The first episode of 2026 kicks off with a robust discussion on Venezuela’s new chapter, the role of global influencers like China and the U.S., and the dynamics shaping today’s geopolitical landscape. The hosts analyze the notion of fake political outrage and reflect on the U.S. strategies that have led to surgical successes. Delving into a blend of technology and politics, they also explore the surprising potency of LED light therapy in modern medicine, alongside crucial social change initiatives like Preborn.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to the National Crawford Roundtable podcast, a view of culture, current events and politics through a biblical lens brought to you by Preborn, saving babies and souls. Join us in the fight to save babies from abortion. Your gift provides a free ultrasound for a mother in need. 80% of the time she will choose life. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the Preborn logo to donate to save babies now. and by SunPower LED light therapy devices. Bring light to your pain. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the SunPower LED logo to get out of pain and improve your overall wellness. And now, here are your hosts, Neil Boron, Bob Duco, and John Rush.
SPEAKER 02 :
Welcome to another edition of the… National Crawford Roundtable. I am your host today, John Rush, Denver, Colorado. My show is Rush to Reason. Bob Duco, Detroit, Michigan. From the Bob Duco Show and Neil Boron, Neil Boron Live. As well from Buffalo, New York. Guys, first show of 2026. Let’s go. I’m ready. Here we go. We’ve been doing this. I looked back on my notes. We’ve been doing this since 2019. Wow.
SPEAKER 04 :
And it’s January 7th already. We’re a week into January already. This year is just flying by.
SPEAKER 02 :
It will be Christmas again before we know it. And it’s Christmas in Venezuela, by the way.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it is. Oh, man. Well, hey, there is some dancing in the streets. There’s no doubt.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, it’s funny we say that, Bob, I’ll start with you. It’s dancing in the streets from Venezuelans, even Venezuelans here in America. The paid protesters, of course, from the Marxist regime on the left, of course, are very upset. But, you know, that’s to be, you know, of course they are because their side is now being attacked for a change and they don’t like that, of course. But those that are actually living there are ecstatic, Bob.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know what? They really are. And it’s interesting, too, for all the Democrats who shed tears over poor migrants that are here, there are a boatload, no pun intended, of Venezuelan migrants, especially in Florida, that are dancing in the streets that are so happy over this. And, you know, where’s the love for the Venezuelan migrants that are so glad that this dictator, Maduro, is out of office? But, you know, John, I… It really cracks me up when I see this kind of fake outrage from the left over things like this, because if you compare this to Manuel Noriega in Panama of 1989, and that was George H.W. Bush, but the media and the Democrats didn’t really hate him because he was, you know, he’s a rhino centrist. And so he wasn’t really that offensive to Democrats in the media. Yeah. And Manuel Noriega, he was flooding the U.S. with tons of cocaine. And you know what we did? We went in there in a secret covert operation to oust him, chased him out of his palace. He went hiding for a few days in the Vatican embassy there. until our loud music speakers playing rock music basically pushed him out of there. We put him on trial, threw him in prison. He was sentenced to 40 years here in the United States. And there were no calls to impeach H.W. Bush. And he didn’t go through Congress for that because this was a law enforcement issue. This was somebody that was under indictment. Trump did the same thing. And by the way, while we’re at it, I didn’t see any Democrats having a cow over Barack Obama not going through Congress and militarily attacking and striking the capital of Libya in an effort to try to oust and overthrow their dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, which ended up being successful. He was overthrown from within. But those military strikes, he didn’t go through Congress for that. And that actually was an effort at regime change. Nor did Obama go through Congress to order drone strikes to kill Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16-year-old son because they became ISIS recruiters over in Yemen, even though Anwar al-Awlaki was a United States citizen. He was denied due process the whole bit. I supported Obama in that effort. He didn’t go through Congress. So this kind of outrage from the Democrats in the media right now is totally, completely manufactured and fake.
SPEAKER 02 :
Total fake. Yeah. neil your opinion on all of this and we don’t remind everybody that what bob just said since ronald reagan i think virtually every president has done something along these lines throughout their their presidency so the reality is this has happened on both sides of the aisle ever since ronald reagan neil yeah and obviously part of the reaction we’re seeing not exclusively but part of it for sure is trump derangement syndrome it’s anything
SPEAKER 03 :
Donald Trump does has to be opposed. It’s gotta be wrong for some reason. And all those, you know, organized protests in something like a hundred US cities happened in like less than 24 hours after Maduro was removed from Venezuela. And interesting that all the signage was the same. I mean, it was all the same graphics. Somebody’s paying for these things and- Manufactured protests. Exactly. So I don’t know really what to make of that, except to say that’s what they do for a living, these people. so i think that the vast majority of people probably around the world but definitely here in the u.s and for sure in venezuela we’re absolutely thrilled by what happened
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, and Bob, again, I want to remind everybody that, you know, A, this is happening on both sides of the aisle ever since Ronald Reagan, and there’s nothing unconstitutional about this. In fact, folks need to go back and actually read a little bit of that end of things to know exactly what I’m saying along those lines. But there’s nothing unconstitutional. As long as he notifies Congress within 48 hours, which, of course, he did, there’s limits on how long you can do it and so on. I mean, this was a four-hour operation when it was all said and done. This was surgery, basically, Bob, at the end of the day. In fact… Of all of the things that we have just talked about, this one was probably the most surgical of anything we’ve done yet.
SPEAKER 04 :
John, to back up the point that you’re making, let me give another little comparison here, okay? When we went in and got Manuel Noriega… For doing the same thing, flooding the U.S. with a bunch of cocaine and drugs. All right. We went in to get him. This operation, it cost the lives of 23 U.S. military personnel. There were 320 U.S. military personnel injured. So 23 killed on our side, 320 injured on our side. On the Panamanian side, there were 514 U.S. total people killed on the Panamanian side, over 200 of which were civilians. Now, those were the actual stats, right? And that was considered an amazing success on the part of the United States. Now, look to the Trump administration. Did we have 23 people killed on our side? Nope, we had zero. What about injuries? We didn’t have 320 injuries on our side. We had six. And all of them are going to recover. They’re in stable condition. And the amount killed on the Venezuelan side, there’s varying reports, anywhere from 40 to 80, almost all military personnel on their side. Cuban military, by the way.
