 Okay, we're back to Wednesday. We're doing Trump week on a Wednesday. That's Tim Appicello over there My co-host on Trump week every week on Wednesday one of the most important shows we do in our lineup 11 o'clock on Wednesday So we look at what's going on with Trump and figure out what kind of crazy things he's done this week and trying to connect the dots with last week and next week and This week has really been chuck-a-block. I guess, you know, why why do we care so much? Why do you care so much what he does? well First off Cynthia is not here and I know she cares and she's She deeply regrets not being here today. Why do I care because this is my country? This is the reputation of Americans and what's transpiring here in the last couple weeks alone is enough to Have us go look ourselves in the mirror and say who are we as Americans? And that brings me to the first topic and that is the announcement that Turkey can come in into Syria in the unilateral decision by Donald Trump himself and this certainly means that the Kurds who have been our allies for years and years and years who have fought 95 percent of the wars against ISIS and We're gonna stab them in the back and give tricky a green light to just bomb the hell out of them We did stab them in the back. We just did they're bombing them right now as we speak The world knows exactly what we did and the world is now going to see the results of what we did I feel great shame as an American that this is occurring right now today Great shame that we do this to an ally What does America stand for nothing else than to stand by our allies that we have for since for Over 150 years we stand by our allies trust us who could trust us and and what is the implication on NATO on this? a huge implication and I think at the end of the day This puts Erdogan and Turkey closer to Russia and further from NATO. He doesn't care about NATO Well, not only that, but this is a you know, this is an open invitation for now Iran Syria Russia Look the Kurds are gonna they're gonna have to side with somebody and if they can depend on the United States They're gonna have to go to God forbid Iran And you know seek protection under their flag or Syria Why do you do this? You know we predicted last week just a week ago that he would do something to change to do a change up You know a distraction it wasn't and and I thought maybe you do something with Syria. I was right That's what happened But what was bizarre about it is this telephone call and it reveals that he has these telephone calls with national leaders around the World that are bizarre that are that are not, you know Part of the script they come off the wall and then he had a telephone call with With Erdogan where it changed his mind and it changed national policy Geopolitical positioning all in one call Complete 180 and now he's dumping on the Kurds and he's I guess I'm not sure what he's doing befriending Erdogan Which I don't think there's a good relationship there anyway So, you know That that is bizarre in itself that without any advice without the without consulting right military He doesn't have a secretary of state because because Pompeo is merely a yes, man, and he doesn't have any he doesn't push back He doesn't collaborate in the thought process. He just does what Trump tells him So, you know, he did this by himself as you said, how can we have an international global? Policies foreign policies where one guy runs it and he's ignorant. How can we have that? We can't this is chaos chaos in the making You said it several times in the previous shows. This is a sole proprietorship of leadership because the United States We cannot continue to operate like this and we've got to somehow Reverse the damage that's been done particularly and help the Kurds as best we can and they're being bombed right now Turkish planes are bombing Kurd positions And this is how we treat our comrades in arm that have been on the on the on the fighting Fighting lines for years and years and years. This is how we treat them This reminds me very much similar to what happened when we were in Iran And we had situation when Donald Trump came to office and he you know He had that Muslim ban and we had interpreters in Iran that were under death threats in Iran And they wanted to seek asylum here in the United States and Trump said no these are our comrades These are the guys who risked their lives or families lives They're you know the whole generation of lives because that's the retribution that they can expect who would trust us Nobody what do we stand for if you can't trust the United States of America? Yeah, well, I mean you can't sorry You know this is another major blow to our trustworthiness and he's done it And what's what's worse is that he he probably didn't know exactly what the relationship with the Kurds was in the past That's not true. That's not true. Oh really September 28th 2018 Donald Trump is good to say all the things Kurds the Kurds have done for us They're great people So he acknowledged that they've done things for us at least now he turns on them Because of one turn only stabbed them in the back. Yeah, I'm as you could tell I'm not happy Well, I mean the result of this it's not only we lose credibility around the world the result is it'll it'll it'll throw the Middle East into much more much more pandemonium and The this is this is like pulling the keystone out of the arch everything is going to fall down now They always say that you know Turkey is the You know, however, you want to interpret this is is an important. It's a capstone one guy said Of the Middle East Western influence in Turkey and it's the joining of the East and the West and all that it's big