7-27-26 Hour 2 - Youth, Socialism, and a return to Church

Fundamental administration, a once-feared and powerful regime

that relentlessly attacked America is finally been toppled. The former leaders have been removed and now being run by a gauged dictator facing internal divisions. But I, for one wish, Barry Weiss, all the best

at CBS News, should have one of a woman. A wonderful woman.

“I think he likes the change in tone over at CBS.”

And maybe he's trying to influence some others, like ABC and B.C. to follow course. We shall see. But I am now going to welcome in a friend, CJ Pearson, a top conservative influencer who actually started blogging.

I think it was the age eight in my right, CJ. You're right, Alex. Good morning, Tia. Thanks so much for having me. No, I appreciate it.

Yeah, I have a four-year-old, and I don't think she would quite be as aggressive in terms of her advocacy at age eight blogging. She does like the camera, though. So maybe that's a positive.

But should we follow in moments, but-- Yeah, well, great, great work you're doing. I wanted to get you on a little bit to talk

about a first about, you have a new pack.

And I saw Fox News did a huge ride up about it. It's called Next 250. Can you tell me a little bit about it and what your plans are? Definitely, well, I'll tell you, Alex.

You're being from the state of Georgia. I've seen firsthand how aggressively the left is working to court. But with young minority voters, two groups of people that the left has spent, and in order and amount of energy trying to gaslight with indoctrination,

with misinformation, and just downright falsehood, about this country, and direction that it should head.

“And I think that if we're going to ensure”

that Republicans continue to win not just in 2026, but in 2028, and in the years ahead, we've got to do the work not just to preach the choir, but to grow the congregation. And so what we're going to be doing is targeting swing state voters,

young people, minority voters, the truth, reaching them where they are, you know, throwing, compelling, in-real-life events, and actually registering them to vote, taking them out to the polls. Because I think that that is exactly

what we need to be doing more of. I think that this party, now more than ever, has a unique opportunity to reach groups of people that previously may have alluded to the Republican party, but what we saw in 2024 is that President Trump did not just

well with minority voters, but he did great with young voters at a rate that was unprecedented in terms of Republican candidate for president. - And he talked about using TikTok for that in social media. I know you're an expert in terms of online platforms.

Is that something you will incorporate with your pack? - Or how do you see that being best utilized? - Yeah, definitely. It goes back to reaching these voters where they are, and where they are, you know, for better for worse oftentimes

is going to be in that device that's in the Paula their hands all the time, right? And so we're going to be working with influencers and creators, but also to, yeah, we're going to be on platforms like TikTok, we're going to be on Instagram,

and we're going to take our message wherever we can. - Okay, yeah, CJ Pearson conservative influencer talking to me a little bit about his new pack. Next to 50, let me ask you, what about like ads? I'm guessing that'll be a focus.

Is there particular states you mentioned Georgia? I know that's a big passion for you, but like I've been talking a lot about Maine, what's going on there with Troy Jackson, just replacing Platner, Michigan seems a bit crazy.

- Yeah, yeah, so we're going to be primarily focused on Georgia. And the reason that we're focusing on Georgia,

I've always said, you know, we saved Georgia, we saved America.

The Senate majority is going to run through that entire state. We've got to get rid of John Ossoff, he is a professional and netbo baby who is somehow figuring out a way to fail his way to the top. And has never actually had a real job ever.

And I think that the people of Georgia deserve better were a conservative state. We deserve conservative representation. So we're actually pledging and committing to do $1 million in ads targeting young voters

in the state of Georgia to turn them out for our candidate. Because, you know, we talked about this in our conversation with Washington, Thomas Alex, but we can't rest in our walls, right? When it comes to young voters,

just because President Trump did well, doesn't necessarily mean that those same young voters or as in fools to show up in a midterm election, because a lot of people don't think about the midterms, but the midterms are just as important.

Us winning the house, us keeping the Senate, will ensure that President Trump doesn't get impeached again, or doesn't get, you know, these meritless investigations.

