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Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things Hilldale.

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Speaker 2: At Hillsdale dot edu.

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Speaker 1: I encourage you to take advantage of the many free

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Speaker 1: online courses there, and of course I'll listener to the

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Speaker 1: Hilldale Dialogue all of them at q for Hillsdale dot

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Speaker 1: com or just Google, Apple, iTunes and Hilldale.

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Speaker 3: Back to the Hugh Hughit Show. I'm guest host Kurt Schlichter.

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Speaker 4: And if you were listening right now, right here on

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Speaker 4: your radio dial er on the Salem News Channel app,

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Speaker 4: you would have seen my next guest, Doctor Sebastian Gorka.

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Speaker 4: He is the Deputy National Security Advisor for counter Terrorism.

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Speaker 4: He is a close personal friend. I am very proud

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Speaker 4: to welcome him to the Hugh Hewitt Show. Welcome doctor Gorka.

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Speaker 5: Greetings, my dear friend, Happy new year. Just one small correction.

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Speaker 5: Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Characterism.

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Speaker 5: How is it to host my former show, Colonel Kay.

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Speaker 4: Well, I hope I'm meeting your exact standards, doctor Gorka,

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Speaker 4: and I'm glad to say that you haven't gone and

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Speaker 4: activated this retired United States Army colonel and made myself.

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Speaker 2: That was going to be my next thing.

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Speaker 5: I mentioned stop playing foot see with US patriots inside

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Speaker 5: the administration and playing with the idea of US reactivating you,

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Speaker 5: because you know, I can text Pete Hegseth right now

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Speaker 5: and I can say, hey, there's an old six who

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Speaker 5: wants to get in the fight.

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Speaker 2: So one more time.

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Speaker 5: You played coquettish with that concept, and you may just

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Speaker 5: have the dow on your doorstep.

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Speaker 4: Oh well, you don't have to worry about me. You

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Speaker 4: have to worry about Arena, and you've met her, doctor Gorka.

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Speaker 3: We're friends.

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Speaker 4: But I gotta say I am so proud to have

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Speaker 4: a guy like you, just as an American because you

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Speaker 4: have gone from a very public persona We don't hear

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Speaker 4: anything from you except occasional updates on what you're doing.

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Speaker 4: You are all business, and your business is killing terrorists.

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Speaker 4: And my understanding is that business is good.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 5: The bumper sticker, my friend, is we are back in

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Speaker 5: the business of counter terrorism. It started on day eight

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Speaker 5: of the administration when we walked into the Oval office

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Speaker 5: told the Commander in Chief as a leader vices walking

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Speaker 5: around a freeman who Biden had been surveilling for a

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Speaker 5: year and a half He looked up at us from

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Speaker 5: the resolute desk and he said kill. That man got

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Speaker 5: out his iconic sharpie pen marked the go box on

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Speaker 5: the operational aord Is. Less than thirty hours later, I

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Speaker 5: was in the situation room under the West Wing with

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Speaker 5: my NSC colleagues, with the then National Security Advisor as

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Speaker 5: we watched that leader of Isis be removed with extreme prejudice.

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Speaker 5: That was eleven days into the administration. Since then, I

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Speaker 5: can now report to you and our incredible Salem viewers

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Speaker 5: and listeners, the President has neutralites is removed from the

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Speaker 5: battlefield for good.

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Speaker 2: Four one hundred.

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Speaker 5: And seventy nine g huddists with American blood on their

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Speaker 5: hands or who are plotting to kill Americans.

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Speaker 2: That is outside of the Houthy campaign.

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Speaker 5: That is outside of the incredible work of Dow, the

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Speaker 5: Coast Guard Secretary Rubio, Stephen Miller, Governor nomat DHS who

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Speaker 5: have been taking out with Pete Hegseth's direction, the drug boats, which,

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Speaker 5: let me be very clear, the President mentioned this recently,

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Speaker 5: every single one of those drug boats would cause the

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Speaker 5: deaths of between twenty and fifty thousand Americans. Every single

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Speaker 5: time we take one out, we are saving tens of

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Speaker 5: thousands of lives. So yes, we are back in the

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Speaker 5: business of protecting America and protecting her citizens.

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Speaker 4: Kurt Ah Well, doctor Gorka, thank you and thank your team. Now,

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Speaker 4: I know as a leader you are only as good

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Speaker 4: as the people who work for you. And while of

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Speaker 4: course you're not going to reveal their names, can you

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Speaker 4: tell us a little about the kind of people you

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Speaker 4: get to orchestrate in your symphony of righteous retribution against terrorists?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, this is when you realize how blessed you are

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Speaker 5: as a man. So yes, I'm responsible for counter terrorism

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Speaker 5: for the most consequential president of the modern age, President Trump.

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Speaker 5: But it only looks so good and the figures are

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Speaker 5: only so incredible because of the team who works for

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Speaker 5: me in the National Security Council.

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Speaker 2: Our work is classified. I live skiffed life today. You

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Speaker 2: are familiar with that.

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Speaker 5: Yes, spending very wrong days in a secure compartmented information

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Speaker 5: facility doing classified work. I have detail ees from across

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Speaker 5: the government. I have a direct hire who is my deputy.

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Speaker 5: But these I'm just going to say this, And if

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Speaker 5: I had the good book in front of me, I'd

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Speaker 5: swear on the b and I said this to the

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Speaker 5: head of Hi. Everybody I know in government, every single member,

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Speaker 5: every single director in my CT, my characters and directorate,

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Speaker 5: is a rock star.

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Speaker 2: Whether they've come from the Department of War, whether.

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Speaker 5: They're from the intelligence community or other parts of the

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Speaker 5: US government.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's like the President.

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Speaker 5: I give them, you know, a mission statement, I give

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Speaker 5: them the concept of operations, and they just execute.

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Speaker 2: I don't need to hold their hands. None of them

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Speaker 2: is a prima dollar.

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Speaker 5: And you know what's really rare in this stinking city

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Speaker 5: you are fully aware of that is people without egos.

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Speaker 5: None of my directors has an ego. All they care

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Speaker 5: about is a mission and they are amazing patriots.

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Speaker 4: Doctor Gorka, I'm going to keep you over into the

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Speaker 4: break for our podcast viewers, So let's just take a

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Speaker 4: quick pause and then we'll start up again with doctor

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Speaker 4: Sebastian Gorka here on the Hugh Hewett Show. Doctor Gorka,

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Speaker 4: we're back in the podcast portion. I still think like

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Speaker 4: a kernel, what is the end state your unit is

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Speaker 4: looking for to achieve by the end of twenty twenty six,

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Speaker 4: in our words, one year from now, what do you

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Speaker 4: want to be able to brief?

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Speaker 5: Oh, that's perfectly put. So the end state is very simple.

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Speaker 5: I have one metric for the President and for all Americans,

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Speaker 5: whether they vote for President Trump or not, if you're

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Speaker 5: a US citizen, if you're a US taxpayer. I want

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Speaker 5: to make the five top jihadi entities in the world

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Speaker 5: which are capable of and have the intent to execute

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Speaker 5: what we call external operations, that's mass casualty attacks against

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Speaker 5: US citizens on the mainland or elsewhere. I want to

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Speaker 5: make them combat ineffective. I want to make them incapable

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Speaker 5: of killing Americans in America or doing anything like in

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Speaker 5: nine eleven. That is my very simple metric, and within

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Speaker 5: a matter of months that could happen. We are on

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Speaker 5: the casp of presenting the new US CANA Terrorism strategy.

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Speaker 2: To the President.

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Speaker 5: If he approves it and signs it, we will see

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Speaker 5: the hammers of hell come down on these entities even

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Speaker 5: more than they have in the last eleven and a

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Speaker 5: half months, and we will look. Here's another metric, and

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Speaker 5: it's kind of facetious, but it's true.

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Speaker 2: I want to put people like me out of a job.

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Speaker 5: There should not be a senior director of Canaterrorism in

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Speaker 5: the NSC. In terms of other threats like China, like Russia,

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Speaker 5: like Iran. We shouldn't be dealing with you know, rag

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Speaker 5: tag jihadists in the most powerful building in the world.

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Speaker 5: I want to suppress them until they become an irrelevance.

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Speaker 2: That is my dream.

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Speaker 4: Ah, doctor Gorka, that's a wonderful dream. You helped me

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Speaker 4: out with my book The Attack, which postulate a mass

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Speaker 4: terrorist attack on the United States of America. He gave

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Speaker 4: me some great feedback on big picture stuff and also, Chris,

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Speaker 4: I some of my description of AK forty sevens if

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Speaker 4: I remember correctly. Let me ask you, though should have

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Speaker 4: right now, because you know we've only had a year

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Speaker 4: and we had open borders.

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Speaker 3: For four years.

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Speaker 4: How would you assess the internal threat in the United

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Speaker 4: States of America And what can individual Americans do to

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Speaker 4: ameliorate that threat? We got about thirty seconds.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, number one, we are fixing it with the likes

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Speaker 5: of Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, Governor Ome. We are getting

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Speaker 5: rid of the worst of the worst who are let

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Speaker 5: into this country by Biden and Harris. But I will say,

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Speaker 5: you are the first line of defense, so don't expect

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Speaker 5: Uncle Sam to always be there to protect you. If

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Speaker 5: you can do so where you live, do what I do.

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Speaker 5: Get licensed, carry a gun, protect your family and your

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Speaker 5: loved ones. But we are cleaning the mess up right

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Speaker 5: now that we inherited from President.

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Speaker 3: Auto Pen and doctor Gorka.

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Speaker 4: Let me add go out, go find the Red Cross,

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Speaker 4: learn urgency medical care, stop the bleeding.

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Speaker 3: You can save lives.

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Speaker 4: Doctor Gorka, thank you, and please pass on the thanks

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Speaker 4: of this entire audience to your entire team, because you

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Speaker 4: know that's what leaders do. Thank you so much, Doctor Gorka.

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Speaker 4: Happy New Year, and God bless America.

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Speaker 3: We're back on the Hugh Hewitt Show.

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Speaker 4: I'm guess Ho's church Schlickter, and of course that's the

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Speaker 4: Plimsul Southern California's Oh Peter Case.

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Speaker 3: And the Gang Rocket Gosh.

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Speaker 4: I love this music and I love the chance the

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Speaker 4: guest host the hu Hewit Show because I get to

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Speaker 4: pick it and I also get to have my pals

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Speaker 4: on and one of the guys. I listen to him

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Speaker 4: every week, just like I listen to Hwit Show. He's

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Speaker 4: on the Ruthless Podcast. He's one of the fellas. John Ashbrook,

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Speaker 4: Welcome to the hu Hewit Show.

