 First, 2020. It's Wednesday, 11 o'clock a.m. And that can mean only one thing. It's Trump Week. I'm Tim Apachele, your host. And with me this day is the following. Yes. Hello everyone. We have Winston Welch, Stephanie Dalton, and Cynthia Sinclair. Thank you everyone for joining Trump Week today. Serious topics. The title of this show is Russia Pays Cash Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops, Trump's Shameful Silence. Cynthia, you know, here we are. You know, we've got Donald Trump, who's basically had given up on COVID-19. We had starting June 1st, Donald Trump basically sent in troops to break up a peaceful demonstration with tear gas rubber bullets in front of the White House. I mean, June has just been a calamity of events for Donald Trump. And as of this weekend, the news story broke that Russia has been paying a bounty or the GRU has been paying a bounty to the Taliban for the death of each and every U.S. soldier they can kill. And when this story broke, the first response from Donald Trump was, I don't know anything about it. I didn't hear about it. They didn't tell me anything about it. And then the story has morphed into, well, nothing was really verified or there wasn't credible. The sources weren't credible. Therefore, Donald Trump was never breached. Well, now we've morphed into today's statement from Donald Trump about this story. And that is, I think it's a hoax. Here we go again with the H word, hoax, the gaslighting of America, the gaslighting of veterans and the shameful silence of Donald Trump's inability to stand up to Putin for whatever a multitude of reasons. But we'll find out about that someday, maybe when he leaves office here in January. The bottom line is he cannot believe his own intelligent agencies. He has to think that Russia is never guilty of anything. And the bottom line is the shameful cast bounty to kill U.S. troops never appeared on his radar, nor did he lift a finger or pick up a phone to call Putin out on this once and all for any of it. What were your response or what were your kind of your initial reactions when this story broke? Well, I put stock in it. I believed it. It sounded credible. Outrage, of course, because of his reactions and the things that he's saying and how it's so obvious that he is protecting Putin over our own troops, which to me is treason. And there's no other, I mean, it is the exact definition even of treason. It's funny you should mention that because I think Congressman Moulton, who was a former Marine, said exactly that it was aiding and abetting the enemy. You know, I heard from a guy whose name is Paul Rykov. He's an Iraq vet, and he does a lot of work with veterans. And he said, if you're not angry, you're not paying attention. And I thought, okay, that sounds... I was wondering how this was going to play with veterans, either currently serving or veterans that are no longer serving in the military forces on their reaction. And unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to talk to anyone who has been in the military or currently in the military. Well, this guy had a lot to say about that because when he was being interviewed last night on Chris Cuomo, and it was really something to listen to him saying, you know, and Chris said, well, I thought the veterans loved Trump. I thought the military loves Trump. And he goes, not anymore. Maybe in 2016, because he talked so much about wanting to support our troops. But in the long run, they have seen money taken away from the military projects like schools and things that are important on different bases that he's taken the money away from to build the wall that doesn't exist. So they're starting to really turn around. You know, he embarrassed them horribly when he, you know, withdrew everybody without any notice at all and left the Kurds just standing there alone to get, you know, moved out or slaughtered. So this is more than just this one thing in my mind. It is all of this. Is this the one that pushes the the milk or the veterans over the edge as far as their inability to support Donald Trump in the 2020 election? I would hope so. And Paul Reikoff certainly thinks so. And he's an Iraq veteran that works with veterans. So that's his thing. And he said they are coming around. And that's when he said, if you aren't angry, if they aren't angry, they're not paying attention. Good point. All right, Cynthia, thank you. And Stephanie, your reactions and or comments and or suggestions as to where veterans and the American public go from here with this statement that a cast bounty against our U.S. troops is nothing more than a hoax cooked up by again, the media. If not a dereliction, if not treason, it's dereliction of duty at the least as as Biden pointed out. And as the evidence is there that it had been included in his briefing books and in other communications, including evidently one from Bolton, the author of the novel, who didn't say it, but it's inferred that that was one of the classified items that was removed from his his review transcript review possible. I don't know how strong that but I think there's an an inference that that actually was a topic he had a long discussion about. You think Bolton is allowed to get on CNN or any of the Fox News and confirm whether or not he briefed the president about this back in March of 2019? I have seen reruns of interviews with him but not a recent live one and he doesn't answer that issue, that topic directly. But he does talk about having covered many topics and the expectation that he would be familiar and that it wouldn't just be an expectation for him, but that people like John Bolton and other people in the White House would be saying things. So he has the written paper, the booklet, he's got the presentation by the general who, who he's got all the staff coming back over the high. Well, let's let's also look at this though. I mean, okay, the first response was, oh, I didn't hear about it. They never told me that was response number one. Then it morphed into, oh, wait a minute. It was incredible. So therefore it didn't rise to the level of