“And I think we've got to work hard to ensure”

that that doesn't happen. - Yeah, and one of the other things I think I read in the Fox News report on your pack is the targeting of campuses. And I remember, it seemed the left wing,

the progressive wing of the party of the Democratic Party, really took hold on college campuses in terms of these socialists, these DSA aligned candidates, a focus on foreign issues with like anti-Israel.

with what's going on with Iran right now. What's the plan in terms of going on to campuses? I know that was something Charlie Kirk was really known for.

“- Yeah, it's something that Charlie largely pioneered, right?”

And I think, you know, what we saw when we saw these kids, you know, progress, you know, college campuses, you know, supporting Hamas openly and braveingly, who were the kids that were actually pushing back on that and kind of bullying them, and a good kind of bullying, right?

It was the front guys who were saying, wait, no, we love America here. And if you hate Israel and you love Hamas so much, then, you know, go to Palestine if that place did exist, right? But what I'm saying is that we're gonna be on college campuses,

we're gonna be throwing these cool events, and we're gonna actually be partnering with celebrity rappers, like Soldier Boy and Laka Flaka. And inviting, you know, kids on campus, partnering with these fraternities and sororities,

basically throw these huge events

that are around voter registration. Now, I want you to receive Alabama. I was on the fraternity there. I gotta tell you that most fraternities are probably more conservative than a lot of your college Republican chapters

across the country, and, but those are the exact people that we need to turn out to vote, because they're not thinking about it. And if they have a reason to go to the polls, a fun and engaging way that really hasn't been tried

before our side, we think that we can get them there.

“- One of the things I think you and I talked about previously too,”

you mentioned some of the like positive aspect of bullying. I guess there was like what was, I think it might have been in North Carolina. There was a back and forth over the Palestinian flag being flown, and then, I guess for some fraught boys came in

and put the chook it down, put the American flag back up. What's your message? How do you counsel people to go ahead and do moves like that?

I guess, do you worry that some,

especially with some of the, I guess you could say like professors or those in the administration officials on these college campuses are pretty left-leaning themselves? You know, what about students who are worried about their grades

or being targeted because of this? Or even like we like to, we see a lot now with the law fair arrested for something. - Yeah, you know, it's really unfortunate, right? Because, you know, college campuses used to be a place

where we were having the open debates and dialogues and conversations and all too often. When any of these lumpies for professors or the very individual that are stifling, the free and very exchange of ideas and it's a shame.

And so what I would tell, you know, my peers and folks might age, I'm 23, those were so in college. I would say, you know that you are not alone. We are the sought majority, but I gotta tell you, I'm sick and tired of being the sought majority.

I think it's time for us to get a little bit routy, a little bit loud, because the left is loud, right? They don't make any attempt to hide what they believe in or, you know, to, you know, go out and probably say that all white people are racist

or that, you know, they should be out here transient children. They don't shy away from that. Now, of course, we see in New York City, they're openly calling themselves socialists.

Before they try to run away from that label and gaslight us and say, oh, how dare you call us the socialists? We're not a socialist. We're just progressive.

Now they're openly calling themselves that. The masses completely fall in off. And we ought to call them out for, but I think there's, there's, you know, courage and numbers. And I think, and I think that's exactly what we're going to build.

And one of the hard things about midterm elections is getting, you know, it's a base election. I guess a lot of people talk about general elections that you really, that's when you're independents in your middle matter.

But in terms of primary, it's really getting those that are the most energized. And we, you've talked about how loud they are on the left, the far left, they're going to be out voting, you know, how do we energize, I guess, your, your,

I get the mag of voters, but also in particular, the younger voters who are, you're hard to get them to turn out for a general, let alone a midterm. What issues C.J. do you think that those younger voters? I know you've done work with the RNC in the past, you know,

what do you think the right messaging for these Republican candidates are to try to motivate these, these young folks to get out and vote? Is it affordability? Is it health care?

