Latest / The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated / Macklemore, Midterms, and the Media

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Macklemore, Midterms, and the Media · The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: All things Hillsdale at hillsdale.edu.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I encourage you to take advantage of the many free
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: online courses there. And of course, to listen to the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hillsdale Dialogues, all of them at hueforhillsdale.com or just Google Apple, iTunes,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: and Hillsdale.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: The Capitol Dome. The nation's capital. I'm not there. I'm
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: not here. I am here. Hugh's not here. Hugh's off
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: for a day. Whenever Hugh's not here, I often am.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: And what a joy it is to be here with
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  Speaker 2: you on this Friday, the 18th of September, 2026. 46
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: days to the midterms, but hey, who's counting? The answer,
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: we all are. And with each increasing day, panic sets in.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it's the week of panic. AI panic, all
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  Speaker 2: kinds of panic. I'm trying to talk everybody off the
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  Speaker 2: ledge for all kinds of reasons on all kinds of issues.
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  Speaker 2: And maybe today we can take some steps toward doing that.
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  Speaker 2: I'm Mark Davis. Hi there. Happy morning host at 6
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: 60 AM. The answer, the Dallas Fort Worth radio station
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  Speaker 2: that is just down the hall from this, uh, Salem
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  Speaker 2: news channel studio where I join you now. And it's
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  Speaker 2: a pleasure to join you on the Hugh Hewitt show
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: or any of the shows where I tend to pop up.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: It's always a pleasure and glad to spend time with you.
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  Speaker 2: You can follow me in the world of Twitter, the
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: world of X at Mark Davis, M A R K Davis.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: I take a look at, uh, Things you shoot at me,
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: take a look at those on the fly. Maybe we
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: can have a little dialogue as we progress through today's program.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: We will be dialoguing with some great people. Eli Lake
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: is going to join us from Free Press. He has
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: written a piece about a guy who is so toxic
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: and so noxious. I mean, it's so bad, it's so
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: cartoonishly bad that I have found myself wondering, do we
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: really need to talk about this guy for the 512th time?
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: And the answer keeps coming back. Sure, why not? And
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: that is, of course, Hasan Piker, the California streamer. I
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: can't get the mamas and the papas out of my
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  Speaker 2: head every time Hasan tries to distance himself, but only
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  Speaker 2: so much from his poolside buddy, Hasan Piker. So anyway,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Eli Lake has a great piece that he has written
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  Speaker 2: over at Free Press about the special kind of moral
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  Speaker 2: blindness that it takes to be Hasan Piker and the selective,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: what shall we say here, the selective distancing, because Abdul
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Al-Sayed is distancing, but only so much. And we've got
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  Speaker 2: a golden Hasan Piker cut for you here in just
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  Speaker 2: a moment. But a couple of things to share before
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  Speaker 2: we get to Eli. And before we're done this hour,
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  Speaker 2: we're going to talk to Matthew Contenetti at AEI. Next hour,
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  Speaker 2: we're going to spend some time with Ben Dominich at
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  Speaker 2: Daily Wire, Tarzana Joe to wrap up the second hour,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: and then the third hour today is Hugh Hewitt and
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  Speaker 2: the Hillsdale Dialogue. So we've got two red-hot, live-in-your-face hours
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: to do, and very, very glad to be here with
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: you for them. So the first thing I want to
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  Speaker 2: do right out of the box today is– try to
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  Speaker 2: address what you may be feeling about the November 3rd
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: result that lies ahead, namely that it's going to be
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  Speaker 2: an unfettered disaster, that we're going to get our butts
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  Speaker 2: handed to us, it's just going to be a shellacking,
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  Speaker 2: and by the way, it may be. Unless it's not.
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  Speaker 2: Unless you and I and a few million people like
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  Speaker 2: us rise up and say, you know, we're going to
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  Speaker 2: thwart the usual history, We are going to say no
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  Speaker 2: to the usual trend because you know the usual trend.
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  Speaker 2: One party wins the White House and then gets kind
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  Speaker 2: of fat and kind of lazy. And then the other
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  Speaker 2: party rushes in and fills the vacuum in the immediately
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  Speaker 2: following midterms. We've benefited from that more than a couple
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  Speaker 2: of times. Clinton wins in 1992. In 1994, you get
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  Speaker 2: the Gingrich Revolution. Obama wins in 2008. In 2010, we
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  Speaker 2: kick Nancy Pelosi out of the Speaker's chair and give
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  Speaker 2: ourselves John Boehner with a Republican win in those 2010 midterms.
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  Speaker 2: This is the Democrats' chance. to take advantage of that,
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  Speaker 2: of the pendulum swinging as it usually does. Unless we
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  Speaker 2: say no. There is something that feels different in this
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  Speaker 2: midterm to me. And I don't know if I'm just
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  Speaker 2: in my bubble or if it's just wishful thinking, both
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  Speaker 2: of which are possible. And I think the fact that
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  Speaker 2: I know that makes me feel a little better about this.
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  Speaker 2: And that is to say that in the era of
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  Speaker 2: Trump and with everything just turnt up to 12 and
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  Speaker 2: the war is ongoing and everybody's all tired of the
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: war and gas is too expensive and I know But
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: we fixed the border. We're fixing crime. We've returned to
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  Speaker 2: gender sanity and environmental sanity. Is this worth nothing? And
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  Speaker 2: by the way, take a look at the Democrat Party.
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  Speaker 2: They are stark, raving insane. Not all of them. Fetterman exists.
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  Speaker 2: But there are two kinds of Democrats that seem to
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  Speaker 2: occupy the rest of the party, and that is absolute communists.
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  Speaker 2: and those who are afraid to call out the absolute communists.
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  Speaker 2: Is that worth nothing? So I don't want to call
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: it optimism because that would suggest that I'm coming to
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  Speaker 2: you saying, hey, we're going to do great. I'm just
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: here to tell you that, hey, we might. We might
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  Speaker 2: if we can get our act together, if we can
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  Speaker 2: pull our heads out and get past this psy-op that's
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  Speaker 2: being poured on us every day. It's going to be terrible.
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  Speaker 2: You guys are going to get schooled. It's going to
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  Speaker 2: be awful. By the way, all of which is possible.
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  Speaker 2: But you know what else is possible? Us saying no.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Here in Texas, obviously you've heard a lot about Paxton
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  Speaker 2: and Tallarico. You've heard a lot about Paxton, who has
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  Speaker 2: all the right views and a lot of personal baggage.
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  Speaker 2: Has that hurt him so far? Sure didn't in the primary.
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  Speaker 2: And Lord knows you've heard a lot about Tallarico, but
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  Speaker 2: maybe not enough. Here's a guy I spent a lot
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  Speaker 2: of time last week at the GOP midterm convention. And
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: it was awesome. When they announced this thing, I thought, okay,
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  Speaker 2: this seems like a pretty cool idea. And it was great.
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  Speaker 2: It was two days of upbeat conservative messaging. And one
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  Speaker 2: of my favorites, obviously, Trump was great. Vance was great.
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  Speaker 2: The RFK Jr., really great. Brandon Gill, I'm just going
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  Speaker 2: to tell you, who's with me, 49th president of the
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  Speaker 2: United States. And I may not be kidding. After we
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: get through the Vance, Rubio, DeSantis, whatever thing, Brandon Gill,
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  Speaker 2: rock star on the rise. And here he is. They
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  Speaker 2: went and got him to make an ad about Tallarico. Enjoy.
