Latest / The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated / NYT reports on Ilhan Omar, DOJ opens investigation in Alaska race

Transcript

NYT reports on Ilhan Omar, DOJ opens investigation in Alaska race · 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, a
0:09
Speaker 1: listen to the Hillsdale Dialogues, all of them at Hugh
0:11
Speaker 1: for hillsdale.com or just Google Apple, iTunes and Hillsdale. I'm
0:18
Speaker 1: Hugh Hewitt starting this hour with an old friend of mine,
0:21
Speaker 1: Congressman Ken Calvert of California. Ken has been representing California
0:26
Speaker 1: and the Inland Empire and parts of Orange County for
0:29
Speaker 1: three decades, and he is the chairman of the Subcommittee
0:32
Speaker 1: on Defense Appropriations in the House. I believe he's the
0:35
Speaker 1: senior man in the area for California in the House
0:38
Speaker 1: of Representatives. Congressman Calvert, welcome. Am I right about that?
0:42
Speaker 1: Are you the most senior member of the delegation in California?
0:48
Speaker 2: I will be. With Nancy retiring, I'll be the most
0:51
Speaker 2: senior Republican or Democrat in the House of Representatives.
0:55
Speaker 1: Well, the reason I wanted to talk to you today,
0:58
Speaker 1: Not political. You're going to win your race. I'm concerned
1:01
Speaker 1: about the defense budget. I had Senator Collins on yesterday.
1:04
Speaker 1: I think she's going to win her race yesterday. And
1:07
Speaker 1: we talked about the lame duck session and whether or
1:09
Speaker 1: not we're going to be able to adequately fund the
1:12
Speaker 1: Pentagon if either or both houses flip to the Democrats.
1:16
Speaker 1: What do you think is the senior appropriator for the Pentagon?
1:22
Speaker 2: We must pass our defense appropriation bill. As you know,
1:25
Speaker 2: we plus that up to $ 1. 75 trillion as a new
1:28
Speaker 2: base bill. We need those resources to get the department
1:33
Speaker 2: back on track. As you know, we had lower budgets
1:37
Speaker 2: during the Biden administration that put the Department of Defense
1:41
Speaker 2: in a situation we shouldn't be in. We need to
1:43
Speaker 2: rebuild our arsenal. We need to start building ships again.
1:48
Speaker 2: on and on and on. So we need to pass
1:50
Speaker 2: this base bill during this lame duck session. We need
1:55
Speaker 2: to pass all the appropriation bills during this lame duck session.
1:58
Speaker 2: I'm fearful if we don't, the Democrats are going to
2:01
Speaker 2: find themselves in a situation that they don't want to
2:03
Speaker 2: fund anything for defense or for Israel, for that matter.
2:08
Speaker 2: And that would be bad, obviously, for the country and
2:11
Speaker 2: for the world.
2:13
Speaker 1: Well, Congressman, if they are unwilling to do a bipartisan appropriation,
2:18
Speaker 1: in the lame duck session. Would a reconciliation 3.0 be possible?
2:23
Speaker 1: I've been told by other members that there'll be some
2:26
Speaker 1: angry members who won't want to come back. There'll be
2:29
Speaker 1: some folks who lost their races who won't want to
2:32
Speaker 1: come back. Will you be able to corral them?
2:36
Speaker 2: Well, it won't be easy, but we're going to need
2:38
Speaker 2: the president's help. We're all hands on deck to get
2:42
Speaker 2: this reconciliation done. The president, as you know, wants to
2:45
Speaker 2: see $ 1, 500, 000, 000, 000 focused toward defense to rebuild our military capability,
2:53
Speaker 2: which is absolutely necessary to rebuild, as I mentioned earlier,
2:57
Speaker 2: some munitions that we need to get back on track.
3:00
Speaker 2: We need to get our shipyards back on track again.
3:03
Speaker 2: We want to start building ships in the United States again.
3:06
Speaker 2: You mentioned Susan. She's a great partner. Bath Works is
3:11
Speaker 2: an important part of what we're doing, and they want
3:14
Speaker 2: to build. I'd like to see and add another destroyer.
3:17
Speaker 2: on top of the destroyer we have. We absolutely need
3:21
Speaker 2: these Alley Burke destroyers.
3:23
Speaker 1: So, Ken Calvert, when I last saw you, it was
3:25
Speaker 1: this summer, and we were down in South Orange County.
3:28
Speaker 1: We were talking about how Orange County has become this
3:31
Speaker 1: land of Palmer Lucky and innovation in the defense tech.
3:36
Speaker 1: Is that going to continue, or are they going to
3:38
Speaker 1: be driven out of California like so many other businesses?
3:43
Speaker 2: Well, the R & D part of defense is a
3:45
Speaker 2: lot of it is done in California, whether it's software,
3:48
Speaker 2: whether it's AI, whether it's any of the research and
3:52
Speaker 2: development part of it. The problem we're having in California
3:55
Speaker 2: is because of the regulatory state here and the taxes
3:59
Speaker 2: and the rest is that most of the manufacturing is
4:01
Speaker 2: moving out of California. And we need to change that.
4:05
Speaker 2: That's why we need a common sense governance back in California.
4:10
Speaker 2: Which is easier said than done. But that's why we
4:15
Speaker 2: need to work hard to get everybody out to vote
4:18
Speaker 2: this coming election. If you haven't voted, vote today. Get
4:22
Speaker 2: your vote in.
4:23
Speaker 3: I agree.
4:24
Speaker 1: I've already voted in Virginia. I assume you've already voted
4:27
Speaker 1: in California for the benefit of the audience. Where's your district?
4:30
Speaker 1: Just so that they change them all so I no
4:32
Speaker 1: longer know where your district is.
4:34
Speaker 4: Yeah.
4:35
Speaker 2: Well, right now, the new district is Corona, obviously, is
4:39
Speaker 2: my hometown. It goes up the I-15 corridor, hits the communities,
4:42
Speaker 2: Canyon Lake, Lake Elsinore, Marietta, Menifee, Wildomar. Then it goes
4:47
Speaker 2: into Orange County, picks up Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita,
4:52
Speaker 2: wraps around, picks up Villa Park and Anaheim Hills. And
4:56
Speaker 2: so it's got both. Orange County and Riverside County. I've
5:00
Speaker 2: represented Orange County in the past. Matter of fact, that's
5:04
Speaker 2: that southwest part of Orange County, including Cota de Casa,
5:08
Speaker 2: a lot of the unincorporated areas. So it's a good district.
5:11
Speaker 2: It's a Republican. There's one of the few Republican districts
5:14
Speaker 2: that will be left in California and looking forward to
5:17
Speaker 2: serve it.
5:18
Speaker 1: Well, you are a great congressman. I'm curious, how long
5:21
Speaker 1: does it take to actually get some swing done? in
5:25
Speaker 1: the House. You've been there three decades. You've got a
5:27
Speaker 1: lot of swing. You're the chairman of the Defense Appropriations Committee.
5:30
Speaker 1: I think you would become the chair of the Appropriations
5:33
Speaker 1: Committee down the road. Am I right about that?
5:36
Speaker 2: Well, I certainly, you know, I don't think Tom plans
5:38
Speaker 2: on retiring anytime soon, but once he does, there's certainly
5:42
Speaker 2: a possibility that I would be chairman of the entire committee, yes.
5:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, so how long does it take to get any authority?
5:50
Speaker 1: Is it six, eight, ten years? Oh, gosh.
5:55
Speaker 2: In an appropriations process, it probably takes at least 10
5:58
Speaker 2: terms in order to get to any meaningful seniority in
6:03
Speaker 2: the appropriations process. Tom and I have been working together
6:06
Speaker 2: for 30 years or so. And so the senior appropriators
6:12
Speaker 2: are up there usually because it takes a long time
6:16
Speaker 2: to learn the appropriations process, especially defense. It's the largest
6:20
Speaker 2: enterprise in the world. employs millions of people, both in
6:24
Speaker 2: the uniform and civilian and contractors. And it's, you know,
6:30
Speaker 2: of course, all the intelligence agencies also. CIA, NSA, NRO, NGA,
6:35
Speaker 2: all the alphabet soup. We fund it all.
6:39
Speaker 1: Now, I don't think you'll be telling me anything about
6:41
Speaker 1: our munition stockpiles right now. But do we need to
6:45
Speaker 1: refurbish and restock our arsenal after this conflict with Iran,
6:49
Speaker 1: which is not over yet?
6:51
Speaker 5: Right.
6:52
Speaker 2: Don't let our adversaries think that we don't have the
6:55
Speaker 2: necessary arsenal to do what's necessary. We do. But we
6:59
Speaker 2: need to refill our arsenal to make sure that we
7:03
Speaker 2: have that. If, in fact, we have a future conflict
7:06
Speaker 2: somewhere down the road, God forbid, we want to make
7:09
Speaker 2: sure we have that deterrent, and we believe it is
7:11
Speaker 2: a deterrent, in our inventory. And so there's been a
7:16
Speaker 2: number of munitions that have been advertised. They're very costly.
7:19
Speaker 2: They're exquisite. whether it's the Patriot missile system or THAAD
7:23
Speaker 2: or the Tomahawk, but that we have some new innovative
7:27
Speaker 2: companies coming in with less expensive and have mass production
7:33
Speaker 2: behind it to get our arsenal up very quickly. So
7:35
Speaker 2: I'm very encouraged as long as we pass the defense
7:38
Speaker 2: appropriation bill and hopefully the reconciliation bill or a defense supplemental.