SPEAKER 02 :
Let’s make sure we say that. Say what? Cuban military. Let’s make sure we add that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right, right. Exactly. Exactly. OK. But so, yes, you’re talking about an extremely surgically successfully carried out operation that if this were anyone with a name other than Trump. you would have people going, wow, this is just incredible. You know what? But I’ll tell you what, the press and the Democrats, they might not be impressed, but I guarantee you people like Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, the mullahs in Iran, they’re looking at this and they’re impressed in a scared way. It’s like, all right, Trump definitely is a competent guy.
SPEAKER 02 :
And I’ve got more on that because there’s some things there that I think you’re definitely right, Bob, that they’re looking at. And I’ll explain that here in just a moment. Before we do that, though, speaking of technology and advancements and things that really work, Neil, at the end of the day, talk to us about SunPower LED.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, it’s an incredible technology because it simply uses light that God himself created to help heal our bodies. And, you know, there’s a lot of skepticism and rightfully so about big pharma. A lot of people are reticent about the idea of going under the knife and experiencing surgery, maybe if it’s not necessary. So all of a sudden people are realizing that light itself has power, just like sound waves have power and a sonic boom can knock you out of bed in the middle of the night. Light waves have power, and certain wavelengths of red and near-infrared light can penetrate the human body through a technology called SunPower LED to excite, wake up the mitochondria in our cells to energize the cells to do what cells were created to do, and that’s to reduce pain and swelling and promote healing. So people have experienced incredible results saying goodbye to arthritis pain and migraines and vision problems tinnitus epilepsy so many other applications for this and if you want to learn about it just go to crawfordmediagroup.net click on sun power led there’s videos you can learn all about it by the way if you order one of the devices use the promo code roundtable10 to save yourself 10 but again go to crawfordmediagroup.net click on sun power led and bob when Our listeners visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net. That’s also where they can see our major sponsor, Preborn.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. And, you know, we’ve had a lot of people giving to Preborn over the years, and we appreciate that. And I’m just asking you, plain and simple, will you continue doing it? Make this part of your regular missionary budget in your home, maybe 2026. It’s like… how much can you give to save babies’ lives? We’re protecting babies from the abortionist, all right? That’s what pre-born does. They have ultrasound machines in pro-life centers across the country, and when a mom sees a picture of an ultrasound image of her baby, she chooses life. She very rarely goes across the street to Planned Parenthood. Problem is, not every pro-life center has… ultrasound machines in them. And even the ones that do, it takes money to operate them. Well, that’s where you folks come in. So we need some of you to buy ultrasound machines and everybody else to pay for an individual number of ultrasound images. To buy an ultrasound machine, they’re 15 grand a piece, right? Nice tax write-off for you too. And if you want to pay for an individual number, $28 is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion, to save one baby’s life. So pray about a number of baby’s lives you’ll save. Take $28 times fill in the blank. And whatever you give to Preborn, 100% goes to ultrasounds, nothing for overhead. That’s all covered by private donors. So here’s how you give. Go right now online to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn. Also, you can just call 833-850-BABY. That’s 833-850-BABY and give right over the phone. We appreciate you folks doing that. John?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, and back to the technology end of things, and Bob, you’re right. I think other countries, keep in mind, and maybe a refresher for folks, Venezuela was protected by, of course, they had Russian involvement, Cuban involvement, but a lot of their defense mechanisms were from China because China’s heavily invested into Venezuela defense. as well and the reality bob is if that’s the best they could do um i hate to say this but china’s not the world power they think they are because we basically waltzed in with helicopters landed picked him up and left yeah we did some anti uh you know artillery things in the process of that to make sure that all of our guys were safe but the reality is we flew helicopters through their defense mechanisms meaning china’s not all of what they think they are
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. You know, look, people tend – we remember back – all three of us are old enough to remember when there were two major superpowers, us and the Soviet Union. Soviet Union collapses, okay, fine, there’s one superpower. But over the course of the last few decades, there’s been a perception that now there’s really three world superpowers, us, China, and Russia. And Maduro is very cozy, very buddy-buddy with China and Russia. But who else could have done this? Because China wants Taiwan. You don’t see China going in there and taking Taiwan because they’re nervous, especially while Trump is in office. with Vladimir Putin in Ukraine. He’s been at war for a few years now in Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of deaths. And you know what? He still can’t capture Ukraine. So yeah, our enemies around the world are saying, you know something, the United States is really the number one superpower. They can take our friend Maduro and go in there and get him out inside of two hours, put him in handcuffs, put him on trial, and not have one single American life lost, that’s very impressive. They’ve got to be sitting up and taking notice.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, Neil, I mean, again, these other countries have to be looking at them. There’s so many other facets we’ll get into, but I look at that one, especially after reading some things yesterday as to how we actually did that and what we did prior to that. And a lot of the flight missions we were doing to map out exactly what they were doing with their particular radar and defense mechanisms and so on. And the reality is we probably knew how their operations worked far better than they even did. I mean, It just shows you the amount of, Neil, just sheer power, technology, ingenuity, the things that we have, which, by the way, comes from capitalism, the things that we have that other countries don’t have. I’ve got to believe everything Bob just said, Neil. Other countries have to see this as a wake-up call.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and I fundamentally agree with almost everything you’re saying, but sometimes I wonder if it’s not operator error to some degree. What I mean is you could have really highfalutin technology that’s supposedly able to stop any kind of invasion like what they just experienced in Venezuela, and yet if you’ve got people asleep at the switch or inadequately prepared to utilize the technology, then there’s a problem there. So who knows exactly, but obviously what happened was It was shocking. It was overpowering. It reminds me seriously of not long ago when they went into Iran and supposedly disabled their nuclear system or the capability to produce weapons. So, I mean, world leaders have to be taking a look at that saying, hey, this is not good. And by the way, if you are a dictator or a world leader that – that thinks you’re untouchable. You got to believe that in certain circumstances like this one, you’re looking at it going, Oh, maybe Donald Trump knows my home address. And I think it puts people on notice around the world. And I think for that reason, we can sleep a little easier here, but I don’t think we ever better let our guard down because there’s people that can be paid off. There’s traitors within our ranks. It’s always been the case. It’s why, by the way, they can’t keep this information totally under wraps. Apparently, the New York Times and the Washington Post both knew about this, didn’t choose to report on it before it happened. But somebody in Congress or somebody in the Trump administration leaked that to them. So, you know, you never know. But either way, the whole thing was incredibly impressive.
