11.14.2024 -- NLS -- Matt Gaetz as AG: Swamp Slayer or Short-Term Chaos?

On this episode with Neal and Julie, the discussion centers on the surprising announcement of Donald Trump selecting Matt Gaetz as Attorney General. Neal shares how he first learned of the news through a text from Julie and his initial skepticism, which quickly turned to astonishment upon confirmation.

Neal reflects on the unconventional choice of Gaetz, contrasting it with more traditional picks like Mike Lee, who embodies the measured and seasoned approach often expected for this role. Neal acknowledges that while Gaetz might not be a long-term fit, his firebrand style could serve a specific purpose: shaking up the Department of Justice and rooting out corruption. Neal likens Gaetz to a "startup CEO," brought in to disrupt the status quo before handing off to someone more steady like Mike Lee.

Julie weighs in, noting that Gaetz’s appointment has stirred mixed reactions, ranging from excitement among MAGA supporters to trepidation from moderates. The two hosts discuss Trump’s strategy of surrounding himself with loyalists and how this bold pick reflects his broader agenda to "drain the swamp."

Listeners are invited to share their one-word reactions to Gaetz’s appointment. Neal and Julie also touch on John Thune’s elevation to Senate Majority Leader, contrasting his cautious approach with Trump’s more aggressive style, and debating whether Thune can align effectively with the MAGA agenda.

The episode wraps with broader reflections on Trump’s appointments and their implications for the Republican Party, the DOJ, and the political landscape over the next six months. Neal and Julie speculate on potential outcomes, including how these moves might define Trump’s administration and reshape the GOP’s direction.

Transcript

And good morning. It's 807 on Newstalk 179. Welcome. It's Thursday and a beautiful one at that. So far, I understand we do have some stuff that may be coming, but at any rate I want to welcome you to the program today. And the news cycle is moving faster than we can keep up with. We only have four hours a day here with you.

But of course, there's so much talk about Trump's picks for his cabinet. And this is an all star cast. I have to tell you who he's chosen has been fascinating. For some, it's been concerning. And I'll get to that in just a moment. Others are having complete and utter meltdowns over it. And I want to talk specifically today about Matt Gates.

I thought it was a joke. I'm sitting there. I'm working on some project here at the station. I get a text from Julie, and it's a link to a story about Matt Gates being chosen as attorney general, and I chuckled. I'm like, oh, that's funny. Like it was it was a joke, like a Babylon Bee story. So I'm like, that can't be true.

I get online, I search, and sure enough, Donald Trump has chosen Matt Gates to be the attorney general. And I thought, okay, what what's happening in this world? Because you there are things I really like about Matt Gates and I've actually had a change. This was my initial reaction. We typically put a certain mindset set into who we choose as attorney general, someone who is sort of judge, like they're a little more reserved.

They're very measured, they're seasoned often they're they're Mike Lee, Mike Lee would be a good Mike Lee would be as obvious an attorney general pick as Marco Rubio is a secretary of state. And I really thought there's a good chance Mike Lee is going to be the AG. There's little speculation going on. I thought he'd be a great pick.

I did not see this coming because if there's anybody who is not measured, it's Matt Gates. He is as firebrand as you get. And I thought, okay, what what's happening here? Because Donald Trump is making stellar sensible picks in certain offices, and then he's picking Matt Gates to be the AG. And and don't get me wrong, I don't dislike Matt Gates.

I did feel like his approach in the Kevin McCarthy ouster was somewhat unproductive. We ended up with Mike Johnson, you know, and I said all along, well, this is all going to hinge on the outcome here. Matt Gates will own the outcome. So, Mike Johnson, if I were to give him a letter grade as speaker of the House, I'd probably give him a B-minus, maybe, depending on the week, maybe a c-plus.

But but right in there, I probably would have given Kevin McCarthy barely passing. Probably a D, so I guess it was an improvement. But as the more I thought about this, I had this realization of what we face right now. What is the biggest problem that we have in the Department of Justice? And I would probably say this for the FBI, maybe the CIA, some of the other intelligence agencies.

It's rot. It is corruption. It is lawfare. It is deep state. It is people who are working not just against Donald Trump. They're working against the will of the people for their own ideological indulgence. It all really started in earnest. There were hints of it before, but in earnest it was accelerated under Barack Obama. He's the one that truly politicized the federal agencies.

Now, when I look at why would you pick at Matt Gates to head up the the Department of Justice as attorney general? My I have a couple of different theories about why this is. If you want to chase away the cockroaches and the rats, you bring in something that they would find abhorrent. You scare them. You scare the living crap out of them.

Now, Matt Gates is brilliant. I, I feel like he's impulsive, but he's also super smart. And he'll do a great job at navigating with great skill all of the political turbulence that he's going to face, I think. And, who knows how this will play out. I think he's going to get approved. I do, I think they are going to give deference to Donald Trump.

He's he's had that big of a win. And it's going to be very, very difficult for any Republican politician, especially to challenge Donald Trump on this. So I think he'll get this initial wave, most, if not all of these people that he's asking for. But I don't think that Matt Gates is designed to be the attorney general for the next four years.

I just I don't see that. I think Mike Lee would I don't think Matt Gates would. I think the purpose of bringing in Matt Gates is to send the rats and the cockroaches scampering out of the DOJ. This is about the swamp, because we all know Matt Gates is going to go in. He will demand emails. He will demand, devices that these attorneys and other staffers have used.

And he will determine the extent to which lawfare has been used against Donald Trump. Here he is grilling Merrick Garland earlier about the DOJ's communication with some of these regional offices that were throwing indictments and everything else at Donald Trump. You can clear it all up for us right now. Will the Department of Justice provide to the committee all documents, all correspond between the department and Alvin Bragg's office and Fani Willis US office and Letitia James, his office, the offices you're referring to are independent offices of state.

I get that, I get that the question is whether or not you will provide all of your documents and correspondence. That's the question. It's I don't need a history lesson. Well, I'm going to say again, we do not control those offices. They make the questions when you communicate with them, not whether you control them do you communicate with them.

And we provide this. Can we make a request? We will refer it to our office of legislation. But see, here's the thing. You come in here and you lodge this attack, that it's a conspiracy theory that there is coordinated lawfare against Trump. And then when we say, fine, just give us the documents, give us the correspondence. And then if it's a conspiracy theory, that will be evident.

But when you say, well, we'll take your request and then we'll we'll sort of work it through the DOJ's accommodation process, then you're actually advancing the very dangerous conspiracy theory that you're concerned about. Now, you're you were a judge once nominated the highest court in our country when you were a judge. I'm just curious, did you ever make political donations to Partizan candidates?

No, no. And you didn't, because that would create the potential appearance of impropriety. I didn't, because there's a federal rule. Oh, our federal judges for making contributions. Right. But but under that same theory of attacks on the judicial process, like, shouldn't someone be owed like a jury of their peers and a judge that's non-biased rather than getting a judge from your political opponents donor file?

I'm well aware that you're not asking a hypothetical. Okay. And then it goes on. Now we're not going to play the whole thing. It's five minutes long, but you get the flavor of how vigorously Matt Gates is going to get to the bottom of the the rot and corruption at DOJ. I look forward to that. You know, it's interesting if you look in business, there are some CEOs that are great at startups and they're not so great at running established companies long term.

Matt Gates is a startup CEO. I don't think Matt Gates is sort of the long term captain of a steady ship. And so I think we're going to see a flurry of activity once Matt Gates gets approved. I think we're going to see a lot happen. A lot of a lot of people are going to leave. There's going to be a mass exodus of attorneys.

