Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things
Speaker 1: Hillsdale at Hillsdale dot ed or I encourage you to
Speaker 1: take advantage of the many free online courses there, and
Speaker 1: of course I listen to the Hillsdale Dialogue all of
Speaker 1: them at Hugh for Hillsdale dot com or just goigle
Speaker 1: Apple iTunes and Hillsdale Welcome back in America. I'm Hugh Hewett.
Speaker 1: Richard Goldberg as a senior advisor at the Foundation for
Speaker 1: the Defensive Democracy. He's one of those people actually knows
Speaker 1: what he's talking about. On Iran, Richard, I want to
Speaker 1: start with this story from Iran International Iran Central Bank Warrens'
Speaker 1: economy may take twelve years to rebuild after the war.
Speaker 1: How much credibility did you give this report?
Speaker 2: Well, it probably has a good deal of credibility. I mean,
Speaker 2: I think our own back of the envelope has been
Speaker 2: in the hundreds of billions of dollars of damage done
Speaker 2: to the economy already on our side. Now, obviously the Iranians,
Speaker 2: for their own propaganda, might want to try to put
Speaker 2: out a big number because they've supposedly asked for some
Speaker 2: sort of reparation.
Speaker 3: Payments and negotiations.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, Iran International usually gets a
Speaker 2: hold of some pretty good information, some good intelligues, and
Speaker 2: so I think if you match that with what they
Speaker 2: had also reported a few weeks ago of President Pizeski
Speaker 2: and sending almost a memo to these IRGC officials who've
Speaker 2: taken charge of the country, saying we can't hold out
Speaker 2: much longer. The whole economy is on the verge of collapse.
Speaker 2: It does paint a much more dire picture of what's
Speaker 2: going on inside the country for this rum regime than
Speaker 2: what they would lead us to believe through their cognitive warfare.
Speaker 1: Now, Richard, the one thing that makes me uneasy is
Speaker 1: I used to have friends who knew about the South
Speaker 1: African regime before it it gave way, and they could
Speaker 1: have gone to the mattresses. They could have kept their nukes,
Speaker 1: they could have kept their bank accounts. The Iranian regime
Speaker 1: has got a lot of money stowed away overseas in
Speaker 1: shadow accounts and in banking even in the UAE and Dubai.
Speaker 1: Do we have any plan to cut them off from
Speaker 1: that money if they don't come to the table.
Speaker 2: I think your question couldn't be more timely. It would
Speaker 2: appear what the administration is doing right now, combined with
Speaker 2: the blockade on the naval waters, is going from Operation
Speaker 2: epic Fury to Operation economic Fury. And so a letter
Speaker 2: apparently was sent just today to the UAE, to Oman,
Speaker 2: to Hong Kong, and to China and all their banks saying,
Speaker 2: we know that there's shadow banking. We know you may
Speaker 2: be holding onto or processing some sort of Iranian funds.
Speaker 2: We are watching. We are now on warning. We are
Speaker 2: going to use the full maximum pressure of our sanctions
Speaker 2: and cut you off from the United States the minute
Speaker 2: we have evidence that you are handling their funds. Stop
Speaker 2: it right now, freeze them in place. We'll see if
Speaker 2: that has.
Speaker 3: A big impact.
Speaker 2: That was a big warning letter just sent out in
Speaker 2: the last few hours. And then on top of that,
Speaker 2: obviously the lack of imports coming into the country. We
Speaker 2: focus a lot on the export cutoff of oil, obviously
Speaker 2: in other exports where they would get revenue, but they
Speaker 2: can't import either, and so that's also going to create
Speaker 2: a major balance of payments crisis. The prices inside the
Speaker 2: country are going skyrocket, hyperinflation going through the roof, even
Speaker 2: where it already is at the banks, which were already
Speaker 2: teetering back in January. We know about we'll have even
Speaker 2: more pressure on them, and gasoline will not be coming
Speaker 2: into the country, something that increasingly last year they had
Speaker 2: to rely on imports for and it actually just cut
Speaker 2: subsidies on at the end of last year.
Speaker 1: So Richard I stayed up late Saturday night waiting for
Speaker 1: the Vice president to come out and make a statement,
Speaker 1: very very relieved when it turned out to be Recovic
Speaker 1: two point zero and not Munich. Are you feeling good
Speaker 1: right now about where Team Trump is vis a VI
Speaker 1: the remnants of this regime?
Speaker 2: I am if you put aside the cognitive warfare piece
Speaker 2: that this run regime is very good at. And unfortunately,
Speaker 2: they have a lot of nodes throughout the United States
Speaker 2: that can echo and their propaganda, you know, unnamed sources
Speaker 2: suddenly in the Wall Street Journal or Axios wherever it is,
Speaker 2: and they can push this out onto social.
Speaker 3: Media and you believe that we're losing. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 3: we're losing. How is this possible?
Speaker 2: I think the more accurate assessment is likely what the presidencies,
Speaker 2: which is a rump regime that has no ability to
Speaker 2: defend the country anymore is hanging on to remnant offensive
Speaker 2: capabilities to keep that propaganda going. Is on the verge
Speaker 2: of an economic collapse potentially if you push them over
Speaker 2: the edge. So I don't think he would be inclined
Speaker 2: to say, hey, I'm going to give you back to
Speaker 2: JCVOA after I've brought you to the brink of collapse.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, we probably have a little
Speaker 2: bit of deficiency in the full intel picture because a
Speaker 2: lot of people are dead, a lot of other people
Speaker 2: are hiding, the communication is broken down, and actually having
Speaker 2: a delegation come to Islamabad and watching them, how they prepared,
Speaker 2: Who was there, who seems to be the leader, who's
Speaker 2: in charge? Who do they have to report to when
Speaker 2: they go back to Tehran. In the fact that the
Speaker 2: Vice president said they couldn't make a decision, he had
Speaker 2: to go back and talk to somebody, he said, the
Speaker 2: Supreme Leader or somebody in his interview that you just played.
Speaker 2: So I think we're learning a lot more about the
Speaker 2: dysfunction inside. Now the bombs have stopped dropping for the
Speaker 2: moment in the ceasefire, the Iranian side's probably learning a
Speaker 2: lot more about the devastation that they have actually suffered.
Speaker 2: And now with the US Navy through the Strait, alongside
Speaker 2: a blockade and the crack down on the banks, this
Speaker 2: is a lot of leverage for the President of the
Speaker 2: United States to get what he wants at the table.
Speaker 1: And Richard, a key player who's not at the table
Speaker 1: but is in the background is the People's Republic of China.
Speaker 1: What did they want to see happen? Do you think
Speaker 1: what is it least acceptable for them to see happen?
Speaker 3: Well, two things I would say.
Speaker 2: First of all, the Chinese and the Russians have not
Speaker 2: come to the rescue of the remnant regime.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of you know, unnamed sources.
Speaker 2: Though there might be a shipment of radar coming, or
Speaker 2: of air defense or preakers or chemicals for fear Muel,
Speaker 2: none of that has actually materialized. And from a substantive
Speaker 2: contribution to saving the regime from the devastation of epic fury,
Speaker 2: nothing actually was there. So, you know, whatever they thought
Speaker 2: they were going to rely on from their agreements with
Speaker 2: the Chinese with the Russians didn't come to fruition. Now,
Speaker 2: the Chinese obviously have sort of a double edged sword here.
Speaker 3: On the one side, They.
Speaker 2: Depend on all of the oil and petrochemicals and other
Speaker 2: imports out of the Golf.
Speaker 3: Not just Iran, which is one point five to two million.
Speaker 2: Barrels per day of illicit oil exports that they're getting,
Speaker 2: plus the petrochemicals, but also Saudi Arabia, the UAE, you know,
Speaker 2: all the players that you would think of. They're importing
Speaker 2: massive more amounts for their own economy from the Golf.
Speaker 3: They can't actually long term.
Speaker 2: Sustain the idea of the Strait of Hormuz being shut
Speaker 2: down or the Iranian somehow being control of their fate
Speaker 2: and destiny. At the same time, they have been stockpiling
Speaker 2: for years now with the cheap discounted sanction oil from Iran,
Speaker 2: from Russia, from Venezuela, and had some sort of runway
Speaker 2: to try to see if the Iranians could hold on,
Speaker 2: could we lose control, Could this turnout in their favor
Speaker 2: where we lose control of the Strait of Hormus.
Speaker 3: Now that we have.
Speaker 2: Transitioned from epic fury to economic fury and we're imposing
Speaker 2: our will potentially on the imports and exports out of Iran,
Speaker 2: the Chinese are now seeing their fate may.
Speaker 3: Be in our hands.
Speaker 2: They're still going to need the oil to come out
Speaker 2: of the Strait of horm moves, they still need stability
Speaker 2: to be restored. But we are now setting the terms,
Speaker 2: and so if we're able to actually keep this blockade
Speaker 2: in place, actually be able to dictate the future of
Speaker 2: the Strait of Hormuz. This is not a good future
Speaker 2: for the Chinese. They stand to benefit from us opening
Speaker 2: the strait and bringing them their own oil out from
Speaker 2: Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf, but they will,
Speaker 2: long term, and I think they know this, have a
Speaker 2: strategic loss in all they've invested in in Tehran.
Speaker 1: All right, one minute, Richard, the friends of Iran and
Speaker 1: any American media are people who at least not enemies
Speaker 1: of On, are spinning the Lebanon situation wildly. What do
Speaker 1: we have one minute? What do you understand the situation
Speaker 1: in Lebanon to be.
Speaker 2: Well, Hesbel obviously is the og of the terrorist proxies
Speaker 2: of the regime in Tehran, and they got into the
Speaker 2: fight on order of Tehran in the middle of epic fury,
Speaker 2: and they started launching their missiles and their drones and
Speaker 2: their rockets at the state of Israel under cover of
Speaker 2: ceasefire for the last couple of years, since the end
Speaker 2: of the Biden administration, when when they pushed the Israelis
Speaker 2: into a ceasefire in Lebanon. Obviously, Iran has been trying
Speaker 2: to rebuild Hesbela. The Israelis have incredible intelligence. It appears
Speaker 2: a massive operation to neutralize hundreds of operatives and officials
Speaker 2: very quickly. The regime would like to see Hesbela survive.
Speaker 2: I don't think the United States wants to see that happen.
Speaker 2: Israel doesn't want to see that happen, and the US
Speaker 2: is now on Israel's side, working with the government of Lebanon,
Speaker 2: bringing them to the US to say, work with us
Speaker 2: to take back your country. We're not giving Lebanon back
Speaker 2: to Iran.
Speaker 1: I hope you are right, Richard Goldberg, thank you for
Speaker 1: joining me from the Foundation for the Defensive Democracy. Welcome back, America.
