[00:00:04] Broadcasting live from atop the Rocky Mountains, the crossroads of the West. You are listening to the Liberty Roundtable Radio Talk Show.
[00:00:18] Sidney Sweeney, Russian oligarchs, Donald Trump Jr., John Brennan, former CIA Director, Kamala Harris, and James Edwards. Happy to have you along, my fellow Americans. I'm Sam Bushman, and it's all about hard-hitting news that Edwards refused to use, and best of all, it starts now.
[00:00:43] James Edwards with me, well-known talk show host of ThePoliticalSessPool.org. Welcome back to the show, sir. Sam, I am travel weary, as you can tell in my background tonight, ladies and gentlemen, or this morning, I should say. I am at a hotel, and I couldn't even bear to put my contacts in. This is how Sam Bushman must feel year-round. The man is always on the go. He's always advancing the cause of liberty, but for my own modest efforts, from the middle of August,
[00:01:11] over the course of a two-week period leading into September, I think I was in eight different cities, eight different hotels in 14 days, including four in four different nights. Let's go, James. Including, tonight, or today, I say tonight, today, we're in Mississippi, but including Washington, D.C., Sam. Wow. And got to, I'll tell you all about what's going on in D.C. We were right there on Pennsylvania Avenue.
[00:01:37] Wow. You gotta love that, by the way. The state of Pennsylvania is trying to rename the lake, Lake Pennsylvania now. They're begging Donald to get that done, so we'll keep an eye on that ball for you. But, James, you know the difference why you don't have as much mojo, right? Let's see. It's, I know. I don't eat vegetables. That's right. So, the sooner you start eating vegetables, the sooner you'll have a lot more energy, you can start taking care of business. But I want to talk about Sidney Sweeney. This is a huge controversy.
[00:02:07] Athletes are furious with Sidney right now, and they blast Sidney's latest sports ad where she's basically nude. She covers herself with footballs and basketballs and different things. And so, all the sports women are rioting and saying, look, don't look at our bodies and sexualize us. And they're basically claiming, let's not talk about our bodies in a sexual way, but more what our bodies can do.
[00:02:33] So, female athletes are criticizing her big time, saying that, hey, you know, this really undermines women and their accomplishments and focuses on their bodies only for sex. The controversy, though, has also sparked a debate on whether there's a double standard. Athletes and celebrities of both sexes have sexualized this stuff. And so, you know, that's the big battle between the sports women of today and Sidney.
[00:03:02] And Sidney fires back and say, y'all have done it. Quit picking on me. I got a broader discussion we'll get to in a second, though, James. What do you say to the controversy, sir? Well, this is her brand. And this is what she has become known for. Although, I will say, in becoming America's sweetheart through the American Eagle jeans ad, Sidney Sweeney, has good genes in that play on words that just sent the left into a napoplectic fit of rage collectively. She does seem to be fairly modest.
[00:03:32] And I think she's even a little self-conscious, if you can believe it. And a pretty good actress. Overall, you know, as much as you can tell anything about famous people you've never met and don't know, seem to have probably a decently favorable opinion of her. And I don't understand exactly what the controversy is with regards to the sports ad. I mean, again, if she's in an ad, you're going to expect it's going to be something like this.
[00:04:02] And, you know, we do live in this age of perpetual outrage, Sam. Everybody's got to be upset about something. Well, and that's kind of the discussion. I want to broaden the discussion, though. This isn't about sports. This isn't about women in sports. Sports. Because she's using sports paraphernalia to cover up her body and stuff like that, it kind of makes the sports people angry. But they're already angry. The WNBA is melting down. Enos Cantor is going to be the latest draft, I guess, in that thing.
[00:04:31] Now he's under the next threat for assassination. I pray that that never happens. But these people are getting crazy. I'd like to tone it down a little bit and take this discussion out of the sports world for a second. Because my view is broader. This type of sexualization of all things is not good for male or female athletes or celebrities. Sexualizing the human body to sell products isn't healthy for individuals, society, or families.
[00:05:00] From a Christian perspective, Scripture teaches us that our bodies are temples and ought to be treated with respect, etc. The real question shouldn't be whether Sidney Sweeney has the same right to do this as an athlete, which is what they're debating. It's really, is it appropriate to use your body, God's temple, so to speak, to sexualize the sales of sporting gear and equipment altogether, James? Well, I mean, again, what is immodest in this day and age?
