Latest / The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated / Midterms, Data Centers, and The AM Radio In Every Car Act

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Midterms, Data Centers, and The AM Radio In Every Car Act · 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
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  Speaker 1: listen to the Hillsdale Dialogues, all of them at Hugh
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: for hillsdale.com or just Google Apple, iTunes, and Hillsdale. Welcome back, America.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: I'm Hugh Hewitt, and I want to say a special
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: welcome to our listeners in Las Vegas. I'm back on
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  Speaker 1: this trip at KVGQ 1069 FM. The Right Talk for
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Las Vegas. I've been out of Las Vegas for a
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  Speaker 1: couple of years because of format changes at my old station.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: But I like 106.9, The Right Talk for Las Vegas.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: And they've got a great lineup. It's a little bit
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  Speaker 1: of every syndicated network. It's not one network. I'm glad
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: to be there from noon to 3. And first guest
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  Speaker 1: you might be hearing on this Thursday, old friend of
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  Speaker 1: the program, Henry Olson. He and I both pulled the
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: oar for a long time at the Washington Post. He's
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: back in the Post today. With a little bit of
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  Speaker 1: a deep dive into the House races. And Henry, I'm
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: going to begin by introducing you. You just cover elections.
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  Speaker 1: It could be in like Bolivia. You might be covering
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Ecuador and then next week in Malaysia. I don't know
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  Speaker 1: how you do this, but that's what you do. How'd
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  Speaker 1: you end up doing this line of work?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I've always loved elections. I loved election in America.
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  Speaker 2: When the Internet came up and I could get access
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  Speaker 2: to real time data, I started following elections closely around
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  Speaker 2: the world. And thanks to Google Translate and other devices,
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  Speaker 2: I can pretty much follow anywhere in the world. And
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  Speaker 2: so on Sunday, it's going to be Saxony-Anhalt for the
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  Speaker 2: decisive regional election in Eastern Germany.
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  Speaker 1: I tell everyone when I'm watching, I do election decision
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  Speaker 1: and I follow elections. Henry, on election night, wherever there
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  Speaker 1: is election night, because he's usually very careful and very precise. Henry,
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  Speaker 1: before I get into asking about the House map, I'm
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  Speaker 1: just not believing polls this cycle after the Michigan misses
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  Speaker 1: and the Wisconsin misses. Are you?
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  Speaker 2: You know, what you have to do is read polls carefully,
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  Speaker 2: that polls make assumptions about turnouts nowadays because they can't
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  Speaker 2: get a random sample. And I think what happened in
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  Speaker 2: Michigan and in Wisconsin is This sample was too skewed
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  Speaker 2: towards loyal Democrats and younger Democrats. And I think with
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  Speaker 2: the record high turnout in Michigan and the very high
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  Speaker 2: turnout in Wisconsin, you had people who don't normally vote
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  Speaker 2: in Democratic primaries come out, and they probably backed the
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  Speaker 2: moderates in each of those cases, or at least the
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  Speaker 2: less liberal candidate. And so you've got to be careful
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  Speaker 2: with your polls, but you can't ignore them entirely. They
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  Speaker 2: still give good and useful information if you know how
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  Speaker 2: to read them.
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  Speaker 1: So how do you assess the Michigan Senate race before
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  Speaker 1: we go to the House map?
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  Speaker 2: You know, it's really a toss up. This is a
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  Speaker 2: year where the wind is in the Democrat sails. Michigan
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  Speaker 2: is a purple state, but it's one that leans slightly blue,
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  Speaker 2: one or two points. And so normally you would say, OK,
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  Speaker 2: tough race, but a generic Democrat should beat a generic Republican.
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  Speaker 2: But Abdul El-Sayed is anything but a generic Democrat. He
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  Speaker 2: is a person who is offensive to many Jews, offensive
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  Speaker 2: to many moderates. and a person who is unabashed in
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  Speaker 2: his left-wing economics, and that puts the seed in play.
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  Speaker 2: Whether it's enough for Mike Rogers to win, well, that's
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  Speaker 2: what a campaign is about, and ask me a week
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  Speaker 2: or so beforehand when I'll make a final prediction.
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  Speaker 1: All right, now expand on what you had to say
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  Speaker 1: about the House map today, because I found it interesting
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  Speaker 1: in the Post.
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  Speaker 2: Now, the House, what I said in the post was
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  Speaker 2: that if you just look at the national statistics, you
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  Speaker 2: take a look, Donald Trump's job approval rating is at
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  Speaker 2: about 40 percent. The Republicans are behind by six and
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  Speaker 2: a half points on the real clear politics, generic congressional
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  Speaker 2: ballot polling average. You'd say, OK, Democrats are going to
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  Speaker 2: win the House. And that's still if you're getting on
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  Speaker 2: couch here, Polly Margaret, that's still the safe bet to make.
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  Speaker 2: But when you actually look at it seat by seat,
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  Speaker 2: what you realize is how hard it's going to be,
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  Speaker 2: even with the win in their sales, because the Republicans
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  Speaker 2: redistricting and a natural lean in districts towards Republican voters
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  Speaker 2: means Democrats have to campaign and get their majority in
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  Speaker 2: areas that Trump carried by five or more points in 2024.
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  Speaker 2: That's actually pretty hard, even with the polling right now.
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  Speaker 1: So, Henry, I am... Having my own personal opinion change
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  Speaker 1: about the prognostication for Iran in the next two months
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  Speaker 1: and indeed for the rest of the year, I would
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  Speaker 1: not be surprised to see unrest return or the government shake,
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  Speaker 1: if not fall. How does that play into this election
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  Speaker 1: cycle at all?
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  Speaker 2: Right now, it's clearly the single biggest reason why Republicans
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  Speaker 2: are behind is that President Trump's job approval rating was
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  Speaker 2: at about 44 percent among registered voters at the eve
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  Speaker 2: when he attacked Iran at the end of February. It
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  Speaker 2: is now at 40 percent. It declined pretty steadily until
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  Speaker 2: the short ceasefire memorandum of understanding went up a point
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  Speaker 2: or so. And then when the conflict restarted in spurts,
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  Speaker 2: it dropped back down to where it is right now.
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  Speaker 2: If the conflict can end in a way that is
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  Speaker 2: a clear United States victory with the promise of gas
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  Speaker 2: prices coming down in the near future, then that can
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  Speaker 2: help the president quite a bit. Anything short of that,
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  Speaker 2: I don't think it's going to be terribly impactful because
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  Speaker 2: the impact has already been taken into account by American voters.
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  Speaker 1: If the continued export of between 15 and 20 million
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  Speaker 1: barrels a night out of the Gulf continues, through the strait.
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  Speaker 1: Does that help, even though the IRGC remains entrenched in
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  Speaker 1: their bunkers?
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  Speaker 2: It certainly will help if it's felt at the pump.
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  Speaker 2: And one of the problems is that the oil is
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  Speaker 2: getting out, but it's not getting refined, that there's a
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  Speaker 2: refinery shortage across the West. And of course, what Ukraine
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  Speaker 2: is doing is taking out Russia's refinery capacity, which means
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  Speaker 2: that their ability to take oil anywhere and refine it
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  Speaker 2: into gasoline or other products is reduced. If the gas
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  Speaker 2: prices are coming down 10, 20, 40 cents over the
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  Speaker 2: next couple of months and you can see a downward path,
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  Speaker 2: that's a good thing. But simply exporting oil without the
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  Speaker 2: ability to refine it into gasoline does not impact gas prices.
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  Speaker 2: And so far, the oil coming out has not impacted
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  Speaker 2: gas prices over the last month.
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  Speaker 1: All right, back to the 435 House races. And it's
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  Speaker 1: actually a couple of dozen that are competitive. In those
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  Speaker 1: particular districts, the generic ballots that came from Harvard-Harris yesterday,
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  Speaker 1: had the GOP up among likely voters by two points.
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  Speaker 1: Do they ever break that down by district, or is
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  Speaker 1: that just a national take?
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  Speaker 2: That's a national pick. What you'd have to do is,
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  Speaker 2: assuming that one poll is correct, and of course, there's
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  Speaker 2: no other poll that has Republicans up by two. They
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  Speaker 2: have Republicans down by more or less. But assuming that
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  Speaker 2: poll were correct, there would be no way for the
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  Speaker 2: Democrats to be able to take the House. In fact,
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  Speaker 2: with the redistricting barrier, the firewall that's been set up,
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  Speaker 2: Democrats have to win the national vote by four points
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  Speaker 2: or more to have the slimmest chance of a majority.
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  Speaker 2: There's a difficult road for them with them ahead by six.
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  Speaker 2: It's almost impossible if they're ahead by three. Republicans will
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  Speaker 2: gain bootloads of seats if they actually win the vote.
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  Speaker 1: And so now we go to the biggest question of all,
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  Speaker 1: the branding of the Democratic Party. In my own humble opinion,
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  Speaker 1: they went from being a union working class blue collar
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  Speaker 1: party that was favor of marginally higher taxes and a
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  Speaker 1: marginally better social safety net, To the DSA party. This
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  Speaker 1: is the summer of the DSA, like 1967 was a
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  Speaker 1: summer of love. Am I right about that perception? And
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  Speaker 1: is that an anchor, the full weight of which we
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  Speaker 1: have yet to perceive?
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  Speaker 2: First of all, the Democrats haven't genuinely been a union-based
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  Speaker 2: working class party for some time. That's why Donald Trump
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  Speaker 2: and the Republicans are now the party of people without
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  Speaker 2: a college degree. Across the developed world, he said at
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  Speaker 2: the introduction, I follow politics everywhere.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I do.
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  Speaker 2: Across the developed world, the left is becoming the party
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  Speaker 2: of the educated and the right, the populist-oriented right, is
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  Speaker 2: the party of the people who aren't college-educated. What they've
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  Speaker 2: done in the last few years is go even farther
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  Speaker 2: in that direction. And right now, the Democrats battle is
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  Speaker 2: between the DSA and the merely very left, that the
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  Speaker 2: so-called moderates are really quite liberal.
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  Speaker 4: And so.
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  Speaker 2: What you'll see if the Republican campaign is competent is
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  Speaker 2: basically saying that the Democrats are not even your grandfather's,
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  Speaker 2: not even your father's Democratic Party. They're not even your
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  Speaker 2: older brother's Democratic Party. The question is, which brand of
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  Speaker 2: left wing do you want? Do you want Joe Biden
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  Speaker 2: left wing or do you want people who are to
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  Speaker 2: the left of Joe Biden? Since Republicans won and people
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  Speaker 2: voted against Joe Biden's version of liberalism a couple of
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  Speaker 2: years ago, One would think that would be at least
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  Speaker 2: a competitive message. And it will be interesting to see
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  Speaker 2: if the Republicans and especially Donald Trump spend their time
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  Speaker 2: on the stump and their money in the bank to
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  Speaker 2: say that that directly.