7:44
Speaker 1: Now, your old colleague, Mike Gallagher, who used to represent Wisconsin,
7:47
Speaker 1: had me over to his office to brief me on
7:50
Speaker 1: the Palantir technology that allows integration of the military. My
7:56
Speaker 1: head was spinning. I'm not bad at this. I followed
7:59
Speaker 1: it for 30 years, but my head was spinning. How
8:02
Speaker 1: are you helping your colleagues keep up with the AI
8:06
Speaker 1: revolution that Palantir and other companies represent?
8:11
Speaker 2: Well, Palantir has done an excellent job over the years
8:14
Speaker 2: in providing the necessary software for the Department of Defense.
8:17
Speaker 2: And there's another company, as we work with, Anthropic, obviously,
8:20
Speaker 2: has been in the news Obviously, Elon's software company is big, Google, obviously,
8:28
Speaker 2: a number of companies. And it is a complex subject.
8:32
Speaker 2: It's necessary in modern warfare that we have the technology
8:36
Speaker 2: and the artificial intelligence is going to be a big
8:39
Speaker 2: part of that and will be a big part of that.
8:42
Speaker 2: So we continually work with our colleagues to make sure
8:46
Speaker 2: that they're informed and understand the importance of it. By
8:49
Speaker 2: the way, most of the patents for AI are filed
8:53
Speaker 2: here in California. Most of the AI research comes around
8:56
Speaker 2: Stanford University. It's right here in California.
8:59
Speaker 1: So I want to close and thank you again for
9:02
Speaker 1: doing this for decades because it does take a long
9:04
Speaker 1: time to learn it and then to stay there and
9:07
Speaker 1: get the funds done. You've got an amazing staff. How
9:11
Speaker 1: do you build that? How do you keep that? Because
9:13
Speaker 1: when you're doing the high-end stuff on appropriation, they've got
9:16
Speaker 1: to take care of your of your constituents in a
9:19
Speaker 1: district that's always changing. How'd you build that staff?
9:23
Speaker 2: Well, I have a great staff. They've been with me
9:25
Speaker 2: a long time. Uh, you know, I have several members
9:27
Speaker 2: on my staff and with me over 25 years and, uh,
9:30
Speaker 2: they're patriots. Uh, obviously they can go on the outside
9:33
Speaker 2: and probably do better financially, but I think they realize
9:37
Speaker 2: that they're doing something that's important for the country and, uh,
9:40
Speaker 2: and helping our constituents is really one of the most
9:43
Speaker 2: important things we can do to help me, uh, not
9:46
Speaker 2: only help them, but to help me stay in office.
9:49
Speaker 1: Okay, last question. We only have a minute. How often
9:52
Speaker 1: do you have to go back and forth? Because it's
9:54
Speaker 1: a long trek, and our friend John Campbell finally threw
9:56
Speaker 1: up his hands and said, I'm not doing this anymore.
9:58
Speaker 1: You've been doing it two or three times as long
10:01
Speaker 1: as john did it how how long does it take
10:03
Speaker 1: you to get.
10:03
Speaker 2: There yeah i figure it's about eight hours from door
10:07
Speaker 2: to door eight to nine hours i do it just
10:10
Speaker 2: virtually every week i i've been doing it i have
10:12
Speaker 2: a house uh Obviously, my main home is right here
10:15
Speaker 2: in Toronto, California, and I have a small place in D.C.
10:18
Speaker 2: And I just go back and forth.
10:24
Speaker 1: That's public service. Thank you for the public service, Ken Calvert.
10:29
Speaker 1: And thank you for trying to get the defense appropriations
10:32
Speaker 1: passed in the lame duck. We must have that done.
10:35
Speaker 1: I'll be back to you after the elections are over
10:37
Speaker 1: and the dust settles and you can tell me who's
10:40
Speaker 1: working with you and who isn't. Ken Calvert of California,
10:43
Speaker 1: thank you, Congressman. I'll be right back, America.
10:45
Speaker 2: Stay tuned. Welcome back, America.
10:52
Speaker 1: I'm Hugh Hewitt. It is expose week, two from the
10:55
Speaker 1: New York Times, two from the Washington Free Beacon. Tough
10:58
Speaker 1: to get the editor of the New York Times to
11:00
Speaker 1: join a serious broadcast like this, but it's very good
11:02
Speaker 1: to get Eliana Johnson, editor-in-chief of the Washington Free Beacon,
11:06
Speaker 1: commentary podcast participant, to join me. Let's start with the
11:10
Speaker 1: Times exposés. Do you think Mary Paltola is cooked? The
11:15
Speaker 1: 58,000 votes were cast before the New York Times revealed
11:18
Speaker 1: that she was a cheater, but about a quarter million
11:21
Speaker 1: votes total. What do you think, Eliana?
11:25
Speaker 4: Well, Hugh, I think this could be the story that
11:27
Speaker 4: tips the election, showing that the Paltola campaign and the
11:31
Speaker 4: Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee were behind an effort to Not
11:36
Speaker 4: only to deceive Alaska voters, to trick Alaska voters into
11:41
Speaker 4: voting for another Dan Sullivan, but also to trick the
11:44
Speaker 4: people they were trying to do the tricking. The story
11:48
Speaker 4: is scrupulously reported and shows that when they went out,
11:51
Speaker 4: they sent an operative to meet with these other Dan Sullivans. Who,
11:55
Speaker 4: by the way, the Wall Street Journal just profiled this
11:58
Speaker 4: nice teacher who wanted to be in Congress a week ago.
12:01
Speaker 4: I mean, that's the kind of news reporting we were
12:03
Speaker 4: reading about this other Dan, the decoy Dan Sullivan, as
12:07
Speaker 4: recently as a week ago.
12:09
Speaker 5: But they were.
12:09
Speaker 4: Actually deceiving these people, sending an operative using a fake name.
12:14
Speaker 4: The deception runs incredibly deep here and goes all the
12:18
Speaker 4: way up to the top to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign
12:21
Speaker 4: Committee and Chuck Schumer. And They also discussed trying to
12:26
Speaker 4: establish a bogus right-wing state party. That effort ultimately didn't
12:31
Speaker 4: come to fruition. But all Alaskans can do now to
12:36
Speaker 4: push back against this effort at confusion and deception and
12:40
Speaker 4: interference with democracy is to vote for the incumbent, Dan Sullivan.
12:45
Speaker 1: I agree, Eliana. I went back. I'm not a fan
12:48
Speaker 1: of former special counsel Jack Smith, but I went back
12:50
Speaker 1: and read his indictment of Donald Trump in the summer
12:53
Speaker 1: of 2025. Everything that the president was charged with, they
12:57
Speaker 1: can charge Mary Peltola with. I don't think they will,
12:59
Speaker 1: but they could. The other thing.
13:02
Speaker 4: That struck me real quick was that the Times had
13:06
Speaker 4: them dead to rights. They've got text messages and emails
13:09
Speaker 4: showing how deep this ran. And the Paltola campaign and
13:14
Speaker 4: the DSCC, they are still lying about this.
13:17
Speaker 1: They have no other choice. They're lying through their teeth.
13:20
Speaker 1: They're trying to gut it out.
13:21
Speaker 4: To the people of Alaska and to reporters. And they've
13:24
Speaker 4: been caught dead to rights.
13:26
Speaker 1: They're trying to gut it out for four days. Not
13:28
Speaker 1: going to work. Ilhan Omar, for 20 years or 15 years,
13:32
Speaker 1: Powerline blog, your dad's blog, has been pursuing the story meticulously.
13:38
Speaker 1: The New York Times finally woke up today. I haven't
13:40
Speaker 1: read the story yet. What did they find? Everything that
13:42
Speaker 1: your dad did?
13:45
Speaker 4: Hugh, today was an important day, I think, for Ilhan
13:50
Speaker 4: Omar and for the American people. The New York Times
13:53
Speaker 4: is out today with a scrupulously reported story that re-reports
13:59
Speaker 4: everything that has been reported on Powerline blog for the
14:01
Speaker 4: past 10 years, since 2016, indicating that An investigation was
14:07
Speaker 4: opened during the Obama administration into whether Ilhan Omar married
14:11
Speaker 4: her brother. They found evidence indicating that she had done so.
14:17
Speaker 4: And this is just, it is a very carefully reported story.
14:21
Speaker 4: And what struck me the most, Hugh, is that for
14:24
Speaker 4: the past 10 years, any reference to the notion that
14:27
Speaker 4: Omar married her brother had been dismissed as something seized
14:32
Speaker 4: on by right-wing bloggers. No longer, Hugh. The fact that
14:37
Speaker 4: this may have occurred is taken incredibly seriously by the time.
14:40
Speaker 4: It is treated seriously, and it is not thawed off
14:46
Speaker 4: as a conspiracy theory any longer.
14:49
Speaker 5: She's in trouble.
14:50
Speaker 4: The media, the mainstream media has abandoned her. We have
14:53
Speaker 4: two stories in The Times that have been lying in
14:56
Speaker 4: plain sight for years. Here we are.
15:00
Speaker 1: Maybe it's Invasion of the Body Snatchers over at the
15:03
Speaker 1: Old Grey Lady. Now let's go to the Free Beacon.
15:05
Speaker 1: You have two scoops as well. Abdul El-Sayed dining out
15:09
Speaker 1: with Hamas supporters and Troy Jackson, not really a logger,
15:13
Speaker 1: running a consulting company that Dwayne calls Logging Adjacent.
15:20
Speaker 4: Well, Abdul El-Sayed dining out with Hamas supporters, that's just
15:25
Speaker 4: what we call another campaign stop for Abdul El-Sayed.
15:28
Speaker 5: But yes, He's.
