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'll listen to the Hillsdale Dialogue all of
Speaker 1: them at Hugh for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple,
Speaker 1: iTunes and Hillsdale RaaS America. I'm he Hewt inside the Beltway.
Speaker 1: As many of you know, I used to live in California.
Speaker 1: I lived in California until twenty sixteen. This very day,
Speaker 1: I was sitting with another ex California and we were
Speaker 1: talking about how wonderful it was to live in California
Speaker 1: in the eighties and the nineties, back in the days
Speaker 1: of Duke Major and Pete Wilson and now it's gone
Speaker 1: to hell. And we began talking about the debate that
Speaker 1: was held earlier this week. So I thought we would
Speaker 1: try and get a hold of one of the participants
Speaker 1: of the debate, Steve Hilton, and Steve is here to
Speaker 1: talk about the debate, so that I don't have to
Speaker 1: worry about equal time rules.
Speaker 2: We're talking about the debate here.
Speaker 1: It's a news event, so I'm allowed to talk to
Speaker 1: him about it, Steve, you crushed it in the debate.
Speaker 2: First tell me just a technical matter. What do you
Speaker 2: make of the moderators.
Speaker 1: I liked Alan, but I have never worked with his
Speaker 1: colleagues from CNN Caitlyn.
Speaker 3: I honestly thought it was a good I thought it
Speaker 3: was good. Here's why they actually let us debate. They
Speaker 3: weren't so insanely kind of fussing about their rules and
Speaker 3: minute here, and they let us actually challenge each other,
Speaker 3: and that leads to a better outcome. Obviously, you can't
Speaker 3: have a complete free for all, but I thought of
Speaker 3: all the ones that we don't, we had another one
Speaker 3: last night, which was much more, if I could put
Speaker 3: it this way, micro managed by the moderators, and ends
Speaker 3: up actually resulting in a worse outcome, because a debate is,
Speaker 3: as the word suggests, a back and forth, and if
Speaker 3: you don't allow us to challenge each other, then you
Speaker 3: don't get the benefit of that. So I enjoyed that debate,
Speaker 3: and they you know long, you know, two hours long,
Speaker 3: But you can get into all the issues and have
Speaker 3: a proper back and forth.
Speaker 1: Now I have done enough debate that they got to
Speaker 1: get organic. If you get in the way they step
Speaker 1: on the lines where it matters. It seemed to me
Speaker 1: that you were in command. Did you miss any shots
Speaker 1: where you thought there was a knockout blow at say
Speaker 1: jab arbusera or you're in first place.
Speaker 2: I don't know that you need a knockout blow.
Speaker 3: I think that's right. I mean, I think there was
Speaker 3: one's you know, But Sarah is a target rich environment.
Speaker 4: You.
Speaker 3: He's got a bunch of corruption scandals, he's got a
Speaker 3: terrible record in every job that he's done. But the
Speaker 3: thing that I actually was looking forward to pointing out
Speaker 3: to his face and we didn't really get the chance
Speaker 3: to do it, is all the unbelievably negative things that
Speaker 3: are being said about his competence by his own former
Speaker 3: colleagues in the Biden administration. And there's more of it
Speaker 3: just today being published where you have Biden administration officials
Speaker 3: coming out one after another saying that Sarah was the
Speaker 3: most useless cabinet secretary, totally incompetent. They look at his
Speaker 3: rise in this governor's race, and apparently this is the
Speaker 3: story that came out today. They show this is Biden's people,
Speaker 3: and they're passing around these polls with Bessarah moving up.
Speaker 3: They're saying, is this a joke? That's the word that
Speaker 3: they use. They can't believe that this guy is being
Speaker 3: taken seriously, So we do. I think there is one
Speaker 3: more debate. I think there's one next week. I don't
Speaker 3: know if it's going to be broadcast statewide, so perhaps
Speaker 3: I'll get a chance then. But I mean, he's exactly
Speaker 3: what we don't need in California. Thirty six years career politician,
Speaker 3: He's done nothing but be a politician. He's a total
Speaker 3: puppet of this failed and corrupt Democrat regime in California,
Speaker 3: and he's the living embodiment of exactly what we don't need,
Speaker 3: which is more of the same.
Speaker 2: You know what surprises me about this, Steve Hilton?
Speaker 1: You are in first place and right behind you are
Speaker 1: a Bussarah followed by Tom Steyer, followed by Katie Porter.
Speaker 1: That's the bland, the unlikable, and the toxic. It's I
Speaker 1: had threesome that you would never want to golf with.
Speaker 1: But Tom Steyer has got one hundred million dollars he's.
Speaker 2: Pouring in there. What's he doing with it?
Speaker 1: How can he not be in second place after one
Speaker 1: hundred million dollars of spending.
Speaker 3: You know it's it's actually more. I mean the numbers
Speaker 3: keep going up. It's now one hundred and sixty million
Speaker 3: dollars he's spent just in the last few months. You
Speaker 3: basically can't escape his ads anywhere you go. And I
Speaker 3: think you've got to that point now where it's saturation,
Speaker 3: Like how much more can we take of this? It's
Speaker 3: one of my go to, you know, joke lines. When
Speaker 3: I'm on the on the campaign trail doing our town
Speaker 3: halls and you sort of mention Tom's tires ads, everyone
Speaker 3: just groans. Even Javier Besser actually had his campaign put
Speaker 3: out a nice ad there's a good, good joke where
Speaker 3: they just had shots of Redwood forest and yosemitee and
Speaker 3: beautiful California nature scenes and saying, we just want to
Speaker 3: give you a break from tom Stars ads. It's just
Speaker 3: I don't know how he could throw another one hundred
Speaker 3: and sixty million if he wants, but I don't know
Speaker 3: how far it's going to get him. And by the way,
Speaker 3: he's not just more of the same, he is worse.
