1/16/26: Trump THREATENS Troops In MN, HISTORIC Nurse Strike, MAGA FLIPS Over Epstein Coverup

29:29And then we're going to build them on military bases. And we're going to build them as quickly as possible. and we're going to find, yes, contractors who have no significant qualifications to do this, throw money at them. And if you don't care, then that can work. Becomes a different kind of feeding our future situation where you get a pass through type, like in all seriousness, where you have something that's a contractor that sprouts up out of nowhere and is based at a home in suburban Virginia. And someone is just doing rush stuff to rake in as much federal money as possible. Right, right. If taxpayers are spending, you know, enormous amounts of money per person, and most of that money is going to the owners of these companies, and then what's left, they use to hire, or try to hire remotely qualified people, which they're not doing.

30:23Then that's the other irony. Like, if you talk to people who are involved in setting up these things, the hardest thing to do is to find qualified staff, qualified employees. So in other words, we don't have the workforce to staff the project that is aiming to deport millions of people. Right. No, I mean, yeah, the system is completely overwhelmed. Who thought this through? Did anybody think this through? The system is completely overwhelmed. So the problem is we have too many people, Yet in order to get rid of these people, we don't have the people to do it. The system is completely overwhelmed.

31:02I do think that was by design in the Biden administration, but that is not an excuse. So it's not an excuse to drop standards. I don't know. If you look at the reporting on the period, it seems more like incompetence. Combination. Should we go ahead and take a look here at some of the latest out of Minneapolis as protests are continuing in the aftermath of the shooting and killing of renee good um i just want to start off with this first clip here this is a guy who claims he wasn't even involved in any sort of protest and that uh his car was attacked by ice officers who threw a smoke grenade where apparently six of his kids were inside let's go ahead and listen to a little bit of this i still threw flash bands and tear gas in my car and made my like i got i got six kids in a car.

31:53My six-month-old can't even breathe. My two-year-old flipped out the damn car. This was flipped over. My car filled a tear gas. I'm trying to pull my kid out the car. I'm telling the officer I need ambulance. It took him five fucking minutes. He's going back and forth with me telling me to go back in there and call and tell him to come up Lindale. They can't even come up Lindale. Were you participating in the project? No, I wasn't. I wasn't at all. I didn't care to be. So he says he wasn't even participating in the protests, was sort of caught up in stuff that was developing around him and then got a smoke grenade.

32:28He says a flashbang was thrown into the car. You can see the car seat in the back. I mean, pretty bleak stuff. We also have another one here that I wanted to show. There was a separate interview that I'll get to here in a second with this kid that was involved in this. But I'm going to cut it short because there is a bit where it does show a little bit of blood. but this is a guy who was basically holding a megaphone towards these these officers over here and was shot basically point blank in the face and ended up i think losing his eye as a result of this

33:07you can see it right there and then immediately after he gets shot there you can see here going forward that the officers here just basically drag his body off into the distance, if this will load here. Yeah, they basically just pick him up and then just drag him off and falling down as he's doing it, by the way. Are these ICE or are these California? Is that like a... What are those officers? I think this may have been some of the officers responding to it. Yeah, it looks like... They look like cops. Yeah, I think it may have been federal agents who were there and working with ICE. We also have another one here of the follow-up to this guy losing his eye here in this interview.

33:52If I can pull this up. His name is Caden Rumler. He says, I will be blind for life. They pulled a piece of plastic the size of a nickel out of my eye. I had shards of metal, glass, and plastic in my skull. And they say it's a miracle that he survived. And you can obviously see pretty gruesome injury there to his eye. But, you know, again, this is just some of the latest chaos that's unfolding in Minnesota and around the country amidst this sort of crackdown. Right, yeah. Standing there with a bullhorn is a protected First Amendment activity. Like, that is, there could not be anything more First Amendment, free speech, right to protest, than expressing yourself with a bullhorn at a protest.

34:37Like that is, that's what is supposed to separate us from like China and Russia and Saudi Arabia. Like that's the, that's it right there. Like that, we have a lot of problems, but we have the freedom to express our dissent against the policies of our, of our government. Well, and we saw this with Ken's reporting as well, Ken Klippenstein, who put out this refresher that apparently was sent out to ICE officers about what's protected and what's not protected activities. And they have to remind these guys apparently behind the scenes that, yeah, filming an ICE officer or even yelling expletives at them or cursing at them or taunting them or saying mean things to them, that's entirely First Amendment protected activities.

35:24Now, you know, again, I see a lot of people, politicians, Democrats specifically, who put out these informative videos or statements and they say, these are your rights that you have. You can film them. You can do this and that. And to me, it's like we have these rights on paper, right? It is legal to film them. But then I see half a dozen videos coming out every single day of ICE agents tackling people, arresting people for the crime of filming them or, you know, saying F you or whatever. right having the right is not going to bring you know cadence eye back right like you yeah and almost his life like like to have all that stuff in your brain and be bounced around by the officer like that like any one of those bounces could have tilted that that debris and and kind of and killed them right they say uh and what you can see in the video that's it's like a point like blank shot with a pepper ball, basically.

