American Greatness Contributing Editor Brandon Weichert joined the Seth and Chris Show to discuss foreign policy, the DACA, and President Donald Trump’s unusual leadership style and undeniable success. Listen to the podcast and read the transcript.
Chris Buskirk: Welcome back. I am Chris Buskirk. This is The Seth and Chris Show. Our guest this hour is Brandon Weichert. If you listen to the show, you know Brandon. He is a frequent guest, a friend, and a contributing editor to American Greatness. Brandon, how are you?
Brandon Weichert: Oh, I’m okay. Thanks for having me on again. That was a fantastic interview you just did with Michael Walsh, and his piece was wonderful.
Chris Buskirk: As they always are, right?
Brandon Weichert: Yeah, and I feel a little embarrassed that I’m having to follow on. I don’t know if I can do him justice. Hopefully, I can.
Chris Buskirk: No pressure, no pressure. Look, he was the opening act, now you’ve got to perform. You’re the headliner.
Brandon Weichert: Yeah. The pressure’s on now.
Chris Buskirk: Brandon, I want to come to a couple of things that you’ve written for American Greatness in a minute. But, one thing that I loved about yesterday was the Fake News Awards. Did you have a chance to look at those?
Brandon Weichert: Oh, I did. I thought they were spot on. I thought for a moment, was that the American Greatness, that some of our writers wrote for this, because—
Chris Buskirk: How did we miss this? That’s my question. Why did we not give the Fake News Awards? This was hilarious.
Brandon Weichert: Yeah. No, this was great, and it was spot on. I don’t think there was anything I could quibble with.
Chris Buskirk: After the President Tweeted about it, it crashed the GOP website, which is where it’s published. Anybody who wants to see this list, we’ll go through some of them, which I think are especially noteworthy, but it’s at GOP.com. The highly anticipated 2017 Fake News Awards. Number one? You got to love this one.
Brandon Weichert: Well, it’s Krugman!
Chris Buskirk: Paul Krugman, The New York Times. Paul Krugman claimed on the day of President Trump’s historic landslide victory that the economy would never recover. Well, how’s that going for you, Paul?
Brandon Weichert: There was a gentleman, I think he was … I can’t remember, it’s Larry Einhorn, or … He’s an editor for one of the big publications, and over the weekend, I saw the Tweet. And I re-posted it on my Facebook. Now I can’t remember who it was but basically they claimed that in anticipation of Trump’s victory, they were selling all of their stock, based on what Paul Krugman was telling them.
Chris Buskirk: Oh, I hope it’s true.
Brandon Weichert: I hope it is, too, because I just think it’s hilarious. I mean, you see, and I’ve been writing about this. And I know that Michael Walsh’s most recent piece at American Greatness was all about this. And the media determinedly jumped the shark. The media’s opposition to Trump has become so absurd, that you almost, it’s almost like you’re reading … It’s almost like the [National] Enquirer is more realistic and truthful than what CNN or New York Times or these media outlets are reporting. And as you just look at this list of Fake News Awards that the President put out, they’re 100 percent spot on.
The reason they’re funny, the reason this is so funny, is because it’s true. I mean, these organizations that we used to believe were the truth tellers and the information gatherers. They’re nothing more than gossip mongers.
Chris Buskirk: Yeah, right. I mean, this is Clyde Reynolds’s point, right, about the media basically being—
Brandon Weichert: That’s right.
Chris Buskirk: In cahoots with, basically, being an arm of the Democrat Party. There are a couple others on this list, which are I think, are noteworthy. Do you remember when Time magazine reported that Donald Trump had removed a bust of Martin Luther King, from the Oval Office?
Brandon Weichert: Yes, the bust. Yeah.
Chris Buskirk: Yeah. Not true!
Brandon Weichert: Right.
Chris Buskirk: Not true.
Brandon Weichert: Right. Whereas, when Obama removed the Churchill bust, trying to get the mainstream media to cover that was, in fact, if I remember correctly … When Obama had removed the Churchill bust, many in the Washington Post were actually saying, “No, that’s not true,” that it’s still there. And, of course, it ended up that he did, in fact, return the bust that was given to George W. Bush by the British government of Winston Churchill, after 911, that Obama did, in fact, give it back to the British Embassy. Because Churchill, of course, was also a staunch colonialist, and that ended up being true, and was, except for Fox News, really wasn’t reported. Whereas—
Chris Buskirk: Right, but Barack Obama went out of his way—
Brandon Weichert: Right.
