August 22, 2025 • 35 mins
8/23/25 - At #1, The Russia-Ukraine Negotiations
Host Doug Stephan along with Michael Harrison, Editor/Publisher of Talkers Magazine, review the most talked about stories and people on news/talk radio for the week of August 18th, 2025 through August 22nd, 2025. Compiled by the research department at Talkers Magazine - The Bible of Talk Radio and the New Talk Media - www.talkers.com
STORIES
Host Doug Stephan along with Michael Harrison, Editor/Publisher of Talkers Magazine, review the most talked about stories and people on news/talk radio for the week of August 18th, 2025 through August 22nd, 2025. Compiled by the research department at Talkers Magazine - The Bible of Talk Radio and the New Talk Media - www.talkers.com
STORIES
- Russia-Ukraine Negotiations
- Texas & California Redistricting
- The Economy/Fed Policy
- Tariffs
- Federal Takeover of DC
- The Epstein Files
- ICE Raids
- Israel-Gaza War
- Trump vs The Smithsonian
- Trump Voting System Criticisms / Newsmax-Dominion Settlement
- Donald Trump
- Vladimir Putin
- Volodymyr Zelensky
- Greg Abbott
- Gavin Newsom
- Jerome Powell / Lisa Cook
- Jeffrey Epstein / Ghislaine Maxwell
- Kristi Noem
- Pam Bondi
- Benjamin Netanyahu
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Doug Stephan and she's not. She could be Elizabeth Miller. However,
as a matter of fact, she is. Elizabeth Miller is
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(00:36):
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Speaker 1 (00:54):
Elizabeth Miller from the folks at Caldtrin, Thanks Elizabeth.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Counting down what America is talking about. Welcome to the
talk radio Countdown show.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
All across America. Talk radio and the voices of freedom.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Don't stop talking. So it's my pleasure once again to
welcome you into our discussion of the big issues on
the news talk scene, news talk radio, podcasting, television, news
talk radios where it all started, and it started with
Michael Harrison, who's the editor and publisher of Talkers magazine,
(01:38):
here this week to do his own bidding, talking about
the charge of this past week August the eighteenth, of
the twenty second the people on the list, the stories
on the list. Speaking of people, I'm Doug Stefan, not
on the list, but here to discuss with Michael what
the heck is going on? And so we'll find the
(01:59):
outline here. If you open up your ears, open up
your mind the outline begins right now.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
Michael, Wow, open up your ears, open up your minds,
and open up I think your eyes. At number ten,
we have the Trump voting system criticisms, and that's tied
with the interesting story the settlement between Newsmax and Dominion
voting machines. At number nine, Trump versus the Smithsonian. It's
(02:26):
a whole lot of things to talk about under that category.
The Israel Gozla war continues to be a major world issue,
and it's number eight. The Ice raids a major domestic
issue at number seven, the Epstein Files, I don't know
if it's major minor, if it's going anywhere or disappearing
at number six. The federal takeover of Washington, DC is
(02:47):
at number five, The tariffs at number four, the largely
misunderstood tariffs at number four, the economy and federal policy
at three. At number two, Tech in California, redistricting, the
word Jerry Mandarin, interesting guy, and Russia Ukraine negotiations both
(03:11):
in Alaska, which last I heard is part.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Of the United States.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
And in the Office the Gilded Lily at number one.
The people survey, we have Benjamin at Yahoo at ten,
Pam Bondy at nine, Christine Nome at eight. At number seven,
Jeffrey Epstein and Gislaine Maxwell, Jerome Powell and Lisa Cook
tied for number six. Gavin Newsom is five, Greg Abbott
(03:37):
at four, number three, Voladimir Zelenski number two of Vladimir Putin.
Number one, Donald Trump, And it's been another wild week
here in this thing known as the Milky Way galaxy.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
It is part of the western hemisphere in the world,
in the the place that we have in the Sun.
We have such a small sun, we have such a
small solar system, we have such a small galaxy. It's incredible.
So how important is all of this stuff to the
(04:13):
furtherance of the world, as I don't even know where
that came from the world. We refer to the Earth,
the planet as the world, but is it really the
strictest definition of the world encompasses everything, and so if
we really understood what the world was, it would be
a lot different than what we think it is. It
(04:34):
isn't just the planet that we're on, and think about that.
I ever think about that when you're driving around how
we are stuck to the roads. You don't ever think
about that. If it wasn't for gravity, it would be Yeah. No,
You and I have had some very esoteric conversations over
the years about quantum physics and the things that make
(04:55):
up the reality of life and how it comes with
the where did the loan the loan? Where the dirt
come from? That's under your lawn and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
Right, we don't even know, We don't we don't even
you know, it's interesting. You're you're, you're, you're, you're doing interesting, Stephan,
Stephan rambling, You're you're you're a rambling.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
And it's interesting. Some of the stuff you're touching on
is very interesting.
Speaker 5 (05:21):
What I'm thinking is i'm listening to you, is that
I do believe science and what's going on in the
world of science would be a very compatible topic.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
For for news talk radio. We don't.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
Science doesn't get the level of coverage in talk radio,
talk television, news newspapers. It's there, it's there, but it
doesn't get the level of interest that exists among the
public in this this topic. So you're touching on something there,
you know, I don't. I don't don't telling people to
(05:58):
talk about. But that's a good one.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, Well, there are all kinds of things that we
don't understand that we ask about. The world of news
talk radio has becomes simplistic because the people who are
the hosts this is not a negative, have looked at
the it's the same music radio play, the hits, and
the simplistic stuff that gets people going always seems to usually,
(06:23):
at least in this era of talk radio, it's politics.
For the most part, world events are important, but we
don't take a look at them from afar as world events.
We look at them in terms of the politics of
number two. For example, this week on the story list,
the Texas registrict thing and how California says going to
do the same thing. New York is thinking about following suit.
(06:46):
If you can do it, I can do it. And
then you wonder, what are the laws all? How does
this happen? How does it this easy to manipulate? That's
what it would These people are manipulating the results of elections.
You know that you talked to about these suit between
the voting systems and and news talk I mean Newsmax.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Newsmax and Dominion.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, and but when you think about it, they were
not tampering, but they said things that weren't true. So
they got sued and they had to pay. Was it
a couple of hundred million bucks or on me? Didn't
they to demand it?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Was?
Speaker 5 (07:23):
It was an insane amount And now it's still an
insane amount, but less insane.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Well, but they don't have the news.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
But it's gone from billions to millions.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yeah, it was going to one hundreds of mellions, but
under the circumstances, does that put Newsmax out of business?