36:21So let me, I'm reading from the local ABC News report that says it was, to Max Point, federal officers. It looks like it's DHS. From what I can tell, it looks like it's DHS. And then this is what DHS is saying. She called the group, quote, violent rioters and said that two officers were injured. And here's what they say about Sites, who is the one who was getting dragged by the arm. The federal complaint alleges sites failed to leave the property despite warnings and threw an orange cone at officers, then resisted arrest and struck an officer on the shoulder and in the groin. ABC goes on to say details weren't immediately available about the second set of charges filed and the U.S.

37:07Attorney's Office didn't immediately respond to questions about them. So probably more information to come on this. Yeah, he was certainly flailing after he got hit in the face. They can call that resisting if they want. Oh, that's the other guy. So the guy who's got who got dragged out by the arm. So I have no problem with people protesting ICE whatsoever at all. I just don't think it's going to make anybody safer to resist arrest or to throw. If it's true, I don't know that it's true that he threw a cone and hit an officer in the groin or whatever. If that's true, I don't think that's making anybody safer, let alone yourself in these conditions.

37:48So I would just urge everybody, by all means, protest. But be careful and think about your own safety, the safety of people around you. Yeah, these federal troops could also just, you know, do something else. Should we go ahead and check in here? Well, they should have more training in civil liberties. I don't dispute that in any way. Right. Right. Should we go ahead and check in here with the mayor of Minneapolis and see him sort of backing off, you know, a couple of, you know, a day after the day of the shooting of Rene Good. He came out and he told ICE to to get the fuck out and, you know, was was sort of praised for the rhetoric there.

38:21But it seems like he's kind of at least watering down a little bit his his criticism here. He's on Fox News and he's asked about abolishing ICE. Let's go ahead and listen to a little bit of this. And then I'll show you guys a side by side of Randy Fine chiming in and giving a different interpretation of what Jacob is saying here. Let me get you on record if I can, Mr. Mayor. Do you support abolishing ICE? I do not support abolishing ICE. However, I absolutely oppose the way that this administration is conducting themselves with us. Look, there are a number of entities presently. agency. But isn't that what your lawsuit is about?

39:03Stopping ICE right now? No, you should read the lawsuit. The lawsuit says that, hey, you know, we so ice doing ice stuff is not what we're talking about right now. Again, we've had ice in our city before we've had ice in our state before. It is the fact that, look, right now there are there's about 3000 federal ICE agent in our city between ICE and border control. You know how many police officers that we have? 600. Right. The kind of... All right, so what are we sorted to make of that? By the way, first of all, can you imagine if Omar Fata had won that election? Right, yeah. What this national conversation would be like right now?

39:45Yeah. There would be 50 ,000 federal troops in Minneapolis. Yeah. And they would have arrested him by now. So the fact that you got Jacob there probably changes that calculation a little bit. I mean, I think it's also important to point out just the polling data within the Democratic voter base on this. Like, I saw some recent polling. It's overwhelmingly a majority of Democratic voters that at this point support abolishing ICE, support at least reducing the scope and the funding of ICE. And you're just not really seeing that reflected in a majority of elected Democratic officials, especially at the national level.

40:23Well, let me just add to that, though, during the first Trump administration that we saw a very similar pattern. And we saw, Ryan, you can speak to this. I think you even you've written about it. And is it in the squad? You write about you've covered this about how there was this momentum for the abolish ICE movement. And it became. Got AOT elected. And yeah, and then Democrats have, I think, probably rightfully looked back and said there are ways that ended up hurting them because public opinion is can be ephemeral and can be swayed by how politics will obviously swayed often by how politics shift.

41:03But it's not necessarily true that two years from now in a presidential election or even during the midterms that Democratic opinion is going to be exactly the same on abolish ICE. So I would say that's probably why there's more caution right now. And then I would also say that Republicans should listen to what Jacob Fry just said on Fox News, where Griff Jenkins was saying, isn't that what your lawsuit is about, ultimately stopping ICE? And Fry kind of answered a different question. He kind of answered the first question, do you want to abolish ICE? Because what he wants to do right now and what he's openly saying is he's stopping what ICE is doing right now.

41:38He's not trying to stop ICE itself, but he's trying to stop what ICE is doing right now. That Republicans, this is the flip side of it, should pay attention because the polling is with Jacob Fry on stopping what ICE is doing right now. Yeah, and it goes back to, I think, what I was saying earlier, that if the administration came to the mayor and said, look, fine, let's cooperate on. Here's a list of, you know, 3 ,000 violent criminals who are here illegally. let's work together and deport these people and we will stop patrolling the streets, going to construction sites and Mexican restaurants.

