Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College All Things
Speaker 1: hillsdalet Hillsdale dot ed or I encourage you to take
Speaker 1: advantage of the many free online courses there, and of
Speaker 1: course I'll listen to the Hillsdale dialogues, all of them
Speaker 1: at Hugh for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple
Speaker 1: iTunes and Hillsdale Morning, Laurie and Evening Grace America. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Big Weekend Pod, and indeed it is big.
Speaker 1: At the end of it, I will include, just in
Speaker 1: case you haven't already listened to it, my interview with
Speaker 1: President Trump from Thursday's program. But to the Big Weekend Pod,
Speaker 1: we talk with Matt Continity, Ben Dominic, Eli Lake, John Ellis,
Speaker 1: and a little bit of football with Douglay Marie. To
Speaker 1: make sure that it's light, but it's not light. All
Speaker 1: eyes are on Iran this weekend. Whether or not the
Speaker 1: IRGC retreats in the face of hundreds of thousands of
Speaker 1: protesters or do they in fact risk the wrath of
Speaker 1: the United States by firing on the protesters. We'll be
Speaker 1: watching all weekend long, and I'll talk about it with
Speaker 1: Matt and Ben and I Lie and John and I
Speaker 1: hope you enjoy today's big weekend pot Welcome back in America.
Speaker 1: I'm you hear it show A new audience is way
Speaker 1: up north in Michigan and down in Pensacola, Florida. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Continetti half Hour, where Matt Conteneti of AEI
Speaker 1: and the Wall Street Journal joins me to explore the
Speaker 1: news of the week. Matt, I want to read to
Speaker 1: you something Supreme Leader Iatola Jimeni said today. He dismissed
Speaker 1: President Trump's threats as quote, he has hands stained with
Speaker 1: the blood of Iranians and said that the protesters are
Speaker 1: ruining their own streets in order to please the President
Speaker 1: of the United States. He said, because he threatened he
Speaker 1: would come to the aid of their of them, he
Speaker 1: should pay attention to the state of his own country instead.
Speaker 1: Do you think that, I Hatola how many is going
Speaker 1: to shut down the protests with that?
Speaker 2: No, And he's not shutting down the protests with the
Speaker 2: offer of seven dollars to each Iranian which came earlier
Speaker 2: in this week, which to me showed a panic on
Speaker 2: the side of the regime, a sense that the regime's
Speaker 2: not sure how to proceed. I think it's a very
Speaker 2: combustible situation in Iran right now, Hugh, you have another night,
Speaker 2: it seems of massive protests. It's hard to know exactly
Speaker 2: what's happening, of course, because the regime has shut down
Speaker 2: the internet, shut down most phones. It's hard to understand
Speaker 2: what is happening on the ground. But what we can
Speaker 2: glean from social media is that there are mass protests
Speaker 2: throughout the country in response to the economic desolation that
Speaker 2: this regime has perpetrated on the Iranian people. So you
Speaker 2: have economic humiliation, you have military humiliation with Operation Midnight
Speaker 2: Hammer in the Twelve Day War last year battering the
Speaker 2: Iranian regime, and you now have political humiliation where it's
Speaker 2: clear that the government no longer has any legitimacy whatsoever
Speaker 2: on the streets of Iran.
Speaker 1: Matt the President of the United States, did threaten Iran
Speaker 1: in a conversation with me on Thursday. Then he doubled
Speaker 1: down on Thursday night with Sean Hannity. He made it
Speaker 1: very clear that if they opened fire on the protesters,
Speaker 1: he will hit them very hard. I don't know what
Speaker 1: that means, though, What do you think that means, and
Speaker 1: what would he hit.
Speaker 3: Right well? It's hard to say.
Speaker 2: I mean, the most important fact about that statement is
Speaker 2: President Trump said it, yep.
Speaker 3: And that's unlike, as we.
Speaker 2: Discussed on the program earlier, most American presidents when you've
Speaker 2: had similar demonstrations. Here, we have really quite impressive demonstrations
Speaker 2: and the part of the Iranian people, and President Trump,
Speaker 2: unlike Joe Biden, unlike Barack Obama, is saying that he's
Speaker 2: on the side of the protesters and warning the Ayatola
Speaker 2: and the IRGC against killing innocent civilians.
Speaker 3: Now, what does that mean. Doesn't mean we're going to
Speaker 3: go to war with Iran? I somehow doubt it.
Speaker 2: I think the most important thing we could do right
Speaker 2: now is work to restore internet connectivity to the Iranian people,
Speaker 2: and to allow the Iranian people who are rebelling against
Speaker 2: their government, this tyranny that's ruled them since nineteen seventy nine,
Speaker 2: to connect with one another and with the outside world,
Speaker 2: so we could get some explanation of what's happening, and
Speaker 2: that our pressure, our voices could also be heard within
Speaker 2: Iran saying that we are with insolidarity with the Iranian people.
Speaker 3: I'd look to that as one step that the President
Speaker 3: could could take pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: One of the things I asked him was would he
Speaker 1: meet with the Crown Prince raise up a labby and
Speaker 1: he said, I don't think that would be appropriate. Later
Speaker 1: in the day, news reports emerged that he plans on
Speaker 1: meeting with him. It wouldn't be the first time he
Speaker 1: did something that he didn't tip his hand. What do
Speaker 1: you think about that? I remember Ford refusing to meet
Speaker 1: with silvan Etsen to his everlasting regret. He should have done. So.
Speaker 1: Do you think the president should sit down with the
Speaker 1: Crown Prince?
Speaker 3: He should. I think he will.
Speaker 2: I think President Trump meets with a lot of people.
Speaker 2: You know, He's willing to meet with almost anybody and
Speaker 2: talk to them and hear what they have to say.
Speaker 2: So I expect a meeting with Pallavi would happen in
Speaker 2: the near future. I think what President Trump's caution is
Speaker 2: about is he doesn't want to see anarchy. He doesn't
Speaker 2: want to see some type of transition where you have
Speaker 2: the war of all against all, the state of nature.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: That's why in Venezuela, for example, he took out Maduro,
Speaker 2: but he kept Maduro's lieutenants because, in his view, order
Speaker 2: is the precondition for a democratic transition. So I think
Speaker 2: that's why he's reluctant to jump the gun in pronouncing
Speaker 2: who the next leader of Iran be. He wants the
Speaker 2: Iranian people to take care of that question themselves.
Speaker 3: I think that's a prudent move.
Speaker 2: But it doesn't preclude him from speaking with Pallavi or
Speaker 2: speaking with the other Iranian dissidents, other factions who are
Speaker 2: in exile, and of course the most important actors will
Speaker 2: be the ones who are in Iran right now taking
Speaker 2: up the protests, doing what they can to resist the
Speaker 2: terrorists who have driven their country into the ground.
Speaker 1: Matt Contenny will be back with me after the break.
Speaker 1: You can follow him on Exit. Continetti read him at
Speaker 1: The Wall Street Journal. During the break, I'm going to
Speaker 1: talk with Matt about Minnesota and we'll put that on
Speaker 1: the podcast. But of the biggest stories of the day,
Speaker 1: I think Iran and Venezuela and Kiba are more important.
Speaker 1: I'm putting them on the immediate podcast, but Matt on Minnesota.
Speaker 1: I'm back with Matt Continetti of AI and The Wall
Speaker 1: Street Journal. Matt I was on This Morning with Dana
Speaker 1: Prino and Bill Hammer on Friday morning, being asked about
Speaker 1: Minnesota and Jacob Frye and I just threw up my hand.
Speaker 1: He's such a carnival bark her and he's in coherent.
Speaker 1: At one point he'll say, we want to be responsible
Speaker 1: participants in the investigation, and the next moment he says
Speaker 1: the ICE agent had a hop in his step after
Speaker 1: he shot her and wasn't injured at all. In the
Speaker 1: I think he's just a joker, and I think Tim
Speaker 1: Wallas is a joker. And Minnesota, what a terrible situation
Speaker 1: for that state to be And what's your assessment of this?
Speaker 2: Well, I think Minnesota is seeing the fruits of long
Speaker 2: term progressive dominance of politics at the municipal and at
Speaker 2: the state level.
Speaker 3: Of Jacob fry and Tim Walls.
Speaker 2: Of course, we're in charge of that city and that
Speaker 2: state during the George Floyd riots, where it was the
Speaker 2: chaos and a police precinct burned down and Walls waited
Speaker 2: far too long to bring in the National Guard. We
Speaker 2: don't want that situation repeated today. And so their rhetoric
Speaker 2: has been extremely irresponsible, only talking using expletives to refer
Speaker 2: to Ice, saying that ICE should leave the state of Minnesota,
Speaker 2: saying that Minnesotans and the rest of the country. People
Speaker 2: of goodwill should stand with Tim Walls against the Trump administration,
Speaker 2: just like the Union soldiers stood against the Confederacy. And
Speaker 2: this is completely irresponsible and inflammatory rhetoric. At precisely the
Speaker 2: moment you when we want to take a cautious, detached approach.
Speaker 2: We want the investigation to proceed. We don't want things
Speaker 2: to spiral out of control like they did five years ago.
Speaker 2: We don't want this incident to lead to more damage,
Speaker 2: more lost lives, more damage to property and to civil order.
Speaker 1: Do you think we can restore a proper understanding of
Speaker 1: federalism because brit Hume has made the argument this is
Speaker 1: horrible faubis like, you know, state officials telling in the
Speaker 1: federal government that they can enforce federal law. And of
Speaker 1: course you and I both use this war analogy, but
Speaker 1: it's a breakdown in constitutional literacy. There is a supremacy clause.
Speaker 1: Are people ignorant of this at the Jacob Fry level?
Speaker 2: They may be, but it's also a convenient ignorance because
Speaker 2: what's really at work here is the desire of blue
Speaker 2: state political machines to protect illegal immigration, and illegal immigration
Speaker 2: is central to the Blue state model of governance, Hugh
Speaker 2: is in. What we see since the raids began in
Speaker 2: California last year is that the Blue state governors and
Speaker 2: mayors hang on to illegal immigration so tenaciously that they're
Speaker 2: openly defined to federal authority. ICE is a law enforcement body.
Speaker 2: They are conducting legal operations to.
Speaker 3: Enforce the law.
Speaker 2: It is a crime to be in the United States
Speaker 2: illegally and your subject to deportation.
Speaker 3: This should not be up for debate. It is. It's
Speaker 3: the case.
Speaker 2: But I believe Blue states depend almost entirely on illegal
Speaker 2: immigration for economic purposes and for political purposes. And so
Speaker 2: you see the entire machine, just like a Tammany Hall,
Speaker 2: move into operation in order to protect illegal immigrants and
Speaker 2: to fight the federal government when it's actually trying to
Speaker 2: enforce federal law.
Speaker 1: Or That is a very good point that hasn't been
Speaker 1: made very often. Matt Continetty well said, we'll be right
Speaker 1: back on air. Welcome back in America. Matt Cottenetty is
Speaker 1: back with me. Matt, of course rights for the Wall
Speaker 1: Street Journal as a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Speaker 1: Matt I was recalling more than twenty years Ago, I
Speaker 1: visited Camp Pendleton and the then Chief of Staff to
Speaker 1: the then three star General, James Mattis, told me, I
Speaker 1: wish you civilians would think about second order consequences of
Speaker 1: military action. And I've always kept that in mind since that.