Speaker 3: He's more left wing, more extreme on climate and taxes
Speaker 3: and spending and immigration, and crime than what we've got now. So,
Speaker 3: as I said in the debate the other night, if
Speaker 3: you think it can't get worse than Gavin Newsom and
Speaker 3: what we have now, I have two words for you,
Speaker 3: Tom Steier.
Speaker 1: Well, I agree with you about that, and he's welcome
Speaker 1: to come on the show anytime. He just doesn't want
Speaker 1: to show up. The one fella I'm surprised by, and
Speaker 1: I'm friendly with, Antonio Viergosa. He kept me in a
Speaker 1: slot on the California Arts Commission forever. I think he's
Speaker 1: afraid to fire me because I had a radio show
Speaker 1: at the time. But he's nowhere. He's like the nowhere man.
Speaker 1: Did he have any sparkle at all in the debate?
Speaker 1: I know you're a candidate not a commentator, but you're fair.
Speaker 1: Did he have any juice?
Speaker 3: No? I mean I like Antonio actually, And to be fair,
Speaker 3: he is definitely less extreme than the other Democrats, particularly
Speaker 3: on climate and energy, where he's not implacably hostile to
Speaker 3: California oil and gas production. He's also been pretty good
Speaker 3: on challenging the teacher unions on schools policy. But he's
Speaker 3: not really he hasn't he hasn't broken out his main
Speaker 3: role in the last two debates has been incredibly aggressive
Speaker 3: attacks on Javier Basera over his record, and so he did.
Speaker 3: He definitely got more attention Antonio Villa Ricosa last night
Speaker 3: because he really went after Javier, and I suspect he'll
Speaker 3: be doing more of that in the remainder of the campaign.
Speaker 3: But I don't I don't see him going anywhere at all.
Speaker 1: Well, let me move from the commentator part of the candidate.
Speaker 1: I want to figure out why you're leading in an
Speaker 1: overwhelmingly blue state and you're a newcomer.
Speaker 2: What is it that you're leading with? Is it?
Speaker 1: Is it housing? Is it affordability? Is it getting the
Speaker 1: homeless people out? What are you leading with? Well, it's
Speaker 1: actually I can tell you one word.
Speaker 3: If you can see my my sort of backdrop here
Speaker 3: you these are the banners we take on the road
Speaker 3: for our town halls and the and the one just
Speaker 3: here at the top of that you can't quite see.
Speaker 3: It says hell affordable. I have it says hell affordable.
Speaker 3: And that's the theme. And it's three dollars gas, cut
Speaker 3: your electric bills in half, your first one hundred grand
Speaker 3: tax free, no more free health care for illegal immigrants,
Speaker 3: so we can lower healthcare cost for you a home
Speaker 3: you can afford to buy. And that simple practical message
Speaker 3: is what I think people are responding to. The other
Speaker 3: thing I would just tell you is I think that
Speaker 3: they're responding to the fact that I've been working really
Speaker 3: hard for this. I've been traveling the state and really
Speaker 3: going out there, meeting people, listening to people. We do
Speaker 3: twnholes all over the state, and I think people really
Speaker 3: can see from that that there's an energy here and
Speaker 3: we don't have to put up with what we've got
Speaker 3: in California. In a way, we're trying to overcome that
Speaker 3: inertia that after sixteen years of Democrats running everything, this
Speaker 3: assumption that well, you're just always going to be like
Speaker 3: this and your only choice is to put up with
Speaker 3: it or to leave. And the whole point of my
Speaker 3: campaign is to show the kind of energy that will
Speaker 3: make people believe that actually change is possible, and it
Speaker 3: really is because the ballots are out, the choices in
Speaker 3: people's hands, the ballots have been sent out, were voting
Speaker 3: has begun, and everyone watching in California, listening in California,
Speaker 3: you can change the trajectory of our state it's only
Speaker 3: you can vote, and you can do it, and you
Speaker 3: put me in the top two. That's the first step
Speaker 3: so that I can take on whoever the Democrats send.
Speaker 3: I really believe that we can turn things around in
Speaker 3: California because people are sick of what we've got and
Speaker 3: the argument for change is overwhelming.
Speaker 2: Well, I do.
Speaker 1: Talk to former California. It's really one question of despair,
Speaker 1: and people despair of it getting better because there's gridlock
Speaker 1: in Sacramento and super majorities of Democrats and billionaire taxes
Speaker 1: on that's the dumbest tax in the world. Even Gavin
Speaker 1: knows it's a dumb tax. Where's your strength? Is it
Speaker 1: the Central Valley? Is it San Diego, Orange County? Up
Speaker 1: in the North Way, North Stampa? Where's your strength?
Speaker 3: I think it's everywhere, and it's more democratic. It's working
Speaker 3: class Californians and small business owners, the people who've been
Speaker 3: really hurt. I just really noticed that when I'm on
Speaker 3: the road, the kind of people that come up to
Speaker 3: you and say we're with you. You've got to win.
