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The Big Weekend Pod · The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated

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Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College.
0:03
Speaker 2: All things Hillsdale at hillsdale.edu.
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Speaker 1: I encourage you to take advantage of the many free
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Speaker 1: online courses there and of course to listen to the
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Speaker 1: Hillsdale Dialogues. All of them at hueforhillsdale.com or just google.
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Speaker 2: Apple, iTunes and Hillsdale. Morning Gloria and even Grace America.
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Speaker 1: Welcome to the big weekend pod and what a weekend
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Speaker 1: to have a big weekend pod on. The election is
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Speaker 1: you know on Tuesday. By Wednesday, there will be much
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Speaker 1: gnashing of teeth. There are much high-fiving and many confused
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Speaker 1: people if the polls are off. We had the Washington
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Speaker 1: Post reveal on Friday that they cannot get Republicans, for example,
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Speaker 1: in Kansas to answer the phone.
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Speaker 2: Period.
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Speaker 1: Can't do it. 85,000 calls made across three states, and
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Speaker 1: they put a point out saying, look, we don't really
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Speaker 1: know what's happening, but this is what we got, so
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Speaker 1: we feel that in the needs of transparency, we're going
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Speaker 1: to show you what we got when people don't answer
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Speaker 1: the phone. Not really sure about their Their logic, but
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Speaker 1: I am willing to talk to people about it. So
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Speaker 1: we're talking election today with John Ellis, founder and editor
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Speaker 1: of News Items. Eli Lake, who hosts the Breaking History podcast,
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Speaker 1: free press contributor. He also heard him on commentary podcasts
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Speaker 1: this week. Matt Cottonetti will be along from AEI, also
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Speaker 1: a Wall Street Journal columnist. Ben Dominich, the opinion page
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Speaker 1: editor at the Daily Wire, Fox News contributor. Congressman Jeff Crank,
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Speaker 1: an old friend of mine from Colorado's 5th Congressional District,
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Speaker 1: coming along as well, Tarzan and Joe, and then Dr.
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Speaker 1: Larry Arnn, president of Hillsdale College. We do not put
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Speaker 1: that on the Big Weekend podcast. I do want you
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Speaker 1: to know that it's available over at HughForHillsdale.com. HughForHillsdale.com. What
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Speaker 1: do I think? I don't think anything. All I know
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Speaker 1: is you've got to go out and vote. You've got
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Speaker 1: to tell everyone to vote. I think the most important
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Speaker 1: elections in the country are in Maine, where Susan Collins
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Speaker 1: is on the ballot and is chair of the Appropriations Committee.
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Speaker 1: Does a lot for Maine, but does a lot for
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Speaker 1: the United States National Defense as well. That's why I
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Speaker 1: like Susan Collins. I also know that in Ohio, John
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Speaker 1: Husted does a lot for the National Security. Just got
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Speaker 1: the Cleveland area submarine facility there by working with his
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Speaker 1: colleagues and with President Trump. Then finally in Michigan, Abdul
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Speaker 1: El-Sayed represents a dark turn left for the Democratic Party.
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Speaker 1: one into Israel hatred, thinly disguised anti-Israel, anti-Semitic hatred. It's
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Speaker 1: just a bridge too far. And then finally up in Alaska,
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Speaker 1: where that which gets rewarded gets repeated. If Mary Paltola
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Speaker 1: gets away with her cheating, recruiting and flooding the zone
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Speaker 1: with Dan Sullivans and lying about it, if she gets
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Speaker 1: away with it, that means it will happen again. That
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Speaker 1: which gets rewarded, in other words, you win the election,
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Speaker 1: gets repeated. Dirty tricks like that will happen everywhere. So
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Speaker 1: those are the four races I'm watching most closely.
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Speaker 2: There are others, of course.
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Speaker 1: Michelle Tavoya, the brilliant rookie of the year in American
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Speaker 1: politics in Minnesota.
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Speaker 2: Blue state. Peggy Flanagan's an awful candidate, but is that.
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Speaker 1: State so blue that it could possibly go the other way?
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Speaker 2: I don't know.
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Speaker 1: We'll find out on Tuesday, and we'll get the opinions
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Speaker 1: of Ellis and Lake and Continetti and Dominich and more
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Speaker 1: right here. So stay tuned. to the Big Weekend Pod.
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Speaker 1: Good morning and grace, America. Welcome to the Big Weekend
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Speaker 1: Review Edition. I'm beginning as I do most days on
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Speaker 1: Friday and Saturday with John Ellis, who is the founder
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Speaker 1: and editor-in-chief of News Items. John, I'm going to be
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Speaker 1: doing election night coverage right here on most of the
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Speaker 1: Salem Radio Network stations and on the Salem News Channel,
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Speaker 1: sponsored by our friends at the Conservative Caucus.
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Speaker 2: I'll be up late.
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Speaker 1: I got your memo. I guess I don't have to
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Speaker 1: really worry about having nothing to talk about. It's going
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Speaker 1: to be kind of blood in the water by that time,
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Speaker 1: don't you think?
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Speaker 3: I do.
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Speaker 4: I think what people are forgetting is that in roughly
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Speaker 4: 11 states, the races are within the margin of error.
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Speaker 4: And so nobody leads and nobody's behind because the numbers
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Speaker 4: are within the margin of error. So you have a
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Speaker 4: very tight night. If there's some kind of big blue wave, then,
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Speaker 4: you know, everything will go that way. If it's not that,
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Speaker 4: then you're going to be up very late, maybe as
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Speaker 4: late as 3 a.m.
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Speaker 1: Now, John, the Washington Post posted a story today about
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Speaker 1: the Kansas electorate.
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Speaker 2: They gave up.
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Speaker 1: They called or texted 85,000 people and Republicans won't talk
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Speaker 1: to them. I don't know that tells us anything because
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Speaker 1: Republicans won't talk to them. But what do you think
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Speaker 1: it means or portends for volubility on election night?
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Speaker 5: There are a couple of things.
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Speaker 4: One, the Election Day voter poll, when I was at
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Speaker 4: NBC News in the 1980s, we had a hard time
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Speaker 4: getting very conservative voters to take the poll. So, you know,
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Speaker 4: the way you arrange it is you have a poll
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Speaker 4: person there, every seventh person you interview. And, you know,
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Speaker 4: sometimes it was every eighth person or tenth person because
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Speaker 4: the very conservative person chose not to. So you have
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Speaker 4: a slight bias in the Election Day voter polls. toward
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Speaker 4: the D side. It's not huge, but it's significant. So
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Speaker 4: there's that. The difficulty of polling is enormous. The refusal
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Speaker 4: rates are 90% plus. So getting a representative sample is
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Speaker 4: difficult and a lot of corner cutting goes on and
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Speaker 4: you see a lot of junk polls in the press.
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Speaker 4: In terms of, you know, this election is about the
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Speaker 4: rural America. Okay, Trump took 70% of the rural vote
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Speaker 4: in 2024. It looks like Republican candidates in any number
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Speaker 4: of states aren't doing anything like that. Some of them
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Speaker 4: are at 50, some are at 55. If those patterns stay,
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Speaker 4: the Democrats have a much better chance, obviously, of winning
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Speaker 4: in Kansas, Nebraska, you know, South Carolina, etc.
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Speaker 5: And so....
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Speaker 4: This whole, if you're going to look for one thing
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Speaker 4: on election night, follow the rural vote. Whatever it does
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Speaker 4: will decide the outcomes in all of the competitive races
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Speaker 4: with the possible exception of Michigan.
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Speaker 1: I want to dive down into the election night clues
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Speaker 1: that you sent to me for reference for everyone. For that,
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Speaker 1: I want your comment on what the Post did. After
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Speaker 1: more than 85,000 phone calls and nearly 50,000 text messages,
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Speaker 1: this is just in Kansas.
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Speaker 2: A problem emerged.
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Speaker 1: Registered Democrats would respond at 32% versus 12% for registered Republicans.
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Speaker 2: That makes it hard, doesn't it? That makes it hard
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Speaker 2: for them to poll Kansas.
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Speaker 5: I mean, you can weight it, right?
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Speaker 2: I mean, you don't need 32-32.
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Speaker 4: You can say X number of Republicans, X number of Independents,
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Speaker 4: X number of Democrats, and then, you know, put the
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Speaker 4: data into those buckets, and you have a fairly good
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Speaker 4: representation of the electorate. But It's very hard. And the
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Speaker 4: notion that polling is precise is insanity.
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Speaker 5: It's not.
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Speaker 4: And so all of this stuff you read about so-and-so's ahead,
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Speaker 4: so-and-so's trailing by two points, he or she is not
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Speaker 4: ahead by two points.
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Speaker 5: He or she is not behind by two points. They
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Speaker 5: are statistically tied.
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Speaker 1: So on election night, I heard the fellows at the
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Speaker 1: Ruthless podcast today start with Kentucky 6 because they close
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Speaker 1: at 6 p.m. Andy Barr is going to win the
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Speaker 1: Senate race there. But Kentucky 6 is tough. If the
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Speaker 1: Republicans can hang on to that, that's a good sign.
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Speaker 1: But you're pretty pessimistic about the Republicans holding on to
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Speaker 1: the House. You would not bet that Republicans take the House, right?
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Speaker 1: You think it's actually going to go 15 to 30 seats?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I do.
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Speaker 4: I mean, I think the consensus on the House is,
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Speaker 4: I mean, we don't have the time to go through
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Speaker 4: it all. But I don't think there's any question that
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Speaker 4: the Democratic low number is, you know, Pick your numbers, 12, 15,
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Speaker 4: something like that.
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Speaker 5: The high number is in the 30s.
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Speaker 4: And so it's probably, I think Karl Rove said the
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Speaker 4: other day, he thought it would be in the low 20s.
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Speaker 5: And I think that's probably correct.
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Speaker 1: Now let's go to the Senate then. The first four
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Speaker 1: closing outside of Kentucky, and that's going to stay red.
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Speaker 1: Andy Barr is going to win McConnell's seat. Georgia, South
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Speaker 1: Carolina at 7 p.m., North Carolina, Ohio at 7.30. What
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Speaker 1: do we glean from those four poll closings?
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Speaker 4: Well, that's the part of the evening where CNN and
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Speaker 4: MSNBC get very, very excited. If Georgia goes the way
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Speaker 4: it's expected, which is D, North Carolina will go D.
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Speaker 4: It's possible and maybe probable that Sherrod Brown will win
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Speaker 4: in Ohio.
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Speaker 5: So that's three out of four.
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Speaker 4: And if it's clear that South Carolina is too close
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Speaker 4: to call, then the people at MSNBC and CNN will
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Speaker 4: be giddy.
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Speaker 5: Okay, let's put it that way.