They keep crowing about how they're growing and advertising is this.
But they went public and and they got along.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
They made a deal.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
They made they made it.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
They made a deal where they're paying it back over
three years in a manner that is compatible to their
projected cash flow. So they it's not like they're You're
going to be giving up this giant chunk of capital.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
They're going to pay it back in a way.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
And the fact of the matter is is that Newsmax
has been very intelligently and successfully. You know their risks involved,
but Chris Right is their guy. He's done it intelligently.
And between having a public offering promoting the heck out
of Newsmacks over years and years, and they're being a
market for a competitor for Fox, he's going to I
(08:27):
think I.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Think this is just my own gut instinct.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
I don't have privy to the books, but I think
that he'll survive, and I think that they'll continue to
grow as they have.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I think you just in an astute manners pretty much
summed up. Christopher Ruddy, who runs Newsmax, is a very
smooth promoter. If nothing else, he understands what the public
is looking at. It is his philosophy. His philosophy is
the same. I mean, you can say, why do we
need another Fox? Well, you could say that about CNN,
Why do we need MSNBC or whatever they're going to
(09:00):
be called going forward, because it won't be a mess NBC.
But this competition is good, keeps people, and I think
Rddy's going to retire.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
A very wealthy guy.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
That would be my read on it.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
They were.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
He's been at the Talkers. You gave him an award once,
didn't you.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Oh yeah, I've.
Speaker 5 (09:20):
Been friends with Chris Ruddy for many, many years, for decades.
I go all the way back with Chris Ruddy as
as a person that I know in this business. Of course,
in my job, I know most of the movers and
shakers in the business.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
So it's not like, oh, personal friends with Chris Ruddy.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
But I know Chris Ruddy very well, and he's a
smart fellow, and he's you know, I guess, relative to
the kinds of people that are in this business, I
guess I could loosely categorize him as what we call
he's a good guy.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
I don't judge by their jecks.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
I judge him by how they deal with the people
around them.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, it's really this is not a personality thing. But
when you look at the again, at the politics of
news talk radio and how political it has become, it's
it is synonymous with politics for the most part, even though,
as you said a few minutes ago, wouldn't it be
great if we had I've dreamed sometimes about doing the
(10:19):
night program at WBZ in Boston and being able to
talk about science and the things that are not necessarily
well our friend Walter Tabo does just that. There are
some people Bob Refreshman, What's in Chicago on g N
at night, Raleigh telling James, Yeah, she does the same
(10:41):
kind of stuff. There are people around who do what
I used to do it, but I'm certainly not in
the mainstream. But it was I thought more if I'm
going to be, you know, sort of selfish about my
focus on things. What I talked about was what I
was interested in, what I felt people would be interested in,
and if I was interested in it. Do you think
(11:02):
that holds with folks on the radio or if the.
Speaker 5 (11:05):
Host a degree interested to a degree to a certain degree,
you cannot hide what you're about as a talk show host.
It will eventually seep out, it will eventually be apparent.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
You will eventually be exposed.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
So it comes across because of the nature of hours,
hours on the air and the spontaneity of the format.
You don't have time see, whereas television is largely written
by producers and writers, scripted and short everything that's very short,
sound bitity. When you're in a situation, the situation you
(11:42):
and I are in right now, we're not working on
a script. Our only script are the talking points known
as the top ten topics and issues. And we have
a rule that we don't have a rule. We're able
to bounce round and follow the river. We follow the
flow as opposed to we can't talk about that anymore.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
We got to move on now to the economy.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
So I do believe that this format, the loose format
called talk radio, whatever it is, even if it's sports
or doctor shows or money shows, there.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Are a lot of other kinds of shows still in talk.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
Radio that you will eventually your audience will figure out
what kind of person you are, what your principles are,
what your politics are. And it's because of the nature
of the games. It's long stretches of spontaneous conversation you
can't hide.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I was thinking about some of the people, the hosts
who have run for political office. Which came first, the
person in political office doing a talk radio program or
a person on the air who decided to run for
political office. I guess there are examples of both of those.
Speaker 5 (12:48):
Right, Yeah, that's a two way street. That's a that's
a two way street that's been going on for years,
and there are people that have gone in both directions.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Now, this list, by the way, is public every week
in Talker's magazine in at talkers dot com. I think
you did an analysis on Talkers. We were talking about
Christopher Ruddy, a news talk and Newsmax magazine. I subscribe
to their online stuff, and I'd like to subscribe to
a little of both. You know. I find myself reading
(13:18):
the Newsmax list and going into the stories more completely.
I do that with the New York Times, and I
find myself annoyed when I read both both of them,
because I know that they are true. All of the
stuff that's there is just, you know, it's kind of hyperbole,
but it is now settling for news, and it's just interesting,
(13:42):
fascinating for those of us who've been around for a
long time to see how this format has matured and
how some of the people the people have been on
for a long time. I was thinking about Curtis Sliwa
yesterday because he's the he's one of the candidates, but
not mentioned much in the news media. A talk host
on he was on w ABC. Isn't he still on ABC?
(14:03):
He still is on w A b C. Yeah, So
he's running for mayor of New York. Did he have
to take himself off the air? Is that one of
the That is one of the rules, right when you're
running for office and you've been on the air, you
got to get off.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
There's a point at which you have to get off.
I don't know whether he's crossed that threshold yet. It's technical.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yeah, but Mike Pants, Yeah, Mike Pants was a host before.
I think he was in Congress, then he was on
the radio, and then he was vice president. Wasn't that
the order? It seems to me that the order of
things the other way around?
Speaker 5 (14:36):
Yeah, I know he went he was in the in
the Congress from Indianapolis, I believe.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yeah, So if you look at the people list just
for conversation purposes for a second, who on that list
would make a good talk hoost? Donald Trump Number one.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
Donald Trump is the talk coast. Donald Trump is the
president like a talk coast. If you'll notice he holds
court every day. He has his press conferences in his studio,
as opposed to in that room that they normally have
the press conferences. It sits behind the resolute desk, which
he does now to hide his ankles, because but he's
(15:15):
taking pictures of the poor guy's socks. But now he
as as a observer of talk media, which is what
I do amongst my various skills. Donald Trump is the
first shock president. I mean he's he's gone on in
(15:35):
the tradition of Howard Stern, and he brought it to politics,
and he brought it to the presidency. Donald Trump sees
the presidency as a talk show and and and he
he operates it that way. Doesn't that make sense? And
you look at how he works. But your question was
who would be a good talk show host?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Greg Abbott, would Gavin Newsma.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (16:00):
Newsom would be a good host. I don't know, I
you know, I don't know. If Zelensky was a comedian,
so he in his language or English, he might have
been putin is a mystery, very very very carefully contrived individuals.
