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The Disturbing Truth of Ilhan Omar's Immigration Story · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch. Grab a stool next
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to Greg Karambas of Radio America and Jim Garrity of
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: National Review. Three Martini's coming up.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: So glad you're with us for the Wednesday edition of
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: the Three Martini Lunch. And Jim, the last time we
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: were talking about Ilhan Omar was the day after her
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: sit-down interview with Chris Hayes of MS Now. And he
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: asked her, you know, in that kind of dismissive tone,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: you were never married to your brother, right? And she says,
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Not to my knowledge. And so since then, we found
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: out that Ilhan Abdullahi Omar might not be her actual name.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: It could be Ilhan Nur Saeed Elmi.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: But you've actually.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Done quite a bit of digging into this story, specifically
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: as it relates to some of the most significant questions
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: regarding the immigration aspect of Ilhan Omar. That's what I'm
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: going to call it for now, just because it's easier.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: and her family, specifically what age she was when she
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: came to the United States, and also what her dad
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: was doing in Somalia and whether they really deserved refugee status.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: So what have you uncovered?
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  Speaker 1: Well, people might be saying, what does it matter? At
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: this point, what difference does it make, as Hillary Clinton
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: would say, regarding Benghazi? What age Ilhan Omar is? Well,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: She has said many times that she received her citizenship
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: when her father received his citizenship in the year 2000.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: If she was born in the year 1982, like she
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: currently claims, then she was 18 or just under 18,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: and therefore she would qualify under this. If you are
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: over 18 or age 18 or over, the U.S. government
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: wants you to go through a separate process. You don't
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: automatically get citizenship when your parent gets citizenship. And the
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: problem is there are quite a few references to her
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: being born in the year 1981, including on the official
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: website of the Minnesota state government, where she served as
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: a member of the Minnesota State House for one term
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: before running for the U.S.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: House.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Now, errors happen. People make mistakes. There are typos. People
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: make fat fingers. It's conceivable that it was put down
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: as 81 when it was meant to be 82. The
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: problem is, is that this document was uploaded in, she
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: was elected in 2016. Information came in then. The state
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: house is very clear. They don't verify the information. They
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: take the information from the new lawmaker. And that this
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: information appeared in a profile of Ilhan Omar written by
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: the BBC. A whole bunch of places listed her birth
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: year as 1981. Then another person who had run for
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: the Minnesota state legislator started asking questions about whether Ilhan
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Omar was a U.S. citizen. And a call was made
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: by then Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's office to the Minnesota state
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: legislator saying, this is an error. Can you please change
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: this from 1981 to 1982? Now, it's possible that this
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: is all in the up and up, but it's just
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: a little strange that there's an error there and that
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the error is widely reported for three and a half
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: years before anybody notices this.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: Oh, you know what?
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: That's wrong. And it only becomes an issue once she
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: does that. Also, it's coming soon to a National Review
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: expense report near you. I bought a copy of Ilhan
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Omar's autobiography, This Is What America Looks Like, My Journey
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: from Refugee to Congresswoman. Chapter two, which describes her life
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  Speaker 1: in Somalia, is entitled War. The chapter is subtitled 1989-1991, Mugadishu, Somalia.
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  Speaker 1: And the first sentence is, I was eight years old
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  Speaker 1: when civil war broke out in Somalia. As I said,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: chapter heading is 1989. Now, you don't have to be
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: a math major to figure out that if you're eight
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: in 1989, it means you were born in 1981, which
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: raises this question of what age were you when your
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: father got his citizenship? By the way, the father's citizenship papers,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: apparently the government has no record of that. This other
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: person who ran for state legislature said, wrote to the
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: documents and said, can you please verify the citizenship? And
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: he gave the father's name, Nur Omar Mohammed, and variations
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: of his name in case there's a typo or, you know,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: he went by a nickname or something like that, gave
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: a ballpark estimate of his birth date. And the response was,
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  Speaker 1: we have no records indicating that. Now, I checked it out.
