Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things
Speaker 1: Hillsdale Hillsdale dot edu or I encourage you to take
Speaker 1: advantage of the many free online courses there, and of
Speaker 1: course I'll listener to the Hilldale dialogues, all of them
Speaker 1: at que for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple
Speaker 1: iTunes and Hilldale Warning, Glory and Evening Grace. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Big Weekend Pod America. I'm Hugh Hewett. I'm going
Speaker 1: to lead off the podcast today with my monologue from
Speaker 1: Friday which opened the program about losing your temper when
Speaker 1: people just hit you from the side, I mean just
Speaker 1: come out of nowhere and hit you with the side.
Speaker 1: But I want you to be assured that though it's
Speaker 1: a monologue, we got a great regular Big Weekend podcast
Speaker 1: lineup ready to go and that includes that includes Eli
Speaker 1: Lake from The Free Press, Charles CW. Cook from National Review.
Speaker 1: We've got Big Ben Dominates from the Big Ben Podcast coming.
Speaker 2: Along as well.
Speaker 1: And I think I'm going to go back and find
Speaker 1: one of the highlights of the week, which is my
Speaker 1: interview with Captain Mark Vandroff about United States Navy shipbuilding.
Speaker 1: We did a three segment interview. It's about what the
Speaker 1: President laid down on shipbuilding and I want everyone to
Speaker 1: hear that, so we'll append that to the end of
Speaker 1: the Big Weekend Pod. Might be ten minutes longer than
Speaker 1: normal this weekend, but I assure you every minute is
Speaker 1: worth your time. Have a great weekend this summer, still
Speaker 1: a lot of summer ahead. Don't let it end early.
Speaker 1: Enjoy summer to the fullest and listen to today's Weekend Pod Morning,
Speaker 1: Glory and Evening Grace America. A great weekend to you.
Speaker 1: It usually begins with me u q it on the
Speaker 1: Qwitt Show. Welcome. Let me begin with breaking news on
Speaker 1: Friday afternoon, order entered by the Chief Justice John Roberts
Speaker 1: upon consideration of the application of Council for the applicants,
Speaker 1: the response and the reply filed there too, it is
Speaker 1: ordered that the preliminary injunction entered on April sixteenth, twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six, by the United States District Court for the
Speaker 1: District of Columbia, case number one twenty five CV for
Speaker 1: three one six, is hereby I stayed pending further order
Speaker 1: of the Chief Justice or of the Court. The construction
Speaker 1: on the East Wing continues. Big win for President Trump,
Speaker 1: big win for the Constitution, big win for the security
Speaker 1: United States, big win for a coherent standing doctrine. Though
Speaker 1: I do not want to explain it to you at
Speaker 1: this point, it's a big win. And I've been talking
Speaker 1: to riting about it all week long. Today the big
Speaker 1: guns came in former Attorney General Bill Barr in the
Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal, former National Security advisor and superb lawyer
Speaker 1: Robert C. O'Brien at Fox News making the same point,
Speaker 1: you just have to update the East Wing. And we
Speaker 1: don't want to talk too much about what's below the
Speaker 1: East Wing, but what's below the East Wing is vitally
Speaker 1: important to the national security. And the ballroom on top
Speaker 1: of it has got to be not only big enough
Speaker 1: for the biggest events that need to be held there,
Speaker 1: but big enough to absorb and dissipate hits upon the
Speaker 1: Executive Mansion in its grounds. Rit O'Brien in The Wall
Speaker 1: Street in the Fox News read Bill Barr, good case,
Speaker 1: good decision. Okay, Part two of the opening monologue. I
Speaker 1: don't like to lose my temper. I try very hard
Speaker 1: not to. You know, good Catholic boys, you go through
Speaker 1: Catholic education, you're taught don't lose your temper. You're taught
Speaker 1: a lot of different things. Twelve years of Catholic school
Speaker 1: and good Catholic practice. You're taught a lot of different
Speaker 1: things about how to make arguments and win arguments, how
Speaker 1: to play fair, and when to be righteously indignant. Happens,
Speaker 1: sometimes happens. I've been on broadcast for thirty seven years.
Speaker 1: I count on my one hand number of times I
Speaker 1: have been indignant and angered. Boy oh boy, Another occasion arose,
Speaker 1: Another occasion arose. I'm trundling this more warning. I'm pretty calm,
Speaker 1: getting my ten kN thanks to my relief factor, and
Speaker 1: along comes well you should hear it, got number six thanks.
Speaker 3: One last thing.
Speaker 4: This is particular for our friend Hugh Hewitt, who of
Speaker 4: course is a lifelong Cleveland Browns fan. He lives and
Speaker 4: mostly dies with the Cleveland Browns. And we're now what
Speaker 4: two weeks away from Hope springing eternal. In six weeks
Speaker 4: from now, we'll have to express our condolences for what
Speaker 4: I imagine is going to be another oh and five.
Speaker 1: Or oh and six start.
Speaker 4: But it gets worse for poor Hugh and his beloved
Speaker 4: Cleveland Browns. The unveiled a stadium in graphics six. What
Speaker 4: the hell is that?
Speaker 1: For real?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's your stadium.
Speaker 5: Did Darth Vader design this thing?
Speaker 6: So it looks like.
Speaker 7: Darth Vade designed the like Las Vegas Raiders one. You
Speaker 7: know that that at least looks kind of what is that?
Speaker 2: Dude?
Speaker 4: So for our audio only listener, what it looks like
Speaker 4: is that somebody had built this stadium and then hit
Speaker 4: it with a sledgehammer and it just sort of broke
Speaker 4: into pieces.
Speaker 7: Like instead of building a stadium that it was like,
Speaker 7: you're given seventeen triangles, build a stadium now, Like, I
Speaker 7: don't even know architecturally how this works, Like what is
Speaker 7: holding any of this up?
Speaker 5: It looks like trash.
Speaker 7: But like you see this on the skyt well, I
Speaker 7: mean it's Cleveland.
Speaker 8: They've got one triangle for every quarterback on the roster.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they do not.
Speaker 7: Have a starting quarterback and they also do not have
Speaker 7: Miles Garrett this season playing in a home game.
Speaker 5: I do think they made a really smart design decision
Speaker 5: here in the stadium. Well, if you look at this
Speaker 5: the profile of this model, clearly the stadium must be
Speaker 5: built into the ground. They've shoveled into the dirt to
Speaker 5: build the stadium into the ground, which I think is
Speaker 5: smart because Cleveland is a place where dreams go to die.
Speaker 8: See that was a good one.
Speaker 4: Mistoid wine mistake on the lake, baby, good one. That's
Speaker 4: what it is, no question about it. Well, I believe
Speaker 4: it or not. The thing that you're looking at for
Speaker 4: our YouTube audience is two point six billion dollars.
Speaker 9: Wow. Wow, it seems like a man.
Speaker 2: It sounds like Shaun Watson's contract.
Speaker 4: I think I think Pablo Pledge Scubar could probably reprice
Speaker 4: some of that stuff because he's got a lot better
Speaker 4: deal than whoever's building that stadium.
Speaker 1: Unbelieved. So that was a drive by. I was just
Speaker 1: trundling along this morning, minding my own business, listening to
Speaker 1: the Ruthless Podcast as I want to do on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: Thursday and Friday to the Fellows. It's an R rated edition.
Speaker 1: I want to warn innocent ears. Not for the young.
Speaker 1: But I'm I'm just out of nowhere. I'm Hugh Hewett
Speaker 1: and and like they get out of the car and
Speaker 1: they knock me down and they kicked me around for
Speaker 1: I think it's Ashbrook. Ashbrook is a Bengals fan. I
Speaker 1: think he led them. And then there's a Vikings fan in,
Speaker 1: a Broncos fan and a Colts fan. It's a it's
Speaker 1: a bad mix of fan bases. I mean, it's really
Speaker 1: a criminal group of There's not a Raiders fan in there,
Speaker 1: but they probably have.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Wolf behind the camera is probably a Raiders fan. So
Speaker 1: I just I kept my I will not lose my
Speaker 1: temper again. I won't. I'll simply know that come the
Speaker 1: end of twenty twenty seven, we will see who laughs.
Speaker 1: Also want to know my last day simulcasting on c SPAN.
Speaker 1: I want to thank them again. I have been on
Speaker 1: c SPAN all week and I this morning Howard Mortman
Speaker 1: posted a clip of an interview that the one and
Speaker 1: only Brian Lamb did with me on Q and A
Speaker 1: thirteen years ago. I want to play that clip for
Speaker 1: you and then tell you a little bit about c
Speaker 1: SPAN cut number two.
Speaker 6: Why do you spend this much time on the radio
Speaker 6: with all the background, your Harvard background, your Michigan background.
Speaker 10: I think radio is the longest in the best form
Speaker 10: of media that's left.
Speaker 9: What we're doing right now is no hour.
Speaker 10: Long conversations unprecedent only c Span does long form conversation anymore.
Speaker 9: You and Charlie rose A think, guys, I know.
Speaker 10: Who read books the way that I read books in
Speaker 10: order to talk to the authors seriously. And it's tremendously
Speaker 10: revealing when an author has had their book read these days,
Speaker 10: because they don't get many people who've actually read their
Speaker 10: books and know what they're talking about with page notes,
Speaker 10: and it's so rewarding to them that I get a
Speaker 10: great deal of satisfaction of an author who says to me,
Speaker 10: in fact, the highest compliment is that's the best interview
Speaker 10: I've had on this book tour. Just got it from
Speaker 10: Charles Crothammer and love the interview on Things that Matter
Speaker 10: his new collection of essays, some of which are old
Speaker 10: but is autobiographical.
Speaker 9: You know that makes my day.
Speaker 10: So I like radio three hours is an abundance of
Speaker 10: time and I can do so many different things.
Speaker 6: Where specifically would we find you sitting every.
Speaker 10: Day in Irvine, California, I have a studio or k
Speaker 10: LA in California, I have a studio, and when I'm.
Speaker 9: In Washington, DC, the Herritage Foundations lets.
Speaker 10: Me use a studio, but my own studio, my own
Speaker 10: personal studio is a very modest, probably eleven hundred square foot,
Speaker 10: three rooms.
Speaker 9: With a producer in front of me, Dwayne, an engineer
Speaker 9: Adam on my left.
Speaker 6: So the traditional radio setup, and what time of day
Speaker 6: do you do it?
Speaker 9: Three to six in the afternoon, West Coast time.
Speaker 6: Biggest phill that you have nationwide, it's got to.
Speaker 10: Be New York City AM nine seventy or CAERLAAM eight
Speaker 10: seventy in Los Angeles.
Speaker 9: So New York and Los Angeles are the biggest radio
Speaker 9: markets in the world.
Speaker 6: How long have you done this?
Speaker 9: I began radio. That's a tricky question.
Speaker 10: I began radio in nineteen eighty nine for KFI. I
Speaker 10: began my syndicated show on July tenth, two thousand. So
Speaker 10: I've been doing my syndicated national show for I Guess
Speaker 10: the fourteenth year.
Speaker 9: Now.
Speaker 6: So you got a degree at Harvard and went to
Speaker 6: University of Michigan.
Speaker 9: I get a law degree.
Speaker 6: And I understand you teach a chapman, you're part of
Speaker 6: a law firm. You have this show. How can you
Speaker 6: do all this?
Speaker 10: I treat my life like college. When you go to college,
Speaker 10: you have a schedule in your head. You know what
Speaker 10: you're doing on Monday, Tuesdays, Wednesdays. Well, I'm at the
Speaker 10: law school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm in the studio
Speaker 10: every afternoon. I met my law firm Monday, Wednesdays and Friday,
Speaker 10: and then I travel quite a lot, and I juggle.
