SPEAKER 03 : 0:05

Welcome to the Mike Gallagher Show Week in Review podcast. I’m Eric Hansen. It’s Friday, December 6th, 2024. This week, Joe lets Hunter off the hook, football fans find trouble on the field, and Trump wants the hostages out of Gaza or else. Let’s begin with guest host Joey Hudson as he tries to make sense of President Biden going back on his word. What?

SPEAKER 05 : 0:27

Joe Biden kicked off the week by letting the world know that he would in fact be pardoning his son, Hunter Biden, after repeatedly saying for a couple of years now that he would never do so. Is this just another example of lying, Joe? Maybe Joe Biden has always intended to pardon his son, but in the last six months or so, He’s made a point, as his White House staff has made a point, to say, under no circumstances would Joe Biden pardon Hunter Biden. So what happened? How did this come about? Or was that the plan all along? And Joe Biden, back when he was presidential candidate Joe Biden— Was he just saying that because of the optics of the idea of the president pardoning his own son? He was trying to gain your vote. But he even said it after he dropped out of the race. He has said it multiple times. In cut number one, days after Hunter’s peers found him guilty— and of course we know he was about to be sentenced just in a few days, probably would have received some time in prison. He could have received up to 17 years for his offenses, and we’re going to go into those in just a moment. But the point is that as recent as just a few weeks ago, Joe Biden, in cut number one, said that he was not going to do anything. He was not going to interfere in the judicial system.

SPEAKER 02 : 2:14

With regard to the question regarding the family, I’m extremely proud of my son, Hunter. He has overcome an addiction. He’s one of the brightest, most decent men I know. And I am satisfied that I’m not going to do anything. I said I abide by the jury decision. I will do that, and I will not pardon him.

SPEAKER 05 : 2:36

I will abide by the jury decision, and I will not pardon him. So what changed from then, and again, that’s just been recently, to last night when he issued this statement? He said, Today I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I’ve watched my son being selectively and unfairly prosecuted. The president went on to claim that his son was treated differently by prosecutors, saying that without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form, he said. In the statement, Biden wrote, those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently. Oh, so I guess he’s saying that his Department of Justice was holding a different accountability to Hunter Biden. that it just wasn’t fair. He’s being persecuted because of who his dad was. Doesn’t matter that he broke the law. Biden also referenced his son’s addiction, blamed it on raw politics, saying there’s been an effort to break Hunter, who has been five and a half years sober. Even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution, In trying to break Hunter, they’re trying to break me, he said, and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough, Joe Biden wrote. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president come to this decision. Do you understand how a father and a president makes this decision after repeatedly telling the American people, the people who he serves, that he would not do this?

SPEAKER 03 : 4:50

Do you understand? The ceasefire in Israel lasted barely a week before both sides exchanged rocket fire. But never fear, the Trump administration has made its intentions clear before even taking office. Think about this for a minute.

SPEAKER 05 : 5:06

The ceasefire barely lasted a week with these terrorists. This is why it’s just so hard to trust these people. In a statement, the Israeli Defense Forces said fighter jets struck Hezbollah operatives and dozens of rocket launchers and facilities belonging to the terror group just across the Lebanese border. Hezbollah claimed earlier yesterday… that it launched the mortars in response to Israel’s repeated violations of the ceasefire deal that took effect last week, and said that it should serve as an initial warning over IDF strikes on Lebanon during the truce and the continued violation of Lebanese airspace by hostile Israeli aircraft. The International Monitor reported Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would respond strongly after Hezbollah launched rockets at a watchtower, the first time the group has attacked Israel since the ceasefire just last week. Meanwhile… There’s soon to be a new sheriff in town, and he issued an ultimatum to the Hamas terrorists on the southern side of Israel. In a statement posted on Truth Social, President-elect Donald Trump did not mince words. He made it very clear that if the hostages taken by Hamas on October the 7th of 2023 are not released by the time he is sworn in on January the 20th, He said, quote, all hell to pay. This wasn’t just rhetoric. Donald Trump’s comments signal a pretty stark contrast and a warning to Hamas and other actors in that region that he will do something, that he will take action. As you know, on October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a devastating attack on Israel, killing at least 1,200 or so people, kidnapped 250 or so, and many of those remain in captivity in just horrid, unbelievable circumstances. Among the hostages, we believe there’s about seven Americans The attack has plunged the region into some of its worst crisis in a number of decades, and there doesn’t appear to be any end in sight. Trump’s statement comes amid frustration that there hasn’t been any progress in to secure the release of the hostages. He wrote, Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire world, but it’s all talk and no action. He added, if the hostages are not released prior to January 20th, 2025, there will be all hell to pay in the Middle East and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against humanity. What do you think about that? Is this… And I know… President Trump is wanting to show Hamas his strength and wanting to inform them that he’s not going to sit back like Joe Biden has. But is it dangerous as well to make such a bold statement? knowing that you’ve got to back it up? Because if the hostages are not released by January 20th, what is our response? What are we willing to do? Are we going to send troops over there? Are we going to send our aircraft over there? Are we going to select some targets? What’s the military strategy here? What are we willing to do? What are we willing to put our men and women in uniform at risk to settle this, to get those hostages released.