Speaker 1: What do you think the second order consequences of Operation
Speaker 1: Absolute Resolve are? We've got Maduro? What do we else?
Speaker 1: And we've got five votes, including another one on Friday,
Speaker 1: that's five now full of oil. What do you think
Speaker 1: are the consequences maybe that are not right in front
Speaker 1: of our face.
Speaker 2: Well, first and foremost is a strategic question. You know Venezuela,
Speaker 2: there's a lot that intersects in Venezuela. You there's immigration,
Speaker 2: there's narco trafficking. You know, some people have described Marduro's
Speaker 2: government as a transshipment organization. I believe that's Secretary of
Speaker 2: State Rubio who's called it that. And then you have energy,
Speaker 2: but you also have the access the axis of autocrats
Speaker 2: active in Venezuela. You have China, you have Russia, you
Speaker 2: have Iran, And I think one of the first secondary
Speaker 2: consequences of Operation Absolute Resolve is all those powers have
Speaker 2: taken notice and they realize that they are not going
Speaker 2: to have a free hand in the Western hemisphere any longer.
Speaker 2: I mean this started with Panama last year, where President
Speaker 2: Trump essentially muscled out the Chinese from Panama and the
Speaker 2: Panama Canal. But here we have an instance where Maduro's
Speaker 2: extraction and arrest took place just after his meeting with
Speaker 2: Chinese officials in the Chinese delegation. They're not going to
Speaker 2: be party, They're not going to be at that table
Speaker 2: any longer. You have these ships, including the ships that
Speaker 2: we've just caught in the past.
Speaker 3: Twenty four hours. One was going under a Russian flag.
Speaker 2: It reflagged as Russian, thinking that it would protect it.
Speaker 2: Trump took it anyway, So now the Russians are noticing.
Speaker 2: And then finally Iran. Iran has had a presence in
Speaker 2: Venezuela for some time, including Hesbealah, the terrorist militia, they're
Speaker 2: going to have to leave as well. So I think
Speaker 2: there are huge strategic secondary consequences to Operation Absolute Resolve
Speaker 2: and done at no cost in American life.
Speaker 4: I remarkable now yesterday, or when I talked to the
Speaker 4: President on Thursday, he put me on the spot because
Speaker 4: people were coming into the oval.
Speaker 1: He was on the phone with me. So here comes
Speaker 1: Marco Rubio. How's the job he's doing, Hugh, what do
Speaker 1: you think? Am? That's kind of an odd thing to
Speaker 1: ask me, But I quickly said, it's the equal of
Speaker 1: any Secretary of State of my lifetime. That puts him
Speaker 1: up there with Kissinger and Mike Pompeo, both of whom
Speaker 1: I know and knew, and Mike's a friend. How would
Speaker 1: you have answered that, because I think he is the
Speaker 1: equal of those guys.
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's just an incredible job that Secretary
Speaker 2: Ruby is doing. He's already Kissinger's equal because he's the
Speaker 2: first Secretary of State since Kissinger to also be the
Speaker 2: National Security Advisor.
Speaker 3: Yes, plus he's the National Archivist.
Speaker 2: And he very cleverly put out, Hugh as you saw
Speaker 2: that he Secretary Rubio will not accept the job as
Speaker 2: the next coach of the Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 1: You know, that's meme in America.
Speaker 3: Too much on his plate already, that's the best.
Speaker 1: You know in America.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a real standout in this administration, and I
Speaker 2: think President Trump knows it because you see how much
Speaker 2: President Trump loves talking about Marco Rubio. And I think
Speaker 2: that's because the President recognizes that Marco Rubio has been
Speaker 2: an extremely effective Secretary of State in pursuing the Trump doctrine,
Speaker 2: whether it's in the Western Hemisphere, whether it's in the
Speaker 2: Middle East, whether it's this ongoing diplomatic process happening in Europe.
Speaker 2: And he's also an extremely effective communicator for the President
Speaker 2: what the President is trying to do. So absolutely he
Speaker 2: I mean, just one year on the job, he's already
Speaker 2: up there with Kissinger and Schultz and Pompeo.
Speaker 1: Well, let me ask you about this. The President also
Speaker 1: said to me he's got some Cuban blood in him.
Speaker 1: I wanted to say, yeah, like one hundred percent. And
Speaker 1: the follow on though, is we've never had a Secretary
Speaker 1: of State who's had this kind of personal investment in
Speaker 1: Cuba being free. Do you think that matters? Oh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2: And you know, someone who's followed Secretary of Rubio's career
Speaker 2: since he first launched that kind of almost winsome campaign
Speaker 2: for the Republican Senate nomination back in twenty ten, this issue,
Speaker 2: the issue of Cuba, is extremely important to him. Freedom
Speaker 2: for the Cuban people, an end to the castro tyranny,
Speaker 2: and the Castro regime, and I think it's very revealing
Speaker 2: that Maduro was being guarded by a cadre of Cuban
Speaker 2: security officials, showing that Venezuela and Cuba are intricately connected.
Speaker 2: It's hard to say is Venezuela running Cuba or is
Speaker 2: Cuba really running Venezuela. We know that Cuba is dependent
Speaker 2: on Venezuela, dependent on Venezuela's energy and economic aid.
Speaker 3: You remove that from the table.
Speaker 2: Like I believe the President Secretary of Rubio is going
Speaker 2: to force the Rodriguez government to do, and that puts
Speaker 2: the Cuban communist regime in a really tight spot, the
Speaker 2: worst spot it's been since the revolution back in nineteen
Speaker 2: fifty nine. I agree that another incredible accomplishment. If that
Speaker 2: government were to fall next in the next three years.
Speaker 1: I think they're out of food, medicine, electricity, They're like Iran.
Speaker 1: Basic services have failed in Cuba like they have failed
Speaker 1: in Iran. But I don't know that we have any way.
Speaker 1: Israel's got ways. Obviously they built a drone plan inside
Speaker 1: of Iran. They've got ways of helping the Iranian resistance.
Speaker 1: Do we have any ways of helping the Cuban resistance
Speaker 1: or is there even a Cuban resistance to your knowledge,
Speaker 1: Matt Conney.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, the Castros and their successors have been
Speaker 2: very good at destroying civil society in Cuba and destroying
Speaker 2: any political dissidence there. So it's very hard to say.
Speaker 2: I do know if they're out there. Secretary of Rubio
Speaker 2: is probably where. But I think what we have to
Speaker 2: do here is apply as much pressure as possible, which
Speaker 2: is happening, and you're driving the Cuban government into a
Speaker 2: position where it may be desperate for a negotiation. There
Speaker 2: was an article in the New York Times, The New
Speaker 2: York Times of all places which for decades ran covered
Speaker 2: for Castros, you know, you quoting from a Cuban citizen
Speaker 2: talking about how when he and his wife had to
Speaker 2: go to the hospital, they had to bring their own catheter.
Speaker 2: That's how bad things have gotten there. And if the
Speaker 2: New York Times is acknowledging it, it means it must
Speaker 2: be really bad.
Speaker 5: Oh.
Speaker 1: You know, for decades, puppets of Castro and fellow travelers
Speaker 1: in the United States to hold up the Cuban healthcare
Speaker 1: system to us, to the United States as being Oh,
Speaker 1: they have such wonderful healthcare. I don't think so, and
Speaker 1: we will find out soon. Matt Cottonhoody, thank you for
Speaker 1: joining me as always, read him at the Wall Street Journal,
Speaker 1: read his work when it's published at the American Enterprise Institute,
Speaker 1: and stay tuned. I'll be right back America. This weekend
Speaker 1: gets underway on Huge It on You hew It. It's
Speaker 1: always a good weekend when I get to review it
Speaker 1: the Week in Review with Ben Dominic. Yes, so many
Speaker 1: titles though, Ben, Good, Happy New Year to you. But
Speaker 1: I have some new affiliates from way up north in
Speaker 1: Michigan at Triple Talk one oh two point three one
Speaker 1: oh three point three twelve seventy AM and shar Levoy Potowsky,
Speaker 1: Michigan to way down in Pensacola, the home of Naval
Speaker 1: Aviation News Radio Pensacola ninety two point three WNRP. That
Speaker 1: I have to give out all of your titles. So
Speaker 1: not only are you a Fox News contributor, the host
Speaker 1: of the wonderful Big Ben Podcast, you are the editor
Speaker 1: of the Transom on Substack. You're the editor at large
Speaker 1: for The Spectator. Am I missing something, Ben? No?
Speaker 5: But I did have a new kid since last time.
Speaker 3: Oh Bra.
Speaker 1: So I'm not Jewish, but mazel to agree. Father of
Speaker 1: three means sleepless in the Beltway.
Speaker 5: I'm actually I'm okay, I'm okay. It's a trick baby,
Speaker 5: because it's the first two were girls. This is our
Speaker 5: first boy. And you know that the danger is that
Speaker 5: when you get older, as I am now, that third
Speaker 5: baby can sometimes trick you into thinking that you could
Speaker 5: do one more. And that is definitely the current stage
Speaker 5: that we are in, and so I need to guard
Speaker 5: against that. I thank you.
Speaker 1: My daughter has four and Israel the four is the
Speaker 1: new three. And my daughter has four and the fourth
Speaker 1: is a delight as the other ones are. And I
Speaker 1: just want to remind you of what you were like
Speaker 1: when you were sixteen. That's what you got to remember
Speaker 1: because they try and get out of the you know
Speaker 1: everything we.
Speaker 5: Did, Yes, exactly, Ben.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about a lot with you, but
Speaker 1: I want to actually start with the American news media,
Speaker 1: and I don't I'm a little bit beside myself. I
Speaker 1: think it's an important story of what happened in Minnesota.
Speaker 1: It's a tragedy. Jacob Fry is a carnival barker. Tim
Speaker 1: Walls is a moron, and they will get to the
Speaker 1: bottom the investigation and whether or not the shooting was justified.
Speaker 1: It appears to me to be. But the biggest story
Speaker 1: in the world is an Iran, and I don't see
Speaker 1: American media anywhere. Fox is doing some But what do
Speaker 1: you make of the almost obliviousness to this world history
Speaker 1: changing possible event.
Speaker 5: Well, what I want to suggest to you, Hugh, is
Speaker 5: that this is in large part driven by the know
Speaker 5: what these stations understand their current viewers of resistance media
Speaker 5: consumers to be all about. And nothing activates them more
Speaker 5: than I think this particular issue and the kind of
Speaker 5: fomented education that you're seeing, you know, on American streets,
Speaker 5: the protests that you see that are in New York City,
Speaker 5: et cetera. Those are all things that I think go
Speaker 5: to that idea. They're catering to those people, and they don't.
