Latest / The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated / Piker: America worse than al-Qaeda "pound for pound"

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Piker: America worse than al-Qaeda "pound for pound" · The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, all things
0:03
Speaker 1: Hillsdale at hillsdale.edu. I encourage you to take advantage of
0:06
Speaker 1: the many free online courses there and of course to
0:09
Speaker 1: listen to the Hillsdale Dialogues, all of them at hueforhillsdale.com
0:13
Speaker 1: or just google Apple, iTunes and Hillsdale.
0:17
Speaker 2: Quite a lot of news happening today.
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Speaker 1: Let me start with the most recent headline from the
0:21
Speaker 1: Times of Israel. Iran is rapidly advancing the reconstruction of
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Speaker 1: a nuclear facility that had previously been bombed by Israel,
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Speaker 1: according to satellite images cited in a report Thursday, today,
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Speaker 1: by the Institute for Science and International Security. The Washington-based
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Speaker 1: institute said Iran has been rapidly moving forward with the
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Speaker 1: reconstruction of the Talagon 2 facility, located at the Parchin
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Speaker 1: Military Complex, about 20 miles southeast of Tehran. It was
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Speaker 1: struck in October 2024. It's been struck again. They are
0:53
Speaker 1: busy building. So that puts some pressure on the Israeli government. Meanwhile,
0:58
Speaker 1: pressure is growing on Iran. Front page of the Wall
1:00
Speaker 1: Street Journal this morning, Iran's attempts to get around the
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Speaker 1: Hormuz blockade are hitting a wall. This is a story,
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Speaker 1: a very well-reported story, by Benoit Falcone and Hamraz Bayan
1:12
Speaker 1: about how Iran is basically collapsing economically in real time.
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Speaker 1: We can't see into it. We don't have reporters on
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Speaker 1: the ground, so everything is kind of secondary. Hundreds of
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Speaker 1: Iranian truck drivers are currently stuck at Iran's border with Pakistan.
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Speaker 1: unable to sell their goods into Tehran's neighbor. They say
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Speaker 1: they are facing worsening bureaucratic hurdles and costs, many caused
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Speaker 1: by their own government. The same thing is happening at
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Speaker 1: Iran's land borders with Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan, dealing Tehran
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Speaker 1: a self-inflicted blow and throttling trade through its few remaining
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Speaker 1: economic release valves. Example, tons of stranded apricots have spoiled
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Speaker 1: because of the delays. Lucrative cargos of iron ore, cement,
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Speaker 1: and bottled gas are stuck at entry points to Pakistan
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Speaker 1: and Afghan.
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Speaker 2: It goes on. It's a very long article. Iran doesn't
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Speaker 2: know what to do.
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Speaker 1: No doubt their bureaucracies are completely disabled, as their leadership was.
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Speaker 1: On top of all of that comes President Trump speaking today,
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Speaker 1: on the record, with Barack Ravid. We don't have a tape.
2:17
Speaker 1: Barack works for Axios, very well respected. He gets a
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Speaker 1: lot of phone calls from President Trump, I assume. They
2:24
Speaker 1: are on the record because Barack quotes the president, doesn't
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Speaker 1: paraphrase him, doesn't say senior administration sources, doesn't use the lingo.
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Speaker 2: It's a phone call.
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Speaker 1: And Barack writes, I have a big decision coming up,
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Speaker 1: quoting Donald Trump. Do I want to go in and
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Speaker 1: annihilate them, the Iranian regime, or do I not? It's
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Speaker 1: a big decision. Anything could happen with me, Trump told me.
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Speaker 1: So President Trump is speculating out loud, about whether or
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Speaker 1: not he's going for the kill shot with Iran. To me,
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Speaker 1: this is a question a civilian can't answer, but our
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Speaker 1: military can, and if it's on the table, if it's
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Speaker 1: indeed possible to crumple up the regime, crumple up the regime.
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Speaker 1: Because they're now getting the Houthis to kill the Red
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Speaker 1: Sea trade, and that's why oil's at 101. We're getting
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Speaker 1: oil out through the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait of
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Speaker 1: Hormuz is open. But the oil markets are afraid... of
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Speaker 1: the Red Sea being closed by the Houthis on the
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Speaker 1: orders of and armed with and equipped by the Iranian
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Speaker 1: Revolutionary Guard Corps. So it's up to what the American
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Speaker 1: military tells the president, but if he's got that option,
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Speaker 1: I hope he takes it. Second big story of the
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Speaker 1: day doesn't involve Iran. Well, it does kind of involve Iran. It,
3:42
Speaker 1: it involves the Middle East. It involves terrorism. It involves
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Speaker 1: Hassan Piker and Abdul El-Sayed, uh, Abdul El-Sayed's surrogate, his
3:51
Speaker 1: running mate, is Hassan Piker. Hassan Piker is the Twitch
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Speaker 1: streamer who carried Abdul El-Sayed over the primary finish line
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Speaker 1: in Michigan, beating Haley Stevens by less than a percent
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Speaker 1: out of a million and a half votes cast. And
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Speaker 1: Hassan Piker went there and put his arms around him. Well,
4:08
Speaker 1: Hassan Piker sat down with Axios' Alex Thompson, and he
4:13
Speaker 1: had a couple of memorable exchanges.
4:15
Speaker 2: First one, cut number two.
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Speaker 3: You once said that America is the top dog in terrorism.
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Speaker 4: Yes.
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Speaker 5: Do you think America then is worse than Al Qaeda?
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Speaker 5: Pound for pound as far as the number of deaths. Yes,
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Speaker 5: we have caused tremendous terror all around the world. I
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Speaker 5: think that that is not only terror that we are
4:37
Speaker 5: waging on regular civilians in nations in the periphery, but
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Speaker 5: it's also having consequences on ourselves. It's having dramatic consequences
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Speaker 5: on the home front. One clear example of this is
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Speaker 5: what we did in Minop, right? There's no distinction between
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Speaker 5: blowing up a school, triple tapping it with Tomahawk missiles.
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Speaker 5: If you're killing 140 schoolgirls, that is an act of terror.
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Speaker 5: This doesn't mean that all Americans are terrorists, but the
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Speaker 5: reality of the matter is we have to create an
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Speaker 5: environment of accountability to ensure things like that never happen again.
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Speaker 2: All right.
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Speaker 1: I don't know the entire interview, but we got cut
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Speaker 1: number two. Hassan Baker with Alex Thompson, cut number three.
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Speaker 3: It seems you care a lot more about how Israel
5:21
Speaker 3: treats Muslims than how China treats Muslims.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, because Israel is murdering not just Muslims but Christians
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Speaker 5: as well with my tax dollars. And that I think
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Speaker 5: is unacceptable. It's the same principle behind America's global war
5:36
Speaker 5: on terror that is an abject failure that I oppose.
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Speaker 3: As well, that many Americans also oppose as a matter
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Speaker 3: of fact. So you wouldn't be talking about it if
5:45
Speaker 3: Israel wasn't an ally?
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Speaker 5: Yeah, I would not be. I would not be as
5:51
Speaker 5: frustrated with the actions. Of course, I would still talk
5:53
Speaker 5: about it because it's a genocide. And I believe Amnesty
5:57
Speaker 5: International considers what China has done to the Uyghur Muslims.
6:02
Speaker 6: To be a cultural.
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Speaker 5: Genocide, if I'm not mistaken. Do you agree with that?
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Speaker 7: I do.
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Speaker 5: I do agree with that. There are different terms applied
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Speaker 5: for different actions. I think what Israel is doing is
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Speaker 5: an outright genocide.
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Speaker 3: Yes, but you think China is perpetuating a cultural genocide.
6:19
Speaker 5: Here, I'll give you another example, like Russia. Russia's actions
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Speaker 5: are utterly unjustifiable in Ukraine. It's an illegal invasion.
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Speaker 2: It has been monstrous.
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Speaker 5: It's had negative consequences for Russia, of course, and first
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Speaker 5: and foremost, tremendous negative consequences for regular Ukrainian society.
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Speaker 6: Right.
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Speaker 5: Having said that, it's a different standard between a different
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Speaker 5: weight in the immorality of these actions as opposed to
6:50
Speaker 5: what Israel.
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Speaker 6: Is doing in Gaza. Yes.
6:53
Speaker 5: And also the 75 years of apartheid and occupation, now 80.
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Speaker 3: It just seems there's like a different level of outrage
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Speaker 3: when it comes to Israeli violence versus Chinese violence.
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Speaker 5: I think it's I think there's a sufficient amount of outrage,
7:09
Speaker 5: not just coming from myself, but also from American society broadly.
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Speaker 3: But you wouldn't go to Israel and post about Israel maxing.
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Speaker 2: Yes, of course not.
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Speaker 6: I would not.
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Speaker 8: Why?
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Speaker 5: Because I think that Israel's totality, like its entire output.
7:26
Speaker 5: its entire existence is still built on the principles of
7:31
Speaker 5: ethnic cleansing and never truly addressing the inhumanity of the
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Speaker 5: acts that came even at the inception of the Nakba
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Speaker 5: and continued onward with full-blown American support. If Israel existed
7:46
Speaker 5: as a nation with a binational commitment to the Palestinians,
7:50
Speaker 5: but every now and then there were, you know, tense
7:53
Speaker 5: environments every now and then there was like a back
7:56
Speaker 5: and forth struggle. I think the calculation would be far different,
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Speaker 5: not only by myself, but also by, by many others
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Speaker 5: in American society and all around the world.
