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 Q for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple,
Speaker 1: iTunes and Hillsdale Morning Glory and even Graces America. I
Speaker 1: hope you're out there working out on Saturday. Have a
Speaker 1: big weekend pod for you, focused almost exclusively on Iran,
Speaker 1: with a little bit of Minnesota, but mostly on Iran
Speaker 1: because the war that looms there could be enormous, could
Speaker 1: be huge. And the latest reporting that we've got from
Speaker 1: the Times of Israel is that talks have been breaking down.
Speaker 1: The Iranian senior officials have rejected President Trump's demand that
Speaker 1: they curb their nuclear activities, turn over their physile material,
Speaker 1: and get her to the missiles, the ballistic missiles which
Speaker 1: threatened all of our allies, beginning with Israel, but also
Speaker 1: the Golf Cooperation Council, Turkey, maybe Europe. They might be
Speaker 1: able to go as far as Europe, and the said no.
Speaker 1: So I expect something to happen. I don't think it's
Speaker 1: going to happen this weekend, but it might. That's why
Speaker 1: I've got a special emergency podcast that brought together all
Speaker 1: of my interviews from the past three weeks with people
Speaker 1: who know what they're talking about Iran, and they are
Speaker 1: all available. Go over again to where we get your
Speaker 1: podcast and you'll find that special emergency broadcast. But today
Speaker 1: is a look back with Matt Continetti, Ben Dominich, Eli
Speaker 1: Lake and John Ellis. If everything that's happened and what
Speaker 1: might happen going forward, what they think is the best case,
Speaker 1: what they think is the worst case, and what they
Speaker 1: think are the risks. Do not miss a minute of
Speaker 1: todays you here at show Welcome Back in America. I'm
Speaker 1: Hugh Hewittt joined by Matt Continetti. Matt is the head
Speaker 1: of domestic studies at the American Enterprise Institute is a
Speaker 1: calumnist for the Wall Street Journal. Welcome back, Matt, good
Speaker 1: Friday to you. I want to start I'm going to
Speaker 1: spend most of our time on Iran and the United
Speaker 1: States possibly going to war this weekend, but I want
Speaker 1: to actually be in with Prime Minister kir Starmer visiting
Speaker 1: China on his way out, he mumbled the name Jimmy Lai.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Lai is a British citizen who is going to
Speaker 1: die in solitary confinement. Did the Prime Minister do right
Speaker 1: by a person who he is supposed to be pledged
Speaker 1: to protect.
Speaker 2: Well, it's a start to say his name, Hugh, but
Speaker 2: it's clearly not enough. Jimmy Lai's legal saga has been
Speaker 2: going on for years. We're all aware that he is
Speaker 2: being held in terrible conditions. He is a champion of
Speaker 2: freedom of a free press who has been libeled and
Speaker 2: arrested by the Hong Kong authorities acting under Beijing's direction.
Speaker 2: So it's good that Kirs Starmer mentioned Jimmy Lai, but
Speaker 2: he needs to do so again and more loudly. And
Speaker 2: I hope that President Trump brings up Jimmy Lai as
Speaker 2: well as he heads into a meeting with Shijinping in
Speaker 2: a few months in Beijing.
Speaker 1: He has told me he has done it before. I'm
Speaker 1: sure he'll do it again. But I think when you're bought,
Speaker 1: when you're the head of your government is there, and
Speaker 1: he doesn't. He just mumbles on the way out. I
Speaker 1: was very disappointed now to Iran. Well, first to the
Speaker 1: media coverage of Iran. There are four stories today, Iran, Minnesota,
Speaker 1: warship to the fad Reserve, and Don Lemon. What do
Speaker 1: you think is the relative importance of those four and
Speaker 1: what order, Matt.
Speaker 2: Kane, are we ascending or descending? Well, obviously Don Lemon
Speaker 2: is the least important. Yes, you know, I would say
Speaker 2: Minnesota is next the number three important, but not as
Speaker 2: important as the next head of the Federal Reserve, who
Speaker 2: will have tremendous influence over the economy. And then, of
Speaker 2: course Iran, which has been the nettle an American foreign
Speaker 2: policy since the Islamic Revolution in nineteen seventy nine. That's
Speaker 2: the most important story, and of course it's the one
Speaker 2: that the media is covering the least.
Speaker 1: That's my conclusion too. Why is it Do they lack
Speaker 1: the ability, the understanding, the resource. We don't have any
Speaker 1: reporters there. Obviously they'll go to jail. But why the reluctance,
Speaker 1: Because I think a bit of it is a reluctance
Speaker 1: to get into what Biden didn't do and what Obama
Speaker 1: did do, and both of those were wrong.
Speaker 2: Well, I have a rule, Hugh, which is that the
Speaker 2: media can focus on only one story at a time,
Speaker 2: and it tends to go for the shiniest object. That
Speaker 2: often you know that, you know the cliche, If it bleeds,
Speaker 2: it leads, And so you have the Minnesota story. Of course,
Speaker 2: with the killings of the two American citizens in the
Speaker 2: course of two and a half weeks, that obviously has
Speaker 2: seized the media's attention. But what Trump's if it bleeds
Speaker 2: it leads is when you have the media reporting on itself.
Speaker 2: And so as soon as Don Lemon was arrested, the
Speaker 2: entire media landscape shifted to cover Don Lemon as if
Speaker 2: he were the you know, a national emergency, and so
Speaker 2: that media narcissism Trump's all. That may explain why we're
Speaker 2: not hearing more about the very important developments in the person.
Speaker 1: Our mutual friend Bill Bennett used to say, Americans have
Speaker 1: trouble with proportionality. We've got at least thirty five thousand
Speaker 1: dead people in Iran today. I saw from one of
Speaker 1: the Iranian diasprin news organizations that's really sixty eight thousand
Speaker 1: people were murdered by the regime. I don't think they
Speaker 1: that that number gets through to people. It's just too
Speaker 1: hard to imagine shooting that many people in cold blood.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, this is the Stalinist nature of the
Speaker 2: Iranian mullus. What did Stalin say, You kill one person,
Speaker 2: it's a tragedy. If you kill a million people, it's
Speaker 2: a statistic. And the tens of thousands of people who
Speaker 2: have been killed by the regime after the protests starting
Speaker 2: last November, plus the tens of thousands more who are
Speaker 2: in jailed by the regime and probably being tortured, that's
Speaker 2: just too big to comprehend, and especially when the has
Speaker 2: other stories that can chase much closer to home. But
Speaker 2: I mean, if you're just tracking the developments, as I
Speaker 2: know you have been all week, I mean, we are
Speaker 2: putting in place the force is necessary to strike Iran.
Speaker 2: And you know President Trump, he always leaves negotiations open,
Speaker 2: but he usually acts on his threats. He did so
Speaker 2: in Iran last July, and he did again in Venezuela
Speaker 2: just at the beginning of this year. So I'd be
Speaker 2: watching very carefully what's going to happen in the next
Speaker 2: forty eight hours.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about your guess, but I want
Speaker 1: to read to the audience Open Source Intel, which is
Speaker 1: an x account that I follow fairly closely. Usually reliable
Speaker 1: senior US military officials have informed the leadership of a
Speaker 1: key US ally in the Middle East that President Trump
Speaker 1: could authorize an attack on Iran this weekend strikes and
Speaker 1: convince as early as Sunday. I think that's actually credible.
Speaker 1: But I also see that a lot of our big
Speaker 1: airplanes moving things like bad Systems and Patriot missile are
Speaker 1: still moving into the region. They got to protect.
Speaker 2: Things, absolutely, yeah, And I think that's why Trump has
Speaker 2: weighted to this point. He'll keep waiting until that air
Speaker 2: defense is in place.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be right back with Matt during the middle
Speaker 1: of the break. Don't go anywhere America and give you it.
Speaker 1: I'm back with Matt Coney. Matt, as I imagine what
Speaker 1: might happen over the weekend or next week. I know
Speaker 1: that there are forty thousand American troops on ships and
Speaker 1: on bases there. It's not without grave risk to our people,
Speaker 1: and I don't think that's fully baked into the equation yet.
Speaker 1: How do you assess the up and the downside of
Speaker 1: striking Iran?
