Episode 4449: Tony Katz Today Hour 2 - 03/12/26

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1:05Live from the heartland, and the crossroads of America. It's Tony Katz today. See Pack is the conservative political action conference. I have been a bajillion times, and when I go, I get the opportunity to broadcast from there. And I am there on Radio Row, and people coming by, and we get to talk to members of Congress, and this one, and that one, and get to see small friends, and get an idea of a feel for where the movement is. Certainly, it's not the same considering what it is the turning point USA has done, which is not did out of the park when it comes to the younger set.

2:05Tony Katz, Tony Katz today, good to be with you, good to be here, live streaming YouTube, come check it out, go to youtube.com, Tony Katz, and subscribe and be a part of it, get in the chat room. Lovely people are the kittens in the chat room, you check it out for yourself, and of course find everything at Tony Katz.com. It used to be a longstanding joke, and it actually was a matter of contention amongst some conservatives, that the 20-something set, the college age set that would show up at CPAC, would show up in either guys and suits that didn't really fit. And the girls were wearing as many of a mini skirt as humanly possible. It was overdone, and people, it would be of constant comments, people like, how dare you comment to go on this? And others would be like, are you watching what's happening? This is insane. It was a show. It was a show, but it was the conference. And then turning point USA came along,

3:08and they said, no, no, no, this is how it's done. And damn, well, I have not gone yet to one, because it just hasn't worked out for my timing. It is true that they really did grab a lot of that audience share. It was younger, hipper, fresher, all these kinds of things. And CPAC over the last years has certainly waned. But the purpose of CPAC was about the idea of where is conservatism, the conservative political action conference. That is the question in front of us as they announced that Steve Bannon was going to be one of their speakers. And I start where I start, match lap and CPAC should disinvite Steve Bannon. Now, they've also said that Megan Kelly is a speaker with her recent commentaries about Israel and crazy talk. Why in the world would you do it?

4:14But if you want to argue big tent for whatever reason, you're going to argue big tent, right? If you're going to make that argument, then I guess you're going to have Megan Kelly. Maybe it's a understanding that I'm still not impressed. I am still not past the debate performance. I'm not going back to Trump in his first run for president. Why in the world would I think that her presentation was okay, valuable, good, and why in the world would I think that all of a sudden she's somebody that is a good voice. She has, she like anybody else can make points I agree with and disagree with. I think her points on her fight with Shapiro and Israel, it's all just

5:18madness. And there are people who are speaking, Carl Higby from Newsmax. I do his show weekly, good for him, a representative Brandon Gill. I love the work he does in those house hearings. Solid Tim Birchett. I got to wish you a Tim Birchett. Nick Shirley. Those videos, great, great, great, great work. You bring me MacKates. I'm not impressed. I wonder why in the world you're doing it. You bring me Steve Bannon. I don't know what the hell you're doing at all. I don't know what you're doing and I don't know why you're doing it. Not everyone has to agree with me. We can agree on a bunch of different things and that's fantastic.

6:19But when it comes to Steve Bannon with 1900 emails to Jeffrey Epstein, what are we doing? What possibly are we doing here and how could this remotely be acceptable at a conference like this? Maybe the 10 doesn't have to be that big. Now I want to be sure that I'm clear about a couple things. I do not think Steve Bannon had anything to do with imbropriety whatsoever. I would push back on that allegation 10,000%. I think Steve has done me dirty.

7:20I think Steve's a scumbag and he can kiss any part of me. Now I would never let him touch me. That's what I think of Steve. I don't care if he's angry with me. I don't care what he says. He wants to fight pick a street corner. Screw him. Do I think he abused children? God knows. It would be an insane thing to think. I think he saw an opportunity with Epstein as a financial opportunity, whatever the case may be. And he's like, hey, I can help you rehabilitate. Hey, I can help you do this. I can help you do that. That's gross. And we see the amount of people who have been connected to Epstein and if I had to basically lose it all right now, the owner of the New York Giants is trying to figure out with the NFL how he can hand the Giants over to his kids

