Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College. All Things
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Speaker 1: iTunes and Hilldale. Good morning, Laurie, I mean Race America.
Speaker 1: I'm Joe Hewitt, Thank you for listening. I'm joined at
Speaker 1: the top of the program by former United States Senator
Speaker 1: Jim Talent, member the Reagan Foundations Institute for the Study
Speaker 1: of War, and I want to know, Jim, off the top,
Speaker 1: what do you expect to happen tonight after Iran try
Speaker 1: to sneak attack on our trips in Jordan last night.
Speaker 2: Well, I expect we're going to punish them again, you,
Speaker 2: I mean, look, the purpose of the mission was to
Speaker 2: destroy their power as a nation state to dominate the region,
Speaker 2: and we did that. I mean, their military powers broken,
Speaker 2: their economy is on its knees. What they have is
Speaker 2: essentially the power of a subnational movement to threaten coast shipping.
Speaker 2: So we have a problem we have to manage. The
Speaker 2: President is managing by tightening the economic screws with the
Speaker 2: blockade and by disproportionately punishing them whenever they attack, while
Speaker 2: also saying, look, we're willing to talk if you guys
Speaker 2: want to be serious. And I think we're going to
Speaker 2: see that strategy continue, and I think it's a good one.
Speaker 2: They're just digging the hole in deeper. You're doing more
Speaker 2: and more damage to themselves.
Speaker 1: The President called Trey y inks that Fox is this morning,
Speaker 1: and then Trey immediately went on Fox and Friends. Here's
Speaker 1: a bit of that report. Cut number one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, guys, good morning, President Trump. Reacting to that Iranian
Speaker 3: attack on US forces overnight and Jordan, President Trump tells
Speaker 3: Fox News about Iran, we are going to beat the
Speaker 3: effing s out of them.
Speaker 1: He went on potent talent that that's the essence there.
Speaker 1: How long do you think the beating will go on for?
Speaker 4: I guess until morale improves.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: In other words, you know, I think it's they're trying
Speaker 2: to continue to be relevant in the region. And of
Speaker 2: course they're relevant on a low level now, but remember
Speaker 2: six months ago they were feared throughout the region. So
Speaker 2: they're trying to be relevant and they're trying to leave
Speaker 2: her enough money out of US and out of the
Speaker 2: West to begin to rebuild. Well, they're not going to
Speaker 2: get the ladder. And what they're doing is they're engaging
Speaker 2: on the wrong side of an equation, if you will.
Speaker 2: In other words, they're being hit disproportionately compared to the
Speaker 2: damage that they're doing to us. I think the President
Speaker 2: understands that, and so I think he will continue this
Speaker 2: tactic until they decide for the sake of the regime.
Speaker 2: You and this, I'll digress on that a moment. I
Speaker 2: think what the President is is figuring is that this
Speaker 2: is irrational even on their own terms. In other words,
Speaker 2: what they should be looking for on their terms is
Speaker 2: to stabilize the regime, and they need to be able
Speaker 2: to sell oil at a minimum in order to do that.
Speaker 4: I suspect he would.
Speaker 2: Probably still give them that deal in the short term,
Speaker 2: lifting the sanctions if they actually allow us straight to
Speaker 2: go unimpeded, and then we would deal with the rest
Speaker 2: of the problem after November.
Speaker 4: So let's see if they wake up to that.
Speaker 1: Two more data points. A drone hit a US gas
Speaker 1: storage tanker at the Egyptian port. I can't remember the
Speaker 1: name of the port in a possible expansion of the war.
Speaker 1: That's from the time of Israel. And here is Secretary
Speaker 1: of War hag Seth earlier today cut number two.
Speaker 6: Good afternoon, everybody.
Speaker 7: It's good to be here at US Central Command. Edwald Cooper,
Speaker 7: the commander of Syncom, was.
Speaker 6: Going to be here with me. We just got done
Speaker 6: with detailed briefings.
Speaker 4: But of course he is busy.
Speaker 7: Because Sentcom Central Command will be busy tonight because President
Speaker 7: Trump said, we will be hitting Iran hard, and we
Speaker 7: will be because Iran has a chance to make a
Speaker 7: good deal, a great deal, to codify what they said
Speaker 7: they've been willing to do, and they.
Speaker 6: Haven't been to do it.
Speaker 7: So, as President Trump said, they've been tap tac tap it.
Speaker 7: You can see when someone's trying to tap tac tap
Speaker 7: on a deal. Instead, they're going to have tap tap
Speaker 7: tap bombs dropping on key facilities in Iran from.
Speaker 4: The United States of America.
Speaker 7: And that's not because we want to restart anything.
Speaker 4: We don't have to restart.
Speaker 7: It's because we are The War Department is prepared to
Speaker 7: set the terms to ensure that we get the kind
Speaker 7: of deal President Trump expects.
Speaker 1: So Jim Tallan that I'm uneasy with that because I'd
Speaker 1: like to go back to a three or four week
Speaker 1: campaign to hit every asset the IRGC has. Admiral Montgomery says,
Speaker 1: they own construction companies and energy companies. I'd like to
Speaker 1: blow up their pipelines that they are selling some oil through.
Speaker 1: I'd like to hit some power stations serving IRGC facilities,
Speaker 1: and of course Pickaxe Mountain with every MOA B we have.
Speaker 1: That's my target list, Admiral Montgomery, it's basically his. I
Speaker 1: just stole it from him. Do you think we'll go
Speaker 1: that far and do this more than one night?
Speaker 4: Well, look, I tend to agree with you.
Speaker 2: The only distinction I would make is to the extent
Speaker 2: we can, I would try and distinguish between targets that
Speaker 2: primarily serve the people of Iran and targets that are
Speaker 2: tied into the IRCG network.
Speaker 4: Now that's.
Speaker 2: That's difficult because they have their tentacles all throughout the
Speaker 2: Iranian economy. But I think at some point we're going
Speaker 2: to have to play that card, and I think the
Speaker 2: time is approaching. I tend to agree with you on it,
Speaker 2: and because we have a bunch of other options also,
Speaker 2: you know, for one thing, you notice they have not
Speaker 2: struck the Israelis.
Speaker 4: That tells you something, doesn't it. It shows that they're afraid
Speaker 4: of the Israelis.
Speaker 2: And my guess is that the Israelis would be willing
Speaker 2: to join in on this if we ask them, and
Speaker 2: I think the other states in the region are getting
Speaker 2: to the point where they wouldn't mind that. So we
Speaker 2: have other options. We could go on escort duty. You
Speaker 2: know the difficulty there. We can do it. It's going
Speaker 2: to take a lot of destroyers to do that. And
Speaker 2: as you and I have talked about for a long
Speaker 2: time now, you it would really be nice if we
Speaker 2: had a bigger navy so we didn't have to stress
Speaker 2: readiness in situations like this.
Speaker 4: But at some point.
Speaker 2: We're going to have to move to other options, and
Speaker 2: I suspect the first one is to attack the infrastructure
Speaker 2: in the way you suggest.
Speaker 1: On School of Ward today with Aaron McLain, Admiral Montgomery
Speaker 1: said it will take twenty six destroyers to actually run
Speaker 1: escort missions through the straight and through the red scene,
Speaker 1: narrows band, whatever it is. He also said about the latter,
Speaker 1: if there's any game left in NATO, they should be there. Now,
Speaker 1: there's not much game left there, he said, maybe one
Speaker 1: or two destroyers in Great Britain, one or two in France.
Speaker 1: Spain's got some, but they're not playing it along. I
Speaker 1: was kind of shocked at how calcified NATO's navy has become.
Speaker 1: It doesn't exist.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think the British have.
Speaker 2: The last time I checked, I think they list like
Speaker 2: sixty sixty five ships in their navy. They had almost
Speaker 2: three times that when they fought the Falklands War, and
Speaker 2: most of those ships are patrol craft. They don't have
Speaker 2: even the shadow of an expeditionary navy, and they were
Speaker 2: the ally that we could always count on in situations
Speaker 2: like this. So this points out another problem. We have
Speaker 2: too small a navy and our European allies basically don't
Speaker 2: have a navy. So yeah, they have been helpful, like
Speaker 2: in helping the Ukraines, but basically you it's almost not
Speaker 2: worth it.
Speaker 4: And you're right.
Speaker 2: I mean I would never contest what Mark Montgomery says anyway.
Speaker 4: So we need a couple dozen destroyers there.
Speaker 2: We only have about eighty three, and we never built
Speaker 2: the frigates that I wanted to build ten years ago.
Speaker 2: But we're doing it now. I just did a column
Speaker 2: on the maritime plans of the administration, and it was
Speaker 2: in National Review, the comprehensive Plan to rebuild the maritime industry,
Speaker 2: which is what we have to do in order to
Speaker 2: rebuild the navy, and the administration's taking it on. I'm
Speaker 2: very impressed. I'm cheerleading. It's not going to be easy.
Speaker 2: The plan isn't perfect, but they've actually recognized the problem
Speaker 2: and they're trying to do something about it.
Speaker 4: So we get more shipyards. We're going to have more ships.
Speaker 1: Well, let's close by going back to Iran. I think
Speaker 1: they've done a big miscalculation and opened the door for
Speaker 1: us to invite Israel back in. And they're not going
Speaker 1: to open that door very often. But it would be
Speaker 1: wonderful to see Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Uae, and Bahrain
Speaker 1: all join in tonight. What are the odds of that.