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Speaker 1: He's not very smart. Hassan Piker, not very smart. Now,
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Speaker 1: Alex Thompson is, and Alex Thompson could have done a
8:14
Speaker 1: better job. I haven't seen the whole interview yet. So
8:16
Speaker 1: I have to wait and see saying, tell me what
8:19
Speaker 1: you know about the Uyghur genocide. Tell me what you
8:22
Speaker 1: know about the State of Israel. How did it come
8:24
Speaker 1: to have the borders that it does? Can you walk
8:26
Speaker 1: me through the chronology? Because I don't think Assange Piker
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Speaker 1: knows anything.
8:29
Speaker 2: I really don't.
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Speaker 1: I think he's a sloganeering, attention-addicted streamer who's making a
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Speaker 1: lot of money right now by virtue of this. And poor,
8:41
Speaker 1: when I say poor, Abdul El-Sayed. Abdul El-Sayed made him
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Speaker 1: his running mate. But Abdul El-Sayed's got his own problem.
8:48
Speaker 1: He went on MS Now, cut number four.
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Speaker 9: Do you believe criticisms of Sharia law are rooted in
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Speaker 9: white supremacy?
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Speaker 10: Look, I think if you're actively trying to go after
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Speaker 10: Sharia law, it's because you're trying to change the conversation.
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Speaker 2: That is not an answer.
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Speaker 1: That is a dodge. And Mike Rogers, for one, has
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Speaker 1: had it. He went on Fox Business with Stu Varney,
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Speaker 1: cut number five.
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Speaker 11: Joining me now is Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers.
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Speaker 1: Sir, do you think his policies, Al-Said's policies, put America first?
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Speaker 6: Oh, absolutely not.
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Speaker 11: This guy is maybe the most anti-American candidate across the
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Speaker 11: country today. You look at his hanging out with Hassan Piker,
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Speaker 11: who believes that America deserved 9-11.
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Speaker 6: He wouldn't disavow it. This is the same guy who
9:37
Speaker 6: says he's.
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Speaker 11: A terrorist sympathizer to the Houthi terrorist organization. This is
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Speaker 11: a guy that takes money from organizations tied to the
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Speaker 11: Muslim Brotherhood. He would not condemn He would not condemn
9:49
Speaker 11: a terrorist in the name of Hezbollah that tried to
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Speaker 11: blow up 140 schoolchildren right here in Michigan at a synagogue.
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Speaker 6: Now, this guy is anything but pro-American.
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Speaker 1: I think Mike Rogers is being gentle there. I also
10:03
Speaker 1: think when Neera Tanden, again, nominated to be the Office
10:07
Speaker 1: of Management and Budget Director and didn't get confirmed, I
10:10
Speaker 1: thought she should have been confirmed, but she likes nasty tweets.
10:13
Speaker 1: She took the X today and said, I wonder if anyone,
10:17
Speaker 1: Hassan Piker, I'm paraphrasing, it's not right up in front
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Speaker 1: of me. He's so bad. Do you think he's a
10:21
Speaker 1: Republican plant? And bad on all you people who mainstream
10:26
Speaker 1: Hassan Piker. I think Hassan Piker is bringing down every
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Speaker 1: Democrat in the country, most especially El-Sayed. But, you know,
10:34
Speaker 1: Northwestern Ohio.
10:36
Speaker 2: Is in the Detroit media market. Everybody's in my media market.
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Speaker 1: Everybody's hearing this stuff from Piker and everyone's hearing this
10:42
Speaker 1: stuff from Abdul El-Sayed. It's impacting Troy Jackson, who's a
10:46
Speaker 1: bad candidate in Maine. Chris Pappas is a left-winger in
10:49
Speaker 1: New Hampshire. Peggy Flanagan is a left-wing lunatic in Minnesota.
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Speaker 1: It's bad all over. I'll be right back.
10:55
Speaker 2: Stay tuned to The Hugh Hewitt Show. Welcome back, America.
10:58
Speaker 1: I'm Hugh Hewitt, joined now by Sebastian Lai, son of
11:01
Speaker 1: Jimmy Lai, imprisoned in China, where he is a political
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Speaker 1: prisoner and has been for many years.
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Speaker 2: Sebastian, welcome back.
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Speaker 1: In advance of President Xi's presence in the United States.
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Speaker 2: Why are you in D.C.? Who are you meeting with?
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Speaker 2: What's the message?
11:17
Speaker 6: Thank you so much for having me again, sir. It's
11:21
Speaker 6: to raise attention to my father's case.
11:23
Speaker 7: My father has been in solitary confinement for the last
11:26
Speaker 7: five years.
11:27
Speaker 6: We're incredibly worried about him.
11:29
Speaker 7: There's been news recently saying that the prison guards are
11:33
Speaker 7: practicing trialing what will happen if he dies. So it's not,
11:39
Speaker 7: unfortunately not looking very optimistic for him. And, you know,
11:45
Speaker 7: I think President Trump meeting President Xi is a great
11:48
Speaker 7: opportunity to try and get my father out and back
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Speaker 7: home with his family.
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Speaker 1: I have confidence it will come up again because President
11:57
Speaker 1: Trump always brings it up.
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Speaker 2: Have we seen anything.
12:00
Speaker 1: Out of General Secretary Xi or his close inner ring
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Speaker 1: to suggest that they might be willing to move on
12:07
Speaker 1: releasing your father to Great Britain where he's a citizen?
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Speaker 7: Not from my end, but I think it's the rational
12:17
Speaker 7: thing to do for the Chinese and Hong Kong government.
12:20
Speaker 7: The President of the United States has asked for it
12:23
Speaker 7: twice already. I really obviously hope that he does a
12:28
Speaker 7: third time, and I'm incredibly grateful for his support. This
12:31
Speaker 7: is obviously something that matters to both the President, his administration,
12:34
Speaker 7: and many people in both the Congress and Senate. And
12:38
Speaker 7: the Chinese, this is doable. I mean, this is something
12:41
Speaker 7: that would take them two hours to put a 78-year-old
12:45
Speaker 7: illing man on a plane and send him over to
12:47
Speaker 7: Great Britain, to the US, wherever, where he could be
12:50
Speaker 7: back home with his family. I mean, he's already spent
12:53
Speaker 7: almost six years there. At this rate, he might very
12:58
Speaker 7: well die. So what's the upside for China?
13:01
Speaker 1: And, Sebastian, I think there is an upside in releasing him,
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Speaker 1: and I want to discuss that with you in the audience,
13:06
Speaker 1: which is simply, I was asked earlier today on a
13:07
Speaker 1: Fox appearance, could we deal a deal with AI with
13:11
Speaker 1: Xi Jinping?
13:12
Speaker 2: I said, no, I don't trust them. They joined the
13:13
Speaker 2: WTO and they cheat, cheat, cheat.
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Speaker 1: So if you really wanted to improve your standing in
13:19
Speaker 1: the world, you wouldn't imprison a frail old man as
13:21
Speaker 1: a good Catholic waiting for him to die, would you?
13:23
Speaker 1: I mean, if you wanted to up your credibility with
13:26
Speaker 1: the world of your Xi Jinping, for whatever reason, you'd
13:28
Speaker 1: let him go.
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Speaker 7: I completely agree with you, especially after the president has
13:33
Speaker 7: asked multiple times, especially after many other countries have called
13:36
Speaker 7: for his release to the European Union. My father is
13:39
Speaker 7: in prison because he's a man who has given everything
13:41
Speaker 7: that he has to fight peacefully for freedom and democracy.
13:46
Speaker 7: And these are beliefs that you hold every person in
13:49
Speaker 7: this country, I believe, hold. And killing him for that
13:53
Speaker 7: is not just a direct insult to all the countries
13:56
Speaker 7: that have asked for his release. it's also a direct
13:58
Speaker 7: insult to our values, to our beliefs and the freedoms
14:00
Speaker 7: that we, we, we, we feel entitled to.
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Speaker 1: I agree with that. Ed Miliband is the new foreign
14:07
Speaker 1: secretary of the United Kingdom. Has he said anything yet?
14:09
Speaker 1: Because he hadn't been in the job very long.
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Speaker 6: Yeah, he, he's, um, said in parliament that he is,
14:16
Speaker 6: he is keen to meet.
14:17
Speaker 7: I have yet to meet him, but I, I, you know,
14:18
Speaker 7: I look forward to, to, to meeting him and briefing
14:21
Speaker 7: him on my father's case. Uh, as you know, as you,
14:24
Speaker 7: as you know, it's, it's incredibly urgent and, uh, um,
14:28
Speaker 7: If something's not done soon, my father will pass away
14:30
Speaker 7: in prison.
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Speaker 1: So, Sebastian, I saw a picture of you earlier today
14:33
Speaker 1: meeting with Senator Cruz. I assume support for the release
14:36
Speaker 1: of your.
14:37
Speaker 2: Dad is bipartisan. Am I correct about that?
14:41
Speaker 6: It's incredibly bipartisan.
14:43
Speaker 7: Many senators have been so strong on the case, Senator Cruz,
14:48
Speaker 7: Senator Scott.
14:50
Speaker 6: And we've just been so incredibly moved.