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  Speaker 1: And does the Tallarico slash El Saeed slash Flanagan branding
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  Speaker 1: spill over to districts that are not contiguous with or
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  Speaker 1: even remotely close to those races, those states?
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  Speaker 2: It'll be most important on those individual races, but you
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  Speaker 2: can see what Joe Biden did in 2022. At this
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  Speaker 2: point in 2022, Joe Biden had job approval ratings roughly
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  Speaker 2: where Donald Trump is right now. Everyone thought that Republicans
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  Speaker 2: were going to pick up seats in the House in
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  Speaker 2: bucket loads, and even with flawed candidates would gain seats
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  Speaker 2: in the Senate and retake control. In fact, the opposite happened.
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  Speaker 2: They only gained nine House seats, and they lost a
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  Speaker 2: seat in the Senate.
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  Speaker 1: Why?
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  Speaker 2: Joe Biden convinced swing voters who had voted for him
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  Speaker 2: two years ago but were unhappy with Donald Trump and
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  Speaker 2: were unhappy with him now to take a chance on
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  Speaker 2: his party for two more years and not let those
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  Speaker 2: MAGA or ultra MAGA Republicans back in. That's the question
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  Speaker 2: that Donald Trump and the Republicans should put to their
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: swing voters. Yes, you said to Joe Biden and his
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  Speaker 2: brand of liberalism in 2024, take a hike. And now
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: you're not happy maybe with where things are going, but
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: if you vote for them, you're going to get them
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: and their loony uncle.
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  Speaker 1: Henry Olson, good to see you, my friend. Always follow
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: Henry on X at Henry Olson. Read him in the
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: post today if you're a subscriber. Great piece on the
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: House election. I'll be back before Election Day. Thank you, Henry.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: I'll be right back, America, on the Thursday edition of
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: the Hugh Hewitt.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Show.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Welcome back, America, Hugh Hewitt. It's my monthly segment with
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Philip Balboni, founder and editor-in-chief of Global Post. Philip, we're
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: going to talk Mozambique. But first, I heard via one
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: of my team that last month you told people how
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: to get a half-off subscription. You're not a sponsor of
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  Speaker 1: the program. We just love doing this. And I gather
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: people responded. So let's tell them that at the front
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: and not rush it.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, Hugh.
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: Good to see you.
• 11:16
  Speaker 6: So they just go to globalpost.com, put the forward slash
• 11:21
  Speaker 6: after the com, and then do Hugh H. And that
• 11:25
  Speaker 6: will automatically trigger a 50% discount. So rather than paying
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  Speaker 6: the retail price of $ 46, they will get it for $ 23.
• 11:33
  Speaker 6: That's for a whole year.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: So that's globalpost.com slash Hugh H. And they'll get half off.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: I've been reading Global Post for, I guess, four years.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: And the Global Post does– it brings the world to
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: you every day in a way that most newspapers have
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: abandoned and in ways that some newspapers distort. And this
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: is a perfect example. I know where Mozambique is. My
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: sister-in-law lived in Zambia for a long time. I had
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: no idea that there was this tension between the Islamist insurgency–
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  Speaker 1: and the way North and the government tell us about
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: what's going on there. Cause that's a pretty critical country.
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  Speaker 4: It is.
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  Speaker 2: Uh, it's a big country.
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  Speaker 6: You can see it goes all the way from Tanzania,
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  Speaker 6: all the way down the coast of East Africa, all
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  Speaker 6: the way down to South Africa. Uh, it's about 36
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  Speaker 6: million people. Um, and, but it's not very well known
• 12:31
  Speaker 6: to Americans. Uh, it's about twice the size of California.
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  Speaker 6: You can't really tell that here. Uh, but the same
• 12:37
  Speaker 6: size as Italy or Poland, if you have those countries
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  Speaker 6: in mind. So that province in the north, Camo Delgado, is,
• 12:47
  Speaker 6: as you can see, very far from the capital down there,
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  Speaker 6: way down in the south, near that little country of Eswatini.
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  Speaker 6: And that's where the Islamist insurgency is. And so let's
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  Speaker 6: address this, and then.
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  Speaker 2: If we have time, I'd like to talk a little.
• 13:01
  Speaker 6: Bit about jihadism in Africa, It's a very important subject, Hugh,
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  Speaker 6: especially with the 25th anniversary of 9-11 terrorist attacks coming
• 13:12
  Speaker 6: up next week. So this is a group that swore
• 13:20
  Speaker 6: allegiance to the Islamic State about 10 years ago, and they've.
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  Speaker 2: Exploited local grievances.
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  Speaker 6: So that province is rich in natural gas, rubies, timber, graphite,
• 13:35
  Speaker 6: but those benefits are not flowing to the local people.
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  Speaker 6: So this insurgency began to rise up and committed some
• 13:45
  Speaker 6: terrible things. They've killed almost 7,000 villagers, displaced about a
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  Speaker 6: million and a half people through beheadings and massacres and abductions.
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: And all kinds of other terrible things.
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  Speaker 6: The government, one party has ruled since independence in 1975
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  Speaker 6: from Portugal. And it's normally a democracy, but it's very
• 14:10
  Speaker 6: authoritarian in truth. And so they haven't been very responsive
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  Speaker 6: and helped the local people to realize their dreams.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Of a better life.
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  Speaker 6: And so a few years ago, the insurgents actually seized
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  Speaker 6: two coastal towns And it took a long time to
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  Speaker 6: displace them. And Mozambique needed the help of South Africa
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  Speaker 6: and Rwanda. And Rwanda still has 4,000 troops left in
• 14:43
  Speaker 6: the country trying to, you know, beat these insurgents back.
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  Speaker 6: So in our Global Post story today, we talk about
• 14:51
  Speaker 6: analysts are now thinking that military action alone is not
• 14:57
  Speaker 6: going to solve the problem and that some form of
• 15:00
  Speaker 6: negotiations with the insurgents will be needed. But Hugh, there's
• 15:07
  Speaker 6: a larger issue here, and I really think it's important
• 15:10
  Speaker 6: for your listeners and viewers to think about this, because
• 15:14
  Speaker 6: here's a fact for you that I'm sure is not
• 15:17
  Speaker 6: known to anyone listening. So if you look at the
• 15:20
  Speaker 6: African continent, 54 nations, 41% of those nations have some
• 15:24
  Speaker 6: form of jihadist ideology. activity going on in those countries.
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  Speaker 6: That's 22 of 54 countries. And those are spread all
• 15:38
  Speaker 6: over the continent. They're up in what's called the Sahel.
• 15:40
  Speaker 6: You and I have talked about them before. Up in
• 15:43
  Speaker 6: North Central Africa, it's in Nigeria, the most populated country
• 15:47
  Speaker 6: in Africa with 242 million people. It's in Somalia, which is,
• 15:55
  Speaker 6: let's remember, Somalia was where Osama bin Laden was based
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  Speaker 6: before he moved to Afghanistan. And it is also in
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  Speaker 6: parts of East Africa, like Mozambique, and also in West Africa.
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  Speaker 6: So it's a very widespread problem.
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  Speaker 5: And unfortunately.
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  Speaker 2: I.
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  Speaker 1: Want to point out, Boko Haram gets some headlines occasionally
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: because of the atrocities in Nigeria, but it just goes
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: by a different brand in every place, whether it's... al-shabaab
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  Speaker 1: in somalia or this group in mozambique or boko haram
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: in nigeria and it really is the the central crucible
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  Speaker 1: for the islamist non-islamist uh confrontation across the globe because
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: africa is the fastest growing continent in terms of population
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: and boy does it have a lot to offer but
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: not if it falls back into the ninth century.
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  Speaker 6: No this is really dangerous stuff i mean um We
• 16:51
  Speaker 6: need to pay more attention to what's happening in Africa.
• 16:54
  Speaker 6: I mean, we can't forget that the roots of 9-11
• 16:59
  Speaker 6: were sown in Somalia, and we know what happened. Since
• 17:07
  Speaker 6: that time, now almost 25 years ago next week, the
• 17:14
  Speaker 6: presence of jihadists in Africa has exploded. And neither the U.S.
• 17:20
  Speaker 6: nor France, the big colonial power, are doing enough about it.
• 17:24
  Speaker 6: Russia is now involved through the old Wagner Group, particularly
• 17:28
  Speaker 6: in North Central Africa. So it's fair to say it's
• 17:34
  Speaker 6: a critical area. We have a lot of problems in
• 17:37
  Speaker 6: the world. That's all we do, as you know, with
• 17:39
  Speaker 6: Global Post is cover the world. And my goodness, I mean,
• 17:43
  Speaker 6: wherever you look, there are things to worry about.
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  Speaker 1: But this is not to forget. There is no more
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: central battlefield between civilization and medievalism than the continent of Africa.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: And France does do a lot. I don't think Portugal
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: does anything. Am I wrong about that, Phil? They kind
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: of just packed up and left.
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  Speaker 5: They are gone.
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  Speaker 6: They were there from 1505 until 1975. That's a long time.
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  Speaker 6: And they left a lot of problems behind. And they're
• 18:13
  Speaker 6: doing nothing.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: And it's up to the West, and that usually means
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: France and the United States to back these governments with
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: training and with support and with assistance, or we'll be
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: looking up in 10 or 15 years and we'll be
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: staring right at an Islamic state writ large, not in
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: a little area of the Middle East, but in a
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: vast continent. Philip Balboni, always good to talk to you.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: I want to remind everyone, globalpost.com slash QH if you
• 18:40
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  Speaker 1: you're a teacher or a student. GlobalPost.com. Look for the
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: offer for teachers. It's right there as well, Phillip. Devoted
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: a lot of years to making this the replacement for
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: the foreign bureaus that used to be everywhere and well populated.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: And now we're down to a handful and not so
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: well resourced. That's globalpost.com. Philip Balboni, always good to talk
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: to you. Stay tuned, America. I'll be right back. Morning, glory,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: and even grace, America. Welcome to Hour 2 of this
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: Thursday edition of the Hugh Hewitt Show. I am welcoming
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: my Las Vegas audience, brand new audience, and I just
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: am so glad to be on the Right Talk of
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Las Vegas right there on the Strip. Welcome to all
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: of you in Swing State, Nevada. We are glad to
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: have you back. Thank you. Thank you. He's also now
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: helping helm the Innovation Council, which is one of the
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: big deals going on in America right now because it's pro-energy, pro-innovation, pro-AI, pro-development, pro-technology,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: and we can't let the Chinese Communist Party drive this debate. Taylor, welcome.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Tell people first about the Innovation Council, then we'll move
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: to data centers.
