February 10, 2026 • 25 mins
(February 10, 2026)
Ghislaine Maxwell appeals for clemency from President Trump as she declines to answer questions from lawmakers. U.S Olympic athletes expressing their views is as American as it gets. Nationality boundaries for Olympians are blurrier than ever… Russians are banned but still competing. This bill would ban ICE agents from future hiring as public employee in California.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty. That bet is stop thinging.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
About AfD cover KFI AM six forty Bill Handle. Here
it is a Tuesday morning, February the tenth, and the
story of Savannah Guthrie and her mom, Nancy continue on.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
It's what ninth tenth day after the.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Abduction, and Savannah's family well, actually she and her brother
and sister have reached out to the kidnapper saying we
will pay, and at this point asking the public for
any information. The story is getting a Not only is
it heartbreaking and just really gut wrenching, but it's also
getting very weird in terms of a kidnapping. We don't
(00:47):
often see it like this. Okay, moving, Oh, here's another
one we will see very often. Julane Maxwell is appealing
for clemency from the President. She declines to answer questions
from lawmakers and a couple things are very strange here.
She said in a deposition that happened yesterday in front
(01:10):
of Congress in front of the.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
House that.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
If President Trump ends her prison sentence, she's willing to
testify that neither he nor former President Bill Clinton had
done anything wrong. I thought she had already said that,
which is very strange because that's the ammunition she has
and she's already spent that. So the House Oversight Committee
(01:36):
wanted her to answer questions during this video call where
she's in a federal prison camp in Texas. That's another
story about her being in that prison camp. She's serving
a twenty year sentence for sex trafficking and the lawmakers
are trying to investigate how she was able to sexually
(01:56):
abuse underage girls for years. So there's a reckoning big
time over the abuse spilled into businesses and governments around
the globe. It seems to have affected the United States
less than, for example, in England, where the Prime Minister
is under scrutiny for his connection to Epstein and again
(02:16):
not accused of anything wrong, but too close a connection,
which I guess for anybody is too close a connection
at this point, and they're looking at him retiring or
being forced to resign because of this. So the rest
of the world is getting a little wonk ear. So
here is the question I have. She kept on invoking
my Fifth Amendments right to silence, So what's going to
(02:39):
happen if well, here's what the Committee can do give
her immunity limited immunity, and if a witness has limited
immunity then has to testify because the Fifth Amendment is
saying I have the right not to say anything because
they could harm me in terms of any criminal activity,
(03:04):
of any criminal accusation. Well, if immunity stops any criminal accusation,
then the Fifth Amendment is out the window because there's
no threat. There's absolutely no threat of proceeding with a
criminal charge. Okay, And that's one issue. The other issue is,
I pointed out, she's already said Bill Clinton and Trump
(03:28):
have done nothing wrong, so she is appealing, and Maxwell's
attorney said that she's prepared to speak fully and honestly
if granted clemency by the president. Now Here is the issue,
(03:49):
and it's explaining why not if. The attorney added that
Trump and Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing, but Miss
Maxwell alone can explain why they are innocent of any wrongdoing,
and the public is entitled to that explanation, which, frankly,
I don't understand at all what the position is. And
(04:10):
the White House pointed to a previous remark from the
President that the prospect of a pardon was not on
his radar, did not say I will not pardon her,
much like President Biden, to his credit, said he would
never pardon his son and then turned around and pardoned
his son.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
So Biden straight out lied.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
The president is I think he's just dancing around this
but doesn't have to move, doesn't have to do anything
because he's already been absolved. Maxwell, who knows what's going on.
