Latest / The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated / U.S. & Iran reach ceasefire deal

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U.S. & Iran reach ceasefire deal · The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things
• 0:03
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  Speaker 1: take advantage of the many free online courses there, and
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• 0:11
  Speaker 1: them at Hugh for Hillsdale dot com or just Google,
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  Speaker 1: Apple iTunes and Hillsdale Lauria and Evan Grace America. I'm
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: to hewittt what a night and day of news. We
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: got a lot to cover today and I will cover
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: it all. But I'm starting with the United States Senator
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Susan Collins of Maine Center Collins, I wanted to talk
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: to you about budget, and I'm going to do that,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: but first let me get your reaction to deal, no deal,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: see fire, no seasfire. It's really unfolding, so I don't
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: yet have an opinion that's fixed other than if the
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  Speaker 1: Straight reopens, it's a big win for America. How do
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: you view it?
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  Speaker 2: Well, Certainly getting the Straight reopened is the big win
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: not only for America, but for our allies is as well.
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  Speaker 2: The news reports have been so conflicting all day that
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: it's difficult to know whether the ceasefire is holding or not.
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  Speaker 2: My goal is for this military conflict to be breathed
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: and successful. We must ensure that Iran cannot develop a
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: nuclear weapon. We learned that it had thousands of ballistic missiles,
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: which essentially provide a shield for its enrichment of uranium,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: and we know that Iran remains the leading state sponsor
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: of terrorism. Nevertheless, I don't want to see boots on
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: the ground except for the amazing rescue of those two airmen,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: which was truly extraordinary, and I don't want to see
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  Speaker 2: a long conflict. So I hope the seas fire's going
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: to hold and be transformed into a permanent cessation of
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: hostilities with a run giving up it. Finally, it's nuclear
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: ambitions and its sponsorship of terrorist groups all over the world.
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  Speaker 1: That is the best case. That's what I think we
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: might be getting, But it's going to be in the details. Now.
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  Speaker 1: We learned a lot. You mentioned the remarkable rescue. The
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: American military never ceases to amaze, and they've done remarkable things.
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  Speaker 1: But we've learned that the conflict is expensive, and we
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: are a sea and air power primarily, and budgets have
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: to reflect that, and that we're going to need a
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: lot of new munitions and drones and ships, your Chair
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: of Appropriations in the Senate, President Trump sent a budget
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  Speaker 1: request of one point five trillion last week, including a
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  Speaker 1: lot of money for ships eighteen warship sixteen support ships.
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  Speaker 1: What do you make of the overall request, Senator, because
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  Speaker 1: that's a big gulp when it comes to defense, it.
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  Speaker 2: Is it's about a twenty eight percent increase compared to
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  Speaker 2: last year. We do have to keep in mind that
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  Speaker 2: the president is compensating for years of underfunding by the
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  Speaker 2: Biden administration, so we do need to do some catch
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  Speaker 2: up to make sure that we are prepared to meet
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  Speaker 2: the global threats that we face. We have not yet
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  Speaker 2: received the detailed budget documents from the Department of Defense.
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  Speaker 2: We expect those next week, so it's too early for
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  Speaker 2: me to bless or to say what I want to
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  Speaker 2: see in there, whether the twenty eight percent, which would
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  Speaker 2: bring us to almost one point five trillion dollars, is
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  Speaker 2: the right amount. I will say that there is one omission,
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  Speaker 2: and that is apparently the budget is only going to
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  Speaker 2: provide for one ddgen fifty one huh work course of
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  Speaker 2: the US Navy and disclosing my parochial interests. They are
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  Speaker 2: built at that iron works in that Maine, as well
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  Speaker 2: as at the Angles Shipyard in Mississippi. But we've seen
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  Speaker 2: just how critical these destroyers are, and I think that
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  Speaker 2: we need more than one of them, especially when you
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: look at the ever growing Chinese fleet, which now exceeds
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  Speaker 2: the size of the American naval fleet.
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  Speaker 1: Every summer, I go up and down that river with
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  Speaker 1: visitors when I'm up in Maine and show them the
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  Speaker 1: Bath Iron Works, and they tell us the statistic during
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  Speaker 1: World War Two, seventeen destroyers a month coming from eight shipyard.
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  Speaker 1: Now there's one shipyard doing one and a half to
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  Speaker 1: two a year. I can't believe that the Arlely Burke
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  Speaker 1: is the ship other than our carrier is a big deal.
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  Speaker 1: But the Arly Burke is our ship. So I'm sure
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  Speaker 1: you'll have something to say about that. I did hear
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  Speaker 1: from a pretty connected person that there may be a
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  Speaker 1: request in the budget for housing for the workforce because
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  Speaker 1: it's getting too expensive to live near Bath, near Portsmouth,
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  Speaker 1: near some of the other places we build ships. Is
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  Speaker 1: that ever crossed your radar before?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely? When I talked to the workers, and ironically, I'm
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  Speaker 2: going to be there tomorrow, both at the Portsmouth Naval
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  Speaker 2: Shipyard and if Bath Iron works with the chiefs of
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  Speaker 2: Naval Operations, so I'm very much looking forward to showing
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  Speaker 2: him our gems. Both of them are extraordinary shipyards. But
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  Speaker 2: the three issues that come up with the workers over
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  Speaker 2: and over again are insportation because some of them find
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  Speaker 2: it far too expensive to live in Bath or Kittery
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  Speaker 2: and they tend to be commuting from Stamford in the
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  Speaker 2: case of Kittery or Lewiston in the case of Bath,
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  Speaker 2: so that transportation is important to them. And housing, and
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  Speaker 2: that's why I've secured some funding for more parking in
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  Speaker 2: both facilities that's really important, and shuttle buses, which I
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  Speaker 2: think could be very useful. Second, certainly is workforce housing.
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to be interested to see what the President's
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  Speaker 2: budget proposed, but I have been able to get funding
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  Speaker 2: that is supporting the construction of six workforce projects in Bath.
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  Speaker 2: And the third issue is oldcare, and that in the
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  Speaker 2: Kittery Portsmouth area where you eyeballs have been working with
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  Speaker 2: Jeans King from New Hampshire to try to expand the
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  Speaker 2: availability of a childcare center there. Those are the three issues.
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  Speaker 1: Important If we want to be a navy power, we've
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  Speaker 1: got to have the Arly Burke. So I'm sure you
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  Speaker 1: will you will work on that. Let me ask last year,
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  Speaker 1: you were both a budget hawk and a budget spender.
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  Speaker 1: You want a defense, but you you you saved some
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  Speaker 1: cuts as well. What did you stop from getting cut
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  Speaker 1: last year? And is that back in the eye of
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  Speaker 1: the the hatchet man over it to be whoever that
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: might be. I'm not saying it's rough vot. It could
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: be anybody.
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  Speaker 2: That is always a challenge. But I always remember that
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  Speaker 2: the president's budget request is just that, it's a request.
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  Speaker 2: It's Congress that has the power of the purse. Of course,
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  Speaker 2: we work very closely with the administration, and we're going
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  Speaker 2: to be starting our hearings up very shortly with department
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  Speaker 2: heads and agency leaders. And this budget would increase defense
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  Speaker 2: by twenty eight percent, but it cuts non defense by
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  Speaker 2: ten percent relative to last year. And as I said,
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  Speaker 2: I think we need we do need an increase in defense.
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  Speaker 2: And I worked with Mitch McConnell and Tom Cole and
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  Speaker 2: the House to increase beyond the presence budget somewhat last year,
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  Speaker 2: but not where we really wanted to be. So we'll
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  Speaker 2: take a close look of what the president's requesting. I
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  Speaker 2: do not support the decreases that.
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  Speaker 3: O and B is.
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  Speaker 2: Trying to put through again this year in medical research.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's one of the best est sense that
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  Speaker 2: we can make. Not only does it lead to effective treatment, cures,
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  Speaker 2: and means of prevention, but in the long run, it
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  Speaker 2: saves money. So I'm sorry.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Well, I just want to make sure you had a
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: chance to ask you about the campaign, because I'm following
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: it from inside the Beltway. Mister Platner looks like he's
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: going to win. He looks like someone I would not
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: encourage you to debate. I'm happy to moderate one. If
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: you do encourage it, decide to debate him. But he
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: does not seem to me to be within the twenty
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: yard lines of American politics. What do you make of
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: him as an opponent?
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: Well, I am prepared to run a vigorous, substantive campaign
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: against either Governor Jan Mills or Graham Platner. It is
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: they present different approaches, this for sure, and different challenges.
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  Speaker 2: But Whomember recruits choose to put up against me, I
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: will run a vigorous campaign and I will win. You
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: may recall six years ago I was written up by
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: the posters and pundits and I will rent one by
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  Speaker 2: nine points in a state carriage by Joe Biden. Find
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: that point.
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  Speaker 1: I remember it very well, and I remind everyone Susancollins
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  Speaker 1: dot com the most important race in the United States
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: will be over early, no rank choice voting. We like
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: that it's just going to be Susan Collins versus one
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: of those two Democrats. Go and help her out, especially
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: if you're in Maine. Go and sign up and volunteer.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: But you can contribute from everywhere. Senator Collins, thanks for
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: kicking off today. We will talk again many times in
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  Speaker 1: this election season. I appreciate the time. Don't go anywhere America.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: I'm to Hewitt. Welcome back to America. I'm Hugh HEWITTT.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Noah Rothman is the senior editor at National Review. Like me,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: a hawk on the Iran War. I'm not sure if
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: grees with me that as of last night, I thought
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  Speaker 1: it was a big win for America and President Trump.
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  Speaker 1: Lots of mixed reports. Noah, you have the floor.
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  Speaker 4: Well, I don't know if I would call the current
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  Speaker 4: state of affairs a great win for the United States.
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  Speaker 4: I wrote about this this morning, and my take on
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  Speaker 4: it is that the ceasefire is fine for two reasons.
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  Speaker 4: One because we've achieved most of our tactical objectives from
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  Speaker 4: the air, and we're literally running out of targets. When
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: we were hitting carg Island yesterday morning, they were restrikes
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: on targets we've already hit, so we were being duplicative there.
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  Speaker 5: But second, I don't think.
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  Speaker 4: The terms of the ceasefire are in any way durable,
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  Speaker 4: which is why I'm actually reassured by them.
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  Speaker 5: I don't think this occurrent status pool was going to hold,
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  Speaker 5: and if it did.
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  Speaker 4: There would be some catastrophic consequences for American prestige and
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  Speaker 4: naval jeemy hegemony rather going forward. But they're so incompatible,
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  Speaker 4: the terms are so far apart, and the United States
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  Speaker 4: has so much leverage over Iran at the negotiating table,
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  Speaker 4: with my anxieties over who were sending to that negotiating
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  Speaker 4: table very much.
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  Speaker 5: Notwithstanding that, I imagine that we have.