country And it has a you know big history it has the ability to stick around for a long time Well, they they have a long history with interaction with the United States And they also have a long history of genocide against the Armenians and could be potentially not against the Kurds so as Turkey goes so goes the Middle East and And of course as the US's position in the Middle East goes so goes the Middle East I'm very worried about what Trump has done We don't have to dwell on the other moves he's made in the Middle East, but he certainly wrecked our relationships And I think he's done enough including especially this last maneuver To bring the Middle East into a new kind of a conflagration Yeah, I don't have a problem with the statement that you know He said he was elected as a president to get out of our wars and you know all the trillions of dollars We spent I don't have an issue with some of that, but I have an issue in the way He's doing it you know laterally and what do you have a hundred troops in Syria? That's all That's all and and so getting out of our pulling a hundred troops out. It doesn't mean much I'm sorry, but it's the green light for Turkey to come in and do what they please That's that's the biggest issue is the green lights and go ahead and you know he he made some kind of comment about Turkey and Bossum basically he said if Turkey does anything now That's three days ago if Turkey does anything in my unmasked wisdom remember that Wisdom yeah, I will wreak havoc genius. I will rake, you know wreak havoc on their economy Well, guess what three days later? I I don't think they care Erdogan responded to that. He said we'll do what we want. He's not going to tell us what to do It didn't be friend Erdogan that he that he said that it was a threat on Erdogan well this the background of that was Erdogan wanted to meet him in New York and Trump snubbed him didn't meet with him and so that made him very unhappy and This is some way of trying to you know to smooth out smooth that out and say oh go ahead You do what you wish with the Kurds do what you wish now you if you want to come into Syria because you were you were snubbed in New York Really? So it's all backward and it's it's all crazy and it's not getting us anywhere. It's hurting us It's hurting us in in fact and in an image But let's move on because I continue to feel that what he did was a distraction from his impeachment problems This man is being impeached right? And I think the most the thing that sticks in my brain is that eight-page letter that is Kaleidoscopic White House. I say kaleidoscopic White House because every time you look this new people there Advising him and wrote this stink of a letter saying I'm not going to cooperate with any of you guys because it's not a legitimate Investigation how dare he do that? You know you Congress guys you you House of Representatives guys You're not legitimate. You can't do anything. I'm ignoring you That's that's not one why right so I said well, it's not quite a constitutional Crisis I think it's a constitutional There's a you know that thin little dividing line the constitutional crisis would be Would be pushed forward if he overtly avoids a supreme court decision or ruling So that in the article, but I'm you know ignoring the Congress ignoring these subpoenas Not not responding not providing documents nothing building a wall around the article three under the Richard Nixon Constitutional crisis is worse than Nixon's that was our article three his obstruction Yeah, I mean talk about just checking the checkboxes for obstruction Yeah, and a rationale for a vote for it Frank Bruni the New York Times I get his newsletter because I like him in and he was saying you know Isn't it enough? Why don't they just go to a vote already? They should not distract the Congress the House the Democrats in the house. Why are they expanding? You know the investigation that's not gonna pay off. They already have what they need We said that last week go for it Don't waste time because time works in Trump's favor. Yeah, that's that's what I said last week and in here again Keep getting more information more information and making it more complex that the American public won't understand this Right this is fusion. That's what that's what Frank Bruni said. Yeah, and so I think you know I don't think that Nancy Pelosi fully understands this. I don't think a shift fully understands this They've got a move on it the public you and me and a lot of friends of they're ready for this And and we should just move to when patient I did listen to Substruction is part of it. Yeah, I listened to a representative at case for two hours. He had a telephone townhouse town square meeting and He was a Johnny come lately on this, you know throwing his hat in on the the impeachment inquiry And he said there's three things that we have to verify one did Trump ask Ukraine to interfere in our our upcoming election and the quid pro quo To did he withhold money from Ukraine as far as their military assistance if that can be proven The answer is yes, it can be and last but not least but Did he interfere with the lawful whistleblowing process? We're sure for sure. So those three things, you know, that's what he wants to see out of this He interfered with Congress's process. Yeah It was to what degree is the the obstruction so the bottom line is You know someone who was reluctant and his rationale for not Voting for an impeachment earlier was that you didn't want to see both Republican and Democrats Whatever the president whoever the president is elected You didn't want to see impeachment being used as the arsenal because they don't like style or political decisions They