She was not only complicit, she was in the middle
of this. She said nothing wrong. I mean Clinton and
(04:58):
the President did nothing wrong. I don't understand where she's
going demanding or asking for clemency. And then the other
issue is politically now the president is pardoning a whole
lot of people. He pardoned more people in his probably
his first week than the last five presidents combined, and
(05:18):
they were all Anybody who backs the president as in
prison basically gets clemency and his pardon. All you have
to do is be an acolyte of the president and
you're in good shape. And if you are against the president,
he's going to take everything he can. Department of Justice,
in the case of Mark Kelly, we're going to talk
about later on Senator Mark Kelly going after him with
(05:41):
a just passion, But politically, how does he give clemency
or pardon Julane Maxwell? Can you imagine the fallout that
would happen, the backlash that would happen. I mean, keep
in mind, remember when he wouldn't release the files, just
(06:02):
refused to release the files. During the Biden administration, course,
he pushed for the files like crazy. During his campaign,
he pushed for the files like crazy, and all of
a sudden, when the Justice Department is under his purview,
the files now don't are not released. It was almost
unanimous in Congress, and Congress passed a law that said
(06:26):
the files must be released. What do you think would
happen politically on both sides of the aisle if he
were to grant clemency to a convicted child molester, man,
it would just explode. And so, as I said, the
other issue is her being in prison. She was put
(06:48):
into a I think it was a medium security prison initially,
and then the Deputy Attorney General, in a very strange move,
went to interview her over two days and Florida, we
don't know what happened, and it's never happened before where
the deputy Attorney general goes to interview someone, at least
to my memory, and all of a sudden, a few
(07:10):
days later, she gets transferred to a minimum security prison
and that smelled like rotten tomatoes. So there's a lot
to this story that's going on, some behind the scenes,
some not. And as far as the redacted, as far
as the files are concerned, represented Jamie Rask and the
(07:33):
top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. He was one
of the Democrats who actually spent hours looking at non
redacted files, but he had to go into a room
with four computers, could not bring a computer in, could
only take notes.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
And he said that if all the House members.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Who triggered the vote on releasing the files, which is
virtually all of them, spend every waking hour over the DOJ,
it would still take months to get through all of
those documents. So this is not going to go away. Also,
as you've been hearing major announcement this afternoon at four o'clock,
(08:19):
and you know what, it's just between us, chickens, I'm going.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
To tell you what it is.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Okay, just to let you know, KFI is flipping formats.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
We are going to go from a.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Music station, I mean a talk station to a music
station and the name of well, the morning show is
no longer the build Handle Show. It will be Farci
folks songs from Fresno with your.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
DJ Fardin and it's guys, are life is done. That's
effective almost immediately. Hello, I'm Farzin and here's another Farsi
folks song just for you.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Okay, Actually, yeah, I know I'm done. See I'm now
in trouble because I have told everybody what's going on.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I thought it was gonna be Buckin' Bill's Roadhouse roundup.
Uh yeah, yeah. Armenian. By the way, there is such
a thing as Armenian radio. Uh, there is.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
We're southern California, get lots of ethnic radio and they
pay for it. It's broker content Armenian radio. And they
actually have it sponsored, which is very strange. Gillette, for example,
sponsors that radio station a lot. Okay. Now, let me
tell you what's going on in the Olympics. And this
(09:55):
is kind of a real interesting one, and that is statements,
political statements made by Olympians. Gus Kenworthy decided that he's
going to express his feelings about ICE the enforcement of
the agents. So what he did is make a statement
(10:17):
by peeing in the snow with his statement, he's a
British born American raised openly gay freestyle freestyle skater or skier.
Excuse me, he once won silver for the US. He's
competing for Britain. I'll explaining how that works a little
later on, and he wrote, f Ice, that's what he
(10:39):
peed into the snow and posted it to his Instagram
account and urging followers to write to their senators asking
them not to support the Department of Homeland Security funding
because it fail, because the Senate fails to meaningful rain
in ice and border patrol. And as you can imagine,
(11:00):
the Internet responded big time, including death threats, because that's
what happens today. It's not just I disagree. I not
even using expletives like he did. He is out of
his his f a mind, you know, f him. Oh no,
hope you break your leg, your embarrassment to athletes everywhere.
(11:22):
Hope you blow your knee out, followed by a homophobic
slur hile Ice read one.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
More and it goes both ways.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
And of course the President came in on US Olympic
skier Hunter hess who also posted an anti Trump statement,
anti US government statement, and the President rights on truth
social he's a real loser. He doesn't represent his country
(11:53):
in the current Winter Olympics. If that's the case, he
shouldn't have tried out for the team. It's two baddies
on It very hard to root for someone like this.