14:52
Speaker 7: By by the incredible support that we received from, you know,
14:55
Speaker 7: from both sides and it's a Mercury as well. And
14:58
Speaker 7: it's just, you know, something that I'm incredibly grateful for.
15:00
Speaker 7: I think many people see my father's case, including the president,
15:03
Speaker 7: as this gross violation of.
15:06
Speaker 6: The values that we hold.
15:07
Speaker 7: And this torture of elderly men, that is that is
15:12
Speaker 7: completely unnecessary.
15:13
Speaker 2: So where is he being held, Sebastian? Is it in
15:16
Speaker 2: Hong Kong or is he on the mainland?
15:18
Speaker 7: He's being held in Stanley Maximum Security Prison in a
15:22
Speaker 7: tiny little prison cell in solitary. The summers, it goes
15:27
Speaker 7: up to 30, 40 degrees Celsius. You know, one of
15:30
Speaker 7: the hottest summers on record. And he essentially bakes in
15:34
Speaker 7: his concrete cell.
15:36
Speaker 6: It's heartbreaking.
15:38
Speaker 1: Is anyone allowed to see him? I know that your
15:41
Speaker 1: sister did, but then she had to leave because she
15:43
Speaker 1: spoke out. Does anyone get to see Jimmy Lai now?
15:48
Speaker 6: Yes. So my father does get prison visits.
15:51
Speaker 7: From my understanding, it's half an hour a visit, four
15:55
Speaker 7: times a month. So for the entire year, more or
16:02
Speaker 7: less 24 hours where he is.
16:03
Speaker 6: Not, you know.
16:05
Speaker 1: So I know he's Catholic, as am I, as I
16:08
Speaker 1: think you are. How does he does he tell anyone
16:11
Speaker 1: how he's getting through this? I can't imagine 23 and
16:14
Speaker 1: a half hours of solitary time. Or actually, it's much
16:16
Speaker 1: more than that. If you get four half hour visits,
16:18
Speaker 1: the guards don't count. How's he getting through this?
16:24
Speaker 6: It's hard. Faith is his pillar.
16:29
Speaker 7: He recently found out that, unfortunately, my sister got diagnosed
16:32
Speaker 7: with cancer. So I can't even imagine how he must
16:35
Speaker 7: be feeling in solitary by himself. Look, I think he
16:38
Speaker 7: gets through it because he knows that he did the
16:41
Speaker 7: right thing. He knows that he did the right thing.
16:43
Speaker 7: not just by God, not just by himself, but by
16:45
Speaker 7: his values and the people who looked to him for leadership.
16:50
Speaker 6: I'm kind of proud of that.
16:51
Speaker 7: I can't imagine the strength it takes for a man
16:54
Speaker 7: to sacrifice everything that he has for his beliefs and
16:58
Speaker 7: for others.
16:59
Speaker 1: Is General Secretary Xi afraid of something that he will do?
17:03
Speaker 2: I would guess.
17:04
Speaker 1: I'm not in the Politburo, but there's got to be
17:07
Speaker 1: someone in the Politburo saying to him, you know, it's
17:09
Speaker 1: going to be very bad for us.
17:10
Speaker 2: If Jimmy Lai dies in prison. Do you Do you
17:14
Speaker 2: think he afraid of it?
17:17
Speaker 7: No, I think all the downside, yeah, I think the
17:19
Speaker 7: downside is if he dies in prison, because by doing so,
17:22
Speaker 7: they would have made a martyr. Here they have a
17:25
Speaker 7: man who is in illing health and old age, who's
17:29
Speaker 7: done nothing but peaceful protests. I mean, this is very clear.
17:31
Speaker 7: You know, he's had, they've had five years to look
17:33
Speaker 7: through all his stuff. This is a man who has
17:35
Speaker 7: sacrificed everything he has peacefully protesting for democracy. And he
17:40
Speaker 7: ran a newspaper that criticized the government, which is allowed.
17:43
Speaker 7: in Hong Kong in the joint declaration. So they've destroyed
17:45
Speaker 7: their own legal system to get after this person, all
17:48
Speaker 7: because they didn't like what he had to say. And
17:51
Speaker 7: now he's in prison, and now his health is failing.
17:54
Speaker 7: And if they keep going down this road, they would
17:56
Speaker 7: have created a martyr in a situation where it's not necessary,
18:01
Speaker 7: where he doesn't have to die, where he can be
18:03
Speaker 7: released at any moment, and he will spend the rest
18:08
Speaker 7: of his, unfortunately, I don't know how much longer he has,
18:10
Speaker 7: but of his life in retirement.
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Speaker 1: We have a minute left, Sebastian. When General Secretary Xi comes,
18:18
Speaker 1: it will be a big lollapalooza.
18:20
Speaker 2: There will be a lot of media coverage.
18:21
Speaker 1: What would you ask American media to do as they
18:24
Speaker 1: cover a state visit?
18:28
Speaker 7: To just raise my father's case. You know, this is
18:34
Speaker 7: a man who, it's not just a symbol of liberty,
18:38
Speaker 7: a symbol of faith, Under hardship, he's also a journalist.
18:42
Speaker 7: He's also a man who dedicated his life.
18:44
Speaker 6: To the truth, to values that we all hold.
18:48
Speaker 7: So keep him in your thoughts and prayers and raise
18:52
Speaker 7: him at any opportunity that there is.
18:55
Speaker 1: I hope in every commentary about General Secretary Xi, the
18:59
Speaker 1: people on the platform are reminding their audiences he's a tyrant.
19:04
Speaker 1: And he can change that image if he wants by
19:06
Speaker 1: letting Jimmy Lai go. Sebastian Lai, it is good to
19:08
Speaker 1: check in with you. I'm glad you came to the
19:10
Speaker 1: States to make the appeal concurrent with President General Secretary
19:14
Speaker 1: Xi's approach. Good timing, good messaging is always in our prayers,
19:18
Speaker 1: and this audience with you. Thank you, Sebastian. I'll be
19:21
Speaker 1: right back, America. This is Vic Mattis' favorite song. I
19:26
Speaker 1: learned that on the Getting Hammered podcast this week. So
19:29
Speaker 1: I wanted to play a little Mariah Carey for him. Vic,
19:31
Speaker 1: what was the setup that you had to listen to
19:34
Speaker 1: this a thousand times?
19:36
Speaker 2: Okay.
19:36
Speaker 10: So, uh, Hugh, I was on the, uh, I was
19:39
Speaker 10: in Middlebrook, Virginia, uh, for a Christmas parade. And of course,
19:43
Speaker 10: you know, in order to get a good spot, you
19:44
Speaker 10: have to get there way ahead of time. So we're
19:46
Speaker 10: waiting there for, I don't know, maybe 30 minutes or
19:48
Speaker 10: so before, you.
19:49
Speaker 2: Know, the parade floats.
19:51
Speaker 10: It's a very cute town.
19:54
Speaker 2: But you're waiting there.
19:56
Speaker 10: And all they had was one song, which was Mariah
19:58
Speaker 10: Carey's All I Want for Christmas. And they just played
20:00
Speaker 10: it on a loop. So it's not like they mixed
20:02
Speaker 10: it in with, I don't know, a little bit of
20:03
Speaker 10: Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra or something. No, it was
20:06
Speaker 10: strictly Mariah Carey over and over. And I can understand
20:09
Speaker 10: after the first couple of times why it's a very
20:11
Speaker 10: popular hit and was, you know, on the top of
20:14
Speaker 10: the charts for 22 weeks. And then, I don't know,
20:16
Speaker 10: maybe after the 10th or 12th time, I thought to myself,
20:20
Speaker 10: how do I get out of here?
20:23
Speaker 1: I was laughing on my trundle when you told that story,
20:26
Speaker 1: because do you ever do you know Faneuil Hall in Boston?
20:31
Speaker 2: I do. I've been there.
20:33
Speaker 1: OK, so Faneuil Hall at Christmastime, they put up a
20:36
Speaker 1: big tree. And everybody goes down there and they play
20:40
Speaker 1: the 12 Days of Christmas on endless repeat. And I
20:44
Speaker 1: have been thinking since I first encountered that in Christmas 1974,
20:49
Speaker 1: those people must go crazy if you listen to 12.
20:52
Speaker 2: That's like a terrible song, right? Yeah, yeah.
20:55
Speaker 10: No, it's like the scene in The Simpsons where they
20:57
Speaker 10: go to the place where it's New Year's every five minutes.
21:00
Speaker 10: And Marge says, this must be wonderful to work here.
21:02
Speaker 10: And the guy says, please shoot me. You know, it's
21:05
Speaker 10: just the countdown never ends. You know, it's the same
21:08
Speaker 10: thing with that song. Five golden rings over and over again.
21:10
Speaker 1: Now I want to go from fun to serious. You're
21:12
Speaker 1: a Georgetown grad. You've just gone through the college application process.
21:17
Speaker 1: I assume that when you applied, you still had to
21:20
Speaker 1: take mandatory tests like I did, right?
21:22
Speaker 2: Did you have to take the SAT? Absolutely.
21:25
Speaker 10: I mean, some parts of the country you take the ACT,
21:28
Speaker 10: and I think that's still true to this day. for
21:31
Speaker 10: us living in New Jersey at the time.
21:32
Speaker 6: It was the SAT.
21:34
Speaker 2: That was the test you had to take.
