All Episodes

September 19, 2025 42 mins

Today Amy and Denver are taking an UNFILTERED look at the firing of Jimmy Kimmel caused by Trump’s FCC interference. What are Trump’s Tariffs doing to farmers all over America? What is the current status of The Epstein Files?

 Chapters :

 

00:40 : Jimmy Kimmel An Attack On 1A

07:48 Farmers Crushed By Tariffs

15:48 The Kinetic Strike On “Drug Boats”

25:20 The Status Of The Epstein Files

33:48 Quick Shots

 

 


 

About Truth in the Barrel:

Amy and Denver are both military veterans, political junkies, and whiskey lovers who sit on opposite sides of the aisle but have one thing in common: they love the United States of America.

 

Truth in the Barrel was born of Amy & Denver’s commitment to country, the Constitution, and a well-curated collection of the world’s finest bourbon.

 

Join them weekly for deep dives into timely topics, interviews with recognizable guests, and a dose of call-in fun.

 

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome, everyone, to another edition of Truth in the Barrel.
I'm Amy McGrath with Denver Riggleman.
We have a lot, uh, to talk about today.
Jimmy Kimmel being, um, fired from ABC, along with the fallout from the, uh, Charlie Kirk murder last week.
We're also talking about US farmers and what's happening right now with them, along with a lot of other things to discuss.

(00:28):
And Denver, how are you?
You know, I, you know, it's funny, um, I've, uh, I think I've had better years, uh, but I'm feeling pretty good, you know, um, as far as health-wise and things like that.
But I think what's happened over the last 24 to 48 hours, really since the Charlie Kirk murder, probably should sober anybody up, Amy, um, on where this country is headed.

(00:52):
Yeah, let's, let's start there, um, Denver.
Le- let's start with what just happened yesterday with Jimmy Kimmel, who is a longtime late night talk show host, is it, comedian, I guess you would call him.
And he was suspended by ABC, uh, for having some observations, uh, saying some facts, some fact-based observations about, um, the news and what's happening in our country.

(01:22):
And, um, I- I'll just kick it over to you, Denver, and give me your thoughts, and then I'll kind of try to, uh, tell you what mine are and what's ha- what I think is happening.
Yeah, I think, um, I think the Epstein files must be really bad.
I mean, that's the first thing.
I always want to say that, but when you look at Jimmy Kimmel, um, and what happened there, people want to talk about this false equivalency.

(01:46):
You have, um, a bunch of mag individuals talking about people that were taken off the air that's saying that, you know, that J6 was an inside job or COVID was fake, but the difference in this, when you have Jimmy Kimmel, um, alluding to the fact that the shooter could be right-wing, and when you listen to the comments, he actually doesn't come right out and say it, which is interesting, um, and you have him saying, "Well, all these other people got taken off the air."

(02:11):
.0000000000291My thoughts are this simply, and I'm gonna roll fast because I don't think this is very complicated.
Nexstar wants a merger and they need FCC approval.
They capitulated again.
We have oligarchs capitulating to make sure that they have these massive deals.
.0000000000291Secondly, Brendan Carr of the FCC knows that it, it exceeds the mandate or the law of only 39% of households cannot be, um, more than 39% of households cannot be reached by a specific television provider.

(02:42):
That's to help with stopping with the actual arbitrary sort of conglomeration of opinions and ideas where you have one TV station controlling outputs.
The FCC is thinking about actually doing away with that.
You've summarized it pretty well.
Let, let me slow it down a little bit because there's a lot you just threw at people.
.0000000000291The FCC is a government agency, and obviously we have the Trump administration right now, and the head of that is a Trump appointee.

(03:10):
When Jimmy Kimmel said whatever he said on Late Night, which, uh, uh, didn't appear to be, to me, to be, uh, terrible words, um, he is a comedian and people make and say thi- lots of things in America.
We have this thing called free speech, right?

(03:32):
.0000000000291first Amendment.
We, we, we
.0000000000291Lots of people say lots of things, and the FEC head denounced Kimmel and suggested that he be suspended, so he suggested to ABC that they suspend him and suggested to the local broadcasters, uh, who you mentioned, Nexstar, Sinclair, these local, um, broadcasting companies, that they suspend Jimmy Kimmel.

(04:02):
And so e- and you also brought this up, that Nexstar is trying to merge with ano- they're t- they're, they're in the process of a billion dollar, over a billion dollar, I think $6 billion deal- 6.2 billion and I think it's- Thank you.
.0000000000291Yes. 34 00:04:17,980.0000000000291 --> 00:04:22,352.0000000000582 With, with a merger, with another company, and they need folks

(04:22):
To do that merger, they need FCC and FTC, that's the Federal Trade Commission, and the FCC, that's the Federal Communications Commission, they need their approval for that merger.
And so what those companies are seeing is under the Trump administration, they're going to weaponize, they are already weaponizing the government, okay?