Speaker 2: Well, they've each struck Iran, or most of them have
Speaker 2: struck Iran separately. The diplomacy is underway. We see this
Speaker 2: nuclear agreement with the Saudis. The whole region is moving
Speaker 2: in the direction of an equilibrium led by the United
Speaker 2: States and where most of the coercive forces is applied
Speaker 2: by the Israelis going forward, so it would be very
Speaker 2: much of a piece with that. And I think the
Speaker 2: region's getting to the point with Iran that they got
Speaker 2: with Hamas, which is how we got that agreement and
Speaker 2: how we got the hostages returned. Basically, they all said,
Speaker 2: we've had it with you. We want to develop this region.
Speaker 2: We need stability, we want decent relationships with the Israelis
Speaker 2: and among the different countries, and you're the big problem.
Speaker 2: And I think they're reaching that conclusion where Iran is concerned.
Speaker 2: So you can see that Iran is digging the hole
Speaker 2: deeper and deeper and deeper, and they can't get out
Speaker 2: of the one that they're in now.
Speaker 1: And it's a great opportunity to actually have the de
Speaker 1: facto alliance operate together. And I don't know if yes
Speaker 1: are open to that, but if they did that, that
Speaker 1: would be a turning point in the region. I'm sort
Speaker 1: of optimistic. I don't know what to think. Last quick,
Speaker 1: did you you today? Poor guy?
Speaker 4: I saw some clips.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was he was wrong about everything, and now
Speaker 2: we know why he was wrong about everything. It was
Speaker 2: because he was more worried about his press than he
Speaker 2: was actually learning the science or listening to the scientists
Speaker 2: who are trying.
Speaker 4: To tell him. You know you. I don't want to
Speaker 4: criminally prosecute.
Speaker 2: The guy, he's to five years old, but I do
Speaker 2: think I do think we're entitled to the truth.
Speaker 4: That's what I want from him, and.
Speaker 1: I denize them in the world him. Yeah, immunize them
Speaker 1: up to the president and it can get done. Jim
Speaker 1: Talent can be followed on Twitter at x at Jim
Speaker 1: Talent and not to recommend and follow. Thank you, Jim.
Speaker 1: Coming right back with Noah Rothman from National Review. Stay tuned,
Speaker 1: buga back America. I'm you Hewitt, and I'm joined now
Speaker 1: by Noah Rothman, senior writer for National Review. Noah, of course,
Speaker 1: is sometimes the host of the Review podcast, often a
Speaker 1: guest on the Commentary podcast, and he was listening to
Speaker 1: the conversation with Jim Talent that we just had. So Noah,
Speaker 1: your reaction to our conversation with Jim.
Speaker 8: I don't think I can improve on what Jim said.
Speaker 8: I share just about every one of his assessments and
Speaker 8: his caution about the prospect of opening up the targeting,
Speaker 8: the number of targets to include civilian purely civilian infrastructure,
Speaker 8: although as he's noted correctly, it's hard to separate that
Speaker 8: which is purely civilian from that which supports defense industries
Speaker 8: as well as industries that the IRGC generates revenue from
Speaker 8: and profit from that are civilian but nevertheless support the regime.
Speaker 8: This surprise attack that we saw yesterday, the assessment in
Speaker 8: Western press is that it is purely aimed at the
Speaker 8: United States, and I'm not so sure. I really think
Speaker 8: there's a domestic audience for this sort of thing, especially
Speaker 8: in keeping with what we've heard of these reports that
Speaker 8: the IURGC put the kaibosh on this Omani produced proposal
Speaker 8: to settle this strait of Hormus with some Marianean control,
Speaker 8: but not nearly as much as they want. The IRGC
Speaker 8: reportedly intervened in that process, and we don't know how
Speaker 8: close it got. There's opacity here, but for the IURGC
Speaker 8: to execute this attack in order to probably restart hostilities
Speaker 8: which appear eminent. You know, it makes you wonder whether
Speaker 8: they believe returning to hostilities is advantageous for them, in
Speaker 8: part because so many elements of the civilian leadership inside
Speaker 8: Iran are now saying what Western analysts have been saying
Speaker 8: for a long time, that the value of this strait
Speaker 8: diminishes every single day that we keep it closed. Paradoxically,
Speaker 8: we need to increase traffic through the strait if we
Speaker 8: want to maintain control over it, and that's not what's happening.
Speaker 8: So the divisions between civilian leadership and the ERGCRE is
Speaker 8: spilling out into the streets in ways that have become
Speaker 8: more public than they previously were, and I feel like
Speaker 8: you can't separate this attack from that dynamic.
Speaker 1: There are two other data points, so I have becomment
Speaker 1: on immediately after the surprise attack or a couple hours after,
Speaker 1: Iergyz put out a statement saying we're willing to stop
Speaker 1: firing right now, let's go back to the negotiating table.
Speaker 1: So there may be some idiot in the IERGT who
Speaker 1: thinks they can get away at embarrassing Trump during Lindsay's
Speaker 1: funeral when Neno and Velenski is in town and not
Speaker 1: have him notice, and then drone hit the US storage
Speaker 1: tanker in the Egyptian point Port. Today, I don't know
Speaker 1: that the Mosaic Defense hasn't deprived them of command and
Speaker 1: control of everything, so that it's really the least common
Speaker 1: denominator of nutterery that's driving Iran right now. Either way,
Speaker 1: I think we've got to hammer them, and hammer them
Speaker 1: a lot.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I agree, and I don't know who knows.
Speaker 4: You might be right.
Speaker 8: We were concerns back in April that the mosaic strategy
Speaker 8: would prevent something like a period on this campaign because
Speaker 8: there would be elements with command and control on the
Speaker 8: field level that have autonomy to execute a tax at
Speaker 8: their will. And that may still be true true, but
Speaker 8: you got to think.
Speaker 4: It's backfiring at this point.
Speaker 8: You noted when your conversation with mister Talent that the
Speaker 8: Golf States are increasingly engaged in this campaign and increasingly
Speaker 8: open about being engaged in this campaign. It's still taboo
Speaker 8: for the UAE or at Bahrain, for example, to admit
Speaker 8: that they're executing strikes on Iranian targets inside Irana, though
Speaker 8: they are, but it's no longer taboo for Saudi Arabia,
Speaker 8: for example, to announce that it's participating in this campaign
Speaker 8: by proxy, not only against the Huthis in Yemen, which
Speaker 8: they began engaging with about a week and a half ago.
Speaker 8: But now overnight attacks on Iranian proxy forces inside Iraq
Speaker 8: by the United States and Saudi Arabia acknowledged openly.
Speaker 4: That's a big development.
Speaker 8: That's not something that would have happened a month ago,
Speaker 8: and it's the sort of thing that accretes around all
Speaker 8: all the problems that Iran is experiencing are coming together.
Speaker 8: The Strait is losing value, capital is fleeing to the
Speaker 8: path of least resistance to diminish the utility of the Strait,
Speaker 8: and the Golf States are not responding as Iran would
Speaker 8: have hoped by hedging their and not necessarily aligning with
Speaker 8: the United States and making accommodations with Iranian power in
Speaker 8: the region. They're actively opposing it. All of this is
Speaker 8: combining to create a lot more pressure on the regime
Speaker 8: then you hear about in the Western press. To read
Speaker 8: the Western press, time is on Iran side. I don't
Speaker 8: know if the Iranians agree.
Speaker 1: So there are a couple options here to the president.
Speaker 1: One he could do one big night, which is the
Speaker 1: minimum I think that's going to happen with many targets hit.
Speaker 1: Or he could say we're doing this for thirty days,
Speaker 1: We're going to take out basically Admiral Montgomery's target list,
Speaker 1: which is extensive and detailed and very thoughtful because the
Speaker 1: man has run convoy operation through the Strait of Horror
Speaker 1: moves and has a long naval career and ended up
Speaker 1: as a two star, So we can go anywhere on
Speaker 1: that line. If the President announces it and explains it
Speaker 1: to the country, does it hurt him politically? Does it
Speaker 1: matter at all what he does?
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 8: That's a great question. I think whether it matters or not,
Speaker 8: he should. He should announce to the nation what he's doing,
Speaker 8: what is expected of the American people, what burdens they
Speaker 8: are expected to bear, and what benefits we will accrue
Speaker 8: from this campaign at very degrees of success. He should
Speaker 8: be honest with the American people. I think there's a
Speaker 8: real trust deficit here. I don't think the President has
Speaker 8: trusted the American public enough to level with them about
Speaker 8: what this campaign was going to entail. And I think
Speaker 8: the American public have repaid that lack of trust in kind.
Speaker 8: So yeah, I think it would benefit the President to
Speaker 8: be open and forthright about what he's planning to do.
Speaker 8: To the extent he knows what he's planning to do
Speaker 8: you know there's opacity here in many different directions, one
Speaker 8: of them being we know that there are shortages of
Speaker 8: defensive ordinance American defensive ordinance, and maybe we're calibrating our
Speaker 8: attacks and signaling in much the same way that I ran.
Speaker 8: By the way, is calibrating its attacks and signaling so
Speaker 8: that we don't restart a full scale exchange a volley
Speaker 8: of ballistic missiles that would overwhelm regional defenses and our
Speaker 8: own defenses. Maybe that's part of the calculation. I can't
Speaker 8: say for I think it's quite likely.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when I heard that these missiles, you remember Churchill's
Speaker 1: famous quote that in wartime truth is so precious it
Speaker 1: must be surrounded by a bodyguardable lies. So I really
Speaker 1: don't believe anything about anyone saying what we have gotten
Speaker 1: a stockpile because it's classified. So I just don't believe it.
Speaker 1: I am not opposed though to I heard Mark Montgomery
Speaker 1: say today he is certainly've got more than one hundred
Speaker 1: thousand jay dams. That's a lot of bombs, a lot
Speaker 1: of bombs that can go down.
Speaker 8: We don't use any problem with offensive weapons. Yeah, our
Speaker 8: offensive ordinance, standoff munitions, cruise missiles for example, that might
Speaker 8: be a big problem.