SPEAKER 03 : 9:37

The stakes are pretty high. We were delighted to welcome CNN senior political analyst Scott Jennings to guest host for Mike on the show this week. Scott broke some news when he interviewed Congressman James Comer.

SPEAKER 06 : 9:51

You are raising some concerns, and I think a lot of people are going to have concerns about it. It sounds like some of the federal government workers unions are cutting deals with the Biden administration on the way out the door here to let all these federal bureaucrats work from home for years and years and years. I think people would be shocked if they went to Washington, D.C. and went into some of these office buildings. People don’t come to work. And now they’re cutting deals that will let them. What is going on with this and what are we going to do about this? People need to go to work, don’t they?

SPEAKER 08 : 10:23

Absolutely. The American people may have thought that the Joe Biden’s pardon to Hunter was the last middle finger from Joe Biden to the American people. But no, the last middle finger happened yesterday when Joe Biden issued an executive order granting more federal employees the right to work from home. And you’ve already got a majority of the federal workers in Washington, D.C. They don’t even come to work. Some of these big buildings in Washington, D.C. are only 8% occupied. If you try to call someone on the phone and get someone on the phone in a D.C. office, it’ll be a miracle if that actually happened. No one is coming to work under Joe Biden. So the American taxpayers that work hard every day, many of whom have two jobs, paying taxes to the federal government, the last thing they want to see are more fat cat, big government employees sitting at home in their pajamas all day, sleeping until noon, not providing any service to the American people. And that’s what Joe Biden just did. He is doing everything he can to burn it down on the way out. And I think that one of the goals of Doge is to trim The federal workforce. The first thing we need to do is get the employees back to work and then we can figure out who’s actually working and who needs to be let go. So, you know, it’s a disaster with the federal workforce right now in Washington, D.C. They’re not coming to work. Even the mayor, Muriel Bowser, supports my efforts to bring the federal workforce back to work because all these retail outlets and restaurants have shut down in Washington, D.C. because there are no federal employees going to work.

SPEAKER 06 : 12:04

Before we let you go, Congressman, I assume that your engagement with the Doge effort and looking into this federal workers not coming to work, this is going to be at the top of your list when Congress comes back in January. Can you give me a little snapshot? What else is on Jamie Comer’s mind when the Republicans come back and you chair the House Oversight Committee? What else can we expect out of you and the Republican majority on the oversight front?

SPEAKER 08 : 12:29

Well, I’m meeting with Elon and Vivek tomorrow, but I can tell you we’re going to be working very closely with their efforts to eliminate waste, fraud, abuse in the federal government. That’s what our committee is supposed to do. We didn’t have a majority of senators willing to go along with many of the good government bills we passed out of the House, and we sure as hell didn’t have a White House that wanted to have good government. Now we do. Now the pieces are in place. I love the two point people on this Doge thing. I think we’re going to look at unnecessary government programs, wasteful grants. We’re going to look at unneeded federal bureaucrats and just going to start taking the ax out and trying to chop waste, fraud and abuse at every corner of the federal budget. There’s no shortage of opportunities to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse. And that’s what my number one priority is going to be in this next Congress.

