[00:00:04] Broadcasting live from atop the Rocky Mountains, the crossroads of the West, you are listening to the Liberty Roundtable Radio Talk Show. Happy to have you along my fellow Americans, Sam Bushman, I've got Kurt Crosby with me. Hey Kurt, it was kind of a meltdown the other day when you joined us for the first time in quite some time.
[00:00:28] You started out and you didn't do your classic, buenos dias, howdy, howdy, howdy, and people didn't know what to do with themselves, my friend. I got all kinds of emails. Well, buenos dias, greetings and salutations, howdy, howdy, howdy. Thank you, Sam. All right, there you go, ladies and gentlemen. It's back in fine form, and that's a delightful thing to see.
[00:00:53] Anyway, I found it interesting that I did. I got some emails that are like, we love Kurt back, but he didn't do his classic, he's out of uniform. So I thought that was kind of funny. Yeah. All right, they're planning to shut down alligator Alcatraz. Kurt, I guess the feds and the state of Florida saying it's too expensive, can't keep it up. And this is a big disappointment, but I want to also be clear about this.
[00:01:19] You know, myself and Sheriff Richard Mack over at the Constitutional Sheriff's and Peace Officers Association, I have a relationship with Tom Holman. And I want everybody to understand, you know, you hear these things in the news and you think things are certain ways. And as Kurt brought out with the Beijing, you know, going to China deal, the story from Trump is completely different from the story of the mainstream press, right? We've highlighted that for literally 30 years.
[00:01:43] But anyway, I digress except to bring this up and say just because they're shutting down alligator Alcatraz and it's too expensive, that does not mean that they're not going to be ratcheting up deportations and ratcheting up some changes when it comes to the border and to immigration and things like that. I believe they're still on track and doing the best they can for this. Again, what they've got is the lack of support from Congress.
[00:02:05] This has been the biggest disappointment, in my opinion, of Trump's first and second administration, Kurt, is that Congress has been absolutely one behind the scenes hostile to Trump, behind the scenes intentionally difficult to Trump. And they really haven't accomplished anything. All the initiatives President Trump has tried to bring forward, which I support most of, has been stymied or shut down or whatever you want to call it because Congress doesn't do their job.
[00:02:33] Think about item after item, whether we talk about the border, whether we talk about immigration, whether we talk about ICE, whether we talk about the Federal Reserve, whether we talk about taxes, whether we talk about, you know, some of these foreign trips that were on and negotiations and trade agreements and everything. Think every one of these things. Congress hasn't done their job to support the president, really.
[00:02:57] And I don't know how to hammer that home enough, but we the people need to absolutely replace people in Congress that will carry forward these balls, not only economically, Kurt, but now they're talking about AI and talking about President Trump wants to create a uniform AI kind of understanding rules and guidelines and things across the country. I don't think it's a general government authority. I don't think it's a general government authority, but at the same time, I do realize that some of this is necessary.
[00:03:25] But again, see, President Trump is just looking towards executive order because he's been given no choice by these people. I don't know what they're doing, but each one of them makes $200,000 at a minimum, plus all kinds of benefits, 535 of them, plus each one of them has anywhere from five to 30 people on their staff. You're talking about a huge group of people, and what have they actually accomplished? Now, you could say the big, beautiful bill, at least they got some things passed.
[00:03:53] But for the most part, I don't see that Congress has done anything to really help us and or back President Trump's agenda. And now they're wondering why we're frustrated with him, Kurt, and why Congress is at an all-time low in terms of its ratings. It seems to me that it's abundantly obvious, Kurt.
[00:04:10] You know, and along that line, when you examine how things really work behind the scenes, like you take, for example, the judges, at least in my opinion. When you have good judges, you have some really good stuff. When you have wicked judges and lawyers, you're in rough shape. And you know this thing, they call it the blue slip program. Sam, you've heard of it, I'm sure, before.
[00:04:40] And what it is, ladies and gentlemen, is in each state, basically the senators have to kind of sign off on the choices of the president as to the attorneys, the district attorneys, that kind of thing in the state. So, in other words, let's say it's New York's federal attorneys that are in there.
[00:05:08] If the senators from New York, like Schumer and I can't remember who the other one is, if they don't sign off on the choice from President Trump, then they just don't even get appointed. And so, then in the news, you'll see, for example, it'll say a Trump-appointed judge.
[00:05:32] And what you really got to remember is it was approved by Schumer, you know. Yeah, so it's debatable. They're saying it's Trump-appointed judge because it's on Trump's watch. But it was undermined by the other side and never reported, is your point, and it's spot on, Kurt.