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  Speaker 3: James Tallarico talks like us, but he votes like AOC
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  Speaker 3: and Bernie Sanders. He voted against banning China from buying
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  Speaker 3: Texas land, even property next to military bases. He opposed
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  Speaker 3: banning genital mutilation surgeries on children. Tallarico even voted against
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  Speaker 3: bipartisan legislation making it harder for child predators to To
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  Speaker 3: post bail and get out of jail is no business
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  Speaker 3: representing our state.
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  Speaker 4: Protecting America's future is responsible for the content of this.
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  Speaker 2: By the way, that's my congressman. I live in the
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  Speaker 2: 26th District of Texas. I could not be prouder. I've
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  Speaker 2: gone through about a generation of Dick Army, about a
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: generation of Michael Burgess, both of whom I love. But
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  Speaker 2: this guy, he's a one-man argument against term limits. We'll
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  Speaker 2: save that for another day. Let me jump right to
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: cut 16 because with Eli Lake talking about Hassan Piker,
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  Speaker 2: Was it this morning on Morning Joe? Actual Joe Scarborough
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  Speaker 2: was just beating Hasan Piker to a pulp about, listen,
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  Speaker 2: nobody believes you when you try to distance from Piker,
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  Speaker 2: but here's the actual guy. Here's the source material. Dwayne
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  Speaker 2: went and found this just moments ago. It's just too good.
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  Speaker 2: Here's why everybody is talking about the gift that keeps
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  Speaker 2: on giving, Hasan Piker.
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  Speaker 5: Just to be clear, do you consider Mal a great leader?
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  Speaker 6: When I say Mal's a great leader, I mean he's
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  Speaker 6: a great man of history.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 7: Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: Do you admire him?
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  Speaker 6: I think that there are things that Mao Zedong did
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  Speaker 6: that were unbelievably impressive. Being able to activate the peasant
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  Speaker 6: society that was living under horrifying conditions, like being slaughtered,
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  Speaker 6: being murdered, living under, you know, serf-like conditions, and giving
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  Speaker 6: them collective ownership over their own means of production, allowing
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  Speaker 6: them to control their own destiny to a certain degree,
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  Speaker 6: being able to overcome... the Japanese occupation and the nationalist
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  Speaker 6: forces in the aftermath of that. These are, I mean,
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  Speaker 6: he was a very impressive military leader.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 6: Um, having said that, of course, the cultural revolution was
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  Speaker 6: an abject disaster. I mean, it was a completely disastrous policy.
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  Speaker 6: The industrialization policies led to, uh, the great leap forward
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  Speaker 6: in the industrial policy. Industrialization policies also led to, uh,
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  Speaker 6: horrifying numbers of excess casualties, excess deaths.
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  Speaker 5: Yes, I understand.
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  Speaker 6: So the argument that I present is if those things
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  Speaker 6: had not happened, I think we would look at Mao
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  Speaker 6: Zedong as probably one of the most impressive historical forces,
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  Speaker 6: but those things did happen.
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  Speaker 2: Excess casualties. I guess you have casualties that are okay,
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  Speaker 2: and then there are, oh, I don't know, excess casualties.
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  Speaker 2: Just those extra deaths that sort of nudge him into
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  Speaker 2: the world of the possibly objectionable. Now, I play this
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: and I do sometimes ask in the conservative media bubble
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  Speaker 2: why we're just constantly playing. Remember, there was a stretch
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  Speaker 2: there every day. You got 45 clips of Jasmine Crockett.
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  Speaker 2: She was the flavor of the month. It was to
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: point out how crazy she was. Now, of course, it's
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: Tallarico because he's up against Paxton. And then Abdul himself
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  Speaker 2: gives us his own wealth of audio library. So why?
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: because Abdul El-Sayed will not disavow this guy to the
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  Speaker 2: degree to which he deserves to be disavowed. Coming up next,
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  Speaker 2: Eli Lake has a piece about this, what it may
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  Speaker 2: portend for the midterms, and a bunch of other things
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: to talk about. Mark Davidson for you. Stick around. It's Friday.
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  Speaker 2: We're glad you're here.
• 9:43
  Speaker 7: You know, when.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: I show up for you, Hewitt, you're going to get
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: some chart history, some birthdays, just some stuff I like.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Hall & Oates, Rich Girl, album Bigger Than Bones. of us,
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: released this week, 1976. Look at that, 50-year-old record, wow. Yes,
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: when Mark Davis fills in, everybody feels old. And we
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: all feel great with this lineup of guests that Hugh
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: provides for us. I just walk in, sit down, and
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: get to talk to the people that I listen to
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: when I listen to Hugh. Eli Lake is here from
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  Speaker 2: Free Press. Eli, welcome, sir. How are you doing? Great, Mark.
• 10:20
  Speaker 8: Thanks so much for having me.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: It's an absolute pleasure. I've got a few things I
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: want to get to, but first and foremost, your brand
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: new piece, The Moral Illiteracy of Hassan Piker. I find
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: myself asking here in the conservative media bubble, the 500th, 600th,
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: 700th time we point at this guy and go, he's terrible.
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  Speaker 2: Isn't it kind of baked in? And then I find
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: myself talking to myself with an inner dialogue that says,
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  Speaker 2: every opportunity we can take with great pieces like yours
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  Speaker 2: to point out how toxic this guy is, and Abdul
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  Speaker 2: El-Sayed's failure to fully distance probably helps us in Michigan.
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  Speaker 2: Your thoughts.
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  Speaker 8: Well, my only, my only thing I'd say is it's
• 10:55
  Speaker 8: not really the, the failure was campaigning with him. I
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  Speaker 8: think the failure was that Said believed that he could
• 11:01
  Speaker 8: kind of win the primary and no one would notice
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  Speaker 8: that he won it with the grassroots energy and surrogacy
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  Speaker 8: provided by Hassan Piker. You know, I, my sense is
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  Speaker 8: that he is now based on his behavior and, realizing
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  Speaker 8: that the laws of political gravity have not gone away
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  Speaker 8: and that if you decide to campaign with an extremist
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  Speaker 8: like Piker and somebody who, you know, is now saying
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  Speaker 8: that pound for pound America is the worst terrorist in
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  Speaker 8: all kind of, which is insanity, that you're just going
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  Speaker 8: to turn off, you know, the great block of voters
• 11:43
  Speaker 8: in the middle. And maybe that, I think, you know,
• 11:46
  Speaker 8: maybe that helped them in the primary and it certainly
• 11:47
  Speaker 8: helped other kind of very radical progressive candidates this midterm.
• 11:51
  Speaker 8: It probably helped Mamdani when, you know, Piker was kind
• 11:56
  Speaker 8: of with him in New York. But I don't think it's,
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  Speaker 8: I think it's a, it is a clear example of
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  Speaker 8: how you are going to alienate the vast majority of Americans.
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  Speaker 8: And the reason that it's alienating is because at his core,
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  Speaker 8: you know, Hassan Piker is what I would say is
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  Speaker 8: a member of the anti-American left. Not everybody who's a progressive,
• 12:19
  Speaker 8: by the way, is anti-American. But I think Hassan Piker
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  Speaker 8: certainly is. And that is, I think, in the end,
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  Speaker 8: that's poison for the Democratic Party. And I think that's
• 12:30
  Speaker 8: why it's become a big story right now.