Chris Buskirk: To insult one of this nation’s closest allies.
Brandon Weichert: Yeah. That’s right. That’s right.
Chris Buskirk: I mean it was a calculated insult, to return that gift.
Brandon Weichert: Oh, it was, absolutely. Absolutely. I think Dinesh D’Souza covered it perfectly with when he talked about how it had to do with the Kenya factor, and the fact that, under Churchill, British policy toward Kenya was somewhat harsh and Obama always took that as a personal slight. And so, being of course, also, the whole, he’s an anti-colonialist at heart, because he was a Marxist. But you’re right. It was an outright insult to the British, whereas, this thing about the Martin Luther King bust was a total lie, and yet, everyone reported on it as if it was fact. So, fake news.
Chris Buskirk: Fake, fake, fake news. Number eight: Newsweek falsely reports the Polish First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda did not shake President Trump’s hand.
Brandon Weichert: Right.
Chris Buskirk: And, of course, they have a picture of her shaking hands.
Brandon Weichert: Well, and furthermore, because I do a lot of work with the Polish Congress, and I do a lot of work with the Polish groups out here in D.C. Universally, for the most part, among the Polish community, both in the United States, and in Poland, Trump is highly regarded. His Warsaw speech, one of my mentors from the Institute of World Politics, actually helped write that, put inputs for that speech. Trump is very well regarded in Poland and among the Polish-American community.
I don’t know if you’re familiar but when Trump, in 2016, during the election he flew out to Chicago and gave an amazing speech to the Polish-American Congress.
Chris Buskirk: Yup. I remember that.
Brandon Weichert: And I do a lot of work with them, unofficially. I speak at events and stuff for them, but I know a lot of the heads of that group, and I know that Trump is highly regarded. In fact, his penetration of the famous Blue Wall in the Midwest was in large part, because of his appeal, among middle-class Polish-Americans, who normally vote Democrat. So, Trump is, this whole story … When I first heard the story about the First Lady in Poland, Duda, I knew that that wasn’t true.
Chris Buskirk: Yeah, something about this just doesn’t ring true.
Brandon Weichert: Right.
Chris Buskirk: And, of course, it didn’t ring true for one, just one reason.
Brandon Weichert: It was false, yeah.
Chris Buskirk: Because it wasn’t true!
Brandon Weichert: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and do you know, it’s almost because, it’s almost sad … They did, what, Top 10 or 11, it was one thing, I think, 11, that they did of these awards. I mean, really, you should just hand out all of the news media awards. Because everything they reported, almost, I would say upwards of 90 percent of what they reported about Trump has been a lie, and the remaining 10 percent has been taken out of context. And it’s really sad that this is the environment that we’re living in today, is that you can’t even trust a simple news story to convey the truth or any semblance of the truth.
Chris Buskirk: Yeah, you would talk about this, the Warsaw speech. I thought that might have been the high point of, at least, the rhetorical high point, of Trump’s presidency. And I think his speeches—
Brandon Weichert: Well, they’re great.
Chris Buskirk: I think, have been fantastic, starting with—
Brandon Weichert: Well, I would say going back, going back to the convention speech when he accepted the nomination.
Chris Buskirk: Yup.
Brandon Weichert: Going to the Inauguration.
Chris Buskirk: The Inaugural was. Or, as I prefer to call it, Brandon, his first Inaugural.
Brandon Weichert: Yes. Yes. His first, yes, to the Warsaw speech, and to the Seoul speech, I thought, those four speeches were classic Trumpism on display, and—
Chris Buskirk: The speech in Riyadh was excellent, as well.
Brandon Weichert: Yeah, the Riyadh one, you’re right. You’re right. I think there’s a few more that I’m missing, but just off the top of my head those top five. I mean, that is, and he’s been fairly consistent. I mean, all of this talk about how he’s evolving on certain positions, he’s … Rhetorically, Trump remains Trump. And about the wall thing, I hope that he goes through and actually builds the wall. But, at least, in terms of rhetorical, in, of rhetoric, rather, he has been consistent. And if you look at his actions so far, they’ve lived up to a lot of his campaign promises, which is more than either Republican or Democrat elected leaders can say at this point in time.
