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Speaker 1: Unlichael, sorry for the confusion. The girl that knocked on

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Speaker 1: the door was wanting to do the green energy stuff

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Speaker 1: as opposed to the oh no, that's terrible, awful and

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Speaker 1: burning and fossil fuels to fire up a new power plant,

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Speaker 1: you know, with natural gas. Got I was all excited

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Speaker 1: about the natural gas power plant.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I understand, I understand that.

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Speaker 3: But what I find most fascinating about any talkback is

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Speaker 3: if I ever have a question or I doubt or

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Speaker 3: I disagree how the impetus is, I've got to leave

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Speaker 3: it out of it.

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Speaker 2: I've got to I've got to correct the record. I've

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Speaker 2: got to do this. I got to do that. I

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Speaker 2: love it. I love it. I am sorry about that.

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Speaker 3: Yesterday I made a request, and some of you have complied,

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Speaker 3: many of you have not. I requested an email in

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Speaker 3: the event that they actually stick to their request for me,

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Speaker 3: along with two other individuals, for three of us to

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Speaker 3: moderate and upcoming Republican good Natorial primary debate. I asked

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Speaker 3: for you to email me with the subject line of

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Speaker 3: gop gov gop gove, and I got several yesterday, but

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Speaker 3: not as many as I wanted.

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Speaker 4: You don't want to tell them about that first one

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Speaker 4: that you got.

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Speaker 2: No, are you sure?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, because I'll just encourage that'll just encourage bad behavior.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's my point.

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Speaker 3: I know I'm okay with you, and in this case,

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Speaker 3: I'm like being serious on this one.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I went, like, for example, I I pulled up one

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Speaker 3: just as an example, and Charlene or Charlene have you

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Speaker 3: pronounce your name? Sent a very good one debate questions

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Speaker 3: in no particular order, and she has like a eleven questions,

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Speaker 3: eleven good questions. So if if there there were two,

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Speaker 3: there's it was a two pronged request either and or

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Speaker 3: and or not either or and or? Who you support

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Speaker 3: in the primary on the Republican side for governor? And

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Speaker 3: why or and or questions that you would like to

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Speaker 3: hear asked by the moderators at an upcoming GOP gubernatorial debate.

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Speaker 3: So you can you can do both. You can tell

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Speaker 3: me who you support and why, because I'm really curious.

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Speaker 3: You could even tell me who you don't support and why.

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Speaker 3: I just want to know where you are in terms

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Speaker 3: of this primary, who you support, don't support, and the

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Speaker 3: reasons why. And then the other thing I asked are questions,

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Speaker 3: what question would you like to hear qu ask. I mean,

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Speaker 3: I've already got ideas. But even though I am brilliant

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Speaker 3: and I probably have a monopoly and all the great questions,

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Speaker 3: just in case there happens to be one gooper out

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Speaker 3: there that would have a really good question, I don't

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Speaker 3: want to miss that one really good question and then

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Speaker 3: take credit for the question. So Michael Brown at iHeartMedia

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Speaker 3: dot com. Michael Brown at iHeartMedia dot com. Subject line is,

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Speaker 3: and thank you Charlene for complying with that. Gop gov,

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Speaker 3: gop gov and you can spell gov, goov or GUV,

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Speaker 3: I don't care, just gop gov. So that I can

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Speaker 3: sort my inbox by subject and put those in the

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Speaker 3: folder and I'll have all of them.

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Speaker 2: Got it, got it? Get it all right?

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Speaker 5: Do it?

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Speaker 2: So do it? In Washington, DC.

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Speaker 3: Rumors which are barely true, but rumors travel faster in

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Speaker 3: DC than anywhere else in the world. There's something about

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Speaker 3: it's either the atmosphere. And I don't mean like, you know,

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Speaker 3: is it cool or what I mean the atmosphere like

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Speaker 3: there's something in the air. It's lighter, there's less oxygeneral,

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Speaker 3: maybe there's more carbon dioxide.

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Speaker 2: I don't know what it is.

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Speaker 3: Maybe it's the altitude, it's the swamp, maybe it's just

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Speaker 3: the stench. But rumors travel quicker in DC than anywhere else,

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Speaker 3: and they always try, they always smash and maybe, but

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Speaker 3: they often travel faster than the evidence.

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Speaker 2: You start with the rumor, and then you get to

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Speaker 2: the evidence.

