Team USA is the BEST of America! Mexico in Chaos and Kansas Schools Look BAD! | 2-23-26

You're going to sit here and tell me that you could not watch the Olympics the last two weeks with the way yesterday ended. Are you serious? 604, good morning. It is great to be here on a Monday across Kansas City on KCMO Talk Radio as Team USA took home the gold in men's hockey yesterday. Wow! That was fantastic stuff. We were driving to church and I had it on in the car. I was like, why don't we listen to music? I'm like, we got to see if they're going to win gold. Same thing with us, man. We were living the same exact life yesterday morning. Oh, man. Yeah, we were driving. We left right at the end of regulation, and then we're literally almost to church pulling in, and they score the game-winning goal, and everybody goes crazy in the car. That was awesome. I wish I had a video of your vehicle yesterday morning when that unfolded. That's fantastic. Winning the game 2-1, the first gold for Team USA since Miracle on Ice. in 1980 on the 46th anniversary. That was the Olympics at its best. That was American pride at its absolute best. And after the game, you had guys like Jack Hughes, who scored the game-winning goal in overtime for Team USA over Canada yesterday. Say what this is really all about. Unbelievable game by Hellebuck. He was our best player tonight by a mile. Unbelievable game. unreal game by our team that's just a ballsy gutsy win that's american hockey right there that's a great canadian team but we're usa we're so proud to be americans tonight was all for the country tonight was all for the country we are all proud to be americans it's really that simple that's what the last two weeks was all about i mean i know some people wanted to kind of tiptoe around the politics and try to make it political and all these absurd statements that did come out from some individual athletes no doubt about it right but by and large if we were not looking for outrage it was a pretty damn good two weeks it was it doesn't mean every Olympian is perfect you've got dozens of them right representing Team USA I don't really expect most of them to be entirely like-minded I wish they would leave left and right politics at the door when they go represent Team USA. Some of them could not do it. Fine. But you know what? I don't know what Jack Hughes's politics are because representing your country, having pride for America, loving your country, saying this was all for the country is not a red or blue thing. It's a red, white and blue thing. That's what it's really about. That's what it's intended to be about. That's what we were all celebrating yesterday you had republicans you had democrats you had independents watching that game listening to that game on the way to or from church and running around driving errands and rooting for team usa to beat canada and that's why these guys should have become the 51st state man they wouldn't have to deal with this if they just took their lumps and became the 51st state we'd be totally dominant by the way very much tongue buried in cheek but that was the olympics at its best that was celebrating american greatness at its best because it wasn't just that we won a gold it was that we won a gold in something that we had not won a gold in in 46 years as great as we are at almost everything here in the united states there are certain things that you know certain countries are still better than us at hockey happens to be one of them but not yesterday and that's what made it such a fantastic moment because there are very few things that america is not the best at there are very few things that america does not expect to win and men's hockey is one of them the other soccer maybe the world cup can turn around for us as well this summer we'll have to wait and see but then you had the president of the united states calling up team usa in the locker room after the game just see this moment this was fantastic as only trump can although these days i can't tell if it's trump or if it's a trump you know knockoff i mean they're getting so good some of these guys and ai's getting so good but no this was trump yesterday calling team usa in the locker room and once again i'm not playing this because it's trump i'm playing this because here was Trump talking to a team that just made history, not caring about the politics of that locker room, not caring about whether or not those guys in that locker room voted for him, and just simply congratulating them and celebrating American greatness on the world stage. Congratulations. That was an unbelievable game. I don't know if one person that wasn't, everybody that called me said I'm watching the hockey game. I don't know if anybody that wasn't. And you're going to be proud of that game for 50 years as you grow older. I mean, it was amazing. So we love you guys. Congratulations. And I hope to see you, Cash, Tuesday night. And I want to shake hands. I'm going to shake hands with everybody. But I got to shake hands with that goalie. We'll see you Tuesday night, Mr. President. We'll see you Tuesday night. He's going to be there. They're going to have the team at the State of the Union tomorrow night. He made saves, many, many saves. That was great. That was great. Where's Alibach? Where is he? That was Trump at his best. He said, I'm proud of you guys. I love you guys. He didn't say, I love those of you that voted for me and scored a goal tonight. No, it was, I love this team. I love what you represent for America. The White House was