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: Thank you, Hugh.
• 20:03
  Speaker 7: Innovation Council launched in October 2017. identifying the importance of
• 20:08
  Speaker 7: this fight that's ahead. AI and data centers and everything
• 20:12
  Speaker 7: that goes into it is the.
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: Fight of our time.
• 20:16
  Speaker 7: It is something that there's tremendous investment going into. And
• 20:21
  Speaker 7: China wants to win. China wants to lead. And President
• 20:24
  Speaker 7: Trump has seen this fight and understands the importance of
• 20:28
  Speaker 7: winning it. And he's unleashed energy. He's unleashed manufacturing. He
• 20:34
  Speaker 7: understands what it's going to do for the American economy,
• 20:37
  Speaker 7: what it's going to do for our national security. And
• 20:40
  Speaker 7: it's a fight that he intends to win. And the
• 20:42
  Speaker 7: Innovation Council has been stood up to support the president's agenda,
• 20:47
  Speaker 7: his AI framework, and this important fight ahead.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: I think, Taylor, my own two cents, that American technology
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: companies sort of assumed that America was pro-growth, pro-innovation, pro-technology.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: And they did not anticipate adversaries of American leadership coming
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: in sub rosa on the web to stir up. Maybe
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: it's AstroTurf. Maybe it's young people that don't really know
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: how the free market works. But we've got to combat this. Now,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: former Senator Cory Gardner is coming on later in the
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: program from Cable and Telecom Association. I've had other people on.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: I heard from Danny Seiden down in Arizona yesterday. I
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: think the game is afoot. Do you see that you've
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: got allies coming onto the field with you about both issues,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: AI and data centers?
• 21:33
  Speaker 7: I think everyone's waking up to it.
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: They're waking up to both sides.
• 21:36
  Speaker 7: They've seen what is being exposed as a manufactured pushback.
• 21:43
  Speaker 7: You see recently OpenAI came out. XAI, owned by Elon Musk,
• 21:50
  Speaker 7: came out talking about the effort to drive social content,
• 21:55
  Speaker 7: social media posts around data centers and push a false.
• 21:59
  Speaker 5: Narrative is being originated in China.
• 22:03
  Speaker 7: And having a tremendous influence trying to push a narrative
• 22:08
  Speaker 7: that restricts American growth. But I think also what's happening
• 22:12
  Speaker 7: is you've had a lot of these large companies for
• 22:14
  Speaker 7: a long time that have been very popular, maybe not
• 22:18
  Speaker 7: popular on the right, but they've kind of been the
• 22:21
  Speaker 7: cool kids on the block. They were all your state
• 22:24
  Speaker 7: champ jock high school quarterbacks of the state champ team,
• 22:28
  Speaker 7: and they haven't faced much adversary. And that's until now.
• 22:32
  Speaker 7: And yes, maybe some of it is manufactured, and there's
• 22:35
  Speaker 7: evidence to support that, but there's some organic sentiment and feeling,
• 22:40
  Speaker 7: and people are distrustful, they're scared, and they're unsure if
• 22:44
  Speaker 7: they're being heard. And so they're speaking out, they're showing
• 22:47
  Speaker 7: up to city councils, they're beginning to protest. And I
• 22:51
  Speaker 7: think that a lot of people, allies, but I think
• 22:56
  Speaker 7: really it's led by the president. The president has been
• 22:59
  Speaker 7: The tip of the spear on this fight, one, he
• 23:02
  Speaker 7: understands how important it is. He understands what it means
• 23:04
  Speaker 7: for jobs. He understands what it means for the revenue
• 23:07
  Speaker 7: and growth of our country. But again, like I said,
• 23:10
  Speaker 7: he understands what it means for national security. AI and
• 23:13
  Speaker 7: the use of these data centers, which is driving a
• 23:17
  Speaker 7: lot of the conversation right now, is a fundamental building
• 23:20
  Speaker 7: block of the future of our country.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: And so the.
• 23:24
  Speaker 7: President has been leading. He's been speaking out. He hasn't
• 23:28
  Speaker 7: backed down. And I think, luckily, allies of him have
• 23:32
  Speaker 7: stood up and are joining the fight.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: I think also, Taylor, President Trump, in a way that
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: is unique among American presidents, understands development. By that, I
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: mean mixed-use comprehensive land development in and around data centers,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: including and adjacent to, and what it would do for
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: the local community. I had State Senator Betancourt from Texas
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: on in July. He's the first one to let me know.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Texas already has 350 data centers. In one county alone,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: they doubled the local revenue available either to rebate the taxpayers,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: which is what I would do, or to spend on
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: vital services like police, fire, first responders. Are you going
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: to emphasize the positive side of the yellow pad line,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: or are you going to talk and rebut Oh, they're
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: going to ruin the water. Oh, they're going to make
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: the grid collapse. Which is harder for you to go
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: about at the Innovation Council?
• 24:24
  Speaker 7: Well, I think you start the conversation very simply in
• 24:27
  Speaker 7: understanding the concerns and the fears. And I think we
• 24:32
  Speaker 7: say unequivocally, there shouldn't be a data center that's built
• 24:36
  Speaker 7: that is draining our communities.
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: Data centers should feed our communities.
• 24:40
  Speaker 7: They should build our communities. And I think that everyone
• 24:43
  Speaker 7: can get around an idea that this new infrastructure can
• 24:48
  Speaker 7: can be a net benefit. And once you get past that,
• 24:51
  Speaker 7: we can start talking about the good things. The Quincy, Washington,
• 24:55
  Speaker 7: they call it the Quincy miracle. A data center plant
• 24:59
  Speaker 7: was put in, built a new hospital, a new school,
• 25:03
  Speaker 7: obviously funding first responders. There's tremendous impact being happening. And
• 25:10
  Speaker 7: the investment that's happening is happening in areas that have
• 25:13
  Speaker 7: been abandoned. Places, you know, we've talked to the president's
• 25:16
  Speaker 7: talked about the forgotten man and woman since 2015 when
• 25:21
  Speaker 7: he came down the golden escalator. And these data centers,
• 25:25
  Speaker 7: this investment, billions of dollars that are being pouring back
• 25:29
  Speaker 7: into these communities are going directly to the forgotten men
• 25:32
  Speaker 7: and women of America and the communities that have been
• 25:36
  Speaker 7: hollowed out by the offshoring of manufacturing.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: That leads me to northeastern Ohio. I'm from Trumbull County.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: President knows it very well. He also knows Western PA
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: very well. That's where the steel mills are no longer abundant.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: That's where the car manufacturing, like in Lordstown, is gone.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: And that's where the plant and capability and capacity to
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: absorb data centers exist. And I don't think they're against
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: data centers at all. I don't know where the polling
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: is coming from, but I believe if you go into
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: communities that are distressed over 40 years, they're all going
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: to put their hands up and say, build one here.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Are you pulling on this or are you just going
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: on the logic of the argument?
• 26:16
  Speaker 7: No, we are pulling on it. And we're talking to
• 26:21
  Speaker 7: actual communities. And I think this AI revolution has happened
• 26:26
  Speaker 7: so fast, it's probably moved faster than the conversation has.
• 26:31
  Speaker 7: A lot of these companies are staffed or built by
• 26:34
  Speaker 7: geniuses that are really trying to push the frontier of
• 26:38
  Speaker 7: technology forward. where they have failed is to communicate why
• 26:43
  Speaker 7: that is a benefit to the person, to the community
• 26:47
  Speaker 7: where they're building it. And so I do think that
• 26:50
  Speaker 7: there's been some negative sentiment that has been absorbed in
• 26:53
  Speaker 7: these communities because large companies come in, start building things,
• 26:58
  Speaker 7: and you don't know what's being built.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Around the corner.
• 27:01
  Speaker 7: And so they skipped an important step, which is communicating
• 27:06
  Speaker 7: the benefits that are happening thanks to this investment, talking
• 27:10
  Speaker 7: about the jobs that are going to come in. And
• 27:12
  Speaker 7: I think once you start, and we've seen this, when
• 27:14
  Speaker 7: you start to communicate with people, listen to the fears,
• 27:18
  Speaker 7: but also address the benefits that are coming along with
• 27:21
  Speaker 7: these massive investments, people want them. No one wants to
• 27:25
  Speaker 7: sit in a community that's dying. And unfortunately, for decades,
• 27:30
  Speaker 7: there's been politicians that have forgotten about these these communities
• 27:33
  Speaker 7: while they've been hollowed out. And what we're seeing now
• 27:36
  Speaker 7: is investment being driven back into them. And once you
• 27:40
  Speaker 7: communicate and voters, residents understand the impact and the benefits
• 27:46
  Speaker 7: that are coming along with these investments, you're seeing tremendous support.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Last question, Taylor, and the Innovation Council, just Google it,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: you'll find everything that Taylor has been talking about. China
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: wants AI supremacy because that means access to every single
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: bit of data about Americans. It means the ability to
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: scale any wall or dig under any tunnel and to
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: penetrate any cybersecurity system. We need the defense. Does the
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: national security argument resonate with anyone not named Hugh Hewitt
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: because it's real?
• 28:18
  Speaker 7: It is real, Hugh, and I think it's worth, when
• 28:21
  Speaker 7: we talk about a data center moratorium or stopping, we're
• 28:24
  Speaker 7: not talking about stopping creating data. The data that every
• 28:28
  Speaker 7: American is creating every single day is still It's still
• 28:31
  Speaker 7: going to need to be stored somewhere. So then you
• 28:33
  Speaker 7: must ask yourself, do you want your personal DMs, your
• 28:37
  Speaker 7: bank information, do you want your data, your information to
• 28:41
  Speaker 7: be stored in the community down the street, or do
• 28:43
  Speaker 7: you want it to be stored in Shanghai? Do you
• 28:46
  Speaker 7: want it to be secured and defended by President Trump
• 28:50
  Speaker 7: and the U.S. government, or do you want it to
• 28:53
  Speaker 7: be secured and accessible by China and the CCP? I
• 28:57
  Speaker 7: think we need to take this seriously. We need to
• 28:59
  Speaker 7: have a serious conversation of the security implications. And when
• 29:04
  Speaker 7: we do, I think people really understand the importance of
• 29:07
  Speaker 7: building and maintaining American data security and the future of
• 29:11
  Speaker 7: AI right here in the United States.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: Well, keep coming back, updating us about the Innovation Council.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Taylor Butowich, thank you so much for joining us. Follow
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: Taylor on X at Butowich. That's not very difficult to remember.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: And look up the Innovation Council website. Follow its work
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: as well. President Trump is always talking about it as well.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: And we're going to keep talking about it here. In fact,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: next hour with former Senator Cory Gardner coming in from
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Colorado from the American Cable and Telecom Telecommunications Association. Stay tuned, America.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: I'll be right back on the Hugh Hewitt Show. Welcome back, America.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: I'm Hugh Hewitt, joined as I am most weeks by
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: Victorino Mattis. He is the co-host of the Getting Hammered podcast.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: He's also the weekend culture and arts editor at Washington
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Free Beacon. Vic, you're back from drop-off. I listened and
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: I laughed and laughed and laughed to the episode this
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: week with MKH. But then you guys got into, and
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: I talked about it with Mary Catherine yesterday, into Blue Blight.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: What Blue Blight is going to do to enrollment at
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: universities in the North that are very expensive and the
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: job markets surrounding them are not very attractive. I actually
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: went and did the research, courtesy of Chad GPT, put
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: it in Fox today. You guys were right. You were
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: intuiting it, but enrollment on a comparison basis, 31 red states,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: 19 blue states, plummeting by more than 10% greater in
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: blue states than in red states. I am not surprised.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: Are you?
