david: wedgier thank you for watching this special edition of "kudlow." larry is back next week. have a very happy new year. ryan brenberg is in for liz macdonald on "the evening edit." and here he is. talk it away. ryan ryan have a great night. see you soon. i'm brian brenberg in for elizabeth mac don, "the evening edit" starts right now.

maine now the second state to remove trump from its state republican primary ballot. big bipartisan backlash over this. some calling it a far-left political ploy to try to get the former president out of the race. ing joining me now to discuss is maine republican state representative katrina smith. representative, thank you for being here. so shenna bellows is the first secretary of state to disqualify a candidate from a presidential election. these are your constituents. they just lost the right to vote for the leading republican candidate. what do you want to see done about this? >> well, what i think will be done is it will be immediately overturned in the courts because it is absolutely exceeding her authority to take away the vote of my constituents, of over 360,000 people who voted for trump in to to 2020. and i know there'd be more than that this time because it's been a rough year, couple yearses with biden.

so she has decided an administrative person in the state of maines has decided that my con stitch weapons, the people of maine, will not have a voice. it's horrifying. brianpoint so her partisan leanings are right out there in the open. she got selfies all over social media with president biden. she's a former executive director of the aclu, a stain the. supporter of trump's second impeachment and, of course, just hours after her landmark ruling against trump, she ran to liberal media to defend her decision. but she says she's able to make this decision impartially. is there the any world in which you buy that? >> no p. and i was in an alternate universe. i sat at the hearing for 55 of the 8 hours -- 5 of the 8 hours, and what i saw of the evidence that they presented to make this happen was insane. they used cnn, msnbc, they used clips of president trump speaking at his rallies, nothing that any fair and impartial if

person would use as evidence to actually the take donald trump off the ballot. brian: so your colleague, maine state representative john andrews, has filed a motion to impeach bellows. do you support this? >> i do. i actually -- just about the same time as john did that, i said to my constituents and people on social media that i also would be involved and resolve to impeach her. she has stepped over the bounds. she has taken -- it is clear that she has trump derangement syndrome, that she hates donald trump on a perm basis. i can -- personal basis. i cannot put aside my feeling for joe biden and be his judge and jury. there's absolutely no way she can make an impartial decision x she did it anyway. she even knew what the colorado ruling was going to be, that they were going to allow hum on the ballot, and she did it anyway. she's waiting for this chance,9 and the people are absolutely

horrified. brian: tell me what you're hearing from your constituents. >> what do i do, what do i do? how do i stop this? unfortunately, we know everything happens in the ball if ott box, but right now -- ballot box, but right now we're feeling the ballot bonnes doesn't even mart. they're worried right there. -- even mart -- matter. we've got to step up and elect republicans because these progressive socialists with their hatred of all things conservative and their inability to talk to us or work across the aisle, they are ramrodding maine into a little california. we have had such problems, and it's not going to stop if we don't change. i'm trying to end courage them, i always try to encourage people not to give up hope. it's getting tough here in maine, for sure. brian: maine state representative katrina smith, i imagine you have some very, very upset con stitch wents right now. best wishes to you as everybody works through this one. thanks for being on the program. >> thank you so much.

brian: all right. joining us now, former white water deputy counsel and former deputy independent counsel soll wise. en berg. so -- can soll wise withen burg. it's 14th amendment land. now you've got a secretary of state e leveraging that amendment. please, from a legal standpoint, help us understand what ability or authority the she has,s if any, to be using that amendment here. >> well, that's one of the things that the supreme court is going to decide, because i truly believe they're going to step in and step in quickly on the colorado case, and they're going to overturn the colorado decision can, and they're going to overturn this decision by the maine sec tar of state before it each goes through the maine court system. and i think the reason they're going to do it is they're going to hold that the section of the 14th amendment is not self-executing. what i mean by that is congress has to pass enabling legislation before anything can happen. and you can't is have state

officials all over the country determining on their own whether or not somebody is fit for office under section three of the 4th amendment. -- 14th amendment. brian: just a quick follow-up. in colorado it was the state supreme court who made the decision. in maine it was the just an add a morive process through the secretary the of state. does that difference affect if how the supreme court looks at this or how their ruling plays out once they make a decision? >> not at all. that will have nothing to do with it. i think their decision will be based on, number one, is the president even a civil officer under the united states, which is a term of art. that's number one. what was the understanding at the time time the 14th amendment was ratified. number two, can you do something like this, can any official remove the president without proper due process? i mean, this was a farce. this was a 55-day -- 5-day

