Lemon LIVE at 5 | HAPPENING NOW: Standoff in Congress! - December 17th, 2025
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to the program, everyone. Support for the show comes from Z Biotics. Let me tell you about something that I actually use before a night out. It is called Z Biotics free alcohol. Look, I like to enjoy a drink, dinner, friends, a glass of wine, maybe a cocktail, but I don't enjoy the next morning when my body is like, sir, what were you thinking? What were you doing? Here's the deal. When you drink, alcohol turns into this toxic byproduct in your gut. I tell you this all the time. That is that buildup that makes you feel rough the next day. Z-Biotics free alcohol was created by PhD scientists to break that down before it becomes a problem. You just drink it before your first drink of the night. That's it.
The first time I tried it was before dinner with friends. I had my usual glass of wine and my drinks or whatever. I went to bed the next morning, clear, focused, no regrets, ready to do the show. So make it your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and thank yourself in the morning. Go to zbiotics.com slash lemon. Use the code lemon to get 15% off of your first order. They've got a 100% money back guarantee. No questions asked. That's zbiotics.com slash lemon. Use the code lemon. And good evening, everybody. Welcome to the Don Lemon Show, Lemon Live at 5. We are grateful that you are here. And boy, have we got a show for you and a great guest for you. We're going to do things a little bit differently today because we want to make sure that our guest gets to the house floor to vote.
So I'm going to give you my take and my monologue after we interview this person because He's going to update us on the developing news that's happening in Congress. And as you see, the thumbnail there says that it is a standoff in Congress. We want to talk about that and other things. Let's bring in now Representative Jonathan Jackson, who serves in Illinois' first congressional district, and an old friend. Representative, good to see you. How are you?
Hey, Don. Great to see you. I appreciate your program.
Oh, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Let me play this. Thank you so much. I want to play this because this is happening. You know, the president is giving a speech at nine o'clock tonight. This is Tucker Carlson on with Judge Andrew Napolitano. Here it is. Is Trump going to start a war in Venezuela?
I don't know when this program airs, the one that we're on right now.
We're live now, and then it'll be posted immediately.
I don't know the answer. I've certainly been on the phone a lot about it. I have no power. I'm a podcaster, but I'm very interested. And so here's what I know so far, which is that members of Congress were briefed yesterday that a war is coming and it'll be announced in the address to the nation tonight at nine o'clock by the president. Who knows, by the way, if that will actually happen? I don't know. And I never want to overstate what I know, which is pretty limited in general.
OK, have you been briefed on that? Is that so?
No, we have not been briefed on a war. We had a classified briefing yesterday morning with Secretary Rubio and Secretary Hegg, Seth, where they basically said nothing, Don. It was word salad. It was a waste of members' time. Before the program was over, the briefing, 90% of the members were out and the secretary for the generals were still left on the stage. They didn't tell us anything that we had not seen in the news. But yes, I do believe that we've already engaged in warfare. When you have an armada, that is an act of war. And so we have the largest buildup of the United States military assets in the world is off the coast of Venezuela. Now, I guess they are shipjacking, stealing people's oil. No other country has this provocation or these insinuations, accusations saying that Venezuela is a narco state.
We've killed over 100 people in their boat raids, and some of them were innocent fishermen that were of Colombian descent that were part of a fisherman association that were going off of their coast to legally, rightfully, fish for their living. And so the war has already begun that there's an armada, they're taking people's oil.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:12–4:28
2
What breaking news opens Lemon LIVE at 5 and who is the guest introduced?
4:28–13:17
3
Were members of Congress briefed about a potential Venezuela military action?
13:17–14:16
4
What did Representative Jonathan Jackson say about the classified briefing and U.S. military activity near Venezuela?
14:16–43:24
5
Why are House Republicans forcing a vote on extending Affordable Care Act subsidies tonight?
43:24–56:28
6
How does Congressman Jackson explain the math and political stakes behind the ACA subsidy fight?
56:28–1:06:03