The Rich Zeoli Show- Full Episode (10/18/2023):

3:05pm- On Wednesday, the House of Representatives once again voted to fill the speakership position left vacant following the removal of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). The Republican nominee for speaker, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), received 199 votes—well short of the 217 votes he needed to win a majority of the House and one fewer vote than he received on Tuesday. It seems increasingly unlikely that House Republicans will be able to coalesce behind one candidate. Consequently, many House members are calling for a temporary expansion of powers granted to Speaker pro tempore Patrick McHenry (R-NC). According to Annie Karni of The New York Times, “Scott Perry, the chairman of the Freedom Caucus that Jordan helped establish, says he won’t support any resolution to empower Patrick McHenry, the speaker pro tem. Perry says he hopes Jordan keeps fighting, adding that the race is simply about ‘stamina.’” You can read updates as they unfold here: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/10/18/us/house-speaker-vote-jim-jordan

3:15pm- On Wednesday, President Joe Biden delivered an address from Tel Aviv, Israel and met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While taking questions from the press, Biden discussed a deadly strike on a hospital in Gaza: "Based on what I've seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you. But there's a lot of people who are not sure."

3:30pm- The Wall Street Journal reports, “Israel, the U.S. government and independent security experts cast doubt Wednesday on Palestinian claims that an Israeli airstrike was responsible for a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital compound, saying the preliminary evidence pointed to a local militant group. Independent analysts poring over publicly available images of Tuesday’s explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza and its aftermath say the blast site doesn’t bear the hallmarks of a strike with a bomb or missile of the types usually used by Israel….The U.S. has collected ‘high confidence’ signals intelligence indicating that the blast at the hospital in Gaza was caused by the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, U.S. officials said, buttressing Israel’s contention that it wasn’t responsible for the blast.” You can read more from the report from journalists Margherita Stancati, Yaroslav Trofimov, Nancy A. Youssef, and Stephen Kalin here: https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-tries-to-back-up-claims-it-didnt-attack-gaza-hospital-a8cc3405

3:40pm- Rich accuses Momma Zeoli of purchasing the worst frozen pizza he has ever tasted.

3:50pm- RNC Research on X notes that progressive representatives Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Summer Lee have not removed social media posts falsely blaming Israel for a missile strike on a hospital in Gaza—which has now been attributed to Palestinian terrorists accidentally misfiring a rocket.

4:05pm- Libby Emmons of The Post Millennial writes, “Twitter user Douglass Mackey [has been] sentenced to 7 months in prison after being found guilty of election interference for making memes disparaging Hillary Clinton.” She notes, “[t]here was no evidence to suggest that any voter attempted to cast their ballot via text in response to Mackey's meme.” How could any court criminally punish satirical speech on social media? Could the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately end up hearing this freedom of speech case? You can read more here: https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-twitter-user-douglass-mackey-sentenced-to-7-months-in-prison-after-being-found-guilty-of-election-interference-for-making-memes-disparaging-hillary-clinton?utm_campaign=64483

4:40pm- David Averre of The Daily Mail writes: “Israel's Defence Forces have released a slew of evidence they claim proves an overnight explosion at a Gaza hospital that killed hundreds of people was caused by a misfiring rocket launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In an audio clip procured by Israeli military intelligence, two alleged Hamas terrorists can be heard discussing the explosion and confirming the rocket came from Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) - an independent jihadist group. 'They are saying (the rocket) belongs to Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It's from us?' one alleged Hamas member asks in the clip provided by Israel's military intelligence.” You can read Averre’s article here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12643229/Israel-blast-Gaza-hospital-Palestine-video-rocket-misfire.html

5:05pm- Dr. EJ Antoni—Economist & Research Fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget—joins The Rich Zeoli Show for The Drive at 5. Dr. Antoni reacts to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen claiming that the U.S. can easily afford to fund wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. How is that possible when our country’s annual budget remains imbalanced, and the current national debt exceeds $33 trillion? You can read Dr. Antoni’s most recent commentary in the Telegraph Herald, “Worsening Economy Pushes Consumers Near the Breaking Point,” here: https://www.telegraphherald.com/news/opinion/article_49736bc5-9bd4-5b20-82b0-1cd8a5c2eeb0.html

5:30pm- Rich has a highly respected economist in-studio and decides to ask him if Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sounds like Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs!

5:40pm- In a House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing, University of Chicago Professor, and Economist, Casey Mulligan revealed that government regulations are costing American households massive amounts of money. Mulligan explains: “The most notorious cost of regulation is the paperwork, sometimes known as ‘red tape.’ The federal executive branch alone issues thousands of new regulations each year that add to the 200,000 pages of federal rules already in place. One finding is that the rules finalized by the Biden Administration through the end of 2022 impose costs of nearly $10,000 per household, which is $1,300 more than the burden of the Obama Administration rules during the comparable timeframe.” You can read more here: https://oversight.house.gov/release/hearing-wrap-up-the-biden-administrations-regulatory-blitz-jeopardizes-americas-economy%EF%BF%BC/

6:05pm- Michele Exner—Senior Advisor for Parents Defending Education—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss her latest opinion piece in The Daily Caller, “The Real Reason Why Many Young Americans Side with Pure Evil.” You can read her editorial here: https://dailycaller.com/2023/10/17/opinion-the-real-reason-why-so-many-young-americans-are-siding-with-pure-evil-michele-exner/

6:30pm- The Wall Street Journal reports, “Israel, the U.S. government and independent security experts cast doubt Wednesday on Palestinian claims that an Israeli airstrike was responsible for a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital compound, saying the preliminary evidence pointed to a local militant group. Independent analysts poring over publicly available images of Tuesday’s explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza and its aftermath say the blast site doesn’t bear the hallmarks of a strike with a bomb or missile of the types usually used by Israel….The U.S. has collected ‘high confidence’ signals intelligence indicating that the blast at the hospital in Gaza was caused by the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, U.S. officials said, buttressing Israel’s contention that it wasn’t responsible for the blast.” You can read more from the report from journalists Margherita Stancati, Yaroslav Trofimov, Nancy A. Youssef, and Stephen Kalin here: https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-tries-to-back-up-claims-it-didnt-attack-gaza-hospital-a8cc3405

6:40pm- On Wednesday, the House of Representatives once again voted to fill the speakership position left vacant following the removal of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). The Republican nominee for speaker, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), received 199 votes—well short of the 217 votes he needed to win a majority of the House and one fewer vote than he received on Tuesday. It seems increasingly unlikely that House Republicans will be able to coalesce behind one candidate. Consequently, many House members are calling for a temporary expansion of powers granted to Speaker pro tempore Patrick McHenry (R-NC). According to Annie Karni of The New York Times, “Scott Perry, the chairman of the Freedom Caucus that Jordan helped establish, says he won’t support any resolution to empower Patrick McHenry, the speaker pro tem. Perry says he hopes Jordan keeps fighting, adding that the race is simply about ‘stamina.’” You can read updates as they unfold here: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/10/18/us/house-speaker-vote-jim-jordan

6:55pm- While appearing on the All In Podcast, billionaire venture capitalist and democrat donor Chamath Palihapitiya concedes that now, in hindsight, he realizes former President Donald Trump’s policies were actually effective and good. He explained: “so much of the work that happened in [the Trump] administration turned out to be right” but no one wanted to acknowledge it at the time because of “Trump derangement syndrome.”