Normally Podcast: Iran Escalation, Joe Kent Resigns, SAVE Act Showdown & Crime Hits 125-Year Low
3/19/202632 mincomplete
0:00This is an iHeart Podcast.
0:02Guaranteed human. Hey guys, we are back on Normally, the show that normally takes for
0:14when the news gets weird.
0:15I am Mary Katherine Hamm.
0:16And I'm Carol Markowitz. How's it going, Mary Katherine?
0:19It's going all right. We've got toddlers on the run over here.
0:23They've decided to let themselves out of their room in the morning now.
0:26So we couldn't, we could only keep them locked in for so long, I suppose.
0:30Yeah, I think you made it longer than most people.
0:34We tried. The next step is you just have to get them to serve themselves
0:39breakfast. And then you're really, you know, in a good place.
0:42We are. We've actually got the big sisters for that.
0:45And that worked out seamlessly this morning.
0:46Right. That's what you want.
0:49That's what I, my parenting advice is always be like, oh, do you feel overwhelmed?
0:53Have your kids do it.
0:56Everything but the taxes, they can do around here.
0:58Absolutely. And let's, you know, I don't think taxes is that far of a stretch
1:03either. Someday. Someday. All right.
1:06Let's get into it. Iran continues to exist.
1:15Israel killed a key figure today in Iran, an intelligence head.
1:22And Iran is very unhappy about it and has vowed retaliation.
1:27They've already launched missile and drone strikes across the Gulf region.
1:32They are still blocking the Strait of Hormuz.
1:37Oil prices continue to go up.
1:40And people are worried about it.
1:42And I completely understand that.
1:44The message from the Trump administration seems to be this will all be over soon.
1:50They're not talking about a long war here.
1:54I am curious how they're planning to wrap this up, however.
1:59Yeah, it's important that a couple of very high level security guys were killed this
2:05week in the strikes. You know, one of the guys, several of them instrumental in,
2:10for instance, when the Green Revolution happened in 2008, they just sort of massacred their
2:15way out of it because our administration at the time, the Obama administration, did not
2:19do much in support of them and then later handed over literal pallets of cash
2:23to the people who had administered the massacring of the Green Revolution civilians.
2:28And so I just don't think that approach of gentle parenting the Mideast is a
2:34good idea and just handing them things for killing a bunch of people.
2:38Yeah, this is the opposite where they are met with retribution.
2:41It appears that Israeli intelligence is just out of this world, out of this world
2:48is exactly what I was going to say.
2:49The Wall Street Journal reports that the journal reviewed the contents of one call between
2:54a senior Iranian police commander and an agent of the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence service.
2:59Can you hear me? A Mossad agent can be heard speaking in Farsi.
3:02We know everything about you.
3:03You are on our blacklist and we have all the information about you.
3:06Okay, the commander said in the recording.
3:08Quote, I called to warn you in advance that you should stand with your people's
3:12side, the Mossad agent said.
3:13And if you will not do that, your destiny will be as your leader.
3:16Do you hear me? And then the guy responds basically like, I have no quarrel
3:20with you. Please come help us.
3:21I am not your enemy.
3:23Yeah, I am not your enemy is a big line from that guy.
3:27And it's unbelievable. Unreal. And it is gratifying, I'm sure, to Iranians in Iran as
3:35well to see retribution handed out to those who have done just incredibly awful things.
3:42I know we don't hear about them on TikTok because those incredibly awful things are
3:46not important to the algorithm or the people who control it over there or the
3:49influencers who create the content.
3:52But truly awful things. And so this is a very different approach.
3:57I am with you, Carol, and I'm not exactly sure what the end game looks
4:03like. Yeah, Bibi Netanyahu was speaking to the people of Iran this week saying, basically,
4:09we're watching over you now.
4:11We have air supremacy. We know where all these guys are.
4:13So sort of encouraging them to take the reins and to move forward coming out
4:17into the open. Which is what's going to have to happen.
4:20And look, I get that we are, you know, once bitten, twice shy about intervention
4:27in the Middle East. I will just say that Iraq was not Iran.
4:31And those are very different countries, very different populations.
4:35It still might be ineffective.
4:38We still might end up with, you know, an Ayatollah -like figure.