And, Bob, I don't let the door hit you on the way out. And that will be a good this is you know, I truly believe this is Donald Trump draining the swamp. Matt Gates will will perform that mission. He'll do it well. And then we'll see what his future is after that. But so fascinating. And and from what went to this is a joke to that's how it started.

And it morphed over the last 12 18 hours or so into this makes sense. And I think this is a great pick. Earlier this morning, I had our listeners text in there one word reaction to Matt Gates. And I'll read this one was ambivalent and I will say that's the only ambivalent. We got another one Holy with an exclamation mark.

Win. Thrilled. Wow. Awesome. Burn a couple more awesomes. Kaboom. Someone texted in a made up word. All one word. Piss off a lib. Which that's a I guess that's a new. I don't know if it's a noun reverb, but, piss off a lib is a new is a new term. Someone else said Botox. Okay. That's funny.

Ecstatic. Overall, I think the the reaction to this is good. Now, Congressman Mike Simpson appears to have a different take on this. He said this is concerning. Okay. Well, I, I think to a lot of rhinos, it probably is. And I mean, that with fondness. I, you know, Simpson certainly is a moderate and he is the kind of lawmaker that didn't really like Matt Gates, doesn't like his style, doesn't like his approach.

And so it does it makes sense that Congressman Simpson is going to say that it is concerning. But here's the issue. The House has absolutely nothing to do with this. This is the president of the United States and this is the Senate. And it's unclear I'm not sure how the next couple of months roll out, because Trump's appointments could go through in a recess situation, but he's not the president until January 20th, so that this has yet to be seen how it's going to work.

Although he did secure an assurance from all three candidates for Senate Majority Leader Thune, Cornyn and Scott to give him recess appointments. It's been on hold for a couple of presidential terms, but I think Trump will have that back at his disposal because we they're going to have to for him to get anybody through. The Democrats are so obstructionist that that may be the only way for him to get this, get this done.

And speaking of the Senate, boy, Chuck Schumer changes his tone quickly, doesn't he? This was a very interesting floor speech that he gave yesterday. Now that he will have to relinquish his grip on the gavel, he said, Will you Republicans, please be nice to us? Now? Now, let me turn to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

Another closely contested election now comes to an end to my Republican colleagues, I offer a word of caution in good faith. Take care not to misread. Misread the will of the people and do not abandon the need for bipartisanship after winning an election. The temptation may be to go to the extreme. We've seen that happen over the decades, and it's consistently backfired on the party in power.

So instead of going to the extremes, I remind my colleagues that this body is most effective when it's bipartisan. If we want, in the next four years, the Senate to be productive, as productive as the last four, the only way that will happen is through bipartisan cooperation. Democrats will be ready to do what we have consistently done work with both sides when the opportunity arises.

Democrats will never abandon our values, but neither will we reject an opportunity to move the ball forward, to make people's lives better. When we can. The question is now whether or not Republicans are willing to do the same to my colleagues on the other side. Once again, do not abandon bipartisanship. It's the best and most effective way to get things done.

It was true in the last four years and will be true in the years to come. How was it true in any common sense of the word bipartisan Senate? They beat us over the head at every turn. That is laughable. What he just said completely laughable. He's gaslighting. He's rewriting history. Because I'm going to tell you for at least the next two years, and hopefully far beyond that, Washington is not going to be a fun place for Democrats.

Not in the least. I'll also say this. Let's compare a Donald Trump first term with the term that that's coming his second term. Donald Trump was very bold, accomplished a lot, but he also recognized he had to get reelected. I thought he would in 2020. He has no concern about that now. He the there is no House Democrat majority to impeach him.

There is no apparatus for them to use these. I call them the somber instruments in the Constitution to try to take him out. He's not a king and I would never advocate for that. But the Democrats don't have the power they had before to create disruption and a blockade to Donald Trump. They lost it by their own doing, by their own ridiculous, over-the-top, catastrophic kamikaze messaging about trans gender is, and demographic intersectional.

All the things the identity politics that they've been playing, they did this to themselves. And now Donald Trump will have the House, he'll have the Senate. He obviously has the white House. And we have A63 majority on the Supreme Court. Buckle up. The next two years and maybe four are going to be a fast, alienating ride in American history.

I believe Donald Trump will absolutely double down and do everything that he can and must within the constraints of the presidency, to drain the swamp in Washington. It's not going to be easy, but I believe that he failed in his first term because he thought he was going to get an adjacent second term. I think he thought he had more time.

But the speed at which Donald Trump moves when he gets focused and he has been very focused is stunning and it is impressive. And we are going to see some amazing things happen. I believe, over the next few months for sure. But I think in this first two years I think that we, you know, I used to believe this is the comparison that I made in my own mind that maybe, maybe in our lifetimes, when I'm an old, decrepit octogenarian, I might see the overturning of Roe v Wade.

And when they took that up, what was it 2 or 3 years ago or four, whatever. Whenever it was, I thought, well, maybe they'll soften it. Maybe they'll weaken Roe v Wade. Maybe. No, they gutted it. They tossed it. It is now on the ash heap of history. And I remember that morning coming in that summer after, I think it was 21 day they tossed Roe v Wade.

I sat there with goosebumps and I didn't almost cry. But there was sort of this new set of emotions where I was pinching myself, wondering if I was dreaming that Roe v Wade had been overturned in America. This idea of getting rid of the Department of Education can happen very quickly, and I think it's very likely that we may see that in the coming six months, maybe, maybe even sooner, that the and moving the like agencies like the USDA out of the Washington bubble, the insulated Washington bubble and put it out into the states and the communities that are most affected by its existence and by its regulations.

We're going to see that with the USDA. There are other agencies that that's going to there are some agencies that have to be in Washington, D.C., but there are some that many that absolutely do not. And I think we're going to see an acceleration of that, and we're going to see an entire revolution of what's happening in the the federal, in the federal government.

I look forward to it. It's 827 on Newstalk 179. We'll be back.

In.

830 on Newstalk 1079 Julie we don't have audio of this, but apparently a reporter asked Nancy Pelosi how she's doing and she said terrible. Yeah, which usually means good things for America. Just say so. It I don't align with her in anything. So she's doing terrible. I'm probably doing pretty good. That's a pretty good, pretty good indicator. So I asked you this morning if you think MSNBC was clearing out a cubicle for Karine Jean-Pierre yet and you're like, is she going to MSNBC or is she going to go to CNN and is and then you followed it up with, is she good enough to go to either one?

I know, do people actually want Karine Jean-Pierre? I mean, Jen Psaki got better at the job. She was not very good at first and she would kind of do the evasive word salad thing. But she was pretty intelligent, and I think that she grew into the position. I don't think Karine Jean-Pierre. There are a couple of things that she does better now, but for the most part, she stayed as incompetent as she was on day one.

And so I don't know if the networks look at Karine Jean-Pierre going, yeah, she's going to be a draw. Yeah. I don't think she is going to be a draw. So you never know. They continue to make these bad decisions, right? CNN and MSNBC. But I just sent you an article in Facebook saying there there are major programs that are going, we've got to bring in more neutral talent.

It's not working for us. Obviously, the view being one of them. So this was a story in the New York Post and I think that Karine Jean-Pierre is not that neutral talent. Well, first off, she's not a talent. Second half she's not neutral. So she doesn't fit either one of them. Yeah. You know, so I don't know if you bring her on.

Yeah. She struggles to even complete a sentence. She does. And she has these crutches where she'll repeat it's not unlike Kamala where she'll kind of repeat a few phrases all in a row, and that will give her 10 or 15 seconds to try and formulate something that sounds like an answer. Yeah. Yeah. I, I don't know, I don't know if I to see her anywhere I don't know, I have some other news for you that happened late last night.