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Speaker 6: Sared, how you doing?

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Speaker 2: Happy New year, Happy New Year.

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Speaker 3: I'm doing great.

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Speaker 4: You guys on the Ruthless podcast have had an incredible

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Speaker 4: twenty twenty five, haven't you.

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Speaker 6: Well, it's been a whirlwind. I mean, it's hard to believe.

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Speaker 6: We started out in January of twenty twenty five, and

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Speaker 6: Caroline Levitt and President Trump were nice enough to let

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Speaker 6: us ask the first question of any podcasters at a

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Speaker 6: White House briefing. So it started with that and then

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Speaker 6: continued through the summer. We had some great interviews, but

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Speaker 6: a lot of laughs, and we've got more in store,

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Speaker 6: I think for twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 4: Well that was my next question. What are we looking

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Speaker 4: at in the near future for the Ruthless guys? Are

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Speaker 4: we looking at a Fox TV show? Because you guys

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Speaker 4: have linked up with the premier conservative television network.

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Speaker 6: Well, I don't know about that. I do know that

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Speaker 6: what they asked us to do was just more of

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Speaker 6: what we've been doing all along. And so we had

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Speaker 6: a third show this year. Who knows what whether we'll

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Speaker 6: end up adding another one in twenty twenty I guess,

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Speaker 6: I guess we'll see. But I mean, we thought that

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Speaker 6: we were going to head into January with our ongoing

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Speaker 6: coverage of the Democrat Civil War. But this story out

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Speaker 6: of Minnesota and Ohio and probably every other state, you

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Speaker 6: can't you can't look away. I mean, this is the

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Speaker 6: most insane thing I've ever seen in my life. And

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Speaker 6: I mean a lot of people have been talking about

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Speaker 6: this for years, but thank God for Nick Shirley. I mean,

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Speaker 6: that guy really exposed something that at the right time.

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Speaker 6: And I mean, you got a tip a.

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Speaker 2: Cap to that guy.

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Speaker 4: It was amazing. I mean, I've been guest hosting for

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Speaker 4: four days. We're in the middle of a news desert,

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Speaker 4: and I've been I've been milking the Somali scandal like

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Speaker 4: a Wisconsin cheesemonger. So I mean, it just keeps giving

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Speaker 4: and giving.

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Speaker 6: It doesn't it it does, It doesn't. You can't make

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Speaker 6: it up. The guy I was just talking to Dwayne

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Speaker 6: a minute ago, and you reminded me about this guy

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Speaker 6: who at a press conference today and said that we

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Speaker 6: would like to cooperate, but all the papers were stolen,

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Speaker 6: our financial records. You can't make it up.

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Speaker 3: One of those maga burglars who comes in looking for

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Speaker 3: your looking for your tax receipts, I'll show them.

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Speaker 6: Man, it's you know, if it would be. It's you know,

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Speaker 6: it's so funny, but also like that, it's just so

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Speaker 6: much money. And all of us pay taxes every April

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Speaker 6: fifteenth at gunpoint or would go to jail, So you

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Speaker 6: send your taxes. You hope that the government bends them wisely,

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Speaker 6: but clearly they're just dumping it down a money pit

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Speaker 6: with these crooks who are who are just stealing so much.

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Speaker 6: And also, you know, medicaid is for poor people who

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Speaker 6: who need help, you know, and so they're stealing it.

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Speaker 6: They're steal it from you and me, but they're taking

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Speaker 6: it right out of the right out of the Mauths

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Speaker 6: or the people who need it the most. And you know,

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Speaker 6: you wonder why there are all these problems in Medicaid

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Speaker 6: and they're you know, they are all these complaints that

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Speaker 6: it's not working as well as it should or they

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Speaker 6: don't have the funding they need. Well, now we know

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Speaker 6: where a lot of it's gone. And I really hope

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Speaker 6: that the Trump administration can put a stop to this.

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Speaker 6: I really really hope I think they can. You know,

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Speaker 6: they've got found like BONDI and cash Bit Talent, all

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Speaker 6: them are on the case. But you know, you just

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Speaker 6: know that this is going on in every single state

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Speaker 6: in our country.

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Speaker 4: Well, I think John Ashberg of Ruthless, I think this

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Speaker 4: is just beautiful as a Republican because it hits them

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Speaker 4: on you know, it hits them on every level.

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Speaker 3: Right in the Gonads.

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Speaker 4: It is attack on immigration because we've imported this this

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Speaker 4: culture that's now eighty five percent you know well government

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Speaker 4: dependent and is running these the giant theft rings we.

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Speaker 2: Have, uh.

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Speaker 3: We we have uh the.

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Speaker 4: The the failure of welfare state on display for everybody.

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Speaker 4: And we also have, thanks to uh Tim Waltz, an

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Speaker 4: amazing display of the inability of Democrats to perform the

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Speaker 4: basic blocking and tackling of government.

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Speaker 3: I mean, it's like a win win win.

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Speaker 4: If you if if we convened a council of renowned,

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Speaker 4: uh cynical right wing consultants to figure out the perfect scandal,

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Speaker 4: they would come up with this one.

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Speaker 3: We're going to use. I mean, I figure we use

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Speaker 3: this as.

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Speaker 4: A stically a suppository for the Democrats all through up

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Speaker 4: to the midterms.

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Speaker 3: What do you think.

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Speaker 6: I think it's a great idea. I mean, the truth

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Speaker 6: is they are just really really bad at governing. Look

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Speaker 6: at every single blue state in this in this country.

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Speaker 6: Look at every blue city. You got crime problems, you

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Speaker 6: have budget problems. You've got Democrats promising everybody everything and

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Speaker 6: not delivering on any of it. And then people are

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Speaker 6: stealing things right up from from under them, and they're

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Speaker 6: just like, well, you know, maybe we should let them

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Speaker 6: steal it and we shouldn't ask questions. There was a

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Speaker 6: CBS reporter, I don't know if you saw this CBS

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Speaker 6: reporter who came did a report from Minnesota, and he

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Speaker 6: basically was like, well, I checked in with the government

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Speaker 6: sources and they assure me there is no fraud.

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Speaker 3: Well that's.

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Speaker 6: What are you talking about, man, I mean the basic

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Speaker 6: level of journalism. You're supposed to question what the government

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Speaker 6: is telling you. But evidently when the Democrats says it,

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Speaker 6: they take him at their word.

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Speaker 3: Well, you know, they.

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Speaker 4: Instead of speaking toe truth to power, they stuck the

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Speaker 4: toes of power.

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Speaker 3: It's it's it's disgusting. I mean, uh, we.

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Speaker 4: We've got about a little less a minute left, Johnbrook,

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Speaker 4: how do you think I think the economy's coming kicking back.

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Speaker 4: I think America is going to hit another boom. I

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Speaker 4: think we're going to do fine in the twenty twenty

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Speaker 4: six midterms.

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Speaker 3: What do you think.

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Speaker 6: Well, I'm not super optimistic about the twenty twenty six midterms,

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Speaker 6: to be honest with you, Although the more fraud that's

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Speaker 6: uncovered in these Democrat run cities, the worse their brand

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Speaker 6: that's going to look, and the better the chances for

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Speaker 6: Republicans will be in terms of the economy. You know,

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Speaker 6: I'm not the expert on that. I'm not as smart

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Speaker 6: as not defent, but he's pretty smart and he seems optimistic,

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Speaker 6: and he's made the case time and time again that

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Speaker 6: when these tax cuts that were passed last year kicking

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Speaker 6: at the beginning of this year, it's going to be

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Speaker 6: like rocket fuel. And I really hope he's right, and

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Speaker 6: I am willing to believe him because he knows a

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Speaker 6: whole lot more about it than I do.

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Speaker 4: Well, John Ashbrook of Ruthless, thank you for joining me

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Speaker 4: on the h Hewitt Show. Please let Josh Holmes know

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Speaker 4: that I am a supporter of his porn staff.

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Speaker 3: I think it.

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Speaker 4: Looks great, and everybody stick around because I'm guest.

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Speaker 3: Knows Kurt Schlicker, and we got a lot more to come.

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Speaker 4: There are trial lawyers, and there are trial lawyers, and

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Speaker 4: this next guest is one of the latter.

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Speaker 3: He's Ted Frank.

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Speaker 4: He's the director of Litigation at the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute.

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Speaker 4: You've probably seen him on the Twitter machine at Ted

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Speaker 4: Frank ted fri ns k and he's a pal of

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Speaker 4: mine who turned me onto Pinkerton's Barbecue in Houston.

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Speaker 3: Ted, Welcome to the Hugh Hewitt Show.

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Speaker 2: My pleasure.

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Speaker 7: It's a real honor to be here.

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Speaker 2: Thanks. What happening.

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Speaker 4: I know it's your first time on the Hugh Hewitt Show.

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Speaker 4: Can you I know your background, but in about twenty seconds,

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Speaker 4: can you sketch it out for the audience so they

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Speaker 4: know who's going to be giving him some insights.

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Speaker 2: Sure.

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Speaker 8: I'm an attorney that leads a conservative public interest law firm,

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Speaker 8: the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute hll I dot org.

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Speaker 2: We've bought against class action lawyers.

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Speaker 8: We've fought against government overreach, especially California First Amendment violations,

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Speaker 8: and we have some litigation now pending against left wing

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Speaker 8: NGOs that organize disruptive demonstrations in the cities that block

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Speaker 8: roads and keep people stuck in traffic for hours.

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Speaker 4: So when people talk about law fare, you guys are

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Speaker 4: the ones who counterattack.

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Speaker 2: That's exactly right.

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Speaker 4: Oh well, there's no better defense than a good offense.

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Speaker 4: And I say that as a guy who's primarily a

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Speaker 4: corporate defense attorney. For years and years and years, ted

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Speaker 4: people have been seeing what's going on in the law.

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Speaker 4: It seems like organized resistance to Donald Trump among primarily

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Speaker 4: Democrat appointed district court judges throughout the United States. You

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Speaker 4: and I both practice in the practice or practiced in

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Speaker 4: front of district court judges, and you know, normal people

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Speaker 4: look at and think this is kind of weird. It

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Speaker 4: doesn't sound right. You know, I practice there for thirty years.

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Speaker 4: They're right, it's weird and it doesn't sound right.

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Speaker 2: How would you.

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Speaker 3: Characterize the last year of litigation?

