Speaker 1: Hey, folks, it is Friday, March twenty seventh, and not
Speaker 1: a damn thing got done for six weeks, and now
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, every great body wants to pay
Speaker 1: the TSA workers. And with that, welcome to this breaking
Speaker 1: news and very early episode of Amy and TJ.
Speaker 2: Rhodes.
Speaker 1: That's the headline. TSA workers are going to get paid.
Speaker 1: How by whom, who gets credit, we don't know, but
Speaker 1: we just had a little bit of chaos to pass
Speaker 1: several hours and it is pre sunrise hours as we're
Speaker 1: recording this.
Speaker 2: It's amazing what suddenly can happen in Congress when their
Speaker 2: lives are upended, or when the potential of their vacation
Speaker 2: is hanging, or a loss vacation or maybe a missed
Speaker 2: day of vacation.
Speaker 3: Suddenly suddenly they're compelled to motivations. Wow, that just shows you.
Speaker 2: If it doesn't affect them, they'll take their sweet old time.
Speaker 2: It didn't matter that these folks hadn't been paid, that
Speaker 2: people were literally getting eviction, noticed that people were living
Speaker 2: in their cars, I think to take on second and
Speaker 2: third jobs. People waiting in lines for four and a
Speaker 2: half hours. Nah, none of that mattered.
Speaker 1: We should preface this episode with this. Robes and I
Speaker 1: on very little sleep. We are very little. We are
Speaker 1: punchy as anything and exhausted, but in good moods, and
Speaker 1: this should be a very good story. That is the headline, folks.
Speaker 1: TSA workers are going to get paid based on announcement
Speaker 1: made and deals being made. But Robes, I can't help
Speaker 1: but be pissed. I'm happy for them, but it all
Speaker 1: comes down to why this was necessary in the first place.
Speaker 1: Nobody got anything. Democrats didn't win, Republicans didn't win, and
Speaker 1: we are really talking about their recess, Robes. The Eastern
Speaker 1: recess was starting today today, So now all of a sudden, Oh,
Speaker 1: they might want to keep us here and we can't
Speaker 1: go home for our two week recess. We better get
Speaker 1: something done for these poor TSA workers. I'm happy, but
Speaker 1: I'm pissed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly, And I'm sure and we feel that way,
Speaker 2: and I think collectively most Americans feel that way.
Speaker 3: But how do you think those TSA workers feel?
Speaker 2: That has got to be Look, I don't know if
Speaker 2: it would make it any better if there was something
Speaker 2: that was gained from all of this, Maybe it would
Speaker 2: feel a little bit more it's not justifile, but at
Speaker 2: least it had meaning. Yes, to know that nothing came
Speaker 2: out of it is extra.
Speaker 1: Frustrating, and both sides are going to say there was
Speaker 1: a point in somebody won don't believe anything. Nobody wins
Speaker 1: in this thing. Let us tell you what's going on,
Speaker 1: and we have to tell you, folks. It is about
Speaker 1: three thirty a m. Eastern time as we were recording
Speaker 1: this a little earlier than normal. I know we're crazy,
Speaker 1: but what just happened in the Senate is that the
Speaker 1: Senate that's been fighting, and they're the reason. Really, they're
Speaker 1: the House of Congress that's been holding things up. They
Speaker 1: have agreed to fund DHS, which includes TSA but not
Speaker 1: ICE and just kick that can down the road. What
Speaker 1: this means Robes obviously, is that now TSA, which hasn't
Speaker 1: been getting paid for the past six weeks, they are
Speaker 1: now going to get paid. Hallelujah.
Speaker 2: Celebration, right, yeah, but kind of yes, of course that's
Speaker 2: the celebratory part. Here's the deal though. This is also hilarious,
Speaker 2: and I note the sarcasm. They unanimously voted.
Speaker 1: To approve, didn't even show up to vote.
Speaker 2: Really, they unanimously voted to approve this funding. After all
Speaker 2: of the discord, after all of the divide, they all
Speaker 2: came together and sang kumbaya and voted to approve this funding.
