This week’s episode of the Mike Gallagher Show Week in Review unfolds with intense discussions surrounding recent incidents in Washington, D.C., and the massive social services scandal in Minnesota. Expect a deep dive into political blame games, as blame games among parties escalate. Amidst the chaos, the episode highlights the centennial celebration of a remarkable listener, Joyce, marking her 100th birthday with warmth and inspiration.
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome to the Mike Gallagher Show Week in Review podcast. I’m Eric Hansen. It’s Friday, December 5th, 2025. This week, we check the pulse of the MAGA movement, expose some ICE protesters, and attend a 100th birthday party. We begin in Washington, D.C., where an immigrant from Afghanistan shot two National Guardsmen.
SPEAKER 15 :
There was a lot of information about the shooting of the two National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C. last week that was in real time. Sadly and regrettably, there were some graphic videos that were hard to watch. That monster, that coward, that terrorist went up and, you know, tried to execute both of them. The young lady, the young woman died from her injuries. The male… National Guardsman is fighting for his life. And as Congressman Mike Turner put it on CBS over the weekend on Face the Nation, this is like textbook terrorism. This is right out of the terrorist playbook.
SPEAKER 16 :
This is classic terrorism. And this is where an individual who tries to break the heart of a nation who doesn’t enact a murderous act right before Thanksgiving
SPEAKER 15 :
And that’s what it is. That’s what terror is. It tries to strike fear into our hearts. It was right before Thanksgiving. My heart just breaks for these families and what they’re going through right now. There was a lot of blaming going on right off the bat. Well, he came in on Biden’s disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. But then they turned around and pointed out that he was vetted and approved this year during the Trump administration. And so that’s, I always, I’ll probably get in trouble for saying this, but I think it’s such a big mistake to instinctively blame our political opponent when somebody commits an act of violence like this. And this has sort of evolved over the years. Remember when that Bernie Sanders Democrat nearly killed Steve Scalise and wanted to kill all the Republican congressmen playing baseball? We didn’t blame Bernie Sanders. We didn’t even blame the Democrats. We blamed the shooter. And we’ve gotten away from that. The blame game can be a dangerous thing to do. Look at this case. This is a peculiar case. This guy apparently worked with the CIA in Afghanistan, which is inevitably why he was vetted and allowed to stay under the Trump administration. To quote President Trump, the guy went cuckoo. He was apparently radicalized. But two things can be true at the same time. While it’s probably wrong to try to blame the Biden administration or the Trump administration for this guy, we have a problem with people coming into this country from third world countries who wind up doing us harm. This is a problem. Kristi Noem pointed the problem out on NBC News over the weekend, saying that under the Biden administration, there were thousands and thousands, maybe millions of people brought into America who, you know, the Biden attitude was, oh, let’s bring him in now, and let’s vet them later. Well, in this guy’s case, they brought him in then, and then we vetted him this year, and look what he did. Here was Kristi Noem on NBC’s Meet the Press.
SPEAKER 01 :
You need to remember that when this abandonment of Afghanistan happened, the Biden administration put people on airplanes, brought them to the United States without vetting them. They brought them into our country and then said they would vet them afterwards. And then at that time, to do a good job of vetting people, you need to have cooperation of that government that is from their country. You have to have a stable government that will give you information, contacts, background information and information. biometrics that you may need to identify that individual, their dates of service. All of that vetting information was collected by Joe Biden’s administration that was used and in the process. So President Trump, thankfully, has completely changed that. We are now using all social media content. We’re going after what they have been doing with their contacts, their biometric data information we are collecting. Now, when we vet individuals under this administration, we know who they are, why they are here and going through that. Unfortunately, this individual, that entire process happened under Joe Biden’s watch.
SPEAKER 15 :
Now, again, I get why the Homeland Security secretary says that. And she is right. that there’s been an open border policy that Trump is closing and fixing. But do you understand where I’m coming from when I share with you how uncomfortable I am when somebody commits an act of murder like this, when somebody commits an act of violence, and we look for some entity to blame? The Trump assassins. the Trump would-be assassins. Oh, are they Democrats or are they Republicans? Oh, he’s MAGA. No, he’s not MAGA. He was MAGA, now he’s not MAGA. We look to blame political movements, political parties, and politicians when somebody commits a horrific act of violence. And I think that’s a mistake.