(04:47):
And, and the, and to do what we want you to do, fire who we want you to fire, do not talk about what we want you to not talk about, in order for you to have these mergers, in order for you to continue with your business the way that you want to continue.
And so you're
That's what we're seeing right now.
We're seeing the media being weaponized, being a- almost taken over by federal government because they're telling the media companies what to do here, um, and so they're using government to go after first Amendment speech, and we're

(05:26):
It, it, that's bad and it's kind of-
happening right in front of us.
The other, the other difference when
The, the great thing about the ignorant is the use of false equivalencies.
And when they talk about people being fired for deliberately lying or misleading people from a specific organization or group, what didn't happen was the Biden administration saying that they were gonna pull FCC licenses.

(05:49):
Brendan Carr threatened ABC with pulling their FCC license over Jimmy Kimmel and they capitulated.
And the reason ABC capitulated is 'cause they're large stations who are also probably, uh, run by, I would say, oligarchs that are just greedy.Um, they capitulated because of the FCC merger, so what you're seeing is the government levers outside of any type of American constitutional way, right?

(06:12):
We talk about American constitutionalists talking about getting rid of the Fed, right, Amy?
Well, why the f- hell do we have the FCC?
So if we wanna go down that route, I'm happy to have that intellec- intellectual discussion with anybody.
Why do you have anything?
Why do you have any regulatory agency?
If you ca- y- so now we have people who talk about freedom picking and choosing which one they wanna do.
The other thing too is we didn't see Brendan Carr threatening Fox News over Kilmeade saying that the homeless should literally be killed involuntarily.

(06:41):
And to a point that, Amy, I don't know if I've ever been more pessimistic, but it also does help to see the battlefield, right, to clearly see what's happening, and I think that gives clarity on what needs to be done, and I will say that right now, and I've never said this in my life, that the 2026 elections may be the most important elections in my lifetime, and that's simply a midterm congressional push to see what happens.

(07:11):
And if the Republicans keep the House based on gerrymandering or shenanigans or suppression of the vote, um, or disenfranchisement or having ICE monitor lines or trying to get rid of electric voting or ma- uh, electric- electronic voting or mail-in ballots, I'm really, um
I mean, at that point, we have to look at the people who actually love freedom as being the resistance in this country.

(07:33):
Denver, there's a lot of other things happening right now that I wanna get to, okay?
So, um, United States farmers right now are not okay.
The tariffs are, are crushing the farms.
Uh, we're seeing higher farm bankruptcies now, Denver, in the first 6 months of, actually 7 months, than we had in all of last year, and it, it's sort of a tr- double, triple whammy that farmar- farmers are dealing with.

(08:02):
They have higher costs for things like fertilizer and for equipment.
Much of that is made, uh, over, over either brought in overseas, a lot of their farm equipment, or their fertilizer comes from Canada, you know, some of it, and China's boycotting the soybeans, uh, US soybeans, which was a, a big export for, for farmers in that area.

(08:25):
And so
.9999999998836And they're dealing with catastrophic labor shortages due to crackdowns on immigrate- immigrant workers.
So there's a ton of uncertainty, and then you slap in the tariffs, and these farmers are, are, are just going bankrupt.
Past performance is indicative of future performance.

(08:45):
Didn't Trump do this in his last term, Amy?
And, you know, and also, the other thing- I think it's worse.
It, it's worse.
It's, uh, it is.
Well, everything's worse.
Um, the other thing too is I think it's socialism for me but not for thee.
I think that's what we're looking at right now.
And, you know, it's so funny again.
These false equivalencies are not being able to see the forest for the trees or, you know, the fact that, uh, what, what MAGA says, right, or what the far right says is everything is socialism, yet, you know, we have state-owned enterprises.

(09:14):
We have the government taking pieces of massive corporations, and then that s- same corporation may be getting TikTok.
.9999999998836I mean, I, I, I, I find I'm
My head explodes.
I know we're talking about farmers, Amy, but we're talking about the same thing that we're talking about with, with, uh, Jimmy Kimmel, right?
It's this false equivalency, um, inability to define what something is really based on the fact that superstition, propaganda, and ignorance has completely metastasized across our entire land mass.

(09:46):
And that's- Well, what's gonna happen here, Denver?
.9999999998836Is it another bailout?
Is that what we're- It's a bailout.
Yeah, I, I mean, I think that's gonna be part of the negotiations coming up.
I, I, I really believe when you're talking about, um, budget negotiations and things like that, first of all, you're gonna have this bizarre thing where you're gonna have farmer bailouts, but also the very fact that any negotiation's gonna be, uh, tainted because of pocket rescissions, and I know that might be a whole nother topic, Amy, um, as we go down the line, but how are they going to

(10:16):
What is that negotiation gonna look like?
Because now Republicans, if they vote for a bailout of farmers, that means that they're deliberately saying that Trump's policies are broken, and that is such easy messaging for Democrats.
Trump 1.0, that, that trade, that trade, uh, thing that he pulled the, during the first administration, they had to bailout farmers and guess what?

(10:40):
We, we bailed out the farmers with taxpayer dollars.
And when I talked to farmers back then, 'cause I was running for office back then, I, I, I talked to farmers, they would say, "We don't want government handouts.
We, we just don't want this, these, these tariff policies-"
"you know, so we can start"
I mean, it's just
I'm la- uh, uh, you laugh, but it's like, we're shooting ourselves in the foot here.