(16:23):
You know, Epstein's dead, Islaine Maxwell is a is a
side character in a key position. Christine Alman, Pam BONDI,
you know, maybe net and Yaho would be an interesting
writing talk shows. You and I spoke English to him,
we interviewed him together. It was a number of years ago,
but he reminded me of Bill Clinton when you and
(16:44):
I met the younger net Yoo.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Yeah, that's an interesting analogy. Yeah, all right, So there's
our philosophy on that one coming up. Let's talk about
the economy number three this week on the Countdown Don't
Stop Tales. Indeed, I'm Doug Stefan with Michael Harrison, the
editor and publisher of Talker's Magazine. This past week was
(17:09):
National Radio Day, and one of the things that came
out of it was an announcement from the NAB that
my friend and yours and my consultant for a number
of years, Mike McVeigh is going to become the winner
of their National Radio Award. I was thinking as I
saw that all and we were talking about Christopher Ruddy
(17:31):
before and how he won a certain place in your
heart and the minds and the history of Talker's Magazine,
and then I started thinking about all the other people.
That was the one of the things about the Talker's Convention,
the great theater of especially people win the talk It
wasn't really called the talk Host of the Year, it
(17:52):
was the Freedom of Speech Award that like, who one
of the most well. I was thinking when Gordon Liddy
got it glorious time out in front of the of
the auditorium. Oh what I say, Gloria what I oh? Yeah,
(18:14):
I know. Yeah. So anyway, this is just we have
had many wonderful experiences over the decades with the people,
and that's sort of what brings my mind back around
to the people who are on the air now and
how we celebrate them, and how National Radio Day it
couldn't be ignored and shouldn't be ignored. Although I don't
(18:37):
remember celebrating it much when I was on the air
Monday through Friday. Is that something new is National radio?
Is something new?
Speaker 4 (18:44):
National Radio Day crept up on me.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
I didn't really know much about it and don't know
much about it but I do know that UNESCO and
the United Nations has a thing going on for about
a decade and a half now known as World Radio Day,
and twenty twenty four they hired me to be the
executive director of World Radio Day, and I worked with
(19:08):
radio stations around the world back in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
It's a one year job. You can't do it again.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
So I had my shot at it, and I lent
a lot of my knowledge of US radio to it.
But I also learned a lot about world radio. And
the one thing I learned more than anything is that
radio remains an extremely important platform to the world. As
far as radio in the United States, there are struggles
(19:35):
for all media that's rooted in the twentieth century and
earlier even, but radio in the world is vital to
the survival of many, many people and cultures.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Because we've done such a great job of it here,
many of the managers, many of the people who were
behind the scenes, were program directors, became consultants. I can
think of a couple. Valerie Geller one and David Hall another,
both well known and respected in our business, became consultants
not to stations here, but to stations mostly in Europe,
(20:09):
but other parts of the world because talk radio there
is like they've used our model and mimicked it. To
think of the people. The characters has been on the
air in England on the various stations there there just
it's we started it though, and we still are hammering away.
So I promise we talk about the economy number three
(20:31):
on the story list this week. The question has been
asked by those who are observers, how is it that
the stock market is doing so well when the public,
the person who you describe as being a middle American,
not the rich and not the poor, but the guy
who's in the middle, the middle class, if you will,
(20:54):
not doing so well. Everything's so expensive. So why is
has this been dissected? Good business talk radio programs would
probably have taken this on.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
Michael right, Well, I think I think most people do
not have a complete understanding of how to connect the
dots when it comes to the economy, and the relationship
between Wall Street and Main Street has been increasingly murky,
i'd say for the past ten, fifteen, twenty years. So
I don't have the answer to that, but I do
know that I know what I don't know, and there
(21:24):
are a lot of people out there who, under the
guise of being experts, they don't know what they don't
know what. They don't know either in otherwise, I think
there's a lot of ignorance out there about the economy.
And I think that number one, the number one. You
just you just took the words right out of my mouth. Sorry,
the way we talk about that, no, no, it's all right.
(21:44):
The way we walk, the way we talk about tariffs
is really exposes our national ignorance about about the economy,
because that that misunderstanding should not be allowed to go on.
Whether you like or you don't like Trump, whether you
are left or you're right, you're a public and you're democrat.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
The way falsehoods about.
Speaker 5 (22:09):
The tariffs and what a tariff is and how it
operates are thrown about and let hanging in the air
by the media is to me.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
A page out of the movie Idiocracy.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
The news media doesn't understand it.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
Either clearly, yeah yeah, really, they don't use it, or
they don't want to get into it, or they're using
it to cherry pick little talking points if they're for
Trump and they don't want to seem partisan. But look,
you know, whether you like Trump or not, he's the
president of the United States and his feet must be
held to the fire. And this tariff misunderstanding. When I
(22:48):
hear the President of the United States say things like
we are the hottest nation, we are a hot nation, and.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
Trillions of dollars are flowing into the.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
United States because of the tariffs, and we're making these
people pay, that is a one hundred percent falsehood and
it shouldn't be let and then and then it's left
it's left standing there.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
The right wing media, news media.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
But nobody gets it right.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Someone will say, well, he doesn't understand the you know,
the the Americans are paying for that. It's passed down
to the consumer. It's passed on to the consumer. Yes
it is, but that's not the issue. The issue is
a complete total misrepresentation of what tariffs are.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
And uh, it's just not true.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Are you saying that Trump doesn't understand tariffs as well?
Speaker 5 (23:45):
I'm saying that he better understand it and be a
liar than be the stupidest president we've ever had. But
you rather have a smart liar or a stupid truth teller.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
A smart liar.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
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All right, back with the Michael Harrison. So, as Michael
and I point out every week, it seems since Donald
Trump has been president before that he pretty much if
you look at the list, every single thing that's on
the list this week, all the people involved in relationship
(26:14):
with Donald Trump, and the stories all pretty much wrap
themselves around Trump's presidency. For example, the federal judge that
late in the week ordered the closure of Alligator Alcatraz.
So how many hundreds of millions of dollars have we
spent on things like that? Donald Trump has a whim.