4:43Anything could happen. This could all have been for not, you know, I'm ready to
4:47be pessimistic. I really am.
4:48But I don't think it's the same situation as Iraq because Iran did have a
4:55Western, normal -ish, educated populace as recently as the late 70s.
5:02And I think they still exist.
5:04And we're going to need to see them step up and take the reins here.
5:08If that happens, it really will be a changed Middle East and a changed world.
5:13So, you know, I'm rooting for it.
5:15I'm staying optimistic because every day just seems to be more wins for the good
5:20guys. But, yeah, it's hard to envision what a long -term plan here looks like.
5:26like, without the Iranian people becoming the lead on it.
5:30That is key. I mean, it is, yeah, it's obviously not without risk.
5:34I do think that there's a chance to change the face of how we do
5:38things, because past Middle East conflicts have been sort of like Israel dealing with Gaza
5:44in the past. They call it mowing the grass, where they would go in and,
5:46like, clear everybody out in minor ways for very short periods of time.
5:50And then, of course, it would all flood back, and it culminated in October 7th,
5:53because you were not really getting to the root of the problem, which is that
5:56Iran funds all of these proxies.
5:59And I think that's partly our issue in the Middle East, is we were not
6:03only not dealing with the head of the snake, we were funding the head of
6:08the snake while they're doing battle against us in all these theaters and hurting and
6:13maiming and killing many American soldiers and many American assets.
6:18And so I don't want to ignore that part of it.
6:21That is the part that Joe Kent would like to ignore, who just dramatically resigned
6:27from the Trump administration as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
6:32His reason being that Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is
6:37clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American
6:42lobby. It took him two sentences to get to Israel and lobby.
6:46The powerful American lobby. Yeah.
6:49You know, the thing is, he's director of the U .S.
6:53National Counterterrorism Center. We had several attempted terrorist attacks on U .S.
6:58soil, and he's silent. And this is where we first learn about the existence of
7:03Joe Kent. And this is where the American people first hear from him is he
7:08is personally not in favor of the war that his commander in chief has launched
7:14in Iran. And so he resigns in protest and, of course, goes immediately.
7:19And I mean, look, you read his resignation letter and you're like, you could have
7:23just sent an email to Tucker Carlson directly.
7:25You didn't have to do this.
7:26So, of course, he's going on Tucker today as we're recording this.
7:30He's also planning to go on Candace Owens, obviously.
7:35You know what? Good. Expose yourself.
7:38Be who you are. He should resign.
7:39Let's learn who these people are.
7:42If you can't do the job and back the commander in chief, you have to
7:46resign. One of the paragraphs in this resignation letter is early in this administration, high
7:50ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that
7:56wholly undermined your Trump. Trump's American first platform and sowed pro -war sentiments to encourage
8:03a war with Iran. This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that
8:07Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States and that you should strike.
8:11Now, there was a despite no clear path to us with swift victory.
8:15He has in the past, Jim Kent, in 2020 advocated for taking out Iran's nuclear
8:21and missile capabilities. But we're in a different place now.
8:26Yeah, you know, I looked up his ex -profile and I saw that he was
8:31following me and I was like, that's weird.
8:32But it turns out he used to be a completely normal -ish guy who, you
8:39know, would have agreed with this war in Iran.
8:41And there's this, like, a lot of chatter about the fact that he, his wife,
8:46actually, he mentions it in the letter, his first wife died in Syria fighting ISIS.
8:52He blames that on Israel somehow, as if, like, that was anything to do with
8:57Israel. But allegedly, his second wife is far left.
9:02There's kind of this thing in the conservative world that a conservative guy is only
9:06as conservative as the woman he's married to.
9:08I kind of see that.
9:10I do. Even though, yeah.
9:13His current wife writes for, works for Grayzone, which is Max Blumenthal's outlet.
9:18Which is, yeah. Joe Kent has been around for a while.
9:23I knew about him because he's lost twice in Washington state running for the House
9:27of Representatives. He primaried Jamie Herrera -Buechler in 2022 because of her vote to impeach
9:34Trump after the January 6th incident.
9:38And he beat her in the primary, but then lost to Maria Glusenkamp -Perez, who
9:44is that charmingly sort of, like, odd woman.