[00:05:51] Yeah, and so much of it, you know, just like this filibuster thing, you know, Sam, you've got the Democrats basically saying that as soon as they get power, you know, and they're just licking their chops. As soon as they get power, they'll basically put a whole bunch of new guys on the Supreme Court, or they call it packing the court. They'll eliminate the filibuster.
[00:06:19] And so, you know, what you've got is the guys, the quote-unquote good guys, you know, led by Thune and McConnell and the likes in the Senate are saying that, oh, you know, we're the good guys. We don't want to do that, you know. And yet the other guys are simply, they're literally telling them, look, as soon as we get it, we're going to do this. And yet, you know, they just don't play hardball, you know.
[00:06:46] The Thune guy needs to get gone, and we need somebody with some real backbone. And like you said, to support the president in his, well, the goals he's got. There's so much good that could be done. But Congress kind of makes you think of that old phrase where they'd say, what's the opposite of progress? Congress.
[00:07:16] And sadly, that's true. Let me give you another example to make the point. Right now, they're basically running around going this. Here's the headline. Senate failed to pass resolution limiting U.S. military action against Iran. A Senate war powers resolution aimed at stopping U.S. involvement. So in other words, hey, we got this resolution to stop President Trump, and it failed.
[00:07:43] So now Trump can go on and do his bad, dirty work, whatever you want to say. It's kind of the inference in the mainstream press, okay? But I submit to you that the story on this whole thing is completely wrong. Let's back up for a second and say this. What Congress is supposed to do is they're the ones that control war, not the president. And so instead of blaming the president for doing what he feels like he needs to do, now we can debate whether he needs to do it or not. But set that aside for a second.
[00:08:12] Congress is supposed to be the ones that are supposed to provide funding and provide military objectives. Hey, we're going to go in and accomplish this. So when they say we're really vague on what the objectives are, we don't know what we're doing over there, we don't know what's going on, is that Trump's fault? Or is that Congress's fault? And see, I say it's Congress's fault. So when they don't rein in the president, I don't look at it as reigning in the president.
[00:08:39] What I look at it is, hey, forget whether we're going to go to war or not because we already went, right? We're already there. Now we can talk about another time whether we should be there or not. It's a whole different discussion. But we're there. Now, in my opinion, what Congress needs to do is step up to the plate. They need to take responsibility. And they need to say, President, we see you and we support you. And here's what we want to do. We want to fund what you're doing because we need to. We're already there. But we want to create this framework.
[00:09:09] Here's what our objectives are. Here's why we're here. If they need a briefing from the president and from the generals and from, you know, to get a handle on that, by all means. But at the end of the day, they need to create a framework as a president. We're there. Here's what we see as the objectives. Do you agree? Congress and the president can get together, get the objectives, get the framework, decide what the goals are, decide when we've achieved them, and create an exit strategy that makes sense. That's Congress's job, Kurt. And they're running around going, yeah, Trump, they didn't rein him in.
[00:09:39] They failed at rein him in. Congress is bad, and Trump's bad because he's just rogue. No. Congress should provide that guidance and provide that unity that the American people need to get the job done and come home. Am I crazy? Well, you know, Sam, it's amazing to me, if you look at Congress, really, how many of them are literally, at least in my opinion, they're enemies to the country.
[00:10:08] I mean, they literally, you know, support, for example, the socialist principles. They're, you know, doing all these kind of things. And, man, you can see why the president feels like he's just circled at rim by a whole bunch of crazies. I was looking at one of his truths about the reflecting pool. You know, have you followed this thing about that deal by the Washington Monument?
[00:10:39] Yes. When we come back, everyone will talk about it. A quick break, we'll talk about that. I also want to talk about a couple of other things. I've got a criticism of the court and a defense of the White House. And I'll explain why and how. We'll do it in a second. This is Liberty RoundTable Podcast. Are you watching what's happening in our country and asking, what can I do? Join the John Birch Society in Salt Lake City, June 6th, for a powerful one-day conference.
[00:11:08] The day includes a host of respected speakers, two meals, and meaningful connections. You'll gain clarity on the issues and walk away with practical steps you can take to your community. Reserve your seat today at jbs.org forward slash SLC26. That's jbs.org forward slash SLC26. You know where the solution can be found, Mr. President?
[00:11:32] In churches, in wedding chapels, in maternity wards across the country and around the world. More babies will mean forward-looking adults, the sort we need to tackle long-term, large-scale problems. American babies in particular are likely going to be wealthier, better educated, and more conservation-minded than children raised in still industrializing countries. As economist Tyler Cowen recently wrote, quote,
[00:12:00] By having more children, you're making your nation more populous, thus boosting its capacity to solve climate change. The planet does not need for us to think globally and act locally so much as it needs us to think family and act personally. The solution to so many of our problems, at all times and in all places, is to fall in love, get married, and have some kids.