Chris Buskirk: You know, in his Warsaw speech because I just think it’s important to hear the rhetoric, right? Aristotle tells us, “Rhetoric is the most important tool for the, or, skill, of the statesman.” Why? Because it persuades and it educates.
Brandon Weichert: Right.
Chris Buskirk: He said, in Warsaw, here’s what Trump said. He said, “Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost?”
Brandon Weichert: Right.
Chris Buskirk: “Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?”
Brandon Weichert: That’s right.
Chris Buskirk: That’s just one part of it, which, the whole speech is great, but that’s—
Brandon Weichert: Well—
Chris Buskirk: But that’s the beating heart of what Trumpism is.
Brandon Weichert: Well, this just cuts so nicely into what you and Michael were talking about in the last hour, and what Michael has spent the last several years writing on, which is the Frankfurt School. That speech encapsulated the rhetoric that I think is necessary to destroying “the cult of critical theory,” as Walsh refers to it as. I mean, he went after relativism in that speech, moral relativism. He went after the things that are tearing apart not just the United States or Poland but the entire West.
And, in fact, in Poland, right now, I’m doing … I’m writing a story right now. I’ve been given some information about things that both Russia has been doing, as well as what the Soros group, Open Skies, or, Open … I don’t remember the name of it, right off the top of head, his foundation, how they have been going into Poland, because of Poland’s strict immigration policy.
Chris Buskirk: Brandon, hold that thought. We got to go run to a break. But I don’t want to give it short shrift.
Brandon Weichert: Sure.
Chris Buskirk: I want to give it full shrift, so, we’ll have a full airing of this on the other side of the break.
Brandon Weichert: Okay.
Chris Buskirk: I’m Chris Buskirk, my guest is Brandon Weichert, and we’ll be right back.
A little Juice Newton, bringing us back. I am Chris Buskirk. My guest is Brandon Weichert. Brandon, we had to go to the break. You were starting a point, which I think was important. By the way, the organization, the Soros organization we’re talking about, is the Open Society.
Brandon Weichert: Open Society. Yeah.
Chris Buskirk: George Soros has donated a substantial part of his wealth already to the Open Society.
Brandon Weichert: A billion dollars, I think, or some crazy number like that, yeah.
Chris Buskirk: $18 billion.
Brandon Weichert: Yeah. Yeah.
Chris Buskirk: $18 billion.
Brandon Weichert: That’s scary.
Chris Buskirk: Yeah. No, it is. This will be one of the largest private foundations, for generations.
Brandon Weichert: Well, yes. And what I’ve been working on is that a colleague of mine, who does a lot of work with the Polish community, is one of my sources on this story that I’ve been working on since the end of November. Which is, basically, you’ve been seeing this rash of protests breaking out in Poland, ostensibly over the fact that there’s a group that many in Poland, they’re saying, don’t agree with their government’s, quote, “harsh” immigration policies. And what we’re finding out is that, in fact, it is money coming in from George Soros’s Open Society, who is basically Astroturfing. And, in fact, many, many more polls actually agree with the government’s stand, policy, of not allowing mass Muslim migration to flow over their borders the way the rest of Europe has.
And then we’re also finding that a lot of the, this propaganda out there, about this anti-Polish propaganda in the press, is also being funded, unsurprisingly, by Vladimir Putin, who, of course, the Russians have long hated the Poles. And so, anyway that they can hurt the image of Poland, which is right now going through an economic and political renaissance at the, under the helm of this mostly right-wing government. You’re seeing this kind of, they’re not necessarily coordinating with each other, but you’re definitely seeing similar interests in George Soros’s far left-wing groups hitting Poland, coupled with the Russian government’s attempts to basically flood the world with anti-Polish propaganda to weaken Poland, and to detach Poland away from the West. At least, rhetorically.
And so, but that’s the story that I, that’s kind of a long-simmering story that I’ve been working on. I’m kind of trying to get as many resources to confirm what I’ve been told, but that’s what I’ve been really kind of working on for the last month and a half. And it’s really wild, what’s going on, and it’s not surprising that the Warsaw speech that Trump gave last summer was so well-received in Poland because he touched on themes that the Poles, I think, inherently understand, at least coming from the fact that they were once an occupied country of the Soviet Union. And so, they know what Marxism looks like, whether it’s economic or political or cultural Marxism, and they don’t wanna have any part of it. And so, this is, I think that Warsaw speech, just what we were speaking on earlier, I think that Trump gave, was kind of the thesis statement for the Trump worldview on dealing with cultural Marxism. Whether he realized it or not.
