A new study from a Pentagon-funded think tank says that the aging politicians in Washington, D.C. might actually be a national security threat, as their cognitive decline could make them more likely to accidentally reveal classified information. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: A new study from a Pentagon think tank says that the aging politicians in Washington, DC might actually be a national security threat as their cognitive decline could make ’em accidentally reveal real important information. I’ve got Farron Cousins with me, and I always like to give Farron a shout out, again, I know you don’t like when I do this, but I follow progressive media all the time. I believe you’re the best in the business. I don’t say that because we’ve been friends for 21 years and we’ve been doing this for 21 years. I just think you’re the best in the business.
Farron Cousins: Well, I appreciate it.
Mike Papantonio: I like the way you handled this story time and time again. Anyway, let’s pick up with this story. It’s very bothersome to me, man.
Farron Cousins: It really is. And this is an interesting angle on the aging issue. We obviously, we’ve got McConnell, we’ve got Feinstein, we’ve got Pelosi. I mean, Biden and even Trump. They’re all facing a lot of questions right now about their age, their cognitive abilities. And here we have this think tank and of course it’s funded by the Pentagon, but they’re raising real concerns, saying, listen, we get that we’ve got these aging folks in DC but these people all have security clearances. On a regular basis they’re looking at classified material. And if they can’t trust their own minds, we should not trust them with this classified information. It is easier when you’re in cognitive decline to either accidentally spill something or maybe somebody infiltrates and gets you to spill something. It’s far too dangerous. And these people, they are a danger to the country now.
Mike Papantonio: Well, we know that Feinstein, I mean, Feinstein doesn’t even know where she is half the time. Literally doesn’t know that she voted on something half the time.
Farron Cousins: Didn’t know she missed months earlier this year.
Mike Papantonio: Didn’t know she had not even showed up in DC. The turtle here, I think it’s a little different. He’s got an illness. They need to get, it’s time for him to go home. The suspicion is that it’s early Parkinson’s disease. Go home. Live the life with your family, man. What is he, 80? I don’t even know how old he is. But look at both these people. It looks like Weekend with Bernie. Add Biden to that. Add Grassley to that. Add Pelosi to that. And all of a sudden what you have is you have the oldest leadership, the cumulative leadership, the oldest it’s ever been in American history. Did you see that statistic?
Farron Cousins: Yeah. And not just, oh, this is the oldest we’ve been in a while. Ever. We’ve never had this many aging politicians. And we know there was that pharmacist who came out a couple years ago and admitted, hey, I can’t tell you who, but I have filled multiple Alzheimer’s prescriptions for multiple members of Congress. And again, this isn’t meant to say, oh, well you obviously shouldn’t be serving because you’ve got a disease. It’s the fact that these are people with security clearances that have access to material that if in the wrong hands could become a major national security threat.
Mike Papantonio: Okay. On the Pentagon issue, these are, this story you understand is about leadership in the Pentagon. Leadership that has all of our secrets. Leadership that’s making huge decisions about who we go to war with, when we go to war. Really important stuff. And the Pentagon is saying, what the hell? We have such a problem. We have to deal with it. And everybody’s ignoring it. I haven’t seen, this was The Intercept, again, Klippenstein, great, great writer.
Farron Cousins: Phenomenal, absolutely.
Mike Papantonio: Phenomenal, phenomenal source, Intercept. Try to find this anywhere else, you won’t. We’re talking about people that hold, they got the finger on the pulse of nuclear war. And these are the people that they’re own Pentagon is saying, Jesus Christ, we need to do something because this is really bad. I don’t know. But corporate media, it’s not bad enough for corporate media to do anything about it. Even talk about it.
