November 24, 2025 • 31 mins
Join Jim and Greg for the Monday 3 Martini Lunch as they break down the latest insane comments from Tennessee Democrat congressional candidate Aftyn Behn, the confusion over whether the Russia-Ukraine peace plan came from the U.S. or Russia, and the impending resignation of Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and whether several more Republicans in Congress will soon follow her lead.
First, they’re stunned as Behn refuses to walk back her 2020 tweets calling for abolishing the Nashville police and endorsing the burning of police stations. Video has also surfaced of her shrieking in protest at the Tennessee legislature before she became a state lawmaker.
Next, Jim fumes over the peace deal sponsored by Russia that many in the U.S. and Europe thought was the U.S.-backed plan. Secretary of State Marco Rubio strongly denies that and now says significant progress is being made towards peace at negotiations in Europe. But Jim warns that Moscow has a long track record of violating agreements — and expects nothing different this time.
Finally, they dissect the falling out between President Trump and soon-to-be former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and what lessons it provides. They also react to reports that several more GOP House members could resign in the coming months, possibly in large enough numbers to swing the House majority to the Democrats.
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First, they’re stunned as Behn refuses to walk back her 2020 tweets calling for abolishing the Nashville police and endorsing the burning of police stations. Video has also surfaced of her shrieking in protest at the Tennessee legislature before she became a state lawmaker.
Next, Jim fumes over the peace deal sponsored by Russia that many in the U.S. and Europe thought was the U.S.-backed plan. Secretary of State Marco Rubio strongly denies that and now says significant progress is being made towards peace at negotiations in Europe. But Jim warns that Moscow has a long track record of violating agreements — and expects nothing different this time.
Finally, they dissect the falling out between President Trump and soon-to-be former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and what lessons it provides. They also react to reports that several more GOP House members could resign in the coming months, possibly in large enough numbers to swing the House majority to the Democrats.
Please visit our great sponsors:
Reach out. Whether you're checking in on a friend or reaching out to a therapist. Get 10% off your first month of BetterHelp by visiting https://BetterHelp.com/3ML today!
Save big on unforgettable gifts with Omaha Steaks. Visit https://www.OmahaSteaks.com for 50% off sitewide with an extra 20% off select favorites during their Cyber Sale. For an extra $35 off, use promo code 3ML at checkout.
Before you check out for the holidays, do one smart thing for your future with Noble Gold. Open a qualified account, and you’ll receive TEN 1-oz commemorative Silver Holiday Coins. Visit https://NobleGoldInvestments.com/3ML
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Grab a stool next to Greg Corumbus of Radio America
and Jim Garrity of National Review.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Free Martini's coming up.
Speaker 4 (00:13):
Hey, so glad you're with us for the Monday edition
of The Three Martini Lunch. And Jim, you know you
think you end a crazy week like we did last week,
and oh, this is a holiday week. There's not going
to be that much to talk about. Not the case.
Not the case. You got Marjorie Taylor Green exiting stage right.
I guess from Congress January fifth. You've got the whole
(00:33):
confusion over whether this was Russia's plan or America's plan
when it comes to ending the Ukraine War. We'll have
an update on that as well. And we're going to
start with Afton ban again, not just because she's the
you know, the main race here in the next few days,
but because she gets crazier by every revelation, and I
mean a lot crazier. So sometimes you know, you're in
(00:53):
this blue bubble in Nashville, in her case, or some
other place, and then you try to appeal to a
wider audience and then you're comments just come up and
bite shit. It's amazing how that happens.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Greg.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
First of all, I want to point out if in
one of my thriller novels I named a character Afton Baine,
somebody would say, come on, that's just a little bit much,
don't you think. But you know, we've seen candidates get
them get in trouble and then dig themselves in a
hole deeper. Afton Baine appears to be doing the equivalent
of a deep water horizon, just just going deeper and
(01:24):
deeper each time.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
And even when people try to help her out of it,
she won't take the hint or the help. So anyway,
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com slash three m L. All right, Jim, we talked
just on Friday about Afton Baine, first time probably ever
mentioned her on the show. But this is for the
Tennessee seventh Congressional District special election coming up a week
from tomorrow, December second, to replace Mark Green, who resigned
(03:29):
from his seat. He had won it easily last several cycles,
former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, And so
you have Matt van Apps the Republican, against Afton Baine
the Democrats. She is currently a state representative in deep
blue Nashville, but the district is kind of like a
slice of pie where it's got part of Nashville, but
it branches out all the way to the Alabama border.
(03:50):
So it's definitely a right leaning district. Hopefully Republicans can
keep it, but Afton Bane definitely not doing much to
help herself outside of the deepest parts of the city
of now Bashville itself. She was on ms NOW formerly
MSNBC over the weekend and she was asked about some
of her radical now deleted tweets and whether she wants
to walk some of those back about things she said
(04:12):
about police back in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Nope.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
Representative. In twenty twenty, you made some tweets that have
since been deleted that were very critical of police. You
said in those since deleted tweets that the Metropolitan Nashville
Police Department should be dissolved. Another cheered on a teachers union,
saying that defund the police should be a requirement for
schools reopening, and another saying good morning, especially to the
(04:37):
fifty four percent of Americans that believe burning down a
police station is justified. Twenty twenty, it was obviously a
very fraught year. Do you still stand by those comments,
and if not, is there anything you want to clarify.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I'm not going to gauge in kiber news talking points,
but what I will say is that you know, our
communities need sos. We need local people deciding solving local
problems with local solutions, and that's not the overreach of
a federal government or state government is of what we
are dealing with in Nashville, in our cities across the
(05:15):
state of Tennessee.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
So you don't want to clarify whether you still believe
that the police should be defunded.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Once again, I don't remember these tweets, but I'm what
I'm saying is is.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
That I'm not asking if you remember what is your
position today? How's that on this issue?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
I mean, once again, I'm here to talk about my race,
which is in literally nine days now.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
It's worth pointing out she did get elected as a
state representative from Nashville after those comments were made in
deep blue Nashville. I guess it doesn't matter. But Jim,
we'll get to more of our comments in a moment here.
But zee Rodmumm Donnie walked back to fund the police
in a much bluer part of the country. And she's
just like, you know what, I'm good with whatever.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
I said, MOMDOMI just is used a statement. Wow, she's extreme,
you know. So the more I cover politics, Greg and
I've been you know, and I've been doing this for
a while, the more this really annoys me, the more
this really bugs me, and that lots of candidates find
themselves confronted with comments from their past that are politically
incorrect or you know, not going to be popular with
(06:17):
the elector, and there a couple of things you can do, right,
But let's point out Donald Trump is no shortage of
controversial statements in his career. In fact, you know, no
shorts of controversial statements in any given twenty four hour
period of his life.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
This is just you know, and he survived him and
he's come back in part because well, there's so many
of them that no one focuses on that much one.
