Locked and Loaded Democrats, The Budget Showdown and Defense Secretary Dilemma | Episode 49

In this episode of "Straight Talk with America's Sheriff, David Clarke," get ready for a fearless examination of America's political landscape. Former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke questions the surge in gun ownership among registered Democrats, pointing to rising crime rates. He criticizes anti-Second Amendment groups for their push for gun control. Sheriff Clarke also expresses his frustration with what he perceives as Republican 'softness' in dealing with Democrats, especially regarding federal spending and potential government shutdowns. Tune in for a bold take on the controversy surrounding Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's hospitalization and the presidential line of succession. Subscribe for unapologetic analysis and share with those hungry for candid insights.

 SUPPORT PODCAST:
  Straight Talk With America's Sheriff David Clarke | podcast | Patreon

SPONSORS:

Blue Line Roasting Co. - We Are the Thin Blue Line


Bulldog TV - The Edgiest Most Hard Hitting Conservative Site


CLARKE (mypillow.com)
------------------------------------------
Purchase COP Under Fire Book by Sheriff David Clarke
Amazon:   https://a.co/d/2jPJXV0

JOIN OUR STRAIGHT SHOOTER'S VIP CLUB:
 Receive special gift and invitations to Private Podcast Events
  Straight Talk With America's Sheriff David Clarke | podcast | Patreon

-------------------------------------------------------

For Podcast Sponsorship, Partnership, And Endorsement Opportunities, Please Submit Form: 

https://form.123formbuilder.com/6370448/podcast-sponsor-form
-----------------------------------------------------