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  Speaker 1: The person who sent that response, it's a certified letter.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: It's official document from the U.S. government. This guy really exists.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: When you start wondering why did the Department of Homeland
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Security investigations, the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: when they searched her house, I suspect this is the
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: sort of thing that they're looking for and that they're
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: trying to figure out. A, was her father ever a citizen?
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  Speaker 1: I'll get to talk more about her father in a second. B,
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  Speaker 1: how old was she when he got his citizenship, if
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: he got his citizenship? And would she have, did she
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: get this automatic one? Or if she didn't, did she
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: ever become a U.S. citizen? And then there's all kinds
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: of questions of, but think about all the sheer, people
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: are like, oh, statute of limitations has expired. Well, okay,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: but think about all the different times since then that
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Ilhan Omar has signed documents certifying herself to be a
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: citizen under penalty of perjury or other circumstances like that.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: That almost certainly has happened within the statute of limitations
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: of that. And then the other issue is she only
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: makes one reference to her father's profession in this book
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: and refers to him as an educator. But about a
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: page later, she describes living on a compound in Mogadishu,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Somalia with armed guards and that her family had a
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: driver who could take her to school. Now, at the time,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Somalia was one of the poorest countries in the world.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: So if you're a little surprised that an educator would
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: have that kind of resources and have a driver driving,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: you know, if that doesn't make sense to you, well,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: there's a good reason for that because he was not
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  Speaker 1: an educator. He was a colonel in the Somali army. OK,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: you know, that's fine. But one, that's a little weird
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: that you completely mischaracterized your father's profession in your description.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: The other major issue is from really the late 60s,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: but intensifying through, you know, really getting bad in the
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: late 80s. The Somali army was committing genocide against the
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: people of Somaliland. It's the northern region. And there's a particular,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: I believe, the Isaac tribe is, I believe, forgive me
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: if I'm mispronouncing it. This is well documented. United Nations,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, every single organization has done.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: And this was not like some rogue soldiers in one area.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: This was a multi-year, large-scale campaign of executing civilians, bombing villages,
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  Speaker 1: poisoning wells, torture, rape, the whole nine yards. Many people
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: have said it is pretty much impossible to believe that
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Ilhan Oman's father rose up to the rank of colonel
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  Speaker 1: With having nothing to do with the genocidal actions of
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: the army for this whole time. Now, based on any
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: of this, can I prove that he pulled the trigger
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: on anybody? No. But people just simply said, this is
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: like saying I served in the Nazi army, but I
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: had nothing to do with any war crimes. Very hard
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: to believe the scale of what was going on. And oh,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: by the way, where he was stationed lines up with
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: certain accounts of massacres. Does this mean with 100% certainty
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: he partook in it? Can't say that. But it certainly
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: puts motive, means, and opportunity. The circumstances starts to pile
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: up in something like this. Anyway, these are, I suspect,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: the birth year and, by the way, so under U.S. law,
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  Speaker 1: if you've committed war crimes, if you've committed anything resembling genocide,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: you can't come within a country mile of gaining refugee status.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: So it is extremely likely that her father lied about
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: what he had done during the war Uh, in this
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: process of getting the citizenship, remember the citizenship and the
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: refugee status, which led to the citizenship, which remember we
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: can't verify because the U S government says it has
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: no records. This is a very fertile territory. Of course,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: her response to all this is, you know, this is
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  Speaker 1: racist to, to even wonder about, to investigate or something
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: like that. Again, when I say that she was eight
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  Speaker 1: when the Civil War started in 1989, I'm quoting her
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  Speaker 1: own book. This is much like, you know, I think
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: it was Keyshawn Johnson who said, there are a couple
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: athletes who have said things like, Mike, that was taken
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: out of context, in their own autobiography. No, you don't
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: get to use that excuse. So that's the latest on
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  Speaker 1: Ilhan Omar, Greg.
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  Speaker 3: So first of all, props to Jim.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: Doing the work that no one else wants to do
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: and reading Ilhan Omar's autobiography, I wouldn't do that for you.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: So please give Jim credit for that. But Jim, I
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: also love kind of the almost Menendez brothers type argument
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: from the Omar clan there. Because, you know, the Menendez,
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: everybody's like, oh, you got to have compassion on these kids.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: Their parents are dead. Well, yeah, but they killed them.