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  Speaker 2: And his continuing stream of toxins shows that when he
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: went and campaigned for Abdul, it wasn't because he wanted
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: to help Abdul. It was because he wanted more clicks.
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  Speaker 2: And I think the entire Democrat establishment now wants this
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  Speaker 2: guy to shut up. And he just won't do it,
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  Speaker 2: which shows, I think, the ultimate narcissism.
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  Speaker 8: I think he wanted to help Abdul because I think
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  Speaker 8: Abdul and Hasan Piker share certain values. And I think
• 13:00
  Speaker 8: that Abdul right now, Abdul Al-Sayed is dissing himself in
• 13:04
  Speaker 8: some ways from the kind of candidate he was in
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  Speaker 8: the primaries when he said in April that he was
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  Speaker 8: not going to condemn any of Hasan Piker's positions. Um,
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  Speaker 8: but I think, you know, I think he does, I
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  Speaker 8: think Hassan Piker does like to think of himself as
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  Speaker 8: a kind of kingmaker in the democratic party and he
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  Speaker 8: wants the socialist wing to prevail. And the socialists are
• 13:25
  Speaker 8: not the, I mean, they're, they're pretending right now to be, oh,
• 13:29
  Speaker 8: we're just, you know, being demonized and marginalized by, um,
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  Speaker 8: you know, these corporate Democrats, but the, but the socialists
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  Speaker 8: want to do the same thing to the corporate, to the,
• 13:39
  Speaker 8: to the, to the old leaders of the party. I mean,
• 13:42
  Speaker 8: they have a whole campaign going on right now that
• 13:45
  Speaker 8: anybody who served at a high level in the Biden
• 13:47
  Speaker 8: administration should be drummed out of the party and never
• 13:50
  Speaker 8: serve in the presidential administration again because they are responsible
• 13:53
  Speaker 8: for this fictional genocide in Gaza. So that's the kind
• 13:59
  Speaker 8: of thing I'm talking about, where both sides, what I
• 14:02
  Speaker 8: was going to say is it's a two-way, it's a duel.
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  Speaker 8: And Saeed and, for that matter, Hassan Paik are on
• 14:11
  Speaker 8: one side of that duel.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's thoroughly plausible and thoroughly sound analysis. But
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: does he have no self-awareness? He has to know that
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: sitting there, all these Mao is a great historical figure.
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  Speaker 2: America's worse than Al-Qaeda. That's not helping Abdul. No.
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  Speaker 8: I mean, one could argue that if you are a
• 14:31
  Speaker 8: leftist like Hassan Paik are, you are sort of expanding
• 14:37
  Speaker 8: what's called the overturned window. You're introducing concepts that were
• 14:42
  Speaker 8: in the past, you know, verboten in American politics. And now,
• 14:45
  Speaker 8: you know, we can talk about them. So in some ways,
• 14:47
  Speaker 8: that's good if you're trying to move the needle in
• 14:50
  Speaker 8: this big sense. It certainly doesn't help Abdul Al-Said. And
• 14:54
  Speaker 8: I think in that respect, you're correct that he's got
• 14:56
  Speaker 8: a business that he has to attend to. And that
• 14:58
  Speaker 8: is he has to say provocative and outrageous things, which
• 15:01
  Speaker 8: is kind of what he does on his Twitch stream.
• 15:04
  Speaker 8: But now that everyone's paying attention, I mean, there are
• 15:07
  Speaker 8: a lot of ways he could have handled that Axios interview,
• 15:10
  Speaker 8: and he didn't handle it very well. And now he's
• 15:14
  Speaker 8: playing the victim. I mean, he's a victim of himself
• 15:17
  Speaker 8: in this regard.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: Help me understand something in our last couple of minutes.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: Sometimes I just need help from my Jewish friends. Bernie Sanders,
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: technically a Jew, tangentially, culturally, not religiously, also buying into
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: this complete falsehood of Gaza in genocide. Now, if Macklemore
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: does that on stage, I get it. Bernie Sanders, what?
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: Is he self-loathing? What is going on there?
• 15:43
  Speaker 8: Well, I wrote a piece for commentary a few years
• 15:45
  Speaker 8: back called sort of identifying the as a Jew problem
• 15:49
  Speaker 8: and as a Jews are. members of my tribe that say,
• 15:53
  Speaker 8: as a Jew, I, you know, oppose, right, comma, I
• 15:58
  Speaker 8: deplore the Israeli government for its genocide and so forth.
• 16:01
  Speaker 8: And that's really what Bernie Sanders is doing. I think
• 16:04
  Speaker 8: we've known this for a long time. Bernie Sanders is,
• 16:06
  Speaker 8: you know, real religion is progressivism. I'm not saying he,
• 16:09
  Speaker 8: you know, he's still in, I don't saying, I'm not arbitrated.
• 16:13
  Speaker 8: I'm not trying to arbitrate it, you know, judge what
• 16:16
  Speaker 8: his faith is or not.
• 16:17
  Speaker 5: And it's not for me.
• 16:17
  Speaker 8: And I, would resent it if someone did that to me,
• 16:20
  Speaker 8: but I'm just saying that his priorities in his identity
• 16:23
  Speaker 8: are as a progressive and a socialist. And he is
• 16:27
  Speaker 8: not motivated by a kinship with the Jewish people. And
• 16:32
  Speaker 8: there is a long tradition, I should say, of, you know,
• 16:36
  Speaker 8: the Jewish communities going back to thousands of years, bickering
• 16:40
  Speaker 8: with themselves. And this is a part of it. But
• 16:42
  Speaker 8: I think a lot of American Jews, tend to be
• 16:46
  Speaker 8: more liberal in general. And I think that there are
• 16:48
  Speaker 8: many who, for them, liberalism, progressivism is the identity, much
• 16:54
  Speaker 8: less so than the religion or their peoplehood of being
• 16:58
  Speaker 8: a Jew.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: Eli Lake, the new piece is The Moral Illiteracy of Assam. Piker,
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: look for it in Free Press. Look for everything Eli does.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: Pleasure to talk to you, sir. Thank you so much
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: for your time. Thank you very much. That is the
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: great Eli Lake. So I mentioned Macklemore, listen, whom I
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: have zero concept of. I guess I remember thrift shop
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: from 15 years ago. Like I'm going to pop some tags, whatever.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: I know that, but I can't find my car keys. Uh,
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: I like Ed Sheeran, this poor slob bless his heart. Uh,
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: all he's trying to do is play music and make
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: some money. You know, he's actually trying to be, do
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: the shut up and sing thing says, Hey, let's bring
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: Macklemore on tour. What could go wrong? And there he
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: is out there chanting free Palestine. And then everybody finds
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: the 10 year old imagery of Macklemore on stage with
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: the worst Shylock, big nose, uh, anti-Semitic thing you could
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: possibly imagine. And so he starts to get kicked off
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: the tour. And Ed says, I'm not doing it. The
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: promoters are doing it because they've got at least some
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: bar of decency about anti-Semitism. But then now all of
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: a sudden Robert Kraft, who was a big part of
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: this and who I actually liked for 10 minutes, when
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: he said, look, I'm going to take a stand against
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: anti-Semitism on stage. Now they're all throwing money at Palestinian charities.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: Do you not know that the Palestinian charity money, tons
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: of it goes to Hamas? Do we not know this?
