Latest / The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated / The Blue Tsunami Arrives

Transcript

The Blue Tsunami Arrives · The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College. All things
0:03
Speaker 1: Hillsdale at hillsdale.edu. I encourage you to take advantage of
0:06
Speaker 1: the many free online courses there and of course to
0:09
Speaker 1: listen to the Hillsdale Dialogues. All of them at hueforhillsdale.com
0:13
Speaker 1: or just google Apple, iTunes and Hillsdale. Morning glory and
0:19
Speaker 1: evening grace America. I'm Hugh Hewitt from inside the Beltway.
0:23
Speaker 1: Well that was unpleasant. If you were listening to Salem
0:27
Speaker 1: News Channel or the Salem Radio Network last night, you
0:31
Speaker 1: know that Carl Jackson and I anchored the 11 a.m.
0:34
Speaker 1: to 1 a.m., 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. coverage. So
0:40
Speaker 1: I was able to tell you repeatedly how bad we
0:42
Speaker 1: were doing. Let me start with a little bit of
0:43
Speaker 1: good news. Paul LePage has won the Maine 2nd Congressional District.
0:49
Speaker 1: So Republicans in Maine lost a hero in Susan Collins,
0:53
Speaker 1: but they are not unrepresented in the Republican Party. More
0:56
Speaker 1: good news might come out of Alaska where it's too
0:59
Speaker 1: close to call between the real Dan Sullivan and cheater
1:03
Speaker 1: Mary Peltola. And it's too close to call in Mississippi
1:07
Speaker 1: and probably will be in both states for weeks. Republicans
1:10
Speaker 1: cannot drop below 44 in the Senate. I have no
1:13
Speaker 1: idea where they are in the House yet. I was
1:16
Speaker 1: up early to join Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer on
1:20
Speaker 1: America's Newsroom right after Ron DeSantis died. spoke, and I'll
1:24
Speaker 1: play you Governor DeSantis' entire seven minutes later, but after
1:29
Speaker 1: it was done, in which he said about yesterday's election
1:33
Speaker 1: that it was an extinction-level event, they came to me,
1:37
Speaker 1: Bill and Dana, and here's what I had to say,
1:40
Speaker 1: cut number 11.
1:40
Speaker 2: I'm bringing Hugh Hewitt, Fox News contributor.
1:43
Speaker 1: Hugh, good day to you.
1:44
Speaker 2: I know you've been up all night, and thanks for
1:45
Speaker 2: your time. What do you think this means? Go ahead
1:47
Speaker 2: and frame it for our audience as you see it
1:50
Speaker 2: right now in the early hours.
1:52
Speaker 1: Good morning, Bill and Dana. I'm in awe of your
1:55
Speaker 1: ability to keep going. Well done. I don't think it's
1:57
Speaker 1: an extinction level event. Like Governor DeSantis said, I think
2:00
Speaker 1: that was the first campaign speech of twenty twenty eight.
2:03
Speaker 1: And he deserves it. He's done well and he held
2:05
Speaker 1: on to his state. I remind people after 1964, which
2:09
Speaker 1: is not a hundred years ago. Republicans had 32 Senate seats.
2:13
Speaker 1: After 2008, they had 41 Senate seats. So we've been
2:17
Speaker 1: walloped before and come back. I'm a Republican when I
2:20
Speaker 1: say we. There's a lot of confirmation bias going on.
2:24
Speaker 1: There are a lot of people who are throwing darts
2:26
Speaker 1: at a lot of targets. Everybody's right and everybody's wrong.
2:29
Speaker 1: comprehensive look. You rebuild. You rebuild by getting the best
2:33
Speaker 1: and brightest out of every state. You don't do it
2:36
Speaker 1: in one cycle. Governor DeSantis' rights can take two, three,
2:39
Speaker 1: four cycles. But I also believe that, you know, President
2:43
Speaker 1: Trump is best when he's down, when he does his fight, fight,
2:46
Speaker 1: fight after he's been shot in the head. And I
2:49
Speaker 1: expect him to be a Americans hate stalemates in war.
2:59
Speaker 1: Finish it off. Finish it quickly. Let's get both straits open,
3:04
Speaker 1: gas and fuel prices down, and let the American people
3:07
Speaker 1: enjoy the takeoff. As Larry Kudlow said last night on
3:10
Speaker 1: the Fox set repeatedly, we have 3.4 percent growth in
3:14
Speaker 1: GDP in quarter three in the GDP. That's very good.
3:18
Speaker 1: And it's going higher. We just need inflation to come down.
3:21
Speaker 1: And that means beating the Islamic Republic of Iran.
3:24
Speaker 3: Senator Thune weighed in about Democrats saying this, that as
3:28
Speaker 3: we head into 2027, Senate Republicans will not stand idly
3:31
Speaker 3: by as the far left socialist wing of the Democratic
3:33
Speaker 3: Party attempts to unwind everything we've done.
3:35
Speaker 1: We still have.
3:36
Speaker 3: President Trump in the White House and we'll work with
3:38
Speaker 3: him to stop the worst impulses of Democrat extremism. We
3:41
Speaker 3: cannot let their fringe positions become the mainstream. And we
3:44
Speaker 3: know some of those positions, including packing the court. And
3:48
Speaker 3: I got to imagine that the Supreme Court as an
3:51
Speaker 3: issue for the 2028 presidential election is going to be
3:55
Speaker 3: off the charts here.
3:57
Speaker 1: I think you're right, Dana. Justice Alito is 76. Justice
4:01
Speaker 1: Thomas is 78. May they have long lives and go
4:03
Speaker 1: to 90. They're great justice. They have great command of
4:06
Speaker 1: the Constitution. But I think Governor DeSantis is right. If
4:10
Speaker 1: there is a vacancy, there will not be a confirmation
4:12
Speaker 1: with this particular Congress because there are three parties. There
4:16
Speaker 1: are the Republicans, there are liberal Democrats, and there are
4:19
Speaker 1: extreme leftists in the DSA. And the extreme leftists and
4:22
Speaker 1: the DSA are going to, I mean, you've got Troy
4:24
Speaker 1: Jackson in Maine and Abdul El-Said in Michigan. They're not
4:28
Speaker 1: going to confirm anybody. They're going to put holds on everyone.
4:31
Speaker 1: So it's going to be gridlock in D.C. I noticed
4:34
Speaker 1: the markets are up this morning. Markets like gridlock. I
4:37
Speaker 1: worry about the national defense. We've got to pass a budget.
4:40
Speaker 2: Hugh, quickly, 30 seconds. Fox News voter poll on corruption.
4:44
Speaker 2: Here's what we found. 54%. Found government corruption in the
4:50
Speaker 2: top slot there. Cost of living at 49 percent. Who's
4:53
Speaker 2: better to handle government corruption? Democrats 37, Republicans 31, neither
4:58
Speaker 2: party at 32. What's your thing?
5:02
Speaker 1: Number two, guys. Go ahead, Hugh. Yeah, neither party is right.
5:08
Speaker 1: Minnesota's a washing corruption. Peggy Flanagan won anyway. We've got
5:12
Speaker 1: corruption everywhere. It's a big issue. But, Bill, I want
5:14
Speaker 1: to go back. I was watching you last night putting
5:16
Speaker 1: your finger on Trumbull and Mahoning County in northeastern Ohio.
5:19
Speaker 1: They flipped from Trump to big blue again. I grew
5:22
Speaker 1: up there. It's always been blue. Trump made it red.
5:25
Speaker 1: Get those people back. Jobs, jobs, jobs. Reduce the cost
5:29
Speaker 1: of living. Trump people will come back. The party can
5:33
Speaker 1: grow again. It's not an extinction event. That's my message.
5:36
Speaker 4: All right.
5:37
Speaker 3: We like a little silver lining here.
5:38
Speaker 1: Hugh Hewitt. I like that. I deal in silver linings.
5:41
Speaker 1: I am an optimist because I know history. My first
5:45
Speaker 1: election was in 1974. I worked for Paul Cronin in Massachusetts.
5:50
Speaker 1: He got wiped out in the Watergate baby destruction event.
5:53
Speaker 1: And that was a near extinction event after President Nixon
5:56
Speaker 1: had resigned and after President Ford had pardoned him. Oh, boy,
6:00
Speaker 1: that was bad. 19, 2008, that was bad after the
6:04
Speaker 1: financial crisis when President Obama swept in. This is nothing,
6:09
Speaker 1: as they said in Wag the Dog. President Trump also
6:12
Speaker 1: upbeat today. Let's play some of what he had to
6:14
Speaker 1: say at the ballroom site gaggle. Cut number four asked
6:18
Speaker 1: about Speaker Johnson's decision not to seek the leadership in
6:22
Speaker 1: the minority. We'll stay out of it. You know, Jim was.
6:31
Speaker 1: I think he was.
6:32
Speaker 4: Really, all of them, everybody that we're dealing with. But
6:39
Speaker 4: the Speaker was fantastic. The people under him were fantastic,
6:44
Speaker 4: all good people. I guess right now you have two candidates, right?
6:48
Speaker 4: Did you ask the Speaker to step down?
6:51
Speaker 6: No, no, no.
6:51
Speaker 1: Mr.
6:51
Speaker 7: President, Vice President Vance.
6:53
Speaker 1: And then cut number five, talking about Vice President Vance
6:57
Speaker 1: said the reason we lost is the war. President Trump
7:01
Speaker 1: said last night, you know, I had no choice about
7:03
Speaker 1: the war. They were going to get a nuclear weapon.
7:05
Speaker 1: Here's what he said this morning. Cut number five.
7:08
Speaker 4: Well, I think it's largely true because it drove the
7:12
Speaker 4: gasoline up a little bit short term. And probably that's
7:16
Speaker 4: probably true. But at the same time, if I had
7:18
Speaker 4: to do again, I'd have to do it again because
7:20
Speaker 4: long term, it's the only answer. You can't let Iran
7:23
Speaker 4: have a nuclear weapon.
7:26
Speaker 5: I do. Yeah.
7:26
Speaker 1: I mean, well, you have no choice.
7:28
Speaker 4: I mean, I thought the oil would go up a
7:30
Speaker 4: lot more, and I did it on that basis.
