Latest / 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary / The Dems' Piker Problem, El-Sayed & Circumcision, 'Economic D-Day' | Last Call

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The Dems' Piker Problem, El-Sayed & Circumcision, 'Economic D-Day' | Last Call · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Grab a stool next to Greg Karambas of Radio America
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: and Jim Garrity of National Review.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Three martinis coming up. Welcome to the last call of
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the week for the Three Martini Lunch. This is our
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: weekly recap of the biggest stories of the week. And
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: our biggest story of this week came while Craig Collins
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: was filling in for me. Here's how he and Jim
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Garrity handled the news. In this edition, Democrats are desperate
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: to distance themselves from Hassan Piker. Well, except for Hunter Biden,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: who wants to find common ground with the guy who
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: said we deserve 9-11. Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: compares trans surgeries for kids to circumcision. And the Trump
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: administration launches economic D-Day against Iran. And in our Chaser
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: of the Week, a socialist running for mayor in Los
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Angeles publicly brags about a very pedestrian accomplishment. But we
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: begin with Democrats trying to change the subject from Hassan Piker. Jim,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: this was as predictable as anything could be predictable for
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: the 2026 cycle. You know, you got all these Democratic primaries.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Most of them are over now. And of course, you know,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the energy is with the either DSA or DSA-friendly type
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: candidates in all these different places. And so they bring
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: in their really progressive or even socialist surrogates and Well,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Hassan Piker was that guy, most specifically and prominently in Michigan,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: but a lot of other places as well. And now
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: as they're heading into the general election, the Democrats are
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: trying to say, I don't know. That's not who we are.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: We're not affiliated with him.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Not at all.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: In Michigan, Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell was, I think, at
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: an Abdul for Senate function, or maybe it's just a
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: larger Democratic event. Nonetheless, she is tired, Jim. She's tired
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: of so many people making this campaign about Hassan Piker.
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: I'm done. So don't any reporter ask me again about
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: Hassan Piker.
• 2:02
  Speaker 5: It's not what November is about.
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: Republicans are trying to make it. They're trying to divide us.
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: And we've got to stop letting them try to divide us.
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: I don't agree with Hassan Piker on a lot of stuff.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: And I really don't agree with him on some of
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: the woman things he said. And I'm still trying.
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: To figure out, is it the reason.
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: He exercises and looks buff is.
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: Why he has so many followers?
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: So it's the Republicans who are trying to divide people
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: by mentioning Hassan Piker, not the people who literally brought
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: him in and have pictures of themselves fist bumping Hassan
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Piker like Abdul Al-Sayed does. And so, Jim, this is
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: rich of them trying to now backtrack from what got
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: them where they are.
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: Greg, I don't want to be ageist. But I will
• 2:47
  Speaker 5: simply observe that after announcing she's not going to answer
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: any questions about Hasan Piker, she then talks about Hasan Piker.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: And she kind of, in.
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: The process, acknowledges that this guy has some controversial statements,
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: more than controversial, I would say. heinous statements, i.e. America
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: deserved 9-11, things like that. She objects to some of
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: the stuff that he said about women. Fine, I think
• 3:07
  Speaker 5: we probably could agree on that, Ms.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Dingell.
• 3:10
  Speaker 5: I also noticed you're noticing his biceps and you're noticing
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: his physique and things like that, which is not really
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: dispelling the stereotypes people have about women, but fine, fine.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: Whatever, you know.
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: But I also kind of observe that there's a very easy,
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: I notice no one is asking Mike Rogers about his
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: decision to campaign.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: With Hassan Piker, because he didn't, right?
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: Like, why is Abdul El-Sayed and why are Michigan Democrats
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: getting all these questions about, you know, Hassan Piker? Because
• 3:40
  Speaker 5: he chose to campaign with him on not one, but
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: several stops on college campuses. When you do that, you
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: accept the consequences of that. And what are the consequences
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: are reporters asking things like, do you agree with Hassan
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: Piker's statement on America to serve 9-11? Jews invite anti-Semitism
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: upon themselves by defending Israel. This guy talks live streams
• 4:05
  Speaker 5: for eight hours a day. Unsurprisingly, he says lots of
• 4:08
  Speaker 5: controversial things. I put this question out there on X
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: the other day. You and I do our podcast 20,
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: 30 minutes, 40 minutes if it's really long. A lot
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: of days, we don't say things that we regret. And
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: in fact, you know, very often I will say things
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: that you regret, but nonetheless, otherwise, you know, if we
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: talk for eight hours a day, the odds of us
• 4:30
  Speaker 5: saying something that would come out wrong or, like, would
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: probably greatly increase. So, like, maybe you shouldn't do that.