Speaker 10: No one gets to do exactly what they want, but
Speaker 10: I get pretty close. I've been very blessed in that
Speaker 10: regard to always say to people, like the dean of
Speaker 10: the law school who hired me, or Jim Dody, who
Speaker 10: built Chapman University, I'd love to teach here. Can we
Speaker 10: work it into the parameters of my life? And they
Speaker 10: said yes? And Ed Atsinger allowed me. He's the man
Speaker 10: who founded Salem Radio Network along with Stu Epperson, who
Speaker 10: allowed me to build the studio in such a way
Speaker 10: that I could both teach and practice law. So people
Speaker 10: have been very accommodating, and I've learned to always ask
Speaker 10: for what makes the most sense for me, and people
Speaker 10: will usually work their way around it.
Speaker 1: That was Brian lamp the guy asking the question best
Speaker 1: interviewer in America? But I want to you know, there's
Speaker 1: Susan Swain, There's Peter Slann, there is of course, Howard Morton,
Speaker 1: who posted that remarkable walking talking library of c SPAN memory,
Speaker 1: John mccartial, Steve Scully, Greta Bronner, pedro Etceavera, John mccartial.
Speaker 1: These people have done Q and A in Washington Morning Show.
Speaker 1: What's the name of the Washington Morning Show. I can't
Speaker 1: remember it right now, but it's a fabulous group. They
Speaker 1: are genuine conservatives in that they're conserving an institution of argument,
Speaker 1: debate and discussion. They're conserving publishing. And if you're not,
Speaker 1: you can keep watching me next week on SNC. We're
Speaker 1: on Fast TV, Pluto, rok Roku, Amazon, Samsung every afternoon
Speaker 1: three to six on the Sale News Channel, SNC dot
Speaker 1: tv as well, hheweit dot com watch now, or you
Speaker 1: can listen on the Salem Radio Network or any of
Speaker 1: our great affiliates from Connecticut to California and north to south.
Speaker 1: But I salute c SPAN. What they're doing is amazing.
Speaker 1: I hope they it's in their forty seventh year now
Speaker 1: or forty eighth, and when they have their fiftieth anniversary,
Speaker 1: I hope there's a big party because everybody in Washington,
Speaker 1: or as James Lilac said earlier this week. Ce SPAN
Speaker 1: is the weather channel for smart people. I'll be right back,
Speaker 1: stay tuned, procom back America, as is my want on
Speaker 1: the wen. Eli Lake is with me. Eli is with
Speaker 1: the Free Press. He's the host of the Breaking History podcast,
Speaker 1: which you should like and subscribe to. Always excellent when
Speaker 1: it drops, and Eli knows Israel and Iran and the
Speaker 1: war better than just about anyone. Eli, let's start there.
Speaker 1: Economic d Day is coming Monday, but we've got a
Speaker 1: preview on Friday when the UAE cut off foreign exchange
Speaker 1: with Iran. Now they're relying on Turkey. What can Scott
Speaker 1: Bessen do on Monday to even further tighten the screws
Speaker 1: and the impact that's having on Iran.
Speaker 11: If he announces and then the Twittery Department enforces secondary
Speaker 11: sanctions on people buying the illicit Iranian oil, and that
Speaker 11: would be significant. But my concern here is that, you know,
Speaker 11: a lot of the President's threats, at least militarily in
Speaker 11: the war have just been faints or bluffs, and in
Speaker 11: order for this to be effective, it will have to
Speaker 11: be a sustained effort over a period of time in
Speaker 11: the run up to the midterm elections, and as we've
Speaker 11: already seen in terms of how the market has reacted,
Speaker 11: that's likely to mean that the price of oil is
Speaker 11: going to spike and the price of the pump is
Speaker 11: going to go up. And if Trump is motivated by
Speaker 11: trying to stabilize the oil markets, I just hope that
Speaker 11: he sticks with it. That's my one concern.
Speaker 1: Okay, oil dropped down below eighty seven dollars a barrel today.
Speaker 1: It's a down day for oil, and part of that
Speaker 1: is probably.
Speaker 11: Though whatever when the story initially dropped, it went up.
Speaker 1: I think now it's back down. And I think that's
Speaker 1: because not long after that story came out, came a
Speaker 1: second story to source, to anonymous administration sources that more
Speaker 1: than a thousand ships have left the straight orror moves
Speaker 1: in the last two months. We are running operation free
Speaker 1: and we're just doing it sub rosa. Moreover, the pace
Speaker 1: of construction of pipelines is kind of staggering, and you
Speaker 1: may have already opened a second one. Again. No one's
Speaker 1: talking much about this, but I thought we'd be in
Speaker 1: for a hundred and twenty dollars well, not up to
Speaker 1: the Biden level, one hundred and forty five but I
Speaker 1: thought we'd get to one hundred, didn't you. Eli.
Speaker 11: Yes, And this is where you have to credit Trump
Speaker 11: in a sense for the thing that I just kind
Speaker 11: of criticized him for, which is that he has managed
Speaker 11: to keep the price of oil kind of I mean,
Speaker 11: it's relatively stable, or at least it hasn't spiked, you know,
Speaker 11: too high. And in that respect, he's managed to do
Speaker 11: that despite the war. And now I think you know
Speaker 11: the genius of economic d day. The genius of this
Speaker 11: approach is that again it will give the US and
Speaker 11: its allies an opportunity to restock the much needed missile
Speaker 11: interceptors and precision guide munitions that were running very, you know,
Speaker 11: perilously low during the combat activities. So that's another advantage
Speaker 11: to this approach, which is that the economic pressure can
Speaker 11: buy time to restock our munitions.
Speaker 1: Now, the President did an interview with Michael Cohen which
Speaker 1: is aired in part I'm not going to play it now,
Speaker 1: it's too long. But he see how he would do
Speaker 1: it over one hundred times if he had to do
Speaker 1: it again, strike Iran, begin this to stop them, he
Speaker 1: would do it one hundred times over. He couldn't let
Speaker 1: it happen, and at the same time, Turkey got into
Speaker 1: it with Israel this week. What did Israel do? Because
Speaker 1: the Turkey is becoming a very great It's been a
Speaker 1: problem for decades, but now it's becoming a great problem
Speaker 1: for us. What happened there.
Speaker 11: In the in the in the standoff with Israel. Yes,
Speaker 11: I you know, I feel really bad, Hugh. I have
Speaker 11: been focused on a big feature that'll be coming out
Speaker 11: next week on on on on domestic issues. So you
Speaker 11: fill me in.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, Israel struck a base in Syria, which Tish deployments,
Speaker 1: and Turkey's upset, but Israel said, we told you it's coming.
Speaker 1: We're not going to let you do this, and I
Speaker 1: think Israel's in the right. Turkey can't go into Syria.
Speaker 11: Oh, I mean the Turks have been I mean, the
Speaker 11: rhetoric that has come out of Erwan and the Foreign
Speaker 11: Minister's mouth as just outrageous at this point. And the
Speaker 11: fact that they are still a good standing in NATO,
Speaker 11: I think is a greater threat to the Alliance in
Speaker 11: many ways than Trump's efforts to try to get the
Speaker 11: European countries to sort of pay their own share. So
Speaker 11: in that respect, I would. I would, I would say
Speaker 11: that the Turks need to kind of But the problem
Speaker 11: is that this is in the context of, you know,
Speaker 11: Trump has really cozied up to Ertawan. There was recently
Speaker 11: the approval of the F thirty five sales. So I
Speaker 11: think they're getting mixed messages, and it would be nice
Speaker 11: if there was a consistent message from Washington, because I
Speaker 11: think that these kinds of teta TETs could be avoided
Speaker 11: with a strong warning Trump and the White.
Speaker 1: House approval on the F thirty five that was walked back. Eli,
Speaker 1: you just you tease the story. What are you working on?
Speaker 11: I just filed it. It's got to go through at its.
Speaker 11: But I I did what I considered be a pretty
Speaker 11: deep dive on how APAC, which is the American Israel
Speaker 11: Public Affairs Committee, is really having probably its deepest crisis,
Speaker 11: particularly within the Democratic Party. And what I try to
Speaker 11: do is sort of tell the history of this moment
Speaker 11: where you know, you now have factions, if not maybe
Speaker 11: half of the Democratic Party maybe more, are now you know,
Speaker 11: very hostile to what is an organization comprised of American
Speaker 11: citizens that's been around now for more than seventy years,
Speaker 11: that has been there to push for the US Israel
Speaker 11: Alliance and and it's really about the future of of
Speaker 11: the of the Democratic Party. Will it become like Jeremy
Speaker 11: Corbyn's Labor Party. And I think sort of the story
Speaker 11: of APAC, how it's tried to fight back with you know,
Speaker 11: targeted sort of ad bys within primary races is an
Speaker 11: underreported story. And what I try to do is sort
Speaker 11: of tell it and sort of what happened and kind
Speaker 11: of what happened to what used to be this bipartisan
Speaker 11: consensus which I'm sure you remember, you you know, really
Speaker 11: wasn't that long ago where it was not controversial to
Speaker 11: say that you supported the US Israel Alliance.
Speaker 1: The only time I interviewed Joe Biden was an a
Speaker 1: PAC conference where I broadcast from the lobby and he
Speaker 1: addressed it on the inside, and he stopped by and
Speaker 1: we talked about how great Israel was. Let me ask
Speaker 1: you this. Ram Emmanuel's old rabbi appeared next to Mike
Speaker 1: Rodgers in Michigan yesterday saying to the Jews in Michigan,
Speaker 1: I will not vote for abdul and you shut what
Speaker 1: do you make of that?
Speaker 11: That is really this is the thing, is that we
Speaker 11: are starting to see in the in the Michigan race
Speaker 11: for the general what you know, can pro Israel democrats
Speaker 11: in that state? Can the Jewish Democrats in that state
Speaker 11: hold their nose and vote for Ol Sayed? And what
Speaker 11: is El Sayad willing to do? So far, he hasn't
Speaker 11: been willing to do much to try to win those
Speaker 11: voters back. And it I can I try to, let's
Speaker 11: be empathetic. You try to think about it from the
Speaker 11: respective of a Democrat. Would you rather potentially have control
Speaker 11: of the Senate and which is very important for their
Speaker 11: agenda and what they believe is kind of holding Trump accountable?
Speaker 11: Or would you allow in somebody who I think really
Speaker 11: is a level of a level of magnitude worse than
Speaker 11: any kind of lawmaker roup scene in terms of hostility
Speaker 11: to the Jewish.
Speaker 1: State that should think because it's he's a Hassan Piker's surrogate. Okay,
Speaker 1: Hassan Piker is not an Ol Sayads surrogate. Al Sayeed
Speaker 1: is a song Piker surrogate who is a radical, is
Speaker 1: a racist, misogynist, homophobic radical, and he uses the language
Speaker 1: of violence, and El Sayeed is his messenger.
Speaker 11: And by the way, and also anti American. It's not
Speaker 11: just about Israel, oh, anti white American, anti.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Eli Lake. I look forward to the piece and
Speaker 1: the Free Press. You ought to be a subscriber at
Speaker 1: THEFP dot org and follow Eli on x at Eli Lake.
Speaker 1: I'll be right back with Charles c. W. A. Cook.
Speaker 1: Stay where you are, Welcome back in America. I'm Hugh Hewett,
Speaker 1: joined by Charles C. W. Cook, Senior writer for a
Speaker 1: National Review. Charles, I know you're a music of FI sionados.
Speaker 1: I want to test your music knowledge. I have a
Speaker 1: special theme song that leads into a special show that
Speaker 1: I want to discuss with you. Can we queue it
Speaker 1: up please?
