Latest / The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated / Secretary Rubio in Uzbekistan, State of the Senate races

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Secretary Rubio in Uzbekistan, State of the Senate races · 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 hueforhillsdale.com
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: or just google Apple, iTunes, and Hillsdale. Morning glory and
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: evening grace America. Good Tuesday to you. Hugh Hewitt from
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Inside the Beltway. 13 days of the election. I have
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: a lot of election news clips But I want to
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  Speaker 1: begin with last night. Secretary of State Marco Rubio got
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: on one of the official planes to the United States,
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  Speaker 1: went off to Uzbekistan, en route to India, where he's
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  Speaker 1: spending three days solidifying the United States-Indian alliance. But he
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  Speaker 1: held a gaggle. Not many people have covered it. I
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  Speaker 1: want to bring it to you. It's nine minutes long,
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  Speaker 1: but I think Secretary Rubio is always worth listening to.
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  Speaker 1: Let's start cut number 17. It's all right.
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  Speaker 2: With everything going on in the world and the crisis
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  Speaker 2: all over... Why are you choosing now at this time
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  Speaker 2: to go to Uzbekistan?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's the time of year that worked for those leaders.
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  Speaker 3: It's not just Uzbekistan. It's the other four countries from
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  Speaker 3: Central Asia. This is an important relationship. I mean, you know,
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  Speaker 3: one of the things that suffers is there are strategic visits.
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  Speaker 3: You know, you're always visiting some places. There's a crisis
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: or there's a problem or you're going because there's a conference.
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  Speaker 3: But there's countries you'd like to get to because we
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  Speaker 3: want to build our relationships with them. And so that's
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  Speaker 3: what we did a couple weeks ago when we went.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: to Greece and other places like that. And earlier, a
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  Speaker 3: few weeks earlier than that, we went to Latin America
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  Speaker 3: and now to Central Asia. And the chance to see,
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  Speaker 3: it was the date that worked to get all five
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: of the leaders together, all five of the foreign ministers
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  Speaker 3: from the five countries. On StarShield, what's going on?
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  Speaker 2: Because Elon Musk said it's up to the president.
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  Speaker 3: Well, StarShield or StarLink?
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  Speaker 1: Just both.
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  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I know. It's confusing. So StarLink is a
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  Speaker 3: commercial product, okay? And so it's regulated and handled as
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  Speaker 3: a commercial product. StarShield... is a defense product, a military product.
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  Speaker 3: And as I said, that is something that the United
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  Speaker 3: States military uses. It's not at this moment available to Ukraine,
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  Speaker 3: and that's under conversation. It's under discussion right now of
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  Speaker 3: how they would want.
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  Speaker 4: To use it.
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  Speaker 3: No, but did the U.S. have anything to do with
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  Speaker 3: it not working in Ukraine at the moment? Zelensky said
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  Speaker 3: it was deliberate.
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  Speaker 5: No.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I don't know what Zelensky said. I'm not sure
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  Speaker 3: Zelensky knows what he's talking about, but it wasn't deliberate.
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  Speaker 3: We had nothing to do with it. The United States,
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  Speaker 3: nobody ordered it. That Starlink speed to be slowed down,
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: it sort of happened. But my understanding is it's been restored.
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  Speaker 3: It's back to where it was before. So that's Starlink, though.
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  Speaker 3: They were using Starlink for their drones.
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  Speaker 2: Has Starshield been restored?
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  Speaker 3: Starshield is a totally different product. Starshield is a contract
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  Speaker 3: with the U.S. military. It has nothing to do with Ukraine.
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  Speaker 3: I know Ukraine wants access to Starshield. They do not
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  Speaker 3: have Starshield now. They've asked for access to it. in
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  Speaker 3: order to conduct deep strikes inside of Russia. They do
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  Speaker 3: not have access to it at this moment. Those are
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  Speaker 3: two different products.
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  Speaker 2: But you have to have a theory as to why, obviously,
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  Speaker 2: Ukraine has reported disruptions.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know what their theory is, but it
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  Speaker 3: has nothing to do with the White House. I saw
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  Speaker 3: a report on that the other day. It's just categorically false.
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  Speaker 3: No one at the White House ordered anyone to slow
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  Speaker 3: down internet or slow down speed so that certain drones
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  Speaker 3: couldn't use it. But my understanding is it's back up
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  Speaker 3: and running. That's what we heard two days ago.
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  Speaker 6: Sir, on the sanctions waivers on Russia, Senator Ted Cruz
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  Speaker 6: today called it a big mistake that only serves to
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  Speaker 6: benefit Putin. I'm wondering what your response is to that.
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  Speaker 3: Well, there are other countries. The problem is these sanctions
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  Speaker 3: were not just sanctions on Russia. They include tariffs on
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  Speaker 3: a number of countries, India, for example, and others. And
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  Speaker 3: so I think the president wants to take the 60-day
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  Speaker 3: period of time to sort of analyze what imposing both
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  Speaker 3: sanctions and tariffs will mean to the global economy and
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  Speaker 3: even to the U.S. economy. I think when the bill
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  Speaker 3: was passed, one of the reasons the waivers were put
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  Speaker 3: in there is understanding that they would need some period
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  Speaker 3: of time to study this, given all the different things
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  Speaker 3: that are going on in the world right now, including
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  Speaker 3: the pressure on global energy supplies that are happening not
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  Speaker 3: just because of Iran and not just because of the
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  Speaker 3: Straits of Hormuz, but increasingly because of the Houthis attacking
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  Speaker 3: Saudi Arabia. and because of the war with Ukraine and Russia,
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  Speaker 3: where energy infrastructure is being hit. And so that's having
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  Speaker 3: an impact on global prices as well. So I think
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  Speaker 3: you have to take all of that into account and
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  Speaker 3: weigh it against each other. And then you've got countries
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  Speaker 3: like India, for example, that have voluntarily diversified their energy portfolio,
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  Speaker 3: but are still getting a substantial amount of energy from
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  Speaker 3: Russia because it's hard to pivot from one day to
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  Speaker 3: the next. But they're also an important ally and partner
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  Speaker 3: of the United States. So the president... We need that
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  Speaker 3: period of time to sort of study all this and
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  Speaker 3: figure out what the right combination is.
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  Speaker 6: Between this waiver and the diesel deal, I mean, there's
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  Speaker 6: a criticism that we're basically giving Putin something for nothing.
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  Speaker 6: We're giving Putin these freebies.
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  Speaker 4: What's your response?
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  Speaker 3: Well, that diesel is going to be sold one way
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  Speaker 3: or the other. I mean, the diesel that Putin was
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  Speaker 3: going to sell, they were making it available to the
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  Speaker 3: global market one way or the other. The only difference
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  Speaker 3: is how much of it the United States was going
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  Speaker 3: to get. But this is not unprecedented. If you recall
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  Speaker 3: a few months ago, we also did a 60-day waiver
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  Speaker 3: on Russian oil when Hormuz was being challenged. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: these conflicts around the world are starting to crash into
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  Speaker 3: each other. And they're having an impact not just on
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  Speaker 3: global oil and diesel prices, but on economic. And, I mean,
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  Speaker 3: the United States, we're paying higher prices than we all
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  Speaker 3: want to be paying. But you look at some of
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  Speaker 3: these other countries around the world, they're near crisis mode.
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  Speaker 3: So all of these things have to be managed delicately
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  Speaker 3: because they're all... They're all coming together now. It's not
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  Speaker 3: just the Strait of Hormuz anymore. It's what's happening with
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  Speaker 3: Saudi Arabia and the uncertainty that that's creating. It's also
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  Speaker 3: what's happening between Russia and Ukraine and the constraints that's
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  Speaker 3: putting on global energy supplies. I'd like to ask you
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  Speaker 3: about violence in the West Bank.
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  Speaker 7: My colleague, Haile Levin, was attacked there yesterday.
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  Speaker 3: I saw that. We're very disturbed by those images and
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  Speaker 3: what we're seeing. We've asked the Israelis and continue to
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  Speaker 3: ask them to crack down on that stuff. The president's
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  Speaker 3: been very clear. He's said this repeatedly. He does not
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  Speaker 3: want to see friction or anything, a crisis going on
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  Speaker 3: in the West Bank. Now, I understand that these are
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  Speaker 3: groups that are out there doing it, and the president's
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  Speaker 3: been repeatedly clear when he said that he doesn't want
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  Speaker 3: to see that. He doesn't want to see a new spark.
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  Speaker 3: We saw the reports about what happened yesterday. I don't
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  Speaker 3: have all the details. I only go off media reports.
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  Speaker 3: I know we've inquired with the embassy. They're supposed to
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  Speaker 3: get a cable back later today or tomorrow indicating exactly
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  Speaker 3: what they know about it. But from what I understand
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  Speaker 3: about media reports, it didn't look good. It was an
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  Speaker 3: American reporter, maybe it was a photo, a journalist, who
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  Speaker 3: was caught behind where some of these groups came in
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  Speaker 3: and was beaten, and there was video of that. So
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  Speaker 3: the whole thing was just disturbing. Not a good look. But, Mr.