Speaker 1: I'm Hugh Hewett. That music means David Druckers in the House.
Speaker 1: David is the chief political correspondent for the Dispatch. He's
Speaker 1: also Cammis for Bloomberg. David, you and I are Californians,
Speaker 1: though we have both fled the state California lost Eric
Speaker 1: Swalwell this week from the ticket and from their delegation.
Speaker 1: Now Ever since Fang Thang, I've known he was not
Speaker 1: to be trusted, but I just thought he was an
Speaker 1: average knucklehead. I didn't know he was a predator. Had
Speaker 1: you ever heard whispers that he was a predator? Ian?
Speaker 4: Nothing credible, I mean, nothing that made me feel the
Speaker 4: need to look into it. The thing about Hugh, the
Speaker 4: thing about being a reporter in Washington is like I
Speaker 4: received a rumor of just about everybody in public life
Speaker 4: at one time or another, and so that's the sort
Speaker 4: of thing that just happens. So, like you, I was surprised.
Speaker 4: I mean, look, I always thought Swalwell was punching above
Speaker 4: his weight and that he seemed like effective member of
Speaker 4: the House of Representatives for what his Democratic constituents wanted
Speaker 4: out of him. But you know, I never saw him
Speaker 4: as his presidential material if he ran for president in
Speaker 4: twenty twenty four briefly or twenty twenty one of those,
Speaker 4: and when he emerged as a top contended for governor
Speaker 4: in California, I was somewhat surprised. But you know, talking
Speaker 4: to some people back there, you know, Democratic voters who
Speaker 4: you know, really don't I mean, Democratic voters don't like
Speaker 4: Trump in California. It's like ratchet at up times ten.
Speaker 4: They liked swollwell because he was so combative versus Trump.
Speaker 4: So it makes sense in retrospect. But no, no inkling
Speaker 4: of this.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's let's talk about that race. Two people make
Speaker 1: it through to jungle primary. Republican are kind of hoping
Speaker 1: that Steve Hilton and the Sheriff of San Bernardino whose
Speaker 1: name I can't recall, Bianco make it through, but I'm
Speaker 1: thinking God forbid. But I'm thinking Katie Porter is the
Speaker 1: one who bounces up. Is there any way Antonio Viragosa
Speaker 1: or anybody else can catch Katie Porter at this point?
Speaker 4: Well, you know, the latest polling I've seen has shown
Speaker 4: Tom steyerway up there because he's basically, you know, spending
Speaker 4: the entire GDP of six countries to try and get elected.
Speaker 4: But it might work in this case. California is not
Speaker 4: big on retail politics. You know, you and I are
Speaker 4: both from there. It's not big on retail politics. It's
Speaker 4: a huge state and it's all about advertising, and so
Speaker 4: it kind of makes sense that this is the kind
Speaker 4: of campaign Stire could finally win with all of his money,
Speaker 4: and I wonder if instead of Port or some other
Speaker 4: Democrat can break loose and you know, either give Styre
Speaker 4: a run for his money or escape into the top
Speaker 4: two with Stire.
Speaker 5: But you know, we're gonna have to see what happens.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Dave, one thing you know, and I know from
Speaker 1: our years and decades in California, there are two organizations
Speaker 1: that matter, the SCIU Service Employees International Union and the
Speaker 1: California Teachers Association. And they have the troops, They've got
Speaker 1: the infantry, they can season old ground, they can turn
Speaker 1: in the absentees that are left lying around. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying they cheat. I'm just saying they're very good at
Speaker 1: ballot collecting, which is legal in California. Have you seen
Speaker 1: any indication that either of them has thrown their weight
Speaker 1: one way or the other.
Speaker 4: I haven't, But you know, I haven't followed this race
Speaker 4: too closely, just with so much else to follow in California.
Speaker 5: Just it seems so predictable.
Speaker 4: But you know, now it's at least interesting in that
Speaker 4: Democrats were really in a bind there because they had
Speaker 4: so many candidates who were convinced that two of them
Speaker 4: would get into the second round, if you will, that's
Speaker 4: going to be held on election day in November, that
Speaker 4: they weren't worried about, you know, clogging the drain there
Speaker 4: and allowing two Republicans to slip through instead. And there
Speaker 4: was a real concern for a while, but nobody would
Speaker 4: get out of the way, so small wells bad behavior
Speaker 4: solves that problem for them, And I suspect at some
Speaker 4: point the players will start to drift in the direction
Speaker 4: of somebody. I think what they're waiting to see is,
Speaker 4: you know, who really emerges as that second tier Democrat
Speaker 4: or that second Democrat to go catch up to Styre now,
Speaker 4: or you know, let's see if the polling in the
Speaker 4: next couple of weeks totally turns upside down and looks differently.
Speaker 5: Porter's problem is that she's not likable, she doesn't.
Speaker 4: Handle the press well, and she's just not the kind
Speaker 4: of candidate that people warned to.
Speaker 5: There's no charm there, and that's just a big problem
Speaker 5: for her.
Speaker 1: Yeah, domestic violence doesn't go over well with people, and
Speaker 1: dumping what was it potatoes on her husband ex husband's head,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what the story was. I'll have to
Speaker 1: check it out, but she's not a likable person. She
Speaker 1: was my congresswoman for a while back in the old day.
Speaker 1: She replaced eventually a Mimi Walters, who replaced hn Campbell
Speaker 1: back in the days when I lived in Orange County.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you about Styer, though I have very
Speaker 1: little experience with it, other than the fact I believe
Speaker 1: his campaign misled the Nixon Library when they wanted to
Speaker 1: cut an ad there. They said they just wanted to
Speaker 1: use the backdrop, and as I recall, they actually slam Nixon.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of sneaky, disgusting. What's your opinion of Styer?
Speaker 5: Just look, he's just he's a vanity candidate.
Speaker 4: I mean, look, he's been very successful in business, so
Speaker 4: let me give him his due.
Speaker 5: The guy's made a lot of money. It's been very.
Speaker 4: Successful, and like a lot of successful people, they somehow
Speaker 4: decide the best thing they can do with all their
Speaker 4: money is wasted on a campaign. And so he spent
Speaker 4: a lot of money running for president, didn't get anywhere,
Speaker 4: and I mean a lot of money. And now he's
Speaker 4: spending a lot of money in California running for governor.
Speaker 4: And now the thing he has going from California in this
Speaker 4: race is Californians tend to elect boring bland, you know,
Speaker 4: non charismatic people as their chief executive. I mean Arnold
Speaker 4: Schwarzenegger and Ronald Reagan, and I suppose Pat Brown. Notwithstanding,
Speaker 4: and now I'm really reaching into the way back. You know,
Speaker 4: we can point to a number of governors Jerry Brown,
Speaker 4: Pat Brown's side not very charismatic, George Duke Magin. Maybe
Speaker 4: Pete Wilson was fiery, but it's not like he brought
Speaker 4: the house down and so on and so forth. So
Speaker 4: this is sort of a campaign that's made for him.
Speaker 4: And again particularly because it's going to be all about advertising,
Speaker 4: because California is just I'm sure the candidates are doing
Speaker 4: town halls and stuff, but it's not the kind of
Speaker 4: It's not like a New.
Speaker 5: Hampshire or Georgia or Michigan.
Speaker 4: He can named some medium sized states where retail is
Speaker 4: a big deal.
Speaker 1: I'm waiting to see us see you and the teachers.
Speaker 1: Last question, We have a new story at the Atlantic today.
Speaker 1: Joe Biden really wanted to pick Gretchen Whitmer to be
Speaker 1: his vice president, but Black Lives Matter made him pick
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris. That's nonsense. He picked Kamala Harris. But is
Speaker 1: this just the beginning of puffery for Gretchen Whitmer.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know, actually, you know, look, Elin Godfrey
Speaker 4: is a really good reporter, I think, and I haven't
Speaker 4: read her story yet, but to me, it was very
Speaker 4: intriguing because I think what is true is that Gretchen
Speaker 4: witt was a much talked about heavyweight and presumed future
Speaker 4: presidential candidate, and she's not approaching twenty twenty eight like
Speaker 4: any of her colleagues, right, Governor Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania,
Speaker 4: Governor J. B.
Speaker 5: Pritzker in Illinois.
Speaker 4: I mean, she's really just taken a she's kind of
Speaker 4: established more of a low profile in her last term
Speaker 4: here and done a you know and really spent a
Speaker 4: lot of time trying to be you know, get along
Speaker 4: with the White House and things like that.
Speaker 5: And it's great politics in Michigan, which is a you know,
Speaker 5: now a quintessential swing state.
Speaker 4: But she's not doing the kinds of things that would
Speaker 4: suggest she's interested in running for president.
Speaker 5: So I want to read the story or a comment
Speaker 5: on it. But I do think she, you know, was
Speaker 5: a major and could still be a.
Speaker 4: Major, rising Democratic figure, and the fact that she's not.
Speaker 1: Careading little longer. We shall see.
Speaker 6: I wouldn't just say that things went wrong. I also
Speaker 6: think things went right.
Speaker 7: We made a lot of progress, but we also made
Speaker 7: very clear and I think this is part of.
Speaker 6: The progress we made.
Speaker 7: What the term was, where the United States could make
Speaker 7: some accommodation, what terms we were flexible on, and what
Speaker 7: things we absolutely needed to see in order for the
Speaker 7: President of the United States to feel like he was
Speaker 7: getting a good deal.
Speaker 1: And morning gloriating in Great America. I'm Hugh Hewett. That
Speaker 1: was Vice President Vance last night on my guest Brett
Speaker 1: Bear's program, Special Report. I'll be joining Brett tonight on
Speaker 1: the panel. Brett, I'm going to go to your interview
Speaker 1: with the Vice President in just a moment. But first,
Speaker 1: you're a Master's guy. How did you enjoy the tournament?
Speaker 8: Oh?
Speaker 9: It was fantastic, you know. I went down with my
Speaker 9: son Wednesday and then the first round on Thursday, and
Speaker 9: there's nothing like it, you know, tradition, unlike any other
Speaker 9: and I thought it was fantastic. The drama and Rory
Speaker 9: fighting and losing, you know, on Saturday, and then fighting back,
Speaker 9: and I just thought it was a great, great tournament,
Speaker 9: and I'm happy that he repeated that's a tough thing
Speaker 9: to do, and he is a champion.
Speaker 1: You know, more of my people are buried in Sanfield,
Speaker 1: Northern Ireland and County Down than there are here in
Speaker 1: the state. So I always root for Rory. But he's
Speaker 1: getting up there and Shuffler was on fire. Did you
Speaker 1: follow Scotty at all on the first couple of days
Speaker 1: when he wasn't on fire?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 9: Yeah, And I was surprised that he wasn't at the beginning,
Speaker 9: but he always seems to be there in the end.