[00:05:29] And even to see these female basketball players, frankly, Sam, in shorts and, well, their jerseys, I mean, which would be basically a tank top, I guess you could say. I mean, is that showing too much skin? Is that a modest compared to the standards that, you know, you may have had? Yeah, and that's a societal question, and have we gone too far, and all those things come into play. I'm just this redneck that goes back to the Bible, and they say that a virtuous woman, you know, her price is greater than rubies.
[00:05:59] And, you know, it pretty much puts it in perspective there. And so how far we go in society is under discussion and debate. You know, it becomes very tough when we have just changing standards based on the world's view as opposed to God's view, right? I got to say, though, Sam, I mean, yes, I agree with you, obviously. That goes without saying.
[00:06:21] But if you're going to have a conversation, if there is a true controversy involving women's sports or the WNBA in particular in the summer of 2026, or I guess now we're heading into fall, but this year it has certainly been with the blatant anti-white racism against Caitlin Clark and now Sophie Cunningham, both teammates on the Indiana Fever.
[00:06:47] I mean, I think it's, as we said before, I think we talked about it on your show back in June when it was really kicking off with the whole viral pointing meme that Cunningham had done in defense of her teammate. I mean, if what they are doing to Caitlin Clark on a regular basis had happened on the street, they'd be arrested for assault and probably do jail time. I mean, they are literally close. That's exactly right, and I think that reality should apply now, I think.
[00:07:16] And the problem is now they're basically trying to attack Clark and say, oh, are you enemies with, I'm going to call her Engel Reese as a joke. And so, you know, they say, oh, well, you guys are enemies. You can't. And she's like, no, we're friends. Quit trying to take because they had a win. And instead of focusing on the win, they tried to focus on that divide. Well, you know, I think one of the things we need to be careful of is this divide everywhere, James. They were rivals in college, and so you have these rivalries.
[00:07:45] It's like to say, was Michael Jordan and Larry Bird enemies? Did they hate each other? I mean, you play against one another. Now, there may be some of that. I mean, there is certainly, and there's no doubt about it, there is a bias against Clark from a lot of these black women and, frankly, black lesbians because she is a white heterosexual player in, quote, unquote, their league. But, yes, I mean, just to come full circle on this. But if they want to say they have their right, you know, to be promoted as black and promoted as lesbian,
[00:08:13] you know, if they're really honest about their views, then they should be proud of her and let her be white and heterosexual, and they should celebrate her differences, shouldn't they? Well, I mean, and there's other white heterosexuals in the league, but I think the thing that makes Caitlin Clark is because she has gotten so much media attention, but why has she gotten so much media attention is because she is the best player in the league, and it's not even close. So, again, if you're going to talk about a controversy involving women and women's sports,
[00:08:38] that's where the real action is and not some ad that Sidney Sweeney has done. You're right about that, and that's kind of why I bring it up is, hey, you know, I think the bigger problem goes beyond sports, and I think when we sexualize people, it's bad for women, it's bad for men, it's bad for society. You know, the real question shouldn't be, hey, does she have the same right to do with an athlete has? The real question is, should we in society be promoting this with sexual images like this
[00:09:06] and stuff like that in the first place? And what's interesting is this wouldn't be allowed on TV decades ago, James. At all. You know, it's funny. End of paragraph. I was absolutely just about to say that. I mean, when you had back, you know, it's supposed to be this symbol of oppression when you had the censor boards back with, you know, particularly in the film industry. But, yes, I mean, and as I say, Sidney Sweeney does come across as sweet, and when she's not doing ads, you know, somewhat modest.
[00:09:36] And she has a likable personality, I will say that. But there's no doubt about it that in a more healthy time, you wouldn't have had ads like this. I mean, something like this in the 50s would have been, it would have never been allowed, but had it been allowed, it would have been seen as, you know, the equivalent of hardcore pornography of the time. And my response is, you know, I think that we should think about how we treat men and women and our human bodies and relationships.