(26:34):
He wants to do it. Okay, yep, we'll help the
guys in Florida, or we'll do this. We'll send the
ice people after the farmers in Washington, will take over
the police in DC. What's it costing? Is anybody asking
that question? How much money do his whims cost the
(26:54):
American taxpayer?
Speaker 5 (26:55):
Michael Well, his answer to anything having to do the
Ice raids is that it's not a whim but a mandate.
And that's why he was elected. So that's that's his
leverage and hedge against that accusation. I think it got
me on that one. I didn't realize that they're closing
up Alligator Alcatrez. The last I was, and I might
(27:16):
be wrong, I probably am wrong, is that they've limited
it now to they're not adding it to it.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
They're not putting in more people than The federal judge.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
In Miami on Thursday ordered the closure of.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
The closure, and it's binding. It's going to happen. It's
not one of those times.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
They'll take it to court. You can be sure Trump
so does Sanders will take it to court and spend
more money trying to keep it open.
Speaker 5 (27:43):
Well, the fact of the matter is the Republicans and
the Democrats have often talked about budgets. The last president
that I remember balancing the budget was a so called
liberal Democrat named Bill Clinton. So that that throws that
paradigm out the window, or that that meme, if you will.
Trump talks about things like doge and cutting the budget.
(28:06):
But the fact of the matter is he is adding
to the national debt by the trillions. So Trump is
not a true conservative, nor is Trump a true smaller
government guide. Trump is increasing the impact of the government,
its intrusion into people's lives, and its expenditures on a
(28:27):
level we've never seen before.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
No, and so it news. Yeah, I mean this week
the announcement was made that he and mister Kennedy are
going to cut health research funding my seven hundred and
eighty three million dollars and the Supreme Court rubber stamp.
That didn't all vote for it, but the predictable ones did.
(28:50):
And so there's another legal man, how euch did it
cost us to present us the taxpayer to present that
case in the Supreme Court and the lower courts that
it went to before it went to the Supreme Court. Right,
that's a legitimate question.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
Yeah, well, I mean, I'm just saying, is you just
go in circles? If you really expect anybody in politics
today in America to lower the expenses of government, your dreamer,
because no matter what they say, they don't do it.
What they say is one thing and what they do
is another. And it doesn't matter if they're liberal or conservative.
(29:29):
It doesn't matter if they're Democrats or Republicans. The government
spending increases, and our whole view of it is wrong.
We should have effective government. It shouldn't be based on
how much is spent. It should be based on effectivity
and what the benefits are of the expenditures. You know,
the Interstate highway system. He was a conservative, but that
(29:52):
was a public works project.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
But look at how successful it was.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Fabulous yep. And then we were running out of But
I was thinking about Trump and the Smithsonian and him
being in charge. Tom Cruise says, I'm busy. I got
something else to do that day because he doesn't want
to be labeled with that crew. I thought that was interesting.
So anyway, all right, Michael, thank you, Michael Harrison. Here
(30:17):
up next Stephen jj Wiseman with a legal overview of
some of the things on the charts.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
This week, we're counting down what America is talking about.
The talk radio Countdown show continues The talk radio Countdown.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Okay, how would you best describe Donald Trump? That would
be an interesting college describe his personality for the rest
of the world. Okay, I'm into it with the Stephen
jj Wiseman. Now, who's our legal bona fide. He's got
the bona phides to prove it. He's a professor of law.
(30:58):
He takes people to court, he wins in court. It
wasn't one of the loses, but that's only because the
judge cheats. And so here he is to go through
to go through some of the items on our list. Here,
Trump talks about much money's bringing in and him being
a conservative, which is the last thing anybody should think
about him, because he's no conservative. Look of the way
(31:19):
he's spending money. We were talking about that earlier, and
one of the things that money's being spent on Steve
things like searching. The FBI showed up at John Bolton's
house in Maryland and searched it. I don't know if
they had a warrant, but because he's been on TVs
on Newsmax all the time criticizing the president, and he
(31:41):
had his run with him, I think the last time around,
and there's not much about him about Trump that Bolton likes.
And so under what authority does the FBI go in
and search this guy's house other than Trump says, go
search his house.
Speaker 6 (31:58):
Well, you know, it's pretty interesting because, like you said,
Bolton at one time was a national security advisor to
Trump and they were close. But Bolton just started, as
you say, criticizing Trump extremely and then put out a
book about it called The Room Where It Happened, which
(32:18):
was quite a damning account of Trump's actions during twenty eighteen.
In twenty nineteen, during his first term, Trump then filed
a lawsuit trying to stop the publication of that book. Meanwhile,
the Justice Department. It took a while and Biden became
(32:39):
president and the Justice Department under Biden dropped the suit. However,
you've seen the fallout between them, and now it's kind
of almost comical because you have Trump who took matters
and documents that were classified and had them in boxes
(32:59):
at Merrilaco and certainly not secured at all and in
violation of.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
The law and.
Speaker 6 (33:10):
In his in his garage, not to the level that
that Trump did. But yeah, both of them did.
Speaker 5 (33:15):
So.
Speaker 6 (33:15):
Now what there was there was a warrant to search
for classified records. Uh, and so they did have a warrant.
But the problem is, uh, here you have you know,
won the hypocrisy of it, where where Trump probably had more.
But it's again what what Trump accused Biden uh and
(33:36):
Obama of doing, of weaponizing uh the uh, the Justice Department,
and he's he's doing that, uh specifically in this anyone
who has ever criticized him is now being investigated. He's
also and this is really troublesome. He's appointed a number
of US attorneys, which he has the authority to do,
(33:56):
but they are supposed to be approved by the Senate,
and quite frankly, some of them are so bad that
the Republican controlled Senate hasn't even voted on them. So
what Trump is doing is he will appoint them on
an interim basis where they can be in there for
one hundred and twenty days before they have to be authorized,
(34:17):
and then when that's up, he'll appoint someone on a
temporary basis which covers it for another two hundred days.
Then he keeps repeating this, So I mean, he is
just violating the Constitution. It's like what page shall I
start on today? And you know, quite frankly, you've got
the Supreme Court that is rolling over to him. Although
(34:40):
even just as Roberts the other day, in a decision
having to do with grants, the National Institute of Health
vote against him, but the majority they still, you know,
it was the majority still allowed him to cancel various
grants without giving any kind of a reason, and that
(35:00):
comes under the administrator.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
I don't want to act as arbitrary and caricious, yeah, exactly,
And I don't want to Congress get away, right yep.
And they're just the continuing, just browbeating of everybody. I
noticed he warned that it would be harsh measured if
the election DENI are Tina Peters wasn't free from jail.