Chris Buskirk: Yeah, I mean, some of these Eastern European countries have become very good allies and friends of the United States.
Brandon Weichert: Oh, yeah.
Chris Buskirk: I mean, these are countries with whom we should, in my view, really should be pursuing closer relationships with.
Brandon Weichert: I agree. I agree.
Chris Buskirk: Yeah, I mean, Poland, Hungary, Austria, they’re right now … Austria is Central Europe, but nonetheless, even, we saw this back 10, 12, 14 years ago. And this was when Don Rumsfeld, even, was talking about New Europe and Old Europe.
Brandon Weichert: Right, Old Europe, yup, yup. Yup. I know Rumsfeld a little bit. I’ve interacted with him several times, both in Chicago and here in D.C., and I was … even when I disagreed with him, I always had a profound amount of respect for his intellect, and the fact that, like Trump, what you see what is what you get. And take it or leave it. And I have a lot of respect for people like that. There was no putting on airs. And he was right. I mean, his insights into Old Europe versus New Europe were 100 percent correct.
In fact, I, one of the things that I did for the Polish-American Congress was, they had me come out and testify on the Hill, or give a presentation on the Hill, the House Polish Caucus in September of 2017, and I basically advocated for—
Chris Buskirk: There is a House Polish Caucus?
Brandon Weichert: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s populated by a lot of Democrats, actually, and they did not like what I had to say. I basically said, “Look, we’ve got to start empowering these, particularly Poland, to start standing up for themselves defensively so that they’re not having to rely on American troops to have to come flooding into their countries, in the event that Russia does decide to try to invade.” Which I don’t think that they will. But we need to be giving Poland more military capabilities because they’re a fellow democracy, they’re a stable regime, and we have a lot of business ties with them, and they’re—
Chris Buskirk: They’re an unapologetic defender of Western civilization.
Brandon Weichert: That’s right. That’s right. Even more so than either the French or the Germans are.
Chris Buskirk: Well, that’s a very low bar to get over.
Brandon Weichert: Well, in Europe, I’m talking about. It’s pretty amazing that the Old Europe versus New Europe, how these Eastern European countries that really have more in common with, at least historically, with Russia, or with farther Eastern countries. They’re actually better defenders of Western civilization than some of the originators of Western civilization in places like Germany and France.
Chris Buskirk: Yeah, it’s interesting, right? I mean, it’s sort of like you had this seed that was there that was held in limbo for—
Brandon Weichert: That’s right.
Chris Buskirk: About 60 years or 50 years after World War II and that was blossoming just at the time that, just at the time that Western Europe really needs it.
Brandon Weichert: Yeah.
Chris Buskirk: It’s not unlike the phenomena that you see with certain countries, for instance, in Africa and Asia, that once were missionary receiving countries. Now we’re sending—
Brandon Weichert: They’re now sending missionaries to Scotland.
Chris Buskirk: And the United States, by the way. Right?
Brandon Weichert: That’s right! It’s crazy. It’s crazy. It just shows you how deep the cultural rot in the West goes. How far cultural Marxism and the cult of critical theory has worked its way into our most fundamental institutions, from government, all the way to, now, the media, as we see, so—
Chris Buskirk: Wasn’t it interesting that you pointed out Scotland, right? Scotland was one of the, maybe, pound for pound, maybe was the mission sending country on the planet. Right?
Brandon Weichert: Right.
Chris Buskirk: I mean, for a relatively small population and does not have a large vibrant church anymore. Not to say there’s—
Brandon Weichert: Well, how about this?
Chris Buskirk: Not to say, there’s no Christian church in Scotland, but it’s quite—
Brandon Weichert: How about this? That’s right.
Chris Buskirk: For a country that was sending more missionaries per capita than any other country on the planet, it really needs some sent back.
Brandon Weichert: That’s right. Now, how about this? My great-grandfather was Scottish, and he served in British, in the RAF Intelligence, during the siege of Malta in World War II. He was a proud Scotsman, and he was also a proud servant of the British Empire. And it’s pretty amazing, when I think, just 70-80 years ago, how fierce and proud the Scots were. But, again, cultural Marxism and socialism have rotted the core of Scotland so badly that here Scotland was the basis of capitalism. You had the formation of the Scottish Enlightenment.