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  Speaker 2: Secretary, the president, one of the first decisions he took
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  Speaker 2: was to lift sanctions against the settlers.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I understand, but he doesn't want to see what's
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  Speaker 3: happening now. Lifting sanctions, which he did earlier today, does
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  Speaker 3: not mean he's a supporter of what he's seeing now
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  Speaker 3: on television, what he's reading about. We'd like to get
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  Speaker 3: all the facts and learn a little bit more about it,
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  Speaker 3: but that's one instance, and it happened to involve a photojournalist.
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  Speaker 3: But there are other instances we've heard complaints about. Now
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  Speaker 3: it's this olive harvest season, and so traditionally that's always
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  Speaker 3: been a time in which a lot of people come
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  Speaker 3: into those areas. So we've been watching that closely. We
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  Speaker 3: know that's an issue there. That's potentially an issue in
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  Speaker 3: Lebanon as well.
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  Speaker 2: Do you agree with the UK assessment, the intel assessment,
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  Speaker 2: that Russia and Iran may be increasing hybrid attacks over
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  Speaker 2: the next few months?
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  Speaker 3: Which assessment are you talking about?
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  Speaker 2: Both NATO and UK have indicated that.
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  Speaker 3: Those are two separate things. So in case of, you're
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  Speaker 3: asking about Russian hybrid attacks. Yeah, we've always been concerned
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  Speaker 3: that the war... in Ukraine can metastasize into other parts
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  Speaker 3: of Europe and other parts of the world, whether they
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  Speaker 3: be sabotage operations or the like. We've always been concerned
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  Speaker 3: that that's one of the risks of a stalemated conflict,
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  Speaker 3: is escalation. And escalation can take the form of irregular
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  Speaker 3: attacks or irregular events. So that's something I raised a
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  Speaker 3: couple weeks ago, and we're watching that closely. I think
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  Speaker 3: with Iran and UK, what the UK has said is
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  Speaker 3: that the Iranians were behind the plot to attack the airbase.
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  Speaker 3: And obviously, we have no reason to disagree with the assessment.
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  Speaker 3: In fact, we agree with it. All right? It's cold, guys.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: Did you guys see my gators today take down Texas?
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  Speaker 1: I wanted to play the entire clip because, A, Secretary
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  Speaker 1: Rubio is always good to listen to, but, B, how
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: much of that exchange had you heard? It's clear. It's forthright.
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  Speaker 1: It's detailed. It helps people understand the world. It helps
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: people understand three or four different stories. How much of
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: that Have you heard? And I like to be a
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: place where you can come to actually get the news,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: including news that just happened. Minutes ago in the Oval Office,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: President Trump said this, cut number 30.
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  Speaker 5: It was horrible. I mean, it's just absolutely horrible. And
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  Speaker 5: so bad what's happened to London, what's happened to Paris.
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  Speaker 5: If they don't stop it and remove people. I'm not
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: just talking about stuff. You got to remove people, get
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  Speaker 5: them the hell out. But they're not going to have
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  Speaker 5: a they're not going to have a European Union, that
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: I could have anything.
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  Speaker 8: And I like the people. They're friends of mine.
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  Speaker 5: I guess, indirectly or directly, that's where I came from, right?
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  Speaker 5: Some of us come from that part, that neck of
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: the woods. But they better get moving, because they don't
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: have much time. When you look at France— and it
• 9:20
  Speaker 5: happened in Italy, too, smaller scale, but it's right there.
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  Speaker 8: It's simmering.
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  Speaker 5: If you don't get that out— and you're going to
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  Speaker 5: have to remove the people. You're going to have to
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: remove those people that are insurrectionists. You're going to have
• 9:32
  Speaker 5: to get them out of the country.
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  Speaker 8: You can't just say, oh, we won't take anymore. And
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  Speaker 8: they continue to take. I mean, again, take a look
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  Speaker 8: at Spain.
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  Speaker 5: Just a couple of weeks ago, a hundred and somewhat
• 9:43
  Speaker 5: thousand people in just a matter of minutes rushed into
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: the country.
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  Speaker 8: They don't do anything about it.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know where they're living. I don't know.
• 9:50
  Speaker 8: It's a crazy situation going on.
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  Speaker 5: So we have now a border that's as strong as
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: we've ever had by far. It's been that way since
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  Speaker 5: the very beginning of my second term or third term,
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: depending on the way you want to define it. And
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: I just don't want the results of this. I'd like
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: the third term, but I don't want the results of
• 10:11
  Speaker 5: the second term. But this is this has been an
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: amazing experience. The thing that's happened to it, we have
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: the strongest border we've ever had. We have the single
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: greatest moment in the history of our country in terms
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: of the economy, meaning the big economy, meaning the trillions
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: and trillions of dollars that's building plants and factories.
• 10:33
  Speaker 8: All over our country. Toyota just announced it.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Is it 1982 all over again? That is Reagan's morning
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: in America arrived. It arrived too late for 82, but
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: in time for 84. We'll talk about that. Stay tuned
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: to The Hugh Hewitt Show. I'll be right back. Welcome back, America.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: You do it. Joined now by Josh Holmes, one of
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: the fellows on the Ruthless podcast. Now, Josh, you began
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: as a nice little hobby podcast. Then you got bigger
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: and bigger. Then you get bought by Fox. And then
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, like the lily pod covering the pond,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: you've taken over Fox News Sunday at noon. How did
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: the fellows do on Sunday? I was driving from the
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: north to the south. How'd that go?
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  Speaker 9: Well, it was a fun new experience for us. Hugh,
• 11:17
  Speaker 9: you know, you've got years of experience of being the
• 11:20
  Speaker 9: bell in the ball in media, but this is relatively
• 11:22
  Speaker 9: new for us. And we certainly haven't had our own
• 11:25
  Speaker 9: show before. But, you know, our goal is to have
• 11:27
  Speaker 9: a lot of fun and give you some pretty serious
• 11:30
  Speaker 9: information about upcoming midterms.
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  Speaker 3: So I think it worked.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Now, normally you don't want to go up against the
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: NFL pregame.
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying, that's not what you do, but how
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: did the numbers work out? Did they give you the
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: numbers immediately?
• 11:45
  Speaker 9: I haven't seen a single number here, so I have
• 11:49
  Speaker 9: no idea, but you know, our whole mantra going into
• 11:52
  Speaker 9: this is we're going to bring you from church to football.
• 11:54
  Speaker 9: So we occupy that slot between just Sunday services and
• 11:59
  Speaker 9: the one o'clock Eastern kickoff.
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  Speaker 4: I feel like that's a nice little niche for us.
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: I don't like to go.
• 12:04
  Speaker 9: Against the NFL on anything, mostly because if we had
• 12:06
  Speaker 9: a show during the middle of NFL games, It would
• 12:09
  Speaker 9: just be us watching Red Zone.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I don't think you actually have to worry
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: about the pregame show. I've never watched it in my
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: entire life, no matter who's on it, because they just
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: pass time. They're just getting time out of the way
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: and there aren't any highlights. So good slot. Now, let
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: me ask you before I go any further about Minnetonka.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: You are a son of Minnetonka, are you not?
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: I am indeed.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Were you ever on the homecoming court in Minnetonka?
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  Speaker 9: I was not on the homecoming court, no. I was
• 12:40
  Speaker 9: a little bit of a– you'll find this hard to believe, Hugh.
• 12:43
  Speaker 9: I was a touch of a troublemaker back in the day.
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  Speaker 3: Just a touch.
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  Speaker 10: Just a touch.
• 12:49
  Speaker 9: Not the criminal, but I.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Was a little bit of a troublemaker. Did you do
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: some Ferris Bueller kind of things? Is that what Josh.
• 12:57
  Speaker 11: Holmes– Potentially.
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  Speaker 9: I'm not going to self-incriminate on the Houston show.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: I've got to go find the Minnetonka yearbook. Because I asked,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: did gunfire break out at your homecoming game ever?
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  Speaker 9: No, I mean, and this is the thing that actually
• 13:13
  Speaker 9: you've got to– I'm glad you brought this up. It
• 13:15
  Speaker 9: is amongst the safest communities, and Eden Prairie right next
• 13:18
  Speaker 9: door is the game between Eden Prairie and Minnetonka High School, which–
• 13:22
  Speaker 9: You'd be more likely to have a moon landing when
• 13:24
  Speaker 9: I grew up there than have a shooting at one
• 13:27
  Speaker 9: of those gates. I mean it just would never, ever happen.
• 13:31
  Speaker 9: And the fact that these communities, which by the way
• 13:34
  Speaker 9: are communities that used to be very red and they've
• 13:37
  Speaker 9: now ushered in the sort of blue state politics that
• 13:40
  Speaker 9: have given rise to this unchecked Somali violence that we're
• 13:44
  Speaker 9: seeing across the state of Minnesota, fraud and everything that
• 13:47
  Speaker 9: comes with it. where you wonder whether or not if
• 13:50
  Speaker 9: the violence has come home to roost here for the
• 13:52
  Speaker 9: folks who have voted to kind of put this stuff
• 13:54
  Speaker 9: in place, whether it has an impact when you look
• 13:56
  Speaker 9: at that governor's election and that Senate election. I have
• 14:00
  Speaker 9: to think it does. I mean, I'm still in close
• 14:02
  Speaker 9: touch with an awful lot of people that I grew
• 14:04
  Speaker 9: up with. They are fit to be tied about all this.
• 14:07
  Speaker 9: I can only hope the vast majority of people are
• 14:10
  Speaker 9: ready for a change.