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: All right, we're going to see some other things that
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: we know and don't know with Matt Continetti. He's coming
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: up next. Mark Davison for Hugh Hewitt. Stay here.
• 18:28
  Speaker 8: When life leaves you high and dry, I'll be at your.
• 18:32
  Speaker 6: Door tonight if you need help, if you need help.
• 18:36
  Speaker 8: I'll shut down the city lights, I'll lie, cheat, I'll
• 18:40
  Speaker 8: beg and bribe to make you well.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: Mark gave us in for Hugh Hewitt, and when I
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: bring in musical birthdays, it's usually for people in their 70s,
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: because I almost am. I was about 12. 14 years ago,
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: this guy won American Idol, Philip Phillips. That was gone, gone, gone.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: He's 36 over the weekend here. Look at that, a
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: musical birthday for somebody who's not 80 yet. It's noteworthy
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: when I'm here. It's always a pleasure to be here
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: for you. As I said when we were just talking
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: to Eli Lake, to listen to all these great guests
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: I hear when driving around listening to you. It is
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: time for Matthew Continetti over at AEI. We've got a
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: lot to do. Matt, welcome. How are you doing, sir?
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: I'm doing well, Mark. Good to see you.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: Nice to have you. I want to continue what passed
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: for a stream of consciousness. At the end of the
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: last segment, wrapping up with Eli, we had talked a
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: little bit about some anti-Semitism, little this, little that. And
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: I invoked a moment of that sort of continuing Ed Sheeran,
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: McLemore thing. And in invoking Ed Sheeran, 10% of this
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: audience knows who that is. In invoking McLemore, 0% of
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: them knows who it is. But it's important because it
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: shows the power of the Jew-hating, the way it courses
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: through the left. Here's Robert Kraft, who had shown a
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: little bit of spine in saying, we're not going to
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: let a Jew-hater like McLemore in my stadium, at Gillette Stadium.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: Other promoters followed suit, and he got bounced. Then Ed
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: Sheeran's band quits. Some of his opening acts quit. Good
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: thing he can just fire up the loop machine and
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: play stuff himself. But what are the lessons? I think
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: I've seen you post a few things about What is
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: and is not free speech? Because everybody said, oh, he
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: got bounced. He got canceled for speaking his mind.
• 20:15
  Speaker 9: Well, we all believe in free speech, but it needs
• 20:17
  Speaker 9: to be applied equally. In the case of Macklemore, it
• 20:21
  Speaker 9: seems like free speech is running only in one direction.
• 20:26
  Speaker 9: And that is to say, we have many examples since
• 20:29
  Speaker 9: October 7th, 2023 of Jewish intellectuals, writers, artists, Israeli actors, performers, entertainers,
• 20:39
  Speaker 9: comedians being denied a platform, having their appearances be canceled,
• 20:47
  Speaker 9: having their books be canceled, having their contracts reduced. The
• 20:52
  Speaker 9: Israeli actress Gal Gadot has been the subject of several campaigns, boycotts,
• 20:59
  Speaker 9: simply because she's Israeli.
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: Simply because she speaks.
• 21:02
  Speaker 9: The truth about what happened on October 7th, that Hamas
• 21:06
  Speaker 9: barbarously attacked Israeli civilians, killed over 1,200 people, men, women,
• 21:11
  Speaker 9: and children, and spirited over 200 people, including American citizens,
• 21:16
  Speaker 9: into dungeons in Gaza. For simply saying that fact, you
• 21:20
  Speaker 9: can be targeted by the pro-Hamas lobby, which resides, because
• 21:25
  Speaker 9: the artistic community has always been so progressive in this
• 21:29
  Speaker 9: entertainment movement, So why was there no outrage when Jewish
• 21:36
  Speaker 9: authors have book appearances canceled or when Jewish authors can't
• 21:41
  Speaker 9: get publishing contracts? Why is there only outrage when Macklemore
• 21:46
  Speaker 9: actually has to face responsibility for his anti-Semitism? I happen
• 21:53
  Speaker 9: to know people who were at that concert in New
• 21:55
  Speaker 9: York when he started the chant of Free Palestine.
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: These were Jews. They felt very uncomfortable by it.
• 22:01
  Speaker 9: And they were very sad that they go to see
• 22:04
  Speaker 9: and listen to Ed Sheeran sing and perform, and instead
• 22:08
  Speaker 9: they have to be the subject of mass ridicule and
• 22:12
  Speaker 9: indeed hatred. So sure, free speech is great, but it
• 22:15
  Speaker 9: needs to be applied equally.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: And for those who are slow to the party, anybody
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: driving around thinking, what could be wrong with free Palestine?
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: Everybody wants to be free. Free Palestine is a river-to-the-sea
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: dog whistle that is about the violent eradication of Jews
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: and It involves an embrace as a particular song, if
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: you want to call it that, that Macklemore performed right
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: after that Free Palestine chant that was a celebration of
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: the Columbia University thugs who made life miserable for Jewish students.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: That is lofted to a level of heroism. So that
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: whole Free Palestine thing is a wink and a nudge
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: to something very, very dark.
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: Oh, you're absolutely right.
• 22:59
  Speaker 9: I mean, the way to free Palestine is to free
• 23:02
  Speaker 9: Gaza of Hamas. And that's indeed what Israel has been
• 23:06
  Speaker 9: trying to do since October 7th, 2023. And for its efforts,
• 23:12
  Speaker 9: Israel has been demonized, boycotted, sanctioned by the Western world,
• 23:18
  Speaker 9: by the developed economy. So this supposedly advanced developed economy,
• 23:23
  Speaker 9: primarily in Europe, Canada, doesn't even have the clarity of
• 23:29
  Speaker 9: mind to see who is acting for the benefit of
• 23:34
  Speaker 9: the world and who is actually acting for evil. And that's,
• 23:40
  Speaker 9: I think, that confusion. Some of it is genuine confusion.
• 23:44
  Speaker 9: Some of it is malevolent. That is just so present
• 23:48
  Speaker 9: in our world today and it needs to be fought.
• 23:50
  Speaker 9: And I have to say cheers for Robert Kraft for
• 23:53
  Speaker 9: taking a stand.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: Got a couple of things to add to this and
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: a few other things to talk about with Matt Continetti.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: We'll both be back in just a moment. Mark Davis
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: filling in for Hugh Hewitt Friday. Stick around. Donovan, Sunshine Superman.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: A couple of reasons for this. First, this record was
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: on the charts having been released 60 summers ago in
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: the summer of 1966, and also the death of Peter Max.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: Are you old enough to have any of this guy's
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: imagery or any of this guy's posters on? I'm about
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: to be 69 in November. I'm not even old enough
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: to have had Peter Max posters on my wall. I
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: guess I could have. Maybe by the time I'm in
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: high school and college, it's the 70s. But Google Peter
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Max posters, and it's the psychedelia of the 60s. And
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: so with Donovan's Sunshine Superman, I thought I would toss
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: that in as well on the charts just 60 short
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: years ago. All right, Matt Continent is here from AEI.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: Here's where I left off in terms of what we
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: were talking about, about anti-Semitism in the popular culture, which
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: is no new story. But its recent foothold in politics, Matt,
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: is kind of interesting. Do you believe it is in
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: fact true that a couple of fairly shining lights in
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: the Democrat Party, Josh Shapiro and J.D. Pritzker, have zero
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: chance of being nominated in for their party in 2028
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: because they are Jews. And that's just a deal breaker.