8:32because he had an association with Jeffrey Epstein. Gonna move the team over to the kids. It has to be approved by the League Finance Committee. And if it's approved, Stephen, Laurie and Jonathan Tish would no longer any interest in the Giants. Steve Tish appeared in the latest round of documents released by the Justice Department related to Jeffrey Epstein. Scores of emails between Epstein and Tish, in which Epstein repeatedly connected the co-owner to numerous women. And then Tish invited Epstein for a Giants game. Now, you're right. If there's a conversation about women, the question, of course, is how old were these women? Not making an allegation. I'm saying that's

9:32gonna be the first question. And were these women, what's the word I'm looking for? Professionals, that's the word I'm looking for. Dear Lord, I don't want to hear that these women were coerced. That's a whole different level of pure evil. But connections with Epstein lead to jobs being lost. And Steve Bannon, with all of these emails to Jeffrey Epstein, gets invited to be a speaker. That's crazy town. That's nuts. Bannon was advising Epstein on a PR side. You don't bring him in. You don't let him be a speaker.

10:46I think that Megan Kelly is acted in a disgusting and reprehensible way, disgusting. And I could yet see her speaking at CPAC far more than Bannon. I had already made the decision not to go. It's not that the Bannon choice kept me from going. I already knew I had applied for the credentials. Got the credentials. They used to, when you did radio row, supply you with the equipment. They don't do that anymore. Now, I got to bring the equipment down and it's got to get set up. I bring someone with me and someone's got to produce. Now, I'm done by doing it all by myself, right? I used to do all by myself. That's over. I'm not going. The decision on Bannon confirmed it for me. I believe that Bannon should be allowed his platform. He's got the show there at war room and it does well and all that jazz. He's entitled to it. He has broken no law.

11:52And he should not be the platform for a second. That is different than whether or not I think CPAC should give him a microphone, a megaphone and a spotlight. It is absolutely horrifyingly daft for CPAC to do this. And all it did was confirm my decision. They're not going with the right thing to do. Absolutely. Because if the conservative political action conference will tell me that Bannon is a good pick and a good draw, you're drawing the wrong freaking people and pushing the wrong freaking message. I don't think they're going to change anything. I just want to make sure I made my voice heard. In the meantime, CNN thinks that Pete Hegseth is eating millions of dollars worth of lobster paid for by the

12:58taxpayer by himself. The correction news network strikes again. I'm Tony Katz and this right here is Tony Katz today. The Toyota Tundra and Tacoma are built to keep going. Backed by Toyota's reputation for legendary reliability. Step into a Tundra with the available iForce Max hybrid engine, delivering impressive torque and serious towing power or take a look at Tacoma with an available power liftgate. So gear goes in fast and the adventure keeps moving. Toyota trucks are built to last year after year, mile after mile. So drive one home today. Visit toyota.com for more Toyota. Let's go places. So we have got the save act getting a senate vote next week. Will you look at that? Are we clear that it's not going to pass? Are we taking bets? I will take bets with you right now. If I win, I get to drink bourbon. But if I lose, I get to drink bourbon.

14:01I don't know what you're going to do. Maybe also drink bourbon. Tony Katz. Tony Katz today. Good to be with you. I had a bourbon. Where is it? Where's the bottle? Producer Landon. I'm going to find it. Craziest bottle I have ever had in my life. In my life. Where is it? Hold on. Hold on. Stay right there. I'm looking for it. Entertain the people that producer Landon has been searching for this. Hello everyone. Producer Landon here while Tony continues to look forward. I can't find it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. The weirdest, weirdest bottle ever. Fenwicks. So Fenwicks is an MGP, right? It's the Stilton Lawrenceburg. They do a lot of different bourbons. But it is made for Fenwicks Distillery, which is in Rensselaer, Indiana. They do a rye. They do a regular bourbon. And this is the five-year-old cask strength.