And the bottom line is this is another lesson in
President Trump's world, It's very binary.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
It's that simple.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
You support the president or you're a real loser. You
have no talent. If you're an actor, in the worst cases,
you are seditionist and somehow you've committed a crime like treason,
which is really scary. The part about if you don't
support me, you're a real loser and you have no talent,
(12:32):
I'm fine with that. I mean, that's how you ask.
And then American athletes are trying to figure out their
responses about being American, and they're doing it very carefully.
Now I understand that I've heard that Americans who are
overseas are going out of their way to say I
(12:53):
didn't vote for him, I am not on the side
of the administration, because, as you can imagine, Americans are
not popular over there in Italy. I mean that obviously
is the poster child of the world attention right now,
and some athletes are staying away from it. Snowboarder Chloe Kim,
(13:17):
American snowboarder, two time gold medalists, coming from South Korea,
her parents immigrated, and she just said it's really important
for us to unite and kind of stand up for
one another with all that's going on, and basically gave
the US the kudos for the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
As a matter of fact, she quoted.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
The US has given my family and I so much opportunity.
So that's kart sort of an underlying, very benign statements
to what's going on.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Now. I'm going to give you a little bit of history.
Let's go back to nineteen sixty eight.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
And American sprinters Tommy Smith and John Carlos during the
Awards ses, Tommy Smith won the gold that John Carlos
won the bronze. And there they are at the Mexican
Olympic Games nineteen sixty eight. They raised their hands in
a black power salute with black gloves and if you
(14:17):
YouTube it, go to the internet, you will see this
extraordinary picture of them with their heads down, facing down,
bowing so to speak. Right hand up in the air,
actually right and left hand up in the air and
the Black Power salute signifying the kind of discrimination that
(14:43):
blacks underwent that African Americans. And this was nineteen sixty
eight and it was just in the middle of the
Civil Rights movement. I mean today, I think it would
be a very different thing.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
So it's not new.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
It's not new Olympians taking getting involved in political statements,
and do I think it's necessary. I think everybody has
to now get involved in political statements. We are in
that kind of world. Okay, now a word about foreign athletes,
but not the way you think about it. First of all,
(15:17):
we start with the fact that we now allow and
most countries allow, dual citizenship.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
When my parents came to the United States in the
fifties and I was a.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Little one, my parents had to give up their Brazilian
citizenship in order to become Americans.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
That changed.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
And now if they were to become American citizens, which
is difficult when you're dead, it's you don't have to
renounce your previous citizenship. By the way, since I was
a kid and I couldn't renounce legally, I actually was
a dual citizen simply because of the loophole back then.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
And I hold dual citizenship. I can.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
I'm a citizen in both Brazil and the United States,
and I carry two passports. And therein lies the story.
Because Russia is banned. Russia is banned completely. So how
do Russian athletes and I mean lots of them compete
in the Olympics. Well, they don't compete under the Russian flag.
(16:25):
What they do is compete with other countries. A lot
of them are dual citizens, a lot of them actually
apply from citizenship for citizenship in other countries. Theoretically I could,
since I wouldn't be able to make the Olympic team
(16:45):
in the United States, I could theoretically in fact participate
in the Games as a Brazilian. And I was seriously
considering entering the pie eating contest of the Olympics, which
I think I would be a medalist, there's no question
about it.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
But I am too busy doing this show, so I
couldn't do it.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
The point is there's two kinds of Russians that are competing,
and not the male and female kind, and that is
ai ns individual neutral athletes who are neutral. They're Russians,
but they're competing as individual neutral athletes. And what happens
(17:34):
is they compete and if they meddle because they're not
attached to any country, they areral, the IOC recognizes them
as competing but not representing a country. And if any
one of them medal, they go up on the standless.