hearing in colorado and i think in maine. and number three, again, is this self-executing? can anybody just look at the 14th amendment, some state official, and say i'm going to disqualify donald trump? if a really difficult constitutional question because i think, you know, he engaged in insurrection or is this something where you've got to have guidance from congress. and, by the way, there is a statute, a criminal statute that congress passed, 18usc2383, that covers insurrection and rebellion, and it says that if you with engage in it, yacht only can you be convicted been not only can you be convicted, but you're barred from office for life from the office of the presidency or from any orr office. and notably, nobody has even indicted donald trump for that. david: right. exactly. >> so i think all of those things are going to go into the mix. david. brian: chris christie and ron desantis are slamming the decision to keep their opponent off the ballot9. watch this. >> i think there's some

justification for doing this. it's not good for our democracy. in the end, donald trump should be defeat thed by the voters at the polls. >> the idea that one bureaucrat in an executive position can simply unilaterally disqualify someone from office, it opens up pandora's box. you have a republican secretary of state, can you have them disqualify biden from the ballot? because he's let in 8 million people illegally. brian: i mean, sol, that's the question here. the precedent, it seems to me, would be catastrophic. if the supreme court doesn't take this or doesn't rule against maine and colorado, what might the implications be? >> well, i think you're correct that a kind of constitutional chaos would result. but you're still talking about a policy argument, a peru prudential argument that a you're making. i agree with you. but the more important point is that this is just wrong.

colorado is wrong as a matter of constitutional law. maine is wrong as a matter of constitutional law. and i think you'll see a very strong opinion. i hope a unanimous opinion from the u.s. supreme court on this. brian: yeah. and that's something that i've heard many people say, the decision shouldn't just be against colorado or maine, but it ought to be unanimous. there should be no daylight between any of the justices on this. we shall see. soll wisen brg -- soll wisen bigger, thank you for your insight to the. >> thanks for having me. brian: let's welcome former arkansas governor mike huckabee. governor, okay, let me just start with this. you're a governor. you had a secretary of state. if your secretary of state would have pulled manager like this, how would you have responded? >> in arkansas the secretary of state is elected, but i think i would have joined with every sensible bl person and say this person ought to be impeached, they're not fit to be an off the holder.

this is crazy. i do hope the supreme court gets this case quick ally. i agree with what's been said, it needs to be a 9-0 decision, and hopefully it will be, and this nonsense will stop. it's absurd. brian: yeah, agreed. let's talk about politics here. former top obama official jennifer if palmer ifly has a stark warning for the biden 20 this campaign. -- 2024 campaign. >> rook, it's super scary, you know in like, the fate of the republic is happening in the balance, and there are polls that have donald trump leading right now. there is just this scary thing that overhangs everything. brian: hurt. so forget about the -- all right, so forget about the scary thing the rhetoric that a they're using. it seems to me like democrats are genuinely concerned that they've got the wrong guy on the ticket right now. >> well, they may have, but they've got him, and they're probably going to have to keep him because he doesn't want to leave. neither does, you know, jill biden. they really want to hang in there. they're making a lot of money right now on all these business

deals they have got with the communist chinese and others. but when i hear these democrats whine about a how scary it is, that we would lose our democracy, i'm thinking, you know, it wasn't donald trump that utilized the powers of the police state of government to go after political opponents. that was joe biden and his administration. it wasn't donald trump that opened up our borders and basically just said, hey, y'all, come on in. we've got room for everybody. we'll pay for it. we'll send you to nice hotels all over the cup. it wasn't donald trump that ended up leaving all these billions of dollars of equipment in afghanistan and including leaving some americans there. so they want to talk about what's scary? i'll tell you what's scary, four more years of this administration with all of its failures, its weakness, the opening to all kinds of international problems as a result of people not respecting the u.s. anymore and having a country that's lost its borders and, frankly, in some cases that can't even nominate somebody to