Speaker 4: Who knows.
Speaker 8: I mean, we've heard some leaks about that, so I
Speaker 8: don't have enough information to say one way or the other.
Speaker 8: But I know we don't have any problem with gravity.
Speaker 8: Bombs like that are fitted with Jadam kits. We have
Speaker 8: plenty of those, and over the top munitions is the
Speaker 8: sort of thing that we can deliver once we've depleted
Speaker 8: their air defenses, which we know how to do, have
Speaker 8: done and can do again. Likewise, I don't know how
Speaker 8: many missile out defensive ordinance we have, how many interceptors
Speaker 8: we have. But there was some talk a while ago
Speaker 8: about how Iran has still has seventy percent of its
Speaker 8: ballistic missile capabilities. Well, yeah, they had one hundred percent
Speaker 8: of their ballistic missile capabilities at the outset of Epic Fury,
Speaker 8: and those missiles launches slowed to a trickle because we
Speaker 8: were interdicting the launches. We were locking those missiles up
Speaker 8: in their bases, closing off the way for them to
Speaker 8: get out, or hitting the launchers when they launched one launch.
Speaker 4: And that was all you got out of it.
Speaker 8: We can do that again, but it would be a
Speaker 8: sustained campaign. And I don't know if the President has
Speaker 8: the stomach for it or not, but if he does,
Speaker 8: then he should come to the American people and explain
Speaker 8: what's going to happen, why, and what they're going to
Speaker 8: be get out of it, but also what they're going
Speaker 8: to endure in the interim.
Speaker 1: Great advice, Noh C. Rothman, good to talk to you
Speaker 1: is always thank you for joining me. Follow Noah on exit,
Speaker 1: Noac Rothman, and of course listen to the Editors podcast,
Speaker 1: on which no appears frequently, and follow me to the
Speaker 1: next segment. Don't Go Anywhere, America. We've got lots coming up,
Speaker 1: including Sarace Bedford, Victor Davids Hanson, Mary Katherine Ham, Senator Fisher,
Speaker 1: Senator Houstaid. Big day here on the Hugh Hewitt Shows,
Speaker 1: and Don't Go Anywhere, Stay tuned right where you are.
Speaker 1: I'll be right back. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh hewittt.
Speaker 1: Sara C. Bedford is with the Washington Examiner. Sarah, what'd
Speaker 1: you make of the Rand Paul hearing with doctor Fauci today?
Speaker 9: It was kind of surreal after spending so many years
Speaker 9: listening to Fauci go on and on speak endlessly in
Speaker 9: front of any camera that would have him. To hear
Speaker 9: him shut down like that, It's not surprising, giving what
Speaker 9: we've learned from his diary and the type of exposure
Speaker 9: that he might have had if he did attempt to
Speaker 9: answer the questions, but it was nonetheless jarring to see
Speaker 9: him clamp down like that.
Speaker 1: So was it at all sympathy inducing for him?
Speaker 10: I certainly don't think so.
Speaker 9: I mean, he's the furthest thing from a sympathetic character
Speaker 9: if you just look at the way he comes across
Speaker 9: in his die, right. This is not someone who was
Speaker 9: motivated by public service. This is not someone who even
Speaker 9: seemed to be primarily motivated by science.
Speaker 10: It was someone who was motivated by fame and.
Speaker 9: Appearing before the largest number of audiences possible, and consumed
Speaker 9: by his personal grievances with other.
Speaker 10: People in the government.
Speaker 9: I mean, he comes off like a meglomaniac in his diary,
Speaker 9: and so, you know, I think optically it looked really
Speaker 9: bad for him to plead the fifth that way, even
Speaker 9: though you know, courts don't take that as an admission
Speaker 9: of guilt. To the average American, it doesn't look good
Speaker 9: for someone under scrutiny, especially someone who was revealed to
Speaker 9: be as self centered as Fauci to plead the fifth
Speaker 9: that many.
Speaker 1: Times well, something that Senator Holly referenced is said a lot.
Speaker 1: I don't expect people to know that who aren't in
Speaker 1: the business. But if you've been pardoned with a comprehensive pardon,
Speaker 1: you can't actually get in trouble for talking about what
Speaker 1: you did. Although I'm unclear whether or not if you
Speaker 1: tell a falsehood about what you did, whether or not
Speaker 1: you'd violate eighteen USC. One thousand and one. I understand
Speaker 1: the fifth for everything that's happened since his pardon to today,
Speaker 1: because that isn't covered by the pardon in eighteen USC.
Speaker 1: One thousand and one False Statement Act under oath or
Speaker 1: to any federal official appropriately involved in investigation. You don't
Speaker 1: want to go in arms way, But do you think
Speaker 1: that's the last we see? If Tony THOUGHTSI on the Hill?
Speaker 9: On the Hill, possibly, but it's certainly not the last
Speaker 9: that you'll hear about all of this.
Speaker 10: And over at the Washington Examiner, I just edited a
Speaker 10: wonderful legal explainer by my.
Speaker 9: Colleague Caaylindice that gets into some of those questions you
Speaker 9: just raised about pleading the fifth He absolutely would have
Speaker 9: exposure for any kind of perjury that he or to
Speaker 9: have committed today had he answered untruthfully about his past conduct.
Speaker 9: You just can't be prosecuted for the conduct for which
Speaker 9: he was pardoned. But this doesn't seem to be the
Speaker 9: end of it for Rand Paul. I mean, he's been
Speaker 9: really laser focused on this for years. Apparently he always
Speaker 9: knew there was a there there.
Speaker 10: We certainly seemed to see that from the emails.
Speaker 9: Another really interesting element to that that Howley pulled on
Speaker 9: was the fact that Fauci was having scientists nominate him
Speaker 9: for these high dollar academic prizes, and then those scientists
Speaker 9: were going on to win funding from nih which really
Speaker 9: seems like a conflict of interest in a paid a
Speaker 9: play scheme in the very cozy, small world of elite
Speaker 9: public health scientists. So there was a lot that we've
Speaker 9: learned about Fauci over the past week, and it's certainly
Speaker 9: not the last we're going to hear about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there are two years of diary entries, and I
Speaker 1: can't imagine anyone's going to read them all. I read
Speaker 1: the ones that involved me after I interviewed him. And
Speaker 1: their eye opening and they make me think, gosh, this
Speaker 1: guy's trouble. He's got TDS. The last one, he was
Speaker 1: really on a rant about Donald Trump after his on
Speaker 1: the show, and I suggested he retire because people didn't
Speaker 1: like him, and then he admitted to it in the
Speaker 1: diary entry, but in September of twenty twenty one. So
Speaker 1: I don't expect anyone to get that far. Have you
Speaker 1: read more than just a couple of clips, because it's
Speaker 1: pretty gut wrenching, actually.
Speaker 10: It is.
Speaker 9: I saw that you are very reasonable, albeit very conservative.
Speaker 9: This was our definitely neutral head of COVID, who thinks
Speaker 9: that being conservative is actually your worst quality. But when
Speaker 9: you do read just pages on pages of these diary entries,
Speaker 9: and I did read a good bit of it, you
Speaker 9: see that his fixation was on getting to be on TV,
Speaker 9: getting to go in front of cameras.
Speaker 10: He was actually emotional.
Speaker 9: When White House aids were blocking him from going on
Speaker 9: TV because at a certain point he really was undermining
Speaker 9: the message that the administration was trying to.
Speaker 10: Put out there.
Speaker 9: And he wasn't the only policy maker that had any
Speaker 9: sort of credibility on the issue of COVID, but he
Speaker 9: acted like he was, and to see that this was
Speaker 9: a person who was motivated primarily by bolstering his own image,
Speaker 9: and that obviously creates incentives that are completely at odds
Speaker 9: with protecting people from the pandemic. It really frightens you
Speaker 9: that this guy had so much power for so many years.
Speaker 1: Now I do worry about boomerang effect. He's been discredited.
Speaker 1: It's very embarrassing. It's mortally embarrassing, and to his family
Speaker 1: and to his friends. It also embarrasses many many people
Speaker 1: in the media who were feeding him questions before you
Speaker 1: he came on their shows. Do you think we should
Speaker 1: let it lie now?
Speaker 10: No, absolutely not.
Speaker 9: I think this push to let everything that happened during
Speaker 9: the pandemic lie is corrosive to politics. I mean, there
Speaker 9: are bureaucrats like Fauci and others who usurped an enormous
Speaker 9: amount of power over people's everyday lives, over their constitutional rights,
Speaker 9: in the name of a pandemic that they pretty quickly
Speaker 9: learned wasn't all that dangerous and didn't affect most normal,
Speaker 9: healthy people, and certainly didn't affect children.
Speaker 10: But you had school closures, you had vaccine mandates.
Speaker 9: I don't think enough government officials have been held accountable
Speaker 9: for that, and until you really reckon with what was done,
Speaker 9: you can't really safeguard against those sorts of violations happening
Speaker 9: in the future.
Speaker 10: And I'm surprised the speed at which Republicans.
Speaker 11: Dropped that, and all but a select few such as
Speaker 11: Rand Paul have lost interest in pursuing accountability for that,
Speaker 11: because it is really so important in a bipartisan like
Speaker 11: good for the country sense that there be a reckoning
Speaker 11: with covid era.
Speaker 1: Policy, especially with regards to the school closures. That is
Speaker 1: the one area I want to get into because that
Speaker 1: should never happen again. Sarace Bedford, follower on Exit Sarasee Bedford,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining me. Let me tell
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Speaker 1: I'll be right back space, Welcome back in America. I'm
Speaker 1: Hugh Hewett. Mary Catherine ham joined May. She is the
Speaker 1: host of the Getting Hammered podcast, my colleague at Fox
Speaker 1: News or She is a contributor. So did you watch
Speaker 1: Doctor Fauci today, Mary Catherine?