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Speaker 1: I've been there and I've done that with those folks,
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Speaker 1: and you're right about that. If it is, however, difficult
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Speaker 1: to call North Carolina, we have a reverse 2022 on
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Speaker 1: our hands. I don't think it's going to be, but
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Speaker 1: we'll wait and see. Next up is Maine at 8 p.m.
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Speaker 1: This is important for two reasons. Susan Collins, obviously, but
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Speaker 1: also Maine, second congressional district, where the Republicans might get
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Speaker 1: a rare pickup because Jared Golden has retired in Maine, too.
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Speaker 1: It's a Trump plus 10 district two years ago. I
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Speaker 1: think Susan Collins is going to survive this because Troy
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Speaker 1: Jackson is a terrible candidate.
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Speaker 2: What do you think, John Ellis?
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Speaker 4: I think, you know, I remember back in 2020, Susan
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Speaker 4: Collins won Maine by 10 percentage points as Trump was
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Speaker 4: losing it by 10 percentage points. So, you know, when
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Speaker 4: in doubt, go with the proven vote getter. She's a
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Speaker 4: proven vote getter. She's the mayor, basically, of every town
10:00
Speaker 4: in Maine. So I think she's going to be very
10:02
Speaker 4: difficult to beat.
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Speaker 2: I agree with that.
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Speaker 1: Now, Michigan also closes at 8 p.m., except for some
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Speaker 1: of the upper peninsula areas, which are in the central
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Speaker 1: time zone. So do the networks call it at 8
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Speaker 1: if it's overwhelming, or do they.
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Speaker 2: Wait until 9?
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Speaker 5: They have to wait until 9 by agreement.
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Speaker 2: What are you guessing here?
10:25
Speaker 5: They'll do everything.
10:25
Speaker 2: Because it's a guess.
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Speaker 4: They'll do everything they can to, like, wink, wink, nod, nod, right?
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Speaker 4: I think it's very close. And I don't think we'll
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Speaker 4: know the outcome. Wayne County is slow in reporting, so
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Speaker 4: I would think the outcome, you know, unless it goes
10:40
Speaker 4: one way or another hard, right, it's going to be 11, 1130,
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Speaker 4: I think, before you can get a definitive result on that.
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Speaker 1: Also Mississippi, Kansas, and Texas. Those are all 8 p.m.
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Speaker 1: If it's hard to call Mississippi, it's going to be
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Speaker 1: a bad night the further west we.
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Speaker 2: Go, right?
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Speaker 4: Mississippi is, I think, the sleeper race for the Dems here.
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Speaker 4: And it's almost impossible to imagine that a Democratic Senate candidate,
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Speaker 4: a black Democratic Senate candidate in Mississippi could win. But
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Speaker 4: apparently he's within shouting distance. If he wins, the Dems
11:20
Speaker 4: will roll all through the country, I think. Texas reports
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Speaker 4: relatively quickly, so I would expect like a 10 or
11:30
Speaker 4: a 10.30 call on that one. And, you know, Kansas
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Speaker 4: is the race, I think, that will tell us, you know,
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Speaker 4: if this really is about rural vote, which I think
11:41
Speaker 4: it is, then Kansas is like the perfect sort of
11:45
Speaker 4: case study of how this election will go. If the
11:50
Speaker 4: Democrat wins there, then I think they'll have a good
11:53
Speaker 4: night pretty much everywhere because the rural vote in Kansas
11:57
Speaker 4: isn't that much different than the rural vote in South
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Speaker 4: Carolina or Mississippi or South Dakota.
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Speaker 2: I agree with that. Arkansas as well.
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Speaker 5: I think Kansas is the key race.
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Speaker 2: Arkansas comes in at 8.30.
12:12
Speaker 3: Yeah.
12:13
Speaker 4: I mean, Tom Cotton, you know, won in 2021 with
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Speaker 4: 66 percent of the vote. Right now, the last reputable
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Speaker 4: poll I saw, Tom was ahead by 11, but his
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Speaker 4: number was 51.
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Speaker 5: So it was 51-40.
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Speaker 4: That gives you some idea of the shift and the
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Speaker 4: tide that candidates like Tom Cotton, who would be automatic,
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Speaker 4: you know, reelects. That's the tide that's what Charlie Cook
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Speaker 4: calls the red undertow, and that's what they're facing.
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Speaker 1: Use the initials BBW, Big Blue Wave. If Senator Cotton
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Speaker 1: is at 55% or lower, Big Blue Wave time, is
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Speaker 1: that what you're thinking?
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Speaker 5: I don't think Big Blue Wave.
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Speaker 4: I think if Tom is at 51% or 52%, then
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Speaker 4: the BBW is upon us. Uh, but 55, you know,
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Speaker 4: that puts everything else in the sort of go could
13:10
Speaker 4: go one way or another. I don't, I don't, I
13:12
Speaker 4: don't think, I don't think Tom at 55 is, you know,
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Speaker 4: he can afford to give away 11 points. He cannot afford,
13:19
Speaker 4: you know, globalizing it. He cannot afford to give up 15.
13:25
Speaker 1: And then at 9 PM, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska. These are,
13:29
Speaker 1: these are just give us your quick take. Um, What
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Speaker 1: happens with the big three?
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Speaker 4: I think Minnesota goes D. I think Iowa goes D.
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Speaker 4: And what was the third one?
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Speaker 2: Nebraska. Nebraska, I don't know.
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Speaker 5: I have no idea.
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Speaker 1: Okay, I'm disagreeing with you on Iowa, only because Ashley
13:48
Speaker 1: Inson is such a great candidate.
13:50
Speaker 2: But we shall see.
13:51
Speaker 1: John Ellis of News Items. I stole three of your
13:54
Speaker 1: items this morning for X. Go and subscribe, America. Be
13:58
Speaker 1: smart in the morning.
14:08
Speaker 2: Welcome back, America.
14:09
Speaker 1: I'm Hugh Hewitt, joined by Eli Lake of the Free Press,
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Speaker 1: also host of the Breaking History podcast, frequent contributor to
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Speaker 1: the Commentary podcast. Eli, I want to talk mostly with Michigan,
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Speaker 1: but first I want to start with the conversation you
14:21
Speaker 1: had yesterday with John Podhortz on the Commentary podcast. Like me,
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Speaker 1: you are an optimist about what's going to happen to
14:28
Speaker 1: support for Israel and the United States. John is a pessimist.
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Speaker 1: My first question, do you think that might be because
14:34
Speaker 1: John lives in New York City or which is the
14:36
Speaker 1: epicenter of violence against Jews, and you and I live
14:39
Speaker 1: in the Beltway where it's not that way. We did
14:42
Speaker 1: have two Jews assassinated in D.C., but it's not like
14:44
Speaker 1: the everyday issue with Mamdani stoking the fire. Might that
14:49
Speaker 1: be the distinction between you and John?
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Speaker 6: I think John was focused more on where the Jewish
14:59
Speaker 6: community is right now, and I was trying to focus
15:03
Speaker 6: on what would be almost like a kind of strategy,
15:08
Speaker 6: but a potentially good thing that could happen in the future,
15:11
Speaker 6: given the fact that at this point, I think, especially
15:14
Speaker 6: within the Democratic Party and many elite institutions, that enmity
15:20
Speaker 6: towards Israel, anti-Zionism, saying that the Gaza, the defense of
15:24
Speaker 6: war in Gaza is a genocide, is compelled speech. And
15:28
Speaker 6: I just think that we have experienced that whenever a
15:31
Speaker 6: movement compels people to say the same thing over and
15:35
Speaker 6: over again, that a lot of people resent it and
15:37
Speaker 6: that that can be the basis for pushing back.
15:40
Speaker 2: I don't necessarily think that....
15:42
Speaker 6: I know that on the podcast we were arguing with
15:45
Speaker 6: one another, but in some ways I think that I
15:49
Speaker 6: accept John's point that things are pretty grim right now,
15:52
Speaker 6: but I also can see that, you know, there's a
15:54
Speaker 6: pendulum in these things. And especially when you're talking about
15:56
Speaker 6: an omnicause that I think that Palestinianism very much is
16:00
Speaker 6: at the moment, you know, they burn bright, but, you know, then...
16:05
Speaker 6: At a certain point, it's replaced by another Omnicross, and
16:09
Speaker 6: then there's room, I think, to rebuild. So I'm trying
16:13
Speaker 6: to be an optimist about it, but I also think
16:14
Speaker 6: that that is analytically sound based on my understanding of
16:17
Speaker 6: kind of how American politics and culture moves.
16:20
Speaker 1: Well, I think your silver lining is real. John thought
16:23
Speaker 1: it was more like silver lint. No, it's silver lining.
16:28
Speaker 1: The one thing that I would point out. John said,
16:31
Speaker 1: only Jews and evangelical Christians support Israel. And I made
16:34
Speaker 1: just a quick list.
16:35
Speaker 2: I was out trundling.
16:37
Speaker 1: Catholics and Mormons. I mean, Mark Thiessen, Ramesh and April Panuru,
16:40
Speaker 1: Jim Garrity, Rich Lowry, Ben Dominich, Larry O'Connor, the entire
16:44
Speaker 1: Fox prime time lineup. There are lots of national security
16:49
Speaker 1: people out there that are all in with Israel.
16:51
Speaker 2: And I just sometimes think, don't forget us. We're out here. Absolutely. Yeah,
16:56
Speaker 2: I agree with that.
16:57
Speaker 6: I think that it's... you know, again, and it's coming,
17:01
Speaker 6: it's a very specific, it's like a kind of activism that's,
17:05
Speaker 6: it's very much, we see it in elite college campuses,
17:07
Speaker 6: we see it in, you know, newsrooms, we see it
17:09
Speaker 6: in like Hollywood studios, but that's not necessarily the rest
17:14
Speaker 6: of America. And there's a lot of people who have
17:16
Speaker 6: very different views. And I always say that this is
17:20
Speaker 6: just a cover for anti-Americanism. So, I mean, if you're,
17:24
Speaker 6: I mean, I resent the idea that I have to
17:26
Speaker 6: oppose Abdel Al-Said because, I think he's against Israel and
17:30
Speaker 6: he's against American Jews. I think he's against American values,
17:34
Speaker 6: full stop.
17:34
Speaker 2: I agree.
17:35
Speaker 6: And I don't want to have to put a special,
17:37
Speaker 6: you know, kind of asterisk on it. Like I'm voting
17:39
Speaker 6: out of the, you know, needs of my specific ethnic community.
17:43
Speaker 2: Yeah.
17:44
Speaker 1: His trouble with the black community in Michigan is not
17:46
Speaker 1: because he's anti-Israel or anti-Semitic. It's because they have a,
17:51
Speaker 1: since I went to law school in Ann Arbor and
17:53
Speaker 1: that decades ago, there's been a tension between the Arab-American
17:56
Speaker 1: community and the black community in Detroit. It's been there
17:59
Speaker 1: for 40 years. It's tough to get over that hurdle.