That kind of stuff. Well, it's always foods, I thought.
(35:23):
When you're here, Stephen JJ Wiseman, here's serving us on
the Talk Radio Countdown Show in the top Radio Countdown.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
The Talk Radio Countdown Show is a production of step
On Maltame Gift, produced by Bob K Sound and Recording
I'm Doug Stephan and she's not. She could be Elizabeth Miller. However,
as a matter of fact, she is. Elizabeth Miller is
one of the great reasons for going to toploss dot
com and engaging in the work of Caltron getting that
weight off the natural way.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Caltrin is different than everything else up there because it's
really good for you. It's actually drug free, stimulant free,
so it's good for you. We've been helping customers since
nineteen ninety seven. It that's oup for two hundred thousand
happy customers, so I know we've just helped people all
over the United States lose weight. So if you go
to toploss dot com, you'll see the Caldron sell right there.
(00:36):
But we do also, like Dougs, had put together custom packages.
Usually they're available by email or our Facebook page, or
you can call us and we'll put together something custom
for you that will also have some special pricing on there.
And then of course Doug has a promo code. If
you use the promo code Doug, that's going to save
you on shipping on all orders.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Elizabeth Miller from the folks at Caldtrin, Thanks Elizabeth.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Counting down what America is talking about. Welcome to the
talk radio Countdown show.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
All across America. Talk radio and the voices of freedom.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Don't stop talking. So it's my pleasure once again to
welcome you into our discussion of the big issues on
the news talk scene, news talk radio, podcasting, television, news
talk radios where it all started, and it started with
Michael Harrison, who's the editor and publisher of Talkers magazine,
(01:38):
here this week to do his own bidding, talking about
the charge of this past week August the eighteenth, of
the twenty second the people on the list, the stories
on the list. Speaking of people, I'm Doug Stefan, not
on the list, but here to discuss with Michael what
the heck is going on? And so we'll find the
(01:59):
outline here. If you open up your ears, open up
your mind the outline begins right now.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
Michael, Wow, open up your ears, open up your minds,
and open up I think your eyes. At number ten,
we have the Trump voting system criticisms, and that's tied
with the interesting story the settlement between Newsmax and Dominion
voting machines. At number nine, Trump versus the Smithsonian. It's
(02:26):
a whole lot of things to talk about under that category.
The Israel Gozla war continues to be a major world issue,
and it's number eight. The Ice raids a major domestic
issue at number seven, the Epstein Files, I don't know
if it's major minor, if it's going anywhere or disappearing
at number six. The federal takeover of Washington, DC is
(02:47):
at number five, The tariffs at number four, the largely
misunderstood tariffs at number four, the economy and federal policy
at three. At number two, Tech in California, redistricting, the
word Jerry Mandarin, interesting guy, and Russia Ukraine negotiations both
(03:11):
in Alaska, which last I heard is part.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Of the United States.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
And in the Office the Gilded Lily at number one.
The people survey, we have Benjamin at Yahoo at ten,
Pam Bondy at nine, Christine Nome at eight. At number seven,
Jeffrey Epstein and Gislaine Maxwell, Jerome Powell and Lisa Cook
tied for number six. Gavin Newsom is five, Greg Abbott
(03:37):
at four, number three, Voladimir Zelenski number two of Vladimir Putin.
Number one, Donald Trump, And it's been another wild week
here in this thing known as the Milky Way galaxy.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
It is part of the western hemisphere in the world,
in the the place that we have in the Sun.
We have such a small sun, we have such a
small solar system, we have such a small galaxy. It's incredible.
So how important is all of this stuff to the
(04:13):
furtherance of the world, as I don't even know where
that came from the world. We refer to the Earth,
the planet as the world, but is it really the
strictest definition of the world encompasses everything, and so if
we really understood what the world was, it would be
a lot different than what we think it is. It
(04:34):
isn't just the planet that we're on, and think about that.
I ever think about that when you're driving around how
we are stuck to the roads. You don't ever think
about that. If it wasn't for gravity, it would be Yeah. No,
You and I have had some very esoteric conversations over
the years about quantum physics and the things that make
(04:55):
up the reality of life and how it comes with
the where did the loan the loan? Where the dirt
come from? That's under your lawn and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
Right, we don't even know, We don't we don't even
you know, it's interesting. You're you're, you're, you're, you're doing interesting, Stephan,
Stephan rambling, You're you're you're a rambling.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
And it's interesting. Some of the stuff you're touching on
is very interesting.
Speaker 5 (05:21):
What I'm thinking is i'm listening to you, is that
I do believe science and what's going on in the
world of science would be a very compatible topic.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
For for news talk radio. We don't.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
Science doesn't get the level of coverage in talk radio,
talk television, news newspapers. It's there, it's there, but it
doesn't get the level of interest that exists among the
public in this this topic. So you're touching on something there,
you know, I don't. I don't don't telling people to
(05:58):
talk about. But that's a good one.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, Well, there are all kinds of things that we
don't understand that we ask about. The world of news
talk radio has becomes simplistic because the people who are
the hosts this is not a negative, have looked at
the it's the same music radio play, the hits, and
the simplistic stuff that gets people going always seems to usually,
(06:23):
at least in this era of talk radio, it's politics.
For the most part, world events are important, but we
don't take a look at them from afar as world events.
We look at them in terms of the politics of
number two. For example, this week on the story list,
the Texas registrict thing and how California says going to
do the same thing. New York is thinking about following suit.
(06:46):
If you can do it, I can do it. And
then you wonder, what are the laws all? How does
this happen? How does it this easy to manipulate? That's
what it would These people are manipulating the results of elections.
You know that you talked to about these suit between
the voting systems and and news talk I mean Newsmax.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Newsmax and Dominion.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, and but when you think about it, they were
not tampering, but they said things that weren't true. So
they got sued and they had to pay. Was it
a couple of hundred million bucks or on me? Didn't
they to demand it?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Was?
Speaker 5 (07:23):
It was an insane amount And now it's still an
insane amount, but less insane.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Well, but they don't have the news.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
But it's gone from billions to millions.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yeah, it was going to one hundreds of mellions, but
under the circumstances, does that put Newsmax out of business?
They keep crowing about how they're growing and advertising is this.
But they went public and and they got along.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
They made a deal.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
They made they made it.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
They made a deal where they're paying it back over
three years in a manner that is compatible to their
projected cash flow. So they it's not like they're You're
going to be giving up this giant chunk of capital.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
They're going to pay it back in a way.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
And the fact of the matter is is that Newsmax
has been very intelligently and successfully. You know their risks involved,
but Chris Right is their guy. He's done it intelligently.
