July 14, 2025 • 39 mins
Listen to The Next-Gen Report live! Sundays at 7:00 p.m. on AM950, KPRC.
There's been a lot of major news in Texas politics, including the announcement of AG and State Senator Paxton's divorce. This is raising a lot of questions about how we balance morality and political pragmatism.
The coverup of the Epstein files continues, but thankfully, big voices are speaking out and demanding truth. Keep pushing, and we might see progress.
For the latest news, follow me on Instagram and X:
@the.ethanbuchanan
@_ethanbuchanan
There's been a lot of major news in Texas politics, including the announcement of AG and State Senator Paxton's divorce. This is raising a lot of questions about how we balance morality and political pragmatism.
The coverup of the Epstein files continues, but thankfully, big voices are speaking out and demanding truth. Keep pushing, and we might see progress.
For the latest news, follow me on Instagram and X:
@the.ethanbuchanan
@_ethanbuchanan
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
From the heart of the Space City to the heart
of gen Z. Welcome to Next Gen Conversation, not Dad's
Talk Radio. Ethan talks to you about the issues and
events that matters to our generation. This is the Next
Gen Report with Ethan Buchanan. Hey, everybody, welcome. I am
(00:25):
Ethan Buchanan. This is the Next Gen Report. I want
to encourage you real quick. Check me out on x
at Underscore Ethan Buchanan. There it is. I'll be repeating
that tag throughout the show today. So if you're listening
for the first time this evening and you're not sure
if you want to follow me yet, just hang around.
I'll give it to you again at the end and
(00:46):
throughout the middle, and you can decide if I'm worth
a follow I think I am. I think I am.
But that's just me. All right. We got a lot
going on this week, but I want to start by
talking about Texas, obviously, because that's what's most important to me.
I'm sure if you're listening right now you live here
in Texas or maybe you're visiting, but if you live
here in Texas, Texas is probably what's most important to you.
(01:09):
So that's what we're going to open the show with.
And of course the biggest, most important thing going on
right now is the recovery efforts that are still ongoing
in the Hill Country, mainly Kerville, but that entire Kerk
County area and that kind of surrounding six Ish counties
that all really got hit hard by the Independence Day flooding.
So I want to give you a quick update about
(01:33):
what's going on there before we really dig into anything else. So,
first of all, the total confirmed deaths remains still at
around one twenty. The latest numbers I can find are
from Friday afternoon. I don't know why we don't have
new numbers since then, but I can't imagine they've changed
that much, just because of the nature of the operation
(01:54):
and how it progresses. So we're probably still sitting somewhere
in that one twenty to one third confirmed deaths, and
we're still in the vicinity of about one hundred and
seventy people missing. That number is of course gradually but
slowly ticking down, and someone was asking me, Okay, well,
why is it ticking down so slowly? We've been sitting
(02:14):
at around one hundred and seventy people missing really for
the last several days and the reason for that is
it's it's not just you know, doing a lap around
a field and just picking out people that you spot.
These are victims that are very tragically oftentimes buried under
small mountains of debris and rubble, and you have to
(02:38):
very carefully, very cautiously make your way to these debris
piles and then start slowly dismantling these debris piles. So
it's a very time consuming process, it is. And the
other really tragic reality is unfortunately some of these people
may not be found. I was talking with one of
(02:58):
the Kajun Navy guys that's been out there for the
last several days working on this, and he told me, like,
it's very possible that some people may have been washed
all the way to the gulf. It's not likely, but
it is possible. So unfortunately, there may be people that
aren't recovered. But from what he was telling me, they're
(03:19):
planning on recovering most of everybody. It's just it's a slow,
painstaking process. So of course, be in prayer for the
families of the victims, but also being prayer for the
guys that are going in and trying to recover these
bodies because I don't think I need to explain to
you why that would be a very traumatic experience. I
think we can all understand why this would be psychologically
(03:42):
a very difficult task. So be in prayer for the
victims' families, being prayer for the guys that are out there. Still,
from what I understand, it's a little bit dangerous because
we're still getting some rain here in Texas. There's still
a small risk of more flooding. And of course, you know,
you're digging through piles of massive trees and cars and whatnot,
(04:05):
so there's a little bit of risk that hey, something
could slip and fall and hurt somebody that's trying to
recover people. So and just being prayer for the whole operation.
All right. It's very very tragic what's going on there,
and it's it's just hard, all right, for everybody, So
be in prayer. I will say, it has been nice
to see the sort of community rally, and by the
(04:27):
community rally, I mean just the local area, the state
of Texas as a whole. Something I like about Texas
is we're very much a tight knit community. Despite the
fact that we're so big. If something happens, people from
all over the state feel it. We do. I mean
here in Houston during Beryl, we felt the outpouring of
(04:48):
just support from all across the state. And it was
the same during Harvey. Oops BUTMPA MIC and it's the
same now. We feel this. We all feel this tragedy.
And on top of that, we've had people like the
Cajun Navy coming in from all over the country. We've
had resources sent from different states on the other side
(05:08):
of the country, even California, which I don't need to
tell you how much Texas and California don't get along,
but California sent resources and that's very much appreciated. The
community aspect of this, just the kind of getting together
and supporting each other and committing to resiliency here is
something that's very nice to see. And it's something that
(05:29):
even Trump noted when he came to visit. Take a
listen to this. He's talking with Will Cain on Fox
and he's just talking about the fact that one of
the things that struck him most was how resilient and
committed to this area, to this land, to each other
that the people the victims of this tragedy were.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Really they feel a love for the community. They wanted
to rebuild. I mean, they talked about we're going to rebuild,
We're going to come back. It's the only place that
people should grow up.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
They talk about the community than anything else, which is
a beautiful thing. I see that. Sometimes sometimes they don't.
Sometimes they want to get out of a community. I've
seen that too, But they've really talked about the love
of this community. The store which is you know, was
pretty well demolished, but the two walls are standing, and
they want to build it, rebuild it with those two
(06:18):
walls standing, and it's very beautiful. It's cute in a
certain way, but really beautiful. The love that they have
for this community. This is it's going to rebuild. Look,
it's going to be hard to it's going to be
hard to say it can ever be like it was
too much, too much death, so much. I mean right
now they're looking for still a lot of people, a
(06:38):
lot of people missing. But they're going to rebuild this community.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
And I do believe that they will. That's that's something
that I'm very proud of my state for. We are
very committed to fighting for our homes in a way,
and that commitment realizes itself in a lot of different ways.
Of course, throughout history, we've been willing to literally fight
for our homes, but also in a more kind of
(07:04):
poetic sense, we put in the work to rebuild, to recover.
It's it's just nice to see. I can't say enough
of it, and I can't be thankful enough to all
the people from across the state and the country that
have come in to help this community, to just offer
support and assistance in any way they can. It's been
really nice to see. It really has so again, I
(07:25):
just want to express my kind of personal heartfelt gratitude
to people who have come from all over the country
to support this effort, to support this work, to support
these people. It really does mean a lot to me,
and I think to most Texans. All Right, listen, stay tuned.
We're gonna be right back. We've got a lot more
coming up. We've got a whole show ahead of us.
I'll be here till eight o'clock, so stay tuned. Alrighty y'all,
(08:19):
welcome back the next send report at Underscore Ethan Buchanan
on X Let's dig into some state politics. We've got
some good news and we've got some bad news. And
we got really just a lot to dig into here,
So I'm gonna start with the good news. Dan Crenshaw
(08:42):
now has his first real serious primary opponent, and this
is this is good news. Dan Crenshaw is very much
a go along to get along Republican. I'm not gonna
call him a rhino because I think to a certain
extent he does believe some of the party principles truly,
(09:05):
but I also think he is spot and paid for,
and I'll I'll leave that as it is. I will
say my biggest beef with Dan Crenshaw right now is
he is on the record as voting in favor of
certain red flag gun laws and so red flagun laws
if you're not aware. That's basically, if you are determined
(09:30):
to be a threat to yourself or others, or there's
a risk or somebody perceives a risk of that, you
can have your guns confiscated from you until you prove
that you're not a risk to yourself or others. Here's
why that's a concern because you might initially hear that
and think, Okay, that sounds like a great idea. Obviously,
we don't want people who are a threat to themselves
(09:50):
or others to have firearms, and clearly that's true. However, this,
like all other gun laws, can and will be abused.
