Connect with The Main Event on social media! Follow Ed on Twitter @EdHoffman, where he tweets about current events all week long – and, like the show on Facebook at Facebook.com/TheMainEventEdHoffman. You can also call the new listener hotline to leave Ed a voicemail and tell him what you think of the show! Call The Main Event listener hotline at (855) 640-2092. Here’s a preview of this week’s show!
It Only Takes One
This week’s show opens with Ed’s thoughts on the allegations against actor Kevin Spacey. Not defending Spacey, Harvey Weinstein or anyone else who has been accused of sexual assault, Ed says it would have been much better if one person had spoken up years ago. “If one person jumps in, and another stands next to them, and another stands next to them…that’s a movement.” He likens it to other current events:
“President Obama decides to trade five Taliban and a trunk full of cash for Bowe Bergdahl who deserted his post and went to live with the Taliban, this week he gets off with a dishonorable discharge, and everybody involved with that got away with it. Why isn’t someone standing up? Why is it okay that Lois Lerner and the IRS misused their power against conservatives to take away their tax-exempt status? Why is it okay that Hillary Clinton has gotten away with all this stuff we’ve been talking about for weeks (Uranium One)? If something like that (sexual harassment) is going on in your life, stand up.”
Another Terror Attack – Thanks, Diversity Visa Lottery!
On Tuesday, eight people were killed in lower Manhattan when 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov mowed them down with a pickup truck he rented from a Home Depot in New Jersey. “Democrats are calling for the banning of Home Depot rental trucks, because they kill people all by themselves,” Ed says. On his 2013 marriage license, the Uzbekistan-born Saipov’s occupation is listed as “truck driver” and he drove for Uber in New Jersey. “The company says he passed their background check,” Ed says. “Don’t you feel good about taking an Uber now?”
In regards to the Diversity Lottery Program visa, Saipov’s “golden ticket” into the United States, President Trump is ready to end the program immediately. Did you know that this program enabled a chain migration effect for Saipov, leading to him bring another 23 people into the country with him? After President Trump said that this week, ABC News contacted a government official source who confirmed it – and, it was confirmed that two of those people were being monitored for terrorist activity. “The only vetting they got was ‘they’re friends,’ just like when Sayeed Farook’s wife was able to come in on the fiancé visa,” Ed says. “And 14 people in San Bernardino ended up dead.”
What Really Happened in Las Vegas? It’s Time to Tell the Truth
“Now would be a good time for them to start giving us more information,” Ed says, “because just this week, three survivors of the Las Vegas terror attack have unexpectedly died.” Survivor Kymberley Suchomel of Apple Valley, California raised serious questions about what really happened on her (now private) Facebook page, stating that she wanted to organize a reunion of other truth-seeking survivors – and the 28-year-old woman died five days later. But Suchomel isn’t the only Vegas shooting survivor to die mysteriously – in fact, she isn’t even the only one to die this week. Dennis and Lorraine Carver of Murrieta, driving out of their La Cresta community, died when their Mercedes crashed into a gate and burst into flames. “I don’t know what happened, but if it walks like a duck…” Ed says. “Kymberley tried to stand up, and someone didn’t want her to. Maybe it was the same for this couple.”
Mueller Indicts Manafort, Donna Brazille (Kind of) Stands Up
This week, Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted two former members of the Trump campaign, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. The men were charged with money laundering and making false statements; they remain on house arrest. Here’s the problem: These charges pertain to things they did in their consulting business prior to 2015. None of the charges have anything do with Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election, which is what Mueller is supposed to be investigating.
However, indicting Manafort and Gates may also be Mueller’s way of pressuring them to talk about their dealings with this guy: George Papadopoulos, who’s 30 years old and was a volunteer for the campaign (not a “senior advisor” like CNN wants you to believe). Here’s what happened with Papadopoulos. This is all according to court documents:
- Papadopoulos knew a foreign professor who said he was in contact with well-connected people in Russia.
- In April 2016, the professor told him Moscow had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of e-mails.
- Papadopoulos told the Trump campaign about this, and repeatedly pressed them to backchannel with the Russians the professor told him about. One of these Russians was a woman Papadopoulos believed to be Vladimir Putin’s niece.
- Papadopoulos emailed “a high-ranking Campaign official” in May 2016 with the subject line “Request from Russia to meet Mr. Trump.” The email said: “Russia has been eager to meet Mr. Trump for quite some time and have been reaching out to me to discuss.” The campaign official he emailed is believed to be Paul Manafort.
- Papadopoulos’s file also states “the official forwarded this email to another campaign official” without Papadopoulos included, writing, “Let’s discuss. We need someone to communicate that DT (that’s DONALD TRUMP) is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal.” The person that Manafort forwarded to is believed to be Richard Gates.
So that’s the real reason Manafort and Gates were indicted this week – not because of money laundering in their business, but because Mueller wants them to tell him if there was ever any contact between the campaign and these Russians. They can thank this kid George Papadopoulos for that. “I think this is a smokescreen to keep our eyes of Hillary Clinton,” Ed says, “and in Donna Brazille’s new book, she just admitted the DNC was in the tank for Hillary and she didn’t like it but didn’t want to ‘kill the patient’ – she didn’t want to stand up and say anything about it.”
The Tax Reform Ball is Rolling
In keeping with their goal to get the Tax Cut and Jobs Act to the President’s desk before Thanksgiving, House Republicans unveiled their tax reform package on Thursday. Remember, this is still a framework and it can’t go to the President’s desk until it passes the Senate – but as of this week, this is how the House bill looks:
- It would reduce number of tax brackets from 7 to 4: 12 percent, 25 percent, 35 percent and 39.6 percent.
- It would raise the child tax credit to $1,600 from its current maximum of $1,000. Ed: “I don’t mind this, but I don’t like when people get back more than they paid in and the rest of us have to pay everything.”
- It would preserve popular retirement savings plans like 401(k)s and Individual Retirement Accounts (remember, last week the media stoked fears that Republicans wanted to take away your 401 k).
- It would allow taxpayers to write off up to $10,000 in state and local property taxes.
- But it would also cut the mortgage interest deduction in half. While it would maintain the current deduction of $1 million in mortgage debt for current homeowners, that cap would be slashed to $500,000 for newly purchased homes. “The National Association of Realtors is going crazy…people don’t buy houses because they’re getting a tax write off. People buy houses because they want to own. The tax write off is just a bonus.”
Catch The Main Event at…
Inland Empire:
- AM 590 The Answer (KTIE), Saturdays at 9:30 AM/ 9 PM & Sundays at 4 PM
- 1490 Smart Talk (KMET), Sundays at 11 AM & Mondays at 3 PM
Los Angeles:
- AM 870 The Answer (KRLA), Sundays at 3 PM
San Diego:
- AM 1170 The Answer (KCBQ), Sundays at 7 AM
Internet radio:
- Red State Talk Radio’s Encore Channel, Sundays at 1 PM Pacific
You can also get on-demand podcasts of the show right here on the Podcast page, as well as on Soundcloud or iTunes.