WEBVTT - Watch Your Pockets 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:04.359 Hey everybody. I'm Greg Jared, filling in for Sean Hannity 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:07.000 on the Sean Hannity Show. Happy to be here for 0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:09.720 the second day in a row. Shaw's taking off a 0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:15.040 few well deserved days of rest during the holidays. I've 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:18.079 been at Fox. I'm a legal analyst there for going 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:21.959 on twenty four years. I've written several books, beginning with 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:26.560 the Russia Hoax, the Sequel witch Hunt, I wrote The 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:29.160 Trial of the Century, and the latest book is The 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:35.519 US Constitution and other patriotic documents. Please check them out. 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:38.559 But I want to begin today with the burr in 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:43.839 my saddle over fraud. Have you ever wondered where a 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:47.760 lot of your hard earned tax dollars go? Well, look 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:51.760 no further than the screwed up state of Minnesota. It 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:56.160 is a blue state, to be sure, run by idiots 0:00:56.200 --> 0:01:00.600 and morons that are so utterly incompetent that they failed 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:04.880 to refuse to recognize one of the greatest ripoffs in 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:11.280 American history. Minnesota is now the epicenter of fraud. We're 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:15.520 talking about roughly two billion dollars with a capital B 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:22.319 stolen by scammers from social service programs. In fact, there 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:25.600 were so many swindles going on at the same time. 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:29.039 You'd need a float chart just to keep track of 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:31.360 them all. And of course, at the top of the 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:35.280 float chart should be a big fat picture of Governor 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:39.280 Tim Walls and his sidekick Keith Ellison, the state's scandal 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:44.320 plugued attorney general. Together, those two are the dumb and 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:50.560 dumber of politics, and both are to blame because they 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:55.640 were repeatedly warned of all the hustles and flim plans 0:01:56.400 --> 0:02:01.480 going on in their precious Somali community. But they didn't care. 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:08.400 Now they thought it would be racist to prosecute Somali constituents, 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:13.799 so they happily allowed the fraud to continue and indeed 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:19.400 to escalate. You see, in uber liberal Minnesota, it is 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:24.880 politically incorrect to enforce the law against Somali's God forbid, 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:31.320 putting criminals behind bars might lose some votes. Not only 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:35.280 did Waltz turn a blind eyed all the conjobs going 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:40.600 on under his bulbous nose, he actually helped them flourish. 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:46.519 Evidence shows he was told repeatedly of the ginormous COVID 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:51.280 fraud scandal early on, but instead of fixing it, he 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:54.200 worked to protect it and to cover it up. He 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:59.920 allegedly aided and embedded all of the schemes by rit 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:06.200 retaliating against whistleblowers who had come forward with courage. 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:10.120 To try to expose the fraud. Waltz tried his level 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:15.800 best to discredit the fraud reports themselves. So you know 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:22.959 that's not merely rank incompetence. It's intentional malfeasance. No wonder 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:29.640 Walt's admitted during the vice presidential debate that he's a knucklehead. Really, 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:33.320 he actually said that, and by the way, nobody has 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:37.160 ever disagreed with that assessment. The guy is a total buffoon. 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:40.040 I wouldn't trust him to run a hot dog stand, 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:44.960 and yet he has the audacity to run for reelection, 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:49.440 So you know he can ruin Minnesota further with even 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:55.400 more corruption. Tim Waltz is so clueless that his own. 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:59.840 State workers at the Department of Human Services denounced his 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:06.120 epic incompetence. They issued an official statement saying Waltz is 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:11.400 one hundred percent responsible for fleecing more than a billion 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:16.760 dollars from taxpayers. Look, is anybody really surprised? I mean, 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:20.240 this is what happens when the government begins handing out 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:25.960 free money while relying on states like Minnesota for oversight. 