Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast, sponsored by Hillsdale College All Things
Speaker 1: hillsdalet Hillsdale dot ed or. I encourage you to take
Speaker 1: advantage of the many free online courses there, and of
Speaker 1: course I'll listen to the Hillsdale dialogues, all of them
Speaker 1: at Hugh for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple
Speaker 1: iTunes and Hillsdale mornin Glory and even Grace. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Big Weekend Pod America. Sorry I missed last week.
Speaker 1: I was traveling from west coast to east coast and
Speaker 1: hardly anything that's going on, not kidding. We're in the
Speaker 1: middle of a war. We're in the middle of a
Speaker 1: war that, as you will hear in the conversation today,
Speaker 1: could change the next thirty to fifty maybe even one
Speaker 1: hundred years of life on this globe, certainly the lives
Speaker 1: of your children and of your grandchildren. It's that important.
Speaker 1: The stakes are that high. That's why I'm talking with
Speaker 1: John Ellison, Matt Conteney and Ben Dominic and Eli Lake
Speaker 1: all about what those stakes are and how best to
Speaker 1: understand this war. But if anyone tells you that we're
Speaker 1: not winning, they're wrong. We are winning. We haven't won
Speaker 1: but we are winning. No one tells you that the
Speaker 1: Straits of Hormuz is an insolvable military conundrum. That's simply
Speaker 1: not true. There, I mean, far worse conundrum in the
Speaker 1: history of military conflict. Will solve it. We will get
Speaker 1: it done. What you shouldn't believe as well is that
Speaker 1: there's an easy path to victory because the Islamic Revolution
Speaker 1: is organized to break into small pieces and do the
Speaker 1: insurgency thing with missiles, So even on its worst day,
Speaker 1: it's going to be around for a long time. Good
Speaker 1: news is all we have to do is secure this
Speaker 1: trait of hor moves. The rest is up to the
Speaker 1: Iranian people. With that said, let's turn to our first guest,
Speaker 1: John Ellis. After that, Eli Lake, Matt Contneti, Ben Dominicic,
Speaker 1: enjoy this Weekend in Review at a big weekend Pod,
Speaker 1: and thank you for listening. I'm Morning Glory and evening
Speaker 1: Grace in America. I'm Hugh hewittt of the Weekend Review.
Speaker 1: Show has begun and we begin it as we do
Speaker 1: most weeks, with John Ellis, the editor and founder of
Speaker 1: News Items. He one stopped shopping center in the morning
Speaker 1: at six am for all the news of the day,
Speaker 1: and each week John sends me a few stories that
Speaker 1: we should go over, and he begins with number one,
Speaker 1: the host plan. Now, John Richard Hass has been on
Speaker 1: this program every time he's done a book. We sometimes agree,
Speaker 1: we sometimes don't agree. His last two substack postings I
Speaker 1: haven't agreed with at all. So what's the house plan?
Speaker 1: What's Richard to they?
Speaker 2: Well, the host plan is the Strait of Hormuz enables
Speaker 2: traffic from the Persian Gulf to get to the Gulf
Speaker 2: of Oman and then out to the European Sea and
Speaker 2: out to its points. You know, it's destinations. The Iranians
Speaker 2: have quotes shut down end quote the Strait of Hormuz,
Speaker 2: and so the question is what do you do about
Speaker 2: that they are letting through. The Iranians are letting through,
Speaker 2: or have let through ninety tankers full of oil, some
Speaker 2: destined for China, some destin't for India. So the host
Speaker 2: plan is to essentially set up a blockade in the
Speaker 2: Gulf of Oman that prevents any tanker that Iran is
Speaker 2: letting through the Strait of Hormos from going any further.
Speaker 2: And so essentially it's a blockade of a blockade, and
Speaker 2: the message would be, look, unless you open up the
Speaker 2: Strait of horm Moves, no tankers are going to get through,
Speaker 2: which means you're not going to get the revenue that
Speaker 2: you get if the oil is delivered to China, and
Speaker 2: it will piss the Chinese off that they're not getting it,
Speaker 2: so they'll presumably pressure you to reopen the street.