And on top of that, we have due process systems.
You are innocent until proven guilty, all right, So saying no,
we're taking your guns and you have to prove that
you're innocent to get them back, that's a violation of
(10:11):
that system. It is even if you think in some
situations it may be warranted. Either you have the system
or don't. Either we live in an innocent until proven
guilty system all the time, or we don't. So if
you support any red flag gun laws for anyone, at
any time, for any reason, I consider you a threat
to the Second Amendment. I do, and that's one of
(10:32):
the few things that I'm very unwilling to compromise with
some exceptions, because I voted for Donald Trump justs by
his bump bump stock ban. Dan Crenshaw is somebody that
I very much want to see out of office, primarily
for that reason. There's a lot of other concerns that
I have with Dan Crenshaw, but that's the biggest one.
So I'm very happy to be able to announce that
(10:54):
Steve Toath has officially filed to run for office. His
official a campaign announcement isn't until Tuesday. He was going
to announce his campaign this Tuesday, but with the floods
and everything going on, he I think very rightfully pushed
it back. He said, now it's not the time. We're
gonna do my big announcement event the following Tuesday. And
(11:16):
so that's now this coming Tuesday. So that's when he'll
officially have his big event and announce But we know
from public records that he has officially filed to run
against Dan Crenshaw. Here's why I believe this is really
good news. I know Steve. I've had the pleasure a
number of times of talking with him, and I can
tell you a little bit about his background. He used
to be a pastor before he got into politics, and
(11:39):
I will say I think that's a really good thing.
One of my biggest gripes against politicians is so often
the right people are unwilling to get into that world
because of how dirty it is. I think Steve Toath
is one of the few people who is a good
person and despite it being a dirty world, was willing
(11:59):
to get involved in it for the benefit of his constituents.
If you don't know who he is already, He's a
member of the Texas House. He represents House District fifteen.
I believe that's kind of the Conroe area. His district,
his state House district has quite a bit of overlap
with Dan Crenshaw's federal House district, so that gives you
(12:20):
an idea of kind of who he represents. And again,
I've had the pleasure of talking with him a number
of times. One of my instincts when I call him to,
you know, talk about a certain bill he's filed, or
something going on for my workI ktr H news. I
give him a call first of all, shoot him a
text message, and I'll say, hey, he has some time
to talk about this today, and he gets back to
me very quickly, which is nice. Thank you, Steve. I
(12:40):
appreciate that. And when I give him a call, I
just kind of instinctively will say something along the lines
of good morning, representative, because that's his title. He's a
representative to a certain extent. I believe in respect for
the office, if the person holding the office has earned it,
and I think Steve has, so I'll call him and
I'll say good morning representative, and every single time he'll say, no,
(13:01):
just call me Steve. And I want to tell you
why that's important. That demonstrates some real humility. One of
the things that you see most commonly from politicians is
they're full of themselves. That's why they get into politics,
that's why they stay in politics. They're full of themselves.
They think they're great at it. They think they're great,
(13:21):
and you know, you see it all the time, these
clips of congressional hearings where someone will go, no, you
will address me as Lodi dot he dotti do. Steve,
in my experience, has not been that type of guy.
And I'm calling him Steve because that's what he keeps
telling me to call him. So there you go. So,
just from the several conversations that I've had the pleasure
of having with him, I know him to be a
(13:41):
very humble, very conservative person. And again the fact that
he was a pastor for a long time doesn't hurt either.
So again, I'm not going to make any official endorsements.
That's something I will never do on this show. I
will never say I, as a host, endorse this candidate.
(14:02):
What I will say is, here's why I support a
candidate me personally, and that's why I support Steve Toath.
That being said, I don't live in Texas or in
Texas District too, so I can't vote for Steve Toath. Unfortunately,
if I live there, I would. My mother lives there,
and I will be openly encouraging her to vote for him,
but I don't, so I can't. The best I can
(14:25):
say is Steve would work very hard for Texas. I
believe he would work very hard for the United States,
and I know him to be a man that has
a moral backbone, So that's why I support him. Do
your own research. Hey, if you like Dan Crenshaw, and
if you like Dan Crenshaw's record, I can't fault you
for that. What I will say is, go look closely
(14:46):
at Dan Crenshaw's record, especially when it comes to things
like voting for red flag gun laws, and ask yourself
if that's something you support. For me personally, it's not.
That's where I draw the line, and then I'll of course,
there's also concerns about his stock trading and his behavior
with people who criticize him. He got in big trouble
for cussing somebody out on Twitter, so you know, there's
(15:09):
a lot to look at there, and I'll leave it
at that. Do your own research. We've got the elections
coming up. We've got some time before the primaries, so
do your own research. Figure out who you support, who
you think represents your interests in the state of Texas
interests the best I think for Texas House District too,
that's probably gonna be Steve Toff. But that's my opinion. Man. Again,
(15:30):
I'm not making an endorsement. All right, let's stick into
the Ken Paxton drama. We have to talk about it
a little bit because it is big news. So Ken
Paxton and his wife, Texas State Senator Angela Paxton, appear
to be getting a divorce. Angela Paxson posted on Twitter today,
after thirty eight years of marriage, I filed for divorce
on biblical grounds. I believe marriage is a sacred covenant,
(15:53):
and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation, But in light of
recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God,
or is loving to myself, my children, or can to
remain in the marriage. I move forward with complete confidence
that God is always working everything together for the good
of those who love him and who are called according
to his purpose. Okay, so that looks like a really
nice statement from her. She talked about God and religion
(16:13):
and how important it is to her and love and
everything you want to hear in a divorce announcement. Here's
my problem with this. This is a vindictive thing to do.
It is you know very good and well what this
is going to do to your husband, who is running
a political campaign right now, and hey, he may very
(16:34):
well deserve it. I think it's very likely, just from
what we already know about Ken Paxton and his habits,
he was almost definitely cheating on her. That's still a
vindictive statement that she should not have posted online. She
shouldn't have. The only purpose this serves is to hurt
Ken Paxson. That's it. That's all this does. All you're
(16:57):
doing here is airing out dirty laundry to the voters.
A divorce if and when it happens. It shouldn't ever
happen in the ideal world, but if it does happen,
there should be a very private family matter. And going
on and posting it on Twitter when you know very
good and well that it's going to become the biggest
political headline in the state of Texas. The moment you
do it, the only purpose that serves is to be vindictive,
(17:22):
and maybe Ken Paxton deserves it, it's still a dirty
move to do it, is. I'm not trying to fault
Angela Paxton. I'm sure she's a very nice lady. I'm
sure Ken was cheating on her, but that is unnecessary
and it's not the right thing to do. All right,
We're gonna dig into a little bit in the next
segment the political fallout of this, So stay tune. We'll
bear I back. All right, Welcome back the Next Gen Report.
(18:18):
That's the show at underscore, Ethan Buchanan. That's the X page.
If you're getting tired of me reciting the X page,
go follow me. Because if I had more followers on X,
I wouldn't feel like I had to do this. So
there you go. All right, let's talk about uh, Ken
Paxton's impending divorce a little bit more. So I will
(18:41):
tell you right now, right off the bat, this is
not going to change my support for him politically. All
right now, I'll explain to you why, because I had
like four different conversations on X about this. So again,
if you were following me. You know all this already.
You cannot look to politicians to be moral leaders. You
(19:02):
can't because the fact of the matter is politicians, as
I talked about a little bit in the last segment,
will almost universally fail you if you try to judge
them by that metric. I'll give you a case in point,
Donald Trump. I think Donald Trump is an amazing politician.