Speaker 9: And you know, Justin Rose was there as he has been,
Speaker 9: so there's a lot of people knocking on the door.
Speaker 9: I played in the a tem t at Tebble Beach
Speaker 9: a number of years with Russell Henley and so I
Speaker 9: was kind of pulling for him and he did well,
Speaker 9: finished third and he at one point had to share
Speaker 9: of the lead on the back line.
Speaker 1: Last golf question, Brett, I do not have a good
Speaker 1: fix on Justin Rose. He falls into that period of
Speaker 1: time when I'm not really paying much attention to golf.
Speaker 1: I'm doing not this stuff and he's forty five years old,
Speaker 1: but he's getting up there to be as competitive as
Speaker 1: he is. Does he have a reputation on the tour
Speaker 1: because he always looks so grim face? But then someone
Speaker 1: on the one of the announcers said, he's one of
Speaker 1: the best like guys on the tour.
Speaker 9: Oh, everybody loves him. He's a huge, huge favorite down
Speaker 9: there in Augussa. And if he had won, he would
Speaker 9: have been a very popular champion. Uh. You know, he's
Speaker 9: finished second three times twice in the playoff and now
Speaker 9: you know, he was up the leaderboard this time, so
Speaker 9: he's a he would be a popular champion. And he's
Speaker 9: obviously won the US Open, and he's a big factor
Speaker 9: in the Ryder Cup. So yeah, he still got it.
Speaker 9: He would be the oldest since Jack Nicholas in eighty
Speaker 9: six if he did win the mess.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're allowed to answer this, but
Speaker 1: if you are allowed to answer it, and if you
Speaker 1: have played Augusta, what's the best round you've shot?
Speaker 9: I have played Augusta. I've been fortunate enough to play Augusta,
Speaker 9: and I believe it or not shot even par Now
Speaker 9: different key box.
Speaker 1: That's dude. I think we should lead with that. All right, Brett,
Speaker 1: let's go to last night. I have played almost every
Speaker 1: major except of your interview with the Vice President. Today
Speaker 1: we get a story from Iran International that Iran Central
Speaker 1: Bank has warned the economy may take twelve years to
Speaker 1: rebuild after the war. They're looking at inflation of possibly
Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty percent unless the ports reopen really quickly.
Speaker 1: Do you get the sense that the Vice President is
Speaker 1: in the catbird seat or the president.
Speaker 9: I do think that the leverage is increasing, and it
Speaker 9: seems like at least the administration saying that they think
Speaker 9: there will be more in person talks in Islamabad in
Speaker 9: coming days. Vice President couldn't put it in that down
Speaker 9: in the interview last night, but between us and the
Speaker 9: rest of your listeners.
Speaker 10: We have.
Speaker 9: Had outreach with the Iranians and we've been close to
Speaker 9: get any Iranan FOM minister on the show and may
Speaker 9: be able to do that tomorrow. So it seems like
Speaker 9: they want to send a message as well, and whether
Speaker 9: that tracks with getting back to the negotia table, we'll see.
Speaker 1: Well, you have had the FOI administer on before. He
Speaker 1: very he's chief like in his eloquence and is a
Speaker 1: terrific communicator. Do we know did you pick up in
Speaker 1: prepping for interviewing with the Vice president who is really
Speaker 1: running the place? I know we've got the story of
Speaker 1: the five guys, but the political people don't really run
Speaker 1: that place. It's the generals. Do we have any sense
Speaker 1: of who the foreign minister speaks for?
Speaker 9: Yeah, that's one of the problems. And you heard that
Speaker 9: in the Vice president's remarks that they had to go
Speaker 9: back and kind of get approval. It sounds like the
Speaker 9: IRGC commanders have a lot of a lot of power
Speaker 9: and that the other politicals do not. But you know,
Speaker 9: we'll have to see if they do a deal. They're
Speaker 9: doing a deal as a country, and you know they
Speaker 9: have to live up to it, which the Runians don't
Speaker 9: have a great track record of.
Speaker 1: Now, the Vice President said, we have to get the
Speaker 1: nuclear dust. Using President Trump's term, that's a month long,
Speaker 1: very careful, possibly killing the people who hit the wrong
Speaker 1: stone and glass and irradiating them sort of excavation. Can
Speaker 1: you imagine Brett a detailed agreement that would allow us
Speaker 1: to supervise or superintend that extraction.
Speaker 9: It would have to be structured, probably through the iaea,
Speaker 9: and it would be very complex. In the meantime, you know,
Speaker 9: the intel folks I'd talked to say, you know, as
Speaker 9: the President has said publicly, they have a twenty four
Speaker 9: to seven eye on the sky on where they know
Speaker 9: it to be and making sure that it's not touched
Speaker 9: or disrupted in the current state.
Speaker 1: Now, you know as well as I do. One of
Speaker 1: the greatest critiques of the JCPOA was that the inspections
Speaker 1: it allowed for were not any time, anywhere, no knock
Speaker 1: knock inspections. They were you had to call up and schedule,
Speaker 1: and they could decline, and they put off limits large
Speaker 1: military bases. Do you get the sense from the Vice
Speaker 1: President that any deal with US has to be anytime, anywhere,
Speaker 1: no knock inspections.
Speaker 9: Yes. I think the story is about the proposals of
Speaker 9: when they could enrich. The US was at twenty years
Speaker 9: and the Iranians were at five. You know, I think
Speaker 9: you're going to end up at fifteen or something. But
Speaker 9: I think that the inspection part of it was much
Speaker 9: more rigorous than JCPO read.
Speaker 1: Yeah, question would be why would we even allow them
Speaker 1: to enrich Brett to me, I heard that when he
Speaker 1: said twenty twenty goes by in a hurry, it won't
Speaker 1: be my problem. Might be your problem, but it won't
Speaker 1: be my problem. Why twenty and not never?
Speaker 9: That's a good question. You know, if Enrichmond is to
Speaker 9: enrich to a certain point. You know, we believed them
Speaker 9: before where they said that they were at twenty percent
Speaker 9: or medical grade even lower. But you know, and when
Speaker 9: they hand over a document that says nine hundred pounds
Speaker 9: at sixty percent that could go to weapons grade nine
Speaker 9: in a couple of weeks, that's a different animal.
Speaker 1: Yeah. All right, I'm foreshadowing what we might be talking
Speaker 1: about tonight, but I'll relate to you what Richard Goldberg
Speaker 1: of FTD said in the first hour. We sent a
Speaker 1: letter today to UAE, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, China, and a
Speaker 1: couple other places saying we know you've got their shadow funds.
Speaker 1: Either you freeze them or turn them over to us,
Speaker 1: or we are going you're going to feel the full
Speaker 1: fury of our banking sanctions. Have you heard about that yet?
Speaker 1: And do you believe I can't believe we do that
Speaker 1: to UAE, but do you think we would?
Speaker 9: Now the UAE has has frozen running funds they just
Speaker 9: did it a few days ago. So I'm not sure
Speaker 9: that whether we're talking past each other on the UAE,
Speaker 9: but I specifically know they have other countries are, I'm told,
Speaker 9: feeling a lot of pressure on a lot of fronts
Speaker 9: from the Trump administration, including China ahead of this trip
Speaker 9: to China that's still on by the President going to
Speaker 9: see President Shushi Ping. So I'll be making that trip
Speaker 9: over to China, and you know, I think that this moment,
Speaker 9: if you want to read in between Chinese officials, they
Speaker 9: want to be a part of this solution negotiation, but
Speaker 9: they are not stepping up on the straightfoar moves as
Speaker 9: of yet, or to your point, other assets.
Speaker 1: When is there so much scheduled for Brett Bear is.
Speaker 9: Fourteen to fifteen stuff like that?
Speaker 1: So yeah, do you think you think Jimmy lylell be
Speaker 1: on the plane when you come back.
Speaker 9: That would be a big deal if he was. But listen,
Speaker 9: there's going to be something baked in the cake. They're
Speaker 9: not going to go over there without deliverables.
Speaker 1: That's what That's why I'm hoping it's Jimmy Lake as
Speaker 1: that would be. It's a low cost give by Jijinping
Speaker 1: it's a big win for the president and given the
Speaker 1: Pope Leo the fourteenth back and forth, kind of a
Speaker 1: double win. Brett Baer, I'm not sure you could be from.
Speaker 9: A former altar boy, there could be some detante coming
Speaker 9: on the Catholic front. I think that might be wise
Speaker 9: after the last two days.
Speaker 1: That's two of us, and we agree. Brett Barrell, see
Speaker 1: you later tonight on Special Report, Welcome Back to America.
Speaker 1: I'm Hugh Hewett. On this April fourteenth. I'm pleased to
Speaker 1: welcome Bethany Mandel back to the program. Bethany. About an
Speaker 1: hour before the program today, I pre taped a thirty
Speaker 1: minute interview for next week with Rachel Goldberg Paulin about
Speaker 1: her book When We See You Again. Have you read
Speaker 1: it yet?
Speaker 11: I have not, but I talked to her, to John,
Speaker 11: Rachel's husband, I've talked to their family about the book.
Speaker 1: It's gut wrenching and it's not a book about grief.
Speaker 1: It is grief in pages. It's really a remarkable story.
Speaker 1: Do you think people will be willing to read it?
Speaker 6: So?
Speaker 11: The testimony of Elie Sharabi, his accounts of being held
Speaker 11: hostage and coming out of the tunnels of Gaza after
Speaker 11: being held for over a year to discover that his
Speaker 11: wife and two children were murdered. That book was a bestseller.
Speaker 11: What's special about Rachel Goldberg Poland is that she has
Speaker 11: this American experience because her and John were born and
Speaker 11: raised here and they moved to Israel as adults, and
Speaker 11: so she has a way with words in English, it's
Speaker 11: her native language. She's such a compelling human and so activating.
Speaker 11: I'm looking forward to reading it, and I think anyone
Speaker 11: who's seen her, which is now you know, tens of
Speaker 11: hundreds of millions of people have as well. Her story
Speaker 11: is incredible and her her strength is incredible. I was
Speaker 11: wearing a T shirt the other day that they made
Speaker 11: while hers she was being held captive. Hope is mandatory,
Speaker 11: and that's that's the perspective that she held through that
Speaker 11: entire you know, almost a year of her husband being
Speaker 11: or i'm sorry, her son being held captive before he
Speaker 11: was murdered by Hamas and the tunnels under Rafa.
Speaker 1: I had no idea. I kind of no knew because
Speaker 1: I interviewed Rachel a couple of times that they're very
Speaker 1: deeply religious. But I didn't understand how interwoven her faith
Speaker 1: life is with this suffering period. I mean, we've got
Speaker 1: job Jacob, Isaac and Moses in this speaking directly to Rachel,
Speaker 1: Did you know that about her?
