Latest / The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated / El-Sayed and the Muslim Brotherhood

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El-Sayed and the Muslim Brotherhood · The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College. All things
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Hillsdale at hillsdale.edu. I encourage you to take advantage of
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the many free online courses there and of course to
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: listen to the Hillsdale Dialogues. All of them at hueforhillsdale.com
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: or just google Apple, iTunes and Hillsdale. Morning Lori and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: evening race America. Good Thursday to you. It's going to
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: be a particularly difficult first hour of the broadcast for
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: me today because the Guardians are up 3-2. bottom of
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the seventh in Cleveland over the Tampa Bay Rays. Zabrowski
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: just took out the side. And now we're getting close
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: to Cade Smith time. We get to Cade Smith time,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: I'll relax. But until then, let's go over the news.
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  Speaker 1: The biggest news yesterday came out after I was off
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  Speaker 1: to the show. NBC News caught up with Abdul El-Sayed,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: or Abdul El-Sayed, I don't know how to say it.
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  Speaker 1: People say it both ways. Tom Lamas is the news
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  Speaker 1: anchor for NBC. Caught up with him after... Abdul El-Sayed
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  Speaker 1: apparently lied to Christian Welker on Meet the Press on Sunday.
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  Speaker 1: And this is the interview heard around the world, cut
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  Speaker 1: number nine. the Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood. You don't
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  Speaker 1: have any ties?
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 1: And your family doesn't?
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 3: But newly revealed past tweets from Al-Sayed's half-sister appearing to
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  Speaker 3: call his answer into question.
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  Speaker 1: These tweets have emerged now.
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  Speaker 4: Had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism
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  Speaker 4: in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she
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  Speaker 4: was in college.
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  Speaker 1: Hashtag respect.
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  Speaker 4: My family has long been an MB.
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  Speaker 5: Let me finish.
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  Speaker 4: Praying for all my family that supports the MB in Egypt.
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  Speaker 1: Can you just explain it?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, Tom, it's funny to me. I was born in
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  Speaker 4: 1984 down the street in Rochester Hills. I was raised
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: here in Michigan, went to the University of Michigan, rebuilt
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: the health department in the city, led the health department
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  Speaker 4: in this county. And you want to ask me about
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: what was happening in Egypt in 1970?
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  Speaker 5: Are you serious?
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  Speaker 4: I get it, but you were asked a question and
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  Speaker 4: you gave an answer. This is kind of like the same. Yeah,
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  Speaker 4: I'm telling you. I have no ties. We have no ties.
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  Speaker 1: So your mother had no ties?
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  Speaker 4: I have never had these conversations with my mother. I
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  Speaker 4: wasn't raised by my mother. So you were unaware? But
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  Speaker 4: I'm just telling you that you're using hearsay evidence from
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: a tweet. This is not serious. But you've also gone
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: after the president for truthfulness.
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  Speaker 1: You've also gone after the president for truthfulness.
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  Speaker 4: So when people ask you a question, they all do
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  Speaker 4: expect the truth. And do you think, are you insinuating
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  Speaker 4: that somehow I was lying?
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  Speaker 3: I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: That's why I'm asking you.
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  Speaker 4: And I'm telling you I was not.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, good for him for going after him. Good for
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: him for having the receipts. The better response, of course,
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  Speaker 1: I have 20-20 hindsight, and I don't want the guy
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  Speaker 1: to win, would be, well, you did sign a letter
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  Speaker 1: urging Muslim Brotherhood President of Egypt Morsi for about a year,
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  Speaker 1: to purge the media and the army. So you're clearly
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  Speaker 1: a Muslim Brotherhood supporter, even if your sister's tweets don't
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  Speaker 1: matter and your mother never told you about what she
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: was doing. What about your father? What about your father-in-law?
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  Speaker 1: There are lots of follow-ups. So NBC feels bad about
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  Speaker 1: doing this, but they have to do this because he
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  Speaker 1: lied to Kristen Walker or at least misled her. Now,
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  Speaker 1: Mike Rogers put out an ad hitting him over this,
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  Speaker 1: cut number 11. And you set the record straight about
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: whether you or your family have any ties to the
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  Speaker 1: Muslim Brotherhood? No. No, you don't have any ties?
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  Speaker 6: No.
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  Speaker 4: Abdul El-Sayed's sister tweeted, my family has long been supporters
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  Speaker 4: of the Muslim Brotherhood.
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  Speaker 7: Al-Sayed's birth mother reportedly worked for a designated terror group
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  Speaker 7: that provided financial support to Osama bin Laden, the Taliban,
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  Speaker 7: and also Hamas.
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  Speaker 4: His father-in-law sits on the board of an organization that
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  Speaker 4: is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.
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  Speaker 6: The Muslim Brotherhood celebrated his win in the primary.
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  Speaker 8: He said Al-Said took money linked directly to terrorist groups,
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  Speaker 8: and Al-Said couldn't deny the claim.
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  Speaker 1: His sister-in-law was on a terrorist watch list, and his
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  Speaker 1: sister publicly praised the October 7th terrorist attack.
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  Speaker 4: No, you don't have any ties.
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 7: And your family doesn't.
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  Speaker 6: No.
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  Speaker 2: At what point are Michigan voters allowed to.
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  Speaker 6: Notice this pattern of bad associations.
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  Speaker 5: That he has?
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  Speaker 1: I think they are noticing right now, and I think
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  Speaker 1: he's acting rather desperately. Mike Rogers, who I think is
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  Speaker 1: going to join me on today's program, was on with
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  Speaker 1: Hannity last night, cut number 12.
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  Speaker 9: This is the crazy thing about this, Sean. Think of this.
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  Speaker 2: Of all the things he's trying to flip-flop or change
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  Speaker 2: or say he's not that person, even though we have
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  Speaker 2: all this video saying he is... The one thing he
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  Speaker 2: won't change is he won't condemn the Muslim Brotherhood. He
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  Speaker 2: won't condemn Hamas. He won't condemn the terrorist group IRGC
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  Speaker 2: for the Iranian. That's the enforcement arm of the Iranian
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  Speaker 2: terrorist state. He won't condemn any of it. And so
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  Speaker 2: that's the oddest thing to me is he holds that position,
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  Speaker 2: but he won't. He's trying to flip around on everything
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  Speaker 2: else that he does, trying to confuse people.
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  Speaker 9: I'm just I don't think people are buying it.
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  Speaker 1: Then cut number 13 from Mike Rogers' Last Night with Sean.
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  Speaker 9: I mean, we have coalitions with Jewish Democrats. We have
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  Speaker 9: coalitions with African-Americans around the state that should be locked
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  Speaker 9: up for Abdul El-Sayed. They're not.
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  Speaker 2: And if you don't have your base 19 days away
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  Speaker 2: from an election, I'm telling you, you're going to have
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  Speaker 2: a hard time getting elected. And that's why you're seeing
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  Speaker 2: now he's coming out with, well, no, really, I'm for
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  Speaker 2: law enforcement.
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  Speaker 9: No, really, I'm not for the New Deal, which he
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  Speaker 9: lied about. He supports. We have all of his video
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  Speaker 9: saying he supports it.
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  Speaker 2: I've never seen anything quite like this. It makes him
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  Speaker 2: extreme and it makes him dangerous, but his ability to
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  Speaker 2: look at you and lie, boy, that's a gift I
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  Speaker 2: hope nobody gets.
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  Speaker 1: Cut number 14 from Mike Rogers.
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  Speaker 9: Our utility bills are already the highest in the Midwest.
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  Speaker 9: And Abdul El-Sayed wants.
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  Speaker 3: Us to pay even more.
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  Speaker 1: Abdul's energy tax would jack up our utility bills.
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  Speaker 3: $ 2, 000 a year.
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  Speaker 2: And El-Sayed would increase our gas prices too, 20 cents
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  Speaker 2: a gallon.
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  Speaker 6: Abdul El-Sayed means higher taxes and higher prices.
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  Speaker 9: We can't afford Abdul. Mike Rogers will lower our costs
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  Speaker 9: and cut our taxes. That's money back in our pockets.
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  Speaker 9: I'm Mike Rogers, and I approve this message.
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  Speaker 1: And then last night on Handy, one more from Mike
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  Speaker 1: Rogers talking to Sean Cut15.
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  Speaker 9: This guy is unbelievable. If he has any skill, he
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  Speaker 9: can look you in the eye and lie.
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  Speaker 2: And as an FBI agent or former FBI agent, Sean,
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  Speaker 2: I can tell you that makes a great con man,
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  Speaker 2: but it doesn't make somebody you ought.
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  Speaker 9: To trust to have around your family.
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  Speaker 2: He lied about the Muslim Brotherhood and all of that
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  Speaker 2: information is coming out. He's lied about being a physician.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, the list is going on. And he lied
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  Speaker 2: about his support for law enforcement.
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  Speaker 1: Then we've got President Trump on the tarmac at Bullhead City, Arizona,
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  Speaker 1: last night, cut number 17. Are you concerned about.
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  Speaker 7: Abdul El-Sayed's ties to the Muslim Brotherhood?
