Latest / Predictable with Stu Burguiere / Ep 1081 | Rapidly Altered Media Coverage Makes Truth-Finding on Ceasefire IMPOSSIBLE | Guest: Josh Hammer

Transcript

Ep 1081 | Rapidly Altered Media Coverage Makes Truth-Finding on Ceasefire IMPOSSIBLE | Guest: Josh Hammer · Predictable with Stu Burguiere

• 0:01
  Stu does America.
• 0:06
  The show's on YouTube.
• 0:07
  Did you know that?
• 0:08
  YouTube.com/StudiosAmerica.
• 0:09
  Be sure to subscribe,
• 0:10
  hit the bell for notifications.
• 0:12
  It's also on podcasts.
• 0:13
  Follow wherever you get your podcasts.
• 0:15
  By the way,
• 0:15
  happy June 24th,
• 0:17
  6-24-22.
• 0:18
  It is the uh anniversary of the overturning of Roe versus Wade.
• 0:23
  Uh,
• 0:23
  we have great merch items,
• 0:24
  uh,
• 0:24
  celebrating that fact,
• 0:25
  uh,
• 0:25
  from,
• 0:26
  uh,
• 0:26
  just a few years ago,
• 0:28
  was it 3 years ago now,
• 0:29
  uh,
• 0:29
  62422 merch is all available at Stuomerch.com.
• 0:32
  Code is Stu 10.
• 0:33
  What a great,
• 0:33
  uh,
• 0:33
  merch day
• 0:34
  for this program,
• 0:35
  as well as his Andrew Cuomo primary day
• 0:38
  today.
• 0:38
  Andrew Cuomo's awful.com still active as well.
• 0:41
  You can get both of those things 10% off with the code S210.
• 0:44
  Josh Hammer is gonna join.
• 0:45
  Join us with his reaction to the latest in Iran,
• 0:46
  as well as a preview of some of the
• 0:48
  Supreme Court decisions on the docket for this year.
• 0:50
  I mentioned today's,
• 0:51
  uh,
• 0:51
  special anniversary,
• 0:52
  uh,
• 0:52
  6-24-22.
• 0:54
  We'll look at the current state of abortion rights in America,
• 0:56
  but we're gonna start by doing the truth behind the ceasefire because
• 1:00
  I mean,
• 1:00
  what a
• 1:01
  day.
• 1:02
  I,
• 1:02
  I,
• 1:02
  I,
• 1:03
  these days,
• 1:03
  man,
• 1:03
  it is,
• 1:04
  there's so much going on.
• 1:05
  There's so many big topics to cover.
• 1:07
  Right now,
• 1:07
  of course,
• 1:08
  Israel and Iran
• 1:10
  in the middle of what might be a ceasefire.
• 1:12
  Who even knows?
• 1:13
  The question asked by The New York Times,
• 1:15
  can Iran,
• 1:16
  Israel,
• 1:17
  and the US
• 1:18
  now all claim to have won?
• 1:21
  Now I can see how the US would claim they won.
• 1:24
  The,
• 1:24
  the bombings,
• 1:24
  they've been out,
• 1:25
  nothing else happened to them.
• 1:27
  I can see how Israel would say that they are winning,
• 1:28
  right?
• 1:29
  Uh,
• 1:29
  I can see how they say they've won.
• 1:30
  They've done lots of damage.
• 1:32
  Don't really see how Israel or Iran is,
• 1:36
  uh,
• 1:36
  is going to say that
• 1:38
  coherently,
• 1:39
  but,
• 1:39
  uh,
• 1:40
  it's nice to see that the New York Times are aligning with
• 1:42
  Iranian state media that had this to say.
• 1:45
  Translate for you.
• 1:48
  Perhaps America has joined the war
• 1:52
  because we were very close to annihilating Israel.
• 1:56
  And it was in the closing stages.
• 1:58
  Who's up for that kind of analysis?
• 1:59
  Well,
• 1:59
  you can get that either from Iranian state media
• 2:01
  or
• 2:02
  just maybe the New York Times.
• 2:04
  Few things have happened over the past 24 hours,
• 2:07
  uh,
• 2:07
  and actually maybe 36 at this point.
• 2:09
  Uh,
• 2:09
  between 3:30 and 6:00 a.m. on June 22nd,
• 2:12
  the US carried out the airstrikes.
• 2:13
  Remember that.
• 2:14
  Late at night June 23rd,
• 2:15
  Iran launched missile attacks on the United States.
• 2:19
  June 24th in the wee hours of the morning,
• 2:21
  Iran accept
• 2:22
  accepted a ceasefire proposal
• 2:24
  early morning as well.
• 2:26
  June 24th,
• 2:27
  Donald Trump speaks directly with Netanyahu.
• 2:30
  June 24th,
• 2:30
  Donald Trump on social media announces a complete and,
• 2:34
  uh,
• 2:34
  total ceasefire
• 2:36
  and an official end to the twelve-day war.
• 2:39
  Now of course the war has been going on for much longer than 12 days,
• 2:42
  but this particular battle may be 12 days,
• 2:45
  and of course that was,
• 2:47
  it was the end of that war
• 2:48
  after a few hours where they get to kill each other for a little while longer.
• 2:52
  There's there's a purge period.
• 2:54
  It's weird how we're working purges
• 2:56
  now into these agreements.
• 2:57
  It's a very strange tactic that we've kind of developed
• 3:00
  over time and we're not the first to do it.
• 3:02
  Like I,
• 3:02
  I can.
• 3:03
  Certainly understand like back in the 1700s,
• 3:06
  right,
• 3:07
  where you'd be like,
• 3:07
  hey,
• 3:08
  we're stopping firing and there's battles going on
• 3:11
  and you have to get somebody a messenger
• 3:12
  to tell the general,
• 3:14
  hey,
• 3:14
  we're not firing anymore.
• 3:15
  But today with today's media,
• 3:17
  I feel like you should be able to alert
• 3:19
  everyone to stop firing missiles almost right away.
• 3:22
  Like I think it should be like almost instant,
• 3:24
  but I don't know,
• 3:24
  an hour,
• 3:26
  really?
• 3:26
  Do you need a 1213 hour period?
• 3:29
  Brent Show points it out.
• 3:30
  A note for all future ceasefires,
• 3:32
  I don't think it's a healthy practice to give both sides a final killing round.
• 3:37
  It's kind of a good point
• 3:39
  when you think about it.
• 3:40
  I don't think good things necessarily come out
• 3:42
  of that,
• 3:43
  but
• 3:43
  that is what happened last night.
• 3:45
  It seems like
• 3:46
  for the moment this thing is holding itself together.
• 3:49
  We'll see if that lasts,
• 3:51
  uh,
• 3:51
  and obviously we'll just follow it as closely as we can both here
• 3:55
  and over on radio,
• 3:57
  and you know that's all we can do.
• 3:59
  That's all we can do because I will say
• 4:01
  some of the stuff is really
• 4:02
  difficult to decipher,
• 4:04
  decipher what is actually happening.
• 4:06
  Um,
• 4:07
  US Democrats,
• 4:07
  of course,
• 4:07
  are doing their jobs.
• 4:09
  What are their jobs,
• 4:10
  of course,
• 4:11
  uh,
• 4:11
  they are introducing a resolution to check Trump's use of military against Iran,
• 4:15
  so they've got a resolution going,
• 4:16
  but
• 4:17
  that didn't go far enough for our friend Al Green,
• 4:19
  not the singer,
• 4:20
  the incredible congressman.
• 4:21
  Al Green introduces article of impeachment against Donald Trump.
• 4:25
  Yes,
• 4:25
  you're back in that time once again.
• 4:27
  Congratulations everybody.
• 4:29
  It's impeachment time.
• 4:31
  It's worked so well for the Democrats in the past,
• 4:33
  they're going to give it another whirl.
• 4:34
  Here is the fan out of the.
• 4:36
  A resolution,
• 4:37
  which of course has not been numbered yet,
• 4:39
  but it is,
• 4:39
  I read through it.
• 4:41
  Basically they're just saying he should have gone to Congress,
• 4:43
  and there is an actual argument about this.
• 4:45
  It's not just Donald Trump
• 4:47
  or Al Green who think about this.
• 4:48
  This is something that,
• 4:50
  you know,
• 4:51
  conservatives have brought up many times as well.
• 4:53
  Libertarians bring it up often.
• 4:56
  There is a process for how you're supposed to engage in war.
• 4:59
  There are some carve-outs for the executive
• 5:01
  branch to operate in certain situations.
• 5:04
  I'm not sure this is one of them,
• 5:06
  uh,
• 5:06
  frankly,
• 5:07
  um,
• 5:07
  but
• 5:08
  it's not like this is out of normal,
• 5:10
  out of the norm behavior for our presidents.
• 5:11
  This has been happening for a long time
• 5:13
  through many presidents,
• 5:15
  so
• 5:15
  you're not looking,
• 5:16
  you're not talking about an issue that's really
• 5:18
  has its foundations here.
