The Rich Zeoli Show- Full Episode (01/30/2024):

3:05pm- According to a report from Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman, the Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) for “misspending of federal security money.” The House Sergeant at Arms has been subpoenaed for records relating to the allegations.

3:10pm- In a New York Times editorial, Clark D. Cunningham—a law professor at Georgia State University—explains the legal consequences for the alleged improper relationship between lead prosecutor in the Donald Trump Georgia election interference criminal case, Nathan Wade, and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Cunningham writes: “Mr. Wade was very involved in both the special grand jury investigation and the current criminal case, despite an absence of obvious qualifications. Although Ms. Willis has defended her decision to hire Mr. Wade, his previous experience as a prosecutor appears to have been largely limited to misdemeanors. The amount paid to Mr. Wade so far is substantial yet Mr. Wade’s billing invoices obtained by Mr. Roman’s lawyer are not well documented and don’t always offer, for example, itemized time worked in increments of less than one day. If Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade are dismissed by Judge McAfee, it will be up to a state agency, the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, to appoint a prosecutor to take over from Ms. Willis. And that’s where things could really go off the rails. Take one precedent: On July 25, 2022, Ms. Willis was disqualified from prosecuting Burt Jones, who was then a state senator, after she hosted a fund-raiser for Mr. Jones’s eventual opponent in the race for lieutenant governor. Eighteen months later, the PACGA still hasn’t appointed a special prosecutor, and Mr. Jones, now lieutenant governor, has not even been indicted. Delay is not even the worst possible outcome for the case if Ms. Willis is disqualified. A special prosecutor could decide to reduce or dismiss charges against some or all of the defendants, including Mr. Trump.” You can read the full editorial here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/24/opinion/fani-willis-trump-georgia.html

3:20pm- Michael R. Gordon of The Wall Street Journal writes: “Three U.S. service members were killed and at least 34 were injured in an Iran-backed militia’s drone strike on a base in northeast Jordan, U.S. officials said on Sunday, marking the first American troops killed in hostile action since the start of the Hamas-Israeli conflict in Gaza. A U.S. official said that the attack took place overnight at Tower 22, a small outpost near the Syria border. The drone struck living quarters for the troops, contributing to the high casualties, a U.S. official said. The strike, which was carried out by a one-way attack drone, signals an escalation in the fighting in the region. The president and secretary of defense said the U.S. would retaliate.” You can read the full article here: https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/three-u-s-troops-killed-in-drone-attack-in-jordan-b45ddb6b?mod=hp_lead_pos1

3:25pm- While speaking with Vice News in 2020, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden claimed that then-President Donald Trump would “get us into a war with Iran” as a way to distract from his reelection troubles.

3:30pm- Speaking with the press outside of the White House before boarding Marine One, President Joe Biden accused Iran of being responsible for Sunday’s drone attack in Jordan which left three U.S. service members dead.

3:40pm- Zenebou Sylla and Elizabeth Wolfe write: “A Pennsylvania jury handed down a $2.25 billion verdict against Monsanto and its parent company, Bayer, after determining its Roundup herbicide product caused a man’s cancer, the plaintiff’s lawyers announced…The jury delivered its verdict, which includes $2 billion in punitive damages, in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court on Friday after concluding Roundup ‘is a defective cancer-causing product, that Monsanto was negligent, and that Monsanto failed to warn about the dangers’ of the weed killer, the law firm [Kline & Specter] said.” You can read the full article here: https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/29/us/roundup-cancer-verdict-philadelphia-bayer-monsanto/index.html

3:50pm- A Florida man is suing Combos snacks parent company Mars Inc. for deceptive marketing—arguing that there is not enough real cheese in the snack food.