the supreme court that knows what a woman is. that means we've lost our minds as well. brian: all right. so we heard from the pundits. let's listen to what some republican and democratic voters had to say. take a listen. >> you have joe biden who can't put a complete seasons together. >> right after -- sentence together. >> democrats like me are fleeing from the democratic party. brian: so, governor, you're getting more voices on both sides of the aisle saying we're really, really up upset about what's happening, we're very concerned about a biden remaining in office. forget about the pundits. as you listen to voters, what are you gleaning and what do you think it means as we get closer to november 2024? >> i think it's going to be the kitchen table issues, as it always is, that ultimately will cause voters either to stay home or to go out and vote for someone who will get rid of joe biden. everybody understands whether they get these wonderful economic reports from joe

biden's bidenomics, but everybody understands their gasoline is more, their groceries are more, interest rates are higher, they can't buy the home they could have bought when donald trump was president, they can't even buy the car they wanted the buy. they understand that. they're not stupid. and i think they're being played for chumps but the democrats, and i think they're going to get a big shock on november of 2024. brian: look, i think when you've got a presidential election, the economy's on the ballot more than it is in a midterm election. and i do think that makes a difference in 2024. weave got to leave it there. governor huckabee, always good to see you. >> my pleasure, thanks. david: brian: still ahead, former u.s. treasury official michael faulkender, retired nypd officer bill stanton, radio host mark simone and former acting i.c.e. director tom homan on "the new york post" op-ed calling out biden over his top officials' mexico visit saying the trip was useless and, quote, reeked of

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♪ ♪ >> look, let's just sort of put in context the politics of this for president biden and how important it is. immigration is now 26%. that is not good. >> it's not good at all. and i think that part of the trip yesterday to mexico by senior biden administration officials was, obviously, to have these diplomatic conversations, but also to make the broader administration's point that this is a regional issue and sort of trying to blunt the criticism from republicans. but that certainly doesn't change the fact that he's under considerable political pressure over immigration. brian even liberal media slamming president biden's border crisis. and now new york post op-ed says that the mexican president is giving the u.s. worse than nothing on the border. joining me now is former acting i.c.e. director tom homan. thanks for being here, tom.

is it the case actually that this latest meeting with the mexican president could make things worse, in your view? >> absolutely, because the mexican president is pushing for reopening the port of entries that's been shut down because all that personnel's been sent to border patrol stations to process this huge surge. he's also asking for the railroad line to be opened back up. so both of them, especially the railroad line, is going to bring more illegal aliens to the border. and the port of entry, by reassigning those border patrol, there's going to be more off the line processing this historic surge. look, there are several sectors on the southwest border right now as we're speaking, there's not a single border patrol agent on patrol for hundreds of miles because they're all busy processing. this is not good. brian: so you're bringing up the strain. i want to talk about that. since the new fiscal year began on october 11st, there have been more than 760,000 migrant encounters at the southern border making the first quarter

of this current fiscal year the highest quarter ever on record. now you've got a caravan of nearly 8,000 migrants heading toward our southern border. tom, these numbers are so big that i really can't even understand the implications. they're just too big. help me understand. with these kinds of new record numbers, you already talked about the strain. how much worse do they make that strain? >> they make it a hell of a lot worse because there'll be no border patrol agents on patrol. they'll all be profession. what does that mean? more dependental coming across -- fentanyl coming across, more sex trafficking of women and children through an open border, more suspected terrorists. this border is very vulnerable. again, the criminal cartels in mexico have operational control of our southern border. think about that for a moment the strongest nation in the world no longer has operational control of our borders. the criminal cartels do. so it's just it's more than just

illegal immigration. people need to understand, regardless of your opinion of immission -- immigration, when you overwhelm the border patrol this much, that's when the fentanyl comes across, the sex trafficking skyrockets and known suspected terrorists attempt to enter this country to do us harm. why would a temporary terrorist e can for a visa when he can simply go to mexico and hay pay a little more money to be a gotaway? brian: the cartels know how to play the game, they know how to win it. so mexico giving, look, they're giving a sign they might crack down a little bit. they cleared a border camp amid growing pressure from the u.s. to limit crossings. tom, it looks to me a lot like window dressing, but is it at all a sign that there might be a little bit of forward movement here? >> no. mexico don't want to fix this. mexico's got other $61 billion remittance payments by illegal