I think he's a great leader on both the world
(19:23):
stage and the national stage. I would vote for him
again if I could. I can't be that, you know,
that is what it is. I have huge problems with
who Donald Trump is as an individual, right, I wouldn't
want to spend an extended amount of time around him.
I'd go up, i'd shake his hand, I'd thank him
for his service to the country. But I think he's
(19:47):
a deeply morally flawed character, and I think most politicians
probably are. But I'm not looking for politicians to be
moral leaders. I'm looking for politicians to be political leaders,
and so that's how I judge who I vote for. Now,
if you're a great moral character on top of being
a good politician, even better, fantastic. But as we talked
(20:10):
about in the last segment. Those people are few and
far between. They just are. You'll have maybe a handful
of them. I posted this on Twitter when I saw
the Ken Paxton announcement from his wife, which again was
really gross. She should not have put that out publicly
on Twitter like that. And I'm saying that not because
(20:31):
of any respect for either Angela or Ken Paxton. I'm
saying that out of respect for the institution of marriage.
But anyway, somebody tweeted out in response to that, Ken
Paxton is morally unfit to hold office. He cannot be
the next US Senator from Texas. All right, if you
think every US Senator from Texas has been completely faithful
(20:52):
to their wives, if you think most people in Congress
have been completely faithful to their wives, I have a
bridge to sell you in Brooklyn. And if you don't
want the bridge, I've got an ocean front condo in Tucson, Arizona.
It's really nice, great view of the sea. I'll put
you in touch with my realtor. I just responded. The
reality is if marital fidelity was the bar politicians couldn't cross,
(21:15):
ninety five percent of elected officials would be out of
office by tomorrow morning. Paxton's record in office is what
I'm concerned about. Somebody responded to me with, I think
a very good question, what's wrong with setting the bar high?
We should expect strong integrity from those who we elect.
And I'm not gonna fault this guy for saying that,
(21:35):
because he's got a good point. I wish we could
expect that, But the unfortunate reality is if we start
setting that bar, we are going to be disappointed. Almost
every time we have to set realistic expectations, we do,
and unfortunately, being strong moral characters is a bar that
I think is far too high for most politicians to clear.
(21:59):
That's just the way of the world, and this goes back,
you know, since the founding of the country. The prime
example of this was Alexander Hamilton, who ended up not
running for president because everybody found out he had been
cheating on his wife. But the reality is probably most
of the politicians at that time were doing that, including
Thomas Jefferson, who famously had a bunch of kids with
(22:21):
slaves that he owned and he was the president. So
this goes back to the founding of the country and
really all of human history. No political leader has ever
been completely one hundred percent. The guy, even King David,
who was a man after God's own heart, was cheating
on his wife left and right, and then having more
(22:41):
wives and cheating on them. This is a universal problem.
And I said that if you set the bar too high,
no one clears it. If you start looking to politicians
to set examples on morality, you're going to be disappointed
almost one hundred percent of the time. A lot of
Christians have a hard time reconciling that. Christians, I tell
you this, we already have our moral example. It's Jesus.
(23:05):
Stop looking to politicians to be Jesus. That's what the
left does. They look at government as their God and Messiah.
All right, the right needs to stop doing that. We
do that too, and we get really disappointed whenever any
politician that we like has some moral failing and we think,
oh my god, it's the end of the world. You
can't vote for him, Yes you can, because you're not
voting for him based on his morality. You're voting for
(23:26):
him to forward your political interests. And then you say, hey,
these are the things he does that we should not repeat.
We have a better moral example, and it's God. So
That's why I'm still planning on voting for Ken Paxson
in the primaries and if he makes it the general election.
Adam said to me, then we're doomed to fail. That's
the guy I was talking to on Twitter. His name
is Adam. He responded to me saying, stop looking to
(23:49):
politicians to set moral examples, and he said, then we're
doomed to fail. I said, we always were. No nation
lasts forever. All right, it's the way of the world,
since rise, nation falls. Find the person that best preserves
your interests on the political level, and then the rest
is in God's hands. That's my view as a Christian
(24:10):
being involved in politics. If you're an atheist listening to
the show, Seek Christ. But other than that, you can
take whatever view you want on this. But that's my
thought process. So there you go. I'm still voting for
Ken Baxton. All right, let's dig into a little bit.
We do have some really good economic news that I
(24:33):
want to talk about before we run out of time
in this segment. So we have had a huge surge
in funds. I say huge surgeon funds. It's a little bit,
you know, it's not massive news, but it's worth pointing out,
so Breitbarr did this story a couple of days ago.
The federal government posted an unexpected budget surplus in June,
(24:53):
fueled by a sharp rise in tariff revenues and higher
than anticipated tax receipts, marking a notable vindicane for President
Donald Trump's economic strategy. The twenty seven billion dollar surplus
reported Friday by the Treasury Department stood in stark contrast
to the forecast for a fifty billion dollar deficit, representing
one of the largest upsides in recent budget data. Monthly
(25:17):
surpluses typically occur in April, when many Americans file their taxes.
Surpluses are also common in January and September. A June
surplus is highly unusual. So I actually reached out to
Vance Gain. He's an economist that I've talked to a
number of times, and I asked him, you know, how
legit is this, Where is this coming from? And yet
it's coming from mostly the tariffs, the tariffs and the
(25:38):
timing of spending. This isn't really a doze cuts thing.
I want to make that point because most of those
haven't really gone into full effect yet. So this is
really mostly the tariffs. So that's great, that's good news.
We're happy about that for sure. Now somebody on Twitter said, Okay, well,
this isn't really that great of news because this is
(25:59):
just coming out of americans pockets. Tariffs are just attacks
on people buying overseas goods and kind of but not really.
I mean, in concept, yes, but what we've seen is
inflation data doesn't actually show that this surplus is coming
out of your pocket. Because if this budget surplus was
directly from the terror or was directly from you paying
(26:22):
for the tariffs, then what we would see is more inflation,
we would see prices jump up, and so far, at least,
we haven't seen that. The most recent inflation data that
we have is inflation data from May, and of course
inflation is still rising, but it's rising very slowly, not
(26:44):
the kind of skyrocketing that you would expect if this
massive budget surplus was from tariffs. The Bureau of Labor
Statistics reported that in May, prices rose zero point one
percent month to month, while it was up on a
two point four percent on an annual basis. That month
to month rise was expected to be zero point two percent.
(27:07):
It was only zero point one, so it actually came
in slower than expected. So what that tells us is
these companies are probably right now eating the cost of
whatever tariffs they're having to pay. Some of these tariffs
haven't gone into full effect yet, so maybe next month
or two or three months down the line, this could change.
We'll wait and see what happens. But at least, as
of right now, you are not paying for the tariffs
(27:29):
these companies are, which, hey, that's great, that's good news.
I think that comes from the fact that companies probably
understand there's still not a lot of wiggle room in
the average American's wallet for them to pass these costs
down to you, and most of them have enough room
in their margins to eat the cost of these tariffs.
So what we're seeing at least right now is we
(27:52):
are seeing increased government revenue from these tariffs. That is
a good sign, and it's not coming out of your wallet,
which is also a good time. So at least as
of right now, Trump's plan does appear to be working.
And that's despite the fact that people want you to
panic and lose your mind over this. Don't panic and
lose your mind over this. On certain things with the
(28:13):
Trump administration, I've leaned into the trust the plan. Mentality
on other things not so much. We'll get into that
in the next segment. But this is one of those
things where I want to remind people Donald Trump is
a businessman. He has been a businessman for a long time.
He has a strategy and it's worked for him quite
a bit. I remind you he was a billionaire. He
(28:34):
is a billionaire. He knows what he's doing economically. It
may look dirty and messy from the outside, and we
may not like the fact that it's dirty and messy
from the outside, and we want to know the plan
and see what the plan is. I have accepted the
fact that it's dirty, it's messy, we don't know what
the plan is. Trust the plan. We'll see what happens.
All right. We got one more segment coming up. Let's
talk about in that one, So stay tuned. All right.