15:09Comes in at 118.3 proof. So that would be 59.2%, 59.1.5%, alcohol by volume. The sting on this meat takes over your whole body. But the caramel in this, it's like a caramel meets vanilla frozen custard. Is insane. What is fascinating is when you move, when you add water or you add a cube, right, to your bourbon. So that's going to bring down proof. It's the only thing that brings down proof. It's like if you go into the barrel at the entry, let's say you call it a 110 proof. And then after however many years it's in the barrel, it's 120 proof. You could add water to it to bring that proof down to 110. And that process, if I have it right, which I think I do,

16:11is called full proof. That's what full proof is. As opposed to barrel or cask, which is coming directly out of the barrel. But single barrel, it's not really touched by any other process, right? It's from the barrel to the bottle. And then you can ask, you know, is it a filter or anything like that? But that's not the point that I make. Water brings down proof. And water changes the bourbon, right? It opens it up. And so it makes some flavors more pronounced and some flavors more muted. What it does, it's why you want to try your bourbon meat water cube. You want to try it in all the different ways, because you can find that, okay, I don't like this bourbon meat, but I like it on a cube. I don't like a cube. I like it meat. And yes, this is the bourbon we do on eat drink smoke this week. Put this on a cube in my entire six years of doing eat drink smoke. I have never had a bourbon in my in six years. I have never had a bourbon change

17:14complexion on me, yet stay completely the same as much as this did. You got to hear us do it. You got to listen for it, eat drink smoke, eat drink smoke show dot com. Un unbelievable. I have never experienced anything like Fenwick's eye full disclosure. I have no financial connection to these people whatsoever. I don't know them. I've never been at the distillery. I didn't even know this bottle existed until I found it in a local liquor store. I paid for it. I paid $70 for it. It's your choice. I just shared the story. Sorry, and it didn't mean to get carried away about the bourbon. The same act is going to get voted on. There's no way this thing is passing. There's no way that it's passing. Unless the change is made to the filibuster, which you could eliminate the sixty vote threshold, which is something called closure, right? You need sixty votes to begin debate and sixty votes to end debate in the Senate.

18:16And with that, if you don't end the debate, it just goes on, you know, for forever. You won't get to a place of being able to vote, and you can't even open it up for debate. The argument has been is that the political right should get rid of the filibuster, because the left is going to do this anyway. And we have discussed this before, and you know that I have real opposition to that, although it's less and less every day, because we know that if Democrats get control of the Senate, they're going to get rid of the filibuster in the first to thirty-two seconds. It will take no time. And therefore, you will not have the ability to stop the madness. So the idea of not ending the filibuster is to try and hold the left to a standard, and as we all know, you can't hold the left to a standard. They're not going to be held to a standard, it's just not going to happen. My issue is you don't get rid of the filibuster. If you don't have

19:23seven, eight, nine, ten other pieces of legislation you want to get passed behind it, we already have the whip count in the Senate. You already have the whip count in the House. You already know who you have to qualify. You already bake into the cake. The Thomas Massey, Rand Paul know, the Lisa Murkowski know, Susan Collins on the fence. You can't move without having all the ducks in a row, and I have zero faith in the Republicans to put their ducks in the row. Logistically, they're not Democrats. So that's what they need. Now, by the way, if they did it with just four pieces of legislation, I would think it's the greatest miracle the world has ever seen. That's my issue. You can't just do it for one piece. You got to do it for everything. You got to get it done, codified, finished. And I just don't see where these Republicans are organized enough to do it. But I do believe in calling for the vote and putting Democrats on

20:25the record. Well, Tony, this isn't about an ID when you show up to vote. This is about an ID to register. This is about setting a standard for us saying we protect voter integrity. And Democrats don't want voter integrity. Why not put them on the record, then hang that vote around their neck. It is the scarlet A. It is the Albatross. It is whatever the thing needs to be. You got to be able to tell the story about how radical they are. So call the vote. This is Tony Katz today. So I had mentioned that there was a shooting at Old Dominion. We are now getting a report that there is a shooting that has taken place near a synagogue in Oakland County, Michigan. Tony Katz, Tony Katz today, before anybody does anything, a breath, there was a report like this

21:35a few days ago out of Baltimore of a shooting near a synagogue. It had nothing to do with the synagogue. I am not saying that is the case. I'm saying right now, we don't know anything about what is happening here. We don't have a single bit of information. Regarding this shooting, we know that the Oakland County Sheriff's Office confirmed that multiple agencies are on the scene. They are working to clear the building. Fox News is reporting that there was a car driven into the synagogue. See what happens when you get more information. When you get more information, you're able to tell more of the story.