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  Speaker 4: The capacity to execute our objectives in the diplomatic forum,
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  Speaker 4: and barring that, we reserve the right to re engage
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  Speaker 4: in hostilities.
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  Speaker 5: And right now it does.
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  Speaker 4: Seem like if the Irrenian regime is not brain dead,
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  Speaker 4: and the body doesn't know what the brain wants and
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  Speaker 4: is simply acting on inertia with these strikes on Gulf targets.
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  Speaker 5: Then there is this parallel war that's going on, which
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  Speaker 5: is also unsustainable.
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  Speaker 4: I think that this war is going to recommence in
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  Speaker 4: short order if Iran cannot get its house in order
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  Speaker 4: and engage in these diplomatic talks in a more meaningful fashion.
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  Speaker 5: But yeah, I am, I know that terms. I just
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  Speaker 5: don't think they're going to hold.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think that there's ever been a war with
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  Speaker 1: which I'm familiar in the modern Middle East that did
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  Speaker 1: not end in a siege fire that was broken repeatedly
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  Speaker 1: by both sides for about a week. So that doesn't
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: it doesn't really concern me, especially since Iran had the
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Mosaic defense and they've delegated down attack authority to commanders
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: in regional level. But we'll see well also, so I think,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: and I don't see many people online talking about this.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: The military does bda battle damage assessments. We've been at
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: such a high pace of operation. Now we're going to
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: go have a very good look, say at what isn't
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: blown up and the second MEEW, the second Marine Exhibitionionary
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  Speaker 1: Unit will arrive, as will other assets. I'm not really
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  Speaker 1: worried if they break the seasefire. I think Donald Trump
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: will not hesitate to go back to the war. I
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: really don't. Do you have any doubt about that? I
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  Speaker 1: don't know.
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  Speaker 4: Unapprehensive about it. I think it would be I don't.
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  Speaker 4: I can't get into the Trump the president's mind, and
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: I think nobody can. So it would be unwise for
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: us to assume that the President cannot be swayed by
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: people in his orbit who are very apprehensive about this war,
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: and politically in the degree to which it would be
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: detrimental to Republican political prospects in November.
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  Speaker 5: I can't discount that.
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  Speaker 4: However, the terms of the ceasefire, as I understood them,
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: were very clear, and it had nothing to do with
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  Speaker 4: the ten points on the Iranian side or the fifteen
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  Speaker 4: points on the American side, and none of which we're
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: really at issue. Was we stop shooting. You unblocked the strait,
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: and the strait is not blocked conventionally.
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  Speaker 5: The strait is blocked by the a.
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  Speaker 4: Modest application of military force and the theoretical prospect of
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: much greater force in the future. But that's still interdicting
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: traffic in the strait. Iran is not holding up. It's
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: into the bargain here, even though we've stopped shooting. And yeah,
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  Speaker 4: that will not persist for much longer. But all this
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: conversation over the course the last twenty four hours, twenty
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: four hours, by the way in which the entire American
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: commentary community spent in a state of abject emotional distress,
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: visibly psychologically distressed.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: I'm going to argue with you a little bit. The
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: people I followed the most were not upset. They appropriately
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: judged the post yesterday is not referring to genocide but
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: to the destruction of the Iranian regime. And they read
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: all the way to the end, which is usually necessary
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: in an SAT question and posts by Donald Trump. God
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: blessed the Iranian people. It was just absurd. Concluded he's
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: going to use a nuclear weapon. I am, however, worried about.
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  Speaker 4: But that was the conclusion that a lot of that
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: was the conclusion that a lot of people who have
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: foreign policy PhDs on retailed as though it was there
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: was no detriment to their credibility by doing so. And
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: yet they continued to do so for the benefit of
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: an audience that was rending garments and has been renting
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: they were when the.
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: Attack that they feared didn't occur.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: They were engagement farming. So here's my question, Noah, can
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: they be fixed? Because I don't think the center right
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: and the conservatives have lost their mind. I listened to
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: you and Rich Lowry and Jim Garrity, and we don't
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: always agree, and I don't always agree, but we're civil
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: and we can talk to Democrats. I think they're cracked.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: They're absolutely cracked over there. Nick Christoff, who's been a
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: guest on this show repeatedly worrying about nuclear weapons, I
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: was just insane.
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it was. It was quite insane.
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: And there really is no way to evaluate it outside
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: of a psychological predom This position to believe that the
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: president is capable of doing things that no civilized human
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: being would do, Nobody with the capacity, nobody with any
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: perspective of posterity or fidelity to convention norms, international law,
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: all of that would go out the window. And you know,
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: there's a reason to be skeptical about all that, but
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: it is really a vast lead to suggest that the
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: President was talking about a genocidal campaign against the Iranian people,
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: and that is what was retailed right up until the
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: ceasefire happened, at which point the very same people pivoted
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: to rending garments over the degree to which America.
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: Had sacrificed its hegemonic.
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: Responsibilities over the Navy, and maybe the president should keep going.
• 16:37
  Speaker 6: It was just it was just.
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: A weird back and forth, but no can There was
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: no confrontation with the contradictions that they were inviting.
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: It was a seamless transition.
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: And it was left to us who were observing this
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: sort of thing to say, hey, do you realize you
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: just did a one to eighty and yet you.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Don't see any request left that they request for an
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: explanation of incants distancy can be asked and answered. I
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: don't think there is. I think they're yelling at each
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: other and people like a San Piker and Ben Rhodes
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: who've lost their minds. But there's just no place in
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: American media where the two sides can meet and confer.
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it requires a different forum. Social media
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: certainly doesn't encourage deliberation, and cable news panels to generally
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: encourage conflict rather than conflict resolution. So I tend to
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: stick to my writing long form pieces which I feel
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: like and reading long form pieces which I feel like
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: is where you can air arguments. And the central premise
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: that I aired this morning is that the United States
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: and Israel did not change their position to get to
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: the ceasefire.
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: I agree a Ram's position.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: And do you China took Do you think China took
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: note of what we can do and how quickly we
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: can do it.
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: Yes, So for the demonstrative capabilities here will absolutely have
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: a sobering effect in Beijing. If the ceasefire were to
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: hold at the terms that it is currently established, I
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: think Beijing would be emboldened to execute something like a
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: hard or soft blockade of Taiwan. Around has proven that
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: even the minimal application of force to a contested waterway
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: is sufficient to close it. I think Beijing would test
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: that proposition, which is why I don't think this is something.
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: That is going to be durable. I think it will
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: fall apart.
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: However, it does look like China put a lot of
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: pressure on Iran to come to these terms.
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: That's the reporting at least.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: Agree, and if China got and it makes sense China.
• 18:35
  Speaker 5: That says a lot about their position. Yep.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Okay, last question, do you have any idea who's running around?
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: Have you read anything that tells us whether or not
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: the fifty people in the bunker on Saturday night or
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Sunday morning survived?
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: I have none, and that's a real big question mark.
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: And there's a bunch of conflicting reports about the extent
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: to which CODA commanding is alive well.
• 18:59
  Speaker 5: In contact with Beijing.
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: That was one report that I read that he was
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: he was leading some of these efforts and that was why,
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: and it was difficult to translate that to the lower
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: level communities, the mosaic strategy where they have these commanders
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: who have autonomous, decentralized authority, that it was difficult for
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: him to disseminate the control. But I've also read other pieces,
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: like the Telegraph in London yesterday which said that he's
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: incapacitated and unconscious.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: So I don't that's what I read. He's in a
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: hospital and come unconscious and dying. No, h c Rockman,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: great piece this morning, great commentary on the editors. Keep
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: it up. How are you on commentary yet? Thank you,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: my friend, don't go anywhere America. I'm here, Welcome back
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: in America. I'm Hugh Hewett from inside the Belway, joined
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: by Sarah C. Bedford of The Washington Examiner. Sarah, there
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: has been so much news that I'm not sure what's
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: real and what isn't real. What's your understanding about the
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: status of the seasfire with Iran?
• 19:54
  Speaker 6: Well, it seems to be so far holding.
• 19:56
  Speaker 7: You know, twenty four hours in, there had been some
• 19:59
  Speaker 7: concerns about out, you know, the level of control that
• 20:01
  Speaker 7: Iron obviously still has over the straight out of hor
• 20:03
  Speaker 7: Moves and that potentially Ron would still be choking off
• 20:08
  Speaker 7: ships going through there. And then there were some questions
• 20:11
  Speaker 7: about whether the ceasefire applied to what Israel was doing
• 20:15
  Speaker 7: in Lebanon and some bombings in Beirut. But so far
• 20:18
  Speaker 7: it hasn't fallen apart yet. And you know, look, this
• 20:20
  Speaker 7: all seems to be part of a way for Trump
• 20:23
  Speaker 7: to sort of buy some time to finalize a deal
• 20:25
  Speaker 7: that would achieve his goals in a sort of lasting
• 20:28
  Speaker 7: way without the sort of massive strike that he was
• 20:31
  Speaker 7: promising yesterday.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: How did you read his tweet or post yesterday? Because
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: I thought the people who thought he was threatening genocide,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: were acting in bad faith. I didn't read it that
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: way at all.
• 20:45
  Speaker 7: I mean, you know, it's his opponents and critics were
• 20:49
  Speaker 7: accusing him of war crimes and genocide, like you mentioned,
• 20:53
  Speaker 7: at one hour of the day, and like an hour
• 20:55
  Speaker 7: later they were accusing him of chickening out and being
• 20:57
  Speaker 7: a coward. So the criticism of Trump was sort of
• 21:00
  Speaker 7: all over the place yesterday. But Trump very frequently makes
• 21:04
  Speaker 7: like big, hyperbolic threats to achieve his strategic goals, and
• 21:10
  Speaker 7: the confusion around what he means and what he will
• 21:12
  Speaker 7: and won't do. That's a strategic thing that Trump deploys
• 21:16
  Speaker 7: in a lot of different contexts, but especially when it
• 21:18
  Speaker 7: comes to military operations and diplomacy. So it's not really
• 21:21
  Speaker 7: surprising that Trump would use hyperbole when we now know
• 21:25
  Speaker 7: he was on the brink of some sort of acceptable
• 21:28
  Speaker 7: ceasefire deal.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: Now, I think Iran is blinked yesterday that they cannot
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: continue to take this pounding. In the period of the ceasefire,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: we continue to surge additional assets into the Gulf, more
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: and more stuff. Is it arriving here? Do you think
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: do you have a feeling about whether or not the
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: war will.
• 21:46
  Speaker 7: Resume politically, I think it could be difficult for Trump
• 21:51
  Speaker 7: to do that, you see, I mean just they're the
• 21:54
  Speaker 7: domestic constraints that he does have. The wars not as
• 21:58
  Speaker 7: popular as it was even weeks ago. At the outset,
• 22:01
  Speaker 7: people are having more skepticism that this won't be a
• 22:04
  Speaker 7: limited engagement with a quick, clear victory like Trump promised.