SPEAKER 04 :
A massive social services scandal swept through Minnesota this week. Governor Tim Walz bears much of the blame for it. And the president, well, he had some choice words for Governor Walz.
SPEAKER 15 :
I mean, we got a lot of serious stuff we’re going to dig into here in the Relief Factor studios, not the least of which is this massive, massive Minnesota scandal. And there’s waltz on Meet the Press yesterday railing about Trump’s alleged cognitive decline. But, of course, Trump got a jump on him because Trump called Waltz a rather unfortunate word the other day on Air Force One, and he was asked if he wanted to take it back, and of course he doesn’t. Is retarded back now? I know it’s on social media. One of the most popular social media accounts that for some reason always winds up in my timeline is retard finder. It’s unfortunate because it’s not a word that’s polite. It’s not a word that’s very nice. I think about families with special needs kids. Trump was asked about it. because Trump officially referred to the Minnesota governor as being seriously retarded. He was asked about it in a follow-up on Air Force One.
SPEAKER 09 :
Walls and you called him what many Americans do find an offensive word, retarded. Do you stand by that claim of calling Tim Walls retarded?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I think there’s something wrong with him. Absolutely. Sure.
SPEAKER 09 :
You don’t have a problem.
SPEAKER 08 :
You know what? I think there’s something wrong with him. Anybody that would do what he did, anybody that would allow those people into a state and pay billions of dollars out to Somalia. We give billions of dollars to Somalia. It’s not even a country because it doesn’t function like a country. It’s got a name, but it doesn’t function like a country. Yeah, there’s something wrong with walls.
SPEAKER 15 :
Look, the Minnesota state employees took to social media blasting Tim Walz of bearing full responsibility for the massive fraud that has drained the state’s social services programs. It’s a catastrophe. I mean, the New York Times wrote a huge, huge piece about it over the weekend, and I’m not sure that any of the Sunday morning shows even touched it. Headline, New York Times, how fraud swamped Minnesota’s social services system on Tim Walz’s watch. We’re not talking tens of millions. We’re not even talking hundreds of millions. We’re talking billions with a B. Somalians have apparently been running a racket that has turned Minneapolis and St. Paul into the Medicaid fraud capital of America. And so I think President Trump is right to call waltz out. Is he wrong to call him retarded? I’m a little intrigued. Are you okay with that word coming back?
SPEAKER 04 :
Media reports abound that the MAGA movement is losing steam in America. But the numbers tell a different story.
SPEAKER 15 :
I love what Scott Jennings, our Salem Radio Network colleague, had to say on CNN about this supposed narrative that MAGA is dead. The CNN panel that he had to face, insisting that the whole MAGA movement is being obliterated before our very eyes. Scott said, not so fast.
SPEAKER 03 :
So can we just go to the data, CNN’s own data from our own data analyst hearing it? President Trump has an 87 percent approval rating among Republicans, which is higher than Barack Obama’s approval rating among Democrats at this point in his term, higher than where George W. Bush was in his term. He is the strongest. for his own party, strongest president at this point in his second term in the modern era. That’s number one. Number two, Marjorie Taylor Greene, I think, had a falling out with the president over politics. He showed her a poll that said she couldn’t win statewide in Georgia. She got mad. She got mad. And by the way, She stands with a group of isolationists who just happen to disagree with the president over, say, taking away Iran’s nuclear weapons and some other issues. That’s fine. He’s the president. She’s not. And if you want to talk about whether the president has a hold on his party or whether he’s a lame duck, I’ll just submit that when he withdrew his endorsement of Greene, she lasted a week and then had to resign from Congress. That’s not that’s not.
SPEAKER 15 :
I mean, and of course, as soon as he finishes the thought, they all pounce on him. like a Christian facing the lions in the Colosseum. But I think we’re all coming to terms with the fact that today’s Democrat Party is just different. Something has changed. And I came across Victor Davis Hanson. We’ve interviewed him a number of times over the years. He’s one of the smartest men I’ve ever met. And he talked about how this Democrat Party has morphed into something today that is fairly unrecognizable.