• 30:37
  Speaker 7: No.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: And then he froze.
• 30:40
  Speaker 8: People, families, people leaving from places like California, New York,
• 30:44
  Speaker 8: New Jersey, California, If you look at those U-Haul trackers,
• 30:48
  Speaker 8: you know, where, you know, the states that the U-Hauls
• 30:51
  Speaker 8: are leaving from and not coming back, it seems to
• 30:53
  Speaker 8: be paralleling in many ways places, for example, the North.
• 30:57
  Speaker 8: And I know on the show on Getting Hammered, we
• 30:59
  Speaker 8: particularly talked about Syracuse University. And that was a story
• 31:04
  Speaker 8: that was originally done in the Wall Street Journal. It's
• 31:08
  Speaker 8: just harder to have incentives to be in places like that.
• 31:11
  Speaker 8: And you call it, we discussed it as blue blight.
• 31:14
  Speaker 8: when you can go down to the South and you
• 31:16
  Speaker 8: can go to a school like the SEC. This is
• 31:18
  Speaker 8: a kind of a cultural shift that began six years
• 31:21
  Speaker 8: ago during COVID, when everybody went sort of crazy about
• 31:24
  Speaker 8: not having classes and, you know, trying to believe that
• 31:29
  Speaker 8: remote classes were going to be effective. And of course,
• 31:31
  Speaker 8: they weren't. And the requirement of masks, you know, inside
• 31:35
  Speaker 8: and outside classrooms, and the schools in the South were
• 31:40
  Speaker 8: having none of it, and a couple schools in the.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: This is what drew them out. And most normal students
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: and families, they want to go out there.
• 31:48
  Speaker 8: And again, as we mentioned, you look at the neighborhoods,
• 31:51
  Speaker 8: you look at places that, you know, whether it be
• 31:53
  Speaker 8: in upstate New York or in other parts of the
• 31:55
  Speaker 8: country that are colder, what are you doing after.
• 31:59
  Speaker 5: You go to those schools?
• 32:01
  Speaker 8: You're probably not going to stick around.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I am 15 years past watching someone apply for college.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: So the Common App had just arrived. You just finished it.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: You got another one coming. Are we yet to the
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: point where colleges are going to bid on students. They
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: do it sub rosa with financial aid packages, but everyone's guessing.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Is it going to become transparent like theater seating when
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: you pick your seat? Are you going to get bids
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: from colleges and universities?
• 32:31
  Speaker 5: That would be great, Hugh.
• 32:34
  Speaker 8: There's a weird sort of converse relationship going on right now, though,
• 32:38
  Speaker 8: because what you're seeing is this beginning of the drop
• 32:43
  Speaker 8: in the birth rate, right? Beginning, it started in 2025, 26,
• 32:45
  Speaker 8: definitely in 2027 for students who are going to be
• 32:50
  Speaker 8: applying to college. You're seeing this drop in the number
• 32:54
  Speaker 8: of kids who were born in 2009, 2010. And as
• 32:58
  Speaker 8: a result of that, colleges are going to scramble to
• 33:01
  Speaker 8: attract them because they've overspent. They have huge budgets. They
• 33:05
  Speaker 8: want to build all these fancy dorms and labs and
• 33:07
  Speaker 8: other departments that and they've got a lot of administrator
• 33:10
  Speaker 8: salaries to pay for more than they have students.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: So that's one of their problems, Hugh.
• 33:16
  Speaker 8: And the other thing, as you mentioned, was the Common App.
• 33:18
  Speaker 8: Despite the fact that you're having, this is what I
• 33:21
  Speaker 8: mean about this weird converse reality, despite that you're going
• 33:24
  Speaker 8: to have fewer kids out there applying to college, the
• 33:28
  Speaker 8: Common App makes it much easier for a kid today
• 33:32
  Speaker 8: to simply click a button, and rather than focus on
• 33:35
  Speaker 8: maybe applying to five, six, or seven schools the way
• 33:38
  Speaker 8: I did, you can easily, you know, hit that button
• 33:41
  Speaker 8: and apply to 20 schools.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: What have you got to lose?
• 33:44
  Speaker 8: So a lot of these schools are going to have
• 33:45
  Speaker 8: a ton of applications from, you know, kids who normally
• 33:49
  Speaker 8: wouldn't do it because you'd each, back in our time,
• 33:51
  Speaker 8: you had to have a specialized essay and fill out
• 33:55
  Speaker 8: an application for each and every one of these schools,
• 33:57
  Speaker 8: and you're.
• 33:57
  Speaker 5: Not going to do it for 20.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Now it's a piece of cake.
• 34:00
  Speaker 8: The essays pretty much apply across the board. And so
• 34:04
  Speaker 8: that's a problem on the other side of it.
• 34:06
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: So, Vic, I want to ruin every college admissions officer's
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: day today by asking you this question. AI is supposed
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: to revolutionize many jobs. Don't you think we're a matter
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: of a year or two away from an admissions office
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: asking OpenAI or ChatGPT or XAI, optimize the class for
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: acceptance rate and highest return on the dollar? Isn't it
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: going to be all done by AI?
• 34:35
  Speaker 5: I mean, aspects of.
• 34:38
  Speaker 8: It can, Hugh, as you know, especially in this administration
• 34:41
  Speaker 8: and after the Supreme Court's ruling in the students' fair
• 34:46
  Speaker 8: admissions against Harvard. They can't use the AI to say
• 34:50
  Speaker 8: optimize this class to be the most diverse.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: When it comes to the AI requirements. They can't do that, no.
• 34:57
  Speaker 8: But in terms of looking for dollar amounts, what they're
• 34:59
  Speaker 8: doing right now is bringing in a lot of students
• 35:01
  Speaker 8: from overseas.
• 35:02
  Speaker 5: That is a twofer for them.
• 35:04
  Speaker 8: One on the one part. One part of it is
• 35:06
  Speaker 8: it's very international. They get to check off that list
• 35:08
  Speaker 8: for diversity. And the other part is that particularly if
• 35:11
  Speaker 8: you're students from the Middle East, at least prior to
• 35:15
  Speaker 8: the Trump administration, those kids pay full freight. Those parents
• 35:18
  Speaker 8: pay full freight. There's no scholarship opportunities for them. It's
• 35:21
  Speaker 8: very interesting that you mentioned scholarship opportunities. However, my son,
• 35:25
  Speaker 8: either he got flat out rejected from the schools that
• 35:28
  Speaker 8: he applied to or the schools that said yes, offered
• 35:30
  Speaker 8: him money.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: It wasn't just simply come in. And I think you're
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: going to see a lot more of that.
• 35:36
  Speaker 8: But in terms of the admissions officers using AI, yeah,
• 35:40
  Speaker 8: it can get to that point. And it's bad news,
• 35:42
  Speaker 8: like with many professions and consultants in particular, as you know,
• 35:45
  Speaker 8: AI is going to come after them.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: Well, they could optimize for GPA and likely success in
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: life afterwards based upon factors revealed in the application. And
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: you can also optimize on return benefits. per capita of
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: student and actual dollars above real cost. I've never thought
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: it was a wonderful career track to be an admissions officer.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Did you, Vic?
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: You know what?
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: You're not going to believe this.
• 36:13
  Speaker 8: Before I got into journalism, I actually applied to become
• 36:16
  Speaker 8: an admissions officer at Georgetown. I was a tour guide
• 36:19
  Speaker 8: at Georgetown, and I liked.
• 36:21
  Speaker 5: The idea of these parents and kids looking up to you.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: It made me feel very special.
• 36:25
  Speaker 5: Yes, it was extremely petty.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: I admit that now.
• 36:27
  Speaker 8: But I'm glad that did not work out because you
• 36:30
  Speaker 8: can get really stuck in that world of administration. The
• 36:34
  Speaker 8: thing about AI and using that for these purposes, however,
• 36:37
  Speaker 8: to be wary, is that AI is always trying to
• 36:41
  Speaker 8: be optimistic about, you know, people's prospects, kids' prospects. They're
• 36:46
  Speaker 8: always trying to make you feel good and tell you
• 36:49
  Speaker 8: what you want to hear. And it may easily be
• 36:51
  Speaker 8: misleading you about a student if you are an admissions officer,
• 36:54
  Speaker 8: I think.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, if you've got... 20,000 applications, though, and you need
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: to get 2,000 butts in chairs, that's going to be
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: quite the tool. You know, Vic, last word. My friends,
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: and I have a few, run colleges and universities. Number
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: one thing that brings kids to campus is the college tour.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: Did you have that same effect on your Georgetown kids?
• 37:17
  Speaker 8: I was once a tour guide of the month.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: I'll just leave it at that. And I knew how
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: to walk backwards.
• 37:22
  Speaker 5: I knew how to walk backwards.
• 37:23
  Speaker 8: So I can say, you know, on your right and
• 37:25
  Speaker 8: on your left and get that down.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: So I enjoy a good show, as you know. Well,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: I just think it's a, there ought to be like
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: a tour guide campus Olympics. They ought to give an
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: award for the best tour guide.
• 37:38
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: Because a bad one can absolutely screw over the university, right?
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: If you're bad, you're really going to lose people.
• 37:45
  Speaker 5: Absolutely.