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Speaker 8: There seems to be special rules that apply to Trump

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Speaker 8: that don't apply to other presidents. And we just have

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Speaker 8: a number of district court judges that are making effectively

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Speaker 8: lawless rulings and putting themselves in the position to rule

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Speaker 8: the executive branch or control the military, or order planes

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Speaker 8: to turn around, or order Congress to spend money that

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Speaker 8: they've explicitly said they don't want to spend. We have

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Speaker 8: one judge in the First Circuit who's now been reversed

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Speaker 8: three times, not even by the Supreme Court, but by

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Speaker 8: the First Circuit, which has one Republican appointed judge in

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Speaker 8: the entire bench.

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Speaker 3: What can.

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Speaker 8: You know?

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Speaker 4: The criticism is Supreme Court. It is, well, you're not

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Speaker 4: acting normally. You're you're doing things that you know you're

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Speaker 4: you're breaking down guardrails. And my response is, way, man,

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Speaker 4: the guardrails are gone. The Supreme courts reacting to bizarre

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Speaker 4: procedural and bizarre substantive rulings. And when you have to

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Speaker 4: react to things that are weird and wrong, you can't

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Speaker 4: do that by being the same way you were when

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Speaker 4: there was some kind of coherence to it.

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Speaker 8: I don't even think the Supreme Court is doing something

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Speaker 8: all that different than what it's been doing for the

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Speaker 8: last ten years. They're they're enforcing the law, they're calling

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Speaker 8: balls and strikes. The administration doesn't bring every case before

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Speaker 8: the Supreme Court. I think they're they're picking and choosing

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Speaker 8: their cases and picking the cases.

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Speaker 7: That are most likely to win. And even then they

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Speaker 7: don't win all the time.

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Speaker 8: And and uh often to the disapproval of Justice Alito,

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Speaker 8: who's spoken out against what the Court is Last week

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Speaker 8: in Trump the Illinois.

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Speaker 3: Well, Trump vi.

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Speaker 4: Illinois was a case involving the deployment of the National Guard,

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Speaker 4: and I look at that, and.

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Speaker 3: You know, it was a very.

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Speaker 4: Textual based kind of decision with without a lot of

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Speaker 4: concern for the practicalities. The practicality being that the President

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Speaker 4: could just go, Okay, if I can't use that statue

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Speaker 4: to bring up the National Guard, I just declare the

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Speaker 4: Insurrection Act in effect and sending the active duty Marines.

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Speaker 4: My objection, Ted Frank, is that you know, we are

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Speaker 4: litigating things in a way they shouldn't be litigated, and

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Speaker 4: it's going to lead to jarring and off putting results.

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Speaker 8: I think that's right, and I certainly have some concern

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Speaker 8: that there are people in the left that like it

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Speaker 8: that way, that they're really working to tear down down

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Speaker 8: the guardrails of the judicial branch as a check on

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Speaker 8: the presidency in the hopes of discrediting it down the

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Speaker 8: road for either court packing the next time they take

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Speaker 8: the Senate and the Presidency at the same time, or

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Speaker 8: for their own sort of constitutional crisis in disregarding the

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Speaker 8: orders of the Supreme Court. Well, Ted Frank, And we

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Speaker 8: actually have Harvard and Yale law professors that seem to

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Speaker 8: think that this is a wise strategy in writing op

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Speaker 8: eds claiming that the Court has discredited itself.

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Speaker 4: Well, you know, once again a huge problem in our

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Speaker 4: society is so many people and positions of authority within

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Speaker 4: our institutions have never been in a playground fist fight.

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Speaker 4: They seem, you know, when they start talking about, well,

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Speaker 4: you know, we'll discredit the court and then we'll pack

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Speaker 4: it and then well, and then what do they expect

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Speaker 4: the Americans who who you know, filled the court with

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Speaker 4: people who believed as they did, who went through the

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Speaker 4: proper process, who won their cases, and are suddenly dispossessed

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Speaker 4: of that political power that they earned fair and square.

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Speaker 4: They're suddenly going to roll over on their backs when

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Speaker 4: you change the rules.

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Speaker 3: You can only pull so.

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Speaker 4: Many blocks out of the Djenga tower before Article three

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Speaker 4: comes crashing down.

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Speaker 2: I think that's right.

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Speaker 8: And you know, we hear the left talking about, oh,

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Speaker 8: let's add six more Supreme Court justices, And in one sense,

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Speaker 8: I like that, because my best chance to be on

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Speaker 8: the Supreme Court is as appointed to the swing forty

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Speaker 8: third votes sometime in ten years.

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Speaker 2: But it really would discredit the court.

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Speaker 8: Once you start saying, the Court is this political institution,

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Speaker 8: and we will appoint people who will act politically.

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Speaker 4: If they're going to act politically, then they're just a

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Speaker 4: political force, and they're going to be treated as a

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Speaker 4: political force to be defeated and evaded and countermanded. You know,

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Speaker 4: you brought some up interest, You brought some interesting up

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Speaker 4: to me. You are a litigator. You are a fine litigator.

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Speaker 4: I know the difference between good ones and bad ones,

442
00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:22,480
Speaker 4: and you are a shockingly good one.

443
00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:24,720
Speaker 3: And would you.

444
00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:27,800
Speaker 4: Ever consider being a disrecort judge? Would Donald Trump come knocking?

445
00:24:31,040 --> 00:24:33,560
Speaker 8: They probably think my life expectancy is too short to

446
00:24:34,080 --> 00:24:37,320
Speaker 8: do that. But I think I'm past the age where

447
00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:40,880
Speaker 8: people get appointed to be judges in the twenty first

448
00:24:41,119 --> 00:24:43,879
Speaker 8: in the yeah, in the twenty first century. But I

449
00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:48,520
Speaker 8: you know, I'd be flattered to be considered to be

450
00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:52,560
Speaker 8: a judge. I imagine i'd get some questions at my

451
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:56,320
Speaker 8: that they'd have a lot of tweets to pour through

452
00:24:56,359 --> 00:25:02,080
Speaker 8: at my nomination hearing. But I I certainly wouldn't complain

453
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:05,320
Speaker 8: if if, if, if somebody envisioned that for me.

454
00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:10,600
Speaker 4: Well, look there there are you know. Of course, we

455
00:25:10,800 --> 00:25:13,760
Speaker 4: currently have nine Supreme Court Justices. I I hear some

456
00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:18,680
Speaker 4: talk that perhaps Justice Alito may retire next year, maybe

457
00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:20,439
Speaker 4: Justice Thomas.

458
00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:21,400
Speaker 3: What what do you what?

459
00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:21,600
Speaker 2: What?

460
00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:22,560
Speaker 3: What do you think about that?

461
00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:27,920
Speaker 8: I mean, certainly I hear the same rumors everybody else does,

462
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:32,680
Speaker 8: that that that Alito UH would would find it wisest

463
00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:35,760
Speaker 8: to retire at the end of this term and.

464
00:25:36,359 --> 00:25:39,760
Speaker 7: Uh be replaced while he knows that.

465
00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:42,840
Speaker 8: There's a Republican Senate there to replace him and and

466
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:43,960
Speaker 8: not block.

467
00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:48,640
Speaker 7: Or keep this seat empty. The rumors.

468
00:25:49,440 --> 00:25:52,399
Speaker 8: I you know, I one thing I hear about Thomas

469
00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:55,840
Speaker 8: is that he plans to do this as long as

470
00:25:55,880 --> 00:26:02,400
Speaker 8: he's healthy and if he gets replaced. I don't know

471
00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:06,359
Speaker 8: that he cares so much about the political nature of

472
00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:10,600
Speaker 8: what would happen on his replacement. On the other hand,

473
00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:16,000
Speaker 8: maybe he does, and he's looking to break Douglas's.

474
00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:17,400
Speaker 7: Record and get replaced at the end of this term.

475
00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:19,679
Speaker 4: Well, Ted, Frank, thank you for joining us on The

476
00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:22,840
Speaker 4: Hugh Hewitt Show. I'm guest host Kurch Schlichter. Sticking around,

477
00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:27,639
Speaker 4: We got a lot more to god.

478
00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:35,000
Speaker 3: Welcome back to the Hugh Hewitt Show.

479
00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:40,320
Speaker 4: I'm guest host Kurt Schlichter, Senior commonist at townhall dot Com.

480
00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:44,560
Speaker 4: Former trial lawyer, retired Army colonel, author of the new

481
00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:48,000
Speaker 4: book Panama Read, the ninth in the Kelly Turbul series.

482
00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:53,600
Speaker 4: It's a novel, It's fun, it's exciting. It was the

483
00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:57,680
Speaker 4: number one political thriller at Amazon for a while. Panama

484
00:26:57,800 --> 00:26:59,680
Speaker 4: read You need to go out and get it. I

485
00:27:01,080 --> 00:27:05,400
Speaker 4: a is a conservative author. I came up with Andrew Breitbart.

486
00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:07,760
Speaker 4: Andrew said, you guys, you gotta make your own culture.

487
00:27:08,119 --> 00:27:10,480
Speaker 4: You gotta go do it. Don't complain about Hollywood, don't

488
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:12,240
Speaker 4: complain about the book industry.

489
00:27:12,880 --> 00:27:14,800
Speaker 3: Go do it yourself. And I did.

490
00:27:15,119 --> 00:27:17,560
Speaker 4: But there are some people who are taking the book

491
00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:21,520
Speaker 4: industry by storm. And one of those guys is Tony Daniel.

492
00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:24,240
Speaker 4: He is the editor in chief at ARC Press. You

493
00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:27,080
Speaker 4: can follow him at at Tony Daniels seven seven seven.

494
00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:31,639
Speaker 4: Tony was also my editor at Regnery for my last

495
00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:37,400
Speaker 4: nonfiction book, We'll be back, Tony. Welcome to the show. Hey,

496
00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:39,040
Speaker 4: how's it going, Kurt, It's going great.

497
00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:40,600
Speaker 3: What's the mission of ARC Press?

498
00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:48,920
Speaker 9: Well, basically, we're doing exactly what Andrew Breitbart said. He

499
00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:52,480
Speaker 9: you know, he famously said politics is downstream to culture,

500
00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:55,800
Speaker 9: and I always took that to heart. I've always been

501
00:27:55,800 --> 00:27:59,119
Speaker 9: a fiction writer first and a fiction editor first and

502
00:27:59,200 --> 00:28:04,199
Speaker 9: then got into nonfiction, and it just seemed like we

503
00:28:04,240 --> 00:28:07,800
Speaker 9: had lost this ability around twenty ten or so to

504
00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:16,720
Speaker 9: really come at to bring the beliefs of conservative, dumb etc.