Speaker 2: Well, I think the f site is clear is that
Speaker 2: you could deal a lethal blow to the missile program.
Speaker 2: You could hit the nuclear remnants such as they are
Speaker 2: after Operation Midnight Hammer once more, you would degrade the
Speaker 2: security apparatus, the IRGC and the besieging militias that the
Speaker 2: regime uses to enforce its will. And you know, more broadly,
Speaker 2: you would set the conditions for an eventual regime collapse
Speaker 2: when the Iranian people can exploit the weaknesses of the
Speaker 2: regime which are many, and finally end the Iatola's rule.
Speaker 2: The downsize a of course, retaliation attack on US forces
Speaker 2: in the region, attack on the state of Israel. So
Speaker 2: they have to be very careful and you have to
Speaker 2: be prepared for whatever comes next. You also have to
Speaker 2: be aware that President Trump has laid down a very
Speaker 2: fine line here. He has said repeatedly that Iran needs
Speaker 2: to stop killing its people. He has said that Iran
Speaker 2: needs new leadership. Just the other day on the Red
Speaker 2: Carpet for the Millennia movie, he said that he's demanding
Speaker 2: that Iran ends its nuclear program entirely, verifiably, and he's
Speaker 2: demanding that they end the killing of the protesters.
Speaker 1: He may have left out a third.
Speaker 2: Demand I think that we're making to the Iranians, which
Speaker 2: is they have to curtail the missile program. These ballistic
Speaker 2: missiles threat in Europe, they threaten our posts in the
Speaker 2: Middle East. One day, they could thread in the United States.
Speaker 2: They shouldn't be allowed. So he's laid down these lines, Hugh,
Speaker 2: and I think he's prepared to enforce them. He's going
Speaker 2: to do it on his schedule. And sometimes that takes
Speaker 2: not just the enemy but also the media in the
Speaker 2: United States by surprise. But once he's lays down these lines,
Speaker 2: I think he knows that he has to act or
Speaker 2: else he'd erode our deterrence rather than the Iranian regime.
Speaker 1: If you're on the receiving end of the messages that
Speaker 1: he'd been sent, are you confused about him? Are you
Speaker 1: confused about the timing? And if you look back at
Speaker 1: American history, it took us what seemed to be forever
Speaker 1: to get ready to invade Iraq in nineteen ninety one,
Speaker 1: a long time to get ready in two thousand and three,
Speaker 1: and it took I think at least a month to
Speaker 1: get ready for Afghanistan in two thousand and one. How
Speaker 1: do you think they perceived the timing here?
Speaker 2: Well, I think that there's that unpredictability factor to Trump,
Speaker 2: the Madman theory to Trump, right. He likes saying things
Speaker 2: that are contradictory because it keeps everyone on their toes.
Speaker 2: And so if you are the Iranian regime, you're wondering
Speaker 2: what he might do next. But with Trump, since the beginning,
Speaker 2: you have always said, look at what he does, not
Speaker 2: what he says. And so let's just look what he's
Speaker 2: doing here. He's putting the assets into place. He is
Speaker 2: moving these air defense systems. We have the flotilla that's
Speaker 2: forming in the in the Persian Gulf, in the region.
Speaker 2: We have other assets in the Mediterranean and elsewhere. That's
Speaker 2: exactly what he did with Venezuela, right, And and.
Speaker 1: Then just starts.
Speaker 2: When we thought it wasn't going to happen, Maduro was
Speaker 2: gone beer, ready to be get.
Speaker 1: Up on Saturday morning and see something happening. Stay tuned, America.
Speaker 1: I'll be right back with Matt Continetti. Welcome back in America.
Speaker 1: I'm who Hewett with mad Continetti of AI and Wall
Speaker 1: Street Journal columnist Matt. I have tried to talk to
Speaker 1: every Iran expert that I can. The one I found
Speaker 1: fascinating this week, Well, they're all fascinating was Rear Admiral
Speaker 1: Mark Montgomery, retired United States Navy. He's actually run a
Speaker 1: carrier's strike group. He speculates that we've got one of
Speaker 1: our Tomahawk missile Ohio boomers there, as well as all
Speaker 1: the destroyers with their missiles, as well as the Lincoln
Speaker 1: with its aircraft. We can hit a lot of targets,
Speaker 1: and then if the b twos come, they can switch
Speaker 1: out their their big payloans the bunker busters for lots
Speaker 1: of little payloads. And if the Israeli comes in, we
Speaker 1: can we together can hit hundreds and hundreds of targets
Speaker 1: at the start. Do you think that is how it
Speaker 1: will go down? Or do you think it will be
Speaker 1: a big demonstration and a chance for then Iran to
Speaker 1: throw up their hands and say enough.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm not sure, Hugh. There's something that Trump
Speaker 2: likes that's about spectacular, you know, but not necessarily spectacular,
Speaker 2: in the shotgun off fashion of the bombardment of Baghdad
Speaker 2: back in two thousand and three, which did use quite
Speaker 2: a few munitions to light up the government centers of
Speaker 2: Saddam Hussein's regimes.
Speaker 1: Trump likes the.
Speaker 2: Shock of surprise, the audacity, right this. We wake up
Speaker 2: one morning and all of a sudden, the mission to
Speaker 2: destroy the four down nuclear complex and around has already
Speaker 2: been completed. We wake up six months later to find
Speaker 2: that the dictator in Venezuela has been spirited out of
Speaker 2: the country and the new government his deputies are now
Speaker 2: pledging to work with us. So I would think of
Speaker 2: something that is pretty spectacular, but maybe not you know,
Speaker 2: the full Shakanawe hundreds of targets type thing that we've
Speaker 2: seen in the past. I don't know what that would be.
Speaker 2: It could be something actually slightly smaller, hue. Maybe we
Speaker 2: seize one of these Iranian vessels, part of the ghost fleet,
Speaker 2: and in a way similar to our approach in Venezuela,
Speaker 2: where we've said this oil is sanctioned, we're not going
Speaker 2: to let it pass, and so we use our assets
Speaker 2: in the region to take over one of these ships
Speaker 2: to show that the Iranians that we mean business.
Speaker 1: They mentioned that he mentioned seizing a lot of them
Speaker 1: so that their economic crunch becomes real.
Speaker 2: I mean it already is real for the Iranian people.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's why we had these protests to begin with.
Speaker 2: You know that you have to feel for the Iranian people,
Speaker 2: especially in a place like Tehran. They have no electricity,
Speaker 2: they have very little food, they have no resources. I
Speaker 2: knew something was going to happen Iron toward the end
Speaker 2: of last year when I've read a small squib in
Speaker 2: the paper where the Iranian President Pieshcasian was raising the
Speaker 2: possibility of moving the Tehran population out of the city
Speaker 2: to deal with them the drought. I said, if you're
Speaker 2: going to do that, you have big problems, and sure
Speaker 2: enough they do. And so really what America needs to
Speaker 2: do is enforce its red line in order to maintain
Speaker 2: our deterrence, but then also to continue the pressure that
Speaker 2: will eventually lead I think this to collapse.
Speaker 1: Two questions about two effects, Matt. The argument has been
Speaker 1: made by opponents of a strike that a strike will
Speaker 1: see the Iranian people the street rally around the regime.
Speaker 1: And the second argument is that if Trump doesn't strike,
Speaker 1: he's done the Obama Syria back off with devastating consequences
Speaker 1: to his credibility. What do you make of both of
Speaker 1: those arguments? We got three or four minutes.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, the first argument I think is just
Speaker 2: wrong because it was said in the run up to
Speaker 2: Operation Midnight Hammer. This idea that if America were to intervene,
Speaker 2: the Iranian people will rally behind this terrorist government. You
Speaker 2: will see the government try to convey that image, which
Speaker 2: is what we did see in the days and weeks
Speaker 2: right after Operation than Himmer. But the longer term effect
Speaker 2: was to weaken the regime. That's why these protests were happening.
Speaker 2: People feel that they have no resource, this is nowhere
Speaker 2: to turn, and here the government is continuing to pour
Speaker 2: resources into this military apparatus, this potential nuclear apparatus. So
Speaker 2: I think a strike would weaken the regime, and the
Speaker 2: people know, the Iranian people know that this regime lacks legitimacy.