• 22:09
  Speaker 7: At the outset, he might lose the support of some
• 22:11
  Speaker 7: Republicans who could get nervous if this looks like it
• 22:14
  Speaker 7: might turn into some sort of protracted conflict.
• 22:16
  Speaker 6: Most of them have been willing.
• 22:17
  Speaker 7: To give him the space to show, you know, what
• 22:21
  Speaker 7: his goals were and how quickly they could be achieved.
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: That could change as well.
• 22:25
  Speaker 7: When Congress comes back on Monday, You'll have Republicans chased
• 22:28
  Speaker 7: down in the hallways of Congress facing.
• 22:31
  Speaker 6: Those tough questions.
• 22:32
  Speaker 7: And so those domestic constraints alone could make it difficult
• 22:36
  Speaker 7: for Trump to resume the war, not to mention, you know,
• 22:39
  Speaker 7: the political headaches caused by the rising price of oil
• 22:43
  Speaker 7: and things like that.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Now Vice President Bench is going to lead our delegation
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: to Islamabad. I don't know who else is on the delegation,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: do you, I.
• 22:53
  Speaker 7: Don't I don't think it's clear that Wick Cooff and
• 22:55
  Speaker 7: Kusher and some of the people who were conducting negotiations.
• 22:59
  Speaker 6: Before would be taken off.
• 23:00
  Speaker 7: But it's certainly a sign of how serious the Trump
• 23:02
  Speaker 7: administration is taking the negotiations that they're putting Vance as
• 23:06
  Speaker 7: the face of it. And notably, Dvance is reported to
• 23:09
  Speaker 7: be one of the leading anti war voices in the administration,
• 23:12
  Speaker 7: but he's also the second highest ranking official beyond Trump himself,
• 23:15
  Speaker 7: So it shows the seriousness with which Trump is taking.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: This high risk are no risk for jd.
• 23:23
  Speaker 7: It certainly is high risk because you know, he's staked
• 23:26
  Speaker 7: his credibility to being opposed to this kind of conflict,
• 23:29
  Speaker 7: and he's not exactly tamped down the speculation reports that
• 23:32
  Speaker 7: he's been opposed to this the whole time. If he
• 23:35
  Speaker 7: allows himself to be tied closely to something that ends
• 23:38
  Speaker 7: up being in albatross for Donald Trump, he's got plausible
• 23:41
  Speaker 7: deniability right now about the war that goes away the
• 23:45
  Speaker 7: deeper that he is more publicly involved in whatever happens next.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: I actually kind of read it as a vote of
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: confidence in both the vice president and the ceasefire that
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: he's going for that very reason. Now the essential elements
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: of the ceasefire are too in my view, one is
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: the strait that horror moods returns to the status quo
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: wante and number two, the highly enriched uranium leaves you
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: run anything else that has to be and must have.
• 24:14
  Speaker 7: I mean, the ending Iran's nuclear capabilities is the top
• 24:18
  Speaker 7: stated goal that Trump has, and so the getting the
• 24:21
  Speaker 7: enriched urati amount it's hugely important. Trump seems to be
• 24:23
  Speaker 7: projecting confidence that that's going to happen. And you know,
• 24:27
  Speaker 7: the straight of horor mood that is a huge chowpoint.
• 24:29
  Speaker 7: Iron has proved they do have significant leverage, and Iran
• 24:33
  Speaker 7: hasn't been degraded so totally that they're not able to
• 24:36
  Speaker 7: still choke up the flow of goods through the straight
• 24:39
  Speaker 7: of hor moods.
• 24:39
  Speaker 6: So that is also.
• 24:40
  Speaker 7: Something that's of paramount importance for resolving the conflict.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Sarah see Bedford always good to see you. Follow Sarah
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: on x at Sarah C. Bedford at the DC Examiner.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Sarah. Come here, Dan Kane, please cut number six.
• 24:57
  Speaker 8: I've laid out the statistics, but it does not truly
• 25:01
  Speaker 8: capture the nature of combat. This is gritty and unforgiving business.
• 25:07
  Speaker 8: It's chaotic, it's hot, it's dark, it's unpredictable, and there's
• 25:11
  Speaker 8: always unknowns. And our people proudly walked into those unknowns
• 25:17
  Speaker 8: and continue forward and through it all, the Joint Force
• 25:20
  Speaker 8: has demonstrated the unwavering resolve that the nation demands of us.
• 25:26
  Speaker 8: We are a mission focused force and our objectives always
• 25:29
  Speaker 8: is to create the conditions for peace. And today we
• 25:33
  Speaker 8: have while be ready should that peace break, which we
• 25:36
  Speaker 8: hope it is not.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: I have more general kine for you. Right after the break,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: he gave a concise three and a half minute summary.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Will come right out of the break with that summary
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: when we return to the Heugh Hewett Show. Welcome back
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: pretty quickly. Mike Rodgers our candidate percentate up in Michigan.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: By our, I mean the Republican nominee will be Mike Rogers.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: His website. What is your website, Rogers from Michigan?
• 25:58
  Speaker 9: Is that it Mike Robs for Senate dot Com?
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Rogers for Senate dot Com R O G E R
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: S f O R Senate dot Com winning those ten
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: twenty five and fifty dollars contribution. Mike, tell me what
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: you assessed the Iran seats fire as being good deal,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: bad deal, No way to tell.
• 26:18
  Speaker 9: I just don't think there's any way to tell yet.
• 26:20
  Speaker 9: We're not sure exactly what's in it.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Number one.
• 26:23
  Speaker 9: You know, if some of the things I've seen reported,
• 26:25
  Speaker 9: I can't imagine the President would agree to. So it's
• 26:29
  Speaker 9: going to be interesting to see what was actually proffered
• 26:31
  Speaker 9: in the deal, what they're working through. You know, a
• 26:36
  Speaker 9: temporary pause is probably okay for both sides candidly, and
• 26:40
  Speaker 9: probably advantages the United States. Gives a good opportunity for
• 26:45
  Speaker 9: battle damage assessment see where things are. Is a not
• 26:50
  Speaker 9: a bad thing for that pause, But we'll see again.
• 26:54
  Speaker 9: If we get to a degraded Iran that is no
• 26:57
  Speaker 9: longer a threat to its neighbors or the United States
• 27:00
  Speaker 9: States because of its missile program or drone program, or
• 27:03
  Speaker 9: mind program or a nuclear program, that's a win for
• 27:09
  Speaker 9: the United States.
• 27:09
  Speaker 10: I think.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: I also remind people it's useful for people who've been
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: at full action for forty days to have a breather.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: And we're surging a second marine expeditionary unit and other
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: assets into the region, so it's not like we're not
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: keeping an eye on the ball. Mike Rogers, I have
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: a specific question. Iran attacked all of their Arab neighbors.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Everyone says in Michigan Republicans have a dearborn problem. I
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: don't believe that. I think Arab Americans want the best
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: for their families in their country. What do you hear
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: from the Arab American communities in Michigan about the fact
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: that Iran fired at every Arab nation they could reach.
• 27:48
  Speaker 9: Yeah, so you obviously there's always concern when they're shooting
• 27:52
  Speaker 9: going on and people have family back in the in
• 27:54
  Speaker 9: and around the region. But what I hear overwhelmingly is,
• 27:57
  Speaker 9: I know, the biggest cause of our problem in the
• 28:00
  Speaker 9: last fifty years came out of Iran. UH did try
• 28:03
  Speaker 9: to destabilize Lebanon, the Huthis and Yemen. You just go
• 28:08
  Speaker 9: right down the region. Certainly Hesbalah in Lebanon and Hamas
• 28:14
  Speaker 9: and Gaza.
• 28:15
  Speaker 10: I think there is a faction.
• 28:16
  Speaker 9: You know, we have a pretty aggressive Palestinian movement in Michigan.
• 28:20
  Speaker 9: We also have a high Shia population in Deerborn, Michigan,
• 28:25
  Speaker 9: which would align with Iran. But I don't hear a
• 28:29
  Speaker 9: lot of the cheering. You don't see the big protests
• 28:32
  Speaker 9: happening there about Iran.
• 28:34
  Speaker 10: For a reason.
• 28:35
  Speaker 9: They know that if the President can get this solved,
• 28:39
  Speaker 9: guess what it brings peace in the region like they've
• 28:41
  Speaker 9: never seen before. They'd be able to go back and
• 28:44
  Speaker 9: forth to their countries with a lot less problem, to
• 28:47
  Speaker 9: visit family and things like that. So you know, yes,
• 28:50
  Speaker 9: there's a faction that is not happy about it. Matter fact,
• 28:53
  Speaker 9: you'll find most of them in the Democrat Party and
• 28:56
  Speaker 9: including the one of the candidates for the US Senate.
• 28:59
  Speaker 9: But for the most part, the people I talk to
• 29:02
  Speaker 9: are saying, you know, listen, I don't like war, but
• 29:04
  Speaker 9: you know, we know that Iran was the cause of
• 29:07
  Speaker 9: our problems, and man, would it be great to get
• 29:09
  Speaker 9: our countries back.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Congressman Rogers, when you were in the House here with
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: chriffs the House Intelligence Committee, you pay attention to defense budget.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: The president's budget was one point five trillion dollars for
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: defense when he unveiled it last week. What do you
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: think about that?
• 29:25
  Speaker 9: You know, I know we have a lot of things
• 29:27
  Speaker 9: that we got to get ready for. So one of
• 29:29
  Speaker 9: the things when you go through an exercise like this,
• 29:31
  Speaker 9: this conflict in Iraq, where you're degrading the top terrorist
• 29:36
  Speaker 9: states military capability, you learn a lot, and I think
• 29:39
  Speaker 9: what they're doing is applying that I don't know all
• 29:42
  Speaker 9: of the aspects of the budget of the proposed budget
• 29:46
  Speaker 9: for defense, but I do know that there is a
• 29:49
  Speaker 9: lot of new technology that we can apply across the
• 29:53
  Speaker 9: board to get ready to make sure that a country
• 29:58
  Speaker 9: like China doesn't get an advantage, or Russia doesn't get
• 30:01
  Speaker 9: an advantage, or even another Iran pops up somewhere around
• 30:05
  Speaker 9: the world doesn't get an advantage North Korea, that kind
• 30:08
  Speaker 9: of thing. And so I'd be interested to go through
• 30:10
  Speaker 9: it line by line. I'm interested to see what kind
• 30:12
  Speaker 9: of technology they're investing in. Listen, If this is all
• 30:15
  Speaker 9: about old legacy systems, probably a mistake. If it's about
• 30:18
  Speaker 9: modernizing even one more time here the United States military,
• 30:22
  Speaker 9: it's probably the right decision.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: So Congressman, I got to congratulate you on win the
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: national championship. Goblu hate to say it. O'Connor will give
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: me a help about that, But number two, Michigan won
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: World War two. It actually built the stuff that won
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: World War two? Is it part of the rearmament of America.
• 30:41
  Speaker 11: Needs to be?
• 30:42
  Speaker 9: It's not yet. And one of the reasons I'm doing this.
