Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things
Speaker 1: hillsdalet Hillsdale dot ed or. I encourage you to take
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Speaker 1: to hewittt. Earlier today, the House of Representatives passed the
Speaker 1: Senate approved Mini Buss, five appropriations bills and a two
Speaker 1: week extension of the Department of Homeland Security funding. So
Speaker 1: the government has reopened. I'm going to talk about that
Speaker 1: and a few other things. Was Texas Senator John Cornyan
Speaker 1: to start this hour. Senator, good to see you again,
Speaker 1: and I hope you're not as cold as DC looks.
Speaker 1: I'm glad the government's reopened. Can I begin, though, in
Speaker 1: the lone Star state, sir, with what happened over the
Speaker 1: weekend in the United States Senate district or A district
Speaker 1: that went by seventeen points for Donald Trump got won
Speaker 1: by a Democrat by fourteen points. What's that all about, Senator?
Speaker 2: Well, we're all scratching our heads and trying to learn
Speaker 2: the lessons that the public is trying to teach us.
Speaker 2: But to start with, only about fifteen percent of registered
Speaker 2: voters participated. Special elections are notorious for unpredicted, unpredictable results
Speaker 2: because a small minority of voters have a disproportionate impact. Fortunately,
Speaker 2: we'll have another shot at this in November. But I
Speaker 2: think what it also says is that candidate quality matters,
Speaker 2: and we can't take things for granted, even in deep
Speaker 2: red Texas and so as you know, that's why I'm
Speaker 2: concerned about this coming November.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yesterday on the commentary podcast editor, I'm not a
Speaker 1: member of that, but they were talking about you and
Speaker 1: Attorney General Pakistan and the congressmen. They think it's nuts,
Speaker 1: just like I think it's nuts that you've got a primary,
Speaker 1: because I think you got a layup in November. Now
Speaker 1: you might have to have you might have to use
Speaker 1: your shoulder a little bit on that layup, but you
Speaker 1: still got a lap. And none of us think that
Speaker 1: the Attorney General can win. Is that sort of dawning
Speaker 1: on people?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, the most recent polling shows that James Taller Rico,
Speaker 2: who seems to be leading in the Democratic primary, would
Speaker 2: be tied as of today with the Attorney General if
Speaker 2: he were the nominee. Of course, that's before he's carpet
Speaker 2: bombed the Attorney General, if he were the nominee, with
Speaker 2: all the negative baggage that he's been carrying, the scandals
Speaker 2: that he's been at the center of for a long
Speaker 2: time now. So I think two things could happen. One
Speaker 2: is he could lose, and the.
Speaker 3: Second it would be, even if he could win.
Speaker 2: By the skin of his teeth, it would cost hundreds
Speaker 2: of millions of dollars that we could use to spit
Speaker 2: to pick up Senate seats in Georgia, in Michigan, in
Speaker 2: New Hampshire, and save our Senate seat in North Carolina,
Speaker 2: which will be a very expensive seat. So I think
Speaker 2: that's what I would call the business case for my candidacy.
Speaker 3: It's a lot bigger than just me.
Speaker 1: The business case for your dandency is you're one hundred
Speaker 1: percent with President Trump, you're one hundred percent with the Republicans,
Speaker 1: and you've been there a while and you've got seniority.
Speaker 1: The business cases, it makes sense for Texas, and that's
Speaker 1: why I've endorsed you and everybody else with sort of
Speaker 1: common sense, as John Corny should win. But can we
Speaker 1: run through the dates so that this audience at least
Speaker 1: knows to turn out and vote on the right dates.
Speaker 1: There's going to be a primary, then there's going to
Speaker 1: be a runoff. When are both of those?
Speaker 2: I'm glad you asked. So the primary is March the third.
Speaker 2: It's the earliest primary in the country, and it's important.
Speaker 2: Like I said, with a special election, it shows what
Speaker 2: a small turnout can do in terms of unexpected results.
Speaker 3: Early voting.
Speaker 2: We have a very generous early voting period that starts
Speaker 2: February of the seventeenth, so February the seventeenth.
Speaker 3: With the primary on March the third.
Speaker 2: If nobody gets the majority, which is likely to happen
Speaker 2: with three candidates in the race, the runoff is in May,
Speaker 2: ten weeks later, May the twenty sixth, and that's even
Speaker 2: probably with a smaller turnout.
Speaker 3: So we're encouraging everybody we.
Speaker 2: Can to vote, and I hope all your listeners will.
Speaker 3: Join us in voting on March third. If not before, well.