Speaker 2: On the red line argument, there is some truth to it.
Speaker 2: If an American president states repeatedly that the government of
Speaker 2: Iran needs to stop killing its people or else, there
Speaker 2: will be diar repercussions when he says we need new leadership,
Speaker 2: When he says that help is on the way for
Speaker 2: the Iranian people to not act, means that our adversaries
Speaker 2: would say, oh, well, look he's not backing up his
Speaker 2: words with action. So I think that is an argument
Speaker 2: we need to take seriously. We know that when Obama
Speaker 2: failed to enforce his red line in Syria in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 2: Vladimir Putin, anex crimea ISIS, began its rampage through the
Speaker 2: Middle East. Shijinping started treating Obama like a wayward student,
Speaker 2: leaving him on the tarmac in Beijing, and American deterrence
Speaker 2: spiraled further. It was already spiraling under Obama, inspired further
Speaker 2: after he failed to enforce the red line. So when
Speaker 2: you draw a red line, you need to enforce it
Speaker 2: or else our enemies take notice and the world becomes
Speaker 2: a more dangerous place.
Speaker 1: Last question, Matt Connetty. Secretary Rubio is in front of
Speaker 1: the Senate at length two days ago, and on Cuba
Speaker 1: he was very direct, we'd love to see regime change there,
Speaker 1: and of course I would expect that from the son
Speaker 1: of Cuban expats, and I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: in the Trump world like it too, because it's Western hemisphere.
Speaker 1: What is the bell tolling for that regime as well?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: I think so. First, what an incredible performance by Secretary
Speaker 2: of State Rubio. I mean, he is just a tremendous
Speaker 2: communicator taking an incoming fire from all of the Democratic
Speaker 2: Senators and throwing it right back at them. It was
Speaker 2: just an amazing performance and I heard many accolades for him.
Speaker 2: On Cuba, I mean, Cuba is in even worse shape
Speaker 2: than Iran because it doesn't have any oil to sell
Speaker 2: illegally to China. The Cuban people again face blackouts, very
Speaker 2: little food resources. The government has it just rules with
Speaker 2: a terror, no legitimacy. I think what the government, our
Speaker 2: government is looking for here is again something similar to
Speaker 2: what happened in Venezuela, where now that that Venezuelan lifeline
Speaker 2: has been cut off, you the Cuban regime has very
Speaker 2: little room for maneuver, and so if it were to
Speaker 2: make a deal with the United States where it's leadership
Speaker 2: stepped down in order to provide for some type of transition,
Speaker 2: I think that's probably an outcome that would be desirable.
Speaker 2: It would be the end of castroism in Cuba. What
Speaker 2: an incredible advance of hue and freedom. But it might
Speaker 2: take time, just as in Venezuela, for us to get
Speaker 2: to a point in Cuba where we have open elections
Speaker 2: and a democratically elected government.
Speaker 1: I have been quoting Matt Connety's theory of re regime coercion,
Speaker 1: not regime change for all week, and I'll continue to
Speaker 1: do so. Follow Matt at Continetti, read him in the
Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal, look for whatever work he is supervising
Speaker 1: or putting out at the American Enterprise of the two
Speaker 1: and Stay two w right back on nineteen morning Glory
Speaker 1: and even Grace America. That was the president in the
Speaker 1: Oval Office earlier today. I'm Hugh Hewitt joined by Ben Dominich,
Speaker 1: host of the Big Ben Podcast on the Fox Podcast Network,
Speaker 1: also a Fox News contributor. The Big Ben Podcast this
Speaker 1: week is fabulous with Bill Malusian, and we also have
Speaker 1: Winston Marshall and we're going to talk a little sports here.
Speaker 1: We're going to get to Iran Ben, but I got
Speaker 1: to start with do you follow a three year letterman? Oh?
Speaker 3: Do I follow three year letterman? I'm a huge fan
Speaker 3: of three year Letterman. He is doing the lord's work
Speaker 3: on everything glatform.
Speaker 1: So you know that he has a million and a
Speaker 1: half views of his post about Todd Lemmon this morning.
Speaker 1: It's wonderful. Every time I think, Okay, the joke's over,
Speaker 1: there are still millions of people who can be conned.
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, it's funny and you know, look, I commend
Speaker 3: his feed to everyone who does not follow through your letterman.
Speaker 3: You will get the information that you need and didn't
Speaker 3: know you need to have.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you will also get to mock people like
Speaker 1: Don Lemon mercilessly and lawyers. All right, but I brought
Speaker 1: that up because you talked about sports, and I want
Speaker 1: to share with you a point of view. I grew
Speaker 1: up on Pete Franklin, all right. He was the three
Speaker 1: WE new sports talk guy at night. I think probably
Speaker 1: eight to midnight. It might have been nine to in
Speaker 1: the midnight, but he was on three hours or four
Speaker 1: hours a night. He was fabous. He eventually went to
Speaker 1: New York. All he did was sports and wouldn't do politics.
Speaker 1: Made me laugh, taught me sports. And then you brought
Speaker 1: up Keith Obinday, who I've gone a few rounds with.
Speaker 1: And it's not really fair because I actually think Keith
Speaker 1: is dumb, just dumb. Yeah, what do you think?
Speaker 3: I think? I think Keith has that classic, uh sort
Speaker 3: of experience of someone who is who is book smart
Speaker 3: and life dumb. I think that he actually is very
Speaker 3: I think he's very well read. He's you know, he
Speaker 3: has a lot of different references he can pull out
Speaker 3: of the back. He's kind of like the reverse Dennis Miller,
Speaker 3: you know, in lots of time if you think about it.
Speaker 3: But my real objection is he was a good anchor,
Speaker 3: a big show, and and you know, and everything like that,
Speaker 3: and you know, it was I think it was a
Speaker 3: real loss to I mean, you know, my equivalent probably
Speaker 3: for you, for Pete Franklin was the George Michael sports
Speaker 3: machine one. But one of the things that the things
Speaker 3: that really, you know, I think is sad for a
Speaker 3: lot of these guys. And and that's why I brought
Speaker 3: Colbert into it as well. You know, when I was
Speaker 3: talking about this is that if you are like, you know,
Speaker 3: kind of a late nineties teenager like I am, and
Speaker 3: you saw these guys in the nineties in the early
Speaker 3: two thousands, you have a different image of them because
Speaker 3: you realize what they were good at. You saw them
Speaker 3: when they were good at something and then they became
Speaker 3: something else. And it's I do want to just kind
Speaker 3: of say, there's something that's lost when that happens. There's
Speaker 3: something that's lost when you have, you know, a good
Speaker 3: sports writer who just turns totally political or a good
Speaker 3: sports anchor who decides my opinion is about politics matter
Speaker 3: more than anything that I think about the Yankees, and
Speaker 3: that's I just think something that is sad on a
Speaker 3: certain level, and it's it's one of the things that
Speaker 3: just bothers me about everything that we've seen gone on
Speaker 3: with in sports media. It's also, by the way, why
Speaker 3: Barstool is such a huge success and bleacher Report.
Speaker 1: I move on bleacher Report. Let me ask you about now.
Speaker 1: I got to walk a very careful line here. It
Speaker 1: is my policy never drag someone for whom you have worked.
Speaker 1: So I'm not dragging the Washington Post. I didn't have
Speaker 1: anything to do with the sports coverage, but I talked
Speaker 1: to John Ellis of News Items today. He informed me
Speaker 1: that they're losing seventy five million dollars a year. They're
Speaker 1: going to lay off a whole bunch more and more people,
Speaker 1: and that Jeff Bezos may actually sell it. There are buyers,
Speaker 1: but he's sort of sick of he made a bad
Speaker 1: pursonse it's not his livelihood, it's not his passion. He
Speaker 1: doesn't know what to do. It's not something he can sell.
Speaker 1: But when I heard they're killing the sports I want
Speaker 1: to compare it with Cleveland dot com, the Cleveland Plain
Speaker 1: Dealers what I grew up on. They're thriving because of
Speaker 1: Dave Campbell illa Buck six. He is their sports editor,
Speaker 1: and he realized that sports fans are the lifeblood of circulation.