Speaker 1: That's an excellent idea. No oil for us, no oil
Speaker 1: for you. But carg Island might end her into this
Speaker 1: as well. That's not a permanent solution though, John, and
Speaker 1: what has been laid bare is in fact just how
Speaker 1: crucial the Strait of horn Moves is, and the Iranians
Speaker 1: have been threatening for years to close it. They never
Speaker 1: had the ability until they built the missile array. Can
Speaker 1: we allow it to there exposed? No we can't, No,
Speaker 1: we can't.
Speaker 2: I mean I think you should sponsor with the Service
Speaker 2: academies and the leading you know, diplomacy institutes at contest
Speaker 2: who can come up with the best idea of how
Speaker 2: to resolve the Strait of Hormu's issue, because it's absolutely
Speaker 2: critical that it be resolved. The longer it goes on,
Speaker 2: the greater the economic impact. And it's not just that
Speaker 2: the price of gas goes. It's a little bit like dominos,
Speaker 2: where if this, if this happens, and that happens, and
Speaker 2: then that happens, and all of it is bad. So
Speaker 2: it's essential that it be resolved. And the terrible thing
Speaker 2: is that the Iranians have gotten better at mines sea
Speaker 2: mines that you know, you think of mines as something
Speaker 2: kind of like big balls that float on the top
Speaker 2: of the ocean, and you know, a battleship runs into
Speaker 2: them and blows up, like in the World War two movies.
Speaker 2: But now they're anchored to the floor and you can't
Speaker 2: see them, and you know by acoustics when when the boat,
Speaker 2: when the destroyer US destroyer gets close, the mind gets off.
Speaker 2: You need mine sweepers to take care of that, and
Speaker 2: as it happens, the US Navy has none.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm told by retired to six that some of
Speaker 1: our high tech people have got some solutions, but we'll
Speaker 1: be testing them in real time. We have no mind sweepers.
Speaker 1: We're running through our tomahawks and indeed through everything. But
Speaker 1: if we win, I think it's going to be worth it.
Speaker 1: And by when I mean regime alteration, not replacement, just
Speaker 1: coersion into a non fanatical theocratic regime. Where do you
Speaker 1: think we are in this, John, I think it's a
Speaker 1: toss up.
Speaker 2: I mean, it really depends on how much pain the
Speaker 2: Iranians are willing to withstand. They show that they're willing
Speaker 2: to withstand unlimited pain the Irano in Irantorek war. It
Speaker 2: strikes me that those days are different from these days.
Speaker 2: And it's certainly the case that US and Israel. Israeli
Speaker 2: firepower is exponentially more lethal than what they were up
Speaker 2: against in the Iraq War.
Speaker 1: But some of the men at the top of this
Speaker 1: regime walked through minefields. Is ten years old. I like
Speaker 1: to remind people that this generation was the product of
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighty eighty eight death match with Iraq, which
Speaker 1: was as bloody and as brutal war as any It's
Speaker 1: like Ukraine Russia right now, maybe even worse. But they
Speaker 1: are not for bending very easily. They have to be broken.
Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about the politics of it.
Speaker 1: John Hollis Harry Anton of all people, CNN did a
Speaker 1: poll of self described MAGA voters. One hundred percent of
Speaker 1: his polling sample support Donald Trump. Some people might have
Speaker 1: opted out of MAGA by virtue of what's happened over
Speaker 1: the last three weeks. But it's still a pretty stunning number.
Speaker 1: It's it's not fractured.
Speaker 2: Well, there are two there are two narratives in what
Speaker 2: we call the mainstream media at the moment. One is
Speaker 2: that the megabase is fracturing, and the other is that
Speaker 2: the great Blue wave is coming. The mega fracturing story
Speaker 2: is simply not true. And had you know, one hundred
Speaker 2: percent NBC News had eighty five percent. I've seen other
Speaker 2: stuff that says ninety percent of the quote mega base
Speaker 2: end quote is sticking with President Trump. So that's you know,
Speaker 2: that narrative is wrong. And the second narrative, the blue wave,
Speaker 2: nothing like that is going to happen. You know, there's
Speaker 2: seventeen seats that are that are you know, maybe going
Speaker 2: to go the Democratic way, maybe not. There are three
Speaker 2: more that you could make the case that they could
Speaker 2: go democratic, but anything like the normal historical average of
Speaker 2: twenty six seat switch it seems extremely unlikely. And that's
Speaker 2: not you know, that's not just me saying that. That's
Speaker 2: you know, Charlie Cook, whose Cook Political Report is as
Speaker 2: good as any in terms of analyzing Elections has pretty
Speaker 2: much said the same thing.