aliens sending money back to mexico. that's a big part of their gdp. look, the bottom line is the mexican government don't have total control of what's going on on the border. the criminal cartels do. much of the mexican government's corrupt, much of the mexican military and law enforcement are corrupt. not all of them, but many are. so the criminal cartels have are control of the border region, not the military. mexico, they have to be forced into typing something. you can't -- into doing something. you can't and beg them, give them millions more dollars to enforce the law. it's illegal to traffic in women and children. they're not doing anything about it. it's illegal for other nationalities to come through mexico with our transit visa, but they're doing it. it's going to take someone like president trump to come in and say you're going to do, this or i'll tear the hell out of you and force them to take some action. brian: here's what we're going to do, here's what that will mean for you, so you better respond because if you don't, it's going to become your problem. right now mexico's, like, we

have no incentive to do anything except the things that are in our interest withs, not the united states of america interests. tom, we've got to leave it there. i always appreciate your insight. thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me. brian e obama all right. are our tax dollars going to covid loan fraud in and outspoken democrat squad member representative rashida tlaib sparking fury by granting israel's benjamin netanyahu a genocidal a main quake, and she told her colleagues they're supporting a war colleague are. we have radio host mark simone on next. ♪

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your kohler walk-in bath. and take advantage of our low monthly payment financing. brian: left-wing congresswoman rashida tlaib drawing fierce backlash after a upping the rhetoric against israeli prime minister netanyahu, calling him a, quote, genocidal maniac and murderer. let's bring in wor radio host mark si moment mark, good to see you.

thanks for being with us. mark simone. she has definitely upped the a a nte on the rhetoric. what do you make of the latest? >> well, listen, she's just a hate-filled, awful bigot, shouldn't be in government, but she is. and it's just fascinate dog see the rest of the democrats not denounce her. the media, with some exceptions, not go after her the way they should. everything she's saying is just horrible. the events of october 7th, those animals that did that, would like to kill all jews, they'd like to all all american, they'd like to kill all christians. israel was just the beginning. this has to be stood up to when it happens in government. the rest of the democrats have got to stand up to her. brian: right. she also went after her own colleagues in the instagram post saying every member of congress who sits down with netanyahu is, quote, supporting a war criminal. so to your point, mark, at what stage does her party say, you know, dealing with the squad with, the headache we exit from that is just -- the we get from

that is just not worth it. are they getting closer to that point? >> well, again, you can't reason with people like this. she's just a crazed, hate-filled bigot, you know? it's like the cue clucks klan od years ago, you can't reason with them. it's a case of just isolating her. everybody in the democratic party that a stays silent on this you should hold accountable for this. nothing she says is rational, you know? they talk about 20,000 killed. no one knows if that's -- that number's real. the it's coming from all the right sources, and many of them are combatants, so it's unfair to bring that the up. thame. brian: does it ever get to a point in her district with her voters where they say, you know what? we liked her up to this point, but we can't do this anymore? this reflects badly on us? at what point does somebody say she can't be there anymore? >> well, you know, the problem is the democrats take control of these state legislatures, and

when they get -- you get a lunatic district that'll vote for this lunatic, and if sensible people show up, they redraw the district. they keep gerrymandering it until they're got a district of just crazed lunatics that'll vote for somebody like this. it's, unfortunately, in the hands of all these state legislatures. brian: yeah. so you've got these anti-israel protests that have been happening across the country, undoubtedly we're going to see more this coming weekend with new year's because they hate celebrations. they hate celebrating anything. finish my thought is i don't think these protests are winning support for the protesters. what's your read on it in. >> well, we hope not. you know, the claim that it's about the loss of these muslim lives, but they've never protested -- protested, for instance, yemen where 300,000 muslims were killed in that war. it's only when it's israel, and it's anti-israel. and you've not to remember it's anti-america too. it's -- israel happens to be the

border state they're going to go after first. they'd love to go after america. they just are anti-democracy, anti-west, and everybody's got to stand up to them including the rest of the media. they're not doing their job here. brian: yeah. they're antiat-israel, anti-democracy, anti-capitalism, anti-freedom, anti all the things that make the american experiment great which is why their anti-american. mark simone, thanks for being with us. >> thanks. brian: all right. nearly four years since the start of the covid-19 pandemic e, and americans, guess what? you're still footing the bill for pricey tax credits. jeff flock is in chicago with more. gref. >> reporter: well, brian, it sounded like a good idea in the midst of the pandemic, this notion of trying to compensate companies that actually kept employees on the payroll during the pandemic rather than lay them off. it was part of the daughters acl recall was passed in march of 2020 and signed by president trump.

