In this week’s episode of The Mike Gallagher Show Week in Review, we dive into some of the most groundbreaking developments in politics. President Trump’s decisive action in Venezuela ends the Maduro regime, sending shockwaves through the Democratic Party, who find themselves caught in a web of contradictions. As political figures react, our discussion reveals the impact on both national and international stages. We also tackle the unfolding child care fraud scandal that has forced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz out of the reelection race and explore the implications of a new socialist leadership in New York City.
00:29:19 Reflections on the Capitol Riots Anniversary
SPEAKER 06 :
Welcome to the Mike Gallagher Show Week in Review podcast. I’m Eric Hansen. It’s Friday, January 9th, 2026. This week, President Trump ends the Maduro era in Venezuela. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announces his own departure from the race for reelection and a communist takes the reins in New York City. We begin with President Trump as he plays his latest trick on Democrats.
SPEAKER 05 :
President Trump’s latest trick was to get the Democrats to support a bloodthirsty tyrant, a drug cartel guy named Nicolas Maduro. And they actually are supporting Nicolas Maduro. Free Maduro! Free Maduro! I think, honest to goodness, I think that had today’s breed of Democrats… been around when we got Osama bin Laden. If Trump got Osama bin Laden, they’d be calling for a war crimes tribunal. They’d lose their minds. You know they’d be in the streets supporting Osama bin Laden. You know full well they’d be supporting. That’s not conjecture. That’s a fact. My buddy Mark Davis over the weekend texted me. He said, Mike, after the Venezuelan bold, daring, brilliant military action, no, we’re not at war with Venezuela. Yes, Trump has every bit of the legal authority he exercised. They don’t have a leg to stand on. We’ve got a mile worth of receipts of Democrats demanding that Trump do what he did. Chuck Schumer, the biggest hypocrite of all. Chuck Schumer rips Donald Trump for ending the Maduro regime after he previously ripped him for not ending the Maduro regime. You can’t make this crap up. This is who they are. And you know there would be lunatics in the streets of New York City complaining about getting Osama bin Laden. That’s where we are right now. That’s today’s Democrat Party. And they’re all doing it. Mark Kelly, Chris Murphy, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries. And I can accept that they’re always going to complain about anything that Trump accomplishes. We should accept that, okay? However, we got miles of tape and evidence of them demanding that Trump do what he wound up doing with Nicolas Maduro. It’s unbelievable.
SPEAKER 06 :
Meanwhile, the massive child care fraud scandal in Minnesota is not going away. Now it has forced Governor Tim Walz to abandon his bid for reelection.
SPEAKER 05 :
And the Somalia fraud scandal, it has already claimed its first political scalp. Tim Walz has abruptly dropped his bid for a third term. He issued a statement. where he said, in September, I announced that I would run for a historic third term as Minnesota’s governor. And I have every confidence that if I gave it my all, I would succeed in that effort. But as I reflected on this moment with my family and my team over the holidays, I came to the conclusion that I can’t give a political campaign my all. Every minute I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who prey on our differences. So he’s out. And the top contender… is expected to be Senator Amy Klobuchar. I guess she’d be better than him. I don’t know. Look, Ronald McDonald would be better than Tim Walz. The guy is an utter embarrassment and a clown. And was a heartbeat away from the presidency. And you can’t state this enough. Tim Walz is who today’s Democrat Party views as one of their… I mean, this is the guy who would have been a heartbeat away from the presidency if Trump hadn’t won in resounding fashion the way he won. And make no mistake, let the history revisionists try their best. Trump won in a resounding way. And they all they know it, too. You don’t take all the swing states. You don’t win the electoral college and the popular vote and not call that a mandate. Trump got a mandate and he’s delivering the way he said he would deliver.
SPEAKER 06 :
Arizona Senator Mark Kelly appeared in the infamous video encouraging military personnel to disregard orders they might believe are illegal. Now, the Department of Defense will take some action of its own.