SPEAKER 06 : 13:19

That’s Congressman Jamie Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, the oracle of American politics. He was on to the Bidens before anybody. He has been totally vindicated. And a little news. You’re meeting with Elon and Vivek.

SPEAKER 07 : 13:32

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SPEAKER 03 : 15:02

This is the Mike Gallagher Show Week in Review podcast. I’m Eric Hansen. Our guest host Scott Jennings gave us an inside glimpse of the Trump campaign thanks to a visit from campaign manager Chris Lasavita.

SPEAKER 06 : 15:14

So much unprecedented stuff, the legal stuff you had to fight through. Then you had the assassination attempt. I mean, we were a quarter of an inch from a total cataclysm in Butler, PA. What was that day like? I mean, just a surreal experience, I’m sure, for you watching your candidate that you’re working for nearly get assassinated at a rally.

SPEAKER 04 : 15:36

Yeah, it you know, I was in I was actually in Milwaukee because the the other job that I had still have for a couple more weeks anyway was chief of staff of the RNC. And I was in Milwaukee for, you know, the convention. And I had this TV on in my in my room. And, uh, my daughter was down the hall. She was staffing me, um, during the convention. And, uh, um, she came flying into my room and said, you know, they just shot the president. And, you know, I was, I had the TV on, I had the rally on and, and, and I was like paying attention. And I, then I, you know, it was, I picked up the phone and called Suze, uh, called Susie who was there and she was in the tent, the white tent behind the stage off stage. Um, Um, and she was saying, we don’t know how bad it is, but I’ll call you when we get to the hospital. And then I was telling her like, well, he just walked off stage punching, you know, shaking his fist, yelling, fight, fight, fight. So I think he’s going to be okay. But I mean, that’s how literally I knew, um, You know that that that he was fine because of the service, you know, and then Nick, who’s one of the agents, you could see him grabbing the boss by the collar and looking at him. I mean, it was just God watching that just makes my stomach. Sick. An amazing day.

SPEAKER 06 : 17:07

Nonetheless, a terrible moment. But one of the most iconic photos probably ever taken in a presidential campaign and set the stage, I think, set sort of the narrative of Donald Trump, the comeback. Not a kid, you know, but I mean, the comeback narrative of Trump coming back, you know, from the political attacks, coming back from a literal assassination attempt. And to overcome it all, I just – we can talk – I don’t think we can ever talk about it enough. You can’t. One other issue that I think needs more attention is how you and Susie and the RNC and the campaign totally revolutionized Republican ground game politics. You and I have been in a lot of campaigns together over the years and lived through these presidential campaigns, and it was about volume. How many people can you call? How many doors can you knock? But it was – and it was about quantity. Quantity. not quality. And a lot of our listeners, I’m sure, volunteered on some of these campaigns. You totally threw out the old playbook and revolutionized this to great success. How did you do it? What was the theory?

SPEAKER 04 : 18:13

Two things. One, real quick. First of all, I did want to say, and I couldn’t let this slip by without saying that I’m one of your biggest fanboys. Just watching you every night on CNN is great entertainment. I just… It’s amazing stuff. But on the on the ground game, you know, we had a phenomenal operation, you know, led by James Blair in the political in the political department. And then, you know, Tim Saylor, who did didn’t even know Tim. He’s a data guy with and of course, Tony, our pollster. But the focus was was qualitative right over quantitative. And in the past, you know, it was we judged. the success of ground games by the amount of, of attempts that somebody made attempts at phone calls, attempts at, you know, door knocks, you know, it wasn’t about having a conversation. It wasn’t about a conversion, our focus, which we built this, um, You know, we basically tested this out in a much smaller laboratory, if you will. And that laboratory was the Iowa caucuses. And and and the so so the the the focus, obviously, much more on finding a group of people that which we, by the way, we define through our data, you know, low propensity voters and. We reformed and totally changed how they do data at the RNC. Right. And the ground games in all the battleground states were built on a very simple process, which we had two target audiences. We had a target audience of what we call persuadable voters. Those are the people that we knew that would decide the election. And then there was this group of low propensity voters that supported the president, but we had to make sure they showed up. Right.