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: Maybe you should not talk in front of a camera
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: for eight hours. Or if you do, you should accept that. Also,
• 4:41
  Speaker 5: you should not be a hateful anti-Semite, but I figure
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: with a sun tiger, that's, now I'm asking for too much.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: But I just kind of think that, like, you know,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: if you, these are all predictable problems, right?
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: And when she says the Republicans are trying to divide us, boy,
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: it's a good thing the Democrats never do anything like, like,
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: like whether or not you're divided, it's kind of up,
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: you know, it's up to you. But also like, why
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: are these Republicans, you know, why are they pouncing, to
• 5:04
  Speaker 5: use the favorite verb of the mainstream media, to point attention,
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: call attention to the controversial things that this guy is?
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: And if you want to say, oh, he's just some
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: random Twitch streamer, who cares? Well, okay, but again, the
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: moment he gets invited onto the campaign trail by the candidate,
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: he becomes a quasi-official spokesman of the party. He becomes
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: much more than just some random person on the internet
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: ranting or something like that. So, you know, Demi Dingle,
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: you guys are in this mess because of the decisions
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: of Abdul Al-Sayed. And, you know, you can't, you know,
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: you can say, I'm not going to answer those questions.
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: But if you say you're not going to answer those questions,
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: talking about it for the next few minutes probably does not,
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: you know, you're not making it seem like it's not newsworthy.
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: But then the second thing is that, like, you can't
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: say to the media you're not allowed to ask that question. Yes,
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: they are. And unsurprisingly, the fact that, you know, Democrats
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: for Rogers exists is an indicator that there are Democrats
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: in this world, particularly Jewish ones, who look at El-Sayed's
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: association with Hassan Piker and say, no, no, no, I
• 6:06
  Speaker 5: can't vote for a guy who's such an outspoken anti-Semite
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: like this.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: It's incredible. And Debbie Dingell is in an interesting position
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: herself because, you know, the big movement in the Democratic Party,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: especially with the increasingly socialist left, is, you know, we
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: need a generational change here. We need an overhaul. We
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: need a different type of politics. That congressional seat has
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: been in the Dingell family forever.
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: For 94 years.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: John Dingell Sr. won it in 1932, the same year
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: FDR was elected to his first term. He served till
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: the mid-50s in the House, died. John Dingell Jr. won
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: the seat, held it for nearly 60 years. He died
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: in the House, and now his wife is currently holding
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: that seat. So I don't think she's exactly the picture
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: of what the Democrats want, but somehow she's skated through
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: the primary here. But just so you know the background
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: on that story.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Did she ever attend a No Kings rally?
• 6:57
  Speaker 6: No.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Probably.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Oh, man. Anyway, real quick here. Hunter Biden is still
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: trying to be in public. And he went on the
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: podcast with the excreble Rick Wilson, formerly a Republican campaign strategist,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: not a particularly good one. And then now he's a
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Lincoln Project guy who still pretend to be Republicans, but
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: do all their work on behalf of Democrats and don't
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: do that work particularly well either. They're now looking at
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: the value of Hassan Piker on the left.
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: I turn on these shows and it's like a circular
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: firing squad because we wanted, they end up talking about
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: Hassan Piker for 45 minutes. You know what Hassan Piker did?
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: Hassan Piker is a live stream guy that has been
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: doing it for, I don't know how many years. And
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: he has thousands and thousands and thousands of hours of
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: him just into a microphone, by the way. But at
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: the same time, You know what Hassan Piker's done? He
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: has created a little bit of a movement of a
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: group of people that are absolutely opposed to the fascism
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: of Donald Trump.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: And you know what?