• 37:46
  Speaker 8: I had a tour group get stuck in an elevator
• 37:48
  Speaker 8: and I don't think any of them applied.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay. You're not going to win the tour guide Olympics.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: Vic Mattis can be followed on X at Victorino Mattis.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: You ought to listen to Getting Hammered. Of course, read
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: freebeacon.com every day. But Getting Hammered is just a fabulous podcast.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: Like and subscribe. Give it five-star review wherever you get
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: your podcasts. Thank you, Vic. I'll be right back, America.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: Stay tuned.
• 38:13
  Speaker 5: Welcome back, America.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: I'm Hugh Hewitt. Josh Kroschauer is editor-in-chief of Jewish Insider. Josh,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: good Thursday to you. Israel today took complete control of
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: a strategic ridge in Lebanon where Hezbollah and IRGC fighters
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: had been holed up for months. Those fighters are either
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: dead or in captivity now. Iran had threatened a massive
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: response if Israel did that. Do you think they're going
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: to massively respond? Because I don't think they're going to.
• 38:40
  Speaker 10: Well, it's been pretty notable that in some of Iran's
• 38:44
  Speaker 10: counterattacks against the U.S. military action, they have deliberately avoided Israel,
• 38:49
  Speaker 10: they've attacked the Gulf states, they've attacked some of our allies,
• 38:52
  Speaker 10: but they understand that Israel would respond aggressively if they
• 38:58
  Speaker 10: were attacked. So I think that's a notable sign, Hugh,
• 39:03
  Speaker 10: in Lebanon. And on the negative side, I think the
• 39:06
  Speaker 10: agreement with the Lebanese government, hoping to kind of clear
• 39:10
  Speaker 10: some of these areas from Hezbollah influence, I don't think it's,
• 39:15
  Speaker 10: I know from the Israeli side, They're skeptical that that's
• 39:18
  Speaker 10: been working as it was intended to. So this is
• 39:20
  Speaker 10: another example of where the IDF had to essentially take
• 39:24
  Speaker 10: care of it, take care of counterterrorism and security measures
• 39:29
  Speaker 10: on their own. But yeah, this has been.
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: The new norm in Lebanon.
• 39:33
  Speaker 10: And it's been a reminder of what's been going on
• 39:36
  Speaker 10: in the northern part of the country, the northern part
• 39:38
  Speaker 10: of Israel.
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: Josh, I don't know if you're old enough or young.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: If you remember boxing matches, 15 round boxing matches, like
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: I grew up on Fraser Ali, the big three. and
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Frazier Foreman and Ali Foreman. And so, you know, the
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: 14th and the 15th round, sometimes people just go down.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: I think we're like round 11 with Iran and they might,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: their knees are getting weak. Do you see what I see? They're,
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: they're getting weak.
• 40:05
  Speaker 10: Well, that is, we're at the six month point. We're
• 40:10
  Speaker 10: marking a little over six months when the war against
• 40:12
  Speaker 10: Iran began in February and, And right now it feels
• 40:15
  Speaker 10: like we're in a new phase, at least based on
• 40:17
  Speaker 10: the comments made by the Trump administration. It feels like
• 40:20
  Speaker 10: a war of attrition where we're trying to kind of
• 40:23
  Speaker 10: tighten the noose on Iran economically and hope we win the.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: Staring match against them.
• 40:28
  Speaker 10: And I think that's at least a smart strategic pivot
• 40:33
  Speaker 10: and a reminder that this is not a war that's
• 40:34
  Speaker 10: going to end in two rounds. It's going to potentially
• 40:37
  Speaker 10: take quite a bit of time even past the Trump administration,
• 40:41
  Speaker 10: Brett McGurk, who served presidents from both parties in the
• 40:46
  Speaker 10: Middle East, wrote a column on CNN this week that
• 40:50
  Speaker 10: he thinks the conflict is going to last well beyond
• 40:53
  Speaker 10: the Trump administration. And this is a smart approach to
• 40:55
  Speaker 10: prepare for that long-term fight against the Iranian intransigence and
• 41:00
  Speaker 10: threats in the Middle East.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: If that blockade stays there, I do not think it
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: will take longer than the Trump administration. Let me play
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: something for you that the vice president said at the
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: White House today. Cut number six.
• 41:13
  Speaker 11: We have to remember, why are we doing this? Number one,
• 41:15
  Speaker 11: it's so that Iran never has a nuclear weapon. And
• 41:19
  Speaker 11: number two, what we're doing right now is protecting commercial
• 41:23
  Speaker 11: shipping in order to ensure that we don't have a
• 41:25
  Speaker 11: worldwide energy crisis. The only reason, the only reason we
• 41:29
  Speaker 11: do not have a worldwide energy crisis is is because
• 41:31
  Speaker 11: of the leadership of the president, but also because of
• 41:33
  Speaker 11: the fine work of our military from Pete Hegseth on down.
• 41:37
  Speaker 11: But the Iranians are doing what the Iranians do. I
• 41:39
  Speaker 11: think that they're losing their capabilities by the day. I
• 41:43
  Speaker 11: think they're realizing, by the way, that their control over
• 41:46
  Speaker 11: the Strait of Hormuz is effectively gone, and it's a
• 41:49
  Speaker 11: diminishing asset. So if you go back three months ago,
• 41:53
  Speaker 11: how much oil and gas was coming out of the
• 41:55
  Speaker 11: Strait under Iranian threats? It was virtually nothing. Now it's
• 41:59
  Speaker 11: almost back to where it was before the conflict even started.
• 42:03
  Speaker 11: So my advice to the Iranians is stop acting like
• 42:05
  Speaker 11: crazy people and stop shooting at commercial shipping. And in
• 42:09
  Speaker 11: the meantime, we've got to do what we've got to do,
• 42:12
  Speaker 11: despite what a foreign country is going to do in
• 42:13
  Speaker 11: the Strait of Hormuz.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: I think he just made an assertion there, Josh. We
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: are in control of the Strait. And I believe American
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: media is coming around to believing that.
• 42:22
  Speaker 7: I am.
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: Do you?
• 42:24
  Speaker 10: Well, this is a week that involved American military engagement
• 42:27
  Speaker 10: again in the region responding to Iranian attacks. It's a
• 42:32
  Speaker 10: week where we heard Rubio and Trump both and advance,
• 42:35
  Speaker 10: I think, in the press conference as well today saying
• 42:38
  Speaker 10: the MOU is pretty much a dead letter right now.
• 42:41
  Speaker 10: This is we're not doing diplomacy. This is this is
• 42:43
  Speaker 10: the long game. So, yeah, I do hear the administration
• 42:47
  Speaker 10: being on the same page.
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: Along those lines.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: You know, it's taken a lot of military effort, though, Hugh.
• 42:53
  Speaker 10: To even get to the point where we are at about, what,
• 42:57
  Speaker 10: 65 percent of the straits economic activity from where things
• 43:01
  Speaker 10: were before the war. And I do worry, I think
• 43:04
  Speaker 10: one of the timelines that we're going to be looking
• 43:06
  Speaker 10: at is a political timeline. If Democrats take back the House,
• 43:10
  Speaker 10: you know, there's going to be a lot more efforts
• 43:11
  Speaker 10: to try to constrain domestically American military.
• 43:15
  Speaker 5: Engagement in the region.
• 43:16
  Speaker 10: So I think there are a lot of I think
• 43:18
  Speaker 10: they're playing for the long game, but there are a
• 43:19
  Speaker 10: lot of political challenges ahead, too, that could affect the
• 43:22
  Speaker 10: decision-making going forward.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: Good luck with that because of the commander-in-chief power. Let
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: me play for you one more thing from Vice President
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: Vance's presser today on Abdul El-Sayed, cut number five.
• 43:34
  Speaker 11: El-Sayed's a crazy person, and I think whatever your views
• 43:37
  Speaker 11: on Mike Rogers' specific policy prescriptions, I'd like to have
• 43:40
  Speaker 11: a non-crazy person like Mike Rogers representing Michigan in the
• 43:44
  Speaker 11: United States Senate rather than a crazy person like El-Sayed.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Now, Josh, earlier this week, Van Jones, or maybe it
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: was last week, Van Jones, talking to Haviv Reddy Gore, said,
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: Abdul El-Sayed's policy on not selling defensive weapons to Israel
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: is insane. And so I see a wall building here,
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: and I think this is the theme that is going
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: to just get jammed down, Michigan viewers, listeners. Do you
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: agree with me? We're going for the insane, crazy, off-the-map
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: of reasonable argument here?
• 44:18
  Speaker 10: Well, to that point, Hugh, El-Sayed was at a Jewish
• 44:21
  Speaker 10: Democratic event on Sunday trying to make amends, trying to
• 44:24
  Speaker 10: do any kind of outreach, which has not been there.
• 44:28
  Speaker 10: And he spoke to a Democrat, a Jewish Democrat, who
• 44:32
  Speaker 10: asked El-Sayed, look, my daughter is going to be in
• 44:35
  Speaker 10: Israel and the Iron Dome protects both Israelis and Palestinians.
• 44:38
  Speaker 10: It's saved so many lives. How can you be against
• 44:43
  Speaker 10: the Iron Dome? And he still maintained his opposition. to
• 44:47
  Speaker 10: the defense system that protects everyone in the region. So
• 44:51
  Speaker 10: that was reported in the press. That was an exchange
• 44:53
  Speaker 10: that I think didn't get enough attention. This is someone
• 44:57
  Speaker 10: who is that hardcore, who is that extreme. He's not
• 45:01
  Speaker 10: even talking about funding, by the way, Hugh. He's talking
• 45:02
  Speaker 10: about he does not support Iron Dome. He doesn't support
• 45:05
  Speaker 10: protecting the Israelis and Palestinians in the region from Iranian
• 45:10
  Speaker 10: threats from the missiles that have been fired against the region.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: Do we have audio of that?
• 45:15
  Speaker 5: No, it was reported.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: We published it at Jewish.
• 45:18
  Speaker 10: And it's been publicly reported. But I don't believe that
• 45:21
  Speaker 10: was a closed press event. In fact, they only credentialed
• 45:24
  Speaker 10: one news organization to actually be.
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: In the room to cover that.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: But I'm glad that they got that reporting because it's very.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: He is the gift that keeps on giving to this
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: program and every program that covers politics seriously. And then
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: Van Jones said it. That's insane policy right there. Josh
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: Kroschauer can be followed on X at Josh Kroschauer, Jewish
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: Insider at JewishInsider.com. Thank you, Josh. I'll be right back, America.
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: Stay tuned. If you've listened to this program for any
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  Speaker 1: it's Hugh Hewitt. Thanks for listening to the podcast. If
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• 49:10
  Speaker 4: Modern prophets and their divine messages. Some people absolutely have
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  Speaker 4: the gift of prophecy.