Speaker 12: I did.
Speaker 11: She would talk a lot about, you know, starting the
Speaker 11: day reading Psalms, and you know, every for every day
Speaker 11: that he was held hostage, she would read the corresponding Psalm.
Speaker 11: And so if it was day thirty three that he
Speaker 11: was being held hostage, she would read Psalm thirty three.
Speaker 11: So this sort of carried her through in their life.
Speaker 3: Before the war.
Speaker 11: Started, she was working at a Jewish learning organization in Jerusalem,
Speaker 11: and so this was always such a huge part of
Speaker 11: their lives, and it's why they decided to move to
Speaker 11: Israel in the first place, when Hirsh was still a
Speaker 11: young kid. So I knew that this was a pretty
Speaker 11: big thing in their lives.
Speaker 1: Well, the book is divided into the before and the after,
Speaker 1: the day that separates them being October seventh. I can't
Speaker 1: recommend it enough people how to go out and buy
Speaker 1: it in advance, but it reminded me to ask you
Speaker 1: when you go to Temple. I didn't know this until
Speaker 1: I read the book. The Boys and the girls sit
Speaker 1: on different side with their mothers and their fathers, and
Speaker 1: there's a part of the service where the father puts
Speaker 1: their prayer shawl over their boy. Are you familiar with that?
Speaker 11: Yeah? Yeah, it's when the Kohenes, the descendants of the
Speaker 11: priestly class, they're called up for a special ceremony. We
Speaker 11: actually had a lot of that happen over the holiday
Speaker 11: of Passover this year, and my kids guilted their dad
Speaker 11: into coming to Santagogue because he does that with them.
Speaker 11: And one of those special things that they say about
Speaker 11: Hirsh was that even though he wasn't religious anymore, he
Speaker 11: still went to temple with his dad almost every single
Speaker 11: week because he didn't want him to sit alone because
Speaker 11: they were the only two men in their immediate family.
Speaker 1: That's in the book, and John's afterward is particularly moving.
Speaker 1: I just can't recommend this enough, which brings me to
Speaker 1: my bigger question. You know, we're in the middle of
Speaker 1: a war with Iran. Iran is responsible for ten to
Speaker 1: seven I don't feel bad for any IRGC member who
Speaker 1: gets blown up, but what percentage? Unlike Gaza, which I
Speaker 1: think is deeply poisoned in the people, I don't think
Speaker 1: the Iranian people are that way, do you.
Speaker 11: I don't know everything that we've heard before the war,
Speaker 11: and I think one of the most striking stories that
Speaker 11: we've heard, you know, because we've had basically radio silence
Speaker 11: from Iran since the war started, but when we lost
Speaker 11: our airmen for you know, close to forty eight hours,
Speaker 11: one of the most striking things was the Iranian people
Speaker 11: went drove on that road that separated Tehran in that
Speaker 11: region and parked their cars to try to prevent the
Speaker 11: regime from from accessing those those areas to give the
Speaker 11: Americans time to come in and AFT airlift our guy out.
Speaker 11: So I think that really speaks volumes to you know,
Speaker 11: the sentiment in Iran about their regime and about what
Speaker 11: we're doing there.
Speaker 1: So does that come through to you in legacy media
Speaker 1: coverage of this war, which seems to me sometimes to
Speaker 1: verge on rooting for Iran.
Speaker 11: No, it's absolutely not, And it's it's interesting. Someone sent
Speaker 11: me a clip from Norwegian television earlier today. He's as
Speaker 11: his son is a classmate of my daughters in an
Speaker 11: online Jewish school, and so he sent me a clip
Speaker 11: of something that had just played on television and they
Speaker 11: were really amping up even in Norway in their mainstream media,
Speaker 11: this idea that the that the Iranian people are under
Speaker 11: siege just as much as the regime is, and trying
Speaker 11: to play that sympathy card in the same way, in
Speaker 11: a way that I found to be very disingenuous. So
Speaker 11: perhaps we should take comfort in the fact that it's
Speaker 11: not just our mainstream media that's lying to us, it's
Speaker 11: you know, it's a worldwide problem.
Speaker 1: Well, I have her. This is third hand hearsay that
Speaker 1: Iranians are happy that the bombs were falling in and
Speaker 1: disappointed that they stopped. Is that consistent with their understanding?
Speaker 11: That's what I've anecdotally heard as well. But again it's
Speaker 11: the same sort of third hand, but I'm hearing that
Speaker 11: as well.
Speaker 1: All right, now, I want to switch back to northern
Speaker 1: Israel and the Galilee. Do you think people feel safe
Speaker 1: enough to remove themselves or to move back there? Yet?
Speaker 11: Not at all, And it's a significant portion of the
Speaker 11: country's that lives up there. I wonder how many of
Speaker 11: those people will end up returning at all, because you know,
Speaker 11: since October seventh, that area has been under siege more
Speaker 11: than most and so you know, I think there's a
Speaker 11: lot of likelihood that the people who had lives up
Speaker 11: there have since moved on, who have since decided to
Speaker 11: live in you know, Jerusalem or modi en or bait
Speaker 11: schemesher and just sort of pick up their lives and
Speaker 11: permanently come to this understanding that you know, their homes
Speaker 11: might not be you know, salvageable.
Speaker 1: Are you at all optimistic about these talks at the
Speaker 1: State Department? They've never been held before. Lebanon has never
Speaker 1: sat down in an official capacity with Israel. It's happening
Speaker 1: today with Marco Rubio at the head of the table.
Speaker 1: I think it's a big deal, do.
Speaker 11: You I do think it's a big deal. I mean
Speaker 11: I never I never underestimate the negotiating power of the
Speaker 11: Trump administration, whether it be Witkoff or Jared Kushner or
Speaker 11: Marco Rubio. They are incredibly skilled at, you know, cutting
Speaker 11: through the nonsense and and getting agreements made and you know,
Speaker 11: getting people to understand what's in their best interest. And so,
Speaker 11: you know, I'm interested to see how this goes. I'm
Speaker 11: definitely not pessimistic about it.
Speaker 1: And have you picked up any kind of hint about
Speaker 1: what the operation is that Israel pulled off three days
Speaker 1: ago that Hammered has bela like the beepers.
Speaker 11: I haven't, no, no, it's been pretty tight lipped.
Speaker 1: Isn't that frustrating? They usually tell us when they do
Speaker 1: a Superman kind of thing, and now I'm addicted to it.
Speaker 11: I know the Israelis are very good at their spycraft.
Speaker 11: I have to say they don't They keep a secret
Speaker 11: pretty well over there.
Speaker 1: Well, if you hear let me know. Come back a
Speaker 1: second time once again, though, for the audience, when we
Speaker 1: see you again, by Rachel Goldberg Pollen. It's available on
Speaker 1: Amazon for pre order. It comes out in a week.
Speaker 1: I will play you the interview in a week, and Bethany,
Speaker 1: I look forward to talking with you about the book
Speaker 1: after you've had a chance to read it. Don't go
Speaker 1: anywhere in Maracaby right, lots more coming up, got a
Speaker 1: lot of good clips for you, and Texas Senator John
Speaker 1: Cornyn is coming up too. Right here on the kew
Speaker 1: Hewitt Show. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt, so please
Speaker 1: to welcome United States Senator John Cornyn from the great
Speaker 1: state of Texas. Senator Corny, good to see you. How
Speaker 1: are you?
Speaker 6: Thank you you good, good, Thank you, Senator.
Speaker 1: You've got an election coming up, and I want to
Speaker 1: let the audience know I will be inviting Attorney General
Speaker 1: Ken Paxson on the show. But if he says yes,
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk to him about his impeachment, about
Speaker 1: the fraud charges, about his divorce, about the mont Bloc
Speaker 1: pen that he has allegedly stolen. We'll talk about it
Speaker 1: all because I think he's going to lose that Senate
Speaker 1: seat if he beats you. But I don't think he's
Speaker 1: going to beat you. Well, Now tell me why you
Speaker 1: think you're going to win.
Speaker 10: Well, First of all, I don't think he'll accept your invitation.
Speaker 10: He's basically dodged every opportunity to answer hard questions, and
Speaker 10: I don't expect him to aren't now, But I do
Speaker 10: expect to win.
Speaker 6: I think.
Speaker 10: Obviously I'm strong on border security, endorsed by the National
Speaker 10: Border Patrol Council, which endorsed President Trump and has been
Speaker 10: there during the disastrous riding open border policies, but now
Speaker 10: it's steadfastly supporting border security. I've supported the President, as
Speaker 10: you know, ninety nine point three percent of the time.
Speaker 10: So the problem is Paxson has got so much baggage,
Speaker 10: and for people who are interested in learning more about it,
Speaker 10: there's a website called crookedkin dot com which details all
Speaker 10: of the sorts of things that I'm sure you would
Speaker 10: ask him about if he were to accept your invitation.
Speaker 10: But I think Texas deserves good representation in the United
Speaker 10: States Senate, all thirty two million of us. And I
Speaker 10: love my job and it's important work, and I have
Speaker 10: been privileged to do this for some time now, and
Speaker 10: hopefully they'll give me a chance to do it again.
Speaker 1: I like t remind people it's pretty tough to find
Speaker 1: a former state Supreme Court justice is also a senator.
Speaker 1: The only trouble is there aren't any scandals at all
Speaker 1: to talk about with you, Senator Corny, and you've led
Speaker 1: this kind of square life, so we got nothing to
Speaker 1: ask you a hard question about. But I do want
Speaker 1: to ask you about the reconciliation. I just played Leader
Speaker 1: Thoon saying you're going to do reconciliation for DHS. President
Speaker 1: dropped a budget of one point five trillion dollars for defense.
Speaker 1: I guess the Pentagon wants a two hundred billion dollars supplemental.
Speaker 1: I'm told by the people in and around the shipbuilding
Speaker 1: budget that their orders for every shipyard in America in
Speaker 1: that budget. I think Texas has got a dozen or
Speaker 1: two dozen of them down there. How much defense spending
Speaker 1: is going to get into the reconciliation process?
Speaker 10: Well, I would support whatever the President asked for because
Speaker 10: I think we have a lot of catching up to do.
Speaker 10: What's so amazing is you we've seen the nature of
Speaker 10: warfare change in Ukraine and now in Iran and the
Speaker 10: straight up war moves, and we just simply need to
Speaker 10: catch up. At our defense industrial basis is way too
Speaker 10: bureaucratic and ossified, and this is dangerous for us. So
Speaker 10: I'll support the President's request, and if it's a one
Speaker 10: and a half trillion dollars, I'll support that. But we
Speaker 10: need to shake off all this terrible bureaucracy. I think
Speaker 10: Secretary of Hegseth and the Department of War are trying
Speaker 10: to do the right thing, but we still have way
Speaker 10: too many bureaucrats operating in the procurement process in the Pentagon,
Speaker 10: which slow things down, may make them unaffordable, and are
Speaker 10: basically exposing us to great danger.