(11:05):
We're, we are, we are causing a problem in which US taxpayers are now going to have to pay more money to fix the, the problem that we caused.
That's, that's where we're at.
But you're gonna have screaming, Amy, on things that don't matter, culture wars, all that, without actually looking at the root cause of any of this economic malaise, which is Trump's policies specifically.

(11:36):
Um, listen, it's hard, right?
Um, it's hard when you're sane.
It's hard when you're rational, and, you know, it's just even, you know, this week I think when you're looking at the Trump tariffs and you're looking at what happens to farmers and false equivalencies and farmers saying, "Hey, maybe just not have tariffs," as you said, Amy, which I think that's why you were a good candidate, right?

(12:00):
You were able to sort of get to the crux of the matter, you know, back then, and, um, do things, write and say things that made sense.
But sometimes making sense can be really bad if you're talking to a, a populace that's been radicalized under false equivalencies, and I think that's the big challenge, and I think that's what you're stating, right?

(12:21):
It's, it's a really big challenge when there's a, there's a deliberate cause and effect that's easily definable, and yet people refuse to see it.
I mean, farmers, they have to worry about the markets.
They have to worry about the weather.
They have to worry about drought.
It's a kind of an uncertainty thing already, and then you tack on higher prices for fertilizer because of tariffs, higher prices for farm equipment- Equipment.

(12:49):
that they have to, to fix and buy.
My, my husband's family is in the farm equipment business, so I've learned, uh, a lot more than I ever thought I would ever learn, um, by just, you know, b- having, having this in the family.
It is real.
Um, and then you tack on the, the, the idea that a lot of our farming, um, our products are exports, and a country like China boycotting that because of these stupid tariffs hurts our farmers.

(13:21):
And so, and, and how does, how does it matter to us to just, you know, those of us who are not in the business of farming, guess what?
Your, your grocery prices, what are we seeing?
They're going up.
They're going up.
Um, so it, it, it, it's, it's affecting all of us.
I've said before, Amy, and I'm 119 00:13:43,569.9999999998836 --> 00:13:53,008 there's an exhaustion to it, that stupidity is terminal, and, you know, a lot of people also wanna argue between evil and stupidity.

(13:54):
The thing is, it doesn't matter.
Um, it doesn't matter, um, if somebody's just stupid if what happens downstream has very negative consequences.
Stupidity is just as bad as evil, um, and evil can sometimes be defined that way.
And I think, I think what we're seeing is just, um, nobody's gonna know.

(14:16):
Nobody's gonna realize it until really there's a almost bottoming out of American society to a place that we can't recover from.
And I don't wanna get there, and I think, you know, it's just
It's, it's really brutal to me to see what's happening right now.
And I think, again, it goes back to mobilizing for elections in 2026.
Yeah.
.99999999988358To- totally. 130 00:14:37,79.99999999988358 --> 00:14:38,880 And I think that there's a lot of

(14:38):
Look, there's a lot of stuff we're talking about.
We're gonna be talking about, um, Epstein.
We're gonna be talking about some of the things that, that this administration's doing, you know, overseas and, and, and bombing fishermen now.
And we're, you know, we're gonna be talking about a lot of this other stuff, but this is, this is something that hits home, right?
And, and, you know, I just talked about agriculture equipment and not all of our, our ag equipment is

(15:02):
comes from other countries.
.00000000011642John Deere is a, you know, iconic American company, right? 138 00:15:11,180.00000000011642 --> 00:15:16,880 Um, it's the nation's largest farm machinery, ag equipment maker. 139 00:15:17,660.0000000001164 --> 00:15:21,420.0000000001164 It has said that the comp- that John Deere will 140 00:15:21,420.0000000001164 --> 00:15:32,839.9999999998836 ha- has stated that they are going to lose $600 million this year because of these tariffs, $600 1000000. 141 00:15:32,839.9999999998836 --> 00:15:35,500 We're, we're, we're shooting our own companies.

(15:35):
But then Trump can come in, bail out and said he's the person who helps them and farmers will vote for him again.
I don't know.
There's
I don't either.
.0000000001164That's ex- I love that. 147 00:15:47,660.0000000001164 --> 00:15:48,960 Where, where do you go from that?
Where do you go from that?
I don't
Let, let's talk about this, this kinetic strike on the, in, in, uh, off the coast of Venezuela.

(15:57):
This is apparently the
.99999999988358We know of 2 because- Yeah. 153 00:16:01,79.99999999988358 --> 00:16:30,356 the Trump administration has talked about and, and released footage of 2, but now the Trump administration saying there's a third kinetic strike 0 on a, on a Venezuelan boat, um-There is one we know of on September 1st and September 15th, and these are, uh, US forces, US armed forces in international waters destroying these boat, speed boats, uh, killing allegedly 14 drug deal- dealers.

(16:30):
.0000000001164Um, that's what the administration says.
Uh, and this is highly unusual, right?
And it's not how drug cases are normally handled.
Um, they're normally handled by the Coast, US Coastguard, which, who regularly interdicts, you know, uh, boats and things off of our coasts.