505
00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:21,520
Speaker 9: To the storytelling genre anymore, because it was being wiped

506
00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:27,639
Speaker 9: out by wokeness and the whole twenty ten nastiness that

507
00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:30,480
Speaker 9: happened to us. A few people managed to persevere, like

508
00:28:30,520 --> 00:28:35,359
Speaker 9: you who old culture warriors fought through, but a little

509
00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:39,440
Speaker 9: a generation sort of was stamped out and disappeared and

510
00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:41,600
Speaker 9: they didn't have a chance to flower. And I wanted

511
00:28:41,640 --> 00:28:44,880
Speaker 9: to provide that again. And that's part of the mission

512
00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:48,160
Speaker 9: of arc Is is to bring back the possibility of

513
00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:52,680
Speaker 9: telling long of writing long form stories, and for men

514
00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:56,200
Speaker 9: and women to enjoy these, to get away from the

515
00:28:56,280 --> 00:29:02,920
Speaker 9: video games and the nastiness of you know, online culture

516
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:04,920
Speaker 9: and sit down with a good book and read it.

517
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:08,480
Speaker 9: For I think that especially younger, younger guys and younger

518
00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:12,240
Speaker 9: women just lack this. They almost don't even know it exists,

519
00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:15,360
Speaker 9: and when they find it, it can transform their lives.

520
00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:17,160
Speaker 3: Well, tell me, Daniel.

521
00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:20,600
Speaker 4: One of the things I noticed dealing with other publishers

522
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:23,080
Speaker 4: because right Noor he was not my only publisher during

523
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:27,240
Speaker 4: the time, and observing from outside is so much of

524
00:29:27,360 --> 00:29:32,120
Speaker 4: the traditional press now it's no longer the hard bitten editor,

525
00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:35,520
Speaker 4: you know, chomping on a cigar with his red pen.

526
00:29:35,840 --> 00:29:38,760
Speaker 3: It's these Maxwell Perkins exactly.

527
00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:43,520
Speaker 4: It's these ssrright gobbling chardonnay wine women complaining that you

528
00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:47,760
Speaker 4: don't have enough transsexual, lesbian Hindus who are differently abled

529
00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:51,520
Speaker 4: in the stories. And all the stories are are things

530
00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:55,840
Speaker 4: like you know, where the turtle cries at dawn and

531
00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:59,560
Speaker 4: it's like, where's a man going to find somebody to

532
00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:03,160
Speaker 4: read in this heap of woke garbage?

533
00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:04,520
Speaker 3: You want to change that?

534
00:30:06,280 --> 00:30:10,000
Speaker 9: Absolutely, We're you know, we're aiming at a at a male,

535
00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:16,200
Speaker 9: regular guy audience. Now, of course guys read, they read, uh,

536
00:30:16,280 --> 00:30:20,640
Speaker 9: they read thrillers, they read science fiction. They they like mysteries,

537
00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:24,440
Speaker 9: hard boiled mysteries and police procedurals. And so we're coming

538
00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:28,360
Speaker 9: at it from a genre sort of angle in order

539
00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:32,320
Speaker 9: to give guys things that they actually like to read

540
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:38,360
Speaker 9: again instead of, you know, the publishing world has become this.

541
00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:38,440
Speaker 10: This sort of.

542
00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:42,840
Speaker 9: I don't know how you would say it. They they

543
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:47,800
Speaker 9: they are appendage of politics. They want everything has to

544
00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:50,960
Speaker 9: be a left wing grievance, as as you know, interpreted

545
00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:54,280
Speaker 9: by some of most of the editors have graduated from

546
00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:56,400
Speaker 9: the Seven Sisters, went to New York and never had

547
00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:59,400
Speaker 9: another job or another life. In fact, most of the

548
00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:01,480
Speaker 9: editors in New York, you may notice, all have the

549
00:31:01,560 --> 00:31:09,040
Speaker 9: exact same accent yes, which is yes exactly, so you're.

550
00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:10,200
Speaker 2: Going to get the.

551
00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:14,040
Speaker 9: And the audience has just skewed female and female of

552
00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:18,400
Speaker 9: a certain variety over the last ten fifteen years, and.

553
00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:20,760
Speaker 2: Men have just sort of been excluded.

554
00:31:20,800 --> 00:31:23,480
Speaker 9: There's a few like you and like people like brad

555
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:25,680
Speaker 9: Or or Andrew Claven.

556
00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:28,120
Speaker 2: Elroy is still around.

557
00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:29,760
Speaker 9: You know, and car but we had sort of the

558
00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:35,200
Speaker 9: generation of people that died that were great conservative based

559
00:31:35,240 --> 00:31:39,440
Speaker 9: writers that came from the tradition, and they haven't been

560
00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:42,400
Speaker 9: replaced at the rate that they once were. We've lost

561
00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:45,760
Speaker 9: the community, and I think that, just like Andrew Breitbard,

562
00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:50,000
Speaker 9: I'd like to try to re establish that storytelling, fiction, character, plot,

563
00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:54,560
Speaker 9: and setting, not just political polemics, as important as that is.

564
00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:58,400
Speaker 9: If you really want to take over and guide the culture,

565
00:31:58,440 --> 00:32:00,240
Speaker 9: you got to come at it from art, because that's

566
00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:02,240
Speaker 9: where the human feeling is expressed.

567
00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:06,479
Speaker 4: Yeah, you've got and Andrew Andrew Breitbart made no bones

568
00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:06,920
Speaker 4: about it.

569
00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:08,080
Speaker 3: You've got to be good.

570
00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:12,120
Speaker 4: It's it's not enough to say, hey, this book is conservative,

571
00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:14,440
Speaker 4: you've got to buy it. You've got to like it.

572
00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:18,200
Speaker 4: I don't do that. No, no guy I know does that.

573
00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:21,200
Speaker 4: You've got to give him something there that they want.

574
00:32:21,280 --> 00:32:24,520
Speaker 4: And I think, if I say so myself, I'm on

575
00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:29,440
Speaker 4: nine Kelly Turnbull novels. I've sold hundreds of thousands of them,

576
00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:32,480
Speaker 4: including the latest Panama Red, which you should go get

577
00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:36,520
Speaker 4: on Amazon. But the secret is, and I get these emails, Tony,

578
00:32:36,680 --> 00:32:38,200
Speaker 4: and I get these reviews where they go.

579
00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:43,600
Speaker 3: Kurt, it's fun. It's not a painful duty. We haven't yet.

580
00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:45,840
Speaker 4: When you read it, you have a good time. And

581
00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:49,240
Speaker 4: let me let me ask you something here. Here's my

582
00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:53,000
Speaker 4: my feeling as a writer. I think that your books

583
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:57,600
Speaker 4: should be all good parts. If it's not interesting, does

584
00:32:57,640 --> 00:33:01,880
Speaker 4: it make a cool point? If it's not, or if

585
00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:07,560
Speaker 4: it's not funny, you cut it out? Is that so hard?

586
00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 9: I think that's an excellent, uh, an excellent paradigm for

587
00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:16,440
Speaker 9: for a great fiction book. I mean all all books,

588
00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:20,120
Speaker 9: all great novels turn on character, plot and setting and

589
00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:22,280
Speaker 9: you get those three things right, and you will.

590
00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:24,280
Speaker 2: And if you are writing from.

591
00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:28,200
Speaker 9: A perspective of real life, coming from something you know

592
00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:31,160
Speaker 9: as a writer, you're going to interest readers in that

593
00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:33,320
Speaker 9: and you're going to pull them in and it could

594
00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:38,160
Speaker 9: be something like the thriller aspect of your books. But

595
00:33:38,320 --> 00:33:40,760
Speaker 9: the truth is, I also think you're quite a good

596
00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:42,360
Speaker 9: literary writer within there.

597
00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:43,960
Speaker 3: Oh don't say that on the hack.

598
00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:47,640
Speaker 2: I know, I hate, I know you got you.

599
00:33:47,760 --> 00:33:51,719
Speaker 9: And like one of our art writers, Larry Correa, always

600
00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:55,080
Speaker 9: talk about, you know, like that's just entertainment, but both

601
00:33:55,120 --> 00:33:58,440
Speaker 9: of you guys have are have really top top not

602
00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:02,160
Speaker 9: top lecks. You're really good at it, and and that's

603
00:34:02,160 --> 00:34:02,800
Speaker 9: what you have to do.

604
00:34:02,840 --> 00:34:04,960
Speaker 2: You have to go for that. When you're an editor.

605
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:07,720
Speaker 9: You have to find a writer that can deliver that

606
00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:11,120
Speaker 9: to the reader, your other reader's representative when you're an editor,

607
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:12,360
Speaker 9: So you you.

608
00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:13,279
Speaker 2: Look for that.

609
00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:16,520
Speaker 9: You look for you look for somebody that can tell

610
00:34:16,600 --> 00:34:19,359
Speaker 9: a story first and then and if it comes from

611
00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:23,359
Speaker 9: tradition and a full understanding of life, it's probably going

612
00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:28,880
Speaker 9: to be conservative, you know, just because that's reality, you know,

613
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:32,080
Speaker 9: and that makes the best books.

614
00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:34,799
Speaker 2: And that's as simple as it is.

615
00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:38,120
Speaker 9: But nobody seems to follow that that formula, but I

616
00:34:38,560 --> 00:34:40,120
Speaker 9: intend to with the arc.

617
00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:41,799
Speaker 3: Well with ark.

618
00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:44,680
Speaker 4: Now we have our our press is going to be

619
00:34:44,719 --> 00:34:46,600
Speaker 4: doing great things in the future. You've got a big

620
00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:50,040
Speaker 4: book coming out from Larry Correa. My wife is a

621
00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:55,239
Speaker 4: huge fan and uh I, you know it's all. It's

622
00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:57,760
Speaker 4: been a pleasure working with you in the past, Tony Daniel.

623
00:34:58,239 --> 00:35:00,960
Speaker 4: I urge everybody to go out and check out art Press.

624
00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:03,759
Speaker 4: You find him online, see what they thought, and give

625
00:35:03,840 --> 00:35:06,799
Speaker 4: him a shot and give that man in your life

626
00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:12,200
Speaker 4: or woman a chance to read something that's not woke garbage.

627
00:35:12,239 --> 00:35:15,879
Speaker 4: I'm Kirt Schlickter. This is the huge Hewitt show, stick

628
00:35:15,920 --> 00:35:17,120
Speaker 4: around with got On Moreton.

629
00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:20,640
Speaker 3: And this is a k.