• 30:44
  Speaker 9: You is for that very reason. You know, we used
• 30:46
  Speaker 9: to have a strategic air base and we had two
• 30:49
  Speaker 9: Democrats in the Senate for thirty years. Strategic airbase is
• 30:53
  Speaker 9: no longer there. The naval subtracking station in the Upper
• 30:57
  Speaker 9: Peninsula no longer there. We used to have a bigger
• 31:00
  Speaker 9: role in building submarine components in the west side of
• 31:02
  Speaker 9: the state. Doesn't happen. Under seven hundred foot ships on
• 31:05
  Speaker 9: the east side of the state doesn't happen. We even
• 31:07
  Speaker 9: lost tank production. It's now down in Lima, Ohio.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Again.
• 31:12
  Speaker 9: It needs to be that we have certainly the skilled
• 31:15
  Speaker 9: workforce to be able to ramp up to do this,
• 31:18
  Speaker 9: and it absolutely needs to be back in the business
• 31:21
  Speaker 9: of defense industrial base. And what people don't realize that's
• 31:24
  Speaker 9: just not building up for war. It has ripple effects
• 31:26
  Speaker 9: throughout the commercial economy. It has dual use technologies other things.
• 31:31
  Speaker 9: It creates more opportunity. And what I worry about is
• 31:35
  Speaker 9: that we've actrophied ourselves so much we don't have the
• 31:38
  Speaker 9: ability to sustain long, big operations if we had to.
• 31:42
  Speaker 9: Now nobody wants to do that, But if we had to,
• 31:45
  Speaker 9: could we do it? And I think the answer is
• 31:47
  Speaker 9: questionable right now. So We've got to get back into
• 31:50
  Speaker 9: building things, not only across America but in Michigan. And
• 31:54
  Speaker 9: having a senator that actually worked on a car assembly line,
• 31:59
  Speaker 9: knows the value of these manufacturing jobs, knows how it
• 32:02
  Speaker 9: applies to defense. I think is going to make the
• 32:04
  Speaker 9: difference for Michigan going forward.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Mike Rodgers always good to see it. Keep coming back.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Rogers for Senate dot Com, go and be a part
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: of the campaign to get Michigan a senator who knows
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: what he's talking about. Rogers, ro O G. E Ers
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: for Michigan for Senate dot Com, Rogers for Senate dot Com.
• 32:25
  Speaker 5: Still on the table.
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: And is it fair to keep ninety million Iranians under
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: that threat for the actions of their leaders.
• 32:31
  Speaker 12: Well, look, the leadership is really to blame for the
• 32:33
  Speaker 12: condition of the country in Iran. The president, the President
• 32:36
  Speaker 12: of the United States, has made very clear that the
• 32:38
  Speaker 12: United States has a lot of leverage here. We have
• 32:40
  Speaker 12: economic leverage, we've got military leverage. What he's trying to
• 32:44
  Speaker 12: do is make sure the American people are safe and
• 32:46
  Speaker 12: strike a deal that's good for the American people. I
• 32:49
  Speaker 12: just look, I encourage the Iranians to come to the
• 32:51
  Speaker 12: table seriously we've seen some signs that they're good going
• 32:54
  Speaker 12: to do that. We've seen some signs of ravado. Fundamentally,
• 32:58
  Speaker 12: we're in a good spot. They're reopening the straight, we
• 33:00
  Speaker 12: have a ceasefire, and frankly, if they break their into
• 33:02
  Speaker 12: the bargain, then they're going to see some serious consequences
• 33:05
  Speaker 12: wiping them off the map.
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: It's different than an economic leverage or military leverage.
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: Why is that kind of language useful in this kind
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: of scenario.
• 33:14
  Speaker 12: Well, again, the President of the United States is saying
• 33:16
  Speaker 12: that unless the Iranians do the right thing, he is
• 33:19
  Speaker 12: going to have some serious consequences for the regime. We
• 33:21
  Speaker 12: obviously don't want the people of Iran to suffer, but
• 33:24
  Speaker 12: we have a lot of leverage the President United States
• 33:27
  Speaker 12: could use, and it's why I think it's so important
• 33:29
  Speaker 12: for the Iranians to be negotiators in good faith.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: Okay, Wec'm back America. That's Vice President JD. Vancesey embarks
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: on a trip to Islamabad to lead the negotiations with
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: the Iranians. I'm joined by his former colleague, United States
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: Senator Rick Scott, who represents the Great State of Florida.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: No sent com Intimately, Well, Senator Scott Welcome, what'd you
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: make up the deal announced last night?
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: Well, I think all of us were optimistic. I mean,
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: you don't underrestimate Trump. This is the guy that that
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: does how to do a deal, and he's clearly used
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: his leverage, and his leverages is the fact that he's
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: willing to do something in contrast to Obama and Biden.
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: And number two, we got the strongest military in the world.
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: And number three, I think all these all these leaders
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: in our own and have watched all their friends die.
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: So I think that they're going to say, well, I
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: think I think there is an option here I can
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: I could stay alive and actually give the citizens of
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: a ransom some rights back. So I'm optimistic, you know,
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: and this this will be good for the world. Maybe
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: you know, I'm disappointed in some of Barnado allies, but
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: but I think, you know, this is this is this
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: should have happened years ago. Obama should have done it,
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: Biden should have done it. Uh, they should never have
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: been able to get these weapons that they that they have.
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: And but there's a lot of work left. I think,
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: you know, a deal does not happen until it's closed.
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: I mean I'm a I'm a deal guy. I'm a
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: business guy who did a lot. I've purchased a lot
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: of businesses in my life. And nothing's done until it's
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: all done. So there's still a lot of left to do.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Now, I'm going to ship from the deal that we
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: don't know anything about yet to the one that we
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: know more about, which is the budget deadlock, the DHS
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: being shut down. Maybe the House is going to reopen,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: maybe you're going to do a second reconciliation. How do
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: you view the situation right now?
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: Well, I'm frustrated.
• 35:23
  Speaker 10: Number one.
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: I think we ought to be in DC and I
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: think we ought to make all the Democrats sit there
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: until we get this done. I'm frustrated because we should
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: never have given them this this leverage. We never should
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: have funded all their earmarks, and that we did, and
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: but we did. Now I think what we have to
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: do is we have to stay in DC, all of
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: us helpings the Democrats to stay until we get it funded.
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: And this is if you think about what that typical
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: American family cares about. They want a good economy, they
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: want a good education just for the kids. They want
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: to be safe. This is about the safety of Americans.
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: But it's clearly shown you the difference between Republican Democrats.
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: This is this is the Senate Democrats. No, you know,
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: defund the police for RAM because they don't they don't
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: care about people like Lake and Riley or young young
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: lady up in Chicago. Sure and then just pass away
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: or justin Hungary. They don't care. I mean, I don't
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: get how they don't care about their families because when
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: they allow they don't fund Homeland Security and CBP and
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: all these things. They're saying that they don't care if
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: their families are unsafe. I care that every family's safe.
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: I want my family to be safe, your family, every
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: American family to be safe. So I think this is
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: pretty simple. They don't care.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: We do. So, Senator, I would love to see there
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: are second reconciliation come along. We're going to pick up
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: another seat in the House. Maybe we'll have a little
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: bit more maneuver there. I'd like to just see that
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: Trump budget funded through the end of his term so
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: we don't have these high jinks in a second term
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: with the House. It is reconciliation possible.
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we get we got we we need to find
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: all of Homeland Security for probably the next ten years,
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: because we know this is what they're going to do.
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: We know the Democrats this is what they're going to do.
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: So let's fund it for the next ten years and
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: make sure that everything. You know, everybody in American knows
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: that Republicans care about your safety. The Democrats, Uh, clearly don't.
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: So yeah, we can do it all through reconciliation. That's
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: what we ought to do.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: Now, you know, I've never heard that before. I've always
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: argued for forward funding of the Columbia Submarine because they
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: need a demand signal. Can you actually do multi year
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: funding beyond like two years?
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: You just have to make it mandatory, That's what That's
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: how a lot of a lot of federal programs are done.
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: If they're mandatory. Can you can have that that way,
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: you can do it through reconciliation. So I just think
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: we probably ought to fund it for ten years. Let's
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: just let's make sure there's no question about it. We're
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: going to protect American lives. This is all this is
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: is saying we want your neighborhood to be safe. We
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: don't want we don't want criminals to come from other
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: countries where they open up their prisons. We don't want
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: another president open up the borders. We don't want any
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: of this stuff. We're going to We're going to fund this.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: You're a detail guy. Would it be possible to do
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: other things besides border and homeland security, in other words,
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: to get the most contention stuff put to bed for
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: ten years so Americans knew they were safe and their
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: defense procurement was in order.
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we can do what we have to. We have
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: to do. It's it's all has to be budgetary, not policy.
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: So absolutely we we should do. You know, we're the
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: only way with Look, Democrats are not going to fund
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: our military. So the only way we're going to get
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: that done is we're going to have to do that
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: through reconciliation, I bet, because you know the Democrats are
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: going to fight that, so because they want Trump to fail.
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's so fascinating. This is about American safety
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: and what they when Democrats are about it's not about
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: American Safety's dot can you make Trump fail? So if so,
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: I think we ought to use reconciliation. You it's the
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: same way. It's basically you know, it's basically not it's
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: getting rid of the filibusterer for budgetary items is what
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: we're doing.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: I'm so in favor of that.
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: I think, well, I just think I got oh.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: I got to ask you one of the questions.
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: I mean, none of us want to get rid of
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: the alibuster. But guess what, it doesn't work. I mean
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: the philibustier will stop debate, not to stop votes. And
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: then what it's been used now to say, so it's
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: going to know we're not going to let you get nominations. Son,
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: think well, we had to change that last year, right
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: that we change that? I mean I don't want. I
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: don't It's not my first thing to do. But guess
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: what we have the House, the White House incident. We
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: better the hell get ourselves done, or why vote for us?
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: All right? Last question? Senator California announced the numbers on
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: their high speed rail. It's over one hundred and sixty
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: eight billion dollars and it doesn't work. It's not going anywhere.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: Didn't you build light transit in Florida for like hunder
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: ten billion dollars.
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: So you'd love this, Hugh the month I got elected, Okay,
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: I killed the high speed World project in Florida because
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: here's what the deal was is going to go eighty
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: four mile high speed stop fifteen times okay, and the
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: state had to spend a whole bunch of money and
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: lose money every year. So I said, this is stupid.
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: I'm not doing this. California, of course, said no, We're
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: all in. Some reporters said I'm gonna write a book
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: about you give it up the money and California taking it.
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: So we I stopped that program, and then the private
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: sector added a fast rail from Miami all the way
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: to Orlando, Okay, without the state fundingment. So what's better
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: that private sector taking the risk or the taxpayer taking
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: the risk. The private sector, they'll probably figure out what
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: works and what doesn't work.