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  Speaker 1: I've gone snowmobiling on Lake Minnetonka with Dwayne, in fact,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: at something, a windshield approaching below 60 degrees when I was–
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: minus 60 degrees when I was doing one of the
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: local promotions for AM 1280, The Patriot. And the houses
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: are big. The schools are new. The people are happy.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: I looked to the census. There are about 3,000 Somali
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Americans in Eden Prairie. I was not thinking gang violence
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: at all. I think that's the kind of story that
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: breaks through, Josh Holmes, and might impact Michelle Tafoya's bid.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: What say you?
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: I totally agree.
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  Speaker 9: I mean, this is an area that safety and security
• 14:51
  Speaker 9: is not an irrelevant part of their consideration. They're primarily
• 14:55
  Speaker 9: economic voters, but they are certainly not folks who are
• 14:59
  Speaker 9: accustomed to having gang violence in their backyard.
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  Speaker 3: But that is exactly what's happened.
• 15:03
  Speaker 9: And really the core question before Minnesota voters this year
• 15:07
  Speaker 9: is whether or not you're comfortable with the Tim Walz,
• 15:10
  Speaker 9: Peggy Flanagan, DFL Democrat vision for Minnesota that has brought
• 15:15
  Speaker 9: you $ 8 billion in fraud, violence in your streets, and
• 15:19
  Speaker 9: an unrecognizable sort of culture that we have in Minnesota.
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: Or do you want to go in a different direction?
• 15:26
  Speaker 9: I think Michelle Tafoya is a terrific candidate, one of
• 15:28
  Speaker 9: the best Senate candidates that we have anywhere in the country.
• 15:31
  Speaker 9: She's done a really good job of articulating this difference.
• 15:35
  Speaker 9: And I just hope beyond hope for my home state
• 15:38
  Speaker 9: that they're going to take some good advice and go
• 15:39
  Speaker 9: vote for her.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Michelle Tafoya, rookie of the year for Republicans, certainly. Before
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: I go on to Vivek and Abdul Sayed, I want
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: to bring up the Vikings are 5-0. Yes, 5-0. We
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: bow down. The Panthers are 3-2. The Bengals are 4-2,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: I think. And the Colts are 2-4. Has the parlay
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: hit yet this year? The fellas have a parlay every week.
• 16:06
  Speaker 10: It is not.
• 16:06
  Speaker 9: And, you know, Smug is like an adopted Broncos fan
• 16:09
  Speaker 9: because he spent a stint there a formative year, so
• 16:12
  Speaker 9: he's a Bronco guy more than a Panther guy. It
• 16:14
  Speaker 9: is not hit, but it will. And when it does,
• 16:17
  Speaker 9: it's going to pay big money. We're focused on it
• 16:20
  Speaker 9: each and every week. To be honest with you, the
• 16:22
  Speaker 9: Colts have kind of let us down on that.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: Duncan. I blame him.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Are you telling me that Smug bets the Broncos and
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: not the Panthers?
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: He does.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
• 16:33
  Speaker 9: The ruthless parlay is, yeah, Colts, Broncos, Bengals, and Vikes.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: You'd have been better off with the Browns this year,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry to say. All right, let me go to
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: the bank.
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: Also, yeah, let me just say before you do that, Browns.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: Pretty impressive.
• 16:46
  Speaker 9: You notice I've receded from my critiques of the Browns.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: They're posting Ws.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: I hope you have noticed, but I am getting worried
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: that they might resign Deshaun Watson. That's the downside to
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: the upside. All right. Let me go to Vivek and El-Sayed. El-Sayed,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: I have a clip later where he's denouncing the Second
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: Amendment and saying everyone can have a musket. And I've
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: got the ad that I'm not yet certain was put
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: out by the Ramaswamy campaign about Amy Acton's mother. What
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: do you make of both of those campaigns? And I'm
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: assuming for the moment, because he otherwise would have denounced it,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: that Vivek is behind the mom ad.
• 17:22
  Speaker 9: Yeah, let me start with the Vivek Ramaswamy ad. And
• 17:26
  Speaker 9: I don't know who they, it looked like sort of
• 17:29
  Speaker 9: an outside group that is involved in that.
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: And, you know, I'll take that, what I understand of
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: it now.
• 17:35
  Speaker 9: I think you've got to be very careful running an
• 17:37
  Speaker 9: ad like that. It's not new to try to find
• 17:39
  Speaker 9: crazy family members that try to criticize a candidate. This
• 17:42
  Speaker 9: happens every cycle. There's usually more to the story. You've
• 17:45
  Speaker 9: got to be careful about when you try to throw
• 17:47
  Speaker 9: that out in the public because there could be a
• 17:49
  Speaker 9: boomerang effect in many ways if you find out, for example,
• 17:53
  Speaker 9: that her mom lost custody of her in just horrific circumstances,
• 17:59
  Speaker 9: which looks like it could be the case. The bigger
• 18:02
  Speaker 9: issue with Amy Acton is that she– is going to
• 18:05
  Speaker 9: try to win a race entirely on taking a charge
• 18:07
  Speaker 9: in this. Everything is her reaction to something else. She
• 18:12
  Speaker 9: has no resume to run on. She's not impressive at all.
• 18:15
  Speaker 9: I can't think of a single reason why you would
• 18:18
  Speaker 9: vote for her. But she is outraged by everything that's
• 18:22
  Speaker 9: talked about her candidacy and everything else. And that, she's hoping,
• 18:27
  Speaker 9: is enough to get her over the finish line. So
• 18:30
  Speaker 9: when you go down this road with an ad with
• 18:32
  Speaker 9: her mom, you run the risk of playing right into
• 18:34
  Speaker 9: her hands. And I hope that doesn't happen.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: 30 seconds on El Sayed and Mike Rogers.
• 18:40
  Speaker 9: I think that Mike Rogers is in a good spot. Look,
• 18:42
  Speaker 9: Michigan's very hard to win. We haven't won it since
• 18:45
  Speaker 9: Spence Abraham in the 90s. If this was anybody other
• 18:49
  Speaker 9: than El Sayed running on the Democratic ticket, I think
• 18:52
  Speaker 9: we'd be looking at a margin here. But he's not.
• 18:55
  Speaker 9: This guy is coming apart with the oppo that has
• 18:58
  Speaker 9: come out about him, his family's ties to the Muslim Brotherhood,
• 19:02
  Speaker 9: all kinds of different things that make people really queasy, particularly,
• 19:05
  Speaker 9: by the way, black voters in Wayne County, which are
• 19:08
  Speaker 9: not on board.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Josh Holmes, a bit of a troublemaker at Minnetonka High School.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: If anyone wants to provide me details, they can reach
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: me at radioblogger at HughHewitt.com, dpatterson at HughHewitt.com. we'd like
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: that expose Josh Holmes. Thank you. I'll be right back. America.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Stay tuned. Welcome back America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. That music
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: means David Drucker, uh, Reuters and Bloomberg and the dispatch
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: and everybody else who does politics joins me, David, you
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: are in Maine and I was in Maine last week
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: following the Collins Jackson race. You've picked up the trail.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: What do you think?
• 19:44
  Speaker 12: Well, look, I, I think that there's no doubt. It's
• 19:47
  Speaker 12: a very tough cycle for the Republican party. Uh, susan
• 19:50
  Speaker 12: collins is a i've been thinking about this today she's
• 19:53
  Speaker 12: sort of a unicorn kind of a candidate right i
• 19:55
  Speaker 12: think if susan collins had retired uh i think troy
• 19:59
  Speaker 12: jackson would be in a much better position i think
• 20:01
  Speaker 12: part of the the issue he's having is that he
• 20:05
  Speaker 12: is a great fit you know so far as it
• 20:07
  Speaker 12: goes for the first district right Portland, the coast, and
• 20:12
  Speaker 12: where you're going to find a concentration of Democrats and
• 20:14
  Speaker 12: progressives and staunch liberals. People forget, but Western Maine, rural Maine,
• 20:21
  Speaker 12: is a plus 10 Trump district.
• 20:24
  Speaker 11: It's pretty staunchly conservative.
• 20:27
  Speaker 12: It's, you know, old paper mills and union members and
• 20:31
  Speaker 12: hunters and agriculture workers.
• 20:33
  Speaker 11: And so I think Susan Collins is very strong there.
• 20:36
  Speaker 12: What was striking to me today was how she's running
• 20:39
  Speaker 12: as a very old school politician. I bring home the bacon, right?
• 20:43
  Speaker 12: You send some tax dollars to Washington. I bring back
• 20:46
  Speaker 12: more and then some to fund a new emergency management
• 20:50
  Speaker 12: center where I was with her today in Franklin County
• 20:53
  Speaker 12: to fund entrepreneurship programs for kids. And right behind me
• 20:58
  Speaker 12: is a hospital celebrating its 100th anniversary. And she's appropriating
• 21:03
  Speaker 12: funds to help with an expansion. And so this is
• 21:07
  Speaker 12: her strength. This is what she's running on. She's not
• 21:10
  Speaker 12: shying away from the fact that she's an incumbent, that
• 21:12
  Speaker 12: she's steeped in Washington. And she is very competitive in polling.