21:36
Speaker 10: You could take it, I don't know, as many times
21:38
Speaker 10: as you can between your junior and senior year, and
21:40
Speaker 10: you try to find your best verbal and your best math,
21:43
Speaker 10: combine them, and submit them.
21:44
Speaker 2: There's no hiding that.
21:46
Speaker 1: So I think it's mandatory in New Jersey because the
21:48
Speaker 1: college board is in New Jersey, as I recall. So
21:50
Speaker 1: they probably have a monopoly on the Garden State. Here's
21:53
Speaker 1: my question. Shouldn't AI, of all the jobs that they
21:57
Speaker 1: can eliminate, Shouldn't AI be able to eliminate college admissions officers?
22:02
Speaker 1: Can't you just say, please wait the test scores and
22:08
Speaker 1: the grades and the degree of difficulty of the school?
22:13
Speaker 2: Can't we just turn that over to AI?
22:17
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean, obviously, you want to talk about what
22:20
Speaker 10: are the greatest threats to one of these professions, and
22:23
Speaker 10: that would be it. if you look at the number
22:26
Speaker 10: of administrators employed by universities across the country, really, you know,
22:29
Speaker 10: there's way more administrators these days than it seems than
22:32
Speaker 10: there are students. And they certainly seem to have more
22:35
Speaker 10: administrators than they have teachers. But they're going to hold
22:38
Speaker 10: on to these positions as long as possible and inject
22:40
Speaker 10: some sort of a human element. But the challenge for
22:43
Speaker 10: them in making that argument is that a lot of
22:46
Speaker 10: these schools don't even do interviews anymore. If they still
22:49
Speaker 10: did an interview, you could say that that human dimension
22:52
Speaker 10: was vital for deciding whether or not this kid got
22:55
Speaker 10: to go to your school. And I'm a big proponent
22:59
Speaker 10: of interviews and having that human element. But sadly, many
23:03
Speaker 10: of these places don't. They look at the GPA, they
23:06
Speaker 10: look at the test scores. And once that reaches a
23:08
Speaker 10: certain threshold, then they can have a discussion about other
23:10
Speaker 10: activities and what other personal elements they bring to the story.
23:15
Speaker 10: But if you're just strictly looking at your grades and
23:18
Speaker 10: your SATs, it does sound like something that a machine
23:20
Speaker 10: can do.
23:21
Speaker 1: And now because of AI, we can't really trust the essay.
23:25
Speaker 1: You never really could trust the essays to begin with.
23:28
Speaker 1: But if they write a college admissions essay, I think
23:31
Speaker 1: of the most endangered jobs in the world. It's college
23:34
Speaker 1: admission counselor because you can say to the metrics in
23:36
Speaker 1: the machine, I want to favor kids who come from
23:41
Speaker 1: tough neighborhoods, kids who had one parent, kids who had
23:45
Speaker 1: to work two jobs, kids who have overcome adversity. You
23:49
Speaker 1: can just select all that, and I need a second
23:51
Speaker 1: chair violinist.
23:53
Speaker 2: Can't you do that?
23:55
Speaker 10: Yeah, but don't tell them that again. I think it's
23:57
Speaker 10: a very powerful lobby. You're going up against a very
24:00
Speaker 10: powerful force. Be careful asking these kind of tough questions.
24:06
Speaker 2: On your show.
24:07
Speaker 10: But yeah, and the AI, it's a real issue.
24:11
Speaker 2: You talk about the college essays. I was just speaking a.
24:15
Speaker 10: Couple days ago, in fact, to a professor from Boston College,
24:18
Speaker 10: And that's something that they're all dealing with over there.
24:21
Speaker 10: And you can run these essays through some software programs
24:24
Speaker 10: like Pangram, and it'll tell you what percentage they think
24:28
Speaker 10: that that essay was written using AI. I mean, it's
24:31
Speaker 10: not perfect, but that's what everyone is dealing with right
24:34
Speaker 10: now at every level.
24:36
Speaker 1: So I just want to go to the initial, which
24:37
Speaker 1: brings me back to what you and Mary Catherine were
24:39
Speaker 1: talking about on Getting Hammered, which is the Beau French
24:42
Speaker 1: controversy about University of Texas students of apparent Asian descent.
24:48
Speaker 1: And I can't believe the guy said it.
24:50
Speaker 2: He's going to lose. He should lose. It was racist
24:52
Speaker 2: and it's bad. And I celebrate.
24:54
Speaker 1: I have lived for a long time off and on
24:58
Speaker 1: near University of California at Los Angeles here, University of California, Irvine.
25:03
Speaker 2: These are places where test scores win. I think they win.
25:07
Speaker 6: That's right.
25:07
Speaker 2: And I like that. I'm a meritocrat.
25:10
Speaker 1: Do you think that as Beau French apologized? I'm not
25:15
Speaker 1: even following the story that closely. Has he abjectly apologized yet?
25:19
Speaker 4: No, he has not abjectly apologized to you.
25:22
Speaker 10: He said, first of all, when he realized that he
25:24
Speaker 10: had stepped in it, he tried to backtrack and say, well,
25:27
Speaker 10: I don't have anything against these particular students in that photo.
25:32
Speaker 10: He's really concerned about foreigners and the priority that school
25:37
Speaker 10: takes or the state takes when it comes to the
25:39
Speaker 10: foreigners over Americans. But he doesn't know in the photo
25:42
Speaker 10: which of these students, A, are U.S. citizens and naturalized
25:46
Speaker 10: or how many of these students are born in the
25:48
Speaker 10: United States. And I've seen a couple interviews with some
25:51
Speaker 10: of these students from the University.
25:52
Speaker 2: Of Texas, Austin, who are at that game.
25:55
Speaker 10: And they're as American as any number of students there
25:59
Speaker 10: or anywhere in the country. So, I mean, it was
26:02
Speaker 10: an absolutely stupid thing for.
26:04
Speaker 2: Him to say.
26:04
Speaker 10: And it's a bigger deal than some people are taking
26:08
Speaker 10: this because, yes, he's running for some position called the
26:11
Speaker 10: Railroad Commissioner in But that's sort of an old fangled title.
26:14
Speaker 6: I mean, what it really does is oversee.
26:16
Speaker 2: Oil and gas. Oh, it's a big job in the
26:18
Speaker 2: state of Texas. It's a very big job. Yeah.
26:21
Speaker 10: So, no, he made a terrible mistake. He didn't apologize
26:23
Speaker 10: for it. And it's just rather poor thinking on his behalf, because, again,
26:29
Speaker 10: he doesn't know looking at that, you know, who these
26:33
Speaker 10: students are, where they're from or what.
26:35
Speaker 2: Their background is.
26:36
Speaker 10: All he has to know is that they're in the
26:38
Speaker 10: top five percent of the country. You get automatic admission
26:40
Speaker 10: in the state of Texas if you're in the top five.
26:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought it was.
26:44
Speaker 1: Your discussion of it with Mary Catherine was perfect.
26:46
Speaker 2: Quick exit question, Vic.
26:48
Speaker 1: El-Sayed took down at least 100 videos from YouTube. CNN
26:53
Speaker 1: says 100. The New York Times said 160. And he
26:57
Speaker 1: did it before the primary, but it was reported after
26:59
Speaker 1: the primary. You guys on the Free Beacon are all
27:02
Speaker 1: over his campaign. Are those videos going to come to light,
27:05
Speaker 1: do you think, before the end of the campaign?
27:09
Speaker 10: Yes, as you mentioned, thanks for giving the shout out
27:11
Speaker 10: to the Washington Free Beacon and Chuck Ross most recently.
27:14
Speaker 10: We're doing everything that we can to get it out
27:17
Speaker 10: there so that people, but in particular, Michiganders know who
27:22
Speaker 10: they're going to vote for.
27:25
Speaker 2: Come Election Day.
27:25
Speaker 10: I mean, this is not somebody who not only associates
27:29
Speaker 10: with very bad people like Hassan Piker.
27:30
Speaker 2: We get it. You know, Hassan will say crazy things.
27:33
Speaker 10: But Al-Sayed says crazy things himself. And take a look
27:36
Speaker 10: at what he says. Think about where he goes, the imam,
27:40
Speaker 10: what he says, and the things that they've taken down.
27:43
Speaker 10: It's all bad news all around. It would be bad
27:45
Speaker 10: if he became a United States senator, that's for sure.
27:48
Speaker 1: I agree, and thefreebeacon.com is doing yeoman's work to get
27:51
Speaker 1: that stuff. It's just 160 videos. I hope there's a
27:54
Speaker 1: Wayback Machine to find out what he thought he had
27:57
Speaker 1: to take down off of YouTube. Vic Mattis, follow him
28:00
Speaker 1: on X at Victorino Mattis. Like and subscribe to Getting Hammered,
28:03
Speaker 1: the podcast that makes us laugh every week. Highly caffeinated
28:07
Speaker 1: or under-caffeinated, but your morning show for any time of
28:10
Speaker 1: the day. This is the part I wanted to have
28:12
Speaker 1: Josh Kroschauer comment on. Josh, of course, editor-in-chief of Jewish Insider. Josh,
28:18
Speaker 1: you've been watching these clips all day. He's not very smart.
28:22
Speaker 1: He doesn't make a good argument. What do you make
28:24
Speaker 1: about that? Like, you know, most Americans agree with this
28:26
Speaker 1: or that. It's just not right.