trolling Canada on social media in a loving, fun way. It was amazing yesterday. I've seen the meme where you use Ben Affleck and he's standing outside like his building and he's smoking a cigarette with that disgust. Yes. So I've seen that with the guy Canadian hockey jersey on the team Canada jersey. That's great. That's correct. That is fantastic. It's cool for me. I got to see the 80 game. Oh, you got to. I was maybe three days old and 60. That's right. Man. I think I've been around for all three of the golds, but I got to see two of them for sure. And so yesterday I remembered late as a cord cutter. I'm going, I wonder if this is on NBC or Peacock. So I flipped the TV on into the second period. I'm like, all right. So I see third period and the final end. And credit to the women, too. Same golden win, too. Absolutely. No doubt about it. You're right. Shout out to the ladies as well. Absolutely fantastic weekend of Olympics. A great weekend of hockey. And you're right. I didn't think about that, John. But you watching it in 1980 in Lake Placid, right? I mean, that's fantastic stuff. Yeah, yeah. We kind of had some fraternity function. So we were at a hotel. I remember watching the game. And that was the Russian game. So that wasn't the goal. But then the feeling game came later when everybody was watching that. That's right. That's a good point. Everyone does forget that the Miracle on Ice was technically the semifinals. Right. Not the finals. That's a great point. So the anniversary of Miracle on Ice, not the gold, but the gold on the anniversary of Miracle on Ice. You know, I was up in Lake Placid, New York, where that game got played as a kid. We went up there just for a long weekend. And then I was there for a bachelor party three or four years ago. A friend of mine did a bachelor party up at Lake Placid. And you just get, you can sense and feel the pride that they still have 45 years later in that Olympics, in that game, and what it meant to America at that time. I'm not saying yesterday tops the miracle on ice because of the geopolitics of everything. And, you know, just the fact that this country's come a long way with the talkie. But still, yesterday was a moment at a time in this country when everyone is looking to find a reason. Not just in being divided, but finding a reason to be divided. Yesterday was a chance to drop all of it. And yes, we're going to get back to the, sadly, mudslinging and everything else. Starting probably, I'd say by 9 o'clock this morning, it's going to be back, sad to say. And then tomorrow, State of the Union, forget it. That's going to be crazy. I mean, who knows? last year was just al green waving his cane who knows what's coming tomorrow night oh my goodness i can't even imagine but having the team usa guys there tomorrow night by the way could be that buffer that actually helps the evening along remember last year when you know trump had a couple of introductions there was the kid with brain surgery that wanted to be a cop remember that little kid that trump had out there and um his political opponents could not even stand for that little kid and give him a standing ovation can we get a standing ovation tomorrow for team usa for all of them can we please i mean this is this is not hard stuff it's very easy i think we will to be honest i really hope we will and i believe that we will and it should be the easiest thing that happens tomorrow night in that state of the union because yesterday was america at its best it was the olympics at its best and it was a fantastic moment for the country and it was a really good couple of weeks overall of olympic action for team usa coming up next here on kcmo talk radio uh we are monitoring a situation south of our border speaking of our borders after beating canada yesterday we took care of them up to the north now we've got issues to the south that we've got to figure out and there could be americans at risk what do we know where's that stand we'll share the latest with you next right here on kcmo talk radio well yesterday was a really an up and down day you had the celebration of team usa winning the gold medal in hockey for the first time in 46 years in the olympics and then on the downside in the afternoon you had tourists down in mexico specifically on the western coast in puerto velarta finding themselves dealing with widespread violence as the mexican drug cartel the jngc cartel stands for jalisco new generation cartel was causing havoc chaos and terror across that community yesterday which is a tourist hot spot Now, I've never been to Mexico. It's not on my short list. But I'm seeing these tourists yesterday standing, you know, in their hotels, looking down on this community that is just burning, courtesy of the drug cartel. And the reason that they were doing this is because their kingpin, their top guy, got killed. That's what happened yesterday. And apparently the United States obviously provided some of the information that led to El Mencho, as he is called, getting killed in a Mexican military operation. So the U.S. provided some of the intelligence support for the operation, according to the White House. and that killing sparked widespread unrest you had yesterday if you saw some of the videos and there's no point in playing it because the audio doesn't do you much good but the videos on social media that you may have seen around the news of the airport down there people scrambling out of the airport people just running with their luggage as the cartels were taking it over it was