Speaker 5: They are not, I think, fulfilling their obligation to actually
Speaker 5: be talking about what's going on in Iran at the moment,
Speaker 5: because it is momentous and it is significant. We'll see
Speaker 5: obviously where things will go there. But I'm glad that
Speaker 5: you brought this up because to me, it's an indictment
Speaker 5: of the way that our media used to work and
Speaker 5: the way that the media works now. In the old days,
Speaker 5: we had the assumption that when international events would happen. Certainly,
Speaker 5: this was the assumption when I was younger, that you
Speaker 5: flip on CNN, that you turn to sort of these
Speaker 5: major cable news outlets that have bureaus around the world,
Speaker 5: that have people who are on the ground, who are
Speaker 5: reporting what's going on on a regular basis, updating you
Speaker 5: with what's happening. Instead, that's just not true anymore. Instead,
Speaker 5: what they cater to is whatever is going to inflame
Speaker 5: the folks on Blue Sky and across social media here,
Speaker 5: regardless of the fact that there's some that there are
Speaker 5: momentous things happening around them in the world that certainly,
Speaker 5: you know, is look, whatever happened in Minnesota. I think
Speaker 5: it's I think it's tragic one way or the other,
Speaker 5: no matter, no matter, you know, the ultimate sort of
Speaker 5: responsibility for it. It's tragic that someone was convinced to
Speaker 5: you know, sort of you know, try to behave in
Speaker 5: the way that this, uh, you know, played out. But
Speaker 5: it's also I think, you know, tragic that we aren't
Speaker 5: allowing ice agents to enforce the law that is written
Speaker 5: that they are doing, I think the best job that
Speaker 5: they possibly can to enforce. But as to your point,
Speaker 5: there is no longer that obligation among American media that
Speaker 5: and they have pulled back from having those bureaus. They
Speaker 5: have pulled back from having those intelligent people on the
Speaker 5: ground who risk their lives to be on the front
Speaker 5: lines and to report difficult stories. Instead they have people
Speaker 5: who write clickbait, and now they're outsourcing that clickbait to
Speaker 5: keep chat, GPT and everybody else.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Ben, I want to really say the contrast.
Speaker 1: You're not old enough to remember this. But as I
Speaker 1: said to the President when I interviewed them on Thursday,
Speaker 1: I watched the Iranian revolution unfold in seventy eight to
Speaker 1: seventy nine on a coach with Ray Price and Richard Nick's.
Speaker 1: On a daily basis, the networks would cover the marches,
Speaker 1: they covered the Shaw leaving, they covered Harmony returning from France.
Speaker 1: They covered it every single day, and then of course,
Speaker 1: when the hostage crisis occurred a year later, they covered
Speaker 1: Nightline came into being. Is there no sense of responsibility? Maybe, Barry,
Speaker 1: there is a Fox. I'm very proud of the fact
Speaker 1: that Trey and Lucas and other people are abroad in
Speaker 1: doing this, and that Brett covers it almost every night,
Speaker 1: and it was it's covered in America's newsroom. But do
Speaker 1: you think Barry will bring it back? And that's one
Speaker 1: of the reasons why I urged the president yesterday sit
Speaker 1: down with Tony Dekoppel and see if he's serious, because
Speaker 1: I wanted it. Wouldn't it be great to have a
Speaker 1: second serious anchor?
Speaker 5: You know, this is first off, I think complete and
Speaker 5: I'm in complete agreement. I would love for there to
Speaker 5: have competent, for there to be competition. Iron sharpens iron.
Speaker 5: We'll get this and Fox will get better. I mean, look,
Speaker 5: I'm a I'm a diehard Fox team member, as you know.
Speaker 5: But Fox will get better if we have more competitions,
Speaker 5: you know, And I think that that's the kind of
Speaker 5: thing that can be helpful and useful. And so look,
Speaker 5: you know, more power to you. The problem is, and
Speaker 5: this is I think a significant problem. They brought They
Speaker 5: brought in some people you know there who are going
Speaker 5: to have new ideas, But how willing are the people
Speaker 5: who actually control that ship to turn it and how
Speaker 5: quickly can they do it, because this would be exactly
Speaker 5: the kind of moment that would be career making in
Speaker 5: terms of of you know, news reporting, people on the ground,
Speaker 5: the old ways of doing things, the you know approach
Speaker 5: that has been you know, time honored from CBS in
Speaker 5: the past. Instead, you know, of course, we have clickbaity articles.
Speaker 5: And you know the whole reason that Tony uh you know,
Speaker 5: to to his to his credit, you know, went viral
Speaker 5: because of a conflict over and you know interview with
Speaker 5: this throw a book by by Tanny easy Coats that
Speaker 5: just you know, argues that everybody's racist, particularly Israel. And
Speaker 5: so it's one of these things where like, can we
Speaker 5: get back to actually having news reporting and people who
Speaker 5: are on the ground. I certainly hope so. But the
Speaker 5: idea that those markets forces are going to be in
Speaker 5: place instead, you're going to be forced to do the
Speaker 5: same thing that so many other Americans do and turn
Speaker 5: the substack to find out you know what that.
Speaker 1: It's going to be very tough to build an audience.
Speaker 1: Brett's people are not going to move. Are people at Fox.
Speaker 1: They're not going to move, So they're going to have
Speaker 1: to get the audience from ABC and NBC that is
Speaker 1: remaining to move to CBS. But to do that, there
Speaker 1: are any American networks allowed in Iran. But they could
Speaker 1: partner with the French who are They could partner with
Speaker 1: the BBC, who are to at least get some pictures,
Speaker 1: some drama. And we've got Karam saw Jupoor. We've got
Speaker 1: Aaron Austabar, There's Michael Durant. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: people who know Iran. They could be on there telling
Speaker 1: us what's going on there. And I'm afraid that what
Speaker 1: happens is going to happen in the dark if the
Speaker 1: regime in fact opens up completely.
Speaker 5: I completely agree, and I think that, I mean, it's
Speaker 5: kind of ridiculous in this day and age, people have
Speaker 5: the impression that everything that they see is just this
Speaker 5: flood of information that we get the best access to
Speaker 5: it from social media and X and just everyone having
Speaker 5: a phone. That we're talking about this, you know, in
Speaker 5: the you know, any moment in any place where that
Speaker 5: is prevented and prevented deliberately so that people cannot see
Speaker 5: what is going on, so people cannot see how momentous
Speaker 5: it is. And look, I think you're completely right. We
Speaker 5: need to have more of these voices out there, and
Speaker 5: to a certain extent, my attitude towards the viewer side
Speaker 5: of things is I don't care. This is too important.
Speaker 5: You know. It's like, we can take we can take
Speaker 5: a hit for a segment if you flipped it over
Speaker 5: because you're interested in what's happening. It's too important and
Speaker 5: you've got to put it in front of them, and look,
Speaker 5: let's take the hit for the next eight minutes, and
Speaker 5: then then we'll come back and have some cat videos,
Speaker 5: you know, make the other folks come back.
Speaker 1: Well, let me talk to you about cat videos for
Speaker 1: a moment. Jacob Fry, the mayor of Minneapolis, is a
Speaker 1: cunnibal barker. And I was on this morning with Dana
Speaker 1: and Bill and he was he was so idiotic. In
Speaker 1: the course of ten minutes, he said completely oppositional things.
Speaker 1: We've got to be involved in the investigation because you
Speaker 1: need fairness. And then he said the ice agent had
Speaker 1: to hop in his step as he walked away, and
Speaker 1: he was not injured. He couldn't have been holding so
Speaker 1: in the same two minutes I was watching, he's such
Speaker 1: an idiot.
Speaker 5: I had not seen that. Cliff, You and I just
Speaker 5: have to admit this is the area that you fall
Speaker 5: behind when you are changing diapers. But this is the
Speaker 5: thing that I think is But this is the thing
Speaker 5: that I think is true about him. He's been a
Speaker 5: carnival barker for a long time. We've seen his act before.
Speaker 5: It's absolutely ridiculous. But it's I mean, I hate to
Speaker 5: bring this into it, but I think that the reason
Speaker 5: that he acts the way that he does is because
Speaker 5: there's this feeling that if you're a white guy in
Speaker 5: the Democratic Party, you have to cowtow.
Speaker 1: To everything that's true you.
Speaker 5: I think it's true. I think it's one of these
Speaker 5: things where that's and that's, by the way, one of
Speaker 5: the reasons why I think Gavin Knewsome I have a
Speaker 5: slightly harder time than he thinks he's going to have
Speaker 5: getting that nomination, because you just have to bend over
Speaker 5: backward to make every different interest group happy, to never
Speaker 5: ruffle any feathers. And you know, I still remember the BLM,
Speaker 5: you know, images of him, you know, masked up and
Speaker 5: apologizing for everything, and it's I don't know about you, Hugh,
Speaker 5: but it seems very Canadian to me.
Speaker 1: Very very Canadian. I'm going to talk with Ben Dominic
Speaker 1: during the break about the Big Ben podcast. He covered Venezeuela,
Speaker 1: and he'll be back on the other side as well
Speaker 1: as we talk about Cuba. Don't go anywhere America. I'm
Speaker 1: cute Cube. I am back with Ben Dominic. Ben is,
Speaker 1: of course the host of the Big Ben podcast, of
Speaker 1: which I want two episodes a week, but he had
Speaker 1: just had a baby, so I guess we're all going
Speaker 1: to get one. Ben. I have saved this week's episode
Speaker 1: about Venezuela for tomorrow morning when I'm trundling because I
Speaker 1: need a lot of time because I'm going a little
Speaker 1: bit longer than I normally. Do you covered Venezuela? I
Speaker 1: know that what do you think the second order impacts are?
Speaker 1: Six days out from the over three of Maduro.
Speaker 5: I think that the really interesting question coming out of
Speaker 5: this is what the Mexican government takes away from this experience?
