Latest / The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated / Election 2026, Polling, and Iran updates

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Election 2026, Polling, and Iran updates · 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
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  Speaker 1: listen to the Hillsdale Dialogues. All of them at hueforhillsdale.com
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: or just google Apple, iTunes, and Hillsdale in the American
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: League Championship Series. I know you're excited about that as
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I am. To bring you up to speed on where
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: I am today, got up early to talk with David
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Asman on In for Stuart Varney on Fox Business this morning.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Here's that cut number four.
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  Speaker 2: Who joins me now? So you, is Trump's midterm blitz
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: helping Republicans?
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  Speaker 1: Good morning, David. Happy Columbus Day to you. Thank you
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: so much. Yes, it is. I see the president going
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: to my hometown tonight, Warren, Ohio, Youngstown, Ohio, the Trumbull County,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Mahoning County is the Steel Valley, and it's where elections
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: are won or lost in Ohio. I mean, Those two
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  Speaker 1: counties traditionally deep blue Democratic Union households. President Trump is
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: enormously popular in Youngstown and Warren in Mahoning County and
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  Speaker 1: Trumbull County. However, he's going head to head with the
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Guardians first game in the American League Championship Series tonight.
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  Speaker 1: Cleveland advanced down and they'll be playing in Tampa Bay.
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  Speaker 1: So the crowd will be out there, but they're all
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  Speaker 1: going to be checking their phones. I hope the president
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  Speaker 1: works into his remarks. Go Guardians, go Jose Ramirez. He's
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  Speaker 1: not going to lose Florida. But John Husted, Vivek Ramaswamy,
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  Speaker 1: they're very happy to have him.
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  Speaker 2: By the way, is that manufacturing center really the heart
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  Speaker 2: of the state? What do they think about AI?
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  Speaker 1: Are they afraid of it?
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  Speaker 2: Are they taking advantage of it, realizing that there are
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  Speaker 2: a lot of good blue-collar jobs available because of these
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: data centers? What is their feeling about that?
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  Speaker 1: My view of the Valley is if you bring in
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  Speaker 1: an AI giant data center to what used to be
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  Speaker 1: Lordstown General Motors or Packard General Motors or any of
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  Speaker 1: the steel plants, they will applaud, stand up, rise up
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  Speaker 1: and be as happy as can be. A lot of
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  Speaker 1: that reindustrialization that you see in Pittsburgh and Columbus. has
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  Speaker 1: not got up to the northern border with Lake Erie yet,
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  Speaker 1: so if they get it to Ashtabula County, Mahoning County,
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  Speaker 1: Trumbull County, they'll find a willing and ready and able workforce,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of great universities. It's a great place for
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  Speaker 1: the president to sell an AI message tonight. Just make
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  Speaker 1: sure you work in some nice words about Jose Ramirez.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: Next one for you, Hugh. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer
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  Speaker 2: says he's not worried about the Republicans going into the midterms.
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  Speaker 2: He thinks they're going to be fine.
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  Speaker 1: Watch.
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  Speaker 4: He and Republicans have been pulling the economy out of
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  Speaker 4: the ditch. Nobody seems to want to report on the
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  Speaker 4: fact that real wages are up on the rise, that
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  Speaker 4: poverty is at the lowest level ever. Nobody wants to
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  Speaker 4: report the good news that is in our economy. And
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  Speaker 4: this is what Donald Trump and Republicans have done. The
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  Speaker 4: message is, if our people will turn out, you may
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  Speaker 4: be satisfied, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't vote.
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  Speaker 5: You show up and vote. We're going to be fine.
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  Speaker 2: Now, the problem, of course, is the Iran war and
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  Speaker 2: the price of gas. Has that obscured the underlying strength
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  Speaker 2: of the economy?
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  Speaker 1: I think it has. I mean, the employment numbers are great. Inflation,
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  Speaker 1: except for gas, is down considerably from the Biden years.
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  Speaker 1: And in fact, we are rebuilding our defense base and
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  Speaker 1: AI is being integrated into it. We had to do
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  Speaker 1: the Iran thing. I think the president has made a
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  Speaker 1: very good argument to the American people. I know it
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  Speaker 1: hurts at the pump, but we had to do this
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  Speaker 1: because they were close to a nuclear breakout. And they
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  Speaker 1: are the source of Mideast instability. We all have been
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  Speaker 1: paying an Iran tax since 1979. I think that regime
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  Speaker 1: is going to collapse. I think it will be the
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  Speaker 1: thing for which Donald Trump is best remembered, the attack
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  Speaker 1: on Iran. But the argument has to be made over
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  Speaker 1: and over again for the next three weeks, every day.
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  Speaker 1: It's got to turn out if you don't want the
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  Speaker 1: country to be absorbed in impeachment and absurd hearings for
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  Speaker 1: the next two years. That's the Democratic agenda, and they're
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  Speaker 1: running extremists like El Saeed in Michigan and Troy Jackson
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  Speaker 1: in Maine, people like Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota, Tallarico, who
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  Speaker 1: won't do an interview yet about where he's been for
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  Speaker 1: two weeks. There is a lot of downside on the
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  Speaker 1: Democratic side, and Donald Trump is not going to stop
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  Speaker 1: working between now and the election, so good on him.
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  Speaker 2: But just pointing to the other guy doesn't necessarily win
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  Speaker 2: you elections. You have to point to yourself and talk about,
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  Speaker 2: What you have done, have they been successful? I mean,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of messaging problems from the Republicans about talking
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  Speaker 2: about what they can provide for the American public.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I watched Emmert's talk on ABC yesterday, and
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  Speaker 1: he made the point. We prevented the largest tax increase
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  Speaker 1: in history. That's a little bit opaque for most voters.
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  Speaker 1: I think what they've got to say, again, we keep
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  Speaker 1: your taxes low. We are driving down prices. We are
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  Speaker 1: rebuilding our defense. America is leading the world again, and
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  Speaker 1: that's because of Donald Trump and the Republicans. I think
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  Speaker 1: that's a winning message. We'll see, though. There are no
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  Speaker 1: predicates for this election. We haven't had a... separated term
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  Speaker 1: ever in our lifetime where a president goes, goes, leaves,
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  Speaker 1: comes back. So we have nothing on which to base this.
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  Speaker 1: And so I'm not going to I'm not going to
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  Speaker 1: believe any of the polls because they've been so wrong
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  Speaker 1: for so long. We'll have to just wait and see
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  Speaker 1: whether the Republican turnout machine and their money advantage works.
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  Speaker 1: I'm hopeful I'm a Republican, but nothing's baked into it.
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  Speaker 2: You know what they haven't done enough of, in my mind,
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  Speaker 2: is talking specifically to the 66 million taxpayers who who
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  Speaker 2: are now taking deductions, whether it's no tax on tips, overtime,
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  Speaker 2: or Social Security. That's a constituency that they haven't milked
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  Speaker 2: as much as.
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  Speaker 1: Jared Asman is right. And I think every Republican on
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  Speaker 1: every campaign ought to be talking about those deductions and
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  Speaker 1: about keeping taxes low and the fact that jobs are great,
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  Speaker 1: employment is everywhere, AI is on the rise, and we're
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  Speaker 1: integrating it into the economy. I think the president will
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: do that tonight in Ohio. More coming up. Stay tuned.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Hugh Hewitt Show. A special welcome to
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: our viewers on C-SPAN this week. We're glad to be
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: co-broadcasting with C-SPAN for the week running up to the
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  Speaker 1: penultimate week of electioneering. We kick off this hour with
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  Speaker 1: the once and future Senator of New Hampshire, John Sununu. Senator,
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  Speaker 1: welcome back. I was in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, eight days ago.
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  Speaker 1: Saw a lot of those red ovals, those new thing
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  Speaker 1: you've got going out there. John Sununu, Senator 2024. How's
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  Speaker 1: it feel for you on the ground in New Hampshire?
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  Speaker 6: 2026.
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  Speaker 7: I hope nothing said 2024.
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  Speaker 3: It feels great.
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  Speaker 7: You know, this is town to town, person to person.
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  Speaker 7: It's a race about New Hampshire and the future of
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  Speaker 7: our state. This is about the next six years.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 7: It's not about next year. It's not about anything.
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  Speaker 1: That happened in the past.
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  Speaker 7: Who's going to be a strong, independent voice for New
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  Speaker 7: Hampshire for the next six years? Focus on the right things.
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  Speaker 7: And I started my campaign by talking about affordability, growing
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  Speaker 7: wages and jobs in New Hampshire. I've worked in the
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  Speaker 7: small business community here. And that's the perspective we need
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  Speaker 7: representing us, standing up for us in Washington.
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  Speaker 1: You're right. It was 2026. It was the red color,
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  Speaker 1: which matches up with Susan Collins, our senator's signs north
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  Speaker 1: of the border. And so I was struck by the red, red, red, red.
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  Speaker 1: Let me ask you, Johnson & Newton, I saw a
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  Speaker 1: poll this weekend from Coefficient. Kelly Ayotte is up by
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  Speaker 1: 21 points in her reelection campaign. They did not poll
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  Speaker 1: your race, or at least they did not publish it
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  Speaker 1: over at RealClearPolitics. I mean, that's a great tailwind to
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  Speaker 1: be behind, isn't it? Well, it is.
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  Speaker 3: And she's going to win.
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  Speaker 7: You know, I can't tell you whether it's 15 points,
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  Speaker 7: 20 points, but it's certainly.
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  Speaker 3: Into double digits.
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  Speaker 7: And this is what a lot of people from outside
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  Speaker 7: New Hampshire don't realize. We're really a center-right state. We
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  Speaker 7: have a great Republican governor. and she will be reelected.