See you have a gold medalist, and usually the flag
of course of that country goes up and the national
(17:57):
anthem is played.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Well, if one of the ai.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Ns gold becomes a gold medalist up on the stand,
no flag goes up and no nation national anthem. Now
there's a move to play a Taylor Swift song as
the Yeah see things going damn right? Isn't that a
(18:21):
good idea? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Play Ophelia.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah, but there ain't nothing there when a gold medal
is issued.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
So it's really strange.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
But you know how many gold medalists or how many
ai ns there are? Literally just a handful, but there
are tons of Russians who have become uninvited guests. Thirteen
athletes who would have competed for Russia have been cleared
(18:53):
to compete as individual neutral athletes, which represents only a
fraction of the total Russian contingent in Italy, and a
figure skating coach, Titanya Tarasova said, I don't understand why
we're why we're invited and then we're not And why
is that? Because Russia officially can't come to the Olympics,
(19:17):
and that started with the invasion.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Also because of the invasion.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Also it's the doping scandal the previous Olympics, where Russia
denies the athletes were doped, and they were, and so.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Russia has been out of it.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Yet Russian's in it how well, because Russian athletes are
either competing for other countries or their ai n s aims,
and that is individuals who are neutral belong to no country,
and you're allowed to do that. In the Olympics. Dual
(19:51):
citizenship has changed at all. For example, you've got figure skaters,
and figure skating is everything for the Russians. I mean
that's where they excel, is figure skating. Different countries excel
different ways. For example, the Alpine countries dominate skiing, as
you would think you've got the Americans dominate track and field.
(20:17):
During the course of the Summer Games, one of the
weirdest events is the biathlon, which is dominated by the Fins.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
And why is that? Biathlon is really strange?
Speaker 2 (20:32):
It's cross country skiing and then you stop and you
target shoot and then you go back to cross country skiing.
It's so difficult because you're out of breath and it's
hard to shoot when you're out of breath.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Why do they even have that, Well, it's why. And
why do the Fins do so well?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Because the Fins fight the Russians or have fought the Russians,
and that's what their military does.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
And you know, fare go cross country ski and then
you shoot.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
I mean you might as well caught cross country ski
and then do some break dancing and then you shoot.
I mean you can throw almost anything in there.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Now.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Russians really do well in figure skating and at the
Milan courtin at Winter Olympics. These Olympics, only thirteen athletes
so would have competed for Russia have been cleared to
compete as ains individual neutral athletes. The rest and I
mean dozens compete for other countries. Why well, because two reasons.
(21:33):
One virtually every country now accepts dual nationals. So I'm
a dual national and I can compete for Brazil, for example,
if I ever would. I'm not much of an Olympian,
so that's not on the table. But You've got athletes
that are American, but let's say we're born in Canada
or their parents were Canadian, and they can apply for
(21:56):
passports and they're still American, but they decide to compete
for various other countries. We got the Netherlands, we have France,
you have Germany, you have so many of them.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Chinese.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Matter of fact, the Chinese are so aggressive is that
they are fast tracking and they are soliciting any connection
to China that an athlete may have and saying, we'll
grant you citizenship, just apply so you can represent China.
And so you're going to see a bunch of Russians
(22:30):
from a bunch of countries who don't represent Russia. And
I like this. It makes a lot of sense. And
the fact that the IOC, the International Olympic Committee, allows
us to happen is because the athletes aren't involved in
any of the politics that going on the invasion of Ukraine.
(22:50):
Where's an athlete I have any influence what happened with
the doping unless you are part of the doping. What
happened Afghanistan when Carter boycotted Russia and wouldn't allow Russia
sixty countries that was during the la Olympics, and then
the next Olympics, Russia wouldn't let the United States in.
(23:12):
So there have been a lot of politics with the
Olympics and should not be political.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
It should not be political.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
So the IOC allows Russian athletes or any athlete to
compete for another country if number one, they are connected
to that country, and recognizing that these athletes spend a
lifetime preparing for the Olympics. I mean from the time
they're toddlers and when they go to school, they're practicing
(23:43):
early in the morning. They practice every day, they practice
every weekend. They don't have a life except for competing
and qualifying and trying to get to the Olympics. And
they should not be punished because of political considering.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
And I like the.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Idea of a neutral athlete getting the gold where there
no flag and there is no national anthem playing, it's
kind of weird. And there was a time with Russia.