the president of the United States. But there's things that counter, you know, that are counter to that. And that is, well, if it wasn't credible, why did they call England and warn England and Britain about, you know, putting their troops on notice about this, this cash bounty, because it wasn't just specific to US troops, but also for those of serving for England. Number two is the CIA has a kind of their own private little magazine that's not in wide publication. You don't, you won't see it next to People's Magazine at the stores, but they actually wrote about this in their publication. So how could it make it that route and never up the chain to the commander in chief? He's been privileged, Tim, since the get-go. He's been privileged with giving the ordinary grace period for a new guy. But the privilege has been extended to him beyond anything that I, as a senior English teacher at a high school here, or a first grade teacher at commandment, I would not accept this. I don't know. And also none of us can put that forward because ignorance of the law is never any excuse for any of our own transgressions. So we are punished for that. People are punished for that. In addition, I'm a Navy brat from birth and also as a dependent wife and also a person that served a few months or not in the green zone. I, as a civilian government person, but I, that is not an acceptable response to any question, any question, whether it's what's going on in the hallway to, did you, did you know about this? I don't know. Answer is not acceptable. It's dereliction of duty and the responsibility to live up to the expectations of the critical role he has. Well, you know, we have over, I'm sure it's up to 19,000 documented lives from this president since day one of his presidency. We have a credibility problem, obviously. So I'm not sure how many people buy the fact that Donald Trump never heard about it. I certainly don't. And I even think that a lot of GOP members don't believe that he didn't hear about it and wasn't briefed about it. Certainly wasn't his paper briefing, but we know that he doesn't like to read. So the question is, was he actually ever sat down specifically about this item and told verbally about this cast bounty to kill troops? I don't know that the answer to that question, but I pretty confident that it wasn't as written briefings, which he has an obligation as president of the United States to review every day, not just occasionally, not just, well, I need pictures or I need someone to tell me about it because I don't like to read. Well, as Bolton said in his interviews that he turns a blind eye. Those were Bolton's words. He turns a blind eye to topics that he doesn't want to attend to or are distracting from his main focus at the time. So he was suggesting that this was just one of those that didn't get his attention. He didn't appreciate the dreadful consequences of that for the innocent people who are already putting themselves in the line of danger, much less not knowing about, there's a whole bunch of other stuff hanging over your head. So you need to be warned about that too and protected from it. Do you agree with Cynthia that this will be the straw that broke the camels back as far as support from veterans for Donald Trump? Yes, I would think Cynthia is on the right track there. But I think in general, we're in a crumbling, it's his facade is crumbling. His facade of support is starting to crumble of the people that we never knew why they were there anyway. And maybe it won't crumble within the 30%. But then again, so many of those people have served the nation in the military. So they may have to do some double think. And I wouldn't be surprised if as Cynthia says, it's going to take the whole group away. It's possible, but the cult rolls. All right, Stephanie, thank you. Winston, let's let's just move fast forward. We know that the gang of eight is going to be briefed tomorrow. Let's fast forward and say absolutely been confirmed. The president knew he knew back in March of 2019 or possibly, you know, even, you know, let's say maybe it was February of 2020. But he knew for a fact, and he could not, he would not lift a finger and call Putin and say, what do you think you're doing? Knock this off. And we're going to do something about it. We'll either expel the diplomats out of out of Washington, DC, or or worse yet, we'll come up with some other sanctions. He can't, he can't do that. He is not within his wheelhouse to do that. Again, let's assume that this has all been, you know, ironed out and he knew and he knew all about it. And he couldn't do anything about it with Putin. Where do we go from there Winston on this story? Well, you know, the thing is, this is sort of an issue where he has said, what did his press secretary say that there were uncorroborated information or there was intelligence on this side and that side. And so we, we can't know for sure whether this was true. So that is the story that they are going to stick with. I don't think, I agree with, with Stephanie that the, that the support is starting to crumble around the edges. But I don't think that anything, when you said, is this it, we've thought that since before he assumed office, is this finally going to be it? Can he say this? I mean, he just came out now just saying Black Lives Matter is a hate speech. In the last story, he mentioned something. We need, this show should be hourly, not weekly, when you're trying to figure out what's going on here. I don't have it in me Winston. I don't either. Any more than we are. No, and we, like I said, we need more, more bunnies and puppies. But right now, that's not going to solve the problems at hand. I don't think anything is going to really affect the core base. I think that they will believe whatever they want to believe. And he is, represents something else that we cannot understand. And we have to, at this point, try and look beyond down the road, six months for the reconstruct, the new reconstruction of America. How do we get everyone on the same page? How does, Joe Biden say, I'm going to be the