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  Speaker 10: Yeah, he's a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Abdul, or
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  Speaker 10: as I call him, Mohammed, Mohammed El-Sayed. He's a member
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  Speaker 10: of the Muslim Brotherhood. He said that years ago. He
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  Speaker 10: was a proud member. And you can't have a member
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  Speaker 10: of the Muslim Brotherhood in Congress being on.
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  Speaker 4: One of our security committees, right?
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  Speaker 10: But he is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
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  Speaker 1: So let's juxtapose to worries about a blue wave and
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  Speaker 1: a blue tide and a blue tsunami. Harry Anton on
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  Speaker 1: CNN last night cut number 27. That we do in
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  Speaker 1: fact see.
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  Speaker 8: A 2026 Senate map if the polls underestimate Republicans by
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  Speaker 8: two to four points. Well, remember all that blue that
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  Speaker 8: was on the map before? All that blue went, bye-bye,
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  Speaker 8: see you later, adios amigos, sayonara. Those Democratic chances and
• 7:41
  Speaker 8: those Democratic hopes down there into Lake Erie.
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  Speaker 1: Look at this.
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  Speaker 8: Now what we're dealing with, if in fact the polls
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  Speaker 8: underestimate the Republicans, is 53 Republican Senate seats compared to
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  Speaker 8: 47 Republican seats. Maine, that stays red. How about a
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  Speaker 8: flip in Michigan where Abdul-Assad, very neck and neck in
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  Speaker 8: the polls with Mike Rogers. Ohio stays red. Iowa stays red.
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  Speaker 8: Alaska stays red. Now, I will note, I will note
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  Speaker 8: that even in this scenario, right, you still get a
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  Speaker 8: situation where North Carolina stays blue and Georgia stays blue.
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  Speaker 8: But Texas goes red.
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  Speaker 1: See you later.
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  Speaker 8: Ken Paxton gets elected to the United States Senate. No
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  Speaker 8: James Tallarico. So a very clear Republican win in the
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  Speaker 8: Senate if the polls are underestimating the Republicans, like perhaps
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  Speaker 8: they did in 2020, like they did in 2016, so on,
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  Speaker 8: so forth. And on the House side, what about this?
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  Speaker 8: On the House side, by the way, getting a little schvitzy.
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  Speaker 8: I think I'm going to have to have a drink
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  Speaker 8: in a second. If the polls undershot the Republicans by
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  Speaker 8: greater than three points, well, that's all you need. That's
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  Speaker 8: all you need for Republicans in order for them to
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  Speaker 8: actually probably hold on to the U.S.
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  Speaker 9: House of Representatives.
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  Speaker 8: They would likely win 218-plus House seats. And keep in mind,
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  Speaker 8: this polling error absolutely has happened before. Therefore, when we
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  Speaker 8: talk about the race being within the margin of error,
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  Speaker 8: the House of Representatives, even if Democrats are favored, it
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  Speaker 8: is still within the margin of error that Republicans can
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  Speaker 8: win if we see polling misses like we have before.
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  Speaker 1: I hope he's right. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: I'm joined by Ben Dominich. Now, I used to introduce
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Ben as the editor of the Daily Wire opinion page,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Fox News contributor, host of the Big Ben podcast. Now
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to introduce him as Emily Dominich's brother,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: because Emily was my guest this week. And she actually
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: knows about permitting, which puts her in the very small club,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: about 100 people, including me and Emily, who know about
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: the nightmare that is permitting in the United States. I
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: talked to her about you, Ben. She said you were
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: a nerd. She confirmed that for me, and that she
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: played sports when you just read books. Is that correct? Yes.
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  Speaker 5: This is absolutely 100% correct, and yes, she has the medals,
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: and I have the... gigantic library to prove both of
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: those things. All right.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Now, I want you to know I'm in the middle
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: of the most difficult broadcasting twofer right now. I'm talking
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: to a very smart guest about very complicated things in
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: the middle of a complicated election, and I have one
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: eye on the Guardian's Rays game, of which the Guardians
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: lead now 3-2, but the Rays have a man on
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: second with two out in the eighth with Hunter Gaddis,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: who can be a little bit iffy on the mound.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Kate Smith time coming up. What do you think of
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: the series thus far, Ben?
• 10:31
  Speaker 5: Well, you know, I got to tell you, you know,
• 10:34
  Speaker 5: it's so many things in this playoffs have gone in
• 10:37
  Speaker 5: unexpected directions from my perspective. And, you know, I mean,
• 10:42
  Speaker 5: I think this is a dogfight.
• 10:44
  Speaker 9: Absolutely.
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: You know, I mean, what would you like? From your perspective,
• 10:51
  Speaker 5: which of the outcomes, obviously, you know, you're rooting for
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: the Guardians, but which of the teams do you actually
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: want to face now, just given the performance that the
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: Brewers are putting on on the other side?
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to beat the Dodgers, although if you
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: get to the World Series and you've only had three
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: of them in your lifetime and we haven't won any
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: of them, just getting there is all I want. But
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: I wanted to beat the Dodgers, and I'm glad that
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: someone's beating the Dodgers because they're ruining the game. Do
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: you share my opinion on that?
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: Can I be conspiratorial for one second?
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Go right ahead.
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: You don't think that the Dodgers are throwing this series
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: simply so that they can avoid a lockout? Nah, they
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: don't throw series.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's a good conspiracy. Avoid a lockout.
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: Come back. Oh, look, small market teams. It still works.
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: We don't need to have any of these things.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: That's not a bad theory. I agree. Fran Fischella, do
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: you watch him on ESPN?
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: I do, yes.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Fran lives sort of in and out of the Beltway,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: and we're going to go to a Wizards game this year.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: I'm going to put the conspiracy questions to him because
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: he's a serious basketball man. There are too many people
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: like you who actually believe the NBA is doing everything
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: on the sly. But baseball is pretty hard to fix.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Those players don't want.
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: To go home. It is. It is. I truly, I'm just,
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: from a corporate perspective.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: No, they wouldn't be unhappy.
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: Yeah, they would not be.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: The rest of the league would not be unhappy. But
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: we're going to have a strength. And that's why this
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: year is so important to the Guardians fans. All right,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: let's get to the bad news. Well, let me get
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: to the good news first. What did you make about
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Tom Lamas going after El Sayed? Good on him.
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: Well, absolutely good on him. But I mean, isn't part
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: doesn't the question need to be put to Kristen Welker?
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: Why didn't this come up when you were talking to him?
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: You know, you if you had this sort of litany
• 12:43
  Speaker 5: of of, you know, points about the things that he said,
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: you know, I look, I think they'll say, Ed, I
• 12:51
  Speaker 5: think he's fading as a candidate. I think these candidates
• 12:53
  Speaker 5: who Democrats have put you know, so much on when
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: it comes to Michigan and Texas. I think both of
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: them are fading at the end. And I think part
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: of the reason for that is that they have failed
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  Speaker 5: to break through with black voters who they need, which
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: is a problem for both El-Sayed, we saw in the primary,
• 13:11
  Speaker 5: and it was a problem for Talarico, as we saw
• 13:13
  Speaker 5: as well. And I think that they both are as
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: kind of inauthentic social media-based candidates. I think that that
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: has a half-life on it That is absolutely definite. You know,
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: when it came to Damdani, he only had to keep
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: things up until he won that Democratic primary. You know,
• 13:32
  Speaker 5: and I think that, honestly, if he had had to
• 13:35
  Speaker 5: deal with a longer tenure after there and if New
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: York actually had a functional opposition from the Republicans, that
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: would have been a more interesting race. But this is
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: a situation that I think we have right now. These
• 13:45
  Speaker 5: two candidates. in Tallarico and El Sayed are two people
• 13:48
  Speaker 5: who do not, I think, have a long sort of
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: tenure of ability to navigate politics in a way that
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: allows them to be prepared in those situations, in these
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: situations where they are confronted by hard questions. Not even
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: hard questions. Sometimes it's just things you've said in the past. Those,
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: for Democrats, are hard questions, of course, from glazing media.
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: But but I know that you're paying attention to the game.
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  Speaker 1: So what I'm going to say is what I would
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: have followed up either. Hey, my explanation for meet the press.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: When I was a contributor to meet the press, they
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: had a very great producer, John. I'll just leave it.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: I won't mean his last name down the middle. He
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: come up with good stuff for Chuck to use. I
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: when I helped NBC on the debate, their team has
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: gone so far to the left that I doubt they
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: know that else I had. signed a letter urging Morsi,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt who was out in a coup,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: to purge the media and the army. I mean, you
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: don't sign a letter like that and not be a
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Muslim Brotherhood supporter. And nobody's asking about it.
