Guests - Jeff Utsch, Stephen Mundt, Ava Chen
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Reviving the Legislative Branch: Why Congress Must Act Now
*Winn Tucson Special Report – November 26, 2025*
Kathleen Winn opened her pre-Thanksgiving broadcast with a provocative question that has been simmering among constitutional conservatives: Has the legislative branch surrendered its constitutional primacy, and if so, how do Americans get it back?
Jeff Utsch: “The Constitution Is More Important Than the Filibuster”
Constitutional trainer Jeff Utsch, who teaches the founding documents to military audiences nationwide, joined Winn in the first hour with a blunt assessment.
“The legislative branch is supposed to be the most powerful branch,” Utsch declared, citing Federalist 51 and Article I, Section 8. “Yet today it has become the weakest. We have allowed Senate rules—specifically the 60-vote cloture threshold—to neuter the very branch the Founders intentionally made preeminent.”
Utsch’s recent tongue-in-cheek column calling for the abolition of the legislative branch was never meant to be taken literally. “I don’t actually want to abolish Congress,” he clarified. “I want to shock people into remembering that the Constitution is more important than any Senate tradition, including the filibuster.”
He traced the filibuster’s evolution: an accidental creation under Jefferson, rarely used until the 20th century, and gradually transformed into a supermajority requirement that now boasts roughly 60 carve-outs. “We already suspended it for Supreme Court justices, for lower-court judges, and even for massive spending bills this summer,” Utsch noted. “The filibuster is no longer a deliberative tool; it’s a weapon of minority rule that Alexander Hamilton warned against in Federalist 22—the tail wagging the dog.”
The real-world consequence? Congress has punted its clearest constitutional powers—especially tariffs—to the executive and judicial branches.
“Article I, Section 8 begins with the tariff power because the Founders knew trade and revenue were the lifeblood of the new government,” Utsch explained. “Yet today the Supreme Court is deciding whether President Trump’s tariffs are constitutional while Congress sits silent. Why aren’t lawmakers debating and passing a tariff bill right now that either codifies or modifies what the president has done? That is their job.”
Utsch warned that cheering executive overreach under a Republican president sets a dangerous precedent. “If we accept daily tariff changes by executive order when it’s our guy, we forfeit the right to complain when a future Democrat does the same.”
His bottom line: “The American people just handed Republicans both houses of Congress and the White House. Use the majority while you have it. Pass the laws. Give the president cover. Or at least force the debate so the public knows where everyone stands.”
Stephen Mundt: Military Readiness, Border Security, and the Apache’s Last Stand
Retired Brigadier General Stephen Mundt followed with updates from the defense world and a sharp rebuke of recent Democratic rhetoric.
First, good news from Mesa, Arizona: foreign military sales have extended the AH-64 Apache production line at least through 2032. “The Army never truly wanted to kill the Apache,” Mundt said. “They needed partners to keep the line hot. Multiple countries just stepped up. That means thousands of high-paying jobs in Arizona stay alive, and our allies get the world’s best attack helicopter.”
On military recruiting: every service has now met or exceeded its goals for the first time in decades. “That’s the clearest metric that the culture inside the services is improving,” Mundt observed.
But the general saved his strongest words for the letter signed by six Democratic lawmakers—including Arizona Senator Mark Kelly—urging troops to disobey “unlawful orders.”
“None of them can cite a single unlawful order Trump has issued,” Mundt said. “They’re worried about the future. That’s a direct page from the CIA playbook: sow doubt and disunity inside the ranks. You put a question mark in a young soldier’s head, and someday someone hesitates or disobeys a lawful order because of this political theater. Guess who pays the price? Not the senators.”
Mundt noted that five of the six signers are former military; only Senator Kelly still draws military retirement pay. “Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin organized it. She’s ex-CIA. This wasn’t spontaneous—it was orchestrated.”
On immigration and national security, Mundt was equally direct: “The vetting process under the previous administration was broken. A plane ticket and a court date years away is not vetting. We have hundreds of thousands of got-aways and missing migrant children. Meanwhile emergency rooms sit empty because illegal immigrants now fear ICE more than they need care. That tells you the new policies are already working.”
Ava Chen: The CCP’s Long Game and the Spiritual War Underway
In the final hour, Ava Chen of the New Federal State of China tied every thread together.
“The CCP does not want Russia to make peace in Ukraine,” Chen stated flatly. “A negotiated settlement frees American attention and resources for the Pacific—that is the last thing Beijing wants.”
Chen pointed to Tucker Carlson’s recent conversation with Shawn Ryan, where Carlson asked why every predominantly white nation except Russia is being rapidly transformed demographically. “Miles Guo has been warning about this since 2017,” Chen said. “This is not organic migration policy. This is the fourth stage of communist subversion: normalization of the abnormal, demoralization complete, crisis engineered.”
She cited Guo’s 2020 Thanksgiving livestream in which he told followers to be grateful for only three things: God (who gives soul and heart), parents (who give the body), and a nation under rule of law that allows self-governance—i.e., the American constitutional republic.
“Everything happening now—open borders, identity politics, the attack on the traditional family—is designed to separate people from God and from each other,” Chen argued. “The CCP watches with glee when Americans fight Americans. That is why wrath, envy, and pride—the seven deadly sins—are their most effective weapons.”
Her advice was stark: “Do not give them the civil war they are trying to provoke. Channel righteous anger into lawful, intelligent action. Speak truth. Use the Constitution. Pray. The CCP is happiest when you burn your own house down.”
Closing Thought from the Host
As the broadcast ended, Kathleen Winn reminded listeners that Thanksgiving arrives at a pivotal moment.
“We are 300 days into a new Trump administration that is moving faster than any in modern history,” Winn said. “Congress has the power to support, refine, or restrain that agenda—but only if it shows up to work. The Founders gave us the tools. Whether we use them is now up to us.”
Happy Thanksgiving, America. The table is set. The question is whether enough elected leaders have the courage to take their seats and do the job we hired them to do.