an unbelievable scene to witness yesterday so you have this widespread violence and unrest taking place it's not clear as we wake up this morning where exactly all that stands but there were 250 blockades reported across 20 mexican states the u state department has now urged american nationals in parts of Mexico to seek shelter and remain in residences or hotels Other tourists were stranded after several U.S. carrier suspended flights to Puerto Vallarta. So this is something right now that is unfolding in real time. I do know that there are a couple of Kansans who are right now in Puerto Vallarta and have reached out to various members of Congress back here in Kansas. But right now, what the State Department is saying is that there is a do not travel advisory in Mexico. So that's where we're at right now in real time on this story. I'm trying to get a hold of it because I know there are, I'm sure there are potentially Missourians too. But I know for a fact that there are Kansans who have reached out to multiple members of the Kansas delegation who are trying to figure out what to do and how to get back to the United States right now. Because it's not clear that any flights are going to be going in or out of Puerto Vallarta. But now the question is this. If we provided the information and the intelligence to support the operation and we basically pressured the Mexican government to take out El Mencho. Do we have some responsibility to help calm the situation down there? I mean, we're all hearing about how we're apparently going to war with Iran or something like that. I don't know about you, and I'm not saying it's an either-or decision, but if you told me, hey, what matters to me more right now, what's going on in Mexico or what's going on in Iran, it's not even close. It's Mexico. we know that these drug cartels have led to the death indirectly or directly of 100 000 americans a year through these poisonings and and overdoses and things like that per year over the last several years in this country now this guy almencho taking him out hopefully gets us trending in the right direction on that front but it's never just one guy you know that neither that it's not like you take out one guy and amazingly the drug flow stops that's not how it works but you hope that things begin to trend in the right direction if you start taking out some of the drug kingpins you close the southern border which this administration has done very effectively and then you find yourself in a spot where you start to get the drug deaths and the overdose deaths down in this country it was never going to happen overnight but getting that trending in the right direction is critically important right now. So if we're going to do anything, if we're going to be involved in some kind of foreign operation, you can certainly make the case for Iran. And I'm not saying that Iran's not a bad actor on the world stage, but I guarantee you that right now, the thing that most Americans are going to be thinking about that's more relatable to most Americans because they may have vacation down in parts of Mexico, people can envision themselves being stuck at a resort on the beach in Mexico. They can envision themselves being stuck at an airport in Mexico, hoping that the cartels don't take it over and, God forbid, take them hostage. You've got Americans at risk right now, like directly at risk. That's something that you don't have as directly in Iran. So you've got the State of the Union happening tomorrow, And I am beyond fascinated to see how exactly Trump handles this thing, given what the conversation is today in the video that we saw coming out of Mexico yesterday afternoon, John. Maybe a subtext is a lot of Canadians have not traveled to the U.S., like a 25 percent drop in tourism. But I know they go to Mexico. Yes. So they may be in a similar situation, potential cooperation here between the nations. I don't know. That's an excellent point. I did see some video and there were a lot of, it looked like tourists from Edmonton. I don't know why, but to your point, it looked like it was a hot spot for Canadian tourists. They meet with this Canadian couple. They met like 20 years ago who always go there. So they always do their vacations at the same time. Wow. Yeah. A big popular destination for sure. I did not know that. But I did see, yes, Canadian tourists stranded. I was like, what's with all the Canadians down in this spot? Well, there you go. John's confirming it for me. Yeah, they're going by Vegas now. Yeah. tariffs and all they're heading on down to Puerto Vallarta and where else oh man anyway yeah they're going all the hot spots on the west side of Mexico so that that is something that as of this morning as soon as we find out more as the sun starts to rise we'll have more information on this story but it's something to me that is more relatable and also can be much more dangerous for everyday Americans if we have Americans waking up this morning not knowing how they're getting back to the United States potentially being held hostage in what's happening in Puerto Vallarta this morning. Well, that puts Trump in a very different spot, and he's going to have to get involved. News in three minutes. We're back with chaos in our local schools next. I love that you guys have faith in me. I really do. I got this on the text line. Pete, is Cozumel safe since it's not on the mainland? I don't know. I'm the wrong guy to ask, OK, you got to talk to Homeland Security or someone else. I don't know. Let's ask AOC. Oh, my