Speaker 1: Senaer Krian, you have the most valuable currency in the
Speaker 1: United States Senate seniority. Do the voters at Texas realize
Speaker 1: that if they trade you out for a tall Rico,
Speaker 1: god Forbid or Attorney General Paxton, he'll be number one
Speaker 1: hundred out of one hundred that they lose all the
Speaker 1: advantages of that seniority. Is that an argument you can
Speaker 1: make the voters.
Speaker 10: Well, if you do learn a few things the longer
Speaker 10: you're here, and I've been this is not a place
Speaker 10: where you can walk into on day one and make
Speaker 10: a difference. But for example, when the governor wanted Texas
Speaker 10: to be reimbursed eleven billion dollars for tact what Texas
Speaker 10: taxpayers paid to secure the border during the Biden administration's
Speaker 10: open border policies, he called me, and I worked with
Speaker 10: all of the Texas delegation and the Speaker and the
Speaker 10: Majority leader, and we got that done and we'll be
Speaker 10: presenting that check to the governor the President will sometime
Speaker 10: in the near future. So I think it's easy to
Speaker 10: take that sort of effectiveness for granted. But look, I
Speaker 10: think the contrast between Tallo Rico and me will be
Speaker 10: apparent to all.
Speaker 1: Tallar Rico is a He's a wolf in.
Speaker 10: Sheep's clothing that the press kind of likes him a
Speaker 10: little bit because he's different because he claims to be
Speaker 10: a seminarian. Maybe he is, but he's reading a different
Speaker 10: Bible than I am, claiming God is not binarya there's
Speaker 10: six genders, and that the Bible approves of abortion. So
Speaker 10: he's just a classic liberal or progressive in the image
Speaker 10: of Bernie Sanders and AOC and will expose him as such.
Speaker 1: He's a woke wolf, and I don't like wolves to
Speaker 1: begin with, but I don't like woke wolves, which brings
Speaker 1: me back to Ken Paxton. You won the primary, Senator,
Speaker 1: and I haven't seen polling since then. But are all
Speaker 1: your colleagues going down to Texas's time for you? Because
Speaker 1: we really cannot afford to pour billions of dollars into Texas.
Speaker 1: You're a layup. You like the cavaliers against the raptors
Speaker 1: we need. Are they working for you? Well?
Speaker 10: Senatorsune and Senator Scott had been terrific and I've appreciated
Speaker 10: their support. They recognize what Senator Thune calls the business
Speaker 10: case for my candidacy because it'll be a whole lot
Speaker 10: cheaper because Democrats won't pour in hundreds of millions of
Speaker 10: dollars into Texas to try to elect to Tallerico if
Speaker 10: I'm the nominee, because that will be a long shot,
Speaker 10: to be sure. So I'm very happy with the support
Speaker 10: I've gotten from our leadership, but more importantly, as you
Speaker 10: point out, I'm more happy with the support I got
Speaker 10: from Republican primary voters coming out first out of three
Speaker 10: on March third. And so now we need to finish
Speaker 10: the job for encouraging people to get out and vote
Speaker 10: in early voting from May the eighteenth through the twenty second,
Speaker 10: and then on election day runoff day, May the twenty
Speaker 10: six And of course the people who show up are
Speaker 10: the ones whose voice and whose vote count.
Speaker 1: Last minute center from May eighteenth to twenty second early
Speaker 1: voting is that by absentee or is it in person?
Speaker 10: In person? In person, We'll still have you can still
Speaker 10: vote by mail if you meet the qualifications.
Speaker 12: But we have the.
Speaker 10: Most generous voting opportunities in Texas of any state that
Speaker 10: I'm aware of. So you can show up in person
Speaker 10: for virtually the whole week before the election, or you
Speaker 10: can come in the day after Memorial Day, May the
Speaker 10: twenty sixth, But it's really important to have a good turnout.
Speaker 1: You know. I really have come to believe.
Speaker 10: That the reason we get such extremes in our November
Speaker 10: general elections is because there's such poor turnout and participation
Speaker 10: in the primaries. We had eleven percent of registered voters
Speaker 10: voting the Republican primary and maybe even less than what.
Speaker 1: Off We got to get people out, and we're on
Speaker 1: in SEMNY stations in Texas. Hear me, get on vote
Speaker 1: for John Cornyn. And when General Paxson shows up, I'll
Speaker 1: be sure to play in a few times. Willing to
Speaker 1: have on, very willing to have one. I know the
Speaker 1: equal time rules, just don't I hadn't want to come yet.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned, America. Thank you for listening today, Joined by
Speaker 1: the editor in chief of National Review, longtime friend Rich Lowry. Rich,
Speaker 1: I have been listening with a bit of dismay to
Speaker 1: the editors over the last few weeks. Why do you
Speaker 1: think that dismay exist?
Speaker 8: I'm sure here you think some of us have been
Speaker 8: too negative, including perhaps Here's truly.
Speaker 1: Yes, I want Noah on every show. I wouldn't know
Speaker 1: what to have four times as much time, and I
Speaker 1: want him to be on every show. So I thought
Speaker 1: we would just start by being fair to each other.
Speaker 1: What would you put down as the conditions under which
Speaker 1: you would proclaim Operation Epic Fury to be an unqualified success.
Speaker 8: Unqualified would be the fall of the regime, assuming you
Speaker 8: don't get some sort of disaster where you have a
Speaker 8: hoopy like urgency threatening the straight or four moves in
Speaker 8: a different way. But that would be the victory you'd
Speaker 8: ultimately be hoping for. I don't discount you that that
Speaker 8: could happen. I doubt it's happening on a schedule highly
Speaker 8: convenient to us. That's usually just not the world.
Speaker 6: The way the.
Speaker 8: World works in this regime has survived a lot to
Speaker 8: this point, but six months from now, twelve months from now,
Speaker 8: I don't totally discount it. Short of that, I think
Speaker 8: if you get the highly rich uranium, that's a huge deal.
Speaker 8: Short of that, I think getting them just to reopen
Speaker 8: the Strait and getting some sort of a deal to
Speaker 8: limit their nuclear program at the same time you've eliminated
Speaker 8: so much of the missile capacity and you kind of
Speaker 8: wreck their economy, that would be a success as well.
Speaker 1: Okay for me, the minimum a minimum is that the
Speaker 1: Strait has to reopen and until the straight treopen. We
Speaker 1: have one and I gathered twenty ships went through today.
Speaker 1: By reopened, I mean the average one and twenty ships
Speaker 1: a day that we were before the war. That's the
Speaker 1: minimum baseline because we've wrecked there. But a real win,
Speaker 1: they have to give us the highly enriched uranium and
Speaker 1: they have to agree to an inspection regime significantly stronger
Speaker 1: than the one that the JCPOA had. To me, that's
Speaker 1: an almost perfect win. The perfect win. Regime change I
Speaker 1: can't hope for. I don't think it's realistic. That's up
Speaker 1: to the people of Iran. They've just murdered thirty five
Speaker 1: thousand of them. I don't know that I'd be willing
Speaker 1: to go march in the streets or have my kids
Speaker 1: go do that. But what if we got to we
Speaker 1: got the uranium, there are economies a wreck and they've
Speaker 1: agreed to inspections. Isn't that like the best foreign policy
Speaker 1: win United States is hadding thirty years.
Speaker 8: Yes, So to be clear, what I signed up for
Speaker 8: at the outside of this war A skeptical of regime
Speaker 8: change or again doing in our schedule from the air.
Speaker 8: But if we significantly degraded all this and set back
Speaker 8: their nuclear program for years.
Speaker 3: That was a win for me.
Speaker 8: It's the Strait that's been the current goal, and I
Speaker 8: just think it's a commitment of Anglo American naval policy
Speaker 8: going back for centuries, for centuries free navigation of the seas.
Speaker 8: So what Trump was saying at times, and maybe he's
Speaker 8: just jaw owning people and trying to get help from allies,
Speaker 8: but it's not our issue. Our crude oil doesn't come
Speaker 8: through there. The Europeans should take the lead. I thought
Speaker 8: that all was terrible. Now I like much more what
Speaker 8: he's doing now. I think we need to see the
Speaker 8: Straight reopened again, one way or the other.
Speaker 1: Now, let's talk a little bit about NATO. I moderated
Speaker 1: a panel today with the former National Security Advisor O'Brien,
Speaker 1: his counterpartner Japan and Prime Minister Marshon of the Australia.
Speaker 1: Former Prime minister and the PM reminded me nine years
Speaker 1: ago we had a crisis in the Straight and Australia
Speaker 1: sent a frigate. I'm really down on NATO, Rich and
Speaker 1: I've always been in Atlanta, says but I'm beginning to
Speaker 1: wonder are they really worth it? And that took a
Speaker 1: lot to move me there. I've never ever doubted that.
Speaker 1: But they're wabbly.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean they're always going to be wobblely, at
Speaker 8: least compared to us. Look the way I look at it, Hugh,
Speaker 8: and the grand historical sweep of historical sweeps of things.
Speaker 8: If you told someone you're going to basically control Europe,
Speaker 8: Europe is to defer to you on all military matters,
Speaker 8: Europe's gonna be relatively united, and doing this, you're going
Speaker 8: to effectively control Germany, which has been at the center
Speaker 8: of geopolitics on the continent for centuries. And they're all
Speaker 8: gonna be happy about that. Any statesman throughout the last
Speaker 8: five hundred years would.
Speaker 1: Say, yeah, give me that deal.
Speaker 6: I'll take that.
Speaker 8: So I don't think we should underestimate what we have
Speaker 8: in the form of NATO. But they're highly irritating they.
Speaker 8: I think they've played this wrong. I think they should help.
Speaker 8: They have more directly direct at stake than we do
Speaker 8: in the reopening of the Strait. But on the other hand,
Speaker 8: you know, we did irritate them unnecessarily, irritates the wrong
Speaker 8: word too soft. We freaked them out unnecessarily by talking
Speaker 8: about taking Greenland by force, which never made any sense,
Speaker 8: you know, the reports that they're actually were preparing for war.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the Danes sent.
Speaker 1: The Dane sent a couple of platoons that like a
Speaker 1: symbolic deployment against their ality.
Speaker 8: So it's kind of, you know, we've rubbed them the
Speaker 8: wrong way unnecessarily. And then they're like, well, you didn't
Speaker 8: tell us about this in advance, and now you're in
Speaker 8: the soup with the straight and you want to help,
Speaker 8: you know, come come talk to us later. Now. I
Speaker 8: think that's the wrong attitude. I think they should be
Speaker 8: more willing to help for many reasons, one of which
Speaker 8: is people like you are having the reaction you are.
