WEBVTT - The U.S. Report | 10 April 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:06.320 This is the US Report with James Morrow. 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:11.680 Good evening, and welcome to the program. Here's what's coming 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:15.440 up tonight. Gavin Newsom's woke wife puts her foot in it, 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:19.680 but will it derail her husband's presumptive campaign for the presidency. 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:25.160 Plus why is Milania Trump talking about Jeffrey Epstein all 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:27.600 of a sudden, It's a mystery. We'll dive into you 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:32.240 with John Heindracher and who's your daddy? Well, NATO chief 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:38.120 Mark Rutta has a slightly surprising answer. But first to 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:41.120 the war in Iran. And I'm here to tell you 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:45.560 something that I imagine you already suspected to be true, 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:50.320 namely that just about everything you are hearing about how 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:55.680 the conflict is going is wrong or at least deeply 0:00:55.800 --> 0:01:00.440 shaded by politics, because you read much of the When 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:02.360 you read much of the press, you're gonna hear one 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:07.880 thing over and over again. And it goes sort of 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:12.319 like this, Trump is a taco war criminal whose mere 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:15.520 tweets should have him up on trial at Nuremberg. How 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:19.920 dare he say nasty things about those nice old mullahs 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:23.840 in Tehran? Yep, that's pretty much what most of the 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:26.840 media is saying right now. But let's start with the 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:30.760 whole taco thing. You know, Taco it's an acronym for 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:35.480 Trump always chickens out. It's a weird meme, a phenomenon 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:38.399 that still has a lot of currency on the left. 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:41.199 And we saw it played out in the press when 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:48.360 Donald Trump threatened in a tweet to basically end Iranian civilization. Now, 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:51.320 the left read this and they panicked and screamed that 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:55.680 Trump was guilty of war crimes because he merely threatened 0:01:56.200 --> 0:02:00.720 to take out Iranian infrastructure. Well, if that's war crime, 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:03.400 I think these guys ought not to look too closely 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:06.880 at the Allied Air Commands area bombing campaigns in World 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:11.639 War Two. But that's another story. Then when Donald Trump 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:15.160 relented and did end to open the floodgates of destruction 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:17.480 and the Iranians seemed to come to the table to 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:21.120 talk about a peace deal, well they changed their tune 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:25.680 and they said, Hi, Karamba, it's taco night. But I 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:30.440 tell you what, it's all so tiresome because this has 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.119 been going a long time on a long time when 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:36.359 it comes to Trump that Iran I mean, check out 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:40.400 this mashup of CNN before last year's strike on Iran's 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:44.360 nuclear facilities, and then what they said immediately after the strikes, 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:48.280 and then what they said right before this year's strikes. 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:51.440 This timeline of Iran being a few weeks away from 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:55.240 a nuclear bomb is in direct contradiction to CNN's reporting. 0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:59.080 Uran's uranium may still be intact and in Iranian control 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:02.560 four hundred and a kilograms of it now and not theoretically, 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:05.760 according to experts, to make nine nuclear weapons. Sources tell 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:08.200 CNN there is no US intelligence that are on is 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:10.800 building missiles that could soon hit the United States. 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:15.440 That's a really big deal. Yes, I know CNN assumes 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:18.120 that all of its viewers are idiots who have the 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:22.080 memories of goldfish. But putting those three clips together, you 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:25.040 can see how their narrative change. They went from there 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:28.200 is no need from strikes too, Iran is nowhere near 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.200 a nuclear weapon, and then they said, oh wait, no, no, no, 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:33.880 the strikes have failed. Now they're closer than ever to 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:38.160 getting nuclear weapons. And then what's that? They said, Trump's 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:40.600 hitting them again? Why does he need to do that? 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:44.920 There's no way they're close to a nuclear weapon. Just 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:48.800 flipping and flopping back and forth, taking the opposite position 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:53.119 of Trump. Whatever he does, says or promises, you see 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:56.520 how it works. But there's something worse about all this, 0:03:56.600 --> 0:04:00.960 because at the heart of this messaging is a demoralization 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:05.280 campaign that is not just about talking down Iran, but 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:09.360 about talking down America and the West. Well at the 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:13.040 same time, treating Tehran and their malas and iatolas is 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:19.760 somehow a bunch of brave heroes of the resistance. Here's 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:23.440 ms now Stephanie Rule giving a little bizarre taste of this. 