15:30
Speaker 4: Cozying up to Hamas fans in Dearborn, Michigan, the folks
15:35
Speaker 4: he didn't want to alienate by praising the death of
15:38
Speaker 4: the Ayatollah. Hugh, my analysis of this race is that
15:42
Speaker 4: he has not closed the sale with black voters in Detroit.
15:45
Speaker 4: I forget which political analyst it was who talked about
15:48
Speaker 4: being out on the road in Michigan and saying that
15:52
Speaker 4: he had heard from black voters that they're concerned Abdul
15:55
Speaker 4: El-Sayed cares more about Gaza than Detroit. And I think
15:58
Speaker 4: that is exactly right. I also was in the green
16:01
Speaker 4: room with a Democratic operative who said that this person
16:06
Speaker 4: had been all over Michigan and he's got work to
16:09
Speaker 4: do with black voters. I think this is, you know,
16:13
Speaker 4: it's going to be.
16:13
Speaker 2: A problem for him.
16:14
Speaker 1: What about John Lovett?
16:16
Speaker 4: I got to say, I am not, I am worried
16:20
Speaker 4: about that race, Hugh.
16:21
Speaker 1: Oh, so am I. But what about John Lovett of
16:23
Speaker 1: the Podboys? Telling Jews in Michigan that they have a
16:26
Speaker 1: moral obligation to vote for Abdul El-Sayed, Eliana. Despicable.
16:34
Speaker 4: Despicable. I have to say I haven't looked closely at
16:36
Speaker 4: the comments because I don't follow them incredibly closely. But
16:41
Speaker 4: I would say there's a moral obligation to vote against
16:44
Speaker 4: this guy. Not on the grounds of being Jewish or anything,
16:47
Speaker 4: but because I think he doesn't like America very much.
16:51
Speaker 1: I agree. The number one thing is I wouldn't rely
16:55
Speaker 1: on him. I wouldn't put him near any classified information
16:58
Speaker 1: in the United States Senate. He'll be a caucus of
17:00
Speaker 1: one that Bernie Sanders will occasionally send a paper airplane to.
17:04
Speaker 1: We don't have time to do Troy Jackson.
17:05
Speaker 4: I think he falls into the– oh, yeah. Well, folks
17:08
Speaker 4: can read that on thefreebeacon.com, a great story about that.
17:11
Speaker 4: But I think back to Syed quickly, anybody who can't
17:14
Speaker 4: distinguish a friend and a foe, with al-Sayed saying that
17:18
Speaker 4: Israel and Iran pose an equal threat, is not somebody
17:21
Speaker 4: who belongs in the United States Senate.
17:23
Speaker 1: You can't trust him. You're listening to me in Detroit
17:26
Speaker 1: or anywhere in the great state of Michigan. Vote for
17:28
Speaker 1: Mike Rogers. You deserve a senator that people can trust. Eliana,
17:33
Speaker 1: very quickly, when you look at al-Sayed, would you worry
17:36
Speaker 1: about giving him classified information?
17:39
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Absolutely.
17:41
Speaker 4: And there's a great piece in the journal by a
17:42
Speaker 4: former Beacon reporter, Zach Kessel, who's now at the Journal's
17:47
Speaker 4: Free Expression vertical, who said, Senators don't need security clearances,
17:51
Speaker 4: but if this guy had to apply for a security clearance,
17:53
Speaker 4: he would not be granted one.
17:55
Speaker 1: Well, that is absolutely the case. There are other stories
17:58
Speaker 1: out there about his travels to Colombia, about whether or
18:00
Speaker 1: not it was him at a meeting of CARE-affiliated agencies.
18:04
Speaker 1: It's just bad news. The black pastor I heard on
18:07
Speaker 1: tape yesterday told his congregation, get out and vote, and
18:11
Speaker 1: it's your prerogative if you don't want to vote for
18:13
Speaker 1: Abdul El-Sayed. That's a message. He's not going to get 75%
18:17
Speaker 1: of the black vote. He might not get 60% of
18:20
Speaker 1: the black vote. Eliana Johnson, Eliana Y. Johnson on X,
18:24
Speaker 1: and read her at the Free Beacon. Read everything at
18:26
Speaker 1: thefreebeacon.com and come right back to the Hugh Hewitt Show.
18:30
Speaker 1: And division.
18:31
Speaker 6: And I don't know about you, but I am tired
18:33
Speaker 6: of being angry. And I'm tired of being divided. I
18:37
Speaker 6: want friendship and neighborliness and joy and generosity. I want
18:44
Speaker 6: everybody rolling up their sleeves in the common enterprise of
18:48
Speaker 6: rebuilding America. I want everybody handing our country and our
18:54
Speaker 6: world off to our kids a little better than they
18:57
Speaker 6: are right now.
18:58
Speaker 1: That's what I want. Welcome back, America. That, of course,
19:03
Speaker 1: is former President Barack Obama, who did not want to
19:06
Speaker 1: get together over Cheesecake Factory. I'm joined by Vic Torino-Mattis, a.k.a.
19:11
Speaker 1: Vic Mattis of the Getting Hammered podcast and of the
19:15
Speaker 1: Washington Free Beacon, and a, I am told, I haven't
19:18
Speaker 1: listened this week yet, Vic, a fan of the Cheesecake Factory,
19:21
Speaker 1: but President Obama divided the country over the Cheesecake Factory
19:26
Speaker 1: this week. What do you think about that despicable act?
19:30
Speaker 5: Yeah.
19:31
Speaker 1: Despicable, yes, Hugh.
19:32
Speaker 7: It was a rather snooty remark, sort of making fun
19:35
Speaker 7: of people who like to think of going to the
19:38
Speaker 7: Cheesecake Factory as a night out or, dare I say,
19:41
Speaker 7: even a fancy night out. But that pretty much speaks
19:45
Speaker 7: volumes of where President Obama is coming from.
19:49
Speaker 5: It's true.
19:50
Speaker 7: I like the Cheesecake Factory. I was in college when
19:53
Speaker 7: we first heard of the first one opening here up
19:55
Speaker 7: in Chevy Chase in D.C., and we all had to
19:59
Speaker 7: check it out. And it was a book. The menu
20:02
Speaker 7: was a spiral book. And it had, you know, cuisines
20:07
Speaker 7: from all around the world. And I have to tell you,
20:10
Speaker 7: I shared the story on getting hammered when I was
20:13
Speaker 7: having a conversation with the late French chef, Michel Richard.
20:16
Speaker 7: And I was kind of making a joke about the
20:19
Speaker 7: Cheesecake Factory. And he said, well, stop for a minute.
20:22
Speaker 7: He says, just think about it. This is one place
20:24
Speaker 7: you can go with all your friends. Somebody can get Mexican.
20:27
Speaker 7: Somebody can get Chinese or Korean or Italian or even
20:30
Speaker 7: breakfast all in one place.
20:31
Speaker 1: It doesn't get better than that. And so that's a
20:34
Speaker 1: pretty good take. It is a great take. Now, I
20:36
Speaker 1: want your take on some Senate races, but I want
20:39
Speaker 1: to embarrass you a little bit. Vic Mattis, to my knowledge,
20:42
Speaker 1: has no enemies. He is maybe the most well-liked man
20:46
Speaker 1: inside the Beltway. He gets along with everyone he's ever
20:49
Speaker 1: worked with, which is nearly impossible. He gets along with
20:52
Speaker 1: everyone center-right to center-left. He deals with authors and with
20:55
Speaker 1: reviewers and with critics, and he remains their friend. So
20:59
Speaker 1: when Vic Mattis has anything, even remotely... nasty to say
21:04
Speaker 1: you have to stop. So let's start way up north
21:07
Speaker 1: with Mary Peltola. What do you make of the stories
21:09
Speaker 1: of the last two days, Vic?
21:12
Speaker 7: Well, I mean, this is something that folks on the
21:16
Speaker 7: right have been saying for a very long time, and
21:18
Speaker 7: we addressed this on Getting Hammered. Now, that episode that
21:20
Speaker 7: came out came out within hours before the New York
21:24
Speaker 7: Times story had come out. And so when we talked
21:27
Speaker 7: about it, we were, you know, we were talking about
21:29
Speaker 7: the Department of Justice's investigation and whether or not it
21:32
Speaker 7: was appropriate in terms of the timing of it, but
21:34
Speaker 7: certainly not because of the questionable nature of where the
21:39
Speaker 7: other Daniel, Daniel J.
21:40
Speaker 1: Sullivan came from. And we all had our suspicions.
21:44
Speaker 7: And of course, you know, there were claims that a
21:45
Speaker 7: Democratic consultant put him up to it. There's no question
21:49
Speaker 7: that the other quote unquote independent Daniel J. Sullivan is
21:53
Speaker 7: actually a Democrat, let alone a Democratic plant. He had
21:56
Speaker 7: voted for Democrats in the last three presidential elections. He
21:59
Speaker 7: had a book, I think, on Karl Marx on his
22:01
Speaker 7: bookshelf was reported from, you know, a mainstream news outlet.
22:04
Speaker 1: And then the news came out. I think it's despicable.
22:07
Speaker 1: It's very cynical.
22:09
Speaker 7: It's again, watch the reaction on the left, the ones
22:15
Speaker 7: of the people who come to the defense of Mary Peltola.
22:18
Speaker 1: And they'll say that, you know.
22:20
Speaker 7: What is the big deal? What is the crime here?
22:23
Speaker 7: And can't we focus on affordability? And I think that
22:27
Speaker 7: is Mary Peltola's response to all this was, can we
22:30
Speaker 7: not talk about this ridiculous New York Times piece? Because,
22:32
Speaker 7: you know, that's all they do are hit jobs against
22:35
Speaker 7: the Democrats and focus on what really matters to Alaskans.