Okay. Okay. Don lemon left. Twitter. Right. Left X. Yes. Oh joy Reid left X last night. High five. Yeah X just got even better I yeah well it got more intelligent and I, all you're doing is harming yourself. Okay, here's what I don't understand. I sent you this Don lemon story yesterday. Don Lemon has his own letterhead, and he writes this multi paragraph explanation and then puts the image of his letter on letterhead on X to announce that he's leaving.

And Elon Musk tweeted back, this is not an airport. You don't have to announce your departure.

It was great. It's so good because he and Elon had that. I mean, he interviewed him. He did. And it I think Don lemon kind of lied to Elon about what the interview was going to be about. And I think Elon absolutely remembers that. And he's probably thinking Goodreads. Yeah, that's that's just fine. See the door? Go ahead and leave.

I thought, I don't even have the Neal Larson Show letterhead. I do have a logo. I thought about creating letterhead, putting the Neal Larsen response to Don lemon leaving X, and it would just simply say, nobody cares. 48 point font. Yes, the official position of the Neal Larson Show on X. Nobody cares about Don lemon. Leaving is nobody cares.

So you know what this is them having such a massively inflated sense of who they are and what they contribute to the culture. Nobody cares that that joy joy Reid. Okay. I get my joy mixed up. Joy Bayard. Joy Reid. So and for some reason they're so inappropriate for their personalities. Yes, I know, I know, that's the only joy they have in their life.

Is their first name their first name. But okay. For some reason I process that as Joy Behar. You know why? Because there was a story from the view that you had sent me. Yes, we'll get to that in just a minute. Together. But but so, Joy Reid. Okay, that's even less of a loss. Yeah it did to X.

Look, X got smarter and all she does is harm her own platform. You're your network is hemorrhaging. They're being sold Comcast is selling them off. And you're like I think I'm going to reduce the amount of people that can see me off of X. Yeah. What is really this is like a hunger strike. Yes okay. Go hungry. That's your choice.

These are the women shaving their heads and wearing the blue bracelets and saying, because you took my choice for my body away, I'm not going to have sex for four years. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate the cell phone. We'll have less abortions. Yeah, right. Fewer abortions. By the appearance of things. I'm not sure they were getting much anyway, being know, but, you know,

So anyway, that. Sorry, that was petty and rude of me. I probably shouldn't have said that, but I'm just saying that's their choice. That harms nobody like it. Nobody's. Nobody's going to. Do you think I'm going to wake up and go, oh, I got to change the way I live so they can start having sex again. Like what?

Who thinks like that? They do it. That is bizarre. Yeah. Your social constructs aren't my problem. They're not like who you choose to sleep with as long as it's legal. Not my problem. Yeah. So whether you're going to have sex or not, it doesn't affect my life. In fact, it probably improves it because we we have less of an opportunity for a neglected child to be born into this world.

Amen. Amen. You're doing whoever your children were going to be a favor by not. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So, yeah, it's just weird. They think they're punishing the world by not being on it. Yeah. Go ahead and leave, joy. I don't know if I've ever seen Joy Reid's Twitter anyway. Maybe because she said some racist things. Yeah, I've sent you a few.

Yeah, yeah, I've sent you. Okay. Yeah. All right. Okay. Let's talk about the other joy for just a moment. You sent this to me and apparently ABC is freaking out because they've seen the ratings decline on CNN on MSNBC that these liberal excuse me pick up liberal. I didn't get emotional. It was a hiccup. I promise he gets all all worked up when he talks about liberals.

Makes him teary. Yes. So ABC news brass they're in panic mode as they hunt for conservative voices to balance the rabid anti-Trump rhetoric spewed by the hosts on The View, as well as those on other shows. The Disney owned network, which came under fire over how ABC news moderators grilled Donald Trump during the presidential debate, has been holding high level meetings since last week's rout by the former president, sources close to the situation told The Post.

Julie, we have to now add this to our list. There's, they fired the editorial board of the LA times. Washington Post Jeff Bezos said, we're not making endorsements. You have CNN, they're about to fire a whole bunch of people. MSNBC is going up for sale by Comcast. Now you have ABC news, and I'm going to send off a letter today because ABC news is our radio provider.

And I'm going to tell them, while you are bringing sanity or in your efforts to bring sanity back, please include your your radio news coverage. Okay. Because we do get a number of complaints. We're not going to go through the whole reason why we have ABC news. It has to do with contracts. And and it's not a nimble thing.

We can just flip on a dime. But I hope that this is a systemic change where they just get back to doing straight down the new, you know, right down the not even right down the middle. Just tell the truth and don't inject so much bias. I don't even care if it tilts a little to the left like Sam Donaldson used to be on ABC.

I don't that doesn't really bother me that much. It's just this sort of. Once in a while we will get a story that's just rabid anti-Trump. And I'm like, that is not a word that should ever appear in a news story, ever. Very inflammatory here and there from ABC. But it's I mean, that's everywhere. It's the whole media.

It's everywhere. So not just to target ABC, but The View is on ABC and they have a Republican on there. She's not a Republican. I'm so glad that she pretends that she is. She's not. And she gets walked over. Why don't you have three and three or at least two, one and three. I do something a little bit different.

The view. And when you're queuing up your audience to clap all the time for you, like it's going to get old, you're not going to be able to ever increase an audience. Yeah. And the people that you were carrying, you lied to them and now they're stuck with Trump for four years. I don't feel stuck, but that's what the word they would use.

And you told them they weren't going to. You told them Biden was the best president that had happened in the last five decades. Yeah. You told them that Kamala was the most talented. And look at what you served up to them. That's how you lose your audience share. So can I ask a question though. And I want to ask this correctly because I agree they should have they I don't say bring back Elizabeth Hasselbeck that she's closed that chapter in her life.

But somebody like that she was a good good representative of the conservative movement. But I'm not sure the problem isn't who's not on the show. I think it is who is on this show. I think Joy Bahar and Sunny Hostin are horrifically toxic. I think on certain days, Whoopi Goldberg says things that are ridiculous and outlandish and and sometimes she's a little more fair.

She does a good job trying to sort of keep everybody calm. But there there are days when she just absolutely steps in it. So I, I'm thinking not only should you bring in people that are better spokespeople for the conservative movement because, look, Alyssa Farah hates Trump like every other woman on The View. You ought to bring in a Megan Kelly, bring in Candace Owens, bring in somebody who's actually a bona fide conservative.

And, if you know what, here's the thing. You know what they ought to do. They'll say, we're going to have an empty slot. I don't know who they'll have to fire, but we'll have or we'll make room for someone else. And the RNC gets to decide who who fits and says yes. I would also recommend to the view that they remember their roots.

I watched a video of Barbara Walters. Remember she was the person who started this. Yeah, she was the WiFi. She was the moderator of the table. That's right, that's right. And I watched a video from several, several, several years ago early on in The View of Barbara Walters, like getting teary and weepy over the concept of harming children by giving them hormone blockers and how horrible that is.

And we should never be doing that. Yeah, ABC needs to remember their roots and why that show ever gained the audience. It did. Yeah, yeah it did. And I, I do think we're going to see the same trend with, with them because I think America's tired of it when you look at and this isn't a media issue per se, but when you look at Pete Hegseth and his message on not just dialing back the DEA and the wokeness in the military, he wants to gut the military of that whole thing, fire everybody who's involved with it, and find generals that are 100% on board.