SPEAKER 05 :
Senator Mark Kelly from Arizona is about to get his military pension docked as punishment for his participation in that video with five other congressional Democrats who urged members of the military to refuse illegal orders. Pete Hegseth. The Secretary of War, on X, posted a statement. In response to Senator Mark Kelly’s seditious statements and his pattern of reckless misconduct, the Department of War is taking administrative action against Captain Mark E. Kelly. Don’t forget, this guy’s retired Air Force, as well as being a Trump-hating… leftist loon from Arizona who pretends to be moderates. Don’t you love these Democrats like Ro Khanna and Mark Kelly who pretend to be moderate? And they’re as radical as Elon Omar. They’re as bad as the worst of the worst. Sadly, we’ve got conservative media that gives them cover sometimes. That Ro Khanna, no good. Bad news. Mark Kelly, bad news. So Pete Hegseth announced that the department has initiated retirement grade determination proceedings with reduction in his retired grade resulting in a corresponding reduction in retired pay. He’s getting his pension docked. Kelly will have a month to respond to the Department of War’s actions. Hegseth will finalize the process within 45 days, per the announcement. You know what the whole theme of 2026 is going to be? And I know it’s a crude term. I like to say futz around and find out, but that’s not really what F-A-F-O stands for. But that’s what this is all about. Hey, Nicolas Maduro futzed around and he found out. Tim Waltz futzed around and he found out. Mark Kelly futzed around and he found out. F-A-F-O. Gosh, can’t the midterms be tomorrow? I mean, we’d win in a landslide. The Democrats are starting out 2026 as a broken vessel. They are just complete. And look, why not?
SPEAKER 06 :
The Trump administration announced new vaccine guidelines this week, which has everybody talking.
SPEAKER 05 :
800-655-MIKE. Mike’s in Houston, Texas on the issue of the vaccine and the news that the Trump administration fulfilled its promise to reduce the vaccine schedule down to 11. Hey, Mike, how are you?
SPEAKER 04 :
Good, good. First time I’ve ever called in. I enjoy listening to your show. But this is an area I have a bit of knowledge as a physician. And I would say that the CDC and the government have a role in determining the safety and efficacy of vaccines. I also think that if you’re going to be exposing vaccines, other people to your illness that you have to be very circumspect about not getting vaccines. But this is a real improvement in clarification on the part of the government, and it should be left mostly to states and to schools. I don’t really want my kid going to school with a bunch of kids who don’t have measles vaccine. We’ve had some outbreaks because of immigrants who did not get vaccines and have started spreading it, and people can die from this.
SPEAKER 05 :
But to me, doctor, this is a fundamental question about parental rights. That, to me, is what this is at the core of. In other words, and as the administration has pointed out, nobody’s preventing you from getting as many vaccines for your kids as you choose. But it seems to me and it just seems like we’re trying that the government has been trying to their role has been to take that prerogative, that right away from a parent. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. No, you’re you’re completely correct. My only concern is where you have you’re putting other people at risk. And that would be, say, in the military, where you have people in barracks where we know there’s a high concentration of meningococcus, which can be very lethal. And there, I think it’s been the purview of the government to say, you need your meningococcal vaccine because we don’t want to wipe out a whole barracks and put them in the hospital.
SPEAKER 05 :
But what do we do about that with a child? If a parent doesn’t want their child to be vaccinated… And you would argue that that child could put other kids in the classroom at risk. What’s the practical solution to that?
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s really tough. And I’m not sure there is. But I think that part of this is just education. And unfortunately, we’ve got a situation where people have agendas and are… Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, vaccines, you know this. I’m up against the clock here, but vaccine skepticism is at an all-time high, and you know that. I don’t want to beat him up, but boy, did he tick off the team here. Eric and Christian and Tracy and Alex and I, we all got into a whole big dialogue about his points. And again, please, Dr. Mike, don’t take it personally. I don’t want to pick on you. But I do want to present to you at least what our team was saying about your comments comparing children in school to members of the military in a barracks with vaccinations. And your argument, Dr. Mike, that the real issue from your perspective as a physician is is the risk that an unvaccinated child puts or presents to other people. And all kinds of alarm bells went off. And I got to follow up because it really ties into the whole COVID era, doesn’t it? And the skepticism we have about vaccines. And it is well-deserved. We are skeptical about vaccines because we were lied to about vaccines. When I started telling you about MyPillow, I introduced to you the pillow that never goes flat, that stays nice and cool all through the night, that you can throw in the washer and the dryer as much as you want. It’ll still retain its shape, its form, your head, your neck perfectly aligned with your back. It’s a great thing. It’s going to get you the best night’s sleep of your life. Well, right now, you can get wholesale pricing on the classic MyPillow $14.98 with the promo code MYG. That’s the key to get these huge savings. Promo code MYG. You can transform any mattress with the MyPillow mattress topper. You’ll save up to $100. Get the Giza Dream Sheets. These luxurious, smooth, soft, silky sheets for as low as $29.98. Or the six-piece towel set for only $39.98. It’s all waiting for you at MyPillow.com. Look for the Mike Gallagher Special Square. Click on that box. And then when you put in your order, make sure you enter the promo code MikeG so you will save big on all of these items, including the classic MyPillow for only $14.98. MyPillow.com. Promo code MikeG. MyPillow.com. Promo code MikeG. Or call 800-928-6034. 800-928-6034. As we love to sing.