18:02
Speaker 1: Let's go to Michigan, Eli. It will be a very
18:04
Speaker 1: dark turn, a very dark turn, if the Democrats welcome
18:09
Speaker 1: al-Sayed into the Senate. I can't even begin to tell
18:12
Speaker 1: people how dark a turn that is. How would you
18:14
Speaker 1: describe it?
18:16
Speaker 6: Well, I think it's, Matt Connolly, I think he's next
18:20
Speaker 6: in his show, has had a great column on this,
18:22
Speaker 6: that this is going to be a kind of much
18:25
Speaker 6: more lasting stain, if that is the case. And it
18:28
Speaker 6: will be a lesson to that wing of the Democratic
18:31
Speaker 6: Party that feels ascendant that you can win anywhere with
18:36
Speaker 6: an anti-Israel, anti-Semitic message.
18:39
Speaker 2: That's terrible.
18:40
Speaker 6: I mean, I hope it doesn't come to that, but
18:42
Speaker 6: I think that that's really what's at stake. This is
18:45
Speaker 6: the proof of concept, if you will, for the DSA
18:49
Speaker 6: and their agenda overall. I mean, if they can win
18:52
Speaker 6: in Michigan in a Senate race, statewide, then, you know,
18:56
Speaker 6: they're going to feel that the wind is at their
18:57
Speaker 6: backs and they can put these candidates up. Even, by
19:00
Speaker 6: the way, I think it'll be much closer. And you
19:02
Speaker 6: could argue, well, you know, Haley Stevens would have done
19:05
Speaker 6: much better and it wouldn't be this close. But that
19:08
Speaker 6: won't necessarily matter. If he gets through, then they're going
19:12
Speaker 6: to say that this is a winning formula. And it's
19:14
Speaker 6: not just that there won't be a stigma attached to
19:16
Speaker 6: campaigning the way that Al-Sayed has campaigned. there will be
19:20
Speaker 6: an argument that he's found some sort of secret formula.
19:23
Speaker 2: It's terrible. It's a terrible prospect. I hope it doesn't happen.
19:26
Speaker 1: And it's also, we will get an early indication of
19:29
Speaker 1: that in May. I don't think Troy Jackson is going
19:31
Speaker 1: to beat Susan Collins. He's DSA. He's a schlub. He
19:36
Speaker 1: may be the most slovenly candidate I've ever seen with
19:38
Speaker 1: anger management issues that just ooze out of him. But
19:41
Speaker 1: if he wins, and if El-Sayed wins, and the squad doubles...
19:46
Speaker 1: I think AOC is their nominee, and they might as
19:48
Speaker 1: well just call the whole thing off. because she's gonna
19:50
Speaker 1: waltz in that's and that will be terrible for america
19:54
Speaker 1: she's dumb.
19:57
Speaker 6: Well yes except i think that there's i don't know
20:02
Speaker 6: i've talked to a lot of democrats in the last
20:04
Speaker 6: couple months and And I do think there's a little
20:06
Speaker 6: bit of a wake-up call. Whereas if you would have
20:09
Speaker 6: talked to Democrats like a year ago, they would have said,
20:11
Speaker 6: you're overblowing this, the issue of anti-Semitism in the party
20:14
Speaker 6: and things like that. I think now a lot of
20:16
Speaker 6: Democrats are concerned. And there are, you know, not necessarily
20:20
Speaker 6: my cup of tea, but somebody like a Chris Cooper
20:22
Speaker 6: in North Carolina, I think is a much more viable
20:24
Speaker 6: candidate for them. And there will be a certain argument
20:27
Speaker 6: for that. So I still think they would fight it out.
20:29
Speaker 6: But I think you're right. If El-Sayed wins, he becomes
20:31
Speaker 6: something of a kingmaker. it really does sort of make
20:35
Speaker 6: the argument that you can win this way and all that. So, yeah,
20:38
Speaker 6: it's a problem.
20:39
Speaker 1: It's going to change their rhetoric as well.
20:43
Speaker 6: I'm now of the view with Dan Senor that I
20:46
Speaker 6: think that El Sayed is going to lose. I didn't
20:48
Speaker 6: think that for a long time, and I always try
20:50
Speaker 6: to temper expectations. But the fact that they're bringing in
20:55
Speaker 6: all the heavy hitters and they're spending so much, and
20:58
Speaker 6: he hasn't closed the deal yet, That tells me something,
21:01
Speaker 6: that their internals or something that they're seeing is that
21:05
Speaker 6: they think it's much closer than some of the public
21:10
Speaker 6: polling would suggest.
21:11
Speaker 1: Now, on a broader scope, I've had Ken Calvert from California,
21:16
Speaker 1: chair of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in the House, Susan Collins,
21:20
Speaker 1: chair of Appropriations. We will be in a world of
21:22
Speaker 1: hurt if we don't have at least one chamber from
21:24
Speaker 1: which national security people can argue for defense budgets. Do
21:28
Speaker 1: you think we're headed there where we're back into sequestration
21:31
Speaker 1: and cutting defense when we cannot afford to do that
21:34
Speaker 1: right now?
21:36
Speaker 6: I am extremely concerned that what we've now seen is
21:41
Speaker 6: that we have a shortfall and we have to innovate
21:43
Speaker 6: but also spend our way out of, which is that
21:45
Speaker 6: we've got the munition gap that was exposed in the
21:49
Speaker 6: Iran war and the missile defense issues. And, you know,
21:53
Speaker 6: that is something that we have to address right away.
21:57
Speaker 6: And if it takes– we've got to sort of– whatever
21:59
Speaker 6: it takes. And my concern is that the mood of
22:02
Speaker 6: the Democratic Party right now is if they control both chambers,
22:05
Speaker 6: then it's going to be very difficult. And you're probably right.
22:07
Speaker 6: We will be back to that. And I keep thinking
22:10
Speaker 6: about the post-Watergate election. It was Congress that effectively– we
22:16
Speaker 6: cut and run out of Vietnam because of that wave
22:19
Speaker 6: of Democrats.
22:20
Speaker 2: That was my first election, Eli. Yeah.
22:22
Speaker 1: My very first election, I worked for an incumbent congressman
22:25
Speaker 1: in Massachusetts, Paul Cronin, who lost to Paul Zongas. And
22:29
Speaker 1: nobody told me because I was 18 years old, you're
22:31
Speaker 1: going to get slaughtered. And boy, did we get slaughtered.
22:36
Speaker 1: Poor kids out there volunteering and knocking on doors and
22:39
Speaker 1: stuffing envelopes.
22:40
Speaker 2: If they get slaughtered, it takes a while to come
22:42
Speaker 2: back from that. Eli Lake, follow Eli. He's an optimist.
22:45
Speaker 2: He's a happy warrior. At Eli Lake.
22:47
Speaker 1: We'll talk to J-Pod this week, and maybe he won't
22:50
Speaker 1: be so doom and gloom after the election results. We'll
22:52
Speaker 1: find out. Yesterday's commentary podcast. Must not miss it. Stay tuned.
23:06
Speaker 1: Welcome back, America. No week in review show is complete
23:10
Speaker 1: without the one and only Matt Continetti, who is, of course,
23:14
Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal columnist, head of domestic studies at the
23:17
Speaker 1: American Enterprise Institute, and a grand poobah of some sort
23:20
Speaker 1: because he was on the poobah edition of the commentary
23:23
Speaker 1: podcast today. Matt, our friend Eli Lake was just on.
23:26
Speaker 1: He said, make sure you bring up Matt's column today.
23:30
Speaker 1: Anti-Semitism is on the ballot. It is a great column.
23:34
Speaker 1: It is Krauthammer-like. So why don't you explain to people
23:37
Speaker 1: what you mean by anti-Semitism is on the ballot?
23:42
Speaker 7: Well, Hugh, I go back to the words of the
23:45
Speaker 7: late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sachs, the head rabbi for a
23:50
Speaker 7: time in the United Kingdom, chief rabbi. He gave a
23:53
Speaker 7: speech in 2018 about how anti-Semitism corrupts societies. And he
23:58
Speaker 7: said there are three stages. And he said the first
24:01
Speaker 7: is when anti-Semitism moves from the fringes to the center,
24:04
Speaker 7: to the mainstream. He says the second is when political
24:08
Speaker 7: parties find that they pay no price for their anti-Semitism
24:13
Speaker 7: and so are incentivized to continue it. And then third stage,
24:17
Speaker 7: he said, is when people who speak out against anti-Semitism
24:22
Speaker 7: themselves move to the fringes, are ostracized, even punished for
24:26
Speaker 7: their positions. And thinking about that speech and then looking
24:29
Speaker 7: at what we're seeing in America's elections this year, started
24:33
Speaker 7: off with, you know, Graham Platner of the Nazi tattoo
24:36
Speaker 7: in Maine. And of course, dominating the story is Abdul
24:40
Speaker 7: Al-Sayed in Michigan, and especially this anti-Semitic ad of the
24:45
Speaker 7: couple in the grocery store blaming the Jews for high
24:48
Speaker 7: prices in Lansing. I thought, you know, we've definitely reached
24:54
Speaker 7: stage one of Jonathan Sachs's Prophecy, where anti-Semitism is now
25:01
Speaker 7: in the open. And Tuesday, Election Day, is going to
25:06
Speaker 7: go a long way to answer whether we have reached
25:08
Speaker 7: stage two, where the people who traffic in anti-Semitism pay
25:12
Speaker 7: no price for their hate.
25:15
Speaker 1: I want to expand the picture a little bit. The
25:18
Speaker 1: DSA has put forward, they're going to double the size
25:21
Speaker 1: of the squad, and the squad is effectively anti-Semitic. A
25:24
Speaker 1: lot of it is Palestinianism, but most of it is anti-Semitic.
25:28
Speaker 1: And they disguise it in anti-Zionism, but it's going to
25:31
Speaker 1: go from 7 to 12 to 14 members, and they're
25:34
Speaker 1: going to haunt if the Democrats win the House, Speaker-elect
25:38
Speaker 1: Hakeem Jeffries. Though he might not win. I mean, if
25:41
Speaker 1: they really get organized, they might not win. They could
25:43
Speaker 1: do the Freedom Caucus to Hakeem, what the Freedom Caucus
25:45
Speaker 1: did to Kevin McCarthy. But the darkest turn of all
25:49
Speaker 1: is in Michigan, because Al-Sayed has not attempted to even
25:53
Speaker 1: put lipstick on the pig, right? He's just out there
25:58
Speaker 1: not liking Jews and hurt people, hurt people, and not
26:02
Speaker 1: condemning the bananas because Jews are taking our money for
26:06
Speaker 1: bombing Gaza.
26:07
Speaker 2: It's the craziest state, the most important race on the belt.
26:11
Speaker 2: Do you agree with me on that?