22:39
Speaker 7: And I think the integrity of a candidate and that
22:42
Speaker 7: candidate's campaign is what they should be focused on.
22:45
Speaker 1: Now, Vic, you're a news guy and you have been
22:47
Speaker 1: for a long time. 58,000 people voted before the New
22:51
Speaker 1: York Times dropped that story. Do you think that the
22:55
Speaker 1: New York Times felt any obligation to get it out
22:58
Speaker 1: sooner in order to alert those 58,000 people that there
23:02
Speaker 1: was a scam underway?
23:05
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, you know, in a perfect world, we
23:08
Speaker 7: would like to know all the mechanics that went on
23:12
Speaker 7: behind closed doors and when they decided to run that story.
23:16
Speaker 7: Were they trying to tie up some loose ends? Were
23:18
Speaker 7: they trying to secure whichever quotes and sources? You know,
23:21
Speaker 7: there were folks who said they went on the record
23:23
Speaker 7: and then they wanted to have their comments pulled. And
23:25
Speaker 7: of course, to the Times credit, they didn't. So we
23:28
Speaker 7: don't know about the.
23:31
Speaker 1: Timing of it.
23:32
Speaker 7: Obviously, it would have been great if this story came
23:34
Speaker 7: out early on instead of making it sound like it
23:37
Speaker 7: was just crazy Republicans who were suspecting there was something
23:40
Speaker 7: really weird about another Daniel Sullivan on the ballot, especially
23:44
Speaker 7: because It's not a straightforward ballot, as we all know now, Hugh, right?
23:48
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a ranked choice thing. It's a mess.
23:50
Speaker 7: It's a long list of names. And Peltola's name comes first, alphabetically, obviously,
23:55
Speaker 7: and then Daniel J., and then the incumbent senator lower. So, yeah,
24:01
Speaker 7: but it does make a difference. You mentioned all the
24:03
Speaker 7: early voters. In the primary, I think that he won
24:08
Speaker 7: something like a little over 4,000 votes, which.
24:11
Speaker 1: Is like 2.5%.
24:11
Speaker 7: And if this race right now is a dead heat,
24:15
Speaker 7: even 4,000 votes in the state of Alaska could make
24:18
Speaker 7: a difference.
24:19
Speaker 1: Now, I want to make full disclosure. I thought former
24:23
Speaker 1: special counsel Jack Smith was javert. I thought he was
24:26
Speaker 1: out of his mind and unhinged. But I went back
24:29
Speaker 1: last night to look at the complaint and the indictment
24:31
Speaker 1: that he filed against Donald Trump last summer. Everything but
24:35
Speaker 1: one of the charges against Donald Trump in the District
24:38
Speaker 1: Court of the District of Columbia fit these facts, including
24:41
Speaker 1: mail fraud, conspiracy to defraud an election, etc., Do you
24:45
Speaker 1: think people will be consistent? Those who applauded Jack Smith
24:50
Speaker 1: two summers ago, do you think they'll be consistent in
24:53
Speaker 1: asking for an investigation of Mary Peltola now? No, absolutely not.
24:59
Speaker 7: And certainly if the Democrats take over the House, they're
25:02
Speaker 7: not going to be really caring about that either. Again,
25:05
Speaker 7: it's just for one side and not for the other.
25:10
Speaker 7: You hear all the time that there's no such thing
25:11
Speaker 7: as voter fraud. And then when You know, they claim
25:14
Speaker 7: something happens on the right. It's voter fraud everywhere. They've
25:18
Speaker 7: been doing this since, I guess, 2004, actually, when they
25:21
Speaker 7: were having questions about election machines in Ohio. And suddenly
25:25
Speaker 7: everything is fine again, and then it's not fine. So, no,
25:28
Speaker 7: don't hold your breath for that.
25:29
Speaker 1: All right, last question. El Sayed, I think he's the
25:33
Speaker 1: most radical nominee of a major party for the Senate
25:36
Speaker 1: in my lifetime, certainly since Reconstruction. What do you think
25:40
Speaker 1: about him, and do you think Michigan will fall for
25:42
Speaker 1: this shtick?
25:44
Speaker 7: I have to tell you, Hugh, when asked about the
25:46
Speaker 7: upcoming Senate races and if I can just pick one
25:50
Speaker 7: race for Republicans to win, I always say it's Michigan.
25:55
Speaker 7: Because we're not just talking about a generally bad candidate
25:58
Speaker 7: with bad policies, but I think genuinely a bad person
26:02
Speaker 7: with bad connections to unsavory radical Islamists, family connections that
26:10
Speaker 7: the Free Beacon has exposed with the Muslim Brotherhood. and
26:14
Speaker 7: supporters and various imams who have very radical opinions, not
26:20
Speaker 7: just of America, but of Israel. And, for example, this fellow, Sablani,
26:25
Speaker 7: who is an editor of a local paper up there
26:28
Speaker 7: in Dearborn, who said Israelis should go back to Poland.
26:31
Speaker 7: And these are the people who were giving money and
26:32
Speaker 7: supporting al-Sayed.
26:34
Speaker 1: That is not good. And keep in mind, al-Sayed.
26:36
Speaker 7: Had yet to condemn that ridiculous ad that Rebel PAC
26:40
Speaker 7: put up that was blaming Jews for the price of
26:43
Speaker 7: eggs and bananas. So just think about that.
26:45
Speaker 1: He can't do it. The Washington Free Beacon has led
26:49
Speaker 1: the way on Abdu'l-Sayed, and my hat is off to you,
26:51
Speaker 1: Eliana Johnson. Everyone at the Free Beacon has been writing
26:54
Speaker 1: about it. Follow Vic at VictorinoMattis on X. Listen to
26:59
Speaker 1: Getting Hammered with Vic and Mary Catherine Hamm. Like and
27:02
Speaker 1: subscribe Getting Hammered. You'll enjoy it. I will tomorrow or
27:05
Speaker 1: Saturday morning. Stay tuned. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Welcome back, America.
27:12
Speaker 1: I'm Hugh Hewitt, joined by Josh Kroschauer. He is editor-in-chief
27:16
Speaker 1: of Jewish Insider. Josh, the final numbers are in from Israel.
27:20
Speaker 1: Benjamin Netanyahu's party, the Likud, got the most seats, 27.
27:25
Speaker 1: Gadi Eisenkot, who everyone has said lost this election, is
27:29
Speaker 1: in second place with 21 seats. But no one's got
27:32
Speaker 1: an easy 61 to see. What do you think happens?
27:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's electoral chaos, Hugh, because neither side has the
27:41
Speaker 3: obvious path to the 61-seat majority that any coalition needs
27:46
Speaker 3: to form a government. You have record turnout from the
27:51
Speaker 3: Arab communities in Israel that led to a spike in
27:54
Speaker 3: the number of seats that the two leading Arab parties have,
27:58
Speaker 3: which is just making the math even more complicated.
28:01
Speaker 1: So, you know, the one option would be a unity government.
28:05
Speaker 3: Which we've seen in recent memory in Israel where Netanyahu
28:10
Speaker 3: could partner with Eisencott or some of the other opposition
28:13
Speaker 3: party leaders for some type of centrist unity government, but
28:17
Speaker 3: they have said the hatred of Bibi on the opposition
28:20
Speaker 3: side is so deep that they have not even entertained
28:23
Speaker 3: that possibility. And the other option is the Arab party
28:27
Speaker 3: serving as part of a government, or at least Rahm,
28:32
Speaker 3: one of the Arab parties, and that seems very unlikely
28:36
Speaker 3: as well, given their, especially with a Netanyahu-led government. So
28:42
Speaker 3: we are in a stalemate. I think the most likely
28:44
Speaker 3: scenario is Netanyahu leading some sort of broad coalition for
28:49
Speaker 3: a short period of time. But there is no obvious
28:52
Speaker 3: path to 61 right now. And there's a lot of
28:54
Speaker 3: horse trading and negotiating taking place as we speak.
28:57
Speaker 1: Now, Josh, I'm neither an Israeli nor a Jew, but
29:02
Speaker 1: I think it's obvious that the best interests of America
29:05
Speaker 1: would be served if the prime minister asked in Bennett
29:09
Speaker 1: and said, would you be the defense minister? Or Gotti-Eisenkot
29:12
Speaker 1: and said, would you be the defense minister? And the
29:15
Speaker 1: other one to be the foreign minister and get some
29:17
Speaker 1: job for Lapid and get some job for Saar and
29:21
Speaker 1: everyone else in the Likud and then get through the
29:25
Speaker 1: next year and a half until the battle with Iran
29:27
Speaker 1: is done. What are the odds of that? What do
29:30
Speaker 1: you think, as someone who follows it closely, are the
29:32
Speaker 1: odds of the coherent, rational thing to be done? And
29:35
Speaker 1: the one I would imagine that President Herzog is pushing for.
29:38
Speaker 1: I think that's right.
29:42
Speaker 3: I think it's possible, but not, at least as of
29:45
Speaker 3: right now, all that likely, given the deep distrust that
29:49
Speaker 3: both Netanyahu and many of those leaders you just mentioned
29:53
Speaker 3: on the side of the opposition have towards each other,
29:55
Speaker 3: and plus the fact that a coalition would likely still
29:58
Speaker 3: include members of the far right, like Ben-Gvir and Smotrich,
30:02
Speaker 3: and potentially some of the ultra-Orthodox parties where that was
30:06
Speaker 3: a big issue in the campaign in Israel about Haredi,
30:10
Speaker 3: very ultra-Orthodox Israeli service in the military. And that was
30:15
Speaker 3: one of those unbridgeable divides that was just hard to
30:19
Speaker 3: imagine that you could have a unity government that includes
30:23
Speaker 3: some of those right-wing parties or those religious parties. I
30:27
Speaker 3: do think the math is there to have some type
30:29
Speaker 3: of unity government if the leaders of those respective parties
30:34
Speaker 3: put their differences aside for the time being. But that
30:36
Speaker 3: has not been the way things have gone in Israel.