SPEAKER 02 :
Very impressive. Bob, switch gears a tad bit here, because there are, of course, those out there, the which I talk about this on my show quite often, the nut job Tucker Carlson’s and Candace Owens, and even now a little bit of Megyn Kelly, which unfortunately she’s too buddy-buddy with those two and is corrupting her opinion, if you ask me. But at the end of the day, there’s still folks out there like those two that I just mentioned that would basically be against everything we just did. I mean, according to Tucker Carlson, every single thing we do is going to create World War III. I mean, first of all, I can’t believe anybody still listens to that guy.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know what? I don’t know what happened to Tucker Carlson. I really don’t.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, hang on. I’ve got an opinion. Let me throw this at you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
Anybody that goes off on these wild tangent alien belief weird… I mean, no offense, guys. When you get off on these weird tangent beliefs, you’re just a wackadoodle. It affects every other area of your life. Am I wrong, Bob?
SPEAKER 04 :
Not necessarily. I hate to say it, but I think you’re right because you start grabbing a hold of some of the wild, crazy conspiracy theories, and before you know it, you get wide-eyed about everything. The thing is… The Trump haters, they are going to claim that anything he does is going to create World War III. But you know what? We were told that Trump getting tough with Middle Eastern nations was going to create World War III. It didn’t. We were told that him helping – Israel, militarily strike nuclear facilities in Iran was going to cause World War III. It didn’t. In his first term, we were told Trump moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was going to cause World War III. It didn’t. He managed to get four Abraham Accord, you know, contracts done, and then a fifth one now in his second term. So people can make these claims all they want to, but the fact is it’s not producing World War III. It’s showing, you know, Ronald Reagan, one of his most famous lines was peace through strength. And Donald Trump, his doctrine and the Monroe Doctrine, which is governing the Western Hemisphere, he’s calling it the Donrow Doctrine now, okay, is peace through strength. And he’s sending a message to people like China and Russia, the Western Hemisphere, we’re not only the leaders of the free world. We are absolutely the leaders of the Western Hemisphere, and we are not going to allow you guys to infect the Western Hemisphere. Venezuela was a foothold for China and Russia in the Western Hemisphere, and Donald Trump just arrested their good buddy Maduro.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, and for those that would say, well, this is all just about oil, and it’s about this, and it’s about that. Yes, there are lots of factors. Partially about oil, and rightfully so. Definitely partially. There’s the biggest reserves in the world sitting there. They’re really untapped because of the dictatorship that’s been there for the past several decades. The reality is they’ve let all that infrastructure really just go to rot, and it needs to be totally redone. In fact, I saw numbers yesterday, Bob, They’re talking probably $100 billion of investment needs to happen there to really get things back online, which, by the way, will most likely happen. Will it happen overnight? Of course not. It’ll take some time. But at the end of the day, is that going to be a much more safe nation for U.S. companies to go in and invest and extract some of those resources that are there? Which, by the way, again, going back to other countries, that is a big poke in the eye at a lot of the other countries that are out there, including the folks that are in the Middle East. The reality is oil, unfortunately, is probably I mean you you’re not to get off on a tangent here but years ago everybody’s talking about oh you know oil is going to be you know 200 bucks a barrel and I always said no um you might see it tip at 100 bucks a barrel periodically depending upon what’s going on in the world but the reality is we have so much of it we continue to find other ways to do things that at the end of the day there is no such thing as peak oil we will find other avenues to do things with which we do and And at the end of the day, there’s so much oil that actually it’s driving the price down. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing right now, Bob.
SPEAKER 04 :
And that’s what Vladimir Putin does not want.
SPEAKER 02 :
No, no. It kills him.
SPEAKER 04 :
Exactly. And the countries in the Middle East don’t want that as well. We like it at the gas pump because that’s the eventual trickle-down effect of this. So, yes, Venezuela happens to be sitting on so much oil. It’s incredible. And, yeah, creating a free flow of oil there in a country that’s manageable that we can actually work with – The fact is it’s leaving the Western Hemisphere a whole lot safer and a whole lot more economically viable than it was before. And nobody that’s got Trump derangement syndrome is going to even consider giving him a hint of hope. You know, kudos for that, which, by the way, I hope we I know we don’t have time right now, but I hope we at least get into what’s going to happen in the transition and who takes over, because there are some conservatives upset with Donald Trump because he’s not supporting Maria Machado and is instead supporting Maduro’s vice president right now. And I know there’s some controversy surrounding that. I’ve definitely got some views on it, so I hope we get a chance to go.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, we can talk about that, Neil, though, real quick. He’s talking about, you know, there’s so much controversy. chatter about, well, Donald Trump’s just a dictator. And he walked in and, you know, where else are we going to do this at? And blah, blah, blah. And I’ve said this before. I’ve said it even on this particular program. Do I always agree with the way Donald Trump messages? No, I do not. I wish there were times he would say things in a different way. But at the end of the day, he does get stuff done. He got it done here. I mean, at the end of the day, he does what he says he’s going to do. Does he message it as well as I would like? No, Neil. At the end of the day, he doesn’t. But is he a dictator? No, he is not a dictator.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and obviously people on the left are going to disagree with that statement. But he’s not a dictator. And as a law enforcement action, this was entirely appropriate. So they bring Maduro and his wife to the United States to face narco-terrorism charges. It’s entirely appropriate what just happened. Okay, so now Congress knows about it. And are we declaring war on Venezuela? No. So… i what i have to say though is i don’t think the world is used to seeing people that are decision makers and people of action they want everybody to be in this realm of we just pacify one another and stroke each other until everybody feels really good but donald trump gets things done and he does what he thinks is right sometimes he’s probably wrong but you know thank god that we have a decisive president who isn’t afraid to take u.s interest you know as his primary concern because obviously we can talk about oil all day long but there’s military strategy kind of objectives with regard to venezuela as well when you got russia or china setting up military operations of any kind 1200 miles off your coast that’s a reason for concern and i think for five or six different reasons trump thought it was time to get maduro out And shake things up in Venezuela.