42:20That I think at that point, Democrats would take it. But that's not the goal. Like that's not what Miller wants. Maybe Trump would be cool with that. Doesn't matter. He's the prime minister, Stephen Miller is not. And so he's going to push it. And so, and that's why I think that all of the numbers that you're looking at in the polling now are a snapshot in time. But if we have another three years of this, of him sending ICE from city to city, they're going to Portland and Lewiston, Maine, apparently, today or tomorrow. There's, because there's a Somali community there. So we're going to get images out of Maine.

43:04the numbers are only going to swing even further against. I might have to jump off in a minute. I might be able to stay. But if I leave all of a sudden, that's why. You were deported. I was deported from this show.

43:20Well, we have Mac here today who looks like a nice officer. So he just kicks Ryan off. But this is the other thing. I mean, like for this is purely from a political perspective. The Trump administration seems to think leaning into these images, we were talking about this with the Insurrection Act, is what will make it more palatable to the public. If you're fomenting violence from the left, not that I think you need to. I think there are plenty of agitators who are going to do this, whether or not Donald Trump invokes the Insurrection Act. We're already kind of seeing that. But the point is, if they're trying to inflame the situation and make it look even worse, make it get even worse, and they're trying to show ICE cracking down in ways where you see a 21-year-old getting hit with a pepper ball to the eye by two feet between the barrel of the gun and his face, well, that is a political miscalculation, quite obviously, in the same way that it was a political miscalculation, I think, for Dems to lean into abolish ICE for so long.

44:16So if they think that going to Portland, Maine and going around the country with like ice kitted out and spraying pepper balls in the eyes of 21 year olds is going to be helpful, it's not. It's not going to be helpful even, again, like politically, if they want to do those operations all over the country. What will behoove them is looking orderly and just and fair and calm. And that's obviously not the images, even that they're disseminating themselves. Yeah, I mean, nobody's making the case for Abolish ICE better than Stephen Miller right now. Should we go ahead real quick and check in with the governor, Tim Waltz, who's apparently on his way out, not running for re-election.

45:02But he had a statement that he put out recently calling for people to continue filming ICE agents. He says he wants to create a database of the atrocities against Minnesotans, not just to establish a record for posterity, but to bank evidence for future prosecutions. What do you guys think about that?

45:24Preach, governor. Do you think there will be any sort of real accountability in the future? As people have said many times from the other direction, if you're not doing anything wrong, you have no fear. Yeah, I think there will be. I think there's going to be enormous appetite. I mean, depending how things go, but I think there's going to be enormous appetite for that. And that's where we talked about this on Wednesday's show. Stephen Miller saying you have absolute federal immunity to ICE officers is not even helpful to his own ICE officers because you have these guys coming in and hearing Stephen Miller say absolute federal immunity.

45:59And maybe what that I mean, that's that's almost like a not a lie. I mean, maybe it's a lie by omission to these guys who hear that and say absolute immunity because it sounds like absolute immunity, even though he's saying absolute federal immunity. You may face retribution when there's a different federal administration, but then also on the state level as well. So that's I mean, that's the thing with Derek Chauvin right now. Right. If he got a federal pardon, they're saying he could end up just still in prison because the state would prosecute. So there's not necessarily, quote, absolute immunity, even if there's absolute federal immunity right now.

46:41Yeah. And the state did, right? Keith Ellison locked him up. Welcome to the A-Building. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. It's 1969. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. had both been assassinated, and Black America was at a breaking point. Writing and protests broke out on an unprecedented scale. In Atlanta, Georgia, at Martin's alma mater, Morehouse College, the students had their own protest. It featured two prominent figures in Black history, Martin Luther King Sr. and a young student, Samuel L. Jackson. To be in what we really thought was a revolution, I mean, people would die. 1968, the murder of Dr.

47:22King, which traumatized everyone. The FBI had a role in the murder of a Black Panther leader in Chicago. This story is about protest. It echoes in today's world far more than it should. And it will blow your mind. Listen to The A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It seems like just yesterday that the Two Guys Five Rings podcast was in Paris for the Olympics. And now we're heading to Milan for the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympic Winter Games. I'm Bowen Yang. And I'm Matt Rogers. And we'll join athletes from 93 countries as Two Guys Five Rings hits the Italian Alps for the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympic Winter Games.