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: I want to tap into that. I don't want to
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: opt out of it. I want to figure out with
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: Hassan Piker whether or not we can find common ground
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: and fight against the same enemy. Instead, what these guys
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: are doing is he's a virulent anti-Semite and everybody's this, that,
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: and the other thing. And it's just like, and he
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: said this about 9-11 and he said that. It's like,
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: my God.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Why are we focusing on the fact that he's a
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: virulent anti-Semite and thinks we deserve 9-11? Why can't we
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: find more common ground with this guy? Remember, Rick Wilson
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: was the guy in 2002 who ran ads against Max
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Cleland in Georgia on behalf of Sexton B. Chambliss, who
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: I wanted to win. that Max Cleland, a triple amputee
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Vietnam veteran, wasn't tough enough on Islamic terrorism. Now he's
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: nodding along as Hunter Biden is like, why can't we
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: find more common ground with this guy?
• 8:56
  Speaker 5: Greg, I just want to clarify, Rick Wilson and Hunter
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: Biden are arguing that Hassan Piker is just trying to
• 9:03
  Speaker 5: get attention. I guess game does not respect game. I guess,
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: you know, grifter competition, really, really tough. The other observation
• 9:13
  Speaker 5: I'm just going to observe there, As Hunter Biden gets older, God,
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: does he look and sound like his father. And like,
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: there's something, you know, a little bit spooky about that.
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: The voice, the cadence, the tone of all that. But again, yeah,
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: like if you're a down the line Reaganite, you know,
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: look at the poster over on my wall. If you
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: agree with me on all the issues, but you blurt
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: out America deserved 9-11, we're going to have some problems.
• 9:36
  Speaker 5: I cannot support you. I cannot say, ah, let's find
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: our common ground. There are certain things in life that you're,
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: you know, draw swords over or them's fighting words. America
• 9:46
  Speaker 5: deserved 9-11 is one of them. Unless you've got like,
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: I was smoking crack or something, some explanation that Hunter
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: Biden would understand and relate to or something like that.
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: I'm not interested in finding common ground if you've said
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: things like that. I think there are certain things that
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: are just beyond the pale, and this would be one
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: of them. I think his argument that Jews invite anti-Semitism,
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: hell no. There's a whole bunch of reasons to look
• 10:11
  Speaker 5: at this guy and say, I don't want him anywhere
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: near my Senate candidate.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: But if you're a Democrat in Michigan, it's a little late.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Wilson and Biden just scrounging at the bottom of the
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: political barrel these days.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: We're talking about like Wilson and Biden. Talk about some
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: awful presidents.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Well, Hunter Biden made a mint thanks to his father's
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: connections and some very questionable paintings. Rick Wilson has made
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: a ton of money fleecing Democrats and putting out ridiculously
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: bad campaign ads and claiming that he's actually helping Democrats.
• 10:38
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• 11:52
  Speaker 1: lot of time with Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Senate in Michigan. There's lots of issues we get to.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: There's Hassan Piker. There's Medicare for all. There's, you know,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: his reaction or lack of a serious reaction to the
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: attempted terrorist attack at that Jewish school in Bloomfield Hills
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: last year.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: But he was on with.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Jesse Waters of Fox News last night. So in some ways,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: I guess, molecule of credit, as you would say, for
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: going into a place where he knows he's probably going
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: to have some pretty hostile questions. But, you know, you
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: don't expect certain things to come up in a political interview,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: but sometimes they do anyway. So Jesse Waters asked Abdul
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: El-Sayed his position on trans surgeries for kids. And let's
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: just say it took a turn that most people probably
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: didn't expect. Sex changes for minors. Do you support that?
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: Look, you know, I remember a having great conversations with
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: my conservative friends about right to try legislation. The idea
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: that the government shouldn't tell you what kind of health
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: care you should have. I just think the government shouldn't
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: tell you what kind of health care you should have.
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: And if you're a minor, it's between you, your doctor,
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: and your parents.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: You want to try on kids?
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: Now, if you disagree with that, if you disagree with that,
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: if you disagree that health care decisions need to be
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: made by a doctor and their parents and a patient,
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: then I just think we agree to disagree. But, you know,
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: you want to put government inside.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: A clinic or a hospital selectively.
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: So, Abdul, you're a doctor, right? I am.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: So you think it's okay for a parent to slash
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: his kid's thing off?
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: You think that's okay?
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: I mean, do you really want to have this conversation?
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: Are you circumcised?