Speaker 1: We're all over to Texas and we want to make
Speaker 1: sure they turn out. I also will send you to
Speaker 1: Senator Cornyan's campaign website. I don't think he can say
Speaker 1: it unless he's out of the Senate. But it's John
Speaker 1: Cornyan dot com. I can tell you where it is,
Speaker 1: Johncornan dot com. Now, Senator, tell me a little bit
Speaker 1: about this Safe Act. That's the Safeguard America's Voter Eligibility Act,
Speaker 1: And it became a subject to controversy on the House
Speaker 1: FLOORI today, and I don't know why. Can you explain
Speaker 1: what's going on?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: I don't understand why it's controversial either, because for a
Speaker 2: long time there's been a bipartisan consensus that voter ID
Speaker 2: is a legitimate tool to use to protect the integrity
Speaker 2: of the ballot, to make sure that only qualified voters
Speaker 2: can vote. So the SAVE Act is a design to
Speaker 2: basically put that into federal law. Now, there's some folks
Speaker 2: who believe that the federal government doesn't have any roles,
Speaker 2: shouldn't have any role in state run elections. I believe
Speaker 2: the states should run elections, but I think at a
Speaker 2: very basic minimum, it's not too much to ask that
Speaker 2: everybody be an American citizen and have a voter ID.
Speaker 2: But I think the debate in the House was whether
Speaker 2: they ought to attach it to this temporary appropriations package,
Speaker 2: and Senator Thune, at my urging and others, I believe
Speaker 2: we'll put that on the floor here in the.
Speaker 3: Senate soon, and so we'll have a shot at it.
Speaker 1: Then, all right, now I want to switch over to
Speaker 1: the Department of Homeland Security, which is on a two
Speaker 1: week ticker. Then it runs out of money, except it
Speaker 1: doesn't run out of money. Sentator Cotton told us yesterday
Speaker 1: that in the one Big Beautiful Bill last year, you
Speaker 1: gave him a big dollar of money. So ICE is
Speaker 1: not going anywhere. So once again the Democrats have walked
Speaker 1: themselves into a corner. And I'm wondering, is there any
Speaker 1: part of the caucus that wants to use this as
Speaker 1: an occasion for some votes on things like the dreamers.
Speaker 1: Make sure the dreamers get in, but meanwhile keep administrative
Speaker 1: warrants for deportation. What is the conversation around the DHS bill.
Speaker 1: It's the last appropriations bill. Are we going to turn
Speaker 1: it into a circus or are there going to be
Speaker 1: serious legislating here?
Speaker 2: Well? This is really this is more performance are like
Speaker 2: you pointed out in the Working Family Tax Cuts Act,
Speaker 2: Work Big beautiful bill. We funded the Department full Land Security,
Speaker 2: Border Security, the border wall, and so this is not
Speaker 2: about whether ICE is going to be funded. It is
Speaker 2: going to be about whether FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management
Speaker 2: Agency TSA, the Transportation Security Agency, whether they will be
Speaker 2: funded or whether we'll have to go to a continuing
Speaker 2: resolution through the end of the year. We have come
Speaker 2: a long way to actually pass almost all the appropriations
Speaker 2: bill this year with this hiccup. But of course the
Speaker 2: Democrats couldn't refuse to take advantage of any opportunity to
Speaker 2: try to try to put on a show over ICE
Speaker 2: and what's been happening in Minnesota and Minneapolis tragic outcome.
Speaker 2: But there's two lessons to learn. One is sanctuary cities
Speaker 2: are bad. Sanctuary states are bad because this transfer could
Speaker 2: incur out of public view in the county and local jails.
Speaker 2: And secondly that it's a big mistake to interfere with
Speaker 2: the federal law enforcement operation because bad things can happen
Speaker 2: if including by accident CENTA.
Speaker 1: I've written at length today for Fox News that a
Speaker 1: deal o lot to be presented at Democrats in this
Speaker 1: two week window, which is we'll get the Dreamers done well,
Speaker 1: we'll give regularization, not citizenship. They don't ever get the vote,
Speaker 1: but we'll give regularization to the dreamers if you give
Speaker 1: us rules that shut down sanctuary cities and sanctuary states,
Speaker 1: in other words, funding cutoffs. I don't know what the
Speaker 1: Democrats are asking, but I think you guys got to
Speaker 1: really jam them on the fact that they've brought the
Speaker 1: spotlight to bear on sanctuary cities, because that is not
Speaker 1: a winning issue for them.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: Well, but they seem sort of well, can I say this?
Speaker 2: Can I say they're kind of stuck on stupid. They're
Speaker 2: not really interested in solving a problem, and that's the problem,
Speaker 2: whether it's the enhanced subsidies for the Affordable Care Act.
Speaker 2: I mean, we're happy to work through those issues. Obviously,
Speaker 2: President Trump was elected on border security. The border is
Speaker 2: now secure, but we've got to get people who came
Speaker 2: in during the four years of open border policies by
Speaker 2: the Biden administration out of the country, especially the criminals
Speaker 2: and people have exhausted their appellate review of their legal
Speaker 2: avenues or relief. But I don't know really whether the
Speaker 2: Democrats actually want to solve that problem, particularly for the
Speaker 2: Dreamers that they talk about out for you know, all
Speaker 2: the time, and then when an opportunity is presented to
Speaker 2: them to do something about it, as it has been,
Speaker 2: including during President Trump's first term, they blow it by
Speaker 2: asking for the sun and the moon and turning down
Speaker 2: a perfectly good negotiated product. So I'm not optimistic, but
Speaker 2: you know, we got to keep trying.
