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The Big Weekend Pod · The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Hillsdale at Hillsdale dot ed or I encourage you to
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: take advantage of the many free online courses there, and
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: of course I'll listen to the Hillsdale dialogues, all of
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: them at Hugh for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: iTunes and Hillsdale Morning Glory and even Grace America. I'm
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  Speaker 1: Whugh Hewittt. Welcome to the Big Weekend Pod. Quite a
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  Speaker 1: week President called into my program on Monday. Talked to
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  Speaker 1: him for thirty minutes, most of which was focused on Iran,
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  Speaker 1: and he laid it out very very straightforward. There have
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  Speaker 1: to be some red lines. Number One, they renounced being
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  Speaker 1: in nuclear power, they being Iran. Number Two, all the
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  Speaker 1: enriched uranium comes to us to the United States. Well,
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  Speaker 1: help theme get it out that it's got to come
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  Speaker 1: to us. Number Three, inspections of their missile programs. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the President indicated that hey, they live in a dangerous neighborhood.
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  Speaker 1: They might need some, but they don't need everything that
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  Speaker 1: they've got. They can't go forest and missiles to protect
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  Speaker 1: enrichmentd sites. And then he added in an assign they're
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  Speaker 1: going to not have any money to give to the
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  Speaker 1: terrorist proxy but implied in that is they can't give
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  Speaker 1: any money to the terrorist proxies. That's four points. I
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  Speaker 1: don't know what the fourteen points are, and at the
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  Speaker 1: time I'm recording this, I don't know whether or not
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  Speaker 1: they're going to respond. But they're firing on our destroyers
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  Speaker 1: like constant fire on three guided missile destroyers that went
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  Speaker 1: through the Strait of War moves and we blew up
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  Speaker 1: a bunch of their small boats, and Marco Ruby have
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  Speaker 1: said afterwards, We're not a stupid country. You fired us,
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  Speaker 1: We're going to fire at you. And I believe that
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  Speaker 1: we have given assurances to our allies, both the Saudi
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  Speaker 1: Arabia and United Arab Emirates, that if the Iranians fired them,
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  Speaker 1: we will return fire on the Iranians. And so not
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  Speaker 1: much progress. I don't expect much progress. I don't believe
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  Speaker 1: it's a forever war to take six months to wreck
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  Speaker 1: this most malign regime on the planet. I don't think
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  Speaker 1: it's a forever war. To stay vigilant and suck it up,
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  Speaker 1: even if it means higher gasling prices through the election.
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  Speaker 1: Far more important than the elections is bringing this regime
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  Speaker 1: down to its knees, to the recognition that they might
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  Speaker 1: stay on into they might stay a terrible place, but
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  Speaker 1: they're never ever going to have nuclear weapons. I talked
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  Speaker 1: about all this with our regular lineup, Elilake, Matt Continetti,
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  Speaker 1: and of course Ben Dominic and we cover a lot
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  Speaker 1: of ground as well, because the Virginia Supreme Court did
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  Speaker 1: the right thing, though by a vote of only four
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  Speaker 1: to three, struck down those maps because they broke every
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  Speaker 1: rule in the book when they got to the initiative
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  Speaker 1: that barely passed. So it was a good week all around. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: the Republican states, the red States are busy changing their
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  Speaker 1: maps where it is either compelled by virtue of the
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  Speaker 1: Supreme Court decision having to do it Louisiana last week,
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  Speaker 1: or because they can, as in Tennessee, and they're playing
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  Speaker 1: like Massachusetts and Chicago. Republicans are being to play by
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  Speaker 1: Democrat rules and we're going to see that all over
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  Speaker 1: the country. States blue states, very few purple states. And
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  Speaker 1: when that big sort is over by twenty thirty two,
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  Speaker 1: Republicans are going to have a decided advantage because they're
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  Speaker 1: the party of common sense. And growth and national security.
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  Speaker 1: I think that's what wins elections in the long run.
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  Speaker 1: I think that the Virginia Supreme Court also stood up
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  Speaker 1: for the rule of law. Applause to the four justices
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  Speaker 1: who got it right. Well, that's itt on to the
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  Speaker 1: Big Weekend Pod having glory and even greats America. Good
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  Speaker 1: Friday to you. I hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead.
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  Speaker 1: Eyed do Mother's Day weekend, and we like to celebrate that.
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  Speaker 1: And I begin this Friday broadcast with John Allis, editor
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  Speaker 1: in chief, founder of News Items, and he always gives
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  Speaker 1: you the ten to fifteen items need to know every
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  Speaker 1: morning at six am. It's what I begin my day
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  Speaker 1: with my news day. And at the end of every
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  Speaker 1: week we kind of look back at the week and
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  Speaker 1: see what's important. John, welcome you pick for me first,
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  Speaker 1: the situation in Russia. Only minutes ago, President Trump announced
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  Speaker 1: a three day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine that will
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  Speaker 1: extend over Victory Day. That makes Mother's Day a lot
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  Speaker 1: less likely to be lethal for both sides, But generally speaking,
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  Speaker 1: three days is not a solution, and Russia is starting
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  Speaker 1: to wear down. Tell us about it.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know, a big day in Russia's World War
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  Speaker 2: two victory day, when the exact date is May nine,
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  Speaker 2: and ordinarily we've all seen the pictures of you know,
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  Speaker 2: the rockets and the missiles and tanks and all of
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  Speaker 2: the military hardware, and you know, hundreds or thousands of
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  Speaker 2: troops in lockstep marching before the reviewing stand. That has
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  Speaker 2: been or that was completely scaled back to a minimal
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  Speaker 2: parade in front of the Kremlin because the Russian government
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  Speaker 2: couldn't promise the citizens and its people and its government
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  Speaker 2: that Ukrainian drones wouldn't come and kill everybody. So, you know,
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  Speaker 2: when you have a government that is incapable or doesn't
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  Speaker 2: think that it's fully capable of preventing drone attacks on
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  Speaker 2: its most important parade, if you will, then you have
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  Speaker 2: a government that's in trouble. And that's been a major
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  Speaker 2: theme of the press coverage this week is that you know,
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  Speaker 2: Putin is paranoid, he's hunkered down in his bunker, he
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  Speaker 2: doesn't trust anybody, and a lot of people that have
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  Speaker 2: been very supportive of him, on the military side and
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  Speaker 2: the security side, are now talking darkly about a coup
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  Speaker 2: or worse. So it's a dramatically when you think about
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  Speaker 2: where we were, you know, four and a half years
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  Speaker 2: ago to where we are now. It's just a remarkable
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  Speaker 2: change of circumstances.
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  Speaker 1: You know, John, you and I are both old enough
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  Speaker 1: to remember that when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in
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  Speaker 1: the late seventies, it took a decade for far fewer
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  Speaker 1: casualties to force the regime to change and to withdraw
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  Speaker 1: from Afghanistan and to give up to Do you think
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  Speaker 1: everything happens faster? Thesis applies to Russia now as opposed
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  Speaker 1: to back then, that maybe they've reached their limit in
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  Speaker 1: half as much time.
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  Speaker 3: I think so.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, first of all, the casualties are over a million, right,
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  Speaker 2: and the economy, despite the surge and oil prices because
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  Speaker 2: of US sanctions and other things, the economy is in
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  Speaker 2: dreadful shape. And the mood, you know, four and a
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  Speaker 2: half years of this war is ground apparently, ground people down.
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  Speaker 2: Support for the regime is you know, falling something precipitously,
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  Speaker 2: and you know, can it fall faster?
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  Speaker 3: Yes? Absolutely?
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  Speaker 1: Now. Yesterday, I want to switch a topic too, Ai.
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  Speaker 1: Yesterday it was downtown at the DC Convention Center, Eric
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  Speaker 1: Schmidt's annual Big Expo on AI was held, and I
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  Speaker 1: let a conversation between former Speaker McCarthy former Chairman of
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  Speaker 1: the Banking Committee McHenry, and I began by pointing to
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  Speaker 1: one of the stories you called out of the New
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  Speaker 1: York Times called out and Thropic experienced extraordinary growth. They
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  Speaker 1: went from ten x growth to eighty x growth in
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  Speaker 1: the first quarter, and their revenue run rate went from
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  Speaker 1: nine billion last year to an expected thirty billion this year.
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  Speaker 1: Expansional growth is great when it comes to like railroads
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  Speaker 1: in the eighteen fifty, not so great when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to the Luftwaffe in the thirties. What is this, Well, you.
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  Speaker 2: Know, it's a remarkable obviously, it's probably the most important
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  Speaker 2: technological development, certainly in the last century.
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  Speaker 3: And you know they're building on the.
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  Speaker 2: Success of the prior model seemingly every three months. And
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  Speaker 2: as the as a AI gets more sophisticated, more capable,
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  Speaker 2: it becomes more problematic because it can be used for
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  Speaker 2: many good things, and it can be used for many
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  Speaker 2: bad things, and there's tremendous concern that the many.
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  Speaker 3: Bad things may become reality.
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  Speaker 1: Do you expect anything out of the China US g
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  Speaker 1: Trump summit that is actually concrete when it comes to AI.
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  Speaker 2: I certainly hope, so I'm not sure. I think for
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  Speaker 2: President Trump it's actually it offers the opportunity to begin
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  Speaker 2: what would be a major achievement. If the US and
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  Speaker 2: the Chinese can reach an agreement on let's call it
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  Speaker 2: governance of Ai, that would be an enormous help to
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  Speaker 2: the world. Since the US and China are the two
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  Speaker 2: leaders in AI. You know, the cat is sort of
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  Speaker 2: out of the bag on AI, so it's a very
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  Speaker 2: difficult thing to get it back in the bag. But
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  Speaker 2: if any two nations can do it, the Chinese and
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  Speaker 2: the US are the only two. And I think that
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  Speaker 2: the Chinese understand the AI threat every bit as much
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  Speaker 2: as we do, and so I think there's there's possibility
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  Speaker 2: there for something constructive.