SPEAKER 14 :
To be fair, if you look at 92 and 96, 1996, the Clinton, I wasn’t supportive of it, but it was pretty much a traditional Democratic agenda. Closed borders, legal only immigration, balanced budget. And then something happened. And I think that something happened was Barack Obama. And he came in and he said, you know what? In terms of historical racial problems, it’s no longer affirmative action. And the black experience in white America, it’s now going to be called diversity. And we’re going to make they’re going to divide the country in two. And 30 percent who say they’re not white are going to be victims. And the other 70 percent are going to be victimizers. And there’s going to be tension. And then he ginned up this racial problem. animosity. And then he opened the borders. And now we have, you know, we have 16 percent of the people in the United States and 55 million that were not born here, which is OK if they come legally with skills and English and you assimilate and acculturate and you use a melting pot. But if you have this so-called salad bowl and separatism, then you create all of these divisions and the left gins it up. Because to be frank, Their agenda doesn’t appeal to people. And so under Obama, it was, we’re going to indict this part of the country. And they came, they created a vocabulary mark. Clingers, deplorables, irredeemables, chumps, dregs, semi-fascists, garbage. And they really wanted to divide the country in half, create chaos, and then come in and say, you know, we’re going to solve everything and create equality, and we’re going to mandate equality and redistribution.
SPEAKER 15 :
He’s a smart guy. A lot of smart analysis. And I’ve always wondered what Victor Davis Hanson thinks about how President Trump would rank in the all-time president’s list. And he went on to tell Mark Levin last night on Life, Liberty, and Levin on Fox News where he would rank President Trump.
SPEAKER 07 :
You’re familiar with the long list of presidents that we’ve had, the great ones, sort of the average ones and the worst. At this time in his second term of his presidency, where would you put Donald Trump?
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, I think he’s in the top five because he’s waging. He’s not waging a revolution as he’s accused. He’s waging a counterrevolution. He’s trying to It’s just not politics, Mark. It’s the border. It’s the economy. It’s the culture. It’s a Smithsonian. It’s PBS. It’s NPR. It’s the university. I don’t think we’ve ever had a president that looked at 360 degrees and said the country needs to be brought back radically to the middle or it’s going to be destroyed. And he’s done that in the first 10 months in an extraordinary way.
SPEAKER 15 :
We’ve never seen a president do so much in so little time. We have never. Not in my lifetime. I can’t think of any presidency that has accomplished so much.
SPEAKER 04 :
CNN’s Scott Jennings is a veteran broadcaster and the latest addition to the Salem Audio family. So when a newcomer to the medium tried to take him on, it didn’t go so well.
SPEAKER 15 :
Here’s what Scott said, Scott Jennings said about, so he gets this kid on. Dylan Douglas. And by the way, thanks, Tracy, for reminding me. So we’ve got Jonathan’s great donation. Jason of Minnesota popped in $50. Thanks. Pamela M. from Ohio, $150. Karen from New York, $150. Thanks, Karen. Gary from Michigan, $30. Whatever you can afford. MikeOnline.com because we’re witnessing something that is nothing short of a miracle. To have over 2,260 children getting Christmas thanks to you just two days into the campaign officially. We got a little jump on it on Friday last week. This is amazing. This is just incredible. I’ve never seen anything like this. And it gives me such hope for our country. It gives me such optimism. Good does prevail. There’s more good than evil in the world. And we’ve got a lot of warriors that are fighting the good fight, like Scott Jennings. So anyway, he’s debating this kid, Dylan Douglas. Dylan, he’s got a show, I think, on SiriusXM. He’s a podcaster. He’s a young kid, progressive, lefty. And he’s the son of movie stars Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. So he mixed it up with Scott one night, last week or so. And Scott just schooled him. I mean, he just ran circles around him. But, you know, then the word came out that the parents, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, were furious at Scott. So Scott was on with Meghan McCain on her podcast yesterday and had this to say.
SPEAKER 02 :
Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones are furious at you and CNN, and they want to blacklist CNN. What do you make of all this?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I was surprised. I’m more than willing to apologize personally to Catherine Zeta-Jones over a nice seafood dinner if she wants to do it.