48:07Open your free iHeartRadio app. Did we mention it's free? search Two Guys Five Rings and listen now. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the On Purpose podcast. On a recent episode, I sat down with Nick Jonas, singer, songwriter, actor, and global superstar. The thing I would say to my younger self is, congratulations, you get to marry Priyanka Chopra Jonas. And also, you know, your daughter is incredible. That's beautiful, man. Yeah, thank you. That's so beautiful. I can see that got you a little... Yeah, for sure. our daughter she came to the world under sort of very intense circumstances which i've not really talked about ever growing up on disney in front of million how did that shape your sense of self i went blank i hit a bad note then i couldn't kind of recover and i i built up this idea that music and being a musician was my whole identity i had to sort of relearn who i was if you took this thing away.

49:08Who am I? Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So we also have Gavin Newsom interviewing Ben Shapiro on his podcast, why Gavin Newsom feels the need to have a podcast. I don't know. I guess the obvious answer is he's running for president. But let's go ahead and take a look at this clip. She was a domestic terrorist who was attempting to run over officers with her car and was legitimately trying not just this officer, but multiple officers. That was the original statement I said at the time. I thought that was undrew. And then your press office tweeted out that it was state-sponsored terrorism, which, I mean, Governor Izzo has to ask you about that.

49:49That sort of thing makes our politics worse. And it does. I mean, our ICE officers obviously are not terrorists. A tragic situation is not state-sponsored terrorism. Yeah, I think that's fair. One was - All right, so that clip's going viral because Newsom says, yeah, I think that's fair. Any reaction here to Greasy Gavin? Well, I honestly, I didn't know that this was him interviewing Ben Shapiro, which makes it somehow worse than him going on Ben Shapiro's show for me because I haven't seen Gavin on any genuine left-wing podcast to face real challenges and criticism from the left. But he had Ben Shapiro on his podcast and sort of walking back his label of ICE as domestic terrorists.

50:30And what was the incident that he's saying was, state-sponsored terrorism. I think it was the shooting of Renee Good. It was Renee Good, yeah. I mean, yeah, come on. Stand up for your social media team here. You're not saying that all ICE officers are terrorists. You're saying that that was terrorism. And since they killed Renee Good, ICE officers have repeatedly told other protesters, didn't you see what happened to her? Didn't you learn the lesson from that like that is definitionally the goal of violent of terroristic violence to stoke terror so that you control other so that you control a future outcome uh but anyway he wants to back off of that okay um has he had any left-wing people on his podcast like i'm sure he's talked to the abundance people or whatever but um no i mean come on come on breaking points, Gavin.

51:31Or you've got to have us on. Yeah, or have Ryan on your podcast. He seems to do everything in studio. I'm not going to California for that. Okay. Well, no, I'm not going to Sacramento. Sacramento. I love Sacramento. But I'm not... It's a long flight. Not happening. It's a long flight. But invite Mac. Like, come on. I'll come on. Yeah. I'll do the flight. I'll go out there. Yeah, Mac doesn't have kids yet. He can go out there. I do have a dog, so I got to bring him with me, I guess. You can drop the dog off at my place. It's fun. Yeah, Ryan, we'll take your time. All right, let's move on to Sean Ryan.

52:08If you're not familiar with Sean Ryan, he's considered kind of one of the podcast bros, unfairly. He's former special ops, but maybe it's not unfair that he's considered one of the podcast bros because he's kind of in that group. Is that a pejorative now? Is it like Bernie bros? I think it's used pejoratively, but it's also one of those things that could be perfectly accurate because he's in that group of people. So like Tim Dillon, Theo Vaughn, Andrew Schultz, obviously those are all comedians and Sean Ryan is former special ops. But they're kind of MAGA curious people whose content was not super political.

52:44But when Trump was running again in 2024, they started to become kind of MAGA curious. And he had Ro Khanna on the podcast. He actually also had Gavin Newsom on his podcast not long ago. He's had Hunter Biden on recently where he had a pretty friendly conversation with Hunter Biden, to be perfectly honest. And he went off on Trump a couple of times over the Epstein files. So to the extent there's a potential MAGA crack up in the works, maybe not your average Republican voter or your average conservative movement type person. But those guys who kind of came in and made a difference on the margins, like Sean Ryan, I think absolutely you're starting to see something like that.

53:22So let's take a listen to a few of these clips and you'll get a flavor of it. Proactively protecting pedophiles. They are protecting pedophiles at this point. By redacting the abuser's names. The White House. Listen up, everybody. The fucking White House is protecting pedophiles. You hear that? They're fucking protecting pedophiles. That's what the fuck they're doing. And now let's listen to another one here. Fucking voted for this shit. I mean, I fucking voted for this shit. I voted to get these damn files released. And it's like a total 180 has happened. I voted to get these damn files released.

54:05We've got one more. in a house protecting pedophiles why is the white house protecting pedophiles i just don't understand it ro i can't fucking get it through my head why we would protect pedophiles why okay so let me just say i think what's interesting about this is how the epstein files are not it's it's nobody's top issue when they go to the polls not even like podcasters it's not sean ryan isn't going to say It was his top issue when he went and voted for Donald Trump. But what it has become, and I think this is important, it's not just a podcaster issue. It's become a litmus test for trust in how anti-establishment, how drain the swamp you actually are.

