Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / K.T. McFarland | Former Deputy National Security Advisor Talks Midterms, Iran, Run for NY A.G. & More
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: KT McFarland is on this show every Friday, and she's
- 0:03Speaker 1: just the best. We love her. KT, good morning. How
- 0:06Speaker 1: are you?
- 0:09Speaker 2: That was such a terrific interview you just had with, hopefully,
- 0:12Speaker 2: the next Attorney General. She is so impressive.
- 0:15Speaker 1: Oh, I'm so glad you said that, because I respect
- 0:17Speaker 1: your opinion as much as anybody. Sincerely, I mean that.
- 0:20Speaker 1: So you really were impressed with her, right?
- 0:23Speaker 2: Really impressed with her.
- 0:26Speaker 1: Can she win, though? But can she win? I mean,
- 0:29Speaker 1: the problem is you've got Letitia James, who's already in office,
- 0:33Speaker 1: who goes after Trump at every opportunity, which New Yorkers like.
- 0:37Speaker 1: She checks off two other boxes because she's black and
- 0:40Speaker 1: she's a female. So the question is, can our girl win?
- 0:46Speaker 2: Well, I think the question is, can any Republican win?
- 0:48Speaker 2: I mean, Bruce Blakeman, if it was on the basis
- 0:51Speaker 2: of merit and effectiveness and talent, the Republicans would sweep.
- 0:56Speaker 2: But what tends to happen in New York and many other,
- 1:00Speaker 2: you know, red state, blue states is that they say, OK,
- 1:04Speaker 2: the election results are in. Oh, wait a minute. Wait
- 1:06Speaker 2: a minute. Wait a minute. We'll let you know tomorrow.
- 1:09Speaker 2: We may have a few more votes that we haven't seen.
- 1:11Speaker 2: And so you really have to wonder about the whole
- 1:13Speaker 2: integrity of the electoral system, particularly in our big cities.
- 1:16Speaker 1: That's true. I mean, you know, Brazil had like a
- 1:18Speaker 1: billion people vote last week, a billion. They had the
- 1:21Speaker 1: results that night. Spencer Pratt had to wait three weeks
- 1:25Speaker 1: in Los Angeles to find out that he lost. I mean,
- 1:27Speaker 1: it's just insane. But, you know, you just said it'll
- 1:32Speaker 1: be very hard for any Republican to win here, yet you...
- 1:36Speaker 1: have been at the very front of the line trying
- 1:39Speaker 1: to convince me to run for mayor in 2029.
- 1:41Speaker 2: Well, you're a really unique case, Sid. I am? Yeah, totally.
- 1:50Speaker 2: Because most of the people who run are people who've
- 1:53Speaker 2: had backgrounds in either law enforcement or in politics or
- 2:00Speaker 2: in governance. And you're a different class of candidate, like
- 2:04Speaker 2: Trump was. like Reagan was. You're not a politician. Now,
- 2:09Speaker 2: you're a public figure. You're a well-known public figure, and
- 2:11Speaker 2: you're known for your opinions and well-thought-out opinions, and you
- 2:15Speaker 2: can argue with the best of people. But I think
- 2:19Speaker 2: that's the exception I would make, is that can you
- 2:21Speaker 2: have someone who's really from another field, who's well-known and
- 2:25Speaker 2: successful in another field, completely come in and shake things up? Because,
- 2:31Speaker 2: you know, there was... I forget who it was in
- 2:32Speaker 2: the Reagan administration. Somebody said... Somebody famous said, you know,
- 2:36Speaker 2: the thing about when you run for president, if you
- 2:39Speaker 2: run for president, you don't need the job because you're
- 2:42Speaker 2: already famous. You're already a household name. You're already well known.
- 2:46Speaker 2: That's actually the candidate you want. And it was referring
- 2:48Speaker 2: to Reagan, who was a household name before he ran
- 2:50Speaker 2: for governor of California, before he ran for president. But
- 2:53Speaker 2: certainly Donald Trump before he ran for anything. He was
- 2:56Speaker 2: he was better known than anybody else running for president.