26:14
Speaker 7: Well, I definitely view it as the most important race
26:17
Speaker 7: in the Senate. And it's not just me viewing it
26:22
Speaker 7: that way. Democrats view it as important, too, because if
26:25
Speaker 7: El-Sayed wins, Michigan, of course, is a critical state in
26:29
Speaker 7: both the primary and general elections for president in 2028.
26:33
Speaker 7: AOC has said herself that if El-Sayed can win in Michigan,
26:37
Speaker 7: then the DSA and socialist candidates, anti-Israel candidates, anti-Semitic candidates,
26:44
Speaker 7: they can win throughout the country. And so it is
26:47
Speaker 7: the most important race this cycle. And I think that's
26:52
Speaker 7: why El-Sayed is encountering some troubles, Hugh. When we look
26:57
Speaker 7: at his actions, when we look at the fact that
26:59
Speaker 7: the polling still puts the race in a toss-up with
27:02
Speaker 7: Mike Rogers, it's because he has not solidified the traditional
27:08
Speaker 7: Democratic coalition. His stances, his associations, his own words... have
27:14
Speaker 7: alienated a lot of Jewish voters in Michigan who, of course,
27:17
Speaker 7: traditionally vote Democratic, but also a lot of black voters
27:22
Speaker 7: in Michigan. And when you look at what the El-Sayed
27:25
Speaker 7: campaign is up to, it seems to me that they
27:27
Speaker 7: are terrified that low turnout among these two key constituencies
27:32
Speaker 7: and among Jewish Michiganders even voting for Republicans for the
27:37
Speaker 7: first time in many cases could doom his candidacy.
27:41
Speaker 1: I also like to point out to people, Not all
27:44
Speaker 1: Arabs are Muslim. A lot of Maronite Christians and a
27:48
Speaker 1: lot of Christians, etc. Not all Muslims are Arab. There
27:52
Speaker 1: are like Dr. Oz is from Turkey.
27:55
Speaker 2: He's a Muslim.
27:56
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not given 100 percent of the Muslim
27:59
Speaker 1: vote or the Arab vote in Michigan to Abdul El-Sayed
28:03
Speaker 1: because I'm not sure they want him to represent their community.
28:06
Speaker 1: Am I being way too optimistic here?
28:10
Speaker 7: I don't think so, Hugh. I've seen on social media
28:14
Speaker 7: some testimonials from Arabs in Michigan who talk about what
28:20
Speaker 7: Islamism has done to their societies and why they value
28:23
Speaker 7: the American dream. And I know not every Muslim is
28:26
Speaker 7: an Islamist. And so there must be Muslims who are
28:28
Speaker 7: worried about Al-Sayed's associations and positions themselves. So that could
28:34
Speaker 7: be the case, but I think those larger groups will
28:37
Speaker 7: be more significant.
28:38
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk with Matt during the break. On
28:40
Speaker 1: the other side, we're going to unravel the Israeli elections.
28:42
Speaker 1: But during the break, we're going to talk Alaska skullduggery.
28:46
Speaker 1: So get the podcast to catch that. Back with Matt
28:49
Speaker 1: Continetti of the Wall Street Journal, AEI. Matt, the Alaska skullduggery,
28:54
Speaker 1: how 58,000 votes out of about a quarter million that
28:57
Speaker 1: will be cast had been cast before the New York
28:59
Speaker 1: Times broke the story. The story's traveled pretty far, pretty fast.
29:04
Speaker 1: It It does envelop everyone in Alaska right now, although
29:08
Speaker 1: some Alaska friends of mine say it won't get to
29:10
Speaker 1: the villages, but it's definitely in Anchorage and Juneau. It's
29:12
Speaker 1: covering everything up. What do you think the consequences will
29:15
Speaker 1: be for Mary Peltola and the real Senator Dan Sullivan,
29:19
Speaker 1: the one with the incumbent next to his name on
29:21
Speaker 1: the ballot?
29:23
Speaker 7: Well, it's another terrible story for Mary Peltola. There was
29:27
Speaker 7: an earlier story a couple of weeks ago about how
29:31
Speaker 7: she's run some terrible campaigns and a terrible House office
29:34
Speaker 7: when she was in Congress, bad management skills. Now we
29:38
Speaker 7: see that her campaign. the DFCC, other Democratic operatives were
29:44
Speaker 7: up to their armpits and scouring Alaska to find other
29:48
Speaker 7: individuals named Dan Sullivan that they could put on the
29:51
Speaker 7: ballot and confuse people. I think my reaction to the
29:54
Speaker 7: story was, look, everyone knows with a brain, knew what
29:57
Speaker 7: was going on when this decoy Dan Sullivan got himself
30:01
Speaker 7: on the ballot after having no political experience, after being
30:05
Speaker 7: known as a Democrat, and having no intention to wage
30:09
Speaker 7: an actual campaign, got himself on the ballot right before
30:12
Speaker 7: the registration closed. But what the New York Times did
30:15
Speaker 7: to you was bring the receipts. And it's incredibly revealing
30:19
Speaker 7: and embarrassing for the Democrats. And I think that there
30:23
Speaker 7: might not be many political consequences to it, But there
30:26
Speaker 7: will certainly tie up Peltola, tie up the Democratic Party
30:31
Speaker 7: in Alaska for the foreseeable future.
30:35
Speaker 1: Matt, you're one of the few people I would suspect
30:37
Speaker 1: who read the Javert of America, Jack Smith's indictment of
30:41
Speaker 1: President Trump in 2025. You can cut and paste a
30:45
Speaker 1: lot of that indictment and lay over it the facts
30:48
Speaker 1: of the Peltola campaign skullduggery. Is it wise for the
30:52
Speaker 1: DOJ to pursue criminal charges after Republicans spent the last
30:57
Speaker 1: four years condemning weaponization of politics?
31:02
Speaker 7: Well, as far as I understand it, Hugh, the DOJ
31:04
Speaker 7: has asked the Alaska Secretary of State to not certify
31:10
Speaker 7: any election if Peltola's margin of victory is less than
31:15
Speaker 7: the share of the vote that the decoy Dan Sullivan receives.
31:18
Speaker 7: Mike Dunleavy, the great governor of Alaska, Republican, has opened
31:22
Speaker 7: an investigation into into how Decoy Dan got on the ballot.
31:27
Speaker 7: But as the Alaska State Supreme Court said earlier this year,
31:31
Speaker 7: it's almost impossible to prove motive. And so it'd be
31:33
Speaker 7: very hard to, I think, to bring charges or to
31:36
Speaker 7: have a criminal case here. What the bottom line is,
31:39
Speaker 7: is that this was an unethical practice by Democrats who
31:44
Speaker 7: usually strut around holier than thou and condemn Donald Trump
31:49
Speaker 7: for trying to manipulate elections. Well, I think between this
31:53
Speaker 7: Between the partisan gerrymanders of the past two years, there's
31:56
Speaker 7: plenty of evidence that Democrats do plenty to manipulate elections
32:00
Speaker 7: in their favor.
32:01
Speaker 2: On the margins of acceptable behavior, sometimes over it. Stay tuned.
32:04
Speaker 2: I'm coming back with Matt to talk about Israel right
32:07
Speaker 2: after this break. Welcome back, America.
32:18
Speaker 1: I think we should make that Matt Continetti's theme, stepping out.
32:22
Speaker 1: He's stepping out with us on this Friday. Matt Continetti,
32:25
Speaker 1: Hugh's view of Israel's election is that, hey, you're in
32:29
Speaker 1: a war with an existential threat. Everybody lay down your
32:33
Speaker 1: weapons and get together and serve. Bennett be the defense minister.
32:40
Speaker 1: Eisenkot be the economics minister. Yair Lapid, do whatever you want,
32:45
Speaker 1: and Benjamin Netanyahu is the prime minister, because you really
32:48
Speaker 1: cannot be paralyzed for the next year and a half.
32:51
Speaker 1: You've only got Trump for two more years. What does
32:53
Speaker 1: Matt Continetti think is going to happen and should happen
32:56
Speaker 1: in the Jewish state?
32:58
Speaker 7: Well, look, I think a unity government would serve Israel.
33:03
Speaker 7: It would definitely help coordinate between Jerusalem and Washington, D.C., Hugh,
33:09
Speaker 7: in this critical moment. that we're about to reach here
33:13
Speaker 7: after the midterm elections in the United States, where Donald
33:16
Speaker 7: Trump is going to have to make some choices on
33:19
Speaker 7: what to do about the Islamic Republic of Iran and
33:22
Speaker 7: its terrorist behavior. Unity government, of course, would stabilize Israeli
33:27
Speaker 7: politics and would, I think, add some calm in that situation,
33:35
Speaker 7: which is desperately needed for several years. At the end
33:39
Speaker 7: of the day, though, it's going to be hard for
33:41
Speaker 7: some of these figures to join together. You know, Israeli politics,
33:45
Speaker 7: I guess like all politics, but it's a much smaller country,
33:49
Speaker 7: is personality driven. And these personalities often don't mix, to
33:55
Speaker 7: put it lightly. So even though I would like all
33:59
Speaker 7: those individuals you mentioned to decide to work together, I
34:03
Speaker 7: think the chances are not high that will happen.
34:07
Speaker 2: Another election. Now, turning to Iran.
34:09
Speaker 1: I think President Trump is on the no surprises tour
34:12
Speaker 1: you know rock and roll bands name their tours he's
34:15
Speaker 1: going to iowa kansas south carolina mississippi this is the
34:18
Speaker 1: no surprises tour he does not want a nasty surprise
34:20
Speaker 1: on election night but he might have a surprise this
34:23
Speaker 1: weekend for iran they hit an oil tanker today that's
34:26
Speaker 1: the the british maritime total they finally hit one they
34:30
Speaker 1: lie they said they hit three but they hit one
34:33
Speaker 1: do you think he's going to hold back until after
34:35
Speaker 1: the election.
34:38
Speaker 3: I do, Hugh.
34:38
Speaker 7: I may differ with you on this. I think he
34:41
Speaker 7: is going to hold back. I think he's not interested
34:46
Speaker 7: in having the markets open on Monday with skyrocketing oil prices.
34:53
Speaker 7: And so my suspicion is, despite all these propagations, which
34:58
Speaker 7: have been happening with increased intensity in the last month
35:02
Speaker 7: in the Strait of Hormuz, Trump, the president, is going
35:06
Speaker 7: to hold off on ordering a military action. I do think, though,
35:09
Speaker 7: he's considering it. And we know that from the reports
35:12
Speaker 7: that he met with Admiral Brad Cooper at the White House.
35:16
Speaker 7: And we know that the materiel is being moved into
35:20
Speaker 7: position in the Middle East. So it remains a big option.
35:24
Speaker 7: But he's also hearing from people who want to renew diplomacy.