• 21:17
  Speaker 12: Some have her a little bit ahead. Some have her
• 21:19
  Speaker 12: a little bit behind. You give her an edge candidate
• 21:24
  Speaker 12: to candidate. You give her a little bit of a
• 21:26
  Speaker 12: disadvantage on the environment. But I know that her campaign
• 21:29
  Speaker 12: is feeling very good about where they are.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Now, David Drucker, I consulted my U.S. Census numbers. Maine's
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: population has increased by about 50,000 to 1,414,000 people in
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: the six years since Susan Collins was last on the ballot.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: That's not a big change because, of course, all 50,000
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: people aren't adults. Not all of the adults will vote.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Some of those who do vote will vote for Collins.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: She won by nine points last time. Do you see
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Jackson having a incandescent appeal that Sarah Gideon didn't have
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: six years ago?
• 22:06
  Speaker 12: Well, I think that's the wrong way to look at it, Hugh.
• 22:09
  Speaker 12: That was a presidential cycle, and this is a midterm cycle.
• 22:13
  Speaker 12: And Trump was in a much better place politically in
• 22:17
  Speaker 12: 2020 than he is today. And so I think those
• 22:21
  Speaker 12: were apples and oranges. Turnout universes can be different. I
• 22:24
  Speaker 12: think her campaign is confident, but even they like to
• 22:27
  Speaker 12: stress to me, generally speaking, that they didn't have her
• 22:31
  Speaker 12: winning with that kind of a margin six years ago.
• 22:34
  Speaker 11: They were confident.
• 22:36
  Speaker 12: They thought the public polling was overstating things. They didn't
• 22:39
  Speaker 12: think they were going to win by nine.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: So if you were to write about her.
• 22:42
  Speaker 11: I just think it's a little different.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: If you were going to write about her, for Bloomberg opinion,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: ranking her among the most powerful people in D.C., would
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: you agree with me? Because I've said that she's the
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: most powerful woman in Washington, D.C., certainly the most powerful
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: woman in Congress. Agree or disagree? David Drucker.
• 23:02
  Speaker 11: I don't necessarily agree or disagree.
• 23:04
  Speaker 12: I'd have to give it some more thought to you,
• 23:05
  Speaker 12: but look, she is an old school, Paul, you know,
• 23:08
  Speaker 12: the appropriations committee is what, you know, what does Capitol
• 23:10
  Speaker 12: Hill hacks refer to as an a committee, right? Because
• 23:13
  Speaker 12: for so many years, it was a top committee, a
• 23:16
  Speaker 12: committee that lawmakers coveted. And then over the years, everybody
• 23:20
  Speaker 12: started complaining about the smoke filled room and backroom deals.
• 23:24
  Speaker 12: And especially in the Republican party, earmarks went out of
• 23:27
  Speaker 12: fashion and spending and supposedly goes out of fashion, but
• 23:29
  Speaker 12: not really. And she's like, unapologetically, I am the appropriations
• 23:34
  Speaker 12: chairman of the United States Senate.
• 23:35
  Speaker 11: I bring home money. And you don't see a lot
• 23:38
  Speaker 11: of politicians doing that.
• 23:39
  Speaker 12: I think one of her strengths is that she's not
• 23:40
  Speaker 12: trying to be somebody she isn't, and she's leading with
• 23:43
  Speaker 12: her strength. And I will say that I think, you know,
• 23:46
  Speaker 12: Troy Jackson is trying to run as a Democratic nominee
• 23:53
  Speaker 12: in a state that I would say he'd be a
• 23:56
  Speaker 12: much better fit for Massachusetts than than he is for
• 23:59
  Speaker 12: Maine because Maine's a little bit more complex. So she
• 24:02
  Speaker 12: is very powerful in Washington, and she owns it. And
• 24:05
  Speaker 12: what do most politicians in both parties do today? They
• 24:08
  Speaker 12: pretend they don't work there because voters are so angry
• 24:11
  Speaker 12: at Washington and angry at political insiders. I will say
• 24:15
  Speaker 12: in states like Maine, I could list Iowa as another one,
• 24:18
  Speaker 12: they like it when their politicians are powerful.
• 24:21
  Speaker 11: And she doesn't shy away from that. And if she does.
• 24:25
  Speaker 12: Win in a couple of weeks, I think that'll be
• 24:26
  Speaker 12: one of the reasons why.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: So, David, I went back and looked at 1982. Every
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: election is unique, and, of course, the country is so
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: much bigger and the economy is so much bigger. But
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Reagan had a tough first two years. Interest rates were high.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: He and Volcker pushed them up to 21% was the
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: prime rate. I bought our first house inside the Beltway.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: It was a townhouse fetching Mrs. Hewitt and I. We
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: had a 12.5% mortgage. Reagan got hammered. Net one for
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: the Democrats in the Senate. And in the House, the
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Democrats picked up 26. And that was a bleak time.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Do you see this year as being more bleak than
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: 82 circumstances for Reagan or for Trump?
• 25:06
  Speaker 11: Oh, yeah. Much more bleak. First of all, Reagan was
• 25:10
  Speaker 11: in his first term. That was his first midterm.
• 25:12
  Speaker 12: When presidents, either party, become unpopular in their second term,
• 25:16
  Speaker 12: there's a level of frustration and exhaustion that exists. It
• 25:21
  Speaker 12: just simply isn't there in the first term because there's
• 25:23
  Speaker 12: a little bit more leeway, even though the first midterms
• 25:25
  Speaker 12: usually a rebuke of some sort. I think you can
• 25:29
  Speaker 12: see where Democrats are competitive in red states in Senate races.
• 25:33
  Speaker 11: As evidence of just how bleak it is.
• 25:36
  Speaker 12: Now, they may lose all of those red state Senate races,
• 25:38
  Speaker 12: but the fact that they're as competitive as they are,
• 25:40
  Speaker 12: I think, tells you where this cycle is.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: David Drucker, always good to talk to you. Thank you.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Get home from Maine safe. I hope you find your
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: way to a lobster roll place before you leave town.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Make sure you do. David M. Drucker, follow him on
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: X at David M. Drucker, writes for Bloomberg Opinion, contributes
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: to the Dispatch. Stay tuned. I'll be right back on
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: the UQH Show. Please begin this hour with Brett Baer.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: He is the host every night from 6 p.m. to
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: 7 p.m., a special report on the Fox News Channel. Brett, welcome.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Last night on set with you, you closed the program
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: with a little segment about PGA Hope. I had never
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: heard of it before. Very good segment, and Guy hadn't
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: heard about it before. Tell people about it, because I
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: think it sounded like a wonderful thing.
• 26:25
  Speaker 10: Yeah, PGA Hope is the charitable arm of the PGA
• 26:29
  Speaker 10: of America, and I've been with them for a long time.
• 26:34
  Speaker 10: I got involved, obviously, because of golf, and And then
• 26:37
  Speaker 10: some of these organizations, they have different arms of it.
• 26:40
  Speaker 10: PGA Reach deals with kids, especially urban areas. But PGA
• 26:46
  Speaker 10: Hope is about veterans, and they use golf as a
• 26:51
  Speaker 10: therapy almost. A lot of them have PTSD or something
• 26:55
  Speaker 10: coming off of their service. And there are golf instructors
• 26:59
  Speaker 10: from around the country. and there are chapters all over
• 27:03
  Speaker 10: the country, and they've really helped a lot of people
• 27:06
  Speaker 10: over time with the game of golf. So it's really great.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: Any service member out there to investigate PGA Hope, it
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: was a great little segment, only about a minute, but
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: it got me intrigued. I'll look into it. Now to
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: the news of the day. First, Brett Baer, there's an
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: ad about Amy Acton that appeared online this morning. It
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: has no tags. I don't know if Vivek Ramaswamy is
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: behind it or if one of the dark groups came in.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: It's such a bad ad. It could be someone trying
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: to help Amy Acton with a sympathy play. Did you
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: see it? What do you make of it? What do
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: you know about it?
• 27:41
  Speaker 10: I haven't seen it. I've seen a write-up of it. And,
• 27:45
  Speaker 10: you know, if it doesn't have a tag, you know,
• 27:50
  Speaker 10: technically everything has to be said exactly who paid for it.
• 27:55
  Speaker 10: And so... Who knows? It could be dirty tricks one
• 27:59
  Speaker 10: way or another. We're at that time now where candidates
• 28:03
  Speaker 10: who are behind or campaigns that are barely ahead are
• 28:09
  Speaker 10: going to try things that may be outside the box,
• 28:13
  Speaker 10: and so you kind of have to watch for that.
• 28:14
  Speaker 10: I think that race is tight.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: It's very tight, but I think if he is behind that,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: if Vivek, is behind that, or one of the groups
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: is behind it. It's going to blow up in his hands,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: because her personal story is inspiring, and her mother is
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: not a credible witness against her. It's pretty obvious. Here
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: is El Sayed, though, throwing a long bomb last night,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: talking about the Second Amendment. Cut number 31 for Brett Barrett.
• 28:42
  Speaker 11: I'm going to swear an.
• 28:44
  Speaker 8: Oath to the Constitution. The Constitution has the Second Amendment
• 28:47
  Speaker 8: in it. But the Second Amendment, just so we all
• 28:49
  Speaker 8: are clear.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Even the most.