• 13:24
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah. But I mean, that's a personal question.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: OK, doctor, you probably should want to move on. I
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: probably should want to move on.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: Circumcision is different than castration.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: I think it's a problem. It's a problem that you
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: think that you get to decide what happens between a parent,
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: a doctor and a patient. And I'm just saying that, yes,
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: circumcision is surgery on a kid's ding-a-ling. So if you
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: really want to bring that up, you can. I just
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: think you guys are really selective about how you want
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: to talk about these things.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Abdul, Michigan's not going for that.
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: That is sick stuff.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: I love how the guy who wants government-run health care
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: is saying he doesn't want government involved in your health care.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: But this is completely different from that. Oh, it's just
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: about the parents and the patients. And so, of course,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: the thing everybody's taken away from this, Jim, is that
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: he's trying to compare circumcision with actual gender reassignment surgery
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: or whatever term you want to use for it.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: This guy's not serious.
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: Listeners, viewers, I know it's going to shock you when
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: I declare that I am not the target audience for
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: Jesse Waters' program. But when you can make Jesse Waters
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: look like the reasonable, sensible, and tasteful one in the conversation...
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: You have really outdone yourself, and it's a remarkable achievement.
• 14:35
  Speaker 5: So well done, Abdullah Sayyed.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: Well done.
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: Also, I point out, yes, he is a doctor. He's
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: never practiced, or at least his only practicing he did
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: was back in medical school. He's been doing health policy
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: since he got out of med school. But he's a doctor.
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: I was not familiar with the term ding-a-ling as a
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: medical terminology, and I kind of am left wondering, like,
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: you know, we're going to elevate our discourse, and we're
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: going to use terms like that. Looking back to the primary,
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: which he very narrowly won when the polls were having
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: him up by double digits and things like that, one
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: of the assessments of Abdul Al-Sayed was that he was
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: remarkably confident, and some people said cocky, that he walks
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: around with this supreme self-confidence that not only is he
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: going to have the right answer for every situation, that
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: people are going to find him remarkably persuasive in these circumstances.
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: And of course, he won by about 1% when everybody
• 15:27
  Speaker 5: was expecting him this blowout, the willingness to stick by
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: Hassan Piker, when I think almost every other candidate would say,
• 15:38
  Speaker 5: you know, my friend Hassan has said some very controversial
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: things that I wish he would take back, blah, blah, blah.
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: This repositioning, the fact that he's still, as far as
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: I know, he's still going to speak at this National
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: Islamic Society of North America conference in Detroit over Labor
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: Day weekend that has a whole bunch of very shady
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: characters addressing the crowd on some topics that are deeply controversial, right?
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: you know, again, your name is Abdullah Sayyed. You're going
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: to do just fine amongst Muslim voters in the state.
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: You know, you're going to be the first Muslim senator
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: if elected. Insert Barack Obama jokes here. Like this is
• 16:10
  Speaker 5: all like, like you don't need this demographic anymore. Why
• 16:12
  Speaker 5: are you doing? The other thing I thought was interesting
• 16:14
  Speaker 5: about this, Greg, he's on Fox News and he's on
• 16:16
  Speaker 5: Fox News with Jesse Waters, who is, let's face it,
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: not Brett Baer, not Brett Hume. So I almost wonder
• 16:22
  Speaker 5: if he went into this hoping for some sort of confrontation,
• 16:26
  Speaker 5: for some sort of clip that would go viral about him,
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: you know, really giving it to Jesse Waters. When it
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: comes to this topic, Greg, I'm going to give Abdul
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: Al-Sayed a tip. Cut it out. Don't, this is not
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: the cool talking point that you think it is. This
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: is not, you know, and you look at this and
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: you're like, wow, Mike Rogers, you have hit the jackpot
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: in terms of beatable candidates and in your lovely home
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: state of Michigan, which has not been traditionally friendly to
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: Republican Senate candidates. Gubernatorial races, they've done okay every now
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: and then. But this is the guy you want. So
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: don't fumble the ball, Mike Rogers. Remember, your opponent hates football.
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: He hates football. He probably thinks Barry Sanders is overrated.
• 17:08
  Speaker 5: And he probably drives a Japanese car. That's the kind
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: of guy you're up against in the state of Michigan.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: No excuses here, Mike Rogers. Yeah, he hates Thanksgiving.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: He also had a statement supposedly distancing himself from Piker
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: yesterday without actually mentioning Hassan Piker. I see this as
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: stage one of the Obama-Reverend-Right rule here. He'll have one
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: that actually mentions him, then eventually he'll have to do
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: an on-camera statement, and it probably still won't do much good.
