July 28, 2025 • 33 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load. Michael
Verie Show is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Let me just start with Tulsey Gabbert, because you served
as a CI director for four years. Would having her
in charge or in the role of Director of National
Intelligence mean for the intelligence apparatus of the US government.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
She has been an apologist for gotten poutin Mi charlessade.
So many of our substant comments as well as previous
actions have called into question whether or not she has
a good understanding of global politics in the US role there.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
But also she doesn't have.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Any experience in intelligence. She has never served in the
intelligence community. And the Director of National Intelligence is somebody
who sits on top of the eighteen departments and agencies
and needs to orchestrate these agencies so that they collaborate,
so that they coordinate, so that they're able to pursue
the nationalist citty priorities in an effective compassion.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
There's irrefutable evidence that detail how President Obama and his
national security team directed the creation of an intelligence community
assessment that.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
They knew was false.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
They knew it would promote this contrived narrative that Russia
interfered in the twenty sixteen election to help President Trump win,
selling it to the American people as though it were true.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
It wasn't.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
The report that we released today shows in great detail
how they carried this out. They manufactured findings from shoddy sources.
They suppressed evidence and credible intelligence that disproved their false
(02:11):
In the January twenty seventeen Intelligence Community assessment that President
Obama ordered John Brennan, who was CIA Director at the time,
and the Intelligence Community intentionally suppressed intelligence that showed Putin
was saving the most damaging material that he had in
his possession about Hillary Clinton until after her potential and
(02:32):
likely victory. The report goes into great detail about the
information that Russia and Putin had which on Hillary Clinton,
which included possible criminal acts like secret meetings with multiple
named US religious organizations in which State Department officials offered
in exchange for supporting Secretary Clinton's campaign for the presidency,
(02:56):
significant increases in financing from the State Department. There were
high level DNC emails that detailed evidence of Hillary's quote
psycho emotional problems, uncontrolled fits of anger, aggression, and cheerfulness,
(03:16):
and that then Secretary Clinton was allegedly on a daily
regiment of heavy tranquilizers.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
Yeah, Press office sending out this morning the President's schedule
will be.
Speaker 6 (03:40):
Leaving at noon.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
He will be in a meeting with the leadership of
the United Kingdom.
Speaker 6 (03:49):
He will be.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
Off to Aberdeen, which is also in Scotland. Today they
released the press pool this week and those are the
folks invited and to cover the President's doings. This does
not get enough attention. The President decided that the lock
(04:12):
that the traditional.
Speaker 6 (04:13):
Old line media has on.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
The coverage of politics gives them too much control. There
are folks with incredible influence out there, big audiences, a
great deal of respect and integrity. Why shouldn't they be
given access to the White House so that they can
report in a primary fashion, not simply report on what
(04:38):
the Washington Post and CBS say is the news. They
list the television, secondary network, print, secondary print, radio, and
news media for each day as to who will get
access today, and I'll just read for you the folks
who are kind of never allowed inside the room, who
(05:01):
now are the Blaze Media will be the new media
coverage outlet tomorrow. The secondary network will be a n
The new media will be American Spectator. On Wednesday, the
secondary network to NBC will be Newsmax. Migrant Insider will
(05:26):
be the new media partner. The secondary network will be
ewt N to ABC. Real Clear Politics will be the
secondary print. iHeartMedia will be the radio partner. I'm not
sure who that's going to be. Then August first, the
new media partner or Access will be town Hall. On
(05:48):
August second, iHeartMedia again will be the radio partner, with
the Washington Free Beacon as the new media Access. On
August third, News Nation will be the secondary network, and
on and on. Little things like that go a long way.
(06:09):
They go a very long way into changing the culture
because you give access to folks who were never given
access before. And no one really knows why. We are
eight days into the first of what may be several
special sessions for the state legislature, with a president supportive
(06:34):
of what you believe in, with a Republican majority in
the House and the Senate, with a Republican governor and
lieutenant governor. We should be getting a lot done.
Speaker 6 (06:46):
Right.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
What are we getting done?
Speaker 7 (06:51):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (06:52):
An obsession with marijuana, An absolute and utter obsession with marijuana.
It'll be two years before our legislature will convene again
all the things that could be done. Texas is not
a state of perfection. We've got so much waste, fraud, corruption,
(07:16):
We've got agencies that shouldn't exist, that should be sunseted.
Speaker 6 (07:20):
Out in a matter of hours.
Speaker 5 (07:24):
We're about to get several quite a few billion dollars
from the United States government as a repayment for our
border security package. We have opportunities to do unprecedented things
in Texas, the way Florida is doing, the way Donald
Trump is doing with our federal government.
Speaker 6 (07:44):
And yet.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
Charles Perry, who is Dan Patrick's lap dog on the
THC product ban, is now declaring we will regulate THHC
by banning it because we've tried regulation. This was an
issue nobody was asking for. This is what happens when
(08:09):
you become a one party state. Republicans, when they're not
being challenged, start self dealing and getting rich and letting
Alan Blake Moore run the government. So now the Texas VFW,
our Veterans of Foreign War, are blasting the Republicans saying
this is about the alcohol lobby and the pharmaceutical lobby.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Way to go, Dan Patrick. Now you've pissed off all
the veterans. This is Mark Chestnut and Jar Bizaar of
Talk Radio.
Speaker 6 (08:36):
Here was the.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
Billy Wagner reference to Lance berg when I thought this
was class and we just happened to really like Lance Burke.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Last Berkman, you are a Hall of Famer me.