(16:51):
Sometimes we use it with the Navy's assistance. 159 00:16:54,882.0000000001164 --> 00:17:02,675.9999999998836 But, um, maybe Doug can throw in the quote from Donald Trump where he says, "We're seeing that there are no ships in the ocean anymore. 160 00:17:02,675.9999999998836 --> 00:17:04,215.99999999988358 There are no, there are no boats. 161 00:17:04,215.99999999988358 --> 00:17:05,596 I wonder why.
.0000000001164No drugs coming across. 163 00:17:07,276.0000000001164 --> 00:17:09,296 Probably stopping some fishermen too."

(17:11):
.9999999998836To be honest, if I were a fisherman, I wouldn't want to go fishing either. 165 00:17:17,456.0000000001164 --> 00:17:20,400.0000000001164 Maybe they think I have drugs downstairs. 166 00:17:21,215.99999999988358 --> 00:17:21,712 Okay.
.9999999998836So, we'll play the- It's so ignorant. 168 00:17:23,715.9999999998836 --> 00:17:25,16.000000000116415 We'll play that clip. 169 00:17:25,16.000000000116415 --> 00:17:27,096 There are no ships in the ocean anymore.
We're seeing that there's, like, no ships, no
You know, when, the first one we went there were hundreds of boats.

(17:34):
Now there are no boats.
I wonder why?
Meaning no drugs are coming across.
Probably stopping some fishermen too.
I mean, to be honest, if I were a fisherman, I wouldn't want to go fishing either.
Just a nice, let's take a little trip because I'd say, man, if they, maybe they think I have drugs downstairs.
I don't want that.
And I think the fishing business has probably been hurt.

(17:55):
But no drug-
There were literally no boats.
This was a boat, and we were surprised to see it.
And I, like, I, I listen to that and I'm like, "What?
.00000000023283What, are we going after fishermen now?"
I, I
Again, I, I feel, um, it's like, uh, the bloviations of senility.

(18:21):
It's
But it's also just this lawlessness, this, this brutishness, right, of, of co-opting, you know, normal people's hatred of drug dealers, right, of, of cartels, of gangs.
.99999999976717Obviously.
.0000000002328But then what you do is you equi- 191 00:18:40,956.0000000002328 --> 00:18:43,696 There's this equivalency that, well, that then we just kill people. 192 00:18:45,313.99999999976717 --> 00:18:48,176 Well, okay- Well, is this law enforcement or is this war?

(18:48):
It, it's- What, what are we doing here? 194 00:18:51,166.00000000023283 --> 00:18:53,396 Uh, it's, it's, um, it is, it's both.
I think, I think it's, I think it's Epstein distraction.
Like- Mm.
you know, you're getting to a point, right, that, that
Look at, look at what the media's gonna flood the zone with.
.00000000023283You know, this morning I was watching ABC. 200 00:19:04,416.00000000023283 --> 00:19:07,516 Do you know what their, you know what their primary story was on ABC this morning?
ABC.
Kimmel just left last night.

(19:09):
.99999999976717I'm watching Good Morning America. 204 00:19:11,275.99999999976717 --> 00:19:14,255.99999999976717 Do you know what some of the primary things they were talking about this morning? 205 00:19:14,255.99999999976717 --> 00:19:15,216 Are you ready for this? 206 00:19:15,936.0000000002328 --> 00:19:21,072 By the way, you know, summarily just killing people in boats and saying people shouldn't be fishing, Amy, wasn't one of them.
Right?
Or Jimmy Kimmel being looked off the air.
Right?
Or this kid, or executing the homeless, right, or any of this that's happening.
.99999999976717They were talking about bird feeders with camera feeds, wifi cameras so you can watch the birds. 212 00:19:35,416.00000000023283 --> 00:19:37,476 And so I- Uh, I like those actually.

(19:37):
But, but I hear you.
Maybe-
.99999999976717maybe we have some more important things. 216 00:19:42,275.99999999976717 --> 00:19:44,056 I, I think it's just- I like, I like those cameras.
Call, call me an old lady.
I like that.
Well, they were, well, I'd, I'd, I'd
Listen.
But I hear you.
.99999999976717I, uh, but they were giggling about they were doing something on cooking, and I think they were 223 00:19:53,255.99999999976717 --> 00:19:57,744 There was never a time where they were approaching anything that had any substance whatsoever.

(19:58):
Mm-hmm.
And, again, you're so dead-on about with, with what's happening.
Is it law enforcement?
Is it military?
What is the, what's the backing for this?
There's no proof, right?
It's the same thing.
.00000000023283There's, it's always just, "Trust us." 232 00:20:13,436.00000000023283 --> 00:20:15,856 This is literally, you know- Well-
.99999999976717um, distraction through death, and I think that's what we're having right now. 234 00:20:19,235.99999999976717 --> 00:20:26,980 Yeah, I mean, and lots of Americans want to tackle and get rid of the drug problem that we have- Of course.

(20:26):
because it's- it's an important thing, and I can understand why people can say, "Well, it hasn't really worked in the past.
Let's try a new tactic."
And this is their new tactic, right?
Marco Rubio saying, "Hey, in the past, you know, it ha- it hasn't worked, and so what works is when you blow them up.
That's when you get rid of them."
That's what he said.
Um- Mm-hmm.