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:30.360 I mean, the scammers and the grifters are having a 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:35.240 field day. The pandemic relief was supposed to be administered 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:40.559 by Waltz's Education Department, but they were so inept under 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:45.200 his leadership or lack thereof, that it became a piece 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:49.640 of cake to steal hundreds of millions of dollars in 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:53.559 phony claims. Money that was supposed to go to feed 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:59.160 needy children was stolen by scammers who splashed their cash 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:04.920 on lock tree homes, fancy cars, elaborate vacations, lavish lifestyles. 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:08.880 They were yucking it up. In one case alone, they 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:15.120 claimed to have served ninety one million meals that were 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:20.200 never served, for which they fraudulently received two hundred and 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:25.560 fifty million dollars in federal funds. Those are your tax 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:31.600 dollars going into the pockets of Minnesota Crux. I can't 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:36.479 think of anything lower than stealing money from hungry children, 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:39.560 or taking money away from kids who were supposed to 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:45.360 be receiving autistic services that never happened. But that's not all. 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:50.200 Housing programs were also ripped off in Minnesota. In fact, 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:54.480 the list is so long that one former US Attorney 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:59.920 estimates that the total figure will likely surpass two billion 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:05.520 dollars in fraud. Trump is vowed to prosecute and then 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:10.039 deport the Somali criminals responsible for all that fraud. But 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:17.000 Timmy Waltz calls that petty vindictiveness. I'm not kidding. In 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:21.880 the twisted world of Waltz, the law should be selective, 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:26.919 because you know, equal enforcement of the law is racist. 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:31.120 It's not just the wicked world of Waltz, but mega 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:35.960 thefts are now being discovered in Ohio, where you guessed 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:43.600 it's Somali's reportedly perpetrated a massive Medicaid theft involving healthcare 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:48.960 payouts based on fake medical conditions. All right, that's appalling, 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:53.600 But is anybody surprised since Obamacare, one of the greatest 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:58.200 deceptions of all time, opened the door to a wholesale 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:04.200 plundering of our nation's treasury. The General Accounting Office says 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:09.960 that Obamacare subsidies are costing you, the taxpayers, some twenty 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:17.480 seven billion dollars a year. Twenty seven billion in fake identities, 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:23.960 dead people, and improper use of Social Security numbers. And 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:26.880 then there's food stamps or we're not supposed to call 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:30.640 them food stamps anymore, because that's what they are. We 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:35.480 call them snap payments. Well, those are rife with fraud. 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:41.160 Hundreds of thousands of people are getting government money, except 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:45.400 they're dead, so you know they're not eating a lot. 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:49.120 Don't get me started on my home state of California. 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:56.080 Massive unemployment fraud has recently been uncovered that resulted in 0:07:56.400 --> 0:08:01.920 billions of stolen dollars. Get this, up to thirty one 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:10.320 billion dollars that was paid to criminals, including people behind bars. 