And he said two things should matter. And this is that interview with Ben Shapiro that you sent to me, lethality and meritocracy. And make our make our military as lethal as possible from a defense standpoint based on merit. And if that means you have all men in combat roles, then that's what that means. But stop it with this soft wokeness because it's it's harming.

It's harming our country. It's putting our country at risk. Well, DEA does not have a place everywhere. No, I know people think it does. It does not. There's places I shouldn't even be mentioned. Your military is one of them. You know, we're asking people to defend our country. Yeah. You don't bring in the weakest person to defend your country.

Yeah, right. You don't. But they they elevate that. I mean, it's it's weird. So. Yeah. Anyway, Julie, what do you think the next six months to a year looks like it. It's going to be wild if we keep up the speed. Wow. It's. That's going to be crazy. I expect a lot of people to be frustrated. And that's okay, because the other side has been frustrated for four years.

Yeah. So it's fine. You can you can experience some frustration. We made it. You'll make it? Yeah. It's gonna be okay. It is. I think it is. I think we're going to have 3 to 6 months of hair on fire. And then I think that we're going to settle into better sanity. Like, there just has to be some changes that are made in a very big way.

All right. It's 844 on this Thursday on Newstalk 107. And Julie, we have to talk about the lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference. Oh yeah. On the transgender issue. That's a big, big development. We'll have that for you. Coming up on the assault. It's very good. She did a great.

815 Newstalk 109. If you'd like to reach us, the fall River propane column text line is (208) 542-1079. Phone lines are open. And Julie, I think we're going to do a flagpole the same as our my invitation for people to text in with their reaction to the Matt Gates pick, but I'll let listeners take their pick between Matt Gates and John Thune being elevated to the Republican leader in the Senate.

So, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Next hour we'll do that. Next hour. Yeah. Boy, we don't have a lot of time right now, but, I'm just I'm just curious because it took me a minute to get my mind wrapped around this Matt Gates. No, I nobody expected this. It rocked everybody. I don't think Matt Gates expected it.

I don't think he did either. This was just sort of a kind of a shock development. And I think I my analogy is you have startup CEOs and then you have more traditional on, you know, long term CEOs. I think Matt Gates is the startup CEO. He's the guy that will make decisions fast, super smart and lots of energy and he doesn't care about the controversy.

He doesn't care, about the, you know, the blowback that he might get for decisions he makes. Yeah. I don't think he cares about that. If he did, he wouldn't have already done the actions that he's done and it hasn't slowed it down. Yeah. So and I think that maybe the pieces just all fell together. We mentioned earlier in the show that, Donald Trump had interviewed a couple of people for this position, for the attorney general position.

Didn't like it, didn't wasn't vibin, didn't feel the the right way. He ended up on a plane. Matt Gaetz was with him. I don't know why. I don't know what else they were working on. And he just talked with Matt Gaetz. Would you want to be the attorney general? And it was decided. Yeah, it was very, very quick now, good and bad can come from this is a high, high, high risk, high reward high reward endeavor.

Yeah. Yeah it is. But and I love Mike Lee I think Mike Lee's great. But I don't know if Mike Lee's skill set fits well with what Matt Gates can do, which is go in and say, turn over all your emails, all your phones. We're finding the rats in the midst. And we're going to we're going to we're going to find you and you're going to be punished for this.

Maybe it's a combo, maybe, maybe Matt Gates for a year. And then Matt goes on to something else, and Mike Lee finds him his way into that position. Do you think? Okay, let me ask you this question, Julie, because I floated this the other day, judge Thomas is clearly going to retire in probably in the next year or two.

He's going to retire while Trump is still the president, Mike Lee, to replace him. Can you see Mike Lee on the Supreme Court? His father was a Utah Supreme Court justice. Yeah, I can I can I don't I mean, if we can put Ketanji Brown Jackson on, pretty much anyone meets up to the merits. Yeah. If that's the standard that you're going to set.

Democrats, you don't really have any room to ever talk again. Can I pause on your Mike Lee question? Yeah. I also want to say that to the Democrats that are complaining about Matt Gates and Pete Hague set. Do you remember what you gave us? You gave us Rachel Levine, you gave us the suitcase styling bald transgender. You you gave us Pete Buttigieg.

Amen. Stop with your. I don't think they're qualified conversations. Okay. Who was the guy Obama named him to be? Treasury secretary. And he he was a tax dodger. Like he didn't. He had big time problems paying his taxes. And you put him in money, and Trump put him in charge of the nation's treasury. I mean, I remember that.

I mean, the Democrats have no room whatsoever to be outraged by the game. Yeah. You can put all of your pearl clutching away. Okay. Back to Mike Lee. Yeah. I do think Mike Lee would be a great Supreme Court justice. I think he would be wonderful. I think he might even be enticed by that because it's a pretty good gig.

Yeah, it's a it's a good one. However, he's also a good senator. He's a great guy. I don't know if we want to lose him there. I know I think we need to keep him where he's at and shore up enough to who is replacement would be. And then we could look at that. So. All right it's 855.

Quick break. We'll come back. We'll wrap up this hour just ahead.

859 and that is going to do it for this hour. But Julian, I have another hour coming up. We're going to do that flagpole. What do you think of Matt Gates? John Thune so I. 907 welcome back on this Thursday on Newstalk 1079, Neal Larson, along with Julie Mason, as we navigate the rapidly changing news cycle together. Do you think Julie Elizabeth Warren at any point said elevating underqualified people is our gig, not yours?

She might as well put that in her tweet. Yeah. No kidding. So at least that's what was in her mind when she belittled Pete Hegseth. She reduced him down to a weekend co-anchor, TV or a TV personality. And I thought, and Bronze Star doesn't mean anything to you, Elizabeth. Well, that and I mean it. Well, let's just compare the two jobs, okay?

We're just going to do jobs, not Pete's military service, not the fact that he graduated from Ivy League schools. Let's not even talk about that. Let's just compare jobs. You elevated Pete Buttigieg from a mayor of a mid-sized city. Yeah. To the position of transportation secretary. Yeah, we can talk about this. Maybe. Sit down. Elizabeth. Yeah. Should you know what I don't get on Twitter, but I would have done the letter head thing about Don lemon.

You know? You know what I would have said to Elizabeth Warren? I would have said if Pete Hegseth said he was Cherokee, would you take him more seriously? We should. We should start a like a campaign for Pete to do a DNA test. He might have some Native American in him. He might. He's got the cult like he looks like he could possibly.

I mean, we should just do it and see what that background is, and then he can claim some sort of heritage. Yes, it's far deeper than hers. Well, and and honestly, why would somebody like Elizabeth Warren be publicly calling someone else's credentials into question, given her past and her history that seems like a bad idea. Yeah. So, yeah, I you're you're not wrong about this.

Okay. So let's do this flagpole, shall we? Yeah. I we just want. It's not a yes or no. It's a react very quickly to the both picks. I think there's time for this. Matt Gates as attorney general, I think this is the bigger, the biggest jaw dropper that Trump has had so far. Matt Gates, his AG and the selection of John Thune by his fellow senators to be the majority leader.

So I think some people are going to be really excited about one, and not so much about the other. So that is our flash poll today. (208) 542-1079. And we'd love to get your take on both. When you first saw Matt Gates Julie yesterday what did you say. Well I got immediately anxious pretty quick when I, when I sent that to you I was anxious.

And, it's just because there's a lot of a lot of baggage that goes along with Matt Gates. I would agree with that. It's it's never going to be uncomplicated with him. Let's go to the phones. Caller. Go ahead. Your reaction.