Speaker 2: And by the way, minus ICE and border patrol. But
Speaker 2: really that doesn't even matter in a lot of ways,
Speaker 2: And we've talked about this before because they were already
Speaker 2: funded from Trump's big beautiful bill through twenty twenty seven,
Speaker 2: so that was never even at issue. The whole issue
Speaker 2: about defunding DHS was about defunding or getting reformed for ICE.
Speaker 2: But Ice was never in peril. Ice agents never missed
Speaker 2: a paycheck, the only people who paid. And truly they
Speaker 2: were being held as political hostages because they knew politicians
Speaker 2: knew that this was going to be the biggest disruptor
Speaker 2: to have TSA agents not paid, to have chaos at
Speaker 2: the airports would put pressure on lawmakers to do something,
Speaker 2: and so they were literally political footballs TSA workers.
Speaker 1: Thank God for the long lines, because what I think
Speaker 1: about it, if they were only concerned about TSA workers,
Speaker 1: they'd have gone.
Speaker 3: Home for Eastern Yeah, they wouldn't have cared.
Speaker 2: But Americans are pisis the constituents who are voting for
Speaker 2: you or voting against you, waiting in four hour lines,
Speaker 2: missing flights, disrupting not just vacations but work trips and
Speaker 2: important family trips.
Speaker 3: People have to get places, tragedies or happen.
Speaker 2: Think about that and how many countless stories of people
Speaker 2: missing flights that wasn't just about vacation but were important
Speaker 2: and they couldn't get to where they needed to go
Speaker 2: because Congress was playing games.
Speaker 1: And the game apparently is done at least this part
Speaker 1: part of it. That's the headline. The Senate has voted.
Speaker 1: They have passed this bill. The House. We should let
Speaker 1: you know they need to approve it as well. Most
Speaker 1: of them have not left, I don't think yet, so
Speaker 1: they have to approve this same bill. Expect them to
Speaker 1: do that because they had already passed a funding bill. Anyway.
Speaker 1: What we're saying is that the Senate was the hurdle.
Speaker 1: It seems like that has passed. This funding is going
Speaker 1: to go through. Six weeks of pointlessness is now over.
Speaker 1: But robes that wasn't until an hour ago. The big
Speaker 1: headline or the news for TSA workers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to ask you how much do
Speaker 2: you think Trump's truth social posts that happened last night
Speaker 2: had an impact on the Senate finally deciding to vote
Speaker 2: for this funding bill, because otherwise then the president just
Speaker 2: gets credit for finding a way to pay the TSA workers.
Speaker 2: And I wonder how much we'll get into what his
Speaker 2: truth social post and what he was offering to do.
Speaker 2: How much that impacted along with the Eastern Recess lawmaker's decision.
Speaker 1: I we said here on the podcast yesterday day before,
Speaker 1: there's no way there. Go home for recess and leave
Speaker 1: these folks on the hook for two weeks while you're
Speaker 1: chilling at home with your folks reaster.
Speaker 3: Although late yesterday it looked like that might happen.
Speaker 1: The solid stalemate thought this was going to be the case.
Speaker 1: So the President steps in, but robes what did he?
Speaker 1: I think Democrats might have looked at his true social
Speaker 1: post where it was clear he is trying to step
Speaker 1: in and be the hero in this whole mess.
Speaker 2: That's exactly and that is why I was thinking that
Speaker 2: was a motivator beyond just the Eastern Recess for Democrats,
Speaker 2: because Trump was going to claim victory and truly demonize
Speaker 2: He was already demonizing but maybe effectively demonizing the Democrats.
Speaker 1: What was the what time was he? So, yes, let's
Speaker 1: take you back. So folks, before we yes, we talked
Speaker 1: about this breaking news. The Senate has passed this funding bill.
Speaker 1: TSA is going to get paid. But the president what
Speaker 1: time was it though?
Speaker 2: Roe?
Speaker 3: Seven pm Eastern time?
Speaker 1: Oh it was that. Oh it was that late. I
Speaker 1: thought it was even early.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, thirty seven pm Eastern time last night.