Speaker 12: Adam Charles said, if you coach, you have any idea
Speaker 12: what that's from ACDC?
Speaker 1: Right, yes it is? And where has it recently been
Speaker 1: employed as bumper music and theme music for a production?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Sas Rogue Heroes. Sas Rogue Heroes is a show I
Speaker 1: was introduced to by my son and I started watching it.
Speaker 1: Think it's about the sas in the Desert Campaign of
Speaker 1: nineteen forty one. Star is a fellow from Oxford. Stars
Speaker 1: a bunch of lunatic Scots. A lunatic Irishman, a lunatic Englishman.
Speaker 1: It's a and they throw American in there just for fun.
Speaker 1: Have you seen it yet?
Speaker 13: I haven't, but your lost recommendation Ludwig was fantastic, so
Speaker 13: I'll have to check it out.
Speaker 1: I think you will like rogue heroes. May not be
Speaker 1: for the smalls. All right now, I'm gonna threw one
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty on you. Are you a fan of
Speaker 1: Russell Kirk because he divides the Conservative House.
Speaker 13: Sometimes I am a fan of Russell Cook. I don't
Speaker 13: always agree with Russell Kirk, but as I always tell
Speaker 13: people who ask about National Reviews internal disagreements, we exist
Speaker 13: as a magazine both to host debates within the right
Speaker 13: and to put out an editorial line. And obviously the
Speaker 13: internal debates in which Russell Cook participatesd were crucial in
Speaker 13: forging conservatism.
Speaker 1: So I bring him up because last week in this space,
Speaker 1: Matt Contnetty, we were talking about American constitutional law and
Speaker 1: how I teach it, which is, you got to know
Speaker 1: the Jews, the Greats, the Romans, and the Brits before
Speaker 1: you get to seventeen eighty nine and even seventeen seventy six.
Speaker 1: He said, well, that's The Roots of American Order by
Speaker 1: Russell Kirk, and I said I didn't know that, and
Speaker 1: he said, oh, yes, I've ordered it, and I may
Speaker 1: have read it decades ago. But I started to reread
Speaker 1: The Conservative Mind in between, and in the course of
Speaker 1: that I read The Conservative Mind the part about Disraeli
Speaker 1: and Conservatives of imagination. Do you remember that, Charles.
Speaker 13: So it's funny you mentioned this, because this is one
Speaker 13: of the books that made me a conservative. And I
Speaker 13: was given it by a friend of my dad's in France,
Speaker 13: of all places. I think he was reading it on
Speaker 13: vacation when I was about, I don't know, eighteen, and
Speaker 13: I read the whole thing back to front and I
Speaker 13: loved it. But I can't remember that, so I'm gonna
Speaker 13: have to reread it was twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: Well, his argument about Disraeli. I've always loved is Israeli.
Speaker 1: First book that Richard Nixon ever gave me in nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy eight was Lord Blake, Robert Blake's Disraeli, and I
Speaker 1: read it, and I've always loved Disraeli since then. But
Speaker 1: I don't remember Russell Kirk writing this, because I probably
Speaker 1: read it forty years ago. Maybe fifty years ago saying
Speaker 1: Disraeli israelly. Udn'tfit a conservative. He's not a philosopher. He's
Speaker 1: a diplomat, he's a politician, he's a writer. But what
Speaker 1: he does is conservaive institutions. He's for the Crown, he's
Speaker 1: for the church. It's for England. And I bring this
Speaker 1: up because we're on c SPAN right now and it's
Speaker 1: a very it's a triangular pool shot, and I began
Speaker 1: thinking about that's what c SPAN has been doing for
Speaker 1: forty seven years. They're preserving the American tradition of debate, argument, book, conversation,
Speaker 1: serious stuff. As Lilac said earlier on the show this week,
Speaker 1: it's the weather channel for smart people. Do you like
Speaker 1: c SPAN?
Speaker 2: I do?
Speaker 9: I do.
Speaker 13: I've done a whole bunch of stuff. We's got great
Speaker 13: questions on c SPAN. I think I went on when
Speaker 13: my book came out. I went on various cover stories
Speaker 13: I've written for National Review, and you get the coolest
Speaker 13: and left and right.
Speaker 2: It's always been a good channel.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so this brings me down to what they do.
Speaker 1: They allow American debate to breathe on Washington Journal and
Speaker 1: throughout the day. Right now, the DSA has arisen, and
Speaker 1: this is what I really wanted to get to you,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk during the break. And on the other side,
Speaker 1: the DSA is a French revolutionary movement. Do you agree
Speaker 1: with me about that? They're not the glorious Revolution of
Speaker 1: the American Revolution, They're the French Revolution. What do you think?
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're Jacobins.
Speaker 12: Absolutely Well, explain for the audience what Jacobin means.
Speaker 13: Well, the Jacobins were those who wished to start the
Speaker 13: world anew in the French Revolution. I mean, I always
Speaker 13: draw this comparison between the American Revolution and the glorious
Speaker 13: Revolution that preceded it in England and the start the
Speaker 13: world a New revolutions in France, in Russia and in China.
Speaker 13: The American Revolution was a conservative revolution of sorts. It
Speaker 13: wished to conserve much that was great and then build
Speaker 13: on top of it. The DSA wants to burn America.
Speaker 13: And I don't think that's hyperbole. They said they want
Speaker 13: to get rid of what the Senate and the Presidency
Speaker 13: and Congress and.
Speaker 2: The Supreme Court and the police and borders, and.
Speaker 13: I mean, really, they're not trying to protect anything.
Speaker 1: Now I'm going to talk with Charles about that during
Speaker 1: the break and be back on the other side, whether
Speaker 1: or not this is an anchor around the Democratic Party's
Speaker 1: neck as I think it ought to be, is it.
Speaker 1: I'll be right back. Stay tuned, Charles C. W. Cook
Speaker 1: from National Review. We'll return. I'm back with Charles C. W. Cook,
Speaker 1: and as I want to keep continuity for the C
Speaker 1: Span audience, I'll do a separate subject here, Charles. An
Speaker 1: hour and a half ago, the Supreme Court Chief Justice
Speaker 1: Roberts entered a stay of the permanent injunction entered by
Speaker 1: the District Court and upheld by the DC Circuit that
Speaker 1: would have halted construction on the East Wing. I have
Speaker 1: been writing and arguing for that or order by the
Speaker 1: Chief Justice all week long. Are you pleased with that?
Speaker 1: Is it on standing grounds if you are, or on
Speaker 1: the substant grounds of national security? As I've been arguing both.
Speaker 13: I'm more convinced by the standing grounds. I thought Naomi
Speaker 13: Raw was correct. I don't see how the plaintiffs have
Speaker 13: standing to sue in this case, and I think it
Speaker 13: matches that they don't. I think that is potentially a
Speaker 13: national security argument. I think that can be taken to
Speaker 13: Faugh probably wouldn't justify the complete construction of this project.
Speaker 13: But I just don't think that the plaintiffs have the
Speaker 13: standing to bring the case, and I think you should
Speaker 13: have been status a result.
Speaker 1: Well, you're right about the raw opinion on standing. However,
Speaker 1: there was a filing before the court from the Army
Speaker 1: Corps engineers, which it's a little too much detailed for
Speaker 1: the public record. In my view, the ballroom is intended
Speaker 1: to be built to absorb a first impact and then
Speaker 1: a second impact before it goes down. Maybe five floors
Speaker 1: are implied. That's not When I was in the White
Speaker 1: House staff in the eighties, there weren't five floors. They
Speaker 1: think there were four, So I think I went down deeper.
Speaker 1: It was built by a Roosevelt in forty two, and
Speaker 1: it's a Soviet era strength and bunker. Do you think
Speaker 1: that the courts have any oversight over what the commander
Speaker 1: in chief's headquarters are to be?
Speaker 13: Well, I don't think they have a free standing authority
Speaker 13: over it. There are some statutes in play here, and
Speaker 13: they have a right to mediate those statutes. As I say,
Speaker 13: I just don't think that the plaintiffs have standing, and
Speaker 13: I should say on the merits which is not relevant
Speaker 13: to the legal case. But on the merits, I have
Speaker 13: been in favor of this project. I think that we
Speaker 13: need this.
Speaker 2: If you look back.
Speaker 13: Through the history of this White House, it has been
Speaker 13: constantly improved, from porticas and balconies to the constructions of
Speaker 13: the East and West wing. Some of those projects we're
Speaker 13: done with Congress, some without, some with private money, some
Speaker 13: with public money.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 13: So this seems to me that this is a lot
Speaker 13: of this is because it's Trump. I personally wish you
Speaker 13: would talk about it less it's a matter of national
Speaker 13: importance and talk about other things. But I don't have
Speaker 13: a problem with the project. So I think it depends
Speaker 13: on the question. But I don't think the court has
Speaker 13: any power here because I don't think that there's a controversy.
Speaker 1: There is no country. And that's why I ask you
Speaker 1: for a Laman. You're very good on con law. And
Speaker 1: I'm just curious because the Constitution anoints him the commander
Speaker 1: and cheap, doesn't it imply he's got to have a
Speaker 1: place to run the army from sure.
Speaker 13: Sure, but I mean under my understanding of the Statute
Speaker 13: at state, because that he couldn't for example, Tad down
Speaker 13: the all of the White House without approval. He's allowed
Speaker 13: to engage in improvements, and you get in then to
Speaker 13: the question of what improvements me Now, I think again,
Speaker 13: this isn't really relevant because there's no standing, but I
Speaker 13: think that if that were litigated, this would count us
Speaker 13: an improvement.
Speaker 1: I agree.
Speaker 2: I think I use the word yeah.
Speaker 1: If the planet hit it on nine to eleven, we'd
Speaker 1: still be rebuilding it. But stand by, we're coming back
Speaker 1: on the network to talk to essay. Welcome back. I'm
Speaker 1: Hugh Hewett, and welcome back, especially to our cheat Span audience.
Speaker 1: Charles C. W. Cook is still with me. Charles when
Speaker 1: we went to break, we're talking about the DSA for
Speaker 1: the benefit of the audience who's just tuning in. The
Speaker 1: DSA will double the size of the squad in the Congress,
Speaker 1: almost certainly this year because it's deep blue district and
Speaker 1: they have DSA affiliates running in Michigan, Maine with Troy Jackson,
Speaker 1: Florida with Angie Nixon, Texas with James Tall Rico, Minnesota
Speaker 1: with Peggy Flanagan, and of course the most radical of
Speaker 1: them all, Lsied in Michigan, who's actually a surrogate for
Speaker 1: Hassan Piker, who is a violent anti American, misogynist, homophobic, racist,
Speaker 1: and violent rhetoric. What should are the Democrats taking this
Speaker 1: problem seriously enough? Because Charles Schumer was out talking about
Speaker 1: a big tent this week.
Speaker 13: I don't think they're taking it seriously and off a tool.
Speaker 13: I think that they're hoping to harness it. And it
Speaker 13: wasn't just that Schumer said that the Democrats should be
Speaker 13: a big tent, which is an unobjectionable sentiment, although it
Speaker 13: does depend on what he means by it. He said
Speaker 13: that the DSA had brought new energy and new people
Speaker 13: into the party.
Speaker 2: That's a euphemism, that's an excuse.
Speaker 13: They've certainly brought new energy and new people into the party,
Speaker 13: but the new people want to use that new energy
Speaker 13: to take the party over. If you look at what
Speaker 13: they say openly, they say that they don't want to
Speaker 13: found a new party or run as a third party.