But also like he you know, he very rarely backs
down from them, or you know, and then when he does,
you know, it's okay to say, you know, I've changed
my mind. I used to support burning down police stations
and now I don't see how hard that was. That's
that's pretty straightforward right there. Even the questioner on ms
(06:52):
NOW by the way, as an NBC new is like, whow,
thank god we've gotten rid of that association.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Ms NOW.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Basically that gives you the answer it was a fraud year,
and that's like a hint, hint, nudge, nudge. You should
just say, wow, yeah, it was a front year and
I said things that were in temperate back then, and
I now believe that police stations should stay intact and
that no one should set them on fire.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Nor do I but I don't. Greg.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Do you ever see a poll that said fifty four
percent of Americans believe you should burn down with Was
this pole conducted by the American Arts and Disassociation, you know?
But so like like, she had many opportunities to back
away from that. And what I what really bugs me
is a candidate says something they're running for office, they
get asked about it, and they say, I'm not going
to be distracted.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
No, this isn't a distraction. This is your record. This
is about you.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
You want people to trust you in high office. This
is a perfectly legitimate question. And then she offers that,
like even Kamala Harris is looking at her television saying, wow,
that's word salid. You get asked about your past comments,
I believe in local solutions for local By the way,
you're running for Congress, right, you should And she makes
this comment of the federal government shouldn't be dictating. Well,
(07:57):
then you should stay in state government, you should stay
in local government. That if you're so upset about federal overreach.
Why are you running for the federal government? She has
no good answer here. Let's take her at her word
that she doesn't remember saying these things a whole five
years ago. Please get checked for Alzheimer's. Let's assume, yeah,
she genuinely doesn't remember saying it. She could say, wow, yeah,
(08:18):
I don't remember typing that, but yeah, that's I no
longer have those positions.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
That's all she had to say, and it would not
have done it.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Instead, she dug in deeper because I don't know whether
she thinks she just wants if she ignores the question,
it'll go away, or you know. But anyway, when ms
now is hitting you with questions that are too tough
for you to answer, go home, you should not be
a Democratic candidate.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Yeah, no, she is. She is not all there, And
I guess I have to give her points for honesty
if she's actually truly believes that it's insane. But she's
not trying to snow as an honest arsonist. Yeah, she's
not get those dishonest arsonists. So I mean, Mom, Donnie doesn't.
I don't think he's actually changed his mind. I think
he just saw those comments as a liability. But maybe
you're wondering. Okay, at in Bame. She only joined the
(09:00):
state legislature in twenty twenty three. She's only in her
second term. What was she doing before that? Oh? Well,
she was a protester apparently, because this is her I
think they said it was twenty nineteen or maybe even
more recent than that in the Tennessee Legislature shrieking from
the gallery. Two different clips here. Yeah, I know you
(09:32):
don't want to hear any more of that, but I'm
going to give you a little bit more.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Greg, What are you doing? We're trying to build her
audience here.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
The gabbl wasn't enough, so I guess the members had
little bells on their desk or something. So then she
gets even louder. Listen to this insanity. Wait, it's sound
(10:00):
like a stable person that you want representing yourself and
what should be the August halls of.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Congress, Greg, Greg, Greg, you forget this is the holiday season.
As we saw in that movie, every time a bell rings,
a lunatic protester forgets to take her meds.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Hearing her shriek, you know all that. You know?
Speaker 3 (10:20):
At first, I just was reminded of the woman who
was yelling at Romney.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
What about your gifts.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
I don't know if we ever identify that voice, just
like you know, I hear it in my dreams, just
that shrieking. I am blessed with a lovely, wide ranging
selection of friends of all kinds, of different political perspectives.
Some of them are of left of center or Democrats.
I have yet to run into anyone who really thinks
that the code pink stand up at a hearing, stand
(10:48):
up during the legislative session, scream and yell and attempt
to disrupt the proceedings. I have yet to see any
I've yet to run into a democratic things. Yeah, that
is a that is a good, productive, persuasive, useful bit
of everybody's time. And I also noticed it like these
people get dragged away. They don't ever see them a
charged with disruption for that like rare really, if ever,
(11:09):
or if they do, they get in and out of
jail real quickly. This is not how you persuade people
in America. This is not how people come away with
that and say, Wow, that person who's shrieking really made
some great points to changed my mind.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
It doesn't work that way. And I don't I wish
these meal.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
It really comes across as this toddler tantrum while the
grown ups are trying to get something done. I suppose,
you know, if you can't beat them, join them. And
I suppose I should give Afton Bane the most menacing
bane to come to a city since the Gotham City.
You know, like, oh, she's no longer doing the shrieking.
She's now running for office. She's actually in that state legislature.
But look, this is a R plus ten district. You know,
(11:48):
good people of Tennessee, you're not really thinking of electing
this lunatic, right, this this is all just some holiday
prank we've had. As I said, crazy news. We need
something little lighter. We you know, you dominated her as
a goof right, Tennessee Democrats because knew were going to
win this district anyway. So I would point out to
to Tennessee Democrats or Tennessee Republicans. Special election turnouts usually
(12:08):
a bit lower. You know, crazy things have happened. We've
seen Republicans win congressional seats in Hawaii in special elections
when things are highly unusual. So Tennessee Republicans do not
take this seat for granted. Everybody else like, just you know,
just show up, take care of it, and let this woman. Please,
let this woman get the you know, mental help she
desperately needs.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Yeah, and Republicans need the seat too, as we'll talk
about late later in our podcast. Today, the numbers are
getting tighter and tighter and tighter, all right, Jim, A
little bit of an odd sequence over the weekend, to
say the least. I think it was on Saturday, a
(12:49):
number of US senators we're up at a conference in Halifax,
Nova Scotia, Canada, and they had a phone call from
Marco Rubio to clarify some things because they thought that
the uh, the plan, if you want to call it, that,
the points, the starting point whatever, was the US plan
for potentially bringing the Ukraine Russia war to an end.
(13:09):
And then it was revealed that no, it was not
the US plan. It was actually pretty much Russia's talking
points to move this plan forward. And so then Rubio saying, no, no, no,
this is this is not the US plan. So now
Rubio's over in Geneva trying to make this happen, and
he claims that since then there has been a considerable
(13:30):
amount of progress.
Speaker 6 (13:31):
I'm not going to get into the details of the
topics that were discussed because this is an ongoing process.
It's important to understand and how these things work is
you have to in order to have a proposal, you
have to write it. If it's just verbal, it's in
the air, you have to put it down on a
piece of paper. And just because it's printed on a
piece of paper doesn't indicate finality. So you get input
and based on that input, you make adjustments, and then
(13:52):
you get more input, or you make a counter offer
and you get more adjustments. That's an ongoing process. There's
a lot more of that to happen. So I'm not
going to speculate or go into the details of any
of the specific items in the latest version of the
proposal because frankly, by tomorrow or the next day, that
may have evolved and changed further. But I can tell
you I guess that I feel very optimistic that we
(14:14):
can get something done here because we made a tremendous
amount of progresss Oh, it was very positive. I'm telling
you today was the most productive.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Say they were ungrateful.
Speaker 6 (14:24):
Elia well today and we've talked to him since I
think he's quite pleased at the reports we've given him
about the amount of progress that's been made.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Well, maybe some progress has been made, but as you've
center on in the morning, Jill today, Jim, it doesn't
really matter what Russia agrees to because they're not going
to abide bout it.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Yeah, this is why, you know, first of all, I
waited a few days to write about it because apparently
this was put together by Witkoff and his Russian counterpart.