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: Nobody's asking about it. And look, Hugh, I totally agree
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: with you. By the way, you made an important point there,
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: which I think people who consume political media around the
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: clock should understand. There is an enormous team behind all
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: of the people who you see on air who are
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: doing these interviews. I think sometimes people who consume this,
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: they think that, like, you know, it's as if, you know,
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: Brett Baer is only coming up with his questions by himself. No,
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: there's a big group of people who are doing the
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: research and coming up with different options. And, you know,
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: the talent that is below the person who's on air
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: is is actually more important in terms of the way
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: the show comes out often than the talent themselves. Sometimes
• 15:36
  Speaker 5: the talent overwhelms everything, but it's one of these situations
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: where I think in this case, it's absolutely probable that
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: Kristen Welker had no idea and that it was not
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: the kind of thing that was put in front of
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: her because if she had any news sense, that would
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: be the kind of thing.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: That's what they want.
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: The road to go down, yeah.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: That's what you want, a viral hit. And I've worked
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: with Kristen on a debate, but when we did the debate,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: there were 50 people in the room, 50, 5-0 people
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: in the room doing research and double-checking facts so they
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: can find everything out and they can help us do
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: an interview. I think they sent llamas to Michigan because
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: they were embarrassed. Do you agree?
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: I think absolutely. By the way, congrats on getting out
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: of the inning. Oh, did we get out of the inning?
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Sorry.
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: So the thing that I think is very much a
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: problem here for the legacy media organizations is that as
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: they cut back and as they have these big salaries
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: for the people who are on air, They have fewer
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: and fewer people in the room involved in that process.
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: I was at CBS when John Dickerson was preparing for
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: his first interview with Trump right after he had gotten elected.
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: It was the first one that CBS had done a
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: sit down with. And I went in and we had
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: just a two hour prep meeting. with just, you know,
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: I wasn't going to be part of that interview or
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: anything like that. It was just going to be, you know,
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: something that they did. But they wanted me in the
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: room to have a voice to say, you know, what
• 17:06
  Speaker 5: are the questions you would ask?
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: That's good media hygiene. There's no one like that at
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: MS now. There were very few people like that at NBC.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: But the host, I always defend Chuck Todd to people
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: who think he's a lefty. He's smart. You've got to
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: get a support staff that isn't crazy. Absolutely.
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: And look, and Chuck is I agree with you. Chuck
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: is smart. And I think that one of the things
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: that we have to understand is as they hollow out
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: this old aging industry, it's only going to get worse.
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: It's only going to get.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: You're right. During the break, I'm going to talk with
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: Ben about having a daily wire debate of the Republicans
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: running for president. Don't go anywhere. I'll be right back
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: with Ben on the other side. Then you have to
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: listen to hear that part. to the podcast or my
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: YouTube channel. Stay with us. I'm back with Ben Dominick. Ben,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: you and I have talked before about debates. I think
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: the Daily Wire ought to host a debate. You guys
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: have developed the infrastructure to do that. And the Republicans
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: should have like 50 of them because it just generates
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: more viewers than anything. And it'll be at least the
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Vice President, Senator Cruz, I think Governor Youngkin, Secretary Pompeo.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: There might be a few other people who decide to
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: get in. And I think The Republican candidates benefit from
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: tough debates, and the Democratic candidates in 2020 were very
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: badly served by walk-over debates. There were two questions in
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: 12 debates about COVID, too.
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: Insane. Look, Hugh, I completely agree. And one thing that
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: I think you just mentioned there that's so important for
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: people to understand is infrastructure. One thing that I've been
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: so impressed with since joining The Wire is that they
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: really do know how to put on production. They know
• 18:47
  Speaker 5: how to pull on events. We had this huge production.
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: And when it came to the Dallas convention this year,
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: which was kind of the first walkthrough that I had
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: of it, they know how to do that stuff, which
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: is the basic thing that you don't have typically for
• 19:01
  Speaker 5: all these entities that are magazines or they're publications. They're
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: smart people, but they don't know how to put on
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: a TV production. And so they have to basically farm
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: it out. That's something that we now have the capacity
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: to do. And I think that you're completely right. I
• 19:13
  Speaker 5: think this field is going to be closer to 10
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: than 5. I think it's going to have a bunch
• 19:17
  Speaker 5: of people get into it. I think it's going to
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: be a real contest. And here, look what I'll say
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: is even if you hear that and you say, well,
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: that's just, you know, you saying that J.D. has problems
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: or that, you know, there's going to be, you know,
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: that he's going to have to deal with this. No,
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: I think that makes him a better candidate. He's won
• 19:33
  Speaker 5: one election by himself. You know, he ran as Donald
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: Trump's running mate after going to the Senate and being
• 19:40
  Speaker 5: there for just a hot minute. I think this is
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: one of those situations where he would be dramatically helped
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: by that. And look, I think he's very smart, but
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: Tim Walz is not exactly the most intimidating person.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Hot stove league politics. Right now we are a long
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: way away from having a nominee, but if Michelle Tafoya
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: wins in Minnesota, isn't she automatically at the top of
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: vice presidential lists?
• 20:05
  Speaker 5: I think she's way up there. I would also suggest
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: to you that Sarah Huckabee Sanders is going to be
• 20:11
  Speaker 5: on that.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Oh, yes.
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: Arkansas is a lock.
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: Arkansas is a lock. But if you want to say, like,
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: let's just say for the sake of argument that they
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: end up nominating Gavin Newsom and he picks AOC to
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: be his running mate. You want to have the opposite
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: in terms of America, in terms of someone who looks
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: like normal America, who is in touch with normal America,
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: as opposed to those weirdos. I feel like you need
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: someone like that. Now, I will say this. Michelle is
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: one of the most naturally gifted media people. Obviously, people
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: know her very long tenure, and I've interviewed her multiple times.
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: She's very smooth. But I think the problem for her,
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: quite frankly, could be that, you know, she has an
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: issue with being a little too liberal on the cultural
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: issues that I think would become more of an issue,
• 21:00
  Speaker 5: you know, if she was the VP. You know, she's
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: a little soft on some of the abortion questions and
• 21:05
  Speaker 5: things like that.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: I want to follow up with you on the other
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: side about that because after Dobbs, Ben, think about this
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: in the 10 seconds when we come back. After Dobbs,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you have to be pro-life anymore
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: to be on the Republican ticket. Stay tuned. I'll be
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: right back with Ben Domenech. Welcome back. I am Hugh
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: Hewitt with Ben Domenech. He is the Daily Wire's opinion editor,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Fox News contributor. Ben and I veered off during the break,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: which will be available at the YouTube channel, into whether
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: or not Michelle Tafoya would make a good vice president
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: when she wins in Minnesota. And we're not assuming she wins.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: But we do know that they've gone to the ninth
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: inning now in Cleveland. I'll keep you posted on that. Ben,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: welcome back. I just made the point in the break.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: Maybe you don't need to be pro-life anymore in the
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Republican Party because of Dobbs. What do you think?
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: I'll disagree with you slightly there. I think that one
• 21:59
  Speaker 5: of the things that really matters to pro-lifers in this
• 22:02
  Speaker 5: moment is that so many of the decisions that are
• 22:06
  Speaker 5: being made are made at a bureaucratic level. But I
• 22:09
  Speaker 5: think it's a signal about how important this issue is
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: to you. A lot of people on the pro-life movement
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: are frustrated, as you might have seen. Josh Hawley has
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: been beating the drum on this when it comes to
• 22:21
  Speaker 5: the decision on Mifepristone that essentially is retaining the Biden-level policy.
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: As you know, and as I'm sure most of your
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: listeners know, that's the primary source for abortions today in
• 22:34
  Speaker 5: terms of you're able to get access to these pills
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: without even having to go to a doctor or be
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: seen or have any kind of check on that. which
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: obviously creates more health problems for the people who are,
• 22:46
  Speaker 5: you know, for the women who are receiving this because,
• 22:49
  Speaker 5: you know, you don't have a check of how far
• 22:50
  Speaker 5: along you are. So even if you're a pro-choicer, if
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: you cared about women's health, you should be in favor
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: of that. So I think that it actually still matters,
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: but I will give you this. I think that you
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: can have a position that basically says, I'm not going
• 23:04
  Speaker 5: to screw with the current status of things, and I'm
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: going to listen to the pro-life movement. It is less
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: important to have the kind of record that people have
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: pointed to in the past, because that was what really
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: was the test for so much of our careers in politics.
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: And now I think it matters a lot less, given
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: the Trump experience and everything that.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Came from that. Yeah, we'll have to talk about that
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: at length sometime because it's worth more conversation, but I
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: want to cover a couple of more races. I'm not
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: counting on North Carolina or Georgia. I'm hoping that either
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Michigan or Minnesota flips. New Hampshire, jump ball, maybe. Susan
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Collins has owned Troy Jackson in the first three debates.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: There's one more tonight. I am in Maine covering this race.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Everything you can tell, she's going to win, but nevertheless,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: surprises happen. What do you think about Collins and Troy Jackson,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Ben Dominich?