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:27.920 Well, this is a phenomenal point because you could disagree 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:30.279 with Iran and what their point of view is, but 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:33.279 it's the fact that they have a deep belief in 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:36.000 something that's unforbill die for, that they will die for, 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:37.840 that they'll destroy their country for us. 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:42.080 Say what you will about the tenets of apocalyptic Shia Islam. 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:45.240 At least it's an ethos. Of course, all of this 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:48.760 has real consequences too. And if you think the chattering 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:52.800 left loves talking down America's chances in Iran, just imagine 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:56.080 what they think watching all of this in Beijing, where 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:59.920 Jijinping and his mates must be rejoicing at the thoughts 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:02.880 that just a few weeks of energy crisis and conflict 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:07.280 can bring the West's elite to heal. Yes, say whatever 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:10.120 you like about Trump, the tactical makes mistakes he may 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:13.080 have made in this fights the wild messaging, the fact 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:15.800 that he hoped a popular that the hope for popular 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:19.400 Iranian revolution has not yet occurred. The fact is the 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:21.839 fact that we can't absorb a few weeks of energy 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:23.920 shock in service to an effort to bring one of 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:28.400 the world's most dangerous and carcinogenic regimes to heal. Has 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:33.080 no chance if China decides to invade Taiwan and dominate 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:37.720 the Pacific. That is why this whole demoralization campaign is 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:41.680 so dangerous. It goes well beyond Iran. It goes to 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:44.719 the future of the US and very much the future 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:48.159 of Australia. It is part of the broader talking down 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:50.560 to the West in general by the left, which has 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:54.120 since at least the nineteen sixties, so for a good 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:57.880 three or four generations in the educational system now taught 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:00.919 that the free and liberal world that we enjoy is 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:06.760 really no better than just the product of patriarch colonialists 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:10.440 and the slave trade, and which sees the enemies of 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:17.920 the West as brave, heroic, scrappy resistant fighters. Honestly, but again, 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:21.640 all of this has consequences, and it creates a feedback loop. 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:24.560 What we are seeing now is what happens when a 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:28.520 Western world, increasingly shorn of higher purpose, gets into a 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:32.440 hot war with a regime whose entire legitimacy stems from 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:35.240 fighting it. You know, there was a book called on 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:39.400 Strategy by Colonel Harry Summers, and it opened up with 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:44.760 an exchange between two old officers, one American one Vietnamese, 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:48.640 reunited in peace after the Vietnam War. In the book, 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:51.400 he tells the story of these two colonels. One says, 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:55.039 you know, you never defeated us on the battlefield. That 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:57.680 was the American colonel, and then he says the North 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:00.680 Vietnamese colonel pondered this remark for a moment and said 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:05.800 that may be so, but it is also irrelevant. This 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:09.279 is the game the Iranians are trying to play. Lose 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:13.520 the war, survive, and become the new resistance heroes of 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:17.720 the West. Those that help this agenda aren't anti war 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:24.760 so much as they are on the other side. Okay, 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:27.160 let's get straight into the discussion here and bring in 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:30.440 our first guest writer and researcher at the Hudson Institute, 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:33.480 Zeneb Ribua Zenev, Welcome back to the program. Thanks so 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:36.320 much for joining me. Now, a few weeks ago, when 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:39.520 we last spoke, it looked like the Iranian regime was 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:43.240 close to collapse, but in the week since it seems 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:46.800 to have deepened its resolve and despite this very shaky 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:51.600 ceasefire is internally within Iran, I'm told, selling the message 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:54.280 that they are resisting, in fact that they have won 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:58.880 the war and are even back to killing dissidents. What's 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:02.800 the latest out of Iran and how close to the 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:07.440 collapse is this regime in your analysis? 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:10.440 Well, thank you very much for having me. I think 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:16.000 that you know, there's always some I ERGC doing AI 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:20.680 memes and videos and lego movies just explain how how 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:24.440 much of a strong unit they are. But you know, 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:28.840 don't let that fool you. On the ground, they've been absolutely, 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:32.520 i think decapidated in terms of their abilities. They do 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:35.240 not have the similitary abilities that they used to have. 