Speaker 8 (08:47):
You are one of the greatest to play the game,
and I was happy to be your teammate. Your faith
and never judgment our attitude help keep me acundle with
my said faith.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Thank you, I love you, brother.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
That says more about the man Lance Berkman is than
being comeback Player of the Year or the incredible power
he had at the plate. That says so much about
him as a man. You imagine when someone talks about
(09:31):
how you live your faith, not in a preachy way,
how you live your faith every day in the clubhouse,
in the dugout, the that Netflix has a series that
this is the second round of it they've done called Quarterback,
(09:52):
and this time they do Joe Burrow, Jared Goff and
Kirk Cousins, and Cousins is at a rough point in
his career because he's been in the league thirteen years.
At that point, his body's kind of breaking down and
it's interesting because there he is talking to the other
(10:13):
guys and they're all cussing and talking foul, as guys
will often do in the clubhouse, in the locker room,
in the boat on the deer lease, but not cousins.
But doesn't tell him, hey, you got to stop. You
(10:34):
just he just leads by example. Everybody else is going
out to the strip club. He's going home to his
wife and kids and playing football with his little tiny
boys that are four and five years old or five
and six years old in the basement of his house.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
I just think that says a lot about.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
A man that he knows who and what he is,
that his priorities are in that order. While playing professional
sports an environment where women are throwing themselves at you,
drugs and alcohol are a plenty, stress is high, guys
are blowing off steam by partying, and you are playing
(11:15):
baseball and loving playing baseball, and without without being a
buzzkill to the esprit of core of the team, you're
also on a walk that is a ministry.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I think that that is everything you need to.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
Know about Landsberg. When that's as high of praise as
I can get. Can you play that again?
Speaker 1 (11:38):
King Atin las Berkman you are a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 8 (11:42):
In me, you are one of the greatest to play
the game, and I was happy to be your teammate.
Your faith and never judgmental attitude help keep me a
calendar with my face faith.
Speaker 6 (11:56):
Thank you. I love you, brother. That's class. That's class.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
The man's been inducted into the Hall of Fame, played
on multiple teams, and yet he stopped to pay special
tribute to you, lenz Bergman, that's meaningful. That is meaningful.
Do you know who was I think the only player
I heard I had the good fortune of being invited
(12:26):
to join the Astros for Baggies induction and Video's induction,
and I believe I could be wrong on this. The
only player who was mentioned by both of them in
a special way in their few special mentions was Ken
Kevin Eddie. I don't know how much of that is
(12:47):
because he died young, far too soon, he left us
far too soon, like Uncle Jerry's pinky toe. But I
also think that's because in the clubhouse he was a
guy that everybody so the President in a meeting with
the EU, a major American trade partner, it was feared
(13:11):
that it would be reduced, but sometimes if you want
to get the deal you want to get, you have
to be willing to walk away from the table. If
you're not willing to quit your job over what you're
getting paid, then you're never going to get paid the
(13:33):
maximum amount of money. Yes, ra moment, that's true. Please
don't interrupt while we're having a conversation. Yes, that is true.
So Trump goes into the EU meeting and I mean,
punch is hard, and he knows that we've been getting
(13:53):
ripped off. You and your country have been getting ripped
off because Biden, Obama, Bush going all the way back,
we're never cutting deals that were best for your country.
And he was willing to do that. And after he
got the deal, he wanted the American media is going, but, but, but,
(14:15):
but isn't the US going to have to give you
anything back? You're you're going to do all this, and
isn't the US going to give anything back? And Ursula Vonderland,
the president of the European Union, said no, because we
started with a trade imbalance. She basically cried uncle. She
(14:37):
said no, we're right sizing this deal. The European Union
has been getting the better of the United States and
now we're going to make this deal that works. This
is as big an accomplishment as Trump has had. Now
you don't get the scored points that you do with
a political victory or the SNY remark, this is what
(15:02):
a president should do.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
This.
Speaker 5 (15:05):
I want to hang a bell on this. This is
a major, major development for every America, every American.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Here's what she said.
Speaker 9 (15:14):
The starting point was an imbalance, a surplus on our
side and a deficit on the US side, and we
wanted to rebalance the trade relation, and we wanted to
do it in a way that trade goes on between
the two of US across the Atlantic, because the two
biggest economies should have a good trade flow between US
(15:36):
and I think we hit exactly the point. We wanted
to find rebalance but enable trade on both sides, which
means good jobs on both sides of the Atlantic, means
prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic, and that was
important for US.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
Fifteen percent tariff on the majority of European exports coming
into this country, maintains a fifty percent on steel and aluminum.
Includes EU commitments to purchase seven hundred billion dollars in
US energy and increase investments by six hundred billion dollars alongside.
Speaker 6 (16:10):
Orders for military equipment.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
Houston drug dealer has been convicted of murder in the
fentanyl overdose death of an Iraq war veteran and expectant
father from Montgomery County. Justin Forton died in October of
twenty three at his aunt's Magnolia home after buying fentanyl
from James Carter Smith at a Northwest Houston strip mall.
(16:41):
Why does a grown man have a hyphenated last name? Tuesday,
a jury sentenced Carter Smith the fifty years in prison,
roughly half the possible ninety nine year sentence. It's only
the second murder conviction of its kind since Texas's fentanyl
murder law went into effect. It allows those who supply
(17:02):
a fentanyl to be charged with murder if the drugs
calls a death. The story from ABC thirteen.
Speaker 7 (17:09):
Tonight, A man convicted of murderer for selling a deadly
doseph fentanyl that killed a man in Montgomery County.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Prosecutors say it's only the second such conviction in Texas.
Speaker 7 (17:18):
ABC thirteen's Luke Jones and Conro with a look at
the law and why other drugs are not being.
Speaker 6 (17:24):
Treated this way.
