Planes, Trains, & FBI Raids

Published Mar 6, 2023, 9:00 AM
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Center. Nice to be back with you. We've we've been. I've seen you a lot this week sub in DC, sub back here in Houston, and I do think we should explain to people what happened at Sea Pack. It was supposed to be and we had dinner of the night before, we planned out a big show. Some of that we're going to actually do it in today's show. But right before we were to go on stage, there was a vote called in the Senate that was pushed up. You guys, I learned very clearly that they have no clue what your schedule is. And then we said, basically, all right, here's our audible. All the centers have to leave Sepack, go back and vote, we'll have JD vance on the show. And that's kind of how it went down, which was really fun. Yeah, it was entirely inaudible. So we were planning to do the pod from the stage of Seapack. It was going to be you and me, and then we had a vote at one forty five that we had to get back for and so match Lap came to me and to you and said, look, I got thirty minutes until you guys are telling me you got to leave and he said, I've got you and I got jd Vance and he said, if you want, I just cut the time in half, give you fifteen minutes each, which is less time than we're supposed to have. Yeah, or you can somehow combine it. And so you and I looked at each other and we're like, okay, we're gonna do a guest and look, it helps. Jad and I are friends. So but it was and you can't paign for him, which was I think he actually really enjoyed the fact. It was like it was almost coming full circle. Yeah. No, it was a nice. But we literally didn't know we were doing it until about ten minutes before we went on stage with him, and Jad had a whole speech prepared, so I don't know what he was planning to talk about, but he had a speech prepared. And it's like, okay, I'll come on Verdict instead, and it now I will say it to give a sense. Look, SPAC has a big reach, both for the people in the room but also for the people watching. So when I invited people, I said listen. If you want to subscribe to the podcast, I said, pull out your phone and text the word Verdict to two four zero zero five, which, by the way, everybody can do right now if you're watching this podcast, that's the easiest way where you can subscribe the podcast. It's free. But you did that to the audience. Yeah, I did that to the audience. I told them, pull out your cell phone. And you can see all across the audience people pull out their cell phone, and I told him text the word verdict to two four zero zero five. And I always repeated at least twice two four zero zero five. You know how many people sent that text? How many? One thousand, one hundred and five. That's really cool. And so what you get back is a link to subscribe to the podcast. And so that was Spack is always a blast. But but I thought it was a good and lively show, and having JD made it made it all the more fun. It was really fun. I got to ask you something else quickly because it was an interesting weekend of news coverage. There was CPACK and there was Club for Growth their meetings sound in Florida. You were one of very few that actually did both because they both are very important to us winning back the White House, and you went to both, which obviously people are like, all right, is the Republican Party divided? Is it? Are we gonna get our act together and really coalesced and and and work together these different wings of the party. I came out of Seapack more encouraged. I did not go to Aforda with you. Did you come back encourage saying we can pull this off? Oh? Yeah? And look, the two are very different. I mean there was a lot of media coverage saying that Cepack was basically Trump of Palooza, that it was a lot of Trump supporters there, and the people speaking at Sepack are mostly closely aligned with President Trump. Club for Growth. You know, a lot of folks were calling it essentially De Santis palooza. Yeah, and a lot of the folks there are not aligned with President Trump. And I will say it was one of very few people to be at both and it's you know, we've got a big diverse party. And I'm good friends with President Trump. I'm good friends with Rond De Santas too, and so I would, uh, and I'm focused with both of them and everybody else on trying to trying to turn the country round. I think we're in a good place overall. Heading into the presidential was that your take coming out this weekend, that hey, we're gonna be okay, because there's a lot of people that think we're writing doom and gloom stories over the weekend. I didn't see it that way. Yeah, look, we'll see. There's still a whole lot of chaos between now and election day. I think Biden is badly off track, and so we've got an opportunity for a huge victory in November of twenty twenty four. Republicans got to avoid shooting ourselves in our own rear end and so hopefully that's what Republicans will do. There was a story we were going to get to talk about at sepack. We didn't get to play it because obviously we pulled an audible and it dealt with There was actually two different hearings, not one, but two different hearings that took place on the same day at the same time that were extremely important. Give a little background on that day on Capitol Hill, because one of them was dealing with Garland and you were questioning there. There another one dealing with the FAA and a major position there, and they were happening at the exact same time. Is that normal? Well, it happens a lot. It's one of the stranger things about the Senate is you'll often have multiple hearings going on at