(29:12):
So I just talked about how much I'm trusting Trump's
economic plan. Here's the plan I'm not trusting. I'm not
trusting the Epstein Plan. I talked about this in detail
on the podcast on Wednesday. Go listen to the Wednesday podcast.
There's a lot of stuff in there that I can't air,
or that I just don't have time for. You're missing
(29:33):
out if you're not listening to it. Search wherever you
get your podcasts. In the next Gym Report, check it out,
and of course on x at Underscore Ethan Buchanan, go
listen to the podcaster's good stuff. We talked in detail
about the latest goings on with the Epstein files, and
of course brief summary. I'm not gonna get into it
(29:54):
all again, but the official line right now from the DJ,
according to elaked memo, is that's it. We've got nothing else.
We're closing the books. That's BS. Everybody knows it's BS.
Everybody's pissed off about it, including Deputy Director of the
FBI Dan Bongino. He is one of the people that
(30:14):
has been very vocal for several years about, Hey, we
need to know what's going on with the Epstein files.
We need to know who the Epstein clients are. This
is information we have to have, regardless of the consequences.
We need to out these people. We need to get
them out of public life. He's been very vocal about
this on his show. Remember he went from working in
law enforcement to doing a very successful podcast to coming
(30:37):
to be the deputy director of the FBI in part
because the Trump administration wanted to restore trust in the FBI.
People trust Dan Bongino, So you put him in the
FBI because again, we lost a lot of trust with
basically every government organization after the four years of the
(30:58):
Biden administration for a good reason. So what's the solution.
Put Dan Bongino in and have him be honest with
the American people and earn back that trust. And so
now his reputation is on the line because now he's
associated with the burying of the Epstein files. He who
is someone who very much values his reputation and his
(31:18):
trustworthiness is of course obviously as he should be pissed
off about this. The Daily Wire has been reporting this
Bondi or Bongino. Bongino won't remain at the FBI if
Bondi keeps her job. Sources say Dan Bongino, the Deputy
director of the FBI, is threatening to leave the bureau
(31:39):
if Attorney General Pam Bondi remains on the job. A
source close to Bongino tells the Daily Wire Bongino is
reportedly furious with the Attorney General over her handling of
the Jeffrey Epstein files, which has led to many believing
he could walk away from the job he took In February,
the source close to Bongino said that he is affectively
(32:00):
issued an ultimatum saying he won't work alongside Bondi, and
I definitely think Pam Bondi should be fired. You remember,
if you listen to the show back kind of during
the transition period when it was first announced that we're
giving up on making Matt Gates the deputy director of
the FBI, or the not deputy director the attorney general.
(32:22):
We're giving up on making Matt Gates the attorney general.
We're gonna he's gonna step aside. He's gonna go do
his show on I think it's one America's voice, and
he said, we're gonna have Pam Bondi be the attorney general.
I said at the time, I'm suspicious of this choice.
Bondi had been a pusher of red flag gun laws,
(32:44):
which I've already told you and explained I don't like.
She seemed to be more of a political insider, one
of those kind of old guard Republicans that I don't like.
But I was willing to give her the benefit of
the doubt, she has proven to not be a good
attorney general. In my opinion, she seems fishy. I don't
(33:04):
trust how she's handled the Epstein files. I would rather
have Dan Bongino in any position than have Pambondi continue
to be the attorney general. And it looks to me
like Cash Battel, the actual director of the FBI, also
feels the same way, because there's been rumors going around
that he's sitting there saying if Dan Bongino leaves, I'm
(33:27):
gonna leave two. So essentially it looks like the choice
is gonna come down to either Pambondi as attorney General
or Cash Battel and Jen dan Bongino, dan Bongino, these
Italian names man either Cash Battel and dan Bongino at
the FBI or Pambondi is the attorney general. Now, I've
(33:48):
been telling you since Wednesday to speak up about this,
and speak up about this on X people have been
speaking up, and this is now a mainstream conversation. All right,
This isn't just the fringe of the hyper political right.
They had this conversation at Turning Point USA. They're doing
their big conference right now in Florida. We've got Megan
Kelly and Charlie Kirk, two big voices that Trump obviously
(34:09):
is aware of and listens to, and you know, pays
attention to, sitting there saying, Yeah, we need to get
rid of Pambondi. And then this massive crowd at Turning
Point USA cheering. This is the definition of the Trump
Bass and they're speaking out very vocally about this. Take
a listen.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
The reporting is Bongina, is Bongino or Bondi. He's not
sing you guys prefer Bongina or Bonnie.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
They's seven thousand to zero.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
They want Dan, of course Dan. You know why because
Dan understands Maga. Dan's part of the mega movement. Dan's
been an important piece of it and a mouthpiece for
like really important ideas and an advocate and a fierce warrior.
He's been in the trenches. I mean, with all the
respect to Pambody, she's been in Florida. She represented the president.
It's nice, but do you think she really gets Maga.
(34:56):
I don't think so. She wouldn't have behaved this way
if she did. And now it's a time for choosing.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
It's a time for choosing and Meghan Kelly makes a
great point there a lot of this is Pam Bondi's behavior. Right,
Everything about how they've gone about this raises suspicion because remember,
like we pointed out on Wednesday episode, I really encourage
you go back and listen to that if you haven't.
(35:22):
We were told at the beginning of the year that
we had the documents. That was the line. They're on
the desk. We just need to review them, sensors, some
names of some victims so people don't have their lives ruined,
and then we can, you know, start moving forward with
prosecutions and announce who's involved in this and things like that.
And then they say, now we have nothing, nobody else
(35:43):
was involved. Case closed. Even if you have nothing, even
if you don't have enough to prosecute somebody, why would
you not just say that right at the very beginning,
say hey, we just got in we're looking through the
data that we were left behind by the Biden administration.
(36:04):
We don't have enough to do a prosecution. We'll dig
into it, we'll see if we can catch somebody, if
we can charge somebody. But they should have been saying
this at the beginning. We don't know what we're going
to be able to give you. But that's not what
they were telling us. That's not what Pam Bondi herself
was telling us. Pam Bondy was saying, I have the files,
I have the list, it's on my desk, and now
(36:27):
it's gone. People are rightfully pissed off about that. Dan
Bongino and Cash Battel are rightfully pissed off about that,
because remember while they were speaking out in favor of
Trump on the campaign trail, they were saying, we're gonna
get into office, we're gonna find these things that we
know we have, and we're gonna bring people to justice.
So they would be just as pissed off as anybody
(36:47):
else if Pam Bondy, their boss, turns around and says, nope,
never mind. And so yeah, if I was Dan Bongino,
I'd say, okay, you had to get rid of her,
or I'm washing my hands of this because it's hurting
my credibility and it is. How much time did we
spend over the last couple of days on X online
saying Okay, everyone who's involved in this and doesn't release
(37:10):
these files is complicit, including Cash MATEL and Dan Bongino.
People have been raising some real concerns about them now
because of their involvement in the FBI that's now not
prosecuting people now. I have a little bit of faith
that because the base is so loudly speaking up about
this and making it clear, listen, this is what we want,
this is what we voted for you for. Maybe we'll
(37:31):
see some results. Maybe, but I wouldn't put my money
on it. Trump actually fires Pambondi or she actually resigns
in connection to all of this, and then we get
somebody else in who's able to actually give us some
movement here. That would be great. I'm hopeful. I wouldn't
bet on it. We'll see what happens. But again, this
is why it's important to speak up. Go make your
(37:54):
voice heard on whatever public platform you can get your
hands on. I recommend X. That's the one I used
the most. That's right, that's I think the best one
out of all of the ones available. Don't hate me
because I'm not a truth social user, but hey, go
get on X if you're not already, and if you
are on X, start speaking up about this. Make sure
you make known what you want this administration to be doing,
(38:14):
and chances are they'll at least notice, right, and that's
all we can hopeful. All right, I did want to
talk a little bit about this migrant ray that happened,
but I'm just fresh out of time, So once again,
tune into the podcast on Wednesday. We'll dig into this. Then,
this migrant raid in California at this weed farm. It's
a crazy story. We'll dig into it in the Wednesday podcast.