Speaker 5: Oh interesting now, So so let me the the argument
Speaker 5: that I've made in the past is that as much
Speaker 5: as Venezuela was about obviously achieving the goals that they've
Speaker 5: been very public about, and you know, it's not like
Speaker 5: they've been subtle, you know, the president saying, hey, they
Speaker 5: knew we were coming, you know, has been basically true
Speaker 5: for you know, a month plus. But I think that
Speaker 5: the real message that this sort of sends is the
Speaker 5: ability of the Americans when confronting you know, an American might,
Speaker 5: when confronting a military that is not built to handle
Speaker 5: the kind of of challenges that we can represent, are
Speaker 5: capable of incredible things, especially when it comes to exful
Speaker 5: trading individuals who you know, have you know, live large
Speaker 5: in palaces, claimed to be presidents, aren't and essentially you know,
Speaker 5: established rule over over you know, as many resources as
Speaker 5: Maduro did. That's also something that you can do when
Speaker 5: it comes to the leaders of cartels. It's also the
Speaker 5: thing you can do when it comes to I believe
Speaker 5: many of the key Mexican figures who quite frankly, you know,
Speaker 5: should I believe, be behaving quite differently in their attitude
Speaker 5: towards the Americans right now. Shinbaum and her leadership is
Speaker 5: not really the target here. It's more about what America
Speaker 5: is willing to do when it comes to fighting this
Speaker 5: broader drug war. And the President has clearly, you know,
Speaker 5: basically taken on the attitude that this border situation that
Speaker 5: he has, which is so incredible. Of course, we've seen
Speaker 5: the statistics that that's temporary, that that's something that the
Speaker 5: Mexican cartels are deciding to do because he's in office,
Speaker 5: and that they're just biding their time and waiting to
Speaker 5: open the floodgates again, send as many people north as
Speaker 5: they want to, you know, profit from them along the way,
Speaker 5: and then use them, frankly here to continue their indentured service. Effectively,
Speaker 5: that's something that he doesn't want to be a legacy
Speaker 5: that happened after he leaves office. And that's what I
Speaker 5: think is kind of an underlying element of this one
Speaker 5: more thing though, I also think this is a message
Speaker 5: to his administration and to a lot of people within
Speaker 5: his coalition about the way that the President views his
Speaker 5: role when it comes to the Western hemisphere. There was
Speaker 5: a lot of nice talk, or a lot of I
Speaker 5: would say bold talk about you know, the President shifting
Speaker 5: his priorities to that in his second term from a
Speaker 5: lot of different supporters, including some people who had, you know,
Speaker 5: some issues with how bold he's been in a number
Speaker 5: of different moves. But I think he's sending the message, Yeah,
Speaker 5: I'm serious about that. I really do mean that. In
Speaker 5: terms of my approach. And people can laugh about the
Speaker 5: toun Road doctor or what have you, but I think
Speaker 5: he's sending the message internally as well. No I decide
Speaker 5: what America first means about policy. You know. MTG doesn't
Speaker 5: get to decide that anymore. Piece upon her and instead,
Speaker 5: you know, you have to listen to the commander in
Speaker 5: chief when it.
Speaker 1: Comes to these things, and when he makes a threat,
Speaker 1: and I think the molas are well advised when he
Speaker 1: makes a threat, pay attention. I'll be right back with
Speaker 1: Ben dominic Don't go anywhere, America. Welcome back in America.
Speaker 1: I'm here with Ben Dominich, Fox News contributor, hosts of
Speaker 1: the Big Ben podcast, and of course contributing editor at
Speaker 1: large to The Spectator. We were talking doing the break,
Speaker 1: Ben and I about Mexico and the cartels, and before
Speaker 1: I get back to President Trump, then a quick question.
Speaker 1: If he strikes at the cartels, do you think he
Speaker 1: will do it visibly and so everyone knows he's done it,
Speaker 1: or will he go like John Clark and the Tom
Speaker 1: Clancy novel so memorably played by Willem Dafoe. Will we
Speaker 1: do it?
Speaker 5: Sub Rosa, Yeah, I mean I first off clear in
Speaker 5: Present Danger a great movie. Great movie. But anyway, the
Speaker 5: thing that I think is very interesting about this, and
Speaker 5: I have written this before, is that I think that
Speaker 5: anything that would be done in terms of a move
Speaker 5: against the cartels would be branded and put forward by
Speaker 5: the United States and by the State Department, being done
Speaker 5: with the full and friendly cooperation of the Mexican government,
Speaker 5: that it would be that that is the way it
Speaker 5: is going to be presented, regardless of if there's any
Speaker 5: truth to that at all, and this likelihood is there
Speaker 5: is not going to be any truth to that, but
Speaker 5: that is the way it will be presented. And a
Speaker 5: lot of people are going to have to smile and
Speaker 5: grin and go along with it because of just the
Speaker 5: nature of things. One more point about that, Hugh, I
Speaker 5: mean Marco Rubio, Man, it's just like he's everywhere. He's
Speaker 5: you know, and I'm not just talking about the memes.
Speaker 5: You know, he's currently up for about ten different NFL jobs. Yeah.
Speaker 5: But here's the thing that I think is interesting about this.
Speaker 5: You know, again, the President is saying, I define what
Speaker 5: my foreign policy is going to be. I'm not going
Speaker 5: to be defined by people who are outside who claim
Speaker 5: to be close to me and who feel like they
Speaker 5: influence me. Donald Trump listens to a lot of people,
Speaker 5: but then he makes his own decisions. And I think
Speaker 5: that's what we've in this past week, and I think
Speaker 5: it's going to be what we continue to see in
Speaker 5: this administration.
Speaker 1: About Marco Rubya, Ben, you're one of the few young
Speaker 1: concertoves who sat down and interviewed the president, so you
Speaker 1: know what it's like. You got to be on your
Speaker 1: toes on Thursday and talking to him, and Secretary Rubia
Speaker 1: walks into the oval. I'm on the phone, so oh,
Speaker 1: mark A. Rubia walked in. How's he doing you? He's
Speaker 1: got a little Cuban blood in him. You've got to
Speaker 1: be willing to be ready to answer a question. And
Speaker 1: I said, you know, the equal of any Secretary State
Speaker 1: in my lifetime, because he's done the Kissinger thing, n
Speaker 1: SC and that. But do you think his being Cuban
Speaker 1: makes it more or less likely that we goll in
Speaker 1: on Cuba quickly?
Speaker 5: I think it may actually slow the role slightly, because
Speaker 5: I think that there's going to be a feeling that,
Speaker 5: you know, how how quickly do we really want to
Speaker 5: lean into so many different things at once? And is
Speaker 5: this something that the American people really want at this
Speaker 5: particular moment. The only reason that I feel that way,
Speaker 5: beyond beyond the fact that he's Cuban or not, is
Speaker 5: you know, the president's bitten off so much and he's
Speaker 5: taken on so much. We're starting to see some real
Speaker 5: silver linings when it comes to the economy, things you know,
Speaker 5: are hopeful for among Republicans for the first time and
Speaker 5: I think a while, because they really do believe that
Speaker 5: once these tax refunds start going out that you're going
Speaker 5: to see people's attitudes change on that number. And of
Speaker 5: course that number includes a lot of the President's Hispanic supporters,
Speaker 5: not just Cubans, but others as well. And so do
Speaker 5: you want to you know, sort of potentially inject something
Speaker 5: into this that would lean into that even more heavily,
Speaker 5: or do you want to sort of say, well, let's
Speaker 5: let this play out a little bit more, whether regardless
Speaker 5: of rolling the dice in a midterm yere all right.
Speaker 1: Now, last question for you, Ben, as I said you've
Speaker 1: shut down with the president in the conversation on Thursday,
Speaker 1: I asked him, we got a bunch of young conservatives
Speaker 1: who are forty five and younger who you know, he
Speaker 1: spent two hours with The New York Times. Why aren't
Speaker 1: you talking to Guy Benson and Spencer Brown and Mary
Speaker 1: Catherine Hann So they have an ass and you know,
Speaker 1: they've got the best comms team that I've ever worked with,
Speaker 1: between Caroline and Steven and Margo and Natalie. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's great. Do you think our side just doesn't know
Speaker 1: to ask?
Speaker 5: Well, Hugh, I'll tell you this. I always ask. I
Speaker 5: always ask. Now you have to pick the right timing
Speaker 5: to ask, and you have to, you know, have the
Speaker 5: right route and the right you know, sort of angle
Speaker 5: to get in. Sometimes with this president I have, you know,
Speaker 5: I've interviewed him a couple of times, you know, the
Speaker 5: last time was about a year ago. I hope to
Speaker 5: be interviewing again soon. And I think it's always important
Speaker 5: to ask. It's just as important as asking. It's a
Speaker 5: politician who forgets to ask you to vote for them. Yes,
Speaker 5: you actually have to ask at the end. And that's
Speaker 5: a big difference in terms of in terms of opening
Speaker 5: up doors and having the opportunity to talk to this
Speaker 5: younger generation. Look, the President's clearly willing to talk to
Speaker 5: the people who are who are you know in that
Speaker 5: subsisty range because he's hired a bunch of them to
Speaker 5: be in his cabinet. Yeah, it's definitely something that I think.
Speaker 5: I hope more people lean into it, in part because
Speaker 5: I think we'll get a lot of interesting answers to
Speaker 5: interesting questions.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Just bring your a game and the question set will
Speaker 1: be so different from the one I come with, and
Speaker 1: that would be good for everyone. Ben Dominicch The Big
Speaker 1: Ben Podcast. I look forward to listening to it on
Speaker 1: the Long Trundle tomorrow and I appreciate your spending time
Speaker 1: with me. Welcome to the Weekend. I'm Hewett and many
Speaker 1: of my new audience in Pensacola, Florida my new affiliate
Speaker 1: up in Michigan. They will not know my next guest,
Speaker 1: John Ellis. John is the founder and principal editor of
Speaker 1: News Items, but everybody else who listens to the program
Speaker 1: knows John is here every weekend to go over the
Speaker 1: big news of the week. I've been talking a lot
Speaker 1: about Iran, John, and I are going to start, interestingly
Speaker 1: enough with Cuba. John, you sent me the news today
Speaker 1: that Cuba has touched bottom. Let's start there. What does
Speaker 1: bottom mean. I talked about Cuba with President Trump on Thursday,
Speaker 1: But what do you think the bottom means for Cuba?
Speaker 7: The bottom means there's no electricity, there is no gas
Speaker 7: for petrol for your car, and the social safety net
Speaker 7: that Cuba has prided itself on since the Castro Revolution
Speaker 7: has completely collapsed. What follows the collapse of a social
Speaker 7: safety net and the inability to turn on a light
Speaker 7: bulb we do not know, but we can certainly guess
Speaker 7: that it isn't going to be easy.
Speaker 1: Well, the second order impact of the Venezuelan operation is,
Speaker 1: as you pointed out to me, there's no friend left
Speaker 1: for Cuba. I suppose China and Russia might send them
Speaker 1: some stuff, but weren't they basically a venezuhale in dependency
Speaker 1: until this.
Speaker 7: Week they were basically you know, Cuba up until the
Speaker 7: collapse of the Soviet Union was essentially a dependent of
Speaker 7: the Soviet Union, and that was their last major crisis.
Speaker 7: When the Soviet Union went under, they lost that support.
Speaker 7: It was, you know, it wasn't quite clear that the
Speaker 7: regime stand it. Did things went along, Venezuela became a
Speaker 7: major you know, patronage or a patron of the of
Speaker 7: the Cuban arts, so to speak. And they have been
Speaker 7: propping up Cuba for a long time. And the Russians
Speaker 7: and the Chinese have a lot of business with Venezuela,
Speaker 7: so they're sort of, you know, active in the same
Speaker 7: job of keeping Cuba afloat and lo and behold. Trump
Speaker 7: comes along and changes, you know, tips over the entire
Speaker 7: chess board. Russia doesn't want to help Cuba now because
Speaker 7: Russia doesn't want to get in the donosphere. If you will,
Speaker 7: China same thing. They don't want to get in Trump's
Speaker 7: way in the Western hemisphere. They'll worry about their scope
Speaker 7: of influence. So you don't have China, you don't have Russia,
Speaker 7: and now you don't have Venezuela.
Speaker 1: You know, you're thinking.
Speaker 7: Nineteen seventy nine, there was something called the Mariel boat lift,
Speaker 7: which was Cuban refugees that essentially Castro threw out of
Speaker 7: the country and they came to Florida and you know,
Speaker 7: delivered Florida for Ronald Reagan in nineteen eighty this Mario
Speaker 7: both left. It's not going to be like that, but
Speaker 7: there's going to be something like it. Because if the
Speaker 7: social safety net has collapsed and you can't turn the
Speaker 7: lights on.