• 17:33
  Speaker 5: Greg, besides me... Do you have any friends who you
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: would laughably say, oh, yeah, that guy's crazy?
• 17:38
  Speaker 6: Probably.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: We are capable of, you know, yes, this is my friend.
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: And for some reason, he thinks the moon is made
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: of green cheese. And I've argued about this with him
• 17:47
  Speaker 5: a million times. He is intractable. I'm never going to
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: change his mind. So I love the guy, but I
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: don't stand by his statements on the moon. Like that's
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: traditionally how a candidate like we all have friends who
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: we like or we have family members or we have
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: folks like that.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: We're like, yes.
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: And this person has views that I do not hold
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: and that we do not agree on that issue. And
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: for some reason, Abdullah al-Sayed doesn't want to do that.
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: Or he does very gingerly, very precise, you know, like,
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: how hard is it to say, no, America did not
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: deserve 9-11 and my friend Hassan is a moron for
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: saying that? He can't do it because he can't be
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: that critical of Hassan Piker. Yeah.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: And if you had a crazy friend, you probably wouldn't
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: bring your crazy friend out as publicly as possible to
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: campaign for you in a primary, even if you thought
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: it would help you because, you know, it would hurt
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: you in that. in the general election. So a long
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: way to go in this race. In no way is
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: it over, but Mike Rogers is definitely getting some benefits here.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: You can tell it went better for Rogers than Syed
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: because on El Syed's page, there's one clip from that interview.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: And on the Republican Party site, there's like half a
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: dozen or more showing him to be crazy.
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: It's going to show up in ads. You know, that's
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: going to show up in commercials between now and November.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Definitely.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he was also asked about the Second Amendment because
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: apparently he wants to repeal it. And his answer was,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: I think people care more about getting health care than
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: getting a gun. That's not answering the question. I'm pretty
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: sure you can get both. So anyway, he's got a
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: lot of radical positions he's going to try to shift
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: his way out of. And that's the other thing with him.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: I think he thinks he's so clever and smart that
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: he can kind of shimmy his way out of any
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: situation and make the other guy look bad. But when
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: you're defending positions that crazy, I don't think it's going
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: as well as you think it's going. Yeah.
• 19:26
  Speaker 5: Again, like, you know, you kind of start. Did he
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: was he so he did a pool party with Piker
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: and other influencers the day before the election. And people
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: were like, do you like shouldn't you be out campaigning someplace?
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: And he's got it.
• 19:40
  Speaker 5: And of course, he, you know, won the primary by
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: about one percent.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: So, yeah.
• 19:44
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: Strange, you know, like confidence. His ability to measure confidence
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: is not reassuring if you're a Democrat.
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: True. All right.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: But you can be confident about the fact that if
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: your home needs an emergency repair and a major one,
• 19:58
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• 20:52
  Speaker 1: to renewal price void in Florida. We started the week
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: by focusing on the Trump administration trying to apply severe
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: economic pain and pressure to Iran and on any nation
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: or entity that does business there. Jim, yesterday officially started
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: what the Trump administration is calling Economic D-Day, pinching Iran
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: by pinching anyone who helps or cooperates or does business
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: with Iran going the economic route as opposed to the
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: diplomatic or military route on this one. Here's Treasury Secretary
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: Scott Besset in a couple different clips explaining what's going
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: on here.
• 21:32
  Speaker 6: Treasury has begun Operation Economic Outcast, an unprecedented campaign against
• 21:39
  Speaker 6: the Islamic Republic of Iran and its enablers. In the
• 21:44
  Speaker 6: Second World War, D-Day marked the historic beginning of a
• 21:48
  Speaker 6: campaign with our allies to target and drive the enemy
• 21:53
  Speaker 6: from its positions, including those in third countries. Today, in
• 21:58
  Speaker 6: that same spirit, we are launching an economic onslaught against
• 22:03
  Speaker 6: Iran's financial connections around the globe.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: And he talked about the areas where they're most focused on.