Some really ominous reports that chunks of the State Department
did not know what was in it until it was
coming together by there's somewhere along the line went from
a twenty two point plan to a twenty point plan.
(15:01):
My sense is that it's scored a touchdown but missed
the extra point. That's how they got the extra But
as I was saying serious claims that DoD was kind
of out of a loop on this CIA Congress, like
the only person who really knew what was in it
was Whitcov. Look, I think Rubio is doing the very
best that he can, and you know, he's emphasizing the
deal is changing every day. We're getting input from the Ukrainians.
(15:24):
The Ukrainians are largely but like maybe maybe it's getting better.
The initial version that was leaked out with the twenty
eight points sounded like giving Russia everything it wanted and
making significant restrictions on Ukraine on its size of its military,
can't join international institutions, blah blah blah. From the beginning
of the war, the Russian offer on the table has
been we will stop invading you if you guys basically disarm,
(15:48):
and we promised we won't invade you again once you've disarmed. Now,
nobody in their right mind would take that deal, right.
This is the bully punishes you know, keeps punching you,
and you have a knife, and it says if you
put down the knife, I will stop punching you. No,
he's gonna keep punching you. He's got a punch even harder.
The other complication in this and I leave this out
in the morning, don't. Russia has violated basically every major
(16:09):
TREDI it's ever signed. You go back to the Soviet
you need to go back to the Putin era and
a whole bunch with Ukraine, a whole bunch of the
United States. Russia makes promises and then it either doesn't
keep them or it breaks them the first moment it
becomes convenient. So I have a hard time feeling very
emotionally invested in what comes out of this because or
this this process, because Russia doesn't take any of the
(16:31):
stuff seriously anyway, They will break it the moment it's there.
So what I fear, and I think a lot of
supporters of Ukraine independencephear, is that this is basically designed
to fail. That basically, the Russian suppoch to say, yep,
this is our deal for a ceasfire. Trump gives it
to the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians say, no, we can't live
with this because this leaves us vulnerable to this starting
up the war six months from now, a year from now,
(16:53):
two years from now, whenever. And Trump gets frustrated with
Ukraine and says, fine, that's it. We're not going to
help you with intelligence, We're not gonna help you with
arms anymore. And then eventually Russia does it for a
forthcoming piece. I have gone through Russian economies in real
rush shape. They basically their oil exports are down significantly.
The Ukrainian drone strikes on their energy infrastructure continued to
(17:15):
take a toll. They're raising taxes, they are having to
dip into their gold reserves of their federal the equivalent
of their federal reserve. Insert diehard with a vengeance joke here. Now,
does this mean Russia's economy is about to collapse tomorrow
and they won't be able to fight the ward? No,
I'm not saying that, but I am saying like the
squeeze is getting worse month by month than year by year,
and if you are.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
And also by the way, I went and I.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Look up the numbers since the Alaska Summit to about
a couple of days ago, Russia had gained about three
hundred and fifty square miles and that sounds like a lot.
That's roughly the area of Fort Worth, Texas. They have
lost ninety five thousand casualties in that time. That includes killed,
that includes wounded, that includes missing. Right, you run the
numbers on that every square mile is costing Russia two
(17:56):
hundred and seventy one casualties. Right, and they're about four
undred miles from Kiev. So like when people say, oh Russia,
first of all, I've been hearing from the likes of
Douglas McGregor that the Ukraine's going to collapse in the
next two weeks, and that has not occurred over the
last let's say, started February twenty twenty three, twenty four
to twenty five. You know, so we're now three years
in change into this war, and we've been hearing Ukraine's
(18:17):
going to collapse any day now hasn't happened. I'm not
telling you Ukraine is going to advance and take back
Crimea or anything like that. But as I said every
time I visited this place, these guys have no quit
in them, right Maya is we should not be telling
them when they have to stop fighting. They should be
deciding for themselves when they're going to stop fighting. And
I think sending them weapons to kill Russians is a
really good way to achieve US national security objectives. But
(18:39):
if we don't want to do it, the Europeans want
to do it. I don't understand why we, the United States,
feel the need to tell the Ukrainians, you guys need
to stop fighting for your homeland. You guys need to
stop fighting for your own independence. So I think this
is a very bad development. I also, I'm not sure
this is nextly going to turn into anything significant. There's
been a very consistent.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Pattern with this.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
There's always some sort of offer on the table, and then
the Ukrainians, you know, the Europeans, say we're not so
sure this is a good idea. And then at some point,
you know, Putin bombs a new orphanage or something like that,
or a children's hospital. Trump gets mad again, puts something
mad on True Social and the whole merry go round
starts going around all over again. So I'm unconvinced this
is really going to turn into much of anything. But
(19:17):
either way, the deal on the table looks absolutely terrible.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
Quick follow up, Jim, because you mentioned that while Russia
is suffering more and more, it's unlikely we're going to
be in a position anytime soon where Ukraine kind of
has it cornered and cowering on its knee and is
forced to force to surrender. So if they can't be trusted,
how does this ever end?
Speaker 3 (19:34):
One possibility is somebody decides to turn on Putin. I
recognize that that we've been wondering about that for a while.
We saw the pigosen uprising about a year year and
a half ago, but I recognize that's not particularly likely,
and I'd also point out whoever follows Putin long term,
I think the basically the equivalent of the guy who
runs the IRS takes over in case of Putin's death
(19:55):
not likely to have a dramatically different attitude. You're not
going to get a happy, peaceful, kumbai pro western leader
in Russia anytime soon. However, I think you can reach
a point where Ukraine proves itself to be such a porcupine,
to be such a difficult target to gain advigtional territory
against that the Russian state eventually recognizes we can't continue
doing this or else is going to financially ruin the country.
(20:17):
We've already lost a generation of young men. By the way,
they're casualties, you know, anywhere from two hundred fifty thousand
to five hundred thousand. They're tough to get a real good.
When I say casualties, I mean killed, I mean actually
actual dead. We had fifty five thousand in Vietnam, so
they've suffered five Vietnams, six maybe ten at.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
The high end.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Like the casualties for the Russian military have been catastrophed,
they've been very bad on the Ukrainian side too. Don't
get me wrong, I know, and I was pointed out
for my trips over there. The Ukrainians have guys in
their forties and fifties fighting on the battlefield, so they
keep saying, in addition all the other aid they need,
they desperately need motrid a lot of sore backs out
there on the battlefield. So a negotiated end to the
(20:55):
war isn't going to work because Russia is not going
to honor its words. What it has to happen is
a point where Russia looks at Ukraine and says this
is not conquerable at any price and concludes it's not worthwhile.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Well, unfortunately, we're probably not super close to that, but
we'll see what continues to happen in Geneva this week.
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(22:36):
our crazy martini now. And this also goes back to
late last week and Marjorie Taylor Green has obviously been
on the outs with President Trump for a while now.
The Epstein files are a big part of that. But
she also was not happy with the Republican position during
the shutdown. She thought that they should be extending Obamacare
subsidies and so forth and on and on it co.