the exact same time. I'm on four different committees. I'm I'm the ranking member of Commerce, so the senior Republican on the Commerce Committee. I'm on Judiciary, I'm on Foreign Relations, and I'm on Rules and Administration. So those are the committees i'm on. And frequently you'll have multiple hearings that you have to go back and forth and back and forth. So when you see empty chairs at a hearing, that sometimes because senators having to run to different buildings. It so happened that the hearing with Merrick Garland was at the exact same time ten am on Wednesday, that the confirmation hearing for the Biden's nominee to be Administrator of the FAA, really important position in charge of keeping airplanes safe and keeping us safe when we fly home. They were both at ten am. And what that meant. So Judiciary has a rule which is that your order of questioning is based on seniority, but it has what's called a gavel rule, which it's seniority for every member present when the gavel comes down. So if if you're not there when the gavel comes down, everyone down Dias jumps in front of you. And so I'm fifth in seniority on Judiciary, I'm one of the most senior Republicans on Judiciary. So that morning, what I had to do is I was in Judiciary at ten am, and actually Durban was three minutes late, which was kind of really irritating because I just needed to be there for him to bang the gavel. I was there at gavel, which meant I could speak in my order of seniority and not wait until the very last Republican to ask my questions. So as soon as he banged the gavel, I got up and walked very quickly to a totally different building of the Commerce hearing where I was the lead, the senior Republican. And so the Commerce hearing had already started with my chair empty, and I made it there by the time I got started. But that that sort of thing happens a lot in the Senate. It is a new challenge with my being now a ranking member on a full committee, because I've got greater responsibilities to be there for much more of the hearing than if you're just a member of the committee. You usually show up, do your questions and leave, so as rancor, you try to be there as much as as much as possible. That is an interesting thing that I guess, and is that new that they do that with a gavel that it's always been the gavel rule. It's usually pretty easy for me because look, Judiciary, I like the issues. I care about it. On any important hearing, I'm usually there at gavel. It's going to be more challenging the next two years because I've got more responsibilities on commerce now and so I've got a juggling both. I want to go back to the Garland questioning. There is one part, Like I said, we didn't get to covert setback. We want to make sure we hit that day before I play a very contentious moment between you and the Attorney General Garland. I want to remind everybody about a gust of precious metals. If you are wanting to protect your retirement, if you want to protect what's happening with this crazy economy. We're talking about using gold and silver as part of your four one k or your irara, and you've saved one hundred thousand dollars or more, you need to check out a Gust of Precious Metals. A Gust of Precious Metals does things a little bit differently. They actually do a web conference with you where you sit down with them and they talk about your financial future. They talk about what your goals are and then they see if gold and silver is even right for you and your plan. Now, if your closer retirement or in retirement, you know, making up losses is really something you don't want to deal with because you've running out of time. 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There have been attacks all over the country, and yet that a Department of Justice has not brought these violent criminals to justice. You contrast that, if you're a violent criminal and you attack a crisis pregnancy center, that is not a priority in the Biden Department of Justice. Contrast that to Mark Howke, who's a pro life activist. He's a sidewalk counselor, and he had an altercation with someone who allegedly interfered with his son's personal space and threatened him his son, and he pushed him. Now, in an ordinary world, pushing someone would be maybe a simple misdemeanor assault, but not under the Biden Department of Justice. If you're a pro life activist, what can you expect. Well, in this instance, according to mister Howe's wife, two dozen agents clad in body armor and blist helmets and shields in a battering ram showed up at his house pointing rifles at his family. Why do you send two dozen agents in body armor to arrest a sidewalk counselor who happens to be prone life, but you don't devote resources to count to prosecute people who are violently firebombing crisis pregnancy. It is a priority of the department to prosecute and investigate and find the people who are doing those fire bombings. They are doing it at night and secret, and we have found we have found one group which we did prosecute. We found one. How many of them been? How many attacks? There have been a lot? And if you have any information specifically as to who those people are with, we would be glad to have. If you're an American, you see this, it's got to scare the hell out of you that there is two separate ways at this Department of Justice is working. Oh are they a Republican? Oh, let's really go after their conservative Let's go after them. They're a Christian, let's go if they sidewalk counselor, let's send twenty plus men there like it's the military rating your home. Well, look, the double standard is obvious with regard to the bombings and the attacks