Speaker 12: I can't say that I got a ton out of it.
Speaker 12: It's I guess it's refreshing to see him have nothing
Speaker 12: to say for once in his life.
Speaker 13: I wish he had shut.
Speaker 5: Up long ago.
Speaker 1: Do you think it will elicit sympathy for him?
Speaker 12: I think that he is such a tribal test and
Speaker 12: that people are so stuck on what they first believed
Speaker 12: about Anthony Fauci that there most people who are into
Speaker 12: him are having trouble getting out of it. Look, they
Speaker 12: have candles and throw pillows like there's a sunk cost
Speaker 12: issue here that they can't get past. And I think
Speaker 12: a lot of them still believe him, even though as
Speaker 12: the pandemic was happening, he kept admitting that he had
Speaker 12: lied to us. Now granted, those lies he thought were noble.
Speaker 12: He was trying to get us to do the right things, Hugh,
Speaker 12: and so he lied to us about certain things. These
Speaker 12: email or this diary shows bad faith more than I
Speaker 12: think anything I've seen from him in the past. And
Speaker 12: if you look close enough, you see that. But a
Speaker 12: lot of people don't want to look too close.
Speaker 1: I look very close because I interviewed him three times
Speaker 1: Mary Catherine, and so I looked at and the last
Speaker 1: time I asked him to resign September twenty ninth, twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one, because he was in the way of public health,
Speaker 1: and he dear diaried me. And then he went on
Speaker 1: to say the following. The opposition to me is part
Speaker 1: of the big lie locker up. Trump won the election
Speaker 1: January sixth was really a friendly visit to the Capitol.
Speaker 1: The China virus and Trump was correct. Fire Fauci since
Speaker 1: he was wrong all along, and let's discredit him and
Speaker 1: so on. Quite frankly, I'm finally coming to the realization
Speaker 1: that our democracy is truly threatened and is not possible,
Speaker 1: and that it is possible, even likely, that our democracy
Speaker 1: will crumble with the twenty twenty four election. If Trump wins,
Speaker 1: we are finished. If Trump loses, his far right lunatics
Speaker 1: likely try and overthrow the election, and with the attempts
Speaker 1: to have state legislators Republicans validate the electoral votes, I
Speaker 1: am really afraid they might be successful. Having said all
Speaker 1: of this, there's no way I'm going to retire before
Speaker 1: this outbreak is under control. What's that tell you about him,
Speaker 1: Mary Catherine.
Speaker 12: But he's tribal, and then he's also emo, like I
Speaker 12: don't need a public health guide to be this emotional
Speaker 12: and hysterical. And I think that was part of the problem,
Speaker 12: is that he was really enjoying the press he was getting.
Speaker 12: The more panic there was, and the more serious he
Speaker 12: could make things and the more controlled he could make things,
Speaker 12: the better his press got because everyone in the press
Speaker 12: agreed with him, And that kind of reaction I think
Speaker 12: is not the measured, smart, intellectual take I would like
Speaker 12: to have from a public health official who might actually
Speaker 12: weigh different sides of an equation and know people outside
Speaker 12: of his circle and be able to have some input
Speaker 12: from that into his decision making process.
Speaker 1: But I think it shows he had TDS and that
Speaker 1: we don't want public health officials to ever be tribaled
Speaker 1: or have TDS. Do you think we've immunized ourselves against
Speaker 1: public health officials assuming the role playing tonight the role
Speaker 1: of God will be doctor so and so. Are we
Speaker 1: over that right?
Speaker 12: I think to some extent we are, because there's a
Speaker 12: large portion of the population that just simply won't accept
Speaker 12: that next time, and maybe to our detriment, they won't
Speaker 12: accept good advice from public health officials because of the
Speaker 12: trust that was that was just frittered away under Fauci. Right,
Speaker 12: there is a risk of that, but I think we
Speaker 12: have to some degree gotten past the idea that this
Speaker 12: guy that we had just hand over the wheel of
Speaker 12: all rational risk analysis and all of our civil liberties
Speaker 12: to one dude who has been at a government funded
Speaker 12: science foundation for his whole life.
Speaker 13: It was not smart to begin with.
Speaker 12: It was myopic, it was stupid, and I hope many
Speaker 12: have changed the ideas about whether they do that in
Speaker 12: the future, although the people in my Twitter replies suggest
Speaker 12: that many of them are still into it.
Speaker 1: Oh, oh, very much so because they love the control.
Speaker 1: Boy did some people love having control? Now you're wearing red,
Speaker 1: So I'm going to bring up the Red Team. In
Speaker 1: the days of the Cold War, when the CIA had
Speaker 1: a big report, they always had a Red team in
Speaker 1: as well to challenge it, and the Red team had
Speaker 1: equal status and authority. I think we need red teams
Speaker 1: on everything that matters. Mary Catherine, what do you think.
Speaker 13: Yes, that's how you learn to think.
Speaker 12: You have to have your ideas questioned, and like, look,
Speaker 12: Fauci was so high on himself. He's in meetings at
Speaker 12: the time, according to his diary, with folks from the
Speaker 12: CIA who are like, we have some intelligence that tells
Speaker 12: us that perhaps the Lab leak is possible. And even
Speaker 12: though he knew it was like a totally reasonable position
Speaker 12: to take, he trashes the people at the CIA, like, they.
Speaker 13: Don't know about science.
Speaker 12: Well, they might know about intel, and perhaps you could
Speaker 12: share those ideas and come up with a instead of
Speaker 12: a conspiracy theory to block the theory that was totally reasonable.
Speaker 1: Now you know what Iron Dome is, and you know
Speaker 1: what Golden Dome is. I wrote a piege for Fox
Speaker 1: Tomorrow and the Democrat Dome that covers the Manhattan Beltway
Speaker 1: media elite that capes bad stories away, stories that are
Speaker 1: bad for Democrats. Hilary's Server, Hunter's Laptop, Russia, Russia, Russia,
Speaker 1: Tony Fauci Diaries. I think it's going to work on
Speaker 1: the Diaries. I think it'll be a non story in
Speaker 1: two days. What do you think.
Speaker 12: I think you're correct to the extent that this is
Speaker 12: a powerful story. It's mostly for vindication for those of
Speaker 12: us who have paid attention to Fauci throughout I do
Speaker 12: hope it it escapes containment.
Speaker 13: No pun intended to some extent.
Speaker 12: Because that would be healthy for inoculating the public against
Speaker 12: this kind of thing in the future. But I do
Speaker 12: think people are pretty dug in about this, and I
Speaker 12: doubt that those many of those who played a part
Speaker 12: in these diaries, by the way, workshopping question with Fauci
Speaker 12: for Fauci uh not pushing back up on him.
Speaker 1: Pose you mentioned that on getting hammered today and I
Speaker 1: haven't seen that yet. They workshop question, isn't that a
Speaker 1: fireable offense? It isn't my world.
Speaker 12: I mean it should it should be, right, what's more
Speaker 12: of a fireable offense? Like beyond that, By the way,
Speaker 12: it's just the entire philosophy with Fauci, which was that
Speaker 12: this incredibly powerful bureaucrat who was unelected, any even tough
Speaker 12: question to him was some kind of violation of our
Speaker 12: societal code, when in fact that was their whole jobs.
Speaker 12: Like why isn't he getting pushed back against? I talked
Speaker 12: about this on CNN at the time and got many
Speaker 12: funny looks about great quarry. You guys should get tough questions.
Speaker 1: I want people to listen to the getting hammered for
Speaker 1: that clip. I want to close. We got thirty seconds,
Speaker 1: Mary Catherine, I'm expecting a major escalation tonight over Iran,
Speaker 1: are you and do you welcome it?
Speaker 12: I do, and I welcome it because I don't think
Speaker 12: there's a way out of this without forcing them to reevaluate.
Speaker 12: The straight of horm Mews a calculation, and I think
Speaker 12: a bunch of people are shifting resources as we speak,
Speaker 12: trying to find solutions to that.
Speaker 13: But the more economic and military pressure on them, the better.
Speaker 1: Yep. I hope they capitulate, and sooner rather than later.
Speaker 1: Would you warn the people of Tehran to get out
Speaker 1: of town? I think that's the one thing we might
Speaker 1: want to do.
Speaker 12: Yeah, I mean it sounds like something Trump might want
Speaker 12: to do because he's expressed.
Speaker 4: That in the past.
Speaker 1: So yeah, he done more hurt civilians and he doesn't
Speaker 1: like our troop in a hard way. But boil boy.
Speaker 1: I think he's mad. Mary Catherine ham from getting hammered.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining me. Don't go anywhere
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Speaker 1: Stay tuned. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt, joined by
Speaker 1: former Congressman Garrett Graves. Hello, Garrett, how are you? Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Hugh Hewitt Show.
Speaker 6: Hey? Thanks? You all doing great? How about you?
Speaker 1: I am good. I want to know why you want
Speaker 1: us to go to open primaries because I've always been
Speaker 1: sort of an opponent of open primaries. Let me know
Speaker 1: your thinking so I can chew on it.
Speaker 6: First of all, I grew up in South Louisiana.
Speaker 14: We had open primaries my whole life, so I didn't
Speaker 14: know any different, But after serving in Congress for a day,
Speaker 14: I realized how much power has been given to political primaries,
Speaker 14: to parties. Look, the reason we declared our independence and
Speaker 14: flipped over this whole model of government is because we
Speaker 14: wanted people to be empowered, not having a central government empowered.