7:32
Speaker 1: You have no choice. You have to do it.
7:33
Speaker 4: You can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon, or everything
7:36
Speaker 4: that you see here someday might not exist. And maybe
7:41
Speaker 4: this building might be the only one that does. So, yeah,
7:45
Speaker 4: I think that, look, I mean, I'll get along probably
7:49
Speaker 4: with the Democrats, unless they want to be destructive.
7:52
Speaker 1: But they have the power of the veto, so if.
7:53
Speaker 8: We don't like what they're doing, or they'll They've already called,
7:56
Speaker 8: and they want to talk about things, and that's fine. But, yeah, people,
8:01
Speaker 8: the Iran thing, we had to do, and we continue
8:04
Speaker 8: to do it.
8:05
Speaker 4: We have tremendous oil flowing out of the Hormuz right now.
8:08
Speaker 4: At the beginning, there was none. And probably that's the
8:12
Speaker 4: primary reason.
8:13
Speaker 1: The price, not the war, the price. Sir, you hold
8:17
Speaker 1: 30 rallies across the country. Then he got asked about
8:22
Speaker 1: impeachment cut number six. I can't tell you that. They
8:29
Speaker 1: may tell you, but I can't tell you. No, no, no.
8:36
Speaker 1: Not even a little bit.
8:38
Speaker 4: I think it would destroy the Democrat Party if they
8:41
Speaker 4: did that. Impeachment for no reason. What, for having a
8:45
Speaker 4: successful country? Our country is more successful now than at
8:48
Speaker 4: any time in its history.
8:49
Speaker 1: Watch the beam go up. At number seven, more from
8:53
Speaker 1: Donald Trump about not firing Pete Hegseth.
8:56
Speaker 5: Are you considering replacing Secretary Hegseth?
9:01
Speaker 1: No, I think he's doing a very good job. So
9:02
Speaker 1: you don't want him to fill the worst black room
9:04
Speaker 1: in the Senate.
9:04
Speaker 5: To be appointed?
9:06
Speaker 4: Well, I think he's doing a very good job, and
9:08
Speaker 4: I actually think he'd be very popular if he did that,
9:12
Speaker 4: but I haven't heard that at all.
9:14
Speaker 1: And then he was asked about the war in Iran,
9:16
Speaker 1: cut number eight.
9:19
Speaker 4: Whenever I wanted to. But it's got to be done right.
9:23
Speaker 4: And we're never going to let them have a nuclear weapon.
9:24
Speaker 4: It's got to be done right.
9:26
Speaker 1: But, of course, I knew that. I knew fuel would
9:28
Speaker 1: go up.
9:29
Speaker 4: I thought it would go up two or three times
9:32
Speaker 4: higher than it is. And now, today, it's coming down.
9:36
Speaker 4: And yesterday, it dropped, or the day before, it dropped
9:38
Speaker 4: 10 points. No, we've done a great job. The Hormuz
9:42
Speaker 4: Strait is open. It's producing Wall Street Journal, cover of
9:46
Speaker 4: the Wall Street Journal a couple of days ago. It's
9:48
Speaker 4: producing more oil right now than at any time prior
9:52
Speaker 4: to the war.
9:55
Speaker 1: And last night with Dasha Burns at Politico, he stood
9:57
Speaker 1: by his decision to hit Iran, cut number nine. Good policy.
10:01
Speaker 4: A lot of people say the oil price because of Iran,
10:04
Speaker 4: but I'm very, I am totally convinced.
10:09
Speaker 1: That my decision on Iran.
10:10
Speaker 4: For the long-term good of our country and even the
10:13
Speaker 4: world was an absolutely correct one, and it continues to be. Well, Mr. President, what.
10:18
Speaker 1: He was absolutely correct. I have written my column for
10:20
Speaker 1: the Washington Examiner about that this morning. I have posted
10:24
Speaker 1: a link to it on my X account over at
10:27
Speaker 1: Hugh Hewitt, H-U-G-H-H-E-W-I-T-T. Please like and follow over at X.
10:32
Speaker 1: Please also like and follow my YouTube at Hugh Hewitt.
10:36
Speaker 1: I appreciate your subscribing to that. I'll be right back.
10:39
Speaker 1: Stay tuned. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Americans for
10:44
Speaker 1: Prosperity is a great sponsor of our program. Caitlin Bledsoe
10:48
Speaker 1: is their great spokesperson. She's vice president for external affairs
10:52
Speaker 1: at AFP, and she's willing to come in and talk
10:55
Speaker 1: with me on the day after. Caitlin, what's the top
10:58
Speaker 1: line takeaway from what happened yesterday?
11:02
Speaker 9: Top line takeaway is, wow, what a tough night, what
11:05
Speaker 9: a tough morning, but voters sent a very significant signal
11:09
Speaker 9: to Washington and to the Republican Party, and that is
11:12
Speaker 9: they are not happy with the status quo when it
11:14
Speaker 9: comes to cost of living, which is and has been
11:17
Speaker 9: the number one issue this entire midterm cycle.
11:21
Speaker 1: How many races are still undecided? I know that the
11:24
Speaker 1: Alaska and Mississippi Senate race are undecided. What about House races?
11:29
Speaker 9: I believe there's still a few extra House races. I
11:31
Speaker 9: would have to go back and check. I've been trying
11:33
Speaker 9: to keep up all day, but I've been in and
11:35
Speaker 9: out of the media. But there's still a handful left here.
11:39
Speaker 1: Okay. What was the biggest surprise for you last night?
11:45
Speaker 9: Biggest surprise, I think, was Texas. You know, that Senate
11:48
Speaker 9: race was a lot, but just how robust and how
11:51
Speaker 9: deep the wins went in that state.
11:53
Speaker 10: I mean, it's historical.
11:56
Speaker 1: You were on, by you, I mean AFP door knockers,
12:00
Speaker 1: were on doorsteps of tens of thousands of people right
12:03
Speaker 1: up to the election. What were you hearing? How's it
12:05
Speaker 1: comport with the election last night?
12:09
Speaker 9: Yes, we actually made 30 voter attempts this election cycle,
12:13
Speaker 9: and everything we heard tears up to what happened last night.
12:16
Speaker 9: The number one issue is cost of living. They wanted
12:19
Speaker 9: more direct and realistic paths forward for solutions to bring
12:23
Speaker 9: costs down. People were really feeling it at the gas pump.
12:26
Speaker 9: They were feeling it at the grocery store. And they
12:29
Speaker 9: wanted answers. And they definitely sent that signal last night
12:34
Speaker 9: very heavily to Republicans. So this, unfortunately, wasn't a surprise
12:38
Speaker 9: to us, even as recent as last month. Voters overwhelmingly
12:42
Speaker 9: said the country was going in the wrong direction at 73%,
12:46
Speaker 9: with half of those voters being Republicans, Hugh.
12:49
Speaker 1: So do you have advice for not only the people
12:53
Speaker 1: taking the gavel in January, but the lame duck session
12:56
Speaker 1: has six to eight weeks to work? What's the word
12:59
Speaker 1: from AFP to both those coming back for two months
13:02
Speaker 1: and those coming to power in January?
13:06
Speaker 9: When it comes to lame duck in the current majorities,
13:09
Speaker 9: We say, get some work done, protect your legacy, and
13:13
Speaker 9: relentlessly focus on cost of living bills. In particular, focus
13:17
Speaker 9: on the permitting bill that is in the United States Senate.
13:19
Speaker 9: It is backed by two Democrats, two Republicans, and the
13:22
Speaker 9: White House. Get it through the Senate, pass it through
13:24
Speaker 9: the House. It's a great bill. When it comes to
13:27
Speaker 9: the next Congress and Democrats who will be in charge...
13:31
Speaker 9: Don't focus on oversight. It's political theater. You promised voters
13:34
Speaker 9: that you will focus on cost of living and AFP
13:37
Speaker 9: is going to hold you accountable to make sure that
13:39
Speaker 9: is the case. And you certainly should not focus on
13:42
Speaker 9: big government solutions. Voters did not vote for socialism this election.
13:46
Speaker 9: Vote on pro-market, pro-free market, pro-competition, pro-innovation policies.
13:51
Speaker 1: But they did vote for some socialists, Caitlin. What do
13:54
Speaker 1: we do about that?
13:58
Speaker 9: We have to continue to provide contrast to you. When
14:01
Speaker 9: we do that, we know voters do not want these
14:03
Speaker 9: big government, big control policies. 60% of voters, when they
14:08
Speaker 9: heard the difference between the conservative policies and these socialist policies,
14:12
Speaker 9: went towards the conservative candidate. It just wasn't enough to
14:16
Speaker 9: fully break through the national mood, unfortunately.
14:18
Speaker 1: Okay, walk us through how we got to the affordability crisis.
14:22
Speaker 1: It begins under Joe Biden, but then it goes to gasoline,
14:25
Speaker 1: it goes to groceries. What's the escalator up.
14:32
Speaker 9: Yeah, look, we were never willing to undo what Joe
14:35
Speaker 9: Biden did to the economy in two years, and we
14:37
Speaker 9: knew that. And there was some phenomenal legislation this past Congress,
14:41
Speaker 9: especially with the working family tax cut, which prevented the
14:44
Speaker 9: highest tax increase possible in history. But it just wasn't enough.
14:49
Speaker 9: And then you tack on a war with Iran, tariffs,
14:52
Speaker 9: and mixed messaging about $ 5, 000 checks, It wasn't enough to
14:57
Speaker 9: to compete with the high gas prices. And, you know, unfortunately,
15:01
Speaker 9: it cost us many, many seats.
15:03
Speaker 1: Now, did the president not explain the war? I mean,
15:07
Speaker 1: I agree with him. It was absolutely necessary. Iran with
15:10
Speaker 1: a nuclear weapon could shut down the strait every day,
15:12
Speaker 1: drive up gas every week. Did he not explain it correctly?
15:18
Speaker 9: I don't know if it was that. We've been clear
15:20
Speaker 9: there have been some successes with this war, but it
15:22
Speaker 9: needs to end. It's the prolongness. It's the unknown of
15:26
Speaker 9: how long we're going to be there. It's voters who
15:28
Speaker 9: elected a president who said he would never put us
15:31
Speaker 9: back in a war in the Middle East.