Chris Buskirk: Right. Adam Smith, David Hume.
Brandon Weichert: Right, and here it is now fighting desperately to stay a part of what I think is a soft, totalitarian, socialist endeavor that is the European Union. And it’s just insane that this is how far it’s gone for Scotland.
Chris Buskirk: You know, the Scots keep threatening to have another independence vote. I have a, there’s a part of me that thinks that Scotland would be better off independent—
Brandon Weichert: I do, too.
Chris Buskirk: Because it would force them to reckon with their faulty socialist ideology.
Brandon Weichert: Yes.
Chris Buskirk: Right? Anyway, we got to run to a break. You hear, you heard the music.
Brandon Weichert: Yes. Now I do.
Chris Buskirk: We’ll be right back with Brandon Weichert.
Brandon Weichert is my guest. He’s a contributing editor to American Greatness. He is also the proprietor of the Weichert Report, theweichertreport.com.
Brandon, I’m looking at your bio here. Actually, it says you’re an associate member of New College at Oxford.
Brandon Weichert: Yes.
Chris Buskirk: What does that mean? What is an associate member?
Brandon Weichert: Basically, I … I went over in, oh, boy. This is back in 2015. I went over there for a semester, and I was studying the decline of British Empire. It was part of my master’s studies, at the Institute of World Politics, and we’re a partner institute, institution, of Oxford. And so, I got, I and a handful of others got to go over, and spend … We’re non-graduating members of New College at Oxford University.
Chris Buskirk: New, of course, because it was founded in 1379.
Brandon Weichert: Yes! And actually, incidentally, my don, Richard Coggins, that I studied under, he was actually at Oriel College. So, I spent most of my time at Oriel, even though, technically, I was in New College.
Chris Buskirk: Oriel not being so new. It was 1326?
Brandon Weichert: Yes. Yes.
Chris Buskirk: Right?
Brandon Weichert: Definitely. And I was taught when I was at New College, you say, “GDBM,” which is, God, D word, Bloody, Magdalen. Because they don’t like Magdalen College.
Chris Buskirk: Why is that?
Brandon Weichert: It has to do with a famous rowing competition.
Chris Buskirk: Ah.
Brandon Weichert: And, basically, they were rowing down the river, and there was a break in the river and New College was winning. And it was a competition to see which Oxford team would go to the 1918 or 1920 Olympics. And basically, New College was winning and then all of a sudden because of a fluke they ended up running aground. And the Magdalene team, by default, won. And so, at the end, the row team stood up and yelled, and “G, D, Bloody Magdalen!”
Chris Buskirk: Well, see, they had it coming. They shouldn’t be blaspheming.
Brandon Weichert: Right! That’s right. Because I remember that correctly. I hope that will [inaudible] the structure, somebody will write me, saying, “You were wrong!” But that’s what I was told.
Chris Buskirk: You know what? If you have it wrong, you probably will get an email, because the audience that we have here, the audience, there will be somebody who knows that if it’s wrong, and they will tell you.
Brandon Weichert: Not even your audience. It’s when I had said that it’s, people that I know, will give me a hard time, if they’re listening. But, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was basically there for a semester. Thought about doing my doctorate there, but then I got sick there with my Crohn’s Disease, even, and ended up spending an enormant amount of time in the NHS. And I can tell you, living through socialized medicine with a chronic illness, you should be very frightened, if it comes to America.
Because it is … I got back to the States, and my doctor at Georgetown, he said, “They almost killed you,” and so, it was, not something I would want to—
Chris Buskirk: Hey, you get what you pay for.
Brandon Weichert: Yeah, exactly. Exactly! Exactly!
Chris Buskirk: Yeah. Yeah, look, I had an experience, though thankfully only as an observer dealing with the NHS when I was living over there. A friend of mine had broken a glass in his hand. So, he had glass shards in his hand. He was bleeding profusely, excuse me, and we had to take him into the emergency room, at the local hospital. Packed. Packed!
Brandon Weichert: Yeah.
Chris Buskirk: Okay? So, first of all, the waiting room is just standing room only and there people standing, so that’s number one.
Brandon Weichert: Yeah.