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  Speaker 3: To come out of it.
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  Speaker 2: And for President Trump, it would be the single most
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  Speaker 2: important thing he did during either of his two terms.
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  Speaker 2: It would be an enormous benefit to all of us.
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  Speaker 2: So I think it's an opportunity, whether.
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  Speaker 3: They sees it. I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: News items covers AI better than anyone else, so that
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  Speaker 1: get most of AI information from news items, But I
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  Speaker 1: haven't seen a structure that makes sense because there's always
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  Speaker 1: going to be someone who's going to sneak out the
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  Speaker 1: latest chip and the latest meet those mit thos iteration
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  Speaker 1: of clot There's always going to be a leak, right,
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  Speaker 1: That's that's part of the problem with AI. It is
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  Speaker 1: it's virus like. It's sort of the worst nightmare movie.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: No, you need enormous surveillance capabilities, if you will, And
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  Speaker 2: eventually I think you have to have a sort of
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  Speaker 2: central switching station for all compute so that anything that
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  Speaker 2: you do in AI goes through one toll booth, if
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  Speaker 2: you will. But the only two nations that can you know,
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  Speaker 2: do this to try and put a cap on what
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  Speaker 2: is a very very dangerous technology in China and Russia,
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  Speaker 2: and you know, and I think g understands that, I
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  Speaker 2: think Trump understands that. And it's a good thing if
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  Speaker 2: those if the two countries can come together and try
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  Speaker 2: to you know, build the toll booth and and get
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  Speaker 2: the cat back in the bag. If we don't get
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  Speaker 2: the cat back in the bag, then a bag bad
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  Speaker 2: actor with access to these enormously powerful technologies can you know,
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  Speaker 2: wreak havoc on the world.
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  Speaker 1: So the time there you said China Russia. I think
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  Speaker 1: he meant China US.
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  Speaker 3: China US. Excuse me, sorry.
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  Speaker 1: Now, the Gary Mannering Wars is also on your list,
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  Speaker 1: and it came in before the Virginia Supreme Court handed
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  Speaker 1: down their four to three decisions striking down as unconstitutional,
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  Speaker 1: and it really was. I mean, they ran through all
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  Speaker 1: their self erected barriers to Gary Mannering in order to
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  Speaker 1: put the ten to one map in place. But that
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  Speaker 1: doesn't stop Tennessee, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio has already done it,
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  Speaker 1: California has already done it, Texas already done at Utah
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  Speaker 1: has already done it. When it's all said and done,
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  Speaker 1: I just think it's it's a battle that will never end. John,
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  Speaker 1: What do you think?
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  Speaker 3: I agree?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I think the Gerrymander Wars are almost anesthetical
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  Speaker 2: to you know, our political system. You know, you're we're
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  Speaker 2: looking at a situation where in twenty twenty eight or whatever,
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  Speaker 2: twenty thirty, the state of California thoroughly blue control of
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  Speaker 2: both houses of the legislature and they'll have the governorship.
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  Speaker 2: Can create a situation where every single district is a
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  Speaker 2: Democratic district and the largest collection of Republican voters in
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  Speaker 2: the country is in California, so you're essentially they would
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  Speaker 2: be essentially disenfranchising, you know, millions and millions and millions
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  Speaker 2: of Republican voters. If we take this all the way
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  Speaker 2: to its logical conclusion, we'll have no competitive seats number
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  Speaker 2: one and number two. We will polarize the country even
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  Speaker 2: more than it is now. So I think the gerryman
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  Speaker 2: or wars are really really scary and unhelpful.
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  Speaker 1: And Anthony Kennedy spent a lot of his time on
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  Speaker 1: the bench trying to come up with an alternative to
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  Speaker 1: what we've got, and he couldn't. And the Court just
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  Speaker 1: finally said, the states have got to decide what to do.
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  Speaker 1: I think they're going to decide to go with their
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  Speaker 1: partisan majority. We shall see, let's finish on it up.
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  Speaker 1: Note we got a minute. Coffee is still good for us.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: This is the good news. Coffee is still good for us.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So, of course, the anti coffee lobby, one of
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: the most evil groups of people in the world, have
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: been spreading misinformation and lies about coffee. But science will
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: out and it turns out that coffee is in fact
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: good for you and particularly for gut health. So we
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: hear News Items urge everybody to have an extra cup of.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Coffee at least three cups a morning. John allis always
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: good to see you. Follow him on exit Elis Items.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Subscribe to news Items if you want to be up
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: to date on everything by just googling news items and
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: John Ellis and we'll take you there. Well worth the money.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: It is well worth the price of twenty subscriptions because
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: it condenses everything into one. John, thank you, have a
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: great weekend. I'll go anywhere America. Our friend Eli Lake
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: is next on the you Heal It Check Welcome Back
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  Speaker 1: in America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Each week at this time,
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  Speaker 1: Eli Lake of the Free Press, the host of Breaking
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: History podcast, joins me from his attic, But he can't
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: get to his attic because he's stuck in traffic, So
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: I'm going to talk to him anyway. Because the new
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Breaking History is so interesting about artists who hold evil
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: views but their art is good. And that would include
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Voltaire and Plato and the children's book Off Their Doll
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: we'll talk about that in a second, and Founding fathers
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: enslave people. You can't get worse than that, Jefferson. We'll
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  Speaker 1: talk about that in a moment. But Eli, you're stuck
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: in traffic, you're up to speed on the news. What
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  Speaker 1: do you think is going on with Iran in the
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  Speaker 1: fourteenth point deal? The President told me on Monday, right
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  Speaker 1: on the show there were four red lines. Then we
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  Speaker 1: sent them fourteen points. I don't understand.
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  Speaker 4: By the way, that was a superb interview, and I
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  Speaker 4: used it was very helpful to me in terms of
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  Speaker 4: getting a sense of where the president was. And because
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  Speaker 4: of that interview with you, I want to credit you.
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  Speaker 4: I did not freak out later in the week when
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  Speaker 4: you were concerned about making a bad deal.
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  Speaker 1: I did. I don't want to go backwards.
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  Speaker 4: I liked where he was, yeah, exactly, and I thought,
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  Speaker 4: even though he didn't exactly commit, I felt like he
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  Speaker 4: was in this place where he was holding really firm
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  Speaker 4: on the basics of the nuclear side of it, which
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  Speaker 4: was important. I understand what his point was, that you
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  Speaker 4: can't just say they can't have any missiles, but he
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  Speaker 4: seemed to, I think, indicate that he was not going
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  Speaker 4: to take a bad deal. And I was less alarmed
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  Speaker 4: than you and John Padaritz, although I was listening to
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  Speaker 4: that conversation later. I've got more alarmed, if you know
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  Speaker 4: what I mean, I.
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  Speaker 1: Do, and Mark Tison got more alarmed all the Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: Iran Hawks got more alarmed because we don't believe in
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  Speaker 1: negotiating with these people. They don't negotiate in good faith.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, So let me zoom out because my take on
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  Speaker 4: this is that I don't think I think that the
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  Speaker 4: president's for good reason, doesn't want to commit ground troops,
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  Speaker 4: doesn't want to get caught in a quagmire, doesn't want
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  Speaker 4: to repeat the mistakes of Iraq, doesn't want a nation build,
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  Speaker 4: doesn't want to keep the peace after the regime falls.
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  Speaker 4: But I think he also has to understand that the
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  Speaker 4: only way out of this is for the regime to topple.
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  Speaker 4: That doesn't necessarily that doesn't mean that he has to
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  Speaker 4: then commit the ground troops and do all the things
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  Speaker 4: he doesn't want to do. But I think it's very
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  Speaker 4: important at this point to say there's a difference between
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  Speaker 4: saying that we support the Iranian people and we should
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  Speaker 4: support people who are representing the Iranian people in some
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  Speaker 4: ways like res apology, and then saying that we're going
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  Speaker 4: to do another Iraq. And I think that the problem
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  Speaker 4: that we're in right now is that as long as
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  Speaker 4: he is going to say that we're going to get
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  Speaker 4: some sort of deal with the remnants of the regime,
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  Speaker 4: or that he's going to try to find the right
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  Speaker 4: person to negotiate with and then back that person in
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  Speaker 4: the regime, that's gonna that's I think a fool's Errand
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  Speaker 4: at this point, they understand that they think they have
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  Speaker 4: this leverage, they think they won, or the HIGHERGC guys
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  Speaker 4: think they won, and it's very important to make it
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  Speaker 4: clear that they have not won, and that I would
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  Speaker 4: I want to credit the US military at this point.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, everybody's looking at this as like, well, why
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  Speaker 4: aren't you calling it a war? Hey, they repelled a
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  Speaker 4: significant threat to our destroyers, and they have I think
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  Speaker 4: established a route through the straight of woe moves. Now
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  Speaker 4: it's time to act on that, using our military power
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  Speaker 4: to begin the escort missions, And if the Iranians want
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  Speaker 4: to make war on us, then we have all the
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  Speaker 4: capabilities to make war on them, and they're going to
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  Speaker 4: be really sorry. And I think that that's the focus
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  Speaker 4: right now. Everything else is I think you wait for
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  Speaker 4: a deal with it. If the regime emerges and they're
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  Speaker 4: moderate and they want to make a real deal. Great,
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  Speaker 4: but I think that we're acting too much like we
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  Speaker 4: want at this point. We're falling into the Obama trap,
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  Speaker 4: and I'm concerned about that.