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and by the way, yours is working in Florida,
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: and we're not even close in California to being done.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: Cenack Scott, gil I know it's so crazy, So good
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: to have you back on ran into him last week
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: and we said, looked at each other and said, we
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: haven't talked in a while. Keep coming back, Senator Scott,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: good to talk to you. Don't go anywhere in America.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: I'll be right back on the uu A shower. Welcome back, America. Hewett,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: joined now by former United States Senator Jim Tallon. Senator,
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: first of all, step back, tell us what you think
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: you know twelve hours or twenty eight hours or twenty
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: four hours into this ceasefire.
• 41:15
  Speaker 11: I think the President very effectively threatened to escalate in
• 41:18
  Speaker 11: order to de escalate, which is a classic doctrine.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: He used the language of the Middle East.
• 41:25
  Speaker 13: You I.
• 41:27
  Speaker 11: If it edmund so serious, I'd have been laughing all afternoon.
• 41:31
  Speaker 11: In other words, this is the way people talk in
• 41:34
  Speaker 11: the Middle East. He was threatening to escalate in order
• 41:38
  Speaker 11: to get them to de escalate, and it worked. Now
• 41:41
  Speaker 11: what we have to see is because the gesture of
• 41:44
  Speaker 11: good faith is reopening the strait. That was the symbolic
• 41:49
  Speaker 11: way of them saying, yeah, we know we're beaten and
• 41:52
  Speaker 11: we're going to be able to negotiate. So they got
• 41:54
  Speaker 11: to get that straight open. And I don't. If they don't,
• 41:57
  Speaker 11: I think this is going to be a short lived ceasefire.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: Think you tweet, didn't.
• 42:01
  Speaker 11: You tweet outside It'll be a two day cease fire,
• 42:04
  Speaker 11: not a two week ceasefire.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: And I think you're right. Well, now what I'm watching
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: is statements by the speaker of the Iranian Parliament, and
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: they're very hard line, and otherly they have to be.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: Are they going to get shot by the most hardline
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: guy in the room. On the other hand, they've got
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: to now know how badly damaged they are. Listened to
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: General Kine this morning, now about ninety of what they
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: had a month ago is gone.
• 42:29
  Speaker 11: Oh yeah, that's right, And that's why I think you're
• 42:33
  Speaker 11: also correct in saying that the feature of this negotiation
• 42:36
  Speaker 11: that we're going to insist on is turning over the
• 42:39
  Speaker 11: enriched uranium because yes, we don't want them to build
• 42:42
  Speaker 11: ballistic missiles, well they can't do that anyway. We don't
• 42:46
  Speaker 11: want them to supply the proxies. They can't do that either.
• 42:49
  Speaker 11: They got no drones, they got no missiles, and they
• 42:51
  Speaker 11: got no money. What they do have, evidently is some
• 42:55
  Speaker 11: enriched uraniums. So I think that that's going to be
• 42:59
  Speaker 11: what we want to see. Now, listening to the clips
• 43:04
  Speaker 11: you played by from the Vice President, it sounds like
• 43:07
  Speaker 11: there's a group of people in the government who really
• 43:10
  Speaker 11: are prepared to negotiate, and that explains a lot. It
• 43:13
  Speaker 11: explains why he's going to Islamabad and why they have
• 43:17
  Speaker 11: some optimism that we might be able to get an agreement,
• 43:20
  Speaker 11: but it won't be on their terms you, It'll be
• 43:22
  Speaker 11: on our terms.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: Don is not the kind of guy the vice president
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: is easy. I'm sorry, Jim, go ahead.
• 43:32
  Speaker 11: I was going to say Trump is not the kind
• 43:34
  Speaker 11: of guy after he's beaten the stuffings out of you
• 43:36
  Speaker 11: for five weeks to give you your terms and negotiations.
• 43:40
  Speaker 11: I would suspect an alien had taken over his body
• 43:43
  Speaker 11: if he does that.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: All right, So talk to me about sending the vice
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: president of the United States to this because I have
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: been racking my brain. I know that dan Quail was
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: sent on the philip or did the Philippines deal while
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: the president was out of pocket, but when there was
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: an attempted coup. But do you ever remember a vice
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: president doing this kind of a deal. No, I mean,
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: I not offhand you.
• 44:11
  Speaker 11: I think the key thing is to send somebody whom
• 44:15
  Speaker 11: they know has the ear of the president and can
• 44:17
  Speaker 11: speak for the president, so formally you know the vice
• 44:21
  Speaker 11: president is that guy. That's the reason Trump sends Witkoff
• 44:24
  Speaker 11: and Jared Kushner. Again, it's the Middle East, and in
• 44:28
  Speaker 11: the Middle East they negotiate through their best friends and
• 44:31
  Speaker 11: through their family members, and in this case, he's sending
• 44:34
  Speaker 11: along the Vice president I think probably to show everybody
• 44:37
  Speaker 11: here how serious he is. So yeah, I mean the
• 44:40
  Speaker 11: key again is that they can speak for the president,
• 44:43
  Speaker 11: and the people all around that table will know they
• 44:46
  Speaker 11: can speak directly to the president.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: Jim, I keep asking people online and critics of the deal,
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: is the United States and the West and the golf
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: allies in Israel better off today than they were five
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: weeks ago? How do you answer that? Oh?
• 45:03
  Speaker 11: Absolutely, because Iran has been defamed, not only I mean again,
• 45:09
  Speaker 11: General Kine went through the assessments that Sencom has. I
• 45:13
  Speaker 11: have no reason to believe that's incorrect. You we ran
• 45:17
  Speaker 11: over thirteen thousand sorties, precisions, strike sorties with the best
• 45:22
  Speaker 11: intelligence that any naval and in any air force and
• 45:26
  Speaker 11: naval air force has ever had, and we set out
• 45:29
  Speaker 11: to destroy not only their existing systems but also the
• 45:32
  Speaker 11: defense industrial base. And there's simply no way that wasn't successful.
• 45:36
  Speaker 11: I mean, I knew it was going to be successful
• 45:38
  Speaker 11: from the beginning because they have no integrated air defenses.
• 45:43
  Speaker 11: They've been exposed over the course of the last couple
• 45:45
  Speaker 11: of years as if not a paper tiger at least
• 45:48
  Speaker 11: nowhere near as strong as we thought they were. So yes,
• 45:50
  Speaker 11: we have defanged them. No matter what happens, this is
• 45:54
  Speaker 11: a big win for us. Now, the question is can
• 45:57
  Speaker 11: we break their will? In essence?
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: And Senator, you'll the old colleagues, and some of them
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: weren't there, like Chris Murphy and blumenthalop and they're saying
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: insane things. What has happened to the Democratic Party of
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: Skip Jackson and a bunch of other Democrats who used
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: to take this stuff seriously?
• 46:21
  Speaker 10: You it's hard to say.
• 46:22
  Speaker 11: I think they're still around, but they're probably not talking.
• 46:25
  Speaker 11: I mean, look, their base is energized in opposition to
• 46:30
  Speaker 11: Donald Trump, and you don't want to say anything if
• 46:35
  Speaker 11: you're worried about getting primary the next election. You don't
• 46:38
  Speaker 11: want to say anything that sounds supportive of him, even
• 46:41
  Speaker 11: on such an important issue of foreign policy. So I
• 46:44
  Speaker 11: guess that's where they're coming from. Some of them are
• 46:46
  Speaker 11: running for president and and that would explain it. But you,
• 46:50
  Speaker 11: I'll tell you, and I thought this from the beginning.
• 46:53
  Speaker 11: You run a big risk in a war like I
• 46:55
  Speaker 11: knew the military phase was going to be successful, and
• 46:58
  Speaker 11: there's a good chance to dip somatic phase will be successful,
• 47:01
  Speaker 11: which means the whole operation is going to be viewed
• 47:04
  Speaker 11: as a success by the American people. So I wouldn't
• 47:08
  Speaker 11: go that far out on the limb. If I were them,
• 47:10
  Speaker 11: i'd keep my powder dry. But a lot of them
• 47:12
  Speaker 11: aren't too late.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: Too late, they're out on that limb. Okay, nobody's looking
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: at Cuba this week. Everybody's been looking at Iran for
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: a month. What do you think is going on down there?
• 47:25
  Speaker 11: Well, I think we're proceeding with regime realignment. You know,
• 47:30
  Speaker 11: they've they've released prisoners, they've taken some other actions, and
• 47:34
  Speaker 11: the president let an oil freighter get through, which tells
• 47:37
  Speaker 11: me that they are progressing towards in the direction that
• 47:41
  Speaker 11: we want them to go. I mean again, what we're
• 47:44
  Speaker 11: seeing here is a consistent policy applied around the world
• 47:47
  Speaker 11: of gaining positions of leverage over our adversaries and then
• 47:51
  Speaker 11: using it to get them to change their intention rather
• 47:55
  Speaker 11: than trying necessarily for regime change. That was easier in
• 47:59
  Speaker 11: Venezuela and Cuba because we're not dealing with as high
• 48:03
  Speaker 11: level fanatics there, but that's exactly what we're trying to do.
• 48:06
  Speaker 10: It round.
• 48:07
  Speaker 11: It's a question of having destroyed their capability, now breaking
• 48:11
  Speaker 11: their will.
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: It'll be a remarkable next week. It will have a
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: lot to talk about. I don't know how long these
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: negotiations and Islamabad are going to go on, but they're
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: unprecedented and if they bear fruit, they'll be quite the
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: marker for Vice President of Vance and his team. Thank you,
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: Senator Jim Tallon paum on exat Jim Twon. I'm Hugh Hewett,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: thank you for watching today. Time to bring in Mary
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: Katherine Ham, host of Getting Hammered, my colleague at Fox
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: News as well. Mary Catherine. There's a lot of serious
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: stuff to talk about, and I will get to that,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: but I got to begin with Girl Scout Cookies because
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: I listened to the Getting Hammered episode today and your
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: guest co host Kelly sold eleven forty seven boxes of
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: Girl Scout cookies as opposed to your paltry six boxes
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: if Girl Scout cookie That really is quite the contrast.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: I think I'm going to trust Kelly in selling something.
• 49:06
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I couldn't move product. I couldn't do it. A
• 49:10
  Speaker 6: five year.
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: Old knock at the door and not sell a box
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: of cookies. How is that possible?
• 49:15
  Speaker 14: I think it was just I don't know, but I was.
• 49:17
  Speaker 14: I think I might have just given up quickly. I
• 49:19
  Speaker 14: was nervous. I didn't like knocking on doors. I didn't
• 49:22
  Speaker 14: like bothering people. I was maybe less extroverted than I
• 49:25
  Speaker 14: am now. I really I've grown. I think I could
• 49:28
  Speaker 14: sell them better.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: Now well, and Kelly is a I don't want you
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: to get rid of VIC and I don't want a threesome.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: I like the two. I can understand what's going on.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: But Kelly's auction deal the two fifty five. I think
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: that's an amazing skill set. Can you learn that?