Speaker 1: I pay for so much stuff. I don't have to
Speaker 1: pay for it Cleveland, the Cavaliers Podcast, the Orange and
Speaker 1: Brown Talk, the Ohio State Buckeye Talk. I get the newsletters.
Speaker 1: It's it's sports. How can the past be walking away
Speaker 1: from sports?
Speaker 3: Congrats to you, by the way, because you have the
Speaker 3: kind of perfect scenario of frustrating teams and great coverage. Yes,
Speaker 3: this is something that I had for most of my
Speaker 3: something I had for a good second of my life.
Speaker 3: This funny thing is almost as soon as our franchise
Speaker 3: has got good, the paper went woke. So you know,
Speaker 3: the Cats are, you know, hoisting the Stanley Cup And
Speaker 3: they're like, well, but isn't Ovechkin problematic?
Speaker 1: You know, by the way, I'm not a hockey guy.
Speaker 1: So when you made your references to Ave, yeah, you
Speaker 1: then filled it. He's a Russian. I really don't know
Speaker 1: anything about a hockey hockey.
Speaker 3: Hugh Hugh, he has one of the greatest lines in
Speaker 3: the in the modern history of sports when he was
Speaker 3: asked about his injury early after coming into into the league,
Speaker 3: and Held responded, the Russian machine never break.
Speaker 1: I feel like a bad guy from the Saloon film.
Speaker 3: So no, he really is. But this is the thing.
Speaker 3: You had these quality teams that people were trying to
Speaker 3: find problems with him at the same time they were
Speaker 3: just devoted to these these woke causes over and over again,
Speaker 3: and really the featuring of these voices that were more
Speaker 3: about kind of agonizing over how awful it was in
Speaker 3: a stain on the nation that we had, you know,
Speaker 3: the Washington Redskins here and to me, and I'm not
Speaker 3: being entirely facetious about this, I think that sports section
Speaker 3: died when Dan Schneyder sold the team because they basically,
Speaker 3: you know, made buck off of just going after him
Speaker 3: for the pleasure of their event.
Speaker 1: But it's a great sports the base. I don't like
Speaker 1: the Nationals. I'm an American leaguey, I'm a Guardian's guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But I read Tom Boswell and I don't like the Redskins.
Speaker 1: I don't follow them. I don't dislike them. They're national
Speaker 1: and I'm a Browns fan, but they've got great franchise.
Speaker 1: The Caps are you know, forever, they're like the Calves.
Speaker 1: They'll never win anything, but I guess the Cavs won
Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen. You've got a great base of people,
Speaker 1: and you can sell newspapers and.
Speaker 3: And here's here's there's another element of this hue that
Speaker 3: you you probably know or just you know, can can
Speaker 3: incline towards there. They are the broadest and most diverse
Speaker 3: in terms of any of the unifying elements in DC.
Speaker 3: You're right, you have to make second white fans together
Speaker 3: with completely opposite political views, and they are you know,
Speaker 3: joined at the hip, cheering for their team. So it's
Speaker 3: actually this great you it's one of the few unifying
Speaker 3: things in this area, which, by the way, is an
Speaker 3: area where there are people who actually not everyone is transitory.
Speaker 3: Not everybody just comes in and out. And that's why
Speaker 3: you know, my my mom gets gets season package every
Speaker 3: year that US kids buy for her to go to
Speaker 3: the Nationals games. She loves baseball, She scores the games,
Speaker 3: and she sits across from two old black dudes in
Speaker 3: their seventies and they and they just you know, go
Speaker 3: back and forth about which relievers they like and which
Speaker 3: people they hate, and that's the kind of thing is
Speaker 3: great for a community.
Speaker 1: Well would you how would you rate the Beltway as
Speaker 1: a sports town? I've told people Cleveland may be the
Speaker 1: best sports town in America compared to la It certainly
Speaker 1: is about a thousand times better. And the Orange County
Speaker 1: with the Angels in San die Southern California, just does
Speaker 1: not love them the way that Cleveland does. When there's
Speaker 1: no alternative, how do you put the Beltway sports community
Speaker 1: in the d C?
Speaker 3: D C is second tier. The reason that we're second
Speaker 3: tier is because it's actually a basketball town and the
Speaker 3: basketball team sucks, has always and has always sucked. I
Speaker 3: mean I and I saw I mean I saw Jordan
Speaker 3: on his on his tour here, I saw him in
Speaker 3: his in Yao Ming's first game here. I went to
Speaker 3: that one. And it's one of these things where just
Speaker 3: this is a this is an area that really is
Speaker 3: more basketball focused after the after the Redskins, and they
Speaker 3: just don't have that. And unfortunately, until that gets good again,
Speaker 3: they're they're just well, take a.
Speaker 1: Minute before we go to the break, We'll do a run.
Speaker 1: In the second segment, tell the tell the audience who
Speaker 1: George Michaels, Because when I moved there in eighty three,
Speaker 1: I was hooked immediately, and he was. He's a forerunner
Speaker 1: of ESPN, actually.
Speaker 3: He really was. And and he had this amazing clip
Speaker 3: show and uh with with all sorts of funny jabs
Speaker 3: and and commentary and things like that. Uh, he was
Speaker 3: just an out sort of outsized personality. They made fun
Speaker 3: of it on SNL if you can look it up
Speaker 3: with George Wills Sports Machine, one of the epic one
Speaker 3: of the epic clips from from SNL with Dana Carvey,
Speaker 3: I believe. But it's one of these things that it was.
Speaker 3: It was just a forerunner of that idea that this
Speaker 3: is a format that could work. You could do these
Speaker 3: package clip shows from all around the country and show
Speaker 3: kind of the best and the bloopers and everything like that.
Speaker 3: And it was must see viewing for me as a kid.
Speaker 3: And it's still something that I think of.
Speaker 1: You watch the rest of the channel for Bob the Weatherman,
Speaker 1: Jim Nance. I mean, it was the greatest television local
Speaker 1: station I think I've ever watched consistently.
Speaker 3: It was. It was incredible and and you know, we
Speaker 3: were both sounding like old guys.
Speaker 1: Right, Well, I am an old guy. You're not, but
Speaker 1: I was. I was a dad kid.
Speaker 3: But look, I think I think that this is a
Speaker 3: This is another situation where we have lost so much
Speaker 3: in terms of local coverage. We've lost local coverage that
Speaker 3: is high quality. We've seen so much of it just
Speaker 3: drained and not be replaced. And that's actually the news
Speaker 3: that people care the most about. It's very silly to
Speaker 3: mean that.
Speaker 1: None of the none of the snow has been removed
Speaker 1: from d C.
Speaker 3: You mean, why why does that happen? You know, well,
Speaker 3: you know there's a guy from New York mag you know,
Speaker 3: digs into it and finds out that there's not enough
Speaker 3: that they you know, they had promised a bunch of
Speaker 3: different snowplows and then they had far fewer that were
Speaker 3: actually out on the roads than Mayor Bowser had said.
Speaker 3: So my point is just like that, that local coverage
Speaker 3: is what we need back. We need to bring that back.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna talk with Ben during break. But you folks
Speaker 1: out there, no matter how bad you think your local
Speaker 1: services are, they are not DC in a snowstorm. It
Speaker 1: is a nightmare still, and there's another one coming. Ben dominance.
Speaker 1: You will stay here and be here to talk to
Speaker 1: Ryan after the break stage. I am back with Ben
Speaker 1: Domini's during the break Ben, I'm going to save all
Speaker 1: the iron staff in the next segment. So let's talk
Speaker 1: about a story that doesn't matter, Don Lemon. I think
Speaker 1: anyone who doesn't know how traumatized those kids are in
Speaker 1: that church and what the parents were thinking. Because churches
Speaker 1: have been invaded and people have been shot somewhat routinely
Speaker 1: over the last ten years. Do you think Don Lemon
Speaker 1: has a brain? How could he have done this?
Speaker 3: That's a really tough question to answer you without the
Speaker 3: smirching somebody's characters. Look, I have a very very low
Speaker 3: opinion of Don Lemon. I think that he's a very
Speaker 3: stupid person. He has been incredibly misogynoust to several of
Speaker 3: my friends when he was at CNN. I do not
Speaker 3: like the man at all, but I think that they
Speaker 3: I generally viewed him as harmless, meaning stupid, rude, jerk, harmless.