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  Speaker 1: I am too. Now. They did keep up. I learned
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  Speaker 1: the detail today, continuous fire three of our destroyers as
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  Speaker 1: they made their way through the strait. They didn't hit it,
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  Speaker 1: but we sunk all their fast boats and we blew up.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe we the President may have told a little bit
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  Speaker 1: too much about the defensive weaponry on the destroyers. I'll
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  Speaker 1: leave that alone, but we add the complete success going through.
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  Speaker 1: I wonder we've got an arsenal of moabs and we've
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  Speaker 1: got the one right below that, the deep penetrator. Isn't
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  Speaker 1: it about time to tell the Iranian citizenry to move
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  Speaker 1: away from the coast the one hundred miles that are
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  Speaker 1: the Strait of Horror moves and then just lay havoc
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: to the coastline, like level it out so you can
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: you can put a level using building on it and it
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: won't move. Isn't it time to a demonstration of force
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: at this point for the benefit of everyone.
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: I think the demonstration of force will be good. I
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: would add to that if we don't want to use
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: American ground troops for all kinds of good, smart, prudent reasons.
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: I think, you know, this is an opportunity for not
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: an Arab Emirates maybe to foot the bill for some mercenaries,
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: because what we really need to do is hold that
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: territory around the coast enough to persuade the insurance companies
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: and persuade the shipping companies that you can that we
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: will prevent the Iranians from doing harm. The other thing
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: I think to keep in mind is that they did
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: a little bit of laying of minds in the Strait
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: of Her Moves, but they didn't do as much as
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: they could have done. And I think that they understood
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: that if they did that, China would cut them loose,
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: they would become the enemy of the world. So I
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: think it's also time to maybe call their bluff on that,
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: because there's a huge difference, as we both know, between
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: dropping one thousand minds or five hundred minds in the
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: Strait of Her Moves, which would shut it down for
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: five months or more, versus the threat of these drone attacks,
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: cruise missiles and fast boats.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Now, I had not thought about mercenaries Eli, there's a
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: great novel by Stephen Preshfield about the future of war
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: being fought by mercenaries. I recommend that I want to
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: go to the Breaking History podcast, though, because, as you
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: pointed out, if we didn't allow ourselves to be influenced
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: the art or the thought of people who had moral imperfections,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: a no one would get that make any art or anything,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: because we all have moral imperfection. The Plano, Gogan, the
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Founder's Voltaire, and then Doll. I mean, I've read the
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: Doll Books to my kids and my grandkids. I had
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: no idea it was an anti semi.
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: The Raal Doll books are the treasure. I think he's
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: one of the great children's authors of the twentieth century.
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: And I could not imagine, you know, raising my young
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: daughter without you know, Roaldal. She's a little young for
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: it now, but I can't wait to read her. James
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: and the Giant Teach and Willie Walk on the Chocolate Factory,
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: And I just think that it's important that when the
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: time comes and it shows up, you just sort of say, listen,
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: this is somebody who had horrendous views of Jews and Israel,
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: and it's a problem I mean there were other authors,
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: by the way, that I didn't mention on that podcast.
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: If you look at the politics of two of my
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: favorite spy novelists, John Lecare and Graham Green, you would
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: be repulsed. During the Cold War, they were pretty much
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: false support of the Soviets. You know, in my opinion,
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: that's an absolute moral stain. But should we not read
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: should we not? Should we not read Laca and Graham?
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: You know, I mean if we do not read The
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: Quiet American, The Quiet American is an is a fascinating
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: and important book. We have to read that book.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: So I didn't know Laca was a lefty. He just
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: crushed me. I've read every page of every locare, but
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: probably twice.
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah, what's your favorite.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Easily Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy.
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: That's I was.
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: That's that's mine too. I was guys gonna say, that's
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: the great, that's the that's it.
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: That's like at his best.
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I had little drummer girls great too. I mean,
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: there's there's a I mean, he was at my sixth
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: he left, he left the service, but you know, yeah, that's.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: Why I'm amazing, am I Well, I guess we did
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: have Kim Philby. But he wasn't a spy, was he.
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: No, No, he wasn't a spy. But he was show
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: up at the Soviet backed literary festivals, and he was
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: you know, a major. You know, he was crazy. He
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: was crazy about He would say lunatic things about Reagan.
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: He would, as I said, soft supporter and Graham Green,
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: if I'm not mistaking, I have to check this. But
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: Graham Green wrote the forward to Kim Philby's memoir.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Oh oh my gosh. Well, I'll tell you what. It's
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: a fabulous episode of Breaking History. The Free Press is
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: lead podcast, Eli Lake. Always good to talk to you
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: next week. Lead more time for the drive because we
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: like to see you as well up in your attic
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: h and Eli Lake call him on exit. Eli Lake.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: Listen to Breaking History wherever podcasts are available. Subscribe to
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: the Free Press, and come right back to Matthew Cottenetty
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: his next week norcom Back in America. I'm Hugh Hewittt,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: joined now by Matt cotton Netty, columnist for the Wall
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Street Journal and The Free Expressions, vertical head of Domestic
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Policy Study, an American Enterprises too, and all around good guy.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Matt you're a dad and a husband. I have to
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: ask you the question that presses on many of us
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: this weekend. Do dads of moms or husbands of moms
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: have any obligations on Mother's Day? Do we have obligations?
• 23:19
  Speaker 6: We have a list, we have a catalog of things
• 23:22
  Speaker 6: to do. But I have noticed something that as my
• 23:24
  Speaker 6: kids grow older and they're in they're tween years now,
• 23:29
  Speaker 6: the burden on me on Mother's Day has lessened.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: I think.
• 23:33
  Speaker 6: I think dads of newborns and toddlers up to about
• 23:38
  Speaker 6: six seven years old, that day Mother's Day, you are
• 23:41
  Speaker 6: on the job. You're on call because you need to
• 23:43
  Speaker 6: give some relief to your wife. But as they get older,
• 23:47
  Speaker 6: you can, you know, you just have to range for
• 23:49
  Speaker 6: a nice meal, you know, kind of get the kid,
• 23:52
  Speaker 6: encourage the kids to do the breakfast in bed.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: So oh my, we have a list. Yeah, Mother's it's
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: always on stee myself for it. It's not my mom
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: My Mom's gone, so it's up to them to do everything.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: And as a result, the fetching missus hut calls it
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: mother's minute, not Mother's Day. All right, to the serious stuff.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: What is going on with Iran on Monday, the President
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: told me four red lines, and they were pretty pretty
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: bright red lines. They're not going to have nukes, we
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: get all the enriched uranium missile programs got to be
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: subject to inspections. And they're not going to have enough
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: money to fund the proxies, which means they're not going
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: to fund the proxies I think. And then we went
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: from four bread lines to fourteen points. What is that?
• 24:39
  Speaker 6: Well, it's a callback to Wilson, which is never a
• 24:42
  Speaker 6: good sign if you're conducting international diplomacy. But I am
• 24:47
  Speaker 6: having trouble myself figuring out what's going on, Hugh. The
• 24:50
  Speaker 6: way I describe it right now is we're in a
• 24:52
  Speaker 6: shooting seasfire. We're in a ceasefire that's been going on
• 24:55
  Speaker 6: for over a month, and yet the Ranians haven't abided
• 24:59
  Speaker 6: by at all. They've attacked commercial vessels trying to get
• 25:04
  Speaker 6: through the Strait of Hormus. They've attacked American ships, they've
• 25:08
  Speaker 6: attacked the UAE, and we have responded. In recent days,
• 25:13
  Speaker 6: we've attacked Iran, we have continued to uphold our blockade.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: So what is this all about?
• 25:19
  Speaker 6: What I think my current guess is, Hugh, is this
• 25:22
  Speaker 6: has a lot to do with President Trump's trip to
• 25:25
  Speaker 6: China next week. I think what President Trump wants these
• 25:28
  Speaker 6: negotiations to continue through his visit with Hi Jinping in China,
• 25:33
  Speaker 6: so it's not to cause any diplomatic interruptions or confusion
• 25:41
  Speaker 6: while he's engaged in these talks with Hi Jinping over
• 25:46
  Speaker 6: the economy, over military issues, security issues. So that's where
• 25:51
  Speaker 6: I think we are. I think we have a we
• 25:53
  Speaker 6: have a time. We have to get through this trip
• 25:54
  Speaker 6: to China with this low level of violence, but then
• 25:58
  Speaker 6: we might actually see what needs to happen, which is
• 26:02
  Speaker 6: a return to military operations, a restoration of operation freedom,
• 26:06
  Speaker 6: to allow safe passage to the Strait, and to finally
• 26:09
  Speaker 6: conclude this war on America's terms.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: That is actually a very good theory that would account
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: A good theory has to account for all of the facts,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: and a low level of reciprocity of violence does not
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: preclude Iran becoming the top item on the agenda when
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: they want to talk I think about AI. So John
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Ellison and I were talking about the beginning of the show,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: what do you think is on the agenda? I keep
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: trying to push Jimmy Lai onto the agenda But what
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: do you think is on the agenda with g Well.
• 26:42
  Speaker 6: I think there's several things. I do think Ai will
• 26:44
  Speaker 6: be a part of the discussions. I think that Jimmy
• 26:48
  Speaker 6: Lai and some of the other political prisoners, especially these
• 26:51
  Speaker 6: Christian pastors like Pastor Jin who have been imprisoned by
• 26:56
  Speaker 6: the Chinese authorities, they should be on the table. I
• 27:00
  Speaker 6: think there's a shot that Jimmy Lai is released, though,
• 27:04
  Speaker 6: as President Trump I think has said, Shijinping is very
• 27:09
  Speaker 6: sensitive about Jimmy Lai, in particular because of his opposition
• 27:13
  Speaker 6: to the CCP's takeover of Hong Kong. I hope actually
• 27:18
  Speaker 6: nukes are on the table. I think we need to
• 27:22
  Speaker 6: have some type of dialogue on strategic arms with China.