[00:12:28] With you live, Kurt Crosby, Sam Bushman. Kurt, why don't you brief people on this thing a little bit, and then we'll break it down.
[00:13:13] Thank you, Sam. It worked. It leaked like a sieve, looked terrible, was closed most of the time, and was a complete disaster. They ultimately gave up on the project, declaring that it was impossible to fix. Then along came Trump. Doug Burgum and his team at the Department of Interior are doing an excellent job on a very complex but solvable problem.
[00:13:38] When it's complete, there will be no leakage, which there was since its 1922 construction, over 100 years I might add, and it will sparkle magnificently as the water is put in and begins to rise. A very tricky and difficult construction job will yield a beautiful result. Well, there's President Trump's truth on it. And, you know, Sam, it's kind of good.
[00:14:07] He's been a builder forever. If anybody can get that done, Trump can, right? Well, that's right. He picked the guys. I mean, at his hotels and things, they got those massive swimming pools and all that kind of stuff. He knows the people to do that, and he picked the guys. I saw one other report on it. I think it was from him where he said, you know, instead of hundreds of millions of dollars, he was going to get it done for about two and a half million.
[00:14:36] You know, and it makes you think of that ballroom deal. You know, he's got all his buddies, including himself, that are antying up their money to put that nice ballroom together, and he's got some lady that goes by, and she's upset because I don't know what. So she, you know, brings a lawsuit, and now they say that the Congress has to appropriate the money.
[00:15:03] And I'm like, man, it's just nuts. You get guys wanting to do some good stuff. Everything Trump tries to do to reduce a lot of that money that was just flowing in. And you had Elon Musk and others who ran Doge basically say, look, they've got a few computers in strategic locations that just simply print out money until the cows come home. And I've never heard anybody really stop it or whatever. And, again, what you get is President Trump's hands are tied because all he'll get is a big old lawfare lawsuit.
[00:15:32] And that's, you know, the problem is lawfare is destroying this country. But there is a little bit more good news. President Trump has been expanding. So it says White House expands Medicaid, Medicare fraud review. They say that they're going to really get to the bottom of this, and they've stopped some of the home, what do they call this, home health care providers. So Medicaid stopped, frozen that. And they're basically saying, hey, let's put a halt to this thing.
[00:16:02] Let's dig into the fraud and stop this. This tracks back to the Somali fraud stuff with, you know, child centers, health care centers, and all this kind of stuff. And, you know, I really hope they get to the bottom of this. But, again, what you'll have is you'll have a derelict Congress that's against the president. You'll have lawfare against the president. You'll have judges against the president. And, effectively, the deep state thugs or the shadow government, whatever you want to call it, the, you know, in my opinion,
[00:16:29] if we're not very careful, we'll stop Trump from getting most of this done. And then what they'll do is they'll go see Trump talk big and can't get anything done. Well, there's truth that he struggles to get things done. But it's because of the way our system is set up. It was never designed for criminals to run the operation. But they've got the upper hand through secret combinations, Kurt. And we've got to expose those secret combinations. And we need to elect people that will back the president. And, you know, just imagine if President Trump could get done what he's tried to get done.
[00:16:57] Just imagine what the nation would look like. And I submit to you that would it be perfect? No, because we've got a long way to go. It's taken 100 plus years to destroy the country. And they still don't have it done. Thank heavens. But, you know, you can't fix it in a day either. But just think how different and how blessed it could be if we were to really embrace the things that President Trump has really tried to accomplish. Well, you couldn't be more correct, Sam. And, you know, it makes you think of that old phrase where they said,
[00:17:25] some of us kind of feel like when you got the, let's say, the federal government's out-of-control jetliner, you know, you don't just shut the whole thing down and crash it. You have to slowly turn it around and slowly bring it back to planet Earth, you know, or land it the right way. And that's, at least to me, like you're talking about these fraud things. Man, there's just so much of it.
[00:17:53] You know, I remember watching these ads for the ICE guys. You know, they tried to attract a while back, and they got a bunch of good guys working in the immigration customs and enforcement stuff now. And, you know, imagine if they did the same thing for the fraud stuff. And they basically said, hey, we need guys looking at this, checking all these out.
[00:18:19] Because, as has been reported, if we really got rid of all the fraud in government, we could probably have a balanced budget. Wouldn't that be a blessing and a half? Two other quick stories that relate to this. Again, all eyes are on Beijing and the Big Tech Conference over there. And I say more power to them. I hope they're successful and everything else. But right now, I don't know if you know this, but there's a lot of technology being brought to the border to increase border security and stability.