• 25:24
  Speaker 9: Well, I think more important than their Judaism, Mark, is
• 25:28
  Speaker 9: that in Josh Shapiro's case, he has not separated from
• 25:33
  Speaker 9: the state of Israel. And when you have a candidate like, say,
• 25:38
  Speaker 9: John Ossoff, the senator from Georgia, who is Jewish, but
• 25:42
  Speaker 9: who has been very vocal in opposition and has supported
• 25:47
  Speaker 9: stripping Israel of aid because of his opposition to Israel's
• 25:52
  Speaker 9: war against Hamas, he's actually doing pretty well in the
• 25:56
  Speaker 9: polls for the Democratic Party. So I think it really
• 25:59
  Speaker 9: has to do with where you are on Israel. And
• 26:03
  Speaker 9: it just so happens, of course, that there are many
• 26:06
  Speaker 9: American Jews who support Israel.
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: It is the Jewish home.
• 26:11
  Speaker 9: But there's also many, many more American Christians who support Israel.
• 26:16
  Speaker 9: They're in the Republican Party, so they can't help the
• 26:19
  Speaker 9: pro-Israel Democrats.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: Quite true. I've often mused as to why I, as
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: an evangelical Christian, seem to be more on board for
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: the interests of Israel than the average American Jewish voter.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Go figure. We have breaking Trump news that I wanted
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: to offer up to you, having talked about free speech.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: President Trump on Truth Social like 45 minutes ago. I'm
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: proud to announce that effective immediately I'm banning CNN, MSNOW,
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: and Politico from the White House. They shouldn't be able
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: to constantly write or report fiction and lies when covering
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: the President of the United States. Okay, he's not wrong
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: about the lies, and a lot of people in the
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: MAGA base are going to go, yeah! And listen, I
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: confess to a certain percentage of that myself. But I
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: think my favorite thing is to have Caitlin Collins actually
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: there and have Trump get into a dueling match with
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: her rather than banning them from the property? What do
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: you think?
• 27:15
  Speaker 9: Well, a lot of those dueling matches actually help Trump,
• 27:17
  Speaker 9: help him get his message out, show him as a fighter,
• 27:20
  Speaker 9: which is what so many Republicans like about the president.
• 27:23
  Speaker 9: This is an interesting development. You know, the White House,
• 27:27
  Speaker 9: of course, tried to ban the Associated Press early on
• 27:31
  Speaker 9: in the administration.
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: There's been legal wranglings over that.
• 27:34
  Speaker 9: I expect that if Trump follows through, with this threat
• 27:38
  Speaker 9: on CNN and Politico. There will be similar legal proceedings
• 27:43
  Speaker 9: and will be left to the courts as so many
• 27:45
  Speaker 9: decisions are in this Trump era, the second Trump term.
• 27:51
  Speaker 9: Something happened on CNN today, Friday, September 18th, that triggered
• 27:55
  Speaker 9: President Trump, because prior to this announcement, Mark, he was
• 28:00
  Speaker 9: complaining about something he saw on CNN. So Intrepid reporters
• 28:04
  Speaker 9: need to figure out what was playing on CNN this
• 28:06
  Speaker 9: afternoon that really got Trump's fury going.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: What in the world might it have been?
• 28:11
  Speaker 7: All right.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: In our final few minutes with Matt Continetti, a guy
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: who got an almost entire hour of show without mentioning AI,
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: if I gather a bunch of people who are really
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: nervous about AI, really concerned about it, I guess one
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: of two things is true. Either they've taken a look
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: at the possible dark side of AI and just considered
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: it intellectually for its negatives to outweigh its positives. Or
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: they're in league with the communist Chinese. And it's impossible
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: to tell them apart. So I'm trying to talk people
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: off the ledge. I have the same concerns. It's weird.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of unknown here. But I think I
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: trust America more than I– to a degree, I trust
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: Trump's stewardship of AI. I think I'm willing to trust
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: to some degree these tech bros who suddenly somehow crave
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: government stewardship over what they're doing. How do you see
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: this entire moment in the AI tug of war?
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: Well, it's crazy.
• 29:05
  Speaker 9: It's a mania that has kind of exploded on the
• 29:08
  Speaker 9: scene because of this young man who quit his job
• 29:12
  Speaker 9: at Anthropic after also quitting his job at OpenAI. He
• 29:17
  Speaker 9: likes to quit his job apparently. But the way I
• 29:22
  Speaker 9: think about it is this way. The doomers, and that's
• 29:25
  Speaker 9: not all of the tech Jensen Wong of NVIDIA and
• 29:30
  Speaker 9: Mark Zuckerberg of Meta slash Facebook, they've both said that
• 29:33
  Speaker 9: actually they don't think that what the other set of oligarchs,
• 29:38
  Speaker 9: Sam Altman, Dario Amos. are calling for is necessary. But
• 29:43
  Speaker 9: the doomers, so to speak, Mark, can't answer two questions
• 29:46
  Speaker 9: for me. The first is, well, how actually is AI
• 29:49
  Speaker 9: going to bring about the end of the world? They
• 29:51
  Speaker 9: don't really connect the dots in any plausible way. And
• 29:56
  Speaker 9: the second question they don't answer is, how are you
• 29:59
  Speaker 9: going to get China to cooperate and control AI development?
• 30:03
  Speaker 9: Because the one thing we know of the People's Republic
• 30:06
  Speaker 9: of China is they lie.
• 30:08
  Speaker 5: They don't live up to their statements.
• 30:10
  Speaker 9: They covered up an actual global disaster, mass casualty event,
• 30:16
  Speaker 9: the Wuhan pandemic. They still haven't paid for that, for
• 30:20
  Speaker 9: what they did, the damage, the wreckage, not just in
• 30:23
  Speaker 9: economic terms. not just in lives, but also the stunted
• 30:26
  Speaker 9: growth of a whole generation of American children because of
• 30:30
  Speaker 9: the school closures. So why do we expect China all
• 30:33
  Speaker 9: of a sudden to play nice on AI where verification
• 30:37
  Speaker 9: that they're holding up to their promises.
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: Is almost impossible?
• 30:41
  Speaker 9: It's not like nuclear weapons where you could have site
• 30:43
  Speaker 9: visits and you could monitor radiation levels. AI development is
• 30:47
  Speaker 9: taking place inside those black boxes. You really don't know
• 30:50
  Speaker 9: what's going on inside them. So I'd like more detail
• 30:54
  Speaker 9: before we rush to judgment. And I think President Trump
• 30:57
  Speaker 9: is right to say that AI is an economic boon.
• 31:02
  Speaker 9: And it's also one of the areas where America is
• 31:05
  Speaker 9: outcompeting China in this competition for dominance in the 21st century.
• 31:10
  Speaker 9: And for that reason, I would not rush into any
• 31:13
  Speaker 9: bans or regulations or kill switches. I would instead just
• 31:17
  Speaker 9: think about it If we want to make sure that
• 31:20
  Speaker 9: the AI can't come up with gain-of-function research for new viruses, sure,
• 31:26
  Speaker 9: let's do that. Let's also stop the gain-of-function research that's
• 31:29
  Speaker 9: going on.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: How about that? Such a concept. Such a concept. I
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: knew we would have productive time with Matthew Continetti. Get
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: your copy of The Right, The Hundred-Year War for American
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: Conservatism that Matt has written. Keep track of everything he writes.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: I'm Mark Davison for Hugh Hewitt and we … We'll continue.