35:28
Speaker 5: Why?
35:28
Speaker 3: I don't know.
35:29
Speaker 7: As well as people who are saying, Mr. President, look,
35:32
Speaker 7: keep up the blockade. It's strangling the Iranian economy. It's
35:37
Speaker 7: keeping them in check. It has costs, but those costs
35:42
Speaker 7: may not be as great as the potential costs of
35:44
Speaker 7: Iranian retaliation if you turn the war back on. So
35:49
Speaker 7: he has to decide among these three competing camps. And
35:53
Speaker 7: if I knew what Donald Trump was going to do,
35:55
Speaker 7: I'd be a very rich man.
35:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, you and me both.
35:58
Speaker 1: All right, let's tease some 2028 speculation out of the
36:02
Speaker 1: 2026 race that isn't over yet. There have been two
36:05
Speaker 1: senators who've been in Michigan, who've been in Alaska, who've
36:09
Speaker 1: gone to anywhere that they've been asked. One is Ted Cruz,
36:12
Speaker 1: and I think he's running for president. The other is
36:15
Speaker 1: Dave McCormick, and I think he's running for president. I
36:18
Speaker 1: don't know whether J.D. Vance or Marco Rubio will, but
36:21
Speaker 1: I also think Mike Pompeo is running for president. That's
36:23
Speaker 1: a good, strong field right there. Is there anyone else
36:26
Speaker 1: you've seen out and about enough to consider that they
36:30
Speaker 1: want to be in the mix come January when the
36:33
Speaker 1: debate should start?
36:36
Speaker 7: I think Youngkin's been traveling, former governor of Virginia. I
36:39
Speaker 7: think he's elevating his profile. There's definitely a potential run there.
36:43
Speaker 7: So DeSantis, Youngkin, Pompeo, Cruz, for sure. Those are all
36:48
Speaker 7: names I could see on a debate stage. McCormick, I
36:51
Speaker 7: definitely think he's has presidential ambitions, and rightly so. He's
36:56
Speaker 7: a very impressive, very effective senator. I'm not so sure
36:59
Speaker 7: he's made the call to run in 2028.
37:02
Speaker 1: If you go out and make a good show on
37:05
Speaker 1: a debate stage and you're from Pennsylvania, even if you
37:09
Speaker 1: don't win the nomination, doesn't that make you the number
37:12
Speaker 1: two almost automatically?
37:16
Speaker 2: Perhaps.
37:17
Speaker 7: You never know. I mean, once you get the presidential nomination,
37:20
Speaker 7: it's really up to that individual's decision. You know, I
37:24
Speaker 7: should mention, there is another person who's been making some
37:27
Speaker 7: very interesting campaign appearances, and that's Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Yeah,
37:32
Speaker 7: he's in Texas. I've been skeptical. He was in Texas.
37:36
Speaker 7: I think he was in the Midwest, too, or Georgia, maybe.
37:40
Speaker 7: Trump brings him out, and the response from the audience
37:44
Speaker 7: is ecstatic. And while I've been skeptical that Rubio will
37:48
Speaker 7: run in 28, I see that, and I say to myself,
37:51
Speaker 7: you know what? Donald Trump is a marketing genius, and
37:55
Speaker 7: maybe he's doing some brand testing. And he sees the
37:59
Speaker 7: response to Rubio, and it is electric. And I wonder
38:03
Speaker 7: whether that will put in Trump's mind, you know, maybe
38:06
Speaker 7: he will say to Marco, yeah, why don't you go
38:09
Speaker 7: for it? Let's see what happens.
38:10
Speaker 1: I had the same thought, because I think the president
38:13
Speaker 1: uses the rallies as a feedback loop. And whatever works
38:16
Speaker 1: with his people, he internalizes and mulls and muses over.
38:22
Speaker 1: And he's got, I saw that response. How would you
38:25
Speaker 1: characterize the people who didn't see that response in Texas?
38:28
Speaker 1: What happened when Marco walked out?
38:31
Speaker 2: Well, the crowd went wild.
38:32
Speaker 7: And by the way, very similar to what happened when
38:34
Speaker 7: Marco was announced at this year's State of the Union. There,
38:38
Speaker 7: of course, is not the grassroots. It's Republican congressmen. But
38:43
Speaker 7: when he was announced and entered the chamber of the
38:45
Speaker 7: House of Representatives to attend the State of the Union,
38:48
Speaker 7: All those Republican officials went wild, too. They were thrilled.
38:52
Speaker 3: They were very thrilled.
38:53
Speaker 7: And, you know, Trump knows how a crowd reacts is
38:57
Speaker 7: very important in politics.
38:59
Speaker 1: And you're right about marketing. He is a marketing king.
39:02
Speaker 1: Matt Continetti, last question. If there's a nasty surprise for Republicans,
39:07
Speaker 1: a nasty surprise, where will it be on Tuesday night?
39:12
Speaker 7: Well, the nastiest surprise will be that all these polls
39:15
Speaker 7: are right. And then you really do have a game-changing election, Hugh.
39:20
Speaker 7: And it would be, in some ways, a realigning election.
39:24
Speaker 7: If these polls are right and Democrats win these Senate
39:26
Speaker 7: races in bright red state, we've entered a new political era.
39:33
Speaker 1: Oh, Burr, that's a bad and a dismal thing to
39:35
Speaker 1: think about. We'll talk next Friday about whether or not
39:38
Speaker 1: we have to wear sackcloth and ashes for a while.
39:41
Speaker 1: Matt Continetti, follow him on Exit Continetti. Go read his
39:44
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39:48
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39:50
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39:50
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42:08
Speaker 1: It's always fun when Ben Dominich joins us for the
42:10
Speaker 1: Week in Review in the week ahead.
42:12
Speaker 2: Ben, welcome.
42:14
Speaker 1: I want to begin by finding out what they're saying
42:16
Speaker 1: over at the Daily Wire opinion page about the election.
42:19
Speaker 1: In other words, this is a batting practice for Ben.
42:22
Speaker 1: What's on your mind before I lead you down my mind?
42:27
Speaker 3: Well, Hugh, I will say that when it comes to
42:31
Speaker 3: predictions and things like that, I've had I think I've
42:35
Speaker 3: been wrong when most people were wrong. I was wrong
42:38
Speaker 3: in 12. You know, I was more optimistic in 22
42:42
Speaker 3: than people ought to be. But I've been pretty consistently,
42:47
Speaker 3: you know, close to it. And I was right in
42:50
Speaker 3: 16 and I was right in 24 and that kind
42:51
Speaker 3: of thing. But anyway, the thing that I think is
42:54
Speaker 3: really on my mind at this point is that Democrats
42:58
Speaker 3: could end up in a situation where their conference and
43:01
Speaker 3: their D.C. experience gets very rapidly taken over by their
43:07
Speaker 3: own version of a Tea Party, which is essentially a
43:11
Speaker 3: DSA wing, a bloc that is funded by other sources,
43:16
Speaker 3: that has no allegiance to and is not beholden to
43:19
Speaker 3: the current leadership. And that is instead beholden to an
43:23
Speaker 3: influencer class of radical Democrats who expect things that they
43:28
Speaker 3: can't actually deliver. The number one backlash to Zoran Mamdani
43:32
Speaker 3: that has come from the people who backed him is
43:35
Speaker 3: the fact that he did not arrest Bibi Netanyahu. And
43:39
Speaker 3: if you use that as kind of the basis for
43:42
Speaker 3: the way that they might see Democrats treated going forward,
43:46
Speaker 3: it's going to be the kind of situation that six
43:48
Speaker 3: months from now, seven months from now, Hakeem Jeffries could
43:51
Speaker 3: see a kind of rebellion that happens within his midst
43:54
Speaker 3: that he is unable to clamp down on about why
43:57
Speaker 3: Don Jr. is still able to roam the earth at will,
44:00
Speaker 3: free and unarrested, or why Elon Musk isn't in the
44:05
Speaker 3: Hague as Kara Switzer would like him to be. And
44:08
Speaker 3: that's the thing that I think, you know, is kind of,
44:11
Speaker 3: we're headed that direction, Hugh, and I'm not exaggerating the
44:14
Speaker 3: way I say that.
44:15
Speaker 1: So, Ben Dominich, I'm going to be doing election night
44:18
Speaker 1: coverage from 11 to 1. I'm batting cleanup for the
44:21
Speaker 1: Salem Radio Network, the Salem News Channel.
44:23
Speaker 2: And am I going to be in a terrible mood
44:27
Speaker 2: like 1974, 1992, 2008? I was disappointed in 2022. I
44:28
Speaker 2: was stunned in 2012. What? What am I going to
44:38
Speaker 2: be like?
44:38
Speaker 1: And, by the way, Danielle is going to be calling
44:40
Speaker 1: you and asking you to do a segment with me
44:41
Speaker 1: during that.
44:42
Speaker 3: I have already agreed. I have already agreed to do
44:45
Speaker 3: a segment. So we will be having our mood rings together. No,
44:49
Speaker 3: I actually– I think that you will be– I think
44:52
Speaker 3: that you will be not– I do not think you
44:54
Speaker 3: will be stunned. That is what I think. I think
44:57
Speaker 3: that you will not be stunned. And when I say that,
45:00
Speaker 3: what I do mean is I think that, you know,
45:03
Speaker 3: Democrats here have– you know, they– they kind of had
45:07
Speaker 3: this attitude towards the Senate that was, okay, we're going
45:10
Speaker 3: to take these red seats really seriously, and we're going
45:14
Speaker 3: to try to nominate people who make sense. We're going
45:16
Speaker 3: to pick Sherrod Brown. We're going to pick Roy Cooper.
45:19
Speaker 3: We're going to try to do our gamesmanship when it
45:21
Speaker 3: comes to Nebraska, Kansas, et cetera. We're going to sort
45:26
Speaker 3: of play the game there. But then they've also, I think, actually,
45:31
Speaker 3: they've had a fake moderate in Tallarico win in Texas.
45:35
Speaker 3: And they've had a complete wacko win in Michigan. And
45:40
Speaker 3: I think that that has damaged them. And I think
45:42
Speaker 3: that Troy Jackson has damaged them, just like Plattner had
45:44
Speaker 3: damaged them before. And I think that the Peltola situation,
45:48
Speaker 3: this October surprise coming out of Alaska, whether it ends
45:51
Speaker 3: up being decisive or not, it has damaged them. And
45:55
Speaker 3: so going into this final stage of the election, I
45:58
Speaker 3: think there are numerous things that are going against the
46:01
Speaker 3: idea that Democrats are going to be able to take
46:04
Speaker 3: the Senate. I will say, just as someone who loves stories, Hugh,
46:11
Speaker 3: I have to say that the story that makes the
46:13
Speaker 3: most sense that would get the most eyeballs is to
46:16
Speaker 3: have us all hanging at the end of the night
46:20
Speaker 3: and having the decisive sort of race to determine control
46:25
Speaker 3: of the Senate. Be that Alaska race.