• 23:54
  Speaker 5: I think that she is absolutely going to win. I
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: don't have any– I mean, I don't have any qualms
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: about that, saying that. I just think that she's performed–
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: she's had no gas in terms of her– you know,
• 24:09
  Speaker 5: the way that she's approached these debates. And on the
• 24:11
  Speaker 5: flip side, I think that Troy Jackson, I mean, doesn't
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: know the difference between Medicare and Medicaid. But one of
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: the things that I think is important to understand is
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: this is a weird election. It's going to be a
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: weird outcome. And you could see a lot of situations
• 24:24
  Speaker 5: here that don't play according to expectations, especially, I would say,
• 24:27
  Speaker 5: in the House races where you've got so many of
• 24:30
  Speaker 5: these new districts where people might be running with the
• 24:33
  Speaker 5: same number, but they're trying to reach different voters. And
• 24:36
  Speaker 5: Republicans generally feel like they had counted on, especially in
• 24:40
  Speaker 5: the South and in Texas, you know, a loyalty from
• 24:45
  Speaker 5: the Hispanic base in terms of the voting electorate that
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: they saw in 2024 translate to 2026. And they are
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: absolutely not seeing that. And that's something that has them
• 24:54
  Speaker 5: very concerned. From my perspective, Hugh, a lot of this
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: election comes down to the rural vote. Do those rural
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: voters come out for a non-Trump candidate, do they listen
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: to the president and do they support the people who
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: are going to make sure that he has a functional
• 25:09
  Speaker 5: final two years in terms of his ability to continue
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: the work that he's doing? Or do they stay home
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: because they are dissatisfied with the situation? They don't like
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: the fact that the war in Iran is continuing. They
• 25:22
  Speaker 5: don't like the fact that diesel costs what it does.
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: And they look around and basically say, why should I
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: vote for ex-senator guy, who I never really cared about anyway,
• 25:30
  Speaker 5: but I pulled the handle for because Trump told me to.
• 25:34
  Speaker 5: And I think that that's a much better situation.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Okay, come back on that, though. I've been involved actively
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: in presidential politics since 1976, my first campaign. I have
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: never seen a president work this hard in a midterm.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Do you recall in your lifetime or from history when
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: another one barnstormed like this?
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: No, no, absolutely not. And I think that, you know,
• 25:54
  Speaker 5: now I will say that I think in this situation,
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: The president is doing it because he understands how important
• 26:02
  Speaker 5: this is. This is a big thing that I think
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: people get wrong about him. I think that he actually
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: has a much clearer view of the direction of the
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: country and the priorities of the people than a lot
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: of the people who, you know, are sort of stand
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: up there and say, you know, how dare you break
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: with the president on this, that or the other thing.
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: I think sometimes he wants people to break with him.
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: including people like Susan Collins, including people like Dan Sullivan,
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: because he understands, hey, they have to do that in
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: order to get across the finish line. He understands it.
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: And that's the thing that I think.
• 26:32
  Speaker 9: Is really.
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: An unanticipated and, to your point, it's an ahistorical level
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: of involvement from the president of the United States. We'll
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: see whether it has the impact that he wants.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Ben Dominich, brother of Emily Dominich. also the opinion editor
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: at the Daily Wire and the Fox News contributor. Good
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: to talk to you, Ben. The ballgame is, we got
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: two out in the bottom of the ninth. Maybe when
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: I come back, the Guardians have won their second. Stay tuned.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Good morning, glory and grace, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt, joined
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: by Jim Garrity. Jim, the indispensable Garrity, Washington Post columnist,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: National Review senior editor. He puts out every morning, The
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Morning Jolt, which you can subscribe to over at National Review.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: He's also a frequent guest on the editor's podcast with
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Rich Lowry and gang from national review. And he has
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: his own podcast, the three martini lunch. Jim Garrity is
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: a blue wave, a blue ripple, or you're not saying
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: because you don't believe the numbers.
• 27:30
  Speaker 7: It's, it's wavish.
• 27:32
  Speaker 9: It's bad.
• 27:32
  Speaker 7: I just want to begin. Hey, Hugh, how was your weekend?
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: It's good right now. The guardians are down, but they're one,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: one in the series. And I don't know about any
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: football games because the guardians are in playoff baseball. How
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: is the, How's the weekend for the Yankees?
• 27:48
  Speaker 7: Got washed out in MetLife Stadium. I would gloat, but
• 27:54
  Speaker 7: I'm just going to point out that I actually did
• 27:57
  Speaker 7: not watch the game. I was with a family gathering.
• 27:59
  Speaker 7: And so now that the Jets have won when I
• 28:02
  Speaker 7: wasn't watching, now I've generally talked with my kids, like,
• 28:05
  Speaker 7: do we not watch the games for the rest of
• 28:07
  Speaker 7: the year? Were we the jinx all this time?
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: You have to consider the stakes involved. Fan behavior does
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: influence outcome. By the way, If you had watched it,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: it's the sloppiest game I've seen in a long time.
• 28:17
  Speaker 7: I'm not even upset because it was a mess.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: It was a mess. But I think we've lost to
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: the Jets three times in a row. But you've been
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: my weekly guest. It's just hard.
• 28:26
  Speaker 7: I'm glad you brought that up so I didn't have to, Hugh.
• 28:30
  Speaker 7: But you talk about the messiness of the game. I
• 28:32
  Speaker 7: think the midterms are going to be a mess for Republicans.
• 28:37
  Speaker 7: You know, I think like where you're talking about the
• 28:39
  Speaker 7: real huge blue wave scenarios, rickets in Nebraska– The Florida races.
• 28:45
  Speaker 7: I think a bunch of these states, there are just
• 28:48
  Speaker 7: too many Republicans in them. And the independents would have
• 28:51
  Speaker 7: to vote for the Democrat at just a really unprecedented margin.
• 28:55
  Speaker 7: So that won't be bad. I don't feel good about
• 28:58
  Speaker 7: Ken Paxton. I hate to tell you this. I don't
• 29:01
  Speaker 7: feel good about Michigan. I think Collins, I assume she's
• 29:05
  Speaker 7: going to win because she always pulls it out in
• 29:06
  Speaker 7: the end. But look, president's job approval rating is low.
• 29:11
  Speaker 7: Gas prices are high. Latest inflation numbers were no further
• 29:15
  Speaker 7: good news. You know, the country's PO'd and they're going
• 29:18
  Speaker 7: to blame the Republicans and they're going to take it
• 29:20
  Speaker 7: out on them.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: We will. We've seen waves before. We've also seen predicted
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: waves not materialize. I'll be watching Maine early on election
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: night and I'll be talking. Susan Collins has her fourth
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: and final debate with Troy Jackson tonight. She has crushed
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: him in the first three. He just doesn't know much
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: about the federal government, which is not surprising for a
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: guy from the county in Maine. who doesn't get out
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: much and is the definition of schlub. And she knows everything.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: It's like a Cuisinart of facts. And he gets mixed
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: up and she cuts him up. Let me ask you, though,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: about something completely unrelated, which might impact the election.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: Ukraine.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: You and I are big supporters of aid to Ukraine.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: You and I think the bad guy is Putin. You
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: and I don't like the president pushing Putin to settle.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: Do you think Ukraine has any impact on the electoral cycle?
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: Because the president is pushing Zelensky hard right now.
• 30:12
  Speaker 7: I wish it did, but I don't have those illusions, Hugh.
• 30:16
  Speaker 7: I think that most foreign policy does not affect most voters.
• 30:22
  Speaker 7: The war in Iran's effect on gas prices would be
• 30:25
  Speaker 7: the exception to that. Clearly, there's a chunk of the
• 30:27
  Speaker 7: Democratic base that believes that Gaza is the single most
• 30:30
  Speaker 7: important issue in all sorts of things. But the sort
• 30:33
  Speaker 7: of things that you talk about in your program, China, Russia,
• 30:36
  Speaker 7: even North Korea, unless something is blowing up literally right
• 30:41
  Speaker 7: before the election, you know, I'm thinking about like, I
• 30:43
  Speaker 7: think the USS Cole had an issue, you know, had
• 30:46
  Speaker 7: an effect on the 2000 election. I think the, actually, ironically,
• 30:51
  Speaker 7: the summer and fall of 2016, there were a bunch
• 30:54
  Speaker 7: of things like that ended up I think hurting Hillary
• 30:57
  Speaker 7: Clinton and things like that.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: ISIS was one of them. I'm sorry, what? ISIS was
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: one of them.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 31:04
  Speaker 7: And so, you know, my sense is if, God forbid,
• 31:09
  Speaker 7: there's a terrorist attack or something like that. But we've
• 31:11
  Speaker 7: had a bunch of near misses. We've had the pilot
• 31:15
  Speaker 7: on the fly Dubai plane. We've had them pulling the
• 31:18
  Speaker 7: jets out of the base over in the U.K., We
• 31:23
  Speaker 7: had the guys, you know, the guy who was going
• 31:24
  Speaker 7: to blow up the or attack the Mall of America.
• 31:27
  Speaker 7: You know, this is the threat is out there. I
• 31:31
  Speaker 7: just kind of feel like most people, you know, the
• 31:34
  Speaker 7: two reminders they get once a week or so are
• 31:36
  Speaker 7: buying groceries and filling up the gas tank. And they
• 31:39
  Speaker 7: look at that. They're mad at the president. They're mad
• 31:41
  Speaker 7: at Republicans. Like all of you, if no one else
• 31:45
  Speaker 7: in your program has said this, let us remind people.