30:40
Speaker 3: And it just is hard to see right now, given
30:42
Speaker 3: the deep distrust between the two sides.
30:44
Speaker 1: So is it irrational that, you know, Bibi is what, 79, 80?
30:49
Speaker 1: For him to say, I have two more years left
30:51
Speaker 1: in me. I want to beat Iran. That's what I
30:54
Speaker 1: want to do. I want to collapse that government. So
30:56
Speaker 1: come in. I'm going to get a pardon, President Herzog,
30:59
Speaker 1: right at the end of these two years, write it down,
31:02
Speaker 1: and I'm leaving politics after two years, and we'll shuffle
31:04
Speaker 1: the deck. Everybody come on board. Let's beat Iran. It's
31:07
Speaker 1: like the Lincoln team of rivals or Wilkie working for FDR.
31:11
Speaker 1: Is that possible? It's the rational thing to do.
31:16
Speaker 3: I think so, and maybe that's where we get in
31:18
Speaker 3: a few weeks. The one thing that the outcome of
31:21
Speaker 3: the election is good for Bibi is that I can't imagine–
31:25
Speaker 3: if we have elections in, say, six months and next April,
31:28
Speaker 3: which is what a lot of Israelis are talking about,
31:30
Speaker 3: I've got to think that it's very likely that Bibi
31:33
Speaker 3: would benefit in another round of balloting because you had
31:38
Speaker 3: a record high Arab turnout. I don't think many of
31:40
Speaker 3: the political analysts in Israel don't think that's going to
31:43
Speaker 3: be replicated in a subsequent election so soon to the
31:46
Speaker 3: October election. You had a lot of the Israeli diaspora
31:50
Speaker 3: in the United States and elsewhere that flew into Israel.
31:52
Speaker 3: You actually had to fly into Israel to vote. if
31:55
Speaker 3: you were not living in Israel at the time, and
31:58
Speaker 3: those are very anti-Bibi voters, and I'm not sure if
32:01
Speaker 3: they're all going to do the same in six months,
32:03
Speaker 3: given that they were deflated. A lot of those more
32:05
Speaker 3: liberal voters were deflated by the outcome just this week.
32:08
Speaker 3: So I think this is sort of the low-water mark
32:11
Speaker 3: for the Bibi coalition, and even if we'll see what
32:16
Speaker 3: happens with the horse trading and negotiations currently taking place,
32:20
Speaker 3: but if this is a temporary government, And we see
32:23
Speaker 3: elections in six months. I think Netanyahu does even better
32:25
Speaker 3: than Likud and the right wing does even better because
32:28
Speaker 3: they look to the opposition for everything they could at
32:30
Speaker 3: this election. They've been waiting for this moment for a
32:33
Speaker 3: number of years, and they still underperformed and couldn't, you know,
32:37
Speaker 3: it doesn't look like they're going to be able to
32:39
Speaker 3: defeat Bibi Netanyahu.
32:41
Speaker 1: I heard Amit Sehgal tell Dan Senor today, 100,000 people
32:44
Speaker 1: flew from Europe and America to vote against Bibi Netanyahu.
32:47
Speaker 1: And they still lost. And the loser is Gatti-Eisenkot. I
32:51
Speaker 1: also heard him say if they partner with the Arab parties,
32:53
Speaker 1: they're done in the next election. They're finished with Zionists.
32:56
Speaker 1: So it just seems to me what you just said,
32:59
Speaker 1: Bibi wins in six months. They ought to do a deal.
33:03
Speaker 1: It's just so obvious to me.
33:06
Speaker 3: I think you're, I mean, look, that's my American, I've
33:09
Speaker 3: had the same reaction exactly as you, Hugh, and looking
33:12
Speaker 3: from the outside on what makes the most sense. But
33:15
Speaker 3: I guess what people would tell me on the Israel
33:17
Speaker 3: side is the deep hatred of Bibi that those– Netanyahu,
33:21
Speaker 3: to his, I think, discredit, has pushed away allies that
33:24
Speaker 3: are ideologically basically the same as him but because of
33:28
Speaker 3: personal differences and just broken promises and a lot of years–
33:34
Speaker 3: he's alienated a lot of his ideological allies. Naftali Bennett
33:38
Speaker 3: being one of the big examples of that, but Gadi
33:40
Speaker 3: Asimov as well. These are people who served in the
33:42
Speaker 3: trenches with Netanyahu, and they've become alienated from him and
33:45
Speaker 3: his leadership. So there is a lot of those deep divisions,
33:48
Speaker 3: and that's going to make it all the more challenging
33:49
Speaker 3: to build.
33:50
Speaker 5: Any kind of.
33:50
Speaker 1: We have a minute, Josh. Bibi Netanyahu is a unicorn.
33:54
Speaker 1: That term gets thrown around a lot. But he's a unicorn,
33:57
Speaker 1: and he's a survivor. As long as I've been doing
34:00
Speaker 1: this show 27 years, he's always loomed over Israeli politics.
34:03
Speaker 1: Do you think there'll ever be another character like him?
34:08
Speaker 3: No, I mean, and the fact that he, not only
34:11
Speaker 3: his political record inside Israel, almost being the prime minister
34:15
Speaker 3: since 2009, except for a few breaks with the opposition
34:21
Speaker 3: government for one year a few years ago. Look, this
34:25
Speaker 3: is someone who, like him or not, has a massive
34:28
Speaker 3: legacy in the direction that Israel is headed in, and
34:30
Speaker 3: I think it's going to be one of the history books.
34:33
Speaker 1: And I think if he wraps it up by collapsing Iran...
34:36
Speaker 1: and everyone comes with him to do it, and then
34:39
Speaker 1: he rides into the sunset, maybe becomes president of Israel,
34:42
Speaker 1: honorary post. We'll see. Hi, Hugh Hewitt for Carbon Zero.
34:49
Speaker 1: Every day there's another headline about artificial intelligence, and it's
34:52
Speaker 1: advancing faster than most of us could ever have imagined.
34:55
Speaker 1: Raises an important question, where is all of this headed?
34:58
Speaker 1: One reason why I think you'll find Carbon Zero so interesting,
35:01
Speaker 1: it's a novel from AI pioneer Craig Stanfill, his third novel,
35:05
Speaker 1: Someone who spent years working in artificial intelligence understands both
35:08
Speaker 1: its incredible potential and its very real risk. I'm holding
35:12
Speaker 1: an advanced copy right here, and I can't put it down.
35:14
Speaker 1: I read it in a couple of days. In Carbon Zero,
35:17
Speaker 1: one seemingly harmless request to an experimental AI sets off
35:21
Speaker 1: a chain of events no one saw coming. It's a
35:23
Speaker 1: fast-paced thriller, but one that makes it especially compelling because
35:27
Speaker 1: it's believable. It feels believable. You enjoy stories that make
35:31
Speaker 1: you think as much as they entertain. I think you'll
35:33
Speaker 1: want to get a copy of Carbon Zero. It's available now.
35:37
Speaker 1: Go to Amazon and search for Carbon Zero by Craig W. Stanfill.
35:41
Speaker 1: That's Carbon Zero. Get your copy today and start reading.
35:45
Speaker 1: Carbon Zero, wherever fine books are sold and on the web. Hi,
35:49
Speaker 1: it's Hugh Hewitt for Consumer Cellular. If you've listened to
35:52
Speaker 1: this podcast for any length of time, you know I
35:53
Speaker 1: appreciate companies that deliver real value without unnecessary gimmicks. That's
35:57
Speaker 1: why I recommend Consumer Cellular. They offer reliable nationwide coverage,
36:01
Speaker 1: outstanding customer service, plans that make sense. Right now, there's
36:05
Speaker 1: an offer that will get your attention. Get $ 100 off
36:07
Speaker 1: your bill with any unlimited plan. Go to consumercellular.com slash
36:12
Speaker 1: hue and use promo code hue100. If you're 50 or over,
36:16
Speaker 1: you can get a single line of unlimited talk, text,
36:18
Speaker 1: and data for just $ 35 a month, plus that $ 100
36:21
Speaker 1: of saving. Need a new phone? Consumer Cellular makes that simple, too.
36:25
Speaker 1: Choose what you want to spend each month. They'll show
36:28
Speaker 1: you a 5G phone that fits your budget. With EasyPay Financing,
36:31
Speaker 1: once you've completed your payments, you own that phone. The
36:34
Speaker 1: $ 100 offer ends on November 1st, so don't wait. Visit
36:38
Speaker 1: ConsumerCellular.com slash you. Use the promo code Q100. Hi, it's
36:43
Speaker 1: Hugh Hewitt. Thanks for listening to the podcast. If you
36:46
Speaker 1: buy your own health insurance, November 1st is an important date.
36:49
Speaker 1: But before you simply renew the plan you've got or
36:52
Speaker 1: click through to another online enrollment system, do something different
36:55
Speaker 1: this year. Get a second opinion. John Ruhlman and his
36:58
Speaker 1: team at U.S. Medical Plan help individuals and families understand
37:01
Speaker 1: all their health insurance options, also small businesses, because the
37:05
Speaker 1: marketplace isn't necessarily the only conversation you should be having.
37:09
Speaker 1: Your income, your health, your doctors, your prescriptions, your budget.
37:12
Speaker 1: That can all change what makes sense for you. And remember,
37:15
Speaker 1: the cheapest premium doesn't always mean the lowest health care cost.