46:28
Speaker 2: We better get lawyers up to Anchorage. They got great
46:31
Speaker 2: lawyers up there. Absolutely.
46:33
Speaker 3: We can revive some of the folks from 2000 Florida.
46:37
Speaker 2: They're old.
46:37
Speaker 3: Send them all up there.
46:39
Speaker 1: We need the Article 3 project and all those people,
46:41
Speaker 1: but they got a great lawyer up there. and Steve
46:44
Speaker 1: Cox is a counselor to Mike Dunleavy and other good
46:46
Speaker 1: lawyers up there, so I think it'll be clean. Ben,
46:49
Speaker 1: in terms of— I' m going to go through the race with
46:52
Speaker 1: you individually as we move forward here, but when I've
46:56
Speaker 1: been way wrong and stunned, it was I thought Mitt
46:58
Speaker 1: Romney had it in the bag, right? In 2012, I thought.
47:01
Speaker 3: Well, I did, too, and I did think that he
47:04
Speaker 3: was going. I mean, you know, and you know my
47:06
Speaker 3: own objection to Mitt Romney, but I literally— I mean— That
47:10
Speaker 3: is the one presidential that has shocked me.
47:13
Speaker 1: I swung and missed bigly. And Guy Benson and Ed Morrissey,
47:16
Speaker 1: Dwayne and I, we were just sitting around. We were
47:18
Speaker 1: so glum.
47:19
Speaker 2: We were just so glum.
47:21
Speaker 1: I will be that way if Susan Collins loses to
47:24
Speaker 1: this schlub, Troy Jackson, who really is the worst. Now,
47:28
Speaker 1: El-Sayed is a menacing candidate, but Troy Jackson is just
47:31
Speaker 1: a creep. And that's what they're calling him now in
47:33
Speaker 1: the Senate Leadership Committee ads. Do you think that's possible
47:37
Speaker 1: that Maine would trade in the best senator in the
47:40
Speaker 1: United States, 10,000 consecutive votes, chair of the Appropriations Committee
47:45
Speaker 1: for that schlub, Troy Jackson.
47:47
Speaker 3: You know, I have greater faith in the Maine voters.
47:51
Speaker 3: I mean, you spend time in Maine, so you know
47:53
Speaker 3: it better than I have. I've only been there once
47:55
Speaker 3: this cycle and briefly, and so I have less ground
47:59
Speaker 3: awareness than you do. But it seems to me that
48:03
Speaker 3: Susan Collins has run an election that is focused on
48:07
Speaker 3: her connections with localism, on her ability to deliver for
48:12
Speaker 3: the state. It would seem to me to be very,
48:14
Speaker 3: very foolish and extremely anti-incumbent. sort of year, even if
48:19
Speaker 3: it is, would not seem to be something that extends
48:23
Speaker 3: to voters in a place like Maine, that it seems
48:26
Speaker 3: to take this so much more seriously and understands the
48:29
Speaker 3: significant backward sort of step they would take if they
48:32
Speaker 3: sent someone like Troy Jackson into the Senate conference, who
48:36
Speaker 3: I think that Schumer would do his best to keep
48:38
Speaker 3: away from the cameras and avoid. So it's one of
48:41
Speaker 3: these things that, look, I think Maine voters are smarter
48:43
Speaker 3: than that. I'll stick with that. And I don't expect
48:47
Speaker 3: it to go that way, though it would be very interesting, Hugh,
48:50
Speaker 3: if at the very end of the day they have
48:51
Speaker 3: a bunch of people win who they didn't want to
48:53
Speaker 3: win with a bunch of their picks in these other
48:56
Speaker 3: red states, but they selected very carefully. They all crap out.
49:02
Speaker 1: It's going to be fascinating. Today the Washington Post did
49:04
Speaker 1: an interesting story. where they basically confessed, we have called
49:08
Speaker 1: 85,000 people and texted 50,000 or vice versa in Kansas,
49:13
Speaker 1: and we can only get 35% of the Democrats to respond,
49:16
Speaker 1: and we can only get 12% of the Republicans to respond.
49:19
Speaker 1: but we're going to publish our poll anyway. What do
49:21
Speaker 1: you make of that, Ben Domenech?
49:25
Speaker 3: Hugh, I think that this cycle is really a dark moment,
49:30
Speaker 3: perhaps the nadir, perhaps the actual depth for polling in America.
49:37
Speaker 3: And there are a couple of reasons for that. One
49:40
Speaker 3: is that as a pollster who I interviewed from Signal
49:45
Speaker 3: for Daily Wire last week said to me, it is
49:48
Speaker 3: easier and cheaper to do crappy polls than ever before.
49:52
Speaker 3: And I think that that's part of what's going on here.
49:55
Speaker 3: But I also think Republicans in particular do not trust polling.
49:58
Speaker 3: They do not respond to it. They do not want
50:01
Speaker 3: to say who they are voting for. This is beyond
50:04
Speaker 3: a shy voter effect. It's something that is driven by
50:08
Speaker 3: their feeling that these polls are just skewed and that
50:11
Speaker 3: are based on trying to create narratives. And they don't
50:15
Speaker 3: trust people when it comes to these calls that they're getting.
50:18
Speaker 3: The other thing that I think is going on here
50:20
Speaker 3: is There is something really, I think, bad about the
50:24
Speaker 3: fact that we've had media, which has any kind of responsibility,
50:28
Speaker 3: retreat from the act of polling. Even if they had
50:31
Speaker 3: a narrative, at least they cared about the quality of
50:34
Speaker 3: the poll involved. Now what we have is everyone just
50:37
Speaker 3: wants to seize on a number. They want to use
50:39
Speaker 3: it to create a hook for a segment, for a story, etc.,
50:43
Speaker 3: And unfortunately, I think that has driven the creation of
50:46
Speaker 3: these polls that are just designed to further that. And
50:49
Speaker 3: I think that you're going to see coming out of
50:50
Speaker 3: this election, people have more distrust for polling than ever before.
50:55
Speaker 3: And it's going to feed into this 28 election in
50:57
Speaker 3: ways that are, I think, going to be unpredictable.
50:59
Speaker 2: That's very interesting.
51:00
Speaker 1: What do you think the legacy media would be doing
51:03
Speaker 1: if it was a Republican who had polled Mary Peltola's
51:06
Speaker 1: trick on a Democrat?
51:09
Speaker 3: They would be calling for their head. They would be
51:12
Speaker 3: saying that they needed to be imprisoned, that not just
51:15
Speaker 3: that they needed to be thrown out of the race,
51:18
Speaker 3: but that they needed to be jailed, that they needed
51:21
Speaker 3: to face immediate consequences. You know, I cannot believe the
51:25
Speaker 3: segment that you would get from Norm Eisen and representatives
51:29
Speaker 3: of the bulwark.
51:30
Speaker 2: Norm would have a heart attack.
51:31
Speaker 3: In response to something like that happening. And I'm sure
51:36
Speaker 3: they would draw some comparison to, you know, ancient Roman
51:41
Speaker 3: political sort of upheaval or something like that. But look,
51:45
Speaker 3: this is this is a it's a terrible situation from
51:48
Speaker 3: my perspective for the Democrats, because their whole argument on
51:51
Speaker 3: this has been Donald Trump is going to rig this election.
51:54
Speaker 3: He's going to do this, that or the other. It's
51:55
Speaker 3: a fantasy world that they existed in. And yet, at
51:58
Speaker 3: the end of the day, this is clearly rigging. It
52:01
Speaker 3: is absolutely the act of rigging. The evidence that the
52:06
Speaker 3: New York Times provided is astonishing, Hugh. I mean, the
52:10
Speaker 3: degree to which they were openly kind of talking about this.
52:15
Speaker 3: Have a little bit more subtlety.
52:17
Speaker 1: Be circumspect about your skullduggery. I'm coming right back with
52:21
Speaker 1: Ben Domenech. I'm going to talk with him during the
52:22
Speaker 1: break about Israel. Then we're going to come back and
52:24
Speaker 1: talk a little bit more about Alaska, Iowa, Ohio, and Michigan,
52:28
Speaker 1: the dark corner into which the Democrats may turn if
52:31
Speaker 1: they actually elect El-Sayed in Michigan.
52:34
Speaker 2: Stay with us.
52:35
Speaker 1: So I'm back with Ben Domenech during this three-minute segment, Ben.
52:38
Speaker 1: What is your reaction to the Israeli elections where the
52:40
Speaker 1: pollsters were all wrong as well?
52:44
Speaker 3: You know, I'm not really that surprised. I mean, I
52:48
Speaker 3: don't know what your reaction was. I haven't heard. But
52:51
Speaker 3: my own sort of personal feeling about this narratively was
52:54
Speaker 3: that this was probably going to be the way that
52:57
Speaker 3: things played out. And quite frankly, you know, I think
53:01
Speaker 3: that this is going to create a scenario where, you know,
53:04
Speaker 3: Benjamin Netanyahu knows that this is probably his last go
53:09
Speaker 3: around in terms of leadership. You know, I mean, he's
53:11
Speaker 3: held on for so long. I will be interested to
53:15
Speaker 3: see what he does with that type of attitude and knowledge.
53:19
Speaker 3: You know, in terms of what happens going forward, I
53:22
Speaker 3: think that this is it's going to be unpredictable, but
53:26
Speaker 3: unpredictable in ways that I think will probably make a
53:28
Speaker 3: lot of people who hate terrorism pretty happy.
53:32
Speaker 1: Well, that's what I just want them to come together.
53:35
Speaker 1: They got a war on with Iran and they ought
53:39
Speaker 1: to be able to put together a government to work
53:41
Speaker 1: with Trump. They're going to.
53:45
Speaker 3: I just think they absolutely are going to. That line
53:47
Speaker 3: from Netanyahu that came out several days ago about whatever
53:52
Speaker 3: mediocrity comes next after Trump, I think that's a sign
53:58
Speaker 3: that he understands the window that they have and people
54:01
Speaker 3: who are serious understand the window that they have and
54:03
Speaker 3: they need to come together and they need to do that.
54:05
Speaker 3: So I'm not surprised at the way this plays out.
54:07
Speaker 1: You just led me in a place I went with
54:09
Speaker 1: Matt Continetti earlier. Marco Rubio got introduced by Donald Trump
54:13
Speaker 1: at the Texas rally, and the place went nuts. Based
54:17
Speaker 1: upon appearances on the trail, the campaign debate roster will
54:22
Speaker 1: be the vice president, Ted Cruz, Dave McCormick. I think
54:25
Speaker 1: Mike Pompeo is going to run. Maybe Ron DeSantis again.
54:29
Speaker 1: What about Marco Rubio? I don't know if you saw
54:31
Speaker 1: the tape of him in Texas, but the place went crazy.