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:39.000 Their missiles and drone architecture is being tested and it's 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:43.920 being destroyed. The navy has been destroyed. And here's the 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:46.880 thing they do have a strategy, and their strategy is 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:50.600 about having some sort of mosaic architecture. There's something they've 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:54.040 learned after the fall of Saddam in two thousand and three. 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:58.520 But it does not mean that they can actually have 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:04.400 a long term survival ability for the simple reason that 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:07.960 they're being suffocated, not just on the military side, but 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:12.400 also on the financial side. Before Operation Epic Theory happened, 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:15.360 the economy was not doing well, and right now they 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:18.240 don't have cash to recruit and in fact people do 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:20.720 not want to join them. They had to make sure 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:25.920 that children aged twelve twelve years old joined them instead 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:29.600 of others. So they do have several problems that they're 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:32.160 not and of course they're denying. 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:34.520 Yeah, I mean, look, that's real last days of the 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:36.840 Third Reich stuff, when you're getting twelve year olds involved 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:39.280 in the fight. But you know, the question then is 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:43.160 really who is in control in Iran because obviously the 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:46.560 leadership has been absolutely blown to bits. We've got an 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:49.400 Eyatola who may not even be conscious. I have heard 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:53.440 that there could be different factions between the IRGC and 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:56.520 the political wing. With these peace talks that we're hearing 0:09:56.520 --> 0:10:00.120 about scheduled in Pakistan, who was actually talking for or 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:05.000 representing Iran? And do they speak for, you know, some 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.880 sort of coherent government. Is there even a coherent government there? 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:12.880 I would say that there isn't for a very specific 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:17.360 reason that they violated one of their own successions rules 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:22.480 by appointing uh Hameni's son instead of appointing a legal 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:26.760 scholar that has several credentials and so on, so in 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:28.800 that in that from that point of view, I think 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:32.120 that they do have a huge governance crisis on who 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:35.240 is talking well right now, the administration is actually in 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:39.760 talks precisely and with with the political side of things, 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:46.240 with the with the Foreign Minister and other political political 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:51.800 maneuvers and operators the i r GC. However, while they 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:55.959 are so embedded in the political structure, I do think 0:10:56.080 --> 0:11:00.960 that they're being sidelined in a way that helps the 0:11:00.960 --> 0:11:04.240 political faction rise rise up. And you can see that 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:08.880 for example within President Peshikyan in the middle of the operation, 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:12.760 especially on the Iranian side, was saying to the ier GC, 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:15.800 but also saying in general that we will not hit 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:21.320 the golf countries. However, ten minutes later, the IERGC started 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:26.440 hitting Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other countries. So actually 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:29.240 they are very fragmented, but there is now I think 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:35.520 a bigger schism between the political and the military that. 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:37.920 That excuse them. There, I think is very important and 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.120 people need to understand that there's actually two different kind 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:43.199 of groups that have always run the country. But I'm 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:46.320 still very interested in the IRGC because of course the 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:49.600 second worthy revolutionary you know, that has to do with 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:54.520 this whole ideology of resistance that Iran has always held to, 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:58.760 and it ties in with the broader anti American movement. 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:01.240 You've talked about this in a different way when you've 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:05.040 talked about the phenomenon of third worldism. Does this explain 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:08.040 this idea that they've figured out a pose that's you know, 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:12.760 anti American and resisting that American imperialism as they call it. 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:14.920 Is that why there's so many people on the left 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:18.880 and in the West who seem to be supporting Iran. 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:21.440 I mean, even if they don't say so explicitly, they're 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:24.440 certainly not hoping America wins and defeats this regime. 