it had broad bipart sapping support -- bipartisan support, $2 trillion in spending. part of that was the employee retension credit. it started off pretty well financial you lost 50 president of your revenue or the government ordered a shutdown of your business, you were el eligible to get a tax refund. but not content to lee well enough a alone, congress expanded the program providing eventually for $26,000 per employee in compensation and making it a lot easier to get the money. companies then began springing up to try and help folks navigate the complex application forms. some of them good players, you know, honest companies like innovation refunds, wonner trust, and then some bad companies got involved as well and began helping folks that perhaps were not entitled to the money. at that point we were off to the races. >> it was continual ally expanded and refined over the course of 2020 and 2021 which made it much more generous,

which applied to businesses that were formed during the pandemic and made it much easier for folks who were looking to take advantage of the government and defraud taxpayers to go ahead and do that. >> reporter: and now, brian, long after the pandemic has a passed, the claims are still coming in. and if a government program that was suspected to spend about $55 billion has so far spent $220 billion. and there's another $120 billion in the pipeline. that would make for a total of, well, you do the math, about $340 billion. the irs says there's not a whole lot you can do about it because congress passed the law. but they do recognize that there's been fraud, so they have a moratorium now on new claims. they're investigating about 3.55 billion in fraud, possible fraud. more than 20,000 claims have been disallowed now, and there is new guidance on what is legitimately allowed. but as you know, if you want to

try to get some of that money back, good luck to you. once it's in people's pockets, clawing that back is not going to be easy. brian? brian: jeff flock, thank you for that discouraging report. all right, let's bring in former treasury official michael faulkender. michael, good to see you. it was bad enough the government shut down businesses and the economy. now americans are paying up for it still bigtime. that what do you make of these numbers in. >> yeah, that's the thing, brian, e never understood why there were these expansions of these programs after we were through the depth of the pandemic. so i had the privilege of leading the paycheck protection program at a treasury during the pandemic, and we worked very quickly to get money out in that second quarter of 2020 when the pandemic was at its worst. but why congress would come in afterwards and take it from a 50 president revenue reduction a down to 20% to be eligible for the employee retech tax credit and why in 2023 are businesses

till applying for it? if you didn't need the money in 2020 or 20211, why is it that we're giving you the money now? it seems like this program should have been shut down just like things like p if pp were when the pandemic was over ready or than it being a new piggy bank for congress and this new add administration to send money out. brian e brian because government programs never, ever end. but i've got to ask you about this, now the biden administration is going to attempt to recover $30 billion in unpaid loans made to small businesses during the pandemic. i do notice, however, they're not in a big rush to get back the unpaid student loans. in fact, as you know, they're trying to forgive them. look, if we're going to get back unpaid money, mike, let's get it back from everybody who owes it, don't you sympathy. >> i agree entirely. this notion that we're going to start forgiving loans that were never meant to be forgiven in the first place, student loans, sor that we're going to forgive

or not collect payment on economic injury disaster loans undoes the whole benefit of prosurprising these as loans ine stead of grants in the first mace. when congress provided these funds both for student loans and for the idle program, they were scored as loans. the amount of money provided by congress was assumed it was going to be paid back. what this administration has done is term limited the grants which is just another way to feed money out to favored constituents rather than actually following the law. brian: right. we've seen so many instances of covid relief fraud. let me give you another one. a casino in new hampshire owned by former state senator andy san born, will be temporarily shut down january 1st after sanborn was accused of fraudulently obtaining nearly $9000,000 in i e leaf funds, okay? 900,000. i feel like we get these fraud stories every day, michael. and to me, the big lesson here is the bigger government gets, the more money it hands out, the