15:33
Speaker 10: And that is unfortunately where we're at.
15:35
Speaker 9: And voters just don't trust that this is.
15:37
Speaker 10: Going to end soon. And it needs to. We need
15:39
Speaker 10: to focus back home.
15:41
Speaker 1: It's got to end. And I hope the B2s are
15:43
Speaker 1: in the air right now because it could end in
15:46
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks and the president You know, J.D.
15:49
Speaker 1: Vance says it's got to end right away. I'm for
15:51
Speaker 1: two weeks. What's the one big lesson Washington should take
15:54
Speaker 1: away from this, Caitlin?
15:57
Speaker 9: Listen to the voters. And you know what? Hold these
15:59
Speaker 9: Democrats accountable. They said they were going to the lower cost.
16:02
Speaker 9: Make sure they do it and make sure they do
16:04
Speaker 9: it in the way that voters wanted to.
16:06
Speaker 1: Well said, as always, Caitlin, from the External Affairs Vice
16:10
Speaker 1: President at Americans for Prosperity. Thank you. I'll be right back, America.
16:14
Speaker 1: Stay tuned. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt, joined now
16:27
Speaker 1: by the ever-faithful Sarah C. Bedford. She is the investigations
16:30
Speaker 1: editor at the Washington Examiner. She was up late last
16:33
Speaker 1: night with Carl Jackson and I doing Salem News Channel,
16:36
Speaker 1: Salem Radio Network analysis. Well, Sarah, the tsunami has come aboard,
16:41
Speaker 1: and we've seen everything shattered, and the Democrats are jubilant,
16:45
Speaker 1: and Republicans are in disarray. At the end of the day,
16:48
Speaker 1: how many seats do we have left to figure out
16:50
Speaker 1: in the House? You got a grip on that?
16:54
Speaker 7: I think there's a few dozen more, but there are
16:56
Speaker 7: starting to be estimates that Democrats could net somewhere in
17:00
Speaker 7: the neighborhood of 50 when it's all said and done.
17:03
Speaker 7: And we still don't know how bad the damage is
17:05
Speaker 7: in the Senate either, because Mississippi was still too close
17:08
Speaker 7: to call. And obviously the ranked choice system in Alaska
17:11
Speaker 7: has to run its course. So it could be as
17:13
Speaker 7: many as nine seats in the Senate. The Democrats have
17:15
Speaker 7: ended up flipping, which is insane.
17:18
Speaker 1: Well, we've seen a nine seat loss before. And I
17:21
Speaker 1: like to remind people we've been at lowest 31 in
17:24
Speaker 1: the modern era, 1964 election. Republicans went down to 32.
17:29
Speaker 1: Let me ask you, Sarah, Mike Johnson said, I want
17:33
Speaker 1: no part of being majority leader. Immediately, Jim Jordan and
17:37
Speaker 1: Steve Scalise are into that match. Is there a third
17:40
Speaker 1: candidate coming?
17:43
Speaker 7: Well, I think that there's a lot of... interest in
17:46
Speaker 7: Jim Jordan here. I mean, Scalise was part of the
17:49
Speaker 7: House Republican leadership that presided over these types of losses.
17:53
Speaker 7: And obviously, I mean, this was no splitting, no two
17:58
Speaker 7: ways about it, an anti-Republican wave, potentially a repudiation of
18:04
Speaker 7: current Republican leadership. So I wonder if the conference is
18:08
Speaker 7: going to be hungry to bring in somebody who was
18:10
Speaker 7: not a before all of these losses. And Jim Jordan
18:15
Speaker 7: is the type of attack dog. You know, the minority
18:17
Speaker 7: leader's job is symbolic more than anything. They can't legislate.
18:21
Speaker 7: They can't run the table on oversight. Somebody like Jim
18:24
Speaker 7: Jordan is well positioned to serve that kind of role,
18:27
Speaker 7: perhaps better than someone like Mike Johnson, or even like Scalise,
18:30
Speaker 7: who's good at the leadership part of leadership, but maybe
18:33
Speaker 7: not on the messaging and pit bull part of it.
18:36
Speaker 1: You know, even more important to me, I know I
18:38
Speaker 1: suspect that Bernie Marino will be asked to lead the
18:41
Speaker 1: National Republican Senatorial Committee to recruit candidates for what could
18:46
Speaker 1: be a very amazing cycle. Either way, it could be good,
18:49
Speaker 1: could be bad in 2028. Who's going to run the NRCC?
18:53
Speaker 1: Richard Hudson lost his seat. The chairman of the NRCC
18:56
Speaker 1: was defeated.
19:00
Speaker 7: That's a great question. I mean, I think Republicans are
19:02
Speaker 7: still picking up the pieces. They have to look outside
19:06
Speaker 7: of the traditional stores of leadership. Obviously, what they've been
19:09
Speaker 7: doing hasn't been working. And a lot of the MAGA
19:12
Speaker 7: conservatives have turned on John Thune in the wake of
19:15
Speaker 7: this for Senate leadership. I don't know if that's the
19:18
Speaker 7: right call. Thune is really effective at keeping the conference together.
19:21
Speaker 7: Republicans aren't going to be in the minority forever. They're
19:24
Speaker 7: going to want someone with the institutional knowledge of Thune
19:27
Speaker 7: in leadership. But when it comes to the much rowdier
19:30
Speaker 7: and traditionally more conservative House... So that's a real question
19:35
Speaker 7: for Republicans. Where are they going to find that new
19:37
Speaker 7: leader who isn't tainted by these kinds of losses, but
19:40
Speaker 7: at the same time knows how to win a broad,
19:43
Speaker 7: like a diverse slate of races from districts that Trump
19:47
Speaker 7: had previously carried to some of these blue districts and
19:50
Speaker 7: everything in between. They need someone fresh. That's going to
19:53
Speaker 7: be part of picking up the pieces after last night.
19:55
Speaker 1: You know, I noted that Brandon Gill, Texas Republican, known
19:59
Speaker 1: for his razor-sharp questioning of witnesses, Brandon Gill won last night,
20:04
Speaker 1: and he won counties by four points that Ken Paxton
20:08
Speaker 1: lost by eight. That appeals to me because we need
20:11
Speaker 1: more Brandon Gills, young, sharp, smart men and women who
20:15
Speaker 1: know how to present and argue. I don't know if
20:18
Speaker 1: there's a boomlet for that. Let me ask, in your
20:22
Speaker 1: backwash from the tidal wave, does anyone say, boy, are
20:26
Speaker 1: we glad we didn't repeal the filibuster because now it's
20:29
Speaker 1: our friend?
20:32
Speaker 10: They must be, right? I mean, and over the SAVE Act,
20:35
Speaker 10: you know, which.
20:37
Speaker 7: it's an important piece of legislation and certainly popular voter
20:40
Speaker 7: ID measures passed in a lot of the places where
20:43
Speaker 7: they were put to voters as ballot questions without being presented,
20:48
Speaker 7: you know, as with Republican candidates attached to them, just
20:50
Speaker 7: as like faceless conservative questions. But I think there's a
20:53
Speaker 7: lot of, of, of second guessing in Washington right now
20:57
Speaker 7: about like, did we spend too much time on legislation
21:01
Speaker 7: that had nothing to do with affordability, which is what
21:03
Speaker 7: voters said loud and clear in, they cared about most
21:06
Speaker 7: in 2024. You know, was not enough time spent on
21:11
Speaker 7: the affordability crisis, and it is a crisis, on the
21:14
Speaker 7: SAVE Act. And there's got to be a lot of
21:16
Speaker 7: thankfulness that Thune and others stood fast against repealing the
21:20
Speaker 7: filibuster over legislation that it's not clear it would have
21:23
Speaker 7: ever moved the needle for Republicans if they had done that.
21:27
Speaker 1: Well, the SAVE Act had a great deal of attention
21:30
Speaker 1: and applause among the far right of the party and
21:33
Speaker 1: among the most vocal members of the Senate. But it
21:35
Speaker 1: would have done nothing about last night. What kind of
21:38
Speaker 1: legislation could have, I mean, we're in a battle with
21:41
Speaker 1: Iran to make them not get a nuclear weapon. They
21:44
Speaker 1: get a nuclear weapon, they could run the straight or
21:47
Speaker 1: amuse playbook against us forever and ever and ever, and
21:50
Speaker 1: we could do nothing about it. Oil's dropping tonight. Has
21:53
Speaker 1: anyone stepped forward to make that argument yet?
21:57
Speaker 7: The problem with the Iran war and the spending time
22:01
Speaker 7: on the SAVE Act and all of these things, I think,
22:03
Speaker 7: fall into the same umbrella of feeding this perception that
22:06
Speaker 7: Republicans didn't care. They weren't talking about it as much.
22:10
Speaker 7: They weren't putting forward a ton of ideas to deal
22:13
Speaker 7: with prices. What we heard from Trump when he did
22:15
Speaker 7: talk about it was sort of justifying why prices were
22:18
Speaker 7: rising or saying, even defending the fact that gas prices
22:22
Speaker 7: were high. You didn't hear a lot of acknowledgement that
22:24
Speaker 7: people are still Suffering that a middle class life is
22:27
Speaker 7: completely out of reach for an entire generation of people.
22:31
Speaker 7: That's a real crisis in this country. It's honestly, it's
22:33
Speaker 7: a destabilizing force. When you look at how much these
22:37
Speaker 7: states swung, like Texas, for example, swinging 20 plus points
22:41
Speaker 7: in a span of two years. That's not a battleground state.
22:44
Speaker 7: That's not a swing state. That's a red state. We're
22:46
Speaker 7: talking about a really destabilizing force in the affordability crisis.
22:50
Speaker 7: And when we're talking about the Iran war or the
22:52
Speaker 7: SAVE Act or the ballroom or any number of other
22:55
Speaker 7: things that Republicans spent time talking about that instead of affordability,
22:59
Speaker 7: that's sort of how we got here. And no, you
23:02
Speaker 7: don't yet hear Republicans articulating any sort of answer for
23:05
Speaker 7: that mess of problems.