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:30.120 Well, supporting Iran makes complete sense if you are anti 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:33.199 America and you think that America is the evil empire 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:37.680 and that Israel is this representative in the Middle East, 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:40.800 which means you actually agree with Iran that America is 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:43.840 the great Satin in Israel is a little Satin. And 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:45.959 I think that there's something, you know, you just point 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:51.040 out about IRGC's ideology. What people do not actually understand 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:55.200 sometimes is that it's a revolutionary regime and they genuinely 0:12:55.360 --> 0:13:00.600 have an apocalyptic vision of the world. This operation, for example, 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:03.679 for them, it's already a certain sign of the end 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:06.040 of the world, you know, which is why, for example, 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:08.600 when Truck when he said something of the sort, when 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:11.600 he said something like, you know, we're going to erase 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:17.280 your civilization, you actually started speaking the language of the IERGC, 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:20.560 because that's exactly how they think. That's exactly how they 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:25.559 imagine winning against the United States look like. And that's 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:30.160 something to take into consideration. They generally think that this 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:32.040 is the end for them, and you can see that 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:37.280 when they're talking about Haspola and other proxies in the levant. 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:41.880 They understand the stakes. They understand that the end of Hespola, 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:45.520 which is why they've been protective of it for so long, 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:48.840 means the ends the end of the IERGC, and so 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:52.120 obviously there is an ideological thing there, But I would 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:57.280 stress something else. The Arab countries have changed. The region 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:02.600 wants business, they want investments. They do no longer adhere 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:06.880 to an ideology that wants death. And that's very actually 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:10.439 visible in how the UAE and other countries have taken 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:14.040 a strong stance against the Islamic Republic because one of 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:17.800 the things that the Islamic Republic wanted was images from 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:21.600 the Arab world chanting debt to America while the operation 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:23.560 is ongoing and it didn't happen. 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:27.560 Isn't this a rebuke then to basically that entire Obama 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:31.320 era foreign policy, which was such a disaster, which believed that, 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:34.160 you know, if you did anything against any of these 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:38.560 sorts of revolutionary Islamic movements that were anti American, you 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:42.200 would outrage the Arab street as they always called it. 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:45.720 And we've just shown that this absolutely doesn't exist in 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:47.600 any sort of sense that they were saying. 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:51.600 Yeah, it's actually I had this exact same conversation with 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:53.640 a friend of mine who told me, oh, this is 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:57.239 you know, there's a in a Western world, there's the Arabis, 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:00.240 And I said, you know which Arabists are we talking about? 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:02.480 Are we talking about the West or are we talking 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:05.280 about the Middle East, Because in fact, the Millia East 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:08.800 is the one that is so close to Iran's aggressions. 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:11.360 They've seen what it looked like in Syria, the cinema, 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:15.160 it looked like in Lebanon and in Iraq. These countries 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:19.160 want to have a state and they've been deprived from 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:23.320 having one because they want kept promoting the proxies. So yes, 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:26.720 I think that there is a huge, I think contrast 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:30.000 here and it's a very dangerous one because it means 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:34.480 that the Milla East is not only changing, but also 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:37.720 that the threats are going to come from the West. 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.720 This time it's a revolution state. So we have to 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:45.080 keep in mind that the ideology can reproduce and fighting 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:49.920 against it and the battlefield, but also on the information space. 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:51.440 It's very it's very important. 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:53.840 So then we're gonna have to leave it there. We 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:56.000 can chat all night about this, wish we could, but 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:57.880 maybe we can do that another time. Thank you so 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:02.440 much for your time, as always, thank you very much. Okay, well, 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:06.080 let's keep the conversation going now with Republican strategist and 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:10.400 former spokesman for Senator Ted Cruz Ron naring Ron. I 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:13.480 wanted to keep this going because so much talk about 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:16.160 the war and all of the other flow on effects 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.360 from it. We know that this conflict has not been 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:24.600 that enthusiastically supported by some of the United States allies, 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:28.000 and now we're seeing this flow back with Republicans and 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:32.000 new polls showing quite a bit of discontent with NATO. 