Speaker 13: They want to take the Democratic Party, use its institutions,
Speaker 13: use its primaries, use its name and fundraising abilities, and
Speaker 13: convert it into their own vehicle. So one gets the
Speaker 13: impression that Schumer thinks he'll be eaten last.
Speaker 1: And I get the impression that he'll be pushed over
Speaker 1: the side and in the kurt on the way to
Speaker 1: the guillotine. However figuratively or literally, they put it together
Speaker 1: because we had some clips this week of their co
Speaker 1: chairman saying, our objectives are fundamental. Number one, we hate
Speaker 1: the United States Constitution. Number two, we want centralized power
Speaker 1: to do what is right for the whole people. That's leninist.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's maoist. That's nothing to do with our
Speaker 1: ordered liberty. And I'm just amazed that anyone is buying
Speaker 1: that argument without alarm.
Speaker 13: Yeah, I mean they shouldn't be. The United States. I
Speaker 13: think that's the oldest continuous written constitution in the world.
Speaker 13: And as I always ask people when I talk about this,
Speaker 13: do you think it's an accident that we have that
Speaker 13: constitution and that we've ended up in the position we're.
Speaker 2: In, which is this incredible.
Speaker 13: Economy number one in the world, the number one military power,
Speaker 13: retaining so many liberties that other countries have shed. I
Speaker 13: don't think it's an accident. I think it is the
Speaker 13: result of a variety of things, but one of them,
Speaker 13: maybe the main one, is the US Constitution. So when
Speaker 13: someone says they want to get rid of the Constitution.
Speaker 13: You should hear them saying they want to get rid
Speaker 13: of everything that it has created as well.
Speaker 2: And I very much test.
Speaker 1: And I go back to Russell Kirk chapter two of
Speaker 1: The Conservative Mind. Chapter one's on Burke. Chapter two is
Speaker 1: about John Adams, who he thinks is the greatest American Conservative,
Speaker 1: who believed that the Constitution preserved a religious people. It
Speaker 1: wasn't particularly demonstrative in his face. I guess you would
Speaker 1: call him a Puritan. Madison was much more of an Episcopalian,
Speaker 1: and Jefferson a deist, and Tom Payne was the radical.
Speaker 1: And Russell Kirk talks about ours is a conservative country
Speaker 1: because nobody gets to run us. I wonder if our
Speaker 1: education institutions have failed to communicate either basic morality through
Speaker 1: sort of standard Judeo Christian teaching. And number two, why
Speaker 1: does it work? What you just said, why does it work?
Speaker 1: It works because power is kept out of one group
Speaker 1: of hands.
Speaker 13: Yeah, not just one group of hans at the federal level,
Speaker 13: but one group of hands vertically as well, in that
Speaker 13: we have fifty states and they're different, and it's a
Speaker 13: wonderful thing to be able to live in the same
Speaker 13: country with the same flag and the same overall borders,
Speaker 13: but move within it. And you know, I'm a conservative.
Speaker 13: I live in Florida. I think we have great governance,
Speaker 13: but there are states that are not like Florida that
Speaker 13: aren't a mess. And unfortunately California, which I love, is
Speaker 13: a mess now. But Massachusetts is not a mess, and
Speaker 13: those those two states can exist under the same constitutional
Speaker 13: order and under the same flag, because we fracture power
Speaker 13: here and I don't want to see that go away either.
Speaker 2: In fact, I think that.
Speaker 13: Would be a recipe for real civil strife if we
Speaker 13: didn't have the ability to disperse power and allow people
Speaker 13: some level of local autonomy. So the people in Massachusetts
Speaker 13: felt comfortable in Massachusetts and people in Florida felt.
Speaker 2: Comfortable in Florida.
Speaker 13: I think we'd be a lot angrier with each other
Speaker 13: than we already are.
Speaker 1: I agree that I want to land on Medicare for all.
Speaker 1: The only thing that unites all those dsays that I
Speaker 1: talked about Troy Jackson in Maine and g Nixon in Florida.
Speaker 1: Your brand new Democratic nominee, Charle She's the wackiest of them.
Speaker 1: Although I helped Abdul say it is really the most radical,
Speaker 1: she's whackier. They can only agree on one thing, the
Speaker 1: slogan Medicare for all. It would destroy Medicare, and it's
Speaker 1: already an enormous budget sucked for Medicare, but it would
Speaker 1: destroy Medicare. Do you think people understand that.
Speaker 2: I don't know if they do yet.
Speaker 13: I do know that if you tell them that it
Speaker 13: would hurt Medicaire all their private health insurance, and people
Speaker 13: turn against it pretty quickly. I think it's frankly insane
Speaker 13: that we're talking about this, given that we just learned
Speaker 13: that we have a forty trillion dollar debt. Correct, there
Speaker 13: is no money to spend. Even if you raise taxes,
Speaker 13: Even if you took all of the money and wealth
Speaker 13: that is owned by the billionaires and the one trillionaire,
Speaker 13: there's still no money. There's no money for this. And
Speaker 13: I should just say, as somebody who grew up in
Speaker 13: England and spent what twenty six years there under the
Speaker 13: National Health Service, I'm very strongly opposed to this, having
Speaker 13: experienced what that does to the healthcare system. So it's
Speaker 13: not just that we can't afford it. I don't want it.
Speaker 13: I think we have a much better healthcare system in
Speaker 13: this country. It has problems that need to be fixed,
Speaker 13: but that is not the way to do it.
Speaker 1: You know, we should. Next time you're on, Charles, I'm
Speaker 1: going to ask you to return to that. What was
Speaker 1: the worst part about your nih growing up?
Speaker 13: Well, the worst part of it is the waiting times,
Speaker 13: which applied far more to members of my family than
Speaker 13: they did to me. Because I was a very young man,
Speaker 13: I didn't really need much medicine. But my father, who's
Speaker 13: nearly eighty, had to have a hip replacement recently, and
Speaker 13: the National Health Service he's paid in all his life
Speaker 13: served in the Air Force, told him it will.
Speaker 2: Be three years. So what did he do? He spent money.
Speaker 13: He didn't really have to go private and get the
Speaker 13: hip replacement done.
Speaker 2: Because he couldn't walk.
Speaker 13: So, I mean, I think that is a betrayal that
Speaker 13: Americans would just not accept. You know, Americans have a
Speaker 13: great impatience when it comes to medical care. That's one
Speaker 13: reason we spent so much, because Americans won't put up
Speaker 13: with poor service. I just don't think they would put
Speaker 13: up with what Medicare for all would become. Unfortunately, by
Speaker 13: the time they didn't, it will be too late.
Speaker 1: And we will talk about that. Next time with you.
Speaker 1: Charles C. W. Cook. Here's the host of the Charles C. W.
Speaker 1: Cook podcast. You hear him on the Editors. He writes
Speaker 1: for a National Review, and I'm glad to hear he
Speaker 1: appears on Washington Journal often on c SPAN. Charles, Thank you.
Speaker 1: Follow him on exit, Charles c. W.
Speaker 3: Cook.
Speaker 1: Follow me the next segment of the Hugh Hewitt Show,
Speaker 1: Born and Lord Evening, Grace America. I'm Hugh hewittt. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Weekend That means. Big Ben Podcast host Ben
Speaker 1: dominic is with me. Follow Ben on exit. B Dominich
Speaker 1: is the opinion editor at The Daily Wire, Fox News contributor,
Speaker 1: as I said, host of a wonderful podcast, the Big
Speaker 1: Ben Pod. Ben, I want to begin by letting you
Speaker 1: know we are simulcasting today and having all week on
Speaker 1: c SPAN, and you know we're on Fast TV every
Speaker 1: afternoon three to six on Roku and Pluto and Samsung
Speaker 1: and Amazon Prime. But c Span asked us he wander
Speaker 1: three three hours with them for five days this week.
Speaker 1: I should, of course. I love. What do you think
Speaker 1: of Span?
Speaker 8: Well, Hugh, I mean I grew up watching.
Speaker 11: I knew it.
Speaker 8: Am I mean, like, are you kidding. It's the best
Speaker 8: network ever. It's fantastic it uh. And it also, you know,
Speaker 8: it has the distinct honor of being a network that
Speaker 8: dramatically changed American politics, which not everybody can say, you know,
Speaker 8: in terms of its its role in accelerating and emphasizing
Speaker 8: the gingrich populist revolution that took that took place in
Speaker 8: the early nineties, but obviously you know, started well before
Speaker 8: then in in terms of giving the ability of politicians,
Speaker 8: particularly you know, rebel Republican politicians h to h to
Speaker 8: fight back against uh, the dominant democratic agenda of the day.
Speaker 8: And so from my perspective, look, se SPAN is the
Speaker 8: best and uh and I've congratulations for being able to
Speaker 8: have that kind of relationship.
Speaker 1: Well, I want to do it. Everyone has said the
Speaker 1: same thing as my guest Lilac said it best. C
Speaker 1: SPAN is the weather channel for smart people. But I
Speaker 1: actually it's nonpartisan, it's bipartisan, but it is fundamentally conservative.
Speaker 1: And I just had this discussion with Charles C. Cook
Speaker 1: about Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind, a chapter on Disraeli.
Speaker 1: This really wasn't a philosopher, but he was all about
Speaker 1: conserving institutions, you know, the throne, the crown, the Church
Speaker 1: of England, and I think c SPAN is about conserving debate, argument,
Speaker 1: visibility of the legislative process, hearings and informed citizenry. They're
Speaker 1: they're transformative and they're coming up on fifty years and
Speaker 1: it all sprang from the brain of Brian Lamb of
Speaker 1: Lafayette and Purdue.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 8: No, I think that it's a phenomenal treasure. And I
Speaker 8: think that, you know, one of the things that has
Speaker 8: actually been frustrating to you followed this, but some of
Speaker 8: these streaming services don't have c SPAN because you know,
Speaker 8: I did not know that for cable and so you know,
Speaker 8: it's all the cable networks that carry it, and so
Speaker 8: I actually think that needs to be something that they
Speaker 8: actually adopt and maybe they you know, maybe there's some
Speaker 8: reason that they don't do it. But I think s
Speaker 8: SPAN's phenomenal and congratulations on being able to do a simulcas.
Speaker 8: The one thing I will say is that, you know,
Speaker 8: I think that some of the best moments in c
Speaker 8: SPAN history, you know, have been have been once where
Speaker 8: there was there was a question asked that was not anticipated,
Speaker 8: Oh yes, you do you have a favorite moment by
Speaker 8: the way in c SPAN history. I mean, you know,
Speaker 8: not necessarily you know the the hcle you know, hearing stage.
Speaker 1: Howard Moran played it today a conversation with Brian lam
Speaker 1: where he asked me questions I wasn't prepared for. But
Speaker 1: my very first appearance was in nineteen eighty seven when
Speaker 1: I was testifying as the General Counsel of OPM. I
Speaker 1: put a pencil in my ear because Jerry's of course,
Speaker 1: he was yelling at me. I didn't realize how bad
Speaker 1: that looked on TV till my phone got you I
Speaker 1: got like ten calls from my parents and my grandfather.
Speaker 1: What are you doing? You got a pencil in your cause?
Speaker 1: I just play them with my Well.
Speaker 8: I have to give a compliment out to my old
Speaker 8: friend will Ron, who was once on you Know on
Speaker 8: the Morning Show and was asked about a headline at
Speaker 8: the Daily Caller, where he worked at an editor at
Speaker 8: the time, concerning Chelsea Clinton. I don't remember what the
Speaker 8: headline was, but I do remember that his response to
Speaker 8: the question was, yes, that's a cheap shot. Sometimes we
Speaker 8: take them.