37:19
Speaker 1: A plan that looks good online can look very different
37:21
Speaker 1: when you actually need to use it. That's why you
37:23
Speaker 1: shouldn't wait until open enrollment is already here. Call now
37:27
Speaker 1: and get on the schedule. Waiting until the last minute
37:29
Speaker 1: can mean rushed decisions, missed opportunities, and potentially paying more
37:33
Speaker 1: than you needed to. John's team can review your situation now,
37:36
Speaker 1: explain your options, Have you prepared when it's time to
37:39
Speaker 1: make a decision? Don't wait until November to start making
37:41
Speaker 1: a November decision. Call U.S. Medical Plan today at 877-410-4321.
37:44
Speaker 1: That's 877-410-4321. 877-410-4321. Or visit usmedicalplan.com.
37:46
Speaker 5: Minnesota.
37:46
Speaker 1: We're still here.
38:07
Speaker 8: We never left. We're still in the diners that open
38:13
Speaker 8: at 5 in the morning. Still in the churches that
38:16
Speaker 8: have stood since past generations built them. Still on the docks.
38:21
Speaker 8: Still in the fields. Still in our favorite biking and
38:24
Speaker 8: walking paths. Still in the factories. Still in our police briefs.
38:30
Speaker 1: Still in the courtrooms.
38:34
Speaker 2: Still on the ice.
38:37
Speaker 8: Still in the iron, in the ground that built this country.
38:42
Speaker 1: Welcome back, America. That is the first 30 seconds of
38:45
Speaker 1: what may be the best ad or tied for the
38:47
Speaker 1: best ad for a state-run, a statewide campaign this year.
38:51
Speaker 1: Steve Hilton's got some great ones in California. But Tad
38:55
Speaker 1: Judy evoked memories of Minnesota. And I'm not from Minnesota,
38:59
Speaker 1: but I thought when I saw that, I would gather
39:01
Speaker 1: up a couple of people who were. One who has
39:03
Speaker 1: been there the whole time for the last 60 years
39:06
Speaker 1: and one who grew up there and then left and
39:08
Speaker 1: then get them to compare and contrast what it was
39:11
Speaker 1: and what it is now. And that leads me to
39:14
Speaker 1: introduce two old friends of mine. John Hinderacker, on the left,
39:18
Speaker 1: is a retired lawyer up there in the Twin Cities,
39:20
Speaker 1: big-time litigator. He now runs the Center for the American
39:23
Speaker 1: Experiment in the Twin Cities. On his right is Jim Sweet,
39:27
Speaker 1: the retired managing partner of Drinker Biddle. might not be
39:30
Speaker 1: called that anymore, and the retired general counsel of Westminster
39:34
Speaker 1: Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He became a Philadelphia white shoe lawyer.
39:38
Speaker 1: He left Minnesota. So I'm going to start with you, Jim.
39:42
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've seen that ad, but when
39:44
Speaker 1: you grew up in Minnesota, what was it like?
39:48
Speaker 9: I have seen the ad you and it was absolutely idyllic.
39:51
Speaker 9: I had an idyllic childhood. I was not born in Minneapolis. Actually,
39:57
Speaker 9: I spent the first week of my life in Detroit
39:59
Speaker 9: where I was born and I did forgive my mother
40:01
Speaker 9: and her deathbed for that insult. And I spent the
40:04
Speaker 9: next 13 years in Minneapolis before we moved again and
40:08
Speaker 9: I just think it was an absolutely idyllic childhood.
40:12
Speaker 5: We didn't know it was cold. I didn't know anything else.
40:16
Speaker 9: We went outside and skated in the winter. We played
40:19
Speaker 9: baseball in the summer. I had a paper route. Idyllic,
40:22
Speaker 9: absolutely idyllic. The lakes were great. Parks were great.
40:26
Speaker 5: It was clean, and Minnesota nights prevailed everywhere.
40:30
Speaker 1: How about you, John Hinderacker? You have been there, I believe,
40:33
Speaker 1: the whole time, or maybe you're an immigrant as well,
40:36
Speaker 1: maybe from Detroit even. I don't know.
40:39
Speaker 10: I actually grew up in South Dakota, Hugh. I moved
40:41
Speaker 10: to Minnesota when I got out of law school. That
40:44
Speaker 10: was in 1974, a long time ago. And I moved
40:48
Speaker 10: to Minnesota. I could have moved anywhere, you know, but
40:50
Speaker 10: I came here in part because at that time, Minnesota
40:54
Speaker 10: was a very nice place to live and it was
40:56
Speaker 10: a prosperous place and a great place to practice law.
41:00
Speaker 10: One of the things that we've seen, Hugh, is that
41:02
Speaker 10: not only has our state gone downhill culturally, it has
41:06
Speaker 10: gone badly historically. downhill economically.
41:11
Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack that. First of all, did your two
41:14
Speaker 1: firms merge, Jim Sweet? Did they end up being one firm?
41:17
Speaker 9: They did, and a quick other story. I wanted to
41:21
Speaker 9: go back to Minneapolis as a grant law graduate, and
41:25
Speaker 9: I got a lot of offers, but I didn't get
41:28
Speaker 9: one at Fagre & Benson, and I probably would be
41:32
Speaker 9: in Minneapolis today and would have been John's partner for many.
41:34
Speaker 5: Years if I'd gotten that job. But the Lord did
41:37
Speaker 5: the right thing.
41:37
Speaker 9: I got a great job at Drinker, Biddle & Wreath
41:39
Speaker 9: and spent the next 35 years there.
41:44
Speaker 1: And John, did you do Fegri the whole time? I did, yeah.
41:49
Speaker 10: And at the end of my career, the mergers started.
41:52
Speaker 5: And as you say, Fegri has.
41:53
Speaker 1: Now merged, among others, with Drinker, Biddle.
41:56
Speaker 10: That whole industry, of course, has consolidated like so many.
42:00
Speaker 1: Now, what I want to do is compare especially the
42:03
Speaker 1: Twin Cities then and now. Because I used to go
42:06
Speaker 1: to Minneapolis beginning in 2000 when I began this program,
42:09
Speaker 1: twice a year for 10 years, then once a year
42:11
Speaker 1: for five or six years. I haven't gone in a
42:13
Speaker 1: few years. And downtown Minneapolis was welcoming. We'd go to
42:17
Speaker 1: Symphony Hall. We would do, Norm Colbin would come and
42:20
Speaker 1: do an event. And we would have Tim Pawlenty, the governor,
42:24
Speaker 1: out doing ice fishing. It was a lovely place. So
42:26
Speaker 1: I'll start this time with you, John. What's it like now?
42:31
Speaker 10: Well, Minneapolis and St. Paul, especially St. Paul, is completely
42:36
Speaker 10: a ghost town. Minneapolis has never fully come back from
42:39
Speaker 10: the COVID shutdowns, which were brutal here, or from the
42:43
Speaker 10: George Floyd riots, which followed soon thereafter. Minneapolis is still struggling,
42:49
Speaker 10: but frankly, the whole metro area is struggling. You know,
42:53
Speaker 10: Minnesota is creating jobs at only one-third the national We've
42:57
Speaker 10: gone from being above average economically to being below average economically.
43:02
Speaker 1: And that's reflected.
43:04
Speaker 10: Every day in just the low-level activity that you see
43:07
Speaker 10: in those cities.
43:09
Speaker 1: So, Jim Sweet, by contrast, Philadelphia is booming. Their shipyard
43:13
Speaker 1: just got bought. It's being expanded. A lot of companies
43:17
Speaker 1: are moving into southwestern Pennsylvania where the energy is abundant.
43:21
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania is a state on the upswing, right?
43:25
Speaker 5: I believe it. I believe it is.
43:26
Speaker 9: The city is so much better than when I moved
43:28
Speaker 9: there to start the practice of law in 1973.
43:31
Speaker 5: It was a place with no good restaurants. Everything was
43:34
Speaker 5: a club.
43:34
Speaker 9: If you wanted to eat out, you had to join
43:36
Speaker 9: a club, great restaurants, uh, some Michelin five stars here.
43:40
Speaker 9: It's just a wonderful place to be. I still go
43:42
Speaker 9: to church in center city, love being down there. I was,
43:46
Speaker 9: I'm sorry. I don't work down there anymore, Hugh, but
43:49
Speaker 9: you know, I had to move out, uh, when I
43:51
Speaker 9: took a new job about 20 some years ago.
43:54
Speaker 1: So, uh, John, what does the Center for American Excellence
43:58
Speaker 1: put Minnesota's decline down to, and can it be reversed?
44:03
Speaker 10: Well, the economic decline really started in 2014 when our
44:07
Speaker 10: state adopted a major tax increase. At that time, the
44:12
Speaker 10: per capita GDP in Minnesota was over $ 4, 000 a person
44:18
Speaker 10: above the national average. After that tax increase, we have
44:22
Speaker 10: underperformed the national average 11 years in a row, one
44:27
Speaker 10: of only two states to do that. And now for
44:29
Speaker 10: the first time ever, Minnesota is below average, significantly below
44:35
Speaker 10: the national average in per capita GDP. So we've gone
44:39
Speaker 10: from being a prosperous state to being a not prosperous state.
44:43
Speaker 1: And frankly, it's all.
44:44
Speaker 10: Down to taxes and regulation. And then, of course, we
44:48
Speaker 10: have the immigration situation with the large Somali population. community
44:52
Speaker 10: that has come into Minnesota, placed a lot of demands
44:55
Speaker 10: on government services and not paying commensurate taxes.
45:00
Speaker 1: And Jim Sweet, Pennsylvania and Minnesota are very much alike.