630
00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:24,000
Speaker 4: Dog in the white Beamur are about to put the

631
00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:26,440
Speaker 4: hammer down on the Huehuet Show. I've guess it was

632
00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:28,719
Speaker 4: kirch Slickter. One of my favorite people in the world

633
00:35:28,880 --> 00:35:32,799
Speaker 4: is joining me now. It's Selena's Zito and she is

634
00:35:32,840 --> 00:35:36,560
Speaker 4: a Washington Examiner columnist, the author of Butler. You can

635
00:35:36,600 --> 00:35:40,239
Speaker 4: follow her at Zito Selena where I saw that she

636
00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:45,080
Speaker 4: tweeted that convoy the CW McCall chest Night is what

637
00:35:45,640 --> 00:35:51,320
Speaker 4: fifty years old in twenty twenty six, Selena.

638
00:35:49,719 --> 00:35:52,920
Speaker 11: It is and I don't you know, I tweeted that

639
00:35:53,120 --> 00:35:55,920
Speaker 11: I don't think people have an understanding of what a

640
00:35:56,000 --> 00:36:00,080
Speaker 11: cultural impact that song had and then also spawned a

641
00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:03,840
Speaker 11: couple of television shows and movies. But but but also

642
00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:07,279
Speaker 11: people forget why because that was in the middle of

643
00:36:07,320 --> 00:36:12,400
Speaker 11: the energy crisis, right, and truckers are being regulated to death,

644
00:36:12,960 --> 00:36:17,080
Speaker 11: and they became this sort of symbol of these independent

645
00:36:17,239 --> 00:36:22,960
Speaker 11: cowboys that were fighting the system. And they're they're also

646
00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:27,200
Speaker 11: part of what started to shift in America in terms

647
00:36:27,239 --> 00:36:32,799
Speaker 11: of trust in government, trust and institutions, and and it's

648
00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:36,920
Speaker 11: just this one one of the many grains that changed us.

649
00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:39,759
Speaker 11: But that song was big. But it's not even that

650
00:36:39,800 --> 00:36:43,440
Speaker 11: the song was great. It's just that formed a community

651
00:36:43,640 --> 00:36:48,240
Speaker 11: around it and a resistance and this sort of spark

652
00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:51,960
Speaker 11: of independence that was really a cultural touchdown.

653
00:36:52,680 --> 00:36:55,200
Speaker 4: I think you're right, of course, it was a bi centennial.

654
00:36:55,280 --> 00:37:00,279
Speaker 4: This is the bi centennial plus point two five. There

655
00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:03,440
Speaker 4: was another thing. The Cbee radio was kind of a

656
00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:07,400
Speaker 4: early social media kind of thing because it.

657
00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:09,400
Speaker 3: Was a way that people could communicate.

658
00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:12,640
Speaker 4: That's what fascinated me, is a suburban kid about it,

659
00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:14,759
Speaker 4: because you could just talk to regular people, and there

660
00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:15,759
Speaker 4: were no gatekeepers.

661
00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:17,400
Speaker 3: I thought that was really interesting.

662
00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:22,840
Speaker 11: There was no gatekeepers. My dad had a Cbee radio.

663
00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:25,359
Speaker 11: He was not a trucker, although at one time he

664
00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:29,600
Speaker 11: was a teamster, but we used it. We communicated with

665
00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:33,520
Speaker 11: my uncle who was a trucker. We took tons of

666
00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:34,240
Speaker 11: road trips.

667
00:37:34,280 --> 00:37:34,640
Speaker 2: You can.

668
00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:36,960
Speaker 11: You can tell that's where I'd get my love of

669
00:37:37,040 --> 00:37:38,120
Speaker 11: road trips from.

670
00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:40,920
Speaker 2: But man, you just felt so.

671
00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:45,440
Speaker 11: Empowered to be able to have these conversations, and it

672
00:37:45,560 --> 00:37:48,000
Speaker 11: was a real sense of being part of something bigger

673
00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:48,600
Speaker 11: than self.

674
00:37:48,920 --> 00:37:51,040
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was really kind of cool. Now it's being

675
00:37:51,080 --> 00:37:53,400
Speaker 4: a kind of cool. You have had perhaps the coolest

676
00:37:53,480 --> 00:37:56,840
Speaker 4: year of anybody in twenty twenty five not named Donald Trump.

677
00:37:57,000 --> 00:37:59,439
Speaker 4: He had a number one best seller in Butler, which

678
00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:02,839
Speaker 4: I high recommend. It's not just a story of the assassination,

679
00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:05,840
Speaker 4: it's the story of the whole campaign and the whole country.

680
00:38:06,320 --> 00:38:10,880
Speaker 4: So you also went bear hunting. So what's ahead for

681
00:38:10,920 --> 00:38:13,560
Speaker 4: Selena's eto in twenty twenty six? How are you going

682
00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:14,200
Speaker 4: to top that?

683
00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:16,239
Speaker 6: Oh?

684
00:38:16,239 --> 00:38:18,520
Speaker 11: Well, there's so many things that people do in America,

685
00:38:18,560 --> 00:38:22,359
Speaker 11: And I'm sort of like Micro's little sister, right, I'm

686
00:38:22,400 --> 00:38:25,880
Speaker 11: always willing to jump in and try something. I also

687
00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:28,480
Speaker 11: went twelve hundred feet down in a coal mine and

688
00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:32,400
Speaker 11: dragged poor Senator Dave McCormick along with me.

689
00:38:32,680 --> 00:38:36,600
Speaker 3: Take that army guy.

690
00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:38,520
Speaker 11: Yeah, worked in a steel mill for a day. Like,

691
00:38:38,600 --> 00:38:40,640
Speaker 11: if I'm going to cover it, I'm going to do it.

692
00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:46,520
Speaker 11: And that's that's sort of my motto. And if people

693
00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:49,640
Speaker 11: don't follow me or don't read me, the way I

694
00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:53,640
Speaker 11: approach recording is is to I don't fly, and I

695
00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:56,319
Speaker 11: don't take the interstate. I only take back roads and

696
00:38:56,360 --> 00:38:59,200
Speaker 11: I try to stay and learn from a community. But

697
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:02,920
Speaker 11: being on theund and basically just hanging out with people,

698
00:39:03,320 --> 00:39:07,720
Speaker 11: most importantly listening to people. I think that that's missing

699
00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:14,480
Speaker 11: in my profession. I'm not the story. I'm never the story,

700
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:18,560
Speaker 11: and so that's what I try to do when I

701
00:39:18,640 --> 00:39:20,160
Speaker 11: tell the story of our country.

702
00:39:20,239 --> 00:39:22,239
Speaker 4: Well, you know, Selena, I think I think what I'm

703
00:39:22,239 --> 00:39:24,480
Speaker 4: gonna do is I'm see if I can reach out

704
00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:26,440
Speaker 4: to some of my pals, see if I can get

705
00:39:26,480 --> 00:39:29,719
Speaker 4: you embedded with some National guardsmen doing annual training for

706
00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:31,840
Speaker 4: a day or two so you could see what these.

707
00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:38,360
Speaker 11: Oh I've done that, I've been embedded on the border. Nice,

708
00:39:38,440 --> 00:39:45,080
Speaker 11: I've embedded the Coastguard on fourth of July and there

709
00:39:45,160 --> 00:39:48,520
Speaker 11: was a tornado that came and so by regulation, I

710
00:39:48,560 --> 00:39:50,600
Speaker 11: had to get off the boat and I had to jump.

711
00:39:51,200 --> 00:39:53,480
Speaker 11: And people have to understand, I'm five foot tall, so

712
00:39:53,840 --> 00:39:57,319
Speaker 11: my end seem it's not that long. But they made

713
00:39:57,400 --> 00:40:00,360
Speaker 11: me jump from the boat to the shoreline, which was

714
00:40:00,360 --> 00:40:01,759
Speaker 11: about five feet.

715
00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:04,080
Speaker 2: So there was that because I had.

716
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:04,760
Speaker 7: To get off the boat.

717
00:40:05,200 --> 00:40:09,640
Speaker 4: Well, I well, I once sent Hugh Hewett to Kosovo

718
00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:12,600
Speaker 4: for a week, which I don't know if he's ever

719
00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:18,760
Speaker 4: forgiven me for. But in any case, Selena Somali daycare nightmare.

720
00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:22,040
Speaker 4: First of all, I never was in daycare. My mom

721
00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:24,520
Speaker 4: did the old fashioned seventies way. She gave me a

722
00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:29,759
Speaker 4: key and said you're on your own kid. But with

723
00:40:29,840 --> 00:40:34,760
Speaker 4: this this giant scandal, you actually talk to normal people.

724
00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:38,239
Speaker 4: What are normal people? Are normal people talking about it?

725
00:40:38,239 --> 00:40:39,560
Speaker 4: And if they are, what are they saying.

726
00:40:41,120 --> 00:40:45,239
Speaker 11: What they're saying is we're not surprised if you are

727
00:40:45,400 --> 00:40:49,520
Speaker 11: handing out money like that and you are too lazy

728
00:40:49,600 --> 00:40:54,160
Speaker 11: to be accountable, and you're trying to appease a section

729
00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:58,040
Speaker 11: of society so that they you then earned their votes.

730
00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:00,400
Speaker 11: There's going to be a lot of people looking the

731
00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:04,040
Speaker 11: other way when things happen, and I suspect we are

732
00:41:04,080 --> 00:41:07,880
Speaker 11: going to find this out about a number of different things,

733
00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:12,239
Speaker 11: not just the the Somali refugees. I think this is

734
00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:15,920
Speaker 11: going and this was the last chapter in the in Butler.

735
00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:19,160
Speaker 11: This is why Butler is so important, because it's not

736
00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:22,480
Speaker 11: just about then, It's about now, it's about going forward.

737
00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:25,759
Speaker 2: There is a true reckoning in my profession.

738
00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:30,080
Speaker 11: I understand that, but I think there are a lot

739
00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:34,560
Speaker 11: a lot of people looking, not looking, not questioning, not

740
00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:36,520
Speaker 11: asking questions.

741
00:41:36,440 --> 00:41:39,319
Speaker 2: UH in a lot of big.

742
00:41:40,680 --> 00:41:50,359
Speaker 11: UH government aided charities that that need more scrutiny. Reporters

743
00:41:50,480 --> 00:41:53,360
Speaker 11: nowadays are more interested in what's going to drive the

744
00:41:53,400 --> 00:41:57,239
Speaker 11: most clicks. To me, the most interesting stories that I

745
00:41:57,320 --> 00:42:00,480
Speaker 11: have done this year hardly got any click at all.