54:36
Speaker 3: So, Marco, I honestly believe this. I think he would
54:41
Speaker 3: be foolish not to run. I think he would be
54:43
Speaker 3: foolish not to run. And I think that he should.
54:45
Speaker 3: And I think that he deserves to repair the mistakes
54:50
Speaker 3: that he made in 2016, which I think he has learned.
54:53
Speaker 3: He has learned probably the most. In the intervening time
54:57
Speaker 3: of anybody who ran against Donald Trump about the state
55:00
Speaker 3: of the country and about the direction and politically and
55:03
Speaker 3: when it comes to foreign policy, I think he is
55:06
Speaker 3: absolutely top notch. I hope that he runs no matter
55:09
Speaker 3: who the nominee is. And even if I've said this repeatedly,
55:12
Speaker 3: if people are in favor of J.D., don't think of
55:15
Speaker 3: this as an anti-J.D.
55:16
Speaker 2: Statement.
55:17
Speaker 3: You will get a better J.D. if he has to
55:20
Speaker 3: go through an absolute sort of serious group of people
55:27
Speaker 3: in order to debate his way to the nomination. That
55:29
Speaker 3: is a better version of him, given his lack of
55:32
Speaker 3: electoral experience, than anything that he can go through otherwise.
55:36
Speaker 3: It's a gauntlet. It could end up being a gauntlet,
55:39
Speaker 3: but I think it's a healthy gauntlet to have. And
55:42
Speaker 3: if you don't have that, you know what you end
55:43
Speaker 3: up with? You end up with Kamala Harris.
55:46
Speaker 2: You're right.
55:47
Speaker 1: Every knife fight you win makes you a better knife fighter.
55:50
Speaker 1: I'll be right back with Ben Dominich. Stay where you are.
56:02
Speaker 2: Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt.
56:04
Speaker 1: Let's go to Michigan with Ben Dominich, opinion editor at
56:07
Speaker 1: The Daily Wire, Fox News contributor. Ben, I lived there
56:11
Speaker 1: for three years when I was in law school. And
56:13
Speaker 1: even decades ago, there was a big divide between the
56:16
Speaker 1: Arab American community in Dearborn and downtown Detroit and the
56:19
Speaker 1: African American community. And there's always been a university community.
56:22
Speaker 2: That's left wing.
56:23
Speaker 1: And then there's been the Dutch Reformed Church out west
56:26
Speaker 1: in Grand Rapids and up through Kalamazoo.
56:28
Speaker 2: It's many states in one.
56:30
Speaker 1: If they elect El Sayed, that will be the darkest
56:33
Speaker 1: turn to go from Gary Peters to El Sayed. What
56:37
Speaker 1: do you think is going to happen in the Wolverine state?
56:41
Speaker 3: I think El-Sayed is going to lose. I see a
56:44
Speaker 3: path to victory for him, but I think that it
56:47
Speaker 3: requires a lot of things to happen that are not
56:49
Speaker 3: at this point in evidence. And I think one of
56:51
Speaker 3: the biggest aspects of this, and I've been talking to
56:54
Speaker 3: some of my Democrat friends who are from Illinois and Michigan,
56:59
Speaker 3: who pay attention to a lot of the politics that
57:00
Speaker 3: go on there and Essentially, they say that the last
57:07
Speaker 3: couple of weeks, El-Sayed has been making these desperation throws
57:12
Speaker 3: to try to mitigate the fact that he has not
57:16
Speaker 3: been able to reach the black community that they rely
57:19
Speaker 3: on to deliver the votes needed to actually win statewide elections.
57:25
Speaker 3: And I think that on a certain level, this is
57:27
Speaker 3: an example of Democrats who get sucked into the online
57:32
Speaker 3: vortex as being reality. Republicans can make this mistake, too,
57:36
Speaker 3: by the way. This is not just on one side.
57:38
Speaker 3: But when it comes to Democrats, we saw the Kamala
57:41
Speaker 3: Harris sort of after-action reports about how much they were
57:45
Speaker 3: paying attention to what was going on on X or
57:47
Speaker 3: on Facebook or on Instagram or TikTok. I think that
57:51
Speaker 3: when it came to El-Sayed, he felt like he had
57:54
Speaker 3: this massive momentum behind him when he won that primary.
57:57
Speaker 3: But I think he never did the work that is
57:59
Speaker 3: necessary to actually reach the African-American community. I think that
58:03
Speaker 3: now he does not have the kind of base of
58:07
Speaker 3: support there that he needs. I think Mike Rogers will
58:10
Speaker 3: ultimately pull it out. And instead, you've got, you know,
58:13
Speaker 3: not to hit the bulwark twice on this, you've got
58:15
Speaker 3: the likes of Tim Miller and people like that, you know,
58:17
Speaker 3: stumping for El Sayed. And it's like, that's actually not
58:20
Speaker 3: who you need. That's not actually the portion of the
58:23
Speaker 3: electorate that needs to be, you know, affected by your pitch.
58:28
Speaker 3: And I think that he's doing it too late.
58:30
Speaker 2: Now, you're a concert goer, aren't you, Ben?
58:33
Speaker 3: Occasionally, less so now that I have children, but yes.
58:36
Speaker 1: But, you know, the big rock and roll acts name
58:39
Speaker 1: their tours, like the comeback tour or the... I think
58:42
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is on the no surprises tour. He's going
58:45
Speaker 1: to South Carolina and Mississippi and Kansas and Texas because
58:48
Speaker 1: he doesn't want any, and Ohio four times. He does
58:52
Speaker 1: not want any surprises on election night.
58:54
Speaker 2: Does it work?
58:56
Speaker 3: I'm worried about Ohio. I'm worried about it because Sherrod
59:00
Speaker 3: Brown is someone who's won there so many times. And
59:03
Speaker 3: because you, have an appointed sort of opponent, and that
59:08
Speaker 3: the vague Ramaswamy ad took over the narrative there in
59:12
Speaker 3: a negative way in the last several weeks of the election.
59:16
Speaker 3: Ohio is a deep red state. They shouldn't have any
59:18
Speaker 3: kind of intro there. There should not be any possibility.
59:21
Speaker 3: But I think you're right to name the tour that way,
59:23
Speaker 3: and I think it's going to be successful broadly. I
59:25
Speaker 3: do not actually think... Look, we'll see when some of
59:28
Speaker 3: these House races come in from these newly redrawn districts
59:32
Speaker 3: in Texas, we'll have a good idea of what's going
59:34
Speaker 3: to happen statewide, regardless of whether we have a result
59:37
Speaker 3: or not, based on the way that Hispanic voters are
59:40
Speaker 3: coming out and which direction they're going in some of
59:42
Speaker 3: these districts. But I think that when it comes to Ohio,
59:45
Speaker 3: that's the one where I am the most concerned that
59:49
Speaker 3: the gap there is one that was not filled and that, frankly,
59:52
Speaker 3: the gubernatorial nominee could end up drawing down votes as
59:56
Speaker 3: opposed to helping.
59:57
Speaker 2: Is the Amy Acton video real or is it AI?
1:00:03
Speaker 3: I mean, I believe it's real. I've seen it across
1:00:06
Speaker 3: a couple of different platforms where I think it's real,
1:00:08
Speaker 3: but I also think Antioch is a very weak candidate
1:00:12
Speaker 3: and should be easily beatable in a red state like Ohio.
1:00:15
Speaker 3: You shouldn't have to resort to anything like what the
1:00:17
Speaker 3: Vague did.
1:00:18
Speaker 2: In order to beat Amy Axelrod.
1:00:20
Speaker 1: That was a total step-on-the-rake moment, and it's a question
1:00:24
Speaker 1: of whether or not.
1:00:25
Speaker 3: He can recover. By the way, the flip side of
1:00:27
Speaker 3: that is the ads that have been run in the
1:00:29
Speaker 3: El-Sayed campaign at the very late stages by the Young
1:00:33
Speaker 3: Turks and his own campaign that have suddenly, you know, oh,
1:00:39
Speaker 3: let's talk about Israel in the last week of the campaign.
1:00:41
Speaker 3: Smart move, guys.
1:00:42
Speaker 8: Great.
1:00:43
Speaker 2: Sank is never going to get the Spelling Bee Award.
1:00:45
Speaker 2: All right.
1:00:46
Speaker 1: Last question, speaking of Ohio. Have you heard the name
1:00:49
Speaker 1: Malik Thomas yet?
1:00:52
Speaker 3: I have not. I'm sorry.
1:00:53
Speaker 1: He is our second-round draft choice who's playing like a
1:00:57
Speaker 1: top lottery pick and is under the tutelage of James
1:01:00
Speaker 1: Harden and Donovan Mitchell and scoring double digits off the
1:01:03
Speaker 1: bench and making everybody's eyeballs roll back in their head.
1:01:07
Speaker 2: So I know you listen to sports radio.
1:01:09
Speaker 1: Just remember the Wizards passed by Malik because he's going
1:01:12
Speaker 1: to be one of those guys like Tom Brady. and
1:01:15
Speaker 1: Purdy that they all say, how in the world did
1:01:17
Speaker 1: he drop that far?
1:01:18
Speaker 3: Well, let me just say this, Hugh. You have had–
1:01:23
Speaker 3: you are having a really, really good run. I sure hope,
1:01:27
Speaker 3: I sure hope when it comes to your Browns that
1:01:31
Speaker 3: you do not make the mistake.
1:01:33
Speaker 2: We're not going to do that.
1:01:33
Speaker 3: No, no, no. Do not make the mistake. If you
1:01:37
Speaker 3: win a playoff game, are you going to resign this guy?
1:01:39
Speaker 3: We're not going to do that.
1:01:41
Speaker 2: Jimmy Haslam has learned.
1:01:43
Speaker 1: We're not going to resign Deshaun Watson.
1:01:45
Speaker 2: Okay. All right. Okay. All right. We will talk.
1:01:49
Speaker 1: On election night, when we're here from 11 to 1
1:01:52
Speaker 1: and mopping up the blood or popping the champagne, I
1:01:55
Speaker 1: don't know what it's going to be. 2012 was brutal.
1:01:58
Speaker 1: I don't ever want to do that again. And Ben
1:02:01
Speaker 1: Dominich will be here. I'm so glad to hear you
1:02:03
Speaker 1: say that, Ben. Thank you. I look forward to talking
1:02:05
Speaker 1: to you on election night. And I hope that we
1:02:08
Speaker 1: won't sound like Amy Acton at that point.
1:02:11
Speaker 2: That video, if you haven't seen it.
1:02:13
Speaker 3: No, I need a lot of bourbon to sound like
1:02:15
Speaker 3: Amy Acton.
1:02:16
Speaker 2: You need a gallon of bourbon to sound like that.
1:02:19
Speaker 2: You think it's real, though.