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Speaker 3: But occasionally a rumor raises a question for which there

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Speaker 3: ought to be a clear and a very public answer.

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Speaker 3: The recent allegation that Senator John Cornyn, the senior senator

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Speaker 3: from the state of Texas, use the Office of Congressional

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Speaker 3: workplace Rights settlement process to resolve a sexual misconduct complaint

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Speaker 3: from a male staffer is an example. Now, the allegation

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Speaker 3: may be false, It could be exaggerated, It might be

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Speaker 3: entirely untrue. Can you imagine that something not truthful coming

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Speaker 3: out of Washington, d C. I just wanted to put

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Speaker 3: that there as a possibility. Sometimes a rumor is simply

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Speaker 3: too convenient to be true. But the existence of a

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Speaker 3: rumor highlights a deep institutional problem that Congress has itself created.

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Speaker 3: Earlier this week, the House of Representatives, the Congress side,

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Speaker 3: if you will, of the Congress, had an opportunity to

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Speaker 3: address secrecy. House Resolution eleven hundred in the one hundred

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Speaker 3: and nineteenth Congress proposed a very modest step to transparency.

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Speaker 2: This would have.

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Speaker 3: Directed the House Ethics Committee to preserve and publicly release

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Speaker 3: records related to No, not the stupid Epstein files. Shut

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Speaker 3: up and sit down, And that's not about that. It's

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Speaker 3: about sexual harassment violations by members of Congress, including cases

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Speaker 3: which had been settled using your money. On March four,

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Speaker 3: the House didn't pass the measure. They voted three hundred

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Speaker 3: and fifty seven to sixty five to refer the resolution

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Speaker 3: to the House Ethics Committee instead of advancing it to

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Speaker 3: the floor to be voted on.

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Speaker 2: In other words, they put it in reverse.

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Speaker 3: They took that resolution House Resolution eleven hundred, and they

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Speaker 3: instead of voting up and down on whether to do

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Speaker 3: it or not, they said back to the House Ethics Committee, well,

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Speaker 3: maybe ought to re consider this. Now there's a very

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Speaker 3: real practical consequence to that. You and I still don't

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Speaker 3: have even the most basic information about sexual harassment or

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Speaker 3: sex discrimination settlements that occurred within the Congressional workplace equalsystem. Now,

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Speaker 3: to understand why transparency matters, you first have to understand

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Speaker 3: what the ecosystem is for years, critics have described the

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Speaker 3: congressional dispute resolution system as a sexual harassment slush fund.

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Speaker 3: That phrase got repeated so often that it hearted into

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Speaker 3: conventional wisdom. So, according to the popular narrative, Congress secretly

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Speaker 3: spends tens of millions of dollars paying off victims of

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Speaker 3: predatory members of Congress, when in actuality, the truth is

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Speaker 3: far more mundane. There is an Office of Congressional Workplace

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Speaker 3: Rights OCWR, the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights. It administers

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Speaker 3: the dispute resolution system for congressional employees. Now, just to

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Speaker 3: give you some scope of their responsibility, do you have

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Speaker 3: any idea though, just a rough estimate of how many

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Speaker 3: congressional employees there are. It's like a small city, a

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Speaker 3: small town, thirty thousand, thirty thousand congressional employees. So the

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Speaker 3: Office of Congressional Workplace Rights has a fairly heavy lifting

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Speaker 3: job to do. They administer all of the disputes between

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Speaker 3: staffers and their members. And that system is in place

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Speaker 3: because congressional offices. Are you ready for this? If I

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Speaker 3: haven't pissed you off so far, I'm going to keep trying.

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Speaker 3: They have this Office of Congressional Workplace rights. Because Congressional

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Speaker 3: offices are not directly covered by the normal federal workplace

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Speaker 3: complaint mechanisms, Congress created their own internal framework so they

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Speaker 3: could resolve all their employment disputes, including pay disagreements, sexual

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Speaker 3: discrimination claims, anything, the whole gamut, the whole gamut of

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Speaker 3: whatever's posted out here in our break room, of all

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Speaker 3: the things that you know that, all the transgressions for

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Speaker 3: which I could go file a complaint.

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Speaker 2: Congress created their own little system to keep it in house.

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Speaker 2: Is that convenient now?