Website: https://americassheriff.com

Host: Sheriff David Clarke, America's Sheriff

Executive Producer: Judy L. Wilkinson, JL Wilkinson Consulting, LLC 

Producer: Josh Wentz | wentzjosh93@gmail.com

Copyright 2024   Straight Talk Podcast With America's Sheriff David Clarke     

All Rights Reserved

Transcript

0:00

Friends, I'm happy to announce that Straight Talk has partnered with Blue Line Roasting Company to bring you delicious coffee to enjoy while you listen to this podcast. Blue Line Roasting Company also serves our first responders by giving a portion of all net proceeds to numerous organizations who support them. Order today at bluelineroasting. com. BlueLineRoasting. com and don't forget when you join the Straight Shooter VIP club, you'll receive a free coffee sample and a mug plus invitations to private podcast events. 26 officers lost their lives while on duty in 2022. Blue Lives Matter in America! Welcome to another edition of the straight talk podcast with your host former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clark. Thanks for joining me make sure you subscribe and Make sure you tell your friends. What are we going to talk about this week? A couple of things, a couple of I would say side issues before we get into the, what I think is the bigger one. I came across a story in Newsweek Magazine, Newsweek this is folks, and it's about a increase, a rise in the number of registered Democrats who have purchased a firearm recently. I'll read some of the things from the story and then I'll have some comments. It says liberal America is embracing firearms. Gun ownership among registered Democrat voters has jumped by 25 percent since 2019. Surveys show A move an NRA spokesperson has described as far from shocking. The proportion of registered Democrats who have a firearm in their home has jumped significantly over the past few years, with some analysts saying rising crime in urban areas could be behind the increase. The November 2023 survey by NBC News found 41 percent of Democrats said they live in a household with a gun, up from 33 percent in a similar survey they conducted with the Wall Street Journal in August of 2019. Notably, in a similar NBC survey conducted in March of 2004, 33 percent of Democrats also said they lived with a gun, indicating the sharp rise has been concentrated over the past four years. The latest poll of 1, 000 registered voters was conducted between November 10th and November 14th. The data also showed a rise in Republicans having a gun at home, though this, this was a less sharp increase than previous trends. So it goes on to say here, Professor Gary Kleck, who teaches criminology and criminal justice at Florida State University, said the overall figure is broadly in line with previous numbers, and suggested the increase among Democrats could be down to a crime surge in major cities. It goes on to say here, these were all polls of the entire adult population, not just registered voters, but gun ownership is even higher among the latter than in the former, so the percentages would have been even higher if those earlier polls had been confined to voters. It may be a response to recent increases in crime rates in big cities, where Democrats claim a larger share of the population. Let me stop there. And this is interesting. And I'll tell you why it's interesting to me. Because the anti left, or I should say the anti gunners on the left, the anti second amendment people on the left, continue to use mass shootings. As a reason for more gun control. And they continue to pound it. They spend millions, led by Mike Bloomberg. They spend millions in grassroots advocacy, commercials, advertising. And they continue to shove this down our throats. Oh, we need fewer guns. Too many people have guns. Well, even their own colleagues, Democrat registered voters, are buying handguns. Why? Well, according to these criminal justice experts, The surge, the increase in violent crime in Democrat controlled cities across America. So that's why I cannot figure, for the love of God, and yes I do love God, I cannot figure out why the Republicans, and I'm talking about the Republicans in Congress by the way, and at the state level, continue to fall for this and every time there's a mass shooting they overreact and they start to placate to this call for more gun control in the United States of America, knowing these numbers. Knowing they're on the right side of this issue. And I remember the last time there was a mass shooting at a school in Texas. And how Mitch McConnell put together a group of Republicans and told them, Go work with the Democrats to come up with something because we're getting hammered on this. And an overreaction to a mass shooting. Why? Why not just tell these anti gunners, these anti Second Amendment people to go pound sand? Get out of here with that. They're on the side of the American people who are not clamoring for more gun control. But yet time and time again, the Republicans, they grovel. Whenever one of these mass shootings happens, and there are horrific incidences, there's no doubt about it. But keep in mind these things are always happening at places where guns are prohibited. Schools, grocery stores, public places, malls, shopping malls, where if there were a few gun owners with concealed carry permits, maybe it could have ended the thing sooner, saved some lives. How many times have you heard me say that you see those no firearm signs allowed at the doorway, and that's fine, on private property that's fine, but not public spaces. Those are killing fields. And they're chosen. By these mass shooters, those areas are chosen for that reason. They know nobody here is going to have a gun because most people obey the law. It