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  Speaker 2: And then, you know, the Omars are like, well, we
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: had to leave Somalia. There was a genocide and a
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: refugee crisis.
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  Speaker 3: We had no choice.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but you were probably perpetrated again. At least the
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: odds are more likely in that direction than that you
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: were a victim of it.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: We should point out Ilhan Omar's father passed away in
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: 2020 from COVID-19. So it's not like he can be questioned.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: It's not like he can have a citizenship revoked or
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: have him deported or anything like that. With that said,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: and by the way, like no doubt Ilhan Omar in
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: her childhood years went through some terrible experiences fleeing to
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: a refugee camp in Michigan. But, and there's this description
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: in the book of armed men coming to her house,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: firing guns into the house and people who are coming
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: to try to kill them. And that's really, really terrifying thing.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: No child should ever go through. But it sounds different
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: when he's a colonel in an army that had been
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: committing genocide. And you all be like, all of a sudden, like, oh, oh,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: that's why they were doing that. Oh, it's not like, oh,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: this big mean group came after the local educator who
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: happened to have a driver and an armed compound and
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: things like that. So I'm actually, you know, for all the,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: thank you for the credit, but I'm going to observe that, like,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: here we are in 2026 and I'm reading this book
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: that was written, you know, shortly after she got elected to, uh,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Congress with a paperback update of maybe a year or
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: two later, I guess 2020, there's a reference to the
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: COVID pandemic in the, in the afterward. Um, you know,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: so yeah, good for me for reading it. It's not
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: like I got, you know, I did this speedily, but
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: I'm going to observe, I'm interested that no one else
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: who read this book And maybe I'm just making an
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: assumption there. Maybe I'm assuming anyone else read this book.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: But just kind of this recognition that at no point
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: did that seem odd to people. The educator living in
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: this armed compound and having a driver and this question
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: of why were they going after an educator? We know
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: that there was a terrible civil war in Somalia, but
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: it didn't just happen. It happened after more than a
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: decade of this Soviet-aligned communist dictator in Somalia committing genocide
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: on a large scale and killing hundreds of thousands of people.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: It's just interesting that no one has ever... By the way,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: you know what? Two names that pop up in this
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: or came up in my research. They don't pop up
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: in the book. First of all, guess who was trying
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: to represent the dictator of Somalia in the closing years
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: of the Civil War, Greg?
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: I can't even imagine who.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Paul Manafort. Former Trump campaign manager who basically built his career.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: on representing every tin pot dictator and sleazebag and stuff
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: like that. But also, the dictator gets turned from power.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: There are two fighting warlords in Somalia. Greg, can you
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: name one of those two warlords?
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: Adid.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Adid! Adid, recognize the name. So if people who remember
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Black Hawk Down, Adid was the guy who the U.S.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: was going after and who they were fighting during that
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: particular incident. So here we are thinking Somalia is this
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: far off and obscure corner of the world that America
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: doesn't think about too much. Again, a whole bunch of
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: American names pop up in the course of researching this story.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: You mentioned that Omar is saying it's all racism, that
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: this is coming up. She also told Hasan Piker, yes,
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: she was just on the Hasan Piker podcast, that it's
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: because she's naturally pretty and that the right wants to
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: look at her because everyone on the right, on the
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: female side, is Botoxed, apparently. So much like AOC saying
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: they only criticize her because they want to date her,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Ilhan Omar has decided this is the only reason that
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: people are looking into her immigration status. And whether she
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: married her brother and whether she lied about when she
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: was born or what her father did. Yeah, none of
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: that has any relevance to this whatsoever.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Don't hate me because I'm beautiful. OK, I hate you
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: because you're conceited. Nice try. And a non-citizen and committed
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: fraud and all these other things. But if she wants
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: to say she's pretty, Greg, let's credit where it's due
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: by squad standards. Top half, top third. I'm not going
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: to dispute that.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, I don't think that's it, Ilhan. As we'll
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: discuss later in this podcast, they've got their eyes on
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: other people. All right, let's talk about incognito.