SPEAKER 03 : 20:03

With this week’s pardon of Hunter Biden, now Democrats are pressing the president to extend clemency to others, including those incarcerated on marijuana charges.

SPEAKER 05 : 20:13

If you want to really get in the Christmas spirit, then help me out on this year’s Prison Fellowship Angel Tree campaign. I want to thank everyone who’s already given and given so generously. We’ve done great this week. And quite honestly… selfishly, I want to do real well for Mike while he’s away. I want him to see that we can hold the fort down while he’s out. The Angel Tree Christmas campaign is a very special thing that we do each year. And because of you, we’re able to help hundreds and hundreds, thousands actually, of young boys and girls whose mom and dad are in prison. I hope that you’ll take the opportunity to join those others who’ve already stepped up in supporting this awesome work of prison fellowship. So far, men and women just like you have donated enough to bless over 2,000 kids, but we need to keep moving because we’re just about halfway to our goal of just over 5,000. So will you help me today? These kids have a mom or a dad or, in some cases, both in prison. And as we hear from Angel Tree’s Alice Hall, your donation can literally change the lives of these kids and make Christmas special.

SPEAKER 01 : 21:26

It connects families, and it also gives us an opportunity to love people the way Jesus loves us. Jesus can love them through us with those gifts. You know, it talks in the Bible about us remembering those in prison. And because I’ve been in prison, I know exactly what he means by that. And it’s a beautiful opportunity to help people in that.

SPEAKER 05 : 21:49

Every year, Mike reaches out to you, and boy, do you always respond, to bless these kids through the Angel Tree Christmas program. There’s a banner reading Change a Child’s Christmas on the MikeOnline.com website. Just go to MikeOnline.com, click on the Donate button at Change a Child’s Christmas, and as I said, your donation today can literally change a child’s life for eternity. The cost to reach one child is just $30. And that boy or girl will receive a special Christmas gift. They’ll receive a note from his or her parents and a Bible. Most importantly, God’s Word will be delivered to them. You can bless five children for just $150. So… If you will, do this right now. Text ANGEL to 800-655-MIKE. Just text the keyword ANGEL to 800-655-6453. I’ll send you a link. Or you can call 888-206. 2788-888-206-2788. Have your credit card ready. Or just go to MikeOnline.com. Click on the Change a Child’s Christmas banner and help make Christmas special for one of these kids. This is the most blessed season of the year. And thanks to you, it’s going to be special for a boy or a girl. They will receive a gift, they’ll receive a personal note, and most importantly, they’ll receive a copy of the Bible, all through Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program, and because of your generosity. Back to the phones. John is in Dallas, Texas. John, you’re on the Mike Gallagher Show.

SPEAKER 09 : 23:29

Yeah, hi, Joey. Thanks for taking my call. Regarding the letting people out for marijuana, I’m against that, but I have a question that Do you think they would be doing this right now if Harris had won?

SPEAKER 05 : 23:45

Good question. I don’t know the answer to that. I think they probably are. The progressives in the party are pushing Biden because they know he has nothing to lose. He’s on his way out. He’s done. Now, would it have been different if Kamala Harris had won? I’m not so sure she wouldn’t have encouraged it.

SPEAKER 09 : 24:07

Well, the thing that really bothers me about the whole thing is it’s like, you know, all of a sudden they’re going to do this and they’re just jerking the American public around. You know, they’re doing this to spite Trump and despite the fact that they lost. And so they’re going to just take this opportunity to do whatever they want and just jerking us around to try to do this real quick without thinking it through. And it’s just another example of them just jerking us around. I just hate it. Well…

SPEAKER 05 : 24:32

People like Ilhan Omar, they want people to think that some of these thousands of people that she cited are sitting in prison because they were smoking a marijuana cigarette. Again, my law enforcement contacts tell me that there’s not a lot of people in prison just because of marijuana. They committed other crimes, and that’s why they’re in prison. They happened to be smoking marijuana when they committed those crimes. Let’s go back to Dallas where we have Paul. Welcome, Paul. You’re on the Mike Gallagher Show. Hey, how you doing today? I’m wonderful, Paul. Hope you are.