(22:56):
She ultimately did vote to reopen the government, however, but
just with the relentless back and forth and criticism from
the President, she announced on Friday that she is not
going to complete this term. She's resigning on January fifth,
and she says it's for a couple of reasons. First
of all, she says that the America First movement really
is in America First anymore. She thinks they've betrayed their principles.
(23:19):
And she also says, with President Trump promising to back
a challenger in the primary, what's the point of acting
like a battered wife and trying to keep going in
supporting this administration, Because even if she survives the primary, look,
the Democrats have a decent shot of being in the majority,
and that's no fun to be in the minority in
the House. And so she's just not going to do
(23:41):
it anymore now. I shouldn't serve out the term. I
don't know, as you know, and as I said many times,
unless you're dying, an immediate family member is dying, or
you're about to get indicted, you should serve out the term.
But what do you make of this? And also Jake
Sherman saying that there's a whole lineup of people on
the Republican side who are fed up with Trump and
Mike Johnson, and there might actually be a Democratic majority
(24:01):
given the number of resignations by I don't know, a
few months from now or sometime next.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Year, if that were to come to pass.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
And at first it sounds far fetched, but then you
recognize that there aren't that many. You know, the margin
isn't that high. There were a couple of Democratic House
members who died early in the term and who we've
had the special elections, so they've been replacing it, you know,
with the fully breathing, living replacements. And you kind of
have this situation where like, look, we've talked about the
(24:28):
imperial presidency. We have talked about how more and more
power is shifting to the executive branch, how the legislative
branch feels like, you know, we don't pass appropriations anymore.
Everything gets rolled into an omnibus. So if you're in
the Senate, you're voting on judicial nominations, and if you're
in the House, you're like, what am I doing here? Well,
you know, or they're trying to century each other or
things like that. Well, it's really catching up to us.
(24:50):
I do think it would be like, of all the
different ways Republicans have screwed up, of all the different
ways that Republicans have embarrassed themselves, to lose a majority
because nobody wants to stay in the job would be
one of those things where you can like shut it down,
go home, form a new party. There's no point in
this organization because it was full of people who wanted
(25:11):
to wanted to apparently be celebrities, wanted to be social media,
who find the job boring, and who aren't willing to
stand up to say, mister President, I know you've got
a lot of ideas, but we are the House of Representatives.
Funding bills start here. We're going to take our responsibility seriously.
We're going to pass this legislation. And I mean just saying,
you know, there's a small majority that makes like like yeah, yeah,
you know, that's Gohea, win more seats if you want
(25:33):
to so. Anyway, on Marjorie Tayler Green, I have never
been a fan of congresswoman Jewish space lasers. I've always
seen you know, and she's claimed that mass shootings are hoaxes,
like she's crazy. She's always been thoroughly, thoroughly crazy. But
I also thought when she had helped effectively force the
House to pass a resolution calling for the release of
(25:53):
the Epstein documents from the Department of Justice, that she
had gotten into a fight with Trump and proved when
she can win, and she had demonstrated this was the
beginning of the post Trump Maga movement. Well, as Emily
Lettelle used to say, Sarah live never mind. Apparently you
can't take on Trump and not pay us of your
price for it. You know, feeling pressure to leave your
(26:15):
seat is pretty significant pressure there. And I found myself
feeling a couple molecules of sympathy for her as reading
through her letter of resignation, where she's laid out all
the different ways that she has fought hard and campaigned
for Trump and done all kinds and she has been
a loyalist on nineties high ninety percent of all issues.
And she disagreed with Trump on Obamacare subsidies, which I
(26:39):
think is bad and wrong, and I disagree with her
on that one, but it's not the you know. And
then on the Epstein files, and I handful of little
stuff here and there, like she thinks he's spending too
much time on foreign policy, you know, like that's the presidency, babe,
that's that's how you know you're gonna have to spend
a lot of time on foreign policy when you're president.
But you kind of look at that and you're kind
of like, these are really small stuff. And Trump didn't
(27:00):
just like withdraw his endorsement or he raged about her
untruth social and so there's kind of the sense that
she's got to be like, if that little like what
did I spend all these years fighting for? If the
moment I disagree with you, I'm declared in apostate and
you denounced me with you know, everything you got. So
I feel a midgeon of sympathy, not a lot, you know,
(27:21):
in a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
What's she going to do for this?
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Apparently in the past she had talked about running for
president twenty twenty eight of the time she said she's
not I think a Marjorie Taylor Green bit against JD Evance,
Marco Rubio or something like very very long shot. But
the other thing was, I'll admit I was very surprised
by her resignation. It reminded me of Sarah Palin's resignation.
And I wrote today that Palin never seemed interested in
(27:45):
government work.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Again, I forgot.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
She did run for Congress a couple of years back,
but did not succeed, and for a good decade or so,
she basically was focused upon the Sarah Palin celebrity project.
She had her TV show, she had her Fox News contract,
she was active in the Tea Party movement, speaking at
rallies and stuff like that. But I think being a
(28:07):
celebrity is more lucrative, more fun, less boring, and less
hard work than being a member of Congress is. And
if you use your congressional seat as a platform to
get fame, to get fortune, to get a social media audience,
after a while, what do you need the congressional office for.
It's you know, you're done with it. And so I
(28:28):
gotta have this sneaking system. Now, maybe she's going to disappear.
I would not expect her to be a major factor
in our politics in years to come. But I also figure,
I mean, she could have a podcast, Greg, but anybody
can do that.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
You could have any two idiots. Maybe she'll do.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Maybe somebody like Newsmax or somebody else wants to give
her a show or something.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
But I think.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
I think the Roman candle firework has burned out brightly
and burned out pretty quickly here and I get I
found myself like, I think this is the messages and
sent to everybody else in Maga world. Dissent will not
be permitted. And it doesn't matter if you are one
of the presidents most you know, staunch loyalists. If you
disagree with him on an issue that bugs him, he
will turn on you. Like she says, loyalty should be
(29:13):
a two way street. What in Trump's history has ever
suggested he thinks loyalty is a two way street. He's
a one way street with this guy. And I think
everybody knows this. From here on out, no dissent will
be tolerated, which is probably one of the reasons people,
the Republicans and House representatives are like, what am I
doing with my life? There's other things I could be
doing and probably making more money.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
When I think it was last year that Mike Gallagher
resigned from Wisconsin and did it at a time that
they couldn't actually fill the seat before the election, which
was doubly annoying. He also said that there's a whole
domino of Republicans ready to resign. Didn't happen, So will
it happen in the next few months. I don't know.
Maybe they are more frustrated than before, but if history
(29:51):
is any guide, maybe not. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
By the way, let's point out, let's assume Trump was
not the way he was.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Being a House of Representative is not always as glamorous
as it looks like. Does it look glamorous on TV?
I don't know, as it seems with the movies, right.
You know, being in a small minority is frustrating. If
you're a backbencher, you feel like you introduce your bills
and they never go anywhere. House of Representative, Speaker of
the House is always being pulled in a million different directions.
