Trump Thinks He’s Jesus. Iran Blockade Update. Ukrainian Robots Take a Battlefield. w/ Michael Steele.

Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff

Righteous Media | Bleav

Politics, News, National Security, News Commentary, Daily News, Veteran

4.6 • 907 Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2026

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this explosive episode of Independent Americans, host Paul Rieckhoff sits down with the great and powerful Michael Steele—former RNC Chairman and Lieutenant Governor of Maryland and cohost of MS NOW’s The Weeknight airing weekdays at 7pm ET—for a raw, unfiltered debrief on the current state of the American duopoly. Steele doesn’t hold back, detailing why he believes the Republican Party is currently racing toward a "fucking cliff" and what it actually takes to maintain integrity when your political home has abandoned its foundational principles. From his personal history as a fencer to his perspective as the first African American leader of the RNC, Steele provides a masterclass in political realism and the urgent need for a viable third-party movement in America.

Transcript

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0:00.0	When those of us like me were saying, stop, this is, this road does not, it's not even a dead-in
0:05.6	people.
0:06.3	It is a fucking cliff in which the American economy, American culture, American ingenuity
0:15.2	and enterprise and freedom go off the edge.
0:35.0	Music and freedom go off the edge. Welcome to Independent Americans.
0:38.2	Welcome to episode 492.
0:41.5	I'm your host, Paul Reikoff.
0:43.2	It is Tuesday, April 14th.
0:45.7	And I'm coming to you from New York City, USA.
0:48.2	And the weather is hot.
0:50.5	Very hot.
0:51.3	It is 82 and sunny, going up to 85 and tomorrow 86 in april which is nice but not normal
1:02.5	not at all but hot and today's show is hot today's guest is hot and today's artist of the day
1:08.9	is hot it is one of the hottest of all time, the Wu Tang
1:12.8	clan, Wu Tang, because they just made the rock and roll Hall of Fame absolutely well deserved.
1:20.6	For some reason, you're young or old or living on Mars and you don't know who Wu Tang
1:25.4	Klan is. Wutang Klan Clan one of the greatest artists of all time.
1:29.1	Hip-hop artists of all time.
1:30.9	Cash rules everything around me.
1:32.5	Cream might be appropriate specifically for this time and era and this Trump administration.
1:37.9	Of course, Method Man, Protect Your Neck, Wu-Tang Clan ain't nothing to fuck with, and a lot of other great hits.
1:43.8	When I worked at IABA, I used to interview a lot of other great hits. When I worked at IA
	...

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