Is it housing? Do they care about what's going on in Iran? Like gas prices? Like what, what do you think, really, something that they, they, you know, will motivate them to leave their dorm rooms

or their homes and go cast about it? - Yeah, definitely, I think when it comes to Gen Z, domestic issues are a win the day every single time, right? And I think that we've definitely have to have a plan when it comes to tackling affordability.

I think many people have that on their mind. I mean, cannot completely feed that issue to the left, right?

“I think that's why you see the success of these DSA”

aligned candidates and states like New York and cities like New York City. And it's in large part because of the fact that Democrats unfortunately are the only ones talking about affordability and while socialism

has never worked anywhere, it's been tried.

I think there are a lot of people who are just desperate for anyone that's talking about it and so they're willing to entertain whatever. And we've got to actually, I think make the case for why a conservative values and conservatism

is going to actually help whatever affordability issues they're tackling far more than some pipe dreaming sort of than by the likes of Zara and Mom Donnie. I also think housing is a big thing, you know, over the course of any American dream

That's in force, so you've been out of reach for a lot of people in my peer group.

“And I think that we've got to do more work”

to talk about how we're going to tackle that. Of course, President Trump's just, you know, the Republican-like Congress just passes housing bill that is seeking to address that and we need to message about that.

But also, too, there are a lot of wins that the president's put on the board for the American people, whether it's no tax on tips, no tax on overtime.

Incredible tax cuts that were in the big beautiful bill.

All of these things we got to talk about. I also tend to say that, you know, our messaging just needs to keep up with the president's wins because he's putting one on the board every single day, we just got to talk about it.

- Yeah, I think you're right. One of the things that I hear, you know, I'm a millennial. And still, there's people who talk about how much they spend on their student loans, one, which is keeping them from buying a house.

And you mentioned that being the American dream. I think for Gen Z voters, younger voters, like that housing issue is huge. I think I looked back in the 70s, a median cost for home was like somewhere between what was like 20 to 40,000.

Now it's around 500,000. I mean, the comparison is mind blowing, which goes to show why you have less home ownership for younger generations. And also delayed marriages for that matter of fact.

People are not able to buy a home, start a family. That was the last kind of thing I wanted to pick your brain on was you and I have also previously talked about a lot of reports and surveys of younger Gen Z returning to church, younger men too doing so.

And I've heard pre say that they're noticing it in their mass, across the board, really. And I don't know if there was, I just mentioned Charlie Kirk previously, but some of these reports started coming after his death

last September. If there was a push or renewal, then people going back and seeking their faith, the younger folks,

“what do you make of this and like, what should we take from it?”

- You know, it's incredible to see. You know, I think that the death of Charlie Kirk sparked not just a revolution in this country,

but a revival of faith in a way in which we've never seen before.

And there's so many young people that are leading that fight. You know, someone that some of your listeners may have seen come across TikTok, TikTok Kate. She's a Dana Perina's assistant. She's been leading this movement called Pizza to Peas,

where she actually organized like a big pizza party and a bunch of 20 somethings, like 100 or so of them, they all didn't go to mass right after. And so I think it's great seeing such a grassroots movement. They're bringing people back to the church.

It's great to see so many men, young men, helping lead that effort as well, because I think that, you know, call me a traditionalist, but I think that we're men go families will go.

And so I think if that is an indication of where things are to come or where things are headed, we may be in better shape than we think. - I agree, and I also think it's a good place. This has got a little bit of a side note,

but they talk a lot about younger people on social media and like how it damages mental health, you know, the constant scrolling, attention span, short videos, the return to church and even like church groups, support groups.

“I think is also a good mental health place”

for the younger generation in terms of where they can go and have their values, I guess, reinforced and not be drowned out, like you said, sometimes from the loud left that we see on college campuses and also transport onto these online platforms as well.