more you will inevitably see this kind of fraud because the government cannot possibly handle this money well. >> you're right. and that's why when the pandemic was at its depth, we rushed to get money out because the potential losses during the pandemic were so severe that a we could not delay putting that money out into the economy and put all the fraud prevention criteria a in place. money that is still going out the door, money that went out in 2021 and later than that, this was no excuse not to have all of the fraud prevention criteria in place. i understand it the first couple of weeks. i was in treasury when we were making those trade-offs, but there was no excuse for it later in 2021 and beyond. brian that's the thing that is especially mind-boggling. maybe not the money going out at first. you can argue about that. but the fact that in 2023 you have businesses applying for pandemic relief. i mean, that is fraud on its

face, michael. why in the world are -- why is congress not calling that out and fing that? we only have 10 seconds why is that happening? >> it's not just for loans. the biden administration extended the time for states to continue applying for covid money. it's just slush funds being used to go after favored constituent sayses. brian: that's right. slush funds for cities, shush funds for public unions, slush funds for anybody who will vote for you. that's how government works. michael faulkender, thanks for being here. all right. america first legal's gene hamilton is here on house republicans calling on james biden's business associate to testify in the president biden impeachment inquiry. but first, let's check in with our friend jackie deangelis to see what they've got coming up next hour on "the bottom line." hey, buddy. jackie: hey. we've got a big show coming up, brian. first, of course, we're looking at that maine decision from the

secretary of state to remove trump from the ballot. trump's attorney, iowa e lean that if habba, is here to talk about it. jason rantz follow that to talk about the media a reaction because that's even more, explosive. we've got beth van duyne talking about migrant encounters and how they have broke new records this month. and andrew griewl is here, he's a restaurant the owner and a chef. he is talking about california's fast food casualties, big friday we'll see you soon. ♪ ♪ yeah. everything is so expensive these days. hey, chevy gets it. that's why they're keeping prices down to earth. like on the most affordable ev in america. ♪ a super strong and capable chevy truck. ♪ and a high-tech chevy suv. ♪ why is chevy making affordable vehicles, connected by onstar? so together we can do more. this is your season to smile with new dentures from aspen dental --

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of battery back-up. plus, now through december 31st, eligible xfinity rewards members can get 25% off a storm ready wifi device. brian: new.coms in the biden family investigations. house republicans james comer and jim jordan are broadening their investigation into president biden and are now demanding biden family business association michael lewis appear for a transcribed interview before the house oversight and judiciary committees. joining me now is america first legal vice president gene hamilton. gene is, thanks for being here. i know you've been all over this investigation. you filed your own lawsuits to get the biden family records. you've argued hunter should be registered as a foreign lobbying agent. what do you make of this latest development? >> well, brian, thanks for having me on. this latest development shows that the chairmen are doing exactly what congress should be doing. remember, the liberals are really great at projection.

they are really good at saying the exact -- other people are doing the exact things that they are guilty of. and so in this case with hunter biden and joe biden, remember what the left said about donald trump and the trump family and all his foreign ties and foreign business dealings and all of this stuff was so terrible. well, actually two, what was happening was the biden family was the one who was engaged in or porn lobbying and family -- foreign lobbying and family influence peddling. this is a sign of congress actually doing what t supposed to do -- it's supposed to do and to investigate things that could lead to a presidential impeachment of joe biden. brian: okay. so let's get into the weeds a little bit, because there's some fishy developments here. the committees are looking into a $200,000 loan. the the president made to his brother in 2018. nbc news has reported swraims biden repaid the loan a few months later, and come or has

noted that bank records obtained by his committee show that james biden paid his brother joe $200,000 the same day he received $200,000 from americorps health, a company that at the time was embroiled in bankruptcy proceedings. all right. pull out of the weeds for a second. that looks shady to me. what do you think, gene? >> i uh-uh i think you're exactly right. i think it looks shady to you, it looks shady to mentioner it looks shady to all of the american people watching at home tonight. everyone at home sees and knows exactly what's going on here. you follow the patient trail, you follow this evidence. you have a clear line of corruption and influence peddling. any other american would be prosecuted and thrown the in jail for the types of things that they have done. and they're only getting special treatment because of who is f so ised. involved. brian: so the house gop is also