gosh. I don't know. All I know is this. If I was going somewhere in Mexico, I could make the case that Cozumel, since it's an island, is one of the safer spots to go. Then again, it could be one of the more dangerous spots to go because then you're stuck on an island. OK, I don't know. all i know is i would not be going to puerto vallarta anytime soon mark's got a buddy who's supposed to go there in like what two weeks or something like that mark for spring break yeah spring break whenever shawnee mission spring break is oh man uh yeah he sent me a photo of the costco on fire and he's like i don't know if we're gonna be there i know i know i saw that attention shoppers yeah we got a problem on our hands here that's for damn sure uh no it's a mess down there it's an absolute mess so i you've got this drug cartel that is now taking over puerto vallarta because they're mad that their kingpin was killed and we know that the united states provided intelligence to kill el mencho so now we got to just kind of see how this thing plays out today but we know that flights were not getting in and out yesterday uh there were fires all over town and it is a mess so uh today's going to be a big day on that front we'll see if the president addresses it today knowing full well he wanted this to happen it's believed that we basically pressured the mexican government to take this guy out if so i do think we have to have their back especially if we've got americans at risk in any way down there in mexico right now i thought when i saw the story i thought today now yeah taking out a guy yeah or they are so i said mexico strikes and i thought well i wonder what the impetus for that was exactly apparently this guy they could have taken out during the Biden years and you know whatever there wasn't the fortitude to do it well we know that's not a problem for the old Trump in the lobby yeah yeah yeah yeah exactly right now we know it wasn't hunters it was almenchos oh my gosh so back here in Johnson County we have more viral school moments in Johnson County Kansas it is crazy what's going on so if you didn't see it there was a walkout at alathe northwest on friday and the walkout was of course tied to ice because every school's got to have an ice walkout these days right there are middle schools having ice walkouts around johnson county over the last couple of weeks it's nuts well you had a walkout of alathe northwest and this moment has gone viral because as these protesters cross college boulevard right in front of alathe northwest on the southeast corner of lone elm lone elm in college there's a you know student standing there with a pro-trump flag and the student ends up getting chased and basically it looks like beat up and attacked by a bunch of fellow students who did not like the fact that he was standing there peacefully on the southeast corner of College and Lone Elm. And here's just a little bit of what it sounded like with the chaos. This clip has drawn over a million views on X and even more on Facebook and Instagram when you put them all together, TikTok and elsewhere. millions of people have seen this clip right here in kansas city from college in lone elm outside of alathe northwest where two students are just standing there with their trump flags and they end up getting attacked and assaulted by other students for holding that trump flag at an anti-ice student walkout the father is claiming the staff were there watching it happen as the kids end up basically running for their lives you have the principal Chris Zuck who has turned a social media platform into a private social media platform he was public before this all unfolded on Friday but how does this make Olathe Northwest look how does this make the Olathe public schools look at a time when Olathe is asking for a $400 million bond issue for capital improvements. You have Olathe continuing to be at the center of the conversation on some of this kind of chaos that's happening around Johnson County. You have the superintendent's wife posting on social media that she's not happy about ICE being in Olathe. you have now this walkout at alathe northwest where kids are getting beat up for just standing there with trump flags as a protest to the ice walkout it's happening right in front of the church there in the southeast corner someone i guarantee you is driving by it right now listening there's that church not saint paul's the catholic church you got a different church there across the street and that's it's happening right in their front yard right in the front yard of a church christ community church in alathe is where these kids are getting beat up and at a time when this school district has the audacity to admit enrollments declined about seven eight percent the last few years proficiency scores are not close to where they need to be we need 400 million dollars out of you the taxpayer and oh by the way kids are getting beat up for just protesting the anti-ice walkouts this is what you're getting now outside of these places could we review the district's policy on bullying yeah please yes absolutely on the text line this is a great text i thought about this myself pete imagine if the roles had been reversed do you realize the national exposure that this would have gotten that's a great point what if you had a group of you know i don't know i'm just trying to think of a scenario off the top of my head. Let's say a bunch of kids at Olathe Northwest walked out of school because they thought that the 2020 election was stolen