23:07
Speaker 1: So Senator Tom Cotton, Senator Ashley Moody, I always repeat
23:11
Speaker 1: to people, my son works for Ashley Moody, conflict noted.
23:14
Speaker 1: They survived last night. Do they rise in the estimate
23:18
Speaker 1: of their colleagues as a result?
23:21
Speaker 7: Anyone who survived the blue wave last night, I think,
23:25
Speaker 7: should get some some attention as the future of the party.
23:29
Speaker 7: I mean, in Florida, an amazing feat was accomplished. And
23:33
Speaker 7: that is a lot of that is owed to the
23:35
Speaker 7: work of Ron DeSantis. I think he'll get you know,
23:37
Speaker 7: a lot of people have said this, but I think
23:39
Speaker 7: he'll get a good look for 2028 because.
23:41
Speaker 5: Of what happened in Florida.
23:42
Speaker 1: I'll be playing his comments next hour at an hour
23:45
Speaker 1: three as well. Sarah C. Bedford, follower on X at
23:48
Speaker 1: Sarah C. Bedford. Read her and me. My column in
23:51
Speaker 1: the Washington Examiner is about what President Trump should do next.
23:55
Speaker 1: It's up now over at the Examiner, dcexaminer.com. Thank you, Sarah,
24:00
Speaker 1: for last night and today. I'll be right back, America.
24:03
Speaker 1: Stay tuned.
24:06
Speaker 4: Welcome back, America.
24:09
Speaker 1: I'm looking for Shelter from the Storm. Mary Catherine Hamm
24:12
Speaker 1: is here with an umbrella. MK Hammer, thank you for
24:16
Speaker 1: joining me last night. I listened to you and Vic
24:19
Speaker 1: on Getting Hammered this morning, but I fell asleep because
24:21
Speaker 1: I had four hours of sleep and I had to
24:22
Speaker 1: get up for Fox.
24:23
Speaker 10: I understand.
24:25
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what you said. You sounded remarkably upbeat,
24:29
Speaker 1: and getting a show done that early is impressive. At
24:32
Speaker 1: this hour, the house is 237 to 139. That means
24:35
Speaker 1: there are 59 seats not yet called. The low in
24:41
Speaker 1: the modern time is 140 seats for Republican. The low
24:45
Speaker 1: in modern times was 32 Senate seats. We're at least
24:48
Speaker 1: at 44 with Alaska and Mississippi. But it was a wipeout.
24:52
Speaker 1: It just might not be a historic wipeout. What do
24:55
Speaker 1: you think?
24:58
Speaker 6: I mean, it feels historic. You know what I was
25:01
Speaker 6: thinking last night? I know everybody's comparing it to midterms,
25:03
Speaker 6: as you should. That's more of an apples to apples thing.
25:05
Speaker 6: But it reminded me a little bit of what it
25:06
Speaker 6: must have felt like for liberals to watch 2016 and
25:10
Speaker 6: see the blue wall crumble, where you see things that
25:12
Speaker 6: you never imagined could happen happening.
25:15
Speaker 1: Good point.
25:16
Speaker 10: And it's a good point.
25:17
Speaker 6: It's a good reminder that politics swings back and forth,
25:21
Speaker 6: that the mandate and the realignment are never forever. They
25:25
Speaker 6: are opportunities to reconvince people that you are the one
25:29
Speaker 6: to serve their needs and that you have to be
25:32
Speaker 6: very attuned to those. And you'll see where people had
25:36
Speaker 6: fortresses built electorally like a Florida, or I think Arkansas
25:40
Speaker 6: is a pretty good example of people working really hard
25:42
Speaker 6: on the ground.
25:43
Speaker 10: They were able to sustain the tsunami there. in some places.
25:48
Speaker 6: But if you were not attendant to that, the people
25:52
Speaker 6: who were not adhered to the GOP were like, it's
25:54
Speaker 6: not working for me.
25:55
Speaker 5: And now you've got to try to win them back.
25:56
Speaker 1: Okay, I want your biggest surprise. My biggest surprise is
25:59
Speaker 1: Greg Abbott. I mean, I'm really surprised. What's your biggest surprise?
26:05
Speaker 10: I think....
26:07
Speaker 6: I understood the candidate quality was bad in South Carolina,
26:10
Speaker 6: but I thought that it's South Carolina. And so when
26:13
Speaker 6: that came in... First of all, when Angie Nixon came
26:15
Speaker 6: in so close... to Ashton Moody. That concerned me. That
26:20
Speaker 6: was my first red flag early in the evening. But
26:22
Speaker 6: then to watch South.
26:23
Speaker 10: Carolina go, even though I understood why there.
26:25
Speaker 6: Were concerns, it's still South Carolina. And that is, again,
26:29
Speaker 6: a signal not to take anything for granted.
26:32
Speaker 1: Okay. Is Georgia gone forever? Is Georgia now a blue state?
26:37
Speaker 10: I don't think it has to be gone forever.
26:38
Speaker 6: It has currently a Republican governor with a 70% approval rating.
26:44
Speaker 6: So it's not as if the entire state is averse
26:47
Speaker 6: to the idea of a Republican. But it has to
26:49
Speaker 6: be a Republican in a certain vein. As these states
26:53
Speaker 6: become more blue, as they do when folks leave California
26:57
Speaker 6: because of failures and end up in Georgia or Texas,
27:00
Speaker 6: you do have to do some work to convince those
27:02
Speaker 6: people that you're the one, again, who serves their needs.
27:05
Speaker 6: And Kemp has done that over and over and over again.
27:09
Speaker 6: But you do have to sing a different tune than
27:11
Speaker 6: you would in the old Georgia or the very, very,
27:15
Speaker 6: very impenetrably red Texas.
27:18
Speaker 1: Now, Mary Catherine, I am not as upset as many
27:21
Speaker 1: people because I realize 2032 is coming. There'll be two
27:26
Speaker 1: presidentials between then. But that will be the first congressional
27:29
Speaker 1: election with new redistricting, new allocation of House seats. I've
27:34
Speaker 1: got to get some state legislatures back. Some of those
27:36
Speaker 1: fell last night. It's pretty evenly divided between unified, about
27:39
Speaker 1: 20 Democrat states, 20 Republican states, 10 with divided states.
27:45
Speaker 1: I'm just not doom and gloomy because I've been through
27:47
Speaker 1: this so many times. How doom and gloomy are you?
27:51
Speaker 6: I try to stay not too doomy and gloomy just
27:54
Speaker 6: because I have four kids to raise. I believe in
27:56
Speaker 6: this country. I understand that voters sometimes decide things that
28:00
Speaker 6: I don't like. I've been on the bad side of
28:02
Speaker 6: it many times, and I try to take their concerns seriously.
28:06
Speaker 6: I think some bad policy is ahead. I just saw
28:09
Speaker 6: that the new governor of Texas is talking about blowing
28:13
Speaker 6: up their voucher program, which, of course, is one of the.
28:15
Speaker 10: Only ways that you can get the.
28:18
Speaker 6: The education you need if your public school is not
28:22
Speaker 6: working for you and you don't have the means to
28:23
Speaker 6: go to a private school. And I think that's sad
28:26
Speaker 6: to take those options away because one of our crises
28:28
Speaker 6: that we're facing is a literacy and basic teachings crisis
28:32
Speaker 6: that is caused by teachers unions. And if you put
28:34
Speaker 6: a bunch of people in office who serve teachers unions,
28:36
Speaker 6: they will serve them and not students.
28:38
Speaker 10: We've seen this story before.
28:39
Speaker 6: So there will be sad things that happen as a
28:41
Speaker 6: result of this and people's opportunities will be taken away
28:44
Speaker 6: in some places.
28:46
Speaker 10: And we should add to that as it's happening.
28:48
Speaker 1: If the new congressional majority is smart, what will they do?
28:52
Speaker 1: And if they're stupid, what will they do?
28:57
Speaker 7: I mean, you.
28:59
Speaker 6: Know what I would like to happen, actually, and I
29:01
Speaker 6: might have mentioned this last night, do whatever can be
29:05
Speaker 6: done with the fraud squad for the next two years.
29:08
Speaker 6: Because if you get hung up in legislation, and Lordy,
29:11
Speaker 6: I don't really want Trump working with Schumer on legislation. Like,
29:15
Speaker 6: I don't know what they could come up with. Trump
29:17
Speaker 6: is not very ideological, and I fear that he would
29:19
Speaker 6: go for something that I would absolutely hate. But the
29:21
Speaker 6: fraud squad has a lot of work to do, that group,
29:25
Speaker 6: and I would like as much of it done as possible.
29:27
Speaker 6: And it's sort of outside of the realm of those
29:29
Speaker 6: politics and maybe could operate and actually do some things
29:31
Speaker 6: despite the lame duck situation.
29:34
Speaker 1: Do you think they could offer him? I've always been
29:37
Speaker 1: a border hawk and a regularization dove. Do you think
29:39
Speaker 1: Democrats and Trump could come together on a regularization path
29:43
Speaker 1: for people in the country without permission who are not criminals?
29:47
Speaker 6: I think if there was ever a person to do it,
29:49
Speaker 6: it might be Trump because he has earned trust on
29:51
Speaker 6: the border, which is the thing that you have to
29:54
Speaker 6: have to make that deal. But I think a lot
29:57
Speaker 6: of people in his coalition would be upset about it.
29:59
Speaker 1: And what about the nutters in the left? I mean,
30:02
Speaker 1: they got 14 squad members, Al Saeed, Troy Jackson, Peggy Flanagan, Tallarico.
30:08
Speaker 1: What are they going to be wanting?
30:12
Speaker 6: I think they have this craving for the sugar rush
30:15
Speaker 6: of investigating Trump and like this whole thing.
30:17
Speaker 10: We're definitely going to get him in prison this time.
30:19
Speaker 6: And I think that if you telegraph that that's your
30:22
Speaker 6: only concern, even though people are concerned about graft and corruption, right,
30:26
Speaker 6: there might be things that are worth investigating. If you
30:29
Speaker 6: telegraph that that's your deal and that's all you care about,
30:32
Speaker 6: which is all they've cared about for 10 years since
30:34
Speaker 6: he came on the scene, they will lose in the
30:38
Speaker 6: future handily, I think, because. That is not being concerned
30:42
Speaker 6: with the concerns of voters. Like, you have to be
30:44
Speaker 6: doing something to make lives better.