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  Speaker 7: We have a Republican state Senate, 16 of the 24 seats,
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  Speaker 7: Republican House, and our executive council, five members who keep
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  Speaker 7: a check on the governor and a check on spending,
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  Speaker 7: four out of five are Republican. So, you know, the
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  Speaker 7: idea of limited government, local control, it runs deep in
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  Speaker 7: New Hampshire. We want fiscal conservatives, whether it's at state,
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  Speaker 7: the state level, or the federal level. And that's a
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  Speaker 7: big contrast in this race, I'm running against someone, Chris Pappas,
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  Speaker 7: who voted 68 times on taxes in his eight years
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  Speaker 7: in Congress, and every single time he voted to raise taxes.
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  Speaker 7: I mean, that's an incredible record. The only statistic to
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  Speaker 7: me that's even crazier is that when Nancy Pelosi was speaker,
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  Speaker 7: he voted with her 222 out of 223 times. I mean,
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  Speaker 7: that kind of a rubber stamp, it's not good.
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  Speaker 3: For New Hampshire.
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  Speaker 7: It's not good for any state. And it's certainly not
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  Speaker 7: what the people here in our state want.
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  Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about Pappas for a second, John Sununu.
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  Speaker 1: The Democrats have nominated the worst set of candidates. They're
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  Speaker 1: like the cast of The Office minus the normal guy, Jim.
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  Speaker 1: They've got El Sayed in Michigan and Flanagan in Minnesota
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  Speaker 1: and Tallarico in Texas and Troy Jackson north of you
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  Speaker 1: in Maine. These people are nuts. Does Chris Pappas appear
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  Speaker 1: moderate by comparison with the crazies?
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  Speaker 7: Well, he certainly doesn't on the metrics that I just mentioned.
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  Speaker 7: Every time he's voted for taxes, he's voted to increase them.
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  Speaker 7: He voted 99.5% of the time with Nancy Pelosi. But
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  Speaker 7: if you can imagine, during his primary, he was pushed
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  Speaker 7: even further left by the candidates and the sentiment that
• 9:35
  Speaker 7: you mentioned that's out there that's dominating the Democratic Party
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  Speaker 7: right now. So when it came to a vote criticizing
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  Speaker 7: and condemning socialism, he voted no. He refused to criticize
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  Speaker 7: the Democrat socialist agenda, which is dismantle the Senate, pack
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  Speaker 7: the Supreme Court, make D.C. and Puerto Rico states. I mean,
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  Speaker 7: these are things that they've put into writing.
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  Speaker 3: So he's moved.
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  Speaker 7: Even further left on those issues. And then in real terms,
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  Speaker 7: it's caused him to sort of turn his back on
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  Speaker 7: things important to New Hampshire. So he voted to defund
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  Speaker 7: our Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, a very important military facility here
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  Speaker 7: in New funding that shipyard. When there was a resolution,
• 10:24
  Speaker 7: not a resolution, an amendment to provide military support, military
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  Speaker 7: assistance to Israel, he couldn't decide whether to vote yes
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  Speaker 7: or no because he was so afraid of the left.
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  Speaker 7: And so he voted present. And I mean, I served.
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  Speaker 1: In Congress for 12 years.
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  Speaker 8: I never voted president.
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  Speaker 9: Yes.
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  Speaker 7: I mean, it's really a sign of political paralysis of fear.
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  Speaker 7: So when someone lives in fear of their party, of
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  Speaker 7: their base, you know it's time for them to go.
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  Speaker 7: And after eight years of Chris Pappas, I think it
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  Speaker 7: really is time for a change here in New Hampshire,
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  Speaker 7: new leadership, new vision, a new voice and a different
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  Speaker 7: kind of voice that will stand up to party politics,
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  Speaker 7: as I have many times in the past, and who
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  Speaker 7: will be a tough, independent voice for the state.
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  Speaker 1: Well, let's drill down on Portsmouth for a second. That's
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  Speaker 1: what I was up there for. I wanted to see
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  Speaker 1: on the river as much as I could see of
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  Speaker 1: where they're repairing the Virginia-class submarines. That facility's got to expand.
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  Speaker 1: That needs more funding, not less. Has Chris Pappas gone
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  Speaker 1: up to Portsmouth and explained why he wanted to fund
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  Speaker 1: the biggest employer in northern New Hampshire? Sure.
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  Speaker 7: No, I mean, really, he hasn't explained much in the
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  Speaker 7: way of anything. You know, for him, this campaign is
• 11:45
  Speaker 7: about maintaining as much cover as he can, you know,
• 11:49
  Speaker 7: moving away from his record, not talking about votes like
• 11:53
  Speaker 7: that that are clearly contradictory to where the people of
• 11:56
  Speaker 7: the state of New Hampshire are. I mean, look, this
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  Speaker 7: is someone that supported biological males competing in girls' sports.
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  Speaker 7: He voted for legislation giving $ 1, 200 of taxpayer benefits to
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  Speaker 7: illegal immigrants. And he's just out of touch with New
• 12:15
  Speaker 7: Hampshire because he's been so tied in with the leadership
• 12:19
  Speaker 7: of his party. And now as that leadership moves left,
• 12:22
  Speaker 7: he drifts further and further left. And he's just lost
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  Speaker 7: touch with the state. Look, I mean, he's been there
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  Speaker 7: for eight years.
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  Speaker 10: You know, that happens.
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  Speaker 7: But But he hasn't even been effective when he's been
• 12:35
  Speaker 7: given a chance. For the eight years he's been there,
• 12:38
  Speaker 7: he's been on the Transportation Committee. And New Hampshire is
• 12:42
  Speaker 7: dead last in highway funding in New England. So when
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  Speaker 7: you can't even do a job that's been handed to you,
• 12:48
  Speaker 7: you know it's time for a change.
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  Speaker 1: Johnson, you're an MIT engineer. Don't hold it against me, Hugh, please.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: I thought that you were MIT engineer guy. I thought
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: the Senate could use some smarts as opposed to radical
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: politician or voting president, which is news to me. I
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: can't believe you voted president on the Israel vote. What
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: does that background, and you're a businessman, what's that bring
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: to the Senate that they need?
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: Well, it is a good question.
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  Speaker 7: And frankly, there aren't many people with a technical background
• 13:22
  Speaker 7: anywhere in Congress, let alone in the Senate. And it's
• 13:26
  Speaker 7: having a technical background, but also having worked in manufacturing
• 13:30
  Speaker 7: and small business. I mean, I was a consultant for
• 13:33
  Speaker 7: several years, advising companies on how to improve their product
• 13:37
  Speaker 7: development strategy, their product development efficiency. So I've spent a
• 13:41
  Speaker 7: lot of time in the innovation field. And today, if
• 13:44
  Speaker 7: you look at the issues that are at the top
• 13:48
  Speaker 7: of the headlines, AI, energy, infrastructure, permitting reform, These all
• 13:56
  Speaker 7: have big technical components.
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: And, you know, you don't have to be.
• 14:00
  Speaker 7: An expert, but to have a real understanding of how
• 14:04
  Speaker 7: these technologies can evolve, how they impact employment, what the
• 14:10
  Speaker 7: role of innovation is and helping to drive improvements, not
• 14:14
  Speaker 7: just in efficiency, but in safety in the case of A.I.,
• 14:17
  Speaker 7: That's really important, really valuable. It's something that's missing. It's
• 14:21
  Speaker 7: something that I'll obviously bring with me to the United
• 14:23
  Speaker 7: States Senate.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to close this way. I'm in the
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Portland media market for another week. And I saw when
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Shaheen ran and the other New Hampshire senators have run
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: in summers past, the Portland media market was swamped with
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: their ad. I have not seen one Pappas ad. Is
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: he out of money, Johnson and Hume?
• 14:41
  Speaker 7: No, I don't think so. There's plenty of money in politics,
• 14:45
  Speaker 7: plenty of ads running back and forth. You know, a
• 14:48
  Speaker 7: lot of the more traditional attack ads. Look, they're going
• 14:52
  Speaker 7: after me for having a successful private sector career. I've
• 14:55
  Speaker 7: worked in the private sector for over 20 years. I
• 14:59
  Speaker 7: was on the board of Boston Scientific, a terrific medical device,
• 15:03
  Speaker 7: innovative company that saves millions or thousands of and has
• 15:09
  Speaker 7: saved millions of patient lives historically. So I've certainly been successful.
• 15:13
  Speaker 7: He calls it cashing in when you work in the
• 15:15
  Speaker 7: private sector. My family calls it having a real job.
• 15:19
  Speaker 7: So look, the ads are out there back and forth
• 15:21
  Speaker 7: on both sides. We put one out called Gleep that
• 15:25
  Speaker 7: people seem to have really appreciated. That was a little humorous,
• 15:29
  Speaker 7: recognized what goes on in a campaign. And I think
• 15:33
  Speaker 7: that kind of common sense attitude about this process is
• 15:38
  Speaker 7: one that's really welcomed by the voters in New Hampshire.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: I agree. I like Bleep. I like your mom. I
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: hope you make more of those. And I hope you
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: keep coming back between now and Election Day, Senator John Sununu.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: And it's Sununu 2026. It's a red oval. I posted
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: it over on my ex-account. What's your website for your campaign, Senator?
• 15:55
  Speaker 10: Sununusenator.com.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: That's pretty easy. Sununusenator.com. Sununusenator.com. Thank you, John Sununu. I'll
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: be right back, America. Don't go anywhere. Tom Cotton is
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: going to join me as we talk about the map
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: across the United States, not just Maine and New Hampshire,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: but all the way down to Texas. Stay tuned. Welcome back, America.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: I'm Hugh Hewitt. United States Senator Tom Cotton joins me. He,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: of course, is from Arkansas. He's on the ballot. He's
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: out campaigning. Thank you for spending some time with me, Senator.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: And I'm sorry that your Red Sox didn't make it,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: but my Guardians did. I hope you're voting or rooting
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: for the Guardians against the Rays tonight at Tropicana Field.
• 16:46
  Speaker 8: Well, congratulations to you on the guards making it. Yeah,
• 16:49
  Speaker 8: the big rig and Kate Smith. We're dominant on Saturday night.