You know, Russia didn't have a national anthem. I mean,
they would have the Internacional but that is the music
(24:22):
that was played by communists all over the world.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
They didn't have an anthem.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
So what would happen is that the Russian flag would
go up, or the Soviet Union, the USS USS our
flag would go up, and it was silent. So someone
in Russia, some honcho, said you got to write a
national anthem. We're going to have to have one, and
they created a national anthem.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
I like that story. All right. You've been listening to
The Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty. That bet is stop thinging.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
About AfD cover KFI AM six forty Bill Handle. Here
it is a Tuesday morning, February the tenth, and the
story of Savannah Guthrie and her mom, Nancy continue on.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
It's what ninth tenth day after the.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Abduction, and Savannah's family well, actually she and her brother
and sister have reached out to the kidnapper saying we
will pay, and at this point asking the public for
any information. The story is getting a Not only is
it heartbreaking and just really gut wrenching, but it's also
getting very weird in terms of a kidnapping. We don't
(00:47):
often see it like this. Okay, moving, Oh, here's another
one we will see very often. Julane Maxwell is appealing
for clemency from the President. She declines to answer questions
from lawmakers and a couple things are very strange here.
She said in a deposition that happened yesterday in front
(01:10):
of Congress in front of the.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
House that.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
If President Trump ends her prison sentence, she's willing to
testify that neither he nor former President Bill Clinton had
done anything wrong. I thought she had already said that,
which is very strange because that's the ammunition she has
and she's already spent that. So the House Oversight Committee
(01:36):
wanted her to answer questions during this video call where
she's in a federal prison camp in Texas. That's another
story about her being in that prison camp. She's serving
a twenty year sentence for sex trafficking and the lawmakers
are trying to investigate how she was able to sexually
(01:56):
abuse underage girls for years. So there's a reckoning big
time over the abuse spilled into businesses and governments around
the globe. It seems to have affected the United States
less than, for example, in England, where the Prime Minister
is under scrutiny for his connection to Epstein and again
(02:16):
not accused of anything wrong, but too close a connection,
which I guess for anybody is too close a connection
at this point, and they're looking at him retiring or
being forced to resign because of this. So the rest
of the world is getting a little wonk ear. So
here is the question I have. She kept on invoking
my Fifth Amendments right to silence, So what's going to
(02:39):
happen if well, here's what the Committee can do give
her immunity limited immunity, and if a witness has limited
immunity then has to testify because the Fifth Amendment is
saying I have the right not to say anything because
they could harm me in terms of any criminal activity,
(03:04):
of any criminal accusation. Well, if immunity stops any criminal accusation,
then the Fifth Amendment is out the window because there's
no threat. There's absolutely no threat of proceeding with a
criminal charge. Okay, And that's one issue. The other issue is,
I pointed out, she's already said Bill Clinton and Trump
(03:28):
have done nothing wrong, so she is appealing, and Maxwell's
attorney said that she's prepared to speak fully and honestly
if granted clemency by the president. Now Here is the issue,
(03:49):
and it's explaining why not if. The attorney added that
Trump and Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing, but Miss
Maxwell alone can explain why they are innocent of any wrongdoing,
and the public is entitled to that explanation, which, frankly,
I don't understand at all what the position is. And
(04:10):
the White House pointed to a previous remark from the
President that the prospect of a pardon was not on
his radar, did not say I will not pardon her,
much like President Biden, to his credit, said he would
never pardon his son and then turned around and pardoned
his son.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
So Biden straight out lied.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
The president is I think he's just dancing around this
but doesn't have to move, doesn't have to do anything
because he's already been absolved. Maxwell, who knows what's going on.
