The Rich Zeoli Show- Full Episode (04/19/2023):

3:05pm- On Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. During questioning, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) quoted a recent New York Times article documenting the Biden Administration ignoring multiple warnings that migrant children were being exploited for labor. Sen. Hawley stated that Sec. Mayorkas should resign for putting the lives of innocent children in danger. You can read Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Hannah Dreier’s report here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/us/politics/migrant-child-labor-biden.html

3:10pm- During an interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News, billionaire Elon Musk alarmingly explained that, prior to his acquisition of Twitter, government agencies had access to the private direct messages of users on the social media platform.

3:20pm- During a House Appropriations Committee, Congressman Andrew Clyde (R-GA) asked Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky about statements she made in March 2021—she had claimed, “vaccinated people don’t carry the virus, they don’t get sick.” Dr. Walensky explained that discrepancy between her optimistic claims in 2021 and reality were due to “an evolution of science.”

3:30pm- On Wednesday, Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) chaired the Senate Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition. Unfortunately, Sen. Fetterman seemed unwell.

3:45pm- While appearing before a House Appropriations Committee, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Lawrence Tabak said he believes COVID-19 originated via a zoonotic transfer that occurred naturally. Is it just us, or does he sound exactly like Frank Pentangeli from The Godfather Part II? “I don’t know nothing about that!”

4:05pm- During a Homeland Security and Immigration hearing on Capitol Hill, Senator Rand Paul stated: “DHS even put out a video encouraging children to report their own family members to Facebook for disinformation if they challenged US government narratives on COVID-19. Does that not sound like something out of 1984? Does that not sound like something out of Stalin’s Russia?” He went on to accuse the U.S. government of disseminating misinformation regarding COVID-19.

4:10pm- While appearing on Fox News with Laura Ingraham, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) accused Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of having facilitated “the biggest child trafficking ring in U.S. history.”

4:15pm- Rich continues to marvel over the similarities between National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Lawrence Tabak’s answers to Congressional questions about the origins of COVID-19 and Frank Pentangeli’s responses to a Senate investigation hearing in The Godfather Part II.

4:30pm- In an article on his Substack—The Disinformation Chronicle—Paul Thacker documents how Dr. Anthony Fauci and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) “created an earworm in the intelligence community with lyrics bent against a Chinese lab accident.” You can read the full article here: https://disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/the-wuhan-road-show-forming-a-band

4:45pm- Netflix announces they will discontinue its DVD mailing business and will also begin to crack-down on password sharing.

5:05pm- The Drive at 5: Dr. Wilfred Reilly—Professor of Political Science at Kentucky State University & Author of “Taboo: 10 Facts You Can’t Talk About”—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss his most recent article on National Review, “We Need a Revenge of the Jocks.” Dr. Reilly writes, “Tennessee state representative Justin Pearson became famous as one of the so-called Tennessee Three, a small group of state lawmakers who led a mob into the legislative chamber during business hours. Pearson and another Justin (Jones), who disrupted the session with bullhorns, found themselves thrown out of the legislature (before being reinstated shortly thereafter). A bespectacled black dude known for his Afro hairdo and histrionic arm movements while speaking, Pearson always struck me as a Dollar General Malcolm X. But, the past few weeks have provided a deeper revelation about him: It’s all an act.” Why are we incentivizing people to veer away from normalcy? Dr. Reilly argues, “[t]he focus of mainstream conservatism in the near term should be to re-normalize normalcy and to counter the institutions promoting division as a virtue.” You can read the full article right now: https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/04/we-need-a-revenge-of-the-jocks/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=featured-content-trending&utm_term=first

5:30pm- In a Wall Street Journal exclusive report, Aruna Viswanatha, Sadie Gurman, and C. Ryan Barber write, “[a]n IRS supervisor has told lawmakers he has information that suggests the Biden administration is improperly handling the criminal investigation into President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and is seeking whistleblower protections… The supervisor has details that show ‘preferential treatment and politics improperly infecting decisions and protocols that would normally be followed by career law enforcement professionals in similar circumstances if the subject were not politically connected.’” You can read the full article here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/irs-whistleblower-says-u-s-is-mishandling-hunter-biden-probe-7cd127f2?mod=hp_lead_pos7

5:40pm- Matt reveals his favorite comedy of all time is “This is the End”—Rich yells at him, but then concedes he has never seen the film.

6:05pm- In bombshell testimony on Wednesday, John Sopko—the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR)—told the House Oversight Committee, “as I sit here today, I cannot assure this committee or the American taxpayer we are not currently funding the Taliban…Nor can I assure you that the Taliban are not diverting the money we are sending from the intended recipients, which are the poor Afghan people.” You can read more about the testimony here: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/19/politics/afghanistan-congress-watchdog-hearing/index.html

6:30pm- While speaking in North Charleston, South Carolina as part of his Florida Blueprint tour, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis stated, “a man in a dress is not a woman.”

6:45pm- Last month, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board documented a “strange house call” the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) made to independent journalist Matt Taibbi’s home—unannounced “the same day Mr. Taibbi testified before the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.” The WSJ Editorial Board writes, “[t]he taxman left a note instructing Mr. Taibbi to call the IRS four days later. Mr. Taibbi was told in a call with the agent that both his 2018 and 2021 tax returns had been rejected…the curious timing of this visit, on the heels of the FTC demand that Twitter turn over names of journalists, raises questions about potential intimidation.” Today, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) confronted IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel about the aforementioned “visit” during a hearing on Capitol Hill. Read the full editorial here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/irs-matt-taibbi-twitter-files-jim-jordan-daniel-werfel-lina-khan-84ee518?mod=hp_opin_pos_2#cxrecs_s