• 49:47
  Speaker 6: I mean, I guess I could. But she went to
• 49:49
  Speaker 6: a full school for it.
• 49:50
  Speaker 14: And you can hear her improving every day because when
• 49:53
  Speaker 14: she folds laundry, and when she talks to me on
• 49:55
  Speaker 14: the phone, and when she picks up for children from school,
• 49:56
  Speaker 14: she's just auction chanting all day long, every day to
• 49:59
  Speaker 14: get better.
• 49:59
  Speaker 6: And better and better.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: I didn't know that she was quite the player in Colorado.
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: I've been going to Colorado for the twenty five years
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: of this program, and my buddy out there, Michelle Austin's
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: been my SHERPA, and she said, oh, Kelly, five stars
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: why is she living in Colorado? That state's going to
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: the way of California.
• 50:17
  Speaker 14: You know, but the beauty of both states will keep
• 50:19
  Speaker 14: people around. It's her home, and she would like to
• 50:22
  Speaker 14: make it marginally better.
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: Right now, I want to move up the scale of seriousness,
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: our governor, because you and I are both Commonwealth voters,
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: both citizens of the great state of Virginia. Our Governor
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: Spanberger is trying to achieve a new record for plummeting
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: approval polls. Is there anything she could do to change
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: her mind about her being the Manchurian Democrat.
• 50:47
  Speaker 14: I think she's waited too long to say anything, to
• 50:50
  Speaker 14: rebuff anything that her ultraliberal legislature did. If she wanted
• 50:54
  Speaker 14: to be a moderate, she had plenty of opportunities to
• 50:57
  Speaker 14: do so by speaking out against anything they were trying
• 50:59
  Speaker 14: to do, adding all these new programs in payroll taxes
• 51:02
  Speaker 14: or trying to redistrict ten one, and she's on board
• 51:04
  Speaker 14: for it because I think these are the things she likes.
• 51:06
  Speaker 6: So she's not changing my mind.
• 51:08
  Speaker 14: I'm not sure she can change a lot of people's
• 51:09
  Speaker 14: minds who've soured on her because she really sold something
• 51:12
  Speaker 14: different than what she's doing, and they may still be
• 51:15
  Speaker 14: very successful with the redistricting, because it's a tough road
• 51:18
  Speaker 14: ho for Republicans in a midterm year on this obscure election.
• 51:22
  Speaker 14: But her numbers do not look good and she's not
• 51:25
  Speaker 14: that great at selling herself. I have already voted in
• 51:28
  Speaker 14: the point win, by the way, that's the fall from
• 51:30
  Speaker 14: grades a fifteen point win to this.
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: It is, and it's because she's got no charisma and
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: apparently no moral center. But I want to talk about
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: the redistrict ging. I went and I voted against it
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: because I'm a Republican. But I don't get upset about
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: redistricting because I've been around politics forever. There are no
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: Republicans in Massachusetts for a region. There are no Republicans
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: in New Hampshire for a region. California's playing hardball, Texas
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: is playing hardball. So the Virginia people want to play hardball.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: But this is not a blue state. It's a purple state.
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: Do you think there's a chance that could lose given
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: the high mindedness of some of our progressive Beltway buddies.
• 52:08
  Speaker 6: I think there's a chance. It does.
• 52:10
  Speaker 14: Look like early voting totals for Republican areas have been
• 52:13
  Speaker 14: pretty good.
• 52:14
  Speaker 6: They may have ticked off a bunch of people.
• 52:16
  Speaker 14: Now is that going to be enough to override the
• 52:19
  Speaker 14: excitement on the left for a ten to one map
• 52:22
  Speaker 14: in Virginia?
• 52:23
  Speaker 6: I'm not sure.
• 52:23
  Speaker 14: But if you could get the message out and a
• 52:25
  Speaker 14: bunch of money just went into the effort on the.
• 52:26
  Speaker 6: No side, if you could get the message.
• 52:28
  Speaker 14: Out to voters, hey, do you want the most fair
• 52:31
  Speaker 14: map in the country turned into the most gerrymandered map?
• 52:34
  Speaker 6: A lot of them will say no. Naturally.
• 52:36
  Speaker 14: I think that's a natural position in a fairly easy
• 52:39
  Speaker 14: argument to make. But Republicans have stayed quiet on this
• 52:42
  Speaker 14: for a long time, at least on the airwaves here.
• 52:45
  Speaker 14: I haven't seen much of anything. I've gotten a couple mailers.
• 52:48
  Speaker 14: You got to make the argument, and there's a chance.
• 52:51
  Speaker 6: You could win this fight.
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: But I think Governor Yunken called up and wanted to
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: come on and talk about it. So I think the
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: former governor of Virginia is in the fight now. What
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: I wonder about, though, is Barack Obama is everywhere with
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: a lie. He's lying to everyone. Republicans want to steal
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: the election, So vote yes before April twenty four. It's
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: just a lie. Do you think that helps them?
• 53:17
  Speaker 6: I has been incessant, by the way.
• 53:20
  Speaker 14: That's one of the markers of this is that I
• 53:21
  Speaker 14: have heard Obama more times than I did maybe during
• 53:24
  Speaker 14: his term, on every podcast I listened to, and every ad.
• 53:27
  Speaker 14: And it is a lie. This temporary thing is nonsense.
• 53:29
  Speaker 14: The Virginia voters voted in twenty twenty twenty to make
• 53:34
  Speaker 14: this a bipartisan commission.
• 53:36
  Speaker 6: They remember doing that, right, It was their decision. They
• 53:39
  Speaker 6: came up with this five to six map that is fair,
• 53:42
  Speaker 6: and Democrats are just blatantly lying about the fact that
• 53:45
  Speaker 6: they want to sort.
• 53:45
  Speaker 14: Of rejigger it, just temporarily so they can make things fair.
• 53:49
  Speaker 6: It's not fair. It's the opposite of fair.
• 53:51
  Speaker 14: But I don't know if that message is getting out.
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: All right now, I want to talk to you about
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: the president's posts. I am not nearly as upset with
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: him as you and Kelly are. In fact, I thought
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: the first one on Easter, though it was indiscriminate in
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: its language, was aimed right at the bunker in Tehran
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: to try and get them to stay longer so the
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: B twos could drop that ordinance on them. And then
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: I thought yesterday's was intended to focus their mind completely
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: on their being destroyed. And I don't see how anyone
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: can read that as a genocide threatening quote, because he
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: said at the end, the regime that has been there
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: for forty seven years will be ended. God bless the
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: Iranian people. I mean, if you read the whole thing,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: it's not elegantly put, but it's not and it's not
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: a threat of genocide.
• 54:37
  Speaker 9: Now.
• 54:37
  Speaker 14: I always end up medium on these things because there
• 54:39
  Speaker 14: is a part of me that wants a president that
• 54:41
  Speaker 14: does what Victor Glover did when asked to reflect on
• 54:44
  Speaker 14: Easter right and deliver something that's beautiful and solemn on holidays.
• 54:48
  Speaker 6: Separate, it could be separate from.
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: This Glover of Artemis' Victor Glover of Artemis who gave
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: that wonderful message you played. I don't have that that's wonderful.
• 55:00
  Speaker 14: But I am not a person who thought that this
• 55:02
  Speaker 14: is like destined to happen tonight, and it is.
• 55:06
  Speaker 6: He's on a quest for war crimes.
• 55:08
  Speaker 14: And I thought that that betrayed a lot of sort
• 55:11
  Speaker 14: of not having learned anything about the president for a
• 55:14
  Speaker 14: long period of time. And then the worst behavior was
• 55:18
  Speaker 14: those who at eight am were freaking out that he
• 55:20
  Speaker 14: was going to cause a genocide, and then by eight
• 55:23
  Speaker 14: PM said he was a chicken for not doing so.
• 55:25
  Speaker 6: That turn of events I do not understand.
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: Kelly mentioned that she's got a lot of friends who
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: have been broken by Trump, as do I, and they've
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: reacted in different ways. One of them, and I was like,
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: you were talking to me, is triggered by whatever he
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: does that is outrageous in the ordinary course of thing,
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: and he demands almost demands an apology from me, and
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: I don't apologize. I say, by the way, the Ranian people,
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: fifty thousand of them were murdered or thirty five thousand
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: were murdered, and he's taken on the regime. Do you
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: think those people will ever come back to normal? Well,
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, just have a conversation with him.
• 56:06
  Speaker 6: I'm not sure.
• 56:07
  Speaker 14: But the only way out for them is through because
• 56:10
  Speaker 14: Trump is the twice duly.
• 56:11
  Speaker 6: Elected president of the United States.
• 56:12
  Speaker 14: And that's the thing that I couldn't handle at CNN
• 56:15
  Speaker 14: when I worked over there, even though I was Trump
• 56:17
  Speaker 14: critical and plenty Trump critical, sure, I.
• 56:20
  Speaker 6: Had to keep telling them this man is the president.
• 56:23
  Speaker 14: You cannot unpresident him just because you're grouchy about it.
• 56:27
  Speaker 6: That's not how it works now. They certainly tried, but.
• 56:30
  Speaker 14: There is sort of an inability to cope with that
• 56:33
  Speaker 14: part of it.
• 56:34
  Speaker 6: And by the way, you could turn turnabout's fair play.
• 56:36
  Speaker 14: You could just ask him about everything that Biden did wrong,
• 56:38
  Speaker 14: ask him about the Afghanistan withdrawal every day, and ask.
• 56:41
  Speaker 6: Him to apologize for that.
• 56:42
  Speaker 14: That was an international humiliation for us. But they never
• 56:46
  Speaker 14: get sort of held their their feet held to the
• 56:48
  Speaker 14: fire over that.
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: All right, let's finish with the least serious but most
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: wide ranging topic, doing your own wallpapering. If you had
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: asked me, I couldn't. The thing I can remember from
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: my youth the steamer, the big old steamer to get
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: the wallpaper off, and then trying to make the lines
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: line up, and they never did. Haven't heard my father
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: curse that much. Ever. Why did you do it?
• 57:18
  Speaker 14: It was a new frontier, much like Victor Glover. You know,
• 57:21
  Speaker 14: I really had to go for it on a much
• 57:23
  Speaker 14: smaller scale.
• 57:24
  Speaker 6: And no, I don't know. I was just diying.
• 57:26
  Speaker 14: I got carried away and I thought flowers would be
• 57:28
  Speaker 14: pretty over here, and they certainly are pretty.
• 57:30
  Speaker 6: But man, it was a battle.
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: Hugh. You mentioned in passing that you built a quote
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: craft corner. Is the craft corner hermetically sealed from the smalls?
• 57:47
  Speaker 14: It is not, but they are getting slightly more reasonable.
• 57:50
  Speaker 14: You will notice there have been fewer stories of destruction lately.
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but they'll be paste and glue and sparkles.
• 57:56
  Speaker 6: Right, we'll put them up high. We'll see what happens.