She was not only complicit, she was in the middle
of this. She said nothing wrong. I mean Clinton and
(04:58):
the President did nothing wrong. I don't understand where she's
going demanding or asking for clemency. And then the other
issue is politically now the president is pardoning a whole
lot of people. He pardoned more people in his probably
his first week than the last five presidents combined, and
(05:18):
they were all Anybody who backs the president as in
prison basically gets clemency and his pardon. All you have
to do is be an acolyte of the president and
you're in good shape. And if you are against the president,
he's going to take everything he can. Department of Justice,
in the case of Mark Kelly, we're going to talk
about later on Senator Mark Kelly going after him with
(05:41):
a just passion, But politically, how does he give clemency
or pardon Julane Maxwell? Can you imagine the fallout that
would happen, the backlash that would happen. I mean, keep
in mind, remember when he wouldn't release the files, just
(06:02):
refused to release the files. During the Biden administration, course,
he pushed for the files like crazy. During his campaign,
he pushed for the files like crazy, and all of
a sudden, when the Justice Department is under his purview,
the files now don't are not released. It was almost
unanimous in Congress, and Congress passed a law that said
(06:26):
the files must be released. What do you think would
happen politically on both sides of the aisle if he
were to grant clemency to a convicted child molester, man,
it would just explode. And so, as I said, the
other issue is her being in prison. She was put
(06:48):
into a I think it was a medium security prison initially,
and then the Deputy Attorney General, in a very strange move,
went to interview her over two days and Florida, we
don't know what happened, and it's never happened before where
the deputy Attorney general goes to interview someone, at least
to my memory, and all of a sudden, a few
(07:10):
days later, she gets transferred to a minimum security prison
and that smelled like rotten tomatoes. So there's a lot
to this story that's going on, some behind the scenes,
some not. And as far as the redacted, as far
as the files are concerned, represented Jamie Rask and the
(07:33):
top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. He was one
of the Democrats who actually spent hours looking at non
redacted files, but he had to go into a room
with four computers, could not bring a computer in, could
only take notes.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
And he said that if all the House members.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Who triggered the vote on releasing the files, which is
virtually all of them, spend every waking hour over the DOJ,
it would still take months to get through all of
those documents. So this is not going to go away. Also,
as you've been hearing major announcement this afternoon at four o'clock,
(08:19):
and you know what, it's just between us, chickens, I'm going.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
To tell you what it is.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Okay, just to let you know, KFI is flipping formats.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
We are going to go from a.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Music station, I mean a talk station to a music
station and the name of well, the morning show is
no longer the build Handle Show. It will be Farci
folks songs from Fresno with your.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
DJ Fardin and it's guys, are life is done. That's
effective almost immediately. Hello, I'm Farzin and here's another Farsi
folks song just for you.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Okay, Actually, yeah, I know I'm done. See I'm now
in trouble because I have told everybody what's going on.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I thought it was gonna be Buckin' Bill's Roadhouse roundup.
Uh yeah, yeah. Armenian. By the way, there is such
a thing as Armenian radio. Uh, there is.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
We're southern California, get lots of ethnic radio and they
pay for it. It's broker content Armenian radio. And they
actually have it sponsored, which is very strange. Gillette, for example,
sponsors that radio station a lot. Okay. Now, let me
tell you what's going on in the Olympics. And this
(09:55):
is kind of a real interesting one, and that is statements,
political statements made by Olympians. Gus Kenworthy decided that he's
going to express his feelings about ICE the enforcement of
the agents. So what he did is make a statement
(10:17):
by peeing in the snow with his statement, he's a
British born American raised openly gay freestyle freestyle skater or skier.
Excuse me, he once won silver for the US. He's
competing for Britain. I'll explaining how that works a little
later on, and he wrote, f Ice, that's what he
(10:39):
peed into the snow and posted it to his Instagram
account and urging followers to write to their senators asking
them not to support the Department of Homeland Security funding
because it fail, because the Senate fails to meaningful rain
in ice and border patrol. And as you can imagine,
(11:00):
the Internet responded big time, including death threats, because that's
what happens today. It's not just I disagree. I not
even using expletives like he did. He is out of
his his f a mind, you know, f him. Oh no,
hope you break your leg, your embarrassment to athletes everywhere.
(11:22):
Hope you blow your knee out, followed by a homophobic
slur hile Ice read one.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
More and it goes both ways.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
And of course the President came in on US Olympic
skier Hunter hess who also posted an anti Trump statement,
anti US government statement, and the President rights on truth
social he's a real loser. He doesn't represent his country
(11:53):
in the current Winter Olympics. If that's the case, he
shouldn't have tried out for the team. It's two baddies
on It very hard to root for someone like this.
And the bottom line is this is another lesson in
President Trump's world, It's very binary.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
It's that simple.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
You support the president or you're a real loser. You
have no talent. If you're an actor, in the worst cases,
you are seditionist and somehow you've committed a crime like treason,
which is really scary. The part about if you don't
support me, you're a real loser and you have no talent,
(12:32):
I'm fine with that. I mean, that's how you ask.