Speaker 14: And the open primary system preserves that whole philosophy of
Speaker 14: allowing an individual to be empowered. Do you think about
Speaker 14: these wildly partisan districts where you have only the party
Speaker 14: primary that really matters. If it's a Republican district, whoever
Speaker 14: wins in the Republican primary wins, you're isolating in some
Speaker 14: cases a third or forty percent of the electorate, not
Speaker 14: even giving them a chance to vote effectively. So I'll
Speaker 14: say it again, this just comes back to power being transcendent,
Speaker 14: being within the individual, and it represents that respects that
Speaker 14: very philosophy.
Speaker 1: Now, if you go to open primaries, though, let's make
Speaker 1: sure our definition agreed. Anyone can vote in either primary
Speaker 1: Republic under a Democrat.
Speaker 14: No, No, what would happen is everyone's on the ballot
Speaker 14: and anybody gets to vote for them. So there's no
Speaker 14: party primary. Look, you still have parties. They can still endorse,
Speaker 14: they can still raise money. But you're in a situation
Speaker 14: where you're not blocking people from voting or forcing them
Speaker 14: to vote on just one ballot. Everyone's on the ballot.
Speaker 14: You can vote however you want, for whoever you want.
Speaker 14: You can vote for a Republican here, an independent there,
Speaker 14: do however you think the best candidates will represent you
Speaker 14: or lead your government.
Speaker 1: That's what California as I live there from nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, and they moved to a jungle primary. It
Speaker 1: destroyed the Republican party. Garrett absolutely destroyed it. We will
Speaker 1: often end up with two Republicans running against the republic
Speaker 1: for a district are the most vast majority Democrats because
Speaker 1: redistrict thing just pushes all the Republicans given a supermajority,
Speaker 1: that it's going to be extinct because of the jungle primary.
Speaker 1: And I think it also happened in Washington's eight.
Speaker 14: What what destroyed the Republicans in California is the Democrats,
Speaker 14: meaning Democrat governance has chased Republicans out of the state,
Speaker 14: looking for states that that that are governed by by
Speaker 14: more rational thought. That that's not what That's not what
Speaker 14: destroyed the Republican party anywhere. What this simply does is
Speaker 14: that it allows for people to vote for whoever they
Speaker 14: want who in the world empowered a political party or
Speaker 14: even a party convention that says, Jane Doe is going
Speaker 14: to be our singular candidate, and that's the person you
Speaker 14: can vote for if you're a Democrat, and John Doe
Speaker 14: is going to be the singular Republican candy, that's anti
Speaker 14: republic it's it's it's contrary to the very concept of
Speaker 14: of how our government or why our government.
Speaker 6: Was formed in the United States.
Speaker 1: We have to continue this another time. But jungle primaries
Speaker 1: were put pushed by billionaires from Silicon Valley. They thought
Speaker 1: it was a good government thing, and it ended up
Speaker 1: empowering the teachers' unions to destroy Republican I live there
Speaker 1: for twenty seven years in.
Speaker 6: California. Is an anomaly.
Speaker 14: You have the Speaker of the House and the majority leader,
Speaker 14: both Republicans elected in Louisiana under an open primary system.
Speaker 1: Well, I just know my own experience where the teachers'
Speaker 1: unions and the tribes and the state employee unions not
Speaker 1: named teachers are in control of the money. They gary
Speaker 1: mander and destroy and the jungle primary means that there
Speaker 1: won't be a statewide Republican elected there probably for the
Speaker 1: next twenty five years until everybody leaves and the state collapses.
Speaker 1: Same thing happened in Washington State. So maybe Louisiana is
Speaker 1: the outlier and not California. The last word to you, Garrett.
Speaker 6: Look, that's not how I'll see it. I'll say it again.
Speaker 14: The problem in California is you have liberals that are
Speaker 14: leading that place. You've had the Conservatives that have left
Speaker 14: and gone to states like Texas, Louisiana and others that
Speaker 14: are governed by more rational thought. That doesn't have anything
Speaker 14: to do with the open or closed primary. It has
Speaker 14: to do with poor leadership.
Speaker 1: Well, Garrett, why did you get into it? I'm just
Speaker 1: curious what ticks you off here because you were twenty
Speaker 1: years of republics.
Speaker 6: Sure, sure, I'll tell you why.
Speaker 14: Because when I have to take the oath of office,
Speaker 14: have to take the oath to everyone, why in the
Speaker 14: world would you set up a system to where you're
Speaker 14: out there only trying to attract a certain ideology for
Speaker 14: half of the election cycle. Whenever you take the oath
Speaker 14: of office to everyone, it's a flawed system that distorts
Speaker 14: outcomes of elections. Why do you think you have these
Speaker 14: DSA candidates winning in New York. It's because the closed
Speaker 14: primary delivering them, because you're getting the fringe candidates under
Speaker 14: that system. It's not allowing for the full electorate to participate.
Speaker 6: I'll say it again. That's why we declare their independence.
Speaker 6: To flip this podel over.
Speaker 1: Okay, we are going to respectfully disagree, Garrett, but we'll
Speaker 1: continue the conversation down the road and I'm going to
Speaker 1: bring you the retreats in California. Thank you, my friend,
Speaker 1: Garrett Gray from Louisiana. Always good to see you. Don't
Speaker 1: go anywhere America. I'll be right back. Welcome back in America.
Speaker 1: I'm Hugh Hewitt, one of our favorite senator of dead.
Speaker 1: Fisher of Nebraska joins me now center Fisher, good to
Speaker 1: have you back. I got to say your colleagues are
Speaker 1: putting up with a lot of nonsense. Pete Ricketts, your
Speaker 1: seat mate from Nebraska, as to run against the guy
Speaker 1: who hopes he thinks the guy you beat hope they
Speaker 1: think he's a football coach. Dan Sullivan, your colleague on
Speaker 1: Armed Services, has to run against a fake Dan Sullivan
Speaker 1: and Susan Collins, your colleague on Appropriations in Armed Services,
Speaker 1: has to run against a new person that they just
Speaker 1: swapped out. Are the Democrats that desperate?
Speaker 5: Well, I think the Democrats, you know, they're trying to
Speaker 5: fool the American people. They're not going to be able
Speaker 5: to fool Nebraskans. And I hope the same will apply
Speaker 5: in these different races. You know, if you are a Democrat,
Speaker 5: run as a Democrat. What we've seen in Nebraska, they
Speaker 5: put up a Democrat for this Senate, she made it
Speaker 5: through the primary and now she's pulled her name off
Speaker 5: the ballot. So the same guy that ran against me,
Speaker 5: he's running against Pete is an independent. Gives him a
Speaker 5: clear path to be able to challenge Pete. But it's
Speaker 5: so disingenuous, you know, it's just not being honest to
Speaker 5: the voters of these states.
Speaker 1: It just it's like Alaska where they got a Dan
Speaker 1: Sullivan to sign up to try and confuse voter. It
Speaker 1: makes me creepy.
Speaker 5: I mean, they try anything, They try anything.
Speaker 1: Let's get to the serious stuff first. Let's start with Iran.
Speaker 1: I expect a massive response. President promised that tonight, but
Speaker 1: I want it to go on for a while. What's
Speaker 1: your take on the sort of response that ought to
Speaker 1: follow and how long it ought to go on for.
Speaker 5: Well, the President has to be able to show this
Speaker 5: strength we've seen I run continue to attack and attack
Speaker 5: American military at bases now and allow that to happen.
Speaker 5: We have to protect our troops. There's supposed to be
Speaker 5: a ceasefire that hasn't held at all. I am very
Speaker 5: supportive of the President stepping forward and doing what he
Speaker 5: has to do to make sure that this stops, and
Speaker 5: that Iran quits with their nuclear ambitions and comes to
Speaker 5: the table and answers.
Speaker 1: Well, I hope that you get an NDAA, a National
Speaker 1: Defense Authorization Act. I just broke my own rule about
Speaker 1: no acronyms. I hope you get an NDAA through. I
Speaker 1: am sort of astonished that in the middle of a
Speaker 1: battle with Iran, the United States Senate Democrats are blocking
Speaker 1: an NDAA. Has that ever happened before?
Speaker 5: I don't remember that happening in my time here, Hugh,
Speaker 5: And it was very very disappointing in committee, where we've
Speaker 5: worked so hard, as we usually do in a very
Speaker 5: bipartisan way, Republicans and Democrats on the Armed Services Committee
Speaker 5: here in the Senate, we came together, we have a
Speaker 5: really good product that we were able to vote on.
Speaker 5: But what we saw even in the committee at the markup,
Speaker 5: it ended up we only had four Democrats vote yes
Speaker 5: on the NDAA that we had worked with them on
Speaker 5: to put their priorities in their ideas, the things that
Speaker 5: they had studied that our military men and women need.
Speaker 5: We agreed on that. Nine of them voted no. Usually
Speaker 5: we only get one no vote, you know, and that's
Speaker 5: Elizabeth Warren. But this time we had nine. And then
Speaker 5: when it came to the floor, not one Democrat would
Speaker 5: vote to move the NDAA for forward so we could
Speaker 5: handle and be able to process a manager's package amendments,
Speaker 5: which Republicans and Democrats have their priorities in these amendments
Speaker 5: that they want in as well. But they all thought,
Speaker 5: followed Chuck Schumer Schumer, they would not advance the NDAA.
Speaker 5: And I think that shows the American people just how little,
Speaker 5: how little value they're putting in the resources that our
Speaker 5: military men and women need to be able to complete
Speaker 5: their missions. Very upsetting, very disappointing.
Speaker 1: I believe that that like Senator Collins, you're also in appropriations.
Speaker 1: Are they cooperating on appropriations because the Ron battle costs
Speaker 1: a lot of money and we have to resupplier ammunitions.