Speaker 1: Now. I want to I hope you guys do offer
Speaker 1: them the Dreamers in exchange for some crackdown on sanctuary cities.
Speaker 1: I want to close by asking you about the one
Speaker 1: thing I don't think you can give. They want to
Speaker 1: get rid of administrative warrants issued for deportation, which has
Speaker 1: been in the law of the land forever you were
Speaker 1: a judge, you were a justice. You know that they're
Speaker 1: only seven hundred District court judges will never deport even
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand people. If we've got to get district
Speaker 1: court judges to sign these warrants. Is that? Is that
Speaker 1: an insane ask on They can't be serious, are they?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: I think again, they're trying to put on a show
Speaker 2: for their base, which basically is the same people who
Speaker 2: brought you defund the police and abolish ice, and they
Speaker 2: want to put any obstacle in the path of legitimate
Speaker 2: law enforcement of our immigration laws that they can, including
Speaker 2: making them, you know, take them up their masks so
Speaker 2: they can be docksed and harassed by these people that
Speaker 2: we've seen on the news.
Speaker 3: And this is an unnecessary step.
Speaker 2: As you knows as a lawyer, these are administrative proceedings
Speaker 2: to actually get an arrest warrant. It's not a criminal
Speaker 2: proceeding per se. It's people who've exhausted all of their
Speaker 2: legal remedies and simply refused to leave the country.
Speaker 1: By Mark sand firm on that, and thank you, Senator Cornyan.
Speaker 1: Johncornyn dot com remember those days. March third and in
Speaker 1: May tenth, Johncornyn dot com, I'll be right back in America.
Speaker 1: Stay two. Welcome back to America. I'm Hugh Hewett. I'm
Speaker 1: happy to welcome John Ashbrook, one of the fellas of
Speaker 1: the Ruthless podcast. They've been on the road. They were
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia last week. I want to thank John for
Speaker 1: being kind to one of my friends, Jim, who I
Speaker 1: hope got to attend the event. And then I listened
Speaker 1: this morning to them talking about the theater kids and
Speaker 1: the Democrats. But John Ashbrook First of all, it's going
Speaker 1: to be ninety degrees in California tomorrow. Are you sure
Speaker 1: you don't want to bring the Ruthless Podcast out west
Speaker 1: for a while.
Speaker 4: I'm on my way there as soon as we get
Speaker 4: off the air right now, Hugh, I've had it with
Speaker 4: the cold. You know, I grew up in the cold
Speaker 4: in your home state of Ohio, and I just need warmth.
Speaker 5: I need to go to Florida. I need to go
Speaker 5: to California.
Speaker 4: I got to go somewhere that is not going to
Speaker 4: be what it is right here in Washington.
Speaker 1: A few weeks every winter out of DC. Is what
Speaker 1: does the body and mind of a journalist? Good John,
Speaker 1: I want to ask you. I just had Senator Corner on,
Speaker 1: great guy, and I asked him about the ninth Senatorial
Speaker 1: district in Texas, which went from being a Trump plus
Speaker 1: fourteen district in November of twenty twenty four to a
Speaker 1: Democrat winning it by seventeen over the weekend. Now, it
Speaker 1: was a special election, but it's the state senate district.
Speaker 1: It's a bigger than the congressional seat. What do you
Speaker 1: think that message is being sent?
Speaker 4: Well, obviously he knows the state of Texas. Much much
Speaker 4: better than I do. But I'll tell you, Hugh, every
Speaker 4: single one of these special elections and the governor's elections
Speaker 4: in New Jersey in Virginia in twenty twenty five should
Speaker 4: serve as a wake up call to Republicans that these
Speaker 4: midterms are for real, that every candidate has to run
Speaker 4: their ass off if they want to be able to
Speaker 4: get across the finish line next November, and if they
Speaker 4: don't have a good campaign. It's based on the fundamentals
Speaker 4: that it takes to win. It's not like who can
Speaker 4: tweet the best, although that's part of it. It's not
Speaker 4: who raises the most money, although that's part of it.
Speaker 4: It's who has an organization that is built to win
Speaker 4: in a difficult environment.
Speaker 5: And there is no way around the.
Speaker 4: Fact that Republicans are in a difficult environment this fall.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's historically difficult for any party in power,
Speaker 4: and Republicans do not have Trump on the ballot in
Speaker 4: twenty twenty six. Now the President is working over time
Speaker 4: to make sure that he is helping these candidates. You know,
Speaker 4: Maga Inc. His principal outside pack, I think raised three
Speaker 4: hundred million dollars or something like that. I may be
Speaker 4: even like short changing that number, and he is going
Speaker 4: to take this primary or I'm sorry, this midterm election
Speaker 4: very seriously.