• 27:26
  Speaker 6: I think that's one reason why we can't continue down
• 27:30
  Speaker 6: the Cold War pattern of just simply engaging in arms
• 27:34
  Speaker 6: control with the Russians. In the new world, where China
• 27:38
  Speaker 6: is a rising nuclear power, they have to be included
• 27:40
  Speaker 6: as well. But then I know that President Trump is
• 27:43
  Speaker 6: going to emphasize the economy, and I think he wants
• 27:46
  Speaker 6: that big trade deal that he's been seeking with China
• 27:49
  Speaker 6: throughout his two terms. And here I think we have
• 27:52
  Speaker 6: to be a little bit wary right now. I think
• 27:54
  Speaker 6: America has a lot of economic leverage over China at
• 27:57
  Speaker 6: the moment. You consider the effect of the tariffs on China.
• 28:00
  Speaker 6: You look at how our economy is doing. We just
• 28:03
  Speaker 6: had a fantastic job report. Great today, we have growth,
• 28:09
  Speaker 6: while we're also reducing immigration, which is incredible. We can't
• 28:15
  Speaker 6: give up that economic leverage in China just for purchases
• 28:20
  Speaker 6: of soybeans. The Chinese will never make I.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Will be right back with Matt Continetti during the break.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: It will be on the Big Weekend Pod. We're going
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: to talk about the Virginia re districting decision and Gary
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: mandering generally during the break, and when we come back
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: on the other side, bigger issues, the vote and the president.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: We don't go anywhere on it. Back now with Matt Continetti.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: He liked me a Virginian, he liked me. I'm sure
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: pretty happy with the decision of the Virginia Supreme Court
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: to strike down the ten to one Gary mannerd map,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: which was the right decision because the state constitution put
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: up all sorts of guard rails a few years ago
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: to this happening. But boy, is the left up set
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: Matt because they've been they've been countered in seeing rais
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: and like watching this thing. Paul Newman has all the
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: four ages.
• 29:07
  Speaker 6: Yeah, it's something to behold. You know, this redistricting war
• 29:10
  Speaker 6: that's been going on since last year has been a
• 29:14
  Speaker 6: roller coaster, and Democrats are really counting on the Supreme
• 29:18
  Speaker 6: Court of Virginia to uphold this new map that was
• 29:22
  Speaker 6: approved by referendum and would give the Democrats a sizable
• 29:27
  Speaker 6: advantage in the Virginia Congressional delegation, going from six to
• 29:30
  Speaker 6: five Democrat to ten to one if this new map
• 29:33
  Speaker 6: were allowed to take place. But I think the Virginia
• 29:37
  Speaker 6: Supreme Court, in a close decision for to three decision.
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: Made the right call.
• 29:41
  Speaker 6: Here for you, it's actually kind of shocking to me
• 29:43
  Speaker 6: when you look at the specifics.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: Yep, just how.
• 29:49
  Speaker 6: In how many ways this referendum had map violated the
• 29:53
  Speaker 6: Virginia Constitution. They needed to have an election in between
• 29:58
  Speaker 6: that didn't happen. They needed to have compact maps. It's
• 30:01
  Speaker 6: in the language, of course, those districts are not compacted.
• 30:04
  Speaker 6: And if there's any benefit, one of the great benefits
• 30:08
  Speaker 6: of this decision is that that awful gerrymannered Lobster District
• 30:12
  Speaker 6: Virginia seven, which like stretches its claws into central Virginia
• 30:16
  Speaker 6: from the north. It's base in Fairfax County. That's ended.
• 30:20
  Speaker 6: So I think the Virginia Supreme Court made the right
• 30:23
  Speaker 6: call here when they said, look, our commitment is to
• 30:26
  Speaker 6: the rule of law, and the rule of law was
• 30:28
  Speaker 6: violated on a procedural basis here, and that's what all sides,
• 30:34
  Speaker 6: you know, if it had gone the other way. Every
• 30:37
  Speaker 6: side needs to uphold the rule of law because that's
• 30:39
  Speaker 6: what makes America a successful Democratic republic and one that's
• 30:45
  Speaker 6: got to celebrate its two hundred and fiftieth birthday in
• 30:48
  Speaker 6: a couple months.
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: Now.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: I can hold two thoughts. What California did grieves me
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: because it's bad for the state, But it was perfectly constitutional,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: and they've screwed the Republicans thoroughly. Texas did is fine.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: What Louisiana has to do has been ordered by the
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: United States Supreme Court. Tennessee's playing hardball. It appears to
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: me that at least one other state, maybe Missouri, is
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: going to play hardball. Georgia's going to take a pass.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Indiana took a pass. When it's all done, the smoke
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: will clear by twenty thirty two. What's the map going
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: to look like, Matt, You've got a crystal ball.
• 31:23
  Speaker 6: Well, the twenty thirty two map will look different in
• 31:25
  Speaker 6: the twenty twenty six map. I'll start with twenty twenty six.
• 31:27
  Speaker 6: At the end of the day, it looks like Republicans
• 31:30
  Speaker 6: will have netted about four, maybe five seats from the
• 31:34
  Speaker 6: different redistrict things, and that does give them some cushion
• 31:37
  Speaker 6: as we head into this competitive House election where the
• 31:42
  Speaker 6: Democrats need only to net four seats to win the
• 31:44
  Speaker 6: majority in the House of Representatives. So the Republicans, I think,
• 31:49
  Speaker 6: after this decision by the Virginia Supreme Court, they have
• 31:51
  Speaker 6: won the redistricting war in twenty six. By the time
• 31:54
  Speaker 6: you get to twenty thirty two, other things happened, Hugh.
• 31:57
  Speaker 6: One is the twenty thirty census. One of the biggest
• 32:01
  Speaker 6: stories in American politics over the last decade. There's the
• 32:04
  Speaker 6: number of Americans, millions of Americans fleeing Blue states. States
• 32:08
  Speaker 6: run on the blue state model, high tax, high spend,
• 32:11
  Speaker 6: high regulation, terrible public schools, lots of public disorder.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: Americans coming to hold it right there, Matt, we got
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: to come back on the network Quarterback American. I'm at continent.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: He is still with me from AEI. He is also
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: a comment for the Wall Street Journal. And we're talking
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: about the great sort when we left off our break
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: between the live segments on the Sale News Channel. And
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: the great sort is the fact that many Americans are
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: moving in response to state policy. And I think that's
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: going to continue, Matt, and I think it's going to continue,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: so that the twenty thirty census makes the Republican advantage
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: in the electoral College and the Congress not just minor,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: but actually significant. You agree with that assessment.
• 32:56
  Speaker 6: That's exactly right, Hugh, And the smarter Democratics, just like
• 33:00
  Speaker 6: David Pluffs, the former Obama advisor who also helped Kamala Harris,
• 33:04
  Speaker 6: they know it too. And this huge transfer of population
• 33:08
  Speaker 6: and wealth, by the way, from blue states to the
• 33:11
  Speaker 6: red states is really going to, I think, affect our
• 33:15
  Speaker 6: politics in the twenty thirty two presidential election and beyond. So, yeah,
• 33:21
  Speaker 6: Republicans came off pretty well at the end of the day.
• 33:24
  Speaker 6: It was a high risk, high reward enterprise here redistricting.
• 33:29
  Speaker 6: But when you get to the twenty thirty census, I
• 33:32
  Speaker 6: think Republicans are going to reap even greater advantages. And
• 33:35
  Speaker 6: by the way, you know, it was so interesting to
• 33:38
  Speaker 6: me during the California Democratic gubernatorial debate this week where
• 33:43
  Speaker 6: you have Katie Porter saying, yeah, she knows that California
• 33:47
  Speaker 6: is losing population, and her proposed solution is to offer
• 33:50
  Speaker 6: illegal immigrants free healthcare because the legal immigrants the only
• 33:54
  Speaker 6: way they're gathering, they're gathering grading population. I mean, how
• 33:57
  Speaker 6: crazy can you be. And by the way, that reinforces
• 34:01
  Speaker 6: the fact that we need some reforms here that illegal
• 34:05
  Speaker 6: immigrants are not counted in the census for congressional apportionment,
• 34:10
  Speaker 6: right because what what the what you're doing is Roden Burroughs, Yeah,
• 34:14
  Speaker 6: I think that's a constitution.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Uh. You know, Dwayne has chosen to Jane Duyne has
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: chosen to remain in California, and it's his own dog
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: on fault if that's the case, because I left, and
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: if Virginia raises Texas do I I'll find another place
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: to live. Because if your mobile, if you're if your
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: business is mobile, if it's a microphone and a camera
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: and some lights, you can go wherever you want. You're
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: stuck here, AEI is downtown. You don't get to go anywhere.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: But I'm telling you that the people are rational economic actors.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: They're going to vote with their feet and they are.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Now let me turn to the Pope and the President.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Secretary of State Rubio had to do diplomacy with his
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: holiness this week, largely because of the President's ongoing battle,
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: which I may have exacerbated accidentally on Monday. I thought
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: it was a throwaway question. It turned into the Pope
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: wants Iran to have nuclear weapons, which was really kind
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: of a rage. I put it off as being from
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Chicago and a boomer president doesn't really understand it. Boomer Pope,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: what do you make of this? Is it significant that
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: the president and the Pope are tangling?
• 35:18
  Speaker 6: I think it's always significant when you have the president
• 35:22
  Speaker 6: and take issue with the Pope. Of course, you know,
• 35:25
  Speaker 6: the Catholic Church's stances on issues a kind of defy partisanships.