• 28:51
  Speaker 13: Conservative folks, they hew to this idea called originalism. And
• 28:56
  Speaker 13: originalism is the idea that you should interpret the Constitution
• 28:59
  Speaker 13: in the context in which the Constitution was written. When
• 29:03
  Speaker 13: they promised the right to bear arms, they had muskets. So, yeah,
• 29:09
  Speaker 13: everyone should have equal rights to a musket.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: So, Brad Bear, there are between 35 and 40 percent
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: of Michigan households have firearms in it. Do you think
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: that is a message designed for them at all?
• 29:21
  Speaker 10: No, I mean, that's as bad as, you know, criticizing
• 29:25
  Speaker 10: football in Michigan. And I mean, maybe it's not as
• 29:30
  Speaker 10: bad as being against Thanksgiving. But there's real questions about
• 29:36
  Speaker 10: some of the things he says. He is a smooth talker.
• 29:39
  Speaker 10: You know, we're going out to take a special report
• 29:41
  Speaker 10: on the road to Michigan this Friday. And we're expected
• 29:47
  Speaker 10: to have interviews with both Senate candidates. So it should
• 29:50
  Speaker 10: be interesting. We also talk to voters when we go
• 29:52
  Speaker 10: on these road shows. And, you know, I think that
• 29:56
  Speaker 10: this race is.
• 29:59
  Speaker 10: The quintessential race of this cycle in that it literally
• 30:03
  Speaker 10: could go either way, depending on who shows up. And
• 30:06
  Speaker 10: I think that there are a lot of groups that
• 30:09
  Speaker 10: are playing ball in Michigan, and it's taken a lot
• 30:13
  Speaker 10: of money, almost as much as Texas.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Which is hard to believe, because there is really only
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: one big market. Grand Rapids has its own market. Flint
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: has its own market. DUP has its market. I spent
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: three years in Michigan. I know it pretty well. Here's
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Karl Rove with Martha McCollum yesterday talking about the race.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Cut number 27 for Brett.
• 30:33
  Speaker 14: Well, for a guy who excused an attack on a Jewish...
• 30:40
  Speaker 14: synagogue in the state by saying, hurt people, hurt people,
• 30:44
  Speaker 14: there's a lot of concern that this guy is too
• 30:46
  Speaker 14: close and unwilling to break with Islamic terrorists. His father-in-law
• 30:50
  Speaker 14: has been on the board of the Islamic Society of
• 30:53
  Speaker 14: North America, which is, for 20 some odd years, this
• 30:56
  Speaker 14: is an organization that has been criticized for its ties
• 30:59
  Speaker 14: to funding terrorism in the Middle East. So, no, this
• 31:02
  Speaker 14: is a guy who's got a real problem with a
• 31:05
  Speaker 14: substantial group of voters in the state, not just simply
• 31:07
  Speaker 14: Jewish voters, but people are deeply concerned about his ties
• 31:10
  Speaker 14: to extremists.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: So, Brett Berry, has he done, has El-Sayed done enough
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: to allay fears about his connections with or sympathy for extremists? No.
• 31:22
  Speaker 10: In fact, he kind of discounted a citizen who stood
• 31:27
  Speaker 10: up and, you know, that person could be a part
• 31:29
  Speaker 10: of a campaign, it could be a lot of things,
• 31:31
  Speaker 10: but he asked straightforward at a town hall kind of
• 31:34
  Speaker 10: environment will you denounce the Muslim Brotherhood? And there was
• 31:38
  Speaker 10: this big thing. The answer was kind of back in
• 31:41
  Speaker 10: your face and then linking himself to JFK. So no,
• 31:47
  Speaker 10: I don't think so. He may be as an aside,
• 31:50
  Speaker 10: but he usually goes to the attack saying, what a
• 31:54
  Speaker 10: horrible question.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, if you sit down with him, how do you
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: prepare for that? Because you've seen what I've seen. He
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: deflects by turning around. He might ask you if your
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: mom and dad are alive. He might ask you whether
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: or not you've ever been to Egypt. He turns it around.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: It's a technique with him. How do you prepare for that?
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: I'm not used to that from a candidate who's usually
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: trying to sell a message, not deflect attention away from
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: a fact.
• 32:21
  Speaker 10: I think you keep going, short questions to the point,
• 32:26
  Speaker 10: substantive answers that you're going for. If they don't come,
• 32:30
  Speaker 10: make clear that the audience knows that they don't come
• 32:32
  Speaker 10: and go after it three times. And then the audience
• 32:35
  Speaker 10: is kind of awake to the fact that he's not
• 32:40
  Speaker 10: answering the question.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: Excellent approach. Let me play a little bit of President
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: Trump today in the Oval about an hour ago. Cut
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: number 32. Absolutely horrible.
• 32:50
  Speaker 5: And so bad what's happened to London, what's happened to Paris.
• 32:55
  Speaker 5: If they don't stop it— and remove people. I'm not
• 32:57
  Speaker 5: just talking about stop— you got to remove people, get.
• 32:59
  Speaker 8: Them the hell out. But they're not going to have a—
• 33:02
  Speaker 8: they're not going to have a European Union.
• 33:06
  Speaker 5: They're not going to have anything. And I like the people.
• 33:08
  Speaker 5: They're friends of mine. I guess, indirectly or directly, that's
• 33:12
  Speaker 5: where I came from, right? Some of us come from
• 33:15
  Speaker 5: that part, that neck of the woods. But they better
• 33:18
  Speaker 5: get moving, because they don't have much time.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: When you look at.
• 33:21
  Speaker 5: France, and it happened in Italy too, smaller scale, but
• 33:25
  Speaker 5: it's right there.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: It's simmering.
• 33:27
  Speaker 8: If you don't get that out, you're going to have
• 33:29
  Speaker 8: to remove the people.
• 33:30
  Speaker 5: You're going to have to remove those people that are insurrectionists.
• 33:33
  Speaker 8: You're going to have to get them out of the country.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: So, Brad Bear, we talked about the Red-Green Alliance last night.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: It's often been called the Red-Black Alliance, well, back in
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: the days of Khomeini returning from France to Iran. But
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: I don't know that Europe has in its DNA removing people.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: It's a new problem for them. Do you think they do?
• 33:55
  Speaker 10: No, I don't. And I don't think that there's, I mean,
• 33:59
  Speaker 10: maybe a couple of countries are getting there. You know,
• 34:02
  Speaker 10: maybe the Italian prime minister is getting there. Maybe others,
• 34:07
  Speaker 10: you know, and some of the parties are talking about it.
• 34:11
  Speaker 10: But I don't think there's a compunction or any history there.
• 34:14
  Speaker 10: of Europe standing up to that possibility.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: I don't see it happening. So I want to close
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: by asking you about Michigan. How long are you going
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: to be there, and are you going to Detroit, or
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: are you going to go up to... Ann Arbor, where
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: are you heading in Michigan?
• 34:29
  Speaker 10: Yeah, we're going to Detroit. Both candidates are in and
• 34:32
  Speaker 10: around Detroit that day. I'm only there for an entire day,
• 34:37
  Speaker 10: but I've had crews out there really since the beginning
• 34:41
  Speaker 10: of this week. So we'll talk to a number of voters.
• 34:44
  Speaker 10: We'll outline the two Senate campaigns. There is a governor's
• 34:50
  Speaker 10: race there. and we'll see what all we can get in.
• 34:55
  Speaker 10: But these road shows are a couple of things. One
• 34:58
  Speaker 10: is they give a flavor for the ground, and we
• 35:01
  Speaker 10: talk to people about what they care about. And two
• 35:04
  Speaker 10: is you really get a sense of some of these
• 35:06
  Speaker 10: events by going to them and kind of standing there
• 35:09
  Speaker 10: instead of being on the back end of a TV camera.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: Couldn't agree more, and you'll see who is there, and
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: you'll be able to tell us about it. We'll watch
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: a special report this week for that. Brett Baer, always
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: good to talk to you. Thank you, Brett. Follow him
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: on X. at brett bear watch him every night at
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: 6 p.m on the fox news channel welcome back america
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: i'm hugh hewitt that was mike rogers standing next to
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: abdul el sayed last night i'm joined by byron york
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: of the washington examiner fox news contributor byron did you
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: get a chance to grade last night's full exchange between
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: rogers and el sayed.
• 35:40
  Speaker 15: I was not able to no i'm listening to it
• 35:43
  Speaker 15: on your show.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: What do you think of that exchange.
• 35:47
  Speaker 15: Well, you know, I think that Rogers is doing better.
• 35:51
  Speaker 15: As a matter of fact, I think that he's kind
• 35:53
  Speaker 15: of getting his feet under him in this and learning
• 35:58
  Speaker 15: how to oppose this particular opponent. And so, you know,
• 36:04
  Speaker 15: I think there's a reason for some optimism with a
• 36:06
  Speaker 15: couple of weeks left.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: I agree with that. In fact, I've talked a lot
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: about it. I want to switch over to Ohio. Early today,
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: On X was released a minute-long video of Amy Acton,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: Democratic nominee for governor, former Ohio health care director, mother,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: saying Amy Acton is a liar. Mother looked unusual, and
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: the ad was rough, and all day long, it had
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: no tag on it. About an hour ago, a fellow
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: named Dan Hauser posted this, Byron. My apologies. I posted
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: the video of Amy Acton's mother without understanding the details
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: behind their relationship and the very serious accusations. that caused
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: their issues after researching it, and the disturbing allegations I
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: have deleted the video post. I'm not sure if Dan
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: Hauser has taken responsibility for the video, for posting or
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: reposting it. How do you understand that?