45:04
Speaker 1: Minnesota is a little bit more blue than Pennsylvania, but
45:08
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania is blue, but Pennsylvania voted for Donald Trump and
45:10
Speaker 1: Minnesota voted for Kamala Harris. So Jim Sweet, what's the
45:14
Speaker 1: economic situation in Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania right now, overall?
45:19
Speaker 9: I will say that Josh Shapiro lost out on the
45:22
Speaker 9: vice presidential bid to Tim Walz.
45:24
Speaker 5: I think it's a good thing for Pennsylvania. We would
45:26
Speaker 5: have had somebody else.
45:27
Speaker 9: Previous governor here, Tom Wolf, wasn't terribly effective.
45:31
Speaker 5: I have to say that Josh Shapiro has done a
45:33
Speaker 5: good job. He's well-liked.
45:34
Speaker 9: I think he's going to win any election he wants
45:38
Speaker 9: in the state going forward. He's done a lot of
45:41
Speaker 9: good stuff, Hugh. We are still a blue state. I
45:49
Speaker 9: live in Delaware County. We used to have five Republican commissioners.
45:52
Speaker 9: Now there's five Democratic commissioners. Radnor Township used to be
45:55
Speaker 9: all Republican. Now it's heavily Democratic again. I think it's
45:58
Speaker 9: just a trend across everywhere these days. It's a sorry trend,
46:03
Speaker 9: but it is reality in Pennsylvania as well as other places.
46:08
Speaker 1: So when we come back, I'm going to talk about
46:09
Speaker 1: the school system. I'm not sure whether, I know John
46:13
Speaker 1: was in, he was educated in South Dakota, but I
46:16
Speaker 1: believe Jim was educated in Minnesota at least for a
46:18
Speaker 1: dozen years. I'm going to talk to them about the
46:20
Speaker 1: school situation in both states and see if they're on
46:23
Speaker 1: the upswing or the downswing. Two blue states under the microscope.
46:27
Speaker 1: They both ought to elect Republicans at the House level
46:29
Speaker 1: this year, but I doubt it. Stay tuned.
46:42
Speaker 2: Welcome back, America.
46:43
Speaker 1: Hugh Hewitt, dealing with two retired lawyers who know Minnesota
46:46
Speaker 1: very well and Philadelphia somewhat, and they know Minnesota and Pennsylvania.
46:50
Speaker 1: So I'm comparing two blue states in these three segments,
46:54
Speaker 1: the last one, this one, and the next one. John Inderacker,
46:57
Speaker 1: Center for the American Experiment. First, tell us about the Center.
46:59
Speaker 1: What's it do? How's it doing?
47:02
Speaker 10: Well, we're a state-based policy organization. We do research, writing,
47:06
Speaker 10: and advocacy, a huge amount of public outreach work. on
47:09
Speaker 10: all the main issues relevant to state and local government,
47:12
Speaker 10: whether it's taxes, spending, budget, education, health care, crime, you know,
47:18
Speaker 10: all the major issues.
47:19
Speaker 1: Okay, so how are the schools in Minnesota now? And
47:22
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you to have Jim. Jim, I'm
47:24
Speaker 1: going to ask you to compare it with what you
47:26
Speaker 1: hear John say with what you grew up with. How
47:28
Speaker 1: are they now, especially in the Twin Cities? Hugh, they
47:33
Speaker 1: used to be good.
47:34
Speaker 10: They're not good anymore. Currently, 55% of all of the
47:39
Speaker 10: K-12 students in Minnesota's public schools cannot do math at
47:44
Speaker 10: grade level. 64% of our 11th graders can't do math
47:49
Speaker 10: at grade level. Over 50% of our kids can't read
47:53
Speaker 10: at grade level. And in terms of educational achievement, we
47:57
Speaker 10: are now lagging far behind states like Pennsylvania, Mississippi, which
48:02
Speaker 10: have done a much better job.
48:04
Speaker 1: So, Jim Sweet, when you were in school in your
48:07
Speaker 1: young years, was it rigorous? Was it good?
48:14
Speaker 9: My third grade teacher was still using a ruler on
48:16
Speaker 9: us if we didn't have the multiplication tables down pat.
48:20
Speaker 9: I will say that I grew up within a mile
48:24
Speaker 9: of where my parents both grew up. I went to
48:25
Speaker 9: the same junior high that my father went to and
48:28
Speaker 9: would have gone to the same high school, Washburn, where
48:30
Speaker 9: he went. But my only year in elementary school and
48:37
Speaker 9: one year at Ramsey Junior High School, it was excellent.
48:41
Speaker 9: Very competitive, very hard, very disciplined, very disciplined.
48:46
Speaker 1: All right, so, John, what happened? You didn't go to
48:48
Speaker 1: school there. You came in there. Your kids went to
48:50
Speaker 1: school there, and they're very smart. Did they go to
48:52
Speaker 1: private schools? Did they go to public schools? No, my
48:56
Speaker 1: kids all went to public schools. And what'd you think
48:59
Speaker 1: of them and what happened to the Minnesota public schools?
49:04
Speaker 10: Well, they were better then than they are now. What
49:07
Speaker 10: happened is what's happened in many places around the country.
49:09
Speaker 10: They're basically being run by the teachers union. They're being
49:13
Speaker 10: run by people that have got an extreme left-wing agenda.
49:17
Speaker 10: Our minister of Department of Education under Tim Walz has
49:19
Speaker 10: openly said that they're trying to move away from teaching
49:23
Speaker 10: content that has knowledge of facts and skills, and they're
49:27
Speaker 10: moving in the direction of promoting activism. Well, obviously, that's
49:31
Speaker 10: not going to lead to high quality.
49:34
Speaker 1: And Jim Sweet, you just retired.
49:35
Speaker 5: That was not the case when I was at Kenny School.
49:37
Speaker 5: That was not the case when I was at Kenny School.
49:39
Speaker 5: It was very rigorous.
49:41
Speaker 1: So you just retired as the General Counsel of Westminster
49:44
Speaker 1: Theological Seminary. Are your students mostly coming out of public
49:48
Speaker 1: or private schooling when they get to you?
49:53
Speaker 9: Well, we have a large contingent of foreign students from
49:56
Speaker 9: countries I'm not allowed to name for reasons of safety,
50:00
Speaker 9: and a lot from Korea and South America.
50:03
Speaker 5: But we have found.
50:04
Speaker 9: That coming in, a lot of them need essentially a
50:08
Speaker 9: remedial course these days. And we give them a remedial
50:10
Speaker 9: course to teach them how to write. Writing's a big deal.
50:14
Speaker 9: Writing and math seem to be the very big deal.
50:17
Speaker 9: And so many high school students these days and college
50:21
Speaker 9: students are not at all competent in history.
50:23
Speaker 5: The whole history thing is just.
50:26
Speaker 9: Western Civ, history of Western Civ is gone. It's just
50:29
Speaker 9: all crazy these days. So we are working on it.
50:32
Speaker 9: We've got a plan to do it, and we're making
50:35
Speaker 9: some success here.
50:36
Speaker 1: And John Hinderacker in Minnesota, what are you focused on
50:40
Speaker 1: in education reform at the Center for American Excellence? Well,
50:45
Speaker 1: a number of things.
50:45
Speaker 10: School choice, of course, is evergreen. We're trying to pressure
50:49
Speaker 10: our governor to opt into the federal system a scholarship
50:53
Speaker 10: program that was enacted a year or so ago. But
50:56
Speaker 10: above all, we've got to get back to the fundamentals
50:59
Speaker 10: of education, teaching our kids to read and write, multiply
51:02
Speaker 10: and divide, calculate percentages. I mean, the basic skills that
51:06
Speaker 10: our schools have gotten away from.
51:09
Speaker 1: John, have you adopted AI at the center? Because I
51:13
Speaker 1: think it's going to poison a lot of kids.
51:15
Speaker 10: Great question, Hugh. I was an AI skeptic. I'm something
51:18
Speaker 10: of a convert now. We are actually starting to move
51:22
Speaker 10: in the direction of using AI to supplement our research.
51:28
Speaker 10: Our policy fellows spent a ton of time working in
51:31
Speaker 10: huge databases, analyzing data. I think AI potentially can be
51:35
Speaker 10: a big help to us. So we're starting to move
51:37
Speaker 10: in that direction.
51:39
Speaker 1: When we come back, I'm going to turn right to
51:40
Speaker 1: hardcore politics. What happened to the politics of the state?
51:43
Speaker 1: Minnesota used to send giants to the Senate, Walter Mondale,
51:47
Speaker 1: Hubert Humphreys. on the Democratic side, David Durenberger, Rudy Boschwitz,
51:52
Speaker 1: Norm Coleman, on the Republican side. They're about to send
51:55
Speaker 1: either Peggy Flanagan or Michelle Tafoya. Please, God, let it
51:58
Speaker 1: be Michelle Tafoya, because Flanagan's a nut. But we'll talk
52:02
Speaker 1: about what happened to the politics and to the DFL
52:05
Speaker 1: and what's going on in Pennsylvania. Stay tuned, America. They've
52:07
Speaker 1: got four important congressional races in Pennsylvania. Stay with me.
52:22
Speaker 1: Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. I'm doing an unusual
52:24
Speaker 1: thing in the last two segments of this one as well,
52:26
Speaker 1: which is using two very experienced, smart lawyers. They're both
52:30
Speaker 1: retired from the practice of law. John Hinderacker is in
52:33
Speaker 1: the middle of the screen or on the left of
52:35
Speaker 1: my screen, and John is with the Center for American Excellence,
52:39
Speaker 1: which he now helms, but he was at Fagry in
52:41
Speaker 1: Minnesota for many years. Over on the right, you see
52:44
Speaker 1: Jim Sweet. He was the managing partner drinker in Philadelphia.