And then American athletes are trying to figure out their
responses about being American, and they're doing it very carefully.
Now I understand that I've heard that Americans who are
overseas are going out of their way to say I
(12:53):
didn't vote for him, I am not on the side
of the administration, because, as you can imagine, Americans are
not popular over there in Italy. I mean that obviously
is the poster child of the world attention right now,
and some athletes are staying away from it. Snowboarder Chloe Kim,
(13:17):
American snowboarder, two time gold medalists, coming from South Korea,
her parents immigrated, and she just said it's really important
for us to unite and kind of stand up for
one another with all that's going on, and basically gave
the US the kudos for the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
As a matter of fact, she quoted.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
The US has given my family and I so much opportunity.
So that's kart sort of an underlying, very benign statements
to what's going on.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Now. I'm going to give you a little bit of history.
Let's go back to nineteen sixty eight.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
And American sprinters Tommy Smith and John Carlos during the
Awards ses, Tommy Smith won the gold that John Carlos
won the bronze. And there they are at the Mexican
Olympic Games nineteen sixty eight. They raised their hands in
a black power salute with black gloves and if you
(14:17):
YouTube it, go to the internet, you will see this
extraordinary picture of them with their heads down, facing down,
bowing so to speak. Right hand up in the air,
actually right and left hand up in the air and
the Black Power salute signifying the kind of discrimination that
(14:43):
blacks underwent that African Americans. And this was nineteen sixty
eight and it was just in the middle of the
Civil Rights movement. I mean today, I think it would
be a very different thing.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
So it's not new.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
It's not new Olympians taking getting involved in political statements,
and do I think it's necessary. I think everybody has
to now get involved in political statements. We are in
that kind of world. Okay, now a word about foreign athletes,
but not the way you think about it. First of all,
(15:17):
we start with the fact that we now allow and
most countries allow, dual citizenship.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
When my parents came to the United States in the
fifties and I was a.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Little one, my parents had to give up their Brazilian
citizenship in order to become Americans.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
That changed.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
And now if they were to become American citizens, which
is difficult when you're dead, it's you don't have to
renounce your previous citizenship. By the way, since I was
a kid and I couldn't renounce legally, I actually was
a dual citizen simply because of the loophole back then.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
And I hold dual citizenship. I can.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
I'm a citizen in both Brazil and the United States,
and I carry two passports. And therein lies the story.
Because Russia is banned. Russia is banned completely. So how
do Russian athletes and I mean lots of them compete
in the Olympics. Well, they don't compete under the Russian flag.
(16:25):
What they do is compete with other countries. A lot
of them are dual citizens, a lot of them actually
apply from citizenship for citizenship in other countries. Theoretically I could,
since I wouldn't be able to make the Olympic team
(16:45):
in the United States, I could theoretically in fact participate
in the Games as a Brazilian. And I was seriously
considering entering the pie eating contest of the Olympics, which
I think I would be a medalist, there's no question
about it.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
But I am too busy doing this show, so I
couldn't do it.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
The point is there's two kinds of Russians that are competing,
and not the male and female kind, and that is
ai ns individual neutral athletes who are neutral. They're Russians,
but they're competing as individual neutral athletes. And what happens
(17:34):
is they compete and if they meddle because they're not
attached to any country, they areral, the IOC recognizes them
as competing but not representing a country. And if any
one of them medal, they go up on the standless.