Speaker 1: You have to go somewhere where.
Speaker 7: There's some kind of service, and if it's not Havana,
Speaker 7: it's I don't know that the Ministrd in Republic or
Speaker 7: some other Caribbean island or the US.
Speaker 1: Yeah. When I were talking about this and Trump on Thursday,
Speaker 1: he professed to say he didn't know what more could
Speaker 1: be done to put pressure on the dictatorship down there,
Speaker 1: because they're short of invasion and bombing, which we're not
Speaker 1: in the about to do. And John, you just mentioned
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine. We're doing a lot of nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: nine again, that's when the Shaw had to leave Iran
Speaker 1: and the people were in the streets. I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you, as the old NBC nukes guy and for
Speaker 1: the benefit of the new listeners in Michigan and Pensacola.
Speaker 1: John's news items is the sub stack I begin with
Speaker 1: every day and what you might want to subscribe to.
Speaker 1: If you want a new summary every morning, just look
Speaker 1: up news Items by John Ellison. You'll be able to
Speaker 1: subscribe when you're at NBC. It seemed to me that
Speaker 1: the networks covered every day the Iranian revolution. I would
Speaker 1: sit in the office with Richard Nixon and Ray Price
Speaker 1: and we would watch every day the mobs that the
Speaker 1: crowds chant for the downfall, the show where are the
Speaker 1: networks right now? Are they not going to cover Iran?
Speaker 1: It's a funny thing.
Speaker 7: One's difficult to get in, right, It's difficult to get accredited.
Speaker 7: So the British and French and a lot of the
Speaker 7: European journalists are in there, but US networks are.
Speaker 1: Forbidden to go there. But you're right.
Speaker 7: In nineteen seventy nine, actually the overthrow of the Shah
Speaker 7: and the rise of Viatola Homini led to a hostage crisis,
Speaker 7: as everybody remembers, and that hostage crisis became the show
Speaker 7: called Nightline, hosted by Ted Koppol who every single night,
Speaker 7: you know, day one sixty seven of the hostage crisis,
Speaker 7: Day one seventy of the hostage crisis. It carried through
Speaker 7: all the way to the presidential election and had a
Speaker 7: significant role in the regular landslide in nineteen eighty There's
Speaker 7: no doubt about that.
Speaker 1: Well, I hope Starlink is up and running. Let's go
Speaker 1: from bad news to great news. You sent me the
Speaker 1: news about Rice. Rice rice and educate our audience because
Speaker 1: I think this is fabulous.
Speaker 7: Well, there's a there's a report in the South China
Speaker 7: Morning Post that says that Chinese research have developed quote
Speaker 7: a form of hybrid rice that can replicate itself through
Speaker 7: seeds that are clones, preserving high yield traits generation after
Speaker 7: generation according to the development team, which means that the
Speaker 7: cost of seeds are collapse essentially, and the yield and
Speaker 7: the ability to fight us increases exponentially. And so the
Speaker 7: theory is that you can with this technology drow twice
Speaker 7: as much rice as you have been able to grow
Speaker 7: in the past, and therefore feed twice as many people, which,
Speaker 7: given that roughly two and a quarter billion people are
Speaker 7: said to experience moderate or severe food insecurity, doubling the
Speaker 7: food supply of rice is an enormous, enormously good news.
Speaker 1: All glory too. I think I've got the name right.
Speaker 1: Norman Borlock was the University of Minnesota researcher Iowa likes
Speaker 1: to always say he came from US who invented these
Speaker 1: kind of drought resistance seeds and genetically altered seeds. That's
Speaker 1: great news. Now from bad news to great news, let's
Speaker 1: go to weird News because you're weirded me out. When
Speaker 1: you told me about the Meta ray bands, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure I like this, but you tell us about them.
Speaker 7: Well, Meta, which is Facebook, the parent company Facebook, has
Speaker 7: developed a smart glass, smart glasses. I'm wearing glasses and
Speaker 7: these would be if I had them meta eyes, they
Speaker 7: would be smart glasses, and they've partnered with ray band,
Speaker 7: try to be cool. But what the smart glasses enables
Speaker 7: is let's say that I go into a restaurant and
Speaker 7: you're over in the corner. I don't know who you are,
Speaker 7: but I see you over in the corner. I think
Speaker 7: I know who you are. I wonder who you are.
Speaker 7: So I turn on my smart glasses, and my smart
Speaker 7: glasses look at you and they do a photo id
Speaker 7: rapidly as fast as the Internet can go, and up
Speaker 7: pop Set's Hugh Hewitt, and so you know, oh, Hugh Hewett.
Speaker 7: That's great. And then I say, well, I need to
Speaker 7: see his page. And so Wikipedia page comes down and
Speaker 7: there is everything there is about Hugh Hewitt. And then
Speaker 7: I say, well, let me let me see what his
Speaker 7: last three shows have been about, and that comes down
Speaker 7: right in front of you. So that by the time
Speaker 7: I get to your table, I say, I say Hugh
Speaker 7: in a familiar sort of way, and I say, Hugh,
Speaker 7: I really enjoyed the show you did with President Trump
Speaker 7: the other day.
Speaker 1: It was great. Yeah, that's so weird, John.
Speaker 7: They're looking at me like, who is this guy?
Speaker 1: Is so weird? I hope it doesn't work, but I
Speaker 1: think what you say that they it works. Yeah.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 7: The reason they stop shipping it overseas is because demand
Speaker 7: in the US is so high.
Speaker 1: Well, every politician is going to everyone who looked for
Speaker 1: votes is going to demand that their staff have this
Speaker 1: on too. It'll be like the whisper behind the Pope.
Speaker 1: All right, I got to get the sleep FM because
Speaker 1: this is also great news. And I think it's great news.
Speaker 1: At least it's news that you can use.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 7: So there's a there's a Stanford Medical School did this
Speaker 7: huge research project on people's sleep and they did so
Speaker 7: to figure if you could predict a person's risk of
Speaker 7: developing more than one hundred health conditions just by looking
Speaker 7: at the sleep data. And so they did this enormous
Speaker 7: AI undertaking. They analyzed more than a thousand disease categories
Speaker 7: in the health records and found one hundred and thirty
Speaker 7: could be predicted with reasonable accuracy by a patient's sleep data.
Speaker 7: The model's predictions were particularly strong for cancers, pregnancy complications,
Speaker 7: circulatory conditions, and mental disorders. So you know, you can
Speaker 7: your wife can sneak in and put them put the
Speaker 7: helmet on you, and she can say you you're not
Speaker 7: at at risk for cancer.
Speaker 1: That's good news. But we also have to sneak in
Speaker 1: before we're done with time. Don't buy Russian air defense systems, right,
Speaker 1: they're not worrying if that was the story.
Speaker 7: I mean, the whole Russian military story is just an astonishing,
Speaker 7: you know, example of incompetence and just breaking down. I mean,
Speaker 7: the war that they were going to win in three
Speaker 7: days in Ukraine is now in year four. And the
Speaker 7: air defense system that they had in Ukraine, I mean
Speaker 7: in Venezuela didn't work.
Speaker 1: Like it didn't work in Iran. John Ellis always good
Speaker 1: to talk. You followed John on x at Ellis items
Speaker 1: and subscribe to news items if you want to be
Speaker 1: informed in about fifteen minutes every morning. It's a substact.
Speaker 1: Just googled John Ellison the news items. You'll go there.
Speaker 1: It's fabulous. Thank you, John, I'll be right back in
Speaker 1: America's pictures. Welcome back in America on you, Hewett. And
Speaker 1: we are all lucky to have Eli Lake in the house.
Speaker 1: Eli Lake is with the Free Press. He's also the
Speaker 1: host of the Breaking History podcast, which is fabulous. But
Speaker 1: when I say there may be a dozen Americans upon
Speaker 1: whom you can rely when the news turns to Iran,
Speaker 1: and Elia is one of them, just trust me on this.
Speaker 1: He's been covering Iran in a way that very few
Speaker 1: people careem sad you pour over Carnegie. I think af
Speaker 1: Sean Austavar, who wrote The Vanguard, or the m Mom,
Speaker 1: Michael Duran. There are a number of people who cover
Speaker 1: but I don't know anyone Eli, who's covered Iran as
Speaker 1: long as you that I talked to. So just give
Speaker 1: us your assessment of what is happening and what this
Speaker 1: weekend might bring.
Speaker 4: Well, I wouldn't start off by saying that there's a
Speaker 4: lot that we don't know, and we have to accept
Speaker 4: that there are dynamics that we can't possibly know. And
Speaker 4: even I don't think you know, the CIA and the
Speaker 4: Massade would know. And that is what is the mentality
Speaker 4: of the mid level officers in the BASIG which is
Speaker 4: their militia, the MOIS which is their intelligence services, and
Speaker 4: the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Because I think that at
Speaker 4: a certain point, the way that revolutions are successful is
Speaker 4: when there is an understanding that the commanding officer in
Speaker 4: the street will not follow the orders to fire on
Speaker 4: the crowds. And the fact that Donald Trump has credibly
Speaker 4: threatened the regime if they fire on the crowds, and
Speaker 4: they have there has been I think, you know, some
Speaker 4: say as many of forty have been killed. That might
Speaker 4: give people pause because I mean, look at what just
Speaker 4: happened to Nicholas Medora. So that's the first thing. We
Speaker 4: don't know what that dynamic is. By way of historical president,
Speaker 4: it wasn't just the big crowds that came out against
Speaker 4: the Shah Rezapalavi in nineteen seventy eight that forced the
Speaker 4: Shah to leave. It was the fact that there was
Speaker 4: a kind of amnesty that was communicated from Iatola Komani
Speaker 4: when he was in Paris to the military that said,
Speaker 4: if you do not fire on the on the crowds,
Speaker 4: if you do not make the arrests, then things will
Speaker 4: be okay for you now. Very important to note I
Speaker 4: Toolakomany as soon as he came into power, violated his promise.
Speaker 4: He was lying, and he did target the military leadership
Speaker 4: in incredibly cruel show trials that lasted in some cases
Speaker 4: maybe twenty minutes and then led immediately to a horrific
Speaker 4: kind of executions. They were covered all over the newspapers.
Speaker 4: It was absolutely terrifying, kind of real jacub in moment.
Speaker 4: But that is in some ways the kind of communications
Speaker 4: that we have to see right now. I think the
Speaker 4: local police in the big cities we've already seen reports
Speaker 4: are basically with the protesters. I wouldn't be surprised if
Speaker 4: the kind of very neutered and not as powerful Iranian army,
Speaker 4: not the IRGC, was with the protesters, but those key institutions.
Speaker 4: Now here's where I would say it's different than before.
