On the Radio: Washington is Buzzing

This is a big week for Senate confirmations of Trump’s top team members in preparation for accomplishing his goal to make America great again. I joined Bill Martinez Live radio show to discuss.

Transcript:

Bill Martinez

Good to have you along with us right here on Bill Martinez Live. For more information, you go to billmartinezlive.com and it’s all right there. Gayle Trotter is with us right now, tax attorney, political analyst, senior fellow with the Independent Women’s Forum and is co-founder of Shafer & Trotter, PLC (a law firm in metropolitan Washington, D.C. that advises entrepreneurs and small businesses). Gayle, always good to have you with us. How are you doing?

Gayle Trotter

I’m doing great. Wonderful to be with you, Bill.

Hey, a lot of excitement there on the Beltway. We’re two days away and the town is buzzing, dare I say?

Yes, absolutely. Actually, I’m downtown for a meeting right now by Capitol Hill and all of the parking spaces are gone in preparation for the inauguration and there are so many officers out here of every variety, Department of Homeland Security, Secret Service, the DC Metropolitan Police, and the town is just buzzing.

Wow. Well, Gayle, did you get your hands on any of those tickets that those democratic congressmen said, hey, they’re not going to attend the inauguration. I know everybody is trying to get their hands on those extra tickets.

That’s right. I loved how President-Elect Donald Trump said that he was happy to take those tickets of the Democrats who were not interested in attending because there are so many people who want to come who haven’t been able to get the tickets. So it was a great rejoinder.

Well, we’ve got a band that did a crowd FundMe event that was going to be hard pressed for them to come. They went on O’Reilly and raised a ton of flipping money. Well, last I heard, it was over half a million dollars that they raised and all they needed was 70. So this is going to be a real boon to them. I think Charles Krauthammer said, “What they’re going to be able to tell their grandkids to say, ‘Hey, we were there. I was there when President Trump got sworn in.'” I mean what an honor and privilege and the way it’s being thrown about, I believe, by leaders of our country. You know the congressmen, how they’re disrespecting and interestingly enough, not one Republican, is it?

Right. They are sore losers. That’s the whole beauty of the founding of this country is that we have the ability to choose our leaders; to not have it be by heredity or by birth or by sheer military power. We, the people, have the ability to elect our leaders. So every single congressman and senator should be at the inaugural to usher in this peaceful transition of power from one party to the other and, unfortunately, it reflects very poorly on the Democratic Party that they want to take their bat and go home and they are so want to do.

Well, how do you ignore just an honored tradition like this, Gayle? Again, I think that at times I’ve heard words and actions spoken, let’s just say, for lack of a better word, by the opposition, because they seem to be rather opposed to what a majority of Americans would feel about their government and they’re in contradiction to the sentiments of people. It’s like look it, hey, we had an election, I think most people are willing to accept that it was a fair election. You know they still want to talk about Putin’s possibility and the Russians mingling and all that sort of thing. But there is really nothing that can be concretely said about this. I mean it’s gone from almost “definitely” to where now the intelligence community is saying, “Well, there is a model; there is a pattern here that suggests. . .” Well, that’s not due process, as you know, Gayle, and I think that Republicans certainly need to get behind and say “ We ‘re going to look behind, we’re going to do a bipartisan investigation of this and kind of shut down some of the sentiment. Or at least put it in its proper perspective as opposed to letting people just talk about in terms of whether or not Donald Trump’s presidency is legitimate because of the supposed intervention of Vladimir Putin.

That’s right. The people who want to delegitimize Donald Trump’s election want to make John Podesta’s email synonymous with Russian hacking, but I think it’s so important to note, and you know this well, that no one has denied the content of what was in these emails. If you want to talk about an illegitimate candidacy it would be Hillary Clinton’s, because these emails showed what was going on in the Democratic National Committee to the point where Debbie Wasserman-Schultz had to step down. Donna Brazile was called out for giving Hillary Clinton’s campaign some of the questions in the Democratic debates. This has nothing to do with the Republican Party, and when we look at that, the illegitimate candidate was truly Hillary Clinton for the democratic nomination because she muscled Bernie Sanders out of the way in an unfair, unsportsmanlike way.