746
00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:03,760
Speaker 11: But it didn't matter because they were really good, well

747
00:42:03,800 --> 00:42:06,400
Speaker 11: reported stories. To me, it didn't matter. I'm sure it

748
00:42:06,400 --> 00:42:07,400
Speaker 11: mattered to my bosses.

749
00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:09,000
Speaker 2: They didn't matter.

750
00:42:09,120 --> 00:42:11,480
Speaker 11: My job is to get in there and find out

751
00:42:11,480 --> 00:42:16,320
Speaker 11: the story and then listen. And we've taken our focus

752
00:42:16,360 --> 00:42:17,680
Speaker 11: off that as reporters.

753
00:42:18,080 --> 00:42:22,839
Speaker 4: Well, Selena, we only got about twenty seconds left in

754
00:42:22,920 --> 00:42:26,439
Speaker 4: normal America. How are people feeling about the economy. I'm

755
00:42:26,440 --> 00:42:28,880
Speaker 4: feeling pretty good about it. But you know, I'm in

756
00:42:28,920 --> 00:42:31,600
Speaker 4: Los Angeles, so it ain't exactly normal America.

757
00:42:33,400 --> 00:42:34,680
Speaker 7: Well, so I'm.

758
00:42:34,560 --> 00:42:39,800
Speaker 11: In western Pennsylvania, and the thing that's really big here

759
00:42:40,560 --> 00:42:43,680
Speaker 11: is the development of AI data power centers and the

760
00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:46,600
Speaker 11: energy need to dis serve it. That's creating a lot

761
00:42:46,600 --> 00:42:47,720
Speaker 11: of good paying jobs.

762
00:42:47,719 --> 00:42:50,480
Speaker 4: Well that's good to hear. Selena Zecho, Happy new year

763
00:42:50,520 --> 00:42:52,920
Speaker 4: to you. I hope twenty twenty six is even better

764
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:55,880
Speaker 4: than twenty twenty five, if that's possible. I'm Kurt Schlickter,

765
00:42:56,160 --> 00:43:00,720
Speaker 4: guest hosting for the Great Hugh at Stick Around Somar

766
00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:05,399
Speaker 4: s gets out on stage at the Leering Center. They're

767
00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:08,320
Speaker 4: cranking def Leppard and making it rain on. Kurt Schlichter

768
00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:13,280
Speaker 4: here on The hu Hewitt Show, guest hosting rounding out

769
00:43:13,800 --> 00:43:19,120
Speaker 4: twenty twenty five. It's been a great year. It's been

770
00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:21,319
Speaker 4: an amazing year, and twenty twenty six is even going

771
00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:23,839
Speaker 4: to be better. And let's welcome my next guess. He's

772
00:43:23,840 --> 00:43:27,799
Speaker 4: my pal, Matt Betley. He is an occasional town Hall columnist.

773
00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:31,800
Speaker 4: You can follow him at Matthew Betley. He's also an author,

774
00:43:32,040 --> 00:43:33,800
Speaker 4: and you've got a new book coming out. I believe

775
00:43:33,800 --> 00:43:34,640
Speaker 4: in April, right.

776
00:43:34,600 --> 00:43:39,160
Speaker 10: Matt, I do Kurt First. Happy New Year's Eve, also

777
00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:40,440
Speaker 10: known as Amateur Night.

778
00:43:41,680 --> 00:43:46,120
Speaker 3: Wait, wait, well there's more.

779
00:43:46,680 --> 00:43:50,520
Speaker 4: You are a United States Marine, as the sign behind

780
00:43:50,520 --> 00:43:53,760
Speaker 4: your head tells the entire universe. You're also very open

781
00:43:53,840 --> 00:43:56,840
Speaker 4: that you you had a battle with alcohol holism. You

782
00:43:56,920 --> 00:43:59,799
Speaker 4: have been sober for a long time, and I think

783
00:43:59,840 --> 00:44:01,759
Speaker 4: it's right night to talk about sobriety.

784
00:44:03,160 --> 00:44:04,720
Speaker 2: No, I agree.

785
00:44:04,840 --> 00:44:07,759
Speaker 10: You know, it's funny everyone talks about resolutions every New

786
00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:10,319
Speaker 10: Year's Eve, and as we know, what like twenty five

787
00:44:10,360 --> 00:44:12,800
Speaker 10: percent of them fail within the first couple of days.

788
00:44:13,560 --> 00:44:16,920
Speaker 10: You know, sobriety is a lifestyle change. I've got seventeen

789
00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:20,480
Speaker 10: years of it in March, and I'm very open about it.

790
00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:22,960
Speaker 10: I talk about it at every opportunity I can. The

791
00:44:23,040 --> 00:44:26,640
Speaker 10: reason being is if a guy like I can get sober,

792
00:44:27,040 --> 00:44:29,680
Speaker 10: then anybody out there who's struggling with the same kind

793
00:44:29,719 --> 00:44:32,480
Speaker 10: of problem can Because it was honestly one of the

794
00:44:32,520 --> 00:44:34,759
Speaker 10: hardest things I've ever done, and that includes ten years

795
00:44:34,760 --> 00:44:38,160
Speaker 10: in the Marine Corps. And I was very fortunate that

796
00:44:38,239 --> 00:44:42,759
Speaker 10: I actually chose to use the military's outpatient program at

797
00:44:43,280 --> 00:44:46,759
Speaker 10: Andrew's Joint Base Andrews to do it so and I'm

798
00:44:46,760 --> 00:44:47,680
Speaker 10: still going strong.

799
00:44:48,239 --> 00:44:50,320
Speaker 3: Well, let me let me ask you, Matt and I.

800
00:44:50,400 --> 00:44:53,160
Speaker 4: You know, I don't want to dwell on it, because

801
00:44:53,400 --> 00:44:54,920
Speaker 4: you know we I do want to talk about your

802
00:44:54,960 --> 00:44:56,319
Speaker 4: new book coming out, but.

803
00:44:56,719 --> 00:44:59,040
Speaker 3: Uh, just it.

804
00:44:59,400 --> 00:45:01,600
Speaker 4: You know you when I have hung out and when

805
00:45:01,640 --> 00:45:05,279
Speaker 4: we hang out, look, I drink alcohol. I will not

806
00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:08,200
Speaker 4: drink around you. I think that would be disrespectful. Does

807
00:45:08,239 --> 00:45:10,279
Speaker 4: it bother you when you're out with people and they.

808
00:45:10,239 --> 00:45:12,359
Speaker 3: Drink, not at all.

809
00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:16,480
Speaker 10: In fact, I recently joked that if when I was

810
00:45:16,840 --> 00:45:19,160
Speaker 10: back in my drinking days, especially the heavy drinking days

811
00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:21,840
Speaker 10: in the mid nineties, you know, you'd go to a

812
00:45:21,880 --> 00:45:25,200
Speaker 10: bar and there'd be like the bikini gold Schlager or

813
00:45:25,360 --> 00:45:28,160
Speaker 10: Jaegermeister girls like I could be in a room full

814
00:45:28,200 --> 00:45:30,560
Speaker 10: of those people nowadays and it wouldn't even phase me

815
00:45:30,600 --> 00:45:31,200
Speaker 10: for a second.

816
00:45:31,320 --> 00:45:34,000
Speaker 2: So my foundation for sobriety is pretty strong.

817
00:45:34,840 --> 00:45:35,040
Speaker 6: You know.

818
00:45:35,080 --> 00:45:37,800
Speaker 2: I remind people once I got.

819
00:45:37,640 --> 00:45:40,960
Speaker 10: Sober and stayed sober that if I weren't sober, I'd

820
00:45:40,960 --> 00:45:42,279
Speaker 10: probably be dead.

821
00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:44,960
Speaker 2: Unemployed, alone, or all of the above.

822
00:45:45,360 --> 00:45:47,600
Speaker 10: Well, you know I have a very extreme Oh, go

823
00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:51,200
Speaker 10: go ahead, well before, I have a very extreme personality

824
00:45:51,360 --> 00:45:54,439
Speaker 10: and when I used to go out, we used to joke,

825
00:45:54,560 --> 00:45:57,480
Speaker 10: especially in the Marine Corps, it was somebody's going to jail,

826
00:45:57,560 --> 00:46:00,319
Speaker 10: someone's going to the hospital, something's going to be set

827
00:46:00,360 --> 00:46:02,000
Speaker 10: on fire, or all three.

828
00:46:02,160 --> 00:46:05,080
Speaker 3: And I can that's Friday night at the Army Barracks.

829
00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:08,479
Speaker 4: Well, Matt, before we move on to your books, because

830
00:46:08,560 --> 00:46:10,120
Speaker 4: I do want to talk about them. We've been talking

831
00:46:10,200 --> 00:46:12,239
Speaker 4: a lot about books today and how important it is

832
00:46:12,280 --> 00:46:17,480
Speaker 4: for books written for men about madly things. If somebody

833
00:46:17,920 --> 00:46:21,920
Speaker 4: has someone in their life with an alcohol or substance problem,

834
00:46:22,200 --> 00:46:23,880
Speaker 4: what can they do to help.

835
00:46:25,640 --> 00:46:27,120
Speaker 10: The first thing they could do is if they know

836
00:46:27,200 --> 00:46:30,680
Speaker 10: somebody like I who's been sober for a bit of time,

837
00:46:30,719 --> 00:46:32,640
Speaker 10: they can reach out to a person they know and trust.

838
00:46:32,880 --> 00:46:36,400
Speaker 10: But the other thing they can do is call alcoholics anonymous.

839
00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:39,640
Speaker 10: There are anonymous phone lines where someone can guide you

840
00:46:39,680 --> 00:46:44,400
Speaker 10: through those first steps. I will tell you that, you know,

841
00:46:44,440 --> 00:46:47,200
Speaker 10: I had struggled with it for years, but it took

842
00:46:47,320 --> 00:46:50,960
Speaker 10: me realizing I had a problem to actually commit to it.

843
00:46:51,160 --> 00:46:53,920
Speaker 10: And I tried to quit before. But you know, it's

844
00:46:54,239 --> 00:46:57,799
Speaker 10: it's that whole proverbial rock bottom. I hit mine, and

845
00:46:58,239 --> 00:46:59,680
Speaker 10: thank god I did when I did.

846
00:47:00,600 --> 00:47:02,399
Speaker 3: Well, you've got a great life.

847
00:47:02,400 --> 00:47:06,000
Speaker 4: Now, you've got a career in public service, you've got

848
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:09,839
Speaker 4: a wonderful family, and you also have a new book

849
00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:12,280
Speaker 4: coming out, and you have a history of books.

850
00:47:12,400 --> 00:47:13,600
Speaker 3: Tell us about your new book.