or something like that, right? So they walk outside on January 6th or whatever in solidarity and they walk across the street. They walk out because they think that Trump won the election, but he really lost the election. And then there a group of Biden supporters across the street And these Trump kids end up beating and chasing and harassing and abusing these pro supporters when they outnumbered like 50 to 1 How do you think that would have played? You think CNN might have picked up on that? You think MSNBC, sorry, MSNOW might have had a story on that this morning on Morning Joe? You think they would have put those kids on cable news after getting beat up on Friday afternoon? Yeah, they probably would have. They probably would have. And guess what? If kids had done that, that would have been dead wrong too. That would have been completely out of line. But now, barely crickets. You know, I don't watch as much news on the weekends as I do during the week, but I scan the local news sites. I didn't see anything in local television news about this. God forbid the Kansas City Star, of course, not writing anything about this. I mean, that's comical to even think about. But when you've got students beating up other students in the name of politics and you have, according to the people who are there staff members watching it happen as it's unfolding in our public schools right here in kansas city this has got to be getting more attention than it is and it's not right now john is up north hey john you're on kcmo hey yeah pete i know you've got some contacts over there in the late pd are they looking at charges for assault against these guys because it's all on video and i would think the school board can sanction any of the staff members that were there that allowed it to happen didn't step in or do anything because if they're there it's basically a sanctioned event if they're have their their teachers and staff there while this whole thing is going on yeah no you're right and chief utah's a good guy uh we've done a back the blue tour there i will reach out to him this morning john because you're right i you know i'm just curious do people want to press charges you know obviously i would imagine um the kids have to go about and and pursue that or the families to some degree i don't know what they've done but you're right to ask the question john it's a good point thanks so much for bringing it up i appreciate that paul in kansas city what's up paul hey p i'm glad you brought the story because i haven't heard about it yeah i kind of piggyback on what he said i i want steve howe the district attorney to step up to the microphone and say i am going to press charges because we will not tolerate that in my county. I need him to step up. That's all I need to step up. And we had the 21 year old down at Mar-a-Lago. We got to get our young people on track. I mean, this is, we got to tell them that violence is not acceptable. There's recourse you could do the proper way, go to meetings, voice your opinion in a peaceful manner. But this assaulting folks that counter protest against you is just ridiculous. It's out of control, man. I mean, here's the thing. you're doing this anti-ice protest at alathe northwest you've got the numbers okay there's two kids standing on the street corner two kids with their little trump flag i you know they're not bothering you you guys won you got the numbers here you got the staff you get all the attention and then these two kids get chased around alathe northwest and get beat up on friday afternoon it's gotten millions of views on social media until i'm talking about it right now there's not a single local media outlet i've seen in kansas city that has touched the story that is just that is that is a disgrace to journalism in this town or canada how do you not get chills how do you not it's 704 on a monday morning thanks for starting the day with us here on kcmo team usa winning its first gold medal in men's hockey since 1980 the miracle usa usa usa usa you know what else pairs well with this what's that mark what else pairs well with this and i'm proud to be an american where at least i know i'm free oh yeah And I won't forget the men who died Who gave that right to me And I gladly stand up next to you And defend her so today There you go, Mark. Did I see something recently that Lee was having a tough time selling some shows here coming up? I don't know. Trump's got to just buy out all the tickets. I mean, come on. Although he's done enough for the guy. That was an amazing moment yesterday. at a time when everybody is looking for a division. You had Team USA winning the gold medal and a bunch of guys who just love America, love playing for their country. That was on full display after the game yesterday, after that 2-1 win in overtime over the Canadians with guys like Jack Hughes saying this. This is all about our country right now. I love the USA. I love my teammates. It's unbelievable. The USA Hockey Brotherhood is so strong. And we have so much support from next players. And I'm so proud to be American today. Memo to all Olympians. That's not hard. It's not a difficult thing to do. You know, I was always proud to be an American during the last guy who was in office. I mean, certainly I disagree with a lot. But I was proud to be an American because guess what? I could do this for a living. I could criticize that guy and not risk being thrown in the gulag or something like that. So I could make a living disagreeing with the government, the federal government. I