Speaker 10 (17:26):
Prosecutors say it only took them a month to trace
the drugs back to James Carter Smith. He and the
victim met regularly, and there were text messages too. The
message here to drug dealers simple, if a customer dies,
you're now responsible. He survived two tours of judy in Iraq,
Justin Fordan couldn't survive fendenol, and Tuesday his drug dealer
(17:48):
paid the price. James Carter Smith Junior said, us to
fifty years in prison for murder he took away, and
Forde's mother, Christine still reckons he got off lightly.
Speaker 11 (17:58):
I prefer life, but that's not my choice.
Speaker 10 (18:02):
The murder charge only possible because of a relatively new
state law. It took effect at twenty twenty three, just
a month before Fordan's overdose death. Now, if someone dies
because of fendanel, you supply you.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Could be charged with their murder.
Speaker 10 (18:16):
Prosecutors have discretion about when to apply that law.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
And so you don't want to use a fentyl murder
charge on a young person who is not a drug dealer, right,
not somebody who's profiting off the misery of others.
Speaker 10 (18:29):
After returning from military service, Fordage's family says he suffered
from a brain injury.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Back pain, and PTSD. He also struggled with guilt.
Speaker 11 (18:38):
He did something that was morally unethical in his opinion,
and he just could not overcome that.
Speaker 10 (18:45):
And eventually with alcohol and drugs. Prosecutors say Fordin had
knowingly been buying fendantyl pills from Carter Smith at this
Northwest Houston strip center for a little over a year.
Surveillance video captures him arriving for his very last trend action.
He died later that day at his uns Magnolia home.
You ever think you were going to lose a child
(19:06):
to fentanyl?
Speaker 11 (19:06):
I never thought. I didn't even know what fentanyl was.
I had never heard of it, didn't know what it
was until they told me it and I had to
look it up.
Speaker 10 (19:15):
It's only the second time in Texas at fendanyl dealers
been convicted of a customer's death, and yet prosecutors say
the punishment fits the crime perfectly.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
While he didn't necessarily intend to kill him, he had
knowledge that he was selling fentanyl pills that did cause
the death of our victim.
Speaker 10 (19:32):
A thirty four year old combat veteran with a baby
girl on the way.
Speaker 11 (19:36):
He wanted to be a dad so bad. He was so.
Speaker 10 (19:39):
Excited, excited for the birth of a child wholl now
grow up never knowing her dad.
Speaker 7 (19:45):
Well, Luke, why are overdose deaths solely punishable with a
murder charge if fentanyl's involved in not other drugs?
Speaker 10 (19:52):
Les prosecutors know fendanyl by far the deadliest drug out
they're one of the most addictive. To This law a
direct response to the opioid crisis. Spentdanel of course being
an opioid. Take a look at this chart from the
National Institute of Drug Abuse. You could see overdose deaths
from opioids they tripled in just the last four years.
Other overdose deaths they also rose, but nowhere near as
(20:13):
much as opioid overdose deaths. This state, by the way,
one of more than thirty where you can now charge
overdoses as a homicide.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
So we have a thirty four year old young man
went to Iraq twice. Let's step back for a moment
from this law and ask a question what was accomplished
by sending him to Iraq. This was a young man
(20:45):
who said, here, am I send me.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Take my life.
Speaker 6 (20:51):
I'll give my life.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
I will be shot at I will walk on the
ground where IED's are placed.
Speaker 6 (21:01):
I will risk.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
I will give of the only thing I can, the
greatest thing I can. No greater gift half any man
than to lay down in his life for a friend.
I will give you everything I am, all that I am,
without reservation, at your direction. I will commit heinous acts.
(21:26):
I will be exposed to heinous acts for this country.
What did we accomplish in Iraq? We took everything that
man had. What did we as a nation get for it?
This is the neo goons, This is the false patriotism
(21:46):
of sending young men from Montgomery County into war. And
then he comes home. And then he comes home, whereupon
he's sent to a va that is ill equipped to
take care of him, and he begins struggling. You didn't
have a fair shot, not like I did, not like
(22:08):
most of you did. He comes home and he's struggling. Day.
He never saw himself in the parking lot of a
rundown mall buying drugs from a dealer. Think about the
pain he had to be suffering. Think about how upside
(22:31):
down his mind had to be with PTSD, with physical pain,
with anguish, with hurt, and all he wanted to do
was make it stop. We can't understand what he's going through.
We don't have a chance. It's impossible for us to
understand what war was going on inside that man's brain
(22:56):
and just thirty four years old. That's why I can't
hope exists. So many of these guys just want to
make it stop. They just want to make it stop.
He's heard news stories of people dying from fentanyl. He
(23:17):
knew when he did that deal it was dirty. He
didn't want to do that. He didn't want to be there.
You know, maybe Trump's greatest asset that gets no attention
and is the very reason I think, more than any other,
they want to kill him. The very reason most Republicans
(23:37):
don't want him in office is he's not a warmonger,
because they are warmongers. The Clappers, the Brennans, the Boltons.
Speaker 6 (23:52):
They love war.
Speaker 5 (23:56):
War is good for business if you're on the payroll, bullets,
guns and.
Speaker 10 (24:03):
M R.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
E's, it's uh, it's the hell of a price. Oh yeah,
we send a guy away for fifty years. Some turd
goes away for fifty years. But the real story here
is this young man and how we failed.
Speaker 7 (24:21):
And Michael Berry.
Speaker 6 (24:23):
Taken from us far too soon.
Speaker 12 (24:32):
You're sweat stained, open roll stits and had the Domino
King whirled back one.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
Of the jack of all trees. Very competitive races in
the forthcoming Republican primary in the spring will be for
the comptroller position. It is being vacated by longtime Comptroller
Glenn Hagar, who has taken over at Texas A and
(25:06):
M University and the office that manages the state Treasury
collects and distributes taxes overseas and reports on state spending.