Speaker 1: Are they any better over there, Susan.
Speaker 5: Collins, if anybody can pull this together, she will be
Speaker 5: the one that does it. And she has been saying
Speaker 5: that lately. Patty Murray has stepped forward. But we've heard
Speaker 5: that before and right now, I have not seen the
Speaker 5: evidence that we are moving forward to be able to
Speaker 5: get appropriations done. And here again, Hugh, the American people
Speaker 5: need to know that this is something we have worked
Speaker 5: on in a bipartisan way with Republicans and Democrats, working
Speaker 5: in a transparent way. We hold hearings, we do markups publicly.
Speaker 5: But yet the Democrats are sticking together behind Chuck Schumer
Speaker 5: who wants to close down the government. He wants to
Speaker 5: shut it down. And that again, it's just our responsibilities
Speaker 5: to provide for this nation, provide for our military.
Speaker 1: Well, let's close on an upbeat note. I'm glad that
Speaker 1: the Russia sanctions bill passed yesterday. Does it get through
Speaker 1: the House and what will it do for the Ukrainian cause?
Speaker 1: We got two minutes center.
Speaker 5: Well, these sanctions I think are extremely important. And as
Speaker 5: you know, Lindsey Graham worked on this the day before
Speaker 5: that he passed. And to be able to have a
Speaker 5: good strong vote here in the Senate with the believe
Speaker 5: it was over eighty votes. To have that strong vote
Speaker 5: here in the Senate, that's sending a message that this
Speaker 5: is something we agree on. We know that having sanctions
Speaker 5: on the personal wealth of some of these oligarchs in Russia,
Speaker 5: to have it on their financial institutions, to have sanctions
Speaker 5: on their energy sector, that's what's going to, I think
Speaker 5: be the sledgehammer. Sledgehammer that we need to bring putin
Speaker 5: to the table and his invasion into Ukraine. They have
Speaker 5: put up a good fight, a strong fight. They have
Speaker 5: made tremendous progress in the last few months. We had
Speaker 5: Zelensky here yesterday with a meeting with all senators, Republicans
Speaker 5: and Democrats, and it was I think important for us
Speaker 5: to hear his views on the war, what he needed,
Speaker 5: what his hopes were that the United States would would
Speaker 5: be able to help them with, and sanctions was at
Speaker 5: the top of that list. And so I was very
Speaker 5: pleased that we could do it. Hope the House gets
Speaker 5: it dev fast.
Speaker 1: Great honor A great way to honor Lindsey Graham. Senator
Speaker 1: Deb Fisher of Nebraska. Always good to talk to you.
Speaker 1: Thanks for your work on armed services and appropriations and
Speaker 1: for everyone in Nebraska and everyone in the country, especially
Speaker 1: our men and women in uniform. Thank you, Senator Fisher.
Speaker 1: I'll be right back in America. State Grace America, and
Speaker 1: welcome to our three of today's you he would show,
Speaker 1: and I'm starting with United States Senator John Houston from
Speaker 1: my home state, the great state of Ohio. Senator, welcome back.
Speaker 1: We got lots to talk about today. I want to
Speaker 1: begin with your bill that you put in about chatbots,
Speaker 1: because I just welcome my eighth grandchild this week and
Speaker 1: I really do worry about all of them and the
Speaker 1: new technology, especially the chatbots. What does the bill do
Speaker 1: so how big is the problem? In addresses?
Speaker 15: Well, we would require parental notification. We want to make
Speaker 15: sure the bill that chatbots don't expose young people to
Speaker 15: inappropriate information, whether that's about things related to sexual orientation.
Speaker 15: It's also about we don't want them impersonating children so
Speaker 15: that people can do ugly, nefarious things imitating children. There's
Speaker 15: a long list of things that we're trying to do
Speaker 15: to protect children. We've learned our lesson, i hope from
Speaker 15: social media. We know that the algorithms addicted children to
Speaker 15: those platforms, that they sent out things that were harmful
Speaker 15: for them, like suicidal ideation, transgender information, all those kinds
Speaker 15: of things. We want to stop that with chatbots. And
Speaker 15: this is really just the next generation of trying to
Speaker 15: prestract our kids in the digital world the way that
Speaker 15: we protect them in the physical world.
Speaker 1: So Senator Congress has tried a few times in the past,
Speaker 1: hought these cases in corn law for a long time
Speaker 1: to regulate the Internet, and they've run a file at
Speaker 1: First Amendment protection. How closely are you working with staff
Speaker 1: and Committee council to make sure that you thread the
Speaker 1: needle that the Supreme Court will say, yes, this is appropriate.
Speaker 15: Well, we are working closely, and I have some experience
Speaker 15: on this because I had legislation that I worked on
Speaker 15: when I was Lieutenant Governor of Ohio that would require
Speaker 15: parental notification.
Speaker 4: Again, we're just.
Speaker 15: Trying to treat kids in the digital world same way
Speaker 15: to do in the physical world. You can't go in
Speaker 15: and buy cigarettes or pornography or things like that until
Speaker 15: you're of a certain age, and there's a way you
Speaker 15: can check for that. You can do that in the
Speaker 15: digital world as well, and we know that because Instagram
Speaker 15: and other places are creating teen accounts, we know that
Speaker 15: they have the ability to determine these things, and we
Speaker 15: know that it's possible. And actually, the Sixth Circuit upheld
Speaker 15: after the District Court shot down, are our first try
Speaker 15: at this. The Sixth Circuit upheld it, we may end
Speaker 15: up getting that Ohio law as it relates to social
Speaker 15: media and prenal notification before the Supreme Court. So I
Speaker 15: think the courts are a much more friendly when it
Speaker 15: comes to children on these matters because we're talking about
Speaker 15: kids in the digital world rather than in the physical world.
Speaker 15: And I see the courts coming our way on these issues.
Speaker 1: Well, I compliment you on getting a state law through
Speaker 1: because that does pave the way for model legislation. If
Speaker 1: it's been upheld by the Sixth Circuit, I hope it
Speaker 1: does get this COTUS. Let's move to the Save America Act.
Speaker 1: We need voter ID and California was trying to get
Speaker 1: it is on the ballot finally in California this year
Speaker 1: and the Attorney General out there, changed the name to
Speaker 1: try and confuse voters because it's overwhelmingly popular. Save America
Speaker 1: Action Pass. Now, I am a believer in the filibuster.
Speaker 1: Is there any hope that the Democrats will under the
Speaker 1: eighty twenty issue that this is.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 15: Well, I've voted for the Save of America Act six times,
Speaker 15: and I've led the photo ID provision of it because
Speaker 15: as a former Ohio Secretary of State who oversaw elections,
Speaker 15: we have a photo ID law that works great in
Speaker 15: our state. I just wanted to take that to the
Speaker 15: whole country. But we and we got fifty three Republican votes.
Speaker 15: So every Republican senator voted for my photo ID bill,
Speaker 15: which is goodich is part of Save America, but not
Speaker 15: one Democrat did. Chuck Schumer went out and stood before
Speaker 15: the media and said, well, we don't oppose photo ID,
Speaker 15: it's just the rest of the stuff.
Speaker 4: We don't like.
Speaker 15: So I said, okay, I'll give you a straight photo
Speaker 15: ID bill. Chuck Schumer stood up on the floor and
Speaker 15: opposed my bill. The Democrats, under no circumstances are going
Speaker 15: to vote for Save America or photo ID because they're
Speaker 15: held hostage by the radical left that doesn't want that
Speaker 15: policy in place, even though over eighty percent of Americans
Speaker 15: support it.
Speaker 1: Secretary of State in Ohio and I can't remember if
Speaker 1: you did one term or two terms there, Center of Houston.
Speaker 1: I went.
Speaker 15: I oversaw two presidential elections to to gubernatorial elections. I
Speaker 15: had a case that went all the way to the
Speaker 15: Supreme Court to make sure that we were keeping the
Speaker 15: voter rules secure.
Speaker 1: It was a wonderfully efficient system compared to California and Virginia,
Speaker 1: both places where I live. Has that has that become
Speaker 1: a model for other states because it did work. It's
Speaker 1: like Florida, Ohiolan and Florida kind of set the standard
Speaker 1: when it comes to voting rooms.
Speaker 15: Yeah, well, Ohiland Florida got punched in the nose in
Speaker 15: the early two thousands because we were swing states, right,
Speaker 15: and so we were getting sued all the time. So
Speaker 15: both of us were tried and tested and built good
Speaker 15: election systems. I'm going to make a case to you,
Speaker 15: not just for election security for voter ID but election administration.
Speaker 15: In California, they want to turn election workers into signature
Speaker 15: handwriting experts to make sure one signature matches the other.
Speaker 15: And that's the method that they use to count ballots,
Speaker 15: and what do we see happens with that? It takes
Speaker 15: them weeks to get this done. It's a simple process.
Speaker 15: If you have a photo ID, you just show the
Speaker 15: photo ID, you validate the voter, you count the ballot.
Speaker 15: You would improve the way you administer elections as well
Speaker 15: as improve the security of them if you use this technology.
Speaker 6: They're using eighteenth.
Speaker 15: Century technology, like come in and make your mark and
Speaker 15: let us decide that the mark you made forty years
Speaker 15: ago when you registered to vote looks like the same
Speaker 15: signature that you have today. That's an absurd way to
Speaker 15: conduct an.
Speaker 1: Elect Democrats have absolutely no leg to stand on this,
Speaker 1: and I hope you campaign on this. I hope everyone
Speaker 1: campaigns on this across the country. Well, let me, by
Speaker 1: the way, brag on the Buckeye State from number thirty
Speaker 1: four to number one in business climate. How did that happen?