on crisis pregnancy centers. You heard the Attorney General articulate a new rule at the Biden Department of Justice. Apparently they don't do violent crimes anymore if they happen at night. Yeah, too hard to investigate. You know your dad, how many years was your dad a cop? I mean decades he was still works with the Sheriff's department. Now, So was it the rule that you only went after criminals if they committed crimes and during the daytime. No, In fact, he usually works still nights because that's when the stuff's going down. It's it's the most asinine statement of well, gosh, it happened at night. You know why they haven't had any prosecutions because he doesn't care about this. He is sympathetic to the violent criminals. He made the decision to devote thousands upon thousands of man hours to going after the January sixth protesters. If you're a little old lady who was in the mall on January sixth waving an American flag, he wants to know everything about you. If there was bank records, if you just happened to be in DC during that time, they were saying, well, maybe we should look at those people too. It is real simple. They aren't bringing prosecutions because it's not a priority, because he doesn't care. And you know, Mark how it's amazing. He offered to turn himself in. His lawyer said, all right, if you're going to prosecute me, my client will turn himself in. But the Biden Justice Department decided, nope, we don't want you to turn yourself involuntarily. We're sending literally twenty plus FBI agents. And I asked him the next question. I asked that we didn't play there, but I asked him, did you personally authorize that? He claimed he didn't. And this is the pattern. Merrick Garland followed, at most of the hearing is just dodging responsibly. Well, it's the FBI that does it. Well, it's the FBI that does it. Well, you know it's it's he's in charge of them. He is in charge. The FBI reports to the Attorney General. The FBI is under the Department of Justice. And I asked him, okay, well it happened. Do you wish to apologize to missus Howe and to their seven children that were woken up early in the morning by twenty plus FBI agents with rifles pointed at them, and he said, no, no, he doesn't. He doesn't apologize in the slights. By the way, how pushed a guy. You know they brought the case Merrick Garland prosecuted, not personally, but the Department of Justice under the league. Yeah, the jury acquitted him in a matter of minutes. The jury looked at it and said this is stupid. No, we're not going to send a guy to jail for thirteen years. That's that's what the statue, The statute that Merrick Garland went after this, this sidewalk counselor on made him live for up to thirteen years. And that's the political double standard we have. There was two things in that back and forth it really stuck out to me. One of them was he's asking you, if you have evidence, bring it to him, and it was a snarky line. I understood why said it, but I also think it was one of those oh you know what moments when you watched it afterwards that he walked into basically saying I'm literally not looking for evidence by default, is what he was basically admitting, saying if you've got something, give it to me, because I don't have it and I'm not looking for it. Well, and look at the last podcast we did at Seepack. We played my questioning with him about the protesters at the Spring Court Justice's house. He also played ignorance there, and there he blamed it on the marshals. And this is an interesting So it is true that there were marshals there to protect the justices. So I'm glad they were there. That was necessary, particularly given that we know someone traveled from California with a gun and a knife and burglary tools to murder Justice KAVANAUGHI leftist mad about the leaked Dabb's decision, but he tried to avoid responsibility by saying the marshals decide whether to arrest someone. Now he's right, the marshal's on site decide whether to arrest someone. But what he refused to take responsibility for is it is the prosecutor, and only the prosecutor, who decides whether to charge someone, whether to actually go to a grand jury, seek an indictment, get an indictment. Only Merrick Garland, only the Department of Justice can get a federal indictment. And once again you know, he's like, you know, he says, well, gosh, no one was arrested. These protesters at the justice's houses put up pictures of themselves on social media. There they are confessing, and and there the crimes committed which are to daunting it, and the statute is clear. I don't think we've spent enough time in this. I want you to explain why, not just for the Supreme Court, but in general, why we have serious laws about intimidation of judges of jurors. Why is that in place across all sectors of our legal system, because we need to have a legal system that operates fairly and free of intimidation. So you've got it is a federal crime to protest in front of a juror's home in order to influence the outcome of a case. You know, you think about it. Let's suppose you're a mob boss and you find out where the jurors live, and while the jurors are still considering the case guilty or not, you send a bunch of folks to their homes. That's called jury tampering, and you're going to go to jail. Quite rightly, you're supposed to. Anyway. You're supposed to the same as true for a judge. Look, the protesters were outside the justices houses before the dab's opinion had issued, so that there'd been a leaked opinion, but the court had not issued the opinion. Any one of those justices could have changed their minds. And that's why the law says, Look, you're not