(20:47):
the problem with using the military to do that is, first of all, we don't know who these people are.
There are, like, 11 people in a speedboat.
W- we're- we're having the United States military drop bombs on them, and, you know, normally i- in the United States military, we- we

(21:09):
This is an important concept I think people need to understand.
We- we don't just use force whenever we feel like it.
There has to be, there has to be a legal basis for it.
You have to be at war.
You have to have- it has to be, uh, in self-defense.
Un- and this isn't just American, uh, American Constitution and- and laws.

(21:32):
This is international law, okay?
Um- Yes.
and what the White House is saying is, "Well, it isn't in self-defense because these are drug dealers, and they're- and they're gonna be hurting Americans someday."
Well, okay.
Um, it's not immediate.
There's no immediate self-defense there, um, and so it- it's- it's- it's just this really huge gray area- It's awful.

(22:00):
where a lot of people are saying this is not legal.
If these smugglers were wartime combatants, maybe you could- y- you could go after them, but you can't execute them.
Um, you need to arrest them and try them in a criminal court if they are committing a crime.
Uh, this is sort of basic stuff here.

(22:23):
I mean, I- i- it is, and think about what we've talked about so far, right?
Um, we've talked about, again, um, sort of government weaponization of false equivalencies, uh, the utilization of propaganda, and appealing to people's basis- basic instincts, right?
Their most base instincts, and I think that's, uh

(22:46):
Again, Amy, all this- this downstream flow of what's happening is a cascading effect from the administration and what they are, uh, and the people that he's put in charge, right?
Sycophants, um, people who believe crazy fantasy things. 266 00:23:01,139.99999999976717 --> 00:23:10,720 And when you have people that are already that flawed, you're gonna have this effect of really bad things happening not only to the American people but to people globally.

(23:10):
And then, since we're the, you know, the bully in the 5thgrade schoolyard that's been held back 3 times, um, people are very afraid to come at the bully.
And it- and it just feels that way.
It just feels like
I mean, I always wanted to be the good guy.
Now, I mean, are we the baddies?
You know?
And that's- that's- that's what- It- it- it's just un-American to go, you know, executing people in international waters.

(23:38):
Uh, it- it is just not, it's not- Not a great thing.
it's not what we- we need to do.
Now drugs are killing Americans.
They are.
Um, 78,000 Americans died in overdoses last year, not 300 million which is what the President said.
78,000.
.0000000002328It's still a lot. 281 00:23:54,860.0000000002328 --> 00:23:56,176 No, no de- no doubt.
But this chaotic approach is- is ineffective, um, i- and it- and it's- and it's wrong.

(24:04):
.0000000002328A- and, oh, by the way, the President pardoned all of these convicted drug kingpins. 284 00:24:12,860.0000000002328 --> 00:24:13,860.0000000002328 No one's talking about that. 285 00:24:13,860.0000000002328 --> 00:24:15,480 He pardoned these guys.
He's freed a Mexican cartel head.
He's pardoned the biggest, uh, drug kingpin in American history, and Republicans say nothing.

(24:26):
.00000000023283He's pardoned violent criminals and murderers. 289 00:24:29,360.00000000023283 --> 00:24:42,831.9999999997672 He's purging the FBI and the- and the DEA, taking away, uh, law enforcement, uh, who- who go after these- these drug smugglers in our country.
He's- Yeah.
.9999999997672gutting those agencies because he's moving, uh, resources over to, uh, catch, I don't know, Uber drivers that have overstayed their visas.

(24:55):
I mean, that- that- that's- that's what he's doing right now.
And- and so this- Mm-hmm.
this idea that we want to s- to tackle drugs, we absolutely do.
Well, I don't think it's gonna happen in the next 3 years, and I think, again, that's why I think we need to brace, um, for it getting much, much worse.
I think our discussions, Amy, over the next year or so are really gonna be about is the rule of law completely gone?

(25:19):
.0000000002328Does media control speech?
What can we even say?
I am not going to back down.
Well, I'm just a big proponent of the first Amendment, right?
That's exactly right.
I mean, and I feel like people need to be able to say, um, freely that that's part of, uh, that's part of our fundamental rights as Americans.

(25:40):
Um, but you- you alluded to, at the beginning of the show, that the Epstein thing will not go away, right?
Um- Right.
we had Kash Patel on Capitol Hill testifying.
The whole thing .
Um, I think the whole thing, and I did not watch his testimony.
Oh, I would have loved to watch it.
I actually had better things to do.
Uh, but, um, I think that the- what it does is it highlights the fact that these files are- are still being covered up, that this promise that the President

(26:08):
made to release the files and ran on, r- like, ran his campaign on this.
He is not doing, um, they're covering it up.
Uh, Kash Patel has said he's, he never spoke to the President about the files and, uh, I mean, where are we here?
Uh, I think the word we're looking for is, is, uh, lies.

(26:33):
I think another word, a good one is cover up. 316 00:26:36,447.99999999976717 --> 00:26:41,264.00000000023283 I think another one, an- another few words is Trump is in the Epstein files.
I think another few words, I think it's incredibly incriminating.
Circumstantially, I think it's brutal. 319 00:26:47,947.9999999997672 --> 00:26:51,538 I think we also know he's a long time friend of Epstein and of course Kash Patel talked to Trump.
Kash Patel's an inveterate liar, he's also a conspiracy theorist.