Speaker 5: But that's not enough.
Speaker 4: You know, every single one of these candidates needs to
Speaker 4: find it within themselves to take what the president is
Speaker 4: offering and complement that in a way that only they
Speaker 4: can on a local level. If they don't do it,
Speaker 4: if they're not run hard, that's a recipe for disaster.
Speaker 1: So one of two things is true. Either everything depends
Speaker 1: upon the economy or it doesn't. And if everything depends
Speaker 1: upon the economy, were in good shape because four and
Speaker 1: a half percent and then almost five percent growth, and
Speaker 1: I think we have another great quarter. It's not the economy.
Speaker 1: It's almost caught up with Biden inflation. But if that's
Speaker 1: not true, then immigration enforcement is driving that result. Do
Speaker 1: you think voters are turned off by immigration enforcement.
Speaker 4: I think there's some of that in suburban parts of
Speaker 4: the country. But you have to remember the mandate that
Speaker 4: President Trump was given. It's seventy seven million votes in
Speaker 4: twenty twenty four. People want safety, They wanted our borders
Speaker 4: to be closed, and they want the criminals to be
Speaker 4: deported from this country. I interviewed Tom Homan. I know
Speaker 4: you've talked to him before, to Hugh, and I asked
Speaker 4: him a very specific question about sanctuary cities because it's
Speaker 4: on my mind as a guy who lived through nine
Speaker 4: to eleven. Are these sanctuary cities becoming rendezvous points for
Speaker 4: terrorists who found their way from the other hemisphere across
Speaker 4: the Mexican border and into our country during the Biden years?
Speaker 4: Are these sanctuary cities turning into rendezvous points for people
Speaker 4: who are fighting age men who really want to do
Speaker 4: damage to our country? And he said the answer to
Speaker 4: that was yes, And it's a terrifying thought, and it's
Speaker 4: something that has to be solved. It's not a particularly
Speaker 4: part is an issue. I mean, it's seventy thirty, eighty twenty.
Speaker 4: You have so many people in this country who want
Speaker 4: to get the border under control. President Trump did that.
Speaker 4: They want to get the terrorists, the murderers, people who
Speaker 4: are here to do wrong. They want them out. And
Speaker 4: that's what I think Tom Homan is trying to do.
Speaker 4: That's what our president is trying to do. And so
Speaker 4: I don't think that's a particularly I think that's a
Speaker 4: good issue for Republicans heading into the midterm. The economy.
Speaker 4: You know, if you listen to Scott bessont, very smart guy,
Speaker 4: well respected in DC, well respected in New York, from
Speaker 4: people of all political stripes. Scott Besson is very bullish
Speaker 4: on the economy in twenty twenty six because this is
Speaker 4: the year that some of those tax cuts and things
Speaker 4: that were in the Big Beautiful Bill come into play.
Speaker 4: And so, I mean, he knows more about the economy
Speaker 4: than I do. I'm going to rely on his judgment,
Speaker 4: but I do think that those two issues, economy and
Speaker 4: safety are going to be the highly determinative of this midterm.
Speaker 1: Now, John, I think the softest part of President Trump's
Speaker 1: coalition suburban women who have incomes they don't want to lose.
Speaker 1: They don't like grandma's being deported. They don't like children
Speaker 1: being deported. They don't like mothers being deported, dropping off kids.
Speaker 1: They don't like it. They react viscerally against it because
Speaker 1: they're mom.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: So my question is, is there an opportunities Democrats have
Speaker 1: put themselves in the corner. They've held up funding for DHS.
Speaker 1: Can we give them the Dreamers Act in exchange for
Speaker 1: cracking down on sanctuary cities, cutting off funding for any
Speaker 1: sanctuary city or state. Do you think we can make
Speaker 1: them an offer they can't refuse and at the same
Speaker 1: time somehow mollify that very uneasy part of the Trump coalition.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm skeptical Hugh, that Democrats are in a deal
Speaker 4: making mood on the subject of immigration. You know, they
Speaker 4: have shifted so far in their party from where they
Speaker 4: were twenty years ago when they were saying that they
Speaker 4: wanted our borders to be controlled, that they wanted criminal
Speaker 4: illegal aliens to be deported. You remember that Obama himself
Speaker 4: deported three million people during his time in office. But
Speaker 4: Democrats have completely shifted on this issue, and there are
Speaker 4: so many reasons why. I'm not sure, given their sources
Speaker 4: of funding, given how tight they are with the hard left,
Speaker 4: and their own civil war going on within their own part,
Speaker 4: I'm not sure they're in a deal making kind of mood.
Speaker 1: What should we make I turned down the dreamers, John,
Speaker 1: everybody talks about the dreamers. I've been here literally on
Speaker 1: the road about it for twenty years. Can we not
Speaker 1: offer that to them with something stabled to it and
Speaker 1: make them turn it down or accept that plus dreamers
Speaker 1: plus X and we get the name X.