Not everybody's bills can get to the floor. He's got
(30:20):
to prioritize. You got a balance, like you know, some
of this is baked in the cake of having a
small minority. Having said that, the idea of I'm not
even going to serve out my term never mind like
like that, that's kind of annoying. And as you said,
I think unless you've got some life threatening you or
your family situation, you weren't put a lot of work.
You basically you know, begged or you basically you know
put through. But please put me in office for like
(30:42):
more than a year. You put effort into this and
there're just gonna walk away.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
It's just you know, like.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
To your term people. Yeah, it's like, stuck it up
and finish the term at least exactly. But all of
this to say, hey, voters in Tennessee seven, this race
is kind of important, so make sure you get out
there and vote. Anyway, Jim, quite the start to a
holiday week. See you tomorrow, See you tomorrow, Greg, Jim Garretty,
National Review. I'm Greg Corumbus of Radio America. Thanks for
being with us today. Please be sure to subscribe to
(31:08):
the podcast if you don't already, tell your friends about
us as well. Thanks also for your five star ratings
and your kind reviews. Please keep those coming. Get us
on your home devices all you have to say is
play three Martini Lunch podcast. Follow us both on X
He's at Jim Garritty, I'm at Greg Corumbus. Have a
terrific Monday. Join us again on Tuesday for the next
three Martini Lunch
Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Grab a stool next to Greg Corumbus of Radio America
and Jim Garrity of National Review.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Free Martini's coming up.
Speaker 4 (00:13):
Hey, so glad you're with us for the Monday edition
of The Three Martini Lunch. And Jim, you know you
think you end a crazy week like we did last week,
and oh, this is a holiday week. There's not going
to be that much to talk about. Not the case.
Not the case. You got Marjorie Taylor Green exiting stage right.
I guess from Congress January fifth. You've got the whole
(00:33):
confusion over whether this was Russia's plan or America's plan
when it comes to ending the Ukraine War. We'll have
an update on that as well. And we're going to
start with Afton ban again, not just because she's the
you know, the main race here in the next few days,
but because she gets crazier by every revelation, and I
mean a lot crazier. So sometimes you know, you're in
(00:53):
this blue bubble in Nashville, in her case, or some
other place, and then you try to appeal to a
wider audience and then you're comments just come up and
bite shit. It's amazing how that happens.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Greg.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
First of all, I want to point out if in
one of my thriller novels I named a character Afton Baine,
somebody would say, come on, that's just a little bit much,
don't you think. But you know, we've seen candidates get
them get in trouble and then dig themselves in a
hole deeper. Afton Baine appears to be doing the equivalent
of a deep water horizon, just just going deeper and
(01:24):
deeper each time.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
And even when people try to help her out of it,
she won't take the hint or the help. So anyway,
we'll get into that novel just a second. But first,
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com slash three m L. All right, Jim, we talked
just on Friday about Afton Baine, first time probably ever
mentioned her on the show. But this is for the
Tennessee seventh Congressional District special election coming up a week
from tomorrow, December second, to replace Mark Green, who resigned
(03:29):
from his seat. He had won it easily last several cycles,
former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, And so
you have Matt van Apps the Republican, against Afton Baine
the Democrats. She is currently a state representative in deep
blue Nashville, but the district is kind of like a
slice of pie where it's got part of Nashville, but
it branches out all the way to the Alabama border.
(03:50):
So it's definitely a right leaning district. Hopefully Republicans can
keep it, but Afton Bane definitely not doing much to
help herself outside of the deepest parts of the city
of now Bashville itself. She was on ms NOW formerly
MSNBC over the weekend and she was asked about some
of her radical now deleted tweets and whether she wants
to walk some of those back about things she said
(04:12):
about police back in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Nope.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
Representative. In twenty twenty, you made some tweets that have
since been deleted that were very critical of police. You
said in those since deleted tweets that the Metropolitan Nashville
Police Department should be dissolved. Another cheered on a teachers union,
saying that defund the police should be a requirement for
schools reopening, and another saying good morning, especially to the
(04:37):
fifty four percent of Americans that believe burning down a
police station is justified. Twenty twenty, it was obviously a
very fraught year. Do you still stand by those comments,
and if not, is there anything you want to clarify.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I'm not going to gauge in kiber news talking points,
but what I will say is that you know, our
communities need sos. We need local people deciding solving local
problems with local solutions, and that's not the overreach of
a federal government or state government is of what we
are dealing with in Nashville, in our cities across the
(05:15):
state of Tennessee.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
So you don't want to clarify whether you still believe
that the police should be defunded.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Once again, I don't remember these tweets, but I'm what
I'm saying is is.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
That I'm not asking if you remember what is your
position today? How's that on this issue?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
I mean, once again, I'm here to talk about my race,
which is in literally nine days now.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
It's worth pointing out she did get elected as a
state representative from Nashville after those comments were made in
deep blue Nashville. I guess it doesn't matter. But Jim,
we'll get to more of our comments in a moment here.
But zee Rodmumm Donnie walked back to fund the police
in a much bluer part of the country. And she's
just like, you know what, I'm good with whatever.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
I said, MOMDOMI just is used a statement. Wow, she's extreme,
you know. So the more I cover politics, Greg and
I've been you know, and I've been doing this for
a while, the more this really annoys me, the more
this really bugs me, and that lots of candidates find
themselves confronted with comments from their past that are politically
incorrect or you know, not going to be popular with
(06:17):
the elector, and there a couple of things you can do, right,
But let's point out Donald Trump is no shortage of
controversial statements in his career. In fact, you know, no
shorts of controversial statements in any given twenty four hour
period of his life.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
This is just you know, and he survived him and
he's come back in part because well, there's so many
of them that no one focuses on that much one.
But also like he you know, he very rarely backs
down from them, or you know, and then when he does,
you know, it's okay to say, you know, I've changed
my mind. I used to support burning down police stations
and now I don't see how hard that was. That's
that's pretty straightforward right there. Even the questioner on ms
(06:52):
NOW by the way, as an NBC new is like, whow,
thank god we've gotten rid of that association.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Ms NOW.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Basically that gives you the answer it was a fraud year,
and that's like a hint, hint, nudge, nudge. You should
just say, wow, yeah, it was a front year and
I said things that were in temperate back then, and
I now believe that police stations should stay intact and
that no one should set them on fire.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Nor do I but I don't. Greg.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Do you ever see a poll that said fifty four
percent of Americans believe you should burn down with Was
this pole conducted by the American Arts and Disassociation, you know?
But so like like, she had many opportunities to back
away from that. And what I what really bugs me
is a candidate says something they're running for office, they
get asked about it, and they say, I'm not going
to be distracted.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
No, this isn't a distraction. This is your record. This
is about you.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
You want people to trust you in high office. This
is a perfectly legitimate question. And then she offers that,
like even Kamala Harris is looking at her television saying, wow,
that's word salid. You get asked about your past comments,
I believe in local solutions for local By the way,
you're running for Congress, right, you should And she makes
this comment of the federal government shouldn't be dictating. Well,
(07:57):
then you should stay in state government, you should stay
in local government. That if you're so upset about federal overreach.