Speaker 3: This was something that was truly harmful, harmful to a community,
Speaker 3: harmful to a church. I cannot imagine what it would
Speaker 3: feel like sitting with I mean, you know when I
Speaker 3: when when we go to church, you know, the older
Speaker 3: daughter stays with me and and younger daughter goes to
Speaker 3: Sunday school, and and it's it's I cannot imagine what
Speaker 3: their reaction would be like to something like this. They
Speaker 3: would think that there was going something going on that
Speaker 3: was going to end up, you know, putting their lives
Speaker 3: at risk.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Minnesota is an open and a close conceal carrie
Speaker 1: and a shell issue. There could have been people with
Speaker 1: hate in there. And and I honestly, I've seen too
Speaker 1: many clips Colorado Springs comes to mind where the guy
Speaker 1: drops the shooter at the door with a perfectly fired
Speaker 1: two rounds because he was going to shoot up the
Speaker 1: whole mega church.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there are.
Speaker 1: Parents thinking, I'm surprised they demonstrated didn't get a chair of.
Speaker 3: The head I got. I gotta be honest, I think
Speaker 3: that they really, you know, not metaphorically dodged a bullet
Speaker 3: in the sense that this is this is a situation
Speaker 3: that could have gone much worse. But but look, we
Speaker 3: have to make a clear example of this situation. You
Speaker 3: don't get to just say I'm holding it. I'm holding
Speaker 3: a phone in my hand and I have a YouTube channel,
Speaker 3: so I can violate the law. And that's just not
Speaker 3: the way that this works, you know. And it wouldn't
Speaker 3: work if I and a bunch of friends of mine
Speaker 3: decided to go into a mosque and start yelling at people,
Speaker 3: you know, and and that kind of thing, and then said, well,
Speaker 3: you know, I write for places and I'm on I'm
Speaker 3: on TV, so I get to do this. No, that's
Speaker 3: not the way that this works.
Speaker 1: There is actually no constitutional protection. Some states have protection
Speaker 1: for journalists, but not the federal law. There's no status
Speaker 1: for journalists. Everyone's got the same First Amendment right and
Speaker 1: they do not include what Don Lemon did. Now I'm
Speaker 1: I'm not too sure I do more than give him
Speaker 1: a hefty fine. He's gonna Abbey Lole is not cheap.
Speaker 1: I almost went to work for Stan Brandon Abbey Lowle
Speaker 1: when I left the Array administration, So.
Speaker 3: Why so why is it always Abby Lowle? Always?
Speaker 1: It's really good? And if Hunter Biden had started out
Speaker 1: with Abbey Lole, he would not have ended up convicted,
Speaker 1: but he wouldn't have tried to pull a fast one.
Speaker 1: In my humble opinion, I think he ends up with
Speaker 1: cases because he's really good. I don't know, do you
Speaker 1: think Don Lemon's out of money to pull a stunt
Speaker 1: like this.
Speaker 3: I don't think that he actually does, though I will
Speaker 3: say we don't actually know how much money he got
Speaker 3: from X when he was briefly hired, you know, to
Speaker 3: be a journalist for them and then promptly dismissed after
Speaker 3: an uncomfortable interview with Elon. I think that this is
Speaker 3: I think this is a situation that has to happen
Speaker 3: on a certain level just to send the message that
Speaker 3: this is something that you can't do a great or
Speaker 3: just some random new cut. We're coming back on the network.
Speaker 3: Extend by that, but I disagree.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to America. I'm Hugh Hewett, Ben Dominics, host
Speaker 1: of the Big Ben Pod, is with a great episode
Speaker 1: this week, including Bill Mallusian, who I did not know
Speaker 1: is going up to cover Congress, and that wonderful guy
Speaker 1: from Great Britain who really How did you find Winston Marshall?
Speaker 1: I'd only seen him once.
Speaker 3: Winston is a phenomenal guy. He is he has his face.
Speaker 3: Do you know why he's famous? No, Winston Marshall is
Speaker 3: famous because he was a banjo player in Mumford and Sons.
Speaker 3: He got kicked out of the band or essentially politely
Speaker 3: asked to leave in British fashion, after he endorsed a
Speaker 3: book by Andy No and then refused to apologize for
Speaker 3: endorsing the book. Oh and he is I think personally
Speaker 3: both brilliant and a guy who fully understands what's going
Speaker 3: on with the UK, Europe and the American relationship and
Speaker 3: how toxic Britain in particular has become toward its own heritage.
Speaker 1: Which I good for you for grabbing him. That was
Speaker 1: he's in the news right now and I thought it
Speaker 1: was an excellent get let's talk now, what does Ben
Speaker 1: Dominic you think is going to happen hereon? Is it
Speaker 1: go or no go? This weekend? Are we going to
Speaker 1: be talking about it again a Friday from now about
Speaker 1: whether it's go or no go?
Speaker 3: Well, personally, I thought it was going to have a
Speaker 3: little bit more time. But then I will admit that
Speaker 3: off air with your producer he reminded me that there
Speaker 3: is a certain anniversary on Sunday of that that I
Speaker 3: think might appeal to the President in terms of just
Speaker 3: you know, making for a good truth social post. And
Speaker 3: I think that also, you know, one of the things
Speaker 3: that we know about Donald Trump is that he makes
Speaker 3: decisions before he makes the decision, meaning he has already
Speaker 3: decided what he is going to do. It's just it's
Speaker 3: just a sort of a he has this kind of
Speaker 3: meandering way of saying, Oh, well, you know, we're going
Speaker 3: to talk and we're going to see what's going to happen,
Speaker 3: and you know, maybe there's a deal to be worked out,
Speaker 3: and maybe there's something that he's already decided what he's
Speaker 3: going to do. And I think that we know that
Speaker 3: by now when he comes to foreign policy, you know,
Speaker 3: he had determined he was going to do the Maduro
Speaker 3: thing well before it happened. Okay, they had more than
Speaker 3: a month of lead up time and practice and everything
Speaker 3: going into it to make that happen. And so I
Speaker 3: think the president has already decided that he is going
Speaker 3: to do this. It's just a matter of his timing.
Speaker 3: And I think that's probably going to be within the
Speaker 3: next couple of days. Uh, and we're gonna have to
Speaker 3: I mean, dude, this is this is uncharted territory.
Speaker 1: Oh, this is big and this by the way I
Speaker 1: do this, that can be anything from a couple of
Speaker 1: blown up by our G. C. Barracks to thinking what's
Speaker 1: left of the Iridian Navy to blown up Karj Island
Speaker 1: to just doing an I.
Speaker 3: Think it's I think it's one and two. Personally, I
Speaker 3: just think that that's I think he's gonna uh. I
Speaker 3: think this is gonna be significant. And look, there's a
Speaker 3: major roll the dice with this one that I'm not
Speaker 3: sure that you know, everyone in the country is necessarily
Speaker 3: you know, prepared for. But look, this president. Gosh, you
Speaker 3: he's in he's a year into his second term. Is
Speaker 3: he the most important foreign policy president that we've had
Speaker 3: in this.
Speaker 1: Century from a nuclear r on.
Speaker 3: Yes, you know, just in terms of the impact that
Speaker 3: he has had in this short amount of time. It's
Speaker 3: just it's astonishing to me because I just don't think
Speaker 3: that people necessarily expected it. I also think that it's
Speaker 3: going to put some people in a bind around him,
Speaker 3: because you know, the whole argument for him that was
Speaker 3: danced by a certain segment of people who said, you know,
Speaker 3: who basically tried to pretend that Donald Trump was a dove,
Speaker 3: which is not true and it's never been true, you know.
Speaker 3: But then there's also people who I think tried to
Speaker 3: kind of frame him as being something that he wasn't
Speaker 3: look he sees the opportunity here. And I think that
Speaker 3: this guy actually has deep empathy for the people who
Speaker 3: are getting killed in the streets. And that's something that
Speaker 3: you know, you saw when it came to the young
Speaker 3: people getting killed in Ukraine. He always brings it up.