- 2:59Speaker 2: And so I think that's why your candidacy would intrigue
- 3:02Speaker 2: me if you decide to ever run. And then you
- 3:05Speaker 2: could also be, you know, you could be doing your
- 3:07Speaker 2: radio gig and you could do everything right up until
- 3:09Speaker 2: the point where you couldn't do it anymore. Laws wouldn't
- 3:12Speaker 2: let you. But it would be a very intriguing opportunity
- 3:17Speaker 2: for someone who's a non-politician to just break that ceiling.
- 3:20Speaker 1: I love you. And by the way, on top of that,
- 3:23Speaker 1: how much fun would that debate be? Me and Mom Donnie,
- 3:26Speaker 1: how would.
- 3:29Speaker 1: You would pay to see that, right? It wouldn't be
- 3:32Speaker 1: Curtis Sleeve taking off the gloves. I would, you know,
- 3:35Speaker 1: literally and figuratively think I would punch a guy across
- 3:37Speaker 1: the face. By the way, there are rumors that Hasan
- 3:41Speaker 1: Piker may be around these areas today. We're going to
- 3:43Speaker 1: find out if that's true, too. making a whole bunch
- 3:46Speaker 1: of stops for that crazy DSA. But, you know, you
- 3:49Speaker 1: mentioned Trump, and I believe yesterday, President Trump came out
- 3:55Speaker 1: and he said, listen, I am not going to do
- 3:58Speaker 1: anything major in Iran in the next 24 days before
- 4:03Speaker 1: the midterms. KT McFarland, if you were still advising President Trump,
- 4:08Speaker 1: and you did, along with three other presidents, would you
- 4:11Speaker 1: agree with that? Or tell him, think twice?
- 4:16Speaker 2: I think it was it was a statement that he
- 4:17Speaker 2: made for two reasons. One, is there any chance of negotiation?
- 4:21Speaker 2: There's not. We know that. But it's also done for
- 4:24Speaker 2: a secondary reason, which is to calm down the world
- 4:28Speaker 2: oil market. The last thing President Trump needs is for
- 4:31Speaker 2: the oil, you know, oil to go above one hundred
- 4:33Speaker 2: dollars a barrel right before the election. And the Democrats
- 4:36Speaker 2: would use that as evidence of Trump screwing up the
- 4:39Speaker 2: Saturday other thing. And the price of oil after President
- 4:42Speaker 2: Trump said that it started going down. So I think
- 4:45Speaker 2: that was very carefully calibrated to calm the oil markets. Now,
- 4:49Speaker 2: what will President Trump do? I think two things would happen. One,
- 4:53Speaker 2: if there was a casus bella, you know, a cause
- 4:56Speaker 2: for war, if there was if if Iran was dumb
- 5:00Speaker 2: enough to have a major attack in the Middle East
- 5:03Speaker 2: or a major mass casualty attack of Americans anywhere in
- 5:06Speaker 2: the world, or if they attacked Israel, which they've been
- 5:09Speaker 2: they have not done so far. They haven't been dumb
- 5:12Speaker 2: enough to attack Israel directly because they know what Israel
- 5:14Speaker 2: would do in retaliation. But if they were to do
- 5:17Speaker 2: that before the election, some people think that's a possibility,
- 5:20Speaker 2: that Iran is so desperate that it figures, well, they're
- 5:22Speaker 2: going to increase the scope of the war and then
- 5:26Speaker 2: get everybody really excited and then everybody will back down.
- 5:29Speaker 2: If they do that, then I think no president would
- 5:32Speaker 2: be able to ignore that and then would have to
- 5:34Speaker 2: take military action. What President Trump is also signaling to
- 5:38Speaker 2: Iran is, Guess what happens the day after the election?
- 5:42Speaker 2: Win or lose the midterms, President Trump has made it
- 5:45Speaker 2: pretty clear that he would resume military action. And my
- 5:48Speaker 2: guess is he would not do it alone. He would
- 5:50Speaker 2: do it in concert with Israel, and he would do
- 5:53Speaker 2: it in concert with the Gulf Arabs, especially even Saudi Arabia,
- 5:56Speaker 2: because Iran has been attacking the Saudis.