allowed to go and try to intimidate judges into changing their rulings. You're not allowed to go try to intimidate jurors into changing how they're going to vote in a case. And Merritt Garland knows all of that. The amazing thing is he was a judge for twenty four years. He knows that. He just agrees with the protesters in front of the justices homes, and he's sympathetic. Agrees is probably too strong, but he's sympathetic to the violent attacks on the crisis pregnancy centers. He's certainly not willing to put serious man hours into into trying to find out who did it because it's it's it's not important to him. One other thing in you as a lawyer, I go back in my mind to Waco when I see the government ratchet up the heat or the pressure on this house with these seven kids there, You're putting lives at risk, especially when you have direct communication with the attorney saying if you're gonna prosecute me, he will turn himself in. I'm assuming the reason why they have that communication you turn yourself in if you're going to be prosecuted, is so that there isn't a misunderstanding or this under siege moment or guns drawn when there doesn't need to be guns drawn because your attorney is going to walk you into a courthouse and book you, and they offer to do it, they didn't do it, And I say, wake up, because my point is one bad moment, one accident, one ratcheting up here. You're putting family members at risk now, just because you're trying to say we're the government. Sure, no, no, it's it's designed to terrorize. Listen. The Department of Justice has not pointed to any evidence that they had reason to think that that Holk was dangerous. You know, if you're going to arrest Tony Montana from Scarface, then you may need twenty agents and rifles and body armor, like if you're going to a drug dealer or gang bangers or a violent criminal someone that shows that they're willing to kill you. Yeah. Look, that's the circumstances where you need that kind of show of force for a sidewalk counselor who, on all indications it has been not only peaceful, but is devoting significant time to trying to save the lives of unborn children, not through violence but through speech and prayer. The FBI did it to send a statement. Number one, they don't care that they terrorize him and his family. Those children. Look seven kids. You and I are both dads, and imagine how your kids would react to twenty agents and body armors showing up and pointing rifles out. You'd be terrified. Yeah, and you know, I can't imagine that those kids are not having nightmares about it. I mean, that is a very And by the way, all the neighbors it's like the purp walk. Look, if you're a mob boss, you know what, they may put handcuffs on you and walk you down the street in front of the in front of the cameras to get it get on the news. The FBI did this because they want to send a message pro life activist, we don't like you. And he claimed he didn't personally authorize it. He either I don't know if he knew about it or not. I didn't. I didn't get a chance to answer. It ran out of time, so I didn't get to ask him if he knew about it or not. He certainly doesn't apologize for it now and he hasn't changed anything because and what he did is he just blamed the FBI's the FBI's decisions, the FBI decisions, they make the decision, then I'm in charge of them. But whatever, and if they screw it up badly, a reasonable boss, if you didn't know it about it at the time, would tell them, you screwed it up badly, don't do this again. You know what he did, though, he went ahead and prosecuted out so he didn't think it was screwed up that badly because he thought it was appropriate to go after him on federal charges instead of and that was directly under his Department of Justice. Right, you can separate yourself from the FBI, just so people understand the hierarchy here, and you can say, oh, that was the FBI that raided his house, but the decision of prosecute, you can't say that's the FBI's decision. That is the DOJ's decision, and I would wager a hundred bucks the prosecutors were fully aware that they were going on that raid early morning. I don't have proof of it, but the way it ordinarily operates in a situation like that, the prosecutor, maybe not the Attorney General, but the AUSA, the assistant US attorney handling the case would know about it, and depending at what level. Look, I would love to know who at the Department of Justice signed off on this use of force, who signed off on this prosecute, how far up the chain it went, And if we had a Department of Justice that actually was accountable to the people, we would know the answer to those questions, you know, the questioning From Garland's look, he's offended that senators dare ask him questions. He doesn't want to answer anything, and much less imply they did something wrong. And it is it's not just that he looks at senators on the Judiciary Committee, which by the way, is charged with oversight. It is literally our responsibility to engage an oversight over the Department of Justice, and we do that for both Republican and Democrat administrations. But his contempt is really contempt for the American people because it is saying you have no right to second guess me. I will not answer your questions because I don't answer to you. That's really dangerous. Yeah, it's dangerous. And while that was going on, there was another important hearing that was going on that deals with the FAA and another script there. Before we get into that, I want to remind you about Patriot Mobile. They are the only conservative Christian cell phone provider in the country. Why does that matter to you, Well, when you have a cell phone, and probably nine percent of you do, when you use your phone, when you send a text message, and when you pay your bill, you're actually supporting conservative causes that you actually want to stand up for. 