says no guns allowed, guns prohibited. And I don't know why the Republicans in Congress and at the state level and the legislatures don't push for expanded gun ownership, expand gun rights, expand the second amendment and show these anti gunners this data, hey, even your own colleagues. Are buying handguns, why? Not for hunting. I get tired of that excuse that, you know, the Democrats like. Why do you need a semi automatic rifle with, you know, a magazine that can handle 50 clips to go hunting? The Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting. And everything to do with self defense. And with the surge in crime, with the war on police, with the defund movement, with the mass resignations and retirement in law enforcement, and the vacancies, the government can no longer handle this by themselves. People are now depending on themselves, which I have been pushing for a long time. For a very long time. I reminded the people in Milwaukee County when I was the sheriff, you're the first line of defense in your own personal safety. You are! Not the police, not the government. And I've always said when government can no longer fulfill their most important role. Of being a government is to secure the personal safety of citizens and when they fail or when they can no longer do it They need to allow the people the means meaning rip down these Prohibitions of gun ownership rip down these hurdles you put up on the way to purchasing a gun and allow people to handle it themselves, so I just I found this poll interesting because it's Democrats who are being seen as The catalyst for the increase in gun ownership over the last four or five years. Surging crime rates. I don't know, maybe the GOP in Congress and in state legislatures, not all states, but some states. I'm talking about red states. Maybe they don't read the news sites that I do to find this stuff. Because you have to search for it. Or you'd miss it. Because this isn't going to be played on CNN. This isn't going to be, even though it's Newsweek. Newsweek isn't newsweek. Exactly, National Review. You're not going to hear this poll talked about because they don't want you to know this. They want you to think that people are out there clamoring for more gun control. Let's turn the page. You might have to help me out here. You know, this is a two way street here on Straight Talk. Sometimes I help you, sometimes you have to help me. And I'm trying to figure out why this flap over Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Going into a hospital and not informing anybody, why it's that big a deal. Is it a news story? Yeah. But like everything else in Washington, D. C., everything is turned into a sky is falling moment. This thing dominated the news last week. I said it's a news story, you know, because you'd have to ask, well, why wouldn't he let somebody know? You know, the White House. Right? Everything's supposed to be confidential anyway. But when you're a person of his persona. Public figure, you know, there's no secret, you can't keep this stuff secret. So he goes into the hospital for a medical procedure. I don't know why he didn't tell anybody, but I just, I don't see it as that big a deal. I expect the partisanship. You hear people in the Hill, Congress, GOP members, right? Oh, he needs to resign. He should be fired. Biden should fire him. I'm like, come on. And I'm no defender of Lloyd Austin. I'm one of his bigger critics. Go check my social media feeds. And what I've had to say about his leadership of the defense department, he turned it woke. He Wussified it. And he wonders why recruitment is down. People aren't signing up. So it has nothing to do with protecting, from my perspective, protecting Lloyd Austin. It's like, come on, okay, yeah, there was a communications failure. Communications breakdown. You say you need to fix it? Go fix it. And I expect the GOP, I'm not criticizing the, the, the house members. And the Senators that jumped on this. That's how the, you know, that's how politics is played. You know, you see blood in the water and like piranha, everybody runs toward it as a feeding frame. I get that, but I'm talking about from the media perspective. I mean, this was round the clock, non stop news. Oh, Lloyd Austin went to the hospital, didn't tell anybody. Joe Biden isn't going to fire Lloyd Austin over this. He's not going to ask for his resignation. And Lloyd Austin isn't going to offer his resignation. So all I'm saying is, Okay, yeah, I get what happens in Washington, D. C. You know, it's all theater. But let's, let's just, let's stop. Too many other more important things going on in Washington, D. C. that need attention than this. So for a couple days, news story, Ah, he went in, he didn't tell anybody. That's inside baseball. Go fix it. There should be better communication. So I got a question regarding this, because I heard one member of the media, and I think a member of Congress talk about him doing this put the United States at risk. And I thought, what? Put the United States at risk? And the person said, yes, because of the line of succession to the president of the United States, it was put at risk. I said the line of succession to the president, in other words, if something were to happen to the president, who would be in charge? So, I thought, I don't even, I didn't even know, look I'm honest with you, I didn't even know the defense secretary was in the line of succession to the president of the United States. We all know vice president. Most of us, 99 percent know speaker of the house comes after that, right? Now we're getting into an area in this line of succession that few people know about. Let's be honest. Because I bet many of you couldn't tell me where the defense