still do that today. And yeah, I support the guy who's at the top of the food chain right now, but even locally, right whether it's kansas city whether it's johnson county jackson county it doesn't matter i can you know within reason say what i want and tell you what i feel and you can have a voice and know full well that there's not a darn thing the government can do about it you've got your free speech you have the right to say whatever you believe in this country and you can even make a living doing it we're all and should be proud to be americans and yesterday was just extra pride for team usa and seeing these guys after that win where their emotions on their sleeve their their pride on their sleeves that that as much as anything else is what so many of us i think are clamoring for right now because it's not political to love America. Now, unfortunately, the data suggests that when you break down the two political parties, one party finds itself with much more American pride than the other. But that's that's on that's on them. That's not on the rest of us. I mean, I was looking at this from Gallup yesterday, showed up on my timeline. the pride in being an american by political party over the last 25 years republicans have been steadily between 87 and 95 no matter who's in office now of course it dips during years where there's democrats but it dips to 85 out of 100 in terms of your pride and what percentage of Republicans have pride in being an American. The Democrat number, I mean, it just falls off the cliff when there's a Republican in office, especially when it's Trump. But here's what's interesting. When Biden was in office, Republicans had much more pride in being an American than Democrats. When Biden was in office. at the end of biden's tenure you had about 62 percent of democrats according to gallup being proud to be an american the number for republicans was 86 so about 62 versus 86 republicans by 25 points were more proud to be an american when joe biden was in office right now those numbers republicans 92 percent of them are proud to be americans democrats 36 percent of them are proud to be americans 36 percent right now how is that possible and can a moment like yesterday you know listen i don't have any grandiose expectations that yesterday cures anything outside of being a moment in time but at least for a moment in time boy did it feel good for all of us to rally around something when we can't even do that now unfortunately with the super bowl because of the chaos around that halftime show how do we get to 36 we can reference our story earlier about olathe northwest and the walkout yeah that's a good point that's a very good point when you think that america is inherently you know racist and um targeting people based on things like skin color and and gender and things of that nature that's how you end up with that 36 percent but it's just a wild misunderstanding of what's actually going on is largely what it is and at least for a few hours yesterday we got to watch these guys with immense amount of american pride represent their nation love their country not care about the politics of the country and just do it for all 330 million americans and that right there is what made it special and you had trump call them up and give them you know basically a three-minute stand-up comedy routine is what he did yesterday it was just it was classic trump listen to how he opens up this phone call in the locker room to team usa and by the way you've only played not bad how are you say hi how are you say hi to him how you doing dad i have seen hockey goalies have slightly worse games unbelievable and you were all unbelievable and and that team is pretty good you play i don't know i love how hellebuck says did you hear him in the background hi don he doesn't say hello mr president he just yells from the background hi hi donald hi don that was great and trump just keeps going with his routine and that was a great moment and i love how you could hear the beer cans popping in the background could you hear that right out right out of the gates there you go that's that's that's awesome right there just the crack of the old beer can in the background i gotta start doing that i gotta steal that from those guys they were having a grand old time yesterday could have been a labats i know no no no it didn't happen that way did it there was one moment in that phone call you can hear one of the players say close the northern border i was like oh that's good that's good they were not drinking labats no way no how not a chance no i'm inferring had canada won that oh yeah right you know what a lot of people don't realize realizes halibut actually plays for a canadian team in the nhl you know i did look that up yesterday he up there with um edmonton edmonton okay yeah i looked that up yesterday because i like i don know i don watch a lot of hockey so if they in that part of the country though yeah that a good point yeah that a a more conservative part of canada uh there like seven people up there that the problem for him and a moose yeah exactly so that that's the only issue he's got but yes i did look him up and i'm like oh boy this guy plays up there so that's a tough spot for him he's gonna be traded did the nhl trade deadline pass yet does anybody know it's about halfway oh man he might find himself in a tough spot here but it was just so easy to root for these guys because they didn't make it about anything other than the greatness and the celebration of America. And that's