52:47
Speaker 1: They've merged with Fagry now. They're both retired from that,
52:51
Speaker 1: and they're both doing other things. But now I want
52:53
Speaker 1: to go to politics. I set it up by talking
52:55
Speaker 1: about economics, school reform. John, in your state, you've got
53:00
Speaker 1: the clearest choice in the union outside of Michigan, Peggy
53:04
Speaker 1: Flanagan and Michelle Tafoya. Tafoya is the rookie of the
53:07
Speaker 1: year in politics. What do you see is going to happen?
53:12
Speaker 10: Well, Michelle's doing a great job, first of all, Hugh.
53:14
Speaker 10: As you know, I spent two or three years trying
53:16
Speaker 10: to convince Michelle to run for And she did. She
53:19
Speaker 10: threw her hat into the ring. She's working very hard.
53:22
Speaker 10: She's an excellent candidate. It's going to be a close race.
53:25
Speaker 10: I think all of our races in Minnesota this year
53:27
Speaker 10: are going to be close. One thing we're seeing is
53:30
Speaker 10: that for the first time since I can remember, the
53:33
Speaker 10: Republicans are actually close to parity in fundraising. I think
53:37
Speaker 10: Michelle is adequately funded. I think other Republican candidates are
53:41
Speaker 10: adequately funded. And so If this race comes down to
53:44
Speaker 10: candidate quality, Michelle Tafoya should win very easily.
53:48
Speaker 1: But I think it's going to be close. Now, Jim Sweet,
53:52
Speaker 1: you've got Brian Fitzpatrick in PA1. You've got Ryan McKenzie
53:58
Speaker 1: in PA7. You've got Rob Bresnahan in PA8 and Scott
54:03
Speaker 1: Perry in PA10. How are they going to fare, do
54:06
Speaker 1: you think, on election night?
54:10
Speaker 9: I think the ads for Brian Fitzpatrick have been incredibly
54:13
Speaker 9: brutal on both sides. I think he comes out ahead
54:19
Speaker 9: in a close race. I am very encouraged by what's
54:22
Speaker 9: going on here politically. I mean, Dave McCormick is one
54:25
Speaker 9: of the finest men I've seen elected to public office
54:27
Speaker 9: in a long.
54:28
Speaker 1: Time, Hugh.
54:29
Speaker 9: And we've got one and a half Republican senators with
54:31
Speaker 9: Fetterman consistently voting on some of the important issues for
54:35
Speaker 9: the Republicans. And I know they're asking him to come over.
54:38
Speaker 9: I don't think he will come over. But Fetterman's been
54:40
Speaker 9: a huge surprise. And they hate him here.
54:42
Speaker 5: The Democrats absolutely hate the man.
54:45
Speaker 1: How about in the city of Philadelphia? What about in
54:48
Speaker 1: the city of Philadelphia?
54:51
Speaker 9: It's solidly Democratic. And I'm just hoping that we can...
54:55
Speaker 9: can accurately count fair votes this year. That's the best
54:58
Speaker 9: you can hope for. It's solidly Democratic. It may be
55:00
Speaker 9: the most Democratic.
55:01
Speaker 5: City in the country.
55:02
Speaker 9: Unions are terribly strong here, as they are in most cities,
55:05
Speaker 9: but extraordinarily strong here.
55:07
Speaker 5: So I'm not hopeful that.
55:09
Speaker 9: I mean, to win it as a Republican in Pennsylvania,
55:12
Speaker 9: you have to come out of Philadelphia with not losing brutally,
55:16
Speaker 9: just terribly.
55:17
Speaker 1: And you nominated in Pennsylvania a DSA-er, Chris Robb. He's
55:21
Speaker 1: going to win. Is he crazy, or is he.
55:25
Speaker 1: Reasonable.
55:27
Speaker 5: No, he's not reasonable at all.
55:29
Speaker 9: He's the Abdul Syed of Philadelphia. He grew up in
55:35
Speaker 9: a fairly opulent part of it, or a well-regarded part
55:39
Speaker 9: of the city, but the guy's just crazy. And he's
55:41
Speaker 9: been that way for a long, long time. I can't
55:44
Speaker 9: even stand to read his stuff. It just really turns
55:47
Speaker 9: me off.
55:48
Speaker 1: All right, John, interact with him. In Minnesota statewide, all
55:52
Speaker 1: the congressional, is there any hope for the Republican Party?
55:55
Speaker 1: It used to be a pretty vibrant party.
55:59
Speaker 5: Well, I think there is.
56:00
Speaker 10: We've got strong candidates at the top. And Michelle Tafoya,
56:03
Speaker 10: our candidate for governor, is strong. Ted Jude, you played
56:07
Speaker 10: his ad to start off this segment. My friend Ron
56:10
Speaker 10: Schutz running for attorney general. We have strong candidates at
56:13
Speaker 10: the top of the ticket. Minnesota has eight congressional seats.
56:17
Speaker 10: There are four Republican, four Democrat. There's only one that
56:20
Speaker 10: has any real chance of flipping this year. I shouldn't
56:23
Speaker 10: say there's two that have a chance of flipping. One
56:26
Speaker 10: could flip Democrat to Republican. That's the second district. One
56:29
Speaker 10: conceivably could flip Republican to Democrat. That's the first district.
56:34
Speaker 10: Likely it'll still be four-four when the dust settles.
56:38
Speaker 1: And sticking with you for a moment, John, you and
56:40
Speaker 1: Scott Johnson and others have powered up Powerline blogs. for
56:44
Speaker 1: 25 years. Is that going to keep going? And are
56:48
Speaker 1: either of you thinking about abandoning Minnesota because it's just
56:52
Speaker 1: gone over the edge?
56:55
Speaker 10: We're going to keep powerline going as long as we can.
56:59
Speaker 10: As you know, we've had over a billion and a
57:01
Speaker 10: half page views since we started this site, you know,
57:03
Speaker 10: still going strong. I won't abandon Minnesota, certainly as long
57:07
Speaker 10: as I'm running center of the American experiment, trying to
57:10
Speaker 10: save Minnesota, salvage Minnesota. I have nine grandchildren, and we'll
57:15
Speaker 10: have in January nine grandchildren, five of them in Minnesota,
57:19
Speaker 10: and so I have good reason to stay here, and
57:21
Speaker 10: I probably will.
57:23
Speaker 1: Jim Sweet, how about Philadelphia? I know you've got deep
57:26
Speaker 1: ties with Mr. Theological Seminary, but are you committed to
57:32
Speaker 1: staying in Ben Franklin's town and in Ben Franklin's state
57:37
Speaker 1: for as long as you are able?
57:41
Speaker 5: Absolutely. We're committed.
57:42
Speaker 9: We thought a few years ago that we'd move to
57:44
Speaker 9: South Carolina with a lot of people that were doing so.
57:48
Speaker 5: But then we had two.
57:50
Speaker 9: We have three very old grandchildren out of college and
57:52
Speaker 9: we have three very young just entering school. So and
57:55
Speaker 9: they're in New York and Boston. So I think we're
57:57
Speaker 9: going to be here for the duration. We just kind
58:01
Speaker 9: of decided, nope, we're not moving.
58:03
Speaker 5: We're here. I love it here.
58:06
Speaker 9: My wife loves it here. We hope to reform it.
58:10
Speaker 9: We still go downtown every Sunday. And I think our mayor,
58:14
Speaker 9: Sherelle Parker, who is a Democrat, of course. Our last
58:18
Speaker 9: Republican was in 1951, I think. She's done a very
58:23
Speaker 9: credible job for a Democratic officeholder.
58:28
Speaker 1: I have reasonable people on here, people who can recognize
58:31
Speaker 1: talent on both sides. I'm going to close by asking
58:34
Speaker 1: John Hinderacker. Who's the most talented elected official in Minnesota
58:38
Speaker 1: right now? I assume it would be Michelle Tafoya if
58:40
Speaker 1: she wins, but who's the best right now in Minnesota?
58:46
Speaker 10: Well, it would have to be somebody who's not in
58:48
Speaker 10: office yet. I think Ron Schutz, if he wins that
58:50
Speaker 10: attorney general race, as I think he will, is extraordinarily talented,
58:54
Speaker 10: literally one of the top lawyers in the United States.
58:57
Speaker 10: Lisa Damoth running for governor also would be an unbelievable
59:00
Speaker 10: improvement over Tim Walz or a or any other Democrat,
59:06
Speaker 10: and Michelle Tafoya certainly, if she wins her race, is
59:10
Speaker 10: going to make her mark in the Senate.
59:12
Speaker 5: Very talented candidate.
59:13
Speaker 1: Well, I want to thank John Hinderacher and Jim Sweet
59:16
Speaker 1: for doing that. Politics is always evolving. It does not
59:19
Speaker 1: have to go left, left, left. People can turn it
59:22
Speaker 1: around like Ronald Reagan did in 1980, but it begins
59:24
Speaker 1: with voting. This is an appeal to the people of
59:28
Speaker 1: Minnesota and the people of Pennsylvania where I've got great
59:30
Speaker 1: stations for 30 years, not 30, 27, in the Twin
59:35
Speaker 1: Cities in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and up in Duluth. And
59:39
Speaker 1: I'm asking you to get out and vote in Minnesota.
59:41
Speaker 1: Vote for Michelle Tafoya in Pennsylvania. Vote for the Republican
59:46
Speaker 1: congresspeople on the ballot because they've got tough races everywhere.
59:50
Speaker 1: Get out and go turn your states around. That's my
59:53
Speaker 1: pitch to the blue states this year. Thank you, Jim.
59:55
Speaker 1: Thank you, John. I'll be right back.