secretary falls in his line of succession and don't feel bad because I couldn't either, but at least I went and looked it up. I'm curious that way. I didn't just go, oh, the line of succession, oh, it was at risk. Oh, did you hear? Oh, the line of succession was at risk. I said to myself, where does he fall in the line of succession? So I looked it up. So I have it in front of me. Let's go through this. I found it interesting. Well again, that's just my curiosity, gets the best of me sometimes. So like I said, we all know Vice President, Speaker of the House next. Now we're getting in some areas here that fewer know. President Pro Tempore of the Senate next. Number four, Secretary of State. Kind of remember that with the Alexander Haig flap when Reagan got shot. Hague, who was the Secretary of State, said, I'm in charge and, you know, bypassing the Vice President and Speaker of the House and everybody else. Okay, so that's the fourth. The fifth, Secretary of the Treasury, fifth in line to the President of the United States. You know, to, to assume the presidency should have something happen and should something happen to these others in front of him or her. Secretary of the Treasury. Number six. Here we go. Secretary of Defense. So in other words, Lloyd Austin, as Secretary of Defense, is sixth in line, in the line of succession, should something happen to not just the President, but the Vice President, the Speaker of the House, the President Pro Tem of the Senate. The Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury. Why is the Secretary of the Treasury above the Secretary of Defense in terms of the line of succession? I looked at that and went, well, that's kind of odd. The Secretary of the Treasury? You want to put as President of the United States should something happen to the other five? So then after the Secretary of Defense comes the Attorney General. Number seven. Number eight, the Secretary of the Interior. I didn't even know it went this far. It does end. We're gonna get to it. Then the Secretary of Agriculture. Listen to some of these. Next, the Secretary of Commerce. Number ten. Number eleven, the Secretary of Labor. Number twelve, the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Number thirteen, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Number 14, the Secretary of Transportation. Number 15, the Secretary of Energy. Number 16, the Secretary of Education. Number 17, the Secretary of Veteran Affairs. And finally, number 18, the Secretary of Homeland Security. Why is The Secretary of Commerce, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development before the Secretary of Homeland Security, that just seems a little odd. But I also, you know, think too that if it gets this deep into the line of succession or something were to, you know, happen to all these people, we should just close up shop anyway. Turn off the lights. Shut it down. If we get down to number 18 in the line of succession. So you'd have to have all these people in a room. You'd probably have to have, because don't forget, they're all secretaries, right? After the Attorney General. So I'd like to think it's in matters of importance. And that's why I said, why is Secretary of Homeland Security number 18 in the line of succession? And the Secretary of Labor, Commerce, and Agriculture. And the Secretary of Health and Human Services. And the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development before the Secretary of Homeland Security. That's weird. And, of course, this didn't get talked about, and, and when it, you know, when an issue comes up with a line of succession, nobody talks about this. The news coverage doesn't talk, when that person said, you know, he put the line of succession of the president at risk, I would like to think some reporter would have done what I did and said, let's take a, where does the Secretary of Defense even fall? And it's this hyperbole that the, you know, he risked the national security of the United States doing in Austin. Let's say you'd have gone to the hospital and something catastrophic would have happened. No, he didn't. He didn't threaten anything. And again, I'm not here to defend office. I'm like, come on folks. I just don't believe in making a big deal out of crap that doesn't need to be make a big deal about. But it's Washington DC, so I get it. But I just found this list interesting. That's all. I, I, I, I don't know, but I'm, I'm really intrigued by the Secretary of Homeland Security's last in the line of succession. I would like to think that that person would come, uh, if I were to rearrange this, I would put number 18, Secretary of Homeland Security, probably at number five and get the Secretary of Treasury out on number five and put the Secretary of Treasury as the last one, 18. Or even Health and Human Services. You know, you don't need to juggle all these around, but The Secretary of Treasury comes after the Secretary of State. Wow. Okay. Now for a bigger story out of Washington, D. C. Once again, you know, here we go. Potential government shutdown if they don't come to some agreement on a on a continuing resolution that's 20th. And the the big story is what's Speaker Johnson going to do? Cause he's between a rock and a hard place. But that's okay. He wanted the job. I mean, he didn't actively seek it, but when they talked to him about it, he didn't say no thanks. I understand why certain people weren't interested cause I, I thought, I threw a couple names out like Byron Donald of Florida. I thought it would have been a decent speaker. I think Chip Roy. They never would have gotten the votes. They're not too insider enough. Go along, get along. Establishment people. But you need somebody with a backbone. Say