SPEAKER 02 :
And really quick, Neil gave him opportunity to turn himself in. Let’s not forget that. He gave plenty of warnings. Exactly. This is coming. You know, get yourself, get your get your house in order, basically, because we’re going to we’re going to take action. And this guy basically said, come get me, coward.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, right. And that whole video thing, I just, I love watching it because he’s like, come get me, you know, you big coward. I’m thinking to myself, I wonder what Trump’s thinking right now. Okay, you want me to get you? All right, well, check this out, right? And four hours later, he’s in handcuffs wearing a Mickey Mouse hat in the United States. It’s unbelievable.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. And again, Bob, and yeah, in fact, we can probably take a little bit of the second half and talk about who may take over, how is this going to work and so on. But at the end of the day, there are so many facets to this. It’s not just about oil. The one thing I would caution people on on our side of the aisle is there’s a lot of conspiracy and chatter about voting machines in Venezuela. And they had a lot to do with the count of 2020. And this is part of the process that Trump is doing is uncovering all of that and so on. And all I’m going to say to that, Bob, is until there’s really solid, vivid proof that that’s the case, I wouldn’t share that anything I talk about social media wise.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I totally agree with that. We got to wait until we find out what the actual facts are regarding that. One thing I am pretty comfortable with is that Maduro did not win the 2024 election last year. Their election day is July 28th. He didn’t win that, okay? The opposition party won that. And actually, the person who took over for Maria Machado, who is Delcy Rodriguez, won. Now, there’s conflicting numbers as far as won by how much. Some of the numbers I’ve heard are around 70%. It was pretty clear victory. But Maduro, he actually did in real life what Democrats falsely claimed that Donald Trump was going to do, refuse to leave and just co-opt the military. Well, that’s what Maduro did. He co-opted the military, said, I’m not leaving. And he crushed the opposition and basically dared anybody, don’t mess with me. Machado had to go into hiding. She’s still not in Venezuela as of this day, OK, because she’s been hiding for her life, even though she did receive the Nobel Peace Prize and say, I’m dedicating it to Donald Trump because he really deserved it. But, you know, that’s a side issue. So it’s the guy was corrupt. He’s not the legitimate president. He’s the illegitimate dictator of that country. And so I got no problem taking him out of there for not just for that reason, but for the oil issue, but also for the danger of the cocaine flooding into this country and rearranging the chess pieces as far as Putin and Xi Jinping and establishing U.S. dominance in the Western Hemisphere. Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
Neil, talk about SunPowerLED one more time before we close out this half.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I’m happy to. And, you know, a lot of folks listening have already had the flu this year. I don’t know what the numbers are, you know, in Michigan or in Colorado, but they’re off the charts in New York. We had a record breaking number of people with the flu here in Erie County, where Buffalo is just last week. And, you know, so when I guess what, I got the flu during the holidays of all things, not really a happy time for me in that sense. But the minute I could feel this moving from my throat to my lungs, I I started using my red light therapy from SunPower LED. And again, in a matter of about 48 hours, my lungs were clear. The flu, however serious I had it, was gone in about 72 hours and I could breathe. And typically that’s not been the case for me. I have had much trouble, especially when I had COVID, but when I’ve had the flu over the years or anything like bronchitis, I’ve had a lot of problem breathing with my lungs. I don’t get that anymore because I use red light therapy from SunPowerLED. And if you want to learn about it, I suggest you visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on SunPowerLED and find out what light, the light God created, how that can be used to help reduce pain or reduce swelling and promote healing in our bodies. So go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Sun Power LED. And of course, CrawfordMediaGroup.net is where you can learn about our other sponsor as well, Preborn.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. And pre-born, as you folks know, saves babies’ lives every day, protects them from the abortionist. But it does take money to do this, all right? It’s operating ultrasound machines. And what we’re asking you folks in the audience to do right now is to pay for these ultrasound images. This is how you save babies’ lives and stop abortions. A lot of you give to pre-born already. Make it part of your regular missionary budget in your household. How many babies’ lives will you be willing to save in 2026? So it’s this simple. You can either A, buy an ultrasound machine for 15 grand. Okay, it’s a nice tax write-off for you. And you get to know you’re stopping thousands and thousands of abortions over the years. Or option B, just pay for an individual number of ultrasound images. $28 is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion. So how many abortions will you stop? Take $28 times fill in the blank. Pray about a number. And then that’s your gift to Preborn. And either way, every dime you give to Preborn goes to ultrasounds, not a penny for overhead. It’s all covered by private donors. So just give right now. Go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Click on Preborn. Or they answer the phones 24-7, so give over the phone. Call 833-850-BABY. That’s 833-850-BABY. Just mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call.
SPEAKER 02 :
All right, guys, that’s going to be it for this first half of the Roundtable. Please listen in to the second half. Myself, Bob Duco, Neil Boron, we will be right back.
SPEAKER 01 :
This is a Crawford Media Group production.