• 31:45
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• 33:47
  Speaker 2: Some talking heads from 1986 for you younger kids who
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: are weary of my 50-year-old things. Wild, Wild Life from
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: True Stories released 40 years ago this week. Mark Davis
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: making everybody feel old here on the Hugh Hewitt Show
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: and welcoming all the great guests that Hugh welcomes. I
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: get to drive around and listen to these people, and
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: when I come in and do the show, I get
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: to talk to them, and it's just a huge pleasure.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: Let's go to Daily Wire. Ben Dominich is here. Hello, Ben.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: How are you doing, sir?
• 34:15
  Speaker 7: I'm doing well, and I like the talking heads, so
• 34:19
  Speaker 7: good choice.
• 34:19
  Speaker 5: There you are.
• 34:24
  Speaker 7: You know, it's been a very weird and interesting week
• 34:29
  Speaker 7: in D.C., and I don't know if you've been talking
• 34:33
  Speaker 7: about it, but the decision by the Republicans to get
• 34:36
  Speaker 7: out of town this early. um is both not an
• 34:40
  Speaker 7: inspiring situation for the congress but it's also one that
• 34:44
  Speaker 7: uh perhaps means that they are finally understanding that they're
• 34:47
  Speaker 7: playing the game from behind and they really need to
• 34:50
  Speaker 7: mount a comeback in order to be able to have
• 34:52
  Speaker 7: any hope of bucking the trends with this.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: Midterm actually glad you brought that up because we talked
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: a lot on on the local show that i do
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: here in dfw and on some other conversations i've had
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: about the optics it's like well they're they're just getting
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: you know clobbered for not doing enough And then they
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: leave Washington. Probably some of their most important intel comes
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: from when they come back to their actual districts and
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: talk to actual voters. Every member of Congress will tell
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: you that district work really is important. So tell me
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: how they should navigate the optics, what the average Republican
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: ought to say about the value of being in the
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: home district versus just being chased down the halls of
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: the Capitol.
• 35:27
  Speaker 7: Well, I think that what they can say realistically coming
• 35:30
  Speaker 7: back is we believe that this election is too important
• 35:34
  Speaker 7: to have any situation where we're not hitting the ground
• 35:37
  Speaker 7: running and doing everything that we can to win the
• 35:40
  Speaker 7: votes of the constituencies, especially in House districts that have
• 35:44
  Speaker 7: been redrawn and redistricted, often with populations that didn't vote
• 35:48
  Speaker 7: for that member before. And in these critical battleground races,
• 35:52
  Speaker 7: a lot of this is a true existential threat against
• 35:56
  Speaker 7: the understanding of America, given the takeover of the Democratic
• 35:59
  Speaker 7: Party by a legion of socialist And Islamists who are
• 36:05
  Speaker 7: working together to fundamentally change our country and who hate
• 36:08
  Speaker 7: America and the West. And I think that that is
• 36:11
  Speaker 7: the way that they should talk about it, you know,
• 36:12
  Speaker 7: to make to up the stakes of this midterm election.
• 36:16
  Speaker 7: And I think that a big part of the reason
• 36:17
  Speaker 7: that they can do that, of course, is that Democrats
• 36:19
  Speaker 7: have gone crazy and nominated a bunch of people who
• 36:22
  Speaker 7: don't really care. qualify for office, or even if they
• 36:26
  Speaker 7: do qualify, have incredibly crazy views when it comes to
• 36:31
  Speaker 7: what they want to do when they eventually show up
• 36:34
  Speaker 7: in Washington, which many of them will based on the
• 36:36
  Speaker 7: districts that they got chosen in. And I think Republicans
• 36:39
  Speaker 7: just have to confront that dead on. And if the
• 36:41
  Speaker 7: media calls them Islamophobes or says, you know, you're lying
• 36:46
  Speaker 7: about how great socialism is or something like that, you know,
• 36:48
  Speaker 7: then they can use that and put it back to it.
• 36:50
  Speaker 7: I think that they need to up those stakes and
• 36:53
  Speaker 7: really say to their constituents, these are the things, these
• 36:57
  Speaker 7: are the reasons that we're back home. The other thing is,
• 36:59
  Speaker 7: you know, I think that the Democrats have gotten away
• 37:03
  Speaker 7: with a lot of messaging on this where they haven't
• 37:05
  Speaker 7: had to confront any of the things that they would
• 37:07
  Speaker 7: actually do to people's pocketbooks. We know that when Democrats
• 37:11
  Speaker 7: take the House, presumably, which they are overwhelmingly the odds-on
• 37:15
  Speaker 7: favorite to do, I think it's basically an 80-20 shot
• 37:19
  Speaker 7: that they're going to take the House. they are going
• 37:22
  Speaker 7: to engage in impeachment and they're going to engage in lawfare.
• 37:26
  Speaker 7: They're going to haul people in front of committees. They're
• 37:28
  Speaker 7: going to try to generate noise. They're going to do
• 37:31
  Speaker 7: a bunch of things under the auspices of oversight. They're
• 37:33
  Speaker 7: just designed to slow the Trump agenda, etc. They're not
• 37:36
  Speaker 7: going to actually do anything when it comes to affordability
• 37:39
  Speaker 7: and have any kind of impact on the pocketbook. You know,
• 37:43
  Speaker 7: the things that will have impact on that is The
• 37:45
  Speaker 7: Iran war winding down and the president, you know, advancing
• 37:48
  Speaker 7: some of the policies that he is still putting into place.
• 37:51
  Speaker 7: You know, we've seen it happen within other areas of
• 37:53
  Speaker 7: the marketplace. Prescription drugs is the one that they emphasize
• 37:56
  Speaker 7: at the White House. But I think that this is
• 37:59
  Speaker 7: a situation where Democrats are just promising people a total
• 38:01
  Speaker 7: bill of goods and Republicans need to do a better
• 38:04
  Speaker 7: job of calling them out on it. and offer their
• 38:06
  Speaker 7: own plans on how to make things better. And I
• 38:08
  Speaker 7: think that that's something that they have really yet to do.
• 38:11
  Speaker 7: They have not done it to the degree that they need.
• 38:13
  Speaker 7: They're good on the border. They're good on law and order.
• 38:15
  Speaker 7: They're good on calling out socialism. But I think that
• 38:17
  Speaker 7: they need to be better on the Islamist aspect of this,
• 38:20
  Speaker 7: and I think they need to be better on the
• 38:21
  Speaker 7: affordability aspects of this, because that's what people on the
• 38:24
  Speaker 7: right will activate. It'll base voters, and in the middle,
• 38:27
  Speaker 7: the people who came over to the Trump coalition, that's
• 38:30
  Speaker 7: what they need to hear.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: All right, we're about 30, 40 seconds away from the pause.