Speaker 1: So now I think you if Louis John Cornan wins
Speaker 1: his Senate primary, he has a layup against tall Reno.
Speaker 1: But I also think Tallerino probably beats Ken Paxton. I
Speaker 1: don't think Graham Platner can beat Susan Collins. That would
Speaker 1: be very strange. North Carolina is a toss up. Ossoff
Speaker 1: is a tough candidate, Michigan's always tough for Republicans, and
Speaker 1: John Houston in Ohio is a pretty good candidate, but
Speaker 1: so is shared Brown. It's possible to lose the Senate. John,
Speaker 1: do you agree with this? Absolutely? Yes.
Speaker 2: I think the range is no change to plus one Democrat,
Speaker 2: so plus three R to plus one.
Speaker 1: D O D. It's gonna be a while. To that end,
Speaker 1: I have been urging Republicans put their arms around the war,
Speaker 1: throw the two hundred and fifty million a billion dollars
Speaker 1: onto a reconciliation bill, jam at through the House and
Speaker 1: the Senate, and stand by Trump and say we have
Speaker 1: to take it run off the map. Because they're stuck
Speaker 1: with the war anyway, they might as well be patriotic
Speaker 1: about it.
Speaker 2: Well, the other thing is the Democrats appear to be
Speaker 2: hoping that we lose. So, you know, that's an interesting.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say that, but I'm you're the objective neutral guy.
Speaker 1: It sure does look that way to me. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I read this stuff every morning, you know, from one
Speaker 2: to six o'clock in the morning, and it sure sounds
Speaker 2: to me like they're not all in on the war.
Speaker 2: It sounds to me, you know, in the coverage as well,
Speaker 2: is all negative. There's plenty of bad news here. It's
Speaker 2: not that it's that there's there's almost no There was
Speaker 2: one day this week where the quote narrative end quote
Speaker 2: of the mainstream media switched dramatically, and oddly enough, it
Speaker 2: was because of a piece that ran in El Jazeera
Speaker 2: where the author said, basically, the US is winning.
Speaker 1: Yes, there is also a non good piece of news
Speaker 1: today and if third thirty five got hit by something
Speaker 1: that was able to land, but we didn't think that
Speaker 1: was possible. So that's not a good bit of news.
Speaker 1: Let's close with a bit of good news, though I'm
Speaker 1: a little bit worried. I have birder friends like Dan
Speaker 1: Paraman and they're kind of crazy about birding. And now
Speaker 1: if it turns out that birding is good for your brain.
Speaker 1: I really fear getting forced into the birding world. It
Speaker 1: seems a little eccentric and it seems resource intensive.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, we have a weekly newsletter called bird
Speaker 2: News Items.
Speaker 1: I know it's now.
Speaker 2: Scientific scientifically proven that it prevents dementia. So my advice
Speaker 2: to you is get with the program, get yourself a
Speaker 2: subscription to Bird News Items, and you'll be doing this
Speaker 2: show well into your nineties.
Speaker 1: Are you a birder I thought, family members, No, my brother.
Speaker 2: My brother is a former board member of the Cornell
Speaker 2: Ornithology Lab, which is sort of the mit of birds,
Speaker 2: and he's the sort of person that goes to Minnesota
Speaker 2: to look to the Iron Range in Minnesota to look
Speaker 2: for a specific bird. In other words, he's crazy, but
Speaker 2: apparently he's not demented.
Speaker 1: Well, great, he's going to be doing it for a
Speaker 1: long time. I go also have to tell the audience
Speaker 1: John stuck In that the Buckeyes lost last night. However,
Speaker 1: the red Hawks, the Miami RedHawks, play this afternoon, So
Speaker 1: Ohio is still represented, John Allis, We're not down yet.