Speaker 6: Yeah, that was a long climb.
Speaker 15: I've been involved in all of it, as in my
Speaker 15: different roles. In Ohio, we were a dying state, as
Speaker 15: you know, Hugh. At one point in time, businesses were closing,
Speaker 15: people were leaving.
Speaker 6: We started to do things.
Speaker 15: Like tax reform, cut the income tax, over time from
Speaker 15: seven point twenty five percent to two point seventy five percent,
Speaker 15: eliminated three business taxes. We have lowest corporate rates in
Speaker 15: the country, eliminated the death tax, invested in workforce development,
Speaker 15: and in our infrastructure, and CNBC took us from the
Speaker 15: over time from the thirty fourth worst state to do
Speaker 15: business to the best state to do business. Now we
Speaker 15: have this works. We have more jobs than any time
Speaker 15: in our state's history, one of the lowest unemployment rates
Speaker 15: we've ever had in our state's history. And so when
Speaker 15: you create a great environment, imagine this, people invest there,
Speaker 15: they move there. And guess what when you don't California, Illinois,
Speaker 15: New York, people leave and move somewhere else. That's why
Speaker 15: our great experiment of fifty states doing fifty different things
Speaker 15: as wonderful for America, because we compete and we're happy
Speaker 15: that Ohio is now number one.
Speaker 1: Ye Bacaulia last week in Florida at the ALEC conference,
Speaker 1: and he was pretty happy. He watched your old job
Speaker 1: to be lieutenant governor. I hope he wins.
Speaker 6: I know, I hope he gets it. I hope he
Speaker 6: and I and Vivek get that job all right.
Speaker 1: Last thing, perfect way to honor Lindsey Graham. The bill
Speaker 1: you helped co sponsor with him, the Russia Sanctioned Bill
Speaker 1: passed yesterday. I can't believe anyone voted against that, but
Speaker 1: good on you. Ukraine needed the help and Russia needed
Speaker 1: the punchdown. Any anything that needs explaining about that bill
Speaker 1: of the audience, Senator of Houston.
Speaker 15: Well, I would just say that the short of military action,
Speaker 15: financial the financial pain that you can cause is the
Speaker 15: most effective tool we have. We've seen it work very
Speaker 15: effectively against Russia in the past and Iran in the past. Look,
Speaker 15: our military strikes are harming Iran, but.
Speaker 5: Our our our.
Speaker 15: Efforts to cut off their oil supply and their revenue
Speaker 15: are maybe having an even bigger impact on them from
Speaker 15: from that standpoint. So the the ability to sanction countries
Speaker 15: is a very powerful tool.
Speaker 4: And changing behavior.
Speaker 15: This is a good thing. We had Zelensky in to
Speaker 15: visit with us yesterday and other European leaders. They made
Speaker 15: the strong case that with the exception of the of
Speaker 15: the ballistic missiles getting through and needing some basically a
Speaker 15: defense system for that, that they're winning the war against Russia.
Speaker 15: The number of casualties and deaths that they're imposing on
Speaker 15: Russia versus what Russia is getting to them is really
Speaker 15: a pretty remarkable turnaround. It's using those technologies to do it.
Speaker 15: But the sanctions, the sanctions can change behavior. Those are
Speaker 15: things that can cripple economies and countries and bring them
Speaker 15: to heal and hopefully get peace.
Speaker 1: Did you enjoy getting to know Lindsay? Over two years
Speaker 1: he was a regular on the program, and it always
Speaker 1: made us laugh.
Speaker 6: He's so funny. He's so funny.
Speaker 15: I enjoyed getting to know him in my brief time.
Speaker 15: The very first time I ever spoke to Lindsay Hugh,
Speaker 15: he saw me in the cloak room when I was
Speaker 15: a news center. I had been there a couple of days,
Speaker 15: and he comes up to me and he says, he says, hey,
Speaker 15: I want to talk to you. He says, I got
Speaker 15: this Russia sanctions bill. I want to get you on
Speaker 15: my bill, and and he spends he spends a couple
Speaker 15: of minutes talking to me about and then he pauses
Speaker 15: and he goes, hey, wait a minute, what's your name again?
Speaker 1: Always be closing.
Speaker 15: He was always in stelling mode, even before he remember
Speaker 15: who I was. So I became friends with over the
Speaker 15: past year and a half and and I'm going to
Speaker 15: miss him a lot.
Speaker 1: Great story, John Houston, thank you for joining me. Senator,
Speaker 1: congratulations on the sanctions bill, and I hope you get
Speaker 1: the AI chatbot bill through just as quickly. Thank you,
Speaker 1: John Houston. Go anywhere, America. I'll be right back. I'm
Speaker 1: going to be joined by Danny Platka from AI talking
Speaker 1: about what ought to happen tonight in Iran. Next on
Speaker 1: the View Hewet Show, Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewett,
Speaker 1: Danny Platka. Shane, your fellow at the American Enterprise Institute,
Speaker 1: joins me. Danny, it's a very important day. As we talk,
Speaker 1: we learned that drones from Iran have hit a gas
Speaker 1: storage facility in our port and in Egypt, and of
Speaker 1: course a surprise attack on our Jordan base last night.
Speaker 1: Present very emphatic on Fox News this morning talking to
Speaker 1: Trey Yink saying we're going to blanking blank the beatout
Speaker 1: beat that blanking blank out of them. What do you
Speaker 1: think that means? What do you think it should mean?
Speaker 16: Well, let me start with what I think it should mean.
Speaker 16: Not that I haven't said this before to you, because
Speaker 16: I have. We need to go in there. We need
Speaker 16: to finish the job. What to finish the job mean.
Speaker 16: It means no more sort of tactical smack here, smack there,
Speaker 16: retaliatory strikes. It means systematically go in use the intelligence
Speaker 16: that our forces have gathered over the ceasefire that took place,
Speaker 16: the several ceasefires that have taken place, take out their
Speaker 16: remaining missile Arsenal Prime Minister NATANIELO says, one to two
Speaker 16: thousand remaining missiles, take out whatever infrastructure they have for
Speaker 16: their nuclear weapons program, whatever remains, take out whatever bad guys.
Speaker 16: And if it were me and I were King of
Speaker 16: the world, help the Iranians help themselves. Would that last part?
Speaker 16: I'm not sure as part of the plan, but I
Speaker 16: think that it ought to be.
Speaker 1: Well, let's start with the target list and get specific.
Speaker 1: I hope that we drop as many moabs as are
Speaker 1: necessary on Pickaxe Mountain, just to take that off the table. Regardless,
Speaker 1: the Israelis think it's dangerous, so I think it's dangerous. Then.
Speaker 1: Admiral Montgomery has suggested all of the dual use power
Speaker 1: central stations and all of the dual use facilities we
Speaker 1: can find, plus IRGC assets. They're in the construction business,
Speaker 1: they built ships, they make a lot of money from
Speaker 1: a variety of businesses. He wants that taken out. That's
Speaker 1: a big bombing campaign, not just missiles, but a big
Speaker 1: you know, RB two, s RB twenty nine our b ones.
Speaker 1: Do you agree with that?
Speaker 16: I completely agree with it. Look, you know, it's important
Speaker 16: to understand that part of what Iran describes as its
Speaker 16: quote unquote resistance economy is built on the idea that
Speaker 16: all outsiders are shut out of the Iranian economy, so
Speaker 16: that the IOGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard course hataml Ambia.
Speaker 16: It's like, imagine to yourself that the Army Corps of
Speaker 16: engineers with a business. These are the guys who built
Speaker 16: the metro in Tehran. Okay, no bid contracts. They're in
Speaker 16: the business of absolutely everything. They're all rich. And I
Speaker 16: couldn't agree more that even that conglomerate itself is a
Speaker 16: dual use. The profits fuel terrorism and Iranian efforts to
Speaker 16: dominate the Middle East hit them hard.
Speaker 1: Okay, Now, would you also give the people of Tehran
Speaker 1: a couple of days to get out of town so
Speaker 1: that Look, there are hospitals that will lose power. There
Speaker 1: are people that need power. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: ninety one million innocent Iranians and a quarter million I
Speaker 1: are GC people. It's an Israeli tactic that they perfected
Speaker 1: in Gaza, but it's still level Gaza. I don't want
Speaker 1: to destroy Tehran, but should we get people out or
Speaker 1: give them the opportunity to get out?
Speaker 16: Look, I think the problem that we face you is
Speaker 16: one that will be very familiar to you. Spend a
Speaker 16: lot of time talking about what the Israeli strategy was
Speaker 16: in Gaza. It was to deny the kills of Palestinians
Speaker 16: that Hamas wanted, and you can bet these are the
Speaker 16: same people. Yes, of course, the Iranian leadership or Shia Hamasa,
Speaker 16: but these are at the end of the day, is
Speaker 16: longest extremists. They don't care how many Iranians die. It
Speaker 16: wasn't just they killed forty two thousand back in January.
Speaker 16: They would love us to kill more. So, yes, I
Speaker 16: would like us to give them the time, but I
Speaker 16: recognize that Iranians who seek to flee will also be
Speaker 16: in the gun sights of the regime.
Speaker 1: Right now, I also hope this is Hugh Hewett. No
Speaker 1: one has said that that Israel is flying wing to
Speaker 1: wing with us tonight and what is supposed to be
Speaker 1: a massive response. Would you also like to see would
Speaker 1: you like to see the Israelis and our golf allies
Speaker 1: in this overnight and perhaps for many days campaign.
Speaker 16: So we already flew with the Saudis to strike targets
Speaker 16: inside Iraq that were being directed by the IRGC to
Speaker 16: hit at the golf and to hit at the Saudis.