Speaker 1: Well, you know Sam fight. You must know Sam?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, so Sam is their new CEO. Perfect choice.
Speaker 1: Got foots in both knows everybody in town. It's perfect,
Speaker 1: but they're going to have to come up with some
Speaker 1: new interviewers. Right. Peter Slenn has done this for a
Speaker 1: long time, Brian has retired, Susan Swains retired. They're getting
Speaker 1: new people. I think you'd be good at it, and
Speaker 1: Cotton Eddy would be good at it. Don't you have
Speaker 1: to read the books? Don't you think that's a necessity.
Speaker 8: I think it's a necessity. And I say, give me
Speaker 8: a call. I will happily run it up the flagpole
Speaker 8: to see if I have the opportunity.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no one objects to it. Now, let me turn
Speaker 1: to a few other things. Spring Court ruled today Chief
Speaker 1: Justice did. He continued the stay of the d C
Speaker 1: circuits were to continue the injunction that District Court Judge
Speaker 1: Leon put into place, so there East Wind construction can continue.
Speaker 1: This is the right decision. I've been arguing and writing
Speaker 1: about it for two weeks. Bill Barr weighed in in
Speaker 1: the Wall Street Journal today, a former national security advisor
Speaker 1: O'Brian wade in and Fox News they all said national security.
Speaker 1: It's national security and there is no standing. So he
Speaker 1: got it right. I've never really been in depth, and
Speaker 1: until you see it, you don't know it because those
Speaker 1: two Circuit Court judges went along for the ride. Naomi
Speaker 1: Ross said, your nuts, What do you think about this
Speaker 1: whole crazy litigation?
Speaker 8: I think it's absolutely insane, Hugh, and I just thought,
Speaker 8: I mean, are we entering a new era where people
Speaker 8: are operating under the assumption that certain things that are
Speaker 8: under the under the ages of the President of the
Speaker 8: United States, the commander in chief need to be pulled
Speaker 8: away from him just because of the guy who's there.
Speaker 8: And I realized that that was something that happened quite
Speaker 8: a lot on the fringes in the first term. But
Speaker 8: it seems like that's one of the enduring aspects of
Speaker 8: this second term that really, I mean, it's absurd. You know,
Speaker 8: it doesn't make any sense on its safe. You wouldn't
Speaker 8: want this to be the similar situation on the other side,
Speaker 8: if you had someone with the letter that you prefer
Speaker 8: after their name, you know, occupying that office. You know
Speaker 8: that's that's a joke. And you know, concluding by the way,
Speaker 8: I mean, I don't know what you thought about that
Speaker 8: interview with Todd blanche that happened last weekend, you know,
Speaker 8: but It was one of these things where you know,
Speaker 8: of course, you know that the Department of Justice, you
Speaker 8: know that the idea that the Attorney General of the
Speaker 8: United States is not going to listen to the president,
Speaker 8: is not going to respond to the president, it's absurd.
Speaker 8: And when it comes to these types of decisions as well,
Speaker 8: you know, look, I want and I've said this repeatedly,
Speaker 8: you know, under Obama, under Biden, you know, etc. I
Speaker 8: want the elected president of the United States to be
Speaker 8: determining our foreign policy, to be directing our national security policy,
Speaker 8: to be the commander in chief. And I and even
Speaker 8: if that means that that's a Democrat, that's something that
Speaker 8: I want because the opposite of that is something that
Speaker 8: is not actually a representative republic. It is not something
Speaker 8: that actually responds to the people. And we can't have
Speaker 8: a situation where people are usurping that as.
Speaker 1: A unitary executive, I work for two attorney general and
Speaker 1: General Blanche is absolutely right. And General Barr, who would
Speaker 1: argue with the president and eventually quit, he's in the
Speaker 1: journal today saying, Hey, this is his and he's the
Speaker 1: commander in chief. And I also think we're living this
Speaker 1: is not eighteen twelve. We're not going to get noticed
Speaker 1: that the British are coming. The missiles are going to
Speaker 1: hit the White House, and you've got to get the
Speaker 1: President and the bunkers. It's that simple. Yeah.
Speaker 8: And I also think just one more point on this.
Speaker 8: You know, the thing that I think is so disturbing
Speaker 8: about this conversation is that I think people are going
Speaker 8: to take a lot of lessons out of this, uh uh,
Speaker 8: this Trump experience over the first and second term that
Speaker 8: are going to lead them to make a bunch of
Speaker 8: very bad decisions, you know, and you and you see
Speaker 8: this repeatedly, of course, and you've seen this when it
Speaker 8: comes to legal decisions that are based on unique cases
Speaker 8: or you know, situations that do not actually reflect, you know,
Speaker 8: the typical experience of the law. People are going to
Speaker 8: take the wrong lessons from this, and they're going to
Speaker 8: start applying them in ways that I think could be
Speaker 8: quite dangerous going forward. We have to guard against that
Speaker 8: and we have to be aware of it.
Speaker 1: Now. I want to before we go to break, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk to you during the break about
Speaker 1: your podcast Diet, but while we're on c SPAN, I
Speaker 1: want to thank you for the recommendation of Spencer Claven,
Speaker 1: who was on this week. I want the hosts.
Speaker 8: I'm glad you had him on. I hope that that
Speaker 8: was a good interview. I haven't had a chance to
Speaker 8: listen to it, yeah, but I hope it was good.
Speaker 1: He is incandescently smart. I mean at just Flamethrower telling you.
Speaker 8: I'm telling you, he's like top five young people smart,
Speaker 8: Like it's really it's really impressive. And he's he's such
Speaker 8: a literary mind he has it's not just references, it's awareness,
Speaker 8: it's it's something that I think is really, you know,
Speaker 8: something that we should applaud. And I'm so glad that
Speaker 8: you had to stand to talk.
Speaker 1: With Well, thank you, and we're recommended. I had Michael
Speaker 1: Noles on this week from The Daily Wire. I've known
Speaker 1: Michael fro while, so I knew I was getting he's
Speaker 1: always very smart. But Spencer I had and had on before.
Speaker 1: And we're talking about C. S. Lewis h and that
Speaker 1: hideous strength, and we're talking about you know, model in college,
Speaker 1: and we're talking about Descartes and not daycart he's doing, uh, divine,
Speaker 1: what's he's doing? He's doing not divine comedy? He's doing Inferno,
Speaker 1: Dante's Inferno right now on young Heretics, and I just
Speaker 1: was blown over. He has not read The Looming Tower though.
Speaker 8: Ben, Oh, that's that's well, but that's a gap. But
Speaker 8: here's the thing. Got to understand literary first.
Speaker 1: I know, I know, so how many other people like
Speaker 1: that are you hiding over at the Daily Wire?
Speaker 8: Well, let me tell you you. I'm trying to cultivate
Speaker 8: you know, you gotta you gotta, you gotta harvest your nuts,
Speaker 8: you gotta steeven season your crowd.
Speaker 1: Isn't that our job? I mean, we're gonna go to
Speaker 1: Isn't it our job to find the good and praise it?
Speaker 1: To quote Lamar Alexander who used to quote Alex Haley
Speaker 1: all the time and define young talent and promote it absolutely.
Speaker 8: And one of the one of the things that I
Speaker 8: think is the is to the detriment of our industry
Speaker 8: is that some people have the attitude that you know,
Speaker 8: anyone who comes up who is in some way within
Speaker 8: my space their competition. I have the opposite view. I
Speaker 8: have the view that you you want to cultivate them,
Speaker 8: you want to train them, and you want to see
Speaker 8: them go on to great success.
Speaker 1: And that's how Fred Building and Dick Howser ran the
Speaker 1: White House Counsel's Office under with the exception of under
Speaker 1: President Reagan. And that's why we have a Chief Justice Roberts.
Speaker 1: They hired the best and the brightest. They all became judges.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about me. I became a talk show host.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna stay with Ben. He's coming back on
Speaker 1: the other side. Don't go anywhere. Well, talk DSA when
Speaker 1: we're back on the Hugh hewittt Show. So I'm dying
Speaker 1: with Ben Dominis during the break, and I've been talking
Speaker 1: a lot about podcast this week. Ben, what is your
Speaker 1: podcast diet? Because I got mugged. In fact, I'm going
Speaker 1: to play this for you. This is so outrageous. I'm
Speaker 1: running my run this morning listening to the Ruthless podcast,
Speaker 1: and an hour and seven minutes into it, out of
Speaker 1: left field comes this cut number six.
Speaker 6: Thanks one last thing.
Speaker 4: This is particular for our friend Hugh Hewitt, who of
Speaker 4: course is a lifelong Cleveland Browns fan. He lives and
Speaker 4: mostly dies with the Cleveland Browns. And we're now what
Speaker 4: two weeks away from Hope springing Eternal in six weeks
Speaker 4: from now, we'll have to express our condolences for what
Speaker 4: I imagine is going to be another oh and five
Speaker 4: or oh and six start.
Speaker 6: But it gets worse for poor and then they go.
Speaker 1: On to kick me and all the Browns about the
Speaker 1: stadium designing Cleveland for two minutes, Ben Dominics. Isn't that
Speaker 1: like a tort Isn't that wrong?
Speaker 3: Look?
Speaker 8: I mean, first off, that's that's what these guys do. It.
Speaker 8: Don't be surprised like that. At the same time, I
Speaker 8: gotta be quite honest, you your team has a quarterback problem,
Speaker 8: and not a problem anywhere else. You have had right
Speaker 8: talented groups of young players that we have in uh,
Speaker 8: you know, in the AFC. I would argue the AFC North,
Speaker 8: you know, is an aging division in particular. But like
Speaker 8: the Browns have actually drafted really well at least I
Speaker 8: mean bas back years. Yeah, and so I think that Frankly,
Speaker 8: you know, this is one of those situations where look,
Speaker 8: you see what this year looks like and then you
Speaker 8: play it out. But you've just got a quarterback problem,
Speaker 8: that's all you've got.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, we trade the Cavaliers traded for Watson
Speaker 1: this week. Peyton Watson from the Denver Nuggets. He's the
Speaker 1: sending player in the language of the world, Deshaun Watson
Speaker 1: a descending player. He's not going to be here in
Speaker 1: the year. I mean, he's done it. Why don't we
Speaker 1: start Shudoor Sanders.
Speaker 8: No, I think you're completely right about that, and I
Speaker 8: don't see why you wouldn't do it. I mean, you
Speaker 8: start Shoudre. You know if if he flames out, you know,
Speaker 8: you can have the situation with Gabriel. I don't see
Speaker 8: why you should send any time on Watson anymore. But look,
Speaker 8: the thing that I would say about this is I
Speaker 8: actually my podcast diet. I almost exclusively listen to sports
Speaker 8: and comedy podcast so I is my escape from politics.
Speaker 8: I do, you guys do. But when they wade into
Speaker 8: this stuff, look, you know, I think that they the
Speaker 8: decision to specifically bust your balls over this issue is
Speaker 8: Regie said that.
Speaker 1: When we're off there. Yes, but I mean, but what
Speaker 1: it is so without warning they know I listen every day,
Speaker 1: and so I'm doing my very slow run and out
Speaker 1: of nowhere I get run over by a car ruthless podcast.
Speaker 8: I mean, they easily could have done that with me
Speaker 8: and Jayden Daniels and the number five.
Speaker 1: Well, but I'm mourning you. You don't let your guard
Speaker 1: down with ruthless. I'm coming back with Ben and we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about the DSA after I stump him
Speaker 1: with my music of the week. Stay with us, Welcome back, America.
Speaker 1: I'm you Gewett. Ben Dominic Shu is the opinion editor
Speaker 1: for The Daily Wire, Fox News contributor, host of The
Speaker 1: Big Ben podcast and Music Fado. Do you know what
Speaker 1: that is? Ben?