president of everyone. I'm not going to take away your guns. If you don't want healthcare, don't sign up for it. Or whatever it is that he has to say that assuages those folks. Well, it's not just what he says, but also his loyal administration around him. I mean, I feel really kind of bad for the press secretary because they're forced into a box. She was forced to basically quote, to say the following. Donald Trump is the most informed person on planet earth when it comes to threats we face. I mean, really, it's big, sadly, and you know, anyone who takes that job on the earth, really the biggest one, he's the best health, he's the most handsome, you know, he's got the most stable genius that one's always stressed of course, and has the longest neck ties with anybody on the planet. I guess what I'm trying to get to here, Winston, is this is so outrageous. It's so outrageous, but the commander in chief so outrageous things, Tim, that I don't think it matters. I don't think it matters with people that count that there are his supporters. And I'm sorry to say that, but I just don't see it moving. Even when it comes to the paid assassinations of our US troops via bounty from Russia. He is dismissing that and saying I don't have any proof of that. And he could say Putin told me this is not true. And he has said that before about things from the Russian president. Well, remember in Helsinki, he said, I see no reason why he would be, you know, saying otherwise. He believed Putin about interference in the 2016 election versus multiple intelligent agencies saying, yes, Mr. President, they are highly involved in the election and meddling in the election. That's right. And, you know, maybe, maybe what it is, is that the military will be tired of being used as a pawn in this over the way they were dragged out in front of that for the church display, holding the Bible and all of that. And then maybe they're saying now, well, here's a real thing that's putting our troops at risk. And the American public is going to resonate with this. Like Stephanie said, there's a lot of people who've served the country and they really, maybe this is going to rub on the wrong way. Maybe this is going to be it. I don't know. I just, it's, it's that everything is over these last three and a half years. We keep thinking, is this it? Is this it? Is this going to be the thing that goes on 24 hours later? It's the next whatever when you think, oh my gosh, I can't believe that just came out. Is that going to be the thing? So I think we're just going to have to muddle through until the end. And I'm not sure it's ever going to be over once he starts at the America one network, when he gets out of office. I'm glad you mentioned that. I'm going to actually switch gears here. And I'm going to go to Cynthia on this one. But thank you for that comment, because Cynthia, does Donald Trump want to be president for a second term? Or does he just want to get out of the office, start his Trump network, and make a whole lot of money with his loyal 40% base, because he seems to be taking every position known to mankind, politically, at least, that is in the minority of polling, whether it be the black black live matter and the, you know, protection of the Confederate statues, or a whole host of things that he's taken a position on. And that is, again, 70, 75% in opposition to what other Americans want or think. Why is he taking these extreme positions and knowing full well that's not going to help him on election day? Well, he's always taken these extreme positions. It's not like this is something new. He's always been completely in white supremacist corner. And all of his decisions that I have seen anyway, look like they're, that's why they're there. That's why he's doing it is to pander to his base. His base is mostly filled with white supremacists. Okay, well then this must be a case of mathematics. Let's say his loyal following is 38 to 40% hands down, which is quite a bit. Let's say the opposition is 60%. So is he counting on the fact that he's going to count on that 40% being activated and engaged and actually show up and vote versus the 60% which may be complacent. Think that they got it in the bag for the election and that necessarily vote or go to the polls to vote. And he's hoping that that that numbers actually win the day versus the positions he takes. Numbers win the day. Now it's funny that you would say it like that because you know me and you know how I am about election security and paper ballots, mail-in ballots, some sort of tangible proof of who voted and how they voted. He's going to cheat. We know this. So that's why every time I hear a poll, I think so what? They don't mean anything. He was behind in the polls in 16 too. So the polls don't really tell us the important stuff behind this because what's important behind this is that he can control the numbers in a few key states is all he needs too. And if he can control the numbers in those key states, it doesn't matter how we vote. It doesn't matter one single bit. Of course, I'm not telling people not to vote. Don't get me wrong. What I'm trying to do is get people really fired up about just absolutely bothering all the representatives so much that it has to happen. Call Washington. Call everybody. Make their inboxes so full of we want paper ballots that they have to do it because otherwise we have absolutely no way of knowing if our votes really count because he's all righty. Thank you very much. Go ahead. I'm sorry. In my dreams, you know, that question you asked about him maybe wanting to leave and go, you know, to the one network and make all his money and do all that in my dreams, he would want to leave. But I don't think that's his plan. He's followed the dictator's path so far. I don't think he's going to stop now. Okay. Thank you. Hey, Stephanie, Cynthia mentioned polls. The Pew National poll last night stated that Biden's at 54%. Trump is at 44%. There's a 10% delta on that. The suffix poll had Biden at 53%. Donald Trump still at 40% or 41% or at 12% delta there. And most shockingly, it was 19% of GOP