(26:55):
So I think that's where we're at, is just simply we have an ignorant, unqualified, bizarre little man that's the FBI Director.
And I have rage, rage about how he conducted himself, right, in Congress, and also I'm absolutely flabbergasted that we didn't have senators that were a little better at cross-examining or asking questions instead of getting in shouting matches which was

(27:23):
.00000000023283Mm-hmm. 324 00:27:23,418.00000000023283 --> 00:27:27,668.0000000002328 There's much better ways to eviscerate an idiot, right? 325 00:27:27,668.0000000002328 --> 00:27:27,728 Yeah.
And then to get into that, and to try to look that way because you wanna run for President in '28.
That doesn't endear you to me, right?
.9999999997672It just means that you're a screamer like everybody else if you don't have the ability, right, to go back and forth in a way that hurts somebody without raising your voice, which is something I've tried to perfect over my life. 329 00:27:47,648.0000000002328 --> 00:27:50,048 And I think that's, I think that's where we're at, Amy.

(27:50):
I, I, I don't, I don't see any, you know, I guess I don't see any way to pull most people that are already down the line back into sort of looking at this in a practical way, and when you're looking at Kash Patel, he has to protect the President on the Epstein files because he's a sycophant, because he doesn't care about the rule of law, he doesn't care about Americans.

(28:12):
He simply cares about his own position.
Well, so this bill in the House that, that we're trying to, they're trying to get the, the, the correct number to say that they're, you know, to, to the administration release the Epstein files, even if it passes, I don't know
Nothing happens.
that they will do anything.

(28:32):
He's gonna invoke executive privilege and it's gonna go to the Supreme Court.
Mm-hmm.
.9999999997672And that's, I, I, you know, it was like, "Oh, Massie gets that last discharge petition signature, he's a 217," and God, God bless Massie and Khanna for doing this, right? 338 00:28:47,447.99999999976717 --> 00:28:52,528 But what happens is you're gonna have this slow roll legal massive battle.
The issue though that it does do, and I will give a little bit of credit here to Massie on this, it does keep it in the news.

(28:59):
I mean, if this becomes a legal war to not release it, and if the next, the next Democrat who wins that open seat needs to sign onto that discharge position, they should.
.99999999976717And by the way, it highlights all the idiots, right, who've been protecting Trump w- from a pe- you know, uh, uh, from this pedophile child rapist linkage, and it's just fantastic. 342 00:29:20,447.99999999976717 --> 00:29:31,168.00000000023283 So even though we're not gonna s- we're gonna see, we'll get a redacted file and there's gonna be, you know, 731 redactions with one name and you're gonna think it's Trump, but, I mean, everybody's gonna say, "Oh, they're all Trump." 343 00:29:31,168.00000000023283 --> 00:29:32,508 He has no way out of this.

(29:32):
.00000000023283There's no way out unless they use false equivalencies, propaganda, Jimmy Kimmel, Charlie Kirk, this is what they're doing, and God bless it, I almost said something worse, um, you know, you get to a point that you're just like, "Are people that stupid?" 345 00:29:51,168.00000000023283 --> 00:29:52,148.00000000023283 Yes. 346 00:29:52,148.00000000023283 --> 00:29:53,887 Are we that IQ limited as a country?

(29:53):
Yes.
Do we have problems with il- illiteracy?
Yes.
.99999999976717Do we have problems with critical thinking? 351 00:29:58,467.99999999976717 --> 00:29:59,248 Yes.
Do we have problems with conspiracy theorists?
Yes.
Do we have a problem with people who think the supernatural entities and sky fairies are talking directly to their frontal lobe?
Yes.
That's the issue that you have, and again, that effect is happening.
Everything you've talked about, Amy, and you brought up today, right, is there's no baseline of fact or baseline of ethics that we can reach back into right now.

(30:19):
And I think that's why we're sometimes cast about and we're not quite sure how to approach it, because it's just an ethical, rule of law destruction that's very hard for me and you, I think, to get our arms around right now because of how we were-
raised and the oaths we took.
Y- yeah.
Well, I look at it as, um, we've always had

(30:40):
We've been blessed to have leaders on both sides of the aisle who believe in America, believe in the promise of America, believe in our democracy.
We may, they may have had differences of opinion on tax policy and all the- all that other stuff, but, uh, are fundamentally, um, good ethical people, and- Purge.

(31:03):
um, we, and they, and they surrounded themselves with decent public servants who were, you know, had good background, they were experienced for the most part, and ready to take on the job, whether it's national security advisor or secretary of defense or, uh, FTC commissioner, whatever, uh, in the past.

(31:27):
And now we have a second Trump administration, didn't even really apply during the first one as much because- Correct.
the first Trump administration you had, uh, Secretary of Defense Mattis and you had Esper and you had, uh, Tillerson and you had, you know, decent public servants who were trying to work

(31:47):
John Kelly, who were trying to work within the system that we have, that believe in America and believe in the rule of law.
And now you have a second Trump administration, where he has filled these positions with unqualified people who are sycophants, who will do whatever he says even if they know it is wrong, and you have a Congress that, uh, is the majority of which are

(32:24):
Republicans who will follow him because they are fearful of him.
You know?
.00000000023283So they know these, for example, the, the tariff policy is dumb. 372 00:32:35,360.00000000023283 --> 00:32:49,960 They know it's hurting their state, they know it's hurting their constituents, they know it's hurting businesses in their state and, and consumers and all of that stuff and doing absolutely nothing for our national debt and hurting our manufacturing and just, they, they know this.