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Speaker 3: Since nineteen seventy nineteen seven, Since nineteen ninety seven, that

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Speaker 3: system has issued a certain number of settlements, costing a

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Speaker 3: certain amount of money.

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Speaker 5: Crab Brownie, I would send you an email, but since

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Speaker 5: I have not resided instead of Colorado since August in

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Speaker 5: nineteen sixty nine, my opinion wouldn't count for this. I'd

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Speaker 5: hope you guys survive your communist takeover. I have a

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Speaker 5: good day.

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Speaker 3: I was just looking through my x feed because I

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Speaker 3: had posted yesterday. I had reposted Governor Poulos and asked

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Speaker 3: people to vote on choosing the name for the new

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Speaker 3: high speed rail going from Fort Collins to Pueblo. And

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Speaker 3: that's an idea that I think it was officially it

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Speaker 3: goes way back before two thousand and eight, but I

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Speaker 3: think was officially approved in two thousand and eight. So

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Speaker 3: here we are eighteen years later, and it's gonna be

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Speaker 3: like California. California is I think theirs was approved back

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Speaker 3: maybe in the eighties or sometime. They've spent billions of dollars.

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Speaker 3: I think they've made laid six miles of track or something.

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Speaker 2: Nothing.

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Speaker 3: And when Newsom goes out to tout that's one of

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Speaker 3: the things that he would do as president is bring

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Speaker 3: more high speed rail, he's actually standing in front of

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Speaker 3: a fate freight train anywhere near a high speed rail,

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Speaker 3: a freight train, and all I could think.

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Speaker 2: About was, so are we gonna is.

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Speaker 3: It gonna be like the Holocaust and we're all gonna

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Speaker 3: get like in California, You'll get onto a train, a

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Speaker 3: freight train packed into a freight train to go from

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Speaker 3: Sacramento to San Francisco or to San Diego.

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Speaker 2: Is that what you're doing? Well, that's pretty dark.

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Speaker 4: I was just thinking hoping that they would just add

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Speaker 4: more stops to the high speed rail so that more

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Speaker 4: people could use it.

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Speaker 3: This is well, that's very kind you. I instily went

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Speaker 3: to I think that's because if you ever go to

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Speaker 3: the Holocaust Museum in DC, there is a box car,

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Speaker 3: a real box car from the Holocaust, and you can

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Speaker 3: step into it, and it is if you understand the Holocaust,

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Speaker 3: it is the most that in the shoes are the

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Speaker 3: most two impactful exhibit. I think in that entire thing

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Speaker 3: is simply amazing.

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Speaker 6: Mister Brown, you've been found guilty of insufficient levels of

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Speaker 6: self loathing and an inappropriate degree of conservativism. We want

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Speaker 6: you to report to a re education center as soon

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Speaker 6: as possible.

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Speaker 3: Thank you gladly do it. My re education centers down

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Speaker 3: in New Mexico. It's the undisclosed location. I'll report there

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Speaker 3: this afternoon. I want to get back to the Office

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Speaker 3: of Congressional Workplace Rights. But before I do, we have

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Speaker 3: breaking news. CNBC is reporting that Energy Secretary Chris Wright

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Speaker 3: the US Navy has successfully escorted an oil tanker through

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Speaker 3: the strait of her news And as I'm looking at CNBC,

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Speaker 3: West Texas grewed right now. In the first hour of

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Speaker 3: this morning, when we were talking about one hundred dollars

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Speaker 3: barrel oil and how Americans.

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Speaker 2: Were like, oh my God, we would throw over around.

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Speaker 2: We comeing together.

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Speaker 3: Because it's currently at seventy nine dollars and seventy six cents.

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Speaker 3: I'm trying to see what contract that is. That's at

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Speaker 3: Intra Day Trading, but I'm trying to see if it's

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Speaker 3: any particular contract. Sunday nine seventy nine, ninety seventy nine,

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Speaker 3: eighty nine, seventy nine, seventy one, eighty two, seventy nine,

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Speaker 3: eighty three is bouncing back and forth. It's down fourteen

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Speaker 3: dollars and eighty four cents since we started Frantick City

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Speaker 3: and Drag has to develop a gas today. I don't

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Speaker 3: think you'll be reflected at the pump just yet, but

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Speaker 3: just you know, it'll go down.

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Speaker 2: You just walk awhile.

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Speaker 4: Thankfully I got the King Sooper's card, so I'll just

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Speaker 4: use the point.