So go give that a listen the Next Gen Report
(38:36):
wherever you get your podcasts, where everywhere, and of course
X at Underscore Ethan Buchanan. There's a lot going on
every single day and that's where it's happening. It's happening
on X, so give me a follow there. Thank you
very much for listening. We'll be back, of course, next Sunday,
same time, same place, seven pm, right here on AM
nine to fifty KPRC.
From the heart of the Space City to the heart
of gen Z. Welcome to Next Gen Conversation, not Dad's
Talk Radio. Ethan talks to you about the issues and
events that matters to our generation. This is the Next
Gen Report with Ethan Buchanan. Hey, everybody, welcome. I am
(00:25):
Ethan Buchanan. This is the Next Gen Report. I want
to encourage you real quick. Check me out on x
at Underscore Ethan Buchanan. There it is. I'll be repeating
that tag throughout the show today. So if you're listening
for the first time this evening and you're not sure
if you want to follow me yet, just hang around.
I'll give it to you again at the end and
(00:46):
throughout the middle, and you can decide if I'm worth
a follow I think I am. I think I am.
But that's just me. All right. We got a lot
going on this week, but I want to start by
talking about Texas, obviously, because that's what's most important to me.
I'm sure if you're listening right now you live here
in Texas or maybe you're visiting, but if you live
here in Texas, Texas is probably what's most important to you.
(01:09):
So that's what we're going to open the show with.
And of course the biggest, most important thing going on
right now is the recovery efforts that are still ongoing
in the Hill Country, mainly Kerville, but that entire Kerk
County area and that kind of surrounding six Ish counties
that all really got hit hard by the Independence Day flooding.
So I want to give you a quick update about
(01:33):
what's going on there before we really dig into anything else. So,
first of all, the total confirmed deaths remains still at
around one twenty. The latest numbers I can find are
from Friday afternoon. I don't know why we don't have
new numbers since then, but I can't imagine they've changed
that much, just because of the nature of the operation
(01:54):
and how it progresses. So we're probably still sitting somewhere
in that one twenty to one third confirmed deaths, and
we're still in the vicinity of about one hundred and
seventy people missing. That number is of course gradually but
slowly ticking down, and someone was asking me, Okay, well,
why is it ticking down so slowly? We've been sitting
(02:14):
at around one hundred and seventy people missing really for
the last several days and the reason for that is
it's it's not just you know, doing a lap around
a field and just picking out people that you spot.
These are victims that are very tragically oftentimes buried under
small mountains of debris and rubble, and you have to
(02:38):
very carefully, very cautiously make your way to these debris
piles and then start slowly dismantling these debris piles. So
it's a very time consuming process, it is. And the
other really tragic reality is unfortunately some of these people
may not be found. I was talking with one of
(02:58):
the Kajun Navy guys that's been out there for the
last several days working on this, and he told me, like,
it's very possible that some people may have been washed
all the way to the gulf. It's not likely, but
it is possible. So unfortunately, there may be people that
aren't recovered. But from what he was telling me, they're
(03:19):
planning on recovering most of everybody. It's just it's a slow,
painstaking process. So of course, be in prayer for the
families of the victims, but also being prayer for the
guys that are going in and trying to recover these
bodies because I don't think I need to explain to
you why that would be a very traumatic experience. I
think we can all understand why this would be psychologically
(03:42):
a very difficult task. So be in prayer for the
victims' families, being prayer for the guys that are out there. Still,
from what I understand, it's a little bit dangerous because
we're still getting some rain here in Texas. There's still
a small risk of more flooding. And of course, you know,
you're digging through piles of massive trees and cars and whatnot,
(04:05):
so there's a little bit of risk that hey, something
could slip and fall and hurt somebody that's trying to
recover people. So and just being prayer for the whole operation.
All right. It's very very tragic what's going on there,
and it's it's just hard, all right, for everybody, So
be in prayer. I will say, it has been nice
to see the sort of community rally, and by the
(04:27):
community rally, I mean just the local area, the state
of Texas as a whole. Something I like about Texas
is we're very much a tight knit community. Despite the
fact that we're so big. If something happens, people from
all over the state feel it. We do. I mean
here in Houston during Beryl, we felt the outpouring of
(04:48):
just support from all across the state. And it was
the same during Harvey. Oops BUTMPA MIC and it's the
same now. We feel this. We all feel this tragedy.
And on top of that, we've had people like the
Cajun Navy coming in from all over the country. We've
had resources sent from different states on the other side
(05:08):
of the country, even California, which I don't need to
tell you how much Texas and California don't get along,
but California sent resources and that's very much appreciated. The
community aspect of this, just the kind of getting together
and supporting each other and committing to resiliency here is
something that's very nice to see. And it's something that
(05:29):
even Trump noted when he came to visit. Take a
listen to this. He's talking with Will Cain on Fox
and he's just talking about the fact that one of
the things that struck him most was how resilient and
committed to this area, to this land, to each other
that the people the victims of this tragedy were.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Really they feel a love for the community. They wanted
to rebuild. I mean, they talked about we're going to rebuild,
We're going to come back. It's the only place that
people should grow up.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
They talk about the community than anything else, which is
a beautiful thing. I see that. Sometimes sometimes they don't.
Sometimes they want to get out of a community. I've
seen that too, But they've really talked about the love
of this community. The store which is you know, was
pretty well demolished, but the two walls are standing, and
they want to build it, rebuild it with those two
(06:18):
walls standing, and it's very beautiful. It's cute in a
certain way, but really beautiful. The love that they have
for this community. This is it's going to rebuild. Look,
it's going to be hard to it's going to be
hard to say it can ever be like it was
too much, too much death, so much. I mean right
now they're looking for still a lot of people, a
(06:38):
lot of people missing. But they're going to rebuild this community.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
And I do believe that they will. That's that's something
that I'm very proud of my state for. We are
very committed to fighting for our homes in a way,
and that commitment realizes itself in a lot of different ways.
Of course, throughout history, we've been willing to literally fight
for our homes, but also in a more kind of
(07:04):
poetic sense, we put in the work to rebuild, to recover.
It's it's just nice to see. I can't say enough
of it, and I can't be thankful enough to all
the people from across the state and the country that
have come in to help this community, to just offer
support and assistance in any way they can. It's been
really nice to see. It really has so again, I
(07:25):
just want to express my kind of personal heartfelt gratitude
to people who have come from all over the country
to support this effort, to support this work, to support
these people. It really does mean a lot to me,
and I think to most Texans. All Right, listen, stay tuned.
We're gonna be right back. We've got a lot more
coming up. We've got a whole show ahead of us.
I'll be here till eight o'clock, so stay tuned. Alrighty y'all,
(08:19):
welcome back the next send report at Underscore Ethan Buchanan
on X Let's dig into some state politics. We've got
some good news and we've got some bad news. And
we got really just a lot to dig into here,
So I'm gonna start with the good news. Dan Crenshaw
(08:42):
now has his first real serious primary opponent, and this
is this is good news. Dan Crenshaw is very much
a go along to get along Republican. I'm not gonna
call him a rhino because I think to a certain
extent he does believe some of the party principles truly,
(09:05):
but I also think he is spot and paid for,
and I'll I'll leave that as it is. I will
say my biggest beef with Dan Crenshaw right now is
he is on the record as voting in favor of
certain red flag gun laws and so red flagun laws
if you're not aware. That's basically, if you are determined
(09:30):
to be a threat to yourself or others, or there's
a risk or somebody perceives a risk of that, you
can have your guns confiscated from you until you prove
that you're not a risk to yourself or others. Here's
why that's a concern because you might initially hear that
and think, Okay, that sounds like a great idea. Obviously,
we don't want people who are a threat to themselves
(09:50):
or others to have firearms, and clearly that's true. However, this,
like all other gun laws, can and will be abused.
And on top of that, we have due process systems.