Speaker 8: I mean that sounds similar to the Motley Crue song,
Speaker 8: but I don't know who that is.
Speaker 1: It is ac DC singing Live Wire and it has
Speaker 1: recently been featured prominently in a new or relatively new
Speaker 1: streaming series. I wanted to ask if you have seen
Speaker 1: it called Essay Rogue Heroes.
Speaker 8: I have not, and so that I am unfamiliar with that.
Speaker 8: But it's not it is a Motley Crue song, right, that's.
Speaker 1: No, it's a CDC. Okay, all right, close enough. But
Speaker 1: this is about the British sas in the nineteen forty
Speaker 1: one Desert campaign. Is Rommel chasing them across Africa and
Speaker 1: it's fabulous. You're too young for rat Patrol. Rat Patrol
Speaker 1: was a dressed up American version of this. But this
Speaker 1: is very r rated and very not untrue. All right,
Speaker 1: So I'm not gonna say based.
Speaker 8: I mean, I'm always Ronel. I read your book. I'm
Speaker 8: not very interested in that. It's it's no Look, this
Speaker 8: is a this is a challenge when it comes to
Speaker 8: music for you. I could definitely beat you when it
Speaker 8: comes to challenges on country and rock music from the
Speaker 8: last couple of decades.
Speaker 1: Forty years. I stopped in the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 8: Well, but then that means he stopped when it was
Speaker 8: a aatique, So you should think about it that way,
Speaker 8: you know.
Speaker 1: Just when it's littering the disco. I ran away, all right, Ben,
Speaker 1: let's get Sari. The DSA is running. They're going to
Speaker 1: double the size of the squad with hard left members,
Speaker 1: and they'll have the balance of power if they get
Speaker 1: the majority in the House. They're running DSA crazies, Troy
Speaker 1: Jackson and Maine, Angie Nixon in Florida, uh Talla Rico
Speaker 1: in Texas. We've got Peggy planning it in Minnesota. And
Speaker 1: the worst of them all, the radical Abdul l say Ed,
Speaker 1: who's actually a surrogate for Hassan Piker, who's a violent rhetoric, racist, misogynist,
Speaker 1: hater of Israel and really America, and I really think
Speaker 1: Elsai Ed's his surrogate. Are the Democrats alarmed enough about this?
Speaker 8: They're not alarmed enough about it. But I also don't
Speaker 8: think that Republicans are alarmed enough about it. I think
Speaker 8: that they think that this is some kind of a
Speaker 8: dand for them, I think that they're traumatically underestimating the
Speaker 8: possibility that the majority of the candidates that you just
Speaker 8: mentioned could win, and I include else I had in
Speaker 8: that number. You know, the situation in this election cycle
Speaker 8: is very negative for Republicans. We know that we've been
Speaker 8: talking about it, but the truth is that I don't
Speaker 8: think that the Republican electorate necessarily understands yet how close
Speaker 8: they could come to losing not just you know, representation
Speaker 8: in terms of the majorities in the House and Senate,
Speaker 8: but also I think, you know, the argument over capitalism
Speaker 8: in the country, over the posture of the nation going forward.
Speaker 8: I think it's a lot more close to breaking in
Speaker 8: the direction of these far left DSA candidates than people
Speaker 8: really have understood. And and Hugh, I think it's I
Speaker 8: think it's really unfortunate. You know, we saw some reporting
Speaker 8: you know, this week that you know, the President is
Speaker 8: finally going to be pumping some money out of his
Speaker 8: own political action group that his you know, the tens
Speaker 8: of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars that he's raised,
Speaker 8: he's going to start sending that into these various you know, campaigns,
Speaker 8: and he's going to start trying to have an impact.
Speaker 8: I am not sure how quickly that's going to move,
Speaker 8: but it needs to happen now, and it needs to
Speaker 8: happen quickly because these play these people are behind, and
Speaker 8: they're behind in a significant way. And one of the
Speaker 8: things that I think we should understand about the dynamics
Speaker 8: that's going on. We had a piece this week at
Speaker 8: The Daily Wire from Dylan Houseman, who's our managing editor,
Speaker 8: who went down to Florida and watched the situation with
Speaker 8: the failed Fishback campaign the primary down there obviously where
Speaker 8: Fishback came in, you know, with only ten percent. It
Speaker 8: was still ten percent, by the way, which is higher
Speaker 8: than I thought you might get. And and what he
Speaker 8: took away was that the young voters who were down
Speaker 8: there were not actually animated by anti Israel, you know, animus.
Speaker 8: They were not people who were talking about the terrible
Speaker 8: influence of APAK. They were people who were complaining about
Speaker 8: data centers. They were complaining about plot cameras, they were
Speaker 8: complaining about inflation, they were complaining about costs of living. Like,
Speaker 8: those are all issues where I think Republicans have vulnerabilities
Speaker 8: that they just haven't addressed yet. And I worry that
Speaker 8: people are underestimating the idea that you know, these radicals
Speaker 8: they're just too crazy to win. They could win if
Speaker 8: they can pull off this game that they play, where
Speaker 8: it's basically like Abuela al Sayet is going to be
Speaker 8: running all the way into election day saying I'm about
Speaker 8: healthcare costs, I'm about covering everybody, and if people believe him,
Speaker 8: he could win.
Speaker 1: Well. I think we ought to run one ad, which
Speaker 1: is here's Hassan Piker and then bleep out the F bombs,
Speaker 1: but really, don't just start what he said. He said
Speaker 1: so many radical crazy stuff. He hates America. He just
Speaker 1: hates America and he wants to destroy it, and he
Speaker 1: hates Israel and everything I said.
Speaker 8: He's on the team of all the Saudi Arabians who
Speaker 8: told um, you know.
Speaker 1: So, I would like to, but you would just run
Speaker 1: one ad and say he's got surrogates running in Michigan
Speaker 1: in Minnesota and name them and run it again and
Speaker 1: again and again and make it the Hassan Piper election.
Speaker 1: But number two, I don't think I was a Corning guy,
Speaker 1: and I was. I thought it was crazy that Ken
Speaker 1: Paxston got in. But I've invited him on the show
Speaker 1: fifteen times. He won't come on, can you, Madge? Because
Speaker 1: I was a Corning guy? Do we have dummies running
Speaker 1: these campaigns?
Speaker 9: Yes?
Speaker 8: The only way that I can express an answer to
Speaker 8: that is to use the word yes. But the truth
Speaker 8: is that, you know, when it comes to that campaign
Speaker 8: in particular, you know, I think people dramatically underestimate the
Speaker 8: possibility that someone like Tallarico could sneak in in a
Speaker 8: cycle like this. Look, is Talarico a good candidate. No,
Speaker 8: he's a worse candidate by the way. He's weaker than
Speaker 8: Beta was, doesn't have as much ability to appeal, you know,
Speaker 8: across the aisle, and he's got more liabilities in terms
Speaker 8: of his cultural positioning. And yet the Paxton campaign, you know,
Speaker 8: seems to be almost non existent and one of the
Speaker 8: things that I'm going to be curious about with this
Speaker 8: upcoming in a situation where we I don't know if
Speaker 8: you're going to go to Dallas for this for the
Speaker 8: you know, RNC or something like that, but I'll be
Speaker 8: curious to see how much is that it's about boosting
Speaker 8: Ken Paxton, because look, Greg Abbott is someone who has
Speaker 8: won in that state, you know, very effectively for a
Speaker 8: very long time. His people are very concerned about Ken Paxton.
Speaker 8: And when they get concerned, they are saying it from
Speaker 8: a position of someone who has won that state, you know,
Speaker 8: against a lot of you know, highly backed, you know,
Speaker 8: Democratic candidates in the past. I am concerned about Texas.
Speaker 8: I worry about it, and I think that people are again,
Speaker 8: you know, underestimating the possibility that in a way of election,
Speaker 8: if this that's what this turns out to be, that
Speaker 8: there are a lot of people who don't deserve it,
Speaker 8: who get swept into power.
Speaker 1: The great news that Talla Rica is genuinely awful, And
Speaker 1: the other good news is Susan Collins is gonna win,
Speaker 1: and I think Mike Rodgers is gonna win after Ram
Speaker 1: Emmanuel's Rabbi all that Rabbi came out and knock down Elson.
Speaker 1: That was great.
Speaker 8: Mike's Mike. Mike is a good candidate. He should win.
Speaker 8: But I'm just but it's one of these situations where
Speaker 8: it's this is a weird cycle. Things can happen, and
Speaker 8: you know that when whenever there's a weird cycle like this,
Speaker 8: there are people who win who don't deserve it, and
Speaker 8: you end up with one or two crazies who end
Speaker 8: up in office. And I just hope that it's not
Speaker 8: the people who are the worst for America in terms
Speaker 8: of what they would try to do if they were
Speaker 8: in office. And Elsaiad is one of them.
Speaker 1: A great caution, Uh, Ben Dominic follow him on exit
Speaker 1: b Dominic. If you're listening on c SPAN, you need
Speaker 1: someone to do your interviews for you along with Matt Continental.
Speaker 1: Those two would be great. They're gonna be They're gonna
Speaker 1: take years to be. Brian Lamb, Peter slam great, but
Speaker 1: they're great, and uh, thank you, Ben. I'll be right.
Speaker 1: The Big Ben podcast available wherever you get your podcast
Speaker 1: as well, stay tuned, w be right. If you listen
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Speaker 14: Loudly on Salem now featuring one of Charlie Kirk's final interviews.
Speaker 14: The new documentary Can You Hear Me Now investigates modern
Speaker 14: profits and their divine messages.
Speaker 7: Some people absolutely have the gift of prophecy.
Speaker 13: If God exists, how would he inject his information into
Speaker 13: our world?
Speaker 9: More than likely he would use humans.
Speaker 11: Satan would love Christians. So just be a spectator, not engaged,
Speaker 11: not participate. Is there something he's trying to say?
Speaker 14: Can You Hear Me Now?
Speaker 11: For you?
Speaker 14: Order the movie by September tenth, save twenty five percent
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Speaker 15: When a nation drifts, the church faces a choice silence
Speaker 15: or courage. This weekend, Salem News Channels America two fifty
Speaker 15: film series presents Letter to the American Church, based on
Speaker 15: Eric Maattax's warning to believers. This film challenges Christians to
Speaker 15: recover conviction, truth and moral courage Saturday and Sunday at
Speaker 15: seven pm Eastern on Salem News Channel.
Speaker 1: One of the people who actually knows about seapower as
Speaker 1: a professional is my friend, Captain Mark Vandroff. He joined
Speaker 1: us now Captain Van Droff as a senior vice president
Speaker 1: at Fink and Terry, an Italian shipbuilder who was also
Speaker 1: in President Trump's first administration senior director at the National
Speaker 1: Security Council, with a lot to do with shipbuilding. So earlier,
Speaker 1: this actually one week ago, the President put out a
Speaker 1: presidential memorandum all and I cast about who will talk
Speaker 1: to me? Mark got a Captain Vandroff. Mark to me,
Speaker 1: Captain Vandroff, you got permission from Fink an Terry to
Speaker 1: come and talk to me about it. So Captain, welcome back.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I want to tell the audience you're the
Speaker 1: first person who actually took me to a shipbuilding factory
Speaker 1: to show me the un sexy side of shaft drives.
Speaker 3: Right right, that was I remember that that day. Well,
Speaker 3: we were actually touring the facility out in California that
Speaker 3: makes what's called reduction gear, so like the transmission in
Speaker 3: your car for most of the surface ships in the
Speaker 3: United States Navy.