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Speaker 3: Allow Missus Redbeard to use the points she does, okay,

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Speaker 3: but you're gonna use them all up today. You're gonna

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Speaker 3: take the maximum ount in my car.

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Speaker 2: It's bigger than hers.

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Speaker 4: It's got a bigger tank. Yeah that means I get

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Speaker 4: the bigger tank count.

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Speaker 2: Oh okay, is that how that works?

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Speaker 4: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: All right.

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Speaker 4: She also doesn't really give herself enough time to get

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Speaker 4: to the King Super's gas station, so she just wherever's

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Speaker 4: closest for her.

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Speaker 2: She's like, I'm at work.

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Speaker 4: I got oh, here's the code here, he can do

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Speaker 4: the gas and she's like, nope, no time, okay, okay,

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Speaker 4: all right.

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Speaker 3: The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights handles the workplace complaints

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Speaker 3: for more than thirty thousand congressional employees. Since nineteen ninety seven,

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Speaker 3: they have proffered two hundred and sixty settlements worth about

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Speaker 3: seventeen million dollars. Now, that's what you always hear in

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Speaker 3: the headline, and that's the figure that critics point to

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Speaker 3: when they claim that Congress is secretly paying millions to

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Speaker 3: hide sexual misconduct. But the number is misleading. Now, I'm

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Speaker 3: not trying to in Congress here because the numbering when

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Speaker 3: he give he still pisses me off. Of the two

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Speaker 3: hundred and sixty settlements since nineteen ninety seven, only thirteen

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Speaker 3: involved sexual harassment or sex discrimination. And those thirteen cases

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Speaker 3: cost you two hundred ninety two thousand, six hundred and

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Speaker 3: fifty two dollars.

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Speaker 2: Now, I still.

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Speaker 3: Don't like that, and I still think it ought to

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Speaker 3: be disclosed. Who did we pay, and who did what?

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Speaker 3: You know, who was playing with underaged congressional staffers or

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Speaker 3: who you know, what were they doing? We need to

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Speaker 3: know because still that's two hundred ninety two thousand dollars,

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Speaker 3: which I know is about a nanosecond a federal spending,

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Speaker 3: but nonetheless the largest single settlement eighty five thousand dollars.

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Speaker 3: So to put it in different terms, the overwhelming majority

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Speaker 3: of the seventeen million dollars was paid through this system

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Speaker 3: had nothing to do with sexual misconduct at all, which

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Speaker 3: is kind of surprising when you actually think about it.

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Speaker 3: The funds were used to resolve routine employment disputes, you know,

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Speaker 3: discrimination claims that are unrelated to sex, retaliation complaints, overtime disagreements,

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Speaker 3: family leave violations. And then the scale of the system

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Speaker 3: becomes even clear when viewed against the size of the

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Speaker 3: congressional workforce. As I said, at any given time, there

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Speaker 3: are somewhere around thirty thousand employees that are eligible to

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Speaker 3: file claims through the network. So across nearly thirty years,

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Speaker 3: the average annual settlement across all categories was seven hundred

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Speaker 3: and thirty nine thousand dollars a year, not even a

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Speaker 3: million dollars that's spread across the workforce. That equates to

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Speaker 3: about twenty five dollars per employee per year. In other words,

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Speaker 3: the congressional settlement system is not unusually expensive when compared

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Speaker 3: with large corporations, even probably compared I don't what Iheart's

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Speaker 3: numbers are, or federal agencies a similar size.

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Speaker 2: But the existence of only.

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Speaker 3: Thirteen harassment related settlements raises an obvious question. How many

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Speaker 3: of those settlements involved the member of Congress themselves, Because

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Speaker 3: we don't know, it could have been staffer on staffer.

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Speaker 2: We don't know.