You are innocent until proven guilty, all right, So saying no,
we're taking your guns and you have to prove that
you're innocent to get them back, that's a violation of
(10:11):
that system. It is even if you think in some
situations it may be warranted. Either you have the system
or don't. Either we live in an innocent until proven
guilty system all the time, or we don't. So if
you support any red flag gun laws for anyone, at
any time, for any reason, I consider you a threat
to the Second Amendment. I do, and that's one of
(10:32):
the few things that I'm very unwilling to compromise with
some exceptions, because I voted for Donald Trump justs by
his bump bump stock ban. Dan Crenshaw is somebody that
I very much want to see out of office, primarily
for that reason. There's a lot of other concerns that
I have with Dan Crenshaw, but that's the biggest one.
So I'm very happy to be able to announce that
(10:54):
Steve Toath has officially filed to run for office. His
official a campaign announcement isn't until Tuesday. He was going
to announce his campaign this Tuesday, but with the floods
and everything going on, he I think very rightfully pushed
it back. He said, now it's not the time. We're
gonna do my big announcement event the following Tuesday. And
(11:16):
so that's now this coming Tuesday. So that's when he'll
officially have his big event and announce But we know
from public records that he has officially filed to run
against Dan Crenshaw. Here's why I believe this is really
good news. I know Steve. I've had the pleasure a
number of times of talking with him, and I can
tell you a little bit about his background. He used
to be a pastor before he got into politics, and
(11:39):
I will say I think that's a really good thing.
One of my biggest gripes against politicians is so often
the right people are unwilling to get into that world
because of how dirty it is. I think Steve Toath
is one of the few people who is a good
person and despite it being a dirty world, was willing
(11:59):
to get involved in it for the benefit of his constituents.
If you don't know who he is already, He's a
member of the Texas House. He represents House District fifteen.
I believe that's kind of the Conroe area. His district,
his state House district has quite a bit of overlap
with Dan Crenshaw's federal House district, so that gives you
(12:20):
an idea of kind of who he represents. And again,
I've had the pleasure of talking with him a number
of times. One of my instincts when I call him to,
you know, talk about a certain bill he's filed, or
something going on for my workI ktr H news. I
give him a call first of all, shoot him a
text message, and I'll say, hey, he has some time
to talk about this today, and he gets back to
me very quickly, which is nice. Thank you, Steve. I
(12:40):
appreciate that. And when I give him a call, I
just kind of instinctively will say something along the lines
of good morning, representative, because that's his title. He's a
representative to a certain extent. I believe in respect for
the office, if the person holding the office has earned it,
and I think Steve has, so I'll call him and
I'll say good morning representative, and every single time he'll say, no,
(13:01):
just call me Steve. And I want to tell you
why that's important. That demonstrates some real humility. One of
the things that you see most commonly from politicians is
they're full of themselves. That's why they get into politics,
that's why they stay in politics. They're full of themselves.
They think they're great at it. They think they're great,
(13:21):
and you know, you see it all the time, these
clips of congressional hearings where someone will go, no, you
will address me as Lodi dot he dotti do. Steve,
in my experience, has not been that type of guy.
And I'm calling him Steve because that's what he keeps
telling me to call him. So there you go. So,
just from the several conversations that I've had the pleasure
of having with him, I know him to be a
(13:41):
very humble, very conservative person. And again the fact that
he was a pastor for a long time doesn't hurt either.
So again, I'm not going to make any official endorsements.
That's something I will never do on this show. I
will never say I, as a host, endorse this candidate.
(14:02):
What I will say is, here's why I support a
candidate me personally, and that's why I support Steve Toath.
That being said, I don't live in Texas or in
Texas District too, so I can't vote for Steve Toath. Unfortunately,
if I live there, I would. My mother lives there,
and I will be openly encouraging her to vote for him,
but I don't, so I can't. The best I can
(14:25):
say is Steve would work very hard for Texas. I
believe he would work very hard for the United States,
and I know him to be a man that has
a moral backbone, So that's why I support him. Do
your own research. Hey, if you like Dan Crenshaw, and
if you like Dan Crenshaw's record, I can't fault you
for that. What I will say is, go look closely
(14:46):
at Dan Crenshaw's record, especially when it comes to things
like voting for red flag gun laws, and ask yourself
if that's something you support. For me personally, it's not.
That's where I draw the line, and then I'll of course,
there's also concerns about his stock trading and his behavior
with people who criticize him. He got in big trouble
for cussing somebody out on Twitter, so you know, there's
(15:09):
a lot to look at there, and I'll leave it
at that. Do your own research. We've got the elections
coming up. We've got some time before the primaries, so
do your own research. Figure out who you support, who
you think represents your interests in the state of Texas
interests the best I think for Texas House District too,
that's probably gonna be Steve Toff. But that's my opinion. Man. Again,
(15:30):
I'm not making an endorsement. All right, let's stick into
the Ken Paxton drama. We have to talk about it
a little bit because it is big news. So Ken
Paxton and his wife, Texas State Senator Angela Paxton, appear
to be getting a divorce. Angela Paxson posted on Twitter today,
after thirty eight years of marriage, I filed for divorce
on biblical grounds. I believe marriage is a sacred covenant,
(15:53):
and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation, But in light of
recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God,
or is loving to myself, my children, or can to
remain in the marriage. I move forward with complete confidence
that God is always working everything together for the good
of those who love him and who are called according
to his purpose. Okay, so that looks like a really
nice statement from her. She talked about God and religion
(16:13):
and how important it is to her and love and
everything you want to hear in a divorce announcement. Here's
my problem with this. This is a vindictive thing to do.
It is you know very good and well what this
is going to do to your husband, who is running
a political campaign right now, and hey, he may very
(16:34):
well deserve it. I think it's very likely, just from
what we already know about Ken Paxton and his habits,
he was almost definitely cheating on her. That's still a
vindictive statement that she should not have posted online. She
shouldn't have. The only purpose this serves is to hurt
Ken Paxson. That's it. That's all this does. All you're
(16:57):
doing here is airing out dirty laundry to the voters.
A divorce if and when it happens. It shouldn't ever
happen in the ideal world, but if it does happen,
there should be a very private family matter. And going
on and posting it on Twitter when you know very
good and well that it's going to become the biggest
political headline in the state of Texas. The moment you
do it, the only purpose that serves is to be vindictive,
(17:22):
and maybe Ken Paxton deserves it, it's still a dirty
move to do it, is. I'm not trying to fault
Angela Paxton. I'm sure she's a very nice lady. I'm
sure Ken was cheating on her, but that is unnecessary
and it's not the right thing to do. All right,
We're gonna dig into a little bit in the next
segment the political fallout of this, So stay tune. We'll
bear I back. All right, Welcome back the Next Gen Report.
(18:18):
That's the show at underscore, Ethan Buchanan. That's the X page.
If you're getting tired of me reciting the X page,
go follow me. Because if I had more followers on X,
I wouldn't feel like I had to do this. So
there you go. All right, let's talk about uh, Ken
Paxton's impending divorce a little bit more. So I will
(18:41):
tell you right now, right off the bat, this is
not going to change my support for him politically. All
right now, I'll explain to you why, because I had
like four different conversations on X about this. So again,
if you were following me. You know all this already.
You cannot look to politicians to be moral leaders. You
(19:02):
can't because the fact of the matter is politicians, as
I talked about a little bit in the last segment,
will almost universally fail you if you try to judge
them by that metric. I'll give you a case in point,
Donald Trump. I think Donald Trump is an amazing politician.
I think he's a great leader on both the world
(19:23):
stage and the national stage. I would vote for him
again if I could. I can't be that, you know,
that is what it is. I have huge problems with
who Donald Trump is as an individual, right, I wouldn't
want to spend an extended amount of time around him.