Why are you running for the federal government? She has
no good answer here. Let's take her at her word
that she doesn't remember saying these things a whole five
years ago. Please get checked for Alzheimer's. Let's assume, yeah,
she genuinely doesn't remember saying it. She could say, wow, yeah,
(08:18):
I don't remember typing that, but yeah, that's I no
longer have those positions.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
That's all she had to say, and it would not
have done it.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Instead, she dug in deeper because I don't know whether
she thinks she just wants if she ignores the question,
it'll go away, or you know. But anyway, when ms
now is hitting you with questions that are too tough
for you to answer, go home, you should not be
a Democratic candidate.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Yeah, no, she is. She is not all there, And
I guess I have to give her points for honesty
if she's actually truly believes that it's insane. But she's
not trying to snow as an honest arsonist. Yeah, she's
not get those dishonest arsonists. So I mean, Mom, Donnie doesn't.
I don't think he's actually changed his mind. I think
he just saw those comments as a liability. But maybe
you're wondering. Okay, at in Bame. She only joined the
(09:00):
state legislature in twenty twenty three. She's only in her
second term. What was she doing before that? Oh? Well,
she was a protester apparently, because this is her I
think they said it was twenty nineteen or maybe even
more recent than that in the Tennessee Legislature shrieking from
the gallery. Two different clips here. Yeah, I know you
(09:32):
don't want to hear any more of that, but I'm
going to give you a little bit more.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Greg, What are you doing? We're trying to build her
audience here.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
The gabbl wasn't enough, so I guess the members had
little bells on their desk or something. So then she
gets even louder. Listen to this insanity. Wait, it's sound
(10:00):
like a stable person that you want representing yourself and
what should be the August halls of.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Congress, Greg, Greg, Greg, you forget this is the holiday season.
As we saw in that movie, every time a bell rings,
a lunatic protester forgets to take her meds.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Hearing her shriek, you know all that. You know?
Speaker 3 (10:20):
At first, I just was reminded of the woman who
was yelling at Romney.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
What about your gifts.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
I don't know if we ever identify that voice, just
like you know, I hear it in my dreams, just
that shrieking. I am blessed with a lovely, wide ranging
selection of friends of all kinds, of different political perspectives.
Some of them are of left of center or Democrats.
I have yet to run into anyone who really thinks
that the code pink stand up at a hearing, stand
(10:48):
up during the legislative session, scream and yell and attempt
to disrupt the proceedings. I have yet to see any
I've yet to run into a democratic things. Yeah, that
is a that is a good, productive, persuasive, useful bit
of everybody's time. And I also noticed it like these
people get dragged away. They don't ever see them a
charged with disruption for that like rare really, if ever,
(11:09):
or if they do, they get in and out of
jail real quickly. This is not how you persuade people
in America. This is not how people come away with
that and say, Wow, that person who's shrieking really made
some great points to changed my mind.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
It doesn't work that way. And I don't I wish
these meal.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
It really comes across as this toddler tantrum while the
grown ups are trying to get something done. I suppose,
you know, if you can't beat them, join them. And
I suppose I should give Afton Bane the most menacing
bane to come to a city since the Gotham City.
You know, like, oh, she's no longer doing the shrieking.
She's now running for office. She's actually in that state legislature.
But look, this is a R plus ten district. You know,
(11:48):
good people of Tennessee, you're not really thinking of electing
this lunatic, right, this this is all just some holiday
prank we've had. As I said, crazy news. We need
something little lighter. We you know, you dominated her as
a goof right, Tennessee Democrats because knew were going to
win this district anyway. So I would point out to
to Tennessee Democrats or Tennessee Republicans. Special election turnouts usually
(12:08):
a bit lower. You know, crazy things have happened. We've
seen Republicans win congressional seats in Hawaii in special elections
when things are highly unusual. So Tennessee Republicans do not
take this seat for granted. Everybody else like, just you know,
just show up, take care of it, and let this woman. Please,
let this woman get the you know, mental help she
desperately needs.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Yeah, and Republicans need the seat too, as we'll talk
about late later in our podcast. Today, the numbers are
getting tighter and tighter and tighter, all right, Jim, A
little bit of an odd sequence over the weekend, to
say the least. I think it was on Saturday, a
(12:49):
number of US senators we're up at a conference in Halifax,
Nova Scotia, Canada, and they had a phone call from
Marco Rubio to clarify some things because they thought that
the uh, the plan, if you want to call it, that,
the points, the starting point whatever, was the US plan
for potentially bringing the Ukraine Russia war to an end.
(13:09):
And then it was revealed that no, it was not
the US plan. It was actually pretty much Russia's talking
points to move this plan forward. And so then Rubio saying, no, no, no,
this is this is not the US plan. So now
Rubio's over in Geneva trying to make this happen, and
he claims that since then there has been a considerable
(13:30):
amount of progress.
Speaker 6 (13:31):
I'm not going to get into the details of the
topics that were discussed because this is an ongoing process.
It's important to understand and how these things work is
you have to in order to have a proposal, you
have to write it. If it's just verbal, it's in
the air, you have to put it down on a
piece of paper. And just because it's printed on a
piece of paper doesn't indicate finality. So you get input
and based on that input, you make adjustments, and then
(13:52):
you get more input, or you make a counter offer
and you get more adjustments. That's an ongoing process. There's
a lot more of that to happen. So I'm not
going to speculate or go into the details of any
of the specific items in the latest version of the
proposal because frankly, by tomorrow or the next day, that
may have evolved and changed further. But I can tell
you I guess that I feel very optimistic that we
(14:14):
can get something done here because we made a tremendous
amount of progresss Oh, it was very positive. I'm telling
you today was the most productive.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Say they were ungrateful.
Speaker 6 (14:24):
Elia well today and we've talked to him since I
think he's quite pleased at the reports we've given him
about the amount of progress that's been made.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Well, maybe some progress has been made, but as you've
center on in the morning, Jill today, Jim, it doesn't
really matter what Russia agrees to because they're not going
to abide bout it.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Yeah, this is why, you know, first of all, I
waited a few days to write about it because apparently
this was put together by Witkoff and his Russian counterpart.
Some really ominous reports that chunks of the State Department
did not know what was in it until it was
coming together by there's somewhere along the line went from
a twenty two point plan to a twenty point plan.
(15:01):
My sense is that it's scored a touchdown but missed
the extra point. That's how they got the extra But
as I was saying serious claims that DoD was kind
of out of a loop on this CIA Congress, like
the only person who really knew what was in it
was Whitcov. Look, I think Rubio is doing the very
best that he can, and you know, he's emphasizing the
deal is changing every day. We're getting input from the Ukrainians.
(15:24):
The Ukrainians are largely but like maybe maybe it's getting better.
The initial version that was leaked out with the twenty
eight points sounded like giving Russia everything it wanted and
making significant restrictions on Ukraine on its size of its military,
can't join international institutions, blah blah blah. From the beginning
of the war, the Russian offer on the table has
been we will stop invading you if you guys basically disarm,
(15:48):
and we promised we won't invade you again once you've disarmed. Now,
nobody in their right mind would take that deal, right.