54:47And so to the extent that this genuinely has caused political problems, electoral problems for Republicans, I think that's it. I don't know what you guys think. Yeah, I think that's exactly right. Epstein for a couple of years now, at least a year, year and a half, has become this like stand in for how you whether or not you trust a politician. Like you would listen to what they said about Epstein and decide from there if you're going to listen to anything else they have to say. It doesn't mean you're going to agree with everything they say after that. But if they give you the wrong answer on Epstein, you're done with them.

55:28I don't care what you say after that. I don't trust you. And now it has gotten to the point of we're beyond asking questions about this. We want action. We want these documents released. We want the indictments in particular, the draft indictments. And we want the depositions. We want the names. and if you're not going to give that then i don't want to hear anything else you have to say about tariffs about deportations about insurrection about illegals like about how it's the media is unfair to you about like grocery prices or whatever don't want to hear it like you're cut you're cut off with a huge portion of the voting public by failing on that basic question of of morality and integrity.

56:15Yeah. I mean, it kind of reminds me of at least on the left, and I'm sure there's some of this on the right as well, increasingly right now, but the APAC question, where it's like, if you can't commit to not taking APAC money, let alone corporate money broadly, you know, how am I supposed to trust that you're going to actually work for me? You're not going to work, you know, on behalf of the interests of this foreign government and their lobby. So I think it's like kind of similar in that sense. But I mean, it's such a low bar. Like, what are we talking about? Like, I mean, I guess my question for Emily is within the MAGA coalition, will there ever be a breaking point in terms of coming to the realization that not only is Trump engaging in one of the most obvious and brazen cover ups of in American history with the Epstein files.

57:04I mean, we're now, what, three weeks out in a row where they've missed the deadline to, you know, to push forward in releasing them. But not only is he involved in this cover-up, but it's very obvious why he's engaging in this cover-up. He has a closer affiliation with Jeffrey Epstein than basically anybody else on the planet that you could say. Like, when is the connection point in MAGA, if ever, going to happen where they say, okay, not only is he doing the cover-up, but like he's making himself look increasingly guilty as time goes on. Like now I went from being like, well, you know, Trump, you know, he's probably in the Epstein files.

57:44They were best friends for 10 years, according to Epstein, et cetera, et cetera. But I don't know if he was on the island or doing things with children or whatever. But as time goes on, I'm more like, okay, what, what actually is in these files beyond what we already know that has him going this far to prevent them from being released? The so I think the kind of hardened MAGA core, which I put it like 30 to 40 percent of the Republican voters. And this is something people get wrong politically about MAGA a lot, is that there are so many Republican voters who tolerate Trump. Even going back to 2016, they tolerate Trump because they think he is.

58:22And this is a good explanation for Sean Ryan, somebody who voted for him. They think he is a change agent or for some people, it's a combination of thinking that he's a disruptor slash change agent. and better than the alternative. So it works for him in these presidential matchups where he's against Kamala Harris, you know, a month after Biden or two months, whatever, after Biden gets out of the out of the race or Hillary Clinton, like some of these perfect foils. And so that's how he's been able to get reelected as you have those people. That's why these kind of people really matter. And for J.D.

58:54Vance, if he wanted to run for president, that's why these people really matter. The Sean Ryans and Andrew Schultz and people think Tim Dillon, people think that's silly. It's not. It's like average Americans who look at this and say, OK, if you're going to be if this is a choice between right and left and I'm looking for someone to disrupt the system and you're from the MAGA coalition, you're going to disrupt the system. That's how Trump ends up like tipping the scales in his favor, getting more votes than Kamala Harris, more votes than Hillary Clinton, because people put that kind of trust in him when it's a a kind of choice A or B, lesser of two evils vote as people see it.

59:34And so nothing will, I think, come between Trump and that ever, that 30 to 40 percent of the Republican electorate, which is the types of people that are going to rallies. That's maybe 15 percent of voters overall. Nothing will come between them because part of his appeal, they trust him implicitly because he said, I know the system. I was part of it. So it's not surprising to that group of people that he was part of the system. The point is they trust him personally to, you know, go and take on the system that he was once a part of. It's not a deal breaker to them knowing that he was once a part of the system.

1:00:14They don't want him to currently be part of the system and they trust that he's not currently part of the system. And so I think that's the explanation for that segment of the voting public. But that's where other voters who just tolerate Trump and see him as the lesser of two evil option for a J.D. Vance or Marco Rubio or whatever. This legitimately is a problem because it's a litmus test issue. It's not anyone's like top voting thing, but it is going to be a part of the conversation long into the future. And they sure as hell need to have an answer for it, because some people just automatically will not trust you if you come to them and you say and you give bullshit.