• 5:19
  You're going back quite a ways.
• 5:21
  I think
• 5:22
  we should probably go back to the way it was,
• 5:24
  frankly,
• 5:25
  I think,
• 5:26
  having Congress
• 5:27
  be the ones that declare war is probably the right thing to do.
• 5:29
  There might be some carve out for something,
• 5:31
  a very small
• 5:33
  type of operation,
• 5:34
  certainly in immediate defense that is carved out,
• 5:37
  but it's.
• 5:37
  Necessarily carved out for us to go over and even bomb nuclear facilities,
• 5:41
  though I generally
• 5:42
  support
• 5:43
  the idea of doing so
• 5:45
  as long as we don't get into massive involvement
• 5:48
  in the situation as we've talked about before.
• 5:50
  By the way,
• 5:51
  with the impeachment going on,
• 5:52
  we've come to the point in the story
• 5:54
  where the most sensible person on the left seems to be.
• 5:59
  Van Jones,
• 6:00
  right now I can't believe I'm even saying that,
• 6:02
  but here is Van Jones on CNN.
• 6:04
  I think progressives
• 6:05
  underestimate
• 6:07
  how dangerous Iran is.
• 6:10
  Iran is not a normal country.
• 6:13
  Normal countries don't
• 6:15
  blind women because they show some hair.
• 6:18
  They don't
• 6:19
  empower little gangs and proxies to surround a
• 6:22
  country and fire rockets and rape people.
• 6:25
  So Iran,
• 6:27
  two things are clear.
• 6:29
  The what,
• 6:30
  they cannot have have a bomb
• 6:32
  and the why?
• 6:33
  Because they say
• 6:34
  death to America,
• 6:36
  death to Israel,
• 6:36
  and death to all the Jews.
• 6:38
  One of those should offend you
• 6:39
  if you're a progressive,
• 6:40
  at least one should offend you.
• 6:41
  And so the question though is the who and the how.
• 6:45
  Is Israel going to take out this nuclear capacity
• 6:48
  by dropping people there who blow it up,
• 6:51
  or is America going to take it up by dropping a bomb that blows it up?
• 6:53
  But that,
• 6:54
  but,
• 6:54
  but the,
• 6:54
  but the what and the why are clear,
• 6:56
  and I think progressives should get on board with that.
• 6:58
  We cannot have a nuclear armed
• 7:00
  Iran.
• 7:02
  Amazing.
• 7:02
  And by the way,
• 7:03
  our condolences,
• 7:05
  I guess,
• 7:05
  to Scott Jennings,
• 7:07
  the conservative panelist there
• 7:10
  who is in the hospital.
• 7:11
  He had to
• 7:13
  a bunch of pulled muscles in his neck because for the first time ever
• 7:16
  he got to do this motion,
• 7:18
  this nodding motion,
• 7:20
  signaling a yes
• 7:21
  for the first time ever
• 7:22
  on CNN.
• 7:23
  So I'm sure he's very,
• 7:25
  very injured right now
• 7:27
  and hopefully he's back
• 7:29
  with us very,
• 7:29
  very soon.
• 7:30
  The question I guess as to what actually happened last night is an interesting one.
• 7:35
  We,
• 7:36
  I,
• 7:36
  I went through the timeline a little bit.
• 7:38
  You had that situation where a ceasefire is announced
• 7:42
  and then both Iran and Israel seemed to indicate either with silence
• 7:46
  or just straight out disagreement that that wasn't actually the case.
• 7:50
  They hadn't agreed to it yet.
• 7:52
  Iran straight out said they hadn't even received a proposal yet
• 7:55
  for
• 7:56
  an agreement.
• 7:57
  And it's hard to know really what happened.
• 7:59
  There's kind of a few different
• 8:01
  ways to work through this.
• 8:03
  One,
• 8:04
  Donald Trump was able to broker an agreement with the help of Qatar as well,
• 8:09
  to
• 8:09
  to
• 8:10
  get a ceasefire going,
• 8:12
  and then
• 8:13
  Iran flaked on that deal.
• 8:15
  Very possible,
• 8:16
  right?
• 8:16
  Like we can all kind of imagine that that's very,
• 8:18
  very possible,
• 8:20
  and that was the reason why there was so much consternation afterward.
• 8:24
  Another possibility or possibility B we'll call it,
• 8:27
  is there was the same sort of arrangement.
• 8:29
  Trump saw that happen
• 8:31
  and then Israel flaked on it.
• 8:33
  It's possible,
• 8:34
  I would say less likely though.
• 8:35
  The reason why I would say it's less likely is because
• 8:38
  of the
• 8:39
  obvious import
• 8:40
  Israel puts on the relationship between
• 8:43
  themselves and Donald Trump and America
• 8:46
  overall.
• 8:47
  Um,
• 8:47
  if you remember,
• 8:48
  to give you just a quick example of this,
• 8:50
  tariffs.
• 8:51
  Donald Trump comes out,
• 8:52
  he's said,
• 8:52
  I'm putting tariffs on everybody,
• 8:54
  uh,
• 8:54
  you better come out here,
• 8:55
  you better fix this really fast.
• 8:56
  I'm mad,
• 8:57
  you know,
• 8:57
  that whole,
• 8:58
  you remember that whole situation.
• 8:59
  Um,
• 9:00
  and,
• 9:00
  uh,
• 9:02
  one country,
• 9:02
  I think that I can remember,
• 9:03
  it might have been two,
• 9:04
  but one country
• 9:06
  basically came back and said,
• 9:07
  hey,
• 9:07
  we'll drop all of our tariffs to zero immediately.
• 9:10
  And that country was Israel.
• 9:12
  Now,
• 9:12
  Israel,
• 9:13
  it's not about tariffs to Israel.
• 9:15
  That's not what they're looking for.
• 9:16
  They're fighting for their existence here.
• 9:17
  This isn't about a 10% tariff rate.
• 9:19
  This is about
• 9:20
  their existence in entirety.
• 9:22
  In their entirety.
• 9:23
  Do they
• 9:23
  have a country or not?
• 9:25
  And having America by their side
• 9:28
  is a real reason why they do continue to have a country.
• 9:31
  So
• 9:32
  they will
• 9:33
  do everything they can
• 9:35
  that they feel is consistent with their security
• 9:40
  to.
• 9:41
  Make Donald Trump happy,
• 9:42
  make America happy.
• 9:43
  They,
• 9:44
  that's what they want.
• 9:45
  Um,
• 9:45
  and so I,
• 9:46
  I would be very surprised if they just completely
• 9:48
  flaked on a deal that was already there.
• 9:50
  There is a third possibility here that I have to admit did cross my mind,
• 9:54
  and we should acknowledge and talk about a little bit here,
• 9:56
  which is
• 9:57
  they're,
• 9:58
  maybe they were kind of close to a deal,
• 10:00
  maybe they were kind of close to a deal in principle,
• 10:02
  but things hadn't been signed yet,
• 10:04
  and Donald Trump felt the need to say,
• 10:06
  hey,
• 10:06
  I'm gonna push this over the edge.
• 10:07
  I'm just gonna say it's done.
• 10:10
  Hey it's
• 10:11
  definitely a possibility,
• 10:12
  and uh especially seeing the reaction afterward,
• 10:15
  it seems to me to be
• 10:16
  a a a sincere and legitimate possibility.
• 10:19
  And it's interesting to think about that because.
• 10:25
  The motivations are good there,
• 10:26
  right?
• 10:27
  Donald Trump has a job as President of the United States.
• 10:29
  His job is to come up with the best solutions for whatever problem presents itself
• 10:34
  that is within the structure of the government that the Constitution allows.
• 10:41
  Dealing in foreign affairs,
• 10:42
  it is something that is important,
• 10:43
  right?
• 10:44
  He has to deal with this stuff all the time.
• 10:45
  He's constantly
• 10:46
  going back and forth with these world leaders
• 10:48
  and trying to sort these situations out.
• 10:50
  His actual job is to try to get those
• 10:53
  uh
• 10:53
  situations to resolve themselves in the best way
• 10:55
  possible for the United States of America.
• 10:57
  I mean,
• 10:58
  America first,
• 10:58
  right?
• 10:59
  Like he,
• 11:00
  yes,
• 11:00
  we care about
• 11:01
  Israel,
• 11:01
  yes,
• 11:02
  you know,
• 11:02
  we care about the people of Iran,
• 11:03
  maybe not the leadership of Iran.
• 11:04
  I don't really care about them all that much,
• 11:05
  but.
• 11:06
  The people of Iran we care about
• 11:08
  and we want that the best possibility to come out for all of them as well,
• 11:12
  but
• 11:13
  our priority is America,
• 11:14
  right?
• 11:14
  So it's his job for the best thing to happen for
• 11:17
  America.