And between having a public offering promoting the heck out
of Newsmacks over years and years, and they're being a
market for a competitor for Fox, he's going to I
(08:27):
think I.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Think this is just my own gut instinct.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
I don't have privy to the books, but I think
that he'll survive, and I think that they'll continue to
grow as they have.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I think you just in an astute manners pretty much
summed up. Christopher Ruddy, who runs Newsmax, is a very
smooth promoter. If nothing else, he understands what the public
is looking at. It is his philosophy. His philosophy is
the same. I mean, you can say, why do we
need another Fox? Well, you could say that about CNN,
Why do we need MSNBC or whatever they're going to
(09:00):
be called going forward, because it won't be a mess NBC.
But this competition is good, keeps people, and I think
Rddy's going to retire.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
A very wealthy guy.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
That would be my read on it.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
They were.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
He's been at the Talkers. You gave him an award once,
didn't you.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Oh yeah, I've.
Speaker 5 (09:20):
Been friends with Chris Ruddy for many, many years, for decades.
I go all the way back with Chris Ruddy as
as a person that I know in this business. Of course,
in my job, I know most of the movers and
shakers in the business.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
So it's not like, oh, personal friends with Chris Ruddy.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
But I know Chris Ruddy very well, and he's a
smart fellow, and he's you know, I guess, relative to
the kinds of people that are in this business, I
guess I could loosely categorize him as what we call
he's a good guy.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
I don't judge by their jecks.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
I judge him by how they deal with the people
around them.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, it's really this is not a personality thing. But
when you look at the again, at the politics of
news talk radio and how political it has become, it's
it is synonymous with politics for the most part, even though,
as you said a few minutes ago, wouldn't it be
great if we had I've dreamed sometimes about doing the
(10:19):
night program at WBZ in Boston and being able to
talk about science and the things that are not necessarily
well our friend Walter Tabo does just that. There are
some people Bob Refreshman, What's in Chicago on g N
at night, Raleigh telling James, Yeah, she does the same
(10:41):
kind of stuff. There are people around who do what
I used to do it, but I'm certainly not in
the mainstream. But it was I thought more if I'm
going to be, you know, sort of selfish about my
focus on things. What I talked about was what I
was interested in, what I felt people would be interested in,
and if I was interested in it. Do you think
(11:02):
that holds with folks on the radio or if the.
Speaker 5 (11:05):
Host a degree interested to a degree to a certain degree,
you cannot hide what you're about as a talk show host.
It will eventually seep out, it will eventually be apparent.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
You will eventually be exposed.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
So it comes across because of the nature of hours,
hours on the air and the spontaneity of the format.
You don't have time see, whereas television is largely written
by producers and writers, scripted and short everything that's very short,
sound bitity. When you're in a situation, the situation you
(11:42):
and I are in right now, we're not working on
a script. Our only script are the talking points known
as the top ten topics and issues. And we have
a rule that we don't have a rule. We're able
to bounce round and follow the river. We follow the
flow as opposed to we can't talk about that anymore.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
We got to move on now to the economy.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
So I do believe that this format, the loose format
called talk radio, whatever it is, even if it's sports
or doctor shows or money shows, there.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Are a lot of other kinds of shows still in talk.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
Radio that you will eventually your audience will figure out
what kind of person you are, what your principles are,
what your politics are. And it's because of the nature
of the games. It's long stretches of spontaneous conversation you
can't hide.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I was thinking about some of the people, the hosts
who have run for political office. Which came first, the
person in political office doing a talk radio program or
a person on the air who decided to run for
political office. I guess there are examples of both of those.
Speaker 5 (12:48):
Right, Yeah, that's a two way street. That's a that's
a two way street that's been going on for years,
and there are people that have gone in both directions.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Now, this list, by the way, is public every week
in Talker's magazine in at talkers dot com. I think
you did an analysis on Talkers. We were talking about
Christopher Ruddy, a news talk and Newsmax magazine. I subscribe
to their online stuff, and I'd like to subscribe to
a little of both. You know. I find myself reading
(13:18):
the Newsmax list and going into the stories more completely.
I do that with the New York Times, and I
find myself annoyed when I read both both of them,
because I know that they are true. All of the
stuff that's there is just, you know, it's kind of hyperbole,
but it is now settling for news, and it's just interesting,
(13:42):
fascinating for those of us who've been around for a
long time to see how this format has matured and
how some of the people the people have been on
for a long time. I was thinking about Curtis Sliwa
yesterday because he's the he's one of the candidates, but
not mentioned much in the news media. A talk host
on he was on w ABC. Isn't he still on ABC?
(14:03):
He still is on w A b C. Yeah, So
he's running for mayor of New York. Did he have
to take himself off the air? Is that one of
the That is one of the rules, right when you're
running for office and you've been on the air, you
got to get off.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
There's a point at which you have to get off.
I don't know whether he's crossed that threshold yet. It's technical.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yeah, but Mike Pants, Yeah, Mike Pants was a host before.
I think he was in Congress, then he was on
the radio, and then he was vice president. Wasn't that
the order? It seems to me that the order of
things the other way around?
Speaker 5 (14:36):
Yeah, I know he went he was in the in
the Congress from Indianapolis, I believe.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yeah, So if you look at the people list just
for conversation purposes for a second, who on that list
would make a good talk hoost? Donald Trump Number one.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
Donald Trump is the talk coast. Donald Trump is the
president like a talk coast. If you'll notice he holds
court every day. He has his press conferences in his studio,
as opposed to in that room that they normally have
the press conferences. It sits behind the resolute desk, which
he does now to hide his ankles, because but he's
(15:15):
taking pictures of the poor guy's socks. But now he
as as a observer of talk media, which is what
I do amongst my various skills. Donald Trump is the
first shock president. I mean he's he's gone on in
(15:35):
the tradition of Howard Stern, and he brought it to politics,
and he brought it to the presidency. Donald Trump sees
the presidency as a talk show and and and he
he operates it that way. Doesn't that make sense? And
you look at how he works. But your question was
who would be a good talk show host?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Greg Abbott, would Gavin Newsma.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (16:00):
Newsom would be a good host. I don't know, I
you know, I don't know. If Zelensky was a comedian,
so he in his language or English, he might have
been putin is a mystery, very very very carefully contrived individuals.