SPEAKER 04 :
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SPEAKER 06 :
Promo code MikeG. This is the Mike Gallagher Show Week in Review podcast. I’m Eric Hansen. This was the week that saw New York City hand over the mayor’s office to a communist.
SPEAKER 05 :
And here’s more news out of New York, which is astounding. Zoran Mamdani has chosen a guy by the name of Ramzi Qasem, to be his top legal advisor. I mean, everybody gets a lawyer, right? And mayors of big cities get top legal advisors. Zoran Mamdani announced, and I quote, he said this apparently last week, I will turn to Ramzi Kassem for his remarkable experience and for his commitment to defending those too often abandoned by our legal system. All right. Makes sense, right? Okay. He’s a socialist, communist. According to the Wall Street Journal, according to the U.S. government, a guy by the name of Ahmed al-Darby joined Osama bin Laden’s terror network in the late 1990s. According to the Wall Street Journal, Ahmed al-Darby worked as a weapons instructor at an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. You know who his lawyer was? Zoran Mamdani’s top legal advisor. Look, I don’t mean to laugh because I want to cry. I was in New York City on 9-11. I can still smell it. to my dying day, I’ll remember what the stench smelled like. Eric Hansen, who’s still with me, was with me that morning in the Empire State Building. We have gone from a country that was decimated by Osama bin Laden and his terrorists to the mayor of New York City, where most of that carnage took place, appointing A terrorist lawyer or a terrorist’s lawyer. And look, before being named Zoran Mamdani’s chief legal counsel, this character, Ramzi Qasem, also represented Mahmoud Khalil, the America-hating Columbia University Palestinian protest leader. The Wall Street Journal said, it all adds up to a coziness with Islamic radicalism that should enrage anyone with a shred of human decency. If you represent corporations, you’re a corporate lawyer. If you represent mobsters, you’re a mob lawyer. What do you call a lawyer who represents terrorists? The Wall Street Journal’s Matthew Hennessy writes that Curtis Sliwa urges skeptics to give the young socialist mayor a chance. Matthew Hennessy says on the first day of the Mamdani administration, I’ve already seen enough. One more point out of New York, and then I promise we’ll get into Minnesota and Tim Walz and Maduro and Venezuela. But you’ve got to hear… from Mamdani’s new tenant director. Now, Mamdani is all about affordable housing. Good luck in New York City. He wants to hammer landlords. He wants to go after corporations. He wants to have communist communes. Let’s face it, we know what he’s up to. But check out his new tenant director. His tenant director is a lady by the name of Sia Weaver. Let me share with you the enlightened words from New York City’s new tenant director.
SPEAKER 01 :
I think the reality is that for centuries, we’ve really treated property as an individualized good and not a collective good. And transitioning to treating it as a collective good and towards a model of shared equity will require that we think about it differently. And it will mean that families, especially white families, but some POC families who are homeowners as well, are going to have a different relationship to property than the one that we currently have.
SPEAKER 05 :
Did you hear that? Families, especially white families, are going to have a different relationship to properties. See, they don’t want people to own property. They want everybody to be living in government-subsidized housing. I mean, this absolutely ought to make every New Yorker’s blood run cold. I saw a poll the other day that said 60% of New Yorkers are all on board with Mamdani the commie. All right. Well, you guys go find out what you’re about to experience.
SPEAKER 06 :
This week, after over 60 years in business, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting finally decided to close its doors.
