Hey, everybody. We got a great one today, you know, for a change, because my guest is Ian Basson,

co-founder and executive director of Protect Democracy, and I couldn't think of a better

guess for the week that Donald Trump gets sworn in as our 47th president.

It's a bleak time where we're seeing Republican senators rallying around eminently

unqualified nominees for cabinet positions. Pete Hegseth comes to mind. I watched that hearing

to see how Joni Ernst's questioning would go.

Ernst served in Kuwait and commanded an army transportation company that did 400 missions into Iraq.

Though her unit never came under fire, she is considered a combat veteran, and I will give her that,

because those transportation missions through Iraq were very dangerous.

I visited a lot of soldiers at Walter Reed, who had been seriously wounded on those missions.

When Hegeseth was first nominated, Ernst expressed serious reservations for reasons that anybody

should have serious reservations, not the least of which is that his two veterans' organizations

that he ran went broke.

For Ernst, it was Hegst's very public, very vociferous opposition to women serving

in combat roles only after his nomination did he reverse himself. Ernst is on the Armed

Services Committee, and during Hexas hearing, it appeared from her questioning that she was satisfied with Hegs' 11th

hour conversion. My suspicion is that might have had something to do with the fact that she's up

for re-election in 26 and that Trump is not above primaring her with an opponent armed with

tens of millions of Elon Musk's dollars.

I'm worried about our becoming a Banana Republic,

and that's why I asked Ian Bassett to be my guest the week that Donald Trump is being sworn in.

We've got a great one today.

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