SPEAKER 10 : 25:08

Hey, I just want to say something. I have seen no problem with letting somebody out because of a… minor marijuana charge you know if they were just like at a concert concert smoking a joint and a cop walked up on them and took them oh you’re going to jail and they didn’t have but maybe two or three joints on them you know that’s kind of crazy to give prison time waste taxpayer money on some small stuff like that when they need to be hunting down big stuff yeah are you in are you in favor of legalizing marijuana To a certain degree, yeah.

SPEAKER 05 : 25:42

So what degree?

SPEAKER 10 : 25:43

As long as it’s private, use it in the privacy of your home. Okay. But here’s the thing I don’t understand. Let’s compare it with alcohol. How many lives and how many people have been destroyed through alcohol?

SPEAKER 05 : 25:56

Yep. You got a point there, Paul.

SPEAKER 10 : 25:59

You can drink all you want. You can buy all you want. You can do whatever you want. You can be in public drug. I mean, you get caught. Yeah, but look at all the people killed from alcohol abuse.

SPEAKER 05 : 26:09

Well, Paul, appreciate your phone call. Paul, I mean, an example is just this week in my home state of South Carolina, a young lady, 27 years old, she was drunk. She had been at multiple bars and hit a couple who were literally on a golf cart driving back from the beach on their wedding day. She hit them, killed the bride instantly. She was sentenced. She pled guilty this week, sentenced to 25 years. In that case, it was all because of alcohol. So you make a good point. I mean, you know, alcohol can be as bad as marijuana if you abuse it. Anything. and when you abuse it, can be bad.

SPEAKER 03 : 26:50

And finally, one of the great American debates. If your football team wins a big game, should you be allowed to storm the field? Guest host Joey Hudson says yes.

SPEAKER 05 : 27:01

Here in my home state of South Carolina, my Carolina Gamecocks played the Clemson Tigers. For once, we were successful. That doesn’t happen often. The Clemson Tigers are a pretty tough team. The Gamecocks have had a good season, and we beat Clemson on Saturday. There’s a tradition in Death Valley that it’s okay for fans to run out on the field after the game. This past week, Coach Dabo Sweeney said that he was lucky to get out alive during the post-game celebration. Thousands of Clemson and South Carolina fans were on the field. Players from both teams nearly got into an altercation, reportedly because some Gamecock players attempted to plant a Gamecock flag in the middle of the Tiger Paw on Frank Howard Field. Sweeney said in his Sunday call, it was dangerous, it was scary. He said, we’ve got to make sure that does not happen anymore, and we can’t be hypocrites either. He said that he was going to be talking with Gamecock coach Shane Beamer more on this. Sweeney said, obviously I’ve not been a part of much of that, but that was something that happened a couple years ago. And he’s talking about in the Clemson, when the Gamecocks got into an issue in, I think this was in 2020 maybe. He said, and this was when Clemson beat Carolina in Columbia, and Clemson tried to do the same thing. Sweeney said, I’m disappointed about that. And then again, this year seems to be a similar thing. He said, listen, we have to do something about this. So what is that? Some other teams around the country, the ACC, find North Carolina and rival North Carolina State on Monday $25,000 because they, too, they got into a fight. because they were trying to plant a team flag in the middle of the field. Same thing in the Big Ten Conference, Ohio State and Michigan. They were fined $100,000 each for the same thing. What’s the appropriate response here? And for some of you who are texting me and calling me, should fans just not be allowed on the field at all? Some of my texter says, Joey, college football should do what hockey, lacrosse, and rugby are doing. They line up after the game and they shake hands, win or lose. Fans running amok on the field is never a good idea. Todd in Atlanta. Thank you, Todd.

SPEAKER 03 : 30:01

And that wraps up the Mike Gallagher Show Week in Review podcast for Friday, December 6th, 2024. Be sure to subscribe to all of the podcasts and never miss a second of the shows. I’m Eric Hansen. We’ll see you back here next week on the Mike Gallagher Show Week in Review podcast.