30:46
Speaker 10: The problem is they don't know how to make prices lower.
30:48
Speaker 10: They don't have any policies for that.
30:49
Speaker 6: No.
30:50
Speaker 1: Do we have the picture of the day ready for
30:52
Speaker 1: Mary Katherine Hamm's commentary? We don't. All right, I'm going
30:55
Speaker 1: to verbalize it to you, MKH. Bob Dylan went to
30:58
Speaker 1: see Pope Leo today. He was wearing a black hooded
31:01
Speaker 1: robe and carrying an umbrella. What do you think?
31:06
Speaker 6: I think both Bob Dylan and Pope Leo can do
31:08
Speaker 6: whatever they want, and I know that Pope Leo was
31:10
Speaker 6: gracious to him, and I wish Bob Dylan the best
31:14
Speaker 6: in his weird hoodie.
31:16
Speaker 1: Do you think– I'm guessing that the Pope is a
31:20
Speaker 1: Dylan head. I am. People my age are. I think
31:24
Speaker 1: Leo is my– I think that's what it is. He
31:26
Speaker 1: listened to a lot of Dylan songs, and Popes are
31:29
Speaker 1: real people too.
31:30
Speaker 10: I wouldn't be surprised.
31:31
Speaker 1: All right. There they are. Last question. Ron DeSantis gave
31:35
Speaker 1: a big speech today, clearly 2028 on the mind. Mike
31:39
Speaker 1: Gallagher declared him the presumptive nominee. I will not go there.
31:43
Speaker 1: What say you? You have a minute.
31:46
Speaker 10: I think he was trying.
31:47
Speaker 6: You know, it's an odd thing in this administration to
31:49
Speaker 6: watch the vice president come out and say, like, this
31:51
Speaker 6: was the big failure of our administration when the Trump
31:54
Speaker 6: himself is not acknowledging the war per se.
31:59
Speaker 10: As the problem. He's like the gas prices were the problem.
32:02
Speaker 10: So J.D.
32:03
Speaker 6: Is trying to break off this and speak to a
32:07
Speaker 6: more isolationist part of the party. I think it reads
32:10
Speaker 6: as pretty disloyal to me. I'm not sure people will
32:13
Speaker 6: love it as voters in the Trump coalition, but that's
32:18
Speaker 6: the play he's trying to make. I think there are
32:20
Speaker 6: savvier ways to make the point and to make the
32:22
Speaker 6: pitch for himself.
32:23
Speaker 1: I hope it's a head fake. I hope the B2s
32:26
Speaker 1: are in the air right now, Mary Catherine. We'll find
32:28
Speaker 1: out next time we talk. Mary Catherine Hamm, follow on
32:32
Speaker 1: X at MK Hammer. She has been working for 24
32:34
Speaker 1: hours straight. Go listen to the Getting Hammered podcast with
32:37
Speaker 1: Vic from this morning because I got to do it
32:39
Speaker 1: again because I fell asleep, but I will. Stay tuned, America.
32:42
Speaker 1: I'll be right back. Welcome back, America. I'll go back
32:46
Speaker 1: to the phones after this and at the beginning of
32:48
Speaker 1: next hour. I'm joined by former Senator Jim Talent. Senator Talent,
32:53
Speaker 1: After Bill Clinton got whopped in 1994, he moved to
32:56
Speaker 1: the center and dealt with Republicans. After Obama got whomped
33:00
Speaker 1: in 2010, he told Republicans to pound sand. What do
33:04
Speaker 1: you think Donald Trump will do?
33:05
Speaker 11: I think he's already said that he's willing to work
33:09
Speaker 11: with the Democrats. He's said that all along. I think
33:12
Speaker 11: the problem is going to be on the Democratic side, Hugh,
33:14
Speaker 11: because if they pass legislation that he can sign in
33:18
Speaker 11: any of these high-profile areas, it means their left wing
33:21
Speaker 11: is just going to go crazy. even if they can
33:24
Speaker 11: muster the votes to do it without him. And if
33:27
Speaker 11: they pass things that he can't sign, because on many
33:30
Speaker 11: of these issues, Trump is really, as a matter of policy,
33:33
Speaker 11: a centrist. So if they pass things he can't sign,
33:36
Speaker 11: then they're going to have, then Trump's veto is going
33:39
Speaker 11: to look very good in the minds of the American people.
33:41
Speaker 11: So I think what we're going to see out of
33:42
Speaker 11: the Congress, at least initially, is investigations, Israel, and not
33:50
Speaker 11: confirming anybody.
33:51
Speaker 1: I mean, I agree.
33:52
Speaker 4: I agree.
33:53
Speaker 11: I'm expecting to see some things about Israel, and I
33:58
Speaker 11: don't know that smart politics either. They may think it is,
34:01
Speaker 11: looking at some numbers, but the other thing to remember, you,
34:05
Speaker 11: is passing legislation, even if they eliminate the filibuster, which
34:09
Speaker 11: I think they will, it's a long, drawn-out process, and
34:12
Speaker 11: everybody has a long time to look at those bills,
34:16
Speaker 11: you know, when they're filed, during hearings, in committee markups.
34:22
Speaker 11: when they're brought to the floor in the Rules Committee
34:24
Speaker 11: in the House, and then for debate. And I don't
34:28
Speaker 11: know that the Democrats can pass much legislation that stands
34:32
Speaker 11: that kind of scrutiny by the American public.
34:35
Speaker 1: I agree with you, and I am so glad the
34:37
Speaker 1: Republicans did not break the filibuster, because they have to
34:41
Speaker 1: do it, and it's on them if they do it,
34:43
Speaker 1: just like Harry Reid made the big mistake of breaking
34:48
Speaker 1: the filibuster. Now, Senator Talbot, If my prayers come true,
34:53
Speaker 1: the B-2s are in the air on their way to Iran,
34:56
Speaker 1: pickaxe mountain. J.D. Vance's tweet is a head fake. I
35:00
Speaker 1: think we've got to end this and really end this.
35:02
Speaker 1: What do you think?
35:06
Speaker 11: Well, I don't know that the vice president's tweet was
35:08
Speaker 11: a head fake, Hugh, because to the extent that what
35:11
Speaker 11: he said is true, and I think it's plausible, particularly
35:14
Speaker 11: in the rural areas, you want to ask why I
35:17
Speaker 11: think that you can. I'm not going to hijack the question.
35:20
Speaker 11: But even to the extent it's true, the answer is
35:24
Speaker 11: to win. In other words, what's the alternative to winning?
35:28
Speaker 11: I mean, the Iranians are not going to give us
35:32
Speaker 11: a deal that does not involve capitulation. And that will
35:35
Speaker 11: just make everything the vice president's talking about worse. The
35:39
Speaker 11: way out is to win. And Donald Trump likes big wins. Well,
35:43
Speaker 11: if we win, which means they either knuckle under or
35:46
Speaker 11: the regime collapses, then the whole texture of this issue
35:50
Speaker 11: changes you. The American people want to win, and that'll
35:54
Speaker 11: bring down fuel prices once we win. So yes, I
35:58
Speaker 11: think whatever strategy they have for pursuing this conflict with
36:03
Speaker 11: Iran to the point where the regime either collapses or surrenders,
36:07
Speaker 11: I think they ought to do. And I think that
36:10
Speaker 11: does include some more kinetic action. It certainly includes continuing
36:13
Speaker 11: the blockade and Operation Economic Fury.
36:18
Speaker 1: Now, Senator Talent, I really think if we don't do that,
36:23
Speaker 1: Iran will believe, wrongly, that they can influence every future
36:27
Speaker 1: election by shooting at ships in the Strait, no matter
36:30
Speaker 1: what agreement they agree to. Do you agree with that assessment? Oh, yeah.
36:35
Speaker 11: Look, it's clear as a matter of policy. We've talked
36:39
Speaker 11: about it, just you with me, probably, if you added
36:41
Speaker 11: up all the questions you've asked and my answers, you know,
36:44
Speaker 11: for hours, this was the right thing to do at
36:47
Speaker 11: the right time. And by and large, it's been done
36:49
Speaker 11: in the right way. We already have a win in
36:52
Speaker 11: the sense that we achieved the objectives we set forth
36:55
Speaker 11: at the beginning. We just need to find an exit
36:58
Speaker 11: now that enforces those objectives. And I think that the
37:03
Speaker 11: possibility of an actual win is now much more in
37:07
Speaker 11: view because the regime has to be incredibly shaky. I mean,
37:11
Speaker 11: they're being strangled. We continue just the economic piece of
37:14
Speaker 11: this for a few more months, I want to see
37:17
Speaker 11: if they can hold on.
37:22
Speaker 1: Why did oil go down to $ 86 a barrel today?
37:28
Speaker 11: Well, I guess it's possible they thought that there was
37:31
Speaker 11: going to be some kind of a... Frankly, you, I
37:33
Speaker 11: didn't see it. I've been on the phone all day
37:35
Speaker 11: here in Missouri with my friends. It's possible they thought
37:40
Speaker 11: that a solution was coming, some kind of negotiated solution.
37:44
Speaker 11: But that's not going to happen. Look, the only thing
37:46
Speaker 11: the Iranians are going to agree to, basically, is if
37:50
Speaker 11: we give them everything they want. And we're not going
37:52
Speaker 11: to do that. And we shouldn't do that. We don't
37:55
Speaker 11: have to do that. We're choking them. They're the ones
37:59
Speaker 11: who are in trouble. This is what, if the president
38:03
Speaker 11: had gotten, he got the MOU, if it had been sustained,
38:08
Speaker 11: they would have been able to trade oil for a
38:09
Speaker 11: few months in return for peace in the strait. And
38:13
Speaker 11: then when the election was over, the president would have
38:16
Speaker 11: done what I think he's going to do now. So,
38:19
Speaker 11: I mean, I don't think the president's going to give
38:22
Speaker 11: up on his goals, and I don't think he should,
38:25
Speaker 11: either from a policy or national security or a political standpoint.