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: Let's face it.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: We spend a lot of time protecting our homes and
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: our families. But what about our digital lives and our identities?
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Ilhan Omar is doing a lot about defining her identity lately.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: But Google your name and you might find your home address,
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: phone number and family details listed online. Data brokers collect
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: and sell that information, potentially exposing you to scammers and
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: identity theft. And that's why You should know about Incogni.
• 13:09
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• 13:12
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• 13:15
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• 13:18
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• 13:21
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• 13:25
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• 13:28
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• 13:31
  Speaker 1: for you. Remember, they can't harm you if they can't
• 13:34
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• 13:34
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• 13:39
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• 13:43
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• 13:49
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• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Hi, Tim. Hi.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about the midterm elections now, less than a
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: week away. We haven't talked a lot about South Carolina
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: since the quick race to replace Lindsey Graham as the
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: nominee after he died in July. His sister narrowly won
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: the Republican runoff there against Ralph Norman, the congressman. And
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: now she's up against Annie Andrews or Tranny Annie, as
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump calls her. But the latest New York Times-Siena
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: poll has it 48-48, and other polls have it razor
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: thin as well. By the way, New York Times-CNN just
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: had Flanagan up 14 over Tafoya, so it's possible that
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: they're weighting these things a little bit off from what
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: we've seen before, but we'll find out on election day.
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: But meanwhile.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: The goal, of course, is to have your own team
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: all moving in the same direction, like in football. You
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: need 11 people kind of working in concert to make
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: things go well. You definitely want your entire party on
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: the same page heading into Election Day. And you and
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: I talked about our concerns about Darlene Graham before, but
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: now she's up against a pretty far left candidate there
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: in Annie Andrews. But Ralph Norman, who lost the runoff
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: to Darlene Graham, was talking with Manu Raju of CNN yesterday.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: And he says, quote, Jim, I seem to remember Ralph
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: Norman saying he's going to back the ticket when he
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: lost reluctantly. He was he was pretty mad about how
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: the president interjected into that race and many other things.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: But he did say that and doesn't look.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Like he's going quietly, even with just six days left
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: before Election Day.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: We saw a very tight pull six years.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: Ago with Lindsey Graham and Jamie Harrison. So who knows
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: what's going on in South Carolina right now? But they're
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: not all pulling their oars in the same direction, it seems.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: No, I feel like I hear a lot about a
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: lot of arguments that I find particularly unpersuasive that if
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Ken Paxton does not win the Senate race in Texas,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: that it's going to be John Cornyn's fault for not
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: supporting him sufficiently. I think I think Ken Paxton's defeat,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: if it comes to pass, will have a lot to
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: do with Ken Paxton. And I don't think, you know,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: in the end, if you are the winner of the primary,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: it is a good idea to outreach to reach out
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: to your defeated primary foes and give him a pat
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: on the back, tell him a good job and try
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: to do what you can to mend fences. Now, I
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: don't know what Darlene Graham did after the primary with
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Ralph Northam. Boy, that's a Freudian slip. Ralph Norman. Ralph Northam,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: she can say whatever she wants. Whatever she did, it
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: was not very effective. I know the president's got a
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: lot on his plate, but maybe the president giving a
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Norman call and saying, hey, good try. We're all part
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: of the same team here and I look forward to
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: working with you in the House. There are ways you
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: can try to build those bridges. We've seen in Michigan,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Abdul Al-Sayed did not feel any particular need to reach
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: out to his primary rivals. And that is not helping
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: any efforts at party unity after that. I also just
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: kind of, like, look, you and I, we don't need
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: to rehash everything we've said about Darlene Graham. But, you know,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: I think there's a people who kind of feel, Norman
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: puts it pretty well. It's just, you know, everyone felt
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: great sympathy for her for the loss of her brother.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: I think everyone would have been fine with her as
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: the placeholder until a new one was elected. I don't
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: know if everyone felt like she was the most qualified candidate.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: She had a really bad moment on that debate stage,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: basically punting on the question of whether the U.S. should
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: defend Taiwan. I don't think this all comes down to