• 31:47
  Speaker 7: Abdullah Syed would not just be America's first Muslim president.
• 31:51
  Speaker 7: he would be America's first Muslim Brotherhood president. And, you know,
• 31:55
  Speaker 7: like there are real flaws in him and Tallarico and
• 31:58
  Speaker 7: Troy Jackson and all these guys. But what all these
• 32:00
  Speaker 7: guys can say is we haven't been running the country.
• 32:03
  Speaker 7: Democrats have not had a House majority. They don't have
• 32:05
  Speaker 7: the Senate. And so I think they're probably in deeper,
• 32:10
  Speaker 7: I think it's just gonna be a broad anti-incumbent mood.
• 32:14
  Speaker 7: And you look at where Republicans are pulling out their
• 32:17
  Speaker 7: spending from certain House races and The fact that they've
• 32:20
  Speaker 7: had to spend $ 230 million in Texas to help out Paxton,
• 32:24
  Speaker 7: spending $ 15 million to help out Ricketts in Nebraska. I mean,
• 32:27
  Speaker 7: that just kind of tells you what kind of year
• 32:29
  Speaker 7: it's going to be.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: Let me pause on El-Sayed for a moment. The president
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: gave remarks today saying he's a Muslim Brotherhood guy, 100%.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: He has denied that. He's denied that his family has
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: anything to do with it. I don't know because the
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Brotherhood doesn't go around wearing stickers saying, I am a
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: Muslim Brotherhood supporter. What makes you think he's a Muslim
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: Brotherhood guy?
• 32:52
  Speaker 7: Well, I suppose it's theoretically possible that he is not
• 32:55
  Speaker 7: a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and would never associate
• 32:58
  Speaker 7: with any of them and wouldn't touch him with a
• 33:00
  Speaker 7: 10-foot pole. And it's just coincidental that his mom was
• 33:03
  Speaker 7: in it and his brother was in it and his
• 33:05
  Speaker 7: father and all these other folks. Maybe the entire family
• 33:09
  Speaker 7: is rah-rah Muslim Brotherhood, but Abdul Al-Sayed was the black
• 33:13
  Speaker 7: sheep of the family and didn't want to get involved
• 33:15
  Speaker 7: in any of that stuff. But color me skeptical... that
• 33:18
  Speaker 7: he was the lone anti-Muslim Brotherhood voice in a family
• 33:22
  Speaker 7: full of Muslim Brotherhood fans.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: This afternoon, a video clip surfaced of Abdul El-Sayed preaching
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: as a student in Michigan in Mufti and doing it
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: with some energy because he's a believer in the Koran.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: Do you think that matters anymore, that you can find
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: a kid preaching out of the Koran in college 15
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: years ago?
• 33:49
  Speaker 7: Probably not. Like, first of all, let's keep in mind
• 33:52
  Speaker 7: the demographics of Michigan. If there's any state where it's
• 33:55
  Speaker 7: not going to be a problem, it's probably Michigan. Maybe
• 33:59
  Speaker 7: New York and a couple other ones. Maybe New Jersey. Patterson,
• 34:02
  Speaker 7: New Jersey would not be such a problem. But by
• 34:05
  Speaker 7: and large, you know, I think stuff from 15 years ago,
• 34:10
  Speaker 7: people are probably going to dismiss. You'd figure, you know,
• 34:13
  Speaker 7: Abdul Al-Assad is the first guy who wants Medicare for all,
• 34:16
  Speaker 7: but don't worry. If you like your plan, you get
• 34:18
  Speaker 7: to keep your plan. Where have we heard that before, Hugh?
• 34:21
  Speaker 7: From people that I'm sure a lot of people would say,
• 34:23
  Speaker 7: wait a second. I thought Obama was America's first Muslim senator.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: He was not.
• 34:27
  Speaker 7: He was a very non-believing Christian.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: Did you see the Tony Lama interview from NBC? Is
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: that how I say his name, the anchor?
• 34:38
  Speaker 7: I'm not going to correct you. I'm not an expert
• 34:41
  Speaker 7: on NBC anchor name pronunciations.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: He runs NBC Nightly News.
• 34:44
  Speaker 7: Professor Hewitt has eluded my area of expertise.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: He caught up with Abdul El-Sayed and made him angry,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: but he gets angry all the time. I think he's
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: the worst visible. I mean, he's just always angry.
• 35:00
  Speaker 7: OK, look, we've seen Trump, you know, get irritated and
• 35:04
  Speaker 7: snap at reporters and stuff. I think like they've convinced
• 35:08
  Speaker 7: that this is authentic.
• 35:09
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 35:10
  Speaker 7: I'm not going to be, you know, even keeled and
• 35:12
  Speaker 7: straightforward and, you know, deal with a hostile question. I'm
• 35:15
  Speaker 7: going to show them a regular. Remember the argument for
• 35:19
  Speaker 7: Graham Plattner? Boy, guy was on the cover of Time magazine.
• 35:21
  Speaker 7: He was supposed to be the biggest guy in the
• 35:23
  Speaker 7: entire election cycle. Then he's like he's like he's been
• 35:25
  Speaker 7: abducted by aliens.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 35:26
  Speaker 7: He's not replaced by Troy Jackson. But remember, like he
• 35:30
  Speaker 7: kept saying, oh, that's he's authentic because of the Nazi tattoo.
• 35:33
  Speaker 7: He's authentic because his ex-girlfriends claim he is. There was
• 35:36
  Speaker 7: this whole idea of like the more flaws you have,
• 35:40
  Speaker 7: the more bad behavior you exhibit, the more you're a
• 35:43
  Speaker 7: real person. And I think there was the Democratic strategist
• 35:47
  Speaker 7: who had recruited Plattner said that, oh, all these other
• 35:49
  Speaker 7: candidates who are so perfect, they're pod people.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: Do we need.
• 35:56
  Speaker 7: Our candidates to seem like they came straight from a
• 35:58
  Speaker 7: biker bar? Do we need our candidates to come across
• 36:01
  Speaker 7: as like Andrew Dice Clay? Would it be nice to
• 36:05
  Speaker 7: have a candidate like, oh, that's a pretty good person?
• 36:06
  Speaker 7: Or even if I disagree with him, I think you're
• 36:08
  Speaker 7: a good person. But I think the idea for Abdul Al-Sayed,
• 36:12
  Speaker 7: who knows? Hasan Piker loves to run around and do, say,
• 36:16
  Speaker 7: obnoxious things and incendiary things and things like that. And
• 36:19
  Speaker 7: it's turned Hasan Piker into this very big star. in
• 36:22
  Speaker 7: progressive circles. So I think, you know, Abdullah Syed's entire
• 36:26
  Speaker 7: sense of what is controversial and what is acceptable and
• 36:30
  Speaker 7: what is appealing, it's just, you know, light years away
• 36:33
  Speaker 7: from what you and I would perceive.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: We got a minute left. The most normal presenting person
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: who's not already in office is Michelle Tafoya, probably because
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: she's had practice as an NFL reporter, sideline reporter. I'm
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: so impressed with her. 30 seconds to you, Jim, are you?
• 36:48
  Speaker 7: Oh, yeah, I was going to say, You mentioned the
• 36:50
  Speaker 7: three martini lunch that I do with Greg Karambas. We've
• 36:53
  Speaker 7: been doing it for like 15 years. We've had eight
• 36:55
  Speaker 7: guests in our history because we're very selective and lazy
• 36:59
  Speaker 7: about booking them. But one of the eight was Michelle Tafoya.
• 37:02
  Speaker 7: And she's terrific. And we absolutely were like, you know,
• 37:05
  Speaker 7: like you could see the appeal there. And look, one
• 37:08
  Speaker 7: or two things are going to happen. Either Michelle Tafoya
• 37:10
  Speaker 7: is going to shock everybody. She's going to win. And
• 37:13
  Speaker 7: a Republican winning a Senate race in Minnesota is going
• 37:15
  Speaker 7: to completely scramble everybody's projections. Or I think the more
• 37:18
  Speaker 7: likely scenario is she's going to do much better than
• 37:21
  Speaker 7: the rest of the ticket. And we're going to say
• 37:23
  Speaker 7: in a better year, she could have won this race.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: And watch out. Watch that space. That's the next thing
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: that falls when that happens. But I have got hope
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: because Peggy Flanagan is just odd. Jim Garrity, follow him
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: on exit. Jim Garrity, read him in the Washington Post,
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: the National Review, and listen to him on the Three
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: Martini Lunch podcast and the editors. I'll be right back, America.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Stay tuned. Welcome back, America. Hugh Hewitt here, joined by
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: Josh Kroschauer, editor-in-chief of Jewish Insider. Josh, am I recollecting
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: correctly you've got family in the Ohio area?