[00:10:04] You know, all this creates this slide towards divorce, towards pornography, towards sexualization. How far we go becomes the question. And I think if we think about a God-centered life, we wouldn't be there. But Christians have deluded themselves into believing that it's fine, too. And that's where, you know, I think a great Christian contingent should stand up. Yes, Sidney has every right to do what she wants. But in society, I'm not sure that this makes sense,
[00:10:32] that we want this being promoted for our girls to see and children to see and everything else. I want to move to Donald Trump Jr. and Russian oligarchs. I guess a Russian oligarch now financed Donald Trump Jr.'s lavish wedding, a new investigation reveals. ProPublica reports that, how do you say this guy's name, James? You know, I didn't get any notes today, so I'm flying blind here.
[00:11:00] Encrola? Encrola? Anyway. How do you say this guy's name? I don't even know. Anyway, this ally of Vladimir Putin, really close to Vladimir Putin, funded, bankrolled, if you will, Donald Trump Jr.'s lavish wedding. And they had it in the Bahamas and everything else, and this raises questions about potential influence, access, etc.
[00:11:28] The event featured extravagant amenities, and all kinds of people were there, and they say this financial connection and ongoing geopolitical attention has drawn scrutiny now from national security experts. James, what do you say to this one? Well, we need to get Donald Trump Jr. back on the show, and he can chop it up with us. Yeah. That was a long time ago. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago. Of course, now that they have won, they don't need that sort of assist anymore.
[00:11:57] But, no, seriously, you know, Sam, I can see why people would be concerned about it, certainly. But, I mean, and, of course, with it being Russia, and the media has played up Russia to be this boogeyman. It's Umar Krevalev, I think is how you say his name, by the way. He is the son of a president. I mean, this was certainly going on with Joe Biden's son, and Fox News was up in arms about it.
[00:12:25] Is son of a president soap? Is that what you call it? Yeah, I guess you would, wouldn't you? All right, because you do, you know, you do POTUS and that kind of, so you just do soap. Well, I mean, there's no doubt that whoever this guy is and whatever he's giving money to Donald Trump Jr. for, I almost can guarantee you he wouldn't be doing it if he wasn't the son of the president, if he wasn't the soap. So that causes a little bit of concern. But if it's just, I mean, you meet people when you are in a position like that,
[00:12:55] but of course, how are you supposed to know? But on the other hand, are you supposed to refuse any kindness, even if it's lavish, just because you are the son of the president? Well, and here's the next question, though. I could go both ways on that. You know, I know Donald Trump Jr. has had several kind of weddings and girlfriends and whatever along the way, as it already is. Because to me, why do you need this lavish, crazy, expensive wedding? You know, to me, vows between two people should be kind of a,
[00:13:25] we've got our friends and loved ones and family around, and we're going to, you know, pledge our hearts and our souls and our dedication to one another. I'm not saying it shouldn't be nice. And if you're wealthy, nice to one group might be different than nice to another. But at the same time, this lavish wedding in the Bahamas with all this stuff and all these star-studded people showing up and all this kind of stuff, prominent figures like Jared Kushner
[00:13:52] and Eric Trump and, you know, at some point, they're making more out of this than ought to be. At the same time, you go, why do we need a massive, lavish wedding for this guy on his whatever marriage? I don't know if it's his second or third or what the heck, but he's had a bunch of girlfriends in between, including Newsom's old wife. I mean, it's come on. And now Newsom's old wife, to keep quiet, it's got some ambassadorship somewhere or whatever. And so, you know, I look at this and I just go, is this really all necessary? Why not just go off and have family and friends and loved ones
[00:14:20] in a modest affair and move on? And so this controversy shouldn't even exist in my mind, James. Well, and it's not like Donald Trump Jr.'s James Edwards. He can afford to pay for his wedding. You know, when I got married, Sam, in 2006, it was a very, very nice wedding. How much did it cost? Do you remember? A few thousand. We had it in my parents' backyard, and we built the arch, and we did rent some chairs and some tables,
[00:14:47] but no, I mean, it was if that much, if that much. Yeah, my wedding cost $5,000. Something like that. My parents paid half, and the other side paid half. And we had to rent some tables and chairs, and we had food. We had a nice, you know, food and some things and some photography and a few other little things like that. And boom, that's it. Yeah, we had a guy from the church take pictures. My wife's wedding dress cost $500, but she looked like a million bucks.