Speaker 1: We're not out yet. John Alis, thank you. Get your
Speaker 1: News Items by going to Google and just news items,
Speaker 1: John Allis, it will take you there, this one substack
Speaker 1: that every morning will make you as smart as anybody
Speaker 1: else in your office, carpool, or that you're talking to
Speaker 1: for the rest of the day. Thank you, John. I'll
Speaker 1: be right back in America with Eli Lake. Stay tuned,
Speaker 1: Welcome back to America. Eli Lake is a correspondent with
Speaker 1: The Free Press. He's also the host of the Breaking
Speaker 1: History podcast, frequent contributed to commentary podcast as he was
Speaker 1: this morning. He's also part of a I don't know
Speaker 1: twenty hour conversation with Andrew Sullivan about Iran this week,
Speaker 1: which I found very interesting between Eli and Andrew, and
Speaker 1: two of programs by Aviv Reddy Gerr on Hominius the Ideology.
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm overwhelmed, But Eli, let me hand
Speaker 1: you this accolade. I have been waiting for this moment
Speaker 1: for forty seven years, an honest to goodness attempt to
Speaker 1: take down the regime. And I cannot believe that so
Speaker 1: few people are focused on how important this is. Do
Speaker 1: you think they understand how important this is?
Speaker 3: No, and I don't think people are paying attention to
Speaker 3: the right metrics. I want to open the straight of
Speaker 3: her moves like everybody else, and that is important in
Speaker 3: the short term. But the story to watch are the
Speaker 3: drones that Israel controls over besiege checkpoints.
Speaker 4: It's the come.
Speaker 3: Conversation that you know. The Wall Street Journal heard a
Speaker 3: recording of where a massade officer is talking to a
Speaker 3: senior Tehran police commander, and at the end of it
Speaker 3: he says, I swear on.
Speaker 1: The Quran, I'm already dead.
Speaker 3: Please come and save us. That's the That's the metric
Speaker 3: that I'm looking at, Not you know what the remaining
Speaker 3: of Iranian stooges or regime officials say. Not the straight
Speaker 3: up Hormuz, not the you know back and forth between
Speaker 3: European allies and Trump over mind sweepers and so forth.
Speaker 3: The thing that matters is the plan that I think
Speaker 3: Israel has been working on for some time and that
Speaker 3: we're going to start seeing other parts of It. Might
Speaker 3: be Resipolo who comes back, It could be people on
Speaker 3: the inside, It might be a combination of both. But
Speaker 3: I think my hope is that I think that there
Speaker 3: is a plan to do this, that this war ends
Speaker 3: in a velvet in a color revolution, as they call it.
Speaker 1: It is the most significant geopolitical moment since nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 1: because a long standing enemy of the United States could
Speaker 1: be cracking, and the cracking might go on for some
Speaker 1: period of time, and there are costs of that cracking,
Speaker 1: including economic costs. And the straightah Horn moves isn't inconvenience.
Speaker 1: But the Battle of the Atlantic almost starved Great Britain
Speaker 1: to death. This is not that this is a dollar
Speaker 1: more gallon of gas and production problems for Japan, China,
Speaker 1: and India. It's not the end of the civilized world.
Speaker 1: So I don't even think it's that big of a
Speaker 1: military problem. Once you get your assets in place, it's
Speaker 1: twenty three miles long. We have two EMUs coming now,
Speaker 1: one from Asia, one from San Diego. I believe, to
Speaker 1: big decks with marines on them. A lot of stuff
Speaker 1: we can do. I mean, why do people want us
Speaker 1: to lose? It just seems like a lot of American
Speaker 1: media wants.
Speaker 3: Us to lose, well, to put it charitably, or to
Speaker 3: maybe steal man the other side. I think that so
Speaker 3: many people who follow and you know, Iran policy and
Speaker 3: this conflict, they can't imagine a world without the Iranian regime,
Speaker 3: without the Islamic Republic.
Speaker 1: It's hard for.
Speaker 3: Them to even imagine it, so they just kind of
Speaker 3: revert back to, of course, there'll be some regime that
Speaker 3: sticks around after this war. David Ignatius, who I think
Speaker 3: is a fine reporter, but his column he wrote this
Speaker 3: week is about, you know, there has to be no
Speaker 3: clear winnable goals and you know, to think about sort
Speaker 3: of an exit ramp, and he gives.