SPEAKER 02 :
And welcome back. Second half of National Crawford Roundtable. I am your host, Sean Rush. Bob Duco, Neil Boron with me today. First show of 2026. We spent the first half talking about Venezuela and, you know, guys, a lot more to talk about there. One thing I wanted to slip in, Bob, really quick, get your opinion on this. And I know the The tariff thing’s a big deal. We kind of stay away from that for obvious reasons, although Supreme Court’s going to rule on some things along those lines. And in this particular case, when it comes to Venezuela, and this is something that I think our friends to the north need to recognize in the dealings with Trump when it comes to negotiations, this changes the game on Canadian oil coming into the United States of America, Bob.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, it really does. And so this is, you know, it really boils down to using leverage. Donald Trump is a master at utilizing leverage and creating leverage. And the terrorists have been able to create a strong amount of leverage in many different areas. OK. And you know what? It’s going to benefit everyone in the long run. It’s going to benefit the U.S., Canada, our friends and allies around the world. It really is going to be a better thing, especially us getting control of the situation in Venezuela like this and allowing the free flow of oil to take place. So, yes, I think we’re all going to benefit from this ultimately. Is it sometimes like kicking a hornet’s nest? Yes. But I would argue going in there, getting Maduro, getting him out of there, the guy’s in handcuffs right now. This was not even a kick of a hornet’s nest. This was basically a nudge of it, comparatively speaking. So I think all in all, dust settles is going to be good.
SPEAKER 02 :
There’s other conspiracies around that as well. And again, some of the stuff will shake out. There’s conspiracies that, listen, he was not doing well with the Cubans and felt like maybe there’d be some issues there. So in regards to that, he was sort of a, you know, let’s give up, you know, kind of going back to Neil’s point earlier. You know, did we really do things necessary on the defense sides of things or were there other people, you know, purposely asleep at the wheel? Guys, I have no answers for any of that. I have no clue. My thought is with what we did to actually extract him and get him out of there that I have a hard time believing some of those conspiracies that are out there. I mean, time will tell exactly how all that shakes out. But at the end of the day. Bob, what you just said is exactly right. It was a extraction, didn’t take very long. It wasn’t even really, it’s more like flop. It’s more like, you know, swatting, you know, one single wasp out of the nest, not the entire nest. So at the end of the day, it’s really a non-issue. And Neil, there’s really been no repercussions on that end of things. I don’t think there will be. And we can talk about this next. You know, the next the next issue is going to be, you know, who takes over and how do you know, how do we, you know, the Trump administration, how do we stabilize that country and make it more business friendly moving forward? And this is my fear in spite of who might come into the White House on down the road.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, yeah. And of course, that’s really future thinking because there’s Donald Trump’s going to be in office for the next three years. You know, God willing, who knows what his health is going to be like or what other assassination attempts there might be. But the bottom line is you’ve got three more years of Donald Trump. The immediate future is in question. What exactly happens in Venezuela? And then will there be ongoing military conflict? In some way, is there going to be a need to re-engage with Venezuela and actually put boots on the ground? What did Donald Trump mean when he said, you know, for now we’re going to run Venezuela? You know, it’s kind of like the guy owns a hot dog stand and he’s going to hire a kid down the block to run it for a few weeks. Like, what exactly does that mean? So time will tell. But I also believe that, you know, that they didn’t go into this. With no understanding or foreknowledge or insight about the future, that obviously you remove Maduro, things are going to start to change in Venezuela. And how do we support that or how do we oppose it, depending on which way it goes? And I think that people in much higher positions than you and I will ever fill already have a general understanding of what the United States’ role is going to be in all that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Real quick, Bob, going back to your question earlier about, you know, can we get into talking about who might take over and so on. And Donald Trump’s really he’s been pretty open about the change of leadership there and the fact that the duly elected president, he’s not really in favor of. And I don’t think it’s anything personally against her, I think. And by the way, I don’t disagree with him in this. I think what he’s looking at is, can she get full support of the people and really be the leader she needs to to move Venezuela forward? And I think the answer there is no one knows. And I think he really doubts her ability to do so.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. Yeah, this is a thing where, honestly, I’m not looking at this like, oh, well, I’m going to support Donald Trump no matter what. No, I can understand where he’s coming from. OK, but for some of our listeners who may be because I know we’re getting a little inside politics now with with Venezuela. Let me tell you what you have here, basically, to simplify this. Right. You had the main opposition candidate in the election for last year. Her name is Maria Karina Machado. She got 92 percent of the primary vote for her opposition party. All right. Political activist, outspoken critic of Maduro. Maduro had her name removed from the ballot for the election last year. So she was replaced on the ballot by this guy, Edmondo Gonzalez Arusha, but pretty much Edmondo Gonzalez. This is the guy that ran basically in her place. Well, Maduro claims that he won, even though he really lost. Machado goes into hiding for her life. She ends up getting awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She says, hey, Donald Trump deserves it. I dedicate it to him. But she’s still out of Venezuela right now, hoping to go back into Venezuela. So you can kind of understand, even though there are some Trump supporters that are going, what are you talking about, Trump? You’ve got to support her. How can you possibly support the vice president of this corrupt regime? But the problem is that Maduro’s vice president, Delce Rodriguez, Delce Rodriguez does right now at least have control and support of the military regime. the governmental structure that’s there. And how can Trump say, let’s take somebody who’s not even in the country and somehow believe that that person is going to be able to control the military to support her and bring her back in? This could end up being a thing where it creates an internal civil war. I think Trump is being wise to say, you know what, let’s take the existing government, That’s there now. Maduro’s gone. We cut the head off the snake and saying out of the body of the snake, you better not try to be Maduro. You better start working with the United States and clean up your act. And I think Trump realizes at least that’s the best way to get some stability right now. Force them to not make the same stupid mistake that Maduro was making. If he can get them to reform somewhat. then that’s going to be better. But to try to create a whole brand new government with somebody who’s not even in the country at this point and can’t even go into the country for fear of her life and think that person’s going to go in and be able to control the legislature there, lead the legislature, lead and control the military. I can understand what Trump’s thinking is.