38:29
Speaker 1: All right, Jim Talent, last question. I think I walked
38:32
Speaker 1: into a pizza place with you, Senator Thune, Senator Brombeck,
38:37
Speaker 1: and another person not long after you had lost your
38:40
Speaker 1: Senate seat. What's the best message for people who got
38:43
Speaker 1: turned out and didn't see it coming?
38:47
Speaker 11: Oh, I think the kind of message that you, did
38:49
Speaker 11: you happen to see John Houston's concession speech, which was
38:52
Speaker 11: full of grace and, and he, yeah. And he just said, look, uh,
38:56
Speaker 11: the fight doesn't end. So what I tell him this,
38:59
Speaker 11: I've been on the phone with a few of those
39:00
Speaker 11: people today. So, you know, they're, they're cleaning up the offices.
39:04
Speaker 11: They want to take care of their employees. And I,
39:06
Speaker 11: and I, you know, always tell them they have the
39:09
Speaker 11: comfort in this case of knowing it wasn't them. In
39:12
Speaker 11: other words, when you lose in a wave, there's nothing
39:15
Speaker 11: you could have done about it. It's not personal. And
39:20
Speaker 11: I always tell them, look, don't make any long-term decisions
39:23
Speaker 11: if you can possibly avoid it until you've had a
39:25
Speaker 11: time to decompress. You, to the party as a whole,
39:30
Speaker 11: one of the things I've been telling people is there
39:33
Speaker 11: are as many threats as there are opportunities in success,
39:38
Speaker 11: and there are as many opportunities as there are threats
39:42
Speaker 11: in defeat. So let's just everybody see where we are
39:46
Speaker 11: in three or four months. But lick our wounds for
39:50
Speaker 11: a while, keep the recriminations down to a tolerable level,
39:54
Speaker 11: and wait for the winds to change, and they're going
39:56
Speaker 11: to change you. This is not my first rodeo. I've
40:00
Speaker 11: been through this a number of times before on both
40:02
Speaker 11: the losing and the winning end.
40:04
Speaker 1: As am I, and those are wise, wise words, Jim Talent.
40:09
Speaker 1: Thank you, Senator, for joining us. Follow Jim on X
40:12
Speaker 1: at Jim Talent. Follow me in the next segment. More
40:14
Speaker 1: of your phone calls coming up here on the Hugh
40:16
Speaker 1: Hewitt Show. Hi, it's Hugh Hewitt. If you are self-employed,
40:19
Speaker 1: own a small business, buy health insurance for your family,
40:21
Speaker 1: you already know how expensive health care can be. Here
40:24
Speaker 1: is the question. When was the last time someone actually
40:27
Speaker 1: looked at your entire health insurance strategy? Not just your premium,
40:31
Speaker 1: your deductible, your out-of-pocket exposure, your doctors, your prescription. What
40:35
Speaker 1: could happen financially if someone in your family actually got
40:38
Speaker 1: really sick? That's what John Ruhlman and his team at U.S.
40:41
Speaker 1: Medical Plan do. They understand the different health insurance markets,
40:45
Speaker 1: and we've got a lot of them in the United States,
40:47
Speaker 1: They help you determine which coverage or combination of coverages
40:50
Speaker 1: make sense for your situation. You're not dealing with an
40:53
Speaker 1: algorithm or a nameless call center. You have a team
40:56
Speaker 1: you can call. This open enrollment, don't just buy another
40:59
Speaker 1: health insurance plan. Build a strategy and execute. Call U.S.
41:03
Speaker 1: Medical Plan at 877-410-4321. That's 877-410-4321. 877-410-4321 or visit usmedicalplan.com.
41:18
Speaker 1: That's usmedicalplan.com. Consumer Cellular has unveiled a way to get
41:23
Speaker 1: a brand new smartphone of your choice and unlimited service
41:26
Speaker 1: without overcomplicating your wireless bill. Check out this new $ 59
41:31
Speaker 1: bundle offer for just $ 59 a month. You get a
41:34
Speaker 1: brand new 5G smartphone plus your unlimited talk, text, and
41:38
Speaker 1: data rate plan. That $ 59 is the monthly cost of
41:41
Speaker 1: your phone and your service combined. And if you use
41:44
Speaker 1: my promo code, Q50, you get an additional $ 50 off
41:48
Speaker 1: your service. Call 1-800-411-4454, 1-800-411-4454. If you're over 50, the
41:58
Speaker 1: $ 59 bundle gets you a brand new 5G smartphone and
42:01
Speaker 1: unlimited everything rate plan with 36-month easy pay financing. Once
42:05
Speaker 1: you pay off your phone, you own your phone, not
42:08
Speaker 1: the company owning the phone, you own it. 1-800-411-4454. Or
42:13
Speaker 1: visit ConsumerCellular.com slash Hugh. Ask about the $ 59 bundle. Use
42:19
Speaker 1: my promo code Hugh50 to get the additional $ 50 off.
42:23
Speaker 1: If you have to use my promo code, that's 1-800-411-4454. 1-800-411-4454.
42:25
Speaker 1: Don't forget Hugh50. Brand new phone. Unlimited everything. Great price. America,
42:39
Speaker 1: it's not really the Hillsdale dialogue, but after yesterday's blowout
42:44
Speaker 1: and anticipation of Friday's conversation with Dr. Arnn at length,
42:48
Speaker 1: I asked him to stick around and talk to us
42:50
Speaker 1: a little bit about the long view of blowouts. Dr. Arnn,
42:55
Speaker 1: it's Wednesday in the afternoon, and we are licking our wounds.
43:00
Speaker 1: If you're a Republican, Hillsdale is a nonpartisan place. Everything
43:03
Speaker 1: Hillsdale at hillsdale.edu. What's the mood around Hillsdale?
43:12
Speaker 5: Well, you know, we do something that doesn't shift with
43:16
Speaker 5: the elections, right? We help people to understand things of
43:20
Speaker 5: long-term value. We are in favor of limited government. So
43:25
Speaker 5: I'll just mention the two things that I think are
43:27
Speaker 5: fundamental problems in America. And they're not going to go away.
43:31
Speaker 5: They might get worse and they may get better, but
43:35
Speaker 5: they're not going to go away.
43:37
Speaker 9: One of them is.
43:39
Speaker 5: The administrative state the fact that we make so many
43:42
Speaker 5: laws at the central government and they're not really made
43:46
Speaker 5: by the congress the vast majority of them are not
43:48
Speaker 5: and that means that's hard for people to control that
43:52
Speaker 5: it's got a mind of its own and that's a
43:55
Speaker 5: serious constitutional breach in my opinion uh so i'm in
44:00
Speaker 5: favor of decentralizing the government and restoring fully the authority
44:05
Speaker 5: of the elected branches which means restoring the authority of
44:08
Speaker 5: the people The second one is the entitlement state, which
44:11
Speaker 5: is the reason, both of these things are the reason
44:14
Speaker 5: we're $ 40 trillion in debt. And, you know, Churchill, whom
44:19
Speaker 5: we talk about all the time on the show, he's
44:22
Speaker 5: one of the inventors of the social safety net. But
44:26
Speaker 5: the way he invented it, the one that he stood
44:28
Speaker 5: for and defended was, it should be an insurance program
44:33
Speaker 5: where everybody gets something they own for the security in
44:36
Speaker 5: their lives. And everybody needs to work. to qualify for that.
44:41
Speaker 5: But if you have a job, there's some savings and
44:45
Speaker 5: they're boosted some by the taxpayer. Well, if Social Security
44:49
Speaker 5: and Medicare were like that, they would be a source
44:52
Speaker 5: of wealth in America instead of a source of debt.
44:57
Speaker 5: And so those two things look to me like abiding
45:01
Speaker 5: problems for America. The national security problem intensifies with the
45:05
Speaker 5: growth of despotisms and their wealth abroad. That's a foreign
45:10
Speaker 5: policy problem, and it too is an abiding problem. So
45:14
Speaker 5: I judge elections around those three things chiefly. And so
45:19
Speaker 5: I think it was a bad day, and I think
45:22
Speaker 5: it will delay our ability to deal with those problems, probably.
45:28
Speaker 5: But the problems are there, and people need to understand
45:32
Speaker 5: them and think about them and figure out what to
45:34
Speaker 5: do from here.
45:35
Speaker 1: In the aftermath of what he called a thumping, George W.
45:40
Speaker 1: Bush in 2006, Republicans got hammered. They got hammered again
45:44
Speaker 1: in 2008 after the financial crisis. People forget in 2008,
45:49
Speaker 1: which wasn't that long ago, Republicans were down to 41
45:52
Speaker 1: Senate seats after the Obama landslide. But after the 2006 thumping, W.
45:58
Speaker 1: went out, fired Donald Rumsfeld, hired Robert Gates, and doubled
46:03
Speaker 1: down on the Iraq war with the surge in January
46:07
Speaker 1: of 2007. I think his finest hour was when he
46:11
Speaker 1: did that. He was not going to let Iraq slip
46:13
Speaker 1: into despotism again. Do you think Trump is going to
46:17
Speaker 1: go that way, or is he going to recede and
46:19
Speaker 1: pull back from Iran?
46:23
Speaker 5: Well, from President Trump, I expect him to do something surprising,
46:28
Speaker 5: and that means I don't know what he's going to do.
46:32
Speaker 5: I bet he'll do something dramatic. I think if he
46:35
Speaker 5: does that, I believe we have to find elegant and
46:41
Speaker 5: economical ways as much as possible to solve our foreign
46:45
Speaker 5: policy problems. I like the blockade. I don't think it
46:49
Speaker 5: costs too much. I think it does put Iran in
46:52
Speaker 5: a pinch and it can go on for a long time.
46:56
Speaker 5: And I don't know enough to know what the targets
47:00
Speaker 5: are that he would bomb that would have a decisive effect.
47:04
Speaker 5: But if he's got a list like that, he's threatened it.