• 16:53
  Speaker 8: I don't see the White Sox just didn't have any
• 16:55
  Speaker 8: answers for those pitchers. But it should be a great ALCS.
• 16:58
  Speaker 8: You know, Razorbacks almost pulled off the upset against the Volunteers,
• 17:02
  Speaker 8: but I got back home just in time to watch
• 17:04
  Speaker 8: your guards win it. So congrats to you and everyone
• 17:06
  Speaker 8: up in the land.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Well, that's where the president's going tonight, and I gave
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: advice via Fox News today that I hope he mentions
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Jose Ramirez in Youngstown tonight because there are going to
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: be a lot of people checking their phones at the rally.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: He's going up to Northwest. Northeastern Ohio tonight to campaign
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: with John Husted, your colleague. I don't know if you've
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: been to Ohio in this cycle. You're in Arkansas right now.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: But have you been to Ohio that John asked you
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: to go up there?
• 17:31
  Speaker 8: You know, Hugh, with my own race here in Arkansas,
• 17:34
  Speaker 8: I have not been on the road quite as much.
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: As I'm used to being.
• 17:36
  Speaker 8: But John's running a great race. He's been a very
• 17:39
  Speaker 8: strong champion and voice for the people of Ohio. They
• 17:43
  Speaker 8: turned Sherrod Brown out two years ago for Bernie Marino
• 17:46
  Speaker 8: because they were tired of having a down-the-line liberal represent them.
• 17:50
  Speaker 8: And I think they're going to reject Sherrod Brown's attempt
• 17:53
  Speaker 8: to return to Washington next month.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: You know, I just had John Sununu on in the
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: segment before you because, of course, we are focused in
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: on elections like yours and Senator Sununu's coming up. Can you–
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: I don't know Chris Pappas from Oatmeal. I've never met him.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: I've never seen him on TV. I was just told
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: by Senator Sununu he voted present on the issue of
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: whether or not to send military aid to Israel. What's
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: that tell you about him?
• 18:19
  Speaker 8: Well, it tells you like a lot of the Democrats
• 18:21
  Speaker 8: who try to pass themselves off as moderates or centrist
• 18:24
  Speaker 8: or independent, that he is still totally beholden to and
• 18:28
  Speaker 8: afraid of the AOC Sanders wing of the Democratic Party,
• 18:33
  Speaker 8: which regrettably is increasingly dominant. anti-Zionist, if not outright anti-Semitic. Look,
• 18:41
  Speaker 8: Israel is our best ally in the region, probably our
• 18:45
  Speaker 8: best ally in the world in terms of military capability.
• 18:48
  Speaker 8: They fought alongside us over the last year and a
• 18:50
  Speaker 8: half in two different strikes in Iran. that no nation
• 18:56
  Speaker 8: has done really since Great Britain in World War II,
• 18:59
  Speaker 8: and that we should be providing Israel with the tools
• 19:02
  Speaker 8: and weapons they need to defend themselves and to protect
• 19:06
  Speaker 8: our shared interests in the region. I mean, we're doing
• 19:08
  Speaker 8: that right here in Arkansas. We just hosted senior leadership
• 19:12
  Speaker 8: from Rafael and the Israeli embassy as we rolled off
• 19:16
  Speaker 8: the first interceptor for Israel's Iron Dome system last week.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Where are you making those in Arkansas?
• 19:24
  Speaker 8: In the Highland Industrial Park outside of Camden, one of
• 19:27
  Speaker 8: the biggest and most critical defense industrial parks in all
• 19:31
  Speaker 8: of America, and one that's growing by leaps and bounds.
• 19:35
  Speaker 8: I know we often talk here about total defense spending, Hugh,
• 19:38
  Speaker 8: but we've had Arkansas become a true defense capital of
• 19:42
  Speaker 8: America that brought back billions of dollars in investment and
• 19:45
  Speaker 8: hundreds of jobs, not just in Camden, but at places
• 19:48
  Speaker 8: like the Pine Bluff Arsenal and the Little Rock Air
• 19:50
  Speaker 8: Force Base and Ebbing Air National Guard Base outside of
• 19:53
  Speaker 8: Fort Smith.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: This is an important issue writ large. If the Democrats
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: get control of the Senate, they will have then they'll
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: have gotten control of the House as well. What would
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: you expect to happen to defense spending in that consequence, Senator?
• 20:09
  Speaker 8: I would expect defense spending will decline, not just freeze
• 20:14
  Speaker 8: or go up by inadequate amounts, but it will decline
• 20:17
  Speaker 8: if they pass any appropriations bill at all, Hugh. I mean,
• 20:21
  Speaker 8: I expect, honestly, the House Democrats to impeach Donald Trump
• 20:26
  Speaker 8: as soon as they can, and then Chuck Schumer to
• 20:28
  Speaker 8: have a 24-month impeachment trial. So I'm not sure there'll
• 20:31
  Speaker 8: be much of any activity in the Senate, certainly not
• 20:35
  Speaker 8: The business that matters to Arkansans, trying to keep taxes
• 20:38
  Speaker 8: low and regulation smart and sensible, trying to fund our
• 20:41
  Speaker 8: military and to support our law enforcement. I think you
• 20:44
  Speaker 8: can expect investigations and impeachment all the way down from
• 20:47
  Speaker 8: these Democrats.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: Since you mentioned that, let me play for you a clip.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: This is Democratic National Chairman Ken Martin on MSNOW with
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Peter Alexander on the subject of impeachment. Cut number 12.
• 21:01
  Speaker 11: The polls show 53 percent unfavorable in their view of Democrats,
• 21:05
  Speaker 11: 41 percent with a favorable view here. How do you
• 21:08
  Speaker 11: overcome that brand with Democrats? What do you need them
• 21:11
  Speaker 11: to do immediately if they take back Congress to help
• 21:14
  Speaker 11: your chances?
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: We have to deliver. And the reality is that we.
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: Have to deliver on the promises that we're making on
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: the campaign trail.
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: Part of that.
• 21:21
  Speaker 8: Well, no, no, no.
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: Listen, hardly any.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: Of our candidates are talking about impeachment.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: So Senator Cotton. Not only did I not realize that
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Ken Martin looked like Dennis Kucinich did 20 years ago,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: but I didn't realize that everything I've been hearing about
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: impeachment is all a facade. That's what they're going to
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: spend two years doing, isn't it?
• 21:41
  Speaker 8: Yeah, Ken Martin may lead the DNC, but no one
• 21:45
  Speaker 8: in the Democratic Party cares what he thinks. Democrats, to
• 21:49
  Speaker 8: include so-called centrists and moderates, care first and foremost about
• 21:55
  Speaker 8: Bernie Sanders. And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and if he wins his
• 22:01
  Speaker 8: race in Michigan, which I don't think he will, Abdul El-Sayed.
• 22:04
  Speaker 8: These are the kind of radical, far-left, democratic socialists that
• 22:09
  Speaker 8: are the driving intellectual force and the political muscle in
• 22:13
  Speaker 8: the Democratic Party. You even see it here in Arkansas, Hugh,
• 22:16
  Speaker 8: my liberal apothecary. one illegal worker for five hardworking Arkansans.
• 22:24
  Speaker 8: Even in Arkansas, Democrats are nominating the most liberal candidates
• 22:29
  Speaker 8: they've ever picked. And it's happening all across America, because again,
• 22:33
  Speaker 8: that's where all of the energy is in the Democratic Party.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, last question, Senator. Another American has been killed by
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: a proxy of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. They were
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: at the airport in Riyadh on either Saturday or Sunday
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: when a Houthi missile made an... technological expertise provided by
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: the IRGC hit the Riyadh airport and killed an American.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: What do you hope Saudi Arabia does? What ought America
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: to do to help them?
• 23:00
  Speaker 8: Well, we're already helping Saudi Arabia with intelligence and other
• 23:06
  Speaker 8: information sharing. Obviously, we sell a lot of military hardware
• 23:09
  Speaker 8: to them, some of that, again, is made right here
• 23:11
  Speaker 8: in Arkansas. We need to support our Arab partners, countries
• 23:15
  Speaker 8: like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait
• 23:19
  Speaker 8: stand up to Iran. Those missiles may have come out
• 23:23
  Speaker 8: of Yemen, but they only came out of Yemen because
• 23:26
  Speaker 8: those rebels were backed by Iran. It's all the same situation.
• 23:30
  Speaker 8: fanatic terrorists out of Iran, whether the missiles are coming
• 23:34
  Speaker 8: out of Iran or Yemen or Iraq or somewhere else.
• 23:37
  Speaker 8: And we need to help them stand up to Iran.
• 23:41
  Speaker 8: We need to finish the job in Iran. We need
• 23:43
  Speaker 8: to keep the straight open, keep the blockade in place,
• 23:46
  Speaker 8: put the pressure on the terrorist fanatics in Iran, take
• 23:49
  Speaker 8: the pressure off of our families and businesses here in America.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Tom Cotton, Senator from Arkansas, thank you for joining me
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: and the Hugh Hewitt audience, as well as the C-SPAN
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: audience today. We appreciate your being with us. Coming right back, America,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: stay tuned to The Hugh Hewitt Show. Welcome back. I'm
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Hugh Hewitt. Selena Zito is the columnist of The World.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: She's also President Trump's favorite Reporter, columnist, journalist. He's going
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: to my old hometown tonight, Youngstown, Warren area, Selena, going
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: up to the Mahoning Valley and the Steel Valley. I
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: gather you were there recently. Were you in Youngstown, Warren?
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Where were you and what did you find out?
• 24:33
  Speaker 6: I was in Youngstown, Boardman, Warren, Columbiana, all throughout Stark, Trumbull,
• 24:43
  Speaker 6: all throughout there.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: So what's your feeling on the ground three weeks out
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: from the election for Houston and Vivek Ramaswamy?
• 24:51
  Speaker 6: So when I went in, I was, you know, looking
• 24:54
  Speaker 6: at the polls and like, oh, you know, what's going on?
• 24:58
  Speaker 10: This is Ohio.