I'd go up, i'd shake his hand, I'd thank him
for his service to the country. But I think he's
(19:47):
a deeply morally flawed character, and I think most politicians
probably are. But I'm not looking for politicians to be
moral leaders. I'm looking for politicians to be political leaders,
and so that's how I judge who I vote for. Now,
if you're a great moral character on top of being
a good politician, even better, fantastic. But as we talked
(20:10):
about in the last segment. Those people are few and
far between. They just are. You'll have maybe a handful
of them. I posted this on Twitter when I saw
the Ken Paxton announcement from his wife, which again was
really gross. She should not have put that out publicly
on Twitter like that. And I'm saying that not because
(20:31):
of any respect for either Angela or Ken Paxton. I'm
saying that out of respect for the institution of marriage.
But anyway, somebody tweeted out in response to that, Ken
Paxton is morally unfit to hold office. He cannot be
the next US Senator from Texas. All right, if you
think every US Senator from Texas has been completely faithful
(20:52):
to their wives, if you think most people in Congress
have been completely faithful to their wives, I have a
bridge to sell you in Brooklyn. And if you don't
want the bridge, I've got an ocean front condo in Tucson, Arizona.
It's really nice, great view of the sea. I'll put
you in touch with my realtor. I just responded. The
reality is if marital fidelity was the bar politicians couldn't cross,
(21:15):
ninety five percent of elected officials would be out of
office by tomorrow morning. Paxton's record in office is what
I'm concerned about. Somebody responded to me with, I think
a very good question, what's wrong with setting the bar high?
We should expect strong integrity from those who we elect.
And I'm not gonna fault this guy for saying that,
(21:35):
because he's got a good point. I wish we could
expect that, But the unfortunate reality is if we start
setting that bar, we are going to be disappointed. Almost
every time we have to set realistic expectations, we do,
and unfortunately, being strong moral characters is a bar that
I think is far too high for most politicians to clear.
(21:59):
That's just the way of the world, and this goes back,
you know, since the founding of the country. The prime
example of this was Alexander Hamilton, who ended up not
running for president because everybody found out he had been
cheating on his wife. But the reality is probably most
of the politicians at that time were doing that, including
Thomas Jefferson, who famously had a bunch of kids with
(22:21):
slaves that he owned and he was the president. So
this goes back to the founding of the country and
really all of human history. No political leader has ever
been completely one hundred percent. The guy, even King David,
who was a man after God's own heart, was cheating
on his wife left and right, and then having more
(22:41):
wives and cheating on them. This is a universal problem.
And I said that if you set the bar too high,
no one clears it. If you start looking to politicians
to set examples on morality, you're going to be disappointed
almost one hundred percent of the time. A lot of
Christians have a hard time reconciling that. Christians, I tell
you this, we already have our moral example. It's Jesus.
(23:05):
Stop looking to politicians to be Jesus. That's what the
left does. They look at government as their God and Messiah.
All right, the right needs to stop doing that. We
do that too, and we get really disappointed whenever any
politician that we like has some moral failing and we think,
oh my god, it's the end of the world. You
can't vote for him, Yes you can, because you're not
voting for him based on his morality. You're voting for
(23:26):
him to forward your political interests. And then you say, hey,
these are the things he does that we should not repeat.
We have a better moral example, and it's God. So
That's why I'm still planning on voting for Ken Paxson
in the primaries and if he makes it the general election.
Adam said to me, then we're doomed to fail. That's
the guy I was talking to on Twitter. His name
is Adam. He responded to me saying, stop looking to
(23:49):
politicians to set moral examples, and he said, then we're
doomed to fail. I said, we always were. No nation
lasts forever. All right, it's the way of the world,
since rise, nation falls. Find the person that best preserves
your interests on the political level, and then the rest
is in God's hands. That's my view as a Christian
(24:10):
being involved in politics. If you're an atheist listening to
the show, Seek Christ. But other than that, you can
take whatever view you want on this. But that's my
thought process. So there you go. I'm still voting for
Ken Baxton. All right, let's dig into a little bit.
We do have some really good economic news that I
(24:33):
want to talk about before we run out of time
in this segment. So we have had a huge surge
in funds. I say huge surgeon funds. It's a little bit,
you know, it's not massive news, but it's worth pointing out,
so Breitbarr did this story a couple of days ago.
The federal government posted an unexpected budget surplus in June,
(24:53):
fueled by a sharp rise in tariff revenues and higher
than anticipated tax receipts, marking a notable vindicane for President
Donald Trump's economic strategy. The twenty seven billion dollar surplus
reported Friday by the Treasury Department stood in stark contrast
to the forecast for a fifty billion dollar deficit, representing
one of the largest upsides in recent budget data. Monthly
(25:17):
surpluses typically occur in April, when many Americans file their taxes.
Surpluses are also common in January and September. A June
surplus is highly unusual. So I actually reached out to
Vance Gain. He's an economist that I've talked to a
number of times, and I asked him, you know, how
legit is this, Where is this coming from? And yet
it's coming from mostly the tariffs, the tariffs and the
(25:38):
timing of spending. This isn't really a doze cuts thing.
I want to make that point because most of those
haven't really gone into full effect yet. So this is
really mostly the tariffs. So that's great, that's good news.
We're happy about that for sure. Now somebody on Twitter said, Okay, well,
this isn't really that great of news because this is
(25:59):
just coming out of americans pockets. Tariffs are just attacks
on people buying overseas goods and kind of but not really.
I mean, in concept, yes, but what we've seen is
inflation data doesn't actually show that this surplus is coming
out of your pocket. Because if this budget surplus was
directly from the terror or was directly from you paying
(26:22):
for the tariffs, then what we would see is more inflation,
we would see prices jump up, and so far, at least,
we haven't seen that. The most recent inflation data that
we have is inflation data from May, and of course
inflation is still rising, but it's rising very slowly, not
(26:44):
the kind of skyrocketing that you would expect if this
massive budget surplus was from tariffs. The Bureau of Labor
Statistics reported that in May, prices rose zero point one
percent month to month, while it was up on a
two point four percent on an annual basis. That month
to month rise was expected to be zero point two percent.
(27:07):
It was only zero point one, so it actually came
in slower than expected. So what that tells us is
these companies are probably right now eating the cost of
whatever tariffs they're having to pay. Some of these tariffs
haven't gone into full effect yet, so maybe next month
or two or three months down the line, this could change.
We'll wait and see what happens. But at least, as
of right now, you are not paying for the tariffs
(27:29):
these companies are, which, hey, that's great, that's good news.
I think that comes from the fact that companies probably
understand there's still not a lot of wiggle room in
the average American's wallet for them to pass these costs
down to you, and most of them have enough room
in their margins to eat the cost of these tariffs.
So what we're seeing at least right now is we
(27:52):
are seeing increased government revenue from these tariffs. That is
a good sign, and it's not coming out of your wallet,
which is also a good time. So at least as
of right now, Trump's plan does appear to be working.
And that's despite the fact that people want you to
panic and lose your mind over this. Don't panic and
lose your mind over this. On certain things with the
(28:13):
Trump administration, I've leaned into the trust the plan. Mentality
on other things not so much. We'll get into that
in the next segment. But this is one of those
things where I want to remind people Donald Trump is
a businessman. He has been a businessman for a long time.
He has a strategy and it's worked for him quite
a bit. I remind you he was a billionaire. He
(28:34):
is a billionaire. He knows what he's doing economically. It
may look dirty and messy from the outside, and we
may not like the fact that it's dirty and messy
from the outside, and we want to know the plan
and see what the plan is. I have accepted the
fact that it's dirty, it's messy, we don't know what
the plan is. Trust the plan. We'll see what happens.
All right. We got one more segment coming up. Let's
talk about in that one, So stay tuned. All right.
(29:12):
So I just talked about how much I'm trusting Trump's
economic plan. Here's the plan I'm not trusting. I'm not
trusting the Epstein Plan. I talked about this in detail
on the podcast on Wednesday. Go listen to the Wednesday podcast.
There's a lot of stuff in there that I can't air,
or that I just don't have time for. You're missing
(29:33):
out if you're not listening to it. Search wherever you
get your podcasts. In the next Gym Report, check it out,
and of course on x at Underscore Ethan Buchanan, go
listen to the podcaster's good stuff. We talked in detail
about the latest goings on with the Epstein files, and
of course brief summary. I'm not gonna get into it
(29:54):
all again, but the official line right now from the DJ,
according to elaked memo, is that's it. We've got nothing else.