28:29
Speaker 12: Hugh, we've known he's not very smart for a long time.
28:32
Speaker 12: He streams for hours upon hours with the most inane, ill-informed...
28:37
Speaker 12: pro-authoritarian regime, pro-terrorism rhetoric.
28:41
Speaker 2: And it's, you know, I was stunned, Hugh.
28:43
Speaker 12: I don't know if we've talked about this. He said
28:45
Speaker 12: when he first kind of hit the national scene, Politico
28:47
Speaker 12: did an interview with him. I think he did a,
28:50
Speaker 12: you know, a share of national interviews. And no one
28:52
Speaker 12: asked him about his actual worldview. No one asked him
28:54
Speaker 12: about his anti-Semitism. No one asked him about his pro-China belief.
28:57
Speaker 12: No one, it was all these like pieces that were
29:00
Speaker 12: designed to kind of make it seem like, sanitize him
29:03
Speaker 12: and make it seem like he was just some podcaster
29:05
Speaker 12: or that was appealing to young men. I mean, the
29:08
Speaker 12: reality is he has a very sinister worldview. I'm glad Axios,
29:11
Speaker 12: I'm glad it took this Axios sit down interview to
29:14
Speaker 12: make people wake up. I noticed on my social media feed, Hugh,
29:17
Speaker 12: that there were people on the very anti-Israel left that
29:20
Speaker 12: are now trying to distance themselves from this guy. But
29:23
Speaker 12: he's been saying these things for many, many months, if
29:26
Speaker 12: not years. And the notion that it takes, you know,
29:29
Speaker 12: people to wake up and understand what this guy is
29:31
Speaker 12: all about is truly stunning. And I think, look, the
29:34
Speaker 12: Democrats are gonna be feeling the political pain because they
29:37
Speaker 12: use this guy as a as a base turnout tool
29:39
Speaker 12: in primaries and they didn't have the moral courage to
29:42
Speaker 12: say this guy's insane he's he's he's pro-terrorism and he's
29:45
Speaker 12: spouting these extreme positions that that are uh you know
29:48
Speaker 12: that are i think untenable uh in in most in
29:51
Speaker 12: most communities now You.
29:53
Speaker 1: Know who Neera Tanden is, and for the benefit of
29:55
Speaker 1: the audience who just tuned in, she was a senior
29:57
Speaker 1: official in the Biden White House. I believe she worked
29:59
Speaker 1: for the Obama administration as well. Neera was nominated to
30:03
Speaker 1: be the director of OMB, and I thought she should
30:05
Speaker 1: have been confirmed, even though she's a brass-knuckled partisan. All right,
30:08
Speaker 1: she is a partisan's partisan.
30:10
Speaker 2: She's very smart.
30:11
Speaker 1: After the latest Hasan Piker drops today, the first couple of,
30:15
Speaker 1: I think it might even have been the first clip,
30:17
Speaker 1: not the second, she posts nine hours ago on X.
30:21
Speaker 1: At some point, you have to wonder if Piker's a
30:25
Speaker 1: GOP plant. She writes, if he's a GOP plant, she's
30:29
Speaker 1: referring to Piker. Really hope all the media type podcasters
30:33
Speaker 1: who normalized him have some introspection. To which I responded
30:37
Speaker 1: on top of that, quote tweeted, the internal polls are
30:40
Speaker 1: worse than I thought because she must know something, right?
30:44
Speaker 1: To call Hassan Piker a plant? What's that tell you, Josh?
30:49
Speaker 12: Well, I've talked to enough pollsters on both sides of
30:51
Speaker 12: the aisle in Michigan. The national environment, and we've talked
30:55
Speaker 12: about this a lot, Hugh, is tough, to put it mildly,
30:58
Speaker 12: for Republicans. This is one of the races, because this guy,
31:02
Speaker 12: El-Sayed is associated with him. This is one of his
31:05
Speaker 12: top surrogates in the final weeks of the campaign. It's
31:09
Speaker 12: going to be a real problem. People are starting to
31:11
Speaker 12: pay attention. I think we overstate the amount of attention
31:13
Speaker 12: people pay to the races until it gets much closer
31:17
Speaker 12: to November, and people are tuning in in Michigan, and
31:20
Speaker 12: they're realizing this guy is bonkers. And they were listening
31:23
Speaker 12: to El Sayed say, oh, he's just a California podcaster. Well,
31:27
Speaker 12: you campaigned with him on several occasions, including in the
31:30
Speaker 12: final week of the race.
31:31
Speaker 2: Like, that doesn't pass the smell test. And, you know,
31:34
Speaker 2: I'm glad that, you.
31:35
Speaker 12: Know, reporters and Alex Thompson, who I think is a
31:38
Speaker 12: terrific reporter at Axios, is continuing to make sure that
31:42
Speaker 12: that this guy's feet is held, that we hear about
31:45
Speaker 12: Piker's views, and we hear about why El-Sayed would want
31:49
Speaker 12: to campaign with this guy whose worldview is so transparent
31:51
Speaker 12: and so obvious to anyone who's been paying attention.
31:54
Speaker 1: Well, I think that we can infer that Hassan Piker's
31:57
Speaker 1: anti-Semitism is shared by El-Sayed. And I don't even think
32:00
Speaker 1: it's a close call. But I hope that Alex, I
32:02
Speaker 1: haven't seen it yet, I hope he said, tell me
32:04
Speaker 1: what you know about the history of Israel. Tell me
32:06
Speaker 1: what you know about the history of Palestine. Because I
32:08
Speaker 1: don't think he knows anything. Here's my question about El Sayed, though, Josh.
32:13
Speaker 1: CNN reported that, and they reported this after the primary,
32:17
Speaker 1: not before it, El Sayed had taken down more than
32:20
Speaker 1: 100 videos from YouTube. El Sayed, not Piker. El Sayed's
32:23
Speaker 1: own videos. The New York Times reported he'd taken down
32:27
Speaker 1: 160 videos. Do you think those are going to surface?
32:30
Speaker 1: Do you think the Democrats might not want to give
32:33
Speaker 1: money to a guy that's a political time bomb?
32:38
Speaker 6: Well.
32:40
Speaker 12: it's interesting because the stakes are so high for Democrats
32:42
Speaker 12: who pretty much need to run the table on winning
32:44
Speaker 12: every competitive Senate race to win back the Senate.
32:47
Speaker 2: And yet.
32:49
Speaker 12: I would argue that the long-term taint of having this
32:51
Speaker 12: guy in the party and El-Sayed is going to be
32:53
Speaker 12: a much more damaging prospect, especially looking ahead to 2028
32:57
Speaker 12: and a presidential election year. People, you know, like, you know,
33:01
Speaker 12: I will say that Mamdani who, you know, you know,
33:04
Speaker 12: has also been virulently anti-Israel has been much more savvy
33:07
Speaker 12: and kind of pushing off some of the questions and
33:09
Speaker 12: trying to, to be, be more nimble about it. I'll say,
33:13
Speaker 12: you can see this as a very fundamental part of,
33:15
Speaker 12: of who he is. The free beacon also had some
33:18
Speaker 12: interesting reporting in the last week. I think some more
33:20
Speaker 12: today about the mosque that Elsa, Elsa attends and the
33:23
Speaker 12: really pro terrorist rhetoric that's come from one of his, uh,
33:27
Speaker 12: you know, one of the moxity that he goes to.
33:28
Speaker 12: And I think that's a very relevant question in the,
33:31
Speaker 12: in the Michigan Senate race. Does he agree with, I mean,
33:33
Speaker 12: you know, with this came up during Obama's 2008 campaign,
33:35
Speaker 12: it's very relevant. Um, and understanding the candidate's worldview. I
33:38
Speaker 12: think it's pretty obvious to folks like us what this
33:40
Speaker 12: guy actually believes and why he hasn't taken the politically
33:43
Speaker 12: necessary steps to distance himself from someone this toxic. But
33:46
Speaker 12: I think there's going to be a lot of good
33:48
Speaker 12: reporting still yet to come about what El-Sayed actually believes
33:50
Speaker 12: and how extreme his own views are.
33:52
Speaker 1: Well, how does one find the 160 YouTube videos that
33:56
Speaker 1: El-Sayed took down?
33:58
Speaker 2: Is there any way to find them?
34:00
Speaker 9: No.
34:01
Speaker 12: We I mean, look, we indicate, like, for example, social media.
34:05
Speaker 12: I don't know about these videos, but, you know, we've
34:07
Speaker 12: reported about Mamdani's wife in New York City extensively. Will
34:11
Speaker 12: Bretterman has been a tremendous investigative reporter. And we typically,
34:14
Speaker 12: I think, good investigative reporters screenshot or keep some record
34:17
Speaker 12: if they see him before they're taken down. I know, like,
34:20
Speaker 12: you know, Kaczynski at CNN. Andrew Kaczynski is an excellent
34:24
Speaker 12: investigative reporter, uses those same. So I hope that there's some.
34:27
Speaker 12: some documentation that good reporters have looked at. And look,
34:30
Speaker 12: I know there have been a lot of good reporters
34:32
Speaker 12: that have been looking into El-Sayed's background, and they've been
34:35
Speaker 12: using those techniques. But look, it's amazing how the mainstream
34:40
Speaker 12: media is uncomfortable dealing with something that should be very
34:42
Speaker 12: easy to cover and very straightforward.