9:48Yeah. Who's, like, a bit of a moderate Democrat who speaks sense sometimes from Washington
9:53state. He's lost to her twice.
9:55That was a seat that would have been Republican had he not primaried Buechler.
10:00And then he got himself this slot in the Trump administration.
10:03And then, what, a year into it, he's just self -immolating on this thing with
10:11a bunch of stuff that's not even true.
10:13Like, the idea that his very heroic cryptologist, Navy cryptologist wife, Shannon, was killed somehow
10:20by Israel? Yeah, in Syria.
10:23When she was in Syria in a civil war situation with ISIS there to do
10:28suicide bombings. I mean, that's not what you're saying it is.
10:33Nor is the misinformation campaign that you allege Trump has been misled by.
10:36Right. And it's just, it's so obvious that these people have fallen for something.
10:41I mean, or are purposefully, you know, heading down this path.
10:46I mean, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social a tweet from Joe Kent in 2020
10:51where he tweets. at real Donald Trump.
10:55So he's, Kent is tweeting at Trump and he says, we should not sit and
10:59wait for the next attack.
11:01Wipe Iran's ballistic capability out and get our troops out of Iraq.
11:04They are only targets now.
11:06No U .S. killed in action is a tribute to the professionalism of our military
11:11and intel professionals, not Iranian restraint.
11:14He was so for this.
11:16And now he's like, no, no more.
11:17I'm not for this anymore.
11:19Israel is lying to us.
11:20Israel has kind of petitioned the American government to get us involved in this.
11:26They have forced us into it.
11:27It's just nonsense. It's just nonsense.
11:30Well, and a couple of things, too.
11:31I think this is something you and I point out about Trump hiring.
11:34Being pro -Trump should not be enough to put you in an important position.
11:40There should be more to it.
11:42And if you if you do make that the criteria, then you end up elevating
11:46people that you maybe shouldn't elevate, like Joe Kent, who, again, I would point out,
11:50lost twice in this district.
11:52And perhaps that should have been a flag for Trump.
11:56And then the same goes for the media, where being anti -Trump should not make
12:00Joe Kent a guy you thought was a total kook until five minutes ago.
12:06Your new figure of great integrity, right?
12:12Please join MTG in the green room.
12:14That's what's going to happen.
12:15He's going to be everywhere.
12:17He also very much looks the part.
12:18He's a handsome guy. He's a special forces veteran.
12:21He's a gold star spouse.
12:23Like, I get it. But when people flip this quickly, as MTG did, and as
12:29Joe Kent has, I would just treat that with some weariness.
12:34Right. Yeah, absolutely. And there's also, you know, on the right, same thing.
12:39All the people who basically demanded loyalty to Trump from people like me and you,
12:45for example, are now like, OK, with somebody like Joe Kent openly opposing Donald Trump.
12:52And we talked about last episode, Tucker releasing a clip from his show where he
12:57says Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, Huckabee, they're all basically in the service of Israel.
13:03That's OK to say now?
13:05I mean, where are the people on the right who used to police this so
13:08carefully that you couldn't step out of line and you couldn't disagree with Trump at
13:12all? Now this guy is trashing the Trump administration and you're all sitting by quietly
13:16and not saying anything. He's saying Kash Patel is in the service of Israel.
13:21I mean, come on. Say something.
13:23By the way, some have wondered where Tulsi Gabbard stands on all of this because
13:28she is someone who's more reluctant to use American power, has been against intervening in
13:33Venezuela and Iran in the past.
13:34As Jim Garrity noted, she used to on her campaign site sell no war in
13:38Iran T -shirts. And, you know, some she's going to be testifying on the Hill
13:43this week. So we'll see what comes of that, getting some tough questions.
13:46However, I sort of admire that she is, if she disagrees with the president, has
13:51been doing her job, apparently, by giving him briefings, maybe trying to convince him.
13:56But when he makes a decision, saying that's the decision.
13:59She has kept a low profile recently, and perhaps that is imposed by the Trump
14:04administration. But when she tweets or shows up, she's saying, this is what we're doing,
14:08I believe, in the president's plan.
14:10Yeah. And that's what you want from administration members.
14:13There's also this, and again, a lot of this is, you know, rumors or speculation,
14:18but that Kent played some role in leaks out of the administration.