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:20.640 Education fraud, healthcare fraud, Medicare fraud in California has been uncovered. Again, 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:25.560 that's your money down the drain, and Gavin Newsom doesn't care, 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:29.800 except to the extent that his former chief of staff 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:35.319 was caught and charged in one of those schemes. Here's 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:40.400 the bottom line. Democrats say they care about the needy, 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:45.240 except they don't. That's just a ruse. It's a pretense 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:50.640 for something else. They use the needy. They exploit the 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:56.040 needy to strong arm the government into handing out benefits 0:08:56.800 --> 0:09:02.319 so that the cash can then be stolen by their constituents, 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:06.600 and people like Tim Waltz look the other way, and 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:13.800 always liberal Democrats want more they will ruthlessly and persistently 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:18.520 dig deep into your pockets until they're empty, and then 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:23.839 they demand more of your income with higher taxes. It's 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:30.080 the old socialist stratagem that seems appealing to some until 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:34.720 is Margaret Thatcher famously observed, you eventually run out of 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:39.640 other people's money. That's the history of socialism. It's a 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:45.840 well worn story of failure and collapse. Later on in 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:48.679 our program, I'm going to be talking with Peter Schweitzer 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:54.520 about this. He's president of the Government Accountability to Institute, 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:58.800 and he is certainly an expert on the subject of fraud. 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:04.800 Peter also wrote the book called Clinton Cash, so he's 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:07.719 going to tell us about the recent news of how 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:13.120 the FBI's corruption probe into Hillary Clinton's suspected pay to 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:21.080 play schemes was killed by her protectors in Barack Obama's administration. 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:25.640 We're going to take a quick break right now. Coming up, 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:29.280 we have, in addition to Peter Schweizer, I'll be talking 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:35.000 to Mike Davis about whether any of the people involved 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:39.760 in the law fair crusade against Donald Trump will ever 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:45.040 be held accountable with indictments. I think there'll be indictments 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:48.520 in the beginning of the new year. We'll also talk 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:54.840 to Brian Finch about Trump's attacks on Caribbean drug boats 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:56.400 tied to Venezuela. 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:57.760 Are they legal? 0:10:59.000 --> 0:10:59.400 They are. 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:02.520 We'll be right back. I'm Greg Jarrett filling in for 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:06.760 Sean Hannity. Welcome back to the Sean Hannity Show. I'm 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:09.400 Greg Jarrett filling in for Sean. A few minutes ago, 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:14.199 I mentioned, in the context of all the fraud going 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:20.200 under the nose of Tim Waltz in Minnesota, how he's incompetent, 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:24.920 and in fact, he admitted in the vice presidential debate 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:29.400 when he was running with Kamalaw that he's a knucklehead. 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:32.439 And so I want to play you know, some people 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:35.160 have said, and I've mentioned it before, have said, oh, 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:38.320 did he know, he didn't really he didn't call himself enhing. Yeah, 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:40.080 he did. And I'm going to play the clip for 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:44.360 you right now. Here's the context. Waltz is a known liar, 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:47.680 and he got caught many times in lies. The number 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:50.520 of times he was in China. He claimed he was 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:54.000 there at the time of the Tienneman Square massacre in 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:57.800 nineteen eighty nine, record show he wasn't there. He was 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:01.680 in the United States. So a moderator asked him during 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:05.400 the debate, and here's what Timmy Waltz had to say. 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:09.400 Governor Walls, you said you were in Hong Kong during 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:12.640 the deadly Tieneman Square protests in the spring of nineteen 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:16.440 eighty nine, But Minnesota Public Radio and other media outlets 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:20.040 are reporting that you actually didn't travel to Asia until 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:24.560 August of that year. Can you explain that discrepancy? 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:24.800 Ye? 