• 25:00
  Speaker 6: But, you know, when I left there, I was like,
• 25:06
  Speaker 6: I would still put my money on the Republicans to
• 25:09
  Speaker 6: win that state.
• 25:10
  Speaker 10: It's not going to be easy. It's going to be close.
• 25:12
  Speaker 6: Houston is not, despite being, you know, the former Speaker
• 25:16
  Speaker 6: of the House and the.
• 25:17
  Speaker 10: Treasury, he's not really that well known. And Vivek, while he.
• 25:22
  Speaker 6: Is incredibly accomplished and very polished and has great, really
• 25:28
  Speaker 6: outside the box ideas, he's a very different candidate for Ohio.
• 25:34
  Speaker 6: Ohio traditionally has candidates that like, came from, you know,
• 25:40
  Speaker 6: a working class background, worked their way up. You know,
• 25:43
  Speaker 6: they have that sort of traditional Ohio story. And he
• 25:47
  Speaker 6: doesn't have that. So that, I think, is why he
• 25:51
  Speaker 6: is struggling.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: You go from John Kasich, who is, if we heard
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: that he was the son of a postman once, we
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: heard it a thousand times. Mike DeWine, who had been
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: senator or attorney general governor They were fixtures in the
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Ohio lexicon forever. Vivek Ramaswamy is a newcomer. On the
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: other hand, so is Amy Acton, and she was the
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: face of COVID. I know some people on the left
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: thought she was wonderful, but they did not do a
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: good job in Ohio during COVID. Does that ever come up?
• 26:21
  Speaker 12: No.
• 26:22
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 26:22
  Speaker 6: I mean, I think that that, for a generation, is
• 26:26
  Speaker 6: going to be something that people talk about because the
• 26:28
  Speaker 6: overall impact, in particular with small mom-and-pop shops that had
• 26:33
  Speaker 6: to go out of business, or were closed and lost
• 26:36
  Speaker 6: a great big amount of money. The education that their
• 26:41
  Speaker 6: children lost and sort of trying to claw their way
• 26:44
  Speaker 6: back from being on par to where they should be
• 26:48
  Speaker 6: is all a residual effect.
• 26:50
  Speaker 10: That hasn't gone away.
• 26:51
  Speaker 6: Plus there's people that lost their loved ones and weren't
• 26:55
  Speaker 6: there to be with them when they did pass away.
• 26:59
  Speaker 6: So there's a lot of undertones that people don't think
• 27:04
  Speaker 6: have impacted a voter, but definitely have.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm just not, I joke, I hate all the
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: polls this cycle. There are some that I hate less
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: than others, like the one showing Kelly Ayotte is up
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: 21 points in New Hampshire. But I don't believe any
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: of them have any secret sauce. Do you? Is there
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: anyone you believe?
• 27:26
  Speaker 6: No, you know, and I've never been one to really
• 27:30
  Speaker 6: follow the polling as my indicator.
• 27:33
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 27:34
  Speaker 6: My indicator tends to be trying to understand what the
• 27:37
  Speaker 6: coalitions are in both parties.
• 27:39
  Speaker 10: Take a look at voters that line up with those
• 27:41
  Speaker 10: coalitions and see where they are. Are they enthused? Aren't
• 27:45
  Speaker 10: they enthused?
• 27:46
  Speaker 6: You know, I talked to a lot of Trump voters
• 27:48
  Speaker 6: who said they're definitely not.
• 27:50
  Speaker 10: They are deaf.
• 27:51
  Speaker 6: They are definitely voting, but they wouldn't tell me who
• 27:55
  Speaker 6: they were voting for.
• 27:56
  Speaker 10: See, this is the most and you know this. Ohio
• 28:00
  Speaker 10: is the Mahoning Valley, the Steel Valley.
• 28:04
  Speaker 6: Is the most important area for all four of them
• 28:09
  Speaker 6: to win.
• 28:09
  Speaker 10: They have to win it. They have to.
• 28:12
  Speaker 6: Because it's the most powerful swing voter that there is,
• 28:17
  Speaker 6: and it's all concentrated in the Valley. Whoever's winning the
• 28:21
  Speaker 6: Valley is going to win the state.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: That's what I said on Fox Business this morning to
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: David Asman. No counties have changed more in the last
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: 15 years in their political proclivities in Mahoning and Trumbull.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: That plays for Ashtabula and Columbiana to a lesser extent
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: as well. And it's the northeastern corner. It's the free
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: state of Ohio across the border from the terrible place
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: called Pennsylvania. By the way, how's your governor's race doing?
• 28:52
  Speaker 10: It's likely to be a blowout.
• 28:55
  Speaker 13: Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: The state treasurer was a pretty good candidate. Is Josh
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Shapiro that popular?
• 29:04
  Speaker 10: She is a great candidate. And she has won two
• 29:08
  Speaker 10: tough races, statewide races for treasurer. And she is a
• 29:12
  Speaker 10: tough cookie. However, Shapiro has all the money in the world, right?
• 29:18
  Speaker 10: And he's the incumbent.
• 29:19
  Speaker 6: It's very difficult to run against an incumbent governor or
• 29:23
  Speaker 6: incumbent president. It has been done. Obviously, President Trump did that. But,
• 29:30
  Speaker 6: you know, it's just very, very difficult. And a lot
• 29:35
  Speaker 6: of people don't know who she is. And that's the
• 29:37
  Speaker 6: problem with incumbency. He hasn't governed far left. So that
• 29:43
  Speaker 6: has worked in his favor. And so I think he's
• 29:47
  Speaker 6: willing to double digit win, probably pretty similar to what
• 29:52
  Speaker 6: he won in 2022 over Doug Mastriano.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: Okay, I've got a minute left. I was in Erie
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: three weeks ago. There was a shooting there this weekend,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: a mass shooting. I'm stunned. That's not something that happens
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: in Erie. Have you got any read on what that's
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: about yet?
• 30:09
  Speaker 10: Yeah, it was family. It was a domestic.
• 30:12
  Speaker 6: It was the father, allegedly, who killed his daughter, pregnant daughter,
• 30:17
  Speaker 6: the two women who were trying to come in and
• 30:20
  Speaker 6: protect her. Not a lot of the details are out.
• 30:26
  Speaker 6: but were trying to come in, understood that there was
• 30:28
  Speaker 6: a situation. This grandfather also allegedly killed his grandchildren, not
• 30:35
  Speaker 6: just his daughter, who was due any day, along with
• 30:39
  Speaker 6: a couple other family members.
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: That's a very traumatic story for our friends up listening
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: on Talk Erie this afternoon, and not something one associates
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: with what is generally a very friendly and welcoming city
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: of Erie, county of Erie, Selena Zito knows that, so
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: I'll be looking for a write-up from you at some
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: point on what that back story is. Selena Zito, follower
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: on X at Zito. Selena, get everything she writes, and
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: she writes for the Washington Post, the Washington Examiner, the
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: New York Post, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Hope she writes about
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: the Cleveland Guardians beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this week. Selena,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: we'll be checking in with you the next time you're on,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: whether you've been appropriately supportive of Jose Ramirez and the guards.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: Don't go anywhere, America. Stay tuned. I'm coming right back.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: There's lots more ahead on the Hugh Hewitt Show, including
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Admiral Mark Montgomery, James Lalix, Brian Kilmeade, and more. Stay
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: with us. Hugh Hewitt here for Carbon Zero. What happens
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: when artificial intelligence follows the instructions given it just a
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: little too well? That's the question at the heart of
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: the novel Carbon Zero, a new techno-thriller from AI pioneer
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Craig W. Stanfield. Craig is one of my book club sponsors,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: and his perspective comes from Years of real experience with
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: artificial intelligence. I'm holding an advanced copy right here, and
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: when I read it, I couldn't put it down. The
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: story begins with what seems like an innocent request. A
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: brilliant young AI researcher jokingly tells an experimental AI to
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: stop global warming. Instead of treating it like a joke,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: the AI gets to work, and the consequences quickly spiral
• 32:15
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• 32:19
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• 32:21
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• 32:25
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• 32:29
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• 32:33
  Speaker 1: That's Carbon Zero. Go get your copy today and start reading. Hi,
• 32:36
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• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the podcast. If you buy your
• 33:34
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• 33:37
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  Speaker 1: or visit usmedicalplan.com. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Welcome to Hour 3
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: of today's program. Welcome to our C-SPAN audience as well.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: Good to have you with us. My first guest this
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: hour is Admiral Mark Montgomery. Admiral Montgomery is retired from
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: the United States Navy. He is a senior fellow at
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Admiral, I got
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: a lot of ground to cover with you. Before we
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: go abroad, I want to ask you about the announcement
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: last week that they're going to build a new submarine
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: shipyard in Baltimore. I was sort of surprised by the
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: choice of location. It's a blue state with blue senators.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: I thought, well, maybe that's good for the defense budget.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: What did you make of it from a sailor's perspective?
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: Well, I think it's fantastic.
• 35:26
  Speaker 12: I think building, you know, this is called Arsenal 2.
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: It's by Anderle.
• 35:30
  Speaker 12: And what it does is right now, Our goal is
• 35:33
  Speaker 12: one Columbia-class and two Virginia-class submarines a year being constructed,
• 35:37
  Speaker 12: year after year after year, and maybe taking that number
• 35:40
  Speaker 12: up to three Virginia-class. But our current production is less
• 35:44
  Speaker 12: than one Columbia and one Virginia-class. So we are significantly
• 35:49
  Speaker 12: below our current target and nowhere near our desired future target.
• 35:54
  Speaker 12: So bringing on a shipyard like this that's going to
• 35:57
  Speaker 12: produce the pieces and parts that allow the actual construction
• 36:01
  Speaker 12: Columbia and Ohio ship facilities to go faster by getting
• 36:06
  Speaker 12: things produced elsewhere. And in addition to this place in Baltimore,
• 36:09
  Speaker 12: you know, there's another facility they have, the Orange facility
• 36:13
  Speaker 12: in California, so another blue state. But states that are
• 36:16
  Speaker 12: on the coast, and at least in the case of
• 36:18
  Speaker 12: the Baltimore one, can easily ship their parts up through,
• 36:21
  Speaker 12: you know, on cargo merchant vessels to get up to
• 36:26
  Speaker 12: Connecticut for final installation.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: All right. How long does it take for something like
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: that to come online, Admiral?