- You're right, and I think also it's here, you know, when one finds God they realize

that they're not the most important person in the world.

And they also have someone that they can lean on for understanding and in times of trouble, that they can go to see guidance to and trauma. So I think that overall, it's incredible, incredible to see and also to you, I think, prevents this,

we've seen so many studies too about like the loneliness epidemic that's happening with Gen Z, people that are afraid to go out and talk to people and meet people which is why you're seeing less relationships plus, you know, it's interesting.

Like you see these studies about like, oh, young people are drinking less and that's, I guess, great, that's a value, right? But what we also see is that they're just not going out. - You know, they're kind of like, you know,

addicted to their phones and always crawling up to me. Yeah, so we could have to see them going back to church and having that to me. - Absolutely, and hopefully your next 250 pack will help get them out even more.

Thank you, CJ Pearson, conservative and fluent surfers, taking time and answering some of my questions. (upbeat music) - Scrolling with Hayley. I'm Hayley Carania.

I scrolled with the homies here in the live chat 'cause there was a lot to scroll through on X on Instagram, on TikTok or cutting through the clutter. One hot take at a time. - Love seeing you all in the chat before the show.

I tried to jump in just a few minutes before and to say hello. I love the chat interaction. Thank you for helping. But I do it to get all the videos

and all the content that you won't find anywhere else.

- To search that up and I will be there.

Follow and listen on your favorite platform. (upbeat music) - Good morning. This is Alex Soyer, Washington Times, editor at Large in for my friend and mentor Chris Plant,

who is sailing in the Mediterranean right now on a much deserved vacation. I hope he and his crew are having a lot of fun. I am joined on the line by Matt Schlapp with his latest CPAC news.

I'm gonna pick his brain a little bit about what we're seeing here with the rise of socialism and then what he's hearing overseas when he's traveling and meeting in different countries.

Matt, thank you so much for taking time to talk with me. - Our is great to be with you. I'm just sorry that I'm not your mentor. - You are my mentor. You and Mercy both.

I appreciate you all so much.

“I enjoy always hearing what you have to say”

on Newsmax whenever we're on the right while together now. Here we are, WMAL. And we're gonna talk a little bit more about our favorite topic.

Socialism and what a danger it is. So I want to play a little clip and then get your reaction. It was from Fox News, Shannon Bream with DSA co-chair Megan Romer.

I believe it's our sixth cut. - So we're gonna put up on the screen a few of the things that are part of your platform. I want to ask you, just give me sort of a true false on these,

abolish the Senate. - True.

- Okay, replace the presidency and Supreme Court

as we now know them. - Yep. - Abolish ICE. - Absolutely. - Abolish borders and give Amnesty

to anyone currently in the US illegally. As a long-term plan, yep. Defund the Pentagon. - Absolutely. - Abolish prisons, at least in large part.

- Yeah, again, that is part of a long-term program, yeah. - Okay, so no prisons. Government or public ownership of most large corporations. - Yeah, absolutely. - Okay, so that seems a bit extreme, no.

- Who the hell is that? - That is the co-chair Megan Romer for the Democrat Socialist America. That is what they're platform and they are not shying away from it.

I know you've spoken about the dangers of socialism.

“We see, I think it's like half a dozen candidates”

now, though, from the Democratic Party, have won their primaries. Matt, over, you know, this platform. Let's jump right into this, 'cause, you know, when I was in school, we actually studied communism.

And it was the general impression that communism was a terrible and failed system. When I was in college, like the wall fell, and, you know, or just right after, and, you know, so like these were lessons we all knew.

We seem to have unlearn these lessons. As a society, here's the problem. They'll say, well, this is Democratic Socialism. We vote in people that nationalize industries, and we just make sure no one starts to death.

Everyone gets health care, everyone can have family leave. And it's very harmonious and it's been kind to people. You can see a shoe. The next step is what we're seeing in this country, the Marxism of ideas, the idea that you don't have freedom

of political thinking and speech. - Yeah. - I hear music, I hear music.