Speaker 3: It's as if you know, he can't stand the fact
Speaker 3: that journalists sort of forget to mention the death counts
Speaker 3: and stuff like and and reports of that nature are
Speaker 3: being put on his desk on a daily basis.
Speaker 1: Now, John Radcliffe is the bog, the dog that never barks,
Speaker 1: But the director of the Essential Intelligence must go in
Speaker 1: there every day with more pictures and more numbers, and
Speaker 1: the numbers on some of the independent reporting both in
Speaker 1: Iran and Israel getting up closer to seventy thousand people
Speaker 1: were murdered.
Speaker 3: Me, I mean, this is it's astronomical. I mean, it's
Speaker 3: incredible in terms of the of the degree of bloodshed
Speaker 3: that is going on. And I think that there is
Speaker 3: an opportunity here to achieve something good, to achieve something
Speaker 3: that could remake the maps and be a great benefit
Speaker 3: not just to us but our allies. And I think
Speaker 3: the president has probably already decided what he's going to do,
Speaker 3: and it's just a matter of time until he doesn't.
Speaker 1: Ben dominised there were a lot of people who were
Speaker 1: invested in the idea of making Iran into a responsible
Speaker 1: regional player. President Obama and his whole team, President Biden,
Speaker 1: their whole team, all the appeasers. They really thought they
Speaker 1: could bring Iran into the community of nations. Do you
Speaker 1: think any of them have realized in the aftermath of
Speaker 1: this horrific two weeks what this regime was never planned
Speaker 1: straight with them, that they got taken. In other words,
Speaker 1: they answered the prints from Africa's email and setting money.
Speaker 3: To you. I think Ben Rhodes wakes up every morning,
Speaker 3: looks himself in the mirror and says, I am a
Speaker 3: handsome man with a full head of hair. So look,
Speaker 3: I do not think there is any there is there
Speaker 3: is no willingness on their part and I have certainly
Speaker 3: not seen it publicly. I do not expect to see it.
Speaker 3: To look at this situation and to have any kind
Speaker 3: of reconsideration of all the bad decisions that they made,
Speaker 3: and they were terrible. I mean it really it set
Speaker 3: us back in ways that you know. I think historians
Speaker 3: will write about, you know, in significant ways. But look,
Speaker 3: the point at this juncture, I think that we have
Speaker 3: to hope for and pray for if you are you know,
Speaker 3: of the prayerful mind, is that whatever operation that happens
Speaker 3: is one that Americans can execute with success, because I
Speaker 3: think that that will be of great benefit to the
Speaker 3: people of Iran, and I think that it will be
Speaker 3: something that will help ideally prevent this continued blowd to
Speaker 3: prevent this type of rampant loss of life that we
Speaker 3: have seen, and set the regime back on its heels
Speaker 3: in a significant way.
Speaker 1: Do you think Americans are aware that they could at
Speaker 1: the aridions might be able to hit the Lincoln they hit,
Speaker 1: They sent ICBMs and they hit our ballistic missiles, and
Speaker 1: they hit Alosad Air Base very precisely. They have precision.
Speaker 1: Got do you think they can kill a lot of
Speaker 1: Americans before they go down?
Speaker 3: I absolutely think that they can. And Hugh, I don't
Speaker 3: think that Americans are aware of that. I just don't.
Speaker 3: I don't think that this story has been you know,
Speaker 3: fully unspooled, and I think that people are not really
Speaker 3: paying attention to it. They've been focused more on the
Speaker 3: domestic stories around Ice and Minnesota and everything else like that.
Speaker 3: You know, in the linked in recent weeks, they haven't
Speaker 3: been paying as much attention to what's going on there.
Speaker 3: And part of that, of course, is is the Iranian
Speaker 3: regimes total crackdown, you know, complete lockdown on on the
Speaker 3: ability of people to get footage out in the way
Speaker 3: that we normally experience it in conflicts. But look, you know,
Speaker 3: that's something that I think people are going to have
Speaker 3: to wake up to. And there's a very real possibility
Speaker 3: that something like that happens.
Speaker 1: And that's last question. Man, if the United States government
Speaker 1: shut down the internet in the United States, what would
Speaker 1: it do to our growth there? There's no business happening
Speaker 1: in Iran right now. There's no backup when you turn
Speaker 1: the internet off anywhere.
Speaker 3: No, And I think that, and I think that this
Speaker 3: is something that the protesters know as well. Uh and
Speaker 3: they and this and look, there's a long story that
Speaker 3: gave to this point. You know, this is this is good,
Speaker 3: This is there's a lot of chickens coming home drus
Speaker 3: here in terms of in terms of how we got here,
Speaker 3: why there is such a divide between the people and
Speaker 3: the regime. Why there is a possibility here of actually
Speaker 3: having you know, a stable nation ideally, I mean in
Speaker 3: the wake of this there isn't there is an opening.
Speaker 3: There's a glean men.
Speaker 1: All right for the praying people, That's what we'll pray for.
Speaker 1: Ben Dominic, host of a Big Ben podcast. People go
Speaker 1: and listen to it, like and subscribe it. Fox News
Speaker 1: contributor Extraordinary and that podcast is one of the best
Speaker 1: in America, The Big Ben Podcast. Go and listen to it,
Speaker 1: stay tuned to the US show Welcome Back to America.
Speaker 1: I'm Hue Hewitt and the Relief Backtors video West. Eli
Speaker 1: Lake is the host of the Breaking History podcast, a
Speaker 1: contributor to the Free Press, and an expert on Iran.
Speaker 1: You'll hear him twice this weekend on my podcast because
Speaker 1: I'm putting together all my long interviews on Iran. That's
Speaker 1: gonna be a four hour podcast and then this weekend.
Speaker 1: Eli about forty minutes ago, Open Source Intel, which is
Speaker 1: one of my favorite and I think legitimate sites for
Speaker 1: open source intel, posted senior US military officials informed the
Speaker 1: leadership of a key US ally in the Middle East
Speaker 1: that Donald Trump could authorize a US attack on Iran
Speaker 1: this weekend strikes could commence as early as Sunday. The
Speaker 1: Ally was informed if the US decides to move forward
Speaker 1: sources tel drop site news, what do you make of that?
Speaker 1: What do you make of this situation?
Speaker 4: I am not a fan of drop site news, so
Speaker 4: I don't know quite what to make of that. I
Speaker 4: can tell you in my own reporting queue that one
Speaker 4: of the big factors here is that the United States
Speaker 4: does not have enough of the interceptors we use in
Speaker 4: our THAD and Patriot missile defense systems, and that has
Speaker 4: been a problem that frankly, our defense planners and past
Speaker 4: presidents going back twenty years should have done something about.
Speaker 4: We've had national security and defense strategies for a long
Speaker 4: time that has anticipated the need for these interceptors. But
Speaker 4: after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and our assistance to Ukraine,
Speaker 4: which I supported, and then of course the use of
Speaker 4: these interceptors in the Twelve Day War and the exchanges
Speaker 4: between Israel and Iran, the cupboard is bare and we
Speaker 4: don't have the capability. So that's one factor that I
Speaker 4: know has been weighing on the planning and so forth.
Speaker 4: And then I don't know what to make of it.
Speaker 4: Trump himself, as we know, is the decider. He has
Speaker 4: said at times that you know, he would love to
Speaker 4: do a deal and that his conditions I don't think
Speaker 4: are acceptable to comminate. So at some point I would
Speaker 4: imagine the military option will be used. But on the
Speaker 4: other hand, you know, he said he was negotiating, you know,
Speaker 4: right before the Twelve Day War, and that was I
Speaker 4: think one of the greatest moments of his presidency or
Speaker 4: any presidency in my memory. So we'll see what happens.
Speaker 4: But I know that there is this hard power restraint.
Speaker 4: Iran still has ballistic missiles and we need to shoot
Speaker 4: them down, and we don't have enough interceptors to do
Speaker 4: that to defend our bases and our allies that.
Speaker 1: Would argue, wouldn't it for a massive first strike coordinated
Speaker 1: with Israel because Israel is likely on the receiving end
Speaker 1: of those ballistic missiles as well as our basis.