• 11:17
  What he has determined is the best thing for America is
• 11:21
  allowing and going along with Israel to do these
• 11:24
  things and involving ourselves at a very limited basis,
• 11:27
  but not overdoing it,
• 11:28
  not getting involved with ground troops,
• 11:29
  not even
• 11:30
  continually flying over the country and dropping bombs.
• 11:34
  And so
• 11:36
  That's kind of where he is,
• 11:37
  and that is his job.
• 11:38
  What
• 11:39
  what kind of makes this a little bit different than other presidents
• 11:42
  and other scenarios is the way Donald Trump does that job,
• 11:46
  which is
• 11:47
  he is constantly trying to
• 11:49
  negotiate,
• 11:50
  OK,
• 11:50
  and he negotiates.
• 11:52
  His way of negotiating is
• 11:53
  generally speaking,
• 11:54
  I mean,
• 11:55
  I think it's more than this,
• 11:56
  but
• 11:56
  he uses the public often
• 11:58
  to negotiate.
• 11:59
  He has
• 12:00
  behind the scenes
• 12:02
  conversations as well,
• 12:02
  of course,
• 12:03
  but when they don't go perfectly his way.
• 12:05
  Usually what he does is try to expose them and,
• 12:07
  and
• 12:08
  exert incredible pressure
• 12:11
  onto the people involved that he wants to move.
• 12:14
  He wants Israel to sign,
• 12:15
  he wants Iran to sign,
• 12:16
  and
• 12:17
  there's a legitimate possibility what he did was say,
• 12:20
  you know what,
• 12:21
  I'm just going ahead with this.
• 12:22
  I'm going to speak this into existence.
• 12:23
  There was an agreement,
• 12:24
  it's signed,
• 12:25
  everybody's agreed,
• 12:26
  we're all good.
• 12:27
  And then let one of these countries continue to fire and break it
• 12:30
  because they're the ones that are going to look like the bad guys.
• 12:32
  And I think that's part of his strategy here.
• 12:36
  You know,
• 12:37
  in that it seems to have led to a ceasefire,
• 12:42
  I think that's good,
• 12:43
  right?
• 12:43
  Like it's a positive outcome.
• 12:45
  I
• 12:46
  really do think Iran is a threat,
• 12:48
  and I think they are under this leadership,
• 12:51
  particularly egregiously bad,
• 12:53
  so I'm glad that they're losing their nuclear
• 12:56
  structure,
• 12:57
  not to mention all the stuff that Israel has done,
• 12:58
  which in some ways is more important
• 13:00
  when it comes to their military leadership and other assets.
• 13:03
  Uh,
• 13:04
  so that's really,
• 13:04
  really important,
• 13:05
  and I,
• 13:05
  and I,
• 13:06
  I,
• 13:06
  I want that to happen though,
• 13:08
  I,
• 13:08
  as I acknowledged yesterday,
• 13:09
  there is a big part of me too,
• 13:10
  that makes sure we're very,
• 13:12
  very careful here.
• 13:13
  Don't overdo it,
• 13:14
  don't get overly involved when we don't have to.
• 13:16
  So that's,
• 13:17
  that's there.
• 13:18
  But another part of this is like,
• 13:21
  understanding that the president says a lot of things that are not targeted at you.
• 13:25
  A lot of times we're just basically
• 13:27
  overhearing a conversation about somebody else,
• 13:31
  if that makes any sense.
• 13:32
  It's like,
• 13:32
  you know,
• 13:33
  you're kind of like sitting in the bar and there's
• 13:35
  a couple of people over there talking and you're like,
• 13:36
  gosh,
• 13:37
  I think that woman is cheating on her husband with that guy.
• 13:40
  And you're like,
• 13:40
  it doesn't really,
• 13:42
  it's not really about me,
• 13:43
  but I'm hearing it,
• 13:44
  and I don't know what to do with that information.
• 13:46
  That's kind of where we are as the American people in a lot of these situations.
• 13:50
  And it creates something that makes me feel a little bit uneasy,
• 13:54
  which is,
• 13:55
  you know,
• 13:55
  we really can't always just.
• 13:58
  Believe everything as if it's straight fact coming out
• 14:02
  of the mouth of Donald Trump in these moments,
• 14:04
  and I,
• 14:04
  I say that with hesitation because I don't.
• 14:08
  I don't mean it as an insult.
• 14:09
  I,
• 14:09
  I,
• 14:09
  you know,
• 14:10
  like I,
• 14:10
  we often say about politicians,
• 14:11
  they don't tell the truth,
• 14:12
  and of course Donald Trump has had his issues with that
• 14:14
  in the past,
• 14:15
  but like what I'm talking about here is something different.
• 14:17
  This is not him,
• 14:18
  you know,
• 14:18
  saying something to benefit his campaign or saying something to win an argument.
• 14:22
  This is something I think he's doing
• 14:24
  to try to move this in the right direction,
• 14:26
  and I think maybe it worked,
• 14:28
  right?
• 14:29
  Like I,
• 14:29
  I think there's a good chance that
• 14:31
  actually this
• 14:32
  did push these parties a little bit to go in the direction that he wanted.
• 14:36
  So in that way it's positive,
• 14:39
  but it is a strange place for us to be,
• 14:41
  and I don't know,
• 14:44
  you know,
• 14:44
  it's kind of hard to tell at times
• 14:47
  whether Trump is talking to us and asking us to believe something he's saying
• 14:51
  that's actually true
• 14:53
  or if he's just saying something
• 14:55
  publicly.
• 14:57
  So that
• 14:58
  parties will move the way that he wants them to move.
• 15:01
  You know,
• 15:01
  the,
• 15:02
  the North Korea one is an example I go back to often for his first term on this front,
• 15:06
  which is,
• 15:07
  hey,
• 15:07
  we're going to bomb the hell out of Kim Jong-un.
• 15:09
  He's he's,
• 15:09
  he's,
• 15:10
  he's toast.
• 15:11
  And then 10 seconds later,
• 15:12
  he's my good buddy,
• 15:13
  and uh you know I love him,
• 15:14
  and he's a great guy and he's actually very powerful and strong,
• 15:16
  and it's like
• 15:17
  he does that all the time because he feels that's the best thing to say at that moment.
• 15:21
  Is either one of them true?
• 15:23
  Is he really Kim Jong Un's good buddy?
• 15:25
  Probably not,
• 15:25
  right?
• 15:26
  Was he really ever going to bomb the hell out of North Korea?
• 15:30
  Probably not.
• 15:30
  I mean,
• 15:31
  certainly there's things that they can do that would elicit that response,
• 15:33
  but generally speaking,
• 15:34
  probably wasn't going to wind up going over there and just bombing them.
• 15:37
  Um,
• 15:38
  so
• 15:38
  it's hard to tell,
• 15:39
  and I,
• 15:39
  and I think that is something that we kind of have to face.
• 15:42
  We say this often
• 15:43
  here on this program,
• 15:44
  which is
• 15:45
  we judge Donald Trump by what he does and not by what he says.
• 15:48
  Part of that formula is to at times you have to kind of step back and realize
• 15:53
  he's not really talking to you.
• 15:56
  He's not talking to you.
• 15:58
  Your reaction to a lot of these things
• 16:00
  isn't all that important.
• 16:01
  I remember this going back several years,
• 16:04
  um,
• 16:04
  as leading into the,
• 16:05
  uh,
• 16:06
  the offseason happens
• 16:07
  and we're leading up to the NFL draft.
• 16:08
  And as you know,
• 16:09
  I'm a,
• 16:09
  I'm a fan of America's team.
• 16:11
  Uh,
• 16:11
  the Philadelphia Eagles,
• 16:12
  and by the way,
• 16:13
  they're Super Bowl champions,
• 16:14
  won the Super Bowl,
• 16:15
  uh,
• 16:15
  just to let you guys know.
• 16:16
  And,
• 16:17
  um,
• 16:17
  as we were going into the draft,
• 16:18
  I remember that year,
• 16:19
  I was
• 16:20
  doing what I do often,
• 16:21
  which is,
• 16:22
  you know,
• 16:22
  uh,
• 16:22
  you know,
• 16:23
  in my off time when I'm not blabbing about
• 16:25
  Iran,
• 16:27
  uh,
• 16:27
  I often am engaged with sports content because that's,
• 16:30
  you know,
• 16:30
  I love sports.
• 16:30
  I've always loved sports,
• 16:31
  and so I'm,
• 16:32
  I was engaging with a lot of NFL draft content and.
• 16:35
  You know,
• 16:35
  really looking into all these possibilities for the Eagles to draft,
• 16:39
  and I kept looking and I would learn these guys,
• 16:41
  and I'd watch the YouTube highlights and I'd say,
• 16:43
  oh,
• 16:43
  I get excited for this guy and I get excited for this guy.
• 16:46
  And then the draft came,
• 16:47
  and they picked a bunch of people,
• 16:49
  and shockingly,
• 16:50
  they didn't seem to care at all about which people I studied.