• 36:34
  Speaker 12: Well, I think the orange facilities now, this facility would
• 36:37
  Speaker 12: be online in less than 24 months.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: Wow. That's good news. That's good news. Let me next
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: move to Ukraine. I was on the air Saturday on
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: Fox News with Kevin when President Trump came out of
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: the West Wing exit and was really piping hot mad
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: at President Zelensky. He said he should be replaced. said
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: that they've got to stop hitting Putin's diesel refineries. And
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: they came to me in a comment, and I said, well,
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: I'm shocked. We shouldn't. Zelensky is going to be there
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: for a long time because their constitution says they don't
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: hold elections during wartime. Number two, you can't trust Putin.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: You just can't trust Putin. What did you make of
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: the president's call there?
• 37:19
  Speaker 12: So, well, I was with Ukrainian generals when this happened. And,
• 37:22
  Speaker 12: I mean, it was shocking, disappointing. But I recognize why
• 37:27
  Speaker 12: he's frustrated.
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: But he should be frustrated, as you said, with Vladimir Putin.
• 37:32
  Speaker 12: Zelensky's been offering this energy ceasefire for six months. You
• 37:36
  Speaker 12: stop hitting our electrical power grid, which they hammered the
• 37:39
  Speaker 12: crap out of on Sunday, and they'll probably hammer the
• 37:42
  Speaker 12: heck out of it tonight. And if you stop that, Russia,
• 37:47
  Speaker 12: we'll stop hitting your refineries. That's a fair trade. Right now,
• 37:51
  Speaker 12: what they're kind of being offered is we'll stop hitting
• 37:54
  Speaker 12: the one Ukrainian oil refinery, which really isn't functioning. And then,
• 37:58
  Speaker 12: you know, you stop hitting all our refineries. But in
• 38:00
  Speaker 12: the meantime, we'll continue to hit your electrical power grid.
• 38:03
  Speaker 12: That's a loser for Ukraine. That's the deal they couldn't
• 38:05
  Speaker 12: make in Miami. And I think the president probably overreacted
• 38:09
  Speaker 12: to his inability to get a deal in Miami between
• 38:11
  Speaker 12: the Ukrainians, the U.S.
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: And the Russians.
• 38:14
  Speaker 12: And so he's striking out at Zelensky.
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: Wrong target. The target should be Putin.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: The target should always be Putin. And Putin has managed
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: to mislead every president since WU. it's like he's able
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: to cast spells on the American president, no matter which
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: part of the, and that that's W that's Obama, that's Trump,
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: that's Biden. Why is that Mark Montgomery?
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: So it's wish casting, right?
• 38:38
  Speaker 12: So here you wish that a country that has many
• 38:41
  Speaker 12: nuclear weapons as Russia had as someone you can logically
• 38:45
  Speaker 12: deal with. So you enter that as your, as your
• 38:47
  Speaker 12: organized perception and Putin then leverages that to off, you know,
• 38:52
  Speaker 12: to not deal with you properly. Um, And look, I
• 38:55
  Speaker 12: think we fundamentally misunderstand over the last four years the
• 38:59
  Speaker 12: degree to which this Ukrainian invasion is an existential effort
• 39:03
  Speaker 12: by Putin.
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: He is suspending all belief.
• 39:06
  Speaker 12: He's being told he's losing or not gaining on the
• 39:10
  Speaker 12: front line, but believes he's winning. And he's told that
• 39:14
  Speaker 12: the civilian side of resilience will collapse in Ukraine from
• 39:18
  Speaker 12: these attacks. I'm there all the time, Hugh. It is
• 39:21
  Speaker 12: not going to collapse. They will take the beating in Kyiv.
• 39:24
  Speaker 12: and Lviv and elsewhere and keep on ticking. And, you know,
• 39:28
  Speaker 12: the sooner that we get the leverage onto Russia, the
• 39:32
  Speaker 12: sooner the president can chalk up a ninth, you know,
• 39:35
  Speaker 12: peace treaty.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: I agree with you. I hope people near him agree
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: with you. Let me now talk with you, Admiral, about Yemen.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: I think the Institute for the Study of War does
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: fabulous work. I try and read everything they put out.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: But whenever they put out a bulletin on Yemen, it's
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: so complex. I don't understand who's winning and who's losing
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: and what the Saudis ought to be doing and what
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: we ought to be doing for the Saudis. All I
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: know is that the Houthis killed another American this weekend
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: with their attack on the airport in Riyadh. So we
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: ought to be doing something because they got more blood
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: on the Iranian-backed proxy hands. What do you think we
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: ought to be doing?
• 40:15
  Speaker 12: So first, let me agree with you on ISW. It
• 40:17
  Speaker 12: produced excellent information. assessments of Houthis, of Iran, of Russia,
• 40:22
  Speaker 12: of Taiwan and China.
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: Really good work.
• 40:25
  Speaker 12: Look, the first thing is the president is ruminating on
• 40:28
  Speaker 12: attacking the Houthis along with Saudi Arabia, and he should
• 40:32
  Speaker 12: do it.
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: You can tell he's working his way into that position.
• 40:35
  Speaker 12: And I'd say the faster you get there, the better,
• 40:37
  Speaker 12: because they are jamming Saudi Arabian infrastructure.
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: And my real fear is.
• 40:42
  Speaker 12: That cross-peninsula pipeline That's carrying about 20 percent of the pre-fuel.
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: Our ability to get back to pre-war levels.
• 40:52
  Speaker 12: To the Strait of Hormuz is enhanced by that pipeline
• 40:55
  Speaker 12: going east to west across Saudi Arabia. The Houthis are
• 40:58
  Speaker 12: going to try to take that out again. And we
• 41:00
  Speaker 12: need to hit them hard now along with the Saudis.
• 41:04
  Speaker 12: The Saudis can't do it alone.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: Well, by hitting them hard. Does that just mean cruise
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: missiles and airstrikes? Do we even know where they are?
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Because that's what my problem with the ISW maps are,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: is I can't figure out where anyone is. Do we know?
• 41:19
  Speaker 12: I do think we know where the Houthis are that
• 41:23
  Speaker 12: have seized. They've gone and seized and held some extra territory,
• 41:27
  Speaker 12: both islands. They've lost one of the islands, but some
• 41:30
  Speaker 12: islands in the strait above Mamedev and areas along the coastline,
• 41:34
  Speaker 12: which you hit them there.
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: You're absolutely right, by the way. Try to figure out
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: the Yemeni.
• 41:38
  Speaker 12: Army, which is really nine or 10 militia groups that
• 41:41
  Speaker 12: hate each other about as much as they hate the Houthis.
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: And in fact, some of them are former Houthis. You know,
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: it's a tough thing to do.
• 41:47
  Speaker 12: But I think we can figure, our intel guys can
• 41:49
  Speaker 12: figure out the bad guys and hit them, especially now
• 41:52
  Speaker 12: that they're extended and out of their kind of complex,
• 41:55
  Speaker 12: you know, their bunker complexes.
• 41:57
  Speaker 9: Okay.
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: So years ago, we jawbone the United Arab Emirates and
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia out of making war on the Houthis. Has
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: the UAE gotten off the bench yet or are they
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: still at odds with their Saudi cousins?
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: I think they're still at odds with them on this issue.
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: I'm sure they are.
• 42:16
  Speaker 12: And I think that's a real loss for us because
• 42:19
  Speaker 12: when it comes to ground forces, you know, even special forces,
• 42:24
  Speaker 12: ground forces and intel gathered for human, the UAE was
• 42:27
  Speaker 12: really good at that. And we're missing that now. And,
• 42:31
  Speaker 12: you know, our our target will be mostly based, I think,
• 42:34
  Speaker 12: at this point. on overhead imagery, which is useful, but
• 42:38
  Speaker 12: not necessarily conclusive to get at the target set.
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's conclude by talking about the blockade, like we
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: do every few weeks when you come on. It remains
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: the iron wall, the steel wall that President Trump calls it.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: Nothing is getting in. Have you gotten any kind of
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: sense of how long this government can hold on with
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: no money? Because they're not getting any money at all.
• 43:01
  Speaker 12: So first, I want to, you know, as a Navy
• 43:03
  Speaker 12: veteran and, you know, someone related to people in the
• 43:06
  Speaker 12: Navy still, I think this should be remembered at some point.
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: You know, a few historians should take a look at
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: this and.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: Say the U.S.
• 43:12
  Speaker 12: Navy did a pretty superb job on this blockade. It
• 43:17
  Speaker 12: is 99 percent effective. You know, maybe one or two
• 43:20
  Speaker 12: percent sneaks through along the terrestrial waters of Pakistan, but
• 43:25
  Speaker 12: nothing useful. They are out of money, you're right, because
• 43:28
  Speaker 12: I think the final stuff that came through during the
• 43:33
  Speaker 12: moments of peace two months ago has finally been delivered
• 43:39
  Speaker 12: to the teapot refineries in China and India.
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: So the cash is done.
• 43:45
  Speaker 12: My opinion is I've always felt that this is probably
• 43:48
  Speaker 12: February or March before they break. But before they break,
• 43:51
  Speaker 12: the Iranians are going to strike out. There's no way
• 43:53
  Speaker 12: they go down with a whimper. That's not who the
• 43:56
  Speaker 12: IRGC is. They're going to go out swinging, and they're
• 43:59
  Speaker 12: going to swing at our Arab partners. And they're going
• 44:02
  Speaker 12: to swing at their infrastructure, their water desalination plants, their
• 44:05
  Speaker 12: power grids, and then their gas and oil fields. And
• 44:08
  Speaker 12: then I think we're going to have to come in
• 44:10
  Speaker 12: with a– at some point, we're going to have to
• 44:12
  Speaker 12: come in hard and heavy with major combat operations to
• 44:16
  Speaker 12: shut this down. But I think the president's doing the
• 44:18
  Speaker 12: right thing, trying to break their back economically.