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:26.600 Yeah, Well, and to the folks out there, it didn't 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:28.960 get at the top of this. Look, I grew up 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:33.080 in small, rural Nebraska town of four hundred town that 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:34.920 you rode your bike with your buddies till the street 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:37.280 lights come on, and I'm proud of that service. Now, look, 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:40.040 my community knows who I am. They saw where I 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:42.880 was at they look. I will be the first to 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:45.240 tell you I have poured my heart into my community. 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:47.559 I've tried to do the best I can, but I've 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:50.160 not been perfect, and I'm a knucklehead at times. I 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:53.959 will say more than anything. Many times I will talk 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:56.080 a lot, I will get caught up in the rhetoric. 0:12:56.920 --> 0:13:00.200 But being there, the impact it made, the difference made 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:02.319 in my life. I learned a lot about China governor. 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:05.160 Just to follow up on that, the question was, can 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:07.480 you explain therepancy? 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:09.280 All I said on this was is I got there 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:12.240 that summer and misspoke on this, So I will just 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:13.760 that's what I've said. 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:16.880 What a slee's ball, But there it is. He called 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:21.520 himself a knucklehead, and no truer words wherever spoken. The 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:26.320 guy's a buffoon. He's an incompetent governor of Minnesota, and 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:31.000 he's running for reelection amid all of the fraud, which 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:36.640 may roughly be two billion dollars of your taxpayer money. 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:39.560 Coming up later, I'll talk to Peter Schweizer about it. 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:42.839 He knows all about the fraud in Minnesota. But I 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:48.960 also want to talk to Peter about how the Department 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:54.880 of Justice under Barack Obama, probably under the president's orders, 0:13:55.720 --> 0:14:03.760 decided to kill and bury the growing corruption investigation into 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:10.560 Hillary Clinton's foreign pay to play schemes which enriched the 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:16.240 Clinton Foundation, and of course they used that foundation as 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:22.800 their personal piggybank. There's considerable evidence that Bill and Hillary 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:28.520 got rich from foreign donations made to their Clinton Foundation, which, 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:33.000 as I say, was really, you know, their own bank. Account. 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:37.080 We're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars, and as 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:39.000 I wrote in my book The Russia Hoaks back in 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:44.440 twenty eighteen, many of the largest contributions were made by 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:50.880 people and shell companies. There's a red alert connected to 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:57.200 a Russian controlled business called Uranium One, which managed, through 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:02.800 a series of clever maneuvers, to seize control of a 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:09.960 sizeable percentage of America's prized uranium assets. I'm reading directly 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:14.360 out of my book. All of this happened as Hillary 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:18.680 was serving as Secretary of State, and of course the 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:24.040 inevitable allegations of corruption followed. In The FBI became so 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:30.320 concerned that it opened a criminal investigation into a pay 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:36.320 to play scheme involving Hillary and her foundation. The bureau 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:41.480 gathered evidence that the foreign cash may have illegally influenced 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:45.840 US foreign policy under Hillary Clinton. Peter wrote about it. 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:47.200 I wrote about it. 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:49.640 We'll be talking with him coming up on the Sean 0:15:49.920 --> 0:16:19.600 Hannity Show. Solid as a rock, honest, truthful. This is 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:23.320 the Sean Hannity Show. Hey, welcome back to the Sean 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:28.200 Hannity Show. I'm Greg Jarrett. Of course, Donald Trump and 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:36.640 his administration has been going after drug cartels smuggling deadly fentanyl, cocaine, 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:41.040 synthetic opolioids into the United States that have killed more 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:45.320 than three hundred thousand young people since twenty twenty one. 