Speaker 1: So I was fascinated. And so I've gotten to Mark
Speaker 1: for nuts and bolts. I got other experts like Captain
Speaker 1: Jerry Hendricks and others like Mark Montgomery, but I go
Speaker 1: to Mark. So Mark, I want to go through the
Speaker 1: President's memorandum, and the first paragraph and the last paragraph
Speaker 1: are introductory and orattory inclusory. Let's start and go right
Speaker 1: to the heart of it. Section two Restoring steam and
Speaker 1: hydraulic systems to carriers. Explain this please to steelers fans,
Speaker 1: I mean, really break it down, make it simple.
Speaker 3: Okay, So aircraft carriers launch aircraft. That seems simple enough.
Speaker 3: To launch a high performance jet off an aircraft carrier,
Speaker 3: it has to be flung into the air. The aircraft
Speaker 3: is actually attached to a fla in order to provide
Speaker 3: enough acceleration so that when the jet comes off the
Speaker 3: end of the aircraft carrier, its wings will provide enough
Speaker 3: lift that it can continue its flight and not get
Speaker 3: flung into the water. Historically, or at least since the
Speaker 3: nineteen fifties, this sled has been powered by steam. You
Speaker 3: build up high pressure steam and a steam reservoir, or
Speaker 3: release the steam, and it sends the slide forward on
Speaker 3: the USS Forward, which is our newest aircraft carrier. For
Speaker 3: the first time that sled is powered by magnets. That's
Speaker 3: been an item of some controversy, and I'll give both sides.
Speaker 3: The good thing about the magnets is you can recharge
Speaker 3: a magnet faster than you can refill the steam reservoir,
Speaker 3: so you can launch more aircraft because you can launch
Speaker 3: another aircraft sooner. That's the good side. On the bad side,
Speaker 3: it's expensive, it's somewhat tricky technology to work with. And
Speaker 3: since we've gone to that and some other magnetic technology
Speaker 3: for moving things around on the ford and the follow ons,
Speaker 3: the ships just take longer to build. So it's a
Speaker 3: balance of is it worth the cost and the time.
Speaker 3: Is there a way to get that cost and time
Speaker 3: down in order to get the performance of the additional
Speaker 3: what the carrier guys call a better sortie rate, being
Speaker 3: able to launch more aircraft more quickly. And I think
Speaker 3: this administration has come down with the judgment that they'd
Speaker 3: rather go back to older technology that would allow them
Speaker 3: to build the aircraft carriers suit quicker or you know,
Speaker 3: get a quicker build cycle not so hard to install
Speaker 3: on the carrier. I think there's a lot of folks
Speaker 3: in naval aviation who would take the opposite side. I
Speaker 3: think there's been a lot of unfortunate commentary in the
Speaker 3: news that makes it sound like it's somehow silly. It
Speaker 3: is not a silly issue. This is a real issue
Speaker 3: and it's deserving of real study because This is a
Speaker 3: difficult call. I think the administration has signaled which side
Speaker 3: they're coming down on.
Speaker 1: So Captain Vandrov, anyone who's watching has seen me moderate
Speaker 1: a GOP presidential primary debate always knows. I ask either
Speaker 1: about shipbuilding or nuclear submarines or aircraft carriers, because we're
Speaker 1: a sea power, and part of that is what Admiral
Speaker 1: Stavritez retired likes to say quantity as a quality all
Speaker 1: of its own. Does the decision make for more carriers
Speaker 1: or fewer carriers in this critical period of time of
Speaker 1: a narrow gap with China?
Speaker 3: The intent of the decision is absolutely for more carriers.
Speaker 3: If you can build a carrier faster, you can put
Speaker 3: more of them out there. So I think that's the
Speaker 3: desire to increase the build rate of carriers was the
Speaker 3: motivating factor behind this decision.
Speaker 1: Now, if the Trump administration follows through, and I expect
Speaker 1: they will, and a Democrat wins and they change it back,
Speaker 1: what kind of a disaster will be for the aircraft.
Speaker 3: Maybe it would be good to get one decision and
Speaker 3: hold to it. Regardless of which way the decision is made,
Speaker 3: It would be good to get one decision and hold
Speaker 3: to it. Going back and forth for something as integral
Speaker 3: to the construction of these aircraft carriers would be bad.
Speaker 3: The Trump administration, I think very wisely did not try
Speaker 3: and alter the carrier number eighty the next enterprise, because
Speaker 3: it's far enough along that it would be overly impactful
Speaker 3: to its schedule. They're trying to phase this in on
Speaker 3: in this case, two carriers from now where they think
Speaker 3: they can phase it in without creating a disruption.
Speaker 1: And will Congress have the final say or is this
Speaker 1: up to the president as commander in chief.
Speaker 3: This would normally fall under the Secretary of the Navy's
Speaker 3: Title ten Authority for Acquisition, which obviously subject to the
Speaker 3: direction of the Secretary of War and the President. But
Speaker 3: as you know, Congress kind of always has the final
Speaker 3: say because they can put writers in appropriations. They can
Speaker 3: write language into the National Defense Authorization Act inty given years,
Speaker 3: so they can certainly direct and constrain the executive branch
Speaker 3: through various pieces of legislation.
Speaker 1: As a civilian, I have no opinion on this. I
Speaker 1: just want them to make a decision and stick with it.
Speaker 1: Part two. The Finland model for three kinds of ship
Speaker 1: as w roros and consul, Can you explain those again
Speaker 1: and stealer talk? What are those three kinds of ship?
Speaker 1: And what is the Finland model?
Speaker 3: So sure? So, first, of the three kinds of ships,
Speaker 3: all of these are critical capabilities that the United States
Speaker 3: Navy or other parts of the United States government task
Speaker 3: with supporting. The Navy probably doesn't have the amount they need.
Speaker 3: The first one's easy. An asw escort is a ship
Speaker 3: that will escort other ships and screen and defend against submarines.
Speaker 3: A console tanker if you think about ships out on station,
Speaker 3: they receive fuel from oilers from replenishment ships that bring
Speaker 3: them fuel for the aircraft, fuel for the jet, fuel
Speaker 3: for the air wing on an aircraft carrier, diesel fuel
Speaker 3: for the jet engines on a DDG. Console tankers are
Speaker 3: big tankers that take a lot of fuel from a
Speaker 3: shore station and distribute it to the oilers at sea
Speaker 3: so the oilers can go back and forth. So they
Speaker 3: are an intermediate link in the fuel chain that gets
Speaker 3: fuel out to ships. Rowrows rowrow is slang for roll on,
Speaker 3: roll off. Those are very large ships designed to move
Speaker 3: heavy equipment, mostly the heavy equipment of the army and
Speaker 3: the Marine corps from point A to point B. And
Speaker 3: it's called a row row because the ship is designed
Speaker 3: so you can drive a tank or a self propelled
Speaker 3: our artillery piece or a self propelled radar on and
Speaker 3: off the ship to drive it like you were driving
Speaker 3: over land, park it on the ship, and then move
Speaker 3: the ship. That three.
Speaker 1: What's the Finland model for building these in two minutes?
Speaker 3: Finland model is what we did with Coastguard did with icebreakers.
Speaker 3: It means you have a partner nation. In the case
Speaker 3: of ice breakers, Finland builds the first number of units,
Speaker 3: while at the same time that partner nation is investing
Speaker 3: in either building or upgrading a shipyard in the United
Speaker 3: States of America and training Americans to build out the
Speaker 3: rest of the class. So it gives you the best
Speaker 3: of both worlds. It gives you increasing American jobs and
Speaker 3: capacity because you're getting that foreign investment while you're allowing
Speaker 3: the foreign partner to fill an immediate need in capability.
Speaker 3: I think this is the best part of the President's memorandum.
Speaker 3: I only wish that he had increased it by one
Speaker 3: more class of ship. I think the United States is
Speaker 3: desperately short of cable layers, and this model selecting a
Speaker 3: foreign partner nation to be a partner to build an
Speaker 3: initial number of cable layers while the rest are built
Speaker 3: here in the United States. And I say that full
Speaker 3: disclosure of Fink Canterri's subsidiary vart is the world leader
Speaker 3: in cable layers. But it is a capability that the
Speaker 3: United States government I think is short of and desperately needs.
Speaker 1: I love full disclosure. We will be back with Captain
Speaker 1: Mark Van Drafford, charge United States Navy, senior vice president
Speaker 1: for Fink Anterry, former National Security senior advisor in Trump
Speaker 1: one to go through public shipyards, Component Repair Center and Navski.
Speaker 1: I've got them for three segments. I really thought it
Speaker 1: would be a service if the audience understood the presidential memorandum,
Speaker 1: which very few people pause to talk about, may be
Speaker 1: the most important thing for the next thirty years for
Speaker 1: America other than Golden Dome. So stay tuned, Welcome back
Speaker 1: in America. I'm Hugh Hewett. If it listened to my
Speaker 1: program for years on the Salem Radio Network on the
Speaker 1: Salem News Channel this week on c SPAN, you know
Speaker 1: I cover Navy issues a lot. Used to do it
Speaker 1: with Admiral Stavritis retired he's over at CNN. Now adamal
Speaker 1: Mark Montgomery comes in. But I've always had two captains
Speaker 1: who rely on. Captain Mark Van Droff, who has written
Speaker 1: My Guest right now United States Navy retired Senior Vice
Speaker 1: President thin can Terry Trump won National Security Council official.
Speaker 1: And Jerry Hendrix, Captain Hendrix, who wrote this book which
Speaker 1: I keep at hand to provide and maintain a navy,
Speaker 1: the short book on that. But he can't be on
Speaker 1: the air with me unless he's cleared because he's in
Speaker 1: the Trump administration right now. And Jerry, I mean Mark.
Speaker 1: We're talking about a memo in which, no doubt Jerry
Speaker 1: had a hand was rough vote and the President. I
Speaker 1: want to go to section four. The memo from the
Speaker 1: President declared, we need a fifth public shipyard. Where are
Speaker 1: public shipyards? Where are they? And why do we need
Speaker 1: another one? And where's it going to be?
Speaker 3: So all good questions. A public shipyard very simply as
Speaker 3: a shipyard that is owned by the United States Navy,
Speaker 3: so it's managed by Navy officials. All the workers, the welders,
Speaker 3: the electricians, the crane operators are all government employees. The
Speaker 3: Navy historically had many public shipyards. In the nineties we
Speaker 3: had eight and the BRAC process took eight down to four.
Speaker 3: The four remaining public shipyards are in Norfolk, Virginia, in Portsmouth,
Speaker 3: New Hampshire slash Kittery, Maine, depending upon which state official
Speaker 3: you ask, because it's on the border of New Hampshire
Speaker 3: and Maine and they argue about it, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii,
Speaker 3: and then up in Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest.
Speaker 3: The Navy, for a variety of reasons, prefers to do
Speaker 3: serious maintenance on nuclear ships. So the nuclear submarines, the
Speaker 3: nuclear aircraft carriers get their maintenance done by the Navy itself,
Speaker 3: under by government employees. There's a lot of good reasons
Speaker 3: for that when we went from eight to four. Now
Speaker 3: that we're looking to expand our number of submarines, especially,
Speaker 3: we just don't have enough maintenance facilities within the public
Speaker 3: shipyards to do uh to do the maintenance we need
Speaker 3: to do on the submarine side fleet that we that
Speaker 3: we need to have. So the President, I think, in
Speaker 3: this one very correctly recognizes we need a fifth yard.
Speaker 3: The ideal candidates would be the two closed yards on
Speaker 3: the West coast, Long Beach and h and Alameda, but
Speaker 3: both of those, since their closure in the nineties, have
Speaker 3: been developed by the local economy and would be hard
Speaker 3: to recover. Most experts would tell you they're also in California.