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 36:59
  Speaker 15: You know, when I saw this, I thought, you know,
• 37:02
  Speaker 15: there's something really weird about this. And then I looked
• 37:08
  Speaker 15: up kind of a long story about Amy Acton's troubled,
• 37:13
  Speaker 15: you know, childhood family history. And I thought, boy, you know,
• 37:19
  Speaker 15: the mother is just not really in any condition to
• 37:25
  Speaker 15: speak about this. And I don't know exactly how it
• 37:28
  Speaker 15: got out. And, you know, it's not a felony or anything,
• 37:33
  Speaker 15: but if I were running against Amy Acton, I think
• 37:36
  Speaker 15: I would just ignore it.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: If I were Amy Acton, I would demand Vivek Ramaswamy
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: tell us everything he knows about it. Would you?
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: Well, of course you would.
• 37:48
  Speaker 15: Of course you would, even if you didn't have any
• 37:50
  Speaker 15: evidence that Ramaswamy had any involvement in it. And I don't.
• 37:55
  Speaker 15: I don't know. But, of course, if it's your opponent,
• 37:58
  Speaker 15: you're going to blame it on him.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, who could possibly? You know, I'm even
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: open to the argument that it's dark money from the
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: Acton side of the aisle. that made that and posted
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: it so we would be talking about it today, and
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: that maybe Dan Houser just reposted it and he's apologized.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: But he's the advisor to Mike Lee. Don't you think
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: he'd be better prepared to let us know what he meant?
• 38:25
  Speaker 15: Yeah, listen, I don't know. I have not looked into
• 38:29
  Speaker 15: today where this came from. I heard a brief discussion
• 38:34
  Speaker 15: on TV where people were upset about it. about it
• 38:38
  Speaker 15: being released. And like I said, I mean, my initial
• 38:42
  Speaker 15: reaction was, you know, this woman is not entirely compos
• 38:46
  Speaker 15: mentis here, and this is not really something that's going
• 38:50
  Speaker 15: to play any sort of reasonable part in the campaign.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: I agree, and not having a tag on it is troubling,
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: and therefore will provoke every political reporter from you and
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: me to everyone else out there to ask, who, what, where, when, why?
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Let me turn to Minnesota, the most overlooked and interesting
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: race in my view, because Peggy Flanagan is a nut
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: and Michelle Tafoya is Rookie of the Year in politics.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: But it's a pretty blue state. What do you think, Byron?
• 39:20
  Speaker 4: I agree with you.
• 39:22
  Speaker 15: But, you know, I got to say right now, the
• 39:24
  Speaker 15: Rookler Politics Average Polls is flattening it up by 3.2 percent.
• 39:30
  Speaker 15: I don't believe it. I'm not sure about it. But
• 39:35
  Speaker 15: this would be obviously a pickup, a pickup seat. They're
• 39:41
  Speaker 15: going for an empty Democratic seat. So this would be
• 39:45
  Speaker 15: huge for Republicans. And, you know, the quality difference, you know,
• 39:50
  Speaker 15: you know, after midterms, you know, and there's always a
• 39:54
  Speaker 15: few disasters in midterms and somebody writes the expected column.
• 39:59
  Speaker 15: You know, it turns out that Canada quality really matters.
• 40:03
  Speaker 4: You know, I went back and looked at that.
• 40:06
  Speaker 12: Right.
• 40:06
  Speaker 15: So you can plan on those in late, you know,
• 40:09
  Speaker 15: November or December. eight maybe they'll all pop up so
• 40:13
  Speaker 15: anyway um this this is one of those situations where
• 40:17
  Speaker 15: i think it's really true and we can say so
• 40:18
  Speaker 15: ahead of time flanagan's a really awful candidate to defoy
• 40:22
  Speaker 15: is a good candidate um there's a uh it is
• 40:27
  Speaker 15: there's there's a lot of um baggage uh for the
• 40:31
  Speaker 15: uh dfl democratic farmer labor party in uh in minnesota
• 40:36
  Speaker 15: a lot of baggage with the all of the uh
• 40:40
  Speaker 15: the scandals and the fraud. On the other hand, the
• 40:44
  Speaker 15: whole Minneapolis experience with ICE and the two killings and
• 40:50
  Speaker 15: all of that is pretty heavy weight on Republicans. So
• 40:54
  Speaker 15: I'm not exactly sure how it all balances out, but
• 40:57
  Speaker 15: I just got to think that Michelle Tafoya has a
• 41:00
  Speaker 15: solid chance.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: I agree completely. She's the rookie of the year in politics,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: and she's run a very disciplined, excellent race. Let me
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: close by talking about Texas. I have no idea. If
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Tallarico wins, they have to move the Alamo. That's all
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: I know. What do you think, Byron?
• 41:21
  Speaker 15: I believe every time I've been asked to talk about this,
• 41:24
  Speaker 15: I just throw it in the toss-up category. First of all,
• 41:28
  Speaker 15: it's incredibly close. And we do have to remember, I
• 41:38
  Speaker 15: think it was a CBS poll that came out this week, 51-49,
• 41:42
  Speaker 15: Tallarico over Paxton, 51-49. And you think, wow, that's tied.
• 41:48
  Speaker 15: And then somebody said, you know, those are not the
• 41:50
  Speaker 15: only two candidates. I mean, there's a libertarian candidate and
• 41:53
  Speaker 15: another candidate. And if the race is really that close,
• 41:58
  Speaker 15: you know, maybe those candidates would take away from Paxton.
• 42:01
  Speaker 15: That would be You know, unfortunate for Republicans. So this
• 42:06
  Speaker 15: is one of those I have a very, very hard
• 42:07
  Speaker 15: time getting a sense of.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: I'm glad to know that Byron York is as confused
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: as I am by the map because he's got all
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: the same questions as I do. Follow him on X
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: at Byron York. Follow me the next segment, America. We'll
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: talk next hour with Continetti about the same unanswerable questions.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: It's all vibes at this point because the data doesn't
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: tell anything and the data is dirty. Stay tuned. Hi,
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: Hugh Hewitt for Carbon Zero. Every day there's another headline
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• 44:31
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  Speaker 1: Or visit usmedicalplan.com. I'm Hugh Hewitt, joined now by Matthew Continetti. Matt,
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: of course, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal. He's
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: the head of domestic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute,
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: where he's beaming in to us from, and a Thursday
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: participant in the commentary podcast, though sometimes he's on Wednesdays.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: Matt is a man of many, many, many talents, and
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: he shows up at different times on commentary. Matt, I
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: want to begin by asking you about France. Before I
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: get into specifics, what's your reaction to the unrest in
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: France and a little bit in Italy?
• 46:12
  Speaker 4: Well, Hugh, I think my reaction is like anyone when.
• 46:14
  Speaker 7: confronted with lawlessness, is you want to see order restored
• 46:18
  Speaker 7: as soon as possible. I think no one can look
• 46:21
  Speaker 7: at the image of the bell tower of the church
• 46:24
  Speaker 7: in Limoges collapsing and not be saddened and horrified that
• 46:29
  Speaker 7: such an event is occurring. And I think it's evidence
• 46:32
  Speaker 7: that Europe has gone astray, that Europe has chosen a.
• 46:36
  Speaker 4: Model of economic development that doesn't work, that only.
• 46:40
  Speaker 7: Impoverishes people and has no modes of social mobility for
• 46:46
  Speaker 7: the open borders that Europe has adopted at the same time.
• 46:50
  Speaker 7: It's like Milton Friedman said, you can't have open immigration
• 46:54
  Speaker 7: and a welfare state. And we're seeing the conflagration of
• 46:57
  Speaker 7: that in Europe right now.
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: Now, last night on Special Report, Matt, Brett had some
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: fun with me because I said, look, this is coming
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: to the United States pretty soon. replay of 2020, but
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: more along the lines of France, no precipitating event like
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: the George Floyd murder, but spontaneity and demonstrations and violence.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: Do you agree with me, or do you think that's
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: a little pessimistic?
• 47:23
  Speaker 4: I think it's already here, Hugh.
• 47:25
  Speaker 7: I think we saw it on America's campuses after October 7th,
• 47:29
  Speaker 7: the so-called Tentifada, where Jewish students were harassed for being Jewish,
• 47:35
  Speaker 7: and the students caught In the midst of the chaos,
• 47:40
  Speaker 7: who didn't want any part of the politics of October 7th,
• 47:44
  Speaker 7: they were also harassed and bullied and having their studies
• 47:49
  Speaker 7: interrupted by the pro-Hamas students. We've seen it on the
• 47:53
  Speaker 7: streets of New York and some other American cities where
• 47:57
  Speaker 7: the pro-Hamas protests get out of hand. We've seen, of course,
• 48:00
  Speaker 7: anti-Semitic violence throughout the United States, including where I am
• 48:05
  Speaker 7: in the nation's capital.
• 48:06
  Speaker 4: So has it reached the level that France is experiencing?
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: No. Could it?
• 48:13
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: That's what I think, and I think it's coming pretty soon. Now, Matt,
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you've read The Cauldron yet by
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: Simon Montefiore. Have you had a chance to read The Cauldron?