Speaker 4: The first thing is this that ring of fire meant
Speaker 4: that the Iranians had the proxy network in the region,
Speaker 4: meant they could call up non Iranians, they could call
Speaker 4: up Lebanese Hesbalah other Arabs forces that were part of
Speaker 4: their broader kind of regional strategy to do violence against
Speaker 4: their own citizens. I don't think they have that option
Speaker 4: good option anymore. Number Two, the economic crisis is worse
Speaker 4: than it's been compounded by a potable drinking water crisis.
Speaker 4: A few months ago, we started seeing messages from the
Speaker 4: president saying we're gonna have to start rationeting drinking water.
Speaker 4: That is an extraordinary statement in a country with as
Speaker 4: many natural resources as Iran. And then add to all
Speaker 4: of that the humiliation of the Twelve Day war. That
Speaker 4: was when you know, the Israelis and the US knew
Speaker 4: where Kamena was and he was in an undisclosed location
Speaker 4: and they made it clear that they could kill him,
Speaker 4: and he was hiding from the public for the whole
Speaker 4: duration of the war. That kind of humiliation also has
Speaker 4: an effect on everybody else, all of the other henchmen
Speaker 4: and goons around him. That is the kind of thing
Speaker 4: that the Iranian people see, and you know, we're already
Speaker 4: seeing like the energy of the regime, the ideology. This
Speaker 4: is an Islamic republic. They believed that they had a mandate.
Speaker 4: They never did, but they believe they had a mandate
Speaker 4: from the Iranian people to create this kind of Islamic
Speaker 4: fascist regime that relied on things like women dressing modestly
Speaker 4: and having go.
Speaker 1: The ware of the Hajjab.
Speaker 4: They were unable to enforce the Hjjab mandate only a
Speaker 4: few years after the original women life freedom protests after
Speaker 4: the killing of Masa Alani Ashad. That is very important
Speaker 4: because it means like the kind of reason to exist
Speaker 4: if you're the Islamic Republic no longer has purchased from
Speaker 4: most of the Iranian people.
Speaker 1: All of those are very important. Let me bring up
Speaker 1: finally a detail that I read yesterday. I read this more.
Speaker 1: There was a bank run yesterday and Tehran and whatever
Speaker 1: small worth the weal has, people are trying to get
Speaker 1: as much as they can out of the banks beforehand.
Speaker 1: As President Trump told me on Thursday and then he
Speaker 1: told Sean Henity on Thursday night, he'll hit them very hard.
Speaker 1: He gave them a little bit of an out for
Speaker 1: the deaths that have occurred today, blaming it on stampede.
Speaker 1: But where would he hit them, Eli, from your perspective,
Speaker 1: that would hit them very hard.
Speaker 4: Well, certainly he can target you know, the sort of
Speaker 4: symbol the buildings of Regima pressions, the irgy headquarters, things
Speaker 4: like that, those kinds of things ev in prison where
Speaker 4: there were so many political prisoners that would be good,
Speaker 4: and then I think there's an implicit threat that he'll
Speaker 4: kill comedy. I mean, we remember the Israelis were able
Speaker 4: to pinpoint the entire military leadership right and get them
Speaker 4: to go to a meeting which was a pretext, which
Speaker 4: was kind of a because they'd hack their communitys and
Speaker 4: then blew them up in a meeting they thought was
Speaker 4: supposed to be, you know, the plan the response to
Speaker 4: the Israeli war. So that's you know, I would if
Speaker 4: I was in the leadership class, I'd be very worried
Speaker 4: about that. And then I'd say the final thing is
Speaker 4: that we've seen enough slogans calling for the restoration of
Speaker 4: the Polavi dynasty. That is an extraordinary thing as a
Speaker 4: fan of history.
Speaker 3: Hugh Hewett.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's going to happen.
Speaker 4: I don't think we necessarily know, but what an amazing
Speaker 4: moment if that we really saw the Islamic Revolution as
Speaker 4: only like a kind of you know, forty seven year
Speaker 4: interregnum between what has been the traditional form of governing,
Speaker 4: which is a kind of you know, I would hope
Speaker 4: it to be a constitutional monarchy, but Iran has had kings
Speaker 4: going back to the chemended Persian Empire. And the thing
Speaker 4: was that Colmene was saying, this is the end of
Speaker 4: Iranian kings. What it wouldn't it be interesting if his
Speaker 4: regime fell, only to see the restoration the son of
Speaker 4: the Shah that was exiled and the.
Speaker 1: Great Persia of old, the Cyrus of old, comeback eli
Speaker 1: very quickly. I watched this on television with Ray Price
Speaker 1: on one side and Richard Nixon on the other side. When
Speaker 1: I was a young editorial Assisiant to RN and Exile
Speaker 1: and San Clementy. It was twenty four to seven on
Speaker 1: the three networks, and I think CNN and seventy eight
Speaker 1: and seventy nine. Where are the networks? Where's the American media?
Speaker 1: This is the biggest story in the world.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, like, I don't know what to say.
Speaker 4: In my view, there's enough video that there's no excuse
Speaker 4: for it at this point. I mean, I don't have
Speaker 4: any insight into CBS, even though we're now part of
Speaker 4: the same company, but I know that CBS has done
Speaker 4: some work on it. I probably expect more, But I
Speaker 4: agree with you, it's a huge story at this point.
Speaker 1: It's not hype.
Speaker 4: And even if this doesn't work this time, it's the
Speaker 4: beginning of the end. It changes. I mean at this point,
Speaker 4: I think the regime has been exposed. It's illegitimate, and
Speaker 4: I think that that changes the calculus. I don't think
Speaker 4: there are any more deals. Even if there's a democratic
Speaker 4: president and they're still kind of limping along. There's no
Speaker 4: way you can get back to the kind of Obama diplomacy.
Speaker 4: What business, what bank, what oil company would want to
Speaker 4: do business with this regime given what we're seeing.
Speaker 1: Right now, well said, and if they massacre people, I
Speaker 1: hope it's not just the United States who respond. Eli
Speaker 1: Lake can be followed on x at Eli Lake at
Speaker 1: the Free Press, Way Rights frequently so of course breaking history.
Speaker 1: One of you are muck listening to podcasts, maybe you'll
Speaker 1: be telling you about from the show to the Crown
Speaker 1: Prince Since thank you, Eli Lake. Good morning, Gloria and
Speaker 1: Amy Grace America. I'm Hugh Hewett, proud to welcome back
Speaker 1: to the UUs Show President Donald Trump. Happy new year,
Speaker 1: mister Trump. Good to have you back.
Speaker 6: Well, thank you very much, you.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. I don't want to waste your time,
Speaker 1: so I'm going to dive right in and begin with Iran.
Speaker 1: Michael Durant at the Hudson Institute says, the regime there
Speaker 1: is failing. They have fuel shortages, electricity shortages, water shortage.
Speaker 1: Reem Sajiport. Carnegie is posting the videos of the spreading protests.
Speaker 1: Mark Dubovitz. So this is a quote. If President Trump
Speaker 1: brings down the Islamic Republic of Iran, he will cement
Speaker 1: his place as the greatest foreign policy presidents in Toronald Reagan,
Speaker 1: I think it would.
Speaker 6: Actually I already did that.
Speaker 1: I thought I was just about that with Midnight Hammer.
Speaker 1: You did that?
Speaker 3: How much?
Speaker 5: Well can I do?
Speaker 6: You know? We just had Venezuela, which has had Midnight Hammer.
Speaker 6: We settled eight wars, eight in the quarter. But I'm
Speaker 6: willing to accept that. I'm willing to accept it.
Speaker 1: What about Iran? Is the aim with Iran the collapse
Speaker 1: of that awful forty seven year tyranny.
Speaker 6: Well, I don't want to say it, but I will
Speaker 6: tell you they're not doing well. As you know, probably
Speaker 6: better than anybody. They're doing very poorly. And I have
Speaker 6: let them know that if they start killing people, which
Speaker 6: they tend to do during their riots, they have lots
Speaker 6: of riots. If they do it, we're going to hit
Speaker 6: them very hard.
Speaker 1: Now, dozens have been killed. I know you don't do
Speaker 1: red lines, but if you communicated to them what that
Speaker 1: limit of your patience is.
Speaker 6: Well, some have been killed by problems of crowd control
Speaker 6: and other things. We're watching it very closely. The crowds
Speaker 6: are so large. There's been a stampede. There's been three stampedes,
Speaker 6: and people have been killed in that. And I'm not
Speaker 6: sure I can necessarily hold somebody responsible for that. But
Speaker 6: they know, and they've been told very strongly, even more
Speaker 6: strongly than I'm speaking to you right now, that if
Speaker 6: they do that, they're going to have to pay. Hell.
Speaker 1: Do you have a message for the people of Iran,
Speaker 1: President Trunk?
Speaker 6: All I can say is you should. You should feel
Speaker 6: strongly about freedom. There's nothing like freedom, your brave people.
Speaker 6: It's a shame what's happened to your country. Your country
Speaker 6: was a great country. I remember years ago when I
Speaker 6: was a young real estate developer. Friends of mine went
Speaker 6: to Iran and they did great. They built buildings in Iran.
Speaker 6: They're still up, barely by the way, but they're still up.
Speaker 6: I see pictures of the apartment houses and they did
Speaker 6: very well in Iran. They've passed away. They were very
Speaker 6: successful developers. They were great people, mostly New York developments,
Speaker 6: but they went to Iran and they built some pretty
Speaker 6: good jobs in Iran. And I remember they were saying
Speaker 6: that people are great. The whole place was great. It
Speaker 6: was a tremendous market. And now you look at it,
Speaker 6: Look what's happened.
Speaker 1: I sat in the office of former President Nixon with
Speaker 1: Great Price on a couch with our end watching the
Speaker 1: fall of the shot, and he just kept shaking his head.
Speaker 1: He couldn't believe Jimmy Carter was letting it happen. Would
Speaker 1: you meet with Crown Prince Poblby Poblai, who is the
Speaker 1: heir to the constitutional monarchy. He doesn't want to rule.
Speaker 1: He would be a symbolic ruler like King Charles Well.
Speaker 6: I've watched him and he seemed like a nice person.
Speaker 6: But I'm not sure that it would be appropriate at
Speaker 6: this point to do that. As president. I think that
Speaker 6: we should let everybody go out there and we see
Speaker 6: who emerges. I'm not sure necessarily that I it would
Speaker 6: be an appropriate thing to do.
Speaker 1: Let me switch to China, mister President, last time we talked,
Speaker 1: and now he's ask you this. I asked you about
Speaker 1: Jimmy Lai, who was dying in real time. He's been convicted.
Speaker 1: Have you talked to Jijenping? I know you get along
Speaker 1: with it.
Speaker 6: I have. I have. I talked to him, and I
Speaker 6: mentioned Jimmy Lae. I don't know Jimmy Lai. I know
Speaker 6: of Jimmy Lai, and he was an activist, to put
Speaker 6: it mildly by a positive activist. But if you're Presidency,
Speaker 6: he wasn't a positive activist. I spoke to Presidency when
Speaker 6: I was in South Korea and we had a great
Speaker 6: talk about it, and I left it with him. He
Speaker 6: didn't give me an answer one way or the other.
Speaker 6: But obviously so far it hasn't been I got a
Speaker 6: lot of other answers that turned out positive. I haven't
Speaker 6: heard back on that one.