This is the bully punishes you know, keeps punching you,
and you have a knife, and it says if you
put down the knife, I will stop punching you. No,
he's gonna keep punching you. He's got a punch even harder.
The other complication in this and I leave this out
in the morning, don't. Russia has violated basically every major
(16:09):
TREDI it's ever signed. You go back to the Soviet
you need to go back to the Putin era and
a whole bunch with Ukraine, a whole bunch of the
United States. Russia makes promises and then it either doesn't
keep them or it breaks them the first moment it
becomes convenient. So I have a hard time feeling very
emotionally invested in what comes out of this because or
this this process, because Russia doesn't take any of the
(16:31):
stuff seriously anyway, They will break it the moment it's there.
So what I fear, and I think a lot of
supporters of Ukraine independencephear, is that this is basically designed
to fail. That basically, the Russian suppoch to say, yep,
this is our deal for a ceasfire. Trump gives it
to the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians say, no, we can't live
with this because this leaves us vulnerable to this starting
up the war six months from now, a year from now,
(16:53):
two years from now, whenever. And Trump gets frustrated with
Ukraine and says, fine, that's it. We're not going to
help you with intelligence, We're not gonna help you with
arms anymore. And then eventually Russia does it for a
forthcoming piece. I have gone through Russian economies in real
rush shape. They basically their oil exports are down significantly.
The Ukrainian drone strikes on their energy infrastructure continued to
(17:15):
take a toll. They're raising taxes, they are having to
dip into their gold reserves of their federal the equivalent
of their federal reserve. Insert diehard with a vengeance joke here. Now,
does this mean Russia's economy is about to collapse tomorrow
and they won't be able to fight the ward? No,
I'm not saying that, but I am saying like the
squeeze is getting worse month by month than year by year,
and if you are.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
And also by the way, I went and I.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Look up the numbers since the Alaska Summit to about
a couple of days ago, Russia had gained about three
hundred and fifty square miles and that sounds like a lot.
That's roughly the area of Fort Worth, Texas. They have
lost ninety five thousand casualties in that time. That includes killed,
that includes wounded, that includes missing. Right, you run the
numbers on that every square mile is costing Russia two
(17:56):
hundred and seventy one casualties. Right, and they're about four
undred miles from Kiev. So like when people say, oh Russia,
first of all, I've been hearing from the likes of
Douglas McGregor that the Ukraine's going to collapse in the
next two weeks, and that has not occurred over the
last let's say, started February twenty twenty three, twenty four
to twenty five. You know, so we're now three years
in change into this war, and we've been hearing Ukraine's
(18:17):
going to collapse any day now hasn't happened. I'm not
telling you Ukraine is going to advance and take back
Crimea or anything like that. But as I said every
time I visited this place, these guys have no quit
in them, right Maya is we should not be telling
them when they have to stop fighting. They should be
deciding for themselves when they're going to stop fighting. And
I think sending them weapons to kill Russians is a
really good way to achieve US national security objectives. But
(18:39):
if we don't want to do it, the Europeans want
to do it. I don't understand why we, the United States,
feel the need to tell the Ukrainians, you guys need
to stop fighting for your homeland. You guys need to
stop fighting for your own independence. So I think this
is a very bad development. I also, I'm not sure
this is nextly going to turn into anything significant. There's
been a very consistent.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Pattern with this.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
There's always some sort of offer on the table, and then
the Ukrainians, you know, the Europeans, say we're not so
sure this is a good idea. And then at some point,
you know, Putin bombs a new orphanage or something like that,
or a children's hospital. Trump gets mad again, puts something
mad on True Social and the whole merry go round
starts going around all over again. So I'm unconvinced this
is really going to turn into much of anything. But
(19:17):
either way, the deal on the table looks absolutely terrible.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
Quick follow up, Jim, because you mentioned that while Russia
is suffering more and more, it's unlikely we're going to
be in a position anytime soon where Ukraine kind of
has it cornered and cowering on its knee and is
forced to force to surrender. So if they can't be trusted,
how does this ever end?
Speaker 3 (19:34):
One possibility is somebody decides to turn on Putin. I
recognize that that we've been wondering about that for a while.
We saw the pigosen uprising about a year year and
a half ago, but I recognize that's not particularly likely,
and I'd also point out whoever follows Putin long term,
I think the basically the equivalent of the guy who
runs the IRS takes over in case of Putin's death
(19:55):
not likely to have a dramatically different attitude. You're not
going to get a happy, peaceful, kumbai pro western leader
in Russia anytime soon. However, I think you can reach
a point where Ukraine proves itself to be such a porcupine,
to be such a difficult target to gain advigtional territory
against that the Russian state eventually recognizes we can't continue
doing this or else is going to financially ruin the country.
(20:17):
We've already lost a generation of young men. By the way,
they're casualties, you know, anywhere from two hundred fifty thousand
to five hundred thousand. They're tough to get a real good.
When I say casualties, I mean killed, I mean actually
actual dead. We had fifty five thousand in Vietnam, so
they've suffered five Vietnams, six maybe ten at.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
The high end.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Like the casualties for the Russian military have been catastrophed,
they've been very bad on the Ukrainian side too. Don't
get me wrong, I know, and I was pointed out
for my trips over there. The Ukrainians have guys in
their forties and fifties fighting on the battlefield, so they
keep saying, in addition all the other aid they need,
they desperately need motrid a lot of sore backs out
there on the battlefield. So a negotiated end to the
(20:55):
war isn't going to work because Russia is not going
to honor its words. What it has to happen is
a point where Russia looks at Ukraine and says this
is not conquerable at any price and concludes it's not worthwhile.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Well, unfortunately, we're probably not super close to that, but
we'll see what continues to happen in Geneva this week.
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(22:36):
our crazy martini now. And this also goes back to
late last week and Marjorie Taylor Green has obviously been
on the outs with President Trump for a while now.
The Epstein files are a big part of that. But
she also was not happy with the Republican position during
the shutdown. She thought that they should be extending Obamacare
subsidies and so forth and on and on it co.
(22:56):
She ultimately did vote to reopen the government, however, but
just with the relentless back and forth and criticism from
the President, she announced on Friday that she is not
going to complete this term. She's resigning on January fifth,
and she says it's for a couple of reasons. First
of all, she says that the America First movement really
is in America First anymore. She thinks they've betrayed their principles.
(23:19):
And she also says, with President Trump promising to back
a challenger in the primary, what's the point of acting
like a battered wife and trying to keep going in
supporting this administration, Because even if she survives the primary, look,
the Democrats have a decent shot of being in the majority,
and that's no fun to be in the minority in
the House. And so she's just not going to do
(23:41):
it anymore now. I shouldn't serve out the term. I
don't know, as you know, and as I said many times,
unless you're dying, an immediate family member is dying, or
you're about to get indicted, you should serve out the term.