• 37:55
  Speaker 6: I do, and many of them were watching your Cleveland
• 37:58
  Speaker 6: Guardians pull off another upset today of the Tampa Bay Rays,
• 38:02
  Speaker 6: so this is exciting times.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: What do you mean? Petey Halpin always gets a home
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: run when he's the leadoff hitter. It's wonderful. However, I
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: was in the stadium yesterday, In 2007, when they won
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: the third game against the Red Sox and the ALCS,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: went up 3-1, they did not go to the World Series.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: So I count no chickens. Speaking of not counting chickens,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Republicans feel pretty good about Michigan because Al Saeed is
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: a terrible candidate. Mike Rogers is a good one. But
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: I don't think they should feel that good. What do
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: you think?
• 38:34
  Speaker 6: It's going to be a close race. But I do
• 38:36
  Speaker 6: think when we– and I'm eager to see some of
• 38:38
  Speaker 6: the latest polls that will come out post-debate in Michigan because–
• 38:44
  Speaker 6: Anyone who paid attention to the debate and what drove
• 38:46
  Speaker 6: the narrative in the week after the debate is the
• 38:49
  Speaker 6: Rogers attacks on the affiliations that Al-Sayed has or family
• 38:53
  Speaker 6: members of Al-Sayed have with Islamic extremist groups. And I
• 38:57
  Speaker 6: was stunned to watch Al-Sayed essentially avoid the question, not
• 39:02
  Speaker 6: answer the question. Then he did an interview with Kristen
• 39:04
  Speaker 6: Welker on Meet the Press a few days later, avoided
• 39:07
  Speaker 6: the question egregiously, and then was confronted about it in
• 39:11
  Speaker 6: an interview with NBC News last night.
• 39:13
  Speaker 9: And has just.
• 39:14
  Speaker 6: Stumbled over what could be a much more prepared answer.
• 39:18
  Speaker 6: He clearly doesn't want to discuss some of his family members' backgrounds,
• 39:22
  Speaker 6: his views about, you know, the other thing in that
• 39:26
  Speaker 6: debate that was stunning, but people who may have been
• 39:29
  Speaker 6: paying attention for the first time is that he couldn't
• 39:31
  Speaker 6: tell you whether the difference between Iran and Israel he
• 39:35
  Speaker 6: basically said they were both enemies of the United States
• 39:37
  Speaker 6: and reiterated that in subsequent interviews I think when you
• 39:40
  Speaker 6: see the actual what this guy actually believes and you're
• 39:44
  Speaker 6: paying attention to the comments in the home stretch of
• 39:46
  Speaker 6: this race it may have moved the needle a little
• 39:48
  Speaker 6: bit among the undecided voters there.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: Now, Mohamed Morsi was elected president of Egypt in 2012,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: and he served for about a year, maybe a year
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: and three days before a coup took him out. He
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: was a Muslim Brotherhood guy. And Morsi, when he was
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: just taking over, there was a letter, a public letter,
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: that El-Sayed signed urging him to, quote, purge the press
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: in Egypt, purge the army in In other words, do
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: the MB, the Muslim Brotherhood kind of thing. No one
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: has asked him about that, Josh Kroshauer. How can you
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: not ask him about signing a public letter on behalf
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: of Morsi?
• 40:27
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, the Free Beacon reported that, and it's
• 40:29
  Speaker 6: another strong, you know, data point about his worldview, his ideology.
• 40:34
  Speaker 6: You kind of wonder, like, why did he say hurt
• 40:38
  Speaker 6: people hurt people in responding to a terrorist attack in
• 40:40
  Speaker 6: his home state, right? Why is he not able to
• 40:43
  Speaker 6: condemn Iran? When he's asked constantly about, you know, that
• 40:47
  Speaker 6: famously leaked audio where he said he couldn't speak out
• 40:50
  Speaker 6: against the death of the Ayatollah Khomeini because he'd get
• 40:52
  Speaker 6: backlash in parts of his base. You know, there are
• 40:55
  Speaker 6: just these dots that, you know, that's one more dot, Hugh.
• 40:59
  Speaker 6: And then you also have the related comments on social
• 41:02
  Speaker 6: media by his half-sister, who during that same time was
• 41:07
  Speaker 6: tweeting about, you know, her support for the Muslim Brotherhood,
• 41:12
  Speaker 6: for the M.B.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: So there's a lot of smoke.
• 41:15
  Speaker 6: And look, I'll say it could have a response. You
• 41:17
  Speaker 6: could say he's basically denied any of this is true,
• 41:20
  Speaker 6: and then there's been subsequent evidence, documentary evidence, that he
• 41:23
  Speaker 6: hasn't been fully transparent and truthful about the connections.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: Anyone who knows anything about the Muslim Brotherhood, if they've
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: read The Looming Terror by Lawrence Wright or Bernard Lewis,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: The Crisis of Islam, or more recently, a new book
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: by Michael Youssef, the Qiyah is the encouragement to lie
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: in advancement of brotherhood goals. They're a radical, revolutionary, fundamentalist,
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: Islamist organization. It ought to be easy to say, not
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: only is Iran our enemy, but the Muslim Brotherhood is
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: bad news, and that's why they're illegal and so many kings.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: He can't do it. That is itself evidence to me, Josh.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: Does it persuade you?
• 42:01
  Speaker 6: Yeah, well, look, I think sometimes these conversations can get
• 42:04
  Speaker 6: lost to the average voter, even though I think it's
• 42:06
  Speaker 6: deadly serious about how you're going to deal with terrorism,
• 42:09
  Speaker 6: how you're But in Michigan, it's a very personal issue
• 42:13
  Speaker 6: even for voters who are not as attuned to the
• 42:16
  Speaker 6: history of these terrorist groups. You had a terrorist attack
• 42:20
  Speaker 6: at one of the biggest synagogues in the country, in
• 42:23
  Speaker 6: Temple Israel. You had a terrorist attack that pledged allegiance
• 42:26
  Speaker 6: to family members affiliated with Hezbollah. And you had the
• 42:30
  Speaker 6: candidate initially say, hurt people, hurt people. There's an ad,
• 42:35
  Speaker 6: and it was actually featured in the NBC News clip,
• 42:37
  Speaker 6: the segment last night, where Jewish Democrats, at least one
• 42:41
  Speaker 6: prominent one, said, hurt people, help people, that that's the
• 42:44
  Speaker 6: right response. And there's a lot of people watching ads
• 42:48
  Speaker 6: like that, watching reaction from a lot of just shocked
• 42:52
  Speaker 6: Democrats about this guy's record. And, you know, the big
• 42:55
  Speaker 6: question is, does that move the needle among voters that
• 42:57
  Speaker 6: normally would vote Democrat, normally would lean Democrat in this
• 43:00
  Speaker 6: type of political environment, but think El-Sayed is just too
• 43:03
  Speaker 6: radical to be elected to the Senate?
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: Dwayne lifted a clip from Jewish Insider yesterday, cut number 28.
• 43:10
  Speaker 6: Hurt people should help people, make the world a better place.
• 43:14
  Speaker 6: There is no justification for a terrorist attack.
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: We showed a photo of her signed to Al-Sayed and
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: asked how he would respond.
• 43:21
  Speaker 4: Well, look, I wish it was true that hurt people
• 43:23
  Speaker 4: always help people. I'd love to live in that world.
• 43:25
  Speaker 4: I want us to understand pain for what it is
• 43:28
  Speaker 4: and end the cycle of violence that we see anywhere
• 43:30
  Speaker 4: against anyone. People really fixated on those four words, and
• 43:33
  Speaker 4: I realized that it was not the right thing to
• 43:35
  Speaker 4: have said at the time, and so I apologize for.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: What I said. Josh, he's deflecting again. I think this
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: entire look, even if you don't care about Israel, the
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: Middle East, the Muslim Brotherhood, anything like that, The entire look,
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: it's so obvious that he's deceptive, isn't it?
• 43:51
  Speaker 6: Well, Hugh, I just want to offer some context. The
• 43:53
  Speaker 6: woman talking in that interview, her kid went to preschool
• 43:57
  Speaker 6: at Temple Israel. He was in the building when the
• 44:00
  Speaker 6: terrorist attack took place. So she, and she's a Democrat.
• 44:03
  Speaker 6: She's a life, she said in the interview, never voted
• 44:05
  Speaker 6: for a Republican in her life. She's voting for Mike
• 44:07
  Speaker 6: Rogers in this election. So this is not, and for
• 44:10
  Speaker 6: El-Sayed to sound so, no empathy, right? I mean, this
• 44:13
  Speaker 6: is someone whose son could have been killed in this attack,
• 44:16
  Speaker 6: and he's like, well, you know, the thing, you know,
• 44:18
  Speaker 6: hurt people, you know, I'm not going to debate that.
• 44:21
  Speaker 6: And by the way, you know, and he pivots to
• 44:23
  Speaker 6: kind of the issues of foreign policy. This is not
• 44:26
  Speaker 6: a foreign policy issue. It's showing just a basic level
• 44:29
  Speaker 6: of compassion to your own voters, to your own citizens,
• 44:31
  Speaker 6: to your own people you'd be representing. That is just,
• 44:35
  Speaker 6: there's a coldness there in that reaction that I think
• 44:37
  Speaker 6: a lot of average voters who don't pay attention to
• 44:39
  Speaker 6: foreign policy will see and have second thoughts about who
• 44:43
  Speaker 6: they vote for in Michigan.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: I think you're right, Josh Kroschauer. We'll keep talking about
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: that race in the weeks ahead. Thank you for joining me.