• 16:53
  They just picked on their own basis.
• 16:54
  They did what they thought was right for their team,
• 16:56
  right?
• 16:57
  They didn't seem to have any interest at all,
• 16:59
  in my opinion.
• 17:00
  On those particular players
• 17:03
  and
• 17:04
  what I take from that.
• 17:06
  Is that I realize I'm not really going to influence
• 17:10
  the Eagles draft process,
• 17:12
  nor am I going to influence
• 17:14
  how Iran
• 17:15
  and Israel wind up
• 17:17
  sorting things out.
• 17:18
  I can pray about it,
• 17:20
  God can influence it,
• 17:21
  but I can't do much of anything,
• 17:23
  frankly.
• 17:23
  And one time,
• 17:24
  you know,
• 17:24
  as I was sitting there yesterday watching hours and hours and hours
• 17:27
  and hours trying to suss out what the hell was going on and
• 17:29
  who was saying what,
• 17:30
  for what reason.
• 17:32
  I still,
• 17:33
  now 24 hours later,
• 17:35
  still don't know.
• 17:37
  And I wound up wasting
• 17:38
  multiple hours trying to figure it out,
• 17:40
  and I don't think to really any ends.
• 17:42
  I mean,
• 17:43
  I,
• 17:43
  you know,
• 17:43
  I,
• 17:43
  I,
• 17:43
  I'm,
• 17:44
  I'm being honest with you.
• 17:45
  I'll,
• 17:45
  I'll tell you when I think I know something and when I don't know what I know,
• 17:48
  don't know.
• 17:49
  And
• 17:49
  right now,
• 17:50
  I think I know what I don't know,
• 17:52
  but I don't know it.
• 17:54
  And,
• 17:54
  um,
• 17:55
  I can sit here and speculate with you,
• 17:57
  and,
• 17:57
  and there's some,
• 17:58
  I guess some utility to thinking these things through a little bit,
• 18:01
  but like,
• 18:02
  You can get
• 18:03
  too obsessed with it,
• 18:04
  right?
• 18:04
  You couldn't get too obsessed with the back and forth.
• 18:06
  There's a good argument
• 18:08
  to sit back and like,
• 18:09
  I don't know,
• 18:10
  spend some time with your kids
• 18:11
  and,
• 18:11
  and,
• 18:12
  and do things that are unrelated to this.
• 18:14
  Get the general sense.
• 18:15
  I,
• 18:15
  you know,
• 18:16
  obviously I'd prefer you do it here and
• 18:18
  and other Blaze TV hosts and everything else,
• 18:19
  we can do our best to try to summarize these things for you.
• 18:22
  But like,
• 18:23
  there are times where
• 18:25
  you have to know your own limitations.
• 18:27
  And I found this yesterday of like,
• 18:28
  you know what,
• 18:29
  I just don't,
• 18:29
  I don't know.
• 18:30
  I don't,
• 18:30
  I don't,
• 18:31
  there's no way I can know this.
• 18:33
  Is that right?
• 18:34
  I'm not supposed to say that on the air probably,
• 18:35
  but
• 18:36
  it's true.
• 18:37
  You know,
• 18:38
  sometimes we just get to that point where,
• 18:40
  you know,
• 18:40
  we're not masters of the universe here.
• 18:42
  We don't know every single thing.
• 18:43
  We could talk to people who are experts,
• 18:44
  and I,
• 18:45
  and that's what I'm gonna do today.
• 18:46
  I'm gonna ask Josh Hammer some of the questions that I have.
• 18:49
  Uh,
• 18:49
  he is,
• 18:49
  I know,
• 18:50
  I think he was there
• 18:51
  in Israel when all this stuff,
• 18:52
  uh,
• 18:52
  was going on.
• 18:53
  I don't know if he's still there,
• 18:54
  if he's back in the US.
• 18:55
  We'll talk to him
• 18:56
  here in just a second and we'll,
• 18:57
  uh,
• 18:58
  figure it all out together.
• 18:59
  Back in a second.
• 19:10
  If you're looking to drop a few pounds this summer and prefer a natural solution,
• 19:14
  lean could be what you're looking for.
• 19:16
  Lean is formulated to support healthy blood sugar levels,
• 19:20
  manage appetite,
• 19:20
  and help control cravings.
• 19:22
  It contains ingredients designed to help your body
• 19:25
  burn fat by converting it into energy,
• 19:27
  offering a simple way to achieve weight loss results.
• 19:29
  One of these ingredients is like
• 19:31
  some cactus,
• 19:33
  some edible cactus from India.
• 19:35
  I don't know how to pronounce it.
• 19:37
  It's supposed to help you control appetite,
• 19:39
  uh,
• 19:39
  but you know,
• 19:40
  I don't know.
• 19:40
  Doctors selected ingredients like that,
• 19:42
  to offer a sensible,
• 19:44
  healthy approach for weight loss.
• 19:46
  And if you're interested,
• 19:47
  get started with 20% off using the code stew20 at takelean.com.
• 19:50
  It's code of stew20@talean.com.
• 19:53
  Go there now,
• 19:54
  check it out,
• 19:55
  and I think it might be something you want to try.
• 19:57
  It's Talean.com.
• 20:00
  Stew 20.
• 20:01
  These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA.
• 20:04
  This product is not intended to diagnose,
• 20:06
  treat,
• 20:06
  cure,
• 20:07
  or prevent any disease,
• 20:08
  and it's not a substitute or alternative for care
• 20:10
  from a healthcare provider.
• 20:12
  It's Talean.com.
• 20:13
  The code is stew20,
• 20:14
  get 20% off.
• 20:20
  I'm joined once again by Josh Hammer,
• 20:21
  senior editor at large for Newsweek and host of the Josh Hammer Show,
• 20:25
  also author of Israel and Civilization,
• 20:27
  The Fate of the Jewish Nation
• 20:29
  and the Destiny of the West.
• 20:31
  Very well timed,
• 20:32
  uh,
• 20:32
  which you can pick up wherever you get your books.
• 20:34
  Josh,
• 20:34
  thanks so much for coming back on the program.
• 20:36
  Appreciate it.
• 20:37
  Stu,
• 20:37
  it's always a pleasure.
• 20:38
  Thank you.
• 20:38
  Yeah,
• 20:38
  um,
• 20:39
  you were,
• 20:40
  were,
• 20:40
  am I mistaken,
• 20:40
  were you in Israel when,
• 20:42
  when all of this started?
• 20:43
  What,
• 20:44
  what was that like?
• 20:46
  Uh,
• 20:46
  pretty stressful,
• 20:47
  pretty harrowing to,
• 20:48
  to be honest with you.
• 20:49
  We were there for
• 20:50
  purely personal reasons.
• 20:51
  Uh,
• 20:51
  my wife was born there,
• 20:52
  raised here in Florida where we live,
• 20:54
  but we went for
• 20:55
  my wife's cousin's wedding and,
• 20:56
  and a surprise birthday party for,
• 20:58
  for another family member.
• 20:59
  Totally personal,
• 21:00
  anodyne,
• 21:01
  frivolous,
• 21:01
  you know,
• 21:01
  you know,
• 21:02
  reasons of sorts there.
• 21:03
  And,
• 21:04
  uh,
• 21:04
  the sirens first went off on our 4th or 5th night there,
• 21:07
  and we had no idea what happened.
• 21:08
  The,
• 21:08
  the sirens first went off at 3:00 a.m. Israel time,
• 21:11
  8:00 p.m. on the east coast of the United States.
• 21:13
  And uh,
• 21:13
  you know,
• 21:14
  you kind of get up groggy,
• 21:15
  you know,
• 21:15
  uh,
• 21:16
  what's going on here?
• 21:16
  You go on Twitter and learn that at this point
• 21:18
  the IDF has taken preemptive action inside of Iran,
• 21:21
  and thus it began.
• 21:22
  So the next 34 nights or so,
• 21:24
  we essentially tried to ride out the storm,
• 21:26
  and I think it's important to understand,
• 21:27
  Stu,
• 21:27
  that when we say riding out the storm,
• 21:29
  what that means.
• 21:30
  Is that you're essentially just living on pins and needles waiting for
• 21:33
  your phone siren to go off saying be near a bomb shelter.
• 21:36
  And then when the actual sirens in the vicinity in the town where you are go off there,
• 21:40
  you have 90 seconds,
• 21:41
  maybe 2 minutes to get to a bomb shelter.
• 21:43
  And we were there with our 6 month old daughter.
• 21:45
  So this is,
• 21:45
  this is really no joke,
• 21:47
  no joke at all there.
• 21:48
  So this,
• 21:48
  we,
• 21:49
  we,
• 21:49
  we did this,
• 21:49
  we essentially tried to,
• 21:50
  to ride it out for a few days.
• 21:52
  After 4 nights or so,
• 21:53
  there was a terrible story.