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: Mary Catherine, I'm not sure it's a very good idea,
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: but I do want to say I salute you for
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: trying the wallpaper. I've never done it, I'm never going
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: to do it, but I appreciate your joining me, Mary Catherine.
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: Is Vic gone for good? Is the off? Have you
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: cut him? As he gone to Triple A? What's the deal?
• 58:16
  Speaker 6: No, he's no, he's just on spring break. So let
• 58:19
  Speaker 6: him enjoy is my ties and he'll be back soon.
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: Well. I think Kelly is a fabulous edition. How long
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: have you two been friends?
• 58:26
  Speaker 9: Great?
• 58:27
  Speaker 6: Twenty years? We met at some at a gala here.
• 58:30
  Speaker 6: I believe it was like an aff event.
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: Oh, it's like bff's getting together. And finally, I did
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: not know until three weeks ago that you played lacrosse
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: at Georgia and that you guys were good.
• 58:41
  Speaker 6: Oh yes, just close we were pretty good. Yes, we won.
• 58:44
  Speaker 6: We won the SEC championship three out of four years.
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: Hang around one second off air, I got to tell
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: you something about your one pound hamburger. Stay tuned, America.
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: I'm Hugh Hewett Orter m back you, Hewett and joined
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: now by Comfortably Smug of the Ruthless Podcast. Smug. First
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: of all, is March Madness over.
• 59:08
  Speaker 13: Hack Madness? Well, March Madness is over, but hack Madness
• 59:11
  Speaker 13: is now in the championship round.
• 59:13
  Speaker 5: It's pretty exciting.
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: Who are the finalists?
• 59:17
  Speaker 13: It is Don Lemon and Stephen Colbert Baan Are you.
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: I put my money on Lemon early. I think it's
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: going to pay out very well. Smug, Where do you
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: think we are? Reports are all over the map on Iran?
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: How do you think the President played it? Where do
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: you think we are? So?
• 59:36
  Speaker 13: I think we are in a tremendous place. I think
• 59:39
  Speaker 13: President Trump has accomplished so much already in respects to Iran.
• 59:45
  Speaker 13: You've gotten rid of the terrible leadership of that country.
• 59:49
  Speaker 13: You have essentially defanged it. When when your General Caine
• 59:53
  Speaker 13: described that eighty percent of their missile launchers are gone,
• 59:57
  Speaker 13: ninety percent of their navy is gone, that's an unequivocal
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 13: success for the entire world, for America, for the region,
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 13: and I hope that peace can take hold. I hope
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 13: the new regime in Iran realizes that America at any
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 13: point under President Trump can do whatever they want, can
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 13: continue bombing or whatever they want to do, unless the
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 13: Iranians agree to have peace and let the straight of
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 13: war moves have free travel.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: Now, one of my favorite parts about the Ruthless podcast
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: is you guys are very, very blunt when it comes
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: to the insanity on the left. I want you to
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: think about a new game that will somehow illustrate the
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: backflips we have seen. We went from Donald Trump is
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: going to use nuclear weapons to taco in the space
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: of an hour last night. It was insane how the
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: left reacted to that he was going to use nuclear
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: weapons and then he checking out. What do you say
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: to people like that. There's no thread of an argument,
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: there's just an emotional reaction to whatever happens is bad.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 13: It's incredible. I think it is more emblematic of the
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 13: fact that I constantly bring up is that the left
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 13: is no longer ideologically based. They have no values, they
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 13: have no beliefs that unite them. It's how you can
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 13: have a march. We have Queers for Palestine marching where
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 13: gay people in Iran are are typically thrown off of buildings.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 13: So there's no reason or logic to anything that governs
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 13: the left. It is simply about power and opposing Trump.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 13: Anything that can increase the amount of power that the
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 13: left has, whether it is controlling people's healthcare, any aspect
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 13: of their lives, essentially is what they're gunning for. That's
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 13: what they are after, and that's why they don't need
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 13: to feel any sort of ideological consistency between saying it
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 13: would be a genocide if he does it, and it
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 13: is chickening out if he doesn't.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: Now I want to go back to hack madness for
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: a second. You had a new entrance this year, Hasan Piker.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: I know nothing about this guy except these nuts. First
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: of all, tell me what I a boomer need to
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: know about a alpha Ajen Beer. You know he's a
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: dummy youngster.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 13: Yeah. So here's the situation with Hassan Piker. Is the
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 13: most important thing to understand about him is where his
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 13: political beliefs lie. He said America deserved nine to eleven
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 13: point like, that's like a direct quote. And this is
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 13: now an individual who has gained such popularity within the
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 13: left and its progressive base that he now campaigns with
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 13: mainstream Democrat candidates. We're talking about Democrats Senate candidates in Michigan.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 13: Just the other night he was on stage campaigning with
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 13: the candidate that they have there. And he's become increasingly popular,
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 13: Like you know, he gets glowing profiles in the New
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 13: York Times and Vanity Fair Like the left has gone
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 13: whole hog on this insane individual, and the grassroots left
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 13: and the younger folks on the left tune into his
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 13: stream and they're on board with him.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 5: He's like the.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 13: More extreme post Bernie Left.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, now let's match him with Graham Patner. I opened
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: the program with Susan Collins modern Republican, not unlike my
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: own politics. She's going to win again, she always wins,
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: but she's running against the oyster farmer who is a
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: decorated vet. I get that part. But he's said the
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: left of left and he had a Nazi tattoo. What's
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: happening to the Democrats.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 13: Well, that's the thing is they have realized that the
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 13: American people are not on board with their policies, so
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 13: they have to try to do anything possible. He thinks
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 13: he's fighting Trump and you bring up these things like
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 13: he's had a Nazi tattoo. He is not acty consistent.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 13: He's nowhere near the voter base in the state that
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 13: he's running for, but the media is still propping him
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 13: up despite all of this, even though Susan Colton is
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 13: much more representative of the voters of that state. And
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 13: again it goes back to the fact that there is
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 13: no ideology that ties the left at this point. It
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 13: is just by any means necessary, a trick voters for
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 13: them to get into power. That's what their belief system
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 13: is now.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: Smug, We're in a ceasefire. I could go either way.
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: There are so many different conflicting reports, but I really
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: do believe there are a lot of people on the
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: left that help it fails because it will hurt Donald Trump.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: I even think there were some people on the left
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: who didn't say it out loud, but they were kind
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: of helping the pilot got captured. Did you sense that.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 13: One hundred percent? I mean, you look at X and
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 13: these are Americans, like you know, Thank God. Now on
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 13: X with Elon. He updated it so you can see
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 13: the location of individuals. This is not some you know,
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 13: crazy account from Zimbabwe. These are actual Americans on the
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 13: left who were like, boy, I bet the Iranians are
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 13: going to get them, and if our air men are captured.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 13: This is emblematic of the war crimes that America is committing.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 13: It's hard to understand how we got to this point
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 13: in our country where we have the bravest militaries and
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 13: all volunteer military force serving trying to protect us, defending us,
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 13: and yet there are people in this country rooting for Iran.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 13: It's unbelievable.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: And the last thing I want to cover with you
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: is the President's post of yesterday morning said tonight a
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: great civilization when we destroyed. In the same paragraph he
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: says the forty seven year rule is going to be destroyed.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: God blessed the people of Iran. It is impossible for
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: him to have been interpreted. I mean, you really cannot
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: read that and think he's talking about destroying the people
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: of Iran. He's talking about the regime. And yet all
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: we see is the first line, the purposeful misdirection of
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: what the post was about. It's just unprecedented in the
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: media that they want to do this.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 13: And again, I think that's why shows like your show,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 13: our show at Ruthless have such tremendous success. Tuning into NBC, CNN,
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 13: all these mainstream outlets for news leads to misdirection. Americans
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 13: have decided they want to actually get the truth and
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 13: know what's going on without a filter, and that's where
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 13: folks like I step in. I hope the mainstream media
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 13: continues to run their reputation in the mud.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: And how long is voting? Oprah and over at your
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: ex account comfortably Smug? The finals are between I'm kind
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: of surprised Aby got knocked off by Colbert, but Colbert
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: is retiring or being retired, so it might be a
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: little nostalgia there against Don Lemon. How long can they
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: vote for?
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 13: Voting is currently underway. It will continue until about one
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 13: thirty pm tomorrow.
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: All right, smug, goodness, See you by the naight with
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: Duncan in today. He's been taking three or four days off.
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: I talked to Ashbrook about him the Naked Burglar days
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: he was gone. Did he come in today?
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 13: Yeah, he's finally it's finally back in town. Him and
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 13: his family are back.
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: Did you quiz him about the naked burglar? I did?
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: I did.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 13: I asked him why he could live in a place
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 13: like northern Virginia. He should move to North Carolina like
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 13: I did.
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: But you removed the suspicion from there was a cloud
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: of suspicion over him two nights and two days ago.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: I heard it. You know, I believe you guys, whatever
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: you have to say, Smug, Good to see you. I'll
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: talk to you again soon. Go and play in the
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: final round of Hack Madness. Don Lemon, Stephen Kobert, Who's
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: going to win this year's big Bracket. All you have
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: to do is go to AX and go to comfortably Smug.
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: Come right back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Thirty four minutes
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: after the hour, America. I'm Hugh Hewett, joined by my
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: friend Dan Rundy, Senior advisor at the Center for Strategic
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: and International Studies here in DC, pre eminent think tank
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: on these matters now. Dan Rundy is also the author
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: of The American Imperative. You may have hurt him talking
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: about his book. It's a lot about how you develop
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: close relationships with new allies and strengthen those that exist
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: as we wait to see what happens in the Iran battle.
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: I wanted to ask Dan, let's assume that there is
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: a ceasefire, what do we do for our al in
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: the region, and what might we even do for Iran?
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 15: Dan, Well, that's a really great question. You thanks for
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 15: having me on. I certainly hope that the ceasefire holds.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 15: I think one of the things that your listeners are
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 15: really astute, because I'm a listener and I consider myself
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 15: being educated by you. You and I would say one
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 15: of the things for your listeners think about is the
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 15: role of Pakistan in brokering the steal. Pakistan's a complicated
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 15: relationship for us, but in this instance, they've brokeered a
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 15: what's right now a fragile ceasefire that could turn into
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 15: something else. We have to bridge the gap between what
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 15: President Trump has said and what these crazy people in
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 15: Iran are saying, what their ten point plan. Certainly they
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 15: were forced to the table, Iran blinked. I think that's
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 15: an important thing for your listeners to also understand. Iran blink.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 15: This is because of pressure by the United States and
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 15: our ally Israel to pressure and force them to the
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 15: negotiating table. These are folks who are unwilling to discuss
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 15: a ceasefire very recently, and they've been forced to the table.
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 15: I know that President Trump and his team are not
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 15: going to accept a bad deal. So I think these
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 15: are all things for your listeners to consider. But I
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 15: think and I think there's several things that President Trump
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 15: is going to want to see.
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 10: And those fundamentals are.