SPEAKER 05 :
The complete… destruction of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Their board voted to dissolve the entire organization. Public broadcasting, as we’ve known it, is done because of the way the federal government has decimated federal spending. We shouldn’t be supporting public broadcasting. How stupid is that? Why don’t you support me? I want a portion of your tax dollars to support the Mike Gallagher show. That okay? Of course not. We’ve got to earn your trust, we’ve got to earn your ratings, and we’ve got to generate the revenue to keep the show going. And PBS does, public broadcasting does that too. I flipped it on the other night, they’re filled with advertisements. They just glossy it up real pretty. They gussy it up. Oh, today’s program is brought to you by a grant from Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo, your banking needs met in your community, every neighborhood. Wells Fargo, here on public broadcasting. They got ads, and they sell tote bags, and they also get direct donations. for the programming that you see on public broadcasting. Good! Knock yourself out. You want to sit in front of the TV and watch the history of the tsetse fly? Knock yourself out. Make sure you buy a bunch of tote bags and donate. Contribute. I’ve asked this for years. Why in the Lord’s name in heaven above… Should one taxpayer dime be spent to fund entertainment? That’s all it is. I mean, you can call it information. It’s an entertainment outlet. It’s programming. It’s NPR, public broadcasting, PBS. Shouldn’t be any tax dollars allocated for that. So now the corporation for public broadcasting is gone. They’re dissolved. Now, don’t worry. They’re saying, we’re not going anywhere. We’re going to sell more tote bags. We’re going to rely on our donors more than ever. Yada, yada, yada. Knock yourself out. Where did I see? Where was I? What city was I in? I can’t even believe that I can’t remember the city. I walked by. a public broad… Maybe it was New York. I don’t remember. But wherever I was, I walked by a facility that housed public broadcasting. It was the local TV station. Gosh, it’s driving me crazy. Where was I? Was it in… It couldn’t have been in Bozeman, Montana. It was over the holidays. It was fairly recently. Anyway… It was the most beautiful, pristine, shining, state-of-the-art facility. They had all the equipment on display. You could see it from the street. I thought this facility is worth millions and millions of dollars. And taxpayers are supposed to help fund this? Give me a break.
SPEAKER 06 :
We return to Minnesota, where a confrontation between protesters and ICE went tragically sideways.
SPEAKER 05 :
But when you see a video of a woman accelerating, a woman who was an anti-ice activist, no way around that. We know enough about this to know that she was an anti-ice activist. Her partner, after this happened, was crying, I shouldn’t have brought her here. I shouldn’t have brought her here. She was videotaping. Her partner was outside the car videoing her efforts to block and impede and prevent violence. a lawful immigration enforcement activity. We have a right to enforce our immigration laws. Now, you may not agree with our immigration laws, and I can respect that. You may not agree with the presence of ICE in our communities to carry out the mass deportation effort that is underway right now in America. You have every right to campaign for politicians who want to change the laws. But by law, we have the right to enforce immigration law. Period. There’s no debate about that. That’s water is wet. We have the right to enforce immigration laws. Hey, challenge me. As Charlie Kirk would say… Prove me wrong. We have the right to enforce immigration law in America. No way around that. And now a 37-year-old mother is dead. 800-655-MIKE. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover today here in the Relief Factor Studios. I’m always grateful for this show. After a major news event like this, I’m always grateful for your voice. You may not agree with me. That’s okay. 800-655-MIKE. That’s what we’re here for. Let’s talk it through. Let’s talk it out. Let’s debate it. Let’s discuss. Let’s talk about Jacob Fry telling ICE to get the F out of Minnesota. Let’s talk about Tim Walz, the governor, threatening to weaponize the National Guard against federal law enforcement. We got a lot of stuff to sink our teeth into. But first of all, First things first, let’s check out what’s happening right now in Minneapolis, because there are reports that anti-ICE protesters are swarming around federal law enforcement officials. Nobody knows news better than this guy, the Mike Gallagher Show newsman himself, the one and only Roger P. Shulman, for our first visit in the new year. Hope you had a great holiday, Roger, and Happy New Year, my friend.
SPEAKER 02 :
Happy New Year to you. Not a happy day in Minneapolis, though. The protesters have started surrounding the federal building, the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, and federal officials have had to fire some pepper balls with pepper gas in them at the protesters because they’ve been getting too close. The governor, Governor Walz, has called out, as you mentioned, the National Guard and all police forces. Leave is canceled. All vacations are canceled. They’re bringing in everyone. And they’ve asked the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and other police agencies in the area of Minneapolis and St. Paul to reinforce them. So this is becoming a serious situation. Looking at it right now, in an attempt to move several protesters across the street from the federal building, they did deploy pepper gas. And that has been filling the air after they deployed that. Several protesters were coughing and gasping for breath. Tensions are flaring in St. Paul, which is the city right next to Minneapolis, if you’re not familiar with that area. A man they wanted to apprehend in the crowd. They went after him. Federal officers were pushing their way into a crowd of protesters, and then they had to shoot pepper balls to keep everybody back as they were swarming them. So it is a tenuous situation. As we mentioned, they have canceled school in Minneapolis for the rest of the week. I don’t know if that’ll help the situation or harm it. If these kids are free, they might want to come down there and place themselves in danger. So it is a very tenuous and dangerous situation right now. Temperature is about 23 degrees in Minneapolis, which is not that cold for them. It is for much of the country, but they’re used to it. So we expect more people rather than fewer as the day continues.