“- Yeah, I know, I think we're up against a hard break.”

I know that this is something you guys are fighting back at CPAC with two and your meetings overseas in the UK, Paris, I'm gonna have to hear more. Hopefully soon, about those efforts, since it seems like this whole socialism way

was coming from Europe and now they might be pulling back a bit and now we're left to deal with it. But thank you so much, Matt, for joining me for just a few quick minutes to pick your brain. We'll be right back after this.

(upbeat music) - Good morning, this is Alice Swayer, Washington Times, Editor-in-Large, and Legal Affairs reporter, wearing a couple hats, and in from my good friend, Ann Mentor Chris Plant, he is on vacation,

and I hope he is enjoying himself. I think it's a day at sea according to his little cruise schedule. So he's riding the waves, and y'all are riding the waves with me here, so the radio waves. I am very pleased to welcome in my main mentor.

The best person I've ever learned from in Washington also my boss, Stephen Dynan with the Washington Times. He served as our politics editor, our immigration reporter, he has, he knows the ends and outs of the capital from his senior reporting there,

and can kind of go behind the scenes and tell us a little bit about what's going on.

Hey, Dynan, thank you so much for taking some minutes

“out of your day to break down the latest courts”

and immigration news with us. - Hello, Alex, I'm blushing at that introduction. I don't think I will, I'll ever live that down. - I miss our days sitting together in the Senate Press Gallery.

That's where I learned the most about reporting, and also about Washington, really. You also, he would teach me which stairwells, the different lawmakers would use the most and how to kind of corner them to get them

to answer my questions. I also was able to kind of learn who's lowest, it's easy to target, but since you're experience on the hill, you and I were both there with Senator Lindsey Graham, the late Senator.

And there's, I kind of wanted to start with, there's a two-minute clip, recent news out of the weekend from CNN has, I guess it was audio that had not been released of Graham on the phone with Netanyahu, and I just kind of want to play that

for our audience, and then given your background covering Graham, I just was going to get your take of that real quick. I think it's cut five. - See? Hey, let's do it.

I lied to you. - Glad to be your friend. - Glad you are my friend.

- There's never before seen documentary footage

of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, gives us a rare look behind the scenes over his years long campaign to strike Iran. - Yep, okay. - Okay, all right, can I hear you now?

- Documentary filmmaker, Alex Holder, spent three years going behind the scenes with Senator Lindsey Graham before his death, recording more than 400 hours of remarkable video. - I'm gonna meet with the president this weekend,

I'm going down to Darrell. - The South Carolina Republican was a key ally in Trump whisperer when it came to the war with Iran. And this behind the scenes call with these, really Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,

Graham has seen strategizing about how to approach President Trump. Graham appears to suggest that he'll actually meet with Trump to try to convince him to join Israel's bombing campaign against Hezbollah and Lebanon.

- I'm gonna try to get him to join with Y'all and Lebanon to maybe fly somewhere with you. Would you like that? - And it's Netanyahu who appears to dissuade Graham.

“- I think you're out of point, but I've been busy about”

the other side of this for a second. - Mm-hmm. - Concentrating right now on the Obama. If we tell his father that we're going all the way, he's threatening us, but if we actually do it.

- Okay. - And they have no reason not to go all the way against us. - Okay. - Okay. - You can do it right there.

- Well, I'll, okay. Well, that's actually a good counsel. I'll put it out there as an idea.

We can always go back to it.

- And Graham, working both sides of the aisle, speaking shortly after with President Biden's former national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. - I taught him a big heat this morning. - Some of the people of Graham spoke with

by phone and told the Wall Street Journal, they did not know the calls were being recorded. - Okay, Diane, and I had to play that. One of the things I thought was interesting was Graham was always kind of a hawk,

of course, on Capitol Hill, and in the president's ear. Now he's not, he's not. And is that a missing voice or is there no shortage of hawks here in DC? What do you make of what we just heard?