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:50.160 So you know, they've carried out strikes against suspected drug 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:54.200 vessels in the region. In the Caribbean, They've seized a 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:58.200 sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, declared a 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:03.560 blockade of all sank and oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:07.240 And Trump has said on more than one occasion that 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:12.840 strikes on land in Venezuela could be coming sometime soon. 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:17.159 Secretary of State Marco Rubio had this to say on 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:18.320 that subject today. 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:20.680 At the core, foreign policy needs to be the national 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:22.840 interest of the United States. So you have to first 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:24.840 of all define what is the national interest, and then 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:27.679 you have to apply it. We defined it as we 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:30.520 are in favor of foreign policies that make America safer, 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:33.520 or stronger, or more prosperous, hopefully all three, but at 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:35.879 least one of those three. And then it requires you 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:39.719 to prioritize. Even the richest, most powerful and influential country 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:43.399 on Earth has limited resources has limited time, and it 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:45.640 has to be able to dedicate those resources in time 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:50.480 through a process of prioritization that includes geographic prioritization. It 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:53.680 also includes issue prioritization. When it comes to the Western Hemisphere, 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:56.040 the single most serious threat to the United States and 0:17:56.119 --> 0:18:00.119 the Western Hemisphere is from transnational terrorist criminal groups. I'm 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:02.399 merely focused on narco trafficking, but they're in all sides 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:05.560 businesses as well. So the good news is we have 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:07.800 a lot of countries in the region that openly cooperate 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:09.840 and work with us to confront these challenges. 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:13.560 All right, that was Marco Robio. Let's bring into the 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:17.360 conversation now our guest today Brian Finch, who is a 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:21.040 top notch lawyer. He's a partner with Pillsbury Winthrop. He 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:25.600 co chairs the firm's global security practice, and Brian has 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:30.119 been covering the ongoing Venezuela narco terrorism and the dictatorship 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:34.439 under Maduro. As I say, the President and Secretary of 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:37.880 War have been doing everything they can to prevent these 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:43.760 boats from onboarding their drugs to American shores. Brian, thanks 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:46.719 so much for being with us. You and I've talked 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:52.600 about this before, but in your legal opinion, Does this 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:59.240 administration have every legal right to defend its citizens from 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:04.040 the lethal poison by using lethal military force. 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:09.560 Of course, it's a basic constitutional tenet that the president 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:12.240 has the authority to do that. I mean, that's he's 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:15.560 the commander in chief of the military. There are dozens 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:19.280 upon dozens of examples throughout American history where the president 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:23.720 has acted unilaterally to defend the nation from any type 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:27.400 of threat, and this falls squarely into that category once again. 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:32.320 And folks who are protesting this, you know, this is 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:36.439 about being anti Trump. It's not about the president actually 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:39.679 exceeding his authority. So it's a policy complaint, it's not 0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:40.640 a legal complaint. 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:44.440 Is there any doubt in your mind that Maduro himself 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:50.960 and his murderous regime in Venezuela are behind the smuggling. 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:57.320 No, I mean, it's like any other narco state cryptocracy, 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:01.359 where of course he exerts control within iron fists. So 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:04.240 why you've had people trying to flee the country by 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:08.760 millions over the past decade or so. He runs it. 