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Senator, you mentioned there was a lot going on the same day. The FA administrator nominee has become a disaster, and there's also an issue here, a public corruption with this individual. But I want to start with just you kind of laying the groundwork for this guy at this hearing basic questions. FA is a big job being in charge of it's an even bigger job. And making sure you know, like what the FA does kind of important. Take a look. Thank you, Madam Chair Mister Washington, you've emphasized your time the CEO of the Denver Report twenty months. Have you ever flown a plane? Thank you for the question, Senator, No, I have never flown a plane. You weren't a military pilot or a commercial airline pilot. No center. Have you ever worked for an airline, no centator. Have you ever worked as an air traffic controller, No senator. Have you ever worked for a company that manufactures airplanes? No centator. Have you ever worked for a company that fixes airplanes? No center. So for twenty months, you've been in charge of the Denver Airport. You're in charge of the airport's buildings. Correct, I am in charge of everything that goes on at that airport. Okay, well, I'm not sure that's exactly right. You're you're in charge of parking at the airport. Is that correct? How many parking spaces are there at the Denver Airport? Thousands? Okay. You're in charge of all the shops and restaurants in the airport. How many restaurants are there in the Denver Airport? We have anywhere from one hundred and fifty to two hundred or so. You're in charge of coffee shops and closing stores and news stands. You're not in charge of the pilots, are you no, Senator. You're not in charge of the airplane mechanics, are you no? Senator? You're not in charge of the air traffic controllers? Are you no centator? You're not in charge of any of it. Look, I got to say this nomination is really astonishing. Look, FAA is a really important position. And if you look back at the people who've been nominated to lead the FAA under both Democrats and Republicans, they're typically really senior individuals in aviation. They would be fair to say a nonpartisan nominee. Usually, yeah, they're usually someone that has twenty thirty forty years experience in aviation. Many of them have been military pilots. When I asked you, you're in a military pilot. An awful lot of FAA administrators were military pilots. An awful lot of them were airline higlots or airline captains. Have twenty thirty years flying, you know, flying airline jets, um frequently, they have experience in management and an airline. Frequently, they'll have experience dealing with aviation safety. Frequently, they'll have certifications and other experience. Like it is a technical position. And in this instance, Phil Washington, he spent over over two decades in the military, and I certainly respect his military service. He was in the military, he was not involved in aviation, so his military service is honorable. It just doesn't have to do this new job. It doesn't have anything to do with planes. And then he was the head of the La Metro. Now the La Metro is buses and trains and and and he's an administrator and a bureaucrat. And then he got a pointed to be head of the Denver Airport. And look what the Biden administration is doing here is they've nominated him because some Colorado Democrats care about putting him in this position. And they're treating the FAA as a patronage position, they're treating it as just a spoil system. Let's stick a Democrat because this makes Democrat politicians happy. Both Democrat senators from Colorado came to the came to the committee and introduced him. And this is all about the Denver mayor was there. This is all about we're giving a favor, a political favor. And you know what, if there's as I put it out, I said, look, if they wanted to nominate him to the Amtrak board, and he was initially considered for the Amtrak board, that would have probably been fine. Like he might well have gotten bipartisan support to be on the Amtrak board. Okay, fine, he was a at the La Metro, dealt with dealt with train issues. That's fine. The FAA, Look, you and I are in planes all the time. When you get on an airplane, you were counting on the FAA to do everything possible to keep you safe. Now, that's not just the air traffic control. That's also the pilot, pilot training that that's also airplane manufacturer, it's airplane maintenance, you know. I asked him about the seven thirty seven mach You recall there were two horrific crashes of the seven thirty seven Max. Three hundred and forty six people lost their lives in those two crashes. When I got into the technical details about the seven thirty seven Max and I asked, why did those crashes happen? His answer was I don't know why they happened. And I said, you know what, I believe you, Yeah, I believe you don't know. And that's a big friggin problem because the head of the FAA should know. By the way, the administrator of the FA who at the time, who had been a pilot for I think almost forty years, the seven thirty seven Max was grounded. Now what happened is Boeing with the seven thirty seven Max, had this new system called the MCAST system that if you get into some of the technical details on the front of the seven thirty seven Max, they're two sensors called angle of attack sensors, and one of them, at least in one of the two crash crashes, it