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: He invests in it.
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: Quick exit, Admiral. When Teddy Roosevelt gets there out of
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: San Diego, do you expect the George Washington, your old
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: carrier group, to go back to Japan then?
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: No, I expect the George W. Bush to probably leave.
• 44:35
  Speaker 12: And then when the next one after that, maybe the TR,
• 44:39
  Speaker 12: I think maybe the GW stays all the way to
• 44:41
  Speaker 12: the holidays, you know, through the holidays and heads home.
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: It usually starts its maintenance period in early January.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: All right, Admiral Mark Montgomery. Thank you, Admiral. Follow him
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: on X at Mark C. Montgomery. Read everything he does
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: over at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. That's
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: at FDD as well on X. While you're doing the
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: likes and follows, please like and follow me on X.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: If you're watching on C-SPAN, I'm Hugh Hewitt. It's pretty easy.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: Just my name, H-U-G-H-H-E-W-I-T-T. I also have a YouTube channel. Please,
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: if you want the best of my interviews, they'll be
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: sent to you every day when you like and subscribe there.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: And we have a daily podcast. Hugh Hewitt, highly concentrated
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: Hugh at Apple, Spotify, Salem Podcast Network. Stay tuned to
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: C-SPAN and the Salem News Channel. I'll be right back
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: with James Lilacs. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. That
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: music means we're joined by James Lilacs, National Review correspondent,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: the author of jameslilacs.substack.com, also lilacs.com for those of you
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: who are old-timers and just like to go visit the archives. James,
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: I would like you to be our analyst in the
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: booth for the El Saeed and Kristen Welker interview this weekend.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: Did you watch it live?
• 45:58
  Speaker 5: No, I did not.
• 45:59
  Speaker 9: I've seen some snippets, but I'm not acquainted with what
• 46:02
  Speaker 9: you're going to play.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: Let's go. Okay, cut number six, Abdul with Kristen. If
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: you were.
• 46:07
  Speaker 14: To tax people with $ 100 million or more, a wealth tax,
• 46:10
  Speaker 14: and we're not even talking about a serious wealth.
• 46:12
  Speaker 5: I just want to think this through, okay?
• 46:13
  Speaker 14: Imagine you tax based on wealth based on what your
• 46:15
  Speaker 14: money made last year. If you're a billionaire, you don't work.
• 46:18
  Speaker 14: You don't make your money off of the money you
• 46:20
  Speaker 14: earn working. You make your money off of your money.
• 46:23
  Speaker 14: So if you're a billionaire earning 10% on your billion,
• 46:26
  Speaker 14: you're making $ 100 million. So even if we tax you
• 46:30
  Speaker 14: at 8%, you know what you still made?
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: Million dollars doing nothing. Okay, so Lilacs, does that turn
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: anyone's mind around because it's stupid?
• 46:40
  Speaker 5: Well, my first reaction is it's none of your business,
• 46:42
  Speaker 5: you thief.
• 46:44
  Speaker 9: You're not entitled to somebody's money just because you think
• 46:46
  Speaker 9: you made more than he ought to. The idea that
• 46:48
  Speaker 9: you're going to tax everybody on what they've made because
• 46:51
  Speaker 9: of compound interest and the rest, well, that.
• 46:53
  Speaker 5: Is a formula that can be applied to anyone.
• 46:55
  Speaker 9: And it's odd how after they run out of the
• 46:57
  Speaker 9: billionaires to tax it.
• 46:58
  Speaker 5: They start casting about to use that theory on other people.
• 47:01
  Speaker 5: It's envy.
• 47:02
  Speaker 9: It's pointless. It's none of his business. And I don't
• 47:05
  Speaker 9: think it works. But then again, if I go through
• 47:07
  Speaker 9: life with.
• 47:08
  Speaker 5: A snarl about the billionaires, I suppose.
• 47:11
  Speaker 9: That I'm going to cheer him all the more and say,
• 47:13
  Speaker 9: good Lord, take the entire 100 million.
• 47:15
  Speaker 5: What are you, a moderate?
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think there are many people who spend
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: their life worrying about the 1,000. That's how many billionaires
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: America has, 1,000 out of 330 million people. Okay, cut
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: number seven. Abdul is asked by Kristen multiple times about
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: his Muslim Brotherhood connections. Cut number seven.
• 47:32
  Speaker 15: For Michigan voters who are hearing those attacks against you,
• 47:38
  Speaker 15: who are looking to separate fact from fiction, can you
• 47:41
  Speaker 15: set the record straight about whether you or your family
• 47:44
  Speaker 15: have any ties.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: To the Muslim Brotherhood?
• 47:46
  Speaker 10: No.
• 47:47
  Speaker 16: But let's talk about this.
• 47:49
  Speaker 15: No, you don't have any ties.
• 47:50
  Speaker 16: No.
• 47:51
  Speaker 15: And your family doesn't.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: No. Okay. You believe in James?
• 47:56
  Speaker 16: No.
• 47:57
  Speaker 5: No, I don't. I absolutely don't believe him.
• 48:00
  Speaker 9: And at the end, if it turns out that there
• 48:02
  Speaker 9: is a tie, we're going to have to, we'll have
• 48:04
  Speaker 9: a question, we'll have a debate about what the word
• 48:06
  Speaker 9: tie means.
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: Well, here's Mike Rogers' ad that they got out today
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: following yesterday's interview in which he said, no, no, no, no, no, no.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: Cut number 16, Mike Rogers' ad.
• 48:18
  Speaker 15: And you set the record straight about whether you or
• 48:21
  Speaker 15: your family have any ties to the Muslim Brotherhood?
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: No.
• 48:24
  Speaker 15: No, you don't have any ties?
• 48:25
  Speaker 13: No.
• 48:26
  Speaker 6: Abdul El-Sayed's sister tweeted, my family has long been supporters
• 48:30
  Speaker 6: of the Muslim Brotherhood.
• 48:32
  Speaker 7: El-Sayed's birth mother reportedly worked for a designated terror group
• 48:36
  Speaker 7: that provided financial support to Osama bin Laden, the Taliban,
• 48:40
  Speaker 7: and also Hamas.
• 48:41
  Speaker 14: His father-in-law sits on the board of an organization that
• 48:44
  Speaker 14: is linked to.
• 48:45
  Speaker 11: The Muslim Brotherhood.
• 48:46
  Speaker 9: The Muslim Brotherhood celebrated his win in the primary.
• 48:50
  Speaker 7: He said al-Za'id took money linked directly to terrorist groups
• 48:54
  Speaker 7: and al-Za'id couldn't deny the claim.
• 48:56
  Speaker 6: His sister-in-law was on a terrorist watch list and his
• 49:00
  Speaker 6: sister publicly praised the October 7th terrorist attack.
• 49:03
  Speaker 16: No, you don't have any talents.
• 49:06
  Speaker 13: No.
• 49:07
  Speaker 7: And your family doesn't.
• 49:07
  Speaker 13: No.
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: I am married to a terrorist.
• 49:09
  Speaker 10: I am married to a terrorist.
• 49:10
  Speaker 14: At what point are Michigan.
• 49:12
  Speaker 6: Voters allowed to notice this pattern of bad associations that
• 49:16
  Speaker 6: we have?
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: From Mike Rogers. What do you make of the ad
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: and what do you think about the issue?
• 49:25
  Speaker 5: Well, it's rather effective.
• 49:26
  Speaker 9: And it's, you know, when he first answered the question,
• 49:28
  Speaker 9: you know, can you be clear about whether or not
• 49:29
  Speaker 9: you have any ties? And he says, no, it's sort
• 49:32
  Speaker 9: of like, no, I'm not going to be clear about
• 49:34
  Speaker 9: any of this stuff. I'm going to obfuscate it. but
• 49:36
  Speaker 9: then she presses him, do you have no ties?
• 49:37
  Speaker 5: And he says, no. And then comes the ad. The
• 49:39
  Speaker 5: ad seems to stand in stark contrast to that. But again,
• 49:42
  Speaker 5: we have to define ties. What do we mean?
• 49:44
  Speaker 9: I mean, he could have taken the question to mean,
• 49:46
  Speaker 9: are there any small, barely visible pieces of twine or
• 49:50
  Speaker 9: fishing line that connect you to the Muslim Brotherhood? It
• 49:52
  Speaker 9: would literally physically tie you to them. And the answer
• 49:55
  Speaker 9: to that is, of course, no. Oh, do you mean,
• 49:57
  Speaker 9: is there any sort of familial relationship tangentially?
• 50:00
  Speaker 5: So, well, yes, of course, of course. But that's not
• 50:03
  Speaker 5: what they asked.
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: Are you defining family to include my mother, my sister,
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: my mother-in-law, my father-in-law? What do you think about it?
• 50:11
  Speaker 5: I agree.
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: One more cut. Cut number nine.
• 50:16
  Speaker 15: Former President Obama is going to join you on the
• 50:18
  Speaker 15: campaign trail a little bit later on this month in Detroit.
• 50:22
  Speaker 15: You have been critical, though, of President Obama. After voting
• 50:26
  Speaker 15: for his reelection in 2012, you wrote, quote, Obama was
• 50:29
  Speaker 15: not the right choice. He just wasn't the wrong one.
• 50:32
  Speaker 15: This leader has perpetrated war, violated our civil liberties, deported
• 50:37
  Speaker 15: more people from our shores than any other president before him.
• 50:41
  Speaker 15: And the list of his failures goes on. Do you
• 50:44
  Speaker 15: still see President Obama's presidency as a failure?
• 50:48
  Speaker 5: Well, we've lived through two Trump terms now.