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Speaker 3: Now, you might argue that the reason for that ignorance

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Speaker 3: is understandable. When the settlements were reached, both parties agreed

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Speaker 3: to confidentiality. That happens in the private sector too. A

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Speaker 3: staffer might want to resolve a complaint without their name

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Speaker 3: getting public. I fully get that a member of Congress

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Speaker 3: might insist on confidentiality if he believed that the allegation

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Speaker 3: was unfounded but wanted to avoid, you know, litigation, so

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Speaker 3: he agrees to some sort of settle. Because that the

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Speaker 3: Congressional work place rights, their process allows disputes to end

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Speaker 3: quietly so that both parties can just move on. That's

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Speaker 3: the same in the private sector too, and that rationale

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Speaker 3: makes sense in the moment, but decades later, the absence

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Speaker 3: of even basic descriptive information interestingly produces the opposite effect. Secrecy,

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Speaker 3: you know, will breed speculation, and speculation breeds rumors, and

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Speaker 3: rumor breeds political weaponization. And that's where the Ethics Committee

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00:18:38,119 --> 00:18:41,840
Speaker 3: really should intervene. So the request is pretty simple. The

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Speaker 3: House Ethics Committee should instruct the Office of Congressional Workplace

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Speaker 3: Rights to report to the public how many of the

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Speaker 3: thirteen sexual harassment or sex discrimination settlements were made on

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Speaker 3: behalf of members of Congress. And then they added to

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Speaker 3: disclose how many of those cases involved currently sitting members.

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Speaker 3: And for those cases, the office ought to provide at

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Speaker 3: least a brief description of the alleged conduct, the year

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Speaker 3: of the settlement, and maybe the settlement amount, the names

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Speaker 3: of the staffers. I think those ought to remain confidential.

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Speaker 3: The names of the members could remain confidential as well,

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Speaker 3: if the Committee believes that the disclosure would violate the

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Speaker 3: original settlement terms. Now that is, for existing cases, that

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Speaker 3: kind of disclosure is not going to expose victims, It

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Speaker 3: would not violate confidentiality agreements that were entered into in

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Speaker 3: good faith, Would it at least give you and me

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Speaker 3: a factual account of the scope of the misconduct that's

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Speaker 3: going on inside the halls of Congress. Now, I know,

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Speaker 3: as some of you might object it, even that limited

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Speaker 3: disclosure would risk unfairly implicating innocent members of Congress, and

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Speaker 3: that concern, truly, I think deserves some consideration. Settlements do

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Speaker 3: not necessarily imply guilt. I can think of why. I

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Speaker 3: can't think of specifics, but during my legal career, settled

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Speaker 3: hundreds of cases civil cases because the parties just didn't

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Speaker 3: want the public to know that, hey, we were involved

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Speaker 3: in a dispute. Now, oftentimes that was difficult to do

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Speaker 3: because maybe litigation had already ensued. But what we would

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Speaker 3: do is we would enter into a confidential settlement where, yeah,

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Speaker 3: we knew that Mike sued Dragon or Dragon sued Mike.

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Speaker 3: But then the case got dismissed because we reached a

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Speaker 3: settlement agreement that we wanted to keep private because I

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Speaker 3: didn't want you to know how much I had to

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Speaker 3: pay Dragon or how much Dragon had.

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Speaker 2: To pay me. Pretty routine.

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Speaker 3: In many legal contexts, organizations do that because the litigation

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Speaker 3: is truly expensive, and the government itself frequently settles cases

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Speaker 3: to avoid the legal costs, even when it believes it

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Speaker 3: might actually prevail. But that's also why transparency would help.

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Speaker 3: If we were to learn that most of the thirteen

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Speaker 3: settlements involved, say, office managers or the administrative staff instead

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Speaker 3: of the elected member in this myth, this rumor of

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Speaker 3: the Congressional harassment slush fund would collapse under its own weight.

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Speaker 3: But on the other hand, if several cases involve members

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Speaker 3: of Congress, then we deserve to know that as well.

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Speaker 3: Either outcome would do this. It would replace the rumor

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Speaker 3: mill with evidence, and right now offers an additional reason

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Speaker 3: for disclosure. There are credible, credible reports now circulating inside

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Speaker 3: the BELTWAGH alleging that Senator Cornyan indeed use the officely

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Speaker 3: Congressional workplace rights process to resolve a sexual misconduct complaint

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Speaker 3: from a male staffer. Now, again I point out and

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00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:08,760
Speaker 3: emphasize that allegation may be false, but the rumor persists

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00:22:09,280 --> 00:22:13,720
Speaker 3: precisely because the records remain hidden. Well, I've just given

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00:22:13,720 --> 00:22:18,920
Speaker 3: you an obvious solution. Now, Senator Cornyan himself could authorize

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Speaker 3: the agency to release every settlement related to his office

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00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:26,359
Speaker 3: with the names of the staffers redacted. Now, doing that

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00:22:26,400 --> 00:22:30,760
Speaker 3: would immediately clarify whether any allegation has any factual basis

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00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:35,720
Speaker 3: against him. If no settlement exists, that rumor mill would

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Speaker 3: collapse overnight. Now, if one does exist where his name

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00:22:39,720 --> 00:22:43,320
Speaker 3: is involved, the public would at least see the details

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Speaker 3: rather than relying on speculation. Now this suggestion should not

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Speaker 3: be understood as an accusation.