Speaker 1: Well, Maggie Thatcher is the one that told George H. W.
Speaker 1: Bush not to go lobbly when nineteen ninety one rolled around.
Speaker 1: I got a real long memory about the Iranians, and
Speaker 1: I'm beginning to want you're fifty seven, I'm seventy. I
Speaker 1: don't know how old MBD is or your other participants
Speaker 1: know as a kid too, but I don't know if
Speaker 1: they have quite their emotional reaction about it around. I
Speaker 1: hate those people, and let me play Marco Rubio Marco
Speaker 1: Rubio gave voice to my pent up frustration with this
Speaker 1: regime last week. Let's play Marco.
Speaker 13: These people are lunatics, They are insane. They are religious
Speaker 13: zelots who can never be allowed to possess a nuclear
Speaker 13: weapon because they have an apocalyptic vision of the future
Speaker 13: and all of their neighbors know that, by the way,
Speaker 13: which is why all of their neighbors have been supportive
Speaker 13: of the efforts you.
Speaker 1: This is what I want you to play for MBD.
Speaker 1: Rich people are nuts. We can't let that push us around.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know who has a similar attitude that we
Speaker 8: do from our generations? Donald Trump? Right, No one who
Speaker 8: lived through nineteen seventy nine in nineteen eighty will ever
Speaker 8: view this regime as benign, as a benign actor, or
Speaker 8: one that we can truly deal with. So I think,
Speaker 8: you know, a lot of the commentary is forced into
Speaker 8: this by Israel or gold into it by Israel. No,
Speaker 8: he hates this regime to his core. We have statements
Speaker 8: going back decades by Donald Trump saying he's going to
Speaker 8: bomb them, or he's going to seize carg Island or
Speaker 8: whatever it is. So I think he's totally his hard
Speaker 8: as totally in the right place on and the subceeded
Speaker 8: goal is the correct one.
Speaker 1: So to put it in rich lowry terms, you always
Speaker 1: asks the good questions. I think it's a very charming
Speaker 1: way to do it. Are we better off than we
Speaker 1: were six weeks ago, a year ago, and five years ago.
Speaker 8: With regard to Iran, Yes, we'll be better off if
Speaker 8: the strait is reopened. I don't think it's a close
Speaker 8: call with the Straight. Without the Straight reopened, then it's
Speaker 8: it's a real mixed bag and it's inconclusive.
Speaker 1: How about five years ago when Joe Biden was going
Speaker 1: into the White House and they were looking at another
Speaker 1: appeaser in a long line a Democratic appeasers.
Speaker 8: I mean, Biden was a disaster on every level. So
Speaker 8: I'd rather to have Trump, you know, a hawk on
Speaker 8: Iran in office. But we can't.
Speaker 1: We can't lose the Straight to them.
Speaker 8: That's going to be a historical lot on Trump's record,
Speaker 8: which is not the most important thing. It's going to
Speaker 8: be a blow to free navigation of the seas and
Speaker 8: ultimately to our security and wealth as a country. So
Speaker 8: that's the thing that just has to be fixed. And
Speaker 8: if I've found a negative at times last several weeks.
Speaker 8: That's the main reason.
Speaker 1: I would agree. I agree with that. I just don't
Speaker 1: think it's possible. I can't imagine the United States. I
Speaker 1: know the president was mad and he posts stuff, but
Speaker 1: if people just ignored his posts and watch what he does,
Speaker 1: we're going to reopen the strait. We can't. One of
Speaker 1: our greatest allies, UAE, I don't know what they do.
Speaker 1: They have one pipeline. I guess that goes out to
Speaker 1: the Red Sea. But we have to reopen the strait.
Speaker 1: It's like a strategic necessity.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, Yeah, totally agree with you.
Speaker 8: And people focus on the oil, and we have, through
Speaker 8: hook and crook, made up with some of that oil
Speaker 8: dethsit which is why we haven't seen a catastrophe on
Speaker 8: the level that some people have predicted. Excuse me, but
Speaker 8: there are all sorts of other materials and goods that
Speaker 8: we get through the straight ufour moves that people aren't
Speaker 8: focusing as much on. So it has to it has
Speaker 8: to reopen it. And I think it'd be a national
Speaker 8: humiliation if we just let Iran control and toll the
Speaker 8: straight of her moves. And this is what we have
Speaker 8: a fifth fleet for Hugh to keep this kind of
Speaker 8: thing from happening.
Speaker 1: All right, now, I want to switch totally on you
Speaker 1: because you're the Protestant. We don't care what happens with
Speaker 1: the Pope. I'm the Catholic that says I'd rather it's
Speaker 1: not happen. But I don't really put much stock in it.
Speaker 1: MBD is the Catholics. Catholic I really don't put much
Speaker 1: stock on this rich the trading of statements and posts
Speaker 1: between a president who's got a political job and a
Speaker 1: pontiff he's got a religious job. Do you.
Speaker 3: I think it's unfortunate.
Speaker 8: I had to put a huge amount of stock on it,
Speaker 8: and it look I think the Pope has been misleading
Speaker 8: and how he's portrayed what the Bible says about warfare.
Speaker 8: He cited on Palm Sunday this verse from Isaiah one fifteen.
Speaker 8: You got blood in your hands, and God's not going
Speaker 8: to listen to your prayers. That's about a condemnation of
Speaker 8: the religious.
Speaker 6: Practices in Judah.
Speaker 1: It's not about Judah waging warfare.
Speaker 8: And later on the chapter in the Book of Isaiah,
Speaker 8: you have the King of Judeah praying to God to
Speaker 8: smite the Assyrians who are threatening Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: And he does so.
Speaker 8: The idea that God never listens to the prayers of
Speaker 8: anyone who ages war, as Pocolio says it, I think
Speaker 8: is simplistic and reductive. Now just war matters, and I
Speaker 8: think the Pope should consider when did Trump first talk
Speaker 8: about hitting ran in the separation and then move down
Speaker 8: thousands in their own people in the streets.
Speaker 1: That's the part that bothers me as a Catholic is
Speaker 1: that Jimmy la is in jail in China because of
Speaker 1: the Roman Catholic Church making a bad deal with China.
Speaker 1: And I haven't seen much from the Vatican about the
Speaker 1: dead Iranean Rich Lowry I like to agree on that.
Speaker 1: I'll be listening to the editors whenever it comes out next.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining me, follo him on exed Rich Lowry,
Speaker 1: listen to the editors in stay.
Speaker 10: Tuned backb the wedd is honesty that the firing is.
Speaker 1: Welcome back America. That's Oasia. If they were inducting the
Speaker 1: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame today, all my bump
Speaker 1: music coming from inductees today. I'm sure Matt Cotton and
Speaker 1: he is a big fan of Oasis since he wasn't
Speaker 1: born when Oasis was out there, Matt, Do you like Oasis.
Speaker 14: Qu That's like the soundtrack to my adolescence, that saw
Speaker 14: wonder Wall right?
Speaker 12: There? Are you kidding on? How young do you take me?
Speaker 12: For you? I didn't just follow off the apple cart.
Speaker 6: I think of you as a young man.
Speaker 1: That's a compliment, though, that's a compliment. I want to
Speaker 1: be in with a big assess the past week, which
Speaker 1: would include Islamabad, an embargo, and a report from the
Speaker 1: Bank of Tehran that the economy is in collapse in Iran.
Speaker 1: And I mean collapse collapse. There are republic collapse.
Speaker 12: Yeah.
Speaker 14: Well, I think it's been a roller coaster the past week.
Speaker 14: I think that after a potential distraction in Islamabad, the
Speaker 14: President has settled on what seems to me to be
Speaker 14: the appropriate policy of blockading the Iranian ports and answering
Speaker 14: Iran's hostage taking of the Strait of Hormuz. With American power,
Speaker 14: we have the power to control our own destiny, and
Speaker 14: that's what I think the President has done by saying
Speaker 14: that the US Navy and Central Command will be disallowing
Speaker 14: ships to go in and out of Iranian ports, just
Speaker 14: strangling the regime's economy. Which is really the lifeline to
Speaker 14: the IRGC, the terrorist regime. So I think we had
Speaker 14: the potential for a bad deal in Islamabab, but that
Speaker 14: didn't happen. And I think it didn't happen because the
Speaker 14: negotiating team, whether it was Jared Kushner or Steve Witkoff
Speaker 14: or Vice President Vance, saw just how intransigent the Iranians are.
Speaker 12: And it's also because.
Speaker 14: President Trump and President Trump has been crystal clear for
Speaker 14: decades he won't allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon.
Speaker 14: He has not wavered, and he continues to stand strong
Speaker 14: as we enter this new phase of the conflict.
Speaker 1: I agree with all that. I am getting very tired
Speaker 1: of people telling me what President Trump thinks, and what JD.
Speaker 1: Vans thinks and what Witcoff think. Have you noticed how
Speaker 1: many mind readers we have in the analytical community, Matt.
Speaker 1: They don't deal with events, They deal with what they
Speaker 1: think people think.
Speaker 12: Yeah, it's a case of projection.
Speaker 14: You need a team of psychiatrists to study Washington, and
Speaker 14: they would they would view the analyst community as exhibiting
Speaker 14: that that delusion of projecting their own fantasies and wish
Speaker 14: fulfillments onto these Administrative administration players.
Speaker 12: You know, it's interesting, Hugh.
Speaker 14: Both Kushner and Witkoff participated in the last round of
Speaker 14: negotiations prior to the beginning of Operation Epic Fury, and
Speaker 14: I think both of them went in thinking, you know what,
Speaker 14: there's a deal to be had with the Iranian regime,
Speaker 14: and they came away, if anything, more skeptical than before.
Speaker 14: And to hear Steve Witkoff talk about the way in
Speaker 14: which the Iranians treated him during that round of negotiations
Speaker 14: is to really see someone listen to someone who is
Speaker 14: one of my heroes. One set has been mugged by reality.
Speaker 14: And I think that's happened to Vice President Vance as well,
Speaker 14: because in his post negotiation interview he said, look, I
Speaker 14: may have given advice to the President before the beginning
Speaker 14: of the operation, but having dealt with the Iranians in
Speaker 14: Islamabad over the weekend, I can see it's very hard
Speaker 14: to make a deal with them. Why is it so
Speaker 14: hard to make a deal with them, because the Iranian regime,
Speaker 14: what's left of it, understands that if they were to
Speaker 14: give up nuclear Enrichmond, the regime really has no reason
Speaker 14: to exist, and that is what the Iranians are playing
Speaker 14: for They're playing for survival. We have a whole range
Speaker 14: of different goals in this operation, but what the Iranian
Speaker 14: regime is playing for is survival.
