columbia University, was recently suspended for anti-Israel protests and refusing to leave a makeshift encampment on campus. Despite Jewish leadership at Columbia suggesting that Jewish students are no longer safe on campus due to the threat of violence from radical leftist protesters, Teen Vogue decided to write a glowing piece about Hirsi this weekend. On Monday, Columbia University was forced to hold classes online.