14:22And the reason that people believe this is Carolyn Levitt was on TV saying this.
14:28Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, will be testifying to this morning.
14:32Does the president still have full confidence in her?
14:36He does, yes. And we look forward to watching the director's hearings today.
14:41And I think that anyone who has been suspected of leaking or is proven to
14:47be a leaker will not be welcome in this administration.
14:50I know that for a fact, because I've heard the president say it myself.
14:53There are investigations underway into leakers in this administration, and people will be held accountable
14:59for that. It's unacceptable and it cannot be tolerated.
15:02It's interesting because, again, the take that I hear is that she's not talking about
15:07the traditional leaking to the New York Times.
15:10She's talking about leaking to people like Tucker Carlson.
15:14So we'll see where this plays out.
15:16I hope they go after the leakers to any outlet.
15:19I think that that's really important.
15:21I think you need the lockbox.
15:23You need the steel trap that doesn't exit the administration.
15:27I think that that's really important for national security.
15:30And if somebody is leaking to podcastistan, you know, we need to put a stop
15:34to that. I want to note on the Kent front, Bernard Stanford put this well,
15:39and I think it applies to, you know, various personalities.
15:43He says, Joe Kent illustrates how disrupting the grifter pipeline into Republican politics is a
15:48do or die issue for the right.
15:50Kent went from tweeting to getting Trump's endorsement, endorsement, to slop, to losing a likely
15:55R seat twice, to getting a sinecure and then blowing it up at the first
15:59opportunity. Like at some point in that process, someone needs to go, this doesn't look
16:05promising, despite the jawline. Like we got to.
16:08Yeah. I miss when we held people to account based on their policy ideas.
16:14And I missed when we would enforce conservative values on our candidates.
16:21and have them know what they're talking about.
16:23I don't think that was that long ago, and I think it might be a
16:27good system to go back to.
16:28Well, and I would note that when you and I say somebody like, oh, I
16:32don't know, for instance, Lori Chavez de Rimer, who disagreed with us on labor policy
16:36and is to lib for this administration and ended up as Secretary of Labor and
16:40then ended up with a big old scandal, we were right.
16:44Yeah, listen to us. Maybe we should judge that way.
16:46Right, it's not a bad system.
16:47It actually quite works out.
16:49People who are into the ideology, who are part of the conservative movement, are just
16:55generally, not always, because it happens, but generally not going to blow themselves up in
17:00that manner. It's a helpful gauge.
17:02It really is. We're going to take a short break and come right back with
17:05more on Normally. We are back on Normally, where the Senate continues to consider the
17:16SAVE Act. It's short for Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, and it's a proposed federal
17:21law to tighten voter rules, and specifically to make sure that only U .S.
17:28citizens can vote in federal elections.
17:30Now, we are often told this never happens.
17:33Illegal immigrants never vote in our elections.
17:36But of course, there's stories all the time about it happening.
17:39There was one just this week.
17:40And what SAVE does is it requires proof of U .S.
17:45citizenship to vote. That could be a passport, birth certificate, naturalization papers, and it makes
17:52citizenship status a little bit more strictly.
17:56So, to me, yeah. An important distinction is that it requires that proof of citizenship
18:01at the point of registration.
18:03It does not require it every time you go to cast a ballot.
18:06You don't need to carry around your papers.
18:08You don't have to carry that around.
18:09But at the point of registration where normally you would catch a lot of people
18:13who probably aren't eligible and say, oh, I don't know, motor voter, where you go
18:16to the DMV to get your as an illegal alien, your driver's license to drive
18:20the giant 18 -wheelers that we're apparently letting people drive, then you get pushed into
18:25voter registration. So, in this case, you would have to say proactively, I am a
18:30citizen. Now you can register me.
18:32Right. Absolutely. So, I mean, my daughter just got her driver's license like last week,
18:36and she pre -registered to vote in Florida.
18:39She's only 16, but when she turns 18, her voter registration will kick in.
18:42I hope at that time, when she didn't have to produce any citizenship papers or
18:47passport or birth certificate or anything, but I assume there is something in the system
18:51that protects against that. I don't know for sure, and that's really what I think
18:55this act is all about.