Disperses over fifty billion dollars to its subsidiary, the Texas
Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company, manages key initiatives like Texas College
(25:28):
Savings Plans, state grants, and other programs that utilize state funding,
including the new Education Savings Account program. The candidates who
are declared in the Republican primaries so far are Acting
Comptroller Kelly Hancock, who was put in that position to
give her an opportunity to have a head start, Railroad
(25:52):
Commissioner Christie Krattick, whose dad, Tom Cratis, been in Texas
government for I think fifty years by now. He was
a longtime state representative. He was the speaker for some time,
and then he groomed her into the political structure.
Speaker 6 (26:11):
The lobbyists supported her.
Speaker 5 (26:12):
She just keeps getting elected and former state senator and
former gubernatorial candidate Don Huffines. Huffines has this support of
the grassroots, seems to have the support of the MAGA folks.
Ted Cruz has endorsed him. Riley Gaines came out and
endorsed him over the weekend. He should be able to
(26:32):
self fund much, if not all, of that race. I
would give Huffines the advantage, particularly particularly in a primary.
The attorney general's race continues to get more and more interesting.
May's Middleton State Senator should be able to self finance.
(26:53):
He's issuing more press releases. And Joan Huffman State Senator
will have the backing of the Texans for lawsuit reform.
That's a lot of money. And Aaron Wrights would appear
to have the support of President Trump. He worked in
(27:15):
Ken Paxton's Attorney General's office.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Wrights is.
Speaker 5 (27:20):
The candidate expected to probably get a Trump endorsement. He's
got Chris los Savita running his campaign, who comes from
the Trump camp. There's an interesting background there. I think
Wrights wanted Axiom to be his consultants. That's Jeff Row,
that's Ted Cruz's guy. But you'll remember that Jeff Rowe
(27:43):
ran Desantisis campaign against Trump and that really irked Donald Trump.
Speaker 6 (27:54):
And he has a.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
Visceral hatred for Jeff Row and he said so, and
Roe and DeSantis ended up getting crossways at the end
of that, and I think Roe made a lot of enemies.
Roe's largest client has long been for ten years more
or more, has been Ted Cruz, and he'll still have
(28:16):
Ted Cruz. But Ted Crew doesn't have an election going
on right now. He does have a victory fund, a
pack that he raises money for that Jeff Rowe spends
on who knows what, but that's not enough, that's not enough.
Speaker 6 (28:31):
To pay all his bills. And so.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
It's going to be very interesting. Aaron Wrights did not
hire Axiom, but instead hired the Trump folks to run
that campaign. That attorney general's race is going to be
a competitive one. Mitch Little has decided not to run
for attorney general, and I'm happy to see that. He's
an important part of the state House and I'd like
(28:55):
to keep him there. He's only been there for one term.
He's a guy that most everybody knew when he ran,
it's going to be wooed to run for higher office.
He does not have the statewide name idea yet, he
does not have the war chest yet. You heard him
on our show say that if God calls him to
(29:15):
do something, he's going to do it. And I agree
that should be the approach. But a state wide race
in Texas is a very very difficult thing to run,
and for folks who've never done it, they don't quite
understand what it means. First of all, it's one of
(29:36):
the most expensive places to campaign for office in the country.
If you're running statewide in Texas, you have to be
up on the air. You have to be on television,
you have to be on radio. Now, you think about
the size of the markets. The size of the market
affects the cost to be on You've got Houston, and
(29:58):
by Houston you really mean the Houston region. That's a
huge media market, very expensive. You've got the Dallas media
market extremely expensive. You've got the Houston San Antone media
market very expensive. You still have to compete in South Texas,
which is not nearly as expensive, but you've got to
(30:21):
be on in in the Rio Grand Valley. You've got
three major media markets that you have to compete in,
but then you have some second tier and third tier.
In terms of size and cost, it is insanely expensive
just the media portion.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
It's a big state.
Speaker 5 (30:42):
It's a lot bigger, a lot harder than running statewide
in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee. It's a lot, lot lot tougher.
So that makes it a money game. It also means
you have to build name ID. It's extremely tough to
build name I D if you don't already have it
(31:03):
when you start running. And that is what candidates struggle
with because let's say the two state senators all day
every day, you've got a lobby senator. How are your
senator senators? Or anyway, we could have breakfast tomorrow soon
as any way we have lunch. I mean just whenever.
If two am is when you need to me, I'll
meet at two am. You're the senator, you know the senator.
(31:24):
Well that's great inside the capital, but nobody outside the
capital knows who you are. In many cases, in your
own district.
Speaker 6 (31:34):
Nobody knows who you are.
Speaker 5 (31:36):
I think May's Middleton has more name ID from grassroots
involvement considerably more and outside his district than Johan Huffman does,
who's not been real involved in the grassroots. She's been
more of a day to day senator doing Senate business,
and she was a long time judge, and they tend
not to be real sociable like that. May's Middleton's been
(31:59):
out writing checks to Republican organizations, ladies organizations for a
long time. And then you've got Aaron Wrights, who's never
been a candidate, and he was a staffer in Ken
Paxton's office. So you know how many Ken Paxton staffers
can you name? Probably none, So you're toiling away, but
(32:25):
you're not building name id. Now he has raised money.
From what I understand, he does have some folks from
DC who really want to see him in that position,
and a Trump endorsement would go a very long way.
I think the Trump endorsement means different things in different
places in the state of Texas. I believe it's very strong.
(32:46):
I'm hearing that Ken Paxton will endorse him. I don't
know if that's true. Paxton has his own race to run,
and he's got a commanding lead over John Cornyn. There
is now an increasing circulation in the rumor mill that
Cornyan will drop out and the candidate expected to step
(33:07):
in if he does is Wesley Hunt, which would make
this quite a competitive rit
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load. Michael
Verie Show is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Let me just start with Tulsey Gabbert, because you served
as a CI director for four years. Would having her
in charge or in the role of Director of National
Intelligence mean for the intelligence apparatus of the US government.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
She has been an apologist for gotten poutin Mi charlessade.