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: Follow Josh on X at Josh Kroschauer. You can get
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: a number of free articles if you go over to
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: Jewish Insider and join their mailing list, and you will
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: find it's excellent coverage of everything. Thank you, Josh. I'll
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: be right back, America. Don't go anywhere. All right, you're
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  Speaker 9: Hi, it's Hugh.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the podcast. If you buy your
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: own health insurance, November 1st is an important date. But
• 46:05
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• 47:09
  Speaker 1: or visit usmedicalplan.com. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt, joined
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: by Vic Mattis. Vic is the culture and arts editor
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: at the Washington Free Beacon. You follow at Free Beacon.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: You follow Vic on X at Victorina Mattis. He is
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: the co-host of the Getting Hammered podcast, which I listened
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: to this morning. And I, for one, am in favor
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: of Vic becoming the new ambassador to Greece. You persuaded me, Vic.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: Can we walk over your credentials for the audience here?
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: Because I thought you were, I think you made a
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: very good argument, especially as you closed on the cuisine. Yes,
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: that's right.
• 47:45
  Speaker 3: And I have to point out, Hugh, a listener to
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: the show told me how to pronounce gyro.
• 47:51
  Speaker 9: It's hero.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: And that I mispronounced moussaka.
• 47:54
  Speaker 7: It's, in fact, moussaka.
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: And that is that sort of, it's a Greek version
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: of a lasagna with eggplant I'm not really an eggplant.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: Person, but it works in the moussaka.
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: So, I mean, really, this goes back to, as you know,
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: there's going to be a vacancy quite soon for the
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: ambassadorship to Greece. And I wanted to throw my hat
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: in the ring. As you know, I'm a Georgetown University
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: School of Foreign Service graduate with a certificate in European
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: Studies and a very impressive.
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: If I may say so myself, 3.29 GPA. Well, I
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: thought that's a little bit lower than my GPA, but
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: I didn't take German. And you did point out, however,
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: your unusual interest in German. You took German. And Germany
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: did invade Greece. And that might be a problem at
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: the confirmation hearing. Yeah, that's true.
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: I mean, it requires a little nuance once I get
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: through that hearing. I got to prep for it, obviously.
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: I just can't go walk right into it. And I
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: will brush up on some of my Greek knowledge.
• 48:58
  Speaker 7: I did read the Iliad.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: There you go. What I really wanted to ask you
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: about is I've heard about the Georgetown Foreign Service School forever,
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: because you can't turn around in D.C. without bumping into
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: a State Department person with the Georgetown Foreign Service. And
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: my son's commencement speaker at Miami of Ohio when he
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: graduated years ago was the former special envoy of Hillary
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: Clinton State Department to Haiti. And he had gone into
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: the Foreign Service and he'd spent his whole life learning French, French, French, French, French,
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: imagining himself in Paris. And he had four tours in Haiti,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: but he was there for the earthquake. So the message
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: was everything works out. Why did you want to be
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: in the Foreign Service? And what does that program do
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: that other programs don't do?
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, what they technically are supposed to do
• 49:46
  Speaker 3: at the Foreign Service School is they prep you. You
• 49:48
  Speaker 3: take all these international affairs classes. My major was international relations,
• 49:55
  Speaker 3: culminating in the Foreign Service exam. But there was no
• 49:57
  Speaker 3: test prep for that. And I was feeling very confident
• 50:00
  Speaker 3: going into that exam. And I did not pass the exam, Hugh.
• 50:03
  Speaker 3: That's why I became a journalist. but I have to
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: say that I loved the idea of it at the
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: time when I was a high schooler. You know, this
• 50:13
  Speaker 3: is towards the end of the 1980s, and it was the.
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: Fall of the Berlin Wall, the Velvet Revolution.
• 50:17
  Speaker 3: It was an exciting time to get involved and to
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: live a life at an embassy as an FSO, a
• 50:23
  Speaker 3: Foreign Service officer.
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: It count me in.
• 50:27
  Speaker 3: Unfortunately, I didn't get that far, but neither did my wife,
• 50:31
  Speaker 3: so really it all worked out for the best.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: How do we know that you're not really working for
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: the agency? Well, you know, this is very funny. You
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: should ask that. I actually applied for an internship. Deflection.
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: And then nothing came of it. And we understood. That's
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: what you want us to think.
• 51:10
  Speaker 7: And no, no, that's right.
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: And no.
• 51:12
  Speaker 3: And I knew two other guys in my hall who
• 51:14
  Speaker 3: applied and they all claimed they didn't get it either.
• 51:17
  Speaker 7: And I always wondered to this day, Hugh, maybe they were.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: Just lying to me. My now deceased brother in law
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: had me believing he was at the State Department. until
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: he was PNG'd out of Zambia as the head of
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: station for the agency. I mean, I totally bought the
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: whole shtick. I'd call over the State Department, and I
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: was young and unaware of the ways of Washington, D.C.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: Totally sold me on that. Vic Mattis, what's your feeling
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: about the election? Is there going to be a blue wave,
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: tidal wave, a little ripple, monsoon? What do you think?
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: I think that the Democrats are going to take the House.
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: I don't think there's anything we can do about that.
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: I mean, you're also looking at a historical trend, as
• 51:55
  Speaker 3: we pointed out, as you pointed out many times also.
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: I mean, that hasn't happened since 2002 under very extenuating circumstances.
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: The Senate is a lot trickier because you're asking, you know,
• 52:04
  Speaker 3: sort of what four seats do the Democrats net? I
• 52:09
  Speaker 3: can see a couple of those seats flipping over, but
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: when you get to each one, I think Texas is
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: going to be close.
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: That can go to Tallarico.
• 52:16
  Speaker 3: I really can't imagine that Michiganders will vote for Abdul El-Sayed.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: We have more and more stuff coming out at the
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: Free Beacon. Let's pause there. Why not?
• 52:24
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, look, if they do.
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: Vote for him, then all is lost.
• 52:28
  Speaker 7: But it's very clear that.
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: He is not being honest when he says there's no
• 52:31
  Speaker 3: connection he has to the Muslim Brotherhood. His sister has.
• 52:37
  Speaker 7: Brought it up.
• 52:37
  Speaker 3: We found her tweets from the early 2010s, and he
• 52:42
  Speaker 3: refuses to address them. Of course, his mother, and his
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: mother worked for an organization that was funneling money to Al-Qaeda.
• 52:49
  Speaker 3: So to be comfortable with that and say, sure, you
• 52:51
  Speaker 3: know what, that makes me a little uncomfortable, but he's
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: not Trump, so I guess I'll vote for that guy.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: That's really bad news.
• 52:58
  Speaker 3: It's not just bad news for Michigan, but it's bad
• 53:00
  Speaker 3: news for the whole country. I do think it's going
• 53:02
  Speaker 3: to be very close. I'm not sure what's happening in Alaska.
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: I made this joke in Getting Hammered, which is Justin
• 53:09
  Speaker 3: Murphy running against Cory Booker should have changed his first
• 53:12
  Speaker 3: name to Phil.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: Then people would think they're voting for Phil Murphy. I mean,
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: maybe that would have worked. Well, let me ask you
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: about El-Sayed. I've been trying to find the best word.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: Sherry Brown is infirm like Joe Biden was infirm in Ohio.
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: But the best single word for El-Sayed, I can't call
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: him a liar because I don't know. And I came
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: up with his campaign has been deceptive from beginning to end.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: He doesn't answer questions and he gets angry. Is that
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: a fair description? Yeah.
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: And I also think it's part and parcel of him
• 53:42
  Speaker 3: being what we consider for younger generations an influencer.
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: It's influencer talk. he's very charismatic.
• 53:50
  Speaker 3: He's a smooth talker in a controlled environment. So if
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: he's calling the shots with a very friendly, sympathetic reporter,
• 53:59
  Speaker 3: and he hasn't been running into many of those lately,
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: or if he's on the campaign, he sounds great, and
• 54:05
  Speaker 3: he says all the right things. He just gives you
• 54:07
  Speaker 3: a little tease of what he wants with Medicare for All,
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: but he won't go into the details. And he'll talk
• 54:13
  Speaker 3: about genocide with Israel and Gaza, but Really, he'll talk
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: about how he wants to represent the people of Michigan.
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: You dig any deeper than that, and it's very thin stuff, Hugh.
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: I mean, he has his talking points, and he's really
• 54:28
  Speaker 3: hoping that this anti-incumbent wave, he'll be able to ride
• 54:32
  Speaker 3: it out and obviously not have to answer the serious questions,
• 54:36
  Speaker 3: including how he feels about Israel's right to exist, about Hamas,
• 54:41
  Speaker 3: about the Ayatollah not wanting to bring it up in Dearborn.
• 54:44
  Speaker 9: And, of course, his connection, his true connection with the
• 54:46
  Speaker 9: Muslim Brotherhood.