1:00:51Right. Like if it sounds like you're bullshitting, that's where Sean Ryan is like, dude, no, no, no, no, no, no. And this is not right. This is not what you said you were doing. This is not you are not a change agent or a disruptor. And I think to Max point about starting to question Trump's guilt, I think that's related to everyone's understanding of his extreme selfishness and narcissism. Nobody, even Trump's best friends, don't think Trump is altruistically doing things for other people. Trump is in it for Trump. Everybody agrees. Like, nobody disagrees with that. So if he's taking on all of this political water in order to cover up what's in these files, it's very hard to believe that he's doing it for somebody else.

1:01:39Maybe all of a sudden he has found a selfless bone in his body and he's actually, you know, chivalrously protecting somebody else or his friends or something. I don't think anybody really believes that though. So they're like, okay, all right, all right, guy, what on earth is in these documents? Right. Yeah. I mean, I see a lot of deflection too, like from the more hardened Trump supporters bringing up, you know, Bill Clinton is the most famous example that I see all the time and, you know, whatever. But to me as a leftist, And I think basically the entirety of the left agrees on this is it's like, OK, if Bill Clinton is implicated criminally in any way, throw him in jail.

1:02:18Not a single one of us would would give a shit about that. Right. Go ahead. Do it. Arrest him. Bring charges and everybody else who's implicated in this. But like how has that aspect of it not broken through to the point where like this is such it's become such a partisan thing within MAGA to say, OK, maybe this is still we can try to play it off as this is mostly a Democrat thing or a Clinton thing or a podcast thing. That's the you guys have probably heard this, right, that this is just a luxury issue that podcasters care about. It doesn't really matter to to regular voters. And like that is not true.

1:02:50Republican politicians don't think that that's true. I remember in the summer I've mentioned this a couple of times before they were heading out for August recess. This was really starting to come to a head because they were trying to get the bill passed. And I was asking them. Do you think that this is going to be an issue when you go back to your district? Everyone that I talked to said yes, like rank and file Republicans were like, yes, this is going to be that what they wanted to talk about was the tax bill. And when I asked them that, they easily could have demurred and said, oh, no, this is I think you're hearing a lot of chatter about this in the media.

1:03:22But, you know, my voters tend to have kitchen table issues on their mind. No, that is not what they told me. This was like four or five rank and file Republicans. They all said they expected to hear about it in August when they went home. All right, guys, we are happy to be joined now by Dania Munoz, who is a nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. They're now entering their fifth day of a massive strike, around 15 ,000 nurses going out on strike. Thank you so much for joining the show today. Thank you guys for having me. Good morning. Yeah, so if we can just go ahead and start off, if you want to give us like a rough breakdown and intro into why you guys are going out on strike right now.

1:03:58What are the terms of the agreement that are in play right now? Yeah, so we've been bargaining since October with our employers. Some other tables have been bargaining with them since August. The main things that we're asking for currently are health insurance. They're trying to make extensive cuts to our current health plan. And this will affect not just the nurses who are bargaining this current contract, but also people who aren't even at the bargaining table. So this can affect up to 44 ,000 nurses throughout New York State and their family members as well. Other things that we're fighting for currently are workplace safety prevention and protections.

1:04:39For example, in my hospital at Mount Sinai, Maine, they basically don't have weapons detections or metal detectors in every entrance. It's only in the ED and I believe in one psych unit. So we want to make sure that anybody who comes into our institutions feel protected, not just the staff, but also the patients. And then other things that we're fighting for are safe patient ratios. We currently have the ratios. We last time won a process to be able to hold our hospitals accountable for understaffing us, which means causing nurses to take more patients than they should. And currently the hospitals are trying to take back the language that has allowed us to retain and also hire a thousand plus nurses.

1:05:26Another thing that's very important for us at Mount Sinai Main Hospital is respect for the nurses. They have terminated nurses. They have basically disciplined nurses for union activity, for speaking up and advocating not just for ourselves, but also for our communities. So these are basically the top number, the top things that we're fighting for currently in our contracts. And this is something that New York Presbyterian, Mount Sinai, West Morningside, Maine, and also Montefiore are all fighting for. What is the safety situation like now? My brother is a nurse and one of the hospitals where he worked at previously had some serious security issues for the nurses.

1:06:08And are they fighting you on this? What are they saying that metal detectors then require staff at each one and so this is incredibly expensive? I was going to ask that, too, because it sounds like obviously what you're asking for is rooted in experience, that something led to you asking for this. So if you could tell us more about that, I think that would be really helpful. Of course. I mean, there's so many things that have happened. One of the most recent things will happen in November where we had a person come into the ED and say that they were going to shoot up the ED. And basically that person had a gun.