So many of our substant comments as well as previous
actions have called into question whether or not she has
a good understanding of global politics in the US role there.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
But also she doesn't have.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Any experience in intelligence. She has never served in the
intelligence community. And the Director of National Intelligence is somebody
who sits on top of the eighteen departments and agencies
and needs to orchestrate these agencies so that they collaborate,
so that they coordinate, so that they're able to pursue
the nationalist citty priorities in an effective compassion.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
There's irrefutable evidence that detail how President Obama and his
national security team directed the creation of an intelligence community
assessment that.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
They knew was false.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
They knew it would promote this contrived narrative that Russia
interfered in the twenty sixteen election to help President Trump win,
selling it to the American people as though it were true.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
It wasn't.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
The report that we released today shows in great detail
how they carried this out. They manufactured findings from shoddy sources.
They suppressed evidence and credible intelligence that disproved their false
(02:11):
In the January twenty seventeen Intelligence Community assessment that President
Obama ordered John Brennan, who was CIA Director at the time,
and the Intelligence Community intentionally suppressed intelligence that showed Putin
was saving the most damaging material that he had in
his possession about Hillary Clinton until after her potential and
(02:32):
likely victory. The report goes into great detail about the
information that Russia and Putin had which on Hillary Clinton,
which included possible criminal acts like secret meetings with multiple
named US religious organizations in which State Department officials offered
in exchange for supporting Secretary Clinton's campaign for the presidency,
(02:56):
significant increases in financing from the State Department. There were
high level DNC emails that detailed evidence of Hillary's quote
psycho emotional problems, uncontrolled fits of anger, aggression, and cheerfulness,
(03:16):
and that then Secretary Clinton was allegedly on a daily
regiment of heavy tranquilizers.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
Yeah, Press office sending out this morning the President's schedule
will be.
Speaker 6 (03:40):
Leaving at noon.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
He will be in a meeting with the leadership of
the United Kingdom.
Speaker 6 (03:49):
He will be.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
Off to Aberdeen, which is also in Scotland. Today they
released the press pool this week and those are the
folks invited and to cover the President's doings. This does
not get enough attention. The President decided that the lock
(04:12):
that the traditional.
Speaker 6 (04:13):
Old line media has on.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
The coverage of politics gives them too much control. There
are folks with incredible influence out there, big audiences, a
great deal of respect and integrity. Why shouldn't they be
given access to the White House so that they can
report in a primary fashion, not simply report on what
(04:38):
the Washington Post and CBS say is the news. They
list the television, secondary network, print, secondary print, radio, and
news media for each day as to who will get
access today, and I'll just read for you the folks
who are kind of never allowed inside the room, who
(05:01):
now are the Blaze Media will be the new media
coverage outlet tomorrow. The secondary network will be a n
The new media will be American Spectator. On Wednesday, the
secondary network to NBC will be Newsmax. Migrant Insider will
(05:26):
be the new media partner. The secondary network will be
ewt N to ABC. Real Clear Politics will be the
secondary print. iHeartMedia will be the radio partner. I'm not
sure who that's going to be. Then August first, the
new media partner or Access will be town Hall. On
(05:48):
August second, iHeartMedia again will be the radio partner, with
the Washington Free Beacon as the new media Access. On
August third, News Nation will be the secondary network, and
on and on. Little things like that go a long way.
(06:09):
They go a very long way into changing the culture
because you give access to folks who were never given
access before. And no one really knows why. We are
eight days into the first of what may be several
special sessions for the state legislature, with a president supportive
(06:34):
of what you believe in, with a Republican majority in
the House and the Senate, with a Republican governor and
lieutenant governor. We should be getting a lot done.
Speaker 6 (06:46):
Right.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
What are we getting done?
Speaker 7 (06:51):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (06:52):
An obsession with marijuana, An absolute and utter obsession with marijuana.
It'll be two years before our legislature will convene again
all the things that could be done. Texas is not
a state of perfection. We've got so much waste, fraud, corruption,
(07:16):
We've got agencies that shouldn't exist, that should be sunseted.
Speaker 6 (07:20):
Out in a matter of hours.
Speaker 5 (07:24):
We're about to get several quite a few billion dollars
from the United States government as a repayment for our
border security package. We have opportunities to do unprecedented things
in Texas, the way Florida is doing, the way Donald
Trump is doing with our federal government.
Speaker 6 (07:44):
And yet.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
Charles Perry, who is Dan Patrick's lap dog on the
THC product ban, is now declaring we will regulate THHC
by banning it because we've tried regulation. This was an
issue nobody was asking for. This is what happens when
(08:09):
you become a one party state. Republicans, when they're not
being challenged, start self dealing and getting rich and letting
Alan Blake Moore run the government. So now the Texas VFW,
our Veterans of Foreign War, are blasting the Republicans saying
this is about the alcohol lobby and the pharmaceutical lobby.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Way to go, Dan Patrick. Now you've pissed off all
the veterans. This is Mark Chestnut and Jar Bizaar of
Talk Radio.
Speaker 6 (08:36):
Here was the.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
Billy Wagner reference to Lance berg when I thought this
was class and we just happened to really like Lance Burke.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Last Berkman, you are a Hall of Famer me.