what you want about Nancy Pelosi. I think the woman's a witch. But I'll tell you what, as Speaker of the House, she had balls. She had balls of steel. And it's hard to find a Republican Speaker like that. It certainly wasn't Kevin McCarthy. It certainly wasn't Paul Ryan. It certainly wasn't John Boehner. These people have no backbone. No courage. No will. I would say Newt Gingrich is probably the closer, the closest to having a set of balls as Republican Speaker of the House. Do you know how long ago that was? I think it was 40 years ago. 30 years ago. So, you know, Johnson is front and center. He's got it. So I pulled this article from Politico. I'll read some excerpts from it. It's a lengthy article. We're not going to go through the whole thing, but I want to set the stage, set the table for some comments on this. It says here, Speaker Mike Johnson's grip on his fractious conference slipped this week after he struck a government funding deal with Democrats antagonizing the same Republicans who led to the ouster of Kevin McCarthy. Now, not even three months into the job, Johnson is facing a decision that promises to shape his speakership moving forward. Whether to give in to yet another conservative rebellion and scrap the bipartisan deal, or to hold firm and further anger his right flank. After temporarily freezing up the House floor on Wednesday, hardliners came back Thursday and insisted that the Louisiana Republican ditch the agreement. Quote, we understand we're in divided government and handed Mike a bad hand. When we asked him to become a speaker after 10 weeks of whatever that was, said Representative Kelly Armstrong, Republican, North Dakota, referring to this past fall's lengthy House paralysis, including McCarthy's removal from the speakership. Goes on to say here, most hardliners now insist that McCarthy's failure to secure still more cuts ensured his ouster as speaker. Other Republicans argue that McCarthy's willingness to entertain lofty, ultimately unworkable, conservative demands for steep spending cuts. Lost him the gavel. At the same time hardliners are feeling increasingly emboldened to play hardball and try to bend the rest of the house to their will, believing that their party has a political advantage if they go all in on a shutdown over the border. Let me stop there. That's precisely what I want to happen. The hardliners to bend the rest of the house to their will. I'm tired of this being the other way around. The softies, the rhinos, the squishy Republicans. Having their way, and all they do is capitulate to the Democrats. The Republicans control the House, not the Democrats. The Democrats are all lined up together. Unity. Pushing this thing. Republicans aren't. Like trying to herd cats. If the Republicans all put their ego aside, and put their ideology aside, all of them, I'm talking about the, the soft ones, and says, Hey, look, we got some power here. Why don't we use it? Said, well, we gotta cut a deal. Well, you know, it's divided government. You never hear Democrats talk like that. They don't control the House, but they're telling Johnson like they told McCarthy, here's what you're going to do, take it or leave it. They gave McCarthy, Schumer, and Biden a take it or leave it offer. Take it or leave it. Here's what's gonna happen. There's no fight. From the Republicans. None. Oh, is that what, McCarthy? Oh, is that what you want? Okay, I got to go back and try to sell this to my membership now. When do the Democrats ever have to go back, when is Biden or a Democrat president or President of the Senate, when do they ever have to go sell it to their members? It's always the GOP leader or president that has to sell this to their members. Why is that? This is what ticks off The Freedom Caucus. Why are we always being told what to do by the damn Democrats? We need a stare down moment. Well, the government will shut down. That's the stare down moment. And, you know, I could care less if the government was shut down all the way through the November election. You know what? As time goes on, we'd find out we don't really even need them. Because not much changes. The government still functions. The non essential aspect of the government shuts down. Well, if it's non essential, we don't need it anyway. And why, when government opens back up, if they're non essential, why do we keep doing it? You wonder why we're 34 trillion in debt? Why the government budget is so large? It's mainly personnel and giving money away, spending. We wouldn't be that bad off if the government shut down through the November election. Not at all. What are we afraid of? The American people aren't. The American people, they look at this, they read it, and they're like, oh yeah, oh, they figure it's shut down, oh. And then when it does shut down, not much changes in their lives. Then they realize, oh, I thought the sky was falling. I thought the world was going to end if the government shut, well now it doesn't. And that's what the Freedom Caucus is saying. Let's have the fight. Let's have the showdown. The stare down. So getting back to this article here, it says Representative Don Bacon, Congressman. Republican Nebraska in a brief interview said he's privately urging leadership to remain strong. Listen to this, this clown Don Bacon, Republican Nebraska. This is what's wrong with the Republican Party. It's people like him, capitulators, grovelers. Oh yes, Mr. Democrat, uh, what do you want us to do? We'll do anything you want us to do. Here's what he says, this is the best deal we're going to get. They're dumb to think otherwise, Bacon said of the hardliners, they are impossible. No, Bacon, you are dumb otherwise, and you're impossible. So it goes on to say here, here's