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Speaker 2: It's the opposite.

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Speaker 3: It's actually an opportunity for Senator Coorn to exonerate himself.

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Speaker 3: And then transparency has another benefit as well. Back in

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Speaker 3: twenty eighteen, Congress changed the rules governing these settlements. Under

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Speaker 3: the revised framework, members of Congress must personally reimburse the

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Speaker 3: Treasury for settlements involving harassment. I think most of the

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Speaker 3: Americans public does not understand that Congress must personally reimburse

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Speaker 3: the Treasury for settlements involving harassment. Now, if it's a

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Speaker 3: settlement involving over time or a family leave dispute or

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Speaker 3: anything like that, I don't care about that. But once

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Speaker 3: members were required to pay settlements with their own money,

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Speaker 3: they incentive to quietly settle questionable claims diminished because the

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Speaker 3: members became far less willing to approve a settlement that

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Speaker 3: they themselves would have to finance. In fact, the reform

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Speaker 3: largely ended this idea that taxpayer funded harassments settlements involving

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Speaker 3: Congress is running amok. And I think think that reform

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00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:04,520
Speaker 3: deserves some recognition, But it also well.

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Speaker 2: It deserves recognition.

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Speaker 3: It also means that the handful of earlier settlements now

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Speaker 3: sits in this ambiguous historical category. They occurred under a

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Speaker 3: previous system with different ascendives, different rules, And so now

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Speaker 3: we have two competing narratives. One narrative claims that Congress

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Speaker 3: secretly spent seventeen million dollars to protect predatory lawmakers predatory

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Speaker 3: members of Congress. The other narrative notes that only thirteen

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Speaker 3: cases involves sexual harassment or sexual discrimination across nearly thirty

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Speaker 3: years or more, and suggests that the system function more

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Speaker 3: like a routine employment dispute process. So I don't know

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Speaker 3: which narrative is correct. The answer lies in the records

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Speaker 3: that the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights already possesses. I

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Speaker 3: think the Ethics Committee should do what the House declined

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Speaker 3: to do last week. It should demand a clear accounting

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Speaker 3: of those thirteen particular cases. Yeah, the committeeans need to

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Speaker 3: release the names, only to release the facts. A republic

380
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Speaker 3: cannot function indefinitely on rumor, and nor can public trust

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Speaker 3: survive this prolonged secrecy about misconduct within the Congress. When

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00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:29,240
Speaker 3: a dispute involves a private corporation, confidentiality agreements may be sufficient.

383
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Speaker 3: When the dispute involves an elected official paid with public funds,

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Speaker 3: I think a higher standard is appropriate and is required.

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Speaker 3: So I'm not demanding some spectacle like we've had with

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Speaker 3: the Epstein files. It's simply a request for clarity. And

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Speaker 3: if the Ethnic Committee acts, the results I think.

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Speaker 2: Will be pretty simple.

389
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Speaker 3: The myth of the congressional harassment slush fund will either

390
00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:56,840
Speaker 3: be confirmed or it will be disproved, and either outcome

391
00:25:56,920 --> 00:26:01,800
Speaker 3: strengthens our democratic accountability and both out country place rumor

392
00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:06,240
Speaker 3: with facts. Until that happens, the speculation will continue to

393
00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:10,360
Speaker 3: fill the void. Quite frankly, if John Cornyan has as

394
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Speaker 3: much influence as everybody says that he has with John

395
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:15,840
Speaker 3: fun that this ought to be exactly the time that

396
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Speaker 3: you go in and you do something like this, you

397
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Speaker 3: disclose that today right now?

398
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Speaker 2: Got it all right?