[00:15:16] And I mean, no, it was, I'm just, the point I'm saying is Donald Trump Jr. can afford to pay for his own wedding, unlike normal people. Well, and even if he had a $100,000 wedding, I don't have a problem with any of that either. The average wedding in America is around 30 grand right now. It's out of sight, in my opinion. It's insane. We've lost sight. And the reason I tie these two stories together is this Sidney Sweeney kind of story, and then this Russian oligarch story with Donald Trump Jr. They kind of go together in a way, because I think one leads to the other. You know, we have this attitude
[00:15:45] that you've got to keep up with the Joneses, if you will, joke about the kind of the neighbors, or you've got to somehow in the media put forth this, you know, we're wealthy, and we're in with the socialites, and we're, you know, this has got to stop if we want stable marriages and strong families, folks. That's all I'm saying. Well, and again, what I was, the point I was making is, I mean, Donald Trump Jr. could have a million dollar wedding, whatever he wants, but I mean, he could have afforded it, so why get somebody to fund it from Russia? I mean, that just invites scrutiny that makes no sense.
[00:16:15] You don't need it. But no, I think you're right about the other thing too, Sam, and that is to have, you will never, there will always be somebody with more, and if you try to live your life in this rat race where you're competing with societal fads or what celebrity culture is doing, you'll never have inner peace. I mean, you can have peace. I understand everybody, it is difficult to survive right now with the cost of living, and we talk, this is a recurring theme every time we talk. Insurance, housing, food,
[00:16:45] you name it, everything is skyrocketing, so that is difficult, but you can, I understand people have to make a living, but there does need to be a return to focus on the family, focus on the family. Could you imagine what the press would do if they had a very modest, I'm not talking about bogus, but a very modest wedding that was classy, just say like mine or yours, look, our weddings aren't bogus. Now, they're not over the top with pomp and all that, but they're nice weddings, and you can throw, if you're careful,
[00:17:15] and bring family and friends and loved ones in church and friends and people to help and everything, and people kind of make it a labor of love, so to speak, you can have an incredible wedding. I'm talking about an incredible wedding for 20 grand, if you're wise, if you're careful. Yeah, if you want to spend that much, but they do gouging on these things. But if you're a Donald Trump and you spend 20 or 30 grand on your wedding, the average amount or a little less, and you have a nice wedding, I wonder what the press would do with that, James. Well, as an event planner, Sam,
[00:17:44] now my wheels are spinning. Well, no, it would be good if they had a modest wedding and something that could relate to. And I'm saying make it nicer, though you're rich. You don't want the press to go, oh, they had this, you know, redneck, backstreet, whatever wedding. You don't want it to be downed. I get it. You're a famous person. So you can make it classy and nice. But what if it was a very simple but classy, nice, inexpensive wedding? They could almost set a trend for the nation, James. I would put my wedding picture, no, they would, Sam, and it would be encouraging,
[00:18:14] and it would be something that inspired people and made people feel good. It would be a feel-good story. Amen. But instead, you know, you've got a Russian oligarch fighting it. And it would put the Trumps ahead of the midterms in a very good light, James. It would help. That would be something that would help. And boy, do they need it because, I mean, we have now turned into the general election home stretch now post-Labor Day, and I think the GOP is going to get wiped out. But that's another story. But I will say this about weddings. I pray you're wrong. Predict your right, sir. I don't think there's, you know,
[00:18:48] in the midterms the first time he was in. But this time, there's just, I don't see any doubt about it. It's going to be bad. And for a lot of reasons. But I would say this about the wedding, though. I would still go back and put my wedding pictures from 06 up against anything that's going on out there on such a modest budget. But it was nice. It was classy. We should do that. But the, as an event planner, though, Sam, you know, this has gotten my gears
[00:19:18] running a little bit about the cost of weddings. And you know that you're being gouged if it's a wedding. It's, you know, you only get married three or four or five times in a lifetime these days. Wait a minute. I've only been married one time and want to keep it that way. Thank you, sir. You know, that is the thing, of course. You know, it is supposed to be a one-time thing. So these venues gouge you. But I'm thinking, you know, Sam, I'm looking at the number of conferences and I mean big-time conferences with a lot of attendees and you're catering for, you know, 100, 200, 300 people.