Speaker 1: Now we achieved a strategic breakthrough, I think of sorts
Speaker 1: and I hope we have kept Secretary Rubio's clip. Adam
Speaker 1: can whisper in my ear if we've got it ready
Speaker 1: to play. But in the meantime, I will ask you
Speaker 1: about Lebanon. As we speak over at the State Department,
Speaker 1: a first effort is occurring. A delegation from the government
Speaker 1: of Lebanon is shitting down with a delegation from the
Speaker 1: government of Israel. What's that tell you, Matt Kontinetti. That's
Speaker 1: a fact that's happening.
Speaker 14: Well, it tells me that since the beginning of the
Speaker 14: post October seventh conflicts, the Lebanese government has moved to
Speaker 14: a position where they understand that Hesbola is a liability,
Speaker 14: not an asset, and there's a potential for some type
Speaker 14: of effort to disarm Hezbola by the Lebanese government. Now,
Speaker 14: I think we have ways to go before we reach
Speaker 14: that settlement, but it does show I think that like
Speaker 14: the other Arab states, like the other Gulf states in
Speaker 14: the region. Since Operation Epic Fury, Lebanon and the Lebanese
Speaker 14: government has seen the face of the enemy. They understand
Speaker 14: that Iran and it's so called Axis of resistance, these
Speaker 14: terrorist proxies, which include Hesbela Hamas, the Hutis, the militias
Speaker 14: in Barak and Syria, they are contributing nothing to the
Speaker 14: Middle East except violence, terror and bloodshed. And so I
Speaker 14: hope that these negotiations go well, we'll have to We'll
Speaker 14: have to watch.
Speaker 1: That's the very clarity that I think was the breakthrough.
Speaker 1: Here's Secretary of Rubio last week.
Speaker 13: People are lunatics, they are insane, They are religious zelots
Speaker 13: who can never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon
Speaker 13: because they have an apocalyptic vision of the future. And
Speaker 13: all of their neighbors know that, by the way, which
Speaker 13: is why all of their neighbors have been supportive of
Speaker 13: the efforts.
Speaker 1: Man, That's why I think it was a big win.
Speaker 1: And when we can get the Secretary of State to
Speaker 1: say these people are lunatics and everybody knows it, isn't
Speaker 1: that a win for the world. When we recognize Hitler
Speaker 1: is Hitler and the people running Iran are crazy.
Speaker 14: I think the world is safer when the United States
Speaker 14: has leaders who can distinguish between good and evil, sane
Speaker 14: and crazy, who understand the threat from Iran. The threat
Speaker 14: of an Iranian nuclear weapon, all of the havoc, the
Speaker 14: economic dislocation, the damage which to civilian infrastructure that Iran
Speaker 14: has caused during the weeks of Operation Epic Fury, would
Speaker 14: be magnified to an apocalyptic dimension. If they had a
Speaker 14: nuclear weapon. There'd be no opening the Strait of Hormuz,
Speaker 14: which the United States government is now in the process
Speaker 14: of doing, if Iran had a nuclear weapon. So we've
Speaker 14: seen why Iran cannot be allowed to have this nuclear weapon.
Speaker 14: That doesn't mean the job is done. The strait has
Speaker 14: to be open, and we have to find a way,
Speaker 14: either diplomatically or militarily, to guarantee that Iran never produces
Speaker 14: enriched uranium again. But I think right now we're in
Speaker 14: a much better place than we were, say a week ago.
Speaker 1: Do you think we have to get the six hundred
Speaker 1: pounds of your enriched uranium to call it a day,
Speaker 1: Matt or do we need the regime to do something
Speaker 1: concrete visa be the people of Iran who are held
Speaker 1: under their boot.
Speaker 12: I mean the uranium uranium dust.
Speaker 14: As the President has called it and others have called it,
Speaker 14: is being monitored.
Speaker 12: It's underground.
Speaker 14: So whether it's we have eyes on it all the
Speaker 14: time and we just create a circle and no go
Speaker 14: zone for Iranians around that perimeter, or whether we actually
Speaker 14: extract it. I mean, I think we have several options.
Speaker 14: The Pickax Mountain facility, though, is one that I think
Speaker 14: we have to take very seriously, and someone has to
Speaker 14: gain entry into it, the United States allowing the IEA
Speaker 14: to go in there and to monitor it, those are
Speaker 14: very important. And opening the straight and not allowing Iran
Speaker 14: to impede the free flow of commerce on the seas,
Speaker 14: that is extremely important.
Speaker 12: Those two things.
Speaker 14: If we achieved both of those goals, combined with the
Speaker 14: way which we've destroyed the iranium war machine, truly degraded it,
Speaker 14: I think you then have the conditions, combined with that
Speaker 14: economic pressure for with the regime to unravel. It will
Speaker 14: be a process of months, but I think it will happen.
Speaker 1: It took three years after Rekovic for the Berlin Wall
Speaker 1: to fall. I think it might take less time for
Speaker 1: this regime to fall. After Rekovic two point zero Islamabad
Speaker 1: Domestic politics, next with Matt Continent, any of the Wall
Speaker 1: Street Journal, the American enterprises too, don't go anywhere. I'll
Speaker 1: be right back with Matt on the Hugh Hewitt Show,
Speaker 1: Welcome Back America. That's Iron Maiden. I don't think Matt
Speaker 1: Continent he listened to Iron Maiden. He doesn't strike me
Speaker 1: as an Iron Maiden kind of guy. Did you listen
Speaker 1: to Iron Maiden? Matt?
Speaker 14: I went to school with a lot of kids wore
Speaker 14: wearing used Iron Maiden T shirts. Hugh, That's about as
Speaker 14: close as I got.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, this is definitely not your bowling, Wayne.
Speaker 1: I want to switch to domestic issues. Last week, little
Speaker 1: unnoticed because of the news, the President dropped a budget.
Speaker 1: That budget called for a trillion and a half dollars
Speaker 1: in defense spending and the most ambitious shipbuilding programs in
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty five, eighteen warships, sixteen auxiliary ships. What do
Speaker 1: you think about its chances? Do you think they're going
Speaker 1: to use reconciliation? And do you think it was partly
Speaker 1: in response to our being a naval power very much
Speaker 1: in the Straits and outside of the Straits right now,
Speaker 1: in the here and.
Speaker 14: Now right well, so much is up in the air
Speaker 14: with reconciliation, and of course this weekend Capitol Hill will
Speaker 14: be spent trying to get the shutdown of the DHS resolved.
Speaker 14: I don't know whether the one and a half trillion
Speaker 14: dollar defense budget will be through that process as well,
Speaker 14: though I think they should consider it, because I believe
Speaker 14: they have two bites of the apple, the reconciliation apple
Speaker 14: left you. I think the key question here is what
Speaker 14: you pointed out with the capacity of our navy, and
Speaker 14: I would just refer our our audience to that great
Speaker 14: interview you did with Admiral Mark Montgomery the other day
Speaker 14: where he was talking about kind of the burn rate
Speaker 14: of some of these vessels we have operating in the
Speaker 14: Middle East and then of course in the Caribbean as well,
Speaker 14: where once the deployment ends they have to go in
Speaker 14: for maintenance.
Speaker 12: And so you don't want to get into a situation.
Speaker 14: Where, God forbid, a crisis happens in the Taiwan straight
Speaker 14: and all of a sudden we have aircraft carriers they're
Speaker 14: all in dry dock being repaired and can't move to
Speaker 14: respond to the crisis.
Speaker 12: So that is I think the biggest.
Speaker 14: And most compelling argument for spending all it takes to
Speaker 14: expand our naval capacity. We have guaranteed the safe passage
Speaker 14: of the global commons of airscene space since the end
Speaker 14: of the Second World War. That's what we're fighting for
Speaker 14: right now at the Strait of Hormuz. And in order
Speaker 14: to do that, you need a navy capable of the job.
Speaker 14: And that's why I think Congress should move expeditiously to
Speaker 14: expanding our navy, making sure it has the ships it
Speaker 14: needs to guarantee the security of commerce and the prosperity
Speaker 14: of the United States and the world in an event
Speaker 14: of a crisis.
Speaker 1: So I want to close Matt by talking about President
Speaker 1: Trump's posts, and there have been a few that have
Speaker 1: been very controversial this week. I don't know why he
Speaker 1: posts them, but I do know the effect it has.
Speaker 1: Almost instantly, everyone in my life who has TDS sends
Speaker 1: me a direct message or a text that says, aren't
Speaker 1: you finally going to turn on him? Aren't you finally
Speaker 1: going to say He's crazy? Don't you feel bad? One
Speaker 1: guy told me I was in danger of losing my
Speaker 1: soul because he'd attacked the Pope, and I wasn't attacking
Speaker 1: him back now. I just got done saying we shouldn't
Speaker 1: guess at what people's motives are. But do you think
Speaker 1: he does what he does online in order to remind
Speaker 1: people who've got TDS offline?
Speaker 12: Sometimes I'm not sure why he does what he does.
Speaker 14: To be perfectly honest, I think the one thing we
Speaker 14: know about President Trump is he has no filter, and
Speaker 14: that's been actually an asset for him politically because he
Speaker 14: is always very direct about how he feels at any
Speaker 14: given moment. Sometimes it gets him into trouble, and it's
Speaker 14: gotten him into trouble with more frequency, I think in
Speaker 14: the past couple of weeks. But I with President Trump
Speaker 14: have a very simple rule. Rather than looking at what
Speaker 14: he says, I look at what he does. He does,
Speaker 14: and he's having this conflict with the Pope. I don't
Speaker 14: think it will benefit anyone, But I'm looking at what
Speaker 14: he does and in the policy realm and the conflict
Speaker 14: we are engaged in at the moment with Iran, I
Speaker 14: believe he's settled on the right policy.
Speaker 1: Now. You know, I'm a Catholic, cradle Catholic matt and
Speaker 1: popes have been have scuffed it up a little bit
Speaker 1: with presidents forever. We did a lot with this with Francis,
Speaker 1: We did some of this with Bennett Nick them with
Speaker 1: John Paul, but not nearly as much. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: It doesn't change the church, it doesn't change the presidency.
Speaker 1: It sure makes good copy, though. Have you written about it?
Speaker 1: I wrote about it for Tomorrow's Washington Examiner. Have you
Speaker 1: written about it yet? Because it's good copy.
Speaker 12: It's good copy. I haven't read about it.
Speaker 14: I have to say, I do credit the president with
Speaker 14: originality for calling the Pope soft on crime.
Speaker 12: That was new to me, That was new to me,
Speaker 12: that made me, that made me laugh. I have to
Speaker 12: admit it. But okay, yeah, it does make for good copy.