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: So Ben Dominich and I will be back in a second. Ben,
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: of course, on Twitter at BDominich, opinion editor of Daily Wire,
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: doing all kinds of fun things online, on TV, whenever
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: you see him, all kinds of wisdom to share. I'm
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: going to have him share some wisdom about a giant
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: of the Senate and a man with a genuine heart
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: for service that he had some kind words for and
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: that I want to make sure to mention his name
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: before we are done here on this Friday. So Ben
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: Dominich and I will be back. In just a second,
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: I'm Mark Davis. You can follow me in the big
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: world of X, big world of Twitter, at Mark M-A-R-K Davis.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: Mark Davis Show on Instagram and Facebook and TikTok, so
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: the Chinese even know where I am. Ben Dominich and
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: I return next on the Hugh Hewitt Show. Mark Davis
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: with you on a Friday. Glad to be here. Be
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: right back. Got things from 50 years ago. All the notes,
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: rich girl.
• 39:25
  Speaker 5: 40 years.
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: Ago, some talking heads. Now for the youngsters, 1996. Little
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: ZZ Top and What's Up With That? Rhythmine released this week,
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: 30 years ago. God bless Billy Gibbons. I mean, the
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: entire band can die around him, and he just will
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: not stop touring. Frank Beard passed away. The only ZZ
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: Top member without a beard. Dusty Hill had gone previously,
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: but they're rolling through here in a few days. So
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: God bless Billy Gibbons, and you can never get enough
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: ZZ Top. Speaking of paying tributes to people, Ben Dominich
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: is with us. You had a very nice post about
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: John Kyle, whom you obviously, you know, being married to
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: Megan and McCain world. And John Kyle comes back into
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: the Senate for just a few months after Senator McCain
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: passed away. He came from the House. I want to
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: say if my memory is correct, from the House into
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: the Senate in 1994 with the with the Gingrich revolution.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: Just getting some thoughts, some recollections, just the the impact
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: and the force of nature that was John Kyle.
• 40:20
  Speaker 7: Well, John Kyle sort of had this very interesting role
• 40:24
  Speaker 7: because you have one senator who has this outsized national reputation.
• 40:30
  Speaker 7: you know, runs for president, does all these other things.
• 40:32
  Speaker 7: And John Kyle was known within the Senate as a worker,
• 40:36
  Speaker 7: as a guy who, in fact, you know, one of
• 40:39
  Speaker 7: the things that was a hallmark of him was that
• 40:41
  Speaker 7: he was one of the few members of the Senate who,
• 40:45
  Speaker 7: and this is an amusing thing to ask of senators,
• 40:48
  Speaker 7: but who would actually read the legislation and because of
• 40:51
  Speaker 7: that would have strong opinions about it. And that was
• 40:55
  Speaker 7: something that to his due made him kind of a
• 40:57
  Speaker 7: guy that people would consult when it came to policy
• 41:00
  Speaker 7: and perspective on numerous issues, you know, including, you know,
• 41:04
  Speaker 7: things that, you know, were perhaps not necessarily of national import,
• 41:09
  Speaker 7: but were deeply important to the people of Arizona. And
• 41:12
  Speaker 7: John was around quite a lot. You know, I met
• 41:15
  Speaker 7: him as a Senate staffer in the early 2000s, but
• 41:18
  Speaker 7: then also, you know, got to see a good bit
• 41:21
  Speaker 7: of him near the end. You know, when, as he said,
• 41:24
  Speaker 7: he came back to the to the Senate and was
• 41:26
  Speaker 7: a great help, you know, in terms of replacing John
• 41:30
  Speaker 7: in that role, replacing Senator McCain in that role. The
• 41:33
  Speaker 7: other thing that I think, you know, we should appreciate
• 41:35
  Speaker 7: about him that perhaps is not fully given his due
• 41:38
  Speaker 7: for is He had a major mark to be made
• 41:42
  Speaker 7: when it came to the approach of getting the approval
• 41:47
  Speaker 7: of judges through the Judiciary Committee over the years. It's
• 41:50
  Speaker 7: one of the reasons he was selected as the Sherpa
• 41:53
  Speaker 7: for the person who was designated to help a Supreme
• 41:58
  Speaker 7: Court nominee through the process for one Brett Kavanaugh. And
• 42:02
  Speaker 7: as you know, that turned out to be the most
• 42:05
  Speaker 7: fiery and contentious Supreme Court nomination hearing since Clarence Thomas.
• 42:11
  Speaker 7: really was a situation that could have gone sideways. John
• 42:14
  Speaker 7: Kyle did a masterful job of keeping people on board.
• 42:20
  Speaker 7: I think that Susan Collins and some of the other
• 42:22
  Speaker 7: people who had tough decisions to make about what was
• 42:25
  Speaker 7: going on there, that could have gone in different directions.
• 42:29
  Speaker 7: I think that there were people who basically looked at
• 42:32
  Speaker 7: Kavanaugh as being someone who was going to be a
• 42:36
  Speaker 7: dead man walking after that hearing that happened. And Kyle
• 42:41
  Speaker 7: got him through the process. And I think that that's
• 42:42
  Speaker 7: a lasting legacy from him and one that we should
• 42:45
  Speaker 7: truly appreciate and honor given the context of the time.
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: Well done, good and faithful servant. In our remaining minutes
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: with Ben Dominich, hey, it's a Friday. Let's do something recreational.
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: Let's solve the war. I don't think it's going to
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: be over by November. There's the curveball. I thought you.
• 43:00
  Speaker 7: Were going to ask me to solve the Browns quarterback.
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: Oh, no, no, no. This is not that complex. It's
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: not that. As he himself will tell you. It's not
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: going to be over by November 3rd. President yesterday said,
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: I got a big decision to make whether I'm going
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: to annihilate them. Okay, if you're going to do it, sir,
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: do it. I don't know how that would go. We're
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: not a warlike people. We're an impatient people. I am
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: very glad that Iran's nuclear threat has been largely defanged.
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: I'm very glad that their funnel of money to Hamas
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: and Hezbollah has been largely abbreviated. They are still mischief
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: makers in the Strait of Hormuz. So how do you
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: sell this thing? How do you navigate it? And I
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: know the gas is too expensive. I give you the war, Ben.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: How do we navigate that and not have it kill
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: us on November 3rd?
• 43:48
  Speaker 7: I think that it's too late for that, unfortunately. And
• 43:50
  Speaker 7: I think it's too late because this is something that
• 43:52
  Speaker 7: needed to be wrapped up months ago. And I think
• 43:54
  Speaker 7: that the entire kind of pause that happened that was,
• 43:59
  Speaker 7: you know, whether you think it was the wise thing
• 44:01
  Speaker 7: to do or not at the time, I thought it
• 44:04
  Speaker 7: was wrongheaded because I don't think that you can actually
• 44:07
  Speaker 7: negotiate in any good faith with the Iranians. And I
• 44:09
  Speaker 7: don't think that that's what was going on there. But
• 44:11
  Speaker 7: there was this pause that happened around that negotiated kind
• 44:14
  Speaker 7: of finish to things that And I just don't think
• 44:16
  Speaker 7: we ever should have done that. I think that what
• 44:18
  Speaker 7: we've learned from this president is he got elected promising
• 44:22
  Speaker 7: no new wars, and people don't like the fact that
• 44:24
  Speaker 7: he went to war in Iran. I think he had
• 44:27
  Speaker 7: justifiable reasons to do it, and I think that the
• 44:30
  Speaker 7: best explanation that I obviously heard was from Marco Rubio
• 44:33
  Speaker 7: saying that their ballistic missile program had reached a point
• 44:37
  Speaker 7: where if we allowed it to continue, we would no
• 44:40
  Speaker 7: longer be able to attack their nuclear program in the
• 44:43
  Speaker 7: same way that we currently could Because of that, that
• 44:46
  Speaker 7: we needed to engage in a campaign that was going
• 44:48
  Speaker 7: to be six to eight weeks or something along those lines.