Speaker 1: So this all happened late. The President steps in and says,
Speaker 1: I I am going to pay TSA workers. Not exactly
Speaker 1: sure how, but ropes he made the announcement. This was
Speaker 1: a big, big headline.
Speaker 2: Yes, and he started his first sentence was the radical
Speaker 2: left Democrats and their leader cry and Chuck Schumer have
Speaker 2: made it very clear where they stand, and that is
Speaker 2: on the side of criminal, illegal aliens and not the
Speaker 2: American people. They are refusing to fund immigration enforcement unless
Speaker 2: the Republicans agree to their open border policies, which will
Speaker 2: never ever happen again. He went on to say, they
Speaker 2: almost destroyed our country, allowing twenty five million people to
Speaker 2: enter from prisons, mental institutions, and insane asylums, those that
Speaker 2: are drug dealers, and thousands of murderers, many of whom
Speaker 2: killed more than one person. Because the Democrats have recklessly
Speaker 2: created a true national crisis. I am using my authorities
Speaker 2: under the law to protect our great country, as I
Speaker 2: always do. Therefore, I am going to sign an order
Speaker 2: instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security, Mark Wayne Mullen, to
Speaker 2: immediately pay our TSA agents in order to address this
Speaker 2: emergency situation and stop the Democrat chaos at the airports.
Speaker 3: It's not an easy thing to do, but I'm going
Speaker 3: to do it.
Speaker 2: I want to think are hardworking TSA agents and also
Speaker 2: Ice for the incredible health, incredible help they've given.
Speaker 3: Us at the airports.
Speaker 2: I will not allow the radical left Democrats to hold
Speaker 2: our country hostage any longer.
Speaker 1: I like the line about this. It's hard to do,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to do it. It was clear he
Speaker 1: was stepping in to say I am the hero in
Speaker 1: this situation because they can't get it together. And me
Speaker 1: the guy you're upset with about Iran, Me the guy
Speaker 1: you're upset with about gas prices, Me the guy you're
Speaker 1: upset with about the economy and your food prices. Actually,
Speaker 1: I'm going to make all of your troubles go away,
Speaker 1: because currently it seems like, or feels like roll all
Speaker 1: of our troubles are at the airport. They're not turn
Speaker 1: on the TV. It seems like the biggest problem Americans had,
Speaker 1: and he stepped in to solve that problem.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that was motivating.
Speaker 2: I would have to imagine for all the lawmakers, but
Speaker 2: especially Democrats, to come to the table in a real
Speaker 2: way and figure out because look, the Republicans had made concessions.
Speaker 2: They did agree to take ice out of the funding,
Speaker 2: take border patrol out of the funding, and work on
Speaker 2: that later and consider certain I think, look, I'm not
Speaker 2: sure exactly which recommendations Republicans are considering. The Democrats wanted
Speaker 2: judicial warrants for anyone to enter private property. They wanted
Speaker 2: to restrict operations near schools and hospitals. They didn't want
Speaker 2: masks on ICE agents, and they want agents to wear identification.
Speaker 2: Those were the demands from the Democrats. Not sure where
Speaker 2: Republicans are on any of those, but it just was
Speaker 2: an absolute stalemate. The Republicans were refusing, and then the
Speaker 2: Democrats said we won't.
Speaker 1: Fund and the President game in said I'm going to
Speaker 1: fund you. And now they've come around and there is
Speaker 1: a deal and it looks like TSA agents are going
Speaker 1: to be paid. Now, I guess ropes the Trump situation
Speaker 1: goes away, I guess what he was planning to do.
Speaker 1: Fund then will go away, and now the funding will
Speaker 1: come through correct hopefully. Yes.
Speaker 2: Look, it was interesting because a lot of people were
Speaker 2: questioning how Trump was going to pay for this.
Speaker 3: That was a big question. And apparently did you even
Speaker 3: know about this? There is apparently.
Speaker 2: Billions of dollars in the Department of Homeland Security that
Speaker 2: were provided to the agency based on Trump's tax cut,
Speaker 2: his twenty five tax bill.