- 5:59Speaker 4: They have.
- 6:00Speaker 1: So there were two big debates last night locally. New
- 6:02Speaker 1: York one was the one we've been talking about, you
- 6:05Speaker 1: and I, Saritha versus James for Attorney General. But there
- 6:09Speaker 1: was a huge Senate debate, that Michigan race, which is
- 6:13Speaker 1: pretty much the one along with Texas getting all the pub.
- 6:16Speaker 1: And that is Mike Rogers going up against that America-hating,
- 6:21Speaker 1: Jew-hating Abdul El-Sayed. I want to ask you one question
- 6:25Speaker 1: that they raised at that debate last night. And I
- 6:28Speaker 1: just want one more to answer because I think it's
- 6:30Speaker 1: pretty simple. It's a ridiculous question. Ridiculous. Yet, one candidate, KT,
- 6:37Speaker 1: had a hard time answering it. Here's the question. Who
- 6:41Speaker 1: is a bigger threat to America? Israel or Iran?
- 6:50Speaker 3: Right.
- 6:51Speaker 1: Right. No, that's it. You're... Reaction was perfect, but different
- 6:57Speaker 1: than El-Sayed. Play this, Louis. This is cut number four.
- 7:00Speaker 1: He was asked the same question. He actually went about
- 7:04Speaker 1: it like it's a legitimate question.
- 7:06Speaker 3: I'm going to ask you again tonight, who do you
- 7:08Speaker 3: think is a bigger threat to the United States, Israel
- 7:10Speaker 3: or Iran?
- 7:11Speaker 1: You have 60 seconds.
- 7:12Speaker 3: And again, Rick, I'm just going to say that that's
- 7:13Speaker 3: a ridiculous hypothetical because here's what's happening right now. Our
- 7:18Speaker 3: ostensible ally in Israel has lobbied us to go to
- 7:21Speaker 3: war with Iran. We have watched as Iran has responded
- 7:26Speaker 3: by bombing all kinds of countries in the Middle East
- 7:29Speaker 3: and then choking off the world's energy supply. So this
- 7:34Speaker 3: is a situation in which I don't think we should
- 7:35Speaker 3: be a part. I don't want to be pushed into
- 7:38Speaker 3: war by Israel.
- 7:39Speaker 1: You believe this? All this loser had to say was Iran, obviously, right?
- 7:44Speaker 1: He made an argument, kind of like Mom Donnie, when
- 7:47Speaker 1: he released that statement a couple of days ago on
- 7:49Speaker 1: October the 7th, and he found it in his black
- 7:54Speaker 1: heart to mention Israel in two sentences, and then went
- 7:58Speaker 1: on for paragraphs talking about the plight of the Palestinians.
- 8:02Speaker 1: This last night, I believe, KT, was akin to that.
- 8:07Speaker 2: You know, I thought the mistake was the moderator should
- 8:09Speaker 2: have had follow-up questions, and the follow-up questions should have been.
- 8:14Speaker 2: OK, do you think Iran do you think it's OK
- 8:17Speaker 2: for Iran to have nuclear weapons?
- 8:20Speaker 1: Why didn't he ask that? Why didn't he ask that?
- 8:22Speaker 2: That would have been that's a follow up, because as
- 8:24Speaker 2: President Trump has said all along, we don't really care
- 8:26Speaker 2: about regime change. We just want to stop their nuclear program.
- 8:29Speaker 2: And it's not just it's not Israel leading us into this.
- 8:32Speaker 2: If Israel wanted to stop their nuclear program, Israel could
- 8:35Speaker 2: do it. except they couldn't have done the bunker buster bombs,
- 8:38Speaker 2: which they needed the United States for. We didn't get
- 8:40Speaker 2: let in by the nose by Israel. Donald Trump doesn't
- 8:43Speaker 2: get let in by the nose by anybody. It was
- 8:45Speaker 2: a deliberate decision, probably not great timing, you know, electorally,
- 8:51Speaker 2: but not great timing. But it was a deliberate decision.
- 8:53Speaker 2: We've got to stop Iran before it gets nuclear weapons.