SPEAKER 08 :
Morticia Adams, I don’t blame you.
SPEAKER 03 :
Honestly, well, first of all, I actually have to say Dylan was actually really nice off the air. He was very nice. I think he was honored to be there. We had what is relatively a normal kind of exchange. He made his Democratic talking points. I dismantled him. This is not an uncommon thing that happens on CNN. I was as surprised as you are to see that his parents were upset about it. But, you know, I think what happens generally with some of these folks is they exist in a very tight little bubble. They never really change. Talk to Republicans or conservatives. They don’t really get outside of their bubble where everyone’s telling them how smart and good looking they are. And then they wind up on television with someone of a different persuasion. And it is surprising to them. And so I hope Dylan comes back. I’m sure he’ll get better at it.
SPEAKER 15 :
He’ll get better. He’ll improve with age. He’s a young kid. But Scott made a great point. They’re never outside of their bubble. Isn’t it weird how you and I, we hear from them all the time. But when they hear from us, they lose it. Look at that interview that the guy on TikTok gave to the New Yorkers who were furious when all he said was, does the United States have a right to enforce its immigration laws? That’s all he said. And they turned on him like they couldn’t believe it. They thought they were going to have a reporter who was going to be fawning over their bravery. Oh, you’re so brave. You’re out here yelling at the ICE officers and throwing water bottles at them and blocking their vehicles and making fools out of yourselves. And here’s a guy comes along. That interview, I saw that last night. I could not get over it. And it says it all. Scott’s right. They can’t get out of their bubble. They can’t get out of their bubble. I got a great idea for you for Christmas time. Hey, Grandma, Grandpa, you got grandkids that would love these MyPillow Bible Story Pillows? Holy cow, they’re so pretty. The five-piece Children’s Bible Story Pillows from MyPillow. These are five MyPillows with beautiful artwork. The five-pack only $29.98 with promo code MikeG. Also, blankets, duvets, and comforters for as low as $25. All you have to do is go to MyPillow.com. Click on the Mike Gallagher specials. Click on that box, and then when you place your order, enter the promo code MikeG. You’re going to save a ton of money. MyPillow.com, promo code MikeG. A great American company with a great guy, Mike Lindell at the helm. Show them some love. MyPillow.com, promo code MikeG.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is the Mike Gallagher Show Week in Review podcast. I’m Eric Hansen. Protesters gathered in New York City this week to oppose ICE operations there. Funny, though, that they had a hard time explaining their position on the issue.
SPEAKER 15 :
Yesterday we played that TikTok guy. The guy on TikTok went to a New York City anti-ICE protest. And all he said to the white liberal protesters, there was a woman in a flowery coat and a guy, normal-looking people, lefties from Manhattan. All he said to them was, is it legal for us to enforce our immigration laws? That’s all he said. And they turned on him. They started calling him names. They started attacking him. The woman pushed his microphone away. She was so enraged at being asked, are we allowed to enforce our immigration laws? With what we’re witnessing in Minnesota right now, with the Somali community and all the fraud, the billions of dollars of fraud and, I mean, people being let out of prison, this has got to stop. And these Democrat protesters, well, there’s a part two. I saw that guy on TikTok interviewing some more anti-ICE protesters. Check this out.
SPEAKER 13 :
Do we think we have the right to enforce immigration law in this country?
SPEAKER 11 :
I think you have the right to take your pencil dick and go drop it off somewhere over there.
SPEAKER 13 :
Another very articulate answer. Thank you. Excuse me. Can we ask you, why do you think ICE isn’t allowed to enforce immigration law in this city?
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, I think they’re arresting people who are native to this land.
SPEAKER 13 :
In what way native?
SPEAKER 10 :
Native, as in, you know, if they’re arresting Latino people, they’ve been here way longer than white people have.
SPEAKER 13 :
Not if they came from Latin America recently, right?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, I mean, they’re part of this land. We’re just talking to people.
SPEAKER 13 :
Do you think ICE has the right to enforce immigration law in New York City?
SPEAKER 09 :
Does ICE have the right to take people? Is that your question?
SPEAKER 13 :
To enforce immigration law in the city.
SPEAKER 09 :
ICE does not. No. No.
SPEAKER 15 :
Why not?