• 21:55
  Where a neighboring town in the Israeli center to where we were,
• 21:58
  and an Iranian ballistic missile got through the air defense.
• 22:01
  Frankly,
• 22:01
  too many of them have gone through Israel's air defenses.
• 22:03
  And in this particular instance,
• 22:05
  there were two people tragically who died
• 22:07
  even though they did everything correctly,
• 22:08
  even though that they were in the bomb shelter,
• 22:10
  because these bomb shelters,
• 22:11
  to recall,
• 22:12
  were built primarily to respond to Hamas in Gaza,
• 22:15
  these lower level rockets,
• 22:16
  not these hypersonic ballistic missiles from Iran there.
• 22:19
  So that to me was a massive wake up call like,
• 22:21
  oh my God,
• 22:22
  I have to get our family out of here there
• 22:23
  did a little research.
• 22:24
  I got into contact,
• 22:25
  uh,
• 22:26
  with this program that the state of Florida under Governor Santis had partnered
• 22:30
  with called Grey Bull Rescue trying to evacuate Americans and I got in touch
• 22:34
  with State Senator Jay Collins of Florida who was
• 22:36
  there on the ground with us in Israel.
• 22:38
  So we essentially evacuated from Israel to Jordan,
• 22:41
  did a night in.
• 22:41
  Amman,
• 22:42
  Jordan flew to Cyprus,
• 22:43
  which became kind of a focal point for a lot of evacuating Israelis there.
• 22:46
  So then we did a night in Cyprus
• 22:48
  and then we flew to Tampa,
• 22:49
  Florida,
• 22:50
  where I was pleasantly surprised to see Governor Santis actually waiting there to,
• 22:53
  to greet us because we were on the first rescue mission there.
• 22:56
  Uh,
• 22:56
  the governor actually asked me to join him at an impromptu press conference.
• 22:59
  So after a 13 hour flight from Cyprus,
• 23:00
  I tried to do my,
• 23:01
  my,
• 23:01
  my,
• 23:02
  my,
• 23:02
  my best and just wing it from there.
• 23:04
  And then we went home.
• 23:05
  So,
• 23:05
  the whole thing lasted about 3.5 days,
• 23:07
  uh,
• 23:07
  from start to finish,
• 23:07
  getting home from there.
• 23:08
  It was quite an ordeal to put it mildly there,
• 23:11
  but thank God we are safe.
• 23:12
  Wow,
• 23:12
  that's amazing.
• 23:13
  I,
• 23:13
  I had heard about that effort for that Florida was involved in.
• 23:15
  I did not know you were actually on one of the flights,
• 23:17
  the first flight,
• 23:18
  so that's,
• 23:18
  that's incredible.
• 23:19
  I mean,
• 23:19
  I,
• 23:19
  it's gotta be a massive.
• 23:21
  Stressful even for somebody like you who I know
• 23:23
  has spent a lot of time thinking about this.
• 23:25
  You wrote a book
• 23:26
  which covers this,
• 23:27
  particularly chapters 7 and 8 go into a lot
• 23:31
  of detail about our relationship with Israel as far
• 23:34
  as geopolitics goes and how we should be thinking about
• 23:37
  the situation
• 23:39
  with Iran.
• 23:39
  So
• 23:40
  can you kind of speak to that a little bit?
• 23:42
  How should we be looking at this right now?
• 23:45
  Well,
• 23:45
  look,
• 23:46
  from an American,
• 23:46
  from an American perspective,
• 23:48
  Stu,
• 23:48
  it seems to me that Donald Trump was essentially
• 23:50
  convinced to get off the sidelines due to the,
• 23:52
  to,
• 23:52
  to,
• 23:52
  to the early success of the IDF operations inside of Iran.
• 23:56
  So that initial statement from Secretary of State Rubio,
• 23:59
  you know,
• 23:59
  lest we forget.
• 24:00
  It was,
• 24:01
  was pretty clear that this is Israel's fight,
• 24:03
  not ours.
• 24:04
  But within days,
• 24:04
  the narrative started to shift a little bit.
• 24:06
  It seems to me just,
• 24:07
  just reading the tea leaves based on the
• 24:08
  reporting that I've seen that Donald Trump was
• 24:10
  somewhat torn as to whether or not to get in at the beginning there,
• 24:13
  but he was so impressed by what the IDF was accomplishing.
• 24:16
  And let's be clear,
• 24:16
  the IDF right out of the gate.
• 24:18
  It was pretty,
• 24:19
  pretty fantastic they're taking out half of the IRG IRGC commanders,
• 24:23
  taking out the nuclear scientists there.
• 24:25
  You know,
• 24:25
  Mossad has eyes and ears throughout that,
• 24:27
  that entire country.
• 24:28
  It's really quite crazy.
• 24:29
  So from,
• 24:29
  from a US perspective,
• 24:31
  Donald Trump decides to get in.
• 24:32
  We had this astonishing demonstration of unmitigated US military prowess,
• 24:36
  uh,
• 24:37
  blowing up Fordo Natans,
• 24:38
  Isfahan
• 24:39
  with all the tomahawks,
• 24:40
  the B-2s,
• 24:41
  the,
• 24:42
  you know,
• 24:42
  the massive bunker buster bombs there,
• 24:44
  and
• 24:45
  And then he got out and there was not a single American casualty.
• 24:47
  So from Donald Trump's perspective,
• 24:49
  especially with this very fragile ceasefire,
• 24:51
  it seems to me to be an absolute master class,
• 24:53
  an absolute masterclass demonstration of how to be the commander in chief,
• 24:57
  of how to be a diplomat,
• 24:58
  a statesman there.
• 24:59
  Essentially accomplishing a
• 25:01
  decades-long,
• 25:02
  long sought for American foreign policy objective,
• 25:05
  which is neutralizing or heavily setting back the illicit Iranian nuclear program
• 25:09
  without a single American casualty,
• 25:10
  and then,
• 25:11
  you know,
• 25:11
  adding a ceasefire,
• 25:12
  however tenuous that ceasefire may be,
• 25:15
  it's an incredible cherry on top.
• 25:16
  And Israel from their perspective,
• 25:17
  I think that their operational goals have been met here as well because their
• 25:21
  goal above all was to set back the Iranian nuclear program and through this,
• 25:24
  this tag team of sorts between the IDF and the US military there,
• 25:28
  it seems like that,
• 25:29
  that has happened.
• 25:29
  The only question now,
• 25:30
  Stu,
• 25:30
  of course,
• 25:31
  is what happens with this very fragile ceasefire.
• 25:33
  Yeah,
• 25:33
  you know,
• 25:34
  and there were,
• 25:35
  um,
• 25:35
  you don't know what that's,
• 25:36
  what's going to happen there.
• 25:37
  You don't know what the,
• 25:38
  what the long term,
• 25:39
  um,
• 25:39
  you know,
• 25:40
  storylines going to be of this when,
• 25:41
  when history is written,
• 25:43
  but there was a lot of worry by some,
• 25:45
  even some,
• 25:46
  uh,
• 25:46
  on the right.
• 25:48
  Who were very concerned that any involvement by us at all
• 25:51
  could really blow up in our faces in a major way.
• 25:54
  What do you say to people who were very much worried about that?
• 25:58
  I mean,
• 25:58
  is it,
• 25:59
  you know,
• 26:00
  and I want to kind of separate this out.
• 26:02
  I think there are some people who are just.
• 26:04
  People who just,
• 26:05
  you know,
• 26:05
  are anti-Semitic and don't like Jews,
• 26:07
  that's gonna put those on the side for a second,
• 26:09
  um,
• 26:09
  who just seem to disagree with everything that Israel does.
• 26:11
  But there are some,
• 26:12
  I think,
• 26:12
  you know,
• 26:14
  conservative disagreement that was saying like,
• 26:16
  gosh,
• 26:16
  we've been in this situation a bunch of times.
• 26:18
  A lot of times when we get involved in the Middle East,
• 26:20
  it doesn't turn out that well.
• 26:22
  No doubt about that.
• 26:23
  I mean,
• 26:23
  I,
• 26:24
  I mean,
• 26:25
  anyone who has lived through Iraq and Afghanistan ought to
• 26:27
  be deeply sobered from American moralistic nation building boondoggles.
• 26:31
  But the key thing too was that this was never going to be that.
• 26:34
  There was not a single person,
• 26:35
  I mean,
• 26:35
  unless I'm mistaken,
• 26:36
  I don't even think like Lindsey Graham was talking about
• 26:39
  sending in the 101st Airborne to topple the Ayatollah,
• 26:43
  and all the Americans are coming to build,
• 26:44
  you know,
• 26:45
  a Madisonian,
• 26:46
  Lockyian,
• 26:46
  Jeffersonian democracy.
• 26:47
  I,
• 26:47
  I mean,
• 26:48
  no one.
• 26:48
  was talking about this.