SPEAKER 05 :
My fellow Ohioan and our Salem colleague Hugh Hewitt just pointed out on social media that it is cold. It’s pretty frigid in Minnesota. You’re right. It’s 23 degrees for a Minnesotan. It’s pretty balmy. But on the other hand, it might be cold enough to thwart activists and protesters from taking to the streets. And if temperatures thaw out and it gets warmer, perhaps we’ll see even more violence in the streets.
SPEAKER 02 :
That is a possibility. And as you know, in situations like this, a lot of people are imported in. The professional protesters are flown in and bussed in and paid to go out and create havoc. And that may be the case here. It’s pretty early into it, but we can probably expect that from the left, as has been the case in other tenuous situations, dangerous situations around the nation in the past.
SPEAKER 05 :
Roger P. Shulman checking in from our newsroom. Thank you, my friend.
SPEAKER 06 :
And finally, this week marked the fifth anniversary of the Capitol riots on January 6th, 2021. Political commentator Victor Davis Hanson put it in perspective.
SPEAKER 05 :
Like Mark Davis in Dallas says, it makes smart people and makes them dumb. It takes funny people and makes them unfunny. It takes nice people and makes them mean. And I would add to that, it makes people be absolutely crazy. Trump directed an X-ray. Yeah, he riled people up. What a stretch to try to connect the dots and say, because Trump doesn’t believe in the legitimacy of the 2020 election. And by the way, big boy, most Americans don’t agree with the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Whole bunch of Americans believe that due to COVID, there were all kinds of hijinks and shenanigans that took place. And incidentally, hey Jay, now do the Democrats who didn’t think the 2016 election was legitimate. Every single prominent Democrat said that Trump wasn’t legitimately elected. You okay with that, Jay? Of course you are. I don’t know why I get riled up at these people, but they really are nuts. They are absolutely bat-crap crazy. Stop lying about January, and with the candlelight vigil. Oh, God bless America. It was a beautiful vigil of Ashley Babbitt. Thank you, Democrats. Thank you for paying tribute to her. Let’s get some common sense in here. Victor Davis Hanson evidently has had a health scare, but he’s, I believe, back posting, if I’m not mistaken, because I don’t think this is an older clip. And it’s a little lengthy, but it’s important. I want you to hear one of our great thinkers in America, Victor Davis Hanson, and his analysis of what really took place on January 6th.
SPEAKER 03 :
But we were told that it was a pre-planned armed takeover, a coup. But there was always something wrong about the left-wing narrative of January 6th because we knew there was a massive demonstration. We knew it turned violent outside. And we knew that people were sort of invited in, maybe because the guards inside the rotunda in the Capitol had no other alternative. But everything after that… was too clear-cut. The Democrats had the January 6th committee, and we know that some of the tapes and testimonies were not kept safely. They’re not accessible now. Some of the witnesses were kind of berated. Then we also learned that Speaker McCarthy’s nominations were not accepted for the first time in House history. And the only way you could get on the committee if you were a Republican… were if you either had no political future, like Adam Kissel, or you were doomed to defeat in your next election, like Liz Cheney. So there was something weird about it. Now we’re hearing more weird things. They just arrested the so-called pipe bomber. And this was very strange because we were told by the Biden DOJ, they didn’t know who he was. There was no information, but he was probably a… you know, a participant in the right-wing terrorist activities that day. So it was to their political advantage, apparently, not to really pursue the investigation. A new administration comes in, and they just start tracing the cell phone imprint of various people, and they look at their sales records where they bought this particular item in the pipe bomb, and they came up with a Brian Cole Jr. He’s a young African-American man Middle-class family. He says he’s an anarchist. Initial reports seem to suggest he was on the left and had empathies with Black Lives Matter and TIFA, but the evidence is so fragmentary, we’re not sure. All of these things, a number of FBI informants, a number of FBI agents, any effort to find the pipe bomber, the treatment of the January… It was all… never transparent. We never got the honest story. So that begs the question, why? Why didn’t they just come out and say, here’s all the information? And the reason is, is they wanted to cement a narrative in everybody’s mind that a reckless demonstration that turned into a riot was a pre-planned insurrection by Donald Trump who ordered it and therefore should forfeit his political career and and he should never be allowed to run for office. And they impeached him, and they wanted that narrative to stick. And it was a complete fabrication.
SPEAKER 06 :
And that wraps up the Mike Gallagher Show Week in Review podcast for Friday, January 9th, 2026. 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. I’m Eric Hansen. We’ll see you back here next week on the Mike Gallagher Show Week in Review podcast.