1:02:21
Speaker 1: I was afraid to retweet it because, you know, AI now,
1:02:24
Speaker 1: I don't know what's real, right?
1:02:27
Speaker 3: I know, and there's so much slop out there. You know,
1:02:29
Speaker 3: you've always got to pause, always got to check and
1:02:31
Speaker 3: make sure that people you trust are talking about it.
1:02:36
Speaker 2: And that is not yet the case, but I appreciate, Ben,
1:02:39
Speaker 2: the time. Thank you, my friend. Welcome back, America. I'm
1:02:44
Speaker 2: Hugh Hewitt.
1:02:44
Speaker 1: Congressman Jeff Crank has been my friend for 20 years.
1:02:48
Speaker 1: I first campaigned with him. I don't know when that was, Jeff.
1:02:51
Speaker 1: You had little kids. They're probably in college now. Am
1:02:53
Speaker 1: I right about that?
1:02:55
Speaker 2: You are.
1:02:56
Speaker 8: My daughter is married to an American soldier, and she's
1:02:59
Speaker 8: four and a half months pregnant now at 23 years old.
1:03:02
Speaker 8: That was back in 2006.
1:03:04
Speaker 2: You say it's been 20 years. I don't lie to
1:03:06
Speaker 2: my audience.
1:03:06
Speaker 1: 20 years ago, Jeff and I were going up and
1:03:08
Speaker 1: down the district, most of the district he now represents,
1:03:11
Speaker 1: which is Colorado's 5th, the Springs, the Air Force Academy, Manitou.
1:03:16
Speaker 1: Tell people where your district is, Jeff, and let's make
1:03:18
Speaker 1: sure everyone gets out and returns you because you've got
1:03:20
Speaker 1: a long, great career ahead of you in the Congress.
1:03:23
Speaker 8: Yeah, thank you, Hugh. Colorado Springs is essentially my district,
1:03:27
Speaker 8: home of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Pikes Peak, America's Mountain,
1:03:30
Speaker 8: the Broadmoor Hotel. My district is literally just Colorado Springs
1:03:35
Speaker 8: and some of the surrounding areas around that.
1:03:39
Speaker 1: Now, if you can get the Republicans to show up,
1:03:41
Speaker 1: that might be the last surefire thing in Colorado.
1:03:45
Speaker 2: Are they turning up? Do you think they're going to
1:03:46
Speaker 2: turn out on Tuesday? I do. I do.
1:03:51
Speaker 8: We've got good turnout so far. Republicans understand. They understand
1:03:54
Speaker 8: what's at stake both nationally for Republicans you know, the
1:03:58
Speaker 8: socialist agenda from these Democrat socialists that will be emboldened
1:04:02
Speaker 8: if they get control of the Congress of the United States.
1:04:05
Speaker 8: But they also understand what it means for us here
1:04:08
Speaker 8: in Colorado Springs and El Paso County. This has always been,
1:04:12
Speaker 8: you know, a government of limited means. And, you know,
1:04:16
Speaker 8: we've always tried to keep, you know, faith and all
1:04:19
Speaker 8: those things up front here in Colorado Springs. We're going
1:04:23
Speaker 8: to lose that. We're In Colorado, we've lost many of those.
1:04:28
Speaker 8: That's what's at stake. I think people understand that and
1:04:31
Speaker 8: they must get out and vote or we're going to
1:04:33
Speaker 8: turn the way Denver and Boulder have become in Colorado.
1:04:37
Speaker 8: And we don't want that.
1:04:39
Speaker 1: And the Springs has been reliably and traditionally Republican if
1:04:42
Speaker 1: they vote.
1:04:42
Speaker 2: You also have Fort Carson. Do you still have Fort
1:04:44
Speaker 2: Carson in the fifth?
1:04:47
Speaker 8: I still have Fort Carson. Yeah, you bet. I have
1:04:49
Speaker 8: five military installations here, reliably a strong veteran community here,
1:04:54
Speaker 8: very conservative territory.
1:04:56
Speaker 2: So which committees have you ended up on, Jeff?
1:05:00
Speaker 8: So I'm on the House Armed Services Committee. And, of course,
1:05:03
Speaker 8: with five military installations, that's good to be on that.
1:05:07
Speaker 8: I'm also on the House Natural Resources Committee, which, of course,
1:05:10
Speaker 8: deals with our public lands. And that's a good one
1:05:13
Speaker 8: for my district as well.
1:05:14
Speaker 1: Well, you've got the two portfolios that matter to Colorado
1:05:17
Speaker 1: generally and to the 5th District especially. And I'm wondering,
1:05:21
Speaker 1: is that showing up in your volunteer count, your early votes?
1:05:24
Speaker 1: Are you confident about how it's going? Because I don't
1:05:27
Speaker 1: really believe the doomers and the gloomers out there because
1:05:30
Speaker 1: the polling sucks. But I don't want to take anything
1:05:33
Speaker 1: for granted, especially great young congresspeople like yourself, Jeff Crank.
1:05:38
Speaker 8: Yeah, look, I think so far so good. Republicans are
1:05:42
Speaker 8: turning out, but we've got to have a continued just
1:05:44
Speaker 8: a big, big turnout here. You know, my opponent moved
1:05:48
Speaker 8: here a year ago. Moved here from Maryland. In fact,
1:05:51
Speaker 8: she's still, her permanent home and residency as of October
1:05:55
Speaker 8: 1st of this year was in Maryland. So she bought
1:05:58
Speaker 8: a house here, $ 3. 5 million. She paid cash for it,
1:06:02
Speaker 8: moved out here, and two weeks later decided to run
1:06:04
Speaker 8: for Congress. She has spent, her and the Democrats have
1:06:08
Speaker 8: spent almost $ 10 million in this district. $ 10 million. Nothing
1:06:13
Speaker 8: like it has ever happened before, and we cannot let
1:06:16
Speaker 8: them steal a congressional seat.
1:06:17
Speaker 1: So if you're a Colorado voter and you see Jeff
1:06:20
Speaker 1: Crank's name, realize he's the real deal.
1:06:22
Speaker 2: He's been doing this.
1:06:23
Speaker 1: I mean, you were an activist before 2006. Then you
1:06:26
Speaker 1: supported Doug Lamborn. You lost to him in a primary
1:06:29
Speaker 1: and you supported him. You've then stayed in the community
1:06:32
Speaker 1: working hard for conservative Colorado values and for the Springs
1:06:35
Speaker 1: and for the Fort Carson community. I don't think they
1:06:38
Speaker 1: vote much in the Supermax, do they?
1:06:41
Speaker 2: No, I hope not.
1:06:43
Speaker 8: If they do, we got more work to.
1:06:46
Speaker 2: Do, Hugh.
1:06:48
Speaker 1: Does anyone know that she's a carpetbagger? I mean, that's
1:06:53
Speaker 1: really carpetbagging. That's like the biggest carpetbagging I've heard of ever.
1:06:58
Speaker 8: You know, it truly is. And she was a senior
1:07:01
Speaker 8: aide to Joe Biden. She came in, tried to act
1:07:04
Speaker 8: like she's nonpartisan and, you know, I'm not really liking
1:07:06
Speaker 8: the Democrats or the Republicans. And she tried to pull
1:07:09
Speaker 8: the wool over the eyes of the voters of this district.
1:07:12
Speaker 8: But I think People understand now that she was a
1:07:14
Speaker 8: senior aide to Joe Biden. She was the chief of
1:07:17
Speaker 8: staff to Kamala Harris's husband in the White House. She's
1:07:20
Speaker 8: funded by George Soros' son, has given her money. I mean,
1:07:25
Speaker 8: this is a person that moved in really to try
1:07:27
Speaker 8: and do it. Most of her money, over 85 percent
1:07:30
Speaker 8: of her money that she's raised has come from outside Colorado.
1:07:35
Speaker 8: And she's put a million of her own money in
1:07:37
Speaker 8: trying to buy this seat.
1:07:38
Speaker 1: Jeff Crank, what is your website so that if anyone
1:07:41
Speaker 1: wants to put up their hand to help you out
1:07:43
Speaker 1: on Election Day, they know how to find you?
1:07:46
Speaker 8: Yeah, you're always so kind, Hugh. Website is jeffcrankforcongress.com. And
1:07:52
Speaker 8: we'd love to have anybody who can give us support.
1:07:54
Speaker 8: I mean, this is a true test for Colorado. I
1:07:58
Speaker 8: did a tele-rally with President Trump last night, and we're
1:08:01
Speaker 8: hoping that conservatives will turn out and make a difference.
1:08:04
Speaker 1: Well, it's a big, sprawling district, and so it's very
1:08:07
Speaker 1: hard to... I just remember how vast the district is
1:08:11
Speaker 1: because of the dispersion of the population. So you've got
1:08:14
Speaker 1: to go hours in both directions, right, to get the...
1:08:18
Speaker 1: to touch every voter that you want to touch.
1:08:21
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's a little smaller. We've had a lot of
1:08:24
Speaker 8: growth here. It's a little smaller than when you were here,
1:08:26
Speaker 8: for sure, geographically, but it is a sprawling district, and
1:08:30
Speaker 8: there's no doubt about it, and diverse. We've got a
1:08:32
Speaker 8: lot of defense contractors, high-tech jobs here. You know, a
1:08:36
Speaker 8: lot of, as I said, military retirees and veterans who
1:08:40
Speaker 8: live here. And, you know, just getting the word out
1:08:43
Speaker 8: about the great work that we've been able to do,
1:08:45
Speaker 8: you know, and the president is trying to do to
1:08:47
Speaker 8: save our military and put more money in so that
1:08:49
Speaker 8: we can pay our soldiers better and, you know, provide
1:08:53
Speaker 8: for these weapons systems that we need to keep up
1:08:56
Speaker 8: with China and some of our adversaries. This is incredible
1:08:58
Speaker 8: work that we're doing. We've got to continue it.
1:09:01
Speaker 1: We've got to get you and Juan Siskamani, who were
1:09:03
Speaker 1: the stars of the freshman class two years ago, back
1:09:06
Speaker 1: and gathering up the seniority you need to help your
1:09:09
Speaker 1: districts thrive and your states recover. Jeff Crank for Congress.com. Jeff,
1:09:14
Speaker 1: thanks for joining me. Good luck on Tuesday. I hope
1:09:16
Speaker 1: on Wednesday I look that up and I'm smiling. I'm
1:09:18
Speaker 1: sure I will be because you kind of thrashed him
1:09:20
Speaker 1: last time. But never, never take anything for granted. Thank you, Jeff,
1:09:24
Speaker 1: for joining me. Have a good sprint to the conclusion.
1:09:28
Speaker 2: Thank you.
1:09:29
Speaker 8: Appreciate your friendship.
1:09:30
Speaker 2: You bet. Jeff is a good man.