47:07
Speaker 5: And remember, he understands when he talks. I think he's
47:12
Speaker 5: a very shrewd statesman, and there are important things he's
47:15
Speaker 5: done that I don't agree with, and important things that
47:18
Speaker 5: he's done that I very much agree with. But I
47:21
Speaker 5: think he's shrewd, and I think he roughly pretty much
47:23
Speaker 5: knows what he's doing. And I think when he says
47:26
Speaker 5: he's going to bomb them after the midterms or whatever
47:28
Speaker 5: he's going to do, I think he's saying that for
47:31
Speaker 5: their consumption, too. And I bet he's calculating right now
47:35
Speaker 5: what he's going to do. And if he's got a
47:37
Speaker 5: list of targets that can make a difference and be
47:39
Speaker 5: done pretty quick, then I wouldn't be surprised if he
47:42
Speaker 5: did them. But I also wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't.
47:46
Speaker 1: He has made references to Pickaxe Mountain, which is their unmolested,
47:50
Speaker 1: as of yet, deeply buried research facility into which much
47:54
Speaker 1: uranium has been moved, or so many people suspect. That's
47:58
Speaker 1: a night of work for the B-2s. like he did
48:02
Speaker 1: on Operation Midnight Hammer. But there are some people blaming
48:07
Speaker 1: yesterday on the Iran war. I do not believe that,
48:10
Speaker 1: although gas prices were part of it, affordability is part
48:13
Speaker 1: of it. Inflation is not a product of war. Inflation
48:17
Speaker 1: is a product, and you and I have talked about this,
48:19
Speaker 1: of too much money in the money system. Yeah, I
48:25
Speaker 1: think that's right.
48:26
Speaker 5: I think we've got a lot of problems in America,
48:28
Speaker 5: and we're trying to work our way out of them.
48:31
Speaker 5: And it's hard to achieve consistency in any direction with
48:35
Speaker 5: the country so divided. And I don't think inflation is
48:39
Speaker 5: his problem. I think the war is unpopular. I think
48:42
Speaker 5: people are tired of these wars, don't see what they
48:45
Speaker 5: get for them. And it's hard to identify what the
48:49
Speaker 5: causes are. I can explain inflation.
48:54
Speaker 1: I do.
48:55
Speaker 5: But most people don't quite understand that. And This inflation
49:01
Speaker 5: that we are suffering is moderated since Trump got in,
49:05
Speaker 5: but it's also a very long time in the making.
49:08
Speaker 5: We have tripled the amount of money in circulation in
49:10
Speaker 5: the last 18 years, and that never happened before in
49:13
Speaker 5: American history.
49:15
Speaker 1: You mentioned last night, President Trump called in to the
49:18
Speaker 1: Fox News team. and said to him, I had to
49:21
Speaker 1: do Iran. They were two weeks away from a nuclear weapon.
49:26
Speaker 1: Do you think that persuades? We have two minutes of
49:28
Speaker 1: the break.
49:31
Speaker 5: I doubt it, but I doubt it persuades. But it
49:34
Speaker 5: is a good argument, right? If that's true, then he
49:38
Speaker 5: did what he had to do. And God bless him
49:41
Speaker 5: for it. And if he suffers for it, well, that's
49:43
Speaker 5: the cost of statesmanship. You wouldn't, we quote Churchill, judge
49:52
Speaker 5: errors that are toward the enemy mildly, right? Well, what
49:57
Speaker 5: if he had let them get a nuclear weapon in
50:00
Speaker 5: order to win the midterms? Would that be good? Would
50:04
Speaker 5: that be admirable?
50:07
Speaker 1: Well phrased. And in fact, that's the problem of the 1930s.
50:13
Speaker 1: Every time Hitler aggressed, Baldwin and then Chamberlain would not
50:19
Speaker 1: stand up to it. They just wouldn't. And I think
50:22
Speaker 1: we've got 20 years of that and maybe 30. Bill
50:26
Speaker 1: Clinton was the first one to threaten Iran. And I'll
50:30
Speaker 1: come back and I'll talk to you after the break.
50:32
Speaker 1: I think Iran is going to make a fundamental misjudgment
50:35
Speaker 1: about yesterday. I want to know what you think about that.
50:39
Speaker 1: Don't go anywhere, America. Stay tuned. I'll be right back
50:41
Speaker 1: with Dr. Larry Arnn. Special appearance by Dr.
50:44
Speaker 6: Arnn.
50:44
Speaker 1: The Hillsdale Dialogues will be here on Friday. We'll do
50:47
Speaker 1: this at greater length and with more topics, but I
50:49
Speaker 1: wanted to just touch base with him today. All things
50:52
Speaker 1: Hillsdale are found over at hillsdale.edu. They're a sponsor of
50:56
Speaker 1: our show, but not of this segment. And you can
50:58
Speaker 1: find all of our dialogues at hueforhillsdale.com. I'll be right
51:02
Speaker 1: back with him. Stay tuned. Welcome back. I'm Hugh Hewitt,
51:15
Speaker 1: talking on the day after the wipeout of the Republicans
51:18
Speaker 1: in election 2026 with Dr. Larry Arnn, president of Hillsdale College.
51:22
Speaker 1: Hillsdale is a nonpartisan institution. You can find out all
51:25
Speaker 1: about it at hillsdale.edu. You can listen to all of
51:29
Speaker 1: our dialogues, which is usually the last broadcast hour of
51:31
Speaker 1: the week, at hughforhillsdale.com. Dr. R, in a moment on
51:35
Speaker 1: the Democrats, just on the Democrats. There are now three
51:39
Speaker 1: parties in Congress. There are the much-reduced Republicans down to
51:43
Speaker 1: between 44 and 46 senators, somewhere between 165 and 175 congressmen,
51:49
Speaker 1: and then there are two Democratic parties, the liberal Democrats
51:52
Speaker 1: who like to spend money and the left-wing Democrats who
51:56
Speaker 1: are DSA-ers, represented in your state by Abdul El-Sayed, in
52:00
Speaker 1: Maine by Troy Jackson, in Minnesota by a Peggy Flanagan
52:04
Speaker 1: in Texas by James Tallarico. These are, and they're not alone.
52:08
Speaker 1: There are a lot of, there are 14 or more
52:11
Speaker 1: members of the squad in the DSA in the House.
52:14
Speaker 1: How ought the Republicans to deal with the Democrats and
52:17
Speaker 1: what ought the Democrats to deal with their malignancy? Because
52:20
Speaker 1: that's what the left wing is.
52:24
Speaker 5: Well, the only thing to do is to make the
52:26
Speaker 5: case for America, right? People, a lot of things have
52:33
Speaker 5: been done wrong in America for quite some long time.
52:36
Speaker 5: A lot of things have been done right too. It's
52:38
Speaker 5: the best country in the world right now.
52:39
Speaker 11: It is.
52:41
Speaker 5: Um, but you have to make the case for why
52:44
Speaker 5: the principles of America and its institutions for America work and,
52:51
Speaker 5: and can be made to work. And we have to
52:53
Speaker 5: undo some things that make it hard to work that
52:57
Speaker 5: inflation we talked about last segment. Uh, You need stable currency.
53:02
Speaker 5: You need opportunity. You need people to own things and
53:07
Speaker 5: have resources at their disposal so they can live their
53:10
Speaker 5: lives and be responsible. And so we should be working
53:13
Speaker 5: for a society like that. And, you know, I think
53:19
Speaker 5: we have to address the entitlements. And I think that
53:24
Speaker 5: we should address them in a way that gives people ownership.
53:28
Speaker 5: of their retirement and health care funds.
53:31
Speaker 1: Now, the biggest demographic swing against the Republicans last night
53:36
Speaker 1: occurred in an age demographic with which you are very familiar,
53:40
Speaker 1: the 18 to 29-year-olds. They went massively from being for
53:45
Speaker 1: Donald Trump in the age of Charlie Kirk in Turning
53:48
Speaker 1: Point to being against Donald Trump last night or against
53:52
Speaker 1: the Republicans. To what do you attribute that?
53:55
Speaker 5: Well, I talk about Brian Westbury, our friend, who had
54:00
Speaker 5: a kid come to Hillsdale College. He's an economist, and
54:03
Speaker 5: he explained that thing about inflation. And I'll just explain
54:07
Speaker 5: it quickly. Money is only valuable for what you can
54:10
Speaker 5: buy with it. It has no intrinsic value of its own.
54:14
Speaker 5: So it inevitably gets allocated to the amount of goods
54:18
Speaker 5: in society. And so if the money supply is tripled,
54:22
Speaker 5: then assets get more expensive. People who own a lot
54:29
Speaker 5: of assets benefit somewhat from that. You and me, Hugh,
54:33
Speaker 5: we're old, right? Young people who are beginning to acquire
54:37
Speaker 5: assets find that formidable. That is a powerful reason why
54:42
Speaker 5: young people should be estranged. And Donald Trump didn't do that.
54:48
Speaker 5: And Brian Westbury thinks, and I follow him on this,
54:53
Speaker 5: that Mr. Walsh whom Trump has appointed, will be a
54:56
Speaker 5: better-fed chairman and will get the money supply under control,
54:59
Speaker 5: and the prices will gradually even out. But in the meantime,
55:07
Speaker 5: young people got a problem.
55:09
Speaker 1: You're young people at Hillsdale. I bump into them. I'm
55:13
Speaker 1: in the Beltway. You can't turn around without running into
55:16
Speaker 1: a Hillsdale graduate who's running some department or something. They're
55:20
Speaker 1: not pessimists about the republic, are they?
55:24
Speaker 6: No.
55:26
Speaker 5: They're, you know, first of all, they're.
55:29
Speaker 1: Special.
55:30
Speaker 5: You know, I love them. But they're, you know, young
55:36
Speaker 5: and they, you know, are used to success. Not easy
55:39
Speaker 5: to get into Hillsdale College. Not easy to get through it.
55:43
Speaker 5: And so they tend to look at the world with
55:44
Speaker 5: some confidence. Most of them, by the way, are not,
55:48
Speaker 5: you know, deeply interested in politics. Many are, but Not most. Most,
55:55
Speaker 5: you know, they're reading old books and finding the beauty
55:57
Speaker 5: in them and studying the natural sciences and trying to
56:00
Speaker 5: figure out the natural world, right? And, you know, we're,
56:05
Speaker 5: as campuses go, probably more political than most and more
56:12
Speaker 5: conservative than most, probably a lot more conservative. But that's
56:17
Speaker 5: not the main topic, right? There's what there are, 13
56:21
Speaker 5: or 14 or 15. I can't remember how many core courses.