- Yeah, so the two things Lindsey Graham is a fascinating character, just I loved covering Lindsey Graham. The Republican Party may not know, like you've heard lots of people talking about how much they will miss him on a personal level and whatnot.

But Lindsey Graham, you know, he was the Trump whisper. He was, he was had an incredible ability to take a position, you know, pretty, eventually, you know, usually he would end up in a pretty conservative position

and then explain it in a very every man way. Listening to him in the Senate Judiciary Committee just cut through, you know, a lot of the, a lot of the, the politics in what Dante looked.

Here's what we're gonna do, and here's why we're gonna do it,

and here's why it's a good idea. He was really incredible at that.

“I remember previous Republican president George W. Bush,”

it was Lindsey Graham and John McCain who Lindsey Graham learned at the feet of who talked President Bush into the surge that basically saved, you know, saved war effort in Iraq and produced the stability

that, you know, 20 years later, were enjoying. So as you said, Lindsey Graham has always been a hawk and always had presidential ears in terms of pushing for more aggressive action in these areas. So I'm not surprised at all that he was,

he was the one sort of pushing, pushing Israel, hey, go hard, go hard, go hard, because that was his role for years here, you know, for U.S. forces too.

I'm kind of pushing a Netanyahu,

“Netanyahu, almost putting the pause on that.”

When you brought up the Judiciary Committee, he was also one of the senators that would say to the Democrats, like I voted for all of your nominees. You know, that was one of the constant reminders of his willingness to cross the aisle

in respect to President's appointment. You don't have that as much on Capitol Hill.

There's just increasing, I always think the parties

are to need to go further and further into their own corners. And that's why we're seeing such split, even votes for confirmations of President's pointies and judicial nominations. - Elaine Kagan literally mentioned that

when she was appearing on Capitol Hill to defend the Supreme Court budget first time and nearly a decade that the justices that justices have come to testify. And that was what she opened with, was she said,

"Look, I remember a time when I was sitting in the Judiciary Committee." And it was Lindsey Graham, who brought down the house with his humor, you know, she's Jewish, and he says, "What were you doing on Christmas Day?"

“And she's like, "Well, I think you're talking”

about the Christmas Day bomber." I think she was talking about some case, like, "No." I just asked where you were doing on Christmas Day and she said, "Well, like most Jews, "I was at a Chinese restaurant

"and the whole room erupted in laughter." And it, you know, it just Kagan said, "Look, he managed to humanize and make me look funny. "That's not an easy thing to make me alien a Kagan looks funny "and he did that."

And then she went on to point out that he supported her nomination. And that, you know, and she pointed out how rare that has become now that you have that crossing of the aisle. But as you said, he was willing to do that.

He thought that the President's deserves some difference and he thought that qualifications, you know, mattered to some extent. There were limits to that. You know, he really, somebody who was just so far

outside the, the pale for him, he wouldn't support. And he, as you said, he used that, that ability

“to be in support of, I guess you could say,”

common sense, are mainstream nominees. So that when Lindsey Graham said, "I'm opposed to this," you know, it made you stand up and say, "Okay, this guy is beyond just sort of the normal realm "of politics, and there might be something else there

"that you might want to take a look at." And so, yeah, no, he was very much a, I wouldn't say a moderating force because he could push for positions that you might not consider sort of mainstream,

but he had an incredible ability

to just sort of be an honest broker for both sides. - Yeah, and his voice will be missing this week in on Thursday, I believe it is, where the acting attorney general Todd Blanch has a committee vote for his confirmation

with this in the judiciary committee. I know you've written for the Washington Times about a little bit of this leading up to this vote that the anti-weaponization fund that was struck as part of a settlement

with President Trump over the leaking of his IRS stock tax returns that this fund was supposed to be set up for those that were deemed by law fair from the prior administration, many like January six defendants,

for example, we're trying to go after that, but that's been a thorn in his side throughout this confirmation process. What's your read on that? And how do you think there's do a play?