Speaker 3: It's regular working class people who just can't take it anymore.
Speaker 3: And the other reason, I just think it's very important
Speaker 3: to be aware of a big change in California this
Speaker 3: year that should give us grounds for optimism. You mentioned
Speaker 3: the billionaires tax. This insane wealth tax idea that is
Speaker 3: completely unconstitutional and unworkable, has already cost us billions of
Speaker 3: dollars of lost tax revenues. Many people have left the state.
Speaker 3: But it's also woken up the business community in a
Speaker 3: serious way where You've had to my frustration. Actually, for
Speaker 3: many years now, serious business leaders, the tech community and
Speaker 3: others across the state have kind of stood by and
Speaker 3: not been engaged as the state's drifted further to towards
Speaker 3: insanity in the hostile business climate. They've even gone along
Speaker 3: with it. Many of them have supported Democrats for is
Speaker 3: that's all changed. They are really engaged. And the reason
Speaker 3: that matters is that I think that when I'm in
Speaker 3: the top two and it's me against a Democrat, we're
Speaker 3: going to have the business community supporting my campaign and
Speaker 3: giving us the resources we need to have a fair
Speaker 3: fight against the unions for the first time in at
Speaker 3: least twenty years.
Speaker 1: Well, I hope to host a conversation between you and
Speaker 1: whoever comes in second very quickly. In ten second on
Speaker 1: AX you or Steve Hilton X. What's the website for
Speaker 1: your campaign?
Speaker 3: Steve Hilton four Governor dot com fo R, Steve Hilton
Speaker 3: for Governor dot R.
Speaker 2: It's great to be with you. Thank you, Steve. Stay
Speaker 2: turned the Salem New Channel America. Welcome back America and
Speaker 2: to hew it.
Speaker 1: There are reports of explosions over islands off the coast
Speaker 1: of Iran at this hour. Details as they occur will
Speaker 1: produce those for you. I'm joined now by the chairman
Speaker 1: of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the chair of the
Speaker 1: Senate Republican KAKA Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas. Senator Cotton,
Speaker 1: have you heard any about those reports or it's just
Speaker 1: the Wall Street Journal that I'm reading?
Speaker 2: Good?
Speaker 4: Could be back on with you. I've not heard anything
Speaker 4: other than unverified media reports like you, so I suggest
Speaker 4: that we wait and see, but also would point out
Speaker 4: that the President has been very clear on what his
Speaker 4: red lines are with Iran, not just for the last
Speaker 4: week or months, but for ten years or more, and
Speaker 4: iron rewise to heed those red lines. But they have
Speaker 4: underestimated him before.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I spoke with the President on Monday and he laid
Speaker 1: down very firmly that no nuclear weapons, no highly enriched geranium.
Speaker 1: They've got to have inspections of their missile program, some
Speaker 1: kind of limit, and they're out of money anyway, so
Speaker 1: they won't be providing funds to terrorist organizations.
Speaker 5: It's been that clear from the beginning. Why all this.
Speaker 2: Struman dang about the the deal.
Speaker 4: Well, he has been clear from the beginning. He and again,
Speaker 4: these are not complicated or even difficult demands. If Iran
Speaker 4: didn't want to be bombed backed at Stone age, they
Speaker 4: could simply say to the United States, here you go,
Speaker 4: here's all the enrich you yearning. Please come take it
Speaker 4: off our hands. Here's the remaining centrifuges and spare parts
Speaker 4: and the machines that make more of them. We want
Speaker 4: the bombing to stop, and we want the sanctions to
Speaker 4: be lifted. There doesn't really need to be negotiations over
Speaker 4: commitments or mutual understandings or assurances or anything else. That's
Speaker 4: what President Obambas settled for now. Donald Trump has already
Speaker 4: gone far beyond what Barack Obama did, because we destroyed
Speaker 4: their nuclear program and we leveled much of the nuclear infrastructure.
Speaker 4: But if Iron wants to take the final step again,
Speaker 4: it's not a complicated step. There's a bunch of stuff
Speaker 4: that they have possession of that they can turn over.
Speaker 4: There's no need for mutual assurances or understandings.
Speaker 1: Center again, open source only. Well, how do you assess
Speaker 1: the status of the IRG, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard after
Speaker 1: six eight weeks punishment?
Speaker 4: Well, we pummeled them, Hugh, and we pulverized much of
Speaker 4: them their war making capabilities. They obviously steal or largely
Speaker 4: calling the shots. But that means that the regime in
Speaker 4: Iran is even less legitimate now than it was three
Speaker 4: months ago, Hugh. They don't even have the small, the
Speaker 4: near of religious authority that the Supreme Leader gave them
Speaker 4: for several decades. Now that his son is in charge,
Speaker 4: nominally in charge, not genuinely in charge. I don't think
Speaker 4: he didn't even want his son to be in charge,
Speaker 4: which is why I sometimes for him is Fredo Hamini.
Speaker 4: So they're definitely clinging to power, but I think it
Speaker 4: is clinging. They're not firmly in power because they know
Speaker 4: that the United States and Israel at any point could
Speaker 4: renew our campaign to totally overize all of their all
Speaker 4: the pillars of their regime's power.
Speaker 2: So one last question before I go to politics.