• 48:24
  Speaker 7: It's on the stack, Hugh. I haven't quite gotten to
• 48:27
  Speaker 7: it yet. There's that new biography of Tom Brady I
• 48:29
  Speaker 7: need to finish first.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: No, not that. Go find an Autogram biography. Anyway.
• 48:34
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: In part 10 of The Cauldron, Montefiore goes through what
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: he called the Red-Black Alliance of 1978-79, when then Ayatollah
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: Khamenei was in France. He brought all the liberals in.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: He tricked Richard Falk of Princeton and others into thinking
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: he was a reformer, a Gandhi-like figure. In fact, he
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: was planning to and carried out 100,000 executions in his
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: first year The red part of the Red-Black Alliance was
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: quickly throttled and killed, the MEK, all those people. Do
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: you think when we talk about what Iran is and
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: why it's dangerous, the American public has any idea of
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: how nightmarish that regime is?
• 49:15
  Speaker 4: I think the American people have some sense of it, Hugh.
• 49:19
  Speaker 7: Look, America has been on the receiving end of Iran's
• 49:23
  Speaker 7: terrorism for almost 50 years, since the revolution, since the
• 49:27
  Speaker 7: hostage crisis in 1979, the Beirut barracks bombing in the
• 49:31
  Speaker 7: early 1980s, Khobar Towers, the thousands of American soldiers who
• 49:37
  Speaker 7: were wounded or killed because of the IRGC and their
• 49:42
  Speaker 7: supply lines into the Shiite militias. We have Americans killed
• 49:47
  Speaker 7: in the past seven months through the fighting that commenced
• 49:53
  Speaker 7: with Operation Epic Fury. And we know that one of
• 49:57
  Speaker 7: the causes of our current conflict with Iran was the
• 50:00
  Speaker 7: wholesale massacre of the Iranian people by their terrorist government.
• 50:04
  Speaker 7: in the months at the end of 2025 and beginning
• 50:07
  Speaker 7: of 2026.
• 50:08
  Speaker 4: So Americans have.
• 50:09
  Speaker 7: A good idea of the horrors of the Iranian regime,
• 50:13
  Speaker 7: but they need to be reminded of it. And they
• 50:15
  Speaker 7: need people to communicate not just who the enemy is,
• 50:20
  Speaker 7: but what we're doing to defeat that enemy. I think
• 50:23
  Speaker 7: that's what the American people are looking for, what they
• 50:26
  Speaker 7: want to hear right now.
• 50:28
  Speaker 4: And we get some of it, but we don't get enough.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: I agree with that. I don't think we get enough. Now,
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: Secretary of War Hegseth went to Israel yesterday. He met
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: in the desert at an air base where we have
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: our fighter planes and our refueling planes parked and ready
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: to go with Prime Minister Netanyahu. Do you anticipate anything
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: big happening before the election or soon thereafter, Matt Continetti?
• 50:53
  Speaker 7: I think the real danger zone, Hugh, will be in
• 50:56
  Speaker 7: between the Israeli election and the American election. We know
• 51:00
  Speaker 7: that Iran wants to amp up the pressure on Donald
• 51:03
  Speaker 7: Trump ahead of the midterm election. That's why we see
• 51:06
  Speaker 7: these increased attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
• 51:11
  Speaker 4: Iran wants Trump to strike.
• 51:14
  Speaker 7: It wants to bait him into a conflict because then
• 51:18
  Speaker 7: I believe the Iranians would target once again our bases
• 51:21
  Speaker 7: and our soldiers. And from the Iranian terrorist mind, they
• 51:25
  Speaker 7: think that would hurt Donald Trump in the midterm election
• 51:28
  Speaker 7: if they succeeded in killing our soldiers. So right now, Trump,
• 51:31
  Speaker 7: I think, is waiting to take any further action until
• 51:35
  Speaker 7: after the midterms.
• 51:36
  Speaker 4: He's said as much.
• 51:37
  Speaker 7: But in between that Israeli election and the American election,
• 51:41
  Speaker 7: just a few days separate the two.
• 51:44
  Speaker 4: I think you could see an Iranian attack.
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: And if President Trump responds fulsomely, how does that impact
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: the election?
• 51:54
  Speaker 7: Well, as I said, I think if any at that point, Hugh,
• 51:58
  Speaker 7: if an attack happens in the final days before the election,
• 52:02
  Speaker 7: I don't see it really having an effect of tipping
• 52:05
  Speaker 7: the balance one way or the other. But I do
• 52:08
  Speaker 7: think that more important than any election is America's victory
• 52:12
  Speaker 7: in this war with Iran. Iran cannot come away from
• 52:16
  Speaker 7: this conflict crowing that somehow it bested the United States.
• 52:21
  Speaker 7: The repercussions for the world, for American security, would be terrible.
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: You're right about that. Now, After the 2006 election, Republicans
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: got thumped. George W. Bush came back with the surge.
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: Do you expect something similar from Trump, even if the
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: GOP gets thumped?
• 52:41
  Speaker 4: I do.
• 52:42
  Speaker 11: I do.
• 52:42
  Speaker 7: I think we can't allow Iran to reconstitute its missile
• 52:46
  Speaker 7: and drones program in the way that they're doing. We
• 52:48
  Speaker 7: can't allow them to continue harassing traffic through the Strait
• 52:52
  Speaker 7: of Hormuz. We can't allow them to kind of dig
• 52:56
  Speaker 7: up remains of their nuclear program, which largely remain underground.
• 53:01
  Speaker 7: So I do expect Trump will attack Iran, will hit
• 53:04
  Speaker 7: Iran after the election.
• 53:07
  Speaker 4: The question is, will it be enough?
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: Welcome back, America. Hugh Hewitt with Matt Continetti. Follow Matt
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: at Continetti on X. Matt, two big stories today. One
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: is Alyssa Slotkin's comments at the The other is Vivek
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: Ramaswamy's ad, at least I think it's from Vivek Ramaswamy,
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: featuring the mother of his opponent. Let's take them in
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: reverse order. What did you make of the Ramaswamy ad
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: featuring Amy Acton's mother?
• 53:36
  Speaker 7: If you're asking about the ad featuring Amy Acton's mother,
• 53:39
  Speaker 7: I have to say it's quite striking, and it seems
• 53:45
  Speaker 7: to me to be kind of a Hail Mary play
• 53:48
  Speaker 7: on the part of whoever's funding it. I'm not sure...
• 53:51
  Speaker 7: how it's going to land with the electorate. Sometimes ads
• 53:54
  Speaker 7: like this actually produce the opposite effect than intended. And
• 53:59
  Speaker 7: so I'm not sure how much longer that ad will
• 54:02
  Speaker 7: run if it's appearing on TV at all.
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I am hoping, I've watched it two times, hoping
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: to see the line about who paid for it, that
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: it wasn't Vivek Ramaswamy. I don't know that it was
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: Vivek Ramaswamy. It could have been Amy Acton. It's going
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: to have so much blowback, in my humble opinion. Do
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: you think some third-party group came in there and screwed Vivek?
• 54:27
  Speaker 4: It's possible.
• 54:28
  Speaker 7: You know, I mean, at this point in the campaign,
• 54:30
  Speaker 7: you have events that sometimes seem like too obvious in
• 54:37
  Speaker 7: a way, right?
• 54:38
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think about El-Sayed's encounter with Tommy.
• 54:43
  Speaker 7: It almost seems as though there was something going on
• 54:46
  Speaker 7: there where El-Sayed wanted someone to to ask him a
• 54:49
  Speaker 7: question about the muslim brotherhood so he could go on
• 54:52
  Speaker 7: his lecture and bullying like that this this ad i
• 54:56
  Speaker 7: don't know all the details just as you say but
• 54:58
  Speaker 7: it has a sense of it almost wants to inspire
• 55:01
  Speaker 7: blowback i think what i think most most people will
• 55:04
  Speaker 7: look at that and say yeah that's just not i
• 55:07
  Speaker 7: know that's not good i don't want to hear that
• 55:09
  Speaker 7: i'm going to make my decision based on other factors.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah i can't think it's anything but negative but we'll
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: see I'll come back to El Sayed next segment. I
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: want to ask you about Alyssa Slotkin. I've been asked
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: by Brett Baier. I've been asked by Sandra Smith today.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: And I said the same thing both times. People forget
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: they're on film when they go out and do these
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: Institute of Politics things. I know you do them. Do
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: you ever forget that everything is filmed? I never forget
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: that everything is filmed. I don't.
• 55:35
  Speaker 4: It's in Washington. Nothing is ever off the record.
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: So when Alyssa Slotkin said that, I don't think she
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: expected to be making news, and I think she would
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: take it back. But she's doubling down now. What do
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: you make of the comments that they want to deter
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: people from serving, young people from serving in the Trump administration,
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: and the implicit threat of lawfare against Trump employees?
• 56:02
  Speaker 7: Well, it's very, very dispiriting news, Hugh. You know, at
• 56:06
  Speaker 7: some point, someone is going to have to be the
• 56:08
  Speaker 7: adult and say, enough with this lawfare. Enough with this
• 56:11
  Speaker 7: back and forth. And that adult is not going to
• 56:14
  Speaker 7: be Alyssa Slotkin. And, you know, she's thinking of running
• 56:18
  Speaker 7: for president in 2028 as well. But if this is
• 56:21
  Speaker 7: really the issue she wants to run on, I don't
• 56:23
  Speaker 7: think it's going to go very far. But it's also, though,
• 56:27
  Speaker 7: I think, evidence of where the.