- So there are, it's interesting, there are two Republican senators on that committee who are particularly ginned up over the weaponization fund. They are John Cornin and Tom Tillis,

Cornin from Texas and Tillis from North Carolina. They both happen to be a Republican who seats our up this year and who are no longer running for reelection. I say that Tillis announced early on, he was retiring. John Cornin had been running for reelection

until President Trump came and endorsed his opponent in the primary, Ken Paxton and helped usher John Cornin into an early retirement. And so two figures who don't have anything more to lose politically are demanding answers

and changes on the weaponization fund. So here's the deal, this weaponization fund, the President set it up as part of a settlement with his own administration, his own IRS and the justice department

that they would pay out $1.7, $6 billion to, as you said, the victims of the Biden Justice Department. It did not go over well with Democrats and many Republicans on Capitol Hill. The Justice Department quickly retreated from it,

Todd Blanch, the acting attorney general, who signed off on the settlement, said that it's more abundant to funk, it doesn't exist, it won't pay out any money.

The problem is that the settlement documents

still are sitting there in the court and those are Republican senators I mentioned. They are afraid that the President and his family who are also parties to the settlement have the avenue to go and ask a court

There is some chance that you could do that through the legal process and order the court to enforce that spending because it's part of the settlement. So even though the Justice Department says it won't spend the money, the President could in theory

sue and force the government to spend the money. So those two senators want either want a re-negotiation of the settlement to make it clear to basically erase the weaponization fund from the court documents so that it literally doesn't exist

or in the alternative for Congress to go ahead and pass legislation officially nixing the fund. That seems like a bigger lift. So the question is, can the Justice Department reach a deal with those two senators

for some sort of re-negotiation that the President will also accept because he's part of this. And so the question is how much does President Trump want Todd Blanche's attorney general, his full attorney general, and he willing to completely blow

“up the weaponization fund forever in order to get that?”

Yeah, and I mean, I know I looked back at his confirmation but when he was deputy attorney general and he had support from those, like a lot of these Republicans that we aren't sure, like Kornin, Tillis, Collins, even up for reelection.

This could be an issue for her. Cassidy's been someone to vote against President Trump's wishlist out of past conflicts between the two men. And another senator who has no more political skin given that he's lost his primary two.

Exactly. So that'll be one to watch. I know you also your wheelhouse, your expertise is a lot of immigration focus. And so I know you have a couple of stories on the Washington

Times website right now. Ice near 600,000 deportations since Trump took office. Was it the administration's goal, I think,

in the first year to try to deport a million?

Was that right? That was, yeah.

“So Steven Miller told a laid out that goal that he wanted to see,”

maybe not in the first, he wanted the pace to be a million a year. And they are, you know, in this, the issue is, how do you count that? How do you count deportations? The Homeland Security says, oh, we're way past that

if you include self deportations, people who have less the country on their own without an actual formal removal by Homeland Security. If you only go by formal removals, you're at a level, they're basically at a pace of somewhere between 405,000

and 100,000 years. So less than half of that million goal, they sort of settled into that. If you include, they include a third category. So there's formal removals, the actual full deportation

where there's a court order or some other order that if you return after that, it becomes a felony crime. So those are the formal deportations. They're the self deportations. That's sort of the lowest level.

There's actually an interim level, which is a voluntary return,

“which is under pressure, but no actual formal deportation”

order, you go home and it's good to voluntary return. If you add those in, you get maybe another 100,000 or so per year.

But still, we're far short of that million goal they said.

The issue is that we saw with the former Homeland Security. Oh, I think we might have lost, Dynan. Oh, he was on a roll. He was on an immigration roll for us. Yeah, so one of the things is it's hard to calculate

these deportations in terms of the administration's numbers, versus how to count also the self deportations. I know like months ago, they said that they were over a million self deportations, and I don't know if that would then play into their yearly goal.