Speaker 1: I asked the President about the artech and whether or
Speaker 1: not that is for the benefit of the steelers fans
Speaker 1: the standard Iranian army. They've got an army that's not
Speaker 1: in the IRGC, and he said they've been leaving it alone,
Speaker 1: that they're not trying to let it be in order
Speaker 1: that the country have some cohesion. Is that consistent with
Speaker 1: what you've seen in open sources, that the artech exists
Speaker 1: and could actually maybe move.
Speaker 4: In It is fair? He would say that the Revolutionary
Speaker 4: Guard Corps cud's force, the besiege militia, those are the
Speaker 4: shop troops of the revolutionary regime has been a central
Speaker 4: target of our and especially Israel's campaigns. Obviously, we've struck
Speaker 4: a lot of conventional military targets, like their integrated air
Speaker 4: defenses and their long range missiles, because we needed to
Speaker 4: protect ourselves, protect our friends in the region, protect our
Speaker 4: pilots flowing over Iran. But we have prioritized the shock
Speaker 4: troops of the revolutionary regime. I think it's fair to say.
Speaker 1: Now the President does like to say we've sunk one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty nine ships. He tells it to me,
Speaker 1: He tells it to everyone he speaks to. But I
Speaker 1: think he does that for a reason. That's quite a
Speaker 1: significant tactical success. That's a strategic victory, but it's a
Speaker 1: tactical success to find and sink one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: nine ships.
Speaker 2: Has that sunk in in American media.
Speaker 4: Well know, Hugh, because the media and the Democrats, although
Speaker 4: I repeat myself, are rooting against America. And every day
Speaker 4: you see a new store in New York Times or
Speaker 4: on about how Iran has America and Israel right where
Speaker 4: it wants us. I don't know about you, Hugh, but
Speaker 4: if you put yourself in the leadership in Tehran shoes,
Speaker 4: it doesn't seem that way. All of their friends have
Speaker 4: been killed. They're afraid of being killed. They're afraid to
Speaker 4: turn on their phones because they think a mom is
Speaker 4: going to drop on them the minute they do. There
Speaker 4: maybe is sunk to the bottom of the sea. They
Speaker 4: have no air defenses left, and we vastly degraded their
Speaker 4: missile and drones as well as their manufacturing capabilities to
Speaker 4: replace those things. It doesn't exactly look like a victory
Speaker 4: to meet, Hugh. That's just what the Democrats in the
Speaker 4: media want to spend both.
Speaker 2: Right now, I want to switch to politics.
Speaker 1: You were an infantry man before you became a congressman,
Speaker 1: then a senator, and you're in the army. Graham Platner
Speaker 1: has been both the marine and an army. He did
Speaker 1: his tours like you did in Iraq and Afghanistan. But
Speaker 1: he is implied in his explanation of his death heead skull.
Speaker 1: That's an SS death head skull tattoo. Oh, that was
Speaker 1: the military. That was the culture I came out of. Well,
Speaker 1: you actually commanded platoons. Was that the culture that you commanded?
Speaker 4: Fair to say that I knew more than a few
Speaker 4: infantrymen who had tattoos, more than a few who had
Speaker 4: lots of tattoos. I don't recall any of them having
Speaker 4: any Nazi symbology, especially of a specifically notorious death guards
Speaker 4: at concentration camps. I will make this observation, Hu though
Speaker 4: about the soldiers I knew with tattoos. I don't personally
Speaker 4: have one, but every tattoo they had, they could tell
Speaker 4: you exactly where they got it, and when they got it,
Speaker 4: and why they got it and what it meant. And
Speaker 4: in my experience, that's what anybody who has a tattoo
Speaker 4: can do as well. In fact, Hugh, I remember on
Speaker 4: one of the very first days of our basic training,
Speaker 4: our drill sergeant walked into our bay and he threw
Speaker 4: a bunch of forms on the ground that was to
Speaker 4: describe the tattoos you had, and he said, if you
Speaker 4: have a tat if you don't have tattoos, right in
Speaker 4: a if you do, show it where it is in
Speaker 4: the body, and describe it, and just describe what it
Speaker 4: looks like. Say it's a dragon on my shoulder. Don't
Speaker 4: give me one thousand words on the entire combined topology
Speaker 4: behind it. And that's because people who have tattoos, especially
Speaker 4: young soldiers, love to tell you about the deep mythology
Speaker 4: or story behind every single one of their tattoos. So
Speaker 4: no one should believe Graham Platner about his tattoo, or
Speaker 4: for that matter, about anything else, since he is a
Speaker 4: total fraud, a fake oyster man, a silver spoon liberal
Speaker 4: who has held these radical views since he went to
Speaker 4: a prep school that costs seventy thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 1: I hope you're going to campaign for Senator Collins up
Speaker 1: north A quick question. I noticed that both Senator Collins
Speaker 1: and Senator King. She's a Republican, he's an independent who
Speaker 1: caucuses with the Democrat.
Speaker 2: They're both on the Intel Committee.
Speaker 1: Does any other state have two senators on the Intel Committee.
Speaker 4: I don't know about that.
Speaker 6: You.
Speaker 4: We obviously make the decisions independently between the two parties.