didn't want to see the impeachment process being implemented I understand that but these are clear cases end with Mueller 10 are you know 10 points of obstruction? These are valid reasons for an impeachment inquiry and certainly for an impeachment vote I don't know if I fully agree with him, but he he needs to defend his delay That's why he's coming up with these reasons to justify his delay but the reality you and I have talked about it We should run for office Is that you know this should have happened a long time ago We're not talking about style here. We're not talking about we're not talking about policy We're talking about the mad hatter, you know, who every everything he does is crazier than the last thing and we're doing It's a new normal so, you know what what's happening now about You know ignoring ignoring the Congress is just outrageous Let's take a short break Tim. We'll come back as much more. We could never finish these shows. We'll be right back Hello, I'm movie Hanuman. I want to tell you about a great show that appears on think tech Hawaii It's all about tourism. In fact, we call it tourism 101 Well, we talk about the issues and challenges that faces our number one industry throughout the state We'll have some interesting guests Very informative dialogue and allow you an opportunity to maybe learn a little bit more by why this industry is so Important for our state. It's been great for us in the past. We need it today and especially going for it That's tourism 101 on think tech Hawaii Mahalo Aloha, my name is Victoria and I'm a host at the adventures in small business This is a collaboration between us small business administration Hawaii district office and its partners Where we showcase the stories of local entrepreneurs and small businesses Talk about how to start a business talk about great tips for small business owners Please join us every Thursday 11 a.m. I think tech Hawaii You said Mahalo Yes, we're back. We're back on Trump week and we have much we have miles to go Okay, let's let's go to the the judge and the Gee the district court in New York. I think this is under strict in New York rule rule against him He filed an action in that court in the federal court to try to stop Extra turns. Yeah, Cyrus Vance who was the who was the district attorney for Manhattan get Trump's tax returns virus tried the district court agreed and I mean with Requiring the release of the tax returns major decision And it's that opinion that was so interesting and he laid it out the way I would have laid it out I mean, this is protecting our democracy. The president is not above the law. There is no good reason whatsoever To exempt him from this process or from criminal investigation. Well, again, you know, Trump, you know, the Trump saying well, you know, I can't be a Indicted because I'm a sitting president. Well, that's never been a Supreme Court ruling. It was an opinion in the DOJ So the judge took issue to that and and you know here We have the president in the White House saying well, not only are we not subject to indictment, but also now we're not subject to impeachment and You know the judge took issue with us. Yeah, so what are you? I mean, basically you have self declared yourself king of the United States where he's been going and if you connect the dots with our Little show over here. Trump week. That's what you find and and the really troubling thing is that people seem to accept this It has a ring about it. It has a familiarity about it He wants to be king. He wants to be a dictator. He doesn't want to be troubled by the Constitution I think we're in a constitutional crisis because he's going to keep on doing that Which takes me to one sidebar point and I've been trying to figure it out. I've been talking to people trying to get there You know their thoughts on why does the base support this craziness doesn't the base? No, this is this is a stress and strain and a breach of of the United States Constitution of everything's country stands for Why do they support him support him give him money? You know, he's got almost a billion dollars in the till and it increased that every time he gets to you know He does one of these really wild things gets more money. Why do they support him? You have a theory? I have theories only The story may be similar to Richard Nixon when he was being impeached They were going through the process and he maintained a strong 38% Well, it's not strong, but he would maintain 38% why wasn't those numbers lower? Donald Trump has a cult of personality and You know, I'm getting to the point where I'm gonna start saying the cult of personality similar to Jim Jones I mean if he says drink the Kool-Aid boys and girls do as I say I'm not sure that they wouldn't do it. Oh, I agree with you You know, this is money on Fifth Avenue and get away with it You know, these are you know, these are extreme things for me to have to say but at this point out There's a certain percentage of this country. They know that he's you know He's trying to basically break the Constitution He's trying to be above the rule of law and they don't care now your question is why well I think they just like them. They like the cult of personality. I think that Donald Trump appeals to their inner if you will races tendencies He's trying to make America great again. Well, what does that mean, you know nostalgia for the best out of for no rights or for women No rights for you know gay lesbian No rights for you know minorities You know tight immigration. I don't mind these tight immigration issues, but This is not the best and the best that America can do well He you know, I had a conversation with somebody this morning about this and his