Speaker 1: If Jimmy Lai was free, would you consider that to
Speaker 1: be a very significant gesture by China?
Speaker 6: I would. I think it would be a great thing.
Speaker 6: I think I told Presidency that he's an old man
Speaker 6: who's very sick. I met his son, who was a
Speaker 6: very nice young man who loves his father a lot.
Speaker 6: His son is the primary person that's working very hard
Speaker 6: to get him out, and I felt I owed it
Speaker 6: to the son. I like the son. I mean, look,
Speaker 6: I don't know him, but I met him fairly briefly.
Speaker 6: But I love that he was fighting hard for his father.
Speaker 6: I thought that was I'd like to see sons that
Speaker 6: fight hard for fathers, and he was certainly doing that.
Speaker 6: And I mentioned it during my meeting early on in
Speaker 6: my meeting as a list of things that I'd like
Speaker 6: to talk about, but we have not heard back on
Speaker 6: that one.
Speaker 1: All right, let me turn to Cuba, mister president. For
Speaker 1: sixty seven years, that police state dictatorship has sucked the
Speaker 1: life blood out of the people of that island. Is
Speaker 1: it time to increase the pressure there, maybe even quarantine
Speaker 1: it as you have Venezuela.
Speaker 6: Well, I don't think you could have much more pressure
Speaker 6: other than going in and blasting the hell out of
Speaker 6: the place. Look, they are their whole life blood, their
Speaker 6: whole life was Venezuela. They got their oil, they got
Speaker 6: their money from Venezuela. And as you know, our great
Speaker 6: soldiers when and we had nobody killed, they lost many
Speaker 6: Cuban fighters during that battle. Many amazing job that the
Speaker 6: American soldiers had led by a man who happens to
Speaker 6: be sitting right next to me. General Caine a job.
Speaker 6: What a job he did, and Pete Hegseth did, and
Speaker 6: the whole group, what a job they all did. It's amazing. Actually,
Speaker 6: John Ratcliffe is walking in, Marco Rubio is walking in.
Speaker 6: We have a whole group of people here. They're all
Speaker 6: fans of yours. They're not walking in to listen to
Speaker 6: this call. They just happened to be walking in for
Speaker 6: the next meeting.
Speaker 1: I got a little advice for you, mister President. Don't
Speaker 1: play golf and give strokes to Director Ratcliffe. Don't do that.
Speaker 1: Don't give many strokes.
Speaker 6: He's a good golfer and a very he's a very
Speaker 6: good guy too.
Speaker 1: Back to Cuba, Miguel Diaz Canal, do you think he
Speaker 1: could fall like Haminy and Iran might fall?
Speaker 6: Yeah? I think I Look, I think that Cuba is
Speaker 6: hanging by a thread. Cuba's in big trouble. Look, Cuba
Speaker 6: got all of its money for protecting. They were like
Speaker 6: a protector. They're tough, strong people, they're great people. Marco
Speaker 6: has a little Cuban blood in him. I think Marco's
Speaker 6: not doing a bad job, right? What do you think?
Speaker 6: Can I ask you one question? How is Marco Rubio doing?
Speaker 1: Is the equal of any secretary of State of my lifetime.
Speaker 1: And I'm glad he's not taking the Dolphins job. He
Speaker 1: should work for the Browns. If he leaves your administration,
Speaker 1: that's right, all right.
Speaker 6: He goes will be successful. But no, I think that
Speaker 6: I think that Cuba is really in a lot of trouble.
Speaker 6: But you know, people have been saying that for many years,
Speaker 6: in all fairness about Cuban. Cuba has been in trouble
Speaker 6: for the last forty five years, and you know they
Speaker 6: haven't quite gone down, but I think they're pretty close
Speaker 6: of their own volition.
Speaker 1: I want to try and define the Trump doctrine, mister President.
Speaker 1: I've been trying to do it on the air. It's
Speaker 1: down to that, don't kill or threaten Americans or our
Speaker 1: property or American security in general, or we will hit
Speaker 1: you very very hard.
Speaker 6: Is that the and included in theirs don't send drugs
Speaker 6: and don't send things that are going to kill our people.
Speaker 6: But you can you can sort of make the savement
Speaker 6: that you've indirectly said that, but it's a pretty direct staatement,
Speaker 6: don't send drugs into our country.
Speaker 1: It's a great doctrine. Now the next question. I'm a
Speaker 1: Salem host of Fox Contributors. This is a bit unusual.
Speaker 1: Brett Bair does the best interviews with you. I'm exempting
Speaker 1: myself from consideration, but I think you got to give
Speaker 1: Tony Dokapohl a chance over at CBS to see if
Speaker 1: they've really changed their ways. Is that on the agenda.
Speaker 6: Well, it hasn't been on the agenda, but if you
Speaker 6: recommend it, I would do it. I have a lot
Speaker 6: of respect for you, as you know, and I think
Speaker 6: you're doing a great job. And you've done a great job.
Speaker 6: You went a little bit liberal on us for a
Speaker 6: while when you were at NBC Indy. I can't believe.
Speaker 6: I couldn't believe you sitting on NBC trying to answer
Speaker 6: questions that you didn't believe in. You only gave them
Speaker 6: partial answers. You were never fully there, but you couldn't
Speaker 6: get out fast enough. It was very fun to watch it.
Speaker 1: I'm happy with sailing.
Speaker 6: I hear good things about Tony, and I can tell
Speaker 6: you that David Ellison is a fantastic guy, and his father,
Speaker 6: Larry is one of the great been good friends of mine,
Speaker 6: both of them, but David's doing a fantastic job, and
Speaker 6: they feel very strongly about Tony.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't want Barry Weiss and Tony to overtake
Speaker 1: Fox and Salem, but I would like you to give
Speaker 1: him a shot to see if he's got the chop.
Speaker 6: Well, it's been important to you, I do it. No
Speaker 6: are your good things about Tony?
Speaker 1: Now? You gave two hours of The New York Times yesterday.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you. The most successful president to the media
Speaker 1: in history, actually, but I would like to see you
Speaker 1: sit down with Matt Contnetty, Guy Benson, Spencer Brown, Mary
Speaker 1: Catherine Ham, the Mandels, Philip Wegaman. All of our superstar
Speaker 1: youngster people are under forty forty five? Is that on
Speaker 1: the agenda Sometimes to sit down with.
Speaker 6: Arthur would be I mean, they have to ask, and
Speaker 6: it would be I certainly like all the names that
Speaker 6: you mentioned, And I will say that I think the
Speaker 6: Times treated me pretty fairly yesterday.
Speaker 1: Well interesting, I haven't read it yet, the trans skeptis
Speaker 1: and outs.
Speaker 6: I'm waiting for the shock and it's a little hard
Speaker 6: not to. We have the greatest potential economy in history.
Speaker 6: We have eighteen trillion dollars coming in. The record is
Speaker 6: three and that was from many, many years ago. We
Speaker 6: have something that just took place with Venezuela that everybody
Speaker 6: considered as one of the most brilliant attacks they've ever seen.
Speaker 6: And you know we had we lost no people in
Speaker 6: the middle of a fort. Don't forget that house was
Speaker 6: built in the middle of a fort with thousands of soldiers.
Speaker 6: They lost quite a few people. I hate to say that.
Speaker 1: I talked to an active duty naval officer yesterday who's
Speaker 1: very jealous that they were not there because it was
Speaker 1: such an extraordinary mission.
Speaker 6: You know what, we had an extraordinary attack a few
Speaker 6: months ago in a place called Iran. We knocked out
Speaker 6: the Iran nuclear threat and it was obliterated. And we
Speaker 6: also took out Solomoni and we took out Al Bagdaddy.
Speaker 6: So we've had some good attacks so far. We haven't
Speaker 6: had the Afghanistan disaster. That was the lowest point I
Speaker 6: think in the history of our country, Biden. But if
Speaker 6: you look also the Jimmy Carter disaster, that was a
Speaker 6: disaster with the hostages, and you know, when we.
Speaker 1: Were very democratic, President A disaster.
Speaker 6: Two planes. I said, I hope it's not a Jimmy
Speaker 6: Carter deal, Carter.
Speaker 1: Clinton, Obama, Biden. They've all been disasters in national security.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you about it.
Speaker 6: I haven't had I haven't had any disaster.
Speaker 1: Yet, and I hope it stays that way.
Speaker 6: I hope the word yet is going to disappear.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, we got to talk about the Golden Fleet,
Speaker 1: because this is important. I want to take my hat
Speaker 1: off to you. On the Golden Fleet. We need guided
Speaker 1: missile frigates and attack submarines and the Columbia class. And
Speaker 1: the worst way is there going to be enough money
Speaker 1: in the budget to get everything built that we need,
Speaker 1: including new shipyards.
Speaker 6: Well, we are going to have plenty of money. And
Speaker 6: if you notice what I did yesterday, I told all
Speaker 6: defence companies there's going to be no more buybacks. You're
Speaker 6: going to put the money into building new plant and equipment,
Speaker 6: and there's going to be no more stock options, and
Speaker 6: there's going to be no more salaries of fifty million
Speaker 6: dollars a year. You're going to put the money in.
Speaker 6: We're going to have a capped at five million dollars
Speaker 6: and that's effective immediately and all that money that they're
Speaker 6: sending out is going to have to be and you
Speaker 6: know what, the stock prices went up. The reason is
Speaker 6: I also put out a statement, a secondary statement, saying
Speaker 6: that next year we expect to have one point five
Speaker 6: trillion in defense budget. And we're also building battleships. You know,
Speaker 6: we're building great battleships. We have twenty five on schedule,
Speaker 6: but we're going to start with ten and then we'll
Speaker 6: see how that all goes. But we're going to build battleships.
Speaker 6: And you know, I thought, you remember from Victory at sea.
Speaker 6: You take a look at those great gorgeous ships, the Iowa,
Speaker 6: the Alabama, the Missouri, those great ships and if you
Speaker 6: see you know what I'm talking.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, provided they've got lots of missile tubes on it.
Speaker 1: I'm all for them. The more missile tubes that see,
Speaker 1: the better.
Speaker 6: I said, why don't we take some of them out
Speaker 6: of bathballs. The new ships will be one hundred times
Speaker 6: more powerful than the those battleships that we so admired.
Speaker 1: Now, I know you're up up upping the construction at
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Shipyard and enhancing its capacity.
Speaker 6: And numerous others. Yeah, I was wondering are you gonna
Speaker 6: build walk into the shipbuilding business?
Speaker 1: That is that's the best news. Do people understand how
Speaker 1: important that is to the economy.
Speaker 6: I think they know. But the Philadelphia yard is one
Speaker 6: of the yards that's going to be opened up. But
Speaker 6: we have numerous yards that are opened up. Some of
Speaker 6: those yards have been built up by housing projects. You know,
Speaker 6: they're all in the water, so they tended to be
Speaker 6: in nice locations. But we have many yards opening up,
Speaker 6: and we're going to be very much back in the
Speaker 6: shipbuilding business. And in some cases we're partnering with South
Speaker 6: Korea and others initially because we have to get you know,
Speaker 6: we used to make almost the ship a day during
Speaker 6: World War Two and then we just totally got out
Speaker 6: of that business stupidly. But we're back in the shipbuilding business.