• 22:10
  Speaker 6: Any entity that facilitates money laundering on behalf of Iran
• 22:16
  Speaker 6: will be removed from the US dollar system. The clock
• 22:20
  Speaker 6: just started ticking. The new sectoral sanctions determinations issued today
• 22:27
  Speaker 6: target five of Iran's most vital lifelines that it exploits
• 22:32
  Speaker 6: in other countries. Digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping.
• 22:39
  Speaker 6: These measures broaden secondary sanctions risk for anyone foolish enough
• 22:44
  Speaker 6: to continue conducting business with this regime.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: But as you have flagged today, Jim, that means that
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: the U.S. will have to target everyone who does business
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: with Iran. And that could mean one of their most
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: significant partners, namely China. The Wall Street Journal is saying
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: that China was never mentioned in the speech. But it
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: also points out Iran relies on China for a lot
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: of things, including oil. And Beijing has in turn, quote,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: established an elaborate system to move the sale proceeds around
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: the world without triggering U.S. sanctions. But Washington so far
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: has proven reluctant. to seriously confront Beijing over its support
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: for the U.S. enemy. So, Jim, I hope this is
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: more consistent, more intense than the on-again, off-again military-slash-diplomatic effort here,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: because we know that sanctions do work, especially if they're really,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: really intense. The question is whether we've got the stomach
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: to stick with it, or if we buckle a little
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: bit when Iran says, okay, we're ready to talk now.
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: Yeah, when I first heard the term economic D-Day, I thought, okay,
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: this is another overhyped branding exercise. Yesterday, I taped that
• 23:47
  Speaker 5: other podcast I do called The Editors for National Review,
• 23:50
  Speaker 5: and my colleague Noah Rothman was very optimistic about this.
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: He really thought this could be a big deal, something
• 23:56
  Speaker 5: that would really put the squeeze on the Iranian regime
• 23:59
  Speaker 5: even more than it's already been squeezed. Put me in
• 24:03
  Speaker 5: Fox Mulder's poster on the side of his office in
• 24:06
  Speaker 5: the X-Files, I want to believe. Because yes, if you
• 24:10
  Speaker 5: are cutting off all of the remaining avenues in which
• 24:13
  Speaker 5: the Iranian regime can get outside currency, then yes, you
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: can squeeze the currency and really cause a problem there.
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: And yes, there are other countries that are involved in this.
• 24:22
  Speaker 5: Turkey and the UAE are probably the two biggest beyond China.
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: But if you're not willing to play hardball with China,
• 24:29
  Speaker 5: this is going to be not nearly as effective as
• 24:31
  Speaker 5: we'd like it to be. It's too early to say
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: this is taco, Trump always chickens out or something like that.
• 24:36
  Speaker 5: But if you say we're targeting your sources of foreign revenue,
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: but we're not going to hit the biggest one. Well,
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: then you're going to have a much less of an
• 24:45
  Speaker 5: effect that you're hoping to have there. The Trump administration
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: talks very tough on Iran, as they should be. And
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: Iran is absolutely the world's foremost state sponsor of terror.
• 24:54
  Speaker 5: And they're a major problem, not just for us, not
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: just for our allies, but really for the rest of
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: the world for a very long time. But one of
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: the countries that is just fine with the way the
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: Iranian regime runs things is China. And there are days
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: this administration could be tougher with China. And there are
• 25:09
  Speaker 5: days this administration could be very conciliatory with China. And
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: President Trump likes to talk about what a great relationship
• 25:15
  Speaker 5: he has with Xi Jinping. So put me in the
• 25:18
  Speaker 5: to be seen category. I hope they mean what they're saying.
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: I hope they mean that we're going after all of
• 25:24
  Speaker 5: Iran's partners. They include China. And I think if they don't,
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: this is going to have much less of an effect
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: than they're talking about it. So let's.
• 25:31
  Speaker 6: All right.
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: Great words.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: Let's see some actions.
• 25:33
  Speaker 5: Let's make sure we don't leave anybody out because we
• 25:35
  Speaker 5: want them to buy our soybeans or something like that.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: And so what's the end here? We talk about this
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: all the time. What do we need Iran to do
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: as a result of these sanctions and other economic penalties?
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Is it free passage to the Straits of Hormuz? Is
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: it that plus some guarantees, which they probably wouldn't follow anyway,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: on the nuclear program? What has to be agreed to
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: before we ease up here?