(16:23):
You know, Epstein's dead, Islaine Maxwell is a is a
side character in a key position. Christine Alman, Pam BONDI,
you know, maybe net and Yaho would be an interesting
writing talk shows. You and I spoke English to him,
we interviewed him together. It was a number of years ago,
but he reminded me of Bill Clinton when you and
(16:44):
I met the younger net Yoo.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Yeah, that's an interesting analogy. Yeah, all right, So there's
our philosophy on that one coming up. Let's talk about
the economy number three this week on the Countdown Don't
Stop Tales. Indeed, I'm Doug Stefan with Michael Harrison, the
editor and publisher of Talker's Magazine. This past week was
(17:09):
National Radio Day, and one of the things that came
out of it was an announcement from the NAB that
my friend and yours and my consultant for a number
of years, Mike McVeigh is going to become the winner
of their National Radio Award. I was thinking as I
saw that all and we were talking about Christopher Ruddy
(17:31):
before and how he won a certain place in your
heart and the minds and the history of Talker's Magazine,
and then I started thinking about all the other people.
That was the one of the things about the Talker's Convention,
the great theater of especially people win the talk It
wasn't really called the talk Host of the Year, it
(17:52):
was the Freedom of Speech Award that like, who one
of the most well. I was thinking when Gordon Liddy
got it glorious time out in front of the of
the auditorium. Oh what I say, Gloria what I oh? Yeah,
(18:14):
I know. Yeah. So anyway, this is just we have
had many wonderful experiences over the decades with the people,
and that's sort of what brings my mind back around
to the people who are on the air now and
how we celebrate them, and how National Radio Day it
couldn't be ignored and shouldn't be ignored. Although I don't
(18:37):
remember celebrating it much when I was on the air
Monday through Friday. Is that something new is National radio?
Is something new?
Speaker 4 (18:44):
National Radio Day crept up on me.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
I didn't really know much about it and don't know
much about it but I do know that UNESCO and
the United Nations has a thing going on for about
a decade and a half now known as World Radio Day,
and twenty twenty four they hired me to be the
executive director of World Radio Day, and I worked with
(19:08):
radio stations around the world back in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
It's a one year job. You can't do it again.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
So I had my shot at it, and I lent
a lot of my knowledge of US radio to it.
But I also learned a lot about world radio. And
the one thing I learned more than anything is that
radio remains an extremely important platform to the world. As
far as radio in the United States, there are struggles
(19:35):
for all media that's rooted in the twentieth century and
earlier even, but radio in the world is vital to
the survival of many, many people and cultures.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Because we've done such a great job of it here,
many of the managers, many of the people who were
behind the scenes, were program directors, became consultants. I can
think of a couple. Valerie Geller one and David Hall another,
both well known and respected in our business, became consultants
not to stations here, but to stations mostly in Europe,
(20:09):
but other parts of the world because talk radio there
is like they've used our model and mimicked it. To
think of the people. The characters has been on the
air in England on the various stations there there just
it's we started it though, and we still are hammering away.
So I promise we talk about the economy number three
(20:31):
on the story list this week. The question has been
asked by those who are observers, how is it that
the stock market is doing so well when the public,
the person who you describe as being a middle American,
not the rich and not the poor, but the guy
who's in the middle, the middle class, if you will,
(20:54):
not doing so well. Everything's so expensive. So why is
has this been dissected? Good business talk radio programs would
probably have taken this on.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
Michael right, Well, I think I think most people do
not have a complete understanding of how to connect the
dots when it comes to the economy, and the relationship
between Wall Street and Main Street has been increasingly murky,
i'd say for the past ten, fifteen, twenty years. So
I don't have the answer to that, but I do
know that I know what I don't know, and there
(21:24):
are a lot of people out there who, under the
guise of being experts, they don't know what they don't
know what. They don't know either in otherwise, I think
there's a lot of ignorance out there about the economy.
And I think that number one, the number one. You
just you just took the words right out of my mouth. Sorry,
the way we talk about that, no, no, it's all right.
(21:44):
The way we walk, the way we talk about tariffs
is really exposes our national ignorance about about the economy,
because that that misunderstanding should not be allowed to go on.
Whether you like or you don't like Trump, whether you
are left or you're right, you're a public and you're democrat.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
The way falsehoods about.
Speaker 5 (22:09):
The tariffs and what a tariff is and how it
operates are thrown about and let hanging in the air
by the media is to me.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
A page out of the movie Idiocracy.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
The news media doesn't understand it.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
Either clearly, yeah yeah, really, they don't use it, or
they don't want to get into it, or they're using
it to cherry pick little talking points if they're for
Trump and they don't want to seem partisan. But look,
you know, whether you like Trump or not, he's the
president of the United States and his feet must be
held to the fire. And this tariff misunderstanding. When I
(22:48):
hear the President of the United States say things like
we are the hottest nation, we are a hot nation, and.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
Trillions of dollars are flowing into the.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
United States because of the tariffs, and we're making these
people pay, that is a one hundred percent falsehood and
it shouldn't be let and then and then it's left
it's left standing there.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
The right wing media, news media.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
But nobody gets it right.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Someone will say, well, he doesn't understand the you know,
the the Americans are paying for that. It's passed down
to the consumer. It's passed on to the consumer. Yes
it is, but that's not the issue. The issue is
a complete total misrepresentation of what tariffs are.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
And uh, it's just not true.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Are you saying that Trump doesn't understand tariffs as well?
Speaker 5 (23:45):
I'm saying that he better understand it and be a
liar than be the stupidest president we've ever had. But
you rather have a smart liar or a stupid truth teller.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
A smart liar.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
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All right, back with the Michael Harrison. So, as Michael
and I point out every week, it seems since Donald
Trump has been president before that he pretty much if
you look at the list, every single thing that's on
the list this week, all the people involved in relationship
(26:14):
with Donald Trump, and the stories all pretty much wrap
themselves around Trump's presidency. For example, the federal judge that
late in the week ordered the closure of Alligator Alcatraz.
So how many hundreds of millions of dollars have we
spent on things like that? Donald Trump has a whim.
(26:34):
He wants to do it. Okay, yep, we'll help the
guys in Florida, or we'll do this. We'll send the
ice people after the farmers in Washington, will take over
the police in DC. What's it costing? Is anybody asking
that question? How much money do his whims cost the
(26:54):
American taxpayer?
Speaker 5 (26:55):
Michael Well, his answer to anything having to do the
Ice raids is that it's not a whim but a mandate.