56:26
Speaker 5: One of them is about politics. So, yeah, and they're not,
56:31
Speaker 5: you know, they tend to do well.
56:34
Speaker 1: And, you know, why?
56:35
Speaker 5: Because if you're young people, I will say this to you,
56:37
Speaker 5: the way you get ahead in the world is by
56:40
Speaker 5: helping people. That's how you get a job. Nobody hires
56:44
Speaker 5: you because you're pretty.
56:45
Speaker 1: They hire you because you can help.
56:46
Speaker 5: And that means you've got to work things.
56:49
Speaker 1: Stand by. I'll be right back to talk about the
56:51
Speaker 1: future of the GOP and 2028 with Dr. Arnn right
56:53
Speaker 1: after this. Welcome back, America. That sounds like it's the
57:06
Speaker 1: Hillsdale Dialogue. It's not. That will be on Friday. But
57:09
Speaker 1: I did ask Dr. Arnn to visit with us for
57:12
Speaker 1: three segments today because I just wanted a quick reaction
57:14
Speaker 1: from someone who's seen a lot of ups and downs
57:17
Speaker 1: in politics.
57:18
Speaker 8: Dr.
57:18
Speaker 1: Arne, I will pursue this subject with you at length
57:21
Speaker 1: on Friday. Governor DeSantis, who did, his state did quite
57:26
Speaker 1: well today, gave a press conference this morning in which
57:30
Speaker 1: he called the Republican performance yesterday an extinction-level event. And
57:36
Speaker 1: it was clearly an opening salvo in the 2028 election
57:39
Speaker 1: to which Donald Trump is not eligible. Vice President Vance
57:44
Speaker 1: took the X, nothing from Marco Rubio yet. I think
57:48
Speaker 1: we will see Senator Cruz and Senator McCormick and Senator
57:53
Speaker 1: Cotton maybe run for president. I think we will see
57:56
Speaker 1: former Secretary of State Pompeo run for president. I think
57:59
Speaker 1: we will see Governor DeSantis, Governor Youngkin, and maybe Governor Huckabee,
58:04
Speaker 1: a friend of yours, run for president. Will that be
58:07
Speaker 1: good or bad for the republic, and when should it
58:10
Speaker 1: begin if, in fact, they're going to fence?
58:14
Speaker 5: Well, it'll be good. Those are talented people you listed.
58:18
Speaker 5: I like them all. No many of them. But here's
58:22
Speaker 5: what I think it's time for right now. I think
58:24
Speaker 5: there's DeSantis on your screen. And what he'll be good
58:28
Speaker 5: at is what I think everybody should be good at.
58:31
Speaker 5: And that is he'll be talking about what we should do.
58:35
Speaker 1: Right.
58:36
Speaker 5: Churchill once disrupted a cabinet meeting and later said it
58:40
Speaker 5: on the floor of the House of Commons, he says.
58:43
Speaker 5: The young men who go out to fight for their
58:44
Speaker 5: country have a cause in their hearts. They need from
58:47
Speaker 5: us a plan. So presidential campaigns are at their best
58:55
Speaker 5: when they're about what they will do. And they have
58:58
Speaker 5: to be calculated politically, that is to say, what will
59:02
Speaker 5: get people to vote? But they have to start with,
59:06
Speaker 5: what can we do to deal with these problems? And
59:09
Speaker 5: they have to be real solutions. They have to be
59:11
Speaker 5: something that'll work. I mean, Trump was elected president the
59:15
Speaker 5: first time on getting control of the border. By golly,
59:19
Speaker 5: he did, right? Doesn't mean they won't open up again later,
59:22
Speaker 5: but he has basically stopped that problem. And that was
59:27
Speaker 5: a very big And he said he was going to
59:29
Speaker 5: do it. And other people at the time were somewhat
59:33
Speaker 5: reluctant to say that. So we need a plan. And
59:36
Speaker 5: these guys should be formulating their plans. And I bet
59:40
Speaker 5: they are. And some of them will have good ones.
59:43
Speaker 5: And then in the next phase, you see how well
59:45
Speaker 5: they argue for them. You know, DeSantis has been a
59:48
Speaker 5: tremendous governor in Florida. He's a very imaginative guy.
59:53
Speaker 1: I'll press you on this on Friday, but You invite
59:57
Speaker 1: everyone to Hillsdale, and you'll invite every Democrat who wants
1:00:00
Speaker 1: to be president to Hillsdale as well. I know you will.
1:00:03
Speaker 1: I'd love for you to sit in conversation with three
1:00:06
Speaker 1: or four of them at a time. Not one of
1:00:10
Speaker 1: these set-piece debates that I've done where everyone gets a
1:00:12
Speaker 1: minute and a half to answer, because you don't really
1:00:14
Speaker 1: understand anything in a minute and a half. How long
1:00:17
Speaker 1: do you really need in a conversation with someone for
1:00:20
Speaker 1: them to lay out a plan, Larry Arnn?
1:00:23
Speaker 5: An hour. An hour is plenty. it's shorter than that's
1:00:28
Speaker 5: a problem and see I'm a big believer in letting
1:00:34
Speaker 5: them talk let them explain and if they can't hold
1:00:37
Speaker 5: attention that's an interesting fact about them isn't it and
1:00:42
Speaker 5: this idea that we are going to chop up their
1:00:46
Speaker 5: reasoning into little bits to be fair to everybody I
1:00:49
Speaker 5: once I know DeSantis a bit and I said to
1:00:54
Speaker 5: him one time I said you know what you need
1:00:55
Speaker 5: to do You need to pick just a couple of
1:00:57
Speaker 5: these guys and sit down with them and everybody gets
1:01:02
Speaker 5: 30 minutes. Just the three of you. And, you know,
1:01:06
Speaker 5: in other words, and then if the others protest, offer
1:01:09
Speaker 5: to do it with them or get them to do
1:01:11
Speaker 5: it too. Because the ones who are interested will listen
1:01:15
Speaker 5: to that. I went to a primary debate once. It
1:01:22
Speaker 5: was done on CNN.
1:01:23
Speaker 1: CNN.
1:01:25
Speaker 5: And it was basically for an hour and a half,
1:01:27
Speaker 5: the Wolf Blitzer show. And he wasn't in the race, right?
1:01:32
Speaker 5: We learned something about him. And he wasn't unfair to anybody.
1:01:39
Speaker 5: They didn't have any time and there was too much
1:01:42
Speaker 5: of him managing things. And Trump has been pretty good
1:01:48
Speaker 5: about that. He maneuvers the press out of being the
1:01:52
Speaker 5: essential mediator between him and the people.
1:01:56
Speaker 1: The format has elevated a skill set that is not
1:02:00
Speaker 1: particularly useful to governing. It has elevated the skill set
1:02:05
Speaker 1: of a 90-second response, preferably with a barb attached, that
1:02:09
Speaker 1: causes someone to mention your name and therefore you get
1:02:12
Speaker 1: a response. That's not a particularly good skill set, do
1:02:15
Speaker 1: you think?
1:02:17
Speaker 6: No.
1:02:17
Speaker 5: As I say, you see, I don't know if Any
1:02:25
Speaker 5: of the candidates you listed have the ability of Donald
1:02:29
Speaker 5: Trump to get masses of people moving. But I do
1:02:34
Speaker 5: know the ones that I know that you named, they're
1:02:37
Speaker 5: all capable of making and executing a plan. And so
1:02:42
Speaker 5: what the campaign should be is, how are we going
1:02:44
Speaker 5: to get out of this?
1:02:46
Speaker 1: How do we.
1:02:46
Speaker 5: Deal with our $ 40 trillion debt? How do we deal
1:02:50
Speaker 5: with our country's sorry, defend our country in a time
1:02:53
Speaker 5: of totalitarian governments armed with scientific weapons? What's the most
1:02:57
Speaker 5: effective and efficient and cheapest way to do that? How
1:03:01
Speaker 5: do we restore to the people the ability to control
1:03:06
Speaker 5: the making and enforcing of the laws? And those look
1:03:10
Speaker 5: to me like the big issues, right? And they're not
1:03:13
Speaker 5: going to go away, as I say. And so addressing
1:03:16
Speaker 5: those is a great idea. And they have to be
1:03:21
Speaker 5: addressed in the context of unfolding events. But those are
1:03:26
Speaker 5: the abiding issues, I think.
1:03:28
Speaker 1: And do you think on the other side, because again,
1:03:31
Speaker 1: I believe Hillsdale is a nonpartisan place, would welcome Alexandria
1:03:35
Speaker 1: Ocasio-Cortez or Gavin Newsom. Do you think they have a plan?
1:03:39
Speaker 1: We have a minute, Dr.
1:03:40
Speaker 4: Arndt.
1:03:42
Speaker 5: Well, they do, I think. Yeah, their plan is more government, socialism.
1:03:48
Speaker 5: And that's a plan. It captured Britain. It's captured much
1:03:53
Speaker 5: of Europe. It's never gone away in America. Well, that's
1:03:57
Speaker 5: a plan.
1:03:57
Speaker 7: Yeah.
1:03:58
Speaker 5: Then the question is, will it work? I think not,
1:04:01
Speaker 5: but that's an argument, right? I mean, here's what I think.
1:04:08
Speaker 5: I think, you know, my analysis, and I, you know, look,
1:04:12
Speaker 5: my understanding of the American Constitution starts with the Federalist Papers,
1:04:16
Speaker 5: or earlier, Aristotle, Plato's Republic. Um, The reason it's not
1:04:22
Speaker 5: working is it's too big and it's too remote, and
1:04:24
Speaker 5: it's made by people we don't elect. That means less socialism,
1:04:28
Speaker 5: not more.
1:04:29
Speaker 1: They want more. Amen. Dr. Larry Arnn, president of Hillsdale College,
1:04:34
Speaker 1: thank you. Everything Hillsdale at hillsdale.edu. I'll be back on
1:04:38
Speaker 1: Friday with Dr.
1:04:39
Speaker 8: Arnn.
1:04:39
Speaker 1: We'll continue this conversation then about yesterday's wipeout. Stay tuned, America.
1:04:43
Speaker 1: I'll wrap up today's program.