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the one I would like. I want to
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: give kudos to Tony Lana, I believe, the NBC News anchor,
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: who pressed him on it and stayed in his face
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: when he pushed back. Did you see that? We have
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: a minute, Vic.
• 55:01
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I absolutely did.
• 55:02
  Speaker 3: I mean, they came with the receipts and they were
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: citing reporting that was done by our Lana Goodman in
• 55:07
  Speaker 3: the Washington Free Beacon. And again, he's very quick to
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: try to change the subject. He says, you want me
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: to talk about something from the 1970s?
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: Are you serious? And Tony Alma says, yeah, okay, fine.
• 55:18
  Speaker 3: But I asked you a question and you had said,
• 55:21
  Speaker 3: he had said on another show, we have no connection.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: And now these things come up.
• 55:26
  Speaker 3: Sure, it's on Twitter or on X.
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: But it was said by his sister.
• 55:30
  Speaker 3: So is his sister not telling the truth?
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: That's the question. He won't answer that. And anytime anyone
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: asks as a lawyer, when someone says, are you calling
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: me a liar? That means they don't want you to
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: know that they're a liar. That's typically been my experience.
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: But we don't know that about Abdul El-Sayed, so I
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: won't say it. Victorino Mattis, follow him on X at
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: Victorino Mattis. Soon to be Ambassador Vic to you and me.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: And I hope we get to sail the Aegean together, Vic.
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: Stay tuned, America, and get your Getting Hammered podcast to
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: find out the full story behind the ambassadorship. I'll be
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: right back. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Pleased to
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: have Mike Rogers with me. Mike is going to be
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: the next senator from Michigan. Mike, welcome back. I'm just
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: here puzzled. You're a normal, moderate, middle-of-the-road Republican. You're like
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: Fred Upton, every other moderate, middle-of-the-road Republican I've ever met.
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: And that's what Michigan was when I lived there in
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: the 80s going to law school in Ann Arbor. El-Sayed
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: is the most radical major party candidate of my lifetime.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: How in the world is this close? Maybe it's not close.
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, certainly all the polling shows that were close. Again,
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of unease about the economy here. There's
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: a lot of unease about the Canadian tariffs here. And
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: so cost of living is a major, major issue. And
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: we are a working state. We are, you know, the
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: Democrats like to call us a rust belt.
• 56:55
  Speaker 9: We are actually the work belt here. of the country.
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: And so those folks are just wondering who's going to
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: take care of my prices. Now, Abdul had a free
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: pass for about two years. The media just never challenged
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: this guy. We think through the debate that changed and
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: we're starting to see some movement in ways that we're
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: pretty pleased with because they're holding him accountable on.
• 57:19
  Speaker 9: Medicare for all that it's free. Well, guess what? It
• 57:21
  Speaker 9: turns out it's not free.
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: It cost you $ 20, 000.
• 57:25
  Speaker 9: Each in your home. And by the way, you get Medicaid.
• 57:28
  Speaker 9: You don't get Medicare.
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: You get a really poor version of Medicare when you
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: dump everyone on it. And this Muslim Brotherhood, he can't
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: answer the question, or he won't, is probably the better
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: way to say that, Hugh. And when he looked at
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: the camera and lied, and then you see all of
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: the instances of which he's hanging out, working with, writing
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: op-eds in support of them, working for the student association
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: that's founded and is a feeder group for the Muslim Brotherhood.
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: It all starts to make sense. And so finally, the
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: mainstream media, the legacy media came out and actually did
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: a story where they said, you know, this doesn't sound right.
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: And boy, he didn't like it. But that is starting
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: to catch fire. People need to know who they're voting.
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: We can't afford his policies and we can't risk his ideology.
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: You know, Mike Rogers, I watched Christian interview him on
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: Meet the Press, and I saw Tony Lama's follow-up. Good
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: that Christian asked the question. Good that Tom followed up.
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: But you're an FBI agent, and you were, and you
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: were the chair of the House Intel Committee. Wouldn't it
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: be something you'd want to ask about, the open letter
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: that he signed urging Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood president
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: of Egypt, to purge the media and the military in Egypt.
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: That guy was a radical. He was out in a coup,
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: and al-Sayed was with him. Wouldn't it have been normal
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: to ask him that? Has anyone asked him about that letter?
• 58:49
  Speaker 9: No, no one has. And by the way, they had it.
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: We made sure everybody had it. We're not hiding any
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: of this. We're saying somebody should look at this. Yes, absolutely.
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: And not just that, his family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: And the fact that that student association he was big
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: with at University of Michigan. is a feeder group by
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: the Muslim Brotherhood. So the letter, I'm in.
• 59:16
  Speaker 9: And by the way, that was 2012. So he was
• 59:18
  Speaker 9: an adult when he wrote that.
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: You know, he was trying to say he's just a
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: kid in the 70s or whatever, or not even born
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: in the 70s. And so all of this is nonsense.
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: But when you start poking at it, this is why
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: he can't answer the question. It's not just his sister.
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: He has a sister-in-law that was put on by the
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: Obama administration, put.
• 59:36
  Speaker 9: On the terrorist watch list.
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 59:38
  Speaker 9: In the FBI, Hugh, we call that a clue. He's
• 59:43
  Speaker 9: got all of this problems. And now he's just trying
• 59:46
  Speaker 9: to say he just doesn't know.
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: They never talked about it, all of that.
• 59:49
  Speaker 9: It's just nonsense.
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: Well, let me compliment you. We run your ads when
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: they come out. I love the ads in which you're
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: down with the black community in Detroit talking to them
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: about you will be their senator. He won't be. He's
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: more concerned with the West Bank than West Detroit. It's
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: brilliant set of ads. How difficult was it to get
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: folks who are traditionally Democrat voters come over and shoot
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: video for Mike Rogers?
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 9: You know, we had to work at it. And, you know,
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 9: those communities are pretty distrustful.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: The Democrats have walked away from them, I argue, 50
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: years ago. That's why, you know, in eighth grade, only
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: 15 percent of eighth graders in the schools in Detroit
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: can read at the eighth grade level. I mean, people
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: have abandoned them and you're going to prison or you're
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: going to be on welfare with those stats. So I
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: go down and have really honest and sometimes hard conversations
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 2: about what we need to do to fix their education system,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 2: get kids exposed to the skilled trades. Talk about their
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: housing issues and what I think we can actually do
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: with a free market approach, by the way, to get
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: housing built in the city.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 9: They have a food desert there. They don't have grocery stores.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 2: I think I have a plan to help get not
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: by the government but private sector invested and then try
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: to train folks in the local community to work there
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: and be a part of that success of those local
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: food stores. And slowly but surely, we started talking and
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 2: having success and talking.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 9: And by the way, they're they're pretty conservative.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: There's just this notion that, you know, that, you know,
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: black Detroiters are really, really liberal. I just don't buy it.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: And so one of the things that people said, why
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: are you wasting your time in Detroit? Why are you
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: doing it? We don't need 50 percent of the vote
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: in Detroit. You know, we need 15 percent of the
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: vote in Detroit. Marry that with Jewish Democrats that have
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: come on board. And that's a pretty high margin for
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: Abdul to try to make up. Remember, those are his
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: coalitions and we're in his coalitions and we're making progress.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 2: And then we just got to the point after discussions
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: and meetings, they said, you know what? I'm ready to
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: do this. I am ready for a change. And that's
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 2: really what we pitched.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 9: Do a change. What can it hurt? You've been doing
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 9: the same thing for 50 years. Hasn't worked. Let's try
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 9: something new.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: Let me close. I grew up in a jam town,
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: United Auto Workers town, went to school with UAW kids.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: Have you got the auto workers with you? Because the
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: Green New Deal will kill them. And he's a Green
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: New Dealer.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 2: Do you know, Hugh, I learned something this year. Maybe
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: you knew this already. Abdul got the UAW endorsement. And
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: I asked, we have a UAW for Rogers group. And
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 2: after that endorsement, the thing started getting bigger and bigger
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: because they realized they're going to lose their health care
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: that they've collectively bargained for.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 9: Oh, you bet.
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. And so once they find that out, they're
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 2: madder than a hornet. I said, how does this happen?
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: How does the guy that hates cars, wants the Green
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: New Deal, wants to mandate EVs, how does this happen?
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 2: And they said about 30% of the delegates are not
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: car building UAW workers. They're graduate student assistants at universities.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: They went out and they went and organized all of
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: these students' universities and And it's killing them. You know,
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: when they came out with the Israel divestiture, I said,
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: that's just the dumbest thing I've ever heard. It's these
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: students who are student assistant teachers. And that's how it happened.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: And so, you know, I'm with them. I think they
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: know I'm with them. We work the plant gates, Hugh.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: We're not walking away from anybody.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: Mike Rogers, keep running through the tape. I know you will.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: And it sounds good to me. And I just can't
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: imagine a radical like El Sayed getting in the United
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: States Senate. Do your best, man. You've got to stop him,
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: and you're a great man. In the middle of the party,
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the state, Mike Rogers for Senate
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: in Michigan. Stay tuned, America. I'll be right back.