- 8:56Speaker 1: Right, but what about the people that would say to you,
- 8:59Speaker 1: I agree with you 100%, and that is the answer
- 9:01Speaker 1: to the question. It's that simple. And I love... President Trump,
- 9:04Speaker 1: and I know he's telling the truth. But the people
- 9:06Speaker 1: that hate him, first they go to Israel, okay? Israel,
- 9:09Speaker 1: you're doing this for Bibi, which, of course, like you
- 9:11Speaker 1: just said, is ridiculous because President Trump takes orders from nobody, okay?
- 9:15Speaker 1: But they do say, oh, Sid, don't be so naive.
- 9:18Speaker 1: This war, this conflict is about the straight. That's it.
- 9:23Speaker 1: He wants to control the straight of Hormuz. He wants
- 9:26Speaker 1: the oil. That's what this is all about. Throw Israel
- 9:29Speaker 1: to the side. This is all about the straight and oil.
- 9:33Speaker 1: What would your answer be to that?
- 9:36Speaker 2: No. President Trump, if anybody had been paying attention, I
- 9:40Speaker 2: think President Trump would have let it go after he
- 9:42Speaker 2: bombed the nuclear sites. If Iran had just sort of,
- 9:45Speaker 2: you know, made a few bold statements and then whimpered
- 9:48Speaker 2: in silence, then I think President Trump would have called
- 9:50Speaker 2: it a day. But they didn't. They closed the strait.
- 9:53Speaker 2: So then what is our response? We have the armada
- 9:56Speaker 2: already in place, having had it there for the military. action,
- 10:00Speaker 2: and then we impose the blockade. Now, even then, I
- 10:04Speaker 2: think President Trump would have called it a day. And
- 10:06Speaker 2: in fact, he would if he had the memorandum of understanding. Iran,
- 10:09Speaker 2: you reopen the strait. Iran, we'll stop the blockade. We
- 10:13Speaker 2: won't blockade your ships in and out of your ports.
- 10:16Speaker 2: And so Iran said, yeah, okay, fine. But then within minutes,
- 10:19Speaker 2: you know, within days, violated that. So yet again, it
- 10:22Speaker 2: was Iran was to take the aggressive action. President Trump
- 10:25Speaker 2: would have settled there. And I think at any point
- 10:27Speaker 2: with all these negotiations, he would have settled. They just
- 10:31Speaker 2: won't let him settle. They want to expand the war.
- 10:34Speaker 2: You know, they broke the memorandum of understanding and they
- 10:37Speaker 2: attacked the Gulf Arabs. That was pretty stupid of them,
- 10:40Speaker 2: by the way. But they've overplayed their hand every direction.
- 10:43Speaker 2: They still think that somehow President Trump is going to
- 10:46Speaker 2: cower in the White House and agree to their demands
- 10:49Speaker 2: before the election because he's going to be so nervous
- 10:51Speaker 2: about the election, he's going to lose the midterms. What
- 10:54Speaker 2: they don't realize is the day after the midterms, which
- 10:56Speaker 2: is what President Trump told them yesterday, the day after
- 10:58Speaker 2: the midterms, gloves are coming off. I have no hesitation
- 11:03Speaker 2: in resuming military action.
- 11:05Speaker 1: I believe him. But the question does become, if God forbid,
- 11:08Speaker 1: I mean, God forbid, this country's in big trouble. I'm
- 11:11Speaker 1: not going to sugarcoat it. I'm not being overly dramatic.
- 11:13Speaker 1: That's not my style. If we lose the midterms, we're
- 11:16Speaker 1: all effed. Sorry, Katie.
- 11:18Speaker 2: No, I disagree.
- 11:20Speaker 4: Really?
- 11:21Speaker 2: I disagree. All right, so let's just get granular about it.
- 11:24Speaker 2: If you lose the midterms, what happens? All right, the
- 11:26Speaker 2: House of Representatives, if it's in Democrat hands, it'll say impeach, impeach, impeach. Well,
- 11:31Speaker 2: Trump's been to that movie. He knows how to respond.
- 11:34Speaker 2: He's going to respond very differently than he did last time.