Chris Buskirk: Not moving along very quickly. He’s bleeding. We’ve got him wrapped up in a towel, bleeding, bleeding, bleeding. It stopped but I mean he’s lost a lot of blood.
Brandon Weichert: Right.
Chris Buskirk: And, but, they’re triaging him, basically, like, “Oh, you’ve only lost a pint of blood.”
Brandon Weichert: Right.
Chris Buskirk: “No biggie.” They go, “You’re Number 142.” So, we’re sitting there, for maybe gosh it had to have been an hour. And there’s an Englishman sitting in front of us, just, sort of stiff upper lip, classic Brit, sitting there, not moving. And just to strike up conversation, you know, kind of, “Why are you here, what are you in for?” And gritting his teeth, he says, “I broke my collarbone.”
Brandon Weichert: Oh, my God, yeah. Yeah.
Chris Buskirk: He’s sitting there, untreated, totally untreated. Oh, really? Of course, being politically minded, I said … thinking of classic NHS, I said, “Oh, how long have you been sitting here?” “Six hours.”
Brandon Weichert: Yeah. Yeah, I can bet.
Chris Buskirk: Sitting there with a broken collarbone, untreated, for six hours.
Brandon Weichert: Yeah. I had to, I had to threaten to get the Consulate involved because they wouldn’t release me. They wanted to remove part of my intestine, and—
Chris Buskirk: You didn’t need that, did you?
Brandon Weichert: Well, no. I mean, I have Crohn’s, but—
Chris Buskirk: Yeah, right.
Brandon Weichert: But in the States, we deal with it a little less invasively. Like, surgery is the last step. And so, I was trying to explain to them that I’m not at that point yet, and they were trying to explain to me that, I said, “All I need is pain management.” And they were trying to explain to me, that in England they don’t really do pain management. It’s cheaper just to go in and snip it out.
Chris Buskirk: And that’s the calculation.
Brandon Weichert: Yeah.
Chris Buskirk: Not what’s better for the patient, but what’s cheaper for the public fist.
Brandon Weichert: And if it wasn’t for the fact that I was an American … They told me, “You don’t have any real right. It’s what the doctor wants.”
Chris Buskirk: Wow.
Brandon Weichert: And so, I said, “Well, I’m going to have to get my consulate involved,” and then, everything changed.
Chris Buskirk: Brandon, we’re onto a break. And when we come back, you wrote a piece for us a couple days ago. Actually, I guess, it was several days ago: “Now Trump is America’s plumber.” I’d like you to explain.
Brandon Weichert: Sure thing.
Chris Buskirk: I’d like you to explain that when we come back. I’m Chris Buskirk, this is the Seth & Chris Show. Be right back.
Welcome back to the Seth & Chris Show. I’m Chris Buskirk. Brandon Weichert is my guest, and according to Brandon, “Trump is America’s plumber.” Well, I need some plumbing done. Does he do house calls? That is my question.
Brandon Weichert: Well, I think he’s doing everyone a house call right now, and I think that—
Chris Buskirk: And things are stopped up.
Brandon Weichert: That’s what I—
Chris Buskirk: And you know what’s clogging the plumbing and he’s there to de-clog it.
Brandon Weichert: Yeah. That’s right, that’s right! He’s the Roto-Rooter man, but no, I wrote this piece … I was actually writing something else for you guys. And then, I don’t remember exactly. It was two in the morning and I was writing it and I had this image of Trump plunging a toilet. And I thought, “You know what? That’s a good metaphor to run with,” and so, to me, that’s what he is most analogous to. It’s a dirty job he’s doing. Even though he has the trappings of the presidency, he is not treated like any president we’ve had. He’s treated terribly, and he is pushing through legislation, or trying to push through legislation, in ways that you really haven’t seen, probably, since before FDR.
He’s actually getting both parties, as he did in that Tuesday meeting a week or two ago, he’s forcing them to sit down at a big, beautiful table, and to hash out some kind of an agreement. And this is something, of course, that we’ve seen is anathema to our ruling elite because it’s not about actually getting things done for the common good, so much as it is about shameless self-promotion, and sniping at each other, to appear like they’re doing something, in the media’s eyes. And that meeting was very telling.