And that's why he was elected. So that's that's his
leverage and hedge against that accusation. I think it got
me on that one. I didn't realize that they're closing
up Alligator Alcatrez. The last I was, and I might
(27:16):
be wrong, I probably am wrong, is that they've limited
it now to they're not adding it to it.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
They're not putting in more people than The federal judge.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
In Miami on Thursday ordered the closure of.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
The closure, and it's binding. It's going to happen. It's
not one of those times.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
They'll take it to court. You can be sure Trump
so does Sanders will take it to court and spend
more money trying to keep it open.
Speaker 5 (27:43):
Well, the fact of the matter is the Republicans and
the Democrats have often talked about budgets. The last president
that I remember balancing the budget was a so called
liberal Democrat named Bill Clinton. So that that throws that
paradigm out the window, or that that meme, if you will.
Trump talks about things like doge and cutting the budget.
(28:06):
But the fact of the matter is he is adding
to the national debt by the trillions. So Trump is
not a true conservative, nor is Trump a true smaller
government guide. Trump is increasing the impact of the government,
its intrusion into people's lives, and its expenditures on a
(28:27):
level we've never seen before.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
No, and so it news. Yeah, I mean this week
the announcement was made that he and mister Kennedy are
going to cut health research funding my seven hundred and
eighty three million dollars and the Supreme Court rubber stamp.
That didn't all vote for it, but the predictable ones did.
(28:50):
And so there's another legal man, how euch did it
cost us to present us the taxpayer to present that
case in the Supreme Court and the lower courts that
it went to before it went to the Supreme Court. Right,
that's a legitimate question.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
Yeah, well, I mean, I'm just saying, is you just
go in circles? If you really expect anybody in politics
today in America to lower the expenses of government, your dreamer,
because no matter what they say, they don't do it.
What they say is one thing and what they do
is another. And it doesn't matter if they're liberal or conservative.
(29:29):
It doesn't matter if they're Democrats or Republicans. The government
spending increases, and our whole view of it is wrong.
We should have effective government. It shouldn't be based on
how much is spent. It should be based on effectivity
and what the benefits are of the expenditures. You know,
the Interstate highway system. He was a conservative, but that
(29:52):
was a public works project.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
But look at how successful it was.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Fabulous yep. And then we were running out of But
I was thinking about Trump and the Smithsonian and him
being in charge. Tom Cruise says, I'm busy. I got
something else to do that day because he doesn't want
to be labeled with that crew. I thought that was interesting.
So anyway, all right, Michael, thank you, Michael Harrison. Here
(30:17):
up next Stephen jj Wiseman with a legal overview of
some of the things on the charts.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
This week, we're counting down what America is talking about.
The talk radio Countdown show continues The talk radio Countdown.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Okay, how would you best describe Donald Trump? That would
be an interesting college describe his personality for the rest
of the world. Okay, I'm into it with the Stephen
jj Wiseman. Now, who's our legal bona fide. He's got
the bona phides to prove it. He's a professor of law.
(30:58):
He takes people to court, he wins in court. It
wasn't one of the loses, but that's only because the
judge cheats. And so here he is to go through
to go through some of the items on our list. Here,
Trump talks about much money's bringing in and him being
a conservative, which is the last thing anybody should think
about him, because he's no conservative. Look of the way
(31:19):
he's spending money. We were talking about that earlier, and
one of the things that money's being spent on Steve
things like searching. The FBI showed up at John Bolton's
house in Maryland and searched it. I don't know if
they had a warrant, but because he's been on TVs
on Newsmax all the time criticizing the president, and he
(31:41):
had his run with him, I think the last time around,
and there's not much about him about Trump that Bolton likes.
And so under what authority does the FBI go in
and search this guy's house other than Trump says, go
search his house.
Speaker 6 (31:58):
Well, you know, it's pretty interesting because, like you said,
Bolton at one time was a national security advisor to
Trump and they were close. But Bolton just started, as
you say, criticizing Trump extremely and then put out a
book about it called The Room Where It Happened, which
(32:18):
was quite a damning account of Trump's actions during twenty eighteen.
In twenty nineteen, during his first term, Trump then filed
a lawsuit trying to stop the publication of that book. Meanwhile,
the Justice Department. It took a while and Biden became
(32:39):
president and the Justice Department under Biden dropped the suit. However,
you've seen the fallout between them, and now it's kind
of almost comical because you have Trump who took matters
and documents that were classified and had them in boxes
(32:59):
at Merrilaco and certainly not secured at all and in
violation of.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
The law and.
Speaker 6 (33:10):
In his in his garage, not to the level that
that Trump did. But yeah, both of them did.
Speaker 5 (33:15):
So.
Speaker 6 (33:15):
Now what there was there was a warrant to search
for classified records. Uh, and so they did have a warrant.
But the problem is, uh, here you have you know,
won the hypocrisy of it, where where Trump probably had more.
But it's again what what Trump accused Biden uh and
(33:36):
Obama of doing, of weaponizing uh the uh, the Justice Department,
and he's he's doing that, uh specifically in this anyone
who has ever criticized him is now being investigated. He's
also and this is really troublesome. He's appointed a number
of US attorneys, which he has the authority to do,
(33:56):
but they are supposed to be approved by the Senate,
and quite frankly, some of them are so bad that
the Republican controlled Senate hasn't even voted on them. So
what Trump is doing is he will appoint them on
an interim basis where they can be in there for
one hundred and twenty days before they have to be authorized,
(34:17):
and then when that's up, he'll appoint someone on a
temporary basis which covers it for another two hundred days.
Then he keeps repeating this, So I mean, he is
just violating the Constitution. It's like what page shall I
start on today? And you know, quite frankly, you've got
the Supreme Court that is rolling over to him. Although
(34:40):
even just as Roberts the other day, in a decision
having to do with grants, the National Institute of Health
vote against him, but the majority they still, you know,
it was the majority still allowed him to cancel various
grants without giving any kind of a reason, and that
(35:00):
comes under the administrator.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
I don't want to act as arbitrary and caricious, yeah, exactly,
And I don't want to Congress get away, right yep.
And they're just the continuing, just browbeating of everybody. I
noticed he warned that it would be harsh measured if
the election DENI are Tina Peters wasn't free from jail.
That kind of stuff. Well, it's always foods, I thought.
(35:23):
When you're here, Stephen JJ Wiseman, here's serving us on
the Talk Radio Countdown Show in the top Radio Countdown.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
The Talk Radio Countdown Show is a production of step
On Maltame Gift, produced by Bob K Sound and Recording
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