18:57Now, the thing is, and I've been kind of loosely following this story, a lot
19:02of people are mad at Republicans in the Senate for not pursuing this.
19:07And it becomes a bigger issue when Republicans in the Senate are saying things like,
19:14oh, it won't pass. It won't pass.
19:15So what? Put it up to a vote.
19:17See who stands with you.
19:18See who doesn't. I don't think that election integrity is a Republican -only issue.
19:24And if all the Democrats vote against it, that's a big tell to the American
19:28people who wants secure elections and who doesn't.
19:32And so, you know, to me, I think it's very easy to say, put it
19:36up to a vote anyway.
19:37See what happens. U .S.
19:39Senator John Fetterman, who has become, you know, the greatest Democrat of all time somehow,
19:43is in support of this bill.
19:46He says 83 % of Americans agree on voter ID.
19:4971 % of Democrats agree on voter ID.
19:52Keep it basic. Photo ID to vote.
19:54Stop turning this into a Christmas list and attacking vote by mail.
19:57And he's blaming Republicans here for not, you know, not just having it be the
20:01one issue. And I agree.
20:03If GOP wants real reform over a show vote, put out a clean stand -along
20:07bill, and I'm an I.
20:09Great. Let's do it. Yeah.
20:11So, yes, because there's a couple things going on here.
20:13There's the proof of citizenship, which is slightly deeper than just showing up with your
20:19ID, which I think most states would do well to impose.
20:22And again, 83 % issue.
20:24Nobody's mad about it, except for Democrats who run elections, interestingly.
20:29So it is a little bit more than that.
20:32Trump is threatening to add or to want to demand this amendment that would say,
20:37basically, mail -in ballots don't work anywhere anymore.
20:40We're not going to do this.
20:41I don't like that because that's federalizing elections in a way that I think is
20:45a bad idea. Then there's all this talk about, should you get rid of the
20:50filibuster, go nuclear, on the legislative filibuster in order to get this passed?
20:54And I think that's a bad idea.
20:56At least in the judicial filibuster, which Harry Reid blew up, we made them blow
21:01it up first before we then used that tool.
21:04They had to take the political heat for it.
21:05And it was intense. People did not like that large change in the system when
21:10Harry Reid did it. And Harry Reid paid for it, not just electorally, but with
21:13all those judges on the Supreme Court.
21:14So we should tread lightly there.
21:17There's also talk of a talking filibuster, like let's just make them give speeches forever.
21:21And I'm not going to bore you with the details, but there's a great National
21:24Review piece about the talking filibuster quagmire that explains how basically we would end up
21:29with just 94 speeches by Democrats over and over and over again until we die.
21:38So that's the synopsis of that, how that would not probably work out well.
21:43But yeah, I do think it's worth, to the greatest extent possible, getting people on
21:47the record about... Right. This kind of thing.
21:51Absolutely. I don't love vote by mail.
21:54I understand the argument against it.
21:56I've had people say to me things like, oh, I voted for my wife.
22:00Like, that's illegal, dude. Like, don't do that.
22:02I can't do that. But that's a very common thing.
22:06It is something that does happen in vote by mail.
22:09But that could be a separate issue.
22:11That could be a separate question.
22:13Right now, I think it's a good idea to get this part done and then
22:17focus on other issues with things like vote by mail.
22:21I mean, personally, a problem I have with vote by mail is I think a
22:24lot of snowbirds vote in Florida's elections while living elsewhere.
22:28And I don't like it because it keeps my state a little bit more blue
22:31than it should be. So, you know, I yeah, I think if you're going to
22:35vote, you've got to come in person and vote.
22:37And if you you want to vote by mail, you should have a real good
22:40reason for it. It can't just be I don't actually live there.
22:43I also prefer it when there's actually a reason for it.
22:47And I just think that it would be a poison pill if you're sticking that
22:51amendment into this bill. Yeah.
22:54And you're definitely not getting anything passed at that point.
22:56And and I'm comfortable with states sort of regulating that and Republicans trying their best
23:02to. Play catch up, which they've had to do for many years now on these
23:05kinds of things. Meanwhile, DHS remains closed.
23:09We've had four jihadi attacks in two weeks.