Speaker 4: I mean, here's the thing. I think that even if
Speaker 4: Trump were to offer something like that today, I think
Speaker 4: Democrats would say, yeah, thank you, that's not going to
Speaker 4: get the votes. Here's I want more, and here's my more.
Speaker 4: You know, I want the names and addresses of every
Speaker 4: ICE agent written on their chest so that we can
Speaker 4: dox them and find them and intimidate them out of
Speaker 4: doing their jobs.
Speaker 5: I just don't think that we're.
Speaker 4: Capable Republicans being we capable of satisfying the left on
Speaker 4: this subject.
Speaker 5: I think they're in transigent.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: You look at how they're operating in some of these cities.
Speaker 4: Minneapolis is probably the most noteworthy example where they're dding
Speaker 4: up these checkpoints.
Speaker 1: I heard about that today, unbelievable checkpoints in Minia. I'll
Speaker 1: talk to Lilacs about that later today. John Ashbrook, get back,
Speaker 1: got a cam check on the heating. Make sure the
Speaker 1: homefront is warm. I appreciate both the Philadelphia Show and
Speaker 1: today's program, the Ruthless Variety program. You should like and
Speaker 1: subscribe over at YouTube. Many visuals today, so if you're
Speaker 1: not watching it, you're missing it. At Ruthless John Ashbrook,
Speaker 1: thank you. Follow John at John Ashbrook on x as well.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned. I'll be right back on the Hewit Show.
Speaker 1: Welcome back, and I'm Joe Hewett. I want to talk
Speaker 1: to politics with David Drucker, but first get a pulse
Speaker 1: on from the Beltway on what you think is happening
Speaker 1: in Iran today. Already a shaw He drone was shot
Speaker 1: down by an F thirty five flying from the Lincoln.
Speaker 1: A second drone has been dispatched by Iran towards the Lincoln.
Speaker 1: No word yet on what happened there. And six Arenian
Speaker 1: gunboats attempted to seize a US flagged oil tanker that
Speaker 1: managed to get under speed and under the protection of
Speaker 1: the US Navy ship before boarding. That's not That's not
Speaker 1: the activity, David, of a country that wants to deal seriously.
Speaker 6: You know, one if they ever wanted to deal seriously.
Speaker 6: I mean, it's the Irian regime. And every president, one
Speaker 6: way or the other has found out that the that
Speaker 6: they negotiated bad faith and they're malevolent, and that's the
Speaker 6: way they want to be. Like I think, I think
Speaker 6: everybody in Washington generally is consumed by domestic drama. You know,
Speaker 6: whether or not the House and Senate we're going to
Speaker 6: get the US get the government out of a shutdown
Speaker 6: with a deal that the President brokeer with Minority Leader
Speaker 6: Chuck Schumer in the Senate. Looks like we're headed in
Speaker 6: that direction, but I think there's gonna be a lot
Speaker 6: more discussion about this.
Speaker 5: I was talking to somebody who.
Speaker 6: Spent a lot of time a lot of his career
Speaker 6: in the intelligence community earlier this morning. It's something that
Speaker 6: came up in conversation. Usually Trump is very concerned about
Speaker 6: the credit ability of the military threats that he makes.
Speaker 6: A lot of his negotiating in other ways can be
Speaker 6: blustering for effect, but he's usually been careful about when
Speaker 6: he threatens military action. And so I think a lot
Speaker 6: of people are waiting to see, with the hardware that
Speaker 6: we sent to the region whether or not anything is forthcoming.
Speaker 1: David, what is the expectation of the people that you've
Speaker 1: talked to. I believe he's going to rock their world.
Speaker 1: I don't have a timetable, but because of what you
Speaker 1: just said, he does follow through. I do believe he
Speaker 1: also like to have a legitimate diplomatic option on the table,
Speaker 1: but they're walking away from it. Even before Jared Kushner
Speaker 1: and Steve Whitcock, get the Turkey. This is not the
Speaker 1: action of anybody of a regime that wants to deal.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we should, I mean, I realize we have to
Speaker 5: do this. So it looks like we tried.
Speaker 6: But we shouldn't even waste our time. Not with the Iranians,
Speaker 6: but lots of people. It's worth wasting your time because
Speaker 6: you never know with them. It's I mean, it's so predictable.
Speaker 6: It can make me look like a genius, and I'm
Speaker 6: no genius. Look, Hugh, I think the confusing part is
Speaker 6: the president president threatened severe military action if they killed
Speaker 6: their own people. He then said, well, I have assurances
Speaker 6: nobody's getting killed. We then found out people were getting
Speaker 6: killed and in massive numbers, and then nothing appeared to
Speaker 6: be happening. Then we send people to the region, we
Speaker 6: sent hardware and you know, military assets to the region,
Speaker 6: and now we're in a in a holding pattern. And
Speaker 6: usually when the president does something big, it doesn't really
Speaker 6: stretch it out this way, or he doesn't foreshadow and
Speaker 6: it's just you think he does. In retrospect, it looks
Speaker 6: like he was foreshadowing it, but it's more like, oh,
Speaker 6: he took out Sulimani. Oh, he snatched Maduro, So this
Speaker 6: is just different than the way he usually handles things.