Good morning Neal. Hi. Your reaction to Matt Gates and John Thune. He's the best thing that ever happened to the federal government to be in that position. Okay. So we have all these naysayers and and guys like Simpson that, maybe appalled at it. He did more for the House of Representatives than any conservatives done in 100 years.

Okay. So you're a big fan of Matt Gates really quick take on John Thune. Not the first pick, but maybe Trump's going to make him work. Yeah, okay, I like that take. Thank you. Let's go to our next call. (208) 542-1079 getting our listeners hot take on Matt Gates as AG and John Thune as majority leader. Call caller.

Go ahead. Yeah. Yes. On both of them. I think Trump has made some pretty good picks, and I hope they get through the process of getting into office. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. (208) 542-1079 we go to our next caller. Your hot take on Matt Gates and John Thune. Go ahead, caller you're on okay. We'll go to this. Caller.

What do you have to say about Matt Gates and John Thune? Caller can you hear me? Okay, look, I'm going to read a text. We've gotten several, by the way, but okay. Somebody said gates. Yes, with about 12 S's. And then on, Senator Thune, they called that they called Senator Thune a dang rhino. Dang, Ryan, I cleaned that up a little bit.

Yeah. And then somebody else said gates is an epic pick. Thune is me. So? So. Okay. All right. Somebody else said gates looks good on paper and with the votes, but he has a personal. I think this is supposed to say gripe. Personal gripe? That's worse than lots of Democrats. I don't know, a personal grime. Oh, so they think he's kind of skeezy and he's worse than most Democrats.

I wonder if Trump's trumped those gates so he doesn't cause problems in Congress, because Matt Gates is one of the reasons we didn't get Jim Jordan as speaker of the House. So, I don't know if he can get on board with with Trump cleaning up the house with that. I don't know if that's it. I would be more on board with him helping gates out and getting gates out of this ethics investigation, because the ethics investigation was supposed to be all the paperwork, and everything was supposed to be revealed on Friday.

Okay, tomorrow. This all happened on Wednesday afternoon. Okay. And so it is the it's the 14th today. I think the timing is interesting. I don't think Florida can hold a special election if they don't have an eight week time frame to fit it into. Like there's there's a calendaring thing that okay, the way the law is written. Yeah.

And I think it was important that they the. Yeah that he resigned yesterday in order for DeSantis to have enough time to put together a special election. Okay. Okay. Interesting. Let's go to their next caller. Caller, what do you have to say? Matt Gates and Jonathan. Yeah. You know, our Congress members, some of them have been through some things, but none of them have had the whole government weaponized against them, you know, in almost infinite lawsuits to transmit.

But I think who seems more political to me, I think Matt Gates is the firebrand and exactly and absolutely the best pick to weed out the weapon advisors. Yeah, he's definitely a buckle up kind of guy. So yeah, that's a good point. Appreciate it I do I want to go back to one thing. The previous caller said.

I think John Thune, that Trump can manipulate him and that's a good thing. And normally we don't say manipulate in a good sense. But I do think Thune will lose every toe to toe battle with Trump. He's malleable. Yes. Yeah. Yes. This text says Thune is Mitch McConnell's wet nurse. Okay. I was about to take a drink of some.

Right. As I was going to take a sip that comes through. I kind of like this one. This person's take is they don't really care. Just let Trump get in and do what he thinks he needs to do. Yeah, that. You know what? That's really a good point. That's a good point. I think right now Trump has enough momentum influence, clout.

Republicans are going to be very, very reluctant to to put up much of a challenge to him. So yeah it's that a good dynamic. Yeah. Well, I don't know if they have their feet under. I don't know if anyone really has their feet underneath them. Besides these loyalists, I absolutely can say the Democrats don't have their feet underneath them.

Not at all. And I do believe there's some Republicans that are a little unsteady right now as well. Yeah, I think so. I think. And so when Trump is surrounding himself with these so-called I mean, the loyalists is the word CNN is using because they think that that's a horrible word. I don't think it's a bad word at all.

I say it just fine. I'm fine with it. But I would say every president comes in and picks loyalists to populate their cabinet. Yeah. That's just that's how it works. Yeah, I know they wanted to call it a negative thing. I don't I don't think it's a negative thing at all. And I think that these people that he's picking are the ones that have their feet underneath them.

Yeah. How come if you're loyal to Joe Biden, you're just a good, hardworking, dedicated public servant. If you're loyal to Trump, you're a Maga cultist. Yeah. Elevating Hitler because the media makes the the words, the media makes the rules when it comes to vocabulary. Yeah, yeah. Media luckily is in decline. So okay, I will just give it a couple more minutes here.

(208) 542-1079 your hot take on Matt Gates and, what what do you think about that pick for attorney general? And yeah, it is, someone said Trump should nominate Elizabeth Warren to be head of Bureau of Indian Affairs and then withdraw her name because she's not qualified. That would be very funny. That would be a troll as well.

Oh, that. Wouldn't that be great? That would be a troll. Yeah. I would laugh so hard at that. Yeah. Somebody second in your opinion that they say most people don't last long in the ag spot? So yeah, we might see gates for a year a yeah, I think he's going to go in and kind of do what Trump needs him to do.

I think a lot of it is just scaring away these corrupt lawyers. So, let's go back to the phones. Caller. Your thoughts on gates and Thune. Gates is going to be the, man to wreck things and then go ahead and fix section right before the next AI takes over. He owes Trump a lot. And so he's going to do whatever it takes.

Yeah. Yeah okay. All right. Thank you for the call. Good. Good take. I think that's pretty consensus there. So, I appreciate the people that say Matt Gates makes me nervous. I think Matt Gates makes everybody nervous. He probably makes Trump nervous. That might be one of the highest lists on his resume. It might be right up there.

Like, what attributes do you have to be a good AG? Yeah, I make people nervous that might he might have written that right out. Yeah. He he he might have and and I, I said this to Julie this morning. We've already kind of talked about this Matt. Risk is very much a high risk high reward pick here. Super high risk.

It's like picking. Do you remember when Sean Spicer was the press secretary for a while? I love once in a while to go back to when he sparred with the press because he just let them have it. Yeah, he wasn't long term guy there, but it was fun watching him at the beginning. I remember, hilariously, the Saturday Night Live spoofing Sean Spicer, spoofing Sean Spicer, that.

What was your name? Jenny. Jenny McCarthy. Like, is she? She was on Jenny McCarthy, Gilmore Girls. You know who I'm talking about? No, I didn't want. My girls love Gilmore Girls and I never watched. I think it was Jenny McCarthy. She. She played Sean Spicer on Saturday Night Live and did a super funny job at it, too. But, anyway, that was fun.

And then Scaramucci, who did the job for like a week even was even there a week. Don't even I don't think he was here even a week. So yeah, sometimes. And I think Trump probably knows. You know what, there's a chance Matt is going to go in and do exactly what I need him to do. But it's there is some but it has to be high risk right.

So okay I'm Melissa McCarthy okay. Who who's. Oh yes. She's a blond. That was throwing me Jenny McCarthy's the blond okay. Dated Jim Carrey for a while. Okay. Yeah. You were. Yeah half I got, I got McCarthy, right. Yeah. You were there. Melissa McCarthy. Okay. Who I find very funny. Let's go. One last call here.

Your thoughts on Gates and Thune? Go ahead. Gala, can you hear me? Yeah. I'm on, you're on. Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. Matt Gates, I think he's going to be good. He's kind of a combination of, of a German shepherd and the nervousness of, Chihuahua. And I think that's a good thing, especially against the the Democrats that, going to have to have hell to pay and a big John Thune, I think he's that kind of a knockoff of Mitch McConnell.