[00:19:47] You're renting nice hotel spaces. You're flying people in and we can do that under 20,000. And these are paid events where you make the money back. But I just can't understand. Even the big ones that the CSPOA has done, some of the biggest ones with like 250 sheriffs and needing extra security and everything else have ran less than 100 grand. Well, I'm just saying, I mean, the big TPC conference we had last year, which was the biggest one I've ever done. And it was right along that. And you know how many people... That's why I use those numbers
[00:20:16] because I think they're fairly reasonable. They're not cutting corners to be crazy and skimp, but they're also not expending or spending lavishly either, right? Well, this is what I'm saying though. A wedding is normally not going to have that many people. So I just, I mean, why is the cost so inflated for weddings? If we can fly in, you know, a dozen people, pay for their hotel, fly them in, rent the conference room, pay for catering for two nights for 200 people, you know, do all of these other things that are associated with putting on a conference and do that for under 20,000. I mean, how can a wedding cost that much because it's just
[00:20:46] the bride and the groom and then the wedding party and then food? I mean, that's really it. Or, you know, if you've got somebody that wants to charge a high price, there's a lot of people that will do that for free, folks. Well, and you know, and that's a sad thing you bring up is that, I mean, imagine getting, and I know that in some cases it has to happen, but, you know,
[00:21:16] being married by somebody that you're not close with, you know, just having some, I've been to weddings like that, right? No, basically find, you know, some pastor from the phone book and call him. Well, or sometimes they want a famous pastor to do it too. You get Paula, what's that lady's name that used to be the Trump religious czar or whatever, whatever her name is. Yes, well, don't even get me started on female pastor. Paula White is her name or whatever. Get some clown like that to roll in for big money and do that. You know, this is what I mean. When are we focused on what really matters here? What matters here is that they commit
[00:21:45] their hearts and their fidelity and their, to one another, right? I don't even think you have to be, as a Southern Baptist, don't even get me started on female pastors. That's one thing they've held a line on. But, you know, I don't even think you have to be ordained anymore. I always thought you had to be like an ordained member of some clergy. I don't know what the rules are now and I don't know if it's different by state or what. I have a problem with government regulating marriage in the first place, James. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you have that wedding license though?
[00:22:15] To me, it should be a humble entry in your Bible that these two committed to one another and et cetera, et cetera. Certainly, it used to be. Right? So, and the reason government got involved in it is because government was racist, right? Is that what it was? Well, government decided a black and a white should never get married and they had to stop it, right? That's how it all started. Is that why they started with licensing? It may, very well may have been. I don't even know when that started. Huh, interesting.
[00:22:45] Yeah, just crazy stuff. Well, now that they're allowed to do that, can we get rid of the licenses now? We don't need those anymore, do we? I remember having to go down to the county clerk. Remember, whatever government starts, it's very difficult to end that way. Very difficult. Think of the income tax, it was supposed to be a temporary war tax, right? Well, I guess we're still at war, so you better keep that tax rolling, you know? Oh, we got to get payment Montajada on the beat on this one. Amen to that. Former CIA director, John Brennan,
[00:23:14] ordered to testify on alleged Russiagate conspiracy charges. John Brennan, former CIA director, I guess he's had to testify under oath about his involvement and basically saying that, hey, Donald Trump's under Russian foreign influence. Well, this story about Donald Trump Jr. only adds fuel to his contention. Nevertheless, it's a subpoena and it's part of an expensive legal filing
[00:23:43] that Brennan will appear before a federal grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida, on October the 15th, 2026. The Justice Department's investigation explores broader issues in relation to this related to the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago and Brennan's previous congressional testimony regarding that and this legal battle intensifies. It's all about
[00:24:13] constitutional rights, it's all about criminal conduct, and challenges like accessing classified documents and statutory limitations. That's all in the mix. When we get back, we'll have James Edwards respond to this story. Thanks for being alongside for the ride. He's James Edwards, thepoliticalcesspool.org, an award-winning broadcast syndicated by Liberty News Radio and proud to do so. That's thepoliticalcesspool.org. I'm Sam Bushman. We're everywhere. YouTube, X, Rumble, libertyroundtable.com. Spread the word
[00:24:42] and God save our constitutional republic. look.