See you have a gold medalist, and usually the flag
of course of that country goes up and the national
(17:57):
anthem is played.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Well, if one of the ai.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Ns gold becomes a gold medalist up on the stand,
no flag goes up and no nation national anthem. Now
there's a move to play a Taylor Swift song as
the Yeah see things going damn right? Isn't that a
(18:21):
good idea? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Play Ophelia.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah, but there ain't nothing there when a gold medal
is issued.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
So it's really strange.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
But you know how many gold medalists or how many
ai ns there are? Literally just a handful, but there
are tons of Russians who have become uninvited guests. Thirteen
athletes who would have competed for Russia have been cleared
(18:53):
to compete as individual neutral athletes, which represents only a
fraction of the total Russian contingent in Italy, and a
figure skating coach, Titanya Tarasova said, I don't understand why
we're why we're invited and then we're not And why
is that? Because Russia officially can't come to the Olympics,
(19:17):
and that started with the invasion.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Also because of the invasion.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Also it's the doping scandal the previous Olympics, where Russia
denies the athletes were doped, and they were, and so.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Russia has been out of it.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Yet Russian's in it how well, because Russian athletes are
either competing for other countries or their ai n s aims,
and that is individuals who are neutral belong to no country,
and you're allowed to do that. In the Olympics. Dual
(19:51):
citizenship has changed at all. For example, you've got figure skaters,
and figure skating is everything for the Russians. I mean
that's where they excel, is figure skating. Different countries excel
different ways. For example, the Alpine countries dominate skiing, as
you would think you've got the Americans dominate track and field.
(20:17):
During the course of the Summer Games, one of the
weirdest events is the biathlon, which is dominated by the Fins.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
And why is that? Biathlon is really strange?
Speaker 2 (20:32):
It's cross country skiing and then you stop and you
target shoot and then you go back to cross country skiing.
It's so difficult because you're out of breath and it's
hard to shoot when you're out of breath.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Why do they even have that, Well, it's why. And
why do the Fins do so well?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Because the Fins fight the Russians or have fought the Russians,
and that's what their military does.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
And you know, fare go cross country ski and then
you shoot.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
I mean you might as well caught cross country ski
and then do some break dancing and then you shoot.
I mean you can throw almost anything in there.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Now.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Russians really do well in figure skating and at the
Milan courtin at Winter Olympics. These Olympics, only thirteen athletes
so would have competed for Russia have been cleared to
compete as ains individual neutral athletes. The rest and I
mean dozens compete for other countries. Why well, because two reasons.
(21:33):
One virtually every country now accepts dual nationals. So I'm
a dual national and I can compete for Brazil, for example,
if I ever would. I'm not much of an Olympian,
so that's not on the table. But You've got athletes
that are American, but let's say we're born in Canada
or their parents were Canadian, and they can apply for
(21:56):
passports and they're still American, but they decide to compete
for various other countries. We got the Netherlands, we have France,
you have Germany, you have so many of them.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Chinese.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Matter of fact, the Chinese are so aggressive is that
they are fast tracking and they are soliciting any connection
to China that an athlete may have and saying, we'll
grant you citizenship, just apply so you can represent China.
And so you're going to see a bunch of Russians
(22:30):
from a bunch of countries who don't represent Russia. And
I like this. It makes a lot of sense. And
the fact that the IOC, the International Olympic Committee, allows
us to happen is because the athletes aren't involved in
any of the politics that going on the invasion of Ukraine.
(22:50):
Where's an athlete I have any influence what happened with
the doping unless you are part of the doping. What
happened Afghanistan when Carter boycotted Russia and wouldn't allow Russia
sixty countries that was during the la Olympics, and then
the next Olympics, Russia wouldn't let the United States in.
(23:12):
So there have been a lot of politics with the
Olympics and should not be political.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
It should not be political.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
So the IOC allows Russian athletes or any athlete to
compete for another country if number one, they are connected
to that country, and recognizing that these athletes spend a
lifetime preparing for the Olympics. I mean from the time
they're toddlers and when they go to school, they're practicing
(23:43):
early in the morning. They practice every day, they practice
every weekend. They don't have a life except for competing
and qualifying and trying to get to the Olympics. And
they should not be punished because of political considering.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
And I like the.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Idea of a neutral athlete getting the gold where there
no flag and there is no national anthem playing, it's
kind of weird. And there was a time with Russia.
You know, Russia didn't have a national anthem. I mean,
they would have the Internacional but that is the music
(24:22):
that was played by communists all over the world.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
They didn't have an anthem.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
So what would happen is that the Russian flag would
go up, or the Soviet Union, the USS USS our
flag would go up, and it was silent. So someone
in Russia, some honcho, said you got to write a
national anthem. We're going to have to have one, and
they created a national anthem.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
I like that story. All right. You've been listening to
The Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
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