Speaker 4: I will say that Senator Collins has been an exceptional
Speaker 4: member of the Intelligence committe. She is very serious about
Speaker 4: our national security. She's been a great partner of mine
Speaker 4: for many years in her role as the chair of
Speaker 4: the Approporations Committee and making sure that we're funding our defense,
Speaker 4: that we're investing in cutting edge munitions and drones. And
Speaker 4: the state of Maine who extraordinarily fortunate to have her
Speaker 4: not just as their senator Senator, but a senior leader
Speaker 4: in the Senate.
Speaker 1: Well, I hope you get up and tell me that's
Speaker 1: fun about the incantry and your drill Sergeant, Senator Tom
Speaker 1: Cotton always.
Speaker 5: The pleasers to talk to.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Senator.
Speaker 5: I'll be right back on rerec estate to Larry O'Connor.
Speaker 2: Sadly isn't welcome back America.
Speaker 1: As you know here on the Salem News Channel the
Speaker 1: Salem Radio Network, we take our SCC responsibility seriously. And
Speaker 1: I've been known to be a Republican. So we have
Speaker 1: brought to the mornings Democrat Larry O'Connor.
Speaker 2: Democrat O'Connor joins me.
Speaker 1: Now he's bringing your blue tie. Do you notice his
Speaker 1: blue tie. He's telling you he's gonna lie. Now he's
Speaker 1: gonna tell you all. I'm a concernative. I knew Andrew
Speaker 1: bright Bard.
Speaker 2: I used to guest host for you.
Speaker 1: That's before he became a creature of the swamp. Larry
Speaker 1: O'Connor used to be. It is now a full fledged
Speaker 1: creature of the swamp.
Speaker 7: You are literally inside the Beltway.
Speaker 1: You're literally a lonely through Uh. Larry O'Conner is now
Speaker 1: our morning guy. He has taken over for Christigall, who's
Speaker 1: being signed. We're gonna ground one thing that christigall is
Speaker 1: being slimmed. But Larry O'Connor, tell people what you were
Speaker 1: doing now and where you're doing it from, because this
Speaker 1: is the great breakthrough. Washington gets a strong voice with
Speaker 1: a strong signal in the morning, which they need.
Speaker 7: It's it's so exciting you and all kidding is first
Speaker 7: of all, that song that you were playing is that
Speaker 7: what the teams that get knocked out are the first
Speaker 7: round of the basketball tournament played, because I know what.
Speaker 1: Winn after Thanksgiving play. That's what the team that won
Speaker 1: after Thankgiving this year play.
Speaker 7: Finally after four years losing on Thanksgiving.
Speaker 5: Fifteen ONNY So good to talk.
Speaker 4: To you, So good to talk to you. My friends
Speaker 4: see you.
Speaker 5: I'd rather say your one long time to talk to you.
Speaker 4: This program.
Speaker 7: Yeah know that I used to fill in for you,
Speaker 7: and this is I cut my teeth right here and
Speaker 7: Dwayne taught me everything that I know. So Blake, don't.
Speaker 2: Admit to that. Oh gosh, that that'll be people I've.
Speaker 7: Waited until after I signed the contract. Okay, it's exciting
Speaker 7: to do. I'm doing Morning Drive now on the Salem Network.
Speaker 7: So you know, this audience listens to me on the
Speaker 7: way into work, and then I venture to say about
Speaker 7: half of them are listening to you on the way home.
Speaker 1: So gets like one point five. We're bringing you audience
Speaker 1: right now. I want them to actually find you in
Speaker 1: the morning. Is Larry O'Connor dot com? Can they get
Speaker 1: you twenty four to seven?
Speaker 2: There?
Speaker 7: Larryo'show they're calling it. Larryoshow dot com on our show
Speaker 7: sounds like a boy I've got I wish Larry we're
Speaker 7: doing uh so we're doing mornings here. And here's the thing.
Speaker 7: I filled him for Hugh and I filled in for
Speaker 7: the great Dennis Miller. These were my big breakouts. Then
Speaker 7: I get hired by w m L in Washington, d C,
Speaker 7: the powerhouse news talk station here in the nation's capital.
Speaker 7: And then suddenly I like, can't go on Salem radio anymore.
Speaker 7: You know how these radio companies that like try to
Speaker 7: build up walls and they keep you from doing it.
Speaker 7: And so I've sort of been been, you know, on
Speaker 7: w m a L and talking to the great audience
Speaker 7: in Washington. And then they said, hey, this this thing
Speaker 7: with Stigall is you know, happening. Chris is running for
Speaker 7: Congress and they're absolutely lying about him. But he's gonna
Speaker 7: win that primary. He's going to be fine. And by
Speaker 7: the way, by the way, people need to know, he's
Speaker 7: literally my best friend. He was the best man at
Speaker 7: my wedding. I mean, by Chris and I are are.
Speaker 7: So this has been so cool to be.
Speaker 2: Able to him right now. Don't hurt him, We like Chris,
Speaker 2: don't hurt.
Speaker 7: Him and and when and I said, listen, w m
Speaker 7: A l is my home. I can't see myself leaving
Speaker 7: that radio station. And somehow, the geniuses in this industry,
Speaker 7: from two different media companies and all the various interested parties,
Speaker 7: they made it work. So I am now part of
Speaker 7: the Salem Network and I'm still on wm AL in Washington,
Speaker 7: d C.
Speaker 4: So it is because you have.