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:35.360 Is this conflict and the flow on effects from it 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:39.120 going to have last implications for that North Atlantic Alliance? 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:41.080 Is the US going to pull out of NATO? 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:43.880 Well, I don't think the US would pull out of 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:47.200 NATO because the consequences for the United States would be 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:50.960 so negative. In terms of the United States derives a 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:54.680 lot of benefit from its membership and leadership in the 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:59.800 NATO alliance. For example, when Norway monitors those Russian submarines 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.960 passing through Norwegian territory, they're not doing that to protect Norway. 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:06.360 They're doing that to protect the rest of the alliance, 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:09.920 including the United States. NATO has only been actively involved 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:13.639 in two conflicts since World War Two since it was formed. 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:16.520 One was in Kosovo and the other was in Afghanistan 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:19.480 because the United States had been attacked. So I think 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:21.520 there's some confusion out there about what the role of 0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:25.439 NATO is. It's a defensive alliance aimed at protecting the 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:29.880 North Atlantic and European region from direct attack, particularly from Russia. 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:32.879 But ron when we see things such as nations not 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:37.200 even allowing the United States to overfly their own territory 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:40.920 to pursue Iran, or to use bases within their territories, 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:42.640 you know, at least at the start of this conflict, 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:45.760 that does seem to suggest that there's a conflict maybe 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:49.200 between what the Europeans think NATO's role is and what 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:50.800 America thinks of NATO's role. 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:53.520 Well, I'm not sure that that crosses into what the 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.080 role of NATO is as opposed to what the role 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.440 of being an ally is on an individual bilateral basis. 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:02.960 When Gulf Fur I was around for Gulf War one 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:05.399 and Gulf War two, and what you saw is that 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:08.040 President Bush forty one and forty three they had to 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:11.120 bring the rest of the world along before launching kinetic 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:15.600 military military action. Now, what the President and Israel launch 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:18.960 took advantage of a particular set of circumstances in Iran, 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:21.240 but it meant that they didn't have the opportunity to 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:24.560 bring the rest of the world along on this. I 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:28.879 completely agree with the administration that our allied countries individually 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:32.640 should be allowing the US to use our bases there 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:36.440 to engage in this conflict, particularly in terms of securing 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:40.000 the Strait of Hormuz, which directly benefits them more than us. 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:42.320 Yeah. Indeed, hey, let's talk about some of the other 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:46.080 things happening within the United States too. We are seeing 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:48.600 a whole bunch of elections, by elections up and down 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:53.480 the country. Trump endorsed Republican Clay Fuller has won Georgia's 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:57.360 runoff election to replace former Congressman Marjorie Tayler Green, and 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:00.800 Trump has also endorsed a former top advisor to UK 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:05.440 Prime Minister David Cameron for governor of California, a fellow 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:09.120 named Steve Hilton. What do you make of these two 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:12.080 events here? And also just this sort of tide of 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:15.440 how these elections are going that we see by elections 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:18.960 special elections around the place. Some are falling Republican ways, 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:21.679 some ways of falling the Democrat ways. Is there anything 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:23.560 that we can start to discern about the mood of 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:25.159 the country going into the midterms. 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:28.000 Well, I think this is going to be a very 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:32.280 very competitive environment for the midterm elections, given the ongoing 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:35.320 challenges with respect to inflation, cost of living, and so on. 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:39.400 And the President's been tackling those problems as aggressively as 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:42.080 it can, but sometimes these policies take time in order 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:44.320 to work. In terms of the election in Georgia, the 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:48.120 by election in Georgia that's a very heavily Republican district, 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:52.200 it was certainly expected that the Republican would win there, 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:55.280 so I don't think that tells us anything. Steve Hilton 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:58.199 here in California certainly has an edge up with the 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:02.359 President's endorsement quickly going into this week's Republican state convention 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:05.440 in San Diego. I expect that gives him an edge 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:08.959 to emerge in the top two in the primary going forward. 