• 35:29
  Speaker 6: So there's been plenty of Democratic presidents who take issue
• 35:33
  Speaker 6: with Catholic teaching on gender and sexuality, for example, or
• 35:37
  Speaker 6: the life issue. President Trump and that the Pope are
• 35:40
  Speaker 6: fighting over immigration and they're fighting over whether the Iran
• 35:43
  Speaker 6: war is.
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: A just war.
• 35:45
  Speaker 6: What I think is this points to Hugh is the
• 35:48
  Speaker 6: growing importance of the Catholic vote in the United States.
• 35:51
  Speaker 6: Trump did very well with Catholics in twenty twenty four,
• 35:55
  Speaker 6: and I think Marco Rubio's mission to the Vatican to
• 35:58
  Speaker 6: see Pope Leo is a sign that Republicans don't want
• 36:02
  Speaker 6: to lose the Catholic vote ahead of these crucial midterm elections. Now,
• 36:06
  Speaker 6: many conservative Catholics have their own criticisms of what Pope
• 36:09
  Speaker 6: Leo has been saying in terms of foreign policy or
• 36:12
  Speaker 6: in terms of our border, but nonetheless I think this
• 36:15
  Speaker 6: is an acknowledgment that a fight with the Pope could
• 36:19
  Speaker 6: alienate Catholic voters who are going to be very critical
• 36:22
  Speaker 6: in the midterms.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't know if you've got a scholar
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: at AEI who focuses on the Catholic population in America.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: There are three groups. There are boomer Catholics like the
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: Pope and me, who are used to guitars at mass,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: terrible music, left wing people coming back from South America
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: and having liberation theology. There's the lost generation that stopped going.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: And then there are younger Catholics who are actually much
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: more traditional, not rad trads. But much more traditional. So
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: it's not really one Catholic demographic anymore. Does anyone at
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: AEI study that.
• 36:57
  Speaker 6: Well, you know, AI used to be the home of
• 36:58
  Speaker 6: the great Michael Novak, one of the true brilliant Catholic
• 37:02
  Speaker 6: intellectuals of our time, but we don't really have someone
• 37:06
  Speaker 6: who's so focused on the Catholic community at the moment.
• 37:09
  Speaker 6: But I think your description is absolutely right. And you know,
• 37:13
  Speaker 6: like all religious communities, there are different levels of observance
• 37:16
  Speaker 6: and commitment, and the higher your level of observance and commitment,
• 37:20
  Speaker 6: the more likely you're going to be a conservative and
• 37:22
  Speaker 6: vote for conservative candidates at the polls. So that I
• 37:25
  Speaker 6: think has helped the Republicans in the past. But a
• 37:29
  Speaker 6: high level fight between the Pope and the president may
• 37:33
  Speaker 6: get some of those kind of you know, low propensity
• 37:36
  Speaker 6: voters or people the boomer Catholics you mentioned certainly lost
• 37:40
  Speaker 6: generation that might alienate them from supporting Republicans.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: All right, let me go back and finish where we
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: begin on the Iran war and November. I don't think
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: it's a forever war. No one's defined a forever war.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: I think a forever war is not six months. If
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: it takes six months to bring Iran to heal. That's
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: a world class achievement by President Trump. I would fight
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: it out in the election. I would argue for it
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: in the election. But what is it forever war? And
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: how important is the battle with Iran to the November
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: election as compared to the job numbers today which were fabulous, right?
• 38:13
  Speaker 6: Well, Look, we were in Afghanistan for twenty years, you know,
• 38:17
  Speaker 6: we were in Iraq of the first major deployment. That
• 38:21
  Speaker 6: conflict lasted about eight years, and then of course we
• 38:25
  Speaker 6: went back in in smaller numbers after the rise of
• 38:27
  Speaker 6: ISIS in twenty fourteen. So if you talk forever war,
• 38:31
  Speaker 6: I think you mean two things. You mean a generation, right,
• 38:35
  Speaker 6: and you mean nation building, which was part of both
• 38:39
  Speaker 6: those efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Neither condition applies to
• 38:44
  Speaker 6: Operation Epic Fury and to our intervention in Iran or
• 38:47
  Speaker 6: our shooting ceasefire that we have right now. There is
• 38:50
  Speaker 6: no nation building involved. Donald Trump doesn't do nation building.
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: We know that.
• 38:54
  Speaker 6: And we're about two months in here, that's not twenty years.
• 38:59
  Speaker 6: And I think there will be a resolution the CIA,
• 39:02
  Speaker 6: which seems to me to be pretty much against Operation
• 39:05
  Speaker 6: Epic Fury.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: Oh, and that have leaked to.
• 39:07
  Speaker 6: Study that's leaked to study that says that the Iranian
• 39:10
  Speaker 6: economy can survive for another three months with the blockade. Now, look,
• 39:14
  Speaker 6: three months is a long time, but three months to
• 39:18
  Speaker 6: end the Iranian regime. I mean that's a pretty good
• 39:21
  Speaker 6: trade off in my view, when you consider the war
• 39:24
  Speaker 6: that the Iranian terrorist regime has been conducting on the
• 39:26
  Speaker 6: United States and our allies for fifty years.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: The CIA has been wrong about it.
• 39:34
  Speaker 6: The CIA predictions, yes are usually are usually dead wrong,
• 39:37
  Speaker 6: So the end might come sooner. The most important point
• 39:40
  Speaker 6: here is that we do not give up the blockade.
• 39:42
  Speaker 6: That is our major leverage. And I think it's important
• 39:45
  Speaker 6: too that we resume Operation Freedom to open up that
• 39:48
  Speaker 6: straight as soon as possible. Those two things happen, and
• 39:52
  Speaker 6: we're in very good position in Iran, and I think
• 39:54
  Speaker 6: Republicans are helped in the term.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: I agree Matt Continetty. Always good to talk with you.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: Follow Matt on exit CONTINENTI read them in the Wall
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: Street Journal, Free Expression vertical and stay right there. I'll
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: be right back on the cucuage. Thank you for listening
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: to highly concentrated Hugh, and don't forget one of our
• 40:11
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  Speaker 1: everybody gets their second month free. When you use my name, Hugh,
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: I means it's time to talk with Ben Dominance. Ben
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: is the opinions editor at The Daily Wire. He is
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: also the host of the Big Ben podcast and a
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: contributor to Fox News. And I hope someday soon I
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: was thinking about this, Ben, I hope you're allowed to
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: guest host. You're not too far from my studio. I
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: don't know if you're free ever from three to six,
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: but it's really not very mechanical, and you don't have.
• 41:41
  Speaker 5: To be a probably make that happen.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: That will be fun. That would be a lot of fun. Now,
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: I want to compliment you on the interview with Kevin McCarthy.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: It's not on my list of topics, but I used it. Yesterday.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: I interviewed the former Speaker and former Chair of the
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: Banking Committee, Patrick M. McHenry yesterday at the Big AI
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: Expo downtown, and I began just by quoting your very
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: lengthy interview with him. That was a fine interview. How
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: hard is it to get people to shit down and
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: let you do that?
• 42:10
  Speaker 5: Well, you know, I thought to myself, you know, who's
• 42:14
  Speaker 5: the right person to sort of have some perspective on this?
• 42:17
  Speaker 5: It needs to be somebody who's won the majority before,
• 42:19
  Speaker 5: and people will listen to and it's like, oh, Kevin,
• 42:21
  Speaker 5: Kevin will probably be honest. And he was, I think,
• 42:24
  Speaker 5: very honest about what he thinks Republicans need to do
• 42:27
  Speaker 5: and what they should have done differently to this point.
• 42:30
  Speaker 5: And you know, I mean, you can have whatever opinion
• 42:33
  Speaker 5: you want of Kevin, but he's somebody who has a
• 42:35
  Speaker 5: long history in Republican politics. You know, engineered that narrow
• 42:40
  Speaker 5: majority that is still the narrow majority today and got
• 42:43
  Speaker 5: iced only because of the idiocy of Matt Gates and
• 42:46
  Speaker 5: a few people who went along with him. But I
• 42:49
  Speaker 5: think that his perspective on this, which is that you've
• 42:51
  Speaker 5: got you have to earn the voter's respect when it
• 42:55
  Speaker 5: comes to trusting you to get your job back, and
• 42:58
  Speaker 5: you've only got twenty four months to do it. And
• 43:00
  Speaker 5: so the idea that you're going to take time off
• 43:02
  Speaker 5: or that you're not going to be passing eighty twenty
• 43:05
  Speaker 5: bills on every opportunity to put the Democrats in a
• 43:07
  Speaker 5: tough position, you know, on crime, on energy, on all
• 43:10
  Speaker 5: these other things. You know, that's I think that's a
• 43:13
  Speaker 5: very valid point, and I think coming from him as
• 43:15
  Speaker 5: opposed to just some consultant. I hope that it's something
• 43:18
  Speaker 5: that folks on Capitol Hill pay attention to. What I
• 43:21
  Speaker 5: may ask. What was Patrick's response. He's a very smart guy.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: His response. We mostly talked with him about AI. He
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: did not have a comment on your interview. But those
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: two are very chummy. The only trouble with the speaker
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: is that he's got Frank Lunz disease. He collects political memories, memorabilia,
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: and we were talking about that, and it's very dangerous
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: to get into that because once you get attracted to
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: political memorabilia. He's got a page from Teddy Roosevelt's speech
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: when he was shot in the chest and the speech
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: saved him. So I look at pictures of that. Those
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: people are crazy, right, that's an addiction.
• 43:58
  Speaker 5: Well, there's a different so between that and building a
• 44:01
  Speaker 5: model oval office in your own restasement. And has failed
• 44:05
  Speaker 5: to the chief play when when you open the door
• 44:07
  Speaker 5: without you, I want to.