34:44
Speaker 2: It's a real red flag.
34:46
Speaker 1: They don't want to be accused of being Islamophobic.
34:50
Speaker 2: They're not. They're being political reporters.
34:52
Speaker 1: But good on Axios for getting Piker to sit down
34:55
Speaker 1: and Neurotan, then he's not a plant. He's your problem.
35:00
Speaker 1: Josh Kroschauer, follow him on Exit Josh Kroschauer. Follow me
35:03
Speaker 1: to the next segment.
35:04
Speaker 2: I'm Hugh Hewitt. Stay tuned.
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37:05
Speaker 13: Not only on Salem Now, featuring one of Charlie Kirk's
37:07
Speaker 13: final interviews, the new documentary, Can You Hear Me Now?
37:10
Speaker 13: Investigates modern prophets and their divine messages.
37:14
Speaker 8: Some people absolutely have the gift of prophecy if god
37:16
Speaker 8: exists how would he inject his information into our world
37:20
Speaker 8: more than likely he would use humans satan would love
37:22
Speaker 8: christians but just be a spectator not engage not participate is.
37:26
Speaker 6: There something he's trying to say.
37:28
Speaker 13: Can you hear me now pre-order the movie by september
37:31
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37:34
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37:35
Speaker 1: Up in this hour seth mandel will be along i'm
37:38
Speaker 1: also going to replay for you my appearance on fox
37:40
Speaker 1: where i um made light of the idea that we
37:42
Speaker 1: need a new.
37:43
Speaker 2: Agency for AI. I'm joined by Garrity the Indispensable.
37:46
Speaker 1: Jim Garrity, National Review senior writer, is also a columnist
37:49
Speaker 1: for the Washington Post. He's the host of the Three
37:52
Speaker 1: Martini Lunch, frequent contributor at the Editor's Podcast, and all-around
37:56
Speaker 1: good guy. He's also a novelist, and one of his
37:59
Speaker 1: novels is about the weed agency. Jim, I am very
38:03
Speaker 1: skeptical of AI doomerism and the need for a new agency.
38:06
Speaker 1: What do you think about the need for a new
38:08
Speaker 1: agency to regulate AI?
38:12
Speaker 4: I'd be very curious as to what this AI agency
38:15
Speaker 4: would actually do. It sounds like what the proposal from
38:20
Speaker 4: Amadai and Anthropic, and it seemed like most of the
38:24
Speaker 4: heads had gotten on board, was this idea of, okay,
38:27
Speaker 4: we're going to have these outside observers who are kind
38:29
Speaker 4: of looking over our shoulder, who are making sure that
38:31
Speaker 4: we're all complying with best practices for safety and things
38:34
Speaker 4: like that. And that way, no rogue AI agent or
38:39
Speaker 4: swarm of agents will break out of the sandbox and
38:43
Speaker 4: cause chaos somewhere. And everybody seems to be on board
38:46
Speaker 4: with this. I have yet to see any. And by
38:48
Speaker 4: the way, you know, David Sachs, the president's advisor, was like,
38:51
Speaker 4: you know, guys, there's nothing stopping.
38:53
Speaker 2: You from doing this.
38:54
Speaker 4: You don't need a permission slip from the federal government
38:57
Speaker 4: to do this. If you all want to do it,
38:58
Speaker 4: go right ahead. David Sachs is also very skeptical of
39:02
Speaker 4: whether China would ever agree to this sort of thing.
39:07
Speaker 4: I think he's got a good, well-founded reasoning for that.
39:11
Speaker 4: With that said, I might put that sort of thing
39:14
Speaker 4: on the table just because of curiosity to see how
39:17
Speaker 4: the Chinese react, because there's a couple of things that
39:19
Speaker 4: can happen. If you get a whole bunch of countries
39:22
Speaker 4: to agree to this sort of thing, and China refuse,
39:25
Speaker 4: China can either feel, you know, say, okay, we'll sign
39:27
Speaker 4: the agreement, break their word. And if we catch them
39:30
Speaker 4: doing that, we could point to them and say, see,
39:33
Speaker 4: they signed the international AI development treaty and they broke
39:36
Speaker 4: their word. And we can use that against that. Or
39:39
Speaker 4: alternately we can, they refuse to do it. And this,
39:42
Speaker 4: then we can point to everybody else and say, why
39:43
Speaker 4: are you working with China? They refuse to sign the
39:45
Speaker 4: international AI development treaty or something like that. So, My
39:49
Speaker 4: colleague Noah Rothman thinks like there's no point to almost
39:52
Speaker 4: any international arms control treaty. And I kind of feel
39:55
Speaker 4: like there's a great propaganda value where you can either
39:57
Speaker 4: catch them cheating on them or when they refuse to
40:01
Speaker 4: sign something that everybody else did.
40:03
Speaker 1: You know, I'm with Noah because when you're as indifferent
40:05
Speaker 1: to propaganda value as China appears to be, it doesn't matter.
40:10
Speaker 2: Jim, a quick question.
40:11
Speaker 1: If either Hitler or Stalin had gotten the atomic bomb
40:15
Speaker 1: before we did, what would have happened?
40:20
Speaker 4: Oh, I think probably something out of Man in the
40:23
Speaker 4: High Castle or Earth X from the DC Comics universe
40:27
Speaker 4: or any Nazis take over the world science fiction dystopia
40:33
Speaker 4: that you.
40:33
Speaker 6: Want to look at.
40:34
Speaker 1: We want to get to anything that's dangerous first. I
40:38
Speaker 1: don't know if it's going to save us, but we
40:39
Speaker 1: want to get there first.
40:40
Speaker 2: That's my view. Let me know.
40:44
Speaker 4: Before I move on, I just want to observe. We
40:45
Speaker 4: started with the last really bad crisis to hit the world, COVID.
40:50
Speaker 4: started when the Chinese government very belatedly said, hey, you
40:54
Speaker 4: know that virus that we assured you for a month?
40:57
Speaker 4: There's no way it could go from one human being
40:59
Speaker 4: to another. It turns out it is contagious, and it
41:03
Speaker 4: may have come from anywhere, maybe Maine lobster or something
41:05
Speaker 4: like that. And obviously, many of us strongly believe that
41:09
Speaker 4: there's a small mountain of evidence pointing to a lab leak.
41:12
Speaker 4: The next crisis of the world may well come from
41:17
Speaker 4: finding out a month ago some Chinese People's Liberation Army
41:23
Speaker 4: AI research facility, everyone found themselves locked out of their computers.
41:29
Speaker 4: If we could get cooperation with the Chinese, which again,
41:31
Speaker 4: I don't think there's a particularly high chance of this,
41:33
Speaker 4: but if we can discourage them from doing dangerous experimentation
41:37
Speaker 4: on this, and we can say to them, look, this
41:39
Speaker 4: is a threat to your power. This is a threat
41:41
Speaker 4: to your control over your people. This is why you
41:44
Speaker 4: don't want to mess with this kind of stuff, because
41:46
Speaker 4: once you get it out of the sandbox, It becomes
41:49
Speaker 4: very hard to stop this from spreading to other systems
41:51
Speaker 4: and things like that. Maybe we can get them to
41:54
Speaker 4: play ball on this. I'm not particularly optimistic about this,
41:56
Speaker 4: but I do think it's worth making the effort. If
41:58
Speaker 4: for no other reason than afterwards, however this clash comes out,
42:02
Speaker 4: we can say, hey, we tried to cooperate with you
42:04
Speaker 4: guys and you guys refused.
42:06
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm still with Noah. Now let me turn to
42:08
Speaker 2: Ahsan Piker.
42:10
Speaker 1: Neera Tanden, senior official in the Biden White House and
42:14
Speaker 1: longtime Democrat activist, Posted on X Today, at some point,
42:18
Speaker 1: you have to wonder if he, meaning Piker, is a
42:20
Speaker 1: GOP plant. Really hope all the media type podcasters who
42:24
Speaker 1: normalized him have some introspection. So my comment on that
42:27
Speaker 1: is the internal polls are worse than I thought. What's
42:30
Speaker 1: your take on Neera Tanden thinking maybe Ahsan Piker is
42:34
Speaker 1: a GOP plant? How much damage is Piker doing?
42:38
Speaker 4: Oh, I think he is. First of all, Hugh, you
42:41
Speaker 4: and I have been doing this for a long time.
42:43
Speaker 4: Have you noticed that every time some commentator from outside
42:47
Speaker 4: the regular world of political commentators bubbles up and becomes
42:52
Speaker 4: the next hot new thing? Jennifer Welch is in this category.
42:57
Speaker 4: Tim Pool got this huge profile in the Wall Street
43:00
Speaker 4: Journal because he's cool and he skateboards and he's got
43:03
Speaker 4: his black beanie.
43:03
Speaker 6: And all that stuff.
43:05
Speaker 4: Hugh, have you noticed that they're all the dumbest people?
43:09
Speaker 4: tools in the toolbox you've ever seen. Jennifer Welch had some, like, what,
43:13
Speaker 4: HGTV program? And now all of a sudden she's the
43:16
Speaker 4: messiah of the Democratic left grassroots? I constantly marvel at this.
43:22
Speaker 4: Hasan Piker has had at least three glowing profiles written
43:25
Speaker 4: about him by the New York Times over a five-year span.