399
00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:28,639
Speaker 3: I hope that dispels some of the misunderstanding going around

400
00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:32,800
Speaker 3: about the Office Congressional Workplace Rights and about the slush fund,

401
00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:37,359
Speaker 3: because I'll freely admit while I never dealt with the

402
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Speaker 3: OCWR at all during my tenure in DC because it's

403
00:26:40,640 --> 00:26:43,399
Speaker 3: the legislative branch and I was in the executive branch,

404
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:50,400
Speaker 3: yet nonetheless kind of supports my theory that the more

405
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Speaker 3: we lose trust in government, which is already at an

406
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Speaker 3: all time low, we lose legitimacy. And I'd rather just

407
00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:03,439
Speaker 3: have the I'd rather just know. I'd rather know that, Oh,

408
00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:07,439
Speaker 3: they're only thirteen cases out of the past thirty years,

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00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:09,560
Speaker 3: and so let's disclose those cases.

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Speaker 2: Now.

411
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Speaker 3: I want to go back because I'm looking I shot

412
00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:15,720
Speaker 3: looking up at CNBC.

413
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Speaker 2: So what we're doing is.

414
00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:23,240
Speaker 3: We're in an oil price roller coaster ride. And just

415
00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:28,160
Speaker 3: during this ride, we've seen the Brent index, not the WTI,

416
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Speaker 3: but the Brent index skyrocket to almost one hundred and

417
00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:34,520
Speaker 3: twenty dollars, a barrow plummet back to ninety one dollars

418
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:38,320
Speaker 3: in a single trading day. President Trump told reporters that

419
00:27:38,359 --> 00:27:41,760
Speaker 3: the US Israel campaign is very complete and that the

420
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:43,879
Speaker 3: US is very far ahead of the initial estimate of

421
00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:46,800
Speaker 3: a forty five week time frame, and then we see

422
00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:50,159
Speaker 3: at least with with Texas West West Texas crew that

423
00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:54,280
Speaker 3: is now dropped below eighty dollars a barrel, we're back

424
00:27:54,280 --> 00:27:58,000
Speaker 3: down in seventy nine dollars territory. And then Trump follows

425
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Speaker 3: up his statement earlier. He follows up the statement yesterday

426
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Speaker 3: evening with this post on truth Social If Iran does

427
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Speaker 3: anything that stops the flow of oil within the strait

428
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Speaker 3: of hermus they will be hit by the United States

429
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Speaker 3: of America twenty times harder than they have been hit

430
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Speaker 3: thus far. Additionally, we will take out easily destroyable targets

431
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Speaker 3: that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever

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Speaker 3: be built back as a nation again. Death, fire and

433
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Speaker 3: fury will rain upon them. But I hope and pray

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Speaker 3: that that does not happen. This is a gift from

435
00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:30,879
Speaker 3: the United States of America to China and all of

436
00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:37,200
Speaker 3: those nations that that heavily use the hormuse their home straight. Hopefully,

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00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:40,040
Speaker 3: is a gesture that will be greatly appreciated. Thank you

438
00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:43,120
Speaker 3: for your attention to this matter, President Donald Zetra. Now

439
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:45,720
Speaker 3: note that the President is careful to point out that

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Speaker 3: in the past, that this is a gift from the

441
00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:53,719
Speaker 3: United States of America to China and other countries who

442
00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:56,400
Speaker 3: actually get lots of oil from the Middle East. Now,

443
00:28:56,720 --> 00:29:00,800
Speaker 3: for those of you that might not be aware at all,

444
00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:03,800
Speaker 3: reliant on crewe from the Middle East, we only get

445
00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:07,440
Speaker 3: about half a million barrels each day from that part

446
00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:11,920
Speaker 3: of the world. But other countries like China are indeed

447
00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:14,520
Speaker 3: going to experience a supply shock if that shut down

448
00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:17,360
Speaker 3: in the shipping lingers on much longer. As I said,

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00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:20,400
Speaker 3: it is breaking news right now that Chris Wright has

450
00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:23,840
Speaker 3: announced that the Navy has escorted at least one tanker

451
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:27,240
Speaker 3: through the strait. So we're kind of insulated from the

452
00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:31,320
Speaker 3: worst possible outcome because of our own high level of

453
00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:35,360
Speaker 3: energy independence. But that does not mean that we don't

454
00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:37,640
Speaker 3: have a compelling interest in keeping the Strait of horm

455
00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:41,560
Speaker 3: Moves open to shipping traffic. Because oil, well, it's a

456
00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:45,080
Speaker 3: fungible commodity traded on a global market. Everyone on Earth

457
00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:47,600
Speaker 3: gets hit with higher prices for gas and diesel whenever

458
00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:50,120
Speaker 3: the price of oil goes up, and the big supply

459
00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:53,600
Speaker 3: disruptions of the past have inevery we led to economic recession,

460
00:29:53,840 --> 00:29:55,480
Speaker 3: and we might remember this too.