Of course, he was his whip. And I think the thing about John Thune is he's going to have to be worked over a little bit by the MAGA front, or he might only give us one good thing like McConnell gave. His only good thing McConnell gave us was, a slow down or, on so we could get one of our Supreme Court justices in.

So, yeah, I got to say about that. Thanks. Okay. All right. Thank you for the call. Look, my five, my 5 pound shiny has chased a U.P.S. man all the way down the driveway. So there you go. UPS man, a Democrat. Thank you, I don't know. All right, we'll be back after this.

Oh. Jenny says Jenny McCarthy is now married to Donnie Wahlberg. I didn't know that. Oh, really? Yeah. If Roseanne Barr became press secretary, can you imagine how many times they would have to bleep? A seven second delay would not be enough. Oh, yeah. They would have to. They. And nothing could be aired live. That would be so fun to watch.

What is the really, really beautiful lawyer that works for Trump? Lina. Haba! Yes. People want her as the press secretary. I'm still. I'm still hoping for Scott Jennings. I am to, I think Elina Haba would do a good job, but I think she's prime. I like her Trump's lawyer too. Like she's really good.

Like Scott Jennings can do way better than CNN. Do you know, he showed up last night with a Hulk Hogan shirt on it to just just poke and and tease his head. The rest of the people on the panel good for him that he should be the replacement for Rubio though. Kogan should be. Oh yes. I did see that.

Look, I know we're laughing, but that could actually happen. Would he be Senator Hogan or would he have to use his non stage name? I don't know, he might demand that he be Senator Hulk. I mean, other people go way there. First name Cher. Yeah. That's true. Okay. We called Kamala. Kamala? We didn't call her Kamala Harris.

Harris. Yeah. That's true. So maybe he'll be Senator Hulk. That's a DeSantis call. I doubt DeSantis would use Hulk Hogan happening. That's Trump style. It's not DeSantis, but it's fun to float it. I like to float the ideas just to make the left freak out a little bit. Oh, I know, it's kind of fun. Like like Bongino being floated.

I think that I, I highly, highly doubt, in fact, I would put money down that he's probably not going to be given a position. But I love that it makes people freak out, is that half of Trump's strategy is just keep everyone nervous as his political opponents especially. Yeah, I think it is to. In fact, I'm half expecting Matt Gates to not end up as attorney general.

It might all of it might change in the next three weeks. I mean, I think he's destabilizing a corrupt DOJ by. And I do think Matt Gates will all be put in. But I also asked Neal a question last night because I saw people debating this back and forth that I don't think this is going to happen, but I think it legally can happen if they choose not to do the special election.

And Matt Gates does not get put in by a recess appointment. Yeah, he can actually take back his seat in the house because he won that seat for the next term. Oh, so he can resign in this term. Oh, but he okay, but take his seat back in January. Would they have to start all over with the ethics thing if he did?

I'm I don't know I don't know. But that is another thing that's at play. And I read deep on to this through people giving their opinions back and forth on X last night. And I think it can work. I don't I don't think this will ever happen. I don't see an upside to it. But it could interesting.

925 On Newstalk 179, Neal Larson, Julie Mason, Julie, you know who is conspicuously absent from Trump's picks so far? Tom cotton, I lost I lost my like. It was so conspicuously absent, you couldn't find it. I can't even remember the name. Tom cotton. Like, he's a guy who's been very loyal to Trump, and I don't.

He's got to be on a shortlist for something you would think that got to be. We also have to remember that some of these people have probably been asked and said they don't want it. That might be true to, you know, Tom cotton might not want something. Yeah, that's that's a good point. He could be a defense secretary.

I know we're going with Seth. That's great. I'm fine with that. If they had named Tom cotton to be the defense secretary, I would have been perfectly happy with that. So. Okay, let's go to the phones. (208) 542-1279 caller good morning to you. Is it me? It's you. Yeah. Go ahead. Boy, your background music playing pretty loud just by, can can you hear it right now?

Yes. It's okay. It's pretty loud. You should not be hearing it. I'll let our. All right. People know that should be fixed. I'm sorry about that. Hey. No problem. So anyway, real quick, I, I I'm the guy that moved over to the Treasure Valley, and, I listen to you guys every morning, watch local news eight on the app at night because I couldn't stand k-t-v-b.

But every now and then, I'll turn it on because Brian Williams makes my skin crawl. But. So they have a question of the day, and I just wanted to share the results with. It was pretty cool. The question of the day day before yesterday was, do you agree with the mass deportations that, president elect Donald Trump is proposing and sitting in the Treasure Valley, I wondered how the results were going to come out, and it actually came out 73% in favor of it.

Wow. Right. Yeah. I know this is a non-controversial idea that only the media and hardcore ideologues on the left say is controversial. Exactly. I anyway, I was pleasantly surprised and I am your ambivalent person this morning. And I just want to clarify a little bit with that is and I sent a text and the only reason I'm slightly ambivalent about it one is Julie couched it perfectly, got a little nervous.

I worry a little bit about the Seattle talks with gates, but more so I would like to see some consistent, four years worth of body shots given without all of the theatrical. So in line with you, I think you need the shock value to get what we want to get done quickly. I just hate the thought of switching out Smith mid term, that's all.

Yeah. Oh, gotcha. Anyway you guys you guys have a great day. You as well. Thank you for the call. (208) 542-1079. And you know what? We've had two callers now say Tom cotton pulled his name. I thought he was on a short list. Yeah. And then he wasn't picked up. So he must be one of those. I said, hey, I don't want it.

Okay. But what do you think that's about? Maybe the change in in the legislature, you know, the two houses is making him go. I can get a lot of stuff done. Yeah, maybe there's that. Maybe he has some goals that he want to complete before he moved into a different position. How old is Tom cotton? Oh, maybe early 40s.

Let me look. We haven't touched on that at all here either. Do you look at the cumulative age of these people that he is nominating? Yeah, it is crazy. They're all around 40 to 45 years old okay. This is a very youthful young cabinet that he's putting forward okay. He's 47. So still 40. Yeah. He's got lots of time.

I really like Tom cotton. He's like one of those somber level heads that you want to have in place, but he's he's pretty rock solid. So, Yeah. Okay. Well, yeah, I don't know. Maybe some people don't want a cabinet position. Maybe they don't. Maybe they're they like where they're at. They can do a lot of good where they're at.

And, and maybe they're not trying to climb a ladder. Yeah. Also with that, the guys phone call that just came through. Yeah. Use your weird, quirky being able to remember political moments. Mind here. Okay. How often does an AG switch out? Mid term, like in the middle of a president's term has. Has it happened a fair amount of time?

It doesn't happen a lot, a lot. But if I think back, I mean, you had Janet Reno, who was Clinton's for most of his term, if not all. Eric Holder was in for most of Obama's term. Garland was in, I think, for all of Biden's term. So it's it's not. So this will be a little strange.

It is it if there's a hot swap in the middle of it, it's going to be okay. A little tough. So and and I do think that position may be a little different in terms of the Department of Justice has some more independence. And I don't know that the president can easily fire an attorney general like maybe he could other secretary like.

Yeah. So I think there are some some guardrails in there to keep the president from just firing an attorney general that may be about to name a special counsel against them or something. So I think there's kind of a wall there that makes it harder than somebody saying that when Tom cotton was asked why he withdrew his name, it was because that his kids are still young enough.