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: Talk to you next about fraud. I did not know
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: until I was in the Big Ben podcast about the
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: Ohio fraud story. And I'm from Ohio. I know about
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: the California Unemployment Insurance ninety billion dollars ninety with a
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: b billion dollars in fraud during COVID to inmates in
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: the California penal system. But I did not know about
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: the Ohio healthcare program. Tell people about it so they
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: go read about it in the Daily Wire.
• 44:34
  Speaker 5: Sure so, Luke Rosiak, one of our best investigative reporters
• 44:38
  Speaker 5: at the Daily Wire, did a huge and time bestweming
• 44:41
  Speaker 5: deep dive along with you know, other fellow reporters that
• 44:44
  Speaker 5: looked into this situation with Ohio's home healthcare policy and
• 44:50
  Speaker 5: particularly with the facts that there are numerous places essentially
• 44:56
  Speaker 5: that have claimed to be home healthcare businesses that he
• 44:59
  Speaker 5: then did you know, I mean, Nick surely did it.
• 45:01
  Speaker 5: First give him credit, but he did the business of
• 45:04
  Speaker 5: going to actually check out what these places look like.
• 45:08
  Speaker 5: Some of them. You know, it's buildings that are clearly absent,
• 45:13
  Speaker 5: you know, mail that's never been picked up, you know,
• 45:16
  Speaker 5: doors that don't even have doorknobs on them. In a
• 45:20
  Speaker 5: couple of instances, and when he calls and checks in
• 45:23
  Speaker 5: on what they're doing, they you know, basically get skittish,
• 45:26
  Speaker 5: deny everything, and and even in a couple of cases
• 45:30
  Speaker 5: threaten him pretty explicitly including saying they know who his
• 45:33
  Speaker 5: family is and stuff like that. Basically, what you've got
• 45:36
  Speaker 5: here is just a slew of connected entities that have
• 45:41
  Speaker 5: used Medicaid dollars for home health care, meaning the kind
• 45:45
  Speaker 5: of care that you know, a younger typically family member
• 45:50
  Speaker 5: would offer to take care of an older family member
• 45:53
  Speaker 5: and then go to Medicaid and go to the government
• 45:56
  Speaker 5: and basically say, you know, the apply for for grants
• 46:00
  Speaker 5: that can range. They range into like the forties sixty
• 46:03
  Speaker 5: thousand dollars kind of range. The problem is that when
• 46:05
  Speaker 5: you add up all that money, it amounts to millions
• 46:08
  Speaker 5: and millions and millions of dollars. I mean, it's still
• 46:10
  Speaker 5: unclear how much is there, but it is a gargantuan
• 46:15
  Speaker 5: system of fraud and it's one that is also I
• 46:18
  Speaker 5: think a perfect example of the fact that people don't
• 46:20
  Speaker 5: understand this fraud is in your own communities. When the
• 46:23
  Speaker 5: Minnesota story happened, everybody, initially a lot of the combinators,
• 46:27
  Speaker 5: I should say, initially went out and said, oh, this
• 46:30
  Speaker 5: is an indictment of Tim wats is an indictment of
• 46:32
  Speaker 5: Blue policies. It's an indictment of you know, the kind
• 46:35
  Speaker 5: of social welfare that gets endorsed by these folks on
• 46:38
  Speaker 5: the far left, and my initial reaction to it was,
• 46:40
  Speaker 5: you have no idea how much of this is going
• 46:42
  Speaker 5: on in your own community and is under your own nose.
• 46:45
  Speaker 5: And now maybe you know it's not going to be
• 46:47
  Speaker 5: as bad if you live in a red state and
• 46:49
  Speaker 5: the programs are not quite as generous. But no matter
• 46:52
  Speaker 5: where you live, this is going on. It is not
• 46:55
  Speaker 5: being chased by anybody. And now that we have the
• 46:59
  Speaker 5: information that came out of the Dose program and the
• 47:03
  Speaker 5: ability to analyze it using AI tools and the like,
• 47:07
  Speaker 5: it can flag a lot of the suspicious behavior in
• 47:10
  Speaker 5: ways that a human person who is overloaded by everything
• 47:14
  Speaker 5: that they're you know, confronting when it comes to these
• 47:16
  Speaker 5: applications and the like, can't necessarily handle it. So I
• 47:19
  Speaker 5: think we're just going to learn this is so much
• 47:21
  Speaker 5: more widespread than Americans have understood. And it's one of
• 47:25
  Speaker 5: the reasons why when it comes to things like you know,
• 47:27
  Speaker 5: Medicaid expansion and all these different programs that many Republicans
• 47:32
  Speaker 5: have even embraced and said, you know, we have to
• 47:34
  Speaker 5: do this in order to win. We can't really fight
• 47:38
  Speaker 5: these types of things. I think that it raises huge
• 47:42
  Speaker 5: questions about whether these programs can even exist without this
• 47:45
  Speaker 5: level of fraud.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: Then there are two reactions that I'm a California I
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: used to be. I left in twenty fifteen, and so
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: I became inured to radical fraud. Right, We've spent billions
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: of dollars on homeless billions of dollars on homelessness, and
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: Spencer Pratts out there pointing it out that for billions,
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: we've housed three hundred people. It's ridiculous. Then you look
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: at the unemployment scandal, which is the biggest scandal of
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: my life. Ninety billion dollars to incarcerated people are filling
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: out forms and asking for COVID money and they're getting it.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: And I just kind of I just sort of got
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: inured to it, immunized to the scale. But is there
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: a tip one?
• 48:26
  Speaker 5: I just want to say, I don't think you're alone
• 48:28
  Speaker 5: to that. I think that there's a lot of people,
• 48:31
  Speaker 5: and you know, there's there's been a lot of criticism.
• 48:34
  Speaker 5: I would say that it's fair directed at a number
• 48:37
  Speaker 5: of Republican governors and the like who've accepted a lot
• 48:40
  Speaker 5: of these grants and these additional medicaid dollars that they
• 48:44
  Speaker 5: basically say, well, you know, there's going to be a
• 48:46
  Speaker 5: certain amount of fraud, but it's the price of doing business,
• 48:49
  Speaker 5: and we do want to help people, and you know,
• 48:51
  Speaker 5: we do want at least some people who deserve it
• 48:53
  Speaker 5: to get these kinds of funds. On some level, I
• 48:56
  Speaker 5: think that that has to be completely rethought. You know,
• 48:58
  Speaker 5: I'm not sure people understand. You know, we still think
• 49:02
  Speaker 5: about welfare reform as being the sea change, and it was,
• 49:05
  Speaker 5: but it was about one program. It was about Tannis.
• 49:07
  Speaker 5: It was not something that was widespread in terms of
• 49:10
  Speaker 5: the way that we wanted it to be. When it
• 49:12
  Speaker 5: came to work requirements in the life where you have
• 49:14
  Speaker 5: to prove that you're doing certain things in order to
• 49:16
  Speaker 5: qualify for this money, and when it comes to the
• 49:19
  Speaker 5: experience that you've had in California, I just think that
• 49:21
  Speaker 5: that's very much the way that a lot of Americans think.
• 49:25
  Speaker 5: They just sort of think, well, it's probably going on,
• 49:27
  Speaker 5: but it's it's probably not that significant. Maybe it's ten
• 49:30
  Speaker 5: twenty percent of the money, and you know, we want
• 49:32
  Speaker 5: it to go to the eighty percent who need it.
• 49:34
  Speaker 5: I think that the truth is that it's almost flipped
• 49:38
  Speaker 5: it's a situation where the majority of this cash is
• 49:41
  Speaker 5: going to people who don't deserve it, or who don't
• 49:44
  Speaker 5: qualify for it, and who are just lying and not
• 49:46
  Speaker 5: getting checked.
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, so the big yesterday or Tuesday won every county
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: in Ohio. He's going to be the next governor. Is
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: it an opportunity for him to go in and say,
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: we're red state, we have fraud. I'm going to triple
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: the number of investigators at the whatever agency investigates, probably
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: the training in general, and we're going to put more
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: police in every state, and we're going to We're just
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: going to expand our law enforcement and fraud investigation. We're
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: going to become the state that defines honesty in government.
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: I think there's a winning's ambitious. Is that a winning message?
• 50:22
  Speaker 5: I think it's a huge winning message. And I'll tell
• 50:25
  Speaker 5: you the other thing about this, this is not a
• 50:28
  Speaker 5: conservative issue. It's not actually even a small government issue.
• 50:32
  Speaker 5: It's one that appeals to independence as well. And it's
• 50:35
  Speaker 5: a point that I think people forget about. When you
• 50:37
  Speaker 5: look at the different issues that independents care about, a
• 50:39
  Speaker 5: lot of the time it ends up being about government spending,
• 50:42
  Speaker 5: fiscal responsibility, debt deficit and alike. It's stuff thats things
• 50:47
  Speaker 5: that kind of actually get pushed to the side a
• 50:49
  Speaker 5: little bit because Republicans lean more into the culture war
• 50:52
  Speaker 5: and so do Democrats and things like that, which is
• 50:54
  Speaker 5: obviously the way to appeal to their basis. But I
• 50:56
  Speaker 5: think that when it comes to this kind of expenditure,
• 50:58
  Speaker 5: it's something that applies to everybody else. And on a
• 51:01
  Speaker 5: certain level, Democrats are in this awkward position where they've
• 51:04
  Speaker 5: defended these programs for so long. They've defended the idea
• 51:08
  Speaker 5: that these need to just persist in perpetuity without any
• 51:12
  Speaker 5: kind of questioning of whether they ought to exist or
• 51:15
  Speaker 5: whether they're still needed, that they're still acting as if
• 51:18
  Speaker 5: we're living in the pre Great Society kind of existence,
• 51:22
  Speaker 5: that this is a situation where where people are you know,
• 51:27
  Speaker 5: you know, in need of these massive programs to be
• 51:29
  Speaker 5: not just renewed, but expanded on a ready regular basis.