appeared it was sheared off of the plane by a bird strike. A bird hit it and broke the censor off, and so the result that the MCAST system was sending a message to the plane and automatically turning the nose down, turning the nose down, turning the nose down. And the two crashes that happened, you had relatively inexperienced pilots. They were foreign pilots. They didn't have anywhere near the experience that a US plot pilot would have. And the nose went down, down, down, and it just steered the nose into the ground and crashed and killed everyone. And Bowing, unfortunately, did not train the pilots about the MCAST system. So presumably, and in fact, if you if you listen to the back and forth with the air traffic controllers. The pilots are essentially saying, what the hell's going on? They don't understand why the plane is automatically going down. They grounded every seven thirty seven Max for months. They changed the system, they changed the training, they went through the training. By the way, I sat down and met with pilots and said, okay, what would you do? And they explained you to just the trim like an experienced pilot. Even if the MCAST was operating, an experienced pilot would know how to fix it. Now I don't know how to fix it, but but an experienced pilot would. And what's interesting is the former RAFAE administrator when they allowed the seven thirty seven Max back in the air before they did so, he actually went and flew the damn thing. I mean, that's it's a non political position. Yes, it's it is a true safety technology. Understanding air travel, understanding what the military may need when it comes to airspace, understanding what civilians need, Understanding minimum requirements. Look, if you need heart surgery and the hospital tells you, well, hey, this guy's a big donor to the hospital, so we're gonna have him to the heart surgery. He's not a doctor. But but we really like him. You'd you'd say, that's crazy. The FAA needs someone who knows something about airplanes. Will his nomination make it? I mean the question that you asked, Honestly, I didn't think was snarky. It may have come across that way because he didn't answer any of the questions with a yes. It was all no, I've never done this. This I didn't. I was saying, it's showing how glarely bad of a nominee. This was. I don't think he'll be confirmed. Really. I several Democrats have expressed concerns, and I got to say, look, let's say you're a Democrat senator, and let's say you're up for reelection in twenty twenty four. As a whole bunch of them are do you really want to cast a vote to confirm an FA administrator with zero experience in aviation or aviation safety. You know, listen, if God forbid, in the next two years there's an airline crash, and look, we've had a series of near misses recently. This position has not had a Senate confirmed administrator in a year because the Biden administration doesn't prioritize it. Instead, they're using it as a political benefit, as a gift, a patronage job, rather than saying, look, we ought to have an FAA administrator in there right now who knows what he or she is doing and is examining why are these near misses happening and how can we prevent them from happening. But if you're a Democrat senator, and god forbid, their isn't an airline crash, do you really want to be going to your voters saying, yeah, I've voted to put in place a guy who had no idea what he was doing, and now a bunch of people well and their lives have been lost. I want to also, I think there's a clip of you that was brilliant summing up the lack of qualifications. That's guy. I want to play that in a moment. Before we get that, though, I want to tell you about our good friends over at Chalk. If you're a guy and you're getting older and you feel like you're losing that edge, there is a way to get that edge back with tesasterum replacement, and that is what my friends at Chalk do, CCHOQ. They are here to help real men, real American men, maximize your masculinity by boosting tesasterrum levels up to twenty percent over ninety days. Now, I've been taking the Chalk Mail Masculinity Stack and it actually really does work. You can up your testsusterrum levels over twenty percent, up to twenty percent over a ninety day period. My buddy Jessica Kelly talked about this as well. He was like Ferguson, you got to try it. You'll see the difference. So if you're a guy you're getting a little bit older and you're ready to get back that edge, check out chalkhoq dot com, cchoq dot com. Use the promo code Ben for thirty five percent off any jock subscriptions for life and you can cancel Anytimehoq dot com code Ben for thirty five percent off centator. This one clip of you kind of just talking about like qualifications should matter with this guy. It went viral. I want everybody to see it. If you miss it, because it's brilliant, take a look. FAA administrator is a specialized position. I'm not qualified to be FA administrator. I have no idea how to fly plane. No one in their right mind would put me in charge of aviation safety because I don't have that experience. I suspect most of the members of this committee are in a similar position the American people when they think about aviation safety, When they think about I played in this committee a Southwest Airlines and FedEx plane almost colliding at Austin's Airport ward, they want an FA administrator who knows why those planes crash and knows how to fix it to keep them safe. And with all respect, mister Washington, it gives no comfort to the flying public that their pilot might be a transgendered witch but doesn't actually know how to prevent the plane from crashing into