851
00:47:14,840 --> 00:47:18,400
Speaker 10: So the new book is called The Council, and it

852
00:47:18,480 --> 00:47:22,279
Speaker 10: comes out in April of next year. And this book

853
00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:25,120
Speaker 10: is probably the best thing I've written. It's a very intense,

854
00:47:25,200 --> 00:47:28,959
Speaker 10: visceral story. I'm known for writing these roller coaster, action

855
00:47:29,120 --> 00:47:32,000
Speaker 10: packed thrill rides, but this one, which is a rocket

856
00:47:32,080 --> 00:47:35,240
Speaker 10: ride from page one, But it's really about a group

857
00:47:35,239 --> 00:47:39,719
Speaker 10: of people who are all suffering from indescribable grief. They

858
00:47:39,800 --> 00:47:43,279
Speaker 10: all lost loved ones to violent crime, sought vengeance on

859
00:47:43,320 --> 00:47:45,640
Speaker 10: their own thought they got away with it, and are

860
00:47:45,680 --> 00:47:48,960
Speaker 10: then blackmailed to form an assassination team to work for

861
00:47:49,040 --> 00:47:52,359
Speaker 10: this organization to pay off their blood debt, and then

862
00:47:52,480 --> 00:47:56,279
Speaker 10: things go horribly sideways on a mission in Mexico and

863
00:47:56,320 --> 00:47:58,839
Speaker 10: next thing you know, they're all fighting for their lives

864
00:47:59,080 --> 00:48:02,319
Speaker 10: against the same organization. Which is all I'll say about it,

865
00:48:02,360 --> 00:48:05,600
Speaker 10: but it really hones, you know, Hammer's home the themes

866
00:48:05,800 --> 00:48:08,759
Speaker 10: of grief redemption. What would you do if you're in

867
00:48:08,760 --> 00:48:12,560
Speaker 10: this position. It's a very intense thrill ride for people

868
00:48:12,600 --> 00:48:13,600
Speaker 10: who like that kind of thing.

869
00:48:13,880 --> 00:48:17,200
Speaker 4: Well, you know, you've written books before. You have a

870
00:48:17,239 --> 00:48:22,279
Speaker 4: whole other series of books, and they're traditionally published. It's

871
00:48:22,320 --> 00:48:28,200
Speaker 4: getting hard to publish fiction that you know, it's action

872
00:48:28,360 --> 00:48:30,400
Speaker 4: packed and focused on men. So much of it is

873
00:48:30,480 --> 00:48:34,840
Speaker 4: focused on you know, I'm a young writer and acting

874
00:48:34,880 --> 00:48:36,799
Speaker 4: as a professor at a college, and I have lots

875
00:48:36,840 --> 00:48:37,360
Speaker 4: of feelings.

876
00:48:37,400 --> 00:48:38,200
Speaker 3: There's my novel.

877
00:48:39,719 --> 00:48:45,440
Speaker 10: Well, when I I decided to write, I actually said, okay,

878
00:48:45,480 --> 00:48:47,879
Speaker 10: what would I sat down and wrote what I would

879
00:48:47,960 --> 00:48:50,440
Speaker 10: want to read. And that's how my first book, Overwatch,

880
00:48:51,280 --> 00:48:54,400
Speaker 10: ended up getting published with my Logan West series.

881
00:48:54,160 --> 00:48:55,200
Speaker 2: At Simon and Schuster.

882
00:48:55,800 --> 00:48:59,040
Speaker 10: And now I'm with Blackstone and they published this book.

883
00:48:59,280 --> 00:49:02,239
Speaker 10: They published my life last book, The Neighborhood. But it's

884
00:49:02,239 --> 00:49:05,400
Speaker 10: a hard business, you know what. There's a lot of

885
00:49:05,400 --> 00:49:07,960
Speaker 10: things they don't tell you. They can promise you the

886
00:49:08,000 --> 00:49:10,799
Speaker 10: moon and the stars, but the reality is is in

887
00:49:10,880 --> 00:49:14,080
Speaker 10: traditional publishing, it's all about sales and that's it. You

888
00:49:14,120 --> 00:49:18,320
Speaker 10: could be the most talented writer since Hemingway and it

889
00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:21,880
Speaker 10: wouldn't matter if your books don't sell. I'm just glad

890
00:49:21,920 --> 00:49:24,799
Speaker 10: that I'm still being published because I know a lot

891
00:49:24,840 --> 00:49:27,440
Speaker 10: of people who can even get published, and it's it's

892
00:49:27,480 --> 00:49:30,120
Speaker 10: a brutal, very brutal business, and it's not for the

893
00:49:30,120 --> 00:49:31,239
Speaker 10: faint of heart at all.

894
00:49:31,680 --> 00:49:33,640
Speaker 3: Well, but people love your books.

895
00:49:33,719 --> 00:49:36,840
Speaker 4: The feedback that you get is incredible, as is the

896
00:49:36,880 --> 00:49:40,200
Speaker 4: feedback I get, including on Panama read my novel.

897
00:49:41,200 --> 00:49:44,520
Speaker 3: We all got to promote Baby, but the cancel.

898
00:49:44,640 --> 00:49:47,600
Speaker 4: What have people been saying about the council. Now I've

899
00:49:47,600 --> 00:49:49,839
Speaker 4: had a chance to I've had a chance to look

900
00:49:49,840 --> 00:49:51,120
Speaker 4: at the cover. I haven't read it yet.

901
00:49:52,360 --> 00:49:52,560
Speaker 2: Yeah.

902
00:49:52,640 --> 00:49:55,000
Speaker 10: No. We actually got a couple early reviews, and I

903
00:49:55,040 --> 00:49:57,000
Speaker 10: was very happy to hear that one of the thriller

904
00:49:57,040 --> 00:49:59,520
Speaker 10: sites that reviews the books coming out next year actually

905
00:49:59,600 --> 00:50:01,960
Speaker 10: called it the leading contender for Thriller of the Year

906
00:50:01,960 --> 00:50:04,520
Speaker 10: for twenty twenty six and this person had.

907
00:50:04,360 --> 00:50:06,480
Speaker 2: Already read a bunch of them by a lot of

908
00:50:06,480 --> 00:50:07,440
Speaker 2: the big name authors.

909
00:50:07,440 --> 00:50:10,440
Speaker 10: So I was very flattered and humbled to get that

910
00:50:10,520 --> 00:50:12,759
Speaker 10: because at the end of the day, yes, I want

911
00:50:12,760 --> 00:50:14,560
Speaker 10: the book to sell well and I want to keep

912
00:50:14,600 --> 00:50:17,799
Speaker 10: doing this, but it's all about entertaining the reader, and

913
00:50:17,840 --> 00:50:19,320
Speaker 10: it's the readers who matter the most.

914
00:50:19,760 --> 00:50:23,680
Speaker 4: Now, my books are the Kelly Turnbul series. They're explicitly conservative,

915
00:50:24,239 --> 00:50:27,759
Speaker 4: are your books explicitly conservative or do they just get

916
00:50:27,800 --> 00:50:32,960
Speaker 4: coded right wing because they're about like men doing manly things.

917
00:50:34,360 --> 00:50:38,960
Speaker 10: No, so I intentionally kind of stay apolitical and my thrillers.

918
00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:41,440
Speaker 10: In fact, in the Logan West series, I had a

919
00:50:41,480 --> 00:50:44,080
Speaker 10: blue dog Democrat, which I'm not sure that exists anymore

920
00:50:44,320 --> 00:50:48,400
Speaker 10: as the president. And I just you know, when I

921
00:50:48,440 --> 00:50:50,439
Speaker 10: read a book, I want to be entertained. I don't

922
00:50:50,440 --> 00:50:53,560
Speaker 10: want to be lectured to. Now you're the exception to

923
00:50:53,600 --> 00:50:56,400
Speaker 10: the rule. You're as I told you, personally, you're the

924
00:50:56,400 --> 00:51:00,719
Speaker 10: most successful self published author I know. And people love

925
00:51:00,760 --> 00:51:03,839
Speaker 10: your stuff because you're an excellent writer and because it's

926
00:51:03,840 --> 00:51:07,880
Speaker 10: infused with your sarcasm and pros. In my case, I

927
00:51:07,960 --> 00:51:11,000
Speaker 10: just want people to have a good time and move on.

928
00:51:11,840 --> 00:51:15,480
Speaker 4: Well, Matt Bentley, you have a great twenty twenty six

929
00:51:15,560 --> 00:51:17,840
Speaker 4: to you and your lovely family. I'm sure we'll probably

930
00:51:17,880 --> 00:51:20,520
Speaker 4: talk when I'm driving home up the four o five.

931
00:51:21,080 --> 00:51:24,200
Speaker 4: Thanks for joinings like a Plan, Thanks for joining us

932
00:51:24,200 --> 00:51:26,240
Speaker 4: on the Hugh Hwitt Joe And because as kirch Slicker,

933
00:51:26,520 --> 00:51:28,840
Speaker 4: we still have more to come to stick around.

934
00:51:29,200 --> 00:51:32,400
Speaker 1: Welcome back to America. I'm Hugh Hewett. I'm reminding everyone

935
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Speaker 1: Angel Tree is underway. We only have a couple of

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937
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Speaker 1: Tree is sponsored by Prison and Fellowship. We welcome on

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979
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Speaker 2: Hugh.

980
00:53:53,920 --> 00:53:55,160
Speaker 3: We're back on a Hugh Hewitt Show.

981
00:53:55,200 --> 00:53:57,320
Speaker 4: And of course that bumper music is just like Honey

982
00:53:57,320 --> 00:53:59,400
Speaker 4: by the Jesus and Mary Chain, one of the coolest

983
00:53:59,440 --> 00:54:02,839
Speaker 4: songs of the eighties, which took place long before My

984
00:54:02,880 --> 00:54:07,120
Speaker 4: next guest was born. Sarah Bedford is He is the

985
00:54:07,200 --> 00:54:09,760
Speaker 4: Washington Examiner political investigative reporter.

986
00:54:10,040 --> 00:54:13,200
Speaker 3: You can follow it Sarah C. Bedford. Sarah, Welcome to

987
00:54:13,320 --> 00:54:14,040
Speaker 3: Hugh Hewitt Show.

988
00:54:15,360 --> 00:54:17,399
Speaker 12: Hi, thanks for having me. Thank you for pointing out

989
00:54:17,400 --> 00:54:18,480
Speaker 12: that I'm young in that intro.

990
00:54:18,640 --> 00:54:19,280
Speaker 7: Love it?