• 50:50
  Speaker 14: So, look, I know that President Obama was handed a
• 50:53
  Speaker 14: really difficult set of circumstances and he did his best.
• 50:56
  Speaker 5: I also want to step back. You know, Kristen, are
• 50:59
  Speaker 5: your parents still with us?
• 51:00
  Speaker 11: They are.
• 51:01
  Speaker 16: Thank goodness.
• 51:01
  Speaker 5: Thank goodness. Mine are too.
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: And I think about my dad.
• 51:06
  Speaker 14: I wouldn't have my life but for my dad's efforts.
• 51:09
  Speaker 5: I'm so grateful for him.
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: He goes on to say he still loves President Obama,
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: even though, like his dad, he doesn't agree with him.
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: Affective or not effective, James Lailix?
• 51:19
  Speaker 5: I don't know. I don't know what Obama brings to
• 51:21
  Speaker 5: it at this moment. I mean, it's sort of an
• 51:22
  Speaker 5: imprimatur of the.
• 51:24
  Speaker 9: Old guard, you know, the old, less radical guard of
• 51:28
  Speaker 9: the Democratic Party.
• 51:30
  Speaker 5: But it's politics.
• 51:32
  Speaker 9: You say these things, and then of course, you're going
• 51:34
  Speaker 9: to want to get them on the same podium. I
• 51:35
  Speaker 9: just thought the line that interests me is that he
• 51:37
  Speaker 9: considered deporting more people as a failure.
• 51:40
  Speaker 5: I don't think he's changed on that whatsoever.
• 51:42
  Speaker 9: I think he would still regard the deportation of people
• 51:44
  Speaker 9: as a failure in as much as it didn't do
• 51:47
  Speaker 9: what presidents are supposed to do on this side of
• 51:49
  Speaker 9: the aisle, which is to open the border and let
• 51:51
  Speaker 9: as many of them come in and vote precisely the
• 51:54
  Speaker 9: way that we want them to vote.
• 51:55
  Speaker 5: So I don't know.
• 51:56
  Speaker 9: I don't I mean, to say I don't trust the
• 51:58
  Speaker 9: guy because I don't believe what he's saying. This goes
• 52:01
  Speaker 9: towards any number of politicians on that side of the aisle,
• 52:04
  Speaker 9: so he's not special in that bit.
• 52:05
  Speaker 5: But the Muslim Brotherhood thing, I.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: Think, sticks.
• 52:07
  Speaker 9: And you have to ask the party, this is who
• 52:11
  Speaker 9: you want to have to be the face, the tone,
• 52:13
  Speaker 9: the spirit of the party going forward. This DSA, this watermelon,
• 52:18
  Speaker 9: this river-to-the-sea identity, this is what you want.
• 52:21
  Speaker 5: Okay, good luck with that.
• 52:23
  Speaker 9: You could have picked up the mantle of Bill Clinton,
• 52:25
  Speaker 9: the crown of moderates that's sitting on the ground and be.
• 52:28
  Speaker 5: Pro-clean public park and pro- safety and all the rest
• 52:32
  Speaker 5: of it. But no, this is what you chose. Good luck.
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: So is the exit question, Jane, are the airwaves in
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: the Twin Cities inundated with Flanagan versus Tallarico ads?
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: Well, absolutely.
• 52:47
  Speaker 9: Wearing a cloud suit where she's got one lapel sticking
• 52:50
  Speaker 9: out is absolutely absurd. And they say she's a couple
• 52:53
  Speaker 9: of points ahead, which means I believe that she's a couple.
• 52:55
  Speaker 5: Of points behind.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: I think you're right. Lilacs, as in lilacs.com, as in jameslilacs.substack.com.
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: Thank you, James. Read them in nationalreview.com as well. I'll
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: be right back with Brian Kilmeade on the Goofy Wood.
• 53:13
  Speaker 16: Show.
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: Welcome back, America. As promised, Brian Kilmeade joins me. He's
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: the host of Fox and Friends in the Morning. He's
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: also on the weekends. He's on all the time. And Brian,
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: because he has nothing to do, turns out bestseller after bestseller,
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: his new one drops this week. It's called Uniting the States,
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: Six Crucial Moments That Forged the American Miracle, and it's excellent. Brian,
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: welcome back to the Hugh Hewitt Show. Really, how do
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: you find the time? This is a very good work
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: about early American history, stuff I did not know, and
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty good at this stuff. I don't know where
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: you find the time.
• 53:51
  Speaker 13: Two and a half years, and what I wanted to
• 53:53
  Speaker 13: do is, I couldn't do the definitive book on Louisiana Purchase.
• 53:57
  Speaker 13: I couldn't do the definitive book on the Boston Massacre
• 54:00
  Speaker 13: or John Quincy Adams' biography better than all the others.
• 54:04
  Speaker 16: But I want to do something for 250.
• 54:06
  Speaker 13: That would give people a sense of how special this
• 54:08
  Speaker 13: country is and how unlikely our success was and how
• 54:13
  Speaker 13: things broke our direction. And also give people the sense
• 54:16
  Speaker 13: that we didn't just start arguing about things in 2026.
• 54:20
  Speaker 13: We've always had disagreements. And it's not just smart people
• 54:24
  Speaker 13: against dumb people. Alexander Hamilton against Jefferson wasn't just a play.
• 54:29
  Speaker 13: I mean, Hamilton was actually against the Louisiana Purchase. As
• 54:33
  Speaker 13: crazy as that sounds now. So I want to give
• 54:36
  Speaker 13: people a sense that America was built on that friction
• 54:38
  Speaker 13: of great minds and ultimately came to a vote. And
• 54:41
  Speaker 13: then you went along with that final decision. And I
• 54:44
  Speaker 13: just thought, I can't do all those other things. But
• 54:47
  Speaker 13: if I could just put together an anthology of things
• 54:50
  Speaker 13: that that made America the country it was, give people
• 54:52
  Speaker 13: an understanding of how special this place is. And if
• 54:56
  Speaker 13: they want to learn more, go grab it. Go take
• 55:00
  Speaker 13: one of the six stories and go to town. But
• 55:02
  Speaker 13: I wanted to give them the foundation.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: I think you've succeeded. And I'm going to talk about
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: John Quincy Adams and Daniel Shays, because those are the
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: two I learned the most about from Uniting the States.
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: Uniting the States, by the way, available for pre-order today
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, wherever books are. They'll be
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: at your doorstep on Friday if you go pre-order today.
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: It'll be a bestseller. Let's start with John Quincy Adams,
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: who I did not know until I read Brian Kilmeade's
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: new book. It was often called Old Man Eloquence. What
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: a wonderful moniker for someone, Brian. Isn't that a great moniker?
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: It tells you everything you need to know.
• 55:35
  Speaker 13: Yeah, I mean, he's a guy that went back to
• 55:38
  Speaker 13: the House for six terms after being president. When you
• 55:40
  Speaker 13: look at this resume, you think about this. At 10
• 55:43
  Speaker 13: years old, he goes over with his dad over to Europe.
• 55:46
  Speaker 13: And when his dad was busy, he'd stay with this
• 55:48
  Speaker 13: guy named Benjamin Franklin. And when his dad couldn't be
• 55:51
  Speaker 13: around him, he hung out with Thomas Jefferson. And John
• 55:55
  Speaker 13: Adams made a comment one time saying, I think he's
• 55:58
  Speaker 13: as much your son as he is mine. And the
• 56:00
  Speaker 13: one person he looked up to more than anybody else
• 56:02
  Speaker 13: was George Washington. So, and then you think at 15
• 56:05
  Speaker 13: years old, he's an aid to the ambassador to Russia.
• 56:10
  Speaker 13: and ends up becoming an ambassador on his own to
• 56:11
  Speaker 13: the Netherlands, obviously President of the United States, the Secretary
• 56:15
  Speaker 13: of State.
• 56:15
  Speaker 16: Who really wrote the Monroe Doctrine. That was pretty much
• 56:18
  Speaker 16: his idea.
• 56:19
  Speaker 13: And when he became president, he was the most qualified
• 56:22
  Speaker 13: president ever, but everyone's got their weak points except for you,
• 56:25
  Speaker 13: for his weak point was his personality.
• 56:28
  Speaker 16: He wasn't warm. He wasn't a warm guy.
• 56:30
  Speaker 13: And he made some decisions that weren't great in the
• 56:33
  Speaker 13: executive branch. He thought he was done. And then people
• 56:36
  Speaker 13: in Massachusetts said, well, Mr. President, would you go back
• 56:39
  Speaker 13: and represent us in the House? He said, yeah, but
• 56:41
  Speaker 13: I'm not campaigning if you want me to.
• 56:43
  Speaker 16: But the reason why I.
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: Put him in the book— You know that the sofa
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: on which he expired is in the Chief Justice's office?
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: Did you know that? It's something the Chief Justice liked
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: to tell everyone, that John Quincy Adams died on my sofa.
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: And you have that story in the book. It's pretty interesting.
• 56:58
  Speaker 16: Thank you.
• 56:59
  Speaker 13: Not only that, after reading it, I got the speaker
• 57:03
  Speaker 13: to bring me to the spot on the floor— where
• 57:05
  Speaker 13: Lincoln was, diagonally back from John Quincy Adams. And then
• 57:10
  Speaker 13: he brought me there, and it's on the Fox Nation special,
• 57:12
  Speaker 13: to the sofa where he ultimately died. Literally died at work.
• 57:16
  Speaker 16: Yes. It's amazing.
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: So I want people to read it only because not
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: enough people appreciate John Quincy Adams at Amistad. You did.
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: You got it. His presidency wasn't the greatest presidency, but
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: his post-presidency was so dignified. And that at age 73,
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: and his hearing's failing, and he's exhausted, and he's old,
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: He goes and argues before the Supreme Court over two
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: days for eight hours. One of the justices dies in
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: the middle of this. You did a fine job, Brian,
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: doing constitutional law history, too. That's a different venue for you.
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: But you note overlapping admiralty, international law, federal law. You
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: got it all laid out there. How long did it
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: take you to figure that stuff out?