Speaker 1: Yeah, make beautiful bill. They put money in there, they
Speaker 1: had it. Why was it sitting there? Why don't we
Speaker 1: use it already?
Speaker 2: Well, now, I guarantee you I already started to see
Speaker 2: or hear little little rumblings. This is going to be
Speaker 2: a big thing. I'm sure Democrats are going to jump
Speaker 2: on this. If he had access to this money this
Speaker 2: entire time, if you didn't need an executive or an
Speaker 2: emergency order to access those funds, why didn't he do
Speaker 2: this sooner?
Speaker 1: Why didn't any of them do it sooner? Let me
Speaker 1: say that, go after the president if you want to,
Speaker 1: But this ain't his fault and This ain't his responsibility
Speaker 1: to actually pay TSA. This is Congress's responsibility. Fine, how
Speaker 1: in the hell did I just let that come out
Speaker 1: of my mouth? This ain't on Trump? But yes, this
Speaker 1: ain't on Trump. But folks, stay here, we do. I
Speaker 1: want to give an update of what's happening at the
Speaker 1: airports still today, the latest that we're getting from TSA
Speaker 1: about how things are going. Hopefully things will improve soon
Speaker 1: and we should be able to report back to you
Speaker 1: about that real soon, because when we turn off this microphone,
Speaker 1: we're headed to the airport. I continuing here on amy
Speaker 1: A TJ. All the headlines over the past several weeks
Speaker 1: robes as they keep showing us the terrible lines TSA
Speaker 1: lines at airports you turn on the TV. What two
Speaker 1: airports our most live reporters set.
Speaker 2: Up at, well, absolutely Atlanta, yes, and maybe Houston.
Speaker 1: Maybe hell yeah, Houston and then.
Speaker 3: One of the New York airports.
Speaker 2: They'll they'll go between or among LaGuardia, JFK and Newark.
Speaker 1: Yes, so we decided we wanted to go through during
Speaker 1: this time. Yes, we do have a flight. I think
Speaker 1: if you all been listening, you know we had a
Speaker 1: trip to Atlanta quick trip, but we will be going
Speaker 1: back through that airport today flew into It wasn't so bad.
Speaker 1: We had no issues actually flying on Wednesday. I was
Speaker 1: fair to say no issue.
Speaker 2: It wasn't bad because we actually ended up flying in
Speaker 2: the middle of the day, which turns out is great
Speaker 2: in the middle of the week. That's probably your best
Speaker 2: chance at not having any problems, at least as of late.
Speaker 2: But funny enough, we have an early morning flight. Normally
Speaker 2: that's a good thing. In Atlanta, we've seen that's a
Speaker 2: bad thing. Yesterday we were up at five am watching
Speaker 2: the local news. The lines for the airport security were
Speaker 2: already outside on the curb, like completely wrapped around in
Speaker 2: double lines. You couldn't even get into the airport door
Speaker 2: to even get to the security line. You had to
Speaker 2: start outside.
Speaker 1: I actually thought it was b roll from the previous day.
Speaker 1: I said, there's no ways this early in the lines
Speaker 1: that bad. I did not believe it was a live picture.
Speaker 1: So we're going through. We'll report back see how well.
Speaker 1: Let's you know how that goes. But what's been happening
Speaker 1: at the airport. They've been giving updates now around five
Speaker 1: hundred TSA agents have quit during this shutdown, which is
Speaker 1: up to day forty two. The last one was a
Speaker 1: full shut down. It was forty three days and that
Speaker 1: was history making. That was the longest ever. But this
Speaker 1: one ends up right behind it. But five hundred agents
Speaker 1: have quit, they say. But the call out rates have
Speaker 1: they said, at some airport has been as high as
Speaker 1: fifty percent. Can you imagine imagine an air imagine any
Speaker 1: business half of your workforce called out the workforce that
Speaker 1: is necessary for you to do your jou.