• 44:51
  Speaker 7: That was going to be a military step up and
• 44:53
  Speaker 7: that was going to eradicate a lot of their leadership
• 44:55
  Speaker 7: and a lot of their capability. That's a small war.
• 44:57
  Speaker 7: That's something that I think the American people would understand.
• 45:01
  Speaker 7: What they don't understand is how much this has hit
• 45:02
  Speaker 7: their pocketbook. And I think that, unfortunately, Republicans now have
• 45:06
  Speaker 7: to understand that they can't run away from this war.
• 45:08
  Speaker 7: They're going to have to defend it. And the way
• 45:09
  Speaker 7: that they're going to have to defend it is to say,
• 45:11
  Speaker 7: This pain at the pump that you're experiencing right now
• 45:14
  Speaker 7: is a down payment on America's future and the future
• 45:16
  Speaker 7: of the world because these people were crazy and they
• 45:18
  Speaker 7: were going to have a nuclear weapon in short order
• 45:21
  Speaker 7: that could reach all around to Europe and to elsewhere
• 45:24
  Speaker 7: and upset completely the situation in the world in ways
• 45:27
  Speaker 7: that we cannot trust crazy people who hate us not
• 45:30
  Speaker 7: to do, especially on the 25th anniversary of 9-11. Understand
• 45:34
  Speaker 7: what these people are capable of and I think condemn
• 45:37
  Speaker 7: it as such. But I think that that's something that
• 45:40
  Speaker 7: very few Republican candidates have shown willingness to do. I
• 45:42
  Speaker 7: think they need to do it because they can't run
• 45:44
  Speaker 7: away from this war. People are going to assign them
• 45:46
  Speaker 7: blame for it anyway. And that blame is mostly not
• 45:49
  Speaker 7: about the war itself. It's about how it's at their pocketbook.
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: Ben Dominich, opinion editor of Daily Wire. B. Dominich there
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: on Twitter and X. Much appreciated, sir. Best to you.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: Best to the family. Thanks for the time. Always appreciate
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: hearing you and talking to you when I get to
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: come hang out on the radio show. Thank you. That
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: is Ben Domenech. So, wow, that's a good answer, man.
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: That's a real good answer because you can't run away
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: from it, and it's not going to be solved or
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: done by November 3rd unless we nuke them over the
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: next couple of weeks, he says supposedly satirically. The president
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: talked about it, and it's funny. You want to spend
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: 30 seconds on that? I don't believe we're going to
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: turn Iran into glowing green glass. Okay, we're not going
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: to do that. So how much more aggressive can we be?
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: We have pummeled them even farther into the Stone Age,
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: and yet they are still able to cause mischief in
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: the Strait of Hormuz. What further can we do? Maybe
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: we're about to find out. I hope that that would
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: be good, because we like winning. We like winning these
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: wars that we get into. Mark Davis in for Hugh Hewitt. Gee,
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: I think it's time to talk to Tarzana Joe. Let's
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: do it next. Stick around. Mark Davis in for Hugh.
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: Hugh and I traded some text messages in anticipation of today,
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: and I knew we'd have 35 things to talk about
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: and all kinds of things in the news, and I decidedly,
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: assiduously said there was no way in the world that
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: we were going to talk about Ohio State versus Texas
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: because my joy, the flip side of that coin, was
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: the misery of Hugh. I got nothing but Ohio State fans, too.
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: I know a ton of people who are going to
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: be in Buckeye world. They just have to be shaking
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: their heads. And when you throw in the Cleveland Browns,
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: it's just too painful. But then, you know, hey, here
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: in Cowboys land, we have our own problems. So I
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: was going to really just kind of avoid even saying
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: that F word, football. But here's Tarzana Joe, and I
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: hear that it is his theme. And suddenly I am
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: buoyed and lifted by the prospect of his wisdom. Joe, welcome.
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: How are you doing, sir? Fine, thank you.
• 48:01
  Speaker 4: As I was preparing for this week's program, I was
• 48:04
  Speaker 4: preparing to gloat. because for the first time in recorded history,
• 48:07
  Speaker 4: my alma mater, Wake Forest, is 2-0, and Ohio State isn't. But,
• 48:14
  Speaker 4: as you know, sport can be a great metaphor for life,
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: and perhaps it is. As the current football seasons were
• 48:23
  Speaker 4: expectedly approaching, I pondered if success was due to players
• 48:29
  Speaker 4: or to coaching. Does landing at the top of all
• 48:32
  Speaker 4: the standings and divisions mean depend upon the outcome of
• 48:36
  Speaker 4: performance or decisions. The question's as perplexing as the chicken
• 48:41
  Speaker 4: and the egg, though you'll never kick a field goal
• 48:43
  Speaker 4: if you don't have the leg. And note that on
• 48:46
  Speaker 4: the field is not where all the coaching's done. You've
• 48:49
  Speaker 4: got to draft the player who can make that fourth
• 48:51
  Speaker 4: and one. In considering the issue, this quotation has arisen.
• 48:57
  Speaker 4: He'd take his'n and beat yours'n, then take yours'n and
• 49:01
  Speaker 4: beat his'n. I rarely make conclusions based on such a
• 49:05
  Speaker 4: tiny sample. But if I were to pick based on
• 49:09
  Speaker 4: the Giants, for example, I'd say that coaching is paramount.
• 49:13
  Speaker 4: Or if I'm feeling sporty, you'll have to recognize that
• 49:16
  Speaker 4: at least it's 60-40.
• 49:18
  Speaker 10: You can have every advantage. but still take it on
• 49:21
  Speaker 10: the chin. Without the proper leadership, you're never going to win.
• 49:25
  Speaker 10: What point am I making based on these metaphoric rambles?
• 49:30
  Speaker 10: That's why Florida's successful and California is in shambles. That's
• 49:36
  Speaker 10: put-me-in-coach Or at least I didn't say anything mean about
• 49:40
  Speaker 10: the Browns.
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: No, you did not. You did not. And I offer
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: you the following on the fly. It'll probably be clumsy.
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: You ready, Joe? The teams that we root for, they
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: may strengthen, they may weaken. But let us conclude this
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: Friday by saying, go you demon deacons.
• 49:54
  Speaker 4: Freeman Deegan, it's going to be a tough night against Miami, though.
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: There you are. Call it 3-0. We'll see. Tarzana Joe,
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: I don't even know what would make me attempt that
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: kind of pen. It's not even iambic pentameter. TarzanaJoe.com for
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: all things Joe. TarzanaJoe.com. Do check it out. Thank you
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: for checking out our pursuits today. Whenever I come in
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: and fill in for Hugh and anybody else, it's just
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: a joy. Thanks to Dwayne and to Adam and to
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: Dustin here in the Dallas world of Salem News Channel
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: and to Danielle for setting up the show. It's always
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: a joy. Go to AllThingsHewitt at HughHewitt.com. Follow me on
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: Twitter at Mark Davis, M-A-R-K Davis. God bless this great country.
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: Have a fantastic weekend. See you next time they call.
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: And right here at 660AMTheAnswer. com and DFW. Be good.