think that Donald Trump is on the right track. That number has fallen from the 80% tile down to 19%. That's jaw-dropping. What do you think? I mean, giving this polls in Donald Trump's extreme positions that he's taking about statements about Black Lives Matter is, you know, it's a violent, hateful group and there's a symbol of hate and or that the bounty for troops, troops being assassinated, killed is nothing more than a hoax. These extreme statements, the abandonment of COVID-19 and his interest of trying to, you know, quell this horrible virus. I mean, he's just taking every position that's not going to win him votes. But the polls seen this, again, kind of, these are pretty wide margins so far. Right. Well, I think that eyes on the prize, we got to keep working to make sure this is a fair and equitable and successful election and follow all the rules as Cynthia points out. But you have to realize that as I have been reading, he has asked everybody on the globe, planet, to help him win. So not only does he ask for help from the Chinese dictator, premier, president, whatever he is, I should know, but the president of China for help with the election, he's done that all the way around, including part of the call that got him impeached. That's not only one request he's made. He's also asked the Chinese president to nominate him for the Nobel Prize for his work with the North Korean leader. And he saw that that rose to the level and he asked the premier in China to nominate him for that. So he's constantly been working on this because he has not done one day of work in the White House. All he has done from anything I can see or read about is get ready for the next election, do the money making, do whatever he can with his family there and other people, and continue to make sure his coffers are filled. He's got tremendous problems with some of his golf courses. He's not ready to go. He hasn't made enough money yet. He's still working on that. So I think yes, he wants to be elected, but it's not to be our leader, our uniter, our president. It's not to do that. It's to do the things that he has been doing all along, which do not include any work for this country. Well, okay, I understand that, but then he must be all by himself because even now some of the Republican senators are speaking out, particularly his abandonment of COVID-19 and trying to get that under, you know, square it around so that our numbers start falling again. You know, Mitch McConnell, Hannity, Lamar Alexander, a lot of state governors. I mean, they're all coming out saying, you know, we really got to try to reverse the deaths in the cases here. And so does Donald Trump become his own pariah? Probably. I think that's an interesting point because he doesn't pay attention to any of his advisors over the course of the three and a half years. He's had wonderful advice. He's been briefed. He's been given all the guidance. A person in that position could long for. He doesn't take any guidance. He doesn't listen. And this is one of the reasons we have the possibility of a new president coming in and actually getting all of the expert help and not just relying on his own knee jerks and intuition. So this is one of the hoaxes that he's played on all of this because he's the only one in the White House that's running the show. This is my insight that has. Well, as Jay Fidel used to say, a sole proprietorship of government leadership. Exactly. He is running the entire federal government of the United States. And I think that this is true. And if he wanted to be anything after the president, he would surely be willing to do Supreme Court justice even without a law degree. So what I'm saying is, are these, where does it get to the ridiculousness of all of this all along that he's gotten away with so much that actually none of us would allow our children or students or whoever to do. And I just wanted to say also that with Kayleigh, the press secretary and with the attorney general, you know, George Washington University wrote the attorney general a letter and other graduates there from his law school asking not to him to change his action. So as not to mismatch his degree experience there. And now this Kayleigh is a Harvard graduate. When is Harvard going to write the letter? The liking and saying these extreme unbelievable statements is not the quality we expected to come out of our experience with her. Somebody really needs to step up because that that just reduces the value of those schools. That has impact. Well, yes. And good luck trying to find work after the election if Donald Trump doesn't retain the seat because they're not going to be hireable. Winston, we're almost out of time. I, by the way, everyone, I hate to say it, but our predictions for this week that we made last week have been overshadowed by the news events that have taken place. And so Winston, without further ado, what do you think is going to happen this coming week? Where do we go this week? It's impossible to say where we're going in the next hour, but all we can say is that we just, I think we have to start envisioning our nation after Trump and coming together as a sane, kind, good people. I mean, you saw the villages down in Florida, the seniors driving by and telling each other very nasty things and yelling, oh, it was insane. We got to move beyond that. We have to come back together, get the best of what our nation is. It is inside all of us. If you just look at the last four years and think, is this a better country today than it was four years ago? The answer or then a week ago or a day ago, the answer is pretty clear. And I hope most people will wake up to that fact regardless of if they support this man on some certain issue or idea that they will come together and say the damage is simply not worth it no matter how you slice it or dice it. All right. Well, you get the last word on this. Thank you very much for joining us on Trump Week. I appreciate it. Winston, Stephanie, Cynthia, Mahalo. I'm Tim Appichell, your host. This is Trump Week. We'll see you next Wednesday, 11 o'clock, Trump Week.