view of it And I guess I would have to agree is that this not one thread only Maybe the they're the underlying feature that brings them together Is the cult of personality as you say the Jim Jones effect? But I think there's probably a lot of reasons that people jump on that bandwagon Some of it is is racist some of it is bigotry and hatred some of it is They want to protect jobs for white America, you know their job and they think that you know Hispanic crossing the border Japanizes their jobs Some of them, you know, I'm just very unhappy. They're unhappy with the federal government They'd like to blow up the federal building in Oklahoma City You know, they're just angry with the federal government and they don't want any part of it What's harder to understand is the rich guys and with the education You know, and they made they may turn ultimately The ones who are paying less taxes, they're really happy with that The ones who are involved in this high-level corporate management They may be happy with Trump because he's saving them some money and making them look good But you know, I don't think they're gonna stick with this in the long term Bottom line though is that I think there's a lot of elements a lot of factors and sectors all bunched up under a Personality call where he doubles down on everything where he criticizes people where he gives you shot and Freud the enjoyment of seeing other people's misfortune and and that somehow Acts as a common denominator. I guess I want to differentiate between those that are you know regardless of what he says or does They're loyal. They'll never question his his words or his actions There are people are gonna vote for Donald Trump that did vote for Donald Trump that are doing it based on policies things They want to see I'm thinking of the you know, the evangelical Christians I think okay, he's there to get the Supreme Court, you know to apply where they're gonna reverse Roe v. Wade Yes, there are those that say, you know, he look at my stock portfolios better than ever There are those that say, you know, I am I like him because he is tough on immigration. Those are policy reasons I don't have an issue with that. I don't like the way he's implementing those policy, you know Strategies, but I'm separating those folks from the those that are just no matter what he says or does It's okay with me no matter how horrific Putting kids in cages. It doesn't matter what it is He's okay with us and we we like Trump. I'm gonna stick with them no matter what he does Well, I think it's a whole combination of things. They all have their own reasons But they all come together and if you talk to them, they will have a defense They will have you know, one guy I talked to he said he said You know, would you rather Hillary Clinton be president thinking that you know? I I'm one of those people who hate Hillary Clinton so much. I would vote for Trump instead. I said no Yeah, I'd like to have Hillary. I'd like to have anybody Anyway, let's just it's just it's an explanation a discussion. We have to have moving forward Let's go to talk about the split the GOP because this Tags right on to this topic that we're just discussing and and they are starting to split off They're starting to flow now a lot of them aren't necessarily saying, you know, this is wrong But they're starting to ask the questions Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. I want to know the facts he's talking about the impeachment inquiry and Mike Crapo from Idaho. I want to wait for further information for facts of this matter Okay, Rob Portman. I should have not erased the Biden issue on that call period Mitt Romney, we know what Mitt Romney has said John Fume. I'm not a fan Cases about the president and how he goes about this. So here we have some cracks in the veneer and rather serious cracks Now you take that then you couple it up with the other Republicans about the you know The tricky coming across the border and and putting the courage and in jeopardy You have Lindsey Graham and a whole bunch of others. So these are serious cracks That's a Senate report that just came out about Russia but our Russia was more actively involved in screwing up our election in 2016 Yeah, that report just came out. Yeah, that's out of the Senate. Yeah, that's a Senate. Yeah, that's a bipartisan Senate report Yeah, so of the of the Republicans in the Senate Zero support impeachment inquiry at this point now 14 of them say they have concerns or serious questions about what occurred Okay, and then 39 support Trump unequivocally. Okay, that's the Senate Those numbers are gonna change. Oh, yeah, because he's not gonna get any better I gotta say though that last week just to connect the dots people were saying when the you know Impeachment thing began. He was making these outrageous statements and calling for help from China and all this People were saying, you know, he doesn't have a defense. He doesn't have a team He doesn't have a strategy to deal with the impeachment. Okay. Well, he heard that and now he has a strategy It's distraction Deception and it's that eight-page letter say I'm not gonna cooperate name-calling name-calling, right and you're all you're all Traders, you're all all of you, you know should all be removed, but you know, I don't think that helps him I don't think it helps him in the Senate Because it's bad karma and it's bad precedent for the way government should work The other thing is the other thing is that the polls the country because the Senate is somewhat I hope the Senate is somewhat responsive to the public opinion in the country and the polls are changing They're shifting. Can you talk about it? Yeah, I will I guess I just want