He wanted to be a father. Yeah. It was more prevalent for them. Good for him. Yeah. Yeah, good for him. I thought about that. You know, if you take that cabinet position, then you're not home on the weekends with your kids. And he's Oklahoma, right? I think he's okay. Is he Oklahoma? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. All right.

Well, okay. 932 we're going to break. Stay on or on schedule here. We'll come back. (208) 542-1079.

Oh, yeah. All foundation wall. Osborne, thank you for giving the gift of warmth this winter season. Stream The Neal Larsen Show via the Newstalk 179 app, available right now on your App Store. All right. Problem fixed. (208) 542-1079. That's the number if you'd like to reach us. And we did get a text. Senator Cotton. Yeah, it's from Arkansas.

Arkansas. Okay. Yeah. It's a Deep South state. You were close. You were very close. Yeah, yeah, I know. Yeah. Why did I think our way? Yeah, I don't know. Okay, I don't know. All right. You know what? My mind. I mean, you can't remember where every senator is from. You know, Larsen, how much has happened in the last two weeks and everything I've tried to put in cram in there container.

It's not good. And still be a regular person in everyday life, right? That's true. It's like I'm. You know what my brain is like. It's like trying to move a six bedroom home in one of those eight foot U-Haul. That's what it's like. It's the Beverly Hillbillies. Yeah, you got stuff piled on top of the suburban. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

All right, if you'd like to join us. (208) 542-1079 Neal Larson, along with Julie Mason. And you can talk about Trump's picks. It's been a flurry. Some have been very exciting. But I will say, you know, what, happened with the pick of Matt Gates? Nobody's talking about their concern with Kristi Noem anymore. Yeah, that one went away real fast.

Also, Shapiro was thrilled with Kristi Noem as a pick. Yeah. Why? He felt like the Homeland Security was a perfect match for her. Did he say there was a couple of things he gave, issues that she's tackled in her past that really match the Homeland Security position. I don't remember their, again, eight foot U-Haul putting it all in there, but yeah, he was super happy with that.

Okay. All right. Well, okay. Me, I don't know. That doesn't give you I don't think I share that one. I love Ben Shapiro, but is that and doesn't mean the you and I agree on every single thing. Yeah I, I and I wouldn't call him wrong. I would just say I don't see it the same. I still have some reservations.

Yeah. I think that there are other people that are far more qualified to lead Homeland security in, in the US, but so you and I are working theory is there's a, there is a political favor being paid back. Somehow I did feel like them. Yeah. So, do you want to talk about the lawsuit? Yes. So Mountain West, whole bunch of athletes are filing a lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference over the transgender volleyball fiasco that we've seen.

Yeah. I'll just read a little bit from the Washington Times article on this. It says 11 female athletes and a coach have asked a court to bar a transgender player from competing in the Mountain West Volleyball Championship. They're arguing that allowing a male born athlete to compete in women's collegiate sports actually violates title nine. And the Supreme Court is back this up, by the way.

So I think they've got a pretty solid case. The groundbreaking lawsuit was filed Wednesday, and, in the District of Colorado, it seeks an injunction prohibiting San Jose State University from Maine, from bringing star player Blaire Fleming Fleming to the finals. It all happens November 27th through the 30th. So this is a short window. Like they've got to make a decision quick.

Okay. Yeah, I have a bunch of thoughts in my foot U-Haul here. They acquired their record with a male playing on the team, so there's no real good solution to this. It just never should have happened in the first place. So I think part of this is those teams are trying to say you need to vacate the forfeit wins and losses, like you need to get those out of the mix and then realign teams for the tournament based on eliminating that part of the record, those matchups.

Yeah. How the forfeit impacted wins and losses. So that probably gets a little closer to fair. At any rate. Yeah. And then they also they want once that, that that realignment happens if the lawsuit goes through, they also are asking that Blaire Fleming not be allowed to play in the tournament at all. Absolutely. Yeah. So how do you think this turns out?

Because time is of the essence here. I think they might actually win this lawsuit. I think the I think the tides are shifting. It could be the origin of something that makes its way to the Supreme Court. All right, let's go to the phones. (208) 542-1279 Caller how are you today? Good morning. I just wanted to give you my thoughts.

I think that, the secret, vote yesterday in the Senate, I think that's going to be a big problem. I think Rick Scott would have been a much better choice, through his pure Reynolds. Through and through. So I see a problem. Thank you. All right. Thank you for the call. I share the same concern. I can't say that I.

Yeah. I mean, here's the thing. A malleable rhino is better than a dedicated rhino. And I think he's a malleable rhino. So it's not the same as a dedicated conservative. And a real Republican. But I do think Trump can make life really hard for John Thune if John Thune doesn't go along with the agenda, if it makes anyone feel better for those people who are unhappy with Senator Thune is the choice.

He did vote with Trump more often than Rick Scott did. So they did, yes. So for the four four years that Trump was in, Thune voted with him more often than Rick Scott did. Oh, okay. It's not huge. I think it was 91% of the time for Thune and 86, I think, for Scott. So it wasn't this massive variance.

But yeah, I'm trying to find some positives in the whole situation. Yeah. No I think that's, that's that's good. I, I, I do think we tend to catastrophize situations and I would say, I think it's too early to say that John Thune is going to be a disaster. Right. I like let's give some room to this to, to be at least a partial success.

So yeah. (208) 542-1079 well, here's a here's a couple clips from John Thune, from yesterday saying all the things that you'd expect him to say when he wins the this the, position this Republican team is united. We are on one team. We are excited to reclaim the majority and to get to work with our colleagues in the House to enact President Trump's agenda.

They expect a level of cooperation from the Democrats to work with us to get these folks installed. And, obviously, we're going to look at, explore all options to make sure that they get proven that they get moved quickly. Okay. And then excited to get to work with this team right away. And I want to thank my colleagues who placed their faith in me to serve as leader.

And to those who were supporting another candidate. I promise to be a leader who serves the entire Republican conference. Okay, so yeah, nothing crazy there, nothing crazy there. However, if we go back in time, this is the I think this is the source of concern about John Thune. This was back when the headwinds against Trump were at their strongest.

The country wasn't necessarily for him and it just wasn't it was a different environment. And he he wasn't so loyal to Trump at that point. He's obviously got a lane that he's running in and, he's got a loyal base of followers out there. But I think people in this country are ready for generational change. And I think a change in tone in our politics.

Okay. So, yeah. Like I look at he, he othered. Yes. In that moment, to use a liberal term, he othered Trump supporters. He's got a liberal base of followers, the unstated messages. And I'm definitely not one of them. Yeah, yeah. And so, that's gives me pause on him. Yeah. I think everything that you just played just backs up what you've talked about today, which is he's really kind of squishy.

Well he is and I know we don't love squishy. Not. So that's what you got. He's a little squishy. And maybe much like, Play-Doh, he can be formed into something that works well for Trump. We'll just have to wait and see. The only time I want squishy is when I'm eating a drink. I don't like crunchy. One last John Thune clip.

This is when he blamed Trump for some election losses. We've lost three elections in a row now. He's been the issue in every one of those elections. And, and I don't think, you know, getting into this tit for tat where it's a race to the bottom to see who can, you know, retaliate against whom, from one administration to the next is is the way to lead the country forward.

Okay. Now I again, I want to be careful. I don't bring these clips up to undermine unity and support for Trump and all of that. However, we need to know who and what we're dealing with here, and I don't see John Thune having Trump's back when the headwinds get strong again, I think he's going to be the first to take shelter and not stand in the headwinds with Donald Trump.