investigating if president biden had anything to do with haunter -- hunter biden not complying with the house subpoena for a deposition, you remember that. they're now looking at white house press secretary karine jean-pierre's comments after hunt hunter defied that subpoena. watch this. >> you know, the president was certainly familiar with what his son was doing to say, and i think what you saw was from the heart from his son. brian: all right. so this is the bottom line: if biden advised hunter to not appear for this deposition, he'd be interfering with a congressional investigation. that sounds like another ground for impeachment. is that where this is headed? >> it could be. look, again, this is a perfect example of something where during the trump administration everyone accused the trump administration and donald trump himself of being engaged in interference with congressional investigations. fast forward to today. their doing the exact thing that

they accused trump and the trump administration of and, of course, no one was interfering with things then. they are interfering with things now. and the fact of the matter is that they're doing this, it's all politically calculated, it's all a done to benefit the biden family, their e bottom line and their pocketbook. brian: gene, just about 30 seconds left. ho-ho -- how do you see the impeachment inquiry playing out in 20 this? >> look, i think that congress has a unique if opportunity to lay out the facts, to present the facts to the american people and to open a legitimate inquiry. a very soberer-minded inquire erie and a process that follows, you know, these lines, makes these connections and connects these dots for the american people to look and see if, in fact, there is something worth impeaching for. brian: gene, there's a lot to untangle here, and you did a great job with it. thanks for being with us today. >> thanks for having me on. brian: we have former nypd

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sean: progressive mayor brandon johnson said the city has to get more in control of paying out reparations. watch. >> what i've built within the last seven months in order for us to have a better, stronger and safer chicago, it really requires the full force of government. i've just released my full out community safety plan that not on gets to the root cause of violence in chicago and making critical investments and stood up in the entire office and rededicated to individuals returning to the community incarcerated and failed policies with a welcoming space for them and half a million in restorations and reparations to address the cycle of violence. sean: let's bring in bill stanton. bill, reparations to fight crime. please explain that to me.

>> yeah, he should be a standup comedy because i'm laughing, brian. in is so tragic and almost comical. i mean, let's go through the list, shall we? equitable justice, how did that work out? no cash bail, non-indemnification for police officers legally doing their job. talk about spending more taxpayer run for reparations and how about a novel idea of supporting the police, not defunding them, and enforcing the laws on the books. making space -- safe spaces for criminals to further impact the victims who are more than likely a persons of color. it makes absolutely no sense, brian. brian: not a word about the victims. since mayor johnson took over from mayor lori lightfoot, you remember her, murders are down 13% but total violent crime is

up 17% and what i hear johnson saying is we've got to have an all of government approach, which of course is just his way of saying we're going to spend a heck of a lot more money. i just don't see money being the answer here. >> no, money is not the answer here. common sense is. when i hear the word big government, i see ineffectiveness, i see people prevented from living their liberties, and i see the persons most impacted are persons of color in the inner cities who are the biggest victims. now you add in sanctuary city where more taxpayer money is going. it is a recipe for disaster on many levels. brian: when police officers in chicago hear this kind of stuff, bill, what do they think? >> when can i retire? how fast can i put in my papers? what's happening here, brian, is

this, the dirty little secret is a cop makes the same paycheck no matter what. if you're going to defund me, if you're going to prosecute me for doing everything right, where is my initiative to fight crime? cops will become report takers, not crime fighters. and that's what's happening in my opinion. this mayor is all he's doing is look to paying off people for votes to get reelected. that's not the way to go to save god the citizens from chicago. brian: they spent over $360 million on the migrant crisis. if i live in chicago, i'm a law-abiding citizen, all i'm thinking of is how do i get out of here because this growing bill is going to get stuck on my tax bill, and i'm not getting any great services from any of the money we're spending here,

bill. >> that's what you're seeing. you're seeing a mass exodus from all these cities that are sanctuary cities. why? hundreds of millions of dollars being allocated towards things not enhancing the quality of life towards the american citizen or the resident of these areas, not an education. you're seeing veterans being displaced so they can live under a bridge, so i have migration and we don't know the criminal records of these letters coming in. there's no vetting process. throwing more money at a problem doesn't fix the problem. makes the politician look like they're doing something. brian: it's a complete ripoff. bill stanton, great thoughts and for being with us. >> thank you, sir. brian: i'm brian brenberg in for elizabeth macdonald and thanks for watching "the evening edit". now it's time for the bottom line and happy to see jackie and david. there they are