22:40Right now, you could take a look at smoke coming out of the synagogue. Let me see if I can pull this up right here. So the scene is some traffic and the parking lot of the synagogue. Then it is in the actual synagogue itself. With some black smoke coming out of vents of the top, I do not know if this is a fire or not at this time. So I cannot see where a car was driven in or not. I always want to make sure I have information before I share it. We're staring at the live footage and we're going to get more information about this as it becomes available. You have people trying to enter the synagogue. I think trying

23:41to get other people out of the synagogue this time. You have smoke coming out of what looks like to be an exit and I don't know necessarily whether that's the front door or not. That's the latest. I'll have more. I'll share it with you and always good to see the people out there who are immediately posting false flag. You have no information. This is all we've got. I can't tell you what it is yet. Was it an act of terrorism? Was it an act of grippers? Was it somebody who had a medical issue? I have absolutely no idea. I can make assumptions from now until the end of time or I could be normal. I will take normal for 500 Alex. It doesn't take too much. Some people. Very, very, very weird. Speaking of weird, let me bring you to this story

24:56about lobster. The story about lobster brings us back to how CNN is the correction news network and how very much people with no information desperately want to think that they've got the whole story. They think that they could take a headline and they could take that and turn it into something because what they want is not the truth. No, you're after not what I'm after. What they want is the narrative. You have to push back on the narrative everywhere, all the time nonstop and no question. You have to push back on it. These people lie. This brings us to lobster and Pete Hegseth. Pete Hegseth is the Secretary of War and the stupid story from TMZ.

25:57Pete Hegseth blew billions on fruit baskets and lobster. First of all, why is TMZ reporting on the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth? Honestly, has Kim Kardashian stopped making videos? Pity. The Pentagon went on an epic spending spree in September 2025 by burning through 93 billion dollars, the most at the end of a fiscal year since 2008, which is part of how budgeting works. If you don't spend the money, you won't get that money budgeted for the following year. Calendar year in Congress is October to September. Super weird, but that's how they do it. So, according to this, the Pentagon put $25 million on furniture, $12,000 for fruit basket stands, $6.9 million for lobster tail, $2 million for a lasting king crab, $15 million for rib eye,

27:00a million for salmon, and $140,000 for donuts, which I, by the way, I could totally understand that. The absolute morons at CNN, Paul Begala, who Rush Limbaugh used to refer to as the forehead. Right? There you go. Look at that. We just reminisced. Paul Begala thinks that Pete Heggseth took all of this for himself. And Scott Jennings is staring at him like he's got nine foreheads. And Paul Begala is like, can you believe this guy? He has spent $15 million in one month for rib eye steak, $6.9 million for lobster tail, $225 million for furniture. He spent more in the month of September than most countries on Earth spent in their

28:02defense. Paul Begala, do you believe all for himself lobster tails? Do you belong our truth to him? I'm not going to know. The lobster tails? Do you believe the- So, this video that I share this from, this video has the great cut-ins because Scott Jennings, who's like, do you actually believe that Pete Heggseth did this for himself? He literally goes internet do something, which is to say prove him wrong. And it cuts to soldiers eating rib eye steaks and lobsters because these soldiers were going to be going into conflict areas. And so they get a celebratory meal before they go. Paul Begala didn't know that.

29:03Secretary of Defense is personally eating all the lobster. Wait, he can't eat 16. Oh really, the troops are getting lobsters frequently. You're going to war. Oh my god, the troops who are going to war. Oh my god. You know that. You're going to kill over this internet do something. I might have to double it. I had to run it back. I had to run it back. They're showing videos of themselves eating steak and lobster. Paul Begala didn't know. Now I'll give you a full disclosure. I didn't know. But if you tell me $21 million for rib eyes, my question would be who got the rib eyes.

30:08Paul Begala's question was, my god, how dare? How dare? Peter Hegseth eat all this steak while our soldiers are fighting in Iran. Unbelievable story. And yes, CNN is going to have to offer a correction. But understand they don't care if they get the story wrong. They want to be able to tell any story they think that hurts Trump. They don't care if they get it right. They don't care if they lie to the audience. I am staring at what is being described as an active shooter situation near a synagogue in Michigan. A car run into a synagogue in West Bloomfield. And I, pretty good observer. We all know what's going on here. But before I say anything, maybe I should make sure, maybe I should make sure that I've got the

31:20story right. Maybe, just maybe, I should wait for information before making any allegation. I hope everyone's all right. I have more on that story coming up. Keep it here. I'm Tony Katz. This is Tony Katz today. The all new 2026 Toyota RAV4 is here building on everything drivers know and love about Toyota with a redesigned look and modern tech that makes life behind the wheel easier than ever. The new RAV4 come standard as a hybrid providing smooth, efficient performance for both city streets and longer journeys. Enjoy the legendary reliability Toyota is known for in the all new 2026 RAV4. Learn and shop more at toyota.com. Toyota, let's go places. Oil prices moving back up. By the end of the day, you could be back over $100 a barrel on the Brent crude Tony Katz.