• 57:54
  Speaker 16: I got help.
• 57:54
  Speaker 13: I got a lot of help from my publisher on that.
• 57:56
  Speaker 13: I told him I was over my skis. But they
• 57:59
  Speaker 13: said to me, Brian, write it as a non-lawyer because
• 58:01
  Speaker 13: most people are reading it.
• 58:02
  Speaker 16: Are non-lawyers.
• 58:03
  Speaker 5: I said, fine.
• 58:04
  Speaker 16: And they said, I go, well, just make sure people
• 58:07
  Speaker 16: aren't pointing out problems. And they said, no, we'll fix it.
• 58:10
  Speaker 10: And they did.
• 58:11
  Speaker 13: So I understand it. So just so people know, Amos
• 58:13
  Speaker 13: did the movie. If people didn't see the movie, so
• 58:16
  Speaker 13: you had.
• 58:16
  Speaker 16: This slave ship being taken over by the slaves. They
• 58:18
  Speaker 16: didn't want to spend their life in servitude.
• 58:20
  Speaker 5: Who would have thought?
• 58:21
  Speaker 13: And they kill everybody on there except two captains. And
• 58:24
  Speaker 13: the captains, they tell them to take them back to Africa.
• 58:27
  Speaker 13: They tricked the slaves and brought them to Montauk, Long Island.
• 58:30
  Speaker 13: And then they turned him over and they tried to
• 58:32
  Speaker 13: arrest him.
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: Some died.
• 58:33
  Speaker 16: There were 35 left.
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: 35 left, but John Quincy Adams gets free because he
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: was an old man eloquent, was also an old man abolitionist.
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: And it's a great chapter. When we come back, Brian's
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: going to stick around. We're going to talk about Daniel Shays,
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: about whom I knew nothing until I picked up Uniting
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: the States. Go get it for yourself. I'll be right
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: back with Brian Kilmeade on The Hugh Hewitt Show. Welcome back, America.
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: I'm Hugh Hewitt with my friend Brian Kilmeade, who you
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: know from Fox and Friends. from his own show on
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: the weekend. He's also a prolific author, most recently of
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: this book, Uniting the States, the Six Crucial Moments that
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: Forged the American Miracle. Okay, Brian, here's a high compliment.
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: I've been teaching constitutional law for 33 years. I always
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: teach the founding, the period of time between the end
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: of the war and the ratification of the Constitution. I
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: think I've mentioned Shays' Rebellion once or twice. I never
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: knew anything about it. I've read like Meacham and all
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: these big old histories of Hamilton and Washington. Never got
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: the lowdown on Daniel Shays until I read Uniting the States.
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: What a sympathetic character. By the way, he's not going
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: to jump out at anyone as being like John Quincy
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: Adams or John Adams or Jefferson or Washington or Madison.
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: Why did you pick him?
• 59:58
  Speaker 16: Number one, I want to do something different.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 13: I didn't want to just do the most obvious things
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 13: like Lexington and Concord and the Battle of Bunker Hill
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 13: or great moments. But what led to the Constitutional Convention?
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 16: And in talking to people, I.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 13: Saw this one story about this one expert on the Shays' Rebellion.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 16: Now, I used to mix up the Whiskey Rebellion and
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 16: the Shays' Rebellion. I thought, what was that about?
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 13: So I didn't even know the difference until I really
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 13: dove into this book and I said it leads to
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 13: the Constitution. And just to give you an idea, Daniel Shays,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 13: typical American, He picks up a musket with no experience
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 13: and becomes such a war hero that Lafayette gives him
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 13: a sword because he was such a fantastic.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 16: Fighter, war fighter. And he goes, okay, thank you for that.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 16: I just want to be a farmer. So he goes
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 16: back to Massachusetts.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 13: But back then, we were really 13 separate countries. When
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 13: this war ended, it wasn't clear to me until I
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 13: really jumped into my doing these history books and these
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 13: specials for Fox Nation and How much everyone was like, okay,
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 13: Massachusetts didn't really like Virginia. And, you know, all these
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 13: other states weren't really looking to bailing each other out.
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 13: We wanted to be separate. The Articles of Confederation were
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 13: falling apart. There was no federal government almost at all.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 13: And Washington was noticing this whole thing falling apart. But
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 13: what threw him is when Daniel Shays, a guy that
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 13: he knew of and knew personally, when he found out
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 13: that there was a rebellion, which was labeled, maybe mislabeled.
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 16: Going on in Massachusetts.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 9: Why?
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 13: Because these farmers wanted representation. These shopkeepers and people on
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 13: the coast had the numbers. So when it came to
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 13: voting and making up the laws and bylaws, they were
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 13: coming up with all themselves. The farmers who had to
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 13: do a lot of trade and barter in order to
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 13: grow crops, and if they had a bad crop, it
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 13: used to be okay, they'd find a way. But instead,
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 13: they were throwing them in debtor's prison. They were deciding
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 13: that if they didn't pay up, they'd be done, and
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 13: they were taking their land. So they eventually combined and
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 13: stood up, and Henry Knox, of all people, saw what
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 13: was going on, saw the arsenal that could be available,
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 13: And they were not allowed, the Articles of Confederation, to
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 13: have a peacetime army at the time.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 16: But he ended up putting a militia together because he had.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 13: Stormed the courthouse too many times and stopped what they
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 13: called the regulators. And Daniel Shays and Wheeler were the
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 13: two real leaders of this movement. But they weren't rebels.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 13: They just wanted to be farmers. And they wanted representation
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 13: in their government, which they fought a war to get.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 13: But when this was shot down, when they settled their
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 13: guns and two people would die and they would be
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 13: oaths of.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 16: of loyalty back to the country. But what happened is
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 16: Daniel Shays was told, no, you led this, you're out.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 16: You go to Vermont, you're not allowed back in.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 13: But when Washington heard that Shays was involved, Madison went
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 13: to see him, Knox went to see him, and he said, Mr. President,
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 13: if you don't come back, excuse me, General, if you
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 13: don't come back and lead a constitutional convention and get
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 13: all the states together, this whole thing's going to fall apart.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 16: This rebellion is the biggest, but it's only the first.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: What I found fascinating in this chapter on Daniel Shea's
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: and uniting the states is that it's all because the
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: Massachusetts state constitution is adopted in 1780. And because of
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: snowstorms in the winter, it heavily favors the merchants of
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: Boston and the seacoast. And it kind of screws the
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: yeoman farmers of whom Daniel Shea was one. And they
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: were all going to jail for debt. I didn't know
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: any of that stuff, nor did I know the particulars
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: of the regulators. So I don't know how you dug
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: all this stuff up. This is not, I mean, the legislature,
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: which is called something out. It's called, Governor Bowdoin calls
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: it a legislature together. By the way, Bowdoin College from...
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: where Comrade Mamdani comes from. His guy was Governor Bowden.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: He passes the Riot Act, the militia. They're not messing
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: around with these farmers, and they'd kill four of them.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 16: They would, and that's just it.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 13: They did take them out because they did have some success.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 13: Not only that, Hugh, there's just less farmers than there
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 13: were shopkeepers and people living.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 5: On the coast.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 13: So even if it wasn't for the weather, they were outnumbered.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 13: And by the way, how are you supposed to get
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 13: out of debt if you go to prison? So there's
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 13: an endless cycle. So people are losing everything. So they
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 13: were desperate. They just wanted to live. And Daniel Shays basically,
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 13: I would say, fell on his sword for the cause,
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 13: not knowing that years later, if people would study this
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 13: and realize he's somewhat responsible for.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 16: One of the greatest documents ever written, and that's the.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 13: USS Constitution because it got Washington's attention. And without Washington,
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 13: they probably don't have the leadership to convene that.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: And they get– Daniel Shade gets a line in most textbooks,
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: like one line, and he's a real person with five
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: kids and a wife, Abigail, and he's exiled to Vermont
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: and ends up in obscurity in Finger Lakes. Good on
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: you for bringing– and he's a hero. He's a heck
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: of a soldier in the Revolution, and your dedication of
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: this book is to those who fell in the first wars,
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: the Revolutionary War, 25,000, 15,000, and the War of 1812.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: 600,000 plus in the civil war. It's a great dedication.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: I want to close with just a word about Jefferson
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: and map making. Cause I think the early story I'd
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: forgotten it. His dad was a map maker and that's
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: where Jefferson got the love of maps. And maybe the
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: reason the United States is a continental state is because
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: Jefferson had an itch for knowing what was out West.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 13: And get, get this another surveyor from Virginia, other than Washington,
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 13: Peter was his dad read that made the him and
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 13: a partner and, made the first map of Virginia ever.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 13: And then he read the first, he saw the first
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 13: map he did of what would be the.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 16: Westward push for America. He was always curious.
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 13: He never got beyond the Appalachians himself, but he always
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 13: had this thirst to do it.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 16: And he was the perfect president. Again, why I wrote
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 16: the book, the perfect president, the perfect time.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 13: To see, have the vision to say, we're going to
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 13: need this Midwest and we can't lose the Mississippi.
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 16: That's why he set his sights here.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 13: On the port of New Orleans, and the need, almost
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 13: like the Strait of Hormuz today, he knows if we
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 13: lost the Mississippi and our commerce that goes up and
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 13: down the country, we would not be the same country,
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 13: wouldn't be allowed to grow, and we could.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 16: Also be squeezed.
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 13: So we knew we had to be in control of it,
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 13: but he understood topography, he understood the potential of America
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 13: and this sprawling land.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: The Louisiana Purchase is the original art of the deal.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: And Brian Kilmeade is an original. His most original book
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: thus far, Uniting the States. It's fabulous. Pick it up.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: Learn something you didn't know. Enjoy it. Pass it on
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: in your family. Brian, good to talk to you. Follow
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: him at Kilmeade on X. Go to Amazon and get
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: Uniting the States. And I'll be right back, America. Thank you,
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: Brian Kilmeade.