• 26:49
  It was,
• 26:49
  it was simply not something that was on the table there.
• 26:52
  The only,
• 26:52
  the only debate
• 26:53
  was whether or not there was going to be a precision
• 26:55
  strike operation the likes of which Operation Midnight Hammer this,
• 26:59
  this past weekend actually was there.
• 27:01
  And anyone who knows Donald Trump's foreign policy
• 27:03
  should have seen that coming from day one.
• 27:05
  Donald Trump,
• 27:06
  you know,
• 27:06
  much to the chagrin of those who would try to
• 27:08
  impute their own hardline isolationist beliefs to Donald Trump,
• 27:12
  he's not an isolationist.
• 27:13
  His first term form.
• 27:14
  Policy speaks for itself.
• 27:15
  He actually was very tough on Russia.
• 27:16
  He was deeply tough on China.
• 27:18
  He took out Qasem Soleimani.
• 27:20
  He took out Baghdadi,
• 27:21
  the head of ISIS there.
• 27:22
  He's not afraid to use military force
• 27:25
  when it serves a narrow conception of the American national interest,
• 27:28
  and I would argue
• 27:29
  that neutralizing a,
• 27:30
  a nuclear program for a fanatical regime
• 27:33
  that's been trying to maim and kill Americans since the regime
• 27:35
  took over the hostage crisis that ended the Jimmy Carter presidency,
• 27:39
  the Beirut barracks.
• 27:39
  Bombings from the Iranian proxy Hezbollah in 1983,
• 27:42
  neutralizing such a regime's nuclear program absolutely
• 27:46
  serves the American national interest there.
• 27:48
  And then he tried to get out there and not a single casualty,
• 27:50
  get a ceasefire.
• 27:50
  This is classic Trump.
• 27:51
  It is just classic vintage Trump.
• 27:53
  So the people who are catastrophically predicting World
• 27:56
  War 3 or thousands of Americans slain there
• 27:58
  who were,
• 27:59
  who were fear mongering that Russia and China are gonna get in there,
• 28:01
  by the way,
• 28:02
  neither country essentially lifted a single finger to,
• 28:04
  to save their,
• 28:05
  their nominee.
• 28:05
  ally Iran there,
• 28:07
  they just misread the room at best.
• 28:09
  That's probably the most charitable way that I can possibly put it there.
• 28:12
  I mean,
• 28:12
  maybe we can impute more nefarious motives,
• 28:13
  but if I'm being charitable,
• 28:15
  they simply just misread the situation there because
• 28:17
  there are a lot of paper tigers here.
• 28:19
  Russia is a paper tiger.
• 28:20
  China is far too preoccupied with,
• 28:21
  with the Indo-Pacific there.
• 28:23
  No one was going to swoop in to rescue Iran,
• 28:25
  and that's obviously very clear what happened there.
• 28:27
  So tremendous credit to the commander in chief
• 28:29
  Donald Trump for making the correct decision there.
• 28:31
  And again,
• 28:32
  we'll see what happens,
• 28:33
  but,
• 28:33
  but,
• 28:33
  but even regard
• 28:34
  regardless,
• 28:34
  frankly,
• 28:35
  as to exactly what the ceasefire looks like or,
• 28:37
  or does not look like,
• 28:38
  Stu,
• 28:38
  at this point in June 2025,
• 28:40
  I think I can safely and confidently say.
• 28:43
  That the Middle East is in the best position it's been in in my entire adult lifetime,
• 28:46
  namely because Iran and its various proxies Hamas,
• 28:49
  Hezbollah,
• 28:50
  Houthis are very much all on the descent,
• 28:52
  and the other axis,
• 28:54
  that is Israel and the non-Islamist Arab states,
• 28:56
  Saudis,
• 28:57
  Emiratis,
• 28:57
  so forth,
• 28:57
  they're very,
• 28:58
  very much on the ascent.
• 28:59
  So the Middle East is actually in quite good shape at the moment.
• 29:01
  Yeah,
• 29:02
  and,
• 29:02
  and,
• 29:02
  and we,
• 29:02
  you know,
• 29:03
  certainly are involved in this last piece,
• 29:04
  but a lot,
• 29:04
  a lot of this was almost exclusively Israel,
• 29:07
  and they deserve a lot of credit for that.
• 29:09
  When you look at this,
• 29:11
  Josh,
• 29:13
  you step back and you say,
• 29:14
  OK,
• 29:14
  well,
• 29:15
  the United States could get involved and you make a good pragmatic
• 29:17
  case for us to be involved in this particular instance with Iran,
• 29:21
  but like you make a case in the book that it goes beyond that,
• 29:23
  right?
• 29:24
  This isn't just like a bombing that we might engage in to support Kuwait or
• 29:28
  Madagascar.
• 29:29
  There's a specific reason why Israel is important to us
• 29:34
  and it connects to our history and our culture.
• 29:38
  Can you go into that a little bit?
• 29:40
  Yeah,
• 29:40
  sure,
• 29:41
  absolutely.
• 29:41
  So look,
• 29:42
  there are multiple chapters in the books to kind of laying
• 29:44
  out the foundations of what I refer to as Western civilization,
• 29:47
  and,
• 29:47
  and Western civilization as I formulated essentially begins
• 29:51
  with the Bible and with and with God's revelation itself to Moses
• 29:55
  and the Israelites standing there at the base of Mount Sinai.
• 29:57
  When we speak about Western civilization,
• 29:58
  we're really speaking about
• 30:00
  the Bible.
• 30:00
  Bible and above all the two biblical religions
• 30:03
  which are the original people of the book,
• 30:04
  the Jews,
• 30:05
  and then the great Gentile offshoot of the
• 30:07
  Christians who have really built Western civilization there.
• 30:09
  And the argument that I present in the books to over and over and over again
• 30:13
  is that there are a lot of kind of nefarious actors out there.
• 30:15
  I think you and I both see them in certain pockets of social media above all,
• 30:18
  but it's kind of spilling into real life as well.
• 30:20
  I think that there are a lot of people out there who for X Y Z reasons have an agenda,
• 30:25
  not just trying to separate the United States from the state of Israel,
• 30:29
  but actually trying to separate
• 30:30
  the original people of the book,
• 30:32
  the Jewish people,
• 30:32
  from that great Gentile offshoot,
• 30:34
  the Christians who have built Western civilization.
• 30:36
  And my book is is essentially a clarion call
• 30:39
  saying this simply cannot happen because we have built Western civilization,
• 30:43
  Jews and Christians alike,
• 30:44
  they're
• 30:44
  Christians building off of.
• 30:45
  Of
• 30:46
  what is unmistakably an Old Testament foundation there we have
• 30:49
  so much more in common than we have apart there.
• 30:51
  The American founders,
• 30:52
  by the way,
• 30:53
  understood this so incredibly well.
• 30:55
  I mean,
• 30:55
  Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin wanted the great seal of the United
• 30:58
  States to be Moses parting the Red Sea with the Israelites there.
• 31:01
  The the founders,
• 31:02
  much like the pilgrims who who sailed on the Mayflower,
• 31:05
  they actually thought of themselves as new Israelites,
• 31:08
  kind of crossing their proverbial version of the Red Sea.
• 31:10
  Itself,
• 31:11
  Abraham Lincoln,
• 31:12
  my single favorite statesman in American history,
• 31:14
  famously refers to Americans as an almost chosen people in this great speech
• 31:18
  he gave in New Jersey on the precipice of the Civil War,
• 31:21
  and on and on and on we go there.
• 31:22
  There's so many examples there,
• 31:23
  but this is very steeped in,
• 31:25
  in,
• 31:26
  in,
• 31:26
  in American history.
• 31:26
  It's very steeped in who we are.
• 31:29
  One final example,
• 31:29
  I mean,
• 31:30
  the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia there,
• 31:31
  you know,
• 31:32
  the Liberty Bell
• 31:33
  is not inscribed with a verse from Aristotle or Cicero.
• 31:35
  Inscribed with a verse with a verse from the Book of Leviticus there,
• 31:38
  you know,
• 31:39
  the Leviticus chapter 25,
• 31:40
  thou shalt proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof.
• 31:43
  So this notion of biblical ecumenicism of this Jewish-Christian alliance
• 31:47
  is bread and butter to what the United States is.
• 31:50
  I think it's bread and butter as well to what Western civilization is.
• 31:53
  And if we want to roll back
• 31:55
  the very real hegemonic forces that threaten to engulf us,
• 31:58
  and,
• 31:59
  and the,
• 31:59
  in the book I identify at least 3.
• 32:01
  Islamism,
• 32:02
  wokeism,
• 32:02
  and global neoliberalism,
• 32:04
  I think it is imperative that Jews and Christians lock
• 32:07
  arms and stand shoulder to shoulder like never before.
• 32:09
  Yeah,
• 32:09
  it's a,
• 32:10
  it's a great book and one,
• 32:11
  especially in this time that's really important.