Speaker 1: A Democrat to make it inside the Beltway the way
Speaker 1: that Larry has. Larry I got to tell I'll tell
Speaker 1: the audience a true story. My kids all live in
Speaker 1: Virginia and two of them are inside the Beltway. And
Speaker 1: when Larry and I were opposite at each other, I
Speaker 1: don't know how long that went on for?
Speaker 2: How long did that go on for? We were opposite
Speaker 2: at each other for a while.
Speaker 7: Honestly, I had forgotten you had a radio show.
Speaker 1: That's what they said too. They said, Dad, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: We hear you every day we're listening to Larry O'Connor.
Speaker 2: That was the That was the toughest cut of all.
Speaker 4: Oh, that was hard.
Speaker 1: You've had guest hosts and co hosts and and a
Speaker 1: circus of regulars like I.
Speaker 2: Do, including Bethany Mandel who we love. How are you doing?
Speaker 1: How are you splitting up the work because you don't
Speaker 1: work that hard. Really, you don't do any show prep.
Speaker 1: People should know that.
Speaker 7: Yeah, Well, Dwayne sends me everything. I don't know. If
Speaker 7: I've had him on the payroll for years now, I.
Speaker 4: Know me exactly.
Speaker 7: He sends me all the good stuff that you ignore.
Speaker 7: We know it's We had a four hour show in DC.
Speaker 7: One of the one of the changes that we've made
Speaker 7: is we've gone to three hours, which is a huge difference.
Speaker 7: Starting on Era of five am versus six am is
Speaker 7: night literally night and day. So that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, because continued.
Speaker 7: Because of the cameras worked out with SYLM News Channel,
Speaker 7: it was hard to make the co host model work.
Speaker 7: Bethany was in a lot with me, Patresa on Wuka
Speaker 7: from Independent Women's Forum, Cassie Smedley long time, Julie Gunlock
Speaker 7: from IWF as well. They all have rotated in and out.
Speaker 7: Mercedes schlapped for a while there. It was really fun
Speaker 7: to sort of have somebody to bounce off of you
Speaker 7: like you have Dwayne. Of course, uh, literal bouncing sometimes
Speaker 7: actually I've seen it happen.
Speaker 2: Usually it helped you bribing.
Speaker 7: Because of the complications with the news channel and the
Speaker 7: cameras and all of those other things, we were not
Speaker 7: able to make the co host thing happen right away.
Speaker 7: They're going to be guts on the show. They're going
Speaker 7: to be regular. It's cavalcade of stars. That's what the
Speaker 7: company is in O'Connor and company. It's me and everyone
Speaker 7: who makes people good.
Speaker 1: If you are believing in the Andrew way, you'll talk
Speaker 1: to anyone. You'll be nice to everyone, but no one
Speaker 1: will be at all confused about what you believe. How
Speaker 1: is it booking political people? Now, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: give you my booker, you can't have her. But are
Speaker 1: you doing okay?
Speaker 2: Well? Like freshman congressmen talk to you.
Speaker 7: Oh, oh, only the good ones. But yeah, absolutely. We
Speaker 7: know my longtime collaborator and executive producer, Heather Hunter, who
Speaker 7: has been producing the morning show in Washington, DC for
Speaker 7: I think eighteen years now, going back to Fred Grandy,
Speaker 7: former congressman who did the morning show in WMAL for
Speaker 7: a while there. She came along in the package. She
Speaker 7: of course, is married to Derek Hunter, the great columnist
Speaker 7: at town Hall, and he does afternoon drive. Actually locally
Speaker 7: at WMAL. She's with me her rolodex Do they still
Speaker 7: use rolodexes? Whatever it is, she's got it and we
Speaker 7: don't have any issues getting guests. I will tell you
Speaker 7: the big shift.
Speaker 2: We used to have a.
Speaker 7: Regular list of Democrats that I would spar with that
Speaker 7: would come on on a regular basis, and post Trump,
Speaker 7: I'm sure you would agree, that's a little harder to do.
Speaker 1: I wrote, Connor will show up here and Chris Coons,
Speaker 1: Chris Murphy case. Let me give you thirty seconds just
Speaker 1: to tell people what they get in the morning, because
Speaker 1: what they get with you is what they got with me.
Speaker 2: The news and good guests. Is that a good summary.
Speaker 7: That is, and a bit of fun. We want to
Speaker 7: make sure that people go to work even when the
Speaker 7: news is challenging. We want to try to find the
Speaker 7: sunny side of it, in the upside. So we're a
Speaker 7: glass half full kind of show, and we're going to
Speaker 7: make sure that you get to work with a smile
Speaker 7: on your face and in a good mood and ready
Speaker 7: to take on the day if they do.
Speaker 1: PAM running six to nine on the Salem News channel WMAL.
Speaker 1: The Salem Radio Network affiliates that are smart and want
Speaker 1: to grow their audience and make their people happy.
Speaker 5: They'll forgive the fact that he's a leftist.
Speaker 1: Larry O'Connor, my friend, congratulations on Jrudding coming back.
Speaker 2: It's like coming home, Come home, Little Shiva.
Speaker 1: I'll be right back in America, Sons, Lario O'Connor right
Speaker 1: here on the New Viewer show. Thank you for listening
Speaker 1: to highly concentrated Hugh. And don't forget. One of our
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Speaker 1: When you call them, and you should, because you should
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Speaker 1: you use my name, Hugh.