(32:49):
.00000000023283You go. 374 00:32:50,360.00000000023283 --> 00:32:55,056 They know that it hasn't happened in the last 80 years, these, these stupid har- tariffs.
They know that there's no economist on the planet that thinks that they're good.
And yet these members of Congress are willing to go along because they're fearful of Donald Trump and fearful of this president, and that, I think, is where we're at too.

(33:12):
The rule of law just can't hold up when you're, when you have people in these positions who, um, don't care about it.
Um, they're high on access and power, and Amy, do we trust any Congress where there's congressman and congresswomen who want to have hearings on UFOs that come out of the ocean?
Probably not.

(33:32):
And that's where we're at.
I, I, I don't have anything. 382 00:33:37,360.00000000023283 --> 00:33:39,320 It's- Well, look- It's hard for me to keep
Uh, it, it, because it's just
I, I can't do it anymore.
There's, I just can't.
Like, I, I can't humor this bullshit.
I know.
It's, it's very hard.
We, we have
We do have some quick shots to get to, though- All right.
because I wanna get your take on a few things, some of which- Let's do it.

(33:55):
um, just maybe happened in the last, uh, 48 hours, and I just wanna get
So first of all, you have done an endorsement on TV for Abigail- Yes.
.0000000002328uh, Abigail Spanberger, uh, running for governor of Virginia.
Um, if everybody has seen that or hasn't seen that, you should go and check it out.

(34:15):
It's a pretty good commercial, right? 397 00:34:17,239.99999999976717 --> 00:34:17,880 It's pretty good.
.00000000023283I mean, uh, uh, there, you know, when you have a star in it like me, it's hard not to, you know- 399 00:34:22,340.00000000023283 --> 00:34:23,760.0000000002328 have a great commercial, you know?
No, that's awesome.
She's- She's doing great work and, uh, this is an important race in Virginia.
Oh, so important.
Mikie Sherrill also running in New Jersey for governor there.
That's a super important race.

(34:35):
Both of those women, um, I think are badasses.
.99999999976717They have- Uh, I know M- 407 00:34:39,409.99999999976717 --> 00:34:44,820.0000000002328 both served our country, Abigail in the CIA, uh, Mikey is a fellow naval aviator. 408 00:34:44,820.0000000002328 --> 00:34:45,360.00000000023283 That's right. 409 00:34:45,360.00000000023283 --> 00:34:47,500 Uh, she was a Navy helicopter pilot.
.00000000023283She is, uh, also amazing Naval Academy graduate. 411 00:34:51,220.00000000023283 --> 00:34:54,779.9999999997672 I can't say enough good things about both of them and their races. 412 00:34:54,779.9999999997672 --> 00:35:05,040 And, you know, if you wanna support somebody, uh, who cares about things like courage and honor and rule of law, both of those individuals, uh, do and would make great governors, so.

(35:05):
Well, I had to.
I mean, the
Her opponent, um, is incapable, literally incapable of being a fact-based public servant, a conspiracy theorist, and somebody who's literally down the line in a way that's hard to bring anybody back from.
She's a rabbit hole candidate.
So you have to support somebody that's on the rational and sane side these days. 418 00:35:24,220.00000000046566 --> 00:35:24,880 Yeah.
Good.

(35:26):
Um, Denver, will the governor, uh, government shut down on, on September 30th here?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
I, I- Okay.
I think it'll be a sh- I think it'll be a short one 'cause there'll be so much pressure, but I think it's gonna be very difficult, um, for the Democrats.
They've never shown, really, any spine in any of these negotiations.

(35:46):
And, and remember we talked about po- pocket rescissions beforehand when you vote on a budget and then the president just arbitrarily takes away the budget lines based on a pro- pocket rescission.
Um, so it's gonna be very difficult to have any good faith negotiations, but if there is a shutdown, I think it'll be fairly brief.
I, I don't know if the Democrats can stick to their guns at all.Um, and also the, you know, there could be a, a, you know, a suspension of rules.

(36:10):
.9999999995343We'll see what happens, um, going down the line, uh, but whatever happens, uh, the Republicans will blame the Democrats one way or the other and, um, if the Democrats roll on it, they might be looking at the '26 midterms to keep their negatives down, so they, they got some, they got some things that they have to, they have to consider. 432 00:36:29,971.9999999995343 --> 00:36:36,572 I'm very interested to see the negotiations, but, um, I do think you're gonna see a brief government shutdown, yes.

(36:36):
I mean, Republicans are the majority in- Mm-hmm.
the House and the Senate, so you would think they could do this by themselves.
They saying a shutdown helps them for the 2026 midterms if they can blame the Democrats.
I just want
I- Okay.
I'm just telling you there's a political slant to this year that's gonna be- Mm-hmm.
brutal to watch.
Um- Okay.
Uh, listen.