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  Speaker 11: If God exists, how would he inject his information into
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  Speaker 11: our world?
• 49:18
  Speaker 5: More than likely, he would use humans.
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: Satan would love Christians, but just be a spectator, not engage,
• 49:24
  Speaker 4: not participate.
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: Is there something he's trying to say?
• 49:26
  Speaker 5: Can you hear me now?
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: Pre-order the movie by September 10th.
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• 50:00
  Speaker 12: all weekend on Salem News Channel.
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: I'm joined by Jim Garrity, the indispensable. Jim is the
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: author of The Morning Jolt for National View. He's a
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: Washington Post columnist. He's also host of the Three Martini
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: Lunch podcast and a frequent participant in the Editor's Podcast. Garrity,
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: I start with a little softball that I tossed at
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: John Podhortz yesterday. If Jeopardy ever runs a week where
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: they have podcast hosts as the teams and the three
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: teams are the pod bros, the editors... And we'll make
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: the editors Lowry and Garrity and Charles C.W. Cook and
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: the commentary three. And it could be John Podhortz and
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: two dead pigeons. Who wins that effort? Who wins that game?
• 50:49
  Speaker 9: Can I substitute out myself and put in my colleague
• 50:53
  Speaker 9: Noah Rothman?
• 50:54
  Speaker 8: Oh, yes.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: That's not fair, though. All right.
• 50:56
  Speaker 5: Like so.
• 50:57
  Speaker 9: I'd like to be on there, but I really think
• 50:59
  Speaker 9: that the three of them would be an even stronger
• 51:02
  Speaker 9: team than with me on it. I'm going to bet
• 51:04
  Speaker 9: for my own guys. I absolutely, you know, tough competition. Now,
• 51:08
  Speaker 9: if they do the family feud and there's five, then
• 51:11
  Speaker 9: you can have both myself and Michael Brendan.
• 51:13
  Speaker 5: Oh, you could do that. Pretty good. What's that?
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 51:17
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: But that's not nearly as much fun in the categories.
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: I would want to be like the guest moderator for
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: that game of Jeopardy and design the categories. But it
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: would be a lot. Have you guys ever done a
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: combined commentary national review podcast?
• 51:30
  Speaker 5: I don't believe so. And I would certainly.
• 51:33
  Speaker 9: So Noah is on both, or Noah used to be
• 51:35
  Speaker 9: with Commentary for a long time, and I guess he
• 51:37
  Speaker 9: still joins them every now and then.
• 51:39
  Speaker 5: So I would definitely be happy to see that.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: Did you read comics?
• 51:42
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I'd love to see.
• 51:43
  Speaker 9: It'd be like the Marvel Universe, where we all periodically
• 51:46
  Speaker 9: pop up in each other's movies and each other's productions
• 51:49
  Speaker 9: and stuff.
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: Well, go back before the cinema, in the days of
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: comic books, the Fantastic Four wedding, every supervillain and superhero
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: went to New York.
• 51:57
  Speaker 5: Absolutely, yeah.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: That's... And I would think it would have to be
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: about a six-hour podcast, though, right?
• 52:04
  Speaker 9: First of all, Hugh, as the author of Blog way
• 52:07
  Speaker 9: back in the day, for the new listeners, Blog was
• 52:10
  Speaker 9: short for Weblog, which is a term people don't use
• 52:13
  Speaker 9: nearly as much. There was a slate writer who said
• 52:16
  Speaker 9: that bloggers were kind of like gangster rappers. And thankfully,
• 52:20
  Speaker 9: we didn't have any West Coast versus East Coast gunplay. But, like,
• 52:24
  Speaker 9: Glenn Reynolds is this really respected law professor.
• 52:27
  Speaker 5: Who But he's insta-pundit, man.
• 52:30
  Speaker 9: It was kind of this funny thing to the degree
• 52:32
  Speaker 9: in which everyone had some pen name or nickname that
• 52:36
  Speaker 9: stuck to them.
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: All right, now that's all moved on. Let me get
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: to the serious news of the week. I want to
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: talk to you about the United States Senate races. I
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: saw your post today. You're not an optimist. I am
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: because I don't believe any of the polls after the
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: miss in Michigan and the miss in Wisconsin, the governor's
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: race in the latter, the Senate race in the former.
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: Abdul El-Sayed was supposed to be biggest number week before Emerson,
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: 18 points over Haley Steven. The lowest major poll had
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: Haley Stevens losing by seven. She lost by one. I
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: know Ken Paxton is a flawed candidate, but he is
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: the Republican and James Tallarico isn't flawed. He's from the
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: far side of the moon. So tell me, unbend a
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: bit about those two Senate races, Jim.
• 53:22
  Speaker 9: Well, I would point out that when you say, look,
• 53:25
  Speaker 9: the polling in Michigan was a huge miss. The polling
• 53:28
  Speaker 9: in the Wisconsin governor's race was a huge miss. Earlier
• 53:31
  Speaker 9: this week, Ed Markey beat Seth Moulton like a rented mule.
• 53:36
  Speaker 9: And the poll numbers were pretty much exactly what the
• 53:38
  Speaker 9: polling had indicated. So we remember the ones that are
• 53:40
  Speaker 9: really bad. We don't necessarily remember the ones that are.
• 53:43
  Speaker 9: We're on the money because it's kind of boring and
• 53:45
  Speaker 9: predictable and it doesn't stick in our minds nearly as much. Look,
• 53:48
  Speaker 9: Ken Paxton could definitely win. It is still Texas. Democrats
• 53:52
  Speaker 9: have not won a statewide race in, I want to say, like,
• 53:54
  Speaker 9: 30 years.
• 53:55
  Speaker 5: Like, it's a generation. It's been absolutely.
• 53:57
  Speaker 9: And, you know, it's entirely possible Republicans come in, pour
• 54:01
  Speaker 9: in the money, spotlight Tallarico being a nut job, and,
• 54:05
  Speaker 9: you know, Paxton wins. The thing that nags me, and
• 54:10
  Speaker 9: it's not me saying this, Mark Halperin, a bunch of
• 54:13
  Speaker 9: ex-Republicans down there have pointed out that Ken Paxton, like
• 54:16
  Speaker 9: you could be a sleazeball. You can have a bunch
• 54:18
  Speaker 9: of scandals, but you have to be a hardworking sleazeball.
• 54:21
  Speaker 9: You can't be lazy. You can't take time off the
• 54:24
  Speaker 9: campaign trail. And that apparently is the lament that he's
• 54:27
  Speaker 9: not a great fundraiser. I was kind of surprised to
• 54:30
  Speaker 9: see John Kennedy, not the former president, but the senator
• 54:33
  Speaker 9: from Louisiana, saying he's hoping the president comes in with
• 54:38
  Speaker 9: $ 100 to $ 200 million worth of spending to help Paxton.
• 54:42
  Speaker 9: That's a lot of money. Now, if he does that,
• 54:44
  Speaker 9: I think it's near guaranteed that Paxton wins. Of course,
• 54:47
  Speaker 9: the question then is, like, are you spending that money
• 54:49
  Speaker 9: and not spending it on Susan Collins or Mike Rogers
• 54:53
  Speaker 9: or something like that?
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: How much do you think it's worth to Donald Trump
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: not to have long impeachment trials in the Senate that
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: end in acquittal but nevertheless take up most of the
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: next two years?
• 55:04
  Speaker 9: I was going to say Trump is bragging he's got
• 55:06
  Speaker 9: $ 850 million. I've seen other people say the number is
• 55:09
  Speaker 9: closer to $ 600 million. But we're in September, Hugh. You
• 55:13
  Speaker 9: and I get to have what's probably going to be
• 55:15
  Speaker 9: very deeply disappointing NFL seasons starting next weekend.
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: Speak for yourself.
• 55:19
  Speaker 5: You've got all that money. Time to start spending it.
• 55:22
  Speaker 5: Time to start. You turned it into ads to get
• 55:24
  Speaker 5: it out there.
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: You apparently not heard of KC Concepcion and Denzel Boston.
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: Let me introduce you to the two best young rookie receivers.
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: That we don't have a quarterback is a problem, but
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: we can fix that. If we go to five or
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: six of them.
• 55:39
  Speaker 9: It's going to be all flea flickers with throws from
• 55:42
  Speaker 9: the running back.
• 55:42
  Speaker 5: That's what they're going to do.
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: All right, let's go up to Michigan. I think Tallarico
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: is so weird he's going to lose, and I do
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: think the president's going to spend, and I do think
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: Ken Paxton's won four times statewide. And there are a
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: lot of people who actually just don't pay much attention
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: to state politics, and they're going to have to do RD,
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: and they're going to turn out, because that generic ballot
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: number that came out this week, Harvard-Harris survey, not the best,
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: but not the worst, saying Republicans are actually up in that.
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: That gives me a little bit of hope. But in Michigan,
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: it's not predictable because Abdul El-Sayed is different from being
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: a bad candidate. He is, to me, a sinister and
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: menacing candidate because he cannot stop talking about the Jews.
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's just not possible.
• 56:25
  Speaker 9: Straight up candidate quality, Mike Rogers would win this thing
• 56:28
  Speaker 9: in a walk. He is, you know, pretty much the
• 56:31
  Speaker 9: choice Republicans would have wanted to have to run statewide.
• 56:35
  Speaker 9: Abdul Al-Sayed was nearly not the choice of nearly half
• 56:38
  Speaker 9: of all Democrats. And they are, you know, unity has
• 56:41
  Speaker 9: been a little bit slow. But the problem is this
• 56:44
  Speaker 9: is not a great year for Republicans. And Michigan is
• 56:47
  Speaker 9: never easy for Republicans, particularly in Senate races. Had a
• 56:50
  Speaker 9: little bit of success in some gubernatorial races here and
• 56:53
  Speaker 9: there over the last generation.
• 56:54
  Speaker 5: But the last one was Spencer Abraham.
• 56:56
  Speaker 9: And I remember it was that 2000 was that 2002,
• 56:59
  Speaker 9: I want to say.
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 57:00
  Speaker 9: So it's been a while since a Republican has won
• 57:03
  Speaker 9: a Senate race in this state.
• 57:06
  Speaker 5: So you add this to it.
• 57:07
  Speaker 9: Also, like, we all felt really good when that first
• 57:09
  Speaker 9: Fox News poll came out and had Rogers up by four.