the ground and killing them. I believe your record is woefully lacking, and in fact, you have zero aviation safety experience, and I don't believe you'll have the votes for confirmation. As you and I visited about earlier this week, it reminds me so much by the way of Mayor Pete, because there's a great headline this week it says Pete starts to rethink how he does his job in the wake of the Ohio trained disaster. Really, their nominations are so much alike. It's scary. No experience in the job they're about to get, and there are consequences when you get a job you know nothing about. Yeah, look, Pete, buddhag Edge is wildly unqualified for the job he has. He's a small town mayor. And we've seen one transportation just after after another after another. The FAA reports to the Secretary of Transportation. So just like the FBI reports to the Attorney General, the FAA administrator reports to the Secretary of Transportation. So you know, if if Biden's FA nominee is confirmed, I can imagine the conversation of Phil Washington saying, well, I don't know what this aviation safety is about, and Buddha Jedge say, yeah, I mean either let's have lunch, let's look, it is stunning and it's dangerous. And look, in some ways this nomination is even more dangerous than Buddha jedges. Look, DT is at least a big agency, and you assume the components have experts in them. When you're talking about the FAA, the guy running it is supposed to know what the heck he's doing, and Washington doesn't have that background. I'll tell you there's a whole different concern with Washington. Pete didn't have by the way that we know of, which is when Phil Washington was the head of La Metro. There is an ongoing public corruption investigation that's happening right now about his time as head of the La Metro and in particular giving a contract to a nonprofit that ended up doing very little to make hundreds of thousands of dollars. And the nonprofit was closely connected with an influential Democrat on the board. And so the investigation that's ongoing, it's not being conducted by some right wing group. It's the La sheriff who executed a search warrant. Now, unlike Biden's DOJ I don't think the search warrant was executed by twenty agents with machine guns, sure, but who executed a search warrant seizing the emails and communications from Phil Washington about this appointment. And just recently the California Attorney General has taken over the investigation. So my office called the staff of the California Attorney General last week, a week before the hearing, and said, Okay, what's going on with the investigation, and they said, it's still ongoing. We're actively investigating, and Phil Washington is materially involved in the investigation, and my staff asked, said, well, has anyone talked to you about the investigation? Did the White House talk to you about the investigation? Did the FBI talk to you about the investigation? Did Senate Democrats talk to you about the investigation? They're nope, nobody has, no one called, no one cares. So he's literally being investigated right now, and yet the Biden White House is trying to put him in a position without knowing the outcome of the investigation, and which we have a clip about this. Take a look, and it is more than a little troubling. I think it's fair to say California sheriffs, the LA Sheriff, and the California Attorney General are not Republicans. They're not right wing activists with an act to grind. And the fact that this corruption case is ongoing, it's truly remarkable that this committee is considering confirming a nominee in the middle of an ongoing investigation for public corruption. And I am hard pressed to think of anything more damaging to the FAA then not only confirming someone who is not qualified and has no experience in aviation safety, but secondly doing so while a public corruption case is ongoing, which according to the terms of the search warrant, implicates you directly. And if it so happened that you end up indicted as a result of this ongoing investigation, I don't know if that will happen or not. The investigation needs to conclude. What sort of damage would it do to the FAA to have the administrator indicted on public corruption. It's a fair question, by the way, It's an important question. And you would think this administration when it said let's pump the brakes on this guy, maybe we pull them off the table, find someone who's qualified, and you have They're like nope, full speed ahead. Yeah, look what they need to do. They need to pull this nomination and they need to nominate someone who's qualified. And if they nominate someone who's qualified, who has real experience at aviation safety, that person is going to get confirmed with a big bipartisan majority. We all want to see someone in the FAA who knows how to make air travel safe. And right now the Biden White House is putting politics above the safety of you and your kids. Well well done this week in Washington. I'm glad people know what's going on. We're getting to expose the stuff that the media is not even covering or talking about. These are two very very important hearings for everybody that's watching. Don't forget. We do the show three days a week, one days with video, the other are just audio only, so you can tell Siria or Alexa play Verdict with Ted Cruz. You can download it and make sure you get every episode. Wherever you get your podcasts, Apple, iHeartRadio app, Spotify, it doesn't matter. You can grab it there. It's free to subscribe, so hit that auto download or subscribe button and you'll make sure you get every single episode and we'll see you back here in a couple of days.