(36:56):
I, I hope there's not a 3 or 4day shutdown and, and honestly, I mean, I think, I think a lot of it has to do is how do you play this, right?
And the American people, um, are the leveraging chip and the ones that get hurt regardless of this negotiation.
Okay.
Um, there's an update.
Do you remember the story about Lisa Cook?
.9999999995343She was the, um- I do. 448 00:37:16,971.9999999995343 --> 00:37:17,832 Uh, yeah.

(37:17):
So, so, uh, the, the President- Oh, one of the governors of the Fed?
Yes.
The President- Mm-hmm.
accused her of, um, of mishandling her mortgage paperwork and, uh, claiming that she had 2 homes or something like that.
Anyway, the G- The Guardian did a review of her mortgage paperwork and it, it s- it came out and she did, um, in fact tell her lender that her, that other home was a vacation home, so she didn't do anything wrong-

(37:45):
at all.
Um- What a surprise.
Yeah, I know.
And, uh, you know- Ooh.
it's like they're just making stuff up in order to, um- Uh-huh.
fire who they wanna fire, uh, at this point.
Yeah.
Which we all knew, but it's kind of like ha- h- do you see the headline, but then when somebody digs in on it a week later, it's, like, buried on the, on the bottom of some page, like, "Oh, she didn't do anything wrong."

(38:09):
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah, the, the media's complicit in this, uh, this disinformation barrage and the metastasization of stupidity across our country.
The media's completely complicit, and I, and Amy, I'm sorry, I didn't know you like cameras and bird feeders.
I feel a little sad right now.
But what I'm saying is that there does seem to be more important things, not that cameras and bird feeders aren't amazing, uh, but I think there's, you know, it's just incredible to me that the media, you're right, they'll report breathlessly on bullshit, right, and then bury the lead on facts.

(38:40):
Yeah.
Well, 0 one more thing and then I wanna get to one shout-out here.
Um, di- did you know, Denver, that, uh, at Costco there are these champagne bottles that were sold here in Kentucky and in Ohio, I'm not sure about Virginia- Mm-hmm.
that are, like, spontaneously exploding?
And so Costco had to do a recall where they're trying to br- you know, tell people about these, "Hey, if you bought one of these exploding champagne bottles, please, uh, get rid of it."

(39:11):
Apparently it's the, it's the, let me, let me read this, it's the Kirkland Signature- Kirkland.
uh, Prosecco Valdo Bad- Badadini or something.
So if you, if you bought the Kirkland- Which is Italian for dynamite.
Prosecco
to check.
Right?
I, I don't think we have bought any of that, but I'm just f- just for all of our listeners who, who buy the Kirkland Prosecco, please, we want, w- where we care about- Be safe out there.

(39:41):
We, we care about your safety.
.999999999534339I mean, I'm serious. 481 00:39:45,11.999999999534339 --> 00:39:45,511.99999999953434 We 482 00:39:45,511.99999999953434 --> 00:39:50,492 Please, um, make sure that you dispose of those.
I'm gonna go buy some now.
I think it's a great marketing thing.
I think they've taken them off the shelf, Denver.
All right.
We've gone from bubbly to fragmentation.
Buy Kirkland Champagne.

(40:02):
All right.
Last thing, uh, shout out to Stephen Colbert who won the Emmy- Yeah, good for him.
on Sunday night.
Good for him.
With all this stuff that's happening, I just think that's- Ah.
I think that's great.
Yeah, I do too.
I, it, you know, good for him and, but, you know, I think, I think he's gonna do well.
He's gonna land on his feet, and again, when we come out of this darkness, which I, I'm not quite sure we will, but I hope we do, you know, it's gonna be nice to, to get on the other end of some more normalcy.

(40:30):
Well, you know, I, I was actually
You know, I interviewed, um, Heather Cox Richardson on this show, uh, a few weeks ago, and I was listening to something that she was, uh, talking about just this week with all of the things that have been happening in our country, and she said, "You know, I've said for a long time it's gonna get worse before it gets better.

(40:52):
We're still in the getting worse part."
But- Ah, it's gonna get worse- But-
before it gets worse.
But, you know- I know.
That's really -- She's an optimist.
I'm an optimist.
I do think it's gonna get better.
We, we need to continue to support and be the leaders we want to see in this country, um, a- with courage, and I think that's really important.

(41:15):
So- I- Thanks for listening.
I, I, I think you're right.
I mean, uh, you know, um, that it will get better at some point.
I just think, uh
Listen, I, I think that, uh, for me, um
Anyway, I don't wanna get, you know, too down the line of pessimism, but, uh, you know, sometimes it's, uh, that light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train, and that's what, that's what worries me.

(41:37):
But anyway, here we are, and if you wanna hear more of these exciting and positive messages-
you should subscribe to Truth in the Barrel on YouTube.
Make sure that you look at all of our social media channels, including Truth Social, so go to X and Blue Sky, go to Substack.
We are everywhere.
We are the metastasizers of truth and facts here on Truth in the Barrel.

(41:58):
How'd you like that, Amy?
That's good.
I'm not giving up anytime soon, folks.
Uh- Yep.
This, this is Truth in the Barrel.
We're gonna be around to make sense of what's going on, and, uh, thanks for listening, everyone.
See you later.
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