SPEAKER 02 :
I can too. Before we move on, Preborn, Bob, talk to us about that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I tell you what, Preborn is such a great organization. They really are a pro-life group that are in pro-life centers all across America, folks. And what they do is they show ultrasound images of unborn babies to expect in moms. And when these moms see a picture of their baby, it’s the first time they’ve ever seen what their baby looks like. You know how rare it is that they will go across the street to Planned Parenthood and go through with an abortion? No, they usually let their baby live. And by the way, very commonly, they accept Jesus Christ as Savior too. So that’s why we want to keep on supporting pre-born. Give and give and keep on giving to pre-born. Let’s make this part of a regular process. budget that we have in our households, a missionary budget to save babies’ lives. You’re paying for ultrasound images, okay? $28 is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion, to save one baby’s life. Pray about a number of babies’ lives you’ll save. Take $28 times fill in the blank. Whatever that number is, that’s what you give to pre-born. And remember, every dime goes to ultrasounds, nothing for overhead. That’s all covered by private donors. So here’s how you give. Two ways, on the phone or online. On the phone, just call 833-850-BABY. The answer to the phone is 24-7, so call 833-850-BABY. Or online, go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn. And Neil, while they’re at CrawfordMediaGroup.net, we wanted to check out SunPowerLED.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and I hope they will. You know, there’s so much skepticism right now about big pharma and for good reason, right? I mean, when pharmaceutical companies, if somebody actually got healed using their product, they’d lose a customer. So if they can keep people on medication, and simply manage symptoms for the rest of their life, then they’ve got a customer for life. And you’ve got to look at that scenario when you think about what big pharma’s motivation is in all of this. They’re not interested in curing anybody, but interesting to note that as people have become more healthy over the years and have gotten more involved in exercise and nutrition, et cetera, they’ve begun to realize that the human body has tremendous capability to heal itself. How is that possible? Well, because that’s how God created our body. And guess what? The light that he created as well can be utilized to help heal the human body. How is that? Because certain wavelengths of red and near infrared light can be utilized through sun power LEDs technology to get into the cells, energize the mitochondria in our cells and heal our bodies. Reduce pain and swelling and promote healing. And if you want to learn about it, simply go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on SunPowerLED. There’s videos there. How can light be used to heal your body? Check it out for yourself. And by the way, if you purchase any products, use the promo code ROUNDTABLE10 to save yourself 10%. John?
SPEAKER 02 :
Really quick, going back to Venezuela and the oil thing, I just want to make sure folks really understand the magnitude of what they have. Largest oil reserve… country period, over 300 billion barrels left in the ground. The next closest is Saudi Arabia with about 260 billion, Canada at 170 billion. Bottom line, Bob, there is a ton of potential. And keep in mind, folks, that when you’re able to extract that oil, sell it, get it to the market and so on, it’s a huge boom, Bob, because there’s that trickle effect that happens across the board. And whether the average citizen of Venezuela gets a direct check from that oil, which, by the way, they could actually work out like some countries do. But at the end of the day, even if that doesn’t happen, just the economic boom that happens by having all of that activity is huge for those people.
SPEAKER 04 :
It really is. I mean, if you look at Venezuela, it’s like any country in the world. I don’t care where it is. You take a country in the world and they have the largest oil reserves in the world on the planet. The people there ought to be living economically. They ought to all be driving Lamborghinis, Bob. They should be. You know what? Venezuela ought to be the Dubai of Central America. I mean, they really ought to be. And so if you look at how the people there have suffered, are you aware of the fact that a lot of people don’t know this? Do you know that inflation, since Maduro has taken over from Hugo Chavez, inflation has actually hit as high as 130,000 percent?
SPEAKER 02 :
So much so that you can spend it quickly. You might as well just throw it in the street.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, it is insane. The Venezuelan money isn’t worth anything. Things are so expensive. The supermarket shelves are empty. And you’re talking about the most oil-rich nation on the planet. This is how corrupt they are. But what Chavez did and what Maduro has been doing is saying, hey, let’s line our own pockets and the pockets of our own cronies by partnering with the drug cartels to kill a And you’re going to criticize Donald Trump for having that guy in handcuffs now? Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER 02 :
I had talked about earlier in this, Neil, I’m going to throw this to you. I talked about how, you know, we have the midterms coming up and what would Donald Trump need to really help overall in the midterms. And I had said a few weeks ago that we need a big win in Venezuela. By the time the election rolls around, we need to show people that, yes, we’ve got a stable government. Yes, the people there are happy. Yes, they’re becoming more wealthy and all the things that Bob just talked about. And to me, that was one of the bigger things that needed to happen outside of our own country, of course. And we’ve got things going on in our own country that we can talk about probably in some future podcasts that I think are going to start rolling along as well, the Fed change and so on. But at the end of the day, Neil, one of the biggest wins, I think, for Donald Trump and us as conservatives is what just happened.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and I don’t think that the average American, even if they don’t like Donald Trump for whatever number of reasons, that the average American can overlook things like what happened in Iran when we shut down their nuclear capability with one airstrike. And then on top of it, you know, what just happened in Venezuela. Donald Trump is a man of action. He shut the border like he said he was going to. Obviously, the economy has been a little slower coming around than what he had promised. And we’re all kind of dealing with that reality that may begin to change soon enough. But, you know, I think that thinking Americans are going to take all of this into account. headed into the midterms. And while there’s plenty of things to disagree with, you know, Donald Trump about, particularly the way he addresses people or the things that come out of his mouth from time to time, I think by and large, people feel pretty secure in the U.S. right now and feel that things are headed in a proper direction. That, you know, the country’s back on track after the four Biden years that almost destroyed us. And I think that that’s going to bode well for the upcoming election. A lot more needs to happen in Donald Trump’s favor because it’s what happens to the middle voter, you know, the independent voter, the people in the mushy middle. Are they going to come this way? Well, a few more Venezuelans on top of whatever’s happened in the past. And I think that we’re going to do quite well in the midterms.