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:11.320 Some of the other by elections that have taken place 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:14.600 in highly competitive districts show what we all know, which 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:17.720 is that it's a very competitive environment. One big problem 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:22.200 for the Democrats, though, is they continue to be culturally 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:25.480 way out of the mainstream of where most Americans are, 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:28.879 and that's why they're not doing better than they otherwise could, 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:32.639 because they've really failed to pivot back to the to 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:36.000 where most Americans are on a variety of issues, and 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:40.280 financially they're also in very very bad shape. So those 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:42.800 two things I think are limiting their ability to take 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:45.440 advantage of the environment going into the midterms. 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:47.280 Yeah. No, Look, I think we've spoken a lot on 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:50.800 this program about the problems that Democrats socialist wing taken 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:53.320 taking over the Democrats. But just to stick with the 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:57.600 Republicans for a second, before the conflict in Iran started, 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:00.800 the theory was going everyone saying was going to be 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:04.040 a very Trump focused campaign for the midterms. He was 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:06.439 going to be out there. Susie Wills, the chief of staff, 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:09.160 was saying, this was the direction this was going to go. 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:13.640 Does the Iran war change the calculus of making this 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:17.640 a Trump forward for lack of a better term midterms, 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:21.200 or does it have to then go back to maybe 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:24.160 being just that Republican brand versus, as you say, that 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:26.960 very tarnished hard left Democrat brand. 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:30.600 I don't think that the Republican Party has any choice 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:33.480 but to have President Trump at the center of the 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:37.080 midterm election campaign, because he dominates the news in every 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:40.280 election cycle, and he defines the party more than any 0:21:40.560 --> 0:21:45.760 particular individual. Under more normal circumstances, If the president's popularity 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:47.800 is ahead of that of the party, you lead with 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:50.520 the president. If the party's popularity is ahead of the president, 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:52.479 you lead with the party. But I don't think we're 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:54.760 in a normal situation, and so I think Donald Trump 0:21:54.920 --> 0:21:57.600 is going to continue to define the Republican Party right 0:21:57.680 --> 0:21:59.159 up until his last day in office. 0:21:59.320 --> 0:21:59.520 Yeah. 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:01.960 No, I think that's absolutely correct. I don't think there's 0:22:01.960 --> 0:22:04.800 any chance of that shifting. But also just on the 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:07.199 way that the votes are held in America, one of 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:10.440 the things that's been very contentious is not only voter 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:12.920 ID but also mail in voting. Now, Trump has signed 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:16.480 an executive order to restrict the use of mail in voting, 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:19.920 which of course played such a huge role in Joe 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:23.920 Biden's twenty twenty win Democrat run states. I think twenty 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:26.920 three of them are suing to block the restrictions from 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:29.720 coming into effect. I keep coming back to this that 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:33.560 Democrats really love all of these different alternative ways of 0:22:33.640 --> 0:22:35.880 voting because it allows them to kind of have something 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:39.240 in the back pocket that, through organization whatever, they're very 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:42.080 good at that what are the chances that this EO 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:46.160 succeeds in the courts, and that this is taken out 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:48.520 of the Democrat ledger as something that they can count 0:22:48.560 --> 0:22:51.359 on as a way to organize a whole lot of 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:53.200 votes long before election day. 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:57.440 Well, Republicans who Democrats have to organize their campaigns based 0:22:57.480 --> 0:23:00.520 on what the rule of the game is now. President 0:23:00.560 --> 0:23:03.400 Trump is no fan of mail in voting. His Executive 0:23:03.480 --> 0:23:08.800 Voter reflects that. But in America the control over the 0:23:09.080 --> 0:23:13.439 manner of voting is squarely in the hands of the states. 0:23:13.480 --> 0:23:17.400 There is a very very narrow nexus with the federal government, 0:23:17.440 --> 0:23:20.520 and even narrower nexus when it comes to what the 0:23:20.560 --> 0:23:24.359 president can do. The President's executive orders are not edicts. 0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:28.520 They only deal with the implementation of existing federal law, 0:23:28.600 --> 0:23:31.560 which with respect to mail in voting, is very limited 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:34.199 to begin with. So how much of an impact this 0:23:34.280 --> 0:23:35.639 is going to have, I think it's going to be 0:23:35.760 --> 0:23:39.199 marginal at best. But what I think Republicans certainly have 0:23:39.280 --> 0:23:42.480 to do is wage campaigns that in many states we 0:23:42.520 --> 0:23:45.160 don't have election day anymore. We have a six week 0:23:45.280 --> 0:23:48.040