I wrote another piece for you guys, right after that meeting, in which I, like Ann Coulter, was expressing concern that, oh, goodness, he might, Trump get rolled by this corrupt Congress. But then, I thought about it more, and I still had that concern when he was talking about he’ll sign whatever bill Congress puts before him. But then, I thought about it after a week. And I thought, you know, if you think about it the sheer image alone of Trump sitting between the two leaders, the two leaderships of both parties, from both houses of Congress … That alone, talking about in a public way, talking about this issue of immigration, which has plagued our country for decades, that, to me, was very heartening.
Because it shows that, he is the only one actually who’s trying to get our system to work the way that our founders wanted it to work. Maybe not a government that governed all the time, but certainly, a government that did some governing, that actually benefited the people. And so, that to me—
Chris Buskirk: Well, that would be nice!
Brandon Weichert: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that, to me, it was a non-ideological meeting between very ideological groups of people. And so, that’s something … a plumber, as I said in the article, a plumber doesn’t have any ideological reason for unclogging a pipe. He just does it, because it needs to be fixed. And so, when he’s done he goes home. And that, to me, is kind of how I envision Trump. It’s a nasty job. It’s not glamorous, but he’s going to do it because he’s the only one who, frankly, can. And that was the kind of the essence of the piece that I wrote.
Chris Buskirk: Yeah, it’s very good. I mean, I think it’s well worth people reading. Again, you can find it at amgreatness.com, “Trump Is America’s Plumber.” But I think that’s right. I mean, he sort of has this very workmanlike attitude.
Brandon Weichert: Yeah.
Chris Buskirk: And he just, kind of goes, sees the problem, goes in, and fixes it. We’re not used to it.
Brandon Weichert: No. No.
Chris Buskirk: Right? As a people, we’re not used to it. We’re used to the kabuki theater of politics.
Brandon Weichert: That’s right.
Chris Buskirk: Of who’s kowtowing to him.
Brandon Weichert: Well, especially you and I, right? Especially you and I, who are in the political realm, more than most people are in the daily humdrum of the political realm. And at least to me having worked on the help of several campaigns before that I’m kind of cynical and so to me it was initially very jarring. And then, I thought about it. The political science nerd in me, the science part, was very thrilled by that. Because, my gosh, somebody could be getting government to actually work for the majority of Americans, which is something we haven’t seen, since, for decades.
And then, the political part of me, of course, the craven part, was going, “Oh, this is dangerous. Because I know the Democrats don’t want anything but a DACA deal, and I certainly know that the never Trump Republican leadership in the Hill, on the Hill, is going to basically string Trump along.” I mean, if you look at what they’ve passed, it’s pretty much, a conventional Republican policy of tax cuts and more foreign policy engagements. We haven’t really seen the kind of, the protectionist stuff that Trump campaigned on. We certainly have yet to see the real immigration policy that Trump wants.
And so, I was a little concerned. But the sheer fact that Trump got these two groups together, and had such an upfront conversation … to the point now, that Democrats are having to lie about what was said in the closed-door portion because they know that this is dangerous for them politically, hit this potential deal that Trump wants to do. It’s very, very important, I think, that we acknowledge that Trump is not ideological and that he’s doing things in an unconventional way and there may be false starts. And as Trump supporters, we may get annoyed. I know I have in the past gotten annoyed but that is because Trump is not working in the paradigm that has been preordained by the two parties over the last seven decades.
Chris Buskirk: Right. Right.
Brandon Weichert: And so, I’m happy, for the most part, that he’s doing some of the things he’s doing.
Chris Buskirk: Are you familiar with the Goodlatte bill on immigration?
Brandon Weichert: Yeah. I think it’s the Goodlatte, the Goodlatte, and Raul Labrador did it.
Chris Buskirk: That’s right. That’s right. [Inaudible] No, and I think it’s very good.
Brandon Weichert: And if I may posit having been on the Hill when the shutdown happened last, if I may posit, I think that it is a devastating mistake for the leadership to run to the middle. I think they could get the votes they needed on getting a budget passed, if they ran to the right, and embraced this Goodlatte and Raul Labrador bill.
Chris Buskirk: Yes. Totally agree.
Brandon Weichert: And I don’t understand why and I know why they’re not because McConnell and Paul Ryan are Never Trumpers at heart. But—
Chris Buskirk: And especially Ryan is an open borders person.
Brandon Weichert: Right. Right. Right. The cult of Ayn Rand. But the fact is, if our party and on the Hill would just stay true to its voters, if they would dance with the ones who brung them, we would probably be much farther ahead, if we—
Chris Buskirk: There’s no doubt.