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: calling Andrews Trani Annie. I think we need more than that.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: I don't think another derisive nickname is going to be
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: what it's going to. Like, if you have a problem,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: you got to address that problem. And this is a
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: good time for, Darlene Graham should be doing town halls
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: with candidates all the time, with voters all the time.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: She should be doing, and we talked about this, you know,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: when she was appointed senator, it's a good idea to
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: do a lot of sit down interviews. You got to
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: do a lot of things to try to get, help
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: the electorate get to know you beyond your brother's sister.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: And looking at these polling numbers, it's very hard to
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: believe that she's done that. That's a level that was
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: sufficient here. Again, you're a Republican in South Carolina. That's
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: about as easy a layup as you can ask for
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: in professional politics. And do I think she's going to win? Probably. And,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: you know, we can, it's possible this New York Times polls,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: but it's not like the other polls have her well ahead.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: They've shown a pretty darn close race. And again, this
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: just feels like a situation where very avoidable, very avoidable,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: whether it'd been a different primary choice or whether the
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: president had not encouraged her to run for a full
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: six-year term. Again, this is all the consequences of actions.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: It could have gone another way, and we'd probably be
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: in a very different situation right now.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: That's exactly right.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: As you know, Jim, I was on vacation in South
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Carolina a couple of weeks ago. There were a bunch
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: of Darling Graham ads, and they were all on the
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: trans issue. I'm not saying don't do any on that,
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: but if you don't have that vote locked up by mid-October,
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: you've got bigger problems. You need to be shoring up
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: the base in other ways. Now, it wasn't Graham specifically
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: to Norman, but there were Graham staffers and, you know,
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: after a very tight and contentious runoff saying cry harder
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: and things like that. That's not exactly the reunification message
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: that you want when you're that close to Election Day.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: You know, mid-August till early November is not that far
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: in the distance.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: And so, you know. But if you're Darlene Graham, like,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: wouldn't it be great to do a campaign stop or
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: two with Ralph Norman? Wouldn't it be great to.
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: Just go out and just sing?
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah. After the primary is over, starting that night, you
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: should be singing his phrases and talking about what great
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: work he's done in the House. And you should be
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: doing everything you can. If you see any of your
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: staffers saying something like, cry harder, just shoot them. It's
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: in South Carolina. I'm pretty sure you're allowed to do that.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: I'm kidding. Do not actually shoot them for anybody. But
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: send a very clear message that after the primary is done,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Reagan's 11th commandment, thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: And clearly that message has not permeated every part of
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: the Graham infrastructure or the Graham fan base. No, exactly.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: And so if you don't have anything good to say,
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: you might just want to clam up. It's not Cornyn's
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: fault if Paxton loses. I completely agree with that. But
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: every time he said something publicly about this race, it's
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: been very negative about Ken Paxton. He's like, oh, yes,
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: I know he's lazy. I know he's a terrible fundraiser.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: So he's reinforcing all the negative reports out there.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: He's very Christian Bale in Batman Begins. I'm not going
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: to kill you, but I don't have to save you. Right.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: So then you've got Lisa Murkowski, the Republican senator from Alaska,
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: who has now publicly endorsed the Democrat running for governor
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: in Alaska. And in that convoluted four candidates make the
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: general election, there's three Republicans. There's not one of them
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: that you would prefer over the Democrat and you have
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: to go public with it.
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: Good grief, lady.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: Come on.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: I was going to say, if we'll see how the
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Senate race shakes out, we'll see how the House race
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: shakes out. I know that Patola was the House member
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: representing Alaska for a while. Alaska very quietly might be
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: becoming a blue state, not because Democrats can get the
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: most votes. but because the Republican vote is split when
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: you go into this multi-round, you know, cumulative voting process.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: And if that works out, you can expect we're going
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: to see Democrats pushing for this to be adopted in
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: as many states as possible.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: Oh, they absolutely love it.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: And that's the same reason Susan Collins needs to win
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: on the first run, because she probably won't if she
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: doesn't get to 50 on the.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: First ballot there.