23:13And the Department of Homeland Security is proactively shut down by Democrats because they're attempting
23:18to get ICE reforms despite the fact that ICE funding went out the door with
23:23the one big beautiful bill.
23:24Hats off to whoever's idea that was because that was smart.
23:27And so they're not making a difference on the thing they want to make a
23:31difference on. But they are making sure that TSA agents are unpaid.
23:34Yeah. And there's a bunch of, you know, cascading effects from that, including delays at
23:39airports and that various parts of Department of Homeland Security are not funded while we
23:46have jihadi attacks happening once a week.
23:50That seems like if it were the other way around.
23:52Right. There might be a lot of grilling of these lawmakers about it.
23:57Instead, what you get is House members like Representative Greg Cesar.
24:01He's from Texas. Do you remember he's the one who sat outside the Capitol that
24:05one time and did a hunger strike for like six hours?
24:07He's between lunch and dinner.
24:09Yeah. So he's very theatrical.
24:11He goes to a Texas airport, runs into John Cornyn, who's bringing food, lunches by
24:17for the TSA agents while they're not getting their paychecks.
24:19And Cesar's like, you people should pay the TSA agents.
24:23My dude. Yeah, it's you.
24:24Y 'all are the ones who closed down DHS.
24:27And Democrats are trying to say, like, we want to split it up into different.
24:31But it's already passed, guys.
24:32Yeah, it's already passed the House as a bill.
24:36ICE isn't in it. Right.
24:37ICE funding isn't in it.
24:39Just do it. Yeah. Or, you know, press.
24:42Ask them some questions. Right.
24:43Obviously, this is the front page of The New York Times every day.
24:45Right. National security is at risk.
24:48And, you know, I mean, look, you know, we can't wait for the media to
24:52be fair, but I just hope one of them gets caught up in a long
24:55line at the airport. And that's how it's going to get fixed.
24:58That's how we get the story.
24:59Yep. A top New York Times editor gets into a long line at the airport.
25:03That's just getting done. Sorry.
25:05Yeah. Well, it'll certainly turn into somehow it was Trump's fault, I'm sure.
25:10Of course. Of course. But I would suggest they just, you know, fund it.
25:14Let's take a short break and be right back with more on Normally.
25:20All right. We are back on Normally with some just really good news.
25:25Our friend Clay Travis cites The Wall Street Journal's reporting on the homicide rate down
25:32to a perhaps 125 -year low on murder in the United States last year.
25:38This isn't the first I've heard about this, but I do think it's something that
25:42Trump and Republicans would do well to tout more often because that's insane.
25:46Yeah. It's amazing because it really is such an astonishing number, 125 -year low.
25:54I had somebody in my comments when I posted this saying it's because teenagers sit
25:59at home on screens, nothing to do with Trump.
26:01And I was like, were they not on screens in the last 10 years?
26:03And that person said it got worse during and post -COVID.
26:06There's literally a term for it now, bed rotting.
26:08And I was like, but murder spiked during COVID when we were all at home
26:12on our screens. Make it make sense.
26:15It would be an accomplishment even for us to have moved out of the COVID
26:22era spike, right? Even if you had just gotten it down that much, that would
26:26have been great. Also, as a counter to this, I would add that increased police
26:30presence and guard presence in Washington, D .C.
26:33gave us like the best three months with as little murder as we've seen in
26:38forever in the city. And no rioting and looting and all sorts of craziness down
26:43at Navy Yard, which is this built -up area where a lot of people like
26:46to go. But there's also a lot of young people not bed rotting, instead out
26:52harassing people. And it's so funny.
26:54As soon as the police presence went down, the groups of young people out at
26:59Navy Yard went up again.
27:00So it's just, it seems logical to me that Trump's emphasis on police presence, on
27:10making sure that criminals are punished, on, oh, I don't know, deporting a lot of
27:15violent criminals. is making a difference and that that is something he should sell to
27:21voters. Yeah. And look, last week you and I or last episode, you and I
27:25talked about how certain police precincts in blue cities are being told to cover crime
27:31in a different way, to code it differently.
27:34But murder is murder. It's not like they're going to turn murder into a petty
27:38crime. They just they can't.
27:40So it's one of those situations where the numbers are the numbers and people say,
27:47again, I've gotten comments in my thing like, oh, they're just not reporting it.