But what do you make of this? And also Jake
Sherman saying that there's a whole lineup of people on
the Republican side who are fed up with Trump and
Mike Johnson, and there might actually be a Democratic majority
(24:01):
given the number of resignations by I don't know, a
few months from now or sometime next.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Year, if that were to come to pass.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
And at first it sounds far fetched, but then you
recognize that there aren't that many. You know, the margin
isn't that high. There were a couple of Democratic House
members who died early in the term and who we've
had the special elections, so they've been replacing it, you know,
with the fully breathing, living replacements. And you kind of
have this situation where like, look, we've talked about the
(24:28):
imperial presidency. We have talked about how more and more
power is shifting to the executive branch, how the legislative
branch feels like, you know, we don't pass appropriations anymore.
Everything gets rolled into an omnibus. So if you're in
the Senate, you're voting on judicial nominations, and if you're
in the House, you're like, what am I doing here? Well,
you know, or they're trying to century each other or
things like that. Well, it's really catching up to us.
(24:50):
I do think it would be like, of all the
different ways Republicans have screwed up, of all the different
ways that Republicans have embarrassed themselves, to lose a majority
because nobody wants to stay in the job would be
one of those things where you can like shut it down,
go home, form a new party. There's no point in
this organization because it was full of people who wanted
(25:11):
to wanted to apparently be celebrities, wanted to be social media,
who find the job boring, and who aren't willing to
stand up to say, mister President, I know you've got
a lot of ideas, but we are the House of Representatives.
Funding bills start here. We're going to take our responsibility seriously.
We're going to pass this legislation. And I mean just saying,
you know, there's a small majority that makes like like yeah, yeah,
you know, that's Gohea, win more seats if you want
(25:33):
to so. Anyway, on Marjorie Tayler Green, I have never
been a fan of congresswoman Jewish space lasers. I've always
seen you know, and she's claimed that mass shootings are hoaxes,
like she's crazy. She's always been thoroughly, thoroughly crazy. But
I also thought when she had helped effectively force the
House to pass a resolution calling for the release of
(25:53):
the Epstein documents from the Department of Justice, that she
had gotten into a fight with Trump and proved when
she can win, and she had demonstrated this was the
beginning of the post Trump Maga movement. Well, as Emily
Lettelle used to say, Sarah live never mind. Apparently you
can't take on Trump and not pay us of your
price for it. You know, feeling pressure to leave your
(26:15):
seat is pretty significant pressure there. And I found myself
feeling a couple molecules of sympathy for her as reading
through her letter of resignation, where she's laid out all
the different ways that she has fought hard and campaigned
for Trump and done all kinds and she has been
a loyalist on nineties high ninety percent of all issues.
And she disagreed with Trump on Obamacare subsidies, which I
(26:39):
think is bad and wrong, and I disagree with her
on that one, but it's not the you know. And
then on the Epstein files, and I handful of little
stuff here and there, like she thinks he's spending too
much time on foreign policy, you know, like that's the presidency, babe,
that's that's how you know you're gonna have to spend
a lot of time on foreign policy when you're president.
But you kind of look at that and you're kind
of like, these are really small stuff. And Trump didn't
(27:00):
just like withdraw his endorsement or he raged about her
untruth social and so there's kind of the sense that
she's got to be like, if that little like what
did I spend all these years fighting for? If the
moment I disagree with you, I'm declared in apostate and
you denounced me with you know, everything you got. So
I feel a midgeon of sympathy, not a lot, you know,
(27:21):
in a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
What's she going to do for this?
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Apparently in the past she had talked about running for
president twenty twenty eight of the time she said she's
not I think a Marjorie Taylor Green bit against JD Evance,
Marco Rubio or something like very very long shot. But
the other thing was, I'll admit I was very surprised
by her resignation. It reminded me of Sarah Palin's resignation.
And I wrote today that Palin never seemed interested in
(27:45):
government work.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Again, I forgot.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
She did run for Congress a couple of years back,
but did not succeed, and for a good decade or so,
she basically was focused upon the Sarah Palin celebrity project.
She had her TV show, she had her Fox News contract,
she was active in the Tea Party movement, speaking at
rallies and stuff like that. But I think being a
(28:07):
celebrity is more lucrative, more fun, less boring, and less
hard work than being a member of Congress is. And
if you use your congressional seat as a platform to
get fame, to get fortune, to get a social media audience,
after a while, what do you need the congressional office for.
It's you know, you're done with it. And so I
(28:28):
gotta have this sneaking system. Now, maybe she's going to disappear.
I would not expect her to be a major factor
in our politics in years to come. But I also figure,
I mean, she could have a podcast, Greg, but anybody
can do that.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
You could have any two idiots. Maybe she'll do.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Maybe somebody like Newsmax or somebody else wants to give
her a show or something.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
But I think.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
I think the Roman candle firework has burned out brightly
and burned out pretty quickly here and I get I
found myself like, I think this is the messages and
sent to everybody else in Maga world. Dissent will not
be permitted. And it doesn't matter if you are one
of the presidents most you know, staunch loyalists. If you
disagree with him on an issue that bugs him, he
will turn on you. Like she says, loyalty should be
(29:13):
a two way street. What in Trump's history has ever
suggested he thinks loyalty is a two way street. He's
a one way street with this guy. And I think
everybody knows this. From here on out, no dissent will
be tolerated, which is probably one of the reasons people,
the Republicans and House representatives are like, what am I
doing with my life? There's other things I could be
doing and probably making more money.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
When I think it was last year that Mike Gallagher
resigned from Wisconsin and did it at a time that
they couldn't actually fill the seat before the election, which
was doubly annoying. He also said that there's a whole
domino of Republicans ready to resign. Didn't happen, So will
it happen in the next few months. I don't know.
Maybe they are more frustrated than before, but if history
(29:51):
is any guide, maybe not. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
By the way, let's point out, let's assume Trump was
not the way he was.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Being a House of Representative is not always as glamorous
as it looks like. Does it look glamorous on TV?
I don't know, as it seems with the movies, right.
You know, being in a small minority is frustrating. If
you're a backbencher, you feel like you introduce your bills
and they never go anywhere. House of Representative, Speaker of
the House is always being pulled in a million different directions.
Not everybody's bills can get to the floor. He's got
(30:20):
to prioritize. You got a balance, like you know, some
of this is baked in the cake of having a
small minority. Having said that, the idea of I'm not
even going to serve out my term never mind like
like that, that's kind of annoying. And as you said,
I think unless you've got some life threatening you or
your family situation, you weren't put a lot of work.
You basically you know, begged or you basically you know
put through. But please put me in office for like
(30:42):
more than a year. You put effort into this and
there're just gonna walk away.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
It's just you know, like.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
To your term people. Yeah, it's like, stuck it up
and finish the term at least exactly. But all of
this to say, hey, voters in Tennessee seven, this race
is kind of important, so make sure you get out
there and vote. Anyway, Jim, quite the start to a
holiday week. See you tomorrow, See you tomorrow, Greg, Jim Garretty,
National Review. I'm Greg Corumbus of Radio America. Thanks for
being with us today. Please be sure to subscribe to
(31:08):
the podcast if you don't already, tell your friends about
us as well. Thanks also for your five star ratings
and your kind reviews. Please keep those coming. Get us
on your home devices all you have to say is
play three Martini Lunch podcast. Follow us both on X
He's at Jim Garritty, I'm at Greg Corumbus. Have a
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