Speaker 1: I do think we're going to look back. I'm giving
Speaker 1: him till the middle of March because it does take
Speaker 1: a while to set up the bad system in Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 1: I think Israel's well defended, but Saudi Arabia is not.
Speaker 1: I understand the Iranian short term missile numbers. That's a
Speaker 1: real threat that they need air defense for. So I
Speaker 1: understand that, But I was just wondering, is the general
Speaker 1: expectation among the people you talk to that we have
Speaker 1: a battle coming with Iran?
Speaker 5: I'd say it's mixed.
Speaker 6: Look, I talk to some people who think Trump blinked,
Speaker 6: and you know, particularly when he talks about trying to
Speaker 6: cut a deal for a nuclear program that was supposedly obliterated,
Speaker 6: And then you talk to other people who are like, no,
Speaker 6: the guy always follows through when he makes threats like these,
Speaker 6: right when he delivers the red line threat. In fact,
Speaker 6: usually he doesn't really deliver the red line threat.
Speaker 5: He just acts.
Speaker 6: So what I'm hearing are mixed perceptions about what the
Speaker 6: president is doing and will do.
Speaker 1: I think he will end up hurt politically and the
Speaker 1: world will be much worse off if he doesn't act.
Speaker 1: But we will see. Now, the state Senate district number
Speaker 1: nine in Texas went for Donald Trump by seventeen points.
Speaker 1: It went for the Democrat on Saturday by fourteen team point,
Speaker 1: same district a year and a half apart.
Speaker 6: Let's it tell yet, well, it tells me that Republicans
Speaker 6: have a real rough midterm election on their hands, at
Speaker 6: least as it stands now these You know, what I've
Speaker 6: learned about special elections over twenty plus years of covering
Speaker 6: them is it's not the outcome that matters, it's the trend.
Speaker 6: And this isn't an outlier in terms of all of
Speaker 6: the special elections we have had since Trump's second inaugural.
Speaker 6: This fits with a pattern of heavy Democratic overperformance. This
Speaker 6: also happens to be a suburban district. And by the way,
Speaker 6: you know, I know Terren County and Fort Worth a
Speaker 6: little bit. I have family there. It was a surprise,
Speaker 6: But I think you know two things to read from it.
Speaker 6: I think that it shows you that people can get
Speaker 6: quite uncomfortable with this president when the provocative rhetoric and
Speaker 6: the zillion things that he gets focused on overshadow the
Speaker 6: things that they want him to focus on. That maybe
Speaker 6: he is, but it's a possible to see because of
Speaker 6: the way he functions. Number Two, the Democrats nominated somebody
Speaker 6: who was like a viable, normal Texas politician. Right, he's
Speaker 6: a union guy, he's an Air Force vet. He talked
Speaker 6: about the issues they care about. He didn't talk about
Speaker 6: social issues and definitely not in a way that's going
Speaker 6: to turn off suburban conservatives. And so it shows you,
Speaker 6: you know, as Democrats, when you nominate somebody who voters
Speaker 6: are going to like, you can do better. And you know, Republicans,
Speaker 6: it shows you that partisan partisan drawing seats and the
Speaker 6: way people always vote, it's never good enough in a
Speaker 6: midterm elections, particularly when you control the House, the Senate,
Speaker 6: and the White House.
Speaker 1: So tell me then, what Abigail Spanberger is doing, because
Speaker 1: it seemed to me she ran as one of those
Speaker 1: moderate Democrats that are left. But everything I've seen, I'm
Speaker 1: been on the West Coast for a few weeks. I'll
Speaker 1: be back next week. She's lurched way to the left,
Speaker 1: and everything that Breeze moves or walks is going to
Speaker 1: be tacked and Virginia.
Speaker 6: Well, first, you know a lot of a lot of
Speaker 6: these proposals are coming out of the Democrats and the
Speaker 6: Virginia Legislature.
Speaker 5: Who you know, go figure, you know, you win a.
Speaker 6: Big election and people think that they voted for everything
Speaker 6: you ever talked about.
Speaker 5: So let's see what she accepts and what she rejects.
Speaker 6: Number two, she's not on the ballot, right, And how
Speaker 6: many times have we seen this? You run one way
Speaker 6: and then you say, you know, then you say to
Speaker 6: yourself and I give all the politicians been over the doubt.
Speaker 6: I want what's best for people. This will be best
Speaker 6: for people. This is what I'm gonna do. But what
Speaker 6: I would say is, as a regard to Spanburger, let's
Speaker 6: see what she accepts and see what she rejects. But
Speaker 6: Virginia Democrats in the legislature are making the mistake of
Speaker 6: veering away from what won them that election.