4:05pm- Dr. EJ Antoni—Economist & Research Fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss his latest editorial, “The Fed’s Powell Will Have to Play Politics to Keep His Job.” Dr. Antoni writes: “When [Chairman of the Federal Reserve Jerome] Powell was up for renomination, he dutifully kept interest rates below 1% percent and exploded the Fed’s balance sheet, barely keeping it below $9 trillion in an unprecedented act of money creation. When asked about raising interest rates three-quarters of a percent in the face of 40-year-high inflation, Powell said such a move was off the table and called inflation ‘transitory’… Once the Senate confirmed him for a second term as chairman, however, Powell promptly delivered four of those three-quarter-percent interest rate hikes in a row and began reducing the Fed’s balance sheet to belatedly fight runaway inflation.” You can read Dr. Antoni’s full editorial here: https://www.heritage.org/monetary-policy/commentary/the-feds-powell-will-have-play-politics-keep-his-job

4:35pm- The Florida House of Representatives has passed legislation that would ban minors under the age of 16 from accessing social media. In response, Governor Ron DeSantis suggested he may veto the bill should it arrive at his desk, explaining: “To say that someone that is 15 just cannot have [access to social media] no matter what, even if the parent consents, that may create some legal issues.” You can read more here: https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/2024/01/26/desantis-concerned-over-breadth-of-house-social-media-legislation/72368316007/

4:45pm- Should government ban children from being able to access social media? Or are parents responsible to monitor when, and how, their kids use social media? Listeners react to Florida’s proposed legislation.

5:05pm- Robert Bork Jr.—President of the Antitrust Education Project & President of the Bork Communication Group—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss Amazon’s blocked acquisition of Roomba manufacturer iRobot. Progressives, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), had argued that the proposed acquisition would irreparably harm competing robot vacuum brands. Antitrust regulators in the European Union have helped American progressives successfully kill the $1.7 billion deal. Following the deals collapse, iRobot—a Massachusetts based company—was forced to lay off 350 employees. You can learn more about the Antitrust Education Project here: https://www.antitrusteducationproject.org/about-aep/

5:20pm- During a recent House hearing, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) accused Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump—as well as House Republicans—of wanting to place alligator filled moats along the U.S.-Mexico border to deter people from crossing illegally.

5:35pm- Andrew C. McCarthy—Senior Fellow at National Review Institute & Author of “Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency”—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss his latest article, “Record Number of Illegal Aliens Entered the U.S. in December.” McCarthy writes: “A mind-blowing 371,000 illegal aliens were ‘encountered’ by border agents in December 2023, a new record. This includes nearly a quarter million illegal aliens apprehended crossing the southern border, also a new record that smashed the former high mark (achieved, of course, under Biden border policies) of 224,400 in May 2022. The December number is a 23.5 percent increase over the number of ‘migrants encountered’ at the border in November.” You can read the full article here: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/record-number-of-illegal-aliens-entered-the-u-s-in-december/. And you can find information about his book here: https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/ball-of-collusion/.

5:50pm- Where does buffalo mozzarella cheese come from? Henry and Rich debate.

6:05pm- While speaking with Vice News in 2020, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden claimed that then-President Donald Trump would “get us into a war with Iran” as a way to distract from his reelection troubles.

6:10pm- While speaking at the University of California Berkeley School of Law, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized the court’s conservative-lean and told students that “every loss truly traumatizes me in my stomach and in my heart. But I have to get up the next morning and keep on fighting.” You can read more here: https://www.mediaite.com/news/justice-sotomayor-laments-supreme-courts-right-turn-every-loss-truly-traumatizes-me/

6:30pm- Brittany Bernstein of National Review writes: “The New York City Council voted to override Mayor Eric Adams’s veto of a bill that will force police officers to document most interactions they have with the public. The bill will require officers to record details on the apparent race, gender, and age of people they stop, including when they are only asking for information from someone who may be a witness to a crime.” You can read the full article here: https://www.nationalreview.com/news/nyc-council-overrides-mayors-veto-of-bill-requiring-police-to-document-public-interactions/

6:40pm- According to a report from Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman, the Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) for “misspending of federal security money.” The House Sergeant at Arms has been subpoenaed for records relating to the allegations. One of her security guards has claimed that he has the ability to create tornadoes and can strike his opponents with lightening—Rep. Bush has paid him nearly $150,000.

6:50pm- While appearing on MSNBC with Rachel Maddow, E. Jean Carrol awkwardly joked that she intends to spend Donald Trump’s money on new clothes and a penthouse. Last week, a Manhattan jury awarded Carrol $83 million in a defamation suit she filed against the former president. Trump has vowed to appeal the verdict.