Exactly. Gayle, what’s kind of amiss here is James O’Keefe’s video from Veritas catching those democratic operatives saying, “Hey, look it, we’ve been bussing people for 50 years. We’re not about to stop now.” What does that tell you?

Right. When you think about how much there has been an effort to say that Donald Trump and his supporters are terrible and fascists. You’ve come up with the name-calling that you want to ascribe to them, but you look at the actual reporting that’s done by James O’Keefe, who is a very brave man, who goes out there and actually infiltrates these organizations, and they don’t deny it. The truth is that the type of rioting and violence that is advocated by some on the Left is really deleterious to our democratic system and those are the people that we truly need to be concerned about.

Well, at a time when this country, and as we’ve been saying on this show, Gayle, there is a need of all hands on deck. We need everybody to do some heavy lifting here. In order to get this country back on track and I would say this is a bipartisan effort and to have people checking out, I don’t know what the constituency — I do know they should be on the phone right now yelling at their representative saying, “What are you doing? Why are you doing this?”

Yes, yes.

You know what I’m saying?

Absolutely. I think that is the beauty of Donald Trump. I’m a strong conservative and I have very strong conservative policy ideas that I would like to see implemented at the federal government level, but Donald Trump is interesting, because he was able to pull a lot of Democrats to his side.

Exactly.

That bipartisanship should be the path forward.

Well, the people need to speak up. That’s what this country is all about. That’s what our constitution is all about. It says “A government of, for, and by we the people.” It doesn’t say of, for, and by the elites; it’s what it’s become because we the people checked out and I’m saying, “Look it. You checked in, that was clear, you did stand up and say something this past election and you need to keep talking. You need to keep holding them accountable and especially your representatives who are not going to attend the peaceful transition of power in Washington, D.C. for this inauguration.” Shame on them.

We’ve got more from Gayle Trotter right after this. Stay with us, America.

Only two days left, Mr. Obama.

Barack Obama

That’s why today, I’m pledging to cut the deficit we inherited by half by the end of my first term in office.

We now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back, $30,000 for every man, woman, and child. That’s irresponsible; it’s unpatriotic.

I mean, debt ceiling, that’s a formality. Historically, this has not even been an issue. It’s an unpleasant vote, but it’s been a routine vote that Congress does periodically.

The truth is is that compared to other countries around the world, our deficit problems are completely manageable.

I could not get Republicans to go ahead and say, ‘You’re right, we’re going to put the country ahead of party.’

That’s what he said. I mean back then, $30,000 and doubled in eight years. That’s quite a feat and he did all by himself.

Gayle Trotter is with us, tax attorney, political analyst, senior fellow with the Independent Women’s Forum, co-founder in Shafer & Trotter, PLC. Well, Gayle, it has been a wild Mr. Toad ride for eight years. The things that the president has said and the things that he’s done and, of course, here in the waning days, boy, it really — I guess you could say hit the fan with his announcement that Chelsea Manning is getting a get-out-of-jail card.

That is such a great song that you just played. I was driving passed the Naval Observatory today where the Vice President lives and just thought there are two days before that house is vacated and Mike Pence will be there.

But, yes, when you think about the things that Barack Obama is doing in his last couple of days in office, he said he was for decreasing gun violence in the United States and, yet, he’s commuted the sentences of violent felons. He talks about hacking and the dangers of hacking, in particular in relation to the election. Yet he’s commuted the sentence of our number one hacker who gave information to WikiLeaks and to the Russians. It just shows that there are a lot of things going on that have nothing to do with President Barack Obama’s public statements. But everyone should just be astonished that that total disregard for the lives of our serviceman and servicewomen overseas in this commutation that President Barrack Obama has structured should be on the top of everyone’s mind right now.