what all of this should be about. I hope the soccer players ahead of the World Cup take a page out of that Team USA playbook as they get set for their big soccer games this summer here in North America, because that, that was American exceptionalism at its finest yesterday. I saw something pretty funny. It was a meme on social media it said that the canadian flag is flying at half mast after losing the olympic gold medal and it was just a pride flag oh good morning it is 8 0 5 on a monday thanks for starting your week with us here on kcmo talk radio so on a travel front we are dealing with this partial government shutdown right no one's noticing it no one in the private sector is really feeling any impacts from it but there was clear concern yesterday morning when millions of americans woke up and said wait tsa pre-check's going away so the department of homeland security put out a statement late on saturday night early on sunday morning and it said uh hey you know we're going to be shutting down tsa pre-check until this government shutdown ends this partial shutdown ends because right now some of the people not getting paid by the shutdown are TSA workers, which is such a a screw job to these poor workers who are working at these airports all around the country. Let's be honest. It's thankless work. Not that they're the nicest and most jovial people in the world, but I sometimes understand it with the knucklehead travelers they deal with all day to. It's a two way street like most things. Right. So then DHS reversed course on this as the day went on yesterday. So the administration reversed course and they suddenly came out on Sunday and they were like, actually, it's going to be all right. Expedited security screening. TSA pre-check is going to remain operational after saying late Saturday, early Sunday that they were going to closed TSA pre-check and the program would remain closed down until the shutdown ended. It's not clear where that came from, but I think it may have been a political calculation by DHS and by the administration to try to put the screws to the Democrats to say, hey, let's reopen the government. They wisely realized that would have backfired in an unbelievable way on him if tsa pre-check did not exist what you would have then had happen is the media would have just went to every airport imaginable found long lines people complaining about long lines and blaming who donald trump that's how it would have gone that would have been the biggest pr nightmare that the administration could have put itself in right now and they almost did it and i don't know who made the call but whoever reversed the decision made the right decision that would have not worked out in their favor that would have been a gold mine now if they thought hey we're going to put the screws to our political opponents and get them to reopen the government no no it was not going to work it would have actually backfired on them. But here's how they can write the ship. Tomorrow night, the president of the United States can lead his state of the union talking about this. He can start his state of the union by saying, you know, you probably don't know this, but we are in a partial government shutdown. You can talk about I would have a couple of TSA workers at the state of the union and say these are the people who are not getting paid right now in this country because of this partial shutdown, which is specifically driven by my political opponents on the other side of the aisle who do not want to fund parts of DHS because they're mad at ICE. And they're mad at ICE for doing the job that I was elected to do. And by the way, that they have done for 25 plus years under Democrats and Republicans. and then what I would do is I would I would break out the projector screen if I was Trump this has probably never been done at the State of the Union but I would say you know what let's look at some of the people that we have detained in let's say Lawrence Kansas where there was a lot of attention last week not enough national attention but local attention and I'm being biased when I say that I don't think it's going to happen but my point is you highlight some of the worst of the worst of people who have been detained and arrested by ICE. And you say, here's who these people are. Here's why we're getting them off the streets. Have we been perfect? No, but this is the goal of this administration. It has led to 100-year lows in murder rates, declining violent crime in major American cities all over the country. And you know what? Now is our time to stand up for Americans of all backgrounds, oftentimes Americans in the most impoverished parts of our communities who have to deal with the downfall of having a lot of illegals in their communities and then in their neighborhoods. And this is why we're doing what we're doing. If Trump doesn't start off with that message tomorrow night, he's making a huge mistake because like all of these things, as they go on, people start tuning out. They'll tune in for five minutes, then you'll get a drop off. 10 minutes drop off, 15 minutes drop off. Very few people sit there and watch an hour and a half speech. And the other problem I have with the state of the union is that they have just gotten way too long. Give me a good 45 minutes and get out of there. If Congress could pass a law tomorrow limiting the state of the union to 45 minutes, I mean, I'd be doing a happy dance. These things are now an hour 20, hour 30. It's just too much. And I know that there's also a