32:20Tony Katz today good to be with you. You got to clear the straight of her moves and you got to deal with the Iranians still being able to whether put mines in the area or have rocket lodgers that could still engage threat. We've done great damage to the Iranians, but not enough to end the threat. This is going to lead to other conversations about moves that have to be made and how does one apply pressure and that could include getting the Chinese involved, not directly by affecting what is their business is the way that gets handled. Also, the United States is going to release 172 million barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve part of the broader release of 400 million barrels agreed to by the IEA.

33:22So we are going to contribute half the barrels basically. I'm not in favor of releases from the SPR. If it's going to be part of this global thing, maybe you could talk me into it a little bit. But I will tell you that I don't like the idea of bringing the SPR into this. I would rather the president have told Americans this is going to be tight for a while. Prices are going to go up for a while, but we are going to win. We are going to destroy this regime. There's going to be peace in the Middle East, which means we don't have to focus on these people because we've gotten rid of the terrorists. Well, prices will come down and everything is going to be better. That's the world that I said I wanted to bring forth. That's the kind of safety and security I wanted to bring to you. And by government, I would expect the president to say by government because that's exactly the kind of thing you say when you are raised in Brooklyn.

34:26We're going to have some peace. Then there is, well, how could you expect anything else? In a few minutes, I'm going to sign the paperwork that's necessary in order to qualify for the Democratic nomination to run again. That's 85-year-old Jim Clyburn, Congressman South Carolina, the man who hand delivered the victory to Joe Biden and put him in the White House. That guy, he's running again. I mean, that's that. By the way,

35:30I said Trump was raised in Brooklyn. I was raised in Brooklyn. I confused myself and Trump. That's a very Biden thing to do right there. I need to seek immediate medical attention. That's my fault. I apologize. 85-year-old Clyburn, you know what? He wasn't making that confusion. I guess he gets to run. 85. 85 and running for reelection. Why not? He's going to win. Why not? And if you say to me, Tony, because 85-year-old shouldn't be in Congress, I'm not saying no. I'm saying that it is a problem. But since he's going to win, no one's going to run against him.

36:33Why not just take the money and enjoy yourself. It's an easy life. You don't have to question how you're going to vote. You shop when you want. Vacations? I should run for Congress. The latest on this shooting near a synagogue was Bloomfield Township, Michigan. Reports of an active shooter. There have been reports that the person who ran their truck into a building, the truck then caught fire, then shots were fired. There is a belief that that person is dead. There's a question whether or not that person was the shooter or somebody in the synagogue was engaged in the shooting. There's going to be a lot of back and forth. There's going to be a lot of different news reports. I'm going to lay off. We're going to get the information. I will have full details. Tomorrow on this and later on on a Twitter ex,

37:38more show is coming up. Keep it here. This is Tony Katz today. The all-new 2026 Toyota RAV4 is here and it builds on everything drivers know and love about Toyota with a redesigned look and modern tech that makes life behind the wheel easier than ever. The 26 RAV4 comes standard as a hybrid, providing smooth, efficient performance for both city streets and longer journeys, while the available all-wheel drive keeps you in command when conditions are unpredictable. The new RAV4 is designed around the way people actually use their SUV. From daily errands to weekend adventures, while the GR Sport model coming soon, both a net combined 320 horsepower, in a plug-in hybrid drivetrain with a GR tuned suspension for an even more responsive, exciting drive. No matter which RAV4 you choose, you'll enjoy the reliability Toyota is known for, coupled with the inspiring performance that's unique to Toyota. Shop more and find details at toyota.com, the all-new RAV4 from Toyota. Let's go places.