Speaker 8 (08:47):
You are one of the greatest to play the game,
and I was happy to be your teammate. Your faith
and never judgment our attitude help keep me acundle with
my said faith.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Thank you, I love you, brother.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
That says more about the man Lance Berkman is than
being comeback Player of the Year or the incredible power
he had at the plate. That says so much about
him as a man. You imagine when someone talks about
(09:31):
how you live your faith, not in a preachy way,
how you live your faith every day in the clubhouse,
in the dugout, the that Netflix has a series that
this is the second round of it they've done called Quarterback,
(09:52):
and this time they do Joe Burrow, Jared Goff and
Kirk Cousins, and Cousins is at a rough point in
his career because he's been in the league thirteen years.
At that point, his body's kind of breaking down and
it's interesting because there he is talking to the other
(10:13):
guys and they're all cussing and talking foul, as guys
will often do in the clubhouse, in the locker room,
in the boat on the deer lease, but not cousins.
But doesn't tell him, hey, you got to stop. You
(10:34):
just he just leads by example. Everybody else is going
out to the strip club. He's going home to his
wife and kids and playing football with his little tiny
boys that are four and five years old or five
and six years old in the basement of his house.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
I just think that says a lot about.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
A man that he knows who and what he is,
that his priorities are in that order. While playing professional
sports an environment where women are throwing themselves at you,
drugs and alcohol are a plenty, stress is high, guys
are blowing off steam by partying, and you are playing
(11:15):
baseball and loving playing baseball, and without without being a
buzzkill to the esprit of core of the team, you're
also on a walk that is a ministry.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I think that that is everything you need to.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
Know about Landsberg. When that's as high of praise as
I can get. Can you play that again?
Speaker 1 (11:38):
King Atin las Berkman you are a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 8 (11:42):
In me, you are one of the greatest to play
the game, and I was happy to be your teammate.
Your faith and never judgmental attitude help keep me a
calendar with my face faith.
Speaker 6 (11:56):
Thank you. I love you, brother. That's class. That's class.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
The man's been inducted into the Hall of Fame, played
on multiple teams, and yet he stopped to pay special
tribute to you, lenz Bergman, that's meaningful. That is meaningful.
Do you know who was I think the only player
I heard I had the good fortune of being invited
(12:26):
to join the Astros for Baggies induction and Video's induction,
and I believe I could be wrong on this. The
only player who was mentioned by both of them in
a special way in their few special mentions was Ken
Kevin Eddie. I don't know how much of that is
(12:47):
because he died young, far too soon, he left us
far too soon, like Uncle Jerry's pinky toe. But I
also think that's because in the clubhouse he was a
guy that everybody so the President in a meeting with
the EU, a major American trade partner, it was feared
(13:11):
that it would be reduced, but sometimes if you want
to get the deal you want to get, you have
to be willing to walk away from the table. If
you're not willing to quit your job over what you're
getting paid, then you're never going to get paid the
(13:33):
maximum amount of money. Yes, ra moment, that's true. Please
don't interrupt while we're having a conversation. Yes, that is true.
So Trump goes into the EU meeting and I mean,
punch is hard, and he knows that we've been getting
(13:53):
ripped off. You and your country have been getting ripped
off because Biden, Obama, Bush going all the way back,
we're never cutting deals that were best for your country.
And he was willing to do that. And after he
got the deal, he wanted the American media is going, but, but, but,
(14:15):
but isn't the US going to have to give you
anything back? You're you're going to do all this, and
isn't the US going to give anything back? And Ursula Vonderland,
the president of the European Union, said no, because we
started with a trade imbalance. She basically cried uncle. She
(14:37):
said no, we're right sizing this deal. The European Union
has been getting the better of the United States and
now we're going to make this deal that works. This
is as big an accomplishment as Trump has had. Now
you don't get the scored points that you do with
a political victory or the SNY remark, this is what
(15:02):
a president should do.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
This.
Speaker 5 (15:05):
I want to hang a bell on this. This is
a major, major development for every America, every American.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Here's what she said.
Speaker 9 (15:14):
The starting point was an imbalance, a surplus on our
side and a deficit on the US side, and we
wanted to rebalance the trade relation, and we wanted to
do it in a way that trade goes on between
the two of US across the Atlantic, because the two
biggest economies should have a good trade flow between US
(15:36):
and I think we hit exactly the point. We wanted
to find rebalance but enable trade on both sides, which
means good jobs on both sides of the Atlantic, means
prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic, and that was
important for US.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
Fifteen percent tariff on the majority of European exports coming
into this country, maintains a fifty percent on steel and aluminum.
Includes EU commitments to purchase seven hundred billion dollars in
US energy and increase investments by six hundred billion dollars alongside.
Speaker 6 (16:10):
Orders for military equipment.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
Houston drug dealer has been convicted of murder in the
fentanyl overdose death of an Iraq war veteran and expectant
father from Montgomery County. Justin Forton died in October of
twenty three at his aunt's Magnolia home after buying fentanyl
from James Carter Smith at a Northwest Houston strip mall.
(16:41):
Why does a grown man have a hyphenated last name? Tuesday,
a jury sentenced Carter Smith the fifty years in prison,
roughly half the possible ninety nine year sentence. It's only
the second murder conviction of its kind since Texas's fentanyl
murder law went into effect. It allows those who supply
(17:02):
a fentanyl to be charged with murder if the drugs
calls a death. The story from ABC thirteen.
Speaker 7 (17:09):
Tonight, A man convicted of murderer for selling a deadly
doseph fentanyl that killed a man in Montgomery County.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Prosecutors say it's only the second such conviction in Texas.
Speaker 7 (17:18):
ABC thirteen's Luke Jones and Conro with a look at
the law and why other drugs are not being.
Speaker 6 (17:24):
Treated this way.