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, absolutely crazy.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: The Lisa Murkowski protection system, as I like to call it.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: in Alaska, but we'll see what happens there. All right. Well,
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: there's definitely some problems inside the GOP house in South
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Carolina and Alaska, but are there problems inside your house
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: that need immediate attention or you're worried could need immediate
• 22:19
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• 22:42
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• 23:36
  Speaker 2: in Florida. Jim, every day it seems there's something new
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: about Abdul El-Sad that makes you think, man, the Democrats
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: really picked a terrible, terrible candidate here. But the latest,
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: courtesy of Free Beacon here, is al-Zawahiri's reaction to the
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: Biden administration droning Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan in 2022. Jim,
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: I think if anybody cornered us and said, you got
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: to name one thing the Biden administration did that you
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: agreed with, I think that'd be the one thing I
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: could think of. So I don't know if there's anything else.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: But Free Beacon says, Abdul al-Zawahiri wrote that it was
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: troubling that the United States killed al-Zawahiri, who was widely
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: considered the mastermind of 9-11. In that drone strike in 2022,
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: killing al-Zawahiri was, according to al-Sayed, a fig leaf to
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: cover up the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Well, I
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: would have to agree with him on that one, actually.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: But he says President Biden is using the strike to
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: bolster his approval here at home. It is troubling, troubling, Jim,
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: to watch yet another American president flog the war on
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: terror themes to resurrect a laggard term. Jim, the guy
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: who's one of the key architects of 9-11 should not
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: be all that controversial when he gets drone. But I
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: guess when you hang out with a guy that says
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: we deserve it, I guess it's more complicated.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: I was going to say, no, it's not troubling. This
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: is my untroubled face. This is... If anything, it's elating.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: It's joyful. The New York Jets don't give me this
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: much pleasure as U.S. Hellfire missiles do, right? Only military
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: jets actually know how to win. The flog war on
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: terror themes. Again... There's a good parody going around in
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: which someone says, Abdul Al-Sayed on a date. So where
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: are you from? Why would you ask me that question?
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: I think it's very important. Why did you believe? Why
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: is it important to you if you don't know where
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: I'm from? What are you trying to get at here?
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: I think it says a lot about you. It just
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: goes on and on about kind of filibustering, but this
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: righteous indignation and all that stuff. But it'd be great
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: to say flawed war on terror themes. What did you
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: mean by that? Was the U.S., you know, if you
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: can make legitimate arguments that the war on terror phrase
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: was kind of annoying because, like, we weren't merely, we
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: were not attacking, we were not against every terrorist group
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: in the entire world. We were not against terrorism as
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: a concept. We were up against Al-Qaeda, various Al-Qaeda affiliates, and,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: you know, their nebulous groups that come on, you know.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: And then, you know, as Al-Qaeda kind of faded from
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: the scene, ISIS rose again. forming the Islamic State of
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: Iraq and Syria, or Iraq and the Levant, ISIL was
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: the other term. So I'd love to ask Abdullah Syed,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: when you think of this, what's flogged? Because we know
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: ISIS flogged a lot of people, right? A war on
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: terror theme. What part of a war on terror do
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: you think was legitimate? And what parts of the war
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: on terror do you think were illegitimate? Because you've already
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: said that drone striking Zawahiri, who was the head of
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Al Qaeda at that point, that that was troubling. And
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: I guess troubling because he... Wasn't read his rights, I suppose.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: No Miranda rights. There was not sufficient evidence of Zawahiri's guilt.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Do you think he was just a bystander in all
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: those Al-Qaeda meetings? Do you think he just kind of
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: wandered into the bin Laden videos? And by the way,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: this is a terrific closing message for Mike Rogers. Rogers
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: has worked for Central Intelligence Agency. He's served in the U.S. military. Look,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: one guy did his duty, did his part for the country...
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: The other guy found killing al-Zawahiri troubling. The choice is yours, Michigan.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: Jim, what country is al-Zawahiri from? Or was he from?
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Egypt. I believe he was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Am I correct? Remember correctly? Yeah.