• 57:12
  Speaker 9: I remember basically every poll has had Abdullah Al-Sayed. And
• 57:16
  Speaker 9: it's not like Abdullah Al-Sayed has been having a great
• 57:18
  Speaker 9: news cycle. It's not like he's had, you know. glowing
• 57:21
  Speaker 9: coverage over the last. Now, you could say, look, it's
• 57:23
  Speaker 9: before Labor Day. People aren't tuned in. Again, I think
• 57:27
  Speaker 9: Republicans will come in and spend a lot of money
• 57:28
  Speaker 9: on this race because it's one of their best pickup ones.
• 57:31
  Speaker 5: The other one I would say, don't count out New Hampshire.
• 57:34
  Speaker 4: I don't.
• 57:34
  Speaker 5: Some curious numbers. Yeah. John Sununu Jr.
• 57:38
  Speaker 9: But there's I've joked that everyone in Alaska is named
• 57:43
  Speaker 9: Dan Sullivan or Begich. Those are the two names you
• 57:46
  Speaker 9: have in that state. Everyone, every Republican in the state
• 57:49
  Speaker 9: of New Hampshire is named Sununu.
• 57:52
  Speaker 5: Really good. His brother has been the governor.
• 57:53
  Speaker 9: His father was governor and chief of staff for George H.W.
• 57:57
  Speaker 6: Bush.
• 57:58
  Speaker 9: You know, I would not count him out. Again, these
• 58:00
  Speaker 9: are not easy states for Republicans. It's not an easy year,
• 58:04
  Speaker 9: but you've got the candidates you want, mostly.
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: I want to give you two minutes. You said on
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: the editors this week something that got a lot of
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: notice about how young people today are not really– they're
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: living in a dream world you and I did not
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: grow up in, I earlier than you, but nevertheless, they're
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: running into reality after college and they're finding it difficult.
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: Why do you think they're not ready for that reality?
• 58:28
  Speaker 9: Okay, to paraphrase what I said and try to give
• 58:30
  Speaker 9: the short version, I've got two kids who I love
• 58:33
  Speaker 9: to death and I just think are the best. They've
• 58:36
  Speaker 9: seen my wife and I living the lifestyle we lead
• 58:40
  Speaker 9: well into adulthood, right? We've advanced in our careers. We're
• 58:44
  Speaker 9: making more money. We're doing pretty good, all things considered.
• 58:46
  Speaker 9: Knocking on wood. They don't see the years we were
• 58:50
  Speaker 9: eating ramen noodles. They don't see the years we were
• 58:52
  Speaker 9: struggling to pay the rent. They don't see the year
• 58:54
  Speaker 9: where you're starting out. Your first job out of college
• 58:56
  Speaker 9: almost always sucks. Your first couple years out of college
• 58:59
  Speaker 9: are usually the lowest rungs of the ladder of the career.
• 59:02
  Speaker 5: It's tough. So kids go to school.
• 59:05
  Speaker 9: They go off to college, and everything is kind of
• 59:06
  Speaker 9: covered by your meals are on the meal plan. You're
• 59:09
  Speaker 9: not paying rent unless you move off campus. You know,
• 59:12
  Speaker 9: all these things are taking care of you. And there
• 59:14
  Speaker 9: was this very good op-ed of the Wall Street Journal
• 59:16
  Speaker 9: basically laid out. College creates this environment where kids just
• 59:20
  Speaker 9: think all these little details of life are taken care of.
• 59:23
  Speaker 9: They graduate, they go off into the real world, suddenly
• 59:25
  Speaker 9: have to pay their own cell phone bill. Suddenly, they
• 59:28
  Speaker 9: have to pay for their own gas. Suddenly, they have
• 59:29
  Speaker 9: to pay for their own transportation to get to their job.
• 59:32
  Speaker 9: All these expenses come along, and life is hard, and
• 59:35
  Speaker 9: they can't enjoy the lifestyle that they got used to
• 59:37
  Speaker 9: enjoying with their parents. So that is one of the
• 59:40
  Speaker 9: phenomenon that is at work here, is that you get
• 59:43
  Speaker 9: raised in this middle class or upper middle class environment,
• 59:46
  Speaker 9: and you kind of expect, ah, when I start working,
• 59:49
  Speaker 9: it's going to be like that. Maybe some folks come
• 59:52
  Speaker 9: out of college, and they're making a good living right out.
• 59:54
  Speaker 5: Of the gate, and that's great. That's not the experience.
• 59:58
  Speaker 9: And even most people who are middle class will tell you,
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 9: oh yeah, my first couple of jobs out of college stunk.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 9: You know, we really struggled and all that stuff, but
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 9: you work your way up.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 5: You start getting those promotions. You start starting to get
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 5: those opportunities. So that's, that's my sense of what, when
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 5: I heard.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: That, when I heard that, I said, there's a book.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: He's got the kids who are the right age. There's
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: a book. You need a book. I know you're writing
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: the 400th novel that I'm not going to get sent
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: to me in advance, but, There's a book in that,
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: and I'm just too lazy to write books anymore, but
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: you're not. James Garrity on X at the editors at
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: the Three Martini Lunch at the Morning Jolt in the
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: Washington Post, a man of many platforms. Don't miss him
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: on any of them. Thank you, Jim. Welcome back, America.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: I'm Hugh Hewitt. So pleased to welcome back to the
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: program the House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana. Leader Scalise,
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: welcome back. It is a couple of weeks left of
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: House business before you hit the road on behalf of
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: all your caucus. What can you get done in a
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks?
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 3: Well, you hopefully a lot. And first, it's great to
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 3: be back with you. You know, you look at just
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 3: this week, you know, we had a bill on the
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 3: floor to just Make one real clear question to the
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 3: American people. Do you denounce.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 13: Socialism, yes or no?
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 3: And 96% of Democrats in the House voted no. And
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 3: by the way, we also asked, should illegals be able
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 3: to vote in our elections? And 96% of Democrats think
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 3: that illegals should be able to vote in our elections.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 3: You want to know what's on the ballot this November?
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 3: That's the divide between common sense and crazy communism.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: Did you ever anticipate, Leader Scalise, that the Democrats would
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: go with full frontal socialism as a campaign strategy?
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 13: No, I don't think I ever would have imagined. You know,
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 13: some fringe folks, the AOC squad, it was four of them.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 3: And they were kind of laughed out.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 13: Bernie Sanders was the outlier. Well, guess what? Bernie Sanders
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 13: and AOC are now the thought leaders of the Democrat Party.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 13: That's who they're taking their cues from.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 3: Mondami, El-Sayed, Bartelon.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 13: Whether it's Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, they're literally scared to death
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 13: of the socialists, so they're doing whatever they want. And
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 13: that's why they're voting for men and women's sports. That's
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 13: why they're saying yes to open borders. They've already told
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 13: you they'll raise your taxes. And then this week, they
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 13: said we need to pack the Supreme Court. That was
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 13: one of our votes this week. And they said illegals
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 13: should be able to vote in our elections, and socialism's okay.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 13: And they voted that way this week. I mean, it's
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 13: a record vote. You can go look it up. It's unbelievable, you.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: I am wondering, has anyone done a wellness check on
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: Jared Golden? Because he voted with you on this, and
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: I'm afraid for him now.
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 3: He's leaving Congress. He said, I've had enough of these lunatics.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 3: And guess what?
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 13: We're going to retire some more of them because we're
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 13: going to win in some of these swing districts. Jared
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 13: Golden Seed in.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 3: Maine, Governor LePage is our candidate on the Republican side.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 13: He's running a great race.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 3: He's going to.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 13: Flip that seat from Democrat to Republican because people in
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 13: Maine are saying, hold on, we don't want all this
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 13: full frontal socialism. There are a lot of other districts
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 13: around the country where that's going.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 3: To be on the ballot.
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 13: And frankly, the Republican candidates going to win, even when
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 13: the media is saying, oh, there's no way Republicans can
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 13: hold the House.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 3: You know what? If everybody gets out and vote. votes,
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 3: who knows what's at stake, who knows how crazy these
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 3: ideas are, and they don't want socialism.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 13: They don't want these people going after Donald Trump every
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 13: single day. Then everybody's got to get out and vote
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 13: on November 3rd, and we'll hold the House and we'll
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 13: win some.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 3: Of these other seats.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: We'll keep hammering that, and I'll come back in a
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: moment to an extension of that. But it wouldn't be
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: the Hugh Hewitt Show if I didn't ask the leader,
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: as I asked the Speaker of the President, Leader Thune,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: is the AM radio and every car act going to
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: make it to the floor?
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 13: It is, and in fact, I can break some news
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 13: on your show, because you and I have talked about
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 13: this bill before.
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: It's an important bill.
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 3: We've been working to kind of find a way to
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 3: get it through the process. It was on another bill
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 3: that was must pass, and then that bill ran into problems.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 3: And so what I did is I made a decision.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 3: I'm bringing that.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 13: Bill to the floor the week of September 14th. So
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 13: we're going to the convention next week with President Trump.
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 13: I was with President Trump last week. He's really excited
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 13: about this convention. Next week, a midterm convention, never happened before.
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 13: But then the following week, Congress is going to be
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 13: back in session, and the.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 3: AM radio bill will be on the House floor. So
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 3: let all your audience know, everybody ought to be calling
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 3: their congressmen to vote for that bill.
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 13: We need to pass it.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: Well, there will be a radio row in Texas, and
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you, it's not just AM conservative talk. It's country, urban, news,
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: Christian teaching and talk. It's every ethnicity in the world
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: on the AM band. And more importantly than all that,
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: I think conservative talk is important. The emergency broadcast system,
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: it actually showed up in this dystopian novel about carbon zero,
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: about AI getting out of control. The only thing that
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: will work in a disaster of disasters will be the EBS.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: Is that part of the motive here?
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. I mean, look, I come from New Orleans. When
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 3: Hurricane Katrina hit, everything, you had power out.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 13: For three weeks. The only way people were getting information
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 13: is from their AM radios. They literally had their batteries dead.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 13: and their old AM radios are.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 3: In their car, and you turn your car on, and
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 3: that's how you were able to find out what.
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 13: Was going on. And so it's critical that we keep
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 13: this line of communication open on cars as they're being
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 13: made differently in the future, and that's fine.
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 3: Let cars be made with even more technology.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 13: But we need to make sure they also have AM
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 13: radio in them. That's what this bill will ensure.
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: Last question on that, Mr. Leader. Can it get from
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: the House to the Senate before the Senate comes back
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: mid-month so they can take a vote on it? Yeah, yeah, will.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 3: And like I said, week of September 14th, we'll send
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 3: it over to them. They'll be around.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 13: You know, there's a lot of bills that are over
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 13: in the Senate, like Save America Act, a lot of
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 13: other bills. But hopefully this is a bill that's going
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 13: to have a big enough vote where you'll see the
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 13: Senate be able to take it up. But let's get
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 13: all of our senators ready to go.