• 25:57
  Speaker 5: I saw someone reacting just earlier this week about how
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: the Iranian rial has reached an all-time low. And on
• 26:02
  Speaker 5: the one hand, you're like, oh, that's good news. On
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: the other hand, it's hit an all-time low pretty much
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: every day since the war started. It just keeps finding
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: new ways to be worth even less. So at the
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: beginning of the war, I pointed out that Iran, which
• 26:13
  Speaker 5: is already having a struggling economy, our listeners probably remember
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: the tens of thousands of people who are coming out
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: in the streets and protesting. Iran's economy was always going
• 26:21
  Speaker 5: to be in trouble. The question is, can you put
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: so much squeeze on it that basically the government cannot
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: function anymore and the people rise up and overthrow it?
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: That's what we'd love to see here. As I think
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: we've seen over the last six months, controlling what's happening
• 26:34
  Speaker 5: inside Iran is tougher than it looks. The regime has
• 26:37
  Speaker 5: already killed tens of thousands of people who are probably
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: the people who are most likely to want to lead
• 26:41
  Speaker 5: a revolution against it. So I'm hoping this ends with
• 26:45
  Speaker 5: the regime's collapse. Short of that, then getting our, you know,
• 26:48
  Speaker 5: being able to get oil tankers and liquid natural gas
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: carriers destroyed. through the Strait of Hormuz unmolested would be
• 26:54
  Speaker 5: the next most important thing. The good news is the
• 26:57
  Speaker 5: regime will come out of this conflict weakened. The bad
• 26:59
  Speaker 5: news is if they end up having this de facto
• 27:02
  Speaker 5: toll system in place, they'll be able to find ways
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: to make money pretty darn fast.
• 27:06
  Speaker 6: All right.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Well, the sanctions might not be good for businesses doing
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: a lot of business with Iran, but that's their own problem.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: And it's probably not good for Iran. That's the goal.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: But your business can thrive. Your business probably won't be
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: affected by sanctions against Iran. And your main issue is
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: keeping the clients you've got, keeping them happy and getting
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: new ones. And for that, you need a great business
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  Speaker 1: communication system. And for that, you want Quo. And that's
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  Speaker 1: why today's episode is brought to you by Quo, spelled Q-U-O,
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• 28:11
  Speaker 1: no missed customers. In our Chaser of the Week, socialist
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nithya Raman brags about an accomplishment
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: most people would be pretty embarrassed about. All right, Jim,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: one of the most depressing general election matchups is, of course,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: out in Los Angeles for the mayor's race between Karen Bass,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: who was trained by Cuban revolutionaries back in the 1970s,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: and somehow a councilwoman who's even further to the left
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: than Karen Bass. Her name is Nithya Raman. We, of course,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: documented that race and Spencer Pratt trying to make the
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: runoff and not getting in, but he is commenting on
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Nithya Raman's latest brag online. Here's what Nithya Raman wrote.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: The Los Feliz Neighborhood Council alerted our office in late
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: 2025 that to the need for a crosswalk at Sunset
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: Drive and Bates Street, which has just been completed. Thank
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: you to our incredible CD4 field team for continuing to
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: problem solve, push for solutions, and make our streets safer.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: And Spencer Pratt says, my sides. Nithya Raman's big accomplishment
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: is taking nine months to paint seven yellow stripes over
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: a cracked street. How dumb do you have to be
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: to post this? You can tell by the post, it's
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: a badly cracked street. So we're not going to fix that.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: But apparently, they.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: Finally made their way over to Home Depot or Lowe's
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: or something and found some yellow paint.
• 29:35
  Speaker 5: I guess if you pour enough paint into the crack, eventually,
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: maybe it hard and fill, but that's enough. When Spencer
• 29:43
  Speaker 5: Pratt lost, first of all, there were a lot of
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: conservatives and just right of center folks or folks who
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: were just exasperated with Karen Bass and just the general
• 29:50
  Speaker 5: entire way the city has been governed for a long time,
• 29:54
  Speaker 5: who were just, I just think people felt like morally defeated.