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: You'd think if you were a moderate, you'd be really
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: happy to get those radicals affiliated with your country that
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: embarrassed the name of your home country.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: He's one of the bad Muslim Brotherhoods, as opposed to
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: all the good Muslim Brotherhoods that are like that.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: The picture becomes clearer every day.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: All right. In a moment, we'll get to a topic
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: I never thought we'd get to on the Three Martini Lunch,
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: but it is what it is. But in the meantime,
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: let's talk about your business. And if you want to thrive,
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  Speaker 2: And today's episode is brought to you by Quo, spelled Q-U-O,
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  Speaker 2: Q-U-O dot com slash 3ML. Jim, as we've mentioned a
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: couple of times today, we're in the final week of
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: the midterm campaign here. And when you're in the final
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: weeks of the campaign, you want to be laser focused
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: on your message. What are the issues that work for you?
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: What are the issues that are vulnerable for your opponent?
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: You know, identify your opponent in the way that obviously
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: presents you in the best light. Instead, we are getting
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: the most discussion since the days of Sir Mix-a-Lot about
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: people's backsides on the Republican, especially campaign trail. President Trump
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: multiple times now. has commented, unsolicited, mind you, that he
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: is impressed with the backside of Ohio Senator John Husted.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: John Husted, now with Trump apparently planning to return to Ohio,
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: said this week, I better hit the gym because I
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: want to make him happy.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: You also had John Thune.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: Campaigning for Husted this week saying, well, hey, Bernie Moreno,
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: he looks pretty good, too. And then Trump last weekend
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: was talking about the backside of Nicki Minaj, who was
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: part of that rally. So, Jim, I don't know if
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: these people think they need to lock down the log
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: cabin Republican vote or what's going on here. But my goodness,
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: could you please stay on message and stop creeping everyone out?
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: Well, there are a lot of voters who are frustrated
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: with the state of the country, and they have used
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: a term for derriere. To describe lots of Republicans this cycle.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: So maybe that's what he's trying to build a common
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: ground on there or something. I myself would really rather
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: not think about the tushes of really any Republican leaders.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: I'll just put Nicki Minaj aside in that category. Um,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: they said that older men get less inhibited as they
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: get older. And maybe this is, you know, I actually,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: my colleague, Jeff Blahar, wrote a good piece about this recently.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: There are a lot of people like, ah, you know,
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Trump's always been a repressed homosexual. And that's why he's
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: talking about men's butts and stuff like that. I, he
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: actually thinks that this is actually the, a man who
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: is now 80 and, you know, will turn 81 next year, um,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: recognizing that he's not as young as he used to
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: be and slowing down. And, you know, it, His entire
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: image has always been about virility, the womanizing, the big
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: ostentatious displays and all that stuff that this was– that
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: Trump realizes he's not the guy he used to be
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: physically and probably mentally. In fact, judging by these comments,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: definitely mentally. And it's kind of this– so in that context,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: it's a little bit sad. Having said that, it's really
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: not helpful. And look, there are a lot of– we've
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: talked on this podcast. There's a lot of reasons Republicans–
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Looked like they're on course for a lousy, lousy midterm election.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Lack of focus in the president's messaging, I think, is
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: fairly high on that list as well.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just completely lost the plot in that situation. Try
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: to talk about something that should drive people to the polls.
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: I guess we're not going to get that. Jim?
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: I mean, maybe they think like, you know, hey, do
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: you like tushes? We got some great ones over here.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: Well, Trump claimed in Texas last night that it boosted
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: Houston by 12 points.
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: It has not boosted Houston by 12 points.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Well, by polling numbers. But there's some other measure that,
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: you know, Out Magazine poll has them actually considerably higher. Oh, no.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: Jim, on that note, you are out the next couple
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: of days. Not that kind of out, but just out.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: Just away from the podcast.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: I will be serving a two-episode suspension for my jokes
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: on this.
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: In any event, enjoy your time, and I will see
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: you on Monday.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: See you Monday, Greg.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: Jim Garrity, National Review. I'm Greg Karambas of Radio America.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for being.
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: With us today. Please be sure to subscribe to the
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: podcast if.
• 32:26
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• 32:28
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• 32:31
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• 32:33
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• 32:35
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• 32:38
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• 32:42
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• 32:43
  Speaker 3: Join us again Thursday for the next Three Martini Lunch.