Brandon Weichert: There’s no doubt and to me it really is infuriating because I worked with these guys. So, I know exactly what it’s like, when, in the cloakroom, when the doors are closed. Now, I was low-level but everybody knows what really is happening on the Hill, which is they kowtow, particularly the Republicans to the big moneyed interests. And so, the moneyed interests—
Chris Buskirk: The cheap labor lobby, in this case.
Brandon Weichert: That’s right. That’s right. And so, we can talk all we want about how Trump needs to do this, this, and this, but it seems to me like Trump is actually deferring a lot to Congress because that’s what, historically, Presidents are supposed to do. And he’s actually following the Constitution, and it’s just unfortunate that Congress doesn’t seem interested in doing their constitutionally ordained duty.
Chris Buskirk: No, they really aren’t. I don’t know if you saw it, I’ve got a piece—
Brandon Weichert: The Washington Post piece.
Chris Buskirk: In today’s Washington Post today. I think that the Goodlatte bill it has something for everybody. I’m definitely of the mind that we ought not to have to negotiating on DACA to begin with.
Brandon Weichert: I agree.
Chris Buskirk: But it’s here.
Brandon Weichert: Right.
Chris Buskirk: And so, let’s something good for it, which is that—
Brandon Weichert: Democrats never negotiate.
Chris Buskirk: Which is that Goodlatte bill.
Brandon Weichert: The Democrats never negotiate. Whether they’re in power or not, somehow, they end up getting what they want and we don’t.
Chris Buskirk: Right. Well, because they’re willing to draw a line in the sand and then stick with it.
Brandon Weichert: Right. Right.
Chris Buskirk: Right? The Goodlatte bill, for people who are not familiar with it, it deals with DACA. It gives the people under DACA a legal status. And, not citizenship but a legal status. And then, it gives full funding for the wall, e-verify, end to chain migration, and an end to the diversity lottery. That’s a fair trade.
Brandon Weichert: And we can’t address DAACA, we can’t address DACA, unless we address chain migration.
Chris Buskirk: Right.
Brandon Weichert: Because, otherwise, the problem’s going to keep perpetuating.
Chris Buskirk: Absolutely right. Brandon, we’ve got to leave it there.
Brandon Weichert: Okay.
Chris Buskirk: Thanks so much for being a part of the show today.
Brandon Weichert: Thank you.
Chris Buskirk: As always, it’s great.
Brandon Weichert: Yes, sir. Talk to you soon.
Chris Buskirk: Bye-bye.
Brandon Weichert: Bye.
Chris Buskirk: Welcome back to the Seth and Chris Show. Want to at least get one call in today, before the end of the show, and now’s the time to do it. John, welcome to the Seth and Chris Show.
John: Hello.
Chris Buskirk: Hello. How are you?
John: This is John [Sinfury], in Victoria. Hello.
Chris Buskirk: Welcome back. How are you?
John: I’d only call in if I think I have something at least somewhat significant to add. And today, I think I do. Yesterday, one of you made a fantastic, brief, concise, accurate statement, delineating the difference on bedrock foundation, bedrock difference, between liberal and conservatives, Democrats, Republicans. It dawned on me, in that show, as never before, why I like your show. It is this.
You guys don’t get totally off center, like most local talk shows do, with superficialities. You do let the public go with that with a little bit. But that’s not your primary thing. You get to foundational philosophical differences, where the rubber really meets the road, and that is so important. I think the liberals just want to, all they want to do, for the most part, is distract by flippancy. You guys don’t go there, and that’s unusual because that usually only happens on the national level of call-in talk shows in addressing political issues.
You guys do that right there. And I’m, for one, saying, “Listening public? Tell other people about that definition. Tell your people. Tell your friends, as I do, and even did today. Thank you.
Chris Buskirk: John, those are very, very kind words. I cannot tell you how much that means to me, and to Seth, as well. That’s why we do it. We just, look, the first things are important. And if you get those right, then the other things will follow, as well. And to find out that people are listening, and appreciate it, well, that makes it all worthwhile.
John: You can’t build a house on a shaky foundation, and you guys dig deep and thank you.
Chris Buskirk: Thanks very much, John. We’re going to have to leave it there. We’ll see everybody tomorrow at three. Have a good night.