Speaker 16: I obviously like it better when our allies have skinned
Speaker 16: in the game. I think that the concern for the
Speaker 16: Israelis is that the President is not serious that we
Speaker 16: may go in. We may take a couple of pot shots,
Speaker 16: maybe we'll even hit them hard, but it won't be
Speaker 16: the necessary strikes, and all it will do is anger
Speaker 16: the snake. All it will do is bring down the
Speaker 16: wrath of the Iranians on Israel without the necessary payoff
Speaker 16: of incapacitating them as much as the Israelis and the
Speaker 16: Americans together there could if the leash was taken off.
Speaker 1: Well, let's assume for a moment that the Israelis say,
Speaker 1: thank you very much, we're going in and we're going
Speaker 1: to stay in. I don't think the President win interfare
Speaker 1: with them, at least publicly.
Speaker 16: Do you you know that I admire a lot of
Speaker 16: what President Trump has done in a lot of ways.
Speaker 16: But I think that the Israelis very much year that
Speaker 16: there are a bunch of different games going on. And
Speaker 16: what they saw was that when we started the last
Speaker 16: cease fire, when we signed the Memorandum of Understanding which
Speaker 16: you and I talked about, for that, there were very
Speaker 16: serious efforts from some inside the White House, not Donald
Speaker 16: Trump but others to blame the Israelis for the entire war.
Speaker 16: And so for them, they're going to come in, especially
Speaker 16: because they've got an election this fall, They're going to
Speaker 16: come in very cautiously. And that's everything that I've heard
Speaker 16: from the Prime Minister's office is, Look, there's no one
Speaker 16: who wants to take out this regime more than the Israelis,
Speaker 16: even more than we do. But they want to do
Speaker 16: it seriously, and they want to finish it up. And
Speaker 16: one thing they don't want is to become a political
Speaker 16: football in internescent right wing wars in America.
Speaker 1: So our last question, Danny Podca, I want to make
Speaker 1: sure everyone hears you clearly, we should begin a huge
Speaker 1: opinion maximum combat operations that we have in the area
Speaker 1: and keep it up until they either cry uncle or
Speaker 1: the regime collapses. That's my view, because we can't deal
Speaker 1: with them. What's your view?
Speaker 16: My view is exactly the same. Look. At the end
Speaker 16: of the day, we've got to recognize that the regime
Speaker 16: is the problem. We can hit them, we can take
Speaker 16: away their capabilities, but they are going to be committed
Speaker 16: to reconstituting them. They will have Chinese help, North Korean help,
Speaker 16: and Russian help. They are the cancer that has destroyed
Speaker 16: the Middle East, and at least part of our thinking
Speaker 16: needs to be to help the Iranian people free themselves
Speaker 16: and help the region free itself of this regime. It
Speaker 16: has to be in the back of our minds because that,
Speaker 16: at the end of the day, is what is going
Speaker 16: to close this sad chapter.
Speaker 1: I agree. And setting up an opposition government and funding
Speaker 1: it is a good way to do that from the outside.
Speaker 1: Danny Plutka from AEI, all right, thank you. D Plutka
Speaker 1: on X. D Pludka on X.
Speaker 17: What happens when citizens begin to fear the very agencies
Speaker 17: created to protect them. This weekend, the America two fifty
Speaker 17: film series presents police State. Dinesh Desuza examines intelligence, law enforcement,
Speaker 17: and the warning signs of government power. Turned Inward launched
Speaker 17: Saturday and Sunday at seven pm Eastern on Salem News Channel.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to America. I'm keth Hewitt ab Greenwald, Executive
Speaker 1: editor of Commentary Magazine. This very morning, I was listening
Speaker 1: to Commentary Debate with Matt Continetti. They taped it yesterday.
Speaker 1: Gott to drop this morning about what ought to be done.
Speaker 1: That was before President Trump. Abe went on talk to
Speaker 1: Trey Inks today and said, we're going to blanking blank
Speaker 1: the blank out of them. Can't say any of those
Speaker 1: words because I'm an FCC compliant broadcast. What does that
Speaker 1: mean to you? What do you want it to turn
Speaker 1: out to be?
Speaker 18: Well, at this point, it's very hard to say what
Speaker 18: that means, because he's the president, has said many similar
Speaker 18: things before. Sometimes they have preceded some pretty ferocious kinetic
Speaker 18: operations against Iran. Sometimes they've preceded some tit for tat,
Speaker 18: and sometimes they've preceded another round of negotiations. So it's
Speaker 18: very hard to say what they would mean. What I'd
Speaker 18: like to see is, at the very least our commitment
Speaker 18: to keeping up the blockade and to targeting the regime's
Speaker 18: ability to work their will on the straight to the
Speaker 18: best of our ability, given the potential problems that we're
Speaker 18: having with defensive munitions, and additionally, we've got to take
Speaker 18: care of Pickax Mountain sometime.
Speaker 1: Well, let me cite all my agreements with you. Pickax Mountain.
Speaker 1: Number one, every moab that we've got as far down
Speaker 1: as they can go, and the entrances and everybody around it.
Speaker 1: Number two, I would darken Tehran. I might give Tehran
Speaker 1: one day to empty out, two days tempty out, to
Speaker 1: tell the people, we don't want to hurt anyone that's innocent,
Speaker 1: but you're not going to have power for a few weeks,
Speaker 1: so go somewhere else in the country. Admiral Montgomery, retired,
Speaker 1: now over at the Foundation for Defensive Democracies, has suggested
Speaker 1: every IRGC connected business, they're in shipbuilding, they're a construction.
Speaker 1: They make money that way below that sky. I and
Speaker 1: then I just pound everything that moves abe and I
Speaker 1: wouldn't stop for forty days. And I would ask the Israelis,
Speaker 1: the Saudi, the Kuwaitis, everybody to come in. They hit
Speaker 1: us in Egypt today so they're not. They're not in
Speaker 1: any way, shape or form dealing with us right now,
Speaker 1: and so I don't I don't see any use to
Speaker 1: trying to get them back to the bargaining table there.
Speaker 1: To quote the President, there'scam and to quote Secretary of Ruby,
Speaker 1: though they're they're crazy.
Speaker 18: I I actually agree with you on all points. My
Speaker 18: The the only thing that may have sound sounded like
Speaker 18: restraint in what I was saying is that I'm cognizant
Speaker 18: of all these stories about hur our problem with that
Speaker 18: we're running low on defensive munitions, and I don't know
Speaker 18: what kind of Iranian response the regime is still capable
Speaker 18: of to the kind of attack you're talking about. That
Speaker 18: would be my only reservation about carrying out the kind
Speaker 18: of attack you're talking about.
Speaker 1: Now, would you The X level that I haven't talked
Speaker 1: about because I've heard both arguments is the oil supply infrastructure.
Speaker 1: And there are two parts of that where it's stored
Speaker 1: and where it's pumped. And I have no compunction about
Speaker 1: taking out every pipeline that there is and every bridge
Speaker 1: that helps them get resupplied. I just think they've shown
Speaker 1: their hand last night with Zelenski and the country, that
Speaker 1: yahoo in the country the Lindsay Graham funeral. They chose
Speaker 1: that night to try a sneak attack on our base
Speaker 1: in Jordan. These are not people that you can deal with.
Speaker 4: Amen. They're in fact escalating.
Speaker 6: They're very clearly escalating.
Speaker 1: So that's not the US escalating.
Speaker 6: I think we should.
Speaker 18: I agree with you, and yeah, I have no problem
Speaker 18: with taking with going after every bit of oil infrastructure
Speaker 18: we can get at. You know, it was many months
Speaker 18: ago that we started hearing well they may have to
Speaker 18: cap the Wells soon, and then then that'll be disastrous
Speaker 18: for them. I'm no longer waiting for this floating date
Speaker 18: in front of us, when when Ron will have to
Speaker 18: captain Wells and go broke.
Speaker 1: I'm all for going straight at it now. The last
Speaker 1: big question a impact on the elections. I actually think
Speaker 1: it will help the President and the Republican Party if
Speaker 1: he demonstrates commitment and strength here because and I might
Speaker 1: even put the resolution on the floor if Leader Thune
Speaker 1: is listening, put the resolution on the floor authorizing the
Speaker 1: president of conduct. They are clearly an enemy of civilization
Speaker 1: and they're part of the Alliance of authoritarians, the Alliance
Speaker 1: retiremants the axis of aggressors. Call him what you want.
Speaker 1: They're clearly part of the bad guys. Maybe and we
Speaker 1: should ask Israeli in too last couple of minutes to you.
Speaker 4: Oh, I think this look.
Speaker 18: I think a decisive, strong show of force against Iran
Speaker 18: here would definitely help him, because where he's at now
Speaker 18: is he's not doing himself any favors just in terms
Speaker 18: of the pure politics of it, let alone the sort
Speaker 18: of world changing effects. But this he's someone the administration
Speaker 18: has to figure out how to do what you're talking
Speaker 18: about and address the munition's shortage, either by saying it's
Speaker 18: not true, by saying we have such and such a
Speaker 18: plan to be in such and such shape by a
Speaker 18: certain date, or I don't know what, but it's now
Speaker 18: become a very strong counter narrative that is chipping away
Speaker 18: at any potential.
Speaker 4: Advance in our effort there.
Speaker 1: Hey, thank you. I hope you guys Kate pushing those
Speaker 1: great podcasts out. You're on a funny schedule this week,
Speaker 1: so you screwed up my trundle this morning. But I
Speaker 1: appreciate the effort you guys are putting into it. Abe
Speaker 1: Greenwald follow him on x at Abe Greenwald and listen
Speaker 1: to the commentary podcast Every single day, smartest podcast in
Speaker 1: America period. Thank you, Abe,