Speaker 10 (17:26):
Prosecutors say it only took them a month to trace
the drugs back to James Carter Smith. He and the
victim met regularly, and there were text messages too. The
message here to drug dealers simple, if a customer dies,
you're now responsible. He survived two tours of judy in Iraq,
Justin Fordan couldn't survive fendenol, and Tuesday his drug dealer
(17:48):
paid the price. James Carter Smith Junior said, us to
fifty years in prison for murder he took away, and
Forde's mother, Christine still reckons he got off lightly.
Speaker 11 (17:58):
I prefer life, but that's not my choice.
Speaker 10 (18:02):
The murder charge only possible because of a relatively new
state law. It took effect at twenty twenty three, just
a month before Fordan's overdose death. Now, if someone dies
because of fendanel, you supply you.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Could be charged with their murder.
Speaker 10 (18:16):
Prosecutors have discretion about when to apply that law.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
And so you don't want to use a fentyl murder
charge on a young person who is not a drug dealer, right,
not somebody who's profiting off the misery of others.
Speaker 10 (18:29):
After returning from military service, Fordage's family says he suffered
from a brain injury.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Back pain, and PTSD. He also struggled with guilt.
Speaker 11 (18:38):
He did something that was morally unethical in his opinion,
and he just could not overcome that.
Speaker 10 (18:45):
And eventually with alcohol and drugs. Prosecutors say Fordin had
knowingly been buying fendantyl pills from Carter Smith at this
Northwest Houston strip center for a little over a year.
Surveillance video captures him arriving for his very last trend action.
He died later that day at his uns Magnolia home.
You ever think you were going to lose a child
(19:06):
to fentanyl?
Speaker 11 (19:06):
I never thought. I didn't even know what fentanyl was.
I had never heard of it, didn't know what it
was until they told me it and I had to
look it up.
Speaker 10 (19:15):
It's only the second time in Texas at fendanyl dealers
been convicted of a customer's death, and yet prosecutors say
the punishment fits the crime perfectly.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
While he didn't necessarily intend to kill him, he had
knowledge that he was selling fentanyl pills that did cause
the death of our victim.
Speaker 10 (19:32):
A thirty four year old combat veteran with a baby
girl on the way.
Speaker 11 (19:36):
He wanted to be a dad so bad. He was so.
Speaker 10 (19:39):
Excited, excited for the birth of a child wholl now
grow up never knowing her dad.
Speaker 7 (19:45):
Well, Luke, why are overdose deaths solely punishable with a
murder charge if fentanyl's involved in not other drugs?
Speaker 10 (19:52):
Les prosecutors know fendanyl by far the deadliest drug out
they're one of the most addictive. To This law a
direct response to the opioid crisis. Spentdanel of course being
an opioid. Take a look at this chart from the
National Institute of Drug Abuse. You could see overdose deaths
from opioids they tripled in just the last four years.
Other overdose deaths they also rose, but nowhere near as
(20:13):
much as opioid overdose deaths. This state, by the way,
one of more than thirty where you can now charge
overdoses as a homicide.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
So we have a thirty four year old young man
went to Iraq twice. Let's step back for a moment
from this law and ask a question what was accomplished
by sending him to Iraq. This was a young man
(20:45):
who said, here, am I send me.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Take my life.
Speaker 6 (20:51):
I'll give my life.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
I will be shot at I will walk on the
ground where IED's are placed.
Speaker 6 (21:01):
I will risk.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
I will give of the only thing I can, the
greatest thing I can. No greater gift half any man
than to lay down in his life for a friend.
I will give you everything I am, all that I am,
without reservation, at your direction. I will commit heinous acts.
(21:26):
I will be exposed to heinous acts for this country.
What did we accomplish in Iraq? We took everything that
man had. What did we as a nation get for it?
This is the neo goons, This is the false patriotism
(21:46):
of sending young men from Montgomery County into war. And
then he comes home. And then he comes home, whereupon
he's sent to a va that is ill equipped to
take care of him, and he begins struggling. You didn't
have a fair shot, not like I did, not like
(22:08):
most of you did. He comes home and he's struggling. Day.
He never saw himself in the parking lot of a
rundown mall buying drugs from a dealer. Think about the
pain he had to be suffering. Think about how upside
(22:31):
down his mind had to be with PTSD, with physical pain,
with anguish, with hurt, and all he wanted to do
was make it stop. We can't understand what he's going through.
We don't have a chance. It's impossible for us to
understand what war was going on inside that man's brain
(22:56):
and just thirty four years old. That's why I can't
hope exists. So many of these guys just want to
make it stop. They just want to make it stop.
He's heard news stories of people dying from fentanyl. He
(23:17):
knew when he did that deal it was dirty. He
didn't want to do that. He didn't want to be there.
You know, maybe Trump's greatest asset that gets no attention
and is the very reason I think, more than any other,
they want to kill him. The very reason most Republicans
(23:37):
don't want him in office is he's not a warmonger,
because they are warmongers. The Clappers, the Brennans, the Boltons.
Speaker 6 (23:52):
They love war.
Speaker 5 (23:56):
War is good for business if you're on the payroll, bullets,
guns and.
Speaker 10 (24:03):
M R.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
E's, it's uh, it's the hell of a price. Oh yeah,
we send a guy away for fifty years. Some turd
goes away for fifty years. But the real story here
is this young man and how we failed.
Speaker 7 (24:21):
And Michael Berry.
Speaker 6 (24:23):
Taken from us far too soon.
Speaker 12 (24:32):
You're sweat stained, open roll stits and had the Domino
King whirled back one.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
Of the jack of all trees. Very competitive races in
the forthcoming Republican primary in the spring will be for
the comptroller position. It is being vacated by longtime Comptroller
Glenn Hagar, who has taken over at Texas A and
(25:06):
M University and the office that manages the state Treasury
collects and distributes taxes overseas and reports on state spending.