SPEAKER 09 :
I don’t know.
SPEAKER 15 :
I mean, and she walked away. It’s like they’re stumped. Does ICE have the right to enforce immigration laws in New York City? And it throws them. Incidentally, his name is Matt Miller. Tracy discovered his site. It’s Politibrawl, the Politibrawl Streetcast. It’s a Substack podcast. We’ll see if we can get the guy on the show. I’d like to talk to him because he’s very calm. He’s very rational. I asked this question of you yesterday. Is ICE, if you’re so upset about ICE, answer the question. Are they allowed to enforce immigration laws in the United States of America? Yes or no? It’s not a trick question. You want to take a crack at it? Do you think they’re not? And, of course, we know what the game is. The answer, of course, is yes. We enforce laws in America. If you’ve broken the law to get here, now you’ve got to pay the piper. Because there’s a president who’s not putting up with it anymore, and he is not putting up with it anymore. President Trump is fired up. He is angry. And look, look what he’s accomplishing. Here’s what he shared with the world yesterday about illegal immigrants entering the United States of America.
SPEAKER 08 :
And I want to thank our people. The Border Patrol is so amazing, ICE. And I want to thank the military for the backup, because they’re standing right behind them. And that was really nasty for a period of months, and now it’s no longer nasty. Now they don’t even come up. Nobody comes up. It’s an easy job. It made your job a lot easier, because they know they’re not going to get through. And we take people in, but they have to come in legally. For six months in a row, zero illegal aliens have been admitted into the United States. Do you believe that? Zero. We had millions of people coming in a year. Millions. Now we have zero.
SPEAKER 15 :
In the last six months, not a single illegal immigrant has been admitted to the United States of America. Didn’t you vote for that? I know I did. And you’re going to complain about ICE? You’ve got to be kidding me. They’re doing heroic work. And it’s about time.
SPEAKER 04 :
Kentucky recently held a special election to fill a congressional seat in a district that includes Nashville. Her pitch to voters? Classic.
SPEAKER 15 :
I just would give anything to understand the theory behind of the radicalization of today’s Democrat Party. Last night, Byron York from the Washington Examiner was on Fox News talking about how Democrats are advancing more and more radical leftist lunatic candidates. The more radical they are, the better.
SPEAKER 05 :
There is, in the aftermath of this election, a debate inside the Democratic Party continuing about progressive candidates versus more moderate candidates. And there are many Democrats who are worried that Democratic primary electorates seem to pick the most progressive, the most radical. They picked a candidate. who openly said she hated Nashville. She hated everything about Nashville. I mean, what more can you say to turn off the voters in an area? So Democrats have some real problems as evidenced by this. They had been spinning for weeks that a close defeat would be a big win for them. Well, no, it’s not. It’s a defeat. There are concerns for Republicans. There are plenty of concerns for Democrats, too.
SPEAKER 15 :
Here’s the part that Byron left out, which I know he’s aware of. Do you know what percentage of Nashville residents voted for that lunatic who proudly proclaimed how much she hated Nashville? I think it was of Democrats. And Tracy, can you kind of confirm this and find a story that confirms it? I think it was 70%. So you’re such a self-loathing individual, and you hate Republicans so much that that you voted for the woman who was caught admitting how she hates Nashville to represent you as a Nashville resident. Wouldn’t you love to meet somebody that’s that stupid? How stupid do you have to be to live in Nashville Okay, let’s say you’re a good liberal Democrat. You’re pro-abortion and you’re open, whatever you are. But this woman, Afton, what’s her name, said she hates country music, I hate Nashville, I hate cops. Oh, great. So I’m going to go vote for the woman who hates the city I live in. So to add a little caveat to Byron York’s point, The Democrats are running these candidates because it’s working for them. Just ask New York City.
SPEAKER 04 :
And finally, Mike traveled to Asheville, North Carolina recently to celebrate a birthday with one of our listeners. It was a special day because that listener, Joyce, turned 100 years old.