another one. You know this stuff just, it baffles me. This is Mario Diaz Ballart, Republican of Florida. A senior Republican appropriator. He says, Excuse me. In life, you can't break your word. Everything is dependent on your honor. You can't break that. You just can't break that. Because that would make you totally incapable of negotiating anything, ever. Capitulators, ladies and gentlemen. I'm sick of them. And you should be too. They're actually asking for less spending. That's a good thing for the American people. And they're being told they're stupid? Well, so the Democrats are threatening, because that's what they did to McCarthy. They told him spending cuts was a non starter. Here's what I would do if I were Speaker Johnson, and I'm not, but here's what I would do. I'd walk into Chuck Schumer's office or the White House with a briefing. I'd ask Biden and Schumer for a meeting, and I'd look at Schumer, and I'd say, You listen to me, Chucky boy, and you listen to me good. That deal you have right there, that's a non starter. You may have made that deal with McCarthy, I ain't McCarthy. There's a new sheriff in town, Chucky boy, and Mr. Biden. There's a new sheriff in town, and we're starting from scratch. And if that means the government has to shut down, So be it, but we're done with this 34 trillion in debt and we're done with these continuing resolutions And we're done with this increased spending and we control the house. We control the spur the purse strings So I'll get to you as soon as I can a new offer and you go sell it to your members And mr. President you help Chuckie boy here sell it to the Democrats Your members flip the script on them folks Draw a line in the sand. Be not afraid. And you wonder why nothing changes in Washington. The spending continues to increase. The taxes continue to go up. Debt continues to grow with no end in sight. And nobody seems to care about that. I, I know. Nobody even runs on that anymore. You know what I'm saying? No one runs on, we have to do something about federal spending. No one runs on, I'm talking about the GOP. You know, Democrats, they run on more spending. No one on the Republican side runs for Senate and says, We gotta do something about this increased spending. We gotta stop this. And I'm going to do everything I can to help stop it. You don't hear people running for Congress from the GOP side, the Senate or the House, with that message. And, oh yeah, and by the way, Chucky boy, we are going to attach a closing of the border section to the bill we're going to put together for you, and you go sell it to your members. We're done selling it to ours. That's what needs to happen when we don't have those kind of people in place. Speaker Johnson's in a tough spot. He's being asked to agree to something that his predecessor agreed to. Johnson doesn't have, that wouldn't be him going back against his word. He hasn't given any word. He's not bound, that's like a new president taking over. And being bound by what the last president did. That isn't how this works. There's been a change. Just tell, remind Chucky. There's been a change. If you didn't notice. My name's not Kevin McCarthy. There's a reason why he's former speaker, Mr. President. Because the members of our caucus have had it. That's the conversation Johnson needs to have. He's gonna be put to the test here. And I'm not asking for Johnson to be removed. You know, I just, let's not go there. Just stand your ground. Have the shutdown. The world won't end. Trust me folks, the world will not. Thanks for joining me. Enjoy the rest of your week, and God bless you. When you talk about race, crime, and politics, some folks lose sleep over this, but not me, because I sleep just fine on my Giza DreamSheets and pillow from MyPillow, especially this new 2. 0. If you haven't gotten yours yet, you are missing out. Just go to MyPillow. com and use promo code Clarke that's C L A R K E, and save up to 66 percent off. The direct link is also available on my website, AmericaSheriff. com. Get a great night's sleep so we can continue the fight. Friends, I want to thank you for listening to today's episode of Straight Talk with yours truly, America's Sheriff, David Clarke And a special thank you also goes out to our sponsors. My goal, as always, is to break down these complex and many times controversial issues and bring it to you straight, with a little dose of common sense, no media bias, no talking points. Just Truth. And this podcast would not be possible without your support. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and if you did, please leave a review at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite place to listen. And please share this message of common sense on social media. For more content, be sure to follow me on Truth Social, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. And just a reminder, We'd love for you to join our Straight Shooters VIP podcast club for only 5 per month. And with that membership, you'll receive invitations to attend private podcast events throughout the year as a VIP guest when we come to your town. Plus, if you join today, you'll also receive a free coffee mug and a sample of our private label coffee, as long as supplies last. Subscribe and join at americasheriff. com. This podcast is brought to you by americasheriff. com with executive producer Judy Wilkinson of J. L. Wilkinson Consulting and producer Josh Wentz in partnership with our friends at Bulldog Media. If you are interested in partnering with Straight Talk Podcasts or having me speak in your area, please contact Judy at JLWilkinsonConsulting at gmail. com. 706 333 7000. 518 2116. That's J. L. Wilkinson Consulting at gmail. com. Phone number 706 518 2116.