To go from where Manning should have received the death penalty for the egregious amount, the overwhelming amount of information. I don’t know that they proved this specifically or if they just said, “Hey, this body is filled with cancer, we’re just going to sew it back up. There is no need to go further in this.” But there are many military experts that believe, they believe this passionately, Gayle, that the information that was released by then, Bradley Manning, not only put our soldiers overseas in harm’s way, but were very well responsible for the deaths of some soldiers.

Right. He was eligible for a sentence or a term of over 130 years. That was what the statute said that his crimes made him eligible for that level of punishment and he received about 30 years and yet here, President Obama is releasing him and taking the bulk of the punishment, not only that he was eligible for, but also that he received away from him. So not only is it manifestly unjust, the treatment of Manning himself, but also what a sign that gives. Part of criminal process is to deter bad behavior by other people. So what kind of a sign is that sending out to people who would want to follow Manning’s suit and the kind of pressure that outside bad actors are going to put on Americans who have access to this kind of information? It is devastating.

Of course, right behind it people are saying is Bowe Bergdahl next?

Right, right. You remember that egregious press conference that President Obama had with Bowe Bergdahl’s parents.

Parents right there in the Rose Garden, yup.

The Rose Garden at the White House.

Yeah, it’s just amazing.

Yes, and then that was such a visual.

Well, all this in light of Trump’s reliance on General James Mattis, retired military veterans, experts, I don’t know anybody who does not see this as win-win for everyone.

That’s right. Donald Trump is very smart. He’s been criticized for not having military experience himself, but then he was also criticized for selecting so many of America’s veterans to be in his cabinet and his top administration positions. But the truth is, these are the people that you want to bring the military back on track after eight years of our military services and our defense strategy being sidelined. These are the people who have the expertise about the military, but they’ve also been trained in leadership at the taxpayers’ expense. So to have them come and serve once again is a win-win, not only for the American people, but also, I would say, for global world order, because we’ve seen such a conflagration overseas of hotspots where we have led from behind.

Exactly.

Where we have drawn red lines and not followed through on it. So this is a great promise going forward.

Well, it definitely is lifting the spirits of many down to the private in the military as well as our allies that are now looking at leadership coming out of the Beltway here and many just cannot wait until Donald Trump comes in, because you talk about sending in the cavalry. I mean to them they’re seeing this as, look it, we’ve got reinforcements on the way and the people that know what they’re doing.

Right. Think of these veterans. They had to function under combat stress in a way that most human beings cannot tolerate. They have been trained in critical thinking and they’re also able to inspire people to follow them into the most difficult circumstances. So they are excellent apart from their understanding of the military and what we need to provide this peace through strength deterrent to aggressors on the global stage. But they also just generally have good leadership skills, management skills, and most importantly they are patriotic and they have put their lives on the line to defend American values and the American ideals.

Gayle, I know you appreciate they didn’t check their brains in at the door and this is driving the mainstream media nuts. They are just beside themselves, because they are looking at every statement and saying, “Well, that doesn’t perfectly line up with Donald Trump.” Well, Donald Trump has people in there who are mature people. They’re leaders. They know what they’re talking about. As he said, he told them, “I told them to go be themselves.” He’s not going to be offended if there is a conflict. He’s surrounding himself with capable people. Very intelligent, experienced military people who can give him the information he needs to have, which is quite in contrast to what was being reported out of the Obama Administration.

Right. When you think about the media’s argument on this, it is quite illogical, because they are simultaneously accusing Donald Trump of being a strong man who is going to just enforce his way over everyone, run ramshackle over everyone. Yet, they are also criticizing him that the men and women that he has selected for the UN, for Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, are not party men. They are not “yes” men. They’re not going to just blindly put into action everything he says. So it’s illogical. Which is it?

Well, it’s the old definition of insanity. It is doing the same thing expecting different results. Well, Donald Trump is doing the exact opposite and I think we’re all hopefully that the results are definitely going to be different. If you’re honest with yourself and you can see the hope that is there, we’re encouraged by the signs that we’re seeing. Aren’t we, Gayle?

Absolutely. His overarching principle is to “Make America Great Again.” It is very exciting to see the team that he is assembling.

Exactly. Thank you, Gayle Trotter, appreciate it.