SPEAKER 15 :
And the reason I stayed in Asheville this weekend, first of all, I wanted to do a little sightseeing. I love Asheville. I mean, the people are a little weird. I think you’ve got to have purple hair and nose rings as a point of entry to the city limits. But it’s a beautiful, beautiful part of the country. And I brought Joey Hudson with me because we went up to North Carolina, Joey, to wish Joyce a 100th birthday. Now, you know the back story. Joyce has been emailing me occasionally over the years. And a while ago, she let it slip that she’s celebrating her 100th birthday this past Saturday. Our buddy Mark Davis said, well, Mike, you guys ought to go. Hey, why don’t you and Joey? Joey lives in South Carolina. Why don’t you guys head up to North Carolina to wish her a happy birthday? Joey, was Joyce’s 100th birthday celebration a blessing or what?
SPEAKER 12 :
It was just amazing. You know, you and I have been able to do a lot of things. We’ve been blessed to travel around the world and meet a lot of different people, but that had to be one of the most fun things I have done in a long time.
SPEAKER 15 :
It was unbelievable. I mean, 100 years young, she’s as sharp. Well, let me share with you my conversation with Joyce, who celebrated her 100th birthday yesterday. So we made it to Joyce’s 100th birthday. Here you are. Joyce, thank you for letting us be a part of this special day. Oh, and I’m so happy.
SPEAKER 06 :
It was such a beautiful day. God gave you a good day. Oh, my. Among other blessings, lots of blessings through the years.
SPEAKER 15 :
Yes, I saw. And your serenity prayer was beautiful to bless the food. That’s your favorite prayer?
SPEAKER 06 :
with my favorite prayer because it says a lot and I know a lot of prayers and I’ve said a lot of prayers but I don’t know where that serenity prayer is but anywhere I love that and I’m so glad to see all these people I’m overwhelmed by the beauty of the day and the beauty of the people it’s been a wonderful well you are loved Oh, thank you so much. And thank you, Joey Hudson, Mike Gallagher, and all these friends around.
SPEAKER 15 :
Yes, and you had a chance to say hi to Mark Davis because it was his idea for me to come to the party. That’s right.
SPEAKER 06 :
So we spoke to Mark Davis. Yes. And I love this. You love your scarf from Israel? From Israel. My favorite color. Yes. And…
SPEAKER 15 :
matches my toenails matches your toenails and all the beautiful you love turquoise and so i picked out a turquoise scarf from israel from the old city right there a shop right in the old city of jerusalem didn’t know it was my favorite color a little birdie told me you like turquoise
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, thank you for those birdies. And thank you for God. Thank you for these friends. Thank you for the blessings I’ve had these 100 years.
SPEAKER 15 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 06 :
I am so blessed.
SPEAKER 15 :
You’ve seen a lot of life in 100 years, haven’t you?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, I have. Ups and downs, and I said my favorite quote is when somebody asked me not long ago what I attribute my longevity, I said two things, my faith and my attitude, and they really work.
SPEAKER 15 :
God bless you. We’re so glad to be here, Joyce. Faith and attitude, that’s a good message for our audience all over the country. You’ve just inspired millions of people.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, I hope so, because I’ve been inspired all my life by faith. Thank you for everything, everybody, and God bless America. God bless America.
SPEAKER 15 :
Happy birthday, Joyce. Thank you, thank you. Hey, Joey, how lucky are we that we got to do that? How blessed are we? That’s one of the biggest blessings I’ve ever gotten.
SPEAKER 12 :
I just left inspired because, you know, she is such an amazing woman. And look, to reach 100, I did a little research, Mike, and 2 in 10,000 actually reach 100. Now, you and I were talking about this last night, and you said that you’d like to live to be 100. Well, the chances of you reaching 100 are getting better every day. Pew Research says in the next three decades, that number will grow to almost 400,000, maybe just over 400,000. In America. So the chances of you reaching 100 are much better.
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, thank you to Joyce and her beautiful daughter, Sam. Samantha’s amazing. Her daughter’s a big fan of yours and listens to our show. I just love the whole experience with you.
SPEAKER 04 :
And that wraps up the Mike Gallagher Show Week in Review podcast for Friday, December 5th, 2025. I’m Eric Hansen. Be sure to subscribe to all of the podcasts and follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you like the show, be sure to share it with a friend. We’ll see you back here next week on the Mike Gallagher Show Week in Review podcast.