[00:18:49] They say more than 190 companies are gathering in Phoenix to market drones, AI monitoring systems and tracking systems, to help the U.S. border agencies. So that's one effort that you probably don't even hear about in the news that's happening. To make the border stable and secure and safe and everything else, which has been one of Trump's greatest goals. And it's not perfect, but one of his greatest accomplishments.
[00:19:18] Then the next headline is in tandem that says this. They're having immigration restrictions now. They're denying visas for 75-plus countries now. The State Department continues to review applicants and deny, deny, deny people from coming to the United States, which for the most part is good. Now, I think there might be some exceptions in this.
[00:19:46] I've always been for the immigration justice and mercy plan, where justice is for all criminals. Mercy is for those who want to live a better life. And we could vet them out and figure out who they are. Those who could bring either dollars or knowledge to the country would be great and welcome. Those who have been proven to be peaceful and that they just want a better life, or they came here not to their own. You know, they came here as children, so they don't know any different. There's exceptions, and we can't just treat them all as one.
[00:20:13] But there's a way to have a justice-slash-mercy immigration plan. And I think if you really pitched it like that, you could get the American people behind it to where, hey, no one wants criminals. I don't care if you're a foreigner in America. You don't want a criminal next door. Nobody wants that in their right mind. And so I think that we could really create this justice-slash-mercy immigration plan. Tom Holman could take it to the stars. I even wrote a whole plan up for this, so I don't want people to think I'm just babbling. Hey, if you want to see my plan, I'll give it to you.
[00:20:41] We can work on it, have a big old national educational immigration summit, and see if we can't bring people together. And those who simply just want to be naysayers and don't want to be part of the solutions can be set aside. We don't need to grant amnesty to anybody. We can create penalties for being here illegally. We can create ways to level the playing field, ways to find out how we get justice and mercy. We can put groups of people in buckets. We start with the easy people.
[00:21:07] The easy people are the hardcore criminals, and the easy people are people who are here to no fault of their own, meaning they came as children or whatever. Those are the two extremes. And they just work our way to the middle in the tougher cases. You could do the deportation plan like President Trump and Tom Holman have done, which is, hey, we'll give you all kinds of incentives to get out of the country, but if you don't do it, eventually there'll be a hammer-down time, and so you better take advantage of it. More people are leaving voluntarily than you can possibly imagine. That's underreported, too, Kurt.
[00:21:35] So there's a lot here going on and a lot we need to report on. Now, some would say, Sam, you sound pretty positive on Trump during this show, or you're not normally positive on Trump. Look, I'm trying to do my very best to ferret out the news and call a spade a spade. And Trump deserves plenty of blame in certain circumstances. At the same time, he deserves a lot of credit that he's not getting. And how do you balance that as a news reporter? How do you – and so in my opinion, what you do is you just tell the truth to the best of your ability all the time.
[00:22:04] And sometimes you may not get it perfectly. Sometimes you may not be – because I don't see every bit of news. There's so much news you can't even see it all, Kurt. And so it's very hard to – you know, I wish we could get Tom Holman and President Trump and different people on Liberty Roundtable Live where they could tell their sides of the stories. But that's hard, too. You know, they're busy and they're – but we do the best we can. And really the whole goal for us is if we could elevate God, family, church, and country in that order.
[00:22:34] God, family, church, and country. Why do I say God first and church third? Because I think that God is where we need to look individually. That's who saves us is Christ, right? And then I say family because that's the fundamental unit of society. I say church because church is supposed to be supporting the family just like the country is, right? And so in that order do I believe that we can really make a difference if we cling to those principles. And whenever people are on the right side of those principles, Kurt, we need to applaud them. Couldn't agree more, Sam.
[00:23:02] You know, when you look at, you know, these people that say, oh, you know, I mean, when I'm out selling honey on the street corner and these people go and buy and they see my one flag that says, Jesus, our only hope now and forever. And then it's got Trump won, save America.
[00:23:23] You know, occasionally there's somebody gets just set off, you know, and they want to yell that President Trump's a bad guy. And I think, man, you know, if we're all going to be held to that kind of thing in our life, we've done something bad and we can never repent. That's pretty rough. I think he's improving day by day. Yeah, there's only one that will make it in that scenario, right, Kurt? Yeah, good point.
[00:23:54] Ladies and gentlemen, I know we've got a lot to work on in America, but hopefully we'll provide guidance and direction and stability and safety. Hopefully we can remember that God is key. If we repent and turn to him, he'll heal our land and protect us. What a blessed promise that is, right? Well, for Kurt Crosby, localhoneyman.com. I'm Sam Bushman, libertyroundtable.com. Spread the word, share the love, and God save the republic of the United States of America.
[00:24:22] It's worth it when you try.