• 32:13
  Uh,
• 32:13
  before I let you go,
• 32:13
  Josh,
• 32:14
  I know you're a close observer of the court,
• 32:16
  of course.
• 32:16
  There's a bunch of Supreme Court stuff happening this week,
• 32:18
  but
• 32:19
  I don't want to get into that.
• 32:20
  Can you give me like,
• 32:21
  uh,
• 32:21
  it's the 3 year anniversary of the Dobbs decision.
• 32:23
  Can you give me,
• 32:24
  uh,
• 32:24
  you know,
• 32:24
  60 to 90 seconds on.
• 32:26
  The legacy of this,
• 32:28
  what it has done,
• 32:29
  what it's accomplished,
• 32:30
  and what's still left to do.
• 32:32
  Well,
• 32:32
  the Dobbs decision too very simply has overturned one of the gravest moral
• 32:37
  and legal wrongs in the entire history of the United States Supreme Court.
• 32:40
  I mean,
• 32:41
  it is right up there.
• 32:42
  With the Dred Scott case of 1857,
• 32:45
  in,
• 32:45
  in my opinion,
• 32:45
  as,
• 32:45
  as the two most egregiously incorrect cases in the history of the Supreme Court.
• 32:50
  Now what the Dobbs case did not do is ultimately
• 32:52
  do what many of us pro-life abolitionists want to do,
• 32:56
  which is actually abolish abortion in America.
• 32:58
  Now it is true
• 32:59
  that the number of abortions has definitely gone down since the,
• 33:01
  since the Dobbs decision,
• 33:02
  and praise be to God for that there,
• 33:04
  but there was a lot of work left to do in the various states,
• 33:07
  the so-called laboratory.
• 33:08
  Of democracy,
• 33:09
  there was a lot of work left to do as well at the level of
• 33:11
  the United States government and the Congress
• 33:13
  and the executive branch and so forth.
• 33:14
  There.
• 33:14
  The Trump administration has done some of that already thus far in the second term,
• 33:18
  but we have a very long way to go towards actually accomplishing
• 33:21
  that which the original generation of abolitionists in the 19th century did,
• 33:24
  which was eradicate chattel slavery.
• 33:26
  It's gonna take a long time.
• 33:28
  Pro-lifers have to are gonna have to be very patient here.
• 33:30
  It took us 49 years,
• 33:31
  way too long to overturn,
• 33:32
  to overturn Roe versus Wade there.
• 33:34
  But thank God that Dobbs came out the way it did there,
• 33:37
  and we are
• 33:38
  right now,
• 33:38
  I think on a very slow incremental basis,
• 33:40
  ultimately setting ourselves up
• 33:42
  for the ultimate eradication of abortion in America one day,
• 33:45
  God willing,
• 33:46
  hopefully it'll be in our lifetimes.
• 33:47
  I,
• 33:47
  I hope so as well.
• 33:48
  Josh Hammer,
• 33:48
  senior editor at large for Newsweek,
• 33:50
  host of the Josh Hammer Show,
• 33:51
  and also author of Israel and Civilization,
• 33:54
  The Fate of the Jewish Nation and Destiny of the West.
• 33:56
  Be sure to grab a copy today.
• 33:58
  It's a great time for it.
• 33:59
  Uh,
• 33:59
  Josh,
• 34:00
  thanks so much for coming on the program.
• 34:01
  You bet,
• 34:02
  Stu.
• 34:02
  Thank you.
• 34:11
  Well,
• 34:11
  it's June 24th,
• 34:12
  2025,
• 34:12
  3 years to the day since the Dobbs decision came out.
• 34:16
  The National Review has an editor's piece here.
• 34:19
  Dobbs transformed America.
• 34:21
  A couple of interesting points in there that I think are worth bringing up,
• 34:24
  uh,
• 34:25
  and noticing.
• 34:25
  The great danger of the moment after Dobbs,
• 34:28
  of course,
• 34:29
  uh,
• 34:29
  was the political backlash.
• 34:31
  It could have been something where Democrats were going to
• 34:34
  use this to their advantage and get these massive victories.
• 34:37
  Uh,
• 34:37
  it didn't happen in the first elections held after Dobbs.
• 34:40
  Republicans regained control of the House.
• 34:42
  Every pro-life incumbent won in the Senate and governor's races.
• 34:46
  Interesting.
• 34:47
  Well the latter group,
• 34:47
  including people who had signed into law.
• 34:50
  Protection for unborn children
• 34:52
  in red and even some purple states,
• 34:54
  politicians can enact such protections
• 34:57
  and survive.
• 34:59
  What should the goal be?
• 35:00
  They write,
• 35:01
  in every state,
• 35:02
  pro-lifers should be pushing for the most life protective regime of law
• 35:07
  that can be politically sustained.
• 35:09
  And that must include dispelling the dangerous legal and
• 35:12
  medical misinformation that supporters of abortion have been promoting.
• 35:15
  No pro-life laws anywhere in our country
• 35:18
  require doctors to wait for pregnant women undergoing medical crises
• 35:22
  to face imminent death before they can provide treatment.
• 35:25
  That is a really,
• 35:26
  really important one,
• 35:27
  and it's been kind of the way the Democrats have tried to promote
• 35:30
  how terrible this is.
• 35:31
  None of that is true.
• 35:33
  I can't tell you how many people believe it though,
• 35:35
  millions.
• 35:36
  So,
• 35:36
  you know,
• 35:37
  if you don't want to go to Studomerch.com,
• 35:39
  get a 62422 piece of merch,
• 35:41
  you can do that too.
• 35:42
  But
• 35:43
  you know,
• 35:43
  if you happen to be talking to someone.
• 35:45
  Uh,
• 35:45
  who brings that up,
• 35:46
  take the moment to correct them on it,
• 35:48
  because honestly that's costing women their lives.
• 35:51
  Uh,
• 35:51
  so
• 35:52
  I want to make sure that that stuff gets squashed.
• 35:54
  You can get medical treatment
• 35:55
  everywhere,
• 35:56
  no matter what the abortion laws are there.
• 35:59
  Um,
• 35:59
  uh,
• 35:59
  we also have this from The Washington Post,
• 36:01
  3 years after Rose's overturned,
• 36:03
  Democrats less focused on abortion,
• 36:04
  and that goes back to what I was just talking about.
• 36:07
  It
• 36:08
  didn't.
• 36:09
  Work,
• 36:11
  the focus on abortion and making that the biggest issue in the world
• 36:14
  was something they very much did try.
• 36:17
  They thought that would be
• 36:18
  a direction that would work.
• 36:19
  Now they paired that with things like democracy
• 36:23
  and
• 36:24
  situations like that that they thought that combination could bring them
• 36:27
  all the way to the White House.
• 36:28
  But again,
• 36:28
  they have none of it now.
• 36:29
  They,
• 36:30
  they don't have the House,
• 36:30
  they don't have the Senate,
• 36:31
  they don't have the White House.
• 36:32
  They've got none of it.
• 36:33
  And that's important to realize.
• 36:34
  I think a lot of people
• 36:36
  are shying away on the right from talking about these issues.
• 36:38
  We shouldn't shy away from them.
• 36:40
  Still,
• 36:41
  the Republican position or the conservative position or the pro-life position,
• 36:45
  when articulated,
• 36:46
  is still the more popular position.
• 36:49
  It has moved a little bit in some of these
• 36:52
  in some of the polls toward the left wing position.
• 36:56
  But generally speaking,
• 36:57
  people don't like 3rd term abortions,
• 36:59
  they don't like 2nd term abortions,
• 37:01
  they don't like kids being able to go get abortions without telling their parents.
• 37:05
  Uh,
• 37:05
  you know,
• 37:06
  these sort of basic things.
• 37:07
  There's a lot of,
• 37:08
  they don't like partial birth abortions,
• 37:11
  you know,
• 37:12
  there's a lot there that Republicans and conservatives can,
• 37:15
  can talk about,
• 37:16
  and,
• 37:16
  and I think the,
• 37:17
  the National Review,
• 37:18
  the way they wrote that up.
• 37:19
  is probably the right way to think about this.
• 37:21
  The most pro-life thing that you can do
• 37:23
  that is politically sustainable.
• 37:25
  That does not mean,
• 37:26
  however,
• 37:26
  we don't push for more,
• 37:27
  and that is an interesting thing that we've done in the past as conservatives is,
• 37:30
  oh,
• 37:30
  we'll just go for what we can get right now and then stop,
• 37:33
  full stop.
• 37:34
  Hey,
• 37:34
  we've now achieved that goal.
• 37:36
  We have to have the same mindset as you know,
• 37:38
  you think of the left talking about
• 37:40
  gay marriage,
• 37:41
  for example.
• 37:42
  You know,
• 37:43
  that doesn't mean you jump to some crazy other thing
• 37:46
  that I don't even know what that thing would be,
• 37:47
  honestly.