Dynan also had an interesting story. I was going to try to pick his brain on. It was about DHS issuing. I think it was 84 billion, 84 billion, and fines to illegal immigrants who wait to go home.

So I guess there's a mechanism. My understanding from reading his reporting, I was hoping he could clarify it a little bit more. But there's a law back from the 1990s that allows, you know, fines for these illegal immigrants.

And that it would be up to 84 billion that, I guess,

taxpayers could collect back. And so, oh, he's back on the line. So he can explain this a little bit more than much better than I can, after all he is my editor. Dynan?

Yeah, that 84 billion. That's a stunning number, isn't it? Yeah, so it turns out if people who are under deportation orders but refuse to go, the government can find them hundreds of dollars a day for not going.

And it's rarely been done. The first company administration tried it a little bit, and then backed off of it, this Trump administration's gone full bore on it to the point of, more than 100,000 people who are defying these deportation orders

have now been assessed fines and the total amount because it goes, it accumulates. The total amount is $84 billion. There are people who have $1.8 million fines assessed against them.

And the whole point is, you know, this is the carrot

That's part of the stick, hey, if you don't go,

“we're going to sock you with this mass of fine.”

By the way, if you go on your own, the self deportations, you've reported about the sale. If you go on your own through the self deportations, we'll pay for your plan ticket and give you a, it was originally a $1,000 vote and now it's even more,

they'll pay for your flight. So they're really, really pushing for the carrot and stick approach to trying to get people out of the country. In particular, the people who came during the Biden administration, and their people who've been here 30 years,

they're going to be tough for the administration to get to. But they thought they had a real chance of getting rid

of some of those, you know, three, four, five million

who arrived during the Biden administration. - Well, and Diane, and if it was me, I'd much rather be self-deported to my home country than on a plane to El Salvador for a prison. - Yeah.

“- You know, I guess if you have to choose,”

but thank you so much for taking time to chat with me. We are up against a break. This is Alex Swear, Washington Times, with Steven Dining. Also, Washington Times, we'll be right back. (upbeat music)

- Hello, this is Alex Swear, editor at Large, the Washington Times, in Brooklyn to his own vacation. Posing through the Mediterranean, and hoping he brings back some souvenirs for all of us.

That would be very fun and nice. Probably, I haven't been overseas in many years. I prefer COVID actually, so I'll have to text him from my tip about that. But I have had a fun time sitting in,

and I'm honored to replace him to Diane tomorrow. And I've had a great guest lineup too.

“I think that there's been some real good information.”

We just had Steven Dining from the Washington Times on talking some immigration numbers, 600,000 deportations since Trump took office. Looks like they're also DHS is looking to try to find some of these illegals

to collect back, I think it's 84 billion in fines.

That would be great for taxpayers. He also spoke a lot about the anti-weaponization fund that it seems to be tripping up Todd Blanch's confirmation process. And Blanch's confirmation is up

and before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, they'll vote whether to send his nomination out to the full Senate or not. And there's a couple senators on there, Senator Coronan, Senator Tillis, who have lost primaries

aren't up for reelection that have conflicts with President Trump, who may want to be a thorn in the President's side here and object to his appointment of Todd Blanch. So it's something we're going to watch.

I have Mike Davis coming up later. The show, he is someone who has followed this confirmation process very closely with the Article III project. So I'll pick his brain on that.

So something to look forward to. And we have Scott Pressler with early vote action joining us after the break, stay tuned. [MUSIC PLAYING] Scrolling with Hayley, I am Hayley Carania.

I scrolled with the homies here in the live chat because there was a lot to scroll through on X on Instagram on TikTok, cutting through the clutter, one hot take at a time. Love seeing you all in the chat before the show. I tried to jump in just a few minutes before to say hello.

I love the chat interaction. Thank you for helping. But I do it to get all the videos and all the content that you won't find anywhere else, scrolling with Hayley. Just search that up, and I will be there.

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