Speaker 14: And it puts it puts liberals in weird situations. I
Speaker 14: saw one headline, Hugh where USA Today was saying a
Speaker 14: Popolio for president, except really, you.
Speaker 12: Know, you might you might want to look at some.
Speaker 14: Of his positions on the other issues, right, that's the point,
Speaker 14: United States?
Speaker 1: Yeah, May next time I will ask you about axel
Speaker 1: Rod's theory of Americans electing the opposite temperament, because I'm
Speaker 1: not sure what the opposite temperament, and President Trump is
Speaker 1: to find the most boring person in America to be president.
Speaker 1: At that theory holds, Matt Continety can be followed on
Speaker 1: x at continenty read in the Wall Street Journal that
Speaker 1: is free Expressions column, and everything he does over at
Speaker 1: the American Enterprise Institute. Thank you, Matt. I'll be right
Speaker 1: back in America States in my friends. You've probably seen
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Speaker 1: Hugh Welcome back America. I'm Hugh Hewittt. That is Phil Collins,
Speaker 1: and my guest is James Lyas. Who could not be
Speaker 1: a more appropriate guest today on the day when the
Speaker 1: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announces its annual inductees.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to give you a little bit of
Speaker 1: a minute on each of them. Let's start with Phil
Speaker 1: Collins LILEX, what say you interer out? Good choice, bad.
Speaker 6: Choice, fantastic choice. He is one of the best drummers
Speaker 6: in rock and roll.
Speaker 15: Imagine if at some point of the sixties the Rolling
Speaker 15: Stones had said, you know what, We're going to put
Speaker 15: Charlie Watts, our steady drummer into Mick Jagger spot and
Speaker 15: Mick Jagger went off to a solo career and the
Speaker 15: Rolling Stones exploded.
Speaker 6: You imagined imagined Richard Starkey taking over for Paul McCartney.
Speaker 15: It's about that Phil Collins stepped into the role of
Speaker 15: the departed singer. The band blew up and became incredibly famous,
Speaker 15: and good for them. They deserve to make some money.
Speaker 15: And I was one of the first people to hear
Speaker 15: in the Air Tonight because unlike most, I bought that
Speaker 15: album the second it came out because I was a
Speaker 15: Genesis fan. Phil Collins is also one of the world's
Speaker 15: greatest collectors of Alamo material, and as a matter of fact,
Speaker 15: psychic told him that he was reincarnated from the last
Speaker 15: person to leave the Alamo before the battle. He donated
Speaker 15: the whole collections of the Alamo itself. So this magnificent
Speaker 15: thing that he assembled from all the millions that he
Speaker 15: got as a pop star ended up benefiting American history
Speaker 15: for generations to come.
Speaker 6: I love Phil Collins.
Speaker 1: I would like to tell the audience, by the way,
Speaker 1: Lilas had no idea we were going to do this
Speaker 1: segment or talk about these people, So this is just
Speaker 1: Lilac's being Lilacs. You can hear him on Thursday Night
Speaker 1: with General Lisimo on the After Show, which is now
Speaker 1: called Dwayne's World, but you have to join the universe,
Speaker 1: Part number two, Billy Idol, What say you?
Speaker 15: I love Billy Idol, the sneer, the whiplash sneer that buzz.
Speaker 6: Cut came out of. You know, he came out of.
Speaker 15: A real, actual generations, as they called themselves, a punk band,
Speaker 15: and he was a genuine pump. But he was too charismatic,
Speaker 15: and he got glammed up a little bit buffed up,
Speaker 15: got some good songs and an amazing guitarist and deserved
Speaker 15: again the hit that he had, iconic eighties look and songs.
Speaker 15: What I love about Billy Idol is that the last
Speaker 15: thing I heard from him. There's a new documentary by
Speaker 15: the way called Billy Idol Should Be Dead. I haven't
Speaker 15: seen it.
Speaker 6: The last thing I saw from him was a Christmas
Speaker 6: album that Billy.
Speaker 15: Was singing, you know, honey, baby is cold outside, and
Speaker 15: I hope I was hoping that he did it with
Speaker 15: a particularly malevolent sneer in his voice.
Speaker 6: Of malice, you know, the way people are always saying
Speaker 6: that song is meant to be. But no, he played
Speaker 6: it completely straight, Billy Idol doing for you know, I
Speaker 6: can think of worse things I remind.
Speaker 1: I get through this list. Number three, Queue up Iron
Speaker 1: Maiden for people, Adam just a little Iron Maiden, James,
Speaker 1: what do you think of.
Speaker 15: Iron Maiden, Well, one of the earlier hair bands, if
Speaker 15: you want to say that, fond a whole lot of
Speaker 15: other guys that came out there.
Speaker 6: Put a little bit more hair on print to their hair,
Speaker 6: put on a little bit more lipstick on there. Well,
Speaker 6: you got to remember about Iron Maiden. They were one
Speaker 6: of those groups that didn't just have a logo.
Speaker 15: They had a mascot. They had a mascot called Eddie
Speaker 15: Eddie the Head I think he was called.
Speaker 6: It was sort of this cadaverous, leering, ec comics kind
Speaker 6: of guy that would accompany their antics great stuff.
Speaker 15: I wasn't really ever a heavy metal guy because it's
Speaker 15: too much about you know, hello Satan, let's sit down
Speaker 15: and have some crumpets. But again, you can't do the
Speaker 15: history of metal and rock in the eighties without getting
Speaker 15: the Iron Maiden.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm not sure you're gonna have any commentary
Speaker 1: on Joy Division and New Order.
Speaker 15: Oh well, Joy Division, Yeah, Joy Division named after I
Speaker 15: believe a Hitler organization had handed out prostitutes and then
Speaker 15: of course.
Speaker 6: New Order out of that New Order is one of
Speaker 6: the greatest.
Speaker 15: Bands synth bands, pop band of the era as well distinctive.
Speaker 15: I think it's Bernard Summers is the guy who's the vocalist.
Speaker 15: This very dry bass sound. You can always recognize their
Speaker 15: album Requiem, which I think came out in about nineteen
Speaker 15: ninety one ninety two, or Nnstory Republic as one of
Speaker 15: the greatest synthpop records ever.
Speaker 6: And I fil turning it out periodically every other year.
Speaker 6: You'll say, oh, New Order as.
Speaker 15: A song and it'll sound like it did twenty years ago.
Speaker 15: You know, the iconic Blue Monday. And I shouldn't use
Speaker 15: the word iconic so much, but Blue Monday is one
Speaker 15: of those songs in my unit's generations, comes on the radio.
Speaker 6: I turn it up. It comes on the radio, and
Speaker 6: my daughter's in the car. She turns it up.
Speaker 1: Great, all right, Oasis, Yeah, I don't have much to
Speaker 1: say about them, all right, Sade Sharde.
Speaker 15: Jar Day it was this is this beautiful, gorgeous, hultry,
Speaker 15: smoky jazz gaming about eighty seven eighty eight, I'd say.
Speaker 6: Smooth operator was Is it really pronounced Sunday? I think
Speaker 6: it's Shardei.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, I'm saying Mark.
Speaker 15: Yeah, I mean beautiful, beautiful voice for romantic sort of
Speaker 15: the happier person's Chris.
Speaker 6: Isaac from the dist out side. Everybody bought her album,
Speaker 6: everybody made out to it. She deserves to be there.
Speaker 6: Is it rock? Well, if you want to expand the
Speaker 6: definition of rock to include sultry, smokey, soft, soulful.
Speaker 1: Songs, then sure, Okay.
Speaker 6: Luther Van Dross, Yeah, probably.
Speaker 15: I don't know as much about him at all, except
Speaker 15: to say the name I heard is recognizable, and I'd
Speaker 15: recognize a tune of is or two. But he's one
Speaker 15: of those guys who probably should have gotten in earlier
Speaker 15: and getting around to him because he's I believe, predates
Speaker 15: most of the people were talking about.
Speaker 1: Okay, very last one. And I have nothing to say
Speaker 1: about Wutong Klan, but maybe you do.
Speaker 15: I don't have anything this may about them either, and
Speaker 15: it's just isn't because they're bad.
Speaker 6: Some of their stuff is okay. I like it.
Speaker 15: I'll NodD around to it, but it's because it comes
Speaker 15: at a point where I, in my life had stopped
Speaker 15: paying particular attention as much as i'd before to radio
Speaker 15: and pop music for two reasons.
Speaker 6: One I was getting older. Two, I was finding more
Speaker 6: stuff that was niche than I ordered that I believed.
Speaker 15: And I guess there's a third reason. The music of
Speaker 15: the you know of my thirties was demonstrably inferior to
Speaker 15: the music of my topic. So just that I got old,
Speaker 15: and without question, it got bad, it'd got meritricious, it
Speaker 15: got stupid.
Speaker 6: There was still great stuff to be had, but ill
Speaker 6: you would have were.
Speaker 15: Lucky enough so that our drop off in interest in
Speaker 15: pop music coincided with the fall of pop music itself.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of I got just old. Phil Collins
Speaker 1: shouldn't have been in in like year three, right, Why
Speaker 1: did it take so then?
Speaker 6: I'm not sure about that.
Speaker 15: There's a lot of Yeah, I don't know how many
Speaker 15: induct a year, but you know, I put zz Top
Speaker 15: before I put in Phil Collins. Phil Collins is a
Speaker 15: great drummer, but he's a jazz drummer in so many ways.
Speaker 6: He's a great vocalist and that treb. He didn't write
Speaker 6: a lot of the songs I would have put.
Speaker 15: You know, there's so many bands from the sixties, foundational bands.
Speaker 6: That I would have put in first I would.
Speaker 1: Hermit torments of the Rock Hall of Fame. You're to
Speaker 1: put in Herman's m.
Speaker 15: Yeah, you know, second and second verse same as the first.
Speaker 15: Not exactly the moskst lyrically invented group out there, but yeah,
Speaker 15: I would have.
Speaker 6: I would have put them in, not because they're better.
Speaker 15: But just because I would have laid the foundation for
Speaker 15: the for the rock and you know, thank you.
Speaker 1: It's an evolutionary walk you've got to start, you know that.
Speaker 1: Do you go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Ever?
Speaker 6: No, I haven't been there though.
Speaker 1: Oh James, Uh, that's that's the place you and Dwayne
Speaker 1: should do a uh what are we going on with?
Speaker 1: Till Colin Lilacs. You can hear him again Thursday night
Speaker 1: in the after show now called Dwayne's World. Used to
Speaker 1: be called Dwayne's Road when it was behind outside the paywall.
Speaker 1: Now it's behind the paywall where the after show used
Speaker 1: to be. But Lilac's in the Magnificent seven back with
Speaker 1: Dwayne on Thursday night to say here, thank you, James,