Disperses over fifty billion dollars to its subsidiary, the Texas
Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company, manages key initiatives like Texas College
(25:28):
Savings Plans, state grants, and other programs that utilize state funding,
including the new Education Savings Account program. The candidates who
are declared in the Republican primaries so far are Acting
Comptroller Kelly Hancock, who was put in that position to
give her an opportunity to have a head start, Railroad
(25:52):
Commissioner Christie Krattick, whose dad, Tom Cratis, been in Texas
government for I think fifty years by now. He was
a longtime state representative. He was the speaker for some time,
and then he groomed her into the political structure.
Speaker 6 (26:11):
The lobbyists supported her.
Speaker 5 (26:12):
She just keeps getting elected and former state senator and
former gubernatorial candidate Don Huffines. Huffines has this support of
the grassroots, seems to have the support of the MAGA folks.
Ted Cruz has endorsed him. Riley Gaines came out and
endorsed him over the weekend. He should be able to
(26:32):
self fund much, if not all, of that race. I
would give Huffines the advantage, particularly particularly in a primary.
The attorney general's race continues to get more and more interesting.
May's Middleton State Senator should be able to self finance.
(26:53):
He's issuing more press releases. And Joan Huffman State Senator
will have the backing of the Texans for lawsuit reform.
That's a lot of money. And Aaron Wrights would appear
to have the support of President Trump. He worked in
(27:15):
Ken Paxton's Attorney General's office.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Wrights is.
Speaker 5 (27:20):
The candidate expected to probably get a Trump endorsement. He's
got Chris los Savita running his campaign, who comes from
the Trump camp. There's an interesting background there. I think
Wrights wanted Axiom to be his consultants. That's Jeff Row,
that's Ted Cruz's guy. But you'll remember that Jeff Rowe
(27:43):
ran Desantisis campaign against Trump and that really irked Donald Trump.
Speaker 6 (27:54):
And he has a.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
Visceral hatred for Jeff Row and he said so, and
Roe and DeSantis ended up getting crossways at the end
of that, and I think Roe made a lot of enemies.
Roe's largest client has long been for ten years more
or more, has been Ted Cruz, and he'll still have
(28:16):
Ted Cruz. But Ted Crew doesn't have an election going
on right now. He does have a victory fund, a
pack that he raises money for that Jeff Rowe spends
on who knows what, but that's not enough, that's not enough.
Speaker 6 (28:31):
To pay all his bills. And so.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
It's going to be very interesting. Aaron Wrights did not
hire Axiom, but instead hired the Trump folks to run
that campaign. That attorney general's race is going to be
a competitive one. Mitch Little has decided not to run
for attorney general, and I'm happy to see that. He's
an important part of the state House and I'd like
(28:55):
to keep him there. He's only been there for one term.
He's a guy that most everybody knew when he ran,
it's going to be wooed to run for higher office.
He does not have the statewide name idea yet, he
does not have the war chest yet. You heard him
on our show say that if God calls him to
(29:15):
do something, he's going to do it. And I agree
that should be the approach. But a state wide race
in Texas is a very very difficult thing to run,
and for folks who've never done it, they don't quite
understand what it means. First of all, it's one of
(29:36):
the most expensive places to campaign for office in the country.
If you're running statewide in Texas, you have to be
up on the air. You have to be on television,
you have to be on radio. Now, you think about
the size of the markets. The size of the market
affects the cost to be on You've got Houston, and
(29:58):
by Houston you really mean the Houston region. That's a
huge media market, very expensive. You've got the Dallas media
market extremely expensive. You've got the Houston San Antone media
market very expensive. You still have to compete in South Texas,
which is not nearly as expensive, but you've got to
(30:21):
be on in in the Rio Grand Valley. You've got
three major media markets that you have to compete in,
but then you have some second tier and third tier.
In terms of size and cost, it is insanely expensive
just the media portion.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
It's a big state.
Speaker 5 (30:42):
It's a lot bigger, a lot harder than running statewide
in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee. It's a lot, lot lot tougher.
So that makes it a money game. It also means
you have to build name ID. It's extremely tough to
build name I D if you don't already have it
(31:03):
when you start running. And that is what candidates struggle
with because let's say the two state senators all day
every day, you've got a lobby senator. How are your
senator senators? Or anyway, we could have breakfast tomorrow soon
as any way we have lunch. I mean just whenever.
If two am is when you need to me, I'll
meet at two am. You're the senator, you know the senator.
(31:24):
Well that's great inside the capital, but nobody outside the
capital knows who you are. In many cases, in your
own district.
Speaker 6 (31:34):
Nobody knows who you are.
Speaker 5 (31:36):
I think May's Middleton has more name ID from grassroots
involvement considerably more and outside his district than Johan Huffman does,
who's not been real involved in the grassroots. She's been
more of a day to day senator doing Senate business,
and she was a long time judge, and they tend
not to be real sociable like that. May's Middleton's been
(31:59):
out writing checks to Republican organizations, ladies organizations for a
long time. And then you've got Aaron Wrights, who's never
been a candidate, and he was a staffer in Ken
Paxton's office. So you know how many Ken Paxton staffers
can you name? Probably none, So you're toiling away, but
(32:25):
you're not building name id. Now he has raised money.
From what I understand, he does have some folks from
DC who really want to see him in that position,
and a Trump endorsement would go a very long way.
I think the Trump endorsement means different things in different
places in the state of Texas. I believe it's very strong.
(32:46):
I'm hearing that Ken Paxton will endorse him. I don't
know if that's true. Paxton has his own race to run,
and he's got a commanding lead over John Cornyn. There
is now an increasing circulation in the rumor mill that
Cornyan will drop out and the candidate expected to step
(33:07):
in if he does is Wesley Hunt, which would make
this quite a competitive rit
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