And if you're going to pick a majority leader, you not somebody who rolls over and does everything that Trump wants them to do. But someone who will stand with Trump. When you have a corrupt bureaucracy or a corrupt system coming after him. And that's not going to be John Thune. He's a sunshine soldier. And let's just hope there's a lot of sunshine in the days ahead, because that's the only time we're going to get him.

Is there a way for, to trump to to turn this situation closer to his benefit? Like, does he meet with John Thune more than weekly? Maybe they schedule two times a week or three times a week. Like, does he have more frequent meetings with him than what he typically would meet with the speaker of the House? Does he is there some sort of connection he can make because if if John Thune is going to keep going back to the Trump haters in the Senate to get his advice, yeah, this whole thing is wrecked.

You're right. It is wrecked. And and so maybe Trump can do something along those lines to help encourage that to happen. There's also a chance like we don't know because we're not there every day watching the dynamics. Maybe Mitt Romney being in the Senate, they kind of would fuel each other like the anti-Trump senators. And Mitt Romney was the ringleader of the anti-Trump senators.

Maybe some of that goes away because Mitt's going away. Maybe. I mean, maybe the yeah, the landscape might be changing. Yeah. So possible. Yeah. I mean, don't get me wrong, Mitt is Mitt really is more virtuous than all the other senators probably combined. Of course, he should have been rallying these troops to hate Trump. He's that good? Yeah.

How is he not been taken up to heaven yet? The man is ready. I don't know why he hasn't been translated. I don't know either. It's a it's. Yeah. You know what? Because God wanted to bless us and keep him down here longer. You know what? God's doing us a favor. He is. Mitt Romney continues to grace us with his presence on this earth, because we've got so much to learn from him.

We really do. And then lucky us, he has his junior version, Spencer Cox. So this is going to go on for a long time. And the thing is, Mitt's going to have a lot more time on his hands now. Yeah those two those two collab. He could spend more time with us little people. It's going to be great.

I still haven't had I write my Mitt Romney farewell happen. The farewell Mitt Romney anthem. So we should throw a party. You know, how people throw to pirate parties for their divorce is now? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Divorce parties. We should throw a retirement party, but it's more like a divorce party. It's like a combo. Like the two had a baby.

And here we are. Julie, we got 400 people out to the presidential election watch, I mean, multiple. We might double that for a mitt Romney farewell. We might? Yeah. Although I am finding we're not I think our sarcasm is making some people uncomfortable because we're not getting any texts about it.

Romney's nickname in high school was inaccurate. Okay.

Probably so. At least he he thought it should be that it was. Yeah. All right, 285. Let's take a break. (208) 542-1079 it's Neal Larsen. Julie Mason. We'll be back live local stimulating talk for East Idaho, the Neal Larson Show podcast. Grab it every day at Newstalk 179.com. Nope. I had the heater on in here because it was so cold when we came in.

Oh it's warm. Yeah, 87. To 87 degrees in our studio. Lee, how did I not know this? Because I'm hot I that's how I knew. Yeah, I noticed it earlier and then I forgot to get up on the commercial break because we were figuring out the board. Yeah. And then during that segment, I was like, oh yeah, it is really hot in here with that.

I'm never hot. So that gives you an idea of it needs to get to be 86 degrees or 87 degrees in here for me to finally feel hot. Yeah. And honestly and explain this to me, Julia, I wasn't noticing any difference. Just don't you. And when it comes to temperature variations, you just don't notice. Is it the same reason why I don't get thirsty?

Like, it's. I'm just not paying any attention? I don't there's like, a break in your body's communication with those those basic needs. They need to hydrate. The need to decide if I'm hot or cold. Yeah.

People are now texting in. God is not ready for both Harry Reid and Matt at the same time. You really think Harry Reid's up there? I have my doubts. Did you see the one about the Tea Party? Oh, no. The difference between Cox and Romney is Cox. Looks like he would enjoy himself at a party. And I don't think Romney would.

I don't think we can say that on air, but I want to, oh. I got to type back to that. Oh, what are you going to say? I just typed back, this is gold. Yeah.

I we at some point when everything's slows down, we get to do a deep dive on Romney's replacement, see what he's really like. Yeah. Mitt's Twitter name was Pierre Delicto. Goodbye, Pierre. Delectable. Goodbye. But look at how quick it's dropping. As soon as I turn off my heater. I bet in about ten minutes it's going to be back down.

Oh, yeah. It goes real fast once I turn off the heater. These two external walls. Yeah. Guess what I had for dinner last night. What? There was food. I had one of my clients brought me homemade chili. Yeah, and bread and cookies. Yeah, I had a slice of the bread, which was very good, by the way. Yeah.

And hummus and cucumbers. Oh, that hummus was so good. I thought that was a weird combination to me. So good. 954 on Newstalk 179, Neal Larson and Julie Mason. Let's go to the phones. Caller. How are you today? Hi. I'm just calling to say a big thank you to the Bayer Corporation. The government does not put in and out enough ads telling us how to live our lives, and the Bayer corporation is now filling that gap.

So I'm so thankful for it. Oh, you know what? I told Julie a little while ago? I was going to try to drop some sarcasm. Okay, say, I know that you did it. Well, duh. There you go. I'm here is putting out all these ads on all kinds of topics telling us how how to live our lives better.

What do you think is in it for them? It's just corporate image. Same reason why companies take on green initiatives that doesn't affect their bottom line. Like it's just an image thing. They they also might have had to have committed some of the grants that they get from the government have to go to. Yeah, that's like public service announcements type things.

And so they're probably fulfilling a need for the money that they got from the government. And they're just trying to figure out how to fulfill that need. What can we say that's helpful? Oh I can't really think of anything real good. So let's come out with this one. Yeah. Yeah okay. All right. Thank you for the call. 208542 179.

And let's, go to our next caller. Good morning. Good morning. Neal. Hi. How are you? Right. Good. This is Mike Olson calling in. Hey, I just wanted to to take a quick second and, let the folks know out there that we are going to have a central committee meeting, tonight, starting the special time at 6:00 at the snake River Event Center over at the Shiloh.

We'll have a little bit of business that will transact. We'll also talk briefly about the what we're going to do as far as with the coroner, replacement, situation. And then we're going to Skyler Johns is going to give us a good presentation of kind of where we're at on the water rights issue. And then at 7:00, we will have the school vouchers debate with, Representative Wendy Horman and Chris Cargill, speaking in favor of vouchers.

And Scott wants to begin speaking against vouchers. So I think it be a good program tonight. We would urge everyone to come out okay. All right. Yeah. We've, we've, talked about that the last few times. Yeah. And, my, my take on this is you've got two very well versed people, I and Wendy Horman and, and Superintendent Wolstenholme for both sides.

So if you're looking for a lot of good information on both sides, you're going to get it tonight. Yeah. Well thank you guys very much. All right. Thank you Mike. We appreciate you Colin, and reminding us of that. So all right Julie last minute Friday tomorrow. Tomorrow. Studio four covers. Fantastic. Morgan Sellner. So good on the guitar.

He'll have his electric guitar here. He's going to play CCR. You're going to have to remind me of the song again. Fortunate son, fortunate son CCR. I had the the pleasure of listening to Morgan play a few times, and he is so talented. He's you don't want to miss this one. So that'll be at 835. You can also watch it on Facebook Live tomorrow as well.

So be sure and join us for that. And I have to say Julie, every day then since for the last week, plus the news cycle is an adventure, you don't know what to expect. So I'm expecting we're going to have more big announcements today and he'll continue to fill out his roster people supporting him. So watch for that.

And of course Julie and I'll be back tomorrow right here with all the latest news talk 1079 coming up we have Mark Lee Van Camp and Robbins and, all the rest be safe.