991
00:54:19,719 --> 00:54:22,400
Speaker 4: Have you ever heard the Jesus and Mary Chains? Just

992
00:54:22,440 --> 00:54:23,160
Speaker 4: like Connie before?

993
00:54:24,520 --> 00:54:26,160
Speaker 2: I hadn't, but I enjoyed it.

994
00:54:26,160 --> 00:54:26,880
Speaker 7: Its beautiful.

995
00:54:27,000 --> 00:54:30,239
Speaker 4: It's an incredible song. I have a long story about

996
00:54:30,280 --> 00:54:32,680
Speaker 4: the first concert. Everyone else was goth I wore a

997
00:54:32,719 --> 00:54:36,160
Speaker 4: Hawaiian shirt. It was amazing. Anyway, let's get to the

998
00:54:36,320 --> 00:54:40,600
Speaker 4: let's get to the good stuff. Somalia Gate. How big

999
00:54:41,000 --> 00:54:43,719
Speaker 4: is this?

1000
00:54:43,719 --> 00:54:47,600
Speaker 12: This story is so fascinating to me, and I think

1001
00:54:47,719 --> 00:54:50,520
Speaker 12: even if you set aside the immigration angle, and it

1002
00:54:50,600 --> 00:54:53,440
Speaker 12: is a crucial angle of this story, but if you

1003
00:54:53,480 --> 00:54:57,160
Speaker 12: just look at it as a welfare fraud story, you

1004
00:54:57,360 --> 00:55:01,040
Speaker 12: have working class people in Minnesota who are working really

1005
00:55:01,080 --> 00:55:05,680
Speaker 12: hard to afford their daycare bills. Childcare is enormously expensive.

1006
00:55:06,080 --> 00:55:07,839
Speaker 12: I know I have a one year old. It's a

1007
00:55:07,880 --> 00:55:10,799
Speaker 12: really big part of family's budgets. And so for a

1008
00:55:10,880 --> 00:55:15,280
Speaker 12: regular voter to see that millions of dollars are going

1009
00:55:15,320 --> 00:55:16,719
Speaker 12: for these warehouses to.

1010
00:55:16,719 --> 00:55:22,520
Speaker 2: Sit empty, to enrich a favored group of people, regardless.

1011
00:55:21,920 --> 00:55:25,680
Speaker 12: Of their race, that alone makes it an extremely potent story.

1012
00:55:26,520 --> 00:55:30,960
Speaker 4: Well, Sarah, I think this hits Democrats in three different places.

1013
00:55:31,280 --> 00:55:35,000
Speaker 4: It hits them on immigration, it hits them on welfare,

1014
00:55:35,480 --> 00:55:38,960
Speaker 4: and it hits them on the ability to effectively govern.

1015
00:55:39,320 --> 00:55:42,279
Speaker 4: I mean, it is a win win for Republicans, and

1016
00:55:42,320 --> 00:55:45,399
Speaker 4: I hope we use it as a suppository all through

1017
00:55:45,440 --> 00:55:46,760
Speaker 4: the next election cycle.

1018
00:55:48,320 --> 00:55:51,320
Speaker 12: Yeah, that last one is so crucial because Donald Trump,

1019
00:55:51,400 --> 00:55:54,040
Speaker 12: for the first time in my lifetime that I've seen

1020
00:55:54,080 --> 00:55:57,560
Speaker 12: in politics, had sort of made democratic governance a real

1021
00:55:57,719 --> 00:56:00,320
Speaker 12: live issue, when for a long time it's seems like

1022
00:56:00,400 --> 00:56:02,640
Speaker 12: sort of part of the background of politics, it was

1023
00:56:02,680 --> 00:56:05,840
Speaker 12: sort of acknowledged that crime was higher, things were more expensive,

1024
00:56:05,880 --> 00:56:08,440
Speaker 12: life was just a little bit worse in blue cities

1025
00:56:08,440 --> 00:56:10,439
Speaker 12: and states, and that was just sort of baked into

1026
00:56:10,480 --> 00:56:14,160
Speaker 12: the equation. And Donald Trump had made that a live issue,

1027
00:56:14,200 --> 00:56:17,520
Speaker 12: and that could increasingly be the case when you see

1028
00:56:17,560 --> 00:56:21,759
Speaker 12: things like this. Part of why it seems that Minnesota

1029
00:56:21,880 --> 00:56:24,600
Speaker 12: was unable to catch this level of fraud, and we've

1030
00:56:24,640 --> 00:56:27,359
Speaker 12: written about this recently at the Examiner this week, the

1031
00:56:27,400 --> 00:56:31,640
Speaker 12: people that Tim Walls appointed to run these agencies had very,

1032
00:56:31,760 --> 00:56:35,360
Speaker 12: very progressive backgrounds. The one who's overseeing the agency that

1033
00:56:35,560 --> 00:56:39,320
Speaker 12: runs the childcare subsidy program, she was on an anti

1034
00:56:39,440 --> 00:56:43,440
Speaker 12: racist steering committee her resume where she was like a

1035
00:56:43,520 --> 00:56:46,920
Speaker 12: woke liberal professor's dream. And the woman who ran the

1036
00:56:46,920 --> 00:56:51,080
Speaker 12: agency before her had been involved in resettling the Somalians

1037
00:56:51,080 --> 00:56:54,360
Speaker 12: that are in the first place through a nonprofit before

1038
00:56:54,360 --> 00:56:56,759
Speaker 12: she joined the state government. So these are people who

1039
00:56:56,840 --> 00:56:59,959
Speaker 12: have embraced woke ideology, and now you sort of see

1040
00:57:00,080 --> 00:57:02,719
Speaker 12: some of the fruits of that when this fraud went

1041
00:57:02,800 --> 00:57:05,520
Speaker 12: completely undetected by the people who were supposed to catch it.

1042
00:57:05,800 --> 00:57:05,960
Speaker 5: Well.

1043
00:57:06,000 --> 00:57:11,319
Speaker 4: Sarah Bedford of The Washington Examiner, Yeah, the Democrats are

1044
00:57:11,360 --> 00:57:14,560
Speaker 4: upset about this, but so is your profession. Now, I

1045
00:57:14,600 --> 00:57:18,280
Speaker 4: assume you went to some sort of journalism school. Did

1046
00:57:18,280 --> 00:57:20,560
Speaker 4: they teach you that the right thing to do is

1047
00:57:20,800 --> 00:57:23,640
Speaker 4: get on the phone and call people or get out

1048
00:57:23,640 --> 00:57:26,440
Speaker 4: there and knock on doors, because that's what Nick Shirley

1049
00:57:26,480 --> 00:57:28,640
Speaker 4: seemed to have done, and he seems to be running

1050
00:57:28,640 --> 00:57:31,960
Speaker 4: circles around the established journalist professionals.

1051
00:57:33,680 --> 00:57:37,160
Speaker 12: His impact is really really impressive, and not least of

1052
00:57:37,200 --> 00:57:41,280
Speaker 12: all because there have been stories about fraud in the

1053
00:57:41,320 --> 00:57:45,520
Speaker 12: Somala community in Minnesota for years, and under the Bid

1054
00:57:45,600 --> 00:57:48,880
Speaker 12: administration there was a huge bust of a two hundred

1055
00:57:48,920 --> 00:57:52,120
Speaker 12: and fifty million dollar fraud ring as a result of

1056
00:57:52,560 --> 00:57:56,000
Speaker 12: excess COVID spending, and it never broke through in the

1057
00:57:56,000 --> 00:57:59,600
Speaker 12: way that Nick Shirley's one YouTube video has. Even though

1058
00:57:59,600 --> 00:58:01,480
Speaker 12: it was The New York Times, it was covered by

1059
00:58:01,520 --> 00:58:03,920
Speaker 12: the legacy media. It just shows the impact when you

1060
00:58:03,960 --> 00:58:07,880
Speaker 12: combine the visuals of those empty buildings with misspellings on

1061
00:58:07,920 --> 00:58:11,720
Speaker 12: the banners and stuff like that, that independent journalism has

1062
00:58:11,960 --> 00:58:15,400
Speaker 12: such a disparate impact. And again, this story really has everything.

1063
00:58:15,480 --> 00:58:18,120
Speaker 12: It's also a story about the decline of the legacy

1064
00:58:18,160 --> 00:58:20,400
Speaker 12: media in that they are not able to drive the

1065
00:58:20,520 --> 00:58:21,120
Speaker 12: narrative here.

1066
00:58:21,920 --> 00:58:26,760
Speaker 4: Well, Sarah, you're in Washington, you're a political expert. We're

1067
00:58:26,760 --> 00:58:29,160
Speaker 4: going into twenty twenty six. It looks to me like

1068
00:58:29,200 --> 00:58:32,360
Speaker 4: we're going to get the economy cooking again. And of course, I,

1069
00:58:33,360 --> 00:58:35,640
Speaker 4: as we discussed earlier, I grew up in the eighties.

1070
00:58:36,720 --> 00:58:39,800
Speaker 4: I remember the Reagan boom. I remember the first Trump boom.

1071
00:58:40,080 --> 00:58:41,840
Speaker 4: I think we're going to have another boom. We have

1072
00:58:41,880 --> 00:58:44,960
Speaker 4: about twenty seconds. How do you think the Republicans are

1073
00:58:44,960 --> 00:58:46,560
Speaker 4: going to do in twenty twenty six?

1074
00:58:48,640 --> 00:58:52,439
Speaker 12: History would say that they got an uphill battle, right

1075
00:58:52,520 --> 00:58:55,960
Speaker 12: that the Inn Party usually suffers in the midterms. A

1076
00:58:56,040 --> 00:58:58,480
Speaker 12: boom might blunt some of that, but it would take

1077
00:58:58,520 --> 00:59:02,040
Speaker 12: something like an economic boom to spare them from the inevitable,

1078
00:59:02,040 --> 00:59:03,200
Speaker 12: which is probably losses.

1079
00:59:03,920 --> 00:59:08,960
Speaker 4: Okay, all right, well, say Sarah Bedford of the Washington Examiner,

1080
00:59:09,120 --> 00:59:11,160
Speaker 4: the political and investigative reporter.

1081
00:59:11,560 --> 00:59:14,200
Speaker 3: You can follow her at Sarah with an H. C.

1082
00:59:14,800 --> 00:59:19,080
Speaker 4: Bedford, and you should stick around as we finished the year.

1083
00:59:19,120 --> 00:59:21,760
Speaker 4: If you're on the uhuite show, I'm guess it's kirch

1084
00:59:21,800 --> 00:59:23,080
Speaker 4: Schlichter here right now.