Speaker 2: Last line of defense before flying in the skies when
Speaker 2: we are at a time of massive international conflict that
Speaker 2: is so disturbing, and so yes, wait times of more
Speaker 2: than four four and a half hours at some of
Speaker 2: these airports. ICE agents are at some airports trying to
Speaker 2: help with the chaos. There hasn't been a lot made
Speaker 2: of that. I don't know if it's helped. It doesn't
Speaker 2: seem like it's hurt. There was concern that there might cause,
Speaker 2: you know, just some emotional discomfort seeing ICE agents everywhere,
Speaker 2: But I don't know has there even been an impact.
Speaker 1: What if they're helping, but what if they are actually
Speaker 1: having an impact and not getting credit for it? Right,
Speaker 1: these are and please folks, please know these are good people. Yes,
Speaker 1: ICE agents are good law enforcement overwhelmingly good people who
Speaker 1: are being thrown around here and there and know how
Speaker 1: to do their jobs. So maybe ropes they're manning a
Speaker 1: door instead of a TSA agent having to that frees
Speaker 1: up that TSA agent to go do something else, to
Speaker 1: go do screening if maybe it's helping. But we have
Speaker 1: not seen the type of ish many people thought we might,
Speaker 1: like the streets of Minneapolis. Are they're gonna come cause
Speaker 1: chaos hasn't happened.
Speaker 3: That is absolutely true.
Speaker 2: So at least, hey, there's that's a silver lining that
Speaker 2: maybe maybe they will come in and look like some
Speaker 2: an agency that was there to help instead of to hurt.
Speaker 2: And I think that, unfortunately, has been the way people
Speaker 2: have viewed them up until now. I thought something else
Speaker 2: interesting that came out of all of this. The union
Speaker 2: that represents the government workers so that they want the
Speaker 2: shut Down Fairness Act to pass.
Speaker 3: Did you even know about this?
Speaker 2: I wasn't aware of it, but it makes so much
Speaker 2: sense they want and yes this should pass after these
Speaker 2: last two shutdowns and government workers dealing with what they've
Speaker 2: had to deal with. Basically, no politician from either party
Speaker 2: can hold a public servants paycheck hostage in the middle
Speaker 2: of a shutdown, and I think that is awesome. That
Speaker 2: should pass unanimously. After all of this chaos.
Speaker 1: TSA agents would not do this again. It should to
Speaker 1: recruit more TSA agents. You should absolutely make an announcement,
Speaker 1: pass a bill whatever. TSA agents will not go without
Speaker 1: paychecks because of government bullshit. I'm in support fully. It's
Speaker 1: awful what they've done to these folks. It is awful
Speaker 1: what they've done to them in robes. It's worse because
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, nobody got anything. What
Speaker 1: were you fighting for? Democrats? Did you get it?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: So what was the point of getting TSA agents this
Speaker 1: much pain for the sake of what? And now you're
Speaker 1: motivated because you get to go home for Easter?
Speaker 2: You and I wonder why people can't stand politicians dings.
Speaker 1: All right, folks, but we'll end on the upside. TSA
Speaker 1: agents gonna get paid. And yes, if you didn't know,
Speaker 1: we should remind they all do get that back paid.
Speaker 1: So they're all gonna get big checks. We don't know
Speaker 1: if they'll get bonuses. They gave ten thousand dollars bonus
Speaker 1: but the folks last time, make them twenty, make them fifty. Yeah, fine,
Speaker 1: knock yourself out.
Speaker 2: And I'm just thinking about those poor five hundred workers
Speaker 2: who had to quit their jobs and try to go
Speaker 2: find other work because they couldn't tolerate not getting paid again.
Speaker 2: That is such a massive up ending of your life
Speaker 2: to have to go do that. I feel for them too,
Speaker 2: and hopefully if they want their jobs back, they should
Speaker 2: be ready and waiting for them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good point, all right, folks. We always
Speaker 1: appreciate you spending some time with us. Wanted to give
Speaker 1: you that update. It is a significant one. There will
Speaker 1: be more updates throughout the day. We always appreciate you
Speaker 1: spending some time with us. But for my dear Amy Robock,
Speaker 1: I am TJ. Holmes and we will talk to you soon.
Speaker 2: Y