Speaker 1: No doubt, I agree with you, and I think they're
Speaker 1: also going to drive people like me to find another
Speaker 1: place to live. I left California because of taxes like
Speaker 1: they're proposing. I'll do it again. The good thing about
Speaker 1: broadcasts you can broadcast from anywhere. David Drucker David M.
Speaker 1: Drukker on X. Thank you, my friend. I'll be right back, America,
Speaker 1: stay tuned to the HWIT Show. Hi, it's you, Hewitt.
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Speaker 1: He walking back America. I'm here, Hewett, joined by James Lylyx,
Speaker 1: our resident correspondent in the Twin Cities, James Lilyx dot
Speaker 1: substack dot com humorist extraordinaire James. I was thinking of
Speaker 1: you this morning listening to the Ruthless podcast as they
Speaker 1: replayed the audio and video of a checkpoint that has
Speaker 1: been set up in the Twin Cities by anti Ice protesters.
Speaker 1: They're using palettes, shipping pallets to block traffic to check
Speaker 1: people's IDs to see if they're not Ice agent. Has
Speaker 1: that happened to you yet?
Speaker 5: That hasn't happened to be yet?
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 7: I was considering the other day putting on some big
Speaker 7: Blaze or Oakley sunglasses of the type that are apparently favored
Speaker 7: by ICE agents and just sort of trying to drive
Speaker 7: by one of those checkpoints and see if they stopped me,
Speaker 7: And then you know, I have you know, no great
Speaker 7: fear of a single whistle, but the idea surrounding my car,
Speaker 7: these people blowing on their whistles like like holler monkeys
Speaker 7: that had aspirated a bag full of birthday party favors.
Speaker 7: It doesn't appeal to be so I haven't done that yet.
Speaker 7: What I love about it, though, is the idea of
Speaker 7: building a border, interrogating people who have crossed that border,
Speaker 7: and then asking them for their papers and to prove
Speaker 7: their legitimacy, and having been at that spot. The irony
Speaker 7: of this flies so far over the heads of these
Speaker 7: people that I am surprised it doesn't require FAA approval.
Speaker 7: They're in actually an area where the airport is, and
Speaker 7: I can just see a pilot's sighting as he's making
Speaker 7: a landing that we have the irony that's flying over
Speaker 7: the heads of these protesters right outside our window.
Speaker 1: Here change these people? Who are these people? Are they
Speaker 1: from the Twin Cities?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 7: Yes, I mean yet are there are there tourists of
Speaker 7: absolutely so?
Speaker 5: Are those people who.
Speaker 7: Say, hey, babe, it's going down in Minneapolis.
Speaker 5: It's time for the revolution, let's go.
Speaker 7: Yes, But for the most part, no, they are well
Speaker 7: meaning Minnesotans who have for whatever reason, ideological pre election
Speaker 7: because they've been on Facebook and soaking up the rage
Speaker 7: and the rest of it and they want to be
Speaker 7: part of it, or they just have an overwhelming desire
Speaker 7: to shout the F word as many times as possible.
Speaker 7: I have done so, and do so for genuine reasons.
Speaker 7: I mean, they're not out there. Not everybody out there
Speaker 7: is saying I'm opposed to ice. Oh, and I also
Speaker 7: want the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Speaker 5: That's not true.
Speaker 7: You've just got an awful lot of Minnesotans of a
Speaker 7: liberal stripe, progressive stripe, and that's got a lot more
Speaker 7: left in the last few years as I've been here.
Speaker 5: Who are They're doing it because they believe in.
Speaker 1: It now, James, the question is, though you say irony
Speaker 1: flies above their head, Nevertheless, they are antifa, anti fascist.
Speaker 1: They're erecting borders and checkpoints. It's the thing that Stasse
Speaker 1: used to do to stop people from leaving East Berlin
Speaker 1: to go to West Berlin. Do they not get that
Speaker 1: irony or do they not remember West Berlin.
Speaker 7: No, absolutely not no. And of course we all know
Speaker 7: the fall of the wall was in a sense of
Speaker 7: tragedy because East Germany was so very good on women's
Speaker 7: rights and employment and the rest of it. So it's
Speaker 7: kind of a mixbake there you No, not at all. No,
Speaker 7: the irony of it, It doesn't they're not all Antifa.
Speaker 7: Some of them are Antifa adjacent, or there people who
Speaker 7: are down for the cause or whatever.
Speaker 3: But the idea that the city should allow there.
Speaker 7: To be a parallel government and police force that's moving
Speaker 7: around and determining who shall and shall not pass is
Speaker 7: one of those things that has to be extirpated immediately.
Speaker 7: Otherwise you get parallel police in parallel law enforcement in
Speaker 7: your very city, and that that can't stand.
Speaker 5: So one of these was dissembled.
Speaker 7: I saw and read it that there was somebody approvingly
Speaker 7: saying that the police seemed to be sympathetic to the
Speaker 7: cause man, because they were apologetic and they were really
Speaker 7: nice about it, and they took everything down to the
Speaker 7: other but they didn't arrest anybody. So it's like they
Speaker 7: felt bad about what they had to do. No, I
Speaker 7: don't think they felt bad about what they had to do.