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 3: And move that bill to the president's desk. Because, again,
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 3: I mean, I was talking to the president about this
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 3: bill last night, and I let him know.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 13: That it was coming up, and he was excited about it.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 13: So he's ready to sign this bill.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: He and you and Speaker Johnson, Leader Thune, all big
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: friends of AM Radio, but Democrats like it too, and
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: they have constituents in every town in America with a
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: stick and a mission.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 5: Mr.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: Leader, I want to go back to a quick question
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: on the socialism thing. You served with Mike Rogers of Michigan. Okay,
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: obviously Mike Rogers of Alabama. Mike Rogers of Michigan, I
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: think you overlapped by three or four sessions.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 13: We served for a little bit.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 3: Of time and really smart guy.
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 13: And he's a great candidate in the state of Michigan
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 13: now running for the United States Senate against a nut job.
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 13: I mean, El-Sayed is about as far left communist crazy
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 13: as they get.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: Can you get turnout up there the way that the
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: generic ballot says Republicans have actually got a two-point lead,
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: according to Harvard-Harris yesterday, in likely voters? Is the turnout
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: machine working, and is socialism actually getting people to go
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: vote who otherwise would not?
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 7: It is.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 13: I was in Michigan a few weeks ago, you, helping
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 13: some of our candidates that are over there. We've got
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 13: three competitive House seats in Michigan. My current colleague, John James,
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 13: who's a dear friend of mine, is running for governor
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 13: at the top of the ticket in Michigan and.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 3: Doing a great job.
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 13: John and I went to a Jewish synagogue that was
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 13: under attack earlier this year, if you remember that attempted
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 13: terrorist attack where a crazed leftist nut was trying to
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 13: murder over 100 Jewish kids at the synagogue.
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 3: And luckily, the security guards there were able to stop him. And,
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 3: you know, the place caught on fire. And so they're
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 3: repairing the damage. So we toured the synagogue. But, you know,
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 3: you go look at the comments that Al-Sayed made about
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 3: that synagogue that day. He did not condemn.
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 13: The terrorist that was trying to kill those Jewish kids.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 13: This is who they are. So people in Michigan are
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 13: aware of what's going on, and.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 3: Boy, are they paying attention. And I think Mike Rogers.
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 13: Is in a great position to win, and that helps everybody.
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 13: It helps John James for governor, Bill Huizenga, Tom Barrett
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 13: in John James' seat, which, by the way, Bouchard, our
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 13: candidate in that district, his father was the sheriff who
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 13: was on the scene that day to deal with the
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 13: terrorist attack.
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 3: So A lot of voters, I think, are really, really
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 3: aware and scared to.
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 13: Death of this guy El-Sayed getting in the United States Senate,
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 13: and they're going to show up and not let that happen.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 13: That's why it's so important. You show up, you can
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 13: stop these socialists from winning, but everybody's got to vote.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 2: Great.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: Message, and thanks for the good news on the AM
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: Radio and Every Car Act. Enjoy your reception on Radio
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: Row in Dallas. They'll probably... You're going to have a
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: lot of champagne glasses out. Thank you.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 13: We'll be celebrating, but we've got to go get it done.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: I agree. Thank you so much for the news, though.
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: That is a bit of news. I will broadcast more
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: about that when I come back. Don't go anywhere, America.
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: Leader Scalise must move on. Welcome back, America. An old
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: friend of the program and of mine, Senator Cory Gardner,
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: used to represent Colorado in both the House and the Senate.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: He is now the president and CEO of the National
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: Cable and Telecommunications Association. Senator, welcome back. I want to
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: ask you a bunch of stuff, but I want to
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: ask first, how do you like the NCTA? It's kind
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: of at the crossroads of every big issue in America.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 4: It is, you know, as a Colorado guy that has
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 4: such a great history in the state with the telecom industry,
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 4: some of the earliest cable pioneers, John Malone, Bill Daniels,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 4: Bob Magnus, all of these people. Glenn Jones in Colorado,
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 4: getting to see their work and then to work with
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 4: the legacies of their companies that helped get America's economy
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 4: shifted online during the pandemic and entire economy as a
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 4: result of this industry. It's pretty remarkable to see the
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 4: work they do. And of course, our programmer members that
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 4: provide television content programming. It's been a blast to get
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 4: to learn, to get to know, and get to see
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 4: what they're doing for America.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: Before we get to the meat, I just want to say,
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: Hooray for C-SPAN. I know you folks invented it.
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: I think you invented it. You keep it going. It
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: ought to be on all the fast TV networks I'm
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: on now. I just want to say compliments. Does everybody
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: at NCTA still rally around C-SPAN?
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 5: Absolutely.
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 4: You know, John Evans, one of our longtime board members,
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 4: was a founder, one of the founders of C-SPAN. And
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 4: to hear his story about how it started and how
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 4: they were hanging up antennas to make sure that they
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 4: could get it, and then how to convince the industry
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 4: to pay for it, which they continue to support.
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 5: It is remarkable. I mean, C-SPAN.
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 4: Allowed Congress in the living room of American families across
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 4: this country to see what was happening, what was going on.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 4: And it's been a massive change and a ray of
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 4: sunlight for our government.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: It's a great public service. Now to the three substantive issues,
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: and they're intertwined. One is data centers. Two is artificial information.
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: Three is China messing with both. Ball in your court, Senator.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: How do you want to go about those?
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 4: Well, look, I think you're exactly right. I mean, first
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 4: of all, we have to look at China. And what
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 4: does China want to do? They want to beat us.
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 4: They want to defeat us. They want their worldview to prevail.
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 4: And they want the United States to no longer have
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 4: that voice of freedom, democracy, and opportunity for all. They
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 4: want to take over and depress the open society that
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 4: we have.
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 5: So how do they get there?
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 4: Well, they win in AI.
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 5: They win in artificial intelligence. They win in data centers.
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 4: And they basically cut off the pipeline of innovation that
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 4: has made American wealthy and successful and created so many
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 4: opportunities for U.S.
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 5: Global leadership. And so what's the best way for them
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 5: to do it?
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 4: Turn the American people against each other, stifle supply, rip
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 4: off the intellectual property of our members, and then see
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 4: what they can do to set standards around the globe
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 4: for telecommunications so that the world gets to play by
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 4: their rules like Huawei and ZTE want to set up
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 4: instead of ours.
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: Now, I'm a big advocate of data centers for the
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: simple reason that we lose the AI arms race without them,
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: but I also support them for state and local government
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: revenue generation, which I think could be rebated to people
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: who pay property taxes and sales taxes. Are you part
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: of the effort to push back against what I think
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: is a largely CCP-inspired effort to turn people against the future?
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 4: Well, you know, you think about what happens to data centers.
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 4: If they don't have the infrastructure that we build and create,
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 4: There is no AI. There are no data centers because
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 4: they have to have the pipeline, the infrastructure, the fiber,
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 4: the Wi-Fi to make it all work and for the
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 4: American consumer to reach it from their households. That's what
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 4: we do to build that sort of dirty jobs part
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 4: of AI infrastructure that nobody talks about. It's like a
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 4: Mike Rowe episode of the work that we do each
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 4: and every day. And so we are a part of
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 4: the conversations to make sure that we build that infrastructure,
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 4: that we find ways to continue investing billions of private
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 4: sector dollars into making this happen in reality. And I think,
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 4: you know, when it comes to the question of data centers, look,
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 4: without a data center, we don't have the television opportunities
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 4: that we see. We don't have the cell phone opportunities
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 4: that we have to pick up and call our loved ones.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 4: Imagine a day without a data center would be a
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 4: day the economy comes to a standstill.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: So State Senator Phil Bettencourt was on the program a
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: couple of months ago. You said Texas already has 350
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: data centers and they've doubled the revenue of some local
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: government counties in Texas. Who's leading the charge to just
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: tell that simple story? It's a question of local government revenue,
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: which can be done, you know, it can be services,
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: it can be rebates, but it's also jobs and it's
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: a lot of jobs. Who's leading the charge?
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 4: Well, look, I think that's one of the problems that
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 4: they've had is they haven't had anybody leading that charge.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 4: And so The tech companies themselves that are building this
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 4: haven't done what they need to do. They're starting to,
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 4: but they're starting from behind. But it's also our public
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 4: policy leaders to have the courage to say what needs
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 4: to be said, which is we can't win the race
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 4: against China. We can't remain globally competitive unless we excel, expand,
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 4: and succeed. And to explain the benefits of what it
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 4: means to local communities from a property tax abatement standpoint,
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 4: from a jobs standpoint. And I think Those are the
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 4: conversations that we need to have. It starts with industry.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 4: It starts with people like me. That's why we put
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 4: out public policy statements. That's why we put out principles
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 4: of artificial intelligence, the core AI agenda that talks about
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 4: America training, workforce training, jobs opportunities to make sure that
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 4: people understand where we're going, what we're getting into. It
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 4: takes the president of the United States down to your
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 4: local city council member to talk about what this is
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 4: and what it isn't. But Hugh, I think the larger
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 4: point is this. sometimes people in Silicon Valley think that
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 4: they're going to tell the American people what their future
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 4: is going to look like. And that doesn't sit well
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 4: with the people on Main Streets across the country or
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 4: people where I grew up with on Main Street. They
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 4: need to show the advantages that they will have. They
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 4: need to, through experiences, lived experiences, show what it means
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 4: for one of these communities, how it's.
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 5: Going to affect them.
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 4: And I think they've got to be better storytellers to
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 4: show the reality of that very positive impact.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, very quick last question, Senator. The Beltway is the
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: world's highest concentration of alphabet association. Who is with the
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: NCTA in this effort?
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you bet.
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 4: So our members represent everybody from Charter and Comcast to Disney, Paramount, Fox, Versant,
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 4: you name it. So we've all been talking about the
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 4: important impact that we have and connectivity and making sure
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 4: the American people get to take advantage of it. Look, 90%
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 4: of cell phone data gets carried over Wi-Fi. As a result,
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 4: we're driving down the cost of cell phone plans. We're
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 4: providing American people with content and programming like C-SPAN and
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 4: others and making sure that they know what's going on
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 4: and connecting cultures and hearts with businesses and innovation.
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: Well, I hope they keep you out there as the
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: point man, Senator. You've always been good at explaining things
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: for the average consumer of news as opposed to the
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: wonky people. like me, who will read the small print,
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: just did it again. I'm glad to hear that you're
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: running the NCTA's effort here. Senator Cory Gardner, come back anytime.
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: Keep us posted on this, because this issue is just
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: beginning to roll out on both sides, and I'm glad.
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: It's overdue. Thank you, Senator.