Speaker 2: Welcome back in America.
Speaker 1: I'm Hugh hewittt amid reports from the web that the
Speaker 1: United Arab Emirates have attacked Iranian facilities on Cusham Island.
Speaker 1: I'm joined by Vic Mattis, Arts and Culture editor of
Speaker 1: the Washington Freebeacon, co host of the Getting Hammered podcast.
Speaker 1: Vic I greet that new use those reports with glee.
Speaker 2: How about you?
Speaker 6: Yes, I'd like to say that this is kind of
Speaker 6: like a coalition of the willing two point zero if
Speaker 6: you can finally get a lot of these countries not
Speaker 6: just to allow our aircraft and other military into their airspace,
Speaker 6: but actually taking part and taking the offensive, since in fact,
Speaker 6: as you know, the Iranian regime is not just going
Speaker 6: after the United States and bizarrely not trying to rally
Speaker 6: the other nations in the region.
Speaker 5: To their side.
Speaker 6: They're going after everybody. They're launching missiles in every direction.
Speaker 6: They're trying to terrorize their neighbors. Especially as you mentioned,
Speaker 6: the UAE and Saudi Arabia is another big deal.
Speaker 5: That is good news. I hope it is true.
Speaker 6: I'd like to see more involvement because again, this is
Speaker 6: going in the general direction of what Trump had wanted
Speaker 6: since his first term, which is, you know, the Abraham Accords.
Speaker 6: This is a remaking of the Middle East without the
Speaker 6: Iranian threat.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: This morning, I was at the Convention Center in d
Speaker 1: C moderating a panel with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and
Speaker 1: former share of the House Banking Committee Patrick McHenry, and
Speaker 1: it was about optimism and our things looking good. And
Speaker 1: I said, do you think we got a quad forming?
Speaker 1: We got one out in the Pacific Israel, Japan, Australia
Speaker 1: and US. Do you think we have a quad in
Speaker 1: the Middle East? Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Are of
Speaker 1: Emirates and US. And Kevin McCarthy said, let's just stop
Speaker 1: at the UA. They're the best. They're great I mean,
Speaker 1: he loves Israel too, but UAE is a little Sparta,
Speaker 1: and he went on a long bit. UAE has got
Speaker 1: hundreds of F thirty fives and the pilots that can
Speaker 1: fly them. They why Iran attacked them will never ever
Speaker 1: make sense.
Speaker 5: No, that's right.
Speaker 6: They have excellent pilots as to the Saudis. And of course,
Speaker 6: you know, it's not just Israel that receives a lot
Speaker 6: of the United States is defense aid. Those countries. The
Speaker 6: Saudis have been receiving F fifteens for many years.
Speaker 5: And you mentioned the F thirty five's, the joint strike fighters.
Speaker 6: Those things go for short you know, short takeoff and landing,
Speaker 6: and they have some sort of stealth capability. Some of
Speaker 6: that work, some of that doesn't when you're dealing with,
Speaker 6: you know, the asymmetrical warfare of Iran, but definitely you
Speaker 6: want them on your side. So again, it tells me
Speaker 6: that the command and control structure in.
Speaker 5: Iran is no longer.
Speaker 6: It's never been quite centralized, but it's definitely not the
Speaker 6: case at this point. And so you have different you know,
Speaker 6: areas of the country under a different command and they're
Speaker 6: just lobbing their missiles, you know, at will, and again,
Speaker 6: I think there's a big question about what the leadership
Speaker 6: is right now.
Speaker 5: We are really putting.
Speaker 6: The squeeze on this regime, and I was very concerned
Speaker 6: when there was an announcement that a deal was imminent
Speaker 6: that included things like a five year moratorium enrichment.
Speaker 5: That sounded like a bum deal to me. So I'm
Speaker 5: glad that that is not happening, at least at the moment.
Speaker 2: I don't want to fourteen point deal with them. I
Speaker 2: don't want a four point deal with them.
Speaker 1: I want capitulation. Uh vic, Let me turn to what
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk to you about. I thought it
Speaker 1: was an excellent Getting Hammered podcast because it was mostly
Speaker 1: about Graham Platner. I talked to Tom Cotton today, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you the story he told me,
Speaker 1: and then have you respond to it. When he was
Speaker 1: in basic training going into the infantry, his drill sergeant
Speaker 1: threw a bunch of paper on the ground, said, every
Speaker 1: soldier here, tell me what tattoos you have, and just
Speaker 1: tell me what they are. I don't want a a thesis.
Speaker 1: You know, I got a dragon on my shoulder. I
Speaker 1: don't want to know why I just tell me what
Speaker 1: I did. Tom donnevity uh tattoos, but he said, apparently
Speaker 1: everybody knows the exact nature of the I don't have
Speaker 1: any tattoos.
Speaker 2: I don't think you do.
Speaker 1: But everyone knows why they have a tattoo, when they
Speaker 1: got it, why they got it, what it is supposed
Speaker 1: to mean. Graham Plattner's getting away with murder, and thank
Speaker 1: you and Mary Catherine for not letting him do that.
Speaker 5: No, it reminded me.
Speaker 6: Hugh of a movie called Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Russell
Speaker 6: Brand has a character who is this really idiotic rock
Speaker 6: singer and has multiple different tattoos, and his girlfriend played
Speaker 6: by Kristen Bell, tells him they all have conflicting messages
Speaker 6: in different languages.