to make one quick comment for I hit these numbers is It's not so much The the the veracity of them coming out against Trump It's the silence of them not supporting Trump and I think that's a really critical point about the Senate. Yes. Yes They're not really out there saying, you know What can you say to it? What can you say the ones who have supported him have come up with the same kind of cockamamie arguments that he's come up with Mm-hmm, and it you know quid pro quo. Give me a break. It's there in English the quid pro quo Yeah, and they still there's some of them still say that it's like a lie in public It's like walking around in a lie. Okay. Anyway, talk about the polls talk number because these are these are shifting numbers now If you remember just as the story broke about this Ukraine phone call We had 37% saying that there should be any kind of mention of of impeachment inquiry 37% well those numbers have changed Washington the Washington Post poll 58% in support of an inquiry NBC 55% Quinnipiac 53% now those numbers are up and of that of those three things 18% of the Republicans on the Washington Post said, yeah That's let's let's let's look at this inquiry On the embassy 11% of Republicans and the Quinn Peck was 6% so of Let's see out of seven different pollsters Five of them were over 50% NBC 55% watching yet Washington Post was 58% CBS 55% so five out of seven were over the 50% percentile. That's that's a that's a shift That's a movement. It's not a movement, but it's a shift, you know, you know what that tells me though Just in the way like Washington Post of all of those media The most aggressive in terms of stories against Trump and the way they characterize things and Lo and behold, they have the highest percentage of people who want the inquiry want the impeachment and I say to myself You know, there's something to be drawn from that That's the Washington Post community Washington Post is aggressively against Trump and it gets feedback in its polls that are more aggressively Against Trump and so forth for the other ones And it's just it strikes me that there are there are communities around there are phenomena That are happening that we don't fully yet understand about how people react on a sort of mass Psychology basis to the messaging that has given them. There was some guy testifying in front of Ted Cruz It was on C-SPAN. He was the former President of the American Psychological Society and he said he had done a study of how The Russians Operated or could operate how Facebook operated or could operate on changing the results of an election One way just one way there are many ways But one way and this was really extraordinary. He said they could have in his analysis a huge effect on an election By sending a go to the polls and vote message Okay, to a certain list list say of Republicans and You know day before our election day go to the polls and vote and nobody would know that they didn't send it to the Democrats Just the Republicans or it was subset, right? Right does motivate people to go to the polls and vote Well, if you motivate one group and they go to the polls and vote you are effectively changing who goes there By a certain margin by a certain thing. He was talking about a differentiation of like 10 million people And I don't know if I believe this guy was in the Senate and Ted Cruz is not credible for me But but it is a catchy idea that with a very fine fine tuned almost elegant change in the way you message in In social media you can change at least theoretically and maybe really you can change the vote well 2016 the Senate report that just broke out the bipartisan Senate Senate report is said the Russians focus Strictly or almost exclusively on African-Americans Yeah, so is that wrong by itself? We haven't come to that You know we can make a rule says you can't focus only on African-Americans We can make a well, you can't make a rule that foreign powers. So not of course What about Facebook? Yeah, they go only the Democrats and say go go vote and not Republicans Is that can that be against the law? What I'm saying is that we don't really fully understand the mass psychology Well, we have the FCC rules have not caught up with television and radio or social media and come on Let's face it a lot of Americans get their news from Facebook. Yeah from all these other social media sources Where's the FCC rulings on on that as a net as entities It's not enough time. Yeah speaking of time. We're out of time But I wanted to ask you what you think we should be looking for next week. We're obstruction more name-calling more We'll see who shows up at some of these subpoenas We'll see if some of these records get you know finally transferred over We'll see if there's any court decisions on, you know the efforts to block subpoenas. Yeah, I remember there's an awful lot of litigation Yeah, we'll see more stuff in the pipeline. We'll see more whistleblowers come out from other parts of You know Department of Justice or maybe the State Department More unknown things like that things that will you know fill the airwaves and then we'll soon forget it because there's So much well on that point I would offer my thought I think next week We're gonna see more distraction. This isn't necessarily gonna be in Syria because I don't think you know Syria is a good thing for him But somewhere else something else somewhere some other place This is a reality show and he wants to keep us hopping He wants to keep populating those first 20 articles in all the papers and we'll see more distractions from a you know A foreign policy point of view. That's my prediction. All right. All right. Thank you, Tim Trump week Thank you, Jane. Aloha to you