SPEAKER 02 :
And switching gears a little bit here, Bob, let’s talk about this for a moment. When you start looking at what’s happening in Minnesota with all of the fraud and things that are going on there, I mean, you’ve got to believe that, yes, I know the hardcore folks on the left, it’s a blind eye. They don’t care. They’re not paying any attention to it. You know, no, no wrong done if you would at the end of the day. But you’ve got to look at that middle of the road voter thinking to themselves, wait a minute, you can’t just brush all these billions of dollars that have literally just gone to waste and have have been sent out of the country in some cases in suitcases of cash and so on. I mean, at the end of the day, Bob, the middle of the road voter has to be looking at that, providing we message correctly.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. I mean, come on. You got the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz. He’s not running for reelection now, basically in disgrace. And I’m guessing because of this.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. And we don’t even know if he’s going to survive till the end of his term. Even a lot of people are calling for him to step down. And keep in mind that. This is the guy that if Kamala Harris would have won would be vice president of the United States today. This is who the Democrats chose to be vice president. This guy who was so incompetent and so corrupt that he could allow something like this to go on right under his nose. And by the way, this is also part of the problem with wokeness and DEI and such because – A lot of the reason that Tim Walz would not go after and Keith Ellison, the attorney general, would not go after the Somalis is because, let’s face it, they’re black African Muslims. And so, oh, you know, we can’t be calling black African Muslims criminals and fraudsters. We just can’t do that. And so they got a pass and they got to defraud the state of $9. billion dollars. Who knows how much more it’s actually really going to be. And this is money that was supposed to pay for food for hungry children. And to think about this money going back to Africa to buy luxury properties, Lamborghinis, vacation packages and such.
SPEAKER 02 :
And really quick, Bob, I want to interject. Some of the things you’re talking about, people were bragging on their social media accounts in the very same things that you’re talking about. So, folks, we’re not making this up.
SPEAKER 03 :
They were openly bragging about these things.
SPEAKER 04 :
Exactly. It’s like, hey, look what we’re able to do. This is how great – they’re recruiting people into this. That’s right. The cash cow – and by the way, a lot of that money, it’s reported as well, went to al-Shabaab, which is the largest Islamic jihadi terror group in Somalia as well. So this is a – This is a scandal of epic proportion. And by the way, it’s not just the Somalis in Minnesota. Minneapolis has the largest Somali population in America. The number two largest is Columbus, Ohio, which is where I’m from originally. I was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. Huge Somali population there. And again, the liberal Democrats are like, oh, hands off. We don’t want to criticize them because they’re black African Muslims and therefore political correctness. We don’t want to look like we’re racist. I don’t care if somebody is black or white, African European. I don’t care. If you’re committing fraud, you need to be arrested and go to prison.
SPEAKER 03 :
Let me just say, I don’t think Minnesota is the only place where this is happening. It’s not. Right. So, I mean, where do we go from here as far as investigating? Because let’s start lifting up all of the rocks and find out where the rats are living, right? I mean, this is American taxpayer dollars that we’re talking about here to the tune of billions. How in the world do auditors not… you know, keep track of this kind of stuff. And and then how long are the American people going to put up with going to work every day with more than 50 percent of their income going to pay some kind of state, local or federal tax and realizing that it’s being poured into situations like this where people are just walking off with the cash or funding terror groups in other countries? I mean, it’s unbelievable. It’s got to stop.
SPEAKER 02 :
I agree, Neil, 100 percent. And and, you know, by the way, on top of that, you know, how did how did this slip through some of the auditors and so on? Great question. And what’s happening right now, which even deepens the fraud, is they’re figuring out now that, oh, wait a minute, we’ve now got falsified documents where they were trying to cover their tracks on where some of this money went and what they were doing for it and so on. So this thing is, they’ve just scratched the surface on this thing. To your point, Neil, I think you’re going to see them uncover a lot more when it’s all said and done. Unfortunately, Bob, I’ll throw this back over to you. The regular mainstream media, this is a nothing burger to them.
SPEAKER 04 :
I know. I know. And, you know, plain and simple, we know why. Because Tim Walz is a Democrat. He was Kamala Harris’s choice for VP. There are some people that have thought, well, maybe just maybe he could be a 2028 guy. But at this point, I don’t see how. Nope. But no, this is this is the press covering for their own. All right. We have Democrats, especially prominent Democrats, who show either corruption or at best massive incompetence. Let’s not make a news story out of this. Let’s not make an issue. I guarantee you if this were in Florida. And it were Ron DeSantis under his nose that allowed $9 billion of taxpayer money to go for fraud so that the little starving children don’t get the food. The rich cronies end up getting the food in another country somewhere – end up getting the money in another country somewhere. Right. Ron DeSantis would be done. The media would be all over this. It’s Tim Wall, so it’s like, all right, well, let’s move on to the next story. Oh, by the way, let’s have a candlelight vigil for January 6th. That’s what’s really important. Oh, boy.
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s unbelievable. No, you’re exactly right. And again, Neil, I laugh at some of that. I’m laughing at Bob a little bit just because of how real that really is and the fact that, yes, and folks listening, trust me, no matter what side of the aisle you’re on, if you can’t see – What’s going on right in front of your face in regards to what the news media does to promote one party while tearing down the other, showing you whose side they’re really on. They’re supposed to be independent. Neil, they are far from.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and I think some of this goes back to what’s been taught on college campuses for the last 40 years, that whites are the oppressors and everybody else are the victims. And there’s still attempts by the mainstream media, even after all this has been uncovered, to say that the Somali people are still victims in all of this. What do you mean they’re victims? They’ve stolen billions of dollars. By the way, can you imagine the accountant that said, oh, I think all the numbers are pretty square here. You know, this is how much came in and so much went out. But I might be off by nine zeros or something. Right. I mean, come on. Are you serious? And then on top of that, like you’re going to quibble over where the decimal point goes.
SPEAKER 04 :
I mean, come on.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. Yeah. What about Ilhan Omar? Are we serious right now? Is this person to be taken seriously, and should she still be in the U.S. Congress? I can’t even imagine what the future holds for her, and yet nobody seems to be really concerned that she’s somehow involved in all of this, and nobody’s really bringing her name up, at least right now.