• 51:32
  Speaker 5: I think you can argue against that from a technocratic perspective.
• 51:35
  Speaker 5: That is very hard for Democrats to argue against. And
• 51:39
  Speaker 5: that is all about saying the taxpayers dollar is being stolen,
• 51:44
  Speaker 5: we are making sure they're keeping more of it, and
• 51:46
  Speaker 5: that it's being spent. It's going to the people who
• 51:48
  Speaker 5: serve it.
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: Ben Dominich will be back with me during the break
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: and on the other side during the break we'll talk
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: about Virginia Redistrict. King. You can get that on the
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: Big Weekend pod. And when we come back, Iran, of course,
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: don't go anywhere on I am back with Ben Domeneed,
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: she of the Big Ben Podcast, Daily Wire opinion editor
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: and The Foxman's contributor. He and Ilia Shapiro have been
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: putting the penalty box on X for making jokes about
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: the Lobster district. Ilia was worse than yours, he said,
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: it took a shell acking. What'd you make of the
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: Virginia decision? Ben?
• 52:20
  Speaker 5: The Virginia decision is interesting for a couple of reasons.
• 52:24
  Speaker 5: First off, Hugh, I would just point out it's the
• 52:27
  Speaker 5: Democrats getting bit by the fact that they have pushed
• 52:30
  Speaker 5: for so much early voting. There were forty five days
• 52:32
  Speaker 5: of early voting in Virginia, okay, and the Supreme Court
• 52:37
  Speaker 5: in Virginia found that those forty five days constitute part
• 52:40
  Speaker 5: of an election. And if you know the way that
• 52:43
  Speaker 5: the Democrats in the General Assembly tried to sneak this
• 52:46
  Speaker 5: in is they waited until October thirty first, when the
• 52:49
  Speaker 5: vast majority of early voting had already happened. Forty percent
• 52:53
  Speaker 5: of the vote was already in before they showed their
• 52:56
  Speaker 5: hand and did this extreme thing because they wanted to
• 52:59
  Speaker 5: get away with it and also get their politicis and elected.
• 53:02
  Speaker 5: The upshot of this is that early voting sent Jay Jones,
• 53:06
  Speaker 5: who a lot of Democrats frankly didn't really want to
• 53:09
  Speaker 5: be saddled with, who proceeded to lose this case in
• 53:13
  Speaker 5: front of the Supreme Court the Attorney General because he
• 53:16
  Speaker 5: was arguing, you know, among other things, that this was
• 53:19
  Speaker 5: something that did not count as being part of the election,
• 53:22
  Speaker 5: that there was therefore an intervening election, which is what
• 53:24
  Speaker 5: the Virginia Constitution requires. The court disagreed, and so they
• 53:29
  Speaker 5: found against it on process reasons. The other thing that's
• 53:31
  Speaker 5: interesting about this, by the way, nobody really seems to
• 53:34
  Speaker 5: read decisions anymore. It's like they just read tweet.
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: Oh gosh, yes, oh.
• 53:39
  Speaker 5: Tim Kaine, the Senator from Virginia, immediately orders had said
• 53:43
  Speaker 5: why didn't they rule on this before the vote happened
• 53:47
  Speaker 5: in this referendum, Well, j Jones and his entire team
• 53:52
  Speaker 5: as part of the representation of the Commonwealth argued that
• 53:56
  Speaker 5: the Court couldn't rule on it before this referendum was
• 54:00
  Speaker 5: actually considered because the process of law was currently happening
• 54:03
  Speaker 5: and they had precedent to argue for that. So it's
• 54:06
  Speaker 5: the Democrats themselves who are arguing you can't rule on
• 54:09
  Speaker 5: this yet. Now the court ruled on it. It's a
• 54:12
  Speaker 5: four to three decision. So anybody who's telling you that
• 54:14
  Speaker 5: like Republicans were geniuses for saving money by spending less
• 54:19
  Speaker 5: to fight in Virginia, they're full of crap, because they
• 54:22
  Speaker 5: are because it was one vote margin. But the argument
• 54:26
  Speaker 5: here is very basic and very clear, and it's consistent
• 54:29
  Speaker 5: with what Ken Coochinelli and Jason rs both former attorney
• 54:33
  Speaker 5: generals now you know, argued beforehand. One thing that I
• 54:36
  Speaker 5: think is just some damage done to Democrats here. Barack
• 54:41
  Speaker 5: Obama went all in for this. They amen more than
• 54:44
  Speaker 5: seventy million dollars on this, all told, you know, including
• 54:48
  Speaker 5: I mean it's untold amounts from the sources, because they
• 54:51
  Speaker 5: have a network of people. It's estimated to be around
• 54:53
  Speaker 5: twenty million that they just blew on ads and on
• 54:56
  Speaker 5: I mean, I've gotten the flyers. I'm sure you did too,
• 55:00
  Speaker 5: pushing this and making this argument that also lit the
• 55:04
  Speaker 5: the sort of reputation if she still had any of it,
• 55:09
  Speaker 5: of Abigail Spamberger as a moderate or centrist on fire,
• 55:12
  Speaker 5: you know. And so from my perspective, she went from
• 55:14
  Speaker 5: being somebody who could potentially be a Democrat veep for
• 55:16
  Speaker 5: somebody like Avenue and to being somebody who is absolutely,
• 55:20
  Speaker 5: you know, completely off the board. But also they spent
• 55:24
  Speaker 5: all of this money in a cycle in which they
• 55:27
  Speaker 5: are already in debt where they could use that money
• 55:29
  Speaker 5: in other places, and House Democrats are furious about it.
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: Came Jeffries agreed with doing it. Don't go anywhere, Ben,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: We're coming back on the network. Don't go anywhere America,
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: Northern back America, Ben Dominic. She is still with me,
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: he Hewett. I want to get to it, Ron, but
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: I want to finish the thought on redistricting, Ben. I
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: still think the redistricting was ought to go full forward.
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: The Indiana rebuke of Republicans was pretty definitive, meaning you
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: cannot refuse to fight when Republicans are getting hammered in
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: California and Illinois and Massachusetts and everywhere.
• 56:12
  Speaker 3: Do you expect the.
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: Districting wars to continue for as long as the great
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: sort continues in America.
• 56:19
  Speaker 5: I think that they absolutely will, especially considering that, you know,
• 56:22
  Speaker 5: just people look around in their communities and they say,
• 56:25
  Speaker 5: this doesn't feel right, this doesn't feel like what actually
• 56:29
  Speaker 5: it would be an accurate representation of the communities that
• 56:33
  Speaker 5: we are in and that we have these very funky
• 56:35
  Speaker 5: districts that are, you know, in many ways vestiges that
• 56:38
  Speaker 5: should be you know, reconsidered, just given the fact that
• 56:41
  Speaker 5: they no longer feel like they are accurately representing what's
• 56:45
  Speaker 5: going on. Of course, this is a partisan fight. It's
• 56:47
  Speaker 5: always going to be a partisan fight. I do find
• 56:49
  Speaker 5: it very amusing on a certain level that Matt Iglacius
• 56:54
  Speaker 5: and Jammel Bowie are out there finding their inner John C.
• 56:56
  Speaker 5: Calhouns suggesting that, you know, Virginia once again discover the
• 57:02
  Speaker 5: beauties of nullifications. But it's one of these things where
• 57:05
  Speaker 5: I just I think the Democrats have chosen poorly, in
• 57:09
  Speaker 5: part because this is more desperate than I believe people understand.
• 57:13
  Speaker 5: We've seen this great source that you've mentioned for happening
• 57:16
  Speaker 5: across the country in ways that are going to dramatically
• 57:20
  Speaker 5: increase the populations, the legal American populations to be clear
• 57:25
  Speaker 5: in states across the country because of all the people
• 57:29
  Speaker 5: who have fled these Blue states, and the Blue states
• 57:31
  Speaker 5: are holding on to the numbers that are assigned to
• 57:34
  Speaker 5: them from illegal immigrants, in many cases, people who should
• 57:39
  Speaker 5: not be able to vote, despite the opinions of many
• 57:42
  Speaker 5: Californians in this week's debates, and people who should not
• 57:46
  Speaker 5: count when it comes to the sending of federal aid
• 57:49
  Speaker 5: dollars to those states. They're holding on to that money
• 57:52
  Speaker 5: and to that power by using people who are not
• 57:55
  Speaker 5: American citizens. And that's something that I think is going
• 57:57
  Speaker 5: to be an increasing problem, only going to expand in
• 58:02
  Speaker 5: all likely that after this forthcoming census, which I think
• 58:05
  Speaker 5: could be significantly damaging to Democrats when it comes to
• 58:09
  Speaker 5: winning the House.
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: I agree now I want to move to Iran. On Monday,
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: the President called into the program. I felt very good
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: after that call because he had four red lines. They're
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: not going to be a nuclear power. They have to
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: announce it. They don't get to keep any enriched uranium
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: none zero, they have to have caps on their MESSI
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: program and inspections, and don't worry about the proxies. They
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: won't have any money anyway. And then we get a
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: fourteen point memorandum a lah Woodrow Wilson, and all of
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: a sudden, I'm wondering who's running the bus over there?
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: Are you worried about the ben Dominich? I am.
