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Hello everyone, please keep supporting Gene Valentino’s Truth Podcast. We need our voice to get out there far and wide and help save our country. Hi friends, Gene Valentino, I recently had the chance to sit with Ashley Leppert.

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Ashley’s the real deal, a United States Coast Guard helicopter pilot, a recipient of the Air Medal, and a true American hero. Her first book, The Hurricane Within, was an award-winning document and now shows she’s back with volume number two called Beyond the Storm. Ashley’s courage, faith, and strength of character will inspire you.

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Visit her website and get the latest updates on her new book and your chance to receive and win a free autographed copy. Check out the QR code down in the corner as well. Thanks for joining us.

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Let’s unpack with Matt Schlapp, CPAC chairman, also with us, Gene Valentino, GOP political strategist and host of the Grassroots Truthcast podcast. You know, eight Senate Democrats voted with Republicans, Matt, to proceed with a House passed continuing resolution, a clean CR, to reopen the government. It’s also important to note that two of these Democrats are retiring and the rest are not up for re-election.

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Hmm, quite the coincidence, right? So, of course, other Democrats are now blaming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for the switch. Ro Khanna calling for Schumer to be ousted, to be replaced. Newsom called it pathetic.

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And of course, Democratic Socialist Ma’am Donnie, charismatic communist, saying it should be rejected, as should any politics willing to compromise on the basic needs of working people. So, clearly, this, you know, what do you think about this, Matt? I mean, you finally have eight Democrats breaking rank because they want to help the American people. They’re putting, finally, people before party.

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And this is what they get in return. Now, Schumer could lose his job sooner than he probably thought. Well, the first thing is I applaud the Republican leaders and specifically President Trump for willing to engage in this.

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I mean, the Democrats wanted to shut down the government because they usually win shutdowns, right? When you’re talking about federal spending, the Democrats and most of their allies in the media say Republicans are being stingy and mean and trying to hurt people. And in this case, for the last 41 or so days, the Republicans actually won this shutdown argument to the fact where the American people are blaming the Democrats for flight delays and they’re blaming the Democrats for people not getting paid who are trying to patrol the border and protect America. So I applaud them for using this.

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Now, Ronald Reagan had shutdowns and budget fights in each of his eight years. And Newt Gingrich started this process when he got the majority in 1994. And then somehow Republicans just hated the idea of having this game of chicken with the budget.

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And the fact is, is that has led to massive overspending, bloated government, because Republicans felt like it was a political loser to talk about spending. And I’m very appreciative that now we can have a rational conversation of why things like Doge are completely needed. Yeah.

And, you know, Johnson also saying, Gene, that the nightmare is almost over. Trump also sent a message, though, to air traffic controllers who chose to stay at home and not work during the shutdown. He put out a truth social.

(3:34 – 3:57)
I’ll be recommending a bonus of 10 grand per person for distinguished service to our country, for those people that did show up to work and criticize those that stayed home for those that did nothing but complain and took time off. You know, I’m not happy with you. What do you think about this ten thousand dollar bonus and the president’s criticism? Bravo to the president for some more creative thinking.

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It only goes to show you that America doesn’t lose sight of those who hang in with us during the tough goings. And just to piggyback, Lydia, on what Matt had just said. How many.

Why is it we see real deliberation underway on the Democratic side from those who are about to retire? Isn’t that what our deliberation process is supposed to be? You mean they weren’t going to vote in favor of ending the shutdown unless they were going to retire? Is it that they were intimidated by their leadership that said, if you don’t get on board our way, we’ll make sure nothing you want gets accomplished. Right. You know, Matt, what do you say to people, specifically Democrats or those critical of Republicans, that this is all about health care? Why are you doing this? Is it the obviously we know insurance costs are sky high.

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Everyone agrees about that. Even the president does. So what’s what’s your response to that sort of criticism? Well, I do think it’s kind of this is why the Democrats approach on the shutdown was so stupid and flawed, which is they’ve now gotten criticized for over a month for being irresponsible.

And really, the division over things like Obamacare subsidies and such, that’s a very tough conversation for Republicans to have. So they kind of took the pressure off Republicans on some of these questions. You have moderate Democrats who like the subsidies, you have moderate Republicans who might push for the subsidies, conservative Republicans who say, no, it’s a waste and they were supposed to be temporary.

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And they forestalled that conversation. Now, all these conversations are on the table. And conservatives like me will be disappointed with some of the compromises that get made to give the vote.

So we’re still not exactly there to a final package. But it really bolstered the Republicans because they’ve never, in my lifetime, they never really won these. And they won this one.

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And they stood up on principle. And hopefully that keeps them together. You know, the Democrats always stick together.

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And if the Republicans stick together and iron out a good budget agreement, it’ll accrue to all of our benefit in the midterms. And President Trump will be yet again another historic, amazing leader. We’ve seen this on topic after topic.

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Gene, I want to pivot a little bit. President Trump issuing pardons to over 70 people accused of, you know, trying to root out election fraud. Among them, America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Jeffrey Clarke, Sidney Powell, Christina Bobb, John Eastman, Boris Epstein and others.

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What is your reaction to this? Well, I think constitutional rights were trampled upon. I think it’s important that we defend those who cannot defend themselves. And I think we’re I think Monica Crowley said it right in a recent tweet.

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The up and coming election buckle up because she prays it means we’re going to stop election fraud, election fraud, term limits and God willing, a constitutional amendment from preventing this crisis of budget reconciliation from occurring again. There must be penalties in place. I’m sure Matt agrees there must be penalties in place if the United States Congress cannot pass a balanced budget annually.

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Matt, your thoughts? Yeah, I agree that we should have regular order on the budget on these on these pardons. Good for President Trump. I mean, it’s outrageous that you can’t defend the principle of one person, one vote in America without facing jail time.

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And, you know, I did that as well. And I don’t know whether it’s good or bad that I’m not on that pardon list, but I guess that’s for another time. But this is a principle we should fight to the death over.

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And that’s what these people were doing. They were saying that when you don’t have voter ID and you don’t have regular you don’t follow the rules on voting, you do not have a free and fair election. And what’s important for America to understand is that that’s the principle by which we judge people’s elections in other countries.

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Yet we couldn’t pass that muster in some of the jurisdictions in America because the socialists don’t believe in having rules based common sense voting. And it’s a shame. And on the budget, the only final thing I’ll say is as the Democratic Party has embraced communism and Marxism, I kept telling everybody my intimates and such that how would you ever compromise with a communist? Because communism and Marxism isn’t typical to being an American.

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And this is where we are. If the Democratic Party fully embraces Marxism, I don’t see us having any compromises on things like the budget ever again. Yeah, they also want to get rid of voter ID.

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And, you know, as my mom says, when someone’s younger. Yeah, I mean, it’s crazy. And like, you know, you hear that famous that famous line when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

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Match slap. Gene Valentino. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. Hi, friends. Gene Valentino.

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I recently had the chance to sit with Ashley Leppert. Ashley’s the real deal, a United States Coast Guard helicopter pilot, a recipient of the Air Medal and a true American hero. Her first book, The Hurricane Within, was an award winning document and now shows she’s back with volume number two called Beyond the Storm.

(9:31 – 9:47)
Ashley’s courage, faith and strength of character will inspire you. Visit her website and get the latest updates on her new book and your chance to receive and win a free autographed copy. Check out the QR code down in the corner as well.

(9:47 – 9:48)
Thanks for joining us.