We're closing the books. That's BS. Everybody knows it's BS.
Everybody's pissed off about it, including Deputy Director of the
FBI Dan Bongino. He is one of the people that
(30:14):
has been very vocal for several years about, Hey, we
need to know what's going on with the Epstein files.
We need to know who the Epstein clients are. This
is information we have to have, regardless of the consequences.
We need to out these people. We need to get
them out of public life. He's been very vocal about
this on his show. Remember he went from working in
law enforcement to doing a very successful podcast to coming
(30:37):
to be the deputy director of the FBI in part
because the Trump administration wanted to restore trust in the FBI.
People trust Dan Bongino, So you put him in the
FBI because again, we lost a lot of trust with
basically every government organization after the four years of the
(30:58):
Biden administration for a good reason. So what's the solution.
Put Dan Bongino in and have him be honest with
the American people and earn back that trust. And so
now his reputation is on the line because now he's
associated with the burying of the Epstein files. He who
is someone who very much values his reputation and his
(31:18):
trustworthiness is of course obviously as he should be pissed
off about this. The Daily Wire has been reporting this
Bondi or Bongino. Bongino won't remain at the FBI if
Bondi keeps her job. Sources say Dan Bongino, the Deputy
director of the FBI, is threatening to leave the bureau
(31:39):
if Attorney General Pam Bondi remains on the job. A
source close to Bongino tells the Daily Wire Bongino is
reportedly furious with the Attorney General over her handling of
the Jeffrey Epstein files, which has led to many believing
he could walk away from the job he took In February,
the source close to Bongino said that he is affectively
(32:00):
issued an ultimatum saying he won't work alongside Bondi, and
I definitely think Pam Bondi should be fired. You remember,
if you listen to the show back kind of during
the transition period when it was first announced that we're
giving up on making Matt Gates the deputy director of
the FBI, or the not deputy director the attorney general.
(32:22):
We're giving up on making Matt Gates the attorney general.
We're gonna he's gonna step aside. He's gonna go do
his show on I think it's one America's voice, and
he said, we're gonna have Pam Bondi be the attorney general.
I said at the time, I'm suspicious of this choice.
Bondi had been a pusher of red flag gun laws,
(32:44):
which I've already told you and explained I don't like.
She seemed to be more of a political insider, one
of those kind of old guard Republicans that I don't like.
But I was willing to give her the benefit of
the doubt, she has proven to not be a good
attorney general. In my opinion, she seems fishy. I don't
(33:04):
trust how she's handled the Epstein files. I would rather
have Dan Bongino in any position than have Pambondi continue
to be the attorney general. And it looks to me
like Cash Battel, the actual director of the FBI, also
feels the same way, because there's been rumors going around
that he's sitting there saying if Dan Bongino leaves, I'm
(33:27):
gonna leave two. So essentially it looks like the choice
is gonna come down to either Pambondi as attorney General
or Cash Battel and Jen dan Bongino, dan Bongino, these
Italian names man either Cash Battel and dan Bongino at
the FBI or Pambondi is the attorney general. Now, I've
(33:48):
been telling you since Wednesday to speak up about this,
and speak up about this on X people have been
speaking up, and this is now a mainstream conversation. All right,
This isn't just the fringe of the hyper political right.
They had this conversation at Turning Point USA. They're doing
their big conference right now in Florida. We've got Megan
Kelly and Charlie Kirk, two big voices that Trump obviously
(34:09):
is aware of and listens to, and you know, pays
attention to, sitting there saying, Yeah, we need to get
rid of Pambondi. And then this massive crowd at Turning
Point USA cheering. This is the definition of the Trump
Bass and they're speaking out very vocally about this. Take
a listen.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
The reporting is Bongina, is Bongino or Bondi. He's not
sing you guys prefer Bongina or Bonnie.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
They's seven thousand to zero.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
They want Dan, of course Dan. You know why because
Dan understands Maga. Dan's part of the mega movement. Dan's
been an important piece of it and a mouthpiece for
like really important ideas and an advocate and a fierce warrior.
He's been in the trenches. I mean, with all the
respect to Pambody, she's been in Florida. She represented the president.
It's nice, but do you think she really gets Maga.
(34:56):
I don't think so. She wouldn't have behaved this way
if she did. And now it's a time for choosing.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
It's a time for choosing and Meghan Kelly makes a
great point there a lot of this is Pam Bondi's behavior. Right,
Everything about how they've gone about this raises suspicion because remember,
like we pointed out on Wednesday episode, I really encourage
you go back and listen to that if you haven't.
(35:22):
We were told at the beginning of the year that
we had the documents. That was the line. They're on
the desk. We just need to review them, sensors, some
names of some victims so people don't have their lives ruined,
and then we can, you know, start moving forward with
prosecutions and announce who's involved in this and things like that.
And then they say, now we have nothing, nobody else
(35:43):
was involved. Case closed. Even if you have nothing, even
if you don't have enough to prosecute somebody, why would
you not just say that right at the very beginning,
say hey, we just got in we're looking through the
data that we were left behind by the Biden administration.
(36:04):
We don't have enough to do a prosecution. We'll dig
into it, we'll see if we can catch somebody, if
we can charge somebody. But they should have been saying
this at the beginning. We don't know what we're going
to be able to give you. But that's not what
they were telling us. That's not what Pam Bondi herself
was telling us. Pam Bondy was saying, I have the files,
I have the list, it's on my desk, and now
(36:27):
it's gone. People are rightfully pissed off about that. Dan
Bongino and Cash Battel are rightfully pissed off about that,
because remember while they were speaking out in favor of
Trump on the campaign trail, they were saying, we're gonna
get into office, we're gonna find these things that we
know we have, and we're gonna bring people to justice.
So they would be just as pissed off as anybody
(36:47):
else if Pam Bondy, their boss, turns around and says, nope,
never mind. And so yeah, if I was Dan Bongino,
I'd say, okay, you had to get rid of her,
or I'm washing my hands of this because it's hurting
my credibility and it is. How much time did we
spend over the last couple of days on X online
saying Okay, everyone who's involved in this and doesn't release
(37:10):
these files is complicit, including Cash MATEL and Dan Bongino.
People have been raising some real concerns about them now
because of their involvement in the FBI that's now not
prosecuting people now. I have a little bit of faith
that because the base is so loudly speaking up about
this and making it clear, listen, this is what we want,
this is what we voted for you for. Maybe we'll
(37:31):
see some results. Maybe, but I wouldn't put my money
on it. Trump actually fires Pambondi or she actually resigns
in connection to all of this, and then we get
somebody else in who's able to actually give us some
movement here. That would be great. I'm hopeful. I wouldn't
bet on it. We'll see what happens. But again, this
is why it's important to speak up. Go make your
(37:54):
voice heard on whatever public platform you can get your
hands on. I recommend X. That's the one I used
the most. That's right, that's I think the best one
out of all of the ones available. Don't hate me
because I'm not a truth social user, but hey, go
get on X if you're not already, and if you
are on X, start speaking up about this. Make sure
you make known what you want this administration to be doing,
(38:14):
and chances are they'll at least notice, right, and that's
all we can hopeful. All right, I did want to
talk a little bit about this migrant ray that happened,
but I'm just fresh out of time, So once again,
tune into the podcast on Wednesday. We'll dig into this. Then,
this migrant raid in California at this weed farm. It's
a crazy story. We'll dig into it in the Wednesday podcast.
So go give that a listen the Next Gen Report
(38:36):
wherever you get your podcasts, where everywhere, and of course
X at Underscore Ethan Buchanan. There's a lot going on
every single day and that's where it's happening. It's happening
on X, so give me a follow there. Thank you
very much for listening. We'll be back, of course, next Sunday,
same time, same place, seven pm, right here on AM
nine to fifty KPRC.
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