Speaker 4: Yes, and I think Israel's obviously knows that it's a target,
Speaker 4: and we saw at the end of the Twelve day war,
Speaker 4: you know, some of them get through and and in
Speaker 4: some ways, you know, the Iranians are are aiming, you know,
Speaker 4: for civilians the Iranians have threatened, you know, our basis
Speaker 4: and so forth, so we'll see it is though, I
Speaker 4: think whatever happens, Hugh, let's just take a step back.
Speaker 4: This is this is a regime and death spiral. Sadly
Speaker 4: they're going to take a lot of Iranian citizens along
Speaker 4: with them. But I don't know how they recover the
Speaker 4: economic vice that they're in right now. They don't have
Speaker 4: a way out and at a certain point, you know,
Speaker 4: if you can't pay your goon squads, historically speaking, they don't,
Speaker 4: They're not going to fight out of you know. I
Speaker 4: don't think you know, there's there's I would my assessment
Speaker 4: would be that there's not even ten percent at this
Speaker 4: point of the population that even once Kamene would let alone,
Speaker 4: would fight for him.
Speaker 1: Now, Hamone is a nut, is a fanatic, and I
Speaker 1: am afraid. He in his bunker and if anything starts
Speaker 1: to just pushes every button he can Hitler style. I
Speaker 1: agree with that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yes, I think that's probably right. I think he's
Speaker 4: a he's an he's a millenarian, end times apocalyptic kind
Speaker 4: of figure, and I don't I think he would he
Speaker 4: would prefer to go out in a blaze of glory
Speaker 4: in some ways. Ideally, I would love to see him
Speaker 4: face a kind of people's tribunal from Iranians, and then
Speaker 4: I would love to see him hanged on the gallows
Speaker 4: that he uses against Iranian dissonance.
Speaker 1: But I ask you about American media. Yeah, there are
Speaker 1: four stories today Iran, you and I am talking about it, Minnesota,
Speaker 1: warsh Bang named the FED chair, and Don Lemon. What
Speaker 1: are the relative importance of those four stories?
Speaker 4: Iran is the most important? And it's your great credit.
Speaker 4: You have done a great job on your program kind
Speaker 4: of talking about it. That that that changes so much,
Speaker 4: not just the Middle East. It changes how we think
Speaker 4: about nuclear non proliferation. I think it changes the great
Speaker 4: power balance. I think it affects the Russia war with
Speaker 4: Ukraine because Iran is a strategic partner with Russia. And
Speaker 4: it's a great It's an important story for democracy because
Speaker 4: I do think that that's what the Iranian people want,
Speaker 4: not necessarily what you know Trump has articulated, but I
Speaker 4: think if his actions can lead to a kind of
Speaker 4: democratic restoration of sorts or a transition to democracy, I
Speaker 4: think it's world's historic far more important. As much as
Speaker 4: I think you know obviously understand why Ice and Minnesota
Speaker 4: is in the news. You know, Don Lemon, it's a
Speaker 4: bit of a stunt, and the Federal Reserve is important,
Speaker 4: but Iran I think outpaces them all.
Speaker 1: I agree, and by a lot. Now, does the media
Speaker 1: coverage and thanks for your kind words, but does the
Speaker 1: media coverage reflect the fact that what goes on in Iran,
Speaker 1: particularly if the regime were to collapse and thirty five
Speaker 1: thousand people killed, although I saw a number today of
Speaker 1: sixty eight thousand killed. What is wrong with the American media?
Speaker 1: Is it that they're afraid to cover Irun? Don't know
Speaker 1: how to that the coverage indicts Obama and Biden?
Speaker 4: What do you think it is? And fairness, it's a
Speaker 4: hard target. US Western publications don't have the kind of
Speaker 4: resources there. But I think it's also something that you know,
Speaker 4: there are plenty of Iranians who are getting information and
Speaker 4: outlets like Iran International that can be used in some
Speaker 4: ways to kind of get reporting. And I think it's
Speaker 4: also just there is it's in the kind of constituency
Speaker 4: that we saw, you know, with a sort of radicalized
Speaker 4: leftist base with we saw with the God of War.
Speaker 4: But Iran's behind it. I mean, if if we can
Speaker 4: get rid of this, I think it'll be really one
Speaker 4: of an enormous accomplishment right up there, you know, with
Speaker 4: Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan.
Speaker 1: And I think with HW getting Iraq out of Kuwait
Speaker 1: many many years ago, yes, last.
Speaker 4: But also managing managing the end of the Cold War correctly.
Speaker 4: HWS deserves a lot of credit along with Reagan obviously,
Speaker 4: but like HW was in a period where things could
Speaker 4: have gone a lot of different ways, he managed to
Speaker 4: help unify Germany. Uh we do not credit HW enough.
Speaker 4: I certainly didn't when I was a younger writer. Uh,
Speaker 4: but I have much more of an appreciation for him now.
Speaker 1: I want to play for you a cut from the
Speaker 1: Oval today. It's Donald Trump talking to an ABC reporter.
Speaker 1: Cut number three.
Speaker 5: And why are you? Who are you with? You're a
Speaker 5: loud person?
Speaker 1: Loud go ahead, go ahead, please, go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 5: The way is truly one of the worst.
Speaker 1: So, uh, Eli, this sort of back and forth with
Speaker 1: the press has an impact. It does reduce the credibility
Speaker 1: of all news. I think it does have an impact.
Speaker 4: What do you think can I make us lightly and
Speaker 4: humorous remark? I hope it's humorous. Most columnists, like myself,
Speaker 4: we kind of secretly want to be president or a
Speaker 4: secretary of state. We have the first president who actually
Speaker 4: would rather sometimes be a media critic, Like I think
Speaker 4: he wants to be a columnist.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: To me, I'm like, you're the president, man, like you
Speaker 4: could do what you want, you make the news. But
Speaker 4: you know he's obsessed with it.
Speaker 1: So I think the method is just to de legitimize
Speaker 1: legacy media. And after ten years, it's been ten years
Speaker 1: of this Eli. That's why their numbers are down. Something
Speaker 1: from Bloomberg. I came from Bloomberg. I was with daily
Speaker 1: based Newsbek s. I've been in mainstream media. Mainstream media
Speaker 1: has just credited itself brings back ELI of breaking history
Speaker 1: in the free press bank. You falling on at Eli
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Speaker 1: Don't forget. My code is Hugh John Ellis. John is
Speaker 1: the founder and editor in chief of News Items, which
Speaker 1: I often quote on the program and begin each weekend
Speaker 1: weekend review show with him. John I sent you a
Speaker 1: note saying can you add and sculpt the issues a
Speaker 1: bit to Iran. You've got other stuff we want to
Speaker 1: talk about, but let's start with the OS open source
Speaker 1: intel post of eleven minutes ago. Senior US military officials
Speaker 1: have informed the leadership of a key US ally in
Speaker 1: the Middle East that Donald Trump could authorize US attack
Speaker 1: on Iran this weekend. Strikes could commence as early as Sunday.
Speaker 1: Other information suggests we're still getting our ducks in a row.
Speaker 1: What do you think of the likelihood and the consequences.
Speaker 5: I don't know the likelihood, but it seems more likely
Speaker 5: than not. You know, we have Israel would very much
Speaker 5: like us to help them take out the nuclear facility,
Speaker 5: and our allies in the region, particularly South Saudi Arabia,
Speaker 5: are much more hesitant to endure a US attack. The
Speaker 5: thing people forget is that in September of twenty nineteen,
Speaker 5: Iran sent laser guided missiles to hit the Saudi Aramco
Speaker 5: oil processing facility, and they had the option of hitting
Speaker 5: the tanks and blowing the whole thing to smithereens, or
Speaker 5: hitting various pipes which would not blow the whole thing
Speaker 5: to smitherings. The Iranians chose the pipes, which was a
Speaker 5: strong message to Saudi Arabia that they could have hit
Speaker 5: the tanks, and that, I think is that is etched
Speaker 5: into the memory of Saudi Arabia in acid. So I
Speaker 5: think that our principal ally on the air side is very,
Speaker 5: very reluctant to see a US strike.