• 37:48
  I'm not,
• 37:48
  I have no goal beyond stopping abortion when it comes to pro-life issues.
• 37:52
  I don't,
• 37:52
  I don't want to also stop contraception.
• 37:54
  That's not interesting to me.
• 37:55
  I know it is to some.
• 37:57
  Not to me.
• 37:58
  I just think that it's one of those situations where
• 38:01
  we should look toward
• 38:03
  making sure we go for that.
• 38:04
  I think there should be a constitutional
• 38:05
  amendment introduced every single time by conservatives
• 38:09
  that you eliminate abortion nationwide.
• 38:11
  It's not going to pass right now,
• 38:13
  but it's something that we should be on the record supporting and saying that,
• 38:16
  hey,
• 38:16
  this is a goal of ours,
• 38:17
  and we're going to keep introducing it until we get to a place
• 38:20
  where it makes sense for everyone to come along for that ride,
• 38:23
  because
• 38:24
  Keeping people alive,
• 38:24
  generally speaking,
• 38:25
  a good thing.
• 38:25
  By the way,
• 38:26
  uh,
• 38:26
  studios Merch.com is where you can get those shirts,
• 38:28
  62422.
• 38:29
  People will ask you what,
• 38:30
  what happened then?
• 38:31
  What was that about?
• 38:32
  And you can tell them,
• 38:32
  and that's good.
• 38:33
  Uh,
• 38:34
  being able to talk about,
• 38:35
  uh,
• 38:35
  life
• 38:36
  is not a bad thing.
• 38:37
  All right,
• 38:37
  back in a second.
• 38:51
  When you have to move,
• 38:52
  it's more than just packing boxes,
• 38:54
  it's a major life event.
• 38:56
  Whether you're relocating down the street or across the country,
• 38:59
  you deserve a real estate agent who takes your move seriously.
• 39:02
  Our own Glenn Beck learned this firsthand after dealing with countless
• 39:06
  agents who simply were just not up for the task.
• 39:08
  This is why he created Real Estate Agents I Trust.com.
• 39:11
  It's a free service that connects you with reliable,
• 39:14
  dedicated professionals.
• 39:16
  Every agent is thoroughly vetted,
• 39:17
  highly experienced,
• 39:18
  and genuine.
• 39:19
  committed
• 39:20
  to making your buying or selling experience as smooth and successful as possible.
• 39:24
  It's not just about finding a new house,
• 39:26
  it's about securing,
• 39:27
  uh,
• 39:27
  your peace of mind.
• 39:28
  And these are the agents that Glenn would personally trust with his own move,
• 39:31
  professionals who understand how important this moment is
• 39:35
  for you.
• 39:36
  Choose confidence and
• 39:37
  clarity
• 39:38
  for your next move.
• 39:39
  Visit real estate agents ITrust.com.
• 39:41
  Find that right person for you.
• 39:42
  It's a free service,
• 39:43
  by the way,
• 39:43
  for you,
• 39:44
  so why not take advantage of it?
• 39:45
  It's real estate agents ITrust.com.
• 39:47
  The name says it all.
• 39:48
  Real estate agents Irust.com.
• 39:52
  Uh,
• 39:53
  look,
• 39:53
  Andrew Cuomo is awful.
• 39:56
  Dot com.
• 39:58
  You know that much,
• 39:58
  obviously,
• 39:59
  but he is running for mayor.
• 40:01
  A lot of people are like,
• 40:02
  gosh,
• 40:02
  he'd be better than this other guy.
• 40:03
  Honestly,
• 40:04
  I don't know how much tonight
• 40:05
  honestly
• 40:06
  really matters,
• 40:08
  uh,
• 40:08
  because
• 40:09
  it's a very good chance whoever loses tonight,
• 40:11
  Mamdani or Cuomo is going to wind up running anyway
• 40:14
  in the general election.
• 40:16
  Um,
• 40:16
  so it could be like 4 different candidates
• 40:18
  going at each other in the general election.
• 40:20
  It's going to be crazy.
• 40:21
  Uh,
• 40:21
  the latest development is,
• 40:23
  uh,
• 40:23
  I'll just give you a headline.
• 40:24
  Andrew Cuomo
• 40:25
  was blackmailed as governor.
• 40:27
  Some sexual allegations were 100% fake.
• 40:31
  Uh,
• 40:31
  an undercover video from James O'Keefe,
• 40:33
  um,
• 40:33
  this is,
• 40:34
  he's talking to
• 40:35
  a senior New York Health Department lawyer.
• 40:37
  Now,
• 40:38
  of course.
• 40:39
  I mean,
• 40:39
  I think that's true with a lot of these public,
• 40:42
  um,
• 40:42
  sexual harassment
• 40:43
  issues that,
• 40:44
  that kind of blow up into something like,
• 40:46
  um,
• 40:46
  uh,
• 40:47
  you know,
• 40:48
  whatever it is.
• 40:49
  If there's 5 really credible reports of sexual harassment,
• 40:53
  there's likely to be a couple of people who just kind of glom onto it honestly and say,
• 40:57
  oh,
• 40:57
  me too.
• 40:58
  I was,
• 40:58
  uh,
• 40:59
  the me too thing is in a different way,
• 41:00
  I suppose there.
• 41:02
  Uh,
• 41:02
  yeah,
• 41:02
  that happened to me too,
• 41:03
  and then they wind up getting payouts or whatever,
• 41:04
  or at least attention.
• 41:06
  As well,
• 41:07
  that's not always the case.
• 41:08
  Obviously a lot of people have been abused by people like Andrew Cuomo.
• 41:11
  I would not be at all surprised if all of them were true,
• 41:13
  but I would also not be surprised if some of them were not true.
• 41:17
  We will see how that goes.
• 41:18
  So the election tonight,
• 41:19
  so basically what you're going to have to give you kind of set the stage,
• 41:21
  you have a relatively close election between Mamdani
• 41:24
  and Cuomo.
• 41:25
  You know,
• 41:25
  I'd still put Cuomo as the favorite.
• 41:27
  There's really only one poll that points to
• 41:28
  the fact that Mamdani might win this thing.
• 41:31
  Um,
• 41:31
  but
• 41:31
  what you want to see tonight,
• 41:32
  and you'll probably only get the first round of election results tonight,
• 41:36
  is what does that gap look like?
• 41:37
  If the gap is in single digits,
• 41:39
  you have a chance for Mamdani to win
• 41:41
  in the ranked choice voting rollout.
• 41:44
  That won't happen until July 1st because they have to wait for every
• 41:47
  ballot to come in before they can start doing ranked choice voting.
• 41:49
  So,
• 41:50
  they got to wait until July 1st
• 41:52
  when they have all the ballots,
• 41:53
  then they will start tabulating.
• 41:55
  If it's 1213 points tonight.
• 41:58
  Likely Mamdani is not going to be able to make up that sort of gap if it's 4.
• 42:04
  He's got a good chance of doing it.
• 42:06
  We will see how that plays out tonight
• 42:08
  and into early July.
• 42:10
  And then
• 42:11
  even if no matter who loses,
• 42:13
  there's a good chance that loser winds up running as an independent or a small party
• 42:17
  member.
• 42:17
  Cuomo,
• 42:18
  I think,
• 42:18
  already has one of them locked up.
• 42:20
  He can go on and run in the general.
• 42:22
  So
• 42:23
  a lot to look at and really not too many answers tonight,
• 42:27
  but it will start to get interesting when ballots are counted
• 42:30
  this evening.
• 42:39
  OK,
• 42:40
  so here's what happened.
• 42:41
  We have a,
• 42:42
  uh,
• 42:42
  a website.
• 42:44
  That is associated with this particular network.
• 42:45
  It's called The Blaze.com.
• 42:47
  You can go there for all the important stories of the day.
• 42:51
  You can also go there for stories apparently like this one,
• 42:54
  and I'm not going to give you too much detail.
• 42:56
  I want you to go read the story because it is a fascinating one,
• 42:59
  but here's the headline.
• 43:01
  Cheap hotdog
• 43:03
  sparks deadly dispute
• 43:06
  at nudist resort
• 43:08
  that ends in grisly deaths of elderly couple
• 43:12
  and dog.
• 43:14
  Colon police,
• 43:15
  so I don't think the police were killed,
• 43:17
  that's a good thing,
• 43:17
  but other than that it was not a good situation.
• 43:20
  Uh,
• 43:20
  so there you go.
• 43:21
  Uh,
• 43:21
  go read it at the blaze.com.
• 43:24
  Never anyone under 65 at a nudist resort,
• 43:27
  I'm noticing.
• 43:28
  That's never the case.
• 43:28
  Uh,
• 43:29
  alright,
• 43:29
  6:24-22
• 43:30
  is the merch,
• 43:32
  uh,
• 43:32
  it's the anniversary as well.
• 43:33
  Go check it out.
• 43:33
  Studmerch.com code Stu10.