Speaker 1: We have to be all right now. I want to
Speaker 1: switch to one of my other favorite topics with image
Speaker 1: President of the Supreme Court. I know you don't expect
Speaker 1: a retirement in the spring, but if one happens, you've
Speaker 1: appointed sixty Appeals Court judges. Would you expect to take
Speaker 1: either a runner up from last time I Judge Catlidge
Speaker 1: or one of your appointees. Judge row is fifty three
Speaker 1: on the DC Circuit. Judge Rushing on the fourth is
Speaker 1: forty three. Judge strass On the eighth is fifty one.
Speaker 1: A MultiPar is fifty six. Don Willet's sixty. Then you
Speaker 1: got Senator Cruz is fifty five, and he got District
Speaker 1: Court Judge Eileen Cannon. I think she did a good
Speaker 1: job in the Florida case. She's forty five. Yeps.
Speaker 6: She did a great job. She's a great judge.
Speaker 1: Yes she did, and she came to the right constitutional
Speaker 1: conclusion about the illegality of the appointment.
Speaker 6: Highly respected. Yeah, So those are all great names. Every
Speaker 6: one of those names is a great name. Now, Ted Cruz.
Speaker 6: The nice one about him is we'd get a one
Speaker 6: hundred percent approval. Every Democrat would vote yes, and every
Speaker 6: Republican would vote yes because they would love to get
Speaker 6: him the hell out of the Senate, all of them,
Speaker 6: so that he's the only one that would be a
Speaker 6: guaranteed confirmation. And he's a smart guy, he's a good guy.
Speaker 6: And I say that joke, but I always say Ted
Speaker 6: would get a one hundred percent approval. The Democrats want
Speaker 6: him out, the Republicans want him out, and he'd do great,
Speaker 6: and he's smart. But all of the names that you
Speaker 6: mentioned are great names, every one of them.
Speaker 1: I know who is advising you on judges this term
Speaker 1: as Leonard is not and the Federal Society is not.
Speaker 6: Well. I'm using some people actually that you know, i'd
Speaker 6: rather tell you on a personal prisis not on a
Speaker 6: phone call. But I have some very good people that
Speaker 6: are advising me, people that you know in respect.
Speaker 1: I am the legislative agenda for this year. I know
Speaker 1: I watched your talk to the Republicans at the Trump
Speaker 1: County Center, and I know you talked about healthcare. That
Speaker 1: would be great, but it would be easier to get
Speaker 1: done if you have bundled it with, for example, the
Speaker 1: Dreamers Act, the AM Radio in Every Car Act, both
Speaker 1: of those have got super majority. Do you think that's
Speaker 1: the strategy, Bundle healthcare with very popular laws, get them
Speaker 1: to the floor and move them.
Speaker 6: Well. I think healthcare is so big and so important
Speaker 6: that it probably supersedes some slightly less you know, a
Speaker 6: very popular thing, but less important. I like the AM
Speaker 6: in every car, the AM radio in every car. I
Speaker 6: like that. I'm in favor of it. It's interesting. A
Speaker 6: lot of people don't know about that, but it's actually
Speaker 6: a very big subject.
Speaker 1: So it's a huge deal.
Speaker 6: It's a hugee We're going to be doing something on that.
Speaker 6: All of the things you mentioned I like, but I
Speaker 6: think healthcare is so big and so powerful it's going
Speaker 6: to really going to have to stand in his own way,
Speaker 6: all right, So I want, you know, with healthcare, it's
Speaker 6: pretty simple. I want because if you take a look,
Speaker 6: I don't know if you study insurance companies, but these
Speaker 6: guys have made literally trillions of dollars. I want the
Speaker 6: money to go directly to the people and let the
Speaker 6: people buy their own healthcare, and everybody loves it.
Speaker 1: I do too. I think that would be a genius.
Speaker 1: I just think to get Democratic vote you might have
Speaker 1: to put the Dreamers Act in or the Radio Act
Speaker 1: in along with.
Speaker 6: The Democrats is they're totally in bed with the insurance companies.
Speaker 6: And what you know, what I'm doing is the exact opposite.
Speaker 6: I'm giving the money to the people. They've given the
Speaker 6: money to the insurance companies. It's hard for them to
Speaker 6: vote against the insurance companies who have made a fortune
Speaker 6: because of the Democrats.
Speaker 1: Now, miss President, when we have that sit down that
Speaker 1: privately talk about judges. I would like to talk to
Speaker 1: you about Richard Nixon because I believe your understanding of
Speaker 1: American power projection is very similar to his. And I
Speaker 1: think he also liked to keep people guessing. Some people
Speaker 1: call it the Madman theory. I just thought it was
Speaker 1: a strategic sense. Do you think that comparison is apt?
Speaker 6: Well, look, I don't know. We're just respected. We're respected
Speaker 6: again as a country, and I'm respected, but we're respected.
Speaker 6: We had a president who shouldn't have been there. First
Speaker 6: of all, it was a rigged election, and that's now
Speaker 6: coming out loud and clear. But we knew that. I
Speaker 6: knew that four years ago. But it was just a rigged,
Speaker 6: horrible election, and that's where we got. We got a
Speaker 6: man that allowed millions of people into our country from
Speaker 6: jails and mental institutions and drug dealers and shame that
Speaker 6: what Biden was just a horrible president. And you know,
Speaker 6: if she would have won, which is the equivalent, if
Speaker 6: she would have won, our country would have been right
Speaker 6: now Venezuela on steria a disaster.
Speaker 1: A disaster, and Tim Walls would have been the vice
Speaker 1: president instead of vice president vance, I can't believe it.
Speaker 1: Let me turn to politics in my last couple of minutes,
Speaker 1: mister President, I want to honor your time. You crush
Speaker 1: the debates in twenty fifteen sixteen, The last one was
Speaker 1: just Secretary Rubio, Senator Cruzer. We've talked about Governor Khenu,
Speaker 1: and then there were no more. You skip the debates
Speaker 1: in twenty five, twenty three, twenty four. You will control,
Speaker 1: you will whether or not the GOP has debates in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty seven, twenty twenty eight. Do you think they
Speaker 1: are a good thing for the party or a bad thing?
Speaker 1: Do you want to have them or do you not
Speaker 1: want to have them?
Speaker 6: Well, I always liked them. For me, I love debating.
Speaker 6: But I think I did the right thing. I had,
Speaker 6: you know, ten people, they're all smart people, they're you know,
Speaker 6: governors and senators, and I figured, why should I allow
Speaker 6: myself to be whacked by all ten people. At the
Speaker 6: same time, I think I did a very fun A
Speaker 6: lot of people said you have to be in the debate.
Speaker 6: I said, I don't think I do, and then I
Speaker 6: had the debate with Biden, which turned out to be
Speaker 6: a good debate. I don't think I got enough credit
Speaker 6: for that debate because I made him choke. But he
Speaker 6: didn't do well in that debate. And the interesting thing is,
Speaker 6: without that debate, would he have been allowed to continue running. Uh?
Speaker 1: Yes, he would have been. And that would have been
Speaker 1: a disaster for the party, even worse than Kamala Harris,
Speaker 1: because you can't hide the fact he was infirm. He
Speaker 1: was infirm, he wasn't there.
Speaker 6: Well, he didn't do too well, I would say that.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about the Democrats to wrap.
Speaker 6: Up, is not the greatest go ahead?
Speaker 1: Who is the strongest Democrat in twenty twenty eight? Gavin Newsom, AOC,
Speaker 1: Jasmine Crockett, Jared Poulos in Colorado, Chris van Holland, Wes Moore,
Speaker 1: Andy Bisher. Who's their best choice?
Speaker 6: You know, as you rattle off those names, I'm just
Speaker 6: seeing in't and amazing. With three hundred and fifty people,
Speaker 6: of course, we have no idea that Biden let him
Speaker 6: so many nobody knows. But with let's say three hundred
Speaker 6: and fifty people, that that's the best they can do,
Speaker 6: it's pretty sad. I think Newsom's hurt because he's done
Speaker 6: so badly in California. He has he's done so so badly.
Speaker 6: I just you know, look, he's a sort of a
Speaker 6: good politician, but he doesn't get the job done. I
Speaker 6: think people are going to people aren't going to stand
Speaker 6: for that. There's nobody. I do have a couple of
Speaker 6: people that I think would be really tough candidates, but
Speaker 6: I don't want to name him because not chosen.
Speaker 1: Well, that does make some sense to me. Okay, let's
Speaker 1: close with mister mayor, Mom Donnie, and you decide when
Speaker 1: to conclude the interview. Mister President, I know you love
Speaker 1: New York City. It's going to be a nightmare. I've
Speaker 1: only lived there once. I've only lived there in nineteen eighty.
Speaker 1: It's going to be worse than nineteen eighty, which was
Speaker 1: damn bad and I left and went to law school
Speaker 1: because it was so bad. Will the city be able
Speaker 1: to recover after Mom, Donnie.
Speaker 6: Well, it's going to be interesting. You know, I've met him.
Speaker 6: He came to the Oval offices and we've had some
Speaker 6: nice conversations, are very good. And then he hit me
Speaker 6: a little bit on the tremendous victory. And you would
Speaker 6: say it was a tremendous victory on Venezuela and I said, gee,
Speaker 6: I thought he would have at least waited a month.
Speaker 6: I was surprised that he hit me on that, but
Speaker 6: he did. You know, so what are you going to do? Kid?
Speaker 6: I expected it. I just thought it would be maybe
Speaker 6: three or four weeks instead of immediately, because I do
Speaker 6: get along with him. He's got a great personality, is
Speaker 6: a nice guy. His policies are not good, but maybe
Speaker 6: he changes, you know. That's what I would view because
Speaker 6: I want to do everything I can to help New York.
Speaker 6: So I don't know. I hope you're wrong. I hope
Speaker 6: New York is thrive, will thrive. But typically those policies,
Speaker 6: maybe you say not only typically in history, those policies
Speaker 6: have never worked.
Speaker 1: They did never work. The last thing I'll say to him, this, President,
Speaker 1: Golden Dome is the most important legacy you're going to
Speaker 1: leave if it gets built. I've read some studies that
Speaker 1: say Ravenna, Ohio is where the hubb out would be
Speaker 1: for space force to control that because of the polar
Speaker 1: ice cap. Have you decided where the central location of
Speaker 1: Golden Dome will be yet? No?
Speaker 6: But I love Ohio. I can tell you that, and
Speaker 6: I've worn Ohio big every sing every time, and everybody
Speaker 6: I've endorsed from Ohio is one, and you know, it's
Speaker 6: been great. But I've heard that's one of the people,
Speaker 6: one of the places very much being considered.
Speaker 1: All Right, mister President, thank you for the time. I
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Come back again soon and I look forward
Speaker 1: to talking to you again. Congratulations on a great first
Speaker 1: year in your second term.
Speaker 6: Thank you very much. You take care of yourself. Thank you. Bye.