- 11:36Speaker 2: So when they start saying, all right, the House says
- 11:39Speaker 2: we're going to subpoena everybody. Well, guess what? You don't
- 11:42Speaker 2: have to. You don't have you can you can reject
- 11:45Speaker 2: the subpoena. You can choose not to go. At which
- 11:47Speaker 2: point the House of Representatives passes legislation because it'll be
- 11:51Speaker 2: Democrat controlled and they will vote to censor you and
- 11:54Speaker 2: to send your name to the Trump Department of Justice
- 11:58Speaker 2: for prosecution. Do you think the Trump Department of Justice
- 12:02Speaker 2: is going to prosecute? The people who have stood up
- 12:06Speaker 2: to the Democrats in the House?
- 12:07Speaker 1: No, no.
- 12:08Speaker 2: It's a decision that the attorney general has to make. Now,
- 12:10Speaker 2: the reason previously Steve Bannon, Peter Navarro, the reason they
- 12:14Speaker 2: were prosecuted and put in jail was because the Biden
- 12:18Speaker 2: Justice Department chose to do that. Trump won't. Then the
- 12:21Speaker 2: second thing is, why do you need the Senate? OK,
- 12:23Speaker 2: you need the Senate to confirm cabinet officers. Trump already
- 12:27Speaker 2: has a great cabinet. He's not getting rid of Marco Rubio.
- 12:30Speaker 2: He's not getting rid of Scott Besson. He's not getting
- 12:32Speaker 2: rid of Pete Hexley. He's got the people he wants.
- 12:34Speaker 2: He doesn't need Senate confirmation. So then what can Congress
- 12:38Speaker 2: really do? Well, they could probably try to add more taxes.
- 12:42Speaker 2: Trump will veto that. They could probably add a lot
- 12:44Speaker 2: more spending. Trump will veto that. He'll shut down government.
- 12:47Speaker 2: Trump likes to shut down the government if they don't
- 12:50Speaker 2: pass the spending bills. And then when you think about
- 12:53Speaker 2: what are the policies President Trump has already implemented, they're
- 12:56Speaker 2: baked in the cake. The House is not going to
- 13:00Speaker 2: reopen the border. They can't do that. They have no
- 13:02Speaker 2: authority to do that. The House can't stop the president's
- 13:09Speaker 2: AI directives. They don't have the authority to do that.
- 13:12Speaker 3: No.
- 13:12Speaker 2: The House of Representatives can't rejigger the tax cuts and
- 13:17Speaker 2: rejigger the regulatory burden of cutting the red tape. They
- 13:23Speaker 2: can't put on more red tape. Trump won't let them
- 13:25Speaker 2: do that. So there's very little they can do. that
- 13:28Speaker 2: they have the power to do, other than scream and
- 13:31Speaker 2: shout on MSNOW or whatever. They can scream on those shows,
- 13:38Speaker 2: but they can't effectively change what is happening to the
- 13:42Speaker 2: American economy. They're not going to get rid of the
- 13:44Speaker 2: $ 30 trillion of foreign investment that's already started to pour
- 13:47Speaker 2: into the United States. to build factories all around the country.
- 13:50Speaker 2: So I think when Scott Besson says we're looking at
- 13:52Speaker 2: 5% economic growth next year, fourth quarter of this year,
- 13:56Speaker 2: next year, that's going to happen no matter who controls
- 13:58Speaker 2: the House or the Senate.
- 14:00Speaker 1: Very good points, KT. This is why you're the best.
- 14:02Speaker 1: Very good points. But whether it's going to be disastrous
- 14:06Speaker 1: or not, you just made a very case it won't be.
- 14:09Speaker 1: If we do lose, is it as easy as blaming
- 14:13Speaker 1: the conflict in Iran?
- 14:17Speaker 2: Well, the Iran war is going to end one way
- 14:19Speaker 2: or the other.
- 14:20Speaker 1: I know that, but if we lose the midterms, is
- 14:23Speaker 1: that as easy as oil's up, gas is up, diesel's up,
- 14:28Speaker 1: goods are up? It's because of Iran. Or is there
- 14:31Speaker 1: more to it, do you think, if we lose?