lot of cheering and clapping that makes it longer, but it's just too much. No one's sitting there for an hour and a half watching these things. But if you can get two key messages out, you start with that. You start with the travel. You start with the shutdown and the why behind the shutdown. You can get the American people on your side because there are parts of the story that the media, of course, is not giving them. And then you get to the economy. That's it. That's what you do tomorrow night if you're Trump. But here was a Kristi Noem, of course, the head of DHS yesterday or actually this morning. She dropped this video where she is at an airport and she is talking about this shutdown and how these TSA workers right now are not getting paid. Here's what Kristi Noem had to say. Kristi Noem, I'm here at the Reagan International Airport. I'm just dropping off my name, who's headed back to South Dakota. But I wanted to talk to all of you about these TSA workers who are here today, not getting paid, but making sure that people can fly safely. Democrats in Congress have chosen not to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which means everybody here at our airports that works for TSA is not getting paid. But they're still showing up to work. It's been pretty hard on them financially. we're going to talk to a few of them about this, what this happens to their families, how they can't pay their bills when they still have to show up to work and they don't have money and their paychecks coming to pay their bills. So we'll chat with them. But if you see a TSO, an officer that's working security in an airport today, thank them. Thank them for putting your safety first and making sure that you can get home safely to your family. No one edited that video. What did she say? TSO instead of TSA? I guess she's ready for the TSO concert yeah she's she's got her tickets to TSO at T-Mobile next year that's all I could figure no jump cuts in that yeah no jump cuts but you got to recut the video when you say TSO come on now Christy jeez doing cricket and TSO that's two strikes and how she handled Minneapolis that's three strikes that's right uh she should be fired but neither here nor there uh you look at that video and it's like okay start telling the stories then and I do think it's great to keep highlighting hey tsa workers are not getting paid while congress is congress flying private jets but still oftentimes going through some form of tsa all over the country no impact on their paychecks the tsa worker who's got to pay a mortgage who's got to clear a rent check yes they'll get their back pay but they're not getting paid for millions of americans that matters that makes a difference and it's all because of politics it's all because right now you have people in congress who do not want to fund parts of ice which they already agreed to fund months ago but now have backed off on because why it's the political thing of the moment and these tsa workers are getting caught in the middle of it and i don't know how you get out of it. I really I don't know how you get out of it right now, which is why I thought it made at first glance a little bit of sense to try to put the screws to him politically and be like, hey, TSA pre-check is not going to work now until we get this thing closed. Well, then I thought about it a little bit more yesterday and I'm like total nightmare scenario that they're bringing upon themselves. Don't do it. That's where then you use the state of the union tomorrow night to make it very clear. Hey, you know what, guys? This is why we're here. This is how it ends. And this is what we've actually done. You will have 75 plus million people watching tomorrow night. Be smart, be efficient, be effective. It's like in radio. Don't waste time. Get to the point while you have a captive audience out of the gates. That's what's got to happen tomorrow. And this should be the lead story as well. Every week on the Stacking Benjamins podcast, we talk personal finance trends. Not paying attention to the headlines is the strategy proven to work. One headline, economists fear global recession. Literally the next headline, stocks hit all-time highs, investors optimistic on the future. They're even doing it to the weather now. 28 million people in the path of this snowstorm. That means 340 million people have got good weather. It's just weather. Layers, people. Layers. Stacking Benjamins. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Mike Drop, hosted by former Navy SEAL Mike Ridland. What does it mean to be an American? To be American is you love your country above all else. I love this country. I was born here, raised here. I offered my life to serve this country. And if you don't do your part to preserve what we have here and our culture, it's going to be gone, and we can't let that happen. Yeah, that's Mike Drop. Mike Drop. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. The CJ Pearson Show. Every week, we'll take on the biggest cultural, political, and moral battles in America head on. CJ presents the most passionate voices in the black community. When you're going around and talking to people in actual communities, you get to know what people actually care about. As a black man, why can't I be the first one in my family to graduate from college? Why can't it be me? Shift the way that I think about the world. Bold truth, real conviction, zero permission. This is The CJ Pearson Show. The CJ Pearson Show. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. nao