Speaker 7: I think they were rolling their eyes of the fact
Speaker 7: that they had to go and drag some out.
Speaker 5: This is the middle of the street.
Speaker 1: This is news to me. So escape from Minneapolis as possible.
Speaker 1: Now the police have come and taken the pseudo checkpoints down.
Speaker 7: One of them that I saw, the one that's on Senar.
Speaker 5: I'm not so sure about there.
Speaker 7: I mean, it's not as if every single act but
Speaker 7: a point of egress in the city has been choked
Speaker 7: off by chanting mobs. That's not the case.
Speaker 5: I think it's I think it's about two or three.
Speaker 7: It's irritating to the people who have to slow down
Speaker 7: and present in the own show that they're not the
Speaker 7: bad guy. What time?
Speaker 1: Yes, you do people really slow down and show ID
Speaker 1: to non.
Speaker 7: Uniform No not everybody, No, not everybody. They will wave
Speaker 7: you through you look jet oh look at you. You're
Speaker 7: driving a Volvough You've got to co exist. Come bumper
Speaker 7: stick from the back. You have a nope, you know
Speaker 7: you're you're probably one of us. You got gray hair,
Speaker 7: or you got purple hair, or you know, you got
Speaker 7: a little kid and the well wait a minute, they
Speaker 7: got a little kid. Where do they get that little kid.
Speaker 7: They could have snatched them out of school like the
Speaker 7: rest of the fifteen thousand and five year olds that
Speaker 7: are apparently throng and Bishop Whipple Center.
Speaker 5: No, they waved them through.
Speaker 7: It's the big trucks, the big trucks that apparently are
Speaker 7: occupied by burley men who maybe just I don't know,
Speaker 7: go to work because they're burly guys who hammer nails
Speaker 7: and fixed plumbing for a living.
Speaker 1: And are the people that learned the other trucks at
Speaker 1: home depot with the drywall.
Speaker 5: Which I was at home.
Speaker 1: You are, yes, so you were at home depot or
Speaker 1: you stopped on your way there.
Speaker 5: The last night.
Speaker 7: And the funny thing about it is is that I'm
Speaker 7: living my life in such a normal fashion that I'm
Speaker 7: not in a defensive crouch for fascism to come and
Speaker 7: swoop down and carry me off in every second. And
Speaker 7: I suppose that's privilege. But there was no tension, there
Speaker 7: was no worry at home Depot. It's just home depot
Speaker 7: in the suburbs.
Speaker 1: Well, that's what That's why you are invaluable to the
Speaker 1: rest of the country. The rest of the country thinks
Speaker 1: the Twin Cities crazy. We believe that Timry and the
Speaker 1: demonstrators are all nuts and that you are surrounded by nuts.
Speaker 1: But you're not.
Speaker 5: No, I'm not, absolutely not.
Speaker 7: Now I know for certain that if I walked up
Speaker 7: the street, there's a house that's got all of the
Speaker 7: signs that are in favor of all of the current things.
Speaker 7: What do we do today, Let's swap out the Ukraine
Speaker 7: sign put in the gaza side. It's got in this house.
Speaker 7: We believe in a variety of unsubstantiated desertions. It's got
Speaker 7: to support the public workers, support the federal workers. Its
Speaker 7: festooned with every single protestation that you can possibly imagine.
Speaker 7: And I know that if I walk by that house
Speaker 7: and tip my to the person who came outside, that
Speaker 7: it would be friendly. Because the assumption is if you
Speaker 7: live in this town, you think the right things, you're
Speaker 7: one of the good people.
Speaker 1: Yes, do they have?
Speaker 7: Just a second time in two weeks, twenty five years,
Speaker 7: it's been are.
Speaker 5: Are you losing it?
Speaker 3: I am loving?
Speaker 1: I moving beging to be wrong? Does the sign? Does
Speaker 1: the house with the sign have anything on it about
Speaker 1: the thirty thousand Iranians that a remode down by the regime.
Speaker 7: No, absolutely not. That would be unfortunate. That may be unfortunate,
Speaker 7: but unfortunately, as a lot of these things, it would
Speaker 7: embolden the wrong people to say so, it would embolden
Speaker 7: Donald Trump, it would embolden the Islamophobes, it would embolden etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: So you know, you know, thirty thousand people were murdered
Speaker 1: two weeks ago and the house with the sign doesn't
Speaker 1: note it. I'm amazed by that. The ironies in Minneapolis
Speaker 1: never failed to make James lyas can be read at
Speaker 1: James Lyc dot substack dot com James lyct substack dot com.
Speaker 1: Next week, we hope he's still free. That's we check
Speaker 1: in weekly the Chambe and make sure he's still living
Speaker 1: in the free city of the Twin Cities. Stay to
Speaker 1: in America.