- 14:34Speaker 2: Look, the price of oil is not dependent on who
- 14:37Speaker 2: wins or loses the midterms. The price of oil is
- 14:39Speaker 2: going to be dependent upon what happens in the Middle
- 14:40Speaker 2: East and what happens with American energy production and exports.
- 14:44Speaker 2: And what happens with American foreign policy? You know, we
- 14:47Speaker 2: get Venezuela's oil, for example. We now control, what, 60
- 14:50Speaker 2: percent of the world's oil between us, between Venezuela. Our
- 14:55Speaker 2: Gulf Arab friends, especially the United Arab Emirates, they vote
- 14:59Speaker 2: with us. They work with us on the international oil situation.
- 15:02Speaker 2: So I'm not, you know, again, I don't think that
- 15:07Speaker 2: the midterms are going to be that effective. I mean, sure,
- 15:09Speaker 2: I want to win. I think it'll make it much
- 15:11Speaker 2: easier for President Trump and he won't have all those
- 15:13Speaker 2: impeachment headaches all the time. But he'll know he knows
- 15:16Speaker 2: how to handle that. Been there, done that. He knows
- 15:18Speaker 2: that drill. And as far as the specifics of his policies,
- 15:22Speaker 2: they're already baked in. They're locked in. They can't be unlocked.
- 15:26Speaker 2: And when you talk about the price of oil in
- 15:29Speaker 2: the world, it will come down. There's plenty of oil.
- 15:32Speaker 2: It just has to. The Middle East has to be solved.
- 15:34Speaker 2: And one way you solve it is the day after
- 15:36Speaker 2: the election. If you don't think Mossad has the phone numbers,
- 15:40Speaker 2: addresses and locations of the top thousand leaders of the
- 15:43Speaker 2: IRGC sitting, you know, in their pocket, ready to act.
- 15:47Speaker 1: Yep.
- 15:47Speaker 2: Come on.
- 15:48Speaker 1: No, I'm with you. They are just sitting ducks. I'm
- 15:51Speaker 1: with you. Just like what happened. Operation Epic Fury that
- 15:54Speaker 1: Saturday morning when it all started and we wiped out
- 15:56Speaker 1: the Ayatollah and 40 others. That wasn't American intelligence. That
- 16:02Speaker 1: was the Mossad. KT McFarland, as always, you're beautiful. You're great.
- 16:06Speaker 1: I love you. Thank you so much.
- 16:08Speaker 2: Well, thank you for having me on Ladies' Day, Sid.
- 16:10Speaker 1: Yes! Your friend Bernadette. You're good friends with Bernadette Castro, no?
- 16:14Speaker 2: Yeah, she's great. She's another awesome woman.
- 16:16Speaker 1: Well, let's put her on. Let's say hello to her.
- 16:17Speaker 1: Come on, put her on for a second. Hey, Bernadette Castro.
- 16:20Speaker 1: I haven't had her on a radio show. Last time
- 16:22Speaker 1: I spoke to her, I was on Imus' show like
- 16:25Speaker 1: 20-something years ago. Bernadette, say hello to KT McFarlane.
- 16:29Speaker 4: Yeah, KT, let me tell you something. You are one
- 16:32Speaker 4: of the top three, maybe the top smartest woman I know.
- 16:38Speaker 4: I'm serious. You're brilliant. And your analysis and your knowledge
- 16:42Speaker 4: and your experience, it is a gift that Sid puts
- 16:45Speaker 4: you on every Friday. No, really, you know I've always
- 16:49Speaker 4: respected you. You're amazing.
- 16:51Speaker 2: Well, we've even campaigned together, Bernadette. Didn't work out for
- 16:54Speaker 2: either of us.
- 16:55Speaker 1: But we live to.
- 16:56Speaker 2: Tell the tale.
- 16:57Speaker 4: We live in the trenches together, KT. We have.
- 16:59Speaker 1: We're going to let KT go enjoy a weekend.
- 17:02Speaker 5: Thanks for listening to Sid and Friends in the Morning.
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- 17:30Speaker 5: so you never have to wonder
- 17:31Speaker 1: What the heck is going on here