Speaker 1: You often talk on news items with Richard haw sometimes
Speaker 1: on your Night Owls podcast, the former head of the
Speaker 1: ACCOUNTSL on Foreign Relations. What's he thinking about this because
Speaker 1: he represents sort of mainstream, center right real politique.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think he thinks, you know that the US
Speaker 5: has a lot of options. They can obviously strike the
Speaker 5: nuclear facility, but they can also say, look, we will
Speaker 5: strike you, but if you curtail you know, these activities
Speaker 5: and those activities which would include, you know, support for
Speaker 5: armed proxies, limits on the number and range of ballistic missiles,
Speaker 5: that maybe, you know, you could get some agreement there,
Speaker 5: he thinks. And I think most people think it's unlikely
Speaker 5: that the Iranians will ever give up the nuclear program.
Speaker 5: We can delay it, but they'll keep at it. So
Speaker 5: his is sort of what can you what can you
Speaker 5: realistically expect to get? He makes the point, and I
Speaker 5: think it's the right one. Which is the greatest weakness.
Speaker 5: The glaring weakness of the regime is the economy. So
Speaker 5: as much pressure as you can possibly put on their economy,
Speaker 5: the much more likely you are to get positive results.
Speaker 1: In other ways, how do you think our friends in
Speaker 1: China and Russia view this?
Speaker 5: I think that I think of it as from China's
Speaker 5: point of view, a lot of oil comes from Iran,
Speaker 5: but that they're less and less dependent upon that. I
Speaker 5: think from China's point of view, anything that distracts the
Speaker 5: US is a good thing, and I think the same
Speaker 5: is true for the Russians. If the US is preoccupied
Speaker 5: with a war in the Middle East, they're going to
Speaker 5: be less likely to pay attention to what's going on
Speaker 5: in Ukraine. China. Same thing that they will be They
Speaker 5: would calculate that the US would be less interested in
Speaker 5: what's going on in Taiwan. So I think they think
Speaker 5: any kind of action that causes the US to be
Speaker 5: distracted from the Chinese side and the Russian point of view,
Speaker 5: it's probably something they would like.
Speaker 1: Well. I was a question on this topic nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 1: Sadam invades Kuwait and the world quickly agrees that's just
Speaker 1: not acceptable under international norms. Very similar to what happened
Speaker 1: after Ukraine was invaded the second time, murdering. You know,
Speaker 1: I saw an estimatede of sixty eight thousand. It had
Speaker 1: been between thirty and forty thousand of Iron's own citizens,
Speaker 1: and I saw sixty eight thousand a day. In any event,
Speaker 1: it's the biggest scene since Bobby Are. Can the world
Speaker 1: just afford not to do anything about that? John Ellis, I.
Speaker 5: Don't know that we can immediately. I think over time
Speaker 5: we can certainly do a lot to make the regime
Speaker 5: pay for that. The regime, you know, it's advertised as
Speaker 5: sort of a theocraft autocracy. In fact, the theocracy sits
Speaker 5: on top of what is essentially a military operation, the
Speaker 5: Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and they are willing to kill as
Speaker 5: many people as possible to stay in power. So it's
Speaker 5: going to be bloody, and you're not going to win
Speaker 5: a war against them in any near term way. But
Speaker 5: over time, if you wear down the economy and if
Speaker 5: you keep up the pressure, I think that public support
Speaker 5: will eventually collapse.
Speaker 1: Oil is at sixty five dollars and fifty nine cents
Speaker 1: creweds benchmark. If it goes to seventy, a lot of
Speaker 1: people are going to be under stress. You sent me
Speaker 1: a note about the Norwegian Sovereign Well Fund stress test.
Speaker 1: What did it show?
Speaker 5: The stress test they do a stress test to see
Speaker 5: a climate disaster you meltdown in the AI space. Just
Speaker 5: to make sure that they have two trillion dollars their management.
Speaker 5: So they have to pay very careful attention to what
Speaker 5: would happen to markets if something terrible were to happen.
Speaker 5: And what they found was that in the climate emergency
Speaker 5: of some kind that led to food shortages and so
Speaker 5: on and so forth, that the value of their portfolio
Speaker 5: would decline by twenty five percent. If the AI bubble burst,
Speaker 5: the value of their portfolio might decline by as much
Speaker 5: as forty five percent. So it's not you know, these
Speaker 5: are stress tests, they're extreme and so on and so forth,
Speaker 5: But it does give you an idea of if there
Speaker 5: were some kind of major event, just how vulnerable you
Speaker 5: know the financial markets are? Too extreme volatility.
Speaker 1: Telling you about vulnerability. I used to write a weekly
Speaker 1: column for the Washington Post, had a wonderful run there.
Speaker 1: It is my policy never to to drag former colleagues.
Speaker 1: But you sent me a note about it. I had
Speaker 1: no idea they were this much in trouble.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the Washington Post. My friend Matt Murray is the
Speaker 5: editor in chief of the Washington Post, and you said
Speaker 5: the reason that he didn't really enjoy his job when
Speaker 5: he was the editor in chief of the Wall Street
Speaker 5: Journalist that he had to fire, you know, one hundred
Speaker 5: people every quarter. They're now talking about basically shutting down
Speaker 5: their sports coverage, drastically reducing their international coverage, and immediately
Speaker 5: apparently they're going to lay off three hundred reporters and editors.
Speaker 5: So there's been you know, as much the media loves
Speaker 5: to talk about nothing more than the media, and so
Speaker 5: there's been a lot of back and forth about how
Speaker 5: durable this all is, and it certainly is for the
Speaker 5: people who are going to lose their jobs. The question
Speaker 5: is is the Post viable and the Post turn it around,
Speaker 5: And the answer to that is probably no. And so
Speaker 5: the question is, well, then why are they doing this,
Speaker 5: you know, why don't they just shut it down? Why
Speaker 5: lose any more money? And the reason for that is
Speaker 5: that the Post is actually a very attractive asset to
Speaker 5: a range. You know, a wide range of buyers. Bloomberg
Speaker 5: would be interested, News Corp. Would be interested, Private equity
Speaker 5: that focuses on media would be interested. I mean, there
Speaker 5: are six or eight groups that would be interested in
Speaker 5: acquiring the Posts. So if the Post cleans up his
Speaker 5: balance sheet in twenty twenty six, then may be able
Speaker 5: to fetch a much higher price than they would at present. Now.
Speaker 1: I don't believe in mind reading, but have you seen
Speaker 1: anything that explains why Jeff Bezos may have grown tired
Speaker 1: of his experiment. I thought it was a good move
Speaker 1: for Amazon, putting it to HQ two across the river
Speaker 1: from the Post, that it would be make sense to
Speaker 1: move in big time and get the Post. But seventy
Speaker 1: five million dollars a year in pocket change, even to
Speaker 1: Jeff Bezos, yeah.
Speaker 5: I think, I mean, I think the calculation aside from
Speaker 5: maybe he wanted to be a publisher of a major
Speaker 5: news outlet, but from an Amazon point of view, owning
Speaker 5: the Washington Post gives you a certain protection against congressional
Speaker 5: inquiries and executive antagonism, or at least so he thought.
Speaker 5: Trump completely upended that model. I mean, I can't imagine
Speaker 5: Barack Obama or George W. Bush or you know, Bill Clinton,
Speaker 5: never thinking about going after the Washington Post. But Trump
Speaker 5: had no problem doing that. And thus what Bezos thought
Speaker 5: was an asset, something that would help him get through
Speaker 5: stuff that he thought he would he needed to get
Speaker 5: through in Washington, or at least prevent him from being
Speaker 5: you know, attacked by Congress or regulatory agencies or whatever.
Speaker 5: It turned out not to be an asset. It turned
Speaker 5: out to be a liability almost one hundred percent because
Speaker 5: of Trump. And so you know, what do you do? Well,
Speaker 5: you can turn around the paper, you can try to
Speaker 5: or you can put the paper in proper order and
Speaker 5: sell it.
Speaker 1: And I can see what they're gonna do. You persuaded
Speaker 1: me that that's what's going on there. John Ellis, Editor
Speaker 1: and chief founder of News Items. You can read news
Speaker 1: items every morning. It is the thing to go to
Speaker 1: every single morning. But you got to go to news Items.
Speaker 1: Google news Items John Ellis, and you will find yourself there.
Speaker 1: One of the best, if not the best morning new
Speaker 1: heads around in America. Thank you, John,