Speaker 5: That's how stupid he was. And Graham Planner is trying
Speaker 5: to play that card. Oh, I like this tattoo. It
Speaker 5: really looks cool.
Speaker 2: I have no idea.
Speaker 5: It's a skull and crossbones.
Speaker 6: It is the exact identical replica of the Totin Coff,
Speaker 6: which is the you know, the SS Death's head tattoo.
Speaker 5: There's no mistaking that. And we have to remind people.
Speaker 5: You know, he had campaign staff who had left.
Speaker 6: Early on when the scandal was first breaking, and I
Speaker 6: believe it was his campaign manager or a top campaign
Speaker 6: advisor who left and said, you know, don't fool yourself.
Speaker 6: You know, Graham is a military buff and he full
Speaker 6: well knows that that tattoo on his chest that he
Speaker 6: got in Croatia is in fact the Nazi death's head tattoo.
Speaker 6: And the other side is just trying to convince themselves
Speaker 6: in rash.
Speaker 5: Well, maybe they just don't.
Speaker 6: Even care because he's just basically against Trump and they
Speaker 6: just want to win.
Speaker 5: That it's okay or that was a long time ago.
Speaker 6: And what's important, Hugh is what he believes beginning right now.
Speaker 1: That's what they want us to believe, and that what
Speaker 1: he believed in the past has no bearing on that now.
Speaker 2: The Free Beacon ran a story this.
Speaker 1: Week about the fact he led us to believe that
Speaker 1: he got a VA loan and that's why he got
Speaker 1: his house. There's nothing wrong with having your parents lend
Speaker 1: you your down payment. He got the whole kitten kaboodle
Speaker 1: from his dad. But then he did a mortgage with
Speaker 1: his dad and you guys discovered it. How come the
Speaker 1: Free Beacon gets stories like this that the other newspapers don't.
Speaker 6: Well, we have a great staff here. I mean, it's
Speaker 6: really the dogged reporters, and we have, of course a
Speaker 6: very tough, uh and fierce leader, our editor in chief,
Speaker 6: as you know, Eleana Johnson.
Speaker 5: We don't stop until we get that story.
Speaker 6: And I think a lot of people might not feel comfortable,
Speaker 6: you know, poking their nose in certain areas because maybe
Speaker 6: they like the guy, maybe they don't want to benefit
Speaker 6: the Republicans or something on the other side, So because
Speaker 6: it doesn't fit their narrative, it hurts the fact that
Speaker 6: they won't be able to actually seek the truth. And
Speaker 6: that's what we're doing over here and giving them the
Speaker 6: left obviously a taste of their own medicine, because they
Speaker 6: do a lot of digging on the right, and this
Speaker 6: is what we do at the Beacon on the left.
Speaker 5: And it's going to be a real story. It's going
Speaker 5: to have hard news and hard facts.
Speaker 6: People can complain about it, but at the end of
Speaker 6: the day, we'll say to them, we'll tell us exactly
Speaker 6: what we got wrong and we'll fix it.
Speaker 5: And the fact is it's not that we get anything wrong.
Speaker 6: They just don't like that we're poking our nose where
Speaker 6: they don't want us to be in. But yeah, he
Speaker 6: has this narrative that he's a hard working, blue collar guy,
Speaker 6: an oystermen, this fisherman, and he rows up in this way.
Speaker 6: In fact, you know, I mean, he went to a
Speaker 6: fancy prep school. His grandfather was a famous architect. It's
Speaker 6: not what it seems. But they want to believe this
Speaker 6: because they want to win Maine. They want to win
Speaker 6: those hard working manor votes.
Speaker 2: It's not going to work.
Speaker 1: But I want to finish by asking you. You've got
Speaker 1: Adam Crado, you got styles, you got all these great people, right,
Speaker 1: how many people apply to work with the Beacon? Why
Speaker 1: are I mean, why are you so good at getting
Speaker 1: stories at the Posts and the Wall Street Journal and
Speaker 1: the Times cannot get they're out there.
Speaker 5: You're very yeah, you're you're very kind.
Speaker 6: I mean, you know, we teach them, well, they have
Speaker 6: to have you know, we look for reporters that you know,
Speaker 6: when we bring them on, they have to have that
Speaker 6: fire in the belly. They really have to want to
Speaker 6: go out there and do it themselves. But that's a
Speaker 6: lot of work, you know, it's not a nine to
Speaker 6: five job. And you'll find yourselves deep in some archive
Speaker 6: in some you know, musty library at a university where
Speaker 6: some person, let's say Governor Wes Moore of Maryland, claimed
Speaker 6: that his grandfather, great grandfather was you know, kicked out
Speaker 6: because of the KKK.
Speaker 5: Well, let's look into that, and it.
Speaker 6: Doesn't seem to be quite the story that he's telling,
Speaker 6: and he has other problems in his past.
Speaker 5: That's what we do, and that's what we look for
Speaker 5: or only to know.
Speaker 1: If they gave Pulitzers for real reporting, the Free Beacon
Speaker 1: would have a shelf of them. Vic Madison, congratulations on
Speaker 1: a great episode of getting hammered by Congratulations on helping
Speaker 1: run the Free Beacon.
Speaker 2: Follow him on exit. Victorina madis following me,