1:06:47They had left the gun outside, tried to come into the building, and NYPD chased the person down Madison Avenue and unfortunately killed the person. From the people who were in the emergency department, they said that the person looked like they were in some sort of mental distress. So, you know, there was no mass notification system that went out to notify the nurses about the incident even afterwards. Also, the ED is the only place that has weapons detection systems in place. So that's like one of the most recent instances. Other things that happen at the bedside is nurses are getting punched and kicked.

1:07:30A lot of the patients we take care of have started to show a lot of aggression and violence. We've had nurses being stalked from where they've told basically the security and the hospital that, hey, I have a stalker. Don't let this person in. They've let them in the hospital. We've had nurses that have been sexually assaulted in some of our bathrooms. It's terrible. We need behavioral health crisis teams and people that are trained in de-escalation for those who come into our hospitals and are in mental distress and want to harm us. But we also need better screening mechanisms so that we know who's coming in our buildings.

1:08:11Are they actually patient family members? Because some of the people that have come into our buildings aren't even there to see patients. So this is just like a few of the things that have occurred that have basically caused us to advocate and make sure that there are better safety mechanisms in place. Again, not just for the nurses, but also for anyone who comes into the hospital. It's ludicrous that we don't know the people coming in. We're not screening them properly. And living in New York City, people go to stadiums. They go to Broadway shows. There's ways to have these systems in place, things that they put up daily and take down in a lot of other places.

1:08:50To me, it's crazy that a big institution like Mount Sinai has not been able to figure out how to implement a lot of these safety mechanisms. Is this something that the city can help the hospital out with? So I have a couple of, I'm of a couple of different minds on this because on the one hand, I can see the hospital being like, okay, you're nervous about your security? Fine, we'll invest more money in your security, but that's coming out of your healthcare, that's coming out of your overtime and wages. If the city came in and offered security services, which you could argue they ought to because the hospital is being asked to treat lots of people for free.

1:09:32So if they're doing something for free, then the city could kick in, send some officers. On the other hand, if somebody has a warrant out and needs to go to the hospital, you don't want them to not go to the hospital because they have a warrant and are worried that at the metal detector, they're going to get actually then arrested. And instead of getting treatment, they're going to go to Rikers. Is this, you know, so how are you guys navigating this question of resources dedicated towards security versus trying to make your health insurance affordable? I mean, I think it's two separate issues.

1:10:11I mean, if it's funded by the government, then that's great. But we need to make sure that we're allocating our funds equally to the things that matter. Like, yeah, safety is important. Health care is also important. So what I would say is that even if they were to give us money and allocate it towards security, excuse me, we're not asking for it to be NYPD at the doorstep. We're asking for it to be people who are trained in de-escalating these, like, mental health crisis-y or even aggression. Sometimes all you need is someone who knows how to speak to you and bring you from 100 to 5%, right? The reality is that these people who come into our institutions, and whether they're patients or family members, they're going through the worst moments of their lives, right?

1:10:59They're here. They're sick. They want care. And, you know, in regards to the comment about people from Rikers, we get inmates all of the time that come and get care. In New York City, we don't turn away people. We want people to come and get care. Whether it's immigrants, whether it's our trans or LGBT communities, anyone is welcome to get care. And honestly, in our contracts, we're currently fighting to make sure that those people are also protected. You shouldn't have to wonder, am I going to be deported? Is ICE going to come into these institutions? Will I be arrested? Am I going to be judged for walking in and loving someone else or loving someone else or, you know, or looking a different way?

1:11:45Everybody deserves care. I believe it's one of those things that it doesn't matter who you are. You definitely deserve to get health care. The thing is, in our country currently, people are thinking, do I pay my rent or do I go to the doctor? Do I put food on the table or do I go get a health checkup? And those are questions that we should not be asking ourselves. If anything, the government should be investing more in health care, honestly. Can you tell us a little bit more about the crackdown from the hospital in terms of going after union organizers, as well as I saw, I mean, I'm reading here from the New York Times.

1:12:22They've spent upwards collectively$100 million to hire temporary nurses to come in and to rent hotels for them, etc. Can you tell us a little bit about this effort to sort of break the strike or, you know, bring it to its knees over time? What sort of is the strategy? I mean, it's interesting that you say that. For me, it seems like it's more than just about the strike. It's also in general about breaking unions. The reality is that they started to hire a lot of these travel nurses even before we dropped our 10-day strike notice, which is our legally protected right. We have 10 days to notify the employer so that they can get ready and hire whomever they need.

1:13:04A lot of these nurses were being hired in early December, even in late November before we went on strike. And you're saying, you know, you have the numbers,$100 million that they've held on to and they basically have used to hire these nurses. That's$100 million they could have invested in us. They're saying our healthcare is too expensive. They're saying they need to make cuts. And instead of investing in the nurses that show up every day, nurses who have been there for many years, one of my colleagues has been there for 38 years. We're talking about people who also have just started their careers.