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00:29:56,040 --> 00:29:57,600
Speaker 2: It's not just oil.

462
00:29:57,400 --> 00:30:00,520
Speaker 3: That goes through the Strait of hor Moos. This stuff

463
00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:04,520
Speaker 3: goes through there. All sorts of commerce goes through that area.

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00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:11,880
Speaker 3: And then in a Q and A session, the President

465
00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:14,680
Speaker 3: says this about the strait, you mean, yeah, well, I want.

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00:30:14,560 --> 00:30:16,520
Speaker 2: To keep it open. I want to keep it good.

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00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:18,920
Speaker 3: You know, you know, it doesn't paint pertain to us

468
00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:21,720
Speaker 3: as much as it does to China. We're really helping

469
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:23,800
Speaker 3: China here in other countries because they've got a lot

470
00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:26,000
Speaker 3: of their energy from the Straits. But hey, look, we

471
00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:28,400
Speaker 3: got to get a relationship with China. It's my honor

472
00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:31,760
Speaker 3: to do it. Yeah, kind of like the way he

473
00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:36,280
Speaker 3: explains it better, sort of, I don't know. Anyway, this

474
00:30:36,920 --> 00:30:41,240
Speaker 3: dialogue from the President, combined with the G seven discussions

475
00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:45,040
Speaker 3: around withdrawing about four hundred million barrels of oil from

476
00:30:45,200 --> 00:30:50,840
Speaker 3: their combined strategic oil reserves, calm the oil markets. The

477
00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:55,600
Speaker 3: oil markets remained calm overnight in Asian trading and keeping

478
00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:58,160
Speaker 3: an eye on it today. Oh now it's back up

479
00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:01,880
Speaker 3: to eighty dollars, down to as low as seventy four,

480
00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:04,280
Speaker 3: and that's backup days. So it's on a roller coaster.

481
00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:10,760
Speaker 3: But now tankers are moving through the Strait due to

482
00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:14,320
Speaker 3: despite the unprecedented refusal by Lloyd's of London to deny

483
00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:17,280
Speaker 3: insurance coverage to the shipping companies. And I do mean

484
00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:20,600
Speaker 3: it is unprecedented because it's never happened before. In Operation

485
00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:23,280
Speaker 3: Desert Storm back in nineteen ninety one, for example, a

486
00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:26,440
Speaker 3: land war rage for weeks missiles flying all over the

487
00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:31,040
Speaker 3: damn place, Lloyd's kept doing business. Again, the current action

488
00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:34,920
Speaker 3: is unprecedented, and I think the motivation for Lloyd's of

489
00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:40,000
Speaker 3: London doing is highly suspect, especially given Lloyds of London's

490
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:46,840
Speaker 3: long term entanglement relationship with six They're eclidally the CIA

491
00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:53,840
Speaker 3: and the adversarial posture take it that they have taken

492
00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:59,040
Speaker 3: toward us by the UK's essentially communist government led by

493
00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:03,640
Speaker 3: Keir Starmer. So the only real solution is for the

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00:32:03,680 --> 00:32:06,920
Speaker 3: government to force an end the long standing monopoly on

495
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:10,560
Speaker 3: shipping insurance which Lloyd's and all the other London based

496
00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:14,760
Speaker 3: insurance have unjustly enjoyed for decades. And you know what

497
00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:17,520
Speaker 3: they would do. It would have the benefit of exacting

498
00:32:17,560 --> 00:32:22,840
Speaker 3: a heavy economic price from our former reliable ally, the

499
00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:26,440
Speaker 3: United Kingdom as a President advised Starmer and another Truth

500
00:32:27,000 --> 00:32:32,200
Speaker 3: Truths Social over the weekend, we will remember the multiple

501
00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:37,440
Speaker 3: acts of betrayal that Great Britain has foisted upon us.

502
00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:41,040
Speaker 3: We will remember, in fact, tomorrow, I'm going to go

503
00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:43,960
Speaker 3: through all those things they've done to betray us