43:29
Speaker 4: And I wrote a very long, detailed profile of this
43:31
Speaker 4: guy about where he came from. He's the nephew of
43:34
Speaker 4: Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks. He's Twitch streaming 12
43:38
Speaker 4: hours a day. Hugh, you're on your program, like, what,
43:40
Speaker 4: three hours a day?
43:41
Speaker 2: Three hours a day.
43:44
Speaker 4: If you had to do 12 hours a day, I'm
43:45
Speaker 4: going to, for the sake of argument, I'm going to
43:48
Speaker 4: say you're sane now. Insert Brown's joke here. If you
43:52
Speaker 4: had to do what you do for 12 hours a day,
43:55
Speaker 4: five days a week, or maybe six, seven days a week,
43:57
Speaker 4: how long until you would absolutely lose your mind?
43:59
Speaker 2: Yeah. And you would be babbling.
44:03
Speaker 1: And you would be using invective, and you would be doing–
44:07
Speaker 1: who knows what you would be doing? I have guardrails,
44:10
Speaker 1: to take an AI term. I've got FCC regulation. Who
44:13
Speaker 1: knows what would happen to someone with 12 hours a day?
44:15
Speaker 4: You'd probably be saying that America deserved 9-11, and you'd
44:18
Speaker 4: probably be saying that the United States is worse than
44:20
Speaker 4: al-Qaeda when it comes to terrorism.
44:22
Speaker 2: I would never do that.
44:23
Speaker 4: And all of the other bat– you know what– crazy
44:26
Speaker 4: things that he has been saying and nobody in their
44:29
Speaker 4: right mind, whatever, like there are crazy people in the
44:32
Speaker 4: Republican party. Beau French stinks. And I could have used
44:35
Speaker 4: much worse words if we weren't to be regulated by
44:37
Speaker 4: the FCC. You know, Nick Fuentes, I don't even know
44:41
Speaker 4: if he still thinks of himself as a Republican these days,
44:42
Speaker 4: but Nick Fuentes.
44:43
Speaker 2: You don't have to go for that part. Just go
44:44
Speaker 2: with Tom Massey. Go with Tom Massey.
44:47
Speaker 4: But we don't... Yeah, oh, he's gone cuckoo for Cocoa
44:50
Speaker 4: Puffs and he's saying, you know, terrible anti-Semitic things every
44:53
Speaker 4: chance he gets. But you don't see Republican Senate candidates
44:58
Speaker 4: campaigning for office with the Nick Fuentes of the world
45:02
Speaker 4: or insert hyperbolic nut job, you know, podcast commentator... that,
45:08
Speaker 4: you know, du jour, you know, whereas that's not what
45:11
Speaker 4: Abdul Syed did. And I know he's interviewed, he interviewed
45:14
Speaker 4: Ventresca Hong. I'm pretty sure he's interviewed AOC. I mean,
45:18
Speaker 4: the hard left progressive members of Congress doing an appearance
45:21
Speaker 4: with Hassan Piker is just not a very big deal
45:23
Speaker 4: to them.
45:24
Speaker 2: Now, let me ask you, have you seen the Axios
45:26
Speaker 2: clips already?
45:29
Speaker 4: Oh yeah. That one of them was the, we pound
45:31
Speaker 4: for pound. We are worse than, we were a bigger
45:34
Speaker 4: terrorist than Al Qaeda. By the way, you want to
45:36
Speaker 4: know what sign of how we know all, Yeah. You
45:38
Speaker 4: want to know how we know Al Qaeda is dead?
45:42
Speaker 2: Um, I think, so you.
45:43
Speaker 4: Notice that he went from my friend Hassan to a
45:47
Speaker 4: Twitch streamer in California by Abdul Al Sayyed. Now I'm
45:51
Speaker 4: going to blow it. I barely met this guy. I
45:53
Speaker 4: don't even know him who, you know, I couldn't pick
45:55
Speaker 4: him out of a lineup, all that stuff, which of
45:57
Speaker 4: course is nonsense. Um, look, you know, the, the, the
46:01
Speaker 4: other thing is that Hassan Piker, he's now gotten that,
46:04
Speaker 4: you know, cocaine rush of fame, uh, He's not going
46:08
Speaker 4: to calm down. He's not going to disappear. He's not
46:11
Speaker 4: going to pull a Graham Platner and just get abducted
46:14
Speaker 4: by aliens and disappear. Hassan Piker likes being in this role.
46:18
Speaker 4: He doesn't care if he, you know, ends up hurting
46:21
Speaker 4: Democrats in the long run. In part because, first of all,
46:23
Speaker 4: he's convinced he's popular because however many kids are on
46:26
Speaker 4: his Twitch stream are saying, yeah, dude, it's awesome.
46:28
Speaker 6: Keep going.
46:29
Speaker 4: But also just to him, like, this is his brain. Like,
46:33
Speaker 4: here's the thing. Most of what he says in terms
46:36
Speaker 4: of policy, to the extent he does, which is not
46:38
Speaker 4: very much, is very, you know, cookie cutter, progressive Democrat stuff, right?
46:45
Speaker 4: You can get that from anybody. What makes him stand
46:47
Speaker 4: out is the America deserved 9-11, right? What makes him
46:51
Speaker 4: stand out is when he goes beyond the pale and
46:54
Speaker 4: says things that I think if you're a normal, well-adjusted American,
46:57
Speaker 4: you're like, no, I don't think that's a good, I
46:58
Speaker 4: don't agree. We can say we're a deeply flawed country
47:02
Speaker 4: and still say we didn't deserve 9-11. You can say
47:04
Speaker 4: we're a deeply flawed country and still feel we're better
47:07
Speaker 4: than al-Qaeda. By the way, Hugh, you know how we
47:09
Speaker 4: know that al-Qaeda is like pretty much dead and gone?
47:12
Speaker 2: Wow.
47:15
Speaker 4: How many– there were probably about a million different ceremonies
47:17
Speaker 4: last year or last week marking the 20th. Not a
47:20
Speaker 4: single one was disrupted by any terrorist attack.
47:22
Speaker 2: Oh, you're right.
47:23
Speaker 12: Right?
47:23
Speaker 2: You're right.
47:23
Speaker 6: These guys are out of business.
47:25
Speaker 2: They are.
47:25
Speaker 4: Well, they have some options in Africa.
47:28
Speaker 2: Yeah.
47:29
Speaker 4: Here is Hassan Piker saying Al Qaeda, America, the United
47:33
Speaker 4: States of America is a deadlier terrorist than Al Qaeda.
47:37
Speaker 4: And you know what we're not seeing, Hugh? Anybody from
47:40
Speaker 4: Al Qaeda around to object.
47:42
Speaker 2: Yeah. They're all gone.
47:44
Speaker 4: Osama bin Laden.
47:45
Speaker 2: Is fish food.
47:47
Speaker 1: Maybe we'll get someone from Boko Haram or maybe we'll
47:50
Speaker 1: get someone from Somalia to show up and make the
47:53
Speaker 1: argument as their proxy.
47:55
Speaker 2: Garrity is always indispensable.
47:57
Speaker 1: Follow Kim on X at Jim Garrity. Listen to the
48:01
Speaker 1: Three Martini Lunch, his podcast.
48:03
Speaker 2: Listen to the editors. Read them in the Washington Post
48:05
Speaker 2: and come right back. Seth Mandel, I think, is next.
48:08
Speaker 2: Thank you, Jim.
48:16
Speaker 3: You once said that America is the top dog in terrorism.
48:20
Speaker 11: Yes.
48:21
Speaker 3: Do you think America then is worse than Al Qaeda?
48:24
Speaker 5: Pound for pound, as far as the number of deaths, yes,
48:27
Speaker 5: we have caused tremendous terror all around the world.
48:30
Speaker 2: Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt.
48:32
Speaker 1: That was Ahsan Piker on The Axios Show with Alex Thompson.
48:35
Speaker 1: I'm joined now by Seth Mandel of Commentary Magazine.
48:39
Speaker 2: Senior writer. Seth, these clips are everywhere.
48:43
Speaker 1: What do you make of them, and what do you
48:45
Speaker 1: make of Piker's impact on al-Sayed.
48:47
Speaker 2: And other Democrats?
48:50
Speaker 9: What I make of them is that El-Sayed has a
48:54
Speaker 9: larger problem than just he's anti-Israel or even he's anti-Semitic.
48:59
Speaker 9: I think these things keep piling up. And at some point,
49:03
Speaker 9: I think voters are thinking to themselves, the people that
49:06
Speaker 9: don't like America like this guy, like El-Sayed. I think
49:11
Speaker 9: he has, there's going to be maybe the quiet patriot
49:14
Speaker 9: vote or something like that that could sting him if
49:16
Speaker 9: he's not careful. Because I think this is bigger than,
49:19
Speaker 9: than just in a dispute over the Gaza war or
49:24
Speaker 9: even whether Israel should exist as a Jewish state. This
49:27
Speaker 9: seems to be America haters rallying to a specific candidate
49:32
Speaker 9: and that candidate not willing to cut the America haters loose.
49:36
Speaker 9: What is the how does that look?