1:13:43They're investing in staying in New York City, in staying at these institutions. And it's horrific that Mount Sinai instead and a lot of these other institutions are choosing to put$100 million into the transportation, the safety of these nurses who are not the ones who are dedicated to taking care of these communities. Like they're busing them in, they're giving them hotel rooms. There's NYPD and there's more security than I've ever seen to make sure that these nurses that again are coming here and are not the ones who are used to taking care of New Yorkers. it's a slap in the face to what they could actually be investing towards, which is us, the people that care every single day and not just during a strike, right?

1:14:28Like we have been asking them to hire nurses since before the strike. We've been telling them for years. And like I said before, the language that we won in our last contract has allowed us to retain a lot of nurses and hire a lot of nurses. A hundred million dollars is money that they can invest in making sure that these nurses were hired, not just because of a strike, but also throughout the past three years when we've been advocating that we still need more nurses at the bedside. And Matt, can you pull this clip of Mayor Mamdani up? Because I want to ask Dania a bit about the significance of Mayor Mamdani coming to the picket line and standing with you all, the extent to which that's added momentum to the cause.

1:15:12We'll first watch it and then turn it over to you, Dania. Sounds good. Thank you. They must return immediately to the negotiating table and not leave. They must bargain in good faith. That's right. And they must arrive at a deal that is satisfactory to all that allows the nurses who work in this city to live in this city. So you're involved in this fight, obviously. That's what we've been talking about. What, from your perspective, did this do to help? I mean, the mayor definitely has been on our side for some time. Even before he was elected, he came to our initial launch in, I believe it was August, and said he supported the cause.

1:15:55So I wasn't surprised. I was very excited to see him visit New York Presbyterian Hospital. and I'm glad that he is still sticking to what his platform stood on, which is, you know, being there for the working people and making sure that he can make a difference when it comes to us and not these corporate greedy CEOs. What we would like to see, honestly, is the governor come down and support us. She put out an executive order that basically has allowed these institutions to think that we're in a state of emergency and hire not just nurses but healthcare professionals and allow them to come into our hospitals.

1:16:31The real state of emergency is that these CEOs are so greedy that they don't want to give us our health care, that they don't want to staff appropriately, that they want to make sure that we don't have safety mechanisms in our hospitals. So for Governor Hochul, she should be ashamed of what she put out. She should be siding with the nurses, honestly, and she should be telling these hospital executives, hey, give these nurses their health insurance. Make sure we have enough nurses for the amount of patients make sure we have these safety mechanisms. So I'm honored and I'm proud that the mayor was able to do that.

1:17:05But we need the higher ups and higher government officials to be responsible and know the things that they're putting out and know who they're siding with because she was definitely not siding with the nurses when she put that out. Yeah, come on, Governor. What are you doing? I mean, yeah, seriously. All right, well, Donya, thank you so much for joining us and good luck as you continue these negotiations. Yes, thank you so much, everyone. Have a wonderful day and thank you for giving me this platform to speak about the issues that are so important to us and will definitely affect our New Yorkers.

1:17:36Thank you, everyone. Of course. Absolutely. If the executives are watching, you're welcome to come on and try to defend your position. Love to hear from you. I think people don't realize the, especially people who aren't in cities, don't realize how the security risks that nurses confront often. yeah no it's no joke she said it well that like nobody wants to be at the hospital you're either visiting someone who's at the a very low point in their life or you you yourself are at a very low point um and also and often police take people who are having mental health crises and just kind of dump them um at some of these eds so um yes they are they're put in extremely difficult situations with not enough protection and you know far less compensation than they deserve no you gotta have your brother on someday yeah that would be fun all right we have the exact same voice we could if we did a podcast you wouldn't be able to tell who was who that's amazing we can fool my mom that's good oh that's dangerous a parent trap situation on a phone

1:18:551969. Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis. And at Morehouse College, the students make their move. These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson, locked up the members of the Board of Trustees, including Martin Luther King Sr. It's the true story of protest and rebellion in Black American history that you'll never forget. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. Listen to The A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts Hey, I'm Jay Shetty host of the On Purpose podcast On a recent episode I sat down with Nick Jonas singer, songwriter, actor and global superstar I went blank I hit a bad note then I couldn't recover and I built up this idea that music and being a musician was my whole identity I had to sort of relearn who I was if you took this thing away Who am I?

1:19:48Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Black history lives in our stories, our culture, and the conversations we still have in today. This Black History Month, the podcast I Didn't Know, Maybe You Didn't Either, digs into the moments, perspectives, and experiences that don't always make the textbook. Let me tell you about Garrett Morgan. Bruh had to pretend he didn't even exist just to sell his own invention. Listen to I Didn't Know, Maybe You Didn't Either, from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or simply wherever you get your podcasts.

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