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:12.480 Anything that happens in the country happens at his direction 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:16.320 or at least with his awareness, and whether explicitly or 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:19.719 implicitly this is all happening at his direction and more 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:23.320 than likely as profit as well. You can easily imagine that. 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:27.320 So of course this is all happening, you know, with 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:30.399 his understanding, with his knowledge. It's not his direction at 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:33.680 this point, so it's his responsibility, and the president is 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:37.159 right to direct actions against him personally and against his 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:38.679 regime to protect Americans. 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:42.760 Back to the legality of it all, the cartels are 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:49.440 officially designated by our government as armed terror organizations, and 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:54.240 as such they are are they not enemy combatants and 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:59.080 can be legally targeted by Trump under the president's constitutional 0:20:59.160 --> 0:21:03.359 war powers. So you do not need consent from Congress. 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:07.400 Wasn't it long ago given by Congress when they approve 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:11.119 the authorization for use of military force? 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:17.040 It absolutely was. And even if you know, people will 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:20.200 point to the War Powers Act for example, to say 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:23.159 that the president has to go to Congress to explain 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:26.080 what he's doing and seek their consent. Very good argument 0:21:26.240 --> 0:21:30.800 that the War Powers Act is itself unconstitutional, Yes, and 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:35.520 so as the president, he can certainly consult with Congress. 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:37.919 If Congress wants to weigh in, they can do so. 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:39.960 They have in fact been doing so. The chairman of 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:43.840 the Armed Services Committee, Mike Rodgers from Alabama. He looked 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:49.840 into the questionable, you know, the questionable complaints about the 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:52.600 one striking, whether that was a violation of the law 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:55.760 of war, and the chairman walked away saying, I'm perfectly satisfied. 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:59.560 The president's been doing everything by the book, by the law, 0:22:00.680 --> 0:22:06.400 and so he's acting fully within his constitutional authority. And oh, 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:09.280 by the way, enemy commands, there's also a good argument 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:12.199 that these are illegal combatants, much like we've said with 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:16.040 al Qaeda and ISIS in the Taliban back in the 0:22:16.080 --> 0:22:19.280 early two thousands, and they don't necessarily get the protections 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:20.800 of law war in those cases. 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:25.120 Yeah, and I think you're right that legal scholars, many 0:22:25.200 --> 0:22:30.200 of them, have said that the War Powers Act, passed 0:22:30.200 --> 0:22:38.800 by Congress it was a resolution, is unconstitutional and in fact, 0:22:39.560 --> 0:22:46.560 past presidents have ignored it, including Barack Obama. And of 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:52.040 course he used the so called wall run Terrorism Statutes 0:22:53.440 --> 0:22:56.040 to take similar actions as President Trump. 0:22:56.119 --> 0:23:00.119 Didn't he Oh, President Obama actually went further than any 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:04.639 thing that President Trump is doing. President Obama issued a 0:23:04.760 --> 0:23:08.240 very length or had a very lengthy memorandum written that 0:23:08.480 --> 0:23:13.840 justified him killing American citizens overseas without any sort of 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:17.320 due process, as long as they were suspected of being 0:23:17.359 --> 0:23:21.199 associated with terrorists or presenting a potentially eminent threat to 0:23:21.240 --> 0:23:25.280 the United States. The President Obama's legal team and he agreed, 0:23:25.560 --> 0:23:29.800 said that he could order lefold drone strikes against American 0:23:29.880 --> 0:23:33.719 citizens anywhere in the world as long as it met 0:23:33.720 --> 0:23:36.640 those conditions, and he did so. He did so hundreds 0:23:36.640 --> 0:23:40.640 of times. So you look at the complaints that are 0:23:41.000 --> 0:23:44.879 being lodged against the president and his team about violations 0:23:44.880 --> 0:23:47.359 of the laws of work. It's silly. And you know, 0:23:47.400 --> 0:23:50.240 I've been thinking a lot about this, greg and it's 0:23:50.640 --> 0:23:55.760 remarkable but also predictably pathetic that you see such unanimity 0:23:56.000 --> 0:23:59.120 about violations with the president with law of war, those 0:23:59.160 --> 0:24:01.399 alleged violations of the law war. You couldn't get that 0:24:01.480 --> 0:24:06.960 same unanimity about Hamas going out and killing women, children, 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:12.160 babies on October seventh, clearly in violation of every law 0:24:12.200 --> 0:24:15.160 in the world. But in those cases they said, well 0:24:15.280 --> 0:24:18.600 that's you know, there were some justifications there, so call 0:24:18.640 --> 0:24:22.160 that any sort of illegal act ets that the Israelis 0:24:22.200 --> 0:24:24.560 are so evil. So it just goes to show the 0:24:24.640 --> 0:24:28.840 hypocrisy and the lengths that the president's opponents will go 0:24:28.960 --> 0:24:32.120 to in order to claim that he is just the 0:24:32.160 --> 0:24:34.600 worst man in the history of the United States. And 0:24:35.119 --> 0:24:38.119 you and I and the listeners, Now it's just not true. 0:24:38.640 --> 0:24:43.919 It's it's just sad rhetoric that is cloaked and illegal vernacular, 0:24:43.960 --> 0:24:46.640 when all in reality is is Trump arrangement syndrome. 