• 56:29
  Speaker 4: Democratic base is.
• 56:30
  Speaker 7: The Democratic base wants to put the scarlet T on
• 56:35
  Speaker 7: all the supporters of Donald Trump. not just the people
• 56:38
  Speaker 7: who work for him, but the people who voted for
• 56:40
  Speaker 7: him three times. And that that's the sentiment of the
• 56:43
  Speaker 7: democratic base. People like Alyssa slot can either share in
• 56:47
  Speaker 7: that sentiment or want to somehow capitalize on it, but
• 56:51
  Speaker 7: it doesn't lead anywhere good for American democracy.
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: Uh, we're going to break in a minute, Matt, but
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: I watched it. I don't think she was trying to
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: make a statement. I think she was trying to get
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: a connection with a young audience and stepped in it. Uh,
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: Am I being too charitable?
• 57:08
  Speaker 5: No.
• 57:09
  Speaker 4: She's a smart person. She has talent. There's no question
• 57:14
  Speaker 4: about it.
• 57:14
  Speaker 7: But here, I think she was speaking from the heart.
• 57:17
  Speaker 7: It's like they say, a gaffe in Washington is when
• 57:20
  Speaker 7: a politician tells the truth.
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: It's just that everybody sits down in those situations, and
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you've done 100 of them, And you get
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: into it with students and you go back and forth.
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: And you might not remember you're being recorded. And then
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: it all goes viral. And Alyssa Slotkin on MSNOW last
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: night saying, doubling down. I just don't think it's a
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: good plan. What would you advise her to say right now,
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: Matt Continetti?
• 57:45
  Speaker 7: I would say we need to talk about affordability. I
• 57:48
  Speaker 7: would say, look, we're going to have accountability for the
• 57:51
  Speaker 7: Trump administration if the Democrats win Congress.
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: Welcome back, America. Hugh Hewitt with Matt Continetti, Wall Street
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: Journal columnist. Today, the Journal has a story. They took
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: 71 economists. They got them in a room. Boy, they
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: paint a rosy picture next year and the year after that.
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: It looks very good going forward. So I was reminded
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: immediately of the 1982 elections, Matt. President Reagan had had
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: a rough couple of first years with Volcker, taming inflation,
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: interest rates were high. He ended up losing a net
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: one to the Democrats in the Senate. and 26 in
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: the House and seven governorships. Do you think President Trump's
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: GOP will do better than that or worse than that
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: in 13 days?
• 58:34
  Speaker 7: I think they'll do slightly worse in the House, Hugh,
• 58:37
  Speaker 7: but I actually think that that minus one, net minus
• 58:41
  Speaker 7: one in the Senate is very plausible at this stage
• 58:43
  Speaker 7: as we see some of the polls closing in the
• 58:46
  Speaker 7: red states. And then the possibility of Republican candidates Pickups,
• 58:52
  Speaker 7: unexpected pickups in Michigan and Minnesota, you could get to
• 58:56
  Speaker 7: a net minus one. That'd be a very positive scenario
• 59:00
  Speaker 7: for Republicans.
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: It would be. Let's walk through the individual races. Let's
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: begin in Maine with Susan Collins and Trump. Jackson. I
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: don't think it was ever close. Now I'm persuaded it's
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: not even close. Am I wrong? Am I right? Do
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: you share my opinion?
• 59:19
  Speaker 7: I think Susan Collins is going to win. How far
• 59:23
  Speaker 7: behind she was is hard to say because the polls
• 59:25
  Speaker 7: are always underestimating her in Maine, but I'd say Troy
• 59:29
  Speaker 7: Jackson is not looking like a winner in his public appearances.
• 59:32
  Speaker 4: So I favor Ruth Collins in Maine.
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he gives a bad reputation to the word rumpled
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: and inarticulate. Let's then go up to Minnesota. You mentioned
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: it already. Michelle Tafoya's line, tell it to someone else.
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: Peggy is, I think, the line of the year in politics.
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: How do you see that going?
• 59:54
  Speaker 7: Well, I think Michelle Tafoya, great candidate, coming on strong.
• 59:57
  Speaker 7: She's going to need to build on this momentum in
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 7: the next two weeks. It's going to be, I think,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 7: a very unexpectedly narrow margin, either way it goes. But
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 7: it's pure toss-up for me right now, which the Democrats
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 7: don't want.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: No, and they have to spend money up there. Then
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: we go to Texas. And I have no idea, except
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: one Republican that I talked to before, yesterday said things
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: are looking better for Paxton. Republicans are coming home. What
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: do you think?
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm seeing the same thing. Republicans coming home in Texas.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 7: I think Abbott is consolidating his lead over the Democrat.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 7: I think Abbott's coattails will be enough to get Paxton
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 7: just slightly over the edge against Tallarico. Though you can't
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 7: discount the possibility that Texans go split ticket and elect
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 7: Abbott to another term but also send Tallarico to the Senate.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: I still say if they elect James Tallarico, they have
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: to close the Alamo and move it to Arizona or Oklahoma.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: John Husted in Ohio is up against old, old Sherrod Brown,
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: who's visibly infirm, never had a job that wasn't government
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: for 50 years out of Yale. He's coming back two
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: years after he lost to Bernie Marino. And John Husted
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: is a very amiable, excellent senator. What do you think?
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 7: Yeah, same thing there. Republicans seem to be coming home.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 7: The polls are looking better for Houston. Tight race in
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 7: the polls.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 4: But I think.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 7: Houston is in a good position for the next two weeks.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 7: You want to solidify that partisan identity. And of course,
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 7: you had John Gruden rooting for Houston as well.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 4: That's got to help.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: And that's a state where I think Donald Trump will
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: go back at least once more. And my hometown and
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: my home state, very much Trump country. Let's finish in Michigan.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: El Sayed is the most radical major party candidate of
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: my lifetime, and it's not even close. I really think
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: whether or not, as you mentioned earlier, Tommy was a plant,
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: he didn't handle it very well, bullying a questioner. They
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: say he's running that ad and that he's running that
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: tape himself. I don't think so. What did you think
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: of that exchange? What do you think of Mike Rogers?
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: What do you think of the campaign up in that
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: state up north that we Buckeyes don't talk about much? Well,
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: you're right.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 7: We've never had a candidate like this. We've never had
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 7: a candidate like Abdul El-Sayed. He's so radical. He has
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 7: these ties to radical Islam in the form of the
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 7: Muslim Brotherhood. He can't distinguish between Israel and Iran. He
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 7: says they're both threats to the United States.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 4: This is terrifying.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 7: And what it's doing is, I think, changing the democratic
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 7: coalition in ways we haven't really seen before. And when
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 7: I look at Michigan right now, I see Mike Rogers
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 7: making gains among Jewish voters and also among black voters.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 7: And Jewish voters and black voters historically are the pillars
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 7: of the Democratic coalition. So if Rogers is doing that,
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 7: I think it can only be good for him, broadening
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 7: his appeal. If El-Sayed somehow wins, it's going to be
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 7: with a very different Democratic coalition than we're used to seeing.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 7: and that I think also would pretend pretty bad developments
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 7: in American politics.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: Now, Mayor Mamdani weighed in to the campaign and said
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: we really need him, it's important for the city. I
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: don't think that helps El-Sayed at all. Mayor Mamdani, as
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: radical as El-Sayed is, is also known for being part
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: of the red-green thing. Do you think it was wise
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: for Mamdani to insert himself into the race? I know
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: he's helped him raise money, they've had calls, but Did
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: he really need to talk about him today?
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 4: Well, I think for El-Sayed, it's a last-minute play.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 7: El-Sayed's going to win if he wins on the basis
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 7: of young, radical socialist voters at the colleges and universities
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 7: and turning out the Muslim vote in Michigan. And both
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 7: of those constituencies like Zohran Mamdani. So that's, to me,
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 7: what the logic behind Mamdani's statement is. But Rogers can
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 7: also say, look, this radical in New York is for El-Sayed.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 7: It's just I, Mike Rogers, care about Michigan. And, you know,
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 7: that's what he's been saying. He's been saying El-Sayed cares
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 7: more about Gaza than he does Detroit. And he's absolutely right.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 7: And I think that message has resonated in Michigan. And
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 7: so if Rogers wins, it will be because most Michiganders
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 7: don't want Zoran Mamdani involved in their politics.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: 15 seconds, Matt. I don't even know if he's going
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: to get 100% or even 80% of the Muslim vote.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: He's pretty radical. And Muslim Americans are like every American.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: They don't want to be told how to live and
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: what to do. What do you think of my proposition that, no,
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: that's not 100% for him either?
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 7: Well, no, I think there's something to it, Hugh. You know,
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 7: this is a diverse community. There are plenty of Shia
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 7: in Michigan as well. They might not like what they're
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 7: hearing from El-Sayed. This is a candidate who's radical, and
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 7: I think he's grasping at straws.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 4: Is what I'm seeing.
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: That's what I'm seeing as well. Matt Continetti of AEI
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: and the Wall Street Journal.