49:38
Speaker 1: I don't think it works in Michigan. I went to
49:40
Speaker 1: law school in Michigan, and there are a lot of
49:42
Speaker 1: smart people up there. I don't like their football team,
49:45
Speaker 1: but there are a lot of smart people in Michigan,
49:46
Speaker 1: and Detroit's coming back. I don't think the black community
49:49
Speaker 1: is particularly in love with Abdul El-Sayed either. That's why
49:54
Speaker 1: I see some of these podcast appearances. But let me
49:57
Speaker 1: read you Neera Tanden. I just read this to Jim Garrity.
50:01
Speaker 1: Neera Tanden this morning, after the first Axios drop came out,
50:05
Speaker 1: posted on X, at some point, You have to wonder
50:08
Speaker 1: if Piker's.
50:09
Speaker 2: A GOP plant.
50:11
Speaker 1: Really hope all the media type podcasters who normalized him
50:14
Speaker 1: have some introspection. To which I responded at X, the
50:19
Speaker 1: internal polls are worse than I thought. I mean, when
50:21
Speaker 1: you've got Neera Tanden, who's a smart lady, senior Biden
50:25
Speaker 1: official saying, I wonder if Ahsan Piker's a plant. How
50:28
Speaker 1: much damage has Piker done to the brand, Seth?
50:33
Speaker 9: That's what we're waiting to find out. But one of
50:36
Speaker 9: the things that we've been looking at over the past
50:40
Speaker 9: couple weeks is that this blue wave that is coming,
50:44
Speaker 9: all the fundamentals are there, but there are all these
50:47
Speaker 9: close races also, and Michigan is one of them. And so...
50:51
Speaker 9: I think at first Democrats may have gotten a bit
50:54
Speaker 9: overconfident and thought, you know, we're just whoever wins this.
50:58
Speaker 9: It doesn't really matter. We're not going to get we're
51:00
Speaker 9: not going to get that much into the into the
51:03
Speaker 9: muck over this. Let them fight it out. Let Haley
51:05
Speaker 9: Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed fight it out. And whoever wins
51:09
Speaker 9: is going to come out with a huge advantage because
51:11
Speaker 9: this is Michigan. We are the incumbent party when it
51:14
Speaker 9: comes to the seat. And it's going to be a
51:17
Speaker 9: it's looking like a blue wave year. So just let
51:20
Speaker 9: it happen. And I think, you know, that maybe he
51:23
Speaker 9: wins anyway, but that was clearly a mistake to bet
51:26
Speaker 9: on it. And I think you're seeing that now people
51:28
Speaker 9: realize that he has the ability to just tell Hassan
51:32
Speaker 9: Piker to go jump off a bridge, but he doesn't.
51:35
Speaker 9: He has the ability to make clear where he stands
51:39
Speaker 9: and what he keeps saying with Hassan Piker and others
51:43
Speaker 9: who are flocking to him are things like, well, I
51:45
Speaker 9: disagree with them. We have our disagreements. But at the
51:48
Speaker 9: end of the day, and he keeps talking about growing
51:51
Speaker 9: the brand and widening the tent. But first of all,
51:54
Speaker 9: I don't think this is who the Democrats want in
51:56
Speaker 9: the tent because it pushes other people out of the tent.
52:00
Speaker 9: And that, I think, is what Neera is referencing there.
52:03
Speaker 2: Well, I think that's exactly right.
52:05
Speaker 1: Now, when we go beyond Piker and Abdul El-Sayed, is
52:09
Speaker 1: there an impact on Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota, Chris Pappas
52:13
Speaker 1: in New Hampshire, Troy Jackson in In Maine, Sherrod Brown
52:17
Speaker 1: in Ohio, wherever they are too close for comfort and
52:21
Speaker 1: they're not running away with it or they don't have
52:23
Speaker 1: six or seven points to play with, I think a
52:26
Speaker 1: lot of people are paying attention to El-Sayed as the
52:28
Speaker 1: future of the Democratic Party and Piker as El-Sayed Sherpa,
52:32
Speaker 1: and they're not liking it, Seth. I think it's really
52:37
Speaker 1: a disaster for them.
52:40
Speaker 9: Yeah, well, you– the party has a certain amount of
52:42
Speaker 9: control over this by who they elevate. This happened a
52:46
Speaker 9: few years ago when AOC was the new hot thing
52:50
Speaker 9: in the Democratic Party. You had members of the Democratic Party.
52:53
Speaker 9: You had officials at the DNC and elsewhere. suggesting that
52:57
Speaker 9: she's the future. Obviously, Bernie, I think Bernie Sanders was
53:00
Speaker 9: one of those, but also officials within the establishment who
53:03
Speaker 9: were talking about this. She's the future. She's young. She's energetic.
53:08
Speaker 9: She knows what she's doing. She knows how to communicate
53:10
Speaker 9: with people and all that stuff. El-Sayed is very similar
53:13
Speaker 9: in that way, in that he's a podcaster. Communication is
53:19
Speaker 9: is his thing. He's very practiced at it. He's very
53:21
Speaker 9: good at it. He's usually very smooth, although of late
53:25
Speaker 9: he's been a bit over defensive because of all the
53:28
Speaker 9: Hassan Piker stuff, which is another thing that Democrats might
53:31
Speaker 9: want to worry about. But he's he and he's also
53:34
Speaker 9: the one that they're flocking to. And so if these Democrats.
53:38
Speaker 9: are going to be gung-ho about El-Sayed. They're going to
53:41
Speaker 9: show up to the rallies and they're going to say,
53:43
Speaker 9: we need to do whatever we need to do to
53:45
Speaker 9: get him over the finish line. That only makes him
53:49
Speaker 9: look even more like the future of the party, even
53:52
Speaker 9: more like someone they're anointing to carry the party forward,
53:56
Speaker 9: because they're not going to be spending that kind of
53:59
Speaker 9: attention and energy maybe on Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota, or
54:03
Speaker 9: as you said, in New Hampshire, in which Democrats are
54:06
Speaker 9: in a real dogfight.
54:08
Speaker 2: So I want to close on this.
54:10
Speaker 1: I didn't want to put words in your mouth, but
54:12
Speaker 1: I described this yesterday that El Sayed seems to me
54:15
Speaker 1: to be very angry and defensive in the last stretch.
54:19
Speaker 2: And you mentioned you picked up on that as well.
54:21
Speaker 1: It's not a happy warrior kind of vibe at all
54:23
Speaker 1: coming from him, but really angry.
54:26
Speaker 2: You agree with that? Yeah, absolutely.
54:29
Speaker 9: I think he's angry when you ask him about Hassan Piker.
54:34
Speaker 9: He gets short-tempered when you ask him about why he
54:37
Speaker 9: says he wants money out of politics, but he's going
54:39
Speaker 9: to go hang with the Soroses on the West Coast
54:42
Speaker 9: and have a huge fundraiser. He gets defensive. All these
54:46
Speaker 9: questions about hypocrisy and his electoral weaknesses– They get this
54:51
Speaker 9: kind of scowl from him. He has not– he's never
54:54
Speaker 9: truly been the happy warrior type essentially, but he has
54:59
Speaker 9: really been I think short-tempered and impatient on the campaign
55:03
Speaker 9: trail lately. And I think the main difference is that he–
55:07
Speaker 9: during the Democratic primary, he– there were certain criticisms that
55:11
Speaker 9: were not really coming in at him all that much
55:13
Speaker 9: because the Democrats didn't want to fight against each other
55:17
Speaker 9: too much about say Israel or some of these other things.
55:20
Speaker 9: And they didn't talk a ton about Hassan Piker and
55:22
Speaker 9: some of these other influences. But this is the general.
55:25
Speaker 9: This is the general election. And the GOP's argument against
55:28
Speaker 9: El-Sayed is always going to be different than, say, Haley Stevens'
55:32
Speaker 9: argument about El-Sayed. That's what he's facing now. And it
55:35
Speaker 9: seems to me he was unprepared for that shift and
55:38
Speaker 9: is reacting accordingly.
55:40
Speaker 1: So my last question is that the commentary annual roast
55:43
Speaker 1: coming up soon, sold out, can't get in.
55:46
Speaker 2: But I'll ask the question again.
55:48
Speaker 1: If there's a drinking game that you've got to drink
55:50
Speaker 1: every time El Sayed or Piker is mentioned, how many
55:53
Speaker 1: people are leaving sober?
55:58
Speaker 9: Well, you know, there's there's a it'll be in a
56:00
Speaker 9: place where there are the per capita rate of taxi
56:05
Speaker 9: cab availability, not to mention ride share, plus public transportation
56:09
Speaker 9: that runs all night in New York will be will
56:12
Speaker 9: be there on the scene. So I I wouldn't be
56:14
Speaker 9: too worried about it. But but so we can handle
56:17
Speaker 9: it if that happens. But yeah, not many people going
56:21
Speaker 9: home sober if that's the case.
56:22
Speaker 2: Keep score for me, which I'm not going to be
56:24
Speaker 2: at the commentary house.
56:25
Speaker 1: But keep score, because I have a feeling Abdul El-Sayed
56:28
Speaker 1: and Hassan Piker may.
56:30
Speaker 2: Come up a few times. I could be wrong. I
56:32
Speaker 2: could be wrong. It could be very different.
56:34
Speaker 1: Seth Mandel, follow him on. Exit Seth Mandel. Read him
56:37
Speaker 1: in commentary, commentary.org.
56:39
Speaker 2: And stay tuned. I'll be right back, America, on The
56:41
Speaker 2: Hugh Hewitt Show.