27:50Like, I'm sorry. They're they are reporting dead bodies when they come across those dead
27:54bodies. Yes. It's a whole thing.
27:57There was another report in Axios a couple of months ago on this same type
28:01of stat of the 35 cities reporting homicide rates.
28:0431 saw declines. Murders plummeted 41 percent in Denver and fell 40 percent in Washington,
28:10D .C. and Omaha, Nebraska.
28:11This is important partly because it was the year of 2025 when when this was
28:17established. So it's hard to I know there can be many factors.
28:21Yeah. Biden's certainly not one of them.
28:24Like Democratic national leadership ain't one of the factors.
28:28And to the extent that they are a factor, it's because in places like my
28:31town here, they keep murderers from being sent home, which is what Abigail Spanberger and
28:37my local prosecutor are currently doing with a murderer of a 41 year old mother
28:42in my town. Yeah. I mean, blue areas, they're still struggling.
28:46I don't know what to say to those people who continue to push the bad
28:51policies in those places or vote for people who support those policies.
28:55My ex -governor, Kathy Hochul, she's suddenly realized that her tax base has left for
29:01Florida and she had this to say.
29:04And being conscious of the facts that I need people who are high net worth
29:09to support the generous social programs that we want to have in our state.
29:14Right? Now, there are some patriotic millionaires who stepped up.
29:19Okay. Cut me the checks.
29:21I mean, just if you want to be supportive, but maybe the first step should
29:25be go down to Palm Beach and see what you can bring back home because
29:28our tax base has been eroded.
29:30So I philosophically don't have a problem.
29:32It is like, I have to look at the fact that we are in competition
29:35with other states who have less of a tax burden on their corporations and their
29:41individuals. And I would say remote work changed everything.
29:44There are people who could only work in an office in Manhattan and work in
29:48New York state and they were captives to our state.
29:50They were going to stay.
29:51We saw that that's not the case.
29:53I mean, you know, Wall Street businesses looking at Texas, they're not going there because
29:59they have a nicer governor.
30:00I know that for sure, but they're going there because of the tax rate.
30:03We have to be smart about this, but we can fund what we want to
30:06fund with what we already are taking.
30:09It's amazing. It's so amazing because in 2022, Kathy Hochul famously told Republicans in New
30:16York to jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong.
30:21Many of us were either already here, which I was, or heading that way.
30:27And yeah, they lost this tax base because of people like her.
30:31She called Florida overrated at that time.
30:33She said that these people were not New Yorkers and these people heard her loud
30:37and clear. My favorite part of that clip is that she's imploring the rich people
30:43who are supporting her to go and get their friends back.
30:47Like she's like basically blaming them.
30:50Like you want to do something, go get your rich friends back.
30:53Yeah. You chased them away, Kathy.
30:56Yeah. Watching it dawn on a Democrat that a middle finger to the people you
31:02want to support 70 % of what you're doing with their hard -earned money is
31:08a bad approach, is hilarious.
31:11It's amazing. She also just straight up says, we are unable to hold them captive
31:16anymore to our crappy system.
31:18And you must therefore convince them it's their duty to come back.
31:22I don't think that's going to work.
31:23Florida has great weather and a great setup now.
31:26And indeed, she cannot hold people captive anymore.
31:29And I would also just like to note that when it comes to shoes or
31:31skincare, I'm going to be using the line, I need people who are high net
31:36worth to support the things that I want to pay for.
31:40Amazing. I'm going to tell my children, I'm going to tell my children, I need
31:44high net worth people. Okay.
31:48Yeah. Same, same. Oh, it's so good.
31:50I, this is such a high note to end the show on because Kathy Hochul
31:54finally realizing what she's done.
31:56Chef's kiss. Newsom's going to be doing the same thing later this year.
31:59Maybe, maybe, or he's not going to be governor anymore.
32:02And he's going to be like, it's somebody else's problems.
32:04I did what I could.
32:05They left under you. Yes.
32:07Yes, indeed. Someone else's fault.
32:09Always. Always. Well, thanks for listening to normally.
32:12Normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts.
32:17Get in touch with us at normallythepod at gmail .com.
32:20Thanks for listening. And when things get weird, act normally.