• 29:58
  Speaker 5: I think there was just this sense of exhaustion, this
• 30:00
  Speaker 5: sense of how could you possibly do this? And one
• 30:03
  Speaker 5: of the explanations that came out of this is like, look,
• 30:05
  Speaker 5: it's Los Angeles. People don't move out there because they
• 30:09
  Speaker 5: want to get involved in politics. People don't go out
• 30:11
  Speaker 5: there because they want to pay attention to politics. People
• 30:14
  Speaker 5: go out there because they want to live their dreams.
• 30:16
  Speaker 5: They want to be Hollywood stars. And it's just Even
• 30:19
  Speaker 5: by the standards of California, Los Angeles apparently has this
• 30:22
  Speaker 5: very detached, politically oblivious mentality towards local government. Blame it
• 30:31
  Speaker 5: on the crystal waving. Blame it on all the sun
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: tanning they do out there or the beautiful weather or whatever.
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: Los Angelinos don't like to pay a lot of attention
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: to local politics and local governments.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: And I get that.
• 30:44
  Speaker 5: I think as conservatives, we believe in limited government. We
• 30:46
  Speaker 5: would like a government that we don't have to think
• 30:48
  Speaker 5: about too much. I think what we see here are
• 30:50
  Speaker 5: the consequences when you don't pay any attention to government
• 30:53
  Speaker 5: for the better part of a generation. It does not
• 30:55
  Speaker 5: get better on itself. It does not get more responsible
• 30:57
  Speaker 5: by itself. It tends to decline to the point where
• 31:01
  Speaker 5: they feel like painting a crosswalk on a road that
• 31:04
  Speaker 5: desperately needs to be repaved is a major accomplishment to
• 31:08
  Speaker 5: brag about. Look, I very much would prefer to see
• 31:10
  Speaker 5: Spencer Pratt be the mayor of the city At minimum,
• 31:13
  Speaker 5: I would like to see him, you know, make the runoff.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: Did not happen.
• 31:17
  Speaker 5: But, Greg, I could see him kind of be like
• 31:19
  Speaker 5: there was an old saying in medieval times, the jester
• 31:22
  Speaker 5: was the only person who could speak the truth because
• 31:25
  Speaker 5: he was funny and because he was kind of seen.
• 31:27
  Speaker 5: He was seen as a fool, but he was allowed
• 31:29
  Speaker 5: to say truths that no one else was. I almost
• 31:31
  Speaker 5: feel like Spencer Pratt is turning into like the court jester.
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: of Los Angeles politics, that he can say things that.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: Everybody else can see, i.e.
• 31:39
  Speaker 5: The emperor has no clothes or something like that, and
• 31:41
  Speaker 5: kind of point out the fact that they are bragging
• 31:44
  Speaker 5: about doing the bare minimum and to doing it behind schedule.
• 31:47
  Speaker 5: And I don't know how much they paid for it,
• 31:48
  Speaker 5: but I'm assuming they paid like $ 8 billion for the
• 31:51
  Speaker 5: paint for that crosswalk or something like that.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: I always thought big government and people who lean towards socialism,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: I thought their whole thing was being responsive. to the
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: needs of the people. That's their rhetoric anyway. The actual response,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: the actual reality from the socialists and big government is
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: that they don't do well at those things. They don't
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: respond well to what the people need, despite having massive
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: budgets and the ability to do it. They just don't
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: do it.
• 32:14
  Speaker 5: You know, Greg, given a choice between unresponsive government that
• 32:19
  Speaker 5: has high taxes and lots of spending but never gets
• 32:21
  Speaker 5: anything done, Or limited government, smaller government with lower taxes
• 32:25
  Speaker 5: that doesn't get much done. I'll choose the latter, right?
• 32:28
  Speaker 5: That's deliberately not getting much stuff done as opposed to
• 32:31
  Speaker 5: accidentally not getting such much stuff done, which is what
• 32:33
  Speaker 5: they have out in Los Angeles.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: That's the last call of the week for the Three
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: Martini Lunch. Please subscribe to the Three Martini Lunch Monday
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: through Friday. Also, please leave us a review. You can
• 32:43
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• 32:45
  Speaker 1: you have to say is play Three Martini Lunch podcast.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: Follow us on X. Jim is at Jim Garrity. I'm
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: at Greg Karumbas. And follow 3 Martini Lunch on Facebook
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: and Instagram. Have a great weekend and please join us
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: on Monday for the next 3 Martini Lunch.