SPEAKER 04 :
She keeps getting voted back into office. That’s what the Democrats keep on doing. Let’s just reward them by voting them back into office.
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t understand. I don’t understand the confusion and the delusion that has to go along with all of that.
SPEAKER 02 :
I don’t get it either. I really don’t. The fraud here just continues to run deeper and deeper and deeper. And guys, you know, everything you’re saying is correct. And why these folks keep getting elected is, I mean, Bob, we can talk about that for a couple of minutes here before we close things out. That to me, I just continue to ask that same question, no matter whether I’m here in Colorado, whether you watch what’s going on in Minnesota. It’s like, why do the, I mean, are people just that stupid?
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, I think so. I think they’re they’re kind of blinded by their their ideology. So, you know, I’ve said this for years. Liberals tend to accuse conservatives what they the liberals are actually the most guilty of. Right. And liberals tend to accuse conservatives of, you know, having a blind allegiance to the Republican Party or whatever. And it’s like, no, we don’t. We call out our own when we disagree with what they do. But the liberal left, it’s like, no. You know what? It’s almost like you could do a man on the street interview and say, we have a prominent politician in Washington, D.C., who did this or said this or something really bad. What are your thoughts on that? They can’t answer it until they go, well, who is it? And is it a Republican or a Democrat? That should have no bearing on what our opinion of it is. For most conservatives, it has no bearing. But for liberals, it does. I got to wait and find out if this is one of my side or the other side.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. No, you’re exactly right. And that’s where, for those of you listening, yeah, it is not fair. It’s why we have to be out here doing what we’re doing on a regular basis to try to set the record straight. And along those lines, Bob, pre-born is one of those that’s doing that when it comes to the unborn.
SPEAKER 04 :
Boy, they sure are. And we’re asking you folks to just continue giving to pre-born as much as you can. It’s a new year. It’s 2026. And let’s keep it going. Do you have any idea how many thousands, tens of thousands of babies’ lives are being saved year after year because of you folks in this very audience? That’s right. When you give to pre-born, what you’re doing is you’re paying for ultrasound images. Ultrasound images, when shown to a pregnant mom, saves that baby’s life almost all the time. And by the way, the mom very commonly accepts Jesus Christ as Savior too. Preborn has ultrasound machines in pro-life centers all across the country. Problem is, there are some pro-life centers that don’t have machines in them. And the ones that do have them in them, they can’t run and operate without money. It takes money to do this. That’s where you folks come in. We need some of you to buy ultrasound machines. We need some of you to pay for ultrasound images. Buying an ultrasound machine is $15,000. It’s a nice tax write-off for you, but you get to know you’re saving thousands of babies’ lives, okay, over the years. And for the rest of you, pay for an individual number of ultrasound images. 28 bucks is the cost to save one baby’s life. How many babies’ lives will you save? Take $28 times fill in the blank. Whatever that number is, that’s what you give to pre-born. And hey, listen, 100% of what you give goes to ultrasounds, nothing for overhead. That’s all covered by private donors. So give right now. Just call 833-850-BABY. That’s 833-850-BABY. Give over the phone. They answer 24-7. Or you can give online at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Click on Preborn. And Neil, while they’re at CrawfordMediaGroup.net, we wanted to check out SunPowerLED.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and I can’t wait to tell you about that. But before I do, I’m just going to say I agree with Vice President Vance that Nick Shirley, this influencer online, deserves a Pulitzer Prize for uncovering this whole thing in Somalia. It totals more than the entire gross domestic product of Somalia. That’s how much money is stolen. Listen, it doesn’t cost a lot to get yourself a SunPower LED light therapy device that can be used to heal your body. And I want to tell you about that real quick because I know that my own body has benefited from the use of light therapy. It’s simply using light waves that God created to help heal our bodies. And what it does is it uses certain wavelengths of red or near-infrared light, penetrates the body, gets to the cellular level, excites the mitochondria in the cell, and wakes up our bodies. to do what our bodies were created to do, and that’s to heal themselves. I mean, the bottom line is if you cut your hand and you had three weeks to sit and look at your hand, you would watch it heal over those three weeks. Why? Because that’s how God created it, and our bodies were meant to heal themselves. So listen, no pharmaceuticals, no surgical intervention. If you want to learn about… how light therapy can be used to help reduce pain and swelling in your body to do away with things like migraine headaches and tinnitus and epileptic seizures and knee pain and plantar fasciitis. Check it out for yourself by going to CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Click on SunPowerLED. And by the way, if you order a unit, use the promo code ROUNDTABLE10. And because you’re a listener to the Roundtable, you’ll get yourself a 10% discount. Go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Click on SunPowerLED.
SPEAKER 02 :
And, folks, as we head down this stretch into 2026, new year, first episode of the year, yeah, I would highly encourage you guys to, A, go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net, check out all the different things that we have going on across all of our stations, coast to coast. On top of that, the sponsors, Preborn and Crest. sun power led yeah whatever you can do to help out uh pre-born and if you want real therapy real fix to your pain and the other things that are going on in your body sun power led uh personally speaking can’t speak enough about either one of those organizations so guys again first episode of the year is in appreciate all of you listening and if you have any complaints make sure you send those to to bob duke i knew where that was going i knew where that was going All right, guys, that’s it for today. Happy New Year to you, too. Happy New Year, everybody. Thanks for listening. This is the National Crawford Roundtable.
SPEAKER 01 :
You’ve been listening to the National Crawford Roundtable podcast, a view of today’s culture through a biblical lens brought to you by Preborn, saving babies and souls. Join us in the fight to save babies from abortion. Your gift provides a free ultrasound for a mother in need. 80% of the time she will choose life. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on their logo to donate. And by SunPower LED light therapy devices. Bring light to your pain. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the SunPower LED logo to get out of pain and improve your overall wellness. You can download this podcast from Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and more from your local Crawford Media Group stations website or at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. And please give this podcast a five-star rating on your Apple app. Look for the notification on your app for when the next weekly edition of the National Crawford Roundtable podcast is ready for you to download. This is a Crawford Media Group production.