• 58:42
  Speaker 5: I'm worried about it. Quite a great deal. And I
• 58:44
  Speaker 5: think you can already see the outside conversation. There's a
• 58:49
  Speaker 5: piece of Fox News, there's Mark des and feats in
• 58:52
  Speaker 5: the Washington Post. There's others as well, basically saying that
• 58:56
  Speaker 5: the president should not just accept a deal because there
• 59:00
  Speaker 5: are people in his ear saying that we need to
• 59:03
  Speaker 5: move forward, We need to move on. You know, people
• 59:07
  Speaker 5: people who feel like this war, you know, and many
• 59:09
  Speaker 5: of those people, by the way, were critics I think
• 59:11
  Speaker 5: before this war even began, of taking the risk and
• 59:15
  Speaker 5: doing the courageous thing, which I think the President did
• 59:17
  Speaker 5: because he believed it was important, and he's believed for
• 59:20
  Speaker 5: basically his entire life. It's one of those handful of
• 59:22
  Speaker 5: things that we know is the most consistent political opinions
• 59:25
  Speaker 5: that he's had about Iran and about the threat of
• 59:28
  Speaker 5: them being in nuclear power. Look, the President himself is
• 59:32
  Speaker 5: someone who I had a lot of confidence in on this.
• 59:34
  Speaker 5: He knows what is a bad deal and a good deal,
• 59:37
  Speaker 5: and I don't think that he's going to accept a
• 59:39
  Speaker 5: bad deal. But I do think that there are a
• 59:40
  Speaker 5: lot of people around him who are nervous in the
• 59:44
  Speaker 5: short term. They think of things more in terms of
• 59:47
  Speaker 5: election cycles than in terms of like record and heritage,
• 59:51
  Speaker 5: in the way that you'll be thought about by history.
• 59:54
  Speaker 5: I have confidence the president because I think that's the
• 59:56
  Speaker 5: way he thinks about things.
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: I hope that I want. I also they're wrong on
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: the election. I think that if you wage war to
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: win war, it's different than this is not a forever war,
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: that a six month war at max. And if you
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: wage it to win it and you win it, I
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: mean you make them capitulate, and that is easily done
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: after their oil doesn't export anymore and they're broken, there's
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: no food. It's tough, it's hard, but it's a slog
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: that can be done. Don't you think that's winning? In November?
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 5: You know, I was rereading Have you ever read the
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 5: book Men at War? The collection that they were giving
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 5: to gis in World War Two. It's edited by Ernest Hemingway. No,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 5: you had an introduction to that, and I have recommended
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 5: it over the years to a number of people. It
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 5: has this normal blunt wit and one of the lines
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 5: in it is is, once we have a war, there's
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 5: only one thing to do, and it must be won,
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 5: for defeat brings worse things than any that can ever
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 5: happen in a war. And I think that that is
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 5: absolutely true. And so the idea that we are going
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 5: to accept some half measure here is just it's just
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 5: not on the table.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: You cannot do that.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 5: And for the politicians who think, I mean, this is
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 5: one of the points that Kevin McCarthy's made in the
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 5: interview that I had with him. For the politicians who
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 5: think that they can back away from this, no, you
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 5: have to defend it. You have to understand how you
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 5: can defend it. You defend it in the context of
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 5: the overall foreign policy attenda as president, but you also
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 5: have to you know, when it comes to the people
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 5: who are actually prosecuting this, you have to understand that
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 5: you need to win this. This can't be a half
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 5: measure situation, because that is not acceptable, not based on
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 5: what Secretary of Rubio has said, what Secretary Head Says
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 5: has said, and not based on what the president has said.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: Well, Matt con Netty had the one explanation that accounts
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: for all the facts, which is usually persuasive, which is
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: the President wants to get through the China summit, and
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: therefore he doesn't want a ridiculously wild war without abandon
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: war without limit going on when he's in Beijing, but
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: that when we come back, it's time to restart at
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: all the engines. What do you think.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 5: I think that's definitely possible, And Matt's a well connected guy,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 5: so it's certainly something that he could be hearing from
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 5: his sources inside. Look, the summit with she is something
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 5: that's been long expected and is very important on a
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 5: number of different fronts. You know, I'll be paying a
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 5: lot of attention to it on the Taiwan front. And
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 5: I think that that there's also potential that there's going
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 5: to be something that comes up regarding human rights. We'll
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 5: see whether that's something that the President wants to bring
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 5: up or whether it's something he stayed away from. The
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 5: Other thing that I think we have to keep in
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 5: mind here, though, is the President is thinking about this
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 5: in different terms than a lot of the people who
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 5: are thinking about it in temporary, short term language. He
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 5: is thinking about this, I believe in legacy space, which
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 5: is where he's been thinking about a lot of them.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: Okay, so let me get a quick question. Ford would
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: not meet with soul Zeniatsen it dogged him. If President
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: Trump brings back Jimmy Lai, that's a win for the ages.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: Do you think there's any chance he can do that?
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 5: Look, if anybody can, it's him. But gosh, that's a reach.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 5: I mean, it's it's gonna be really tough, But I
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 5: mean I think he's I think he you know, the
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 5: question is if we've gotten them to the point where
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 5: they're willing to do that in exchange for something else
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 5: that they want, or you have to get back and forth.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we have to give something.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it's gonna be it's gonna cost something
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 5: to get him back. And I think that that's understandable.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 5: But I also think, you know, the President has worked
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 5: deals along those lines before with other nations. It's very
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 5: possible that he could do something like that in this case.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 5: And it's absolutely, of course, as we all know, it's
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 5: definitely on his radar.
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: Okay, thirty seconds, Lindsey Graham has gone remarkably quiet. You
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: know him, well, I think that means I'm confident about Iran.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: Is that how you read it? Yeah?
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 5: Probably he does. He does sometimes he goes, He goes five.
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 5: I thought you were gonna ask me a James Harden question.
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 4: No, I'm not no bad on you, bad on you.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: It's going to be a four fourth series when we
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: talk now, actually three fourth series with the calves ahead.
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: When we talked to take no.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 5: Calves are going to take a couple of games in Cleveland.
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: That was harsh. That was really a low hit. Ben
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: Dominas from the Daily Wire Fox and this contributor hosts
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: of the Big Ben Pod. You ought to go and
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: listen to it and stay tuned to the Hugwit Show.
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: I was on with John Roberts earlier today talking about Iran.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: Here's that segment on Fox, Santa.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 7: Let's take deeper on all of this by bringing in
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 7: Hugh Hewett Fox and he's contributed host to the Hugh
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 7: Huge Show. You always good to have you on the program.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 7: Good Friday afternoon to you. So you have concerned about
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 7: this deal that the President is pursuing. You posted this
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 7: on X You said this would be a terrible deal.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 7: I hope the terms of any deal would be significantly stricter.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 7: No enrichment ever, highly enriched uranium to US, stat no
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 7: more proxies turn on the internet. President Trump never gives
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 7: up leverage. Why would he start now with Iran on
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 7: the ropes? He wrote that a couple of days ago.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 7: How are you feeling today?
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: I'm feeling better about the president. I've never had fear
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: about the President. John he called my program on Monday.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: He was very clear about his red lines which he's enforcing.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: They've got to renounce nuclear weapons. They've got to give
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: us all their enriched uranium, not just the sixty percent HU,
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: but down to the three percent. No enrichment. He said
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: that very very very firmly. He also said they cannot
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: have missiles beyond a certain level, and they've got to
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: have a very robust inspections regime imposed upon them. And
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: he out they won't have any money to give to
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: the terrorist proxies, adding sort of a fifth part of it.
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: So I've never had any concern about the president. However,
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: a fourteen point memorandum has stuff in it that don
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: On included within those four to five points that the
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: President went over with me, So I don't want them
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: to get mixed signals. I think the President is very firm,
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: and I think Secretary of Rubio is very firm. Today.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: We're not a stupid country. Do not send us back
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: anything that suggests you're going to play us. You're not
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: going to play Donald Trump, You're not going to play
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: Marco Rubio, You're not going to play anyone. They can capitulate,
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: they don't have to be humiliated. They can just get
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: out of the nuclear game. They can simply renounce that
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: and turn everything over, and therefore it will work. But
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: if they send back fourteen points to say, well, we'll
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: give you half now, and we'll give you half in
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: five years, and we will only enrich in fifteen years,
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: that's a major loss. It's a major loss of face
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: for the president. So I'm not worried about that. I
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: am worried about people who think there's a middle course.
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: There isn't. There's either a nuclear Iran or a non
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: nuclear Iran, and the President's on the non nuclear Iran side.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 7: Capitulation will be highly out of character for the Sardian regime.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 7: Though I fear to say, you know you and Martisa
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 7: are very much in the same page when it comes
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 7: to your concerns. He had this excellent op ed in
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 7: the Washington Post yesterday titled Trump risks stanching defeat from
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 7: the jaws of victory in Iran. He goes on to
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 7: say Trump says he holds all the cards, but Tehran disagrees.
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: Why is that?
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 7: Consider the events of the past few days from Iran's perspective. First,
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 7: the President launched Project Freedom to guide ships through the
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 7: Strait of our moves, warned that if Iron dared to
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 7: fire at American vessels, it would be quote blown off
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 7: the face of the earth. Iran defied his warning, not
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 7: only firing out of US warship, but launching twelve ballistic missiles,
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 7: three cruise missiles, and four drones at the United Arab Emirates.
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 7: In response, the United States did nothing, and that's what
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 7: really ticked off the Emordis and the Saudis and had
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 7: the pullback used to their bases. I think that's been
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 7: fixed now, but there's some mixed signals coming out of
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 7: this White House.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: Well, the UAE has a right to be angry. They
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: struck out a port that was in the Gulf of
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: Oman's side and we didn't do anything, and I don't
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: know that that had been discussed beforehand. And now that
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: the understanding got to be crystal clear that our allies
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: are our allies and we will protect them and we
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: will you know, I amount of time here, John Roberts
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: and Sandra run the best news show in the afternoon.
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: They really do focus on the important stuff. And John
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: and Sandra know this stuff cold and they read everything
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: like fatis and editorial mar quit very on point. Yesterday
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: in the post stick out put all that in the
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: big weekend pods, which we'll post laated today. I hope
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: you listened to it all in stay tuned with the