Speaker 1: California. Most experts would regulatory problems that are immense.
Speaker 3: Indeed, but most most I think most analysts would say
Speaker 3: that the yard needs to be in the Pacific because
Speaker 3: it provides the additional benefit of providing a repair capacity
Speaker 3: in theater or close to theater if you were in
Speaker 3: a conflict within the Indo Pacific. I certainly think that
Speaker 3: there's gonna be lots of different real estate around the
Speaker 3: country interested in that fifth shipyard.
Speaker 9: You know.
Speaker 3: I think anywhere where there's coastline, there's gonna be people
Speaker 3: interested in it. But I think from a tactical strategic standpoint,
Speaker 3: closer to the fight would be better.
Speaker 1: Mark I question if Congress passed a Notwithstanding any other
Speaker 1: law or regulation act, it is an emergency situation, and
Speaker 1: we need a fifth shipyard and the and we are
Speaker 1: appropriating a trillion dollars or whatever it is to buy
Speaker 1: and build a public navy shipyard. At a point of
Speaker 1: the sect navs choosing and to commence immediately. How long
Speaker 1: until that could be up and running.
Speaker 3: It depends on if you're going from a place where
Speaker 3: there's absolutely no no capability now if it was just
Speaker 3: a blank sheet of paper versus if you were recommissioning
Speaker 3: someplace that used to be a shipyard. So like you
Speaker 3: could probably go quicker in Alameda, if you know, depending
Speaker 3: on what condition they're dry docks or and if you're
Speaker 3: going to improve those docks, as an example, you could
Speaker 3: be up and running. You know, maybe in a couple
Speaker 3: of years. Uh, if you were building from scratch, a
Speaker 3: graving dock big enough to take a Virginia class submarine
Speaker 3: is probably you know, three years worth of construction. As
Speaker 3: an example, we put in a new ship lift at
Speaker 3: the think Cantieri's yard in Marinette, Wisconsin after it was
Speaker 3: bought in order to bring it up to be a
Speaker 3: to produce modern surface combatants. And between the permitting, which
Speaker 3: I know you know a lot about, and and the
Speaker 3: dredging and then the building of that, it was a
Speaker 3: two and a half year job to put in a
Speaker 3: modern shiplift. I expect if they were going to do
Speaker 3: a graving dock or a shiplift somewhere in the West Coast.
Speaker 3: It would be a similar build cycle, and you'd have
Speaker 3: to do more than one. You'd be working on multiple
Speaker 3: ones at the time, So it's a two to three
Speaker 3: year effort to get the facility up and running out
Speaker 3: of it.
Speaker 1: I should amend an extend my remarks if Congress passed
Speaker 1: a notwithstanding any law ignoring the Coastal Commission, overriding all
Speaker 1: federal and state and local regulations, and condemning whatever local
Speaker 1: use is at Alameda, that's where I go. It can
Speaker 1: be protected by MIRAMA. I mean, it just makes a
Speaker 1: lot of sense. That's where I go. But that would
Speaker 1: require a sweeping statue to clear away the debris. What
Speaker 1: is a component repair center and why do we need one?
Speaker 1: Because I'm going to use the last segment on navsea reform.
Speaker 1: So what's a component repair segment?
Speaker 3: What it is is it's a central repository where you
Speaker 3: would either or repair parts or build specialty repair parts
Speaker 3: for a particular class of ships. In this case, it
Speaker 3: refers to our submarines, and I think specifically, even though
Speaker 3: it mentions the Los Angeles Class and the Virginia Class
Speaker 3: and the Ohio Class, I think this is really targeted
Speaker 3: at our aging Los Angeles Class fleet. The administration correctly
Speaker 3: wants to keep the Los Angeles class ships in service
Speaker 3: for absolutely as long as possible. Some of them are
Speaker 3: old enough that they have a lot of components that
Speaker 3: just aren't available anymore in the open market. So this
Speaker 3: is a centralized storehouse and fabrication using things like three
Speaker 3: D printing and other advanced manufacturing to keep enough repair
Speaker 3: parts and a central location made stocked sent out so
Speaker 3: they can keep some of our older submarines in service
Speaker 3: for absolutely as long as possible in order to keep
Speaker 3: our submarine count up.
Speaker 1: Would it take, where would it be and how long
Speaker 1: would it take?
Speaker 3: I think this uh, this could be ideally in any
Speaker 3: centralized place that had good road rail access, So you
Speaker 3: could put it nearly anywhere in the country. Again, I'm
Speaker 3: sure there are lots of different regions that would like
Speaker 3: to have this around, you know, and you could put
Speaker 3: it in a lot of different places, uh if you
Speaker 3: if the people didn't care about watching bad football, they
Speaker 3: could put it in Ohio, the uh and and the
Speaker 3: uh uh but the uh you know, So where it
Speaker 3: goes as long as it's uh connected to a good
Speaker 3: logistics train, I could go anywhere, and I think this
Speaker 3: could be up in the in a matter of of
Speaker 3: you know, certainly less than two years. You know, uh,
Speaker 3: I think this Pentagon could get it done in a
Speaker 3: year because they tend to move fast.
Speaker 1: Again, if the Congress passed and notwithstanding any law, how
Speaker 1: many jobs are we talking about with a facility like this,
Speaker 1: Captain van Drive.
Speaker 3: Oh, I have not dug in enough be on the
Speaker 3: executive order to put a number on that. I mean,
Speaker 3: if you like, if you said how many your jobs
Speaker 3: is that is that fifth shipyard? I'd say that fifth
Speaker 3: shipyard is probably like three thousand to four thousand workers.
Speaker 3: Based on the size of our other public yards the
Speaker 3: Competitive Repair Center, I'd have to study more to give
Speaker 3: you an actual job count.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm coming back one more segment with Captain
Speaker 1: Mark van Draft for charge United States Navy Senior Vice
Speaker 1: President Fink Kent Terry, former Trump won National Security Council official,
Speaker 1: to talk about what NAVSEA is, what reforms a proposing
Speaker 1: the President's memorandum, why we need him, and whether or
Speaker 1: not Secretary Cow or Acting Secretary of Cow he ought
Speaker 1: to be Secretary Cow can get it done. Stay with us,
Speaker 1: Welcome back. I'm Hugh Hewett continue to talk with Captain
Speaker 1: Mark Van draft Rechigie, United States Navy. He's a senior
Speaker 1: Vice President fin can Terry, former President Trump official in
Speaker 1: the NSC National Security Council in the first administration, and
Speaker 1: we come to nabsee Mark for the audience. The depth
Speaker 1: second Defense, Steve Finberg is doing a fabulous job that
Speaker 1: nobody knows about trying to reform defense acquisition. And I
Speaker 1: think Acting Secretary Anko is doing a great job with
Speaker 1: the Navy. I hope he gets a vote and it
Speaker 1: gets nominated by Permanent Secretary. But you get five minutes
Speaker 1: to try and explain what NAVC specifically is and what
Speaker 1: the presence memorandum proposals be done to reform it.
Speaker 3: So thanks you.
Speaker 9: So.
Speaker 3: NAVC is an acronym that stands for the Naval Sea
Speaker 3: Systems Command. All the services have activities, each organized a
Speaker 3: little differently, but within the Navy, a Systems Command, because
Speaker 3: there's also the Naval Air Systems Command and a few others,
Speaker 3: is a large organization which is charged with a cradle
Speaker 3: to grave from the research and development to develop a capability,
Speaker 3: through acquiring the capability, through taking care of the capability
Speaker 3: through its life cycle and then disposing it. So the
Speaker 3: Naval CEA Systems com and does that for ships and submarines.
Speaker 3: The depsec War and the under Secretary for War for
Speaker 3: Acquisition early on in the Trump two administration really has
Speaker 3: already done some sweeping reforms, not just for the Navy,
Speaker 3: but how all the Department of War Acquisition operates. It
Speaker 3: sounded less impactful than it really is, but they've changed
Speaker 3: the authorities around to really proved. I selected individuals with
Speaker 3: a lot of authority across both contracting, technical and budgeting
Speaker 3: and programmatic to try to drive more accountability and drive
Speaker 3: out bureaucratic friction in order to accelerate programs. I think
Speaker 3: that's having and will have a very significant positive effect.
Speaker 3: I think NAPSI has already gone through that level of reorganization,
Speaker 3: as the rest of the Department of War has. But
Speaker 3: this presidential memorandum directs a study to see what else
Speaker 3: Navsey needs to do to get into the twenty first century.
Speaker 3: I mean, I spent most of my career in the
Speaker 3: Navy either at NAVSCY headquarters or in various Navsea field commands.
Speaker 3: I ended my career in command of one of their
Speaker 3: largest Field Commands. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, card Rock
Speaker 3: is where I finished my naval career. But in a
Speaker 3: lot of ways, they really still have a nineteen eighties
Speaker 3: set up, organization, and mentality, and they need to be
Speaker 3: brought into the twenty first century. They have processes that
Speaker 3: work very well for the nineteen eighties, and in order
Speaker 3: to meet the challenges today, it probably does take a
Speaker 3: fresh approach. And this memorandum tells Secretary Cow to go
Speaker 3: and study what that fresh approach will look like and
Speaker 3: report back to the President. And I have every confidence
Speaker 3: I know Secretary Cow, at least a little bit fellow
Speaker 3: Naval Academy graduate, I sure he will get this one right.
Speaker 1: So two questions that close with if Congress gets involved
Speaker 1: and says in the next NBAA or a reconciliation bill,
Speaker 1: do this reorganized in six months? Would that help? And
Speaker 1: the second question would be can you actually get it
Speaker 1: done in the Trump years, because it's actually a bigger question.
Speaker 1: Have we fallen too far behind China to catch up?
Speaker 3: I try and be an optimist. I believe, you know,
Speaker 3: America's pulled off things, amazing things in the past, so
Speaker 3: I don't think we've fallen too far behind China to
Speaker 3: catch up. I like the fact that this memorandum uses
Speaker 3: allies and partners in the Finland model. Certainly, my company,
Speaker 3: think Cantri and you know, as a company that's based
Speaker 3: in Italy, one of those allies and partners. It wants
Speaker 3: to be part of the solution to providing the sea
Speaker 3: power that the United States needs. So I think we've
Speaker 3: got that going for us. Certainly, Congressional support is critical
Speaker 3: for any major reform effort. It's a co equal branch
Speaker 3: of government and ultimately they hold the power of the purse.
Speaker 3: So the President's going to need to have Congress on
Speaker 3: board in order to make this happen. Can it be
Speaker 3: done within the remaining years of the Trump administration, You
Speaker 3: can get a long way there. Certainly, whoever follows of
Speaker 3: whatever political party, is going to need to be committed
Speaker 3: to this because it took us from President Reagan deregulating
Speaker 3: the civilian shipbuilding industry in the early eighties till now
Speaker 3: that thirty five forty years. It took us thirty five
Speaker 3: or forty years to dig ourselves into this hole. You're
Speaker 3: not going to dig out in two years. But as
Speaker 3: you're fun to say, the first rule of holes is
Speaker 3: stop digging digging. This memorandum is a direction to stop
Speaker 3: digging and start filling in the hole as fast as
Speaker 3: you can so.
Speaker 1: Mark van Drive, Captain Van Druft, I greatly appreciate a
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh Stealers guys fan and a Florida Gators fan guide
Speaker 1: to understanding. I got you back see to understanding what
Speaker 1: this memorandum means, and I hope it will get other
Speaker 1: people to read it and study it and talk about it.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Captain Mark Vandroff.