0:24:46.880 --> 0:24:51.080 Yeah, it really is. And you know, Democrats and their 0:24:51.160 --> 0:24:57.160 media handmaidens or you know, raging still against Trump. But again, 0:24:57.200 --> 0:24:59.840 they didn't seem to care when Barack Obama went after 0:24:59.760 --> 0:25:04.560 terror targets with deadly drone strikes. In fact, he approved 0:25:04.640 --> 0:25:09.560 five hundred and forty plus strikes, killing roughly three four 0:25:09.640 --> 0:25:13.560 hundred people. Joe Biden did pretty much the same thing 0:25:13.560 --> 0:25:17.719 in Yemen, in Syria and Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. But 0:25:17.920 --> 0:25:21.080 you know, when Obama and Biden to it, it's perfectly lawful, 0:25:21.240 --> 0:25:24.320 according to Democrats in the media. When Trump does it, 0:25:24.320 --> 0:25:29.440 it's somehow war crimes that's legally absurd, isn't it. 0:25:29.440 --> 0:25:32.760 It absolutely is. And by the way, you know, to 0:25:33.119 --> 0:25:37.440 paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, you know, also find somebody who want 0:25:37.440 --> 0:25:40.280 to shoot shoot him. And I think that's that's the 0:25:40.320 --> 0:25:42.320 case here. If we find karis whether they're in the 0:25:42.320 --> 0:25:45.840 Middle East, or they're in Latin America, South America, or 0:25:45.840 --> 0:25:48.919 wherever they are, and they are threatening American lives, they 0:25:48.920 --> 0:25:53.919 are actively participating in killing Americans. Yeah, they need to 0:25:53.960 --> 0:25:57.760 be subject to the military force. And again it's you know, 0:25:57.840 --> 0:26:01.320 the hypocrisy and the irony. You know, there were incredible 0:26:01.400 --> 0:26:05.720 glee going after the manufacturer of opioids and Oscar winning 0:26:05.760 --> 0:26:08.199 movies about the crusades against them. But then you go 0:26:08.240 --> 0:26:11.479 after the makers of cocaine, Stanel and all these other drugs, 0:26:11.480 --> 0:26:15.080 and oh, my goodness, we violated the Geneva Convention. It's 0:26:15.119 --> 0:26:19.960 just a sad playbook that shows the desperation of striking 0:26:20.000 --> 0:26:23.720 out against someone who doesn't fit into this politically correct mold, 0:26:24.280 --> 0:26:26.760 doesn't use the language they like, and isn't pursuing the 0:26:26.800 --> 0:26:32.640 priorities they want. And so again, it's just sad, honestly 0:26:32.640 --> 0:26:35.600 at the end of the day. And the legal arguments 0:26:35.880 --> 0:26:40.040 are just smoke and mirrors to make it sound legitimate, 0:26:40.080 --> 0:26:42.199 but in reality there's nothing to it. 0:26:42.359 --> 0:26:46.200 Yeah, you know, and I keep reading and hearing from 0:26:46.280 --> 0:26:49.000 so called experts. Oh, there is a violation of the 0:26:49.160 --> 0:26:55.000 law of arm conflict embedded in international law and established 0:26:55.040 --> 0:26:58.960 by the Geneva Conventions in nineteen forty nine. Wait a minute, 0:26:58.960 --> 0:27:03.680 did you guys read that because enemy combatants under international 0:27:03.760 --> 0:27:09.200 law can be lawfully targeted with deadly force in any hostilities. 0:27:10.840 --> 0:27:16.200 Those who are protected by that law are civilians and 0:27:16.280 --> 0:27:20.840 medical workers and religious personnel and wounded in six soldiers 0:27:20.880 --> 0:27:24.840 and prisoners of war. But that that's not happening here, 0:27:24.920 --> 0:27:25.119 is it. 0:27:25.920 --> 0:27:28.080 No, No, not at all. It's funny. I'm a bit 0:27:28.080 --> 0:27:31.000 of a history. Buffero was reading up in some World 0:27:31.000 --> 0:27:34.720 War two battles where the exact type of orders that 0:27:35.160 --> 0:27:39.560 people or alleged orders or no quarter, et cetera, supposedly 0:27:39.560 --> 0:27:41.879 our violation of all this. Americans were pursuing it and 0:27:41.920 --> 0:27:44.840 getting medals for it in World War Two, showing no 0:27:44.960 --> 0:27:49.560 quarter to the Japanese soldiers who are on convoys. And again, 0:27:49.600 --> 0:27:51.920 there are certain rules when it comes to the law 0:27:52.000 --> 0:27:56.720 of war. But anytime someone declares that, especially President Trump, 0:27:56.800 --> 0:27:59.960 has committed an open and shut violation of something particular, 0:28:00.840 --> 0:28:05.840 something as nebulous and in some ways you know, complicated, 0:28:05.880 --> 0:28:07.480 as a law of war, and they say, oh, it's 0:28:07.520 --> 0:28:11.400 clear violation. You know it's not. It is cherry picking facts, 0:28:11.600 --> 0:28:17.000 cherry picking scenarios and creating a fantasy situation in a 0:28:17.040 --> 0:28:20.159 fantasy case to convict him right away. But once you 0:28:20.200 --> 0:28:24.800 pull it apart, as you recognized and our listeners have recognized, 0:28:25.160 --> 0:28:29.080 this is not a violation. This is a president authorizing 0:28:29.160 --> 0:28:33.440 and executing exactly what he's been granted under the Constitution 0:28:33.520 --> 0:28:34.880 by the founders, and good. 0:28:34.680 --> 0:28:37.960 For him for doing it, all right, Brian Finch, many thanks. 0:28:38.000 --> 0:28:40.680 You're a terrific lawyer. You certainly know the subject matter 0:28:40.760 --> 0:28:42.960 quite well, and thank you for taking the time to 0:28:43.120 --> 0:28:47.920 join us. Brian Finch again partner at Pillsbury Winthrop. He's 0:28:48.000 --> 0:28:51.440