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 15: No nuclear pathway, no proxy warfare, and no disruption of
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 15: global energy.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 10: So those are the first three things we need to
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 10: think about.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 15: So then, assuming that this holds, my hope is that
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 15: we continue to be watchful and maintain pressure as need be.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 15: We have a lot of military assets in the Gulf
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 15: right now and nearby in Israel is also very wary
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 15: of Iran, and this is these are folks that lie
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 15: in negotiations. They promise one thing and don't follow through.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 15: But I do hope that they've been pressured enough by
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 15: President Trump and the trumdministration and by our friends in
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 15: Israel to make real changes. Let's hope that happens.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 10: Again. The fundamentals are no.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 15: Nuclear pathway, no proxy warfare, and no disruption of global energy.
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 15: Assuming all of that holds, then I think several things
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 15: we could think about several things.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 10: One is.
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 15: Having one is thinking about the role that Ukraine is
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 15: going to play in the future here, because Ukraine has
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 15: provided technological solutions to defend our golf allies and has
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 15: also made clear that the kinds of anti drone technologies
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 15: that Ukraine has is something that we're going to need
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 15: both in the United States and in the Middle East
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 15: and our partners in the Middle East. So I think
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 15: we're going to have to rethink how we defend ourselves
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 15: here and how our partners and allies defend ourselves.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 10: And some of that's going to be.
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 15: Learnings from Ukraine, and some of it's also going to
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 15: be from hard lessons that we've learned in the last
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 15: month or so in this war.
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 10: We're going to take a lot away from it.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 15: So I think one thing is we've got to defend
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 15: ourselves and think about how we defend ourselves a future
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 15: given what we've learned from what's happened the last month.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: So I think, yeah, Now, Dan, my question is America,
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: as a tradition, let me be the first person to
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: bring up the Marshall Plan. We have a tradition of
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: hammering opponents into the ground. We may have done that
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: in Iran. We don't know who's alive. We don't know
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: who's running the place. We don't know who's going to
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: be running the place for a long time. I mean,
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: we've taken over Venezuela. You're the international AID soft power expert. Yeah,
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: how soon do we become open to helping those countries
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: on the ground because Iran's bankrupt, in Venezuela's closed.
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 10: Yeah, So I mean absolutely.
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 15: In the case of Venezuela, you're seeing incredible amount of
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 15: change in the last ninety days. You if we talked
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 15: four months ago that we were going to be having
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 15: visits from the from the representatives of Delsa Rodriguez government
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 15: and talking about minerals deals in Venezuela, energy deals in Venezuela,
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 15: infrastructure deals in Venezuela. All happening right now, and visits
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 15: from there from that government to the White House. You
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 15: and I had just said, that's crazy, that is happening.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 15: So I think absolutely that's happening and should happen now
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 15: in Venezuela. And I'd like us to work towards some
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 15: sort of a democratic transition in Venezuela over the next
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 15: twelve to eighteen months, and I'd like to see Maria
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 15: Corina Machado, the winner of the Nobel Prize, have a
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 15: chance to really run in real, free and fair elections
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 15: in Venezuela. And we should all work towards that over
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 15: the short to medium term. But in the meantime, we
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 15: should be working towards helping rebuild Venezuela as long as
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 15: this government of Venezuela is cooperative with us released as
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 15: political prisoners, makes economic reforms, and stops being a bad actor.
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: All right, Paus, We'll come right back with Dan Rundy
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: for the chickting four thousand dollars, four million or billion
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: dollar question about what do we do with Iran if
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: it's a rational actor atop the regime. Stay tuned, it'll
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: be right back Dan Rundy, the author of the American Imperative.
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  Speaker 1: Hugh hewittt with Dan Rundy. Dan is a senior advisor
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: at the Center for Strategic International Studies here in DC,
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: author of The American Imperative, He Lives, Breathes, Eats, Soft Power,
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: and How to Develop ally relationships. So, Dan, what do
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: we do with Iran? If they're not nuts, I'll put it.
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: I just say, for forty seven years they've been nuts.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: Let's just assume they're not a democracy, they're not our friend,
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: but they're not nuts. What do we do?
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 15: So I think this is the first time anyone's asked
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 15: me that question, and I think I'm really glad you're
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 15: asking this you because I think we need to get
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 15: ready for the possibility of such a situation, and that
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 15: could present itself in a number of different scenarios. One
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 15: is that there's some sort of a palace coup and
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 15: some sort of an Iranian Pino chain takes over the
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 15: country and that's willing to deal with us, similar to
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 15: like a Delsi Rodriguez in Venezuela or you know, or
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 15: something along those lines. Or there's some sort of popular
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 15: revolt at some point we've asked the United States has
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 15: asked folks not to go out into the streets because
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 15: it was too dangerous. But given sort of the economic pressures.
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 15: Given We've talked about this on your show before, about
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 15: the water pressures in Iran. It was something we've talked
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 15: about in the past there's enormous water scarcity in Iran,
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 15: and there's enormous financial problems in Iran that partially because
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 15: of the mismanagement and corruption of that society and who
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 15: the heck wants to invest in Iran. It's a really
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 15: scary place to invest. But if all that were to change,
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 15: you could see there's an enormous Iranian diaspora that you
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 15: know about because you lived on the West coast of
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 15: the United States, and there's really creative there's some incredible entrepreneurs.
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 15: I mean, it's just world class talent in the Iranian diaspora.
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 15: And so I think you could see a situation either
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 15: through an Iranian pinochet or through some popular revolt and
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 15: some kind of a multiparty democracy.
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 10: Down the road.
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 15: That's not insane to say this. We should be thinking
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 15: about these sorts of possibilities that we should then offer
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 15: to a big Marshall plan for Iran. Under those circumstances.
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 15: They've got a lot of oil resources. They've got an
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 15: enormous some of the largest reserves in the world of oil.
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 10: They've got gas.
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 15: They may have some minerals to think about as well, then,
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 15: but most importantly they've got incredible human talent in the
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 15: country that's been repressed and oppressed that I think, under
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 15: the right circumstances could be put to rebuilding the country,
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 15: but also the Iranian diaspora could put forward and rebuilding.
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 15: The other thing to think about you if we were
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 15: going to have a Marshall plan is if you look
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 15: at the neighborhood we all look at and say, oh
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 15: my gosh, it's a crazy neighbor The reason is a
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 15: crazy neighbor because they're crazy and they've made it a
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 15: bad neighborhood.
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 10: But if you look you.
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 15: Could also argue that it's pretty centrally located place. Similar
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 15: to the way the UAE or you know, Katar have
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 15: used their geography to their advantage, Iran could absolutely use
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 15: its geography in a better way to its advantage in
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 15: terms of regional connectivity of Central Asia or whether it's gas, rail, digital,
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 15: there could be all sorts of possibilities that we've in
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 15: essence closed the door on for fifty years because they're crazy.
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 15: So to the extent you had a non crazy regime
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 15: in Iran, we'd have to all rethink about our mental
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 15: models in our head about you basically just write it
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 15: off as just well, they're crazy, so we can't do
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 15: anything about it.
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 10: So I think I really for question.
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, forty seven years. But here's my key question. If
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: they offer us their highly enriched uranium for a price,
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: should we pay the price?
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 10: That's a good one, say yes to the extent.
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 15: We also, though, had enough pressure on them and enough
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 15: leverage on them to make sure because they are not
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 15: These are not trustworthy people.
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 10: These are bad hombras.
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 15: To quote President Trump, these are liars and cheaters.
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 10: So these aren't our friends for now.
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 15: But what we should hope for is to maintain pressure,
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 15: take what we can get. We absolutely need to have
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 15: no nuclear pathway, but we should think about we should
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 15: lift our sites a little bit and think about if
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 15: if we have some kind of a we can hold
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 15: the ceasefire. We should think about what are the possibilities
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 15: we could create for them. President Trump's a really creative negotiator,
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 15: and so I could absolutely see a scenario over the
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 15: next several years if the ceasefire holds and we're able
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 15: to bridge the gap between President Trump's vision and these
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 15: crazy people's unrealistic tenpoint plan, and they move towards where
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 15: President Trump is through pressure, we should think about these things, connectivity, energy, minerals,
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 15: the human capital and what we could do. They need help,
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 15: as I told you. And last time I was on
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 15: the show that Prime Minster Netanyahu had a video clip.
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 15: I'm sure you went back and looked at it after
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 15: we talked about it, because I know you do your
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 15: homework where he had a glass of water on the
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 15: table saying I want to solve Iran's water problems because
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 15: as you know you, Israel is in a desert, but
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 15: they've made their desert bloom. They know how to manage
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 15: water and solve water problems, and the rains have mismanaged
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 15: their water. So there's one country in the world that
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 15: could solve Iran's water problems.
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 10: It would be Israel.
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 15: And let me say want something else that no one
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 15: said before you, which is if we are thinking along
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 15: these lines and things went the right way and we
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 15: had either an Iranian pinochet or a popular uprising, we
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 15: should hope and believe that three to five years from
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 15: now there were an Abraham Accords between Iran and Israel.
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 10: That's what we should be aiming for.
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: Would be great. I got to get one mind, yes, yeah,
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: but Dan, you know central in Latin America. What about Cuba.
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: Are you an optimist.
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 10: I'm absolutely an optimist.
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 15: I hope that by September or October we have a
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 15: change in the regime.
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 10: I'm not going to call it regime change, but again,
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 10: some kind of.
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 15: A negotiated deal with Cuba is very possible. You there's
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 15: clearly a lot of discussions going on. The pressure is
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 15: strong on the Cuban regime. I'm sure Mark or Ruby
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 15: is very aware of the history, and this is a
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 15: historic opportunity, something that would be in America's interests, and
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 15: the Caribbean's interests, and the Western Hemisphere's interest. It would
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 15: be so great to have a different regime in Iran
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 15: and a different regime in Cuba.
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 10: Not only wouldn't it be.
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 15: Great for the people of Iran and great for the
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 15: people of Cuba, But the other thing for us to
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 15: think about is to these horrible regimes have been totems
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 15: for the anti American left for decades. They this has
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 15: been a vector for folks to express their disapproval of
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 15: the United States and use these as countries and as
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 15: as a sort of a weapon against US ideologically and
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 15: in diplomatic circles, and also in even in the as
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 15: a proxy to fight against US and to fight against
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 15: freedom in the world. So getting rid of these two
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 15: odious regimes would be so good for the world, and
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 15: we'd be safer for it. The United States would be
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 15: safer for it, and the people around Cuba would be
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 15: much happier, freer, and much much better off.
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: If we ten seconds, then if that is the way
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: a lot iran in Cuba within the next three year
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: transition to not dangerous governments? How's that rank ABCD in
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: national security affairs and A plus. That's what I think,
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: and I hope that's where we're going. Van Rundy. Follow
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: him on exit Van Rundy and follow me to the
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: next segment. Dan If the senior advisor at the Center
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: for Strategic International Studies in the United