Speaker 1: His thoughts on it.
Speaker 3: And my view is that even if the combat operations
Speaker 3: end and there is a rump of the regime in place,
Speaker 3: I think we have to really work. The world has
Speaker 3: to hope that Israel and the Iranian people and what
Speaker 3: they have cooking ultimately works, and I can see it.
Speaker 3: I'm hoping it does.
Speaker 1: You know. For the last year I've been reading with
Speaker 1: Larry or on this book, The Gathering Storm, and the
Speaker 1: one thing that looking back to the thirties tells me
Speaker 1: is if England and France had fought a complicated, risky
Speaker 1: battle with Germany in the thirties, the world would not
Speaker 1: have burned. And this regime has revealed itself. That's the
Speaker 1: biggest takeaway for the first three weeks from me. I
Speaker 1: want to know what you think of the first three weeks,
Speaker 1: the nature of the regime. It's actually for two months
Speaker 1: now since they murdered thirty five thousand of their own people.
Speaker 1: But they're firing at the Alaska Mosque now. They have
Speaker 1: absolutely no inhibitions about chaos because chaos is their theology.
Speaker 3: Yes, one hundred percent. And I would say this as well.
Speaker 3: All of the people who think that we're losing the
Speaker 3: war and are focusing on negative elements. Contrasts that with
Speaker 3: the governments of our golf allies, including now Kuttar, that
Speaker 3: are all in that right there. They have the skin
Speaker 3: in the game. Do you think we're sacrificing at the pump?
Speaker 3: United Arab Emirates And they're really feeling the brunt of
Speaker 3: it because the Iranians are firing at hotels and civilian
Speaker 3: targets and their airport and so forth. They're saying, keep going,
Speaker 3: they want to finish the job. That tells me everything
Speaker 3: I need to know. It also tells me that the
Speaker 3: Iranian theory of this war was all wrong. They thought
Speaker 3: they could intimidate our allies to regret hosting our bases.
Speaker 3: The opposite happens. It strengthened their resolve and now Iran,
Speaker 3: as I've never seen a country this isolated before, not
Speaker 3: even Russia and China last week voted against the UN
Speaker 3: Security Council resolution condemning Iran's behavior as incredible. They were
Speaker 3: extensions on that they have zeer allies in the world
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 1: I do want to have any for a worst case scenario.
Speaker 1: If I understand the Mosaic plan, Iran divides into thirty
Speaker 1: to thirty five different regions, each with a commander in chief,
Speaker 1: each with missile supplies, and they can wage guerrilla war
Speaker 1: in the mountains and the plains in the deserts for
Speaker 1: years to come. Is that the worst case scenario That
Speaker 1: would be a pretty bad one.
Speaker 3: I think another worst case scenario is, and I don't
Speaker 3: think I don't see signs that's happening, is that if
Speaker 3: something happened and Trump dramatically just withdrew without any kind
Speaker 3: of agreement, that would give the Iranian regime a sense
Speaker 3: of victory that was left, and then they would then
Speaker 3: proceed to slaughter even more of their own civilians to
Speaker 3: sort of teach the people a lesson, and we would
Speaker 3: have a weakened regime in place, but one that would
Speaker 3: kind of feel emboldened that they were managed to survive
Speaker 3: a war against the great powers.
Speaker 1: That would be even I didn't consider that eli because
Speaker 1: the one guy who's not on the krak, Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: I just can't I think that's right. Yeah, I can't
Speaker 1: see it either. Now, the politics MAGA has not splendored.
Speaker 1: Some traditional Republicans who hate Trump still hate Trump, and
Speaker 1: so they're against the war. Some of the national security
Speaker 1: elite think it was a bad idea, but they've been
Speaker 1: isolated from the rest of the country for a long time.
Speaker 1: Is there any political risk here other than losing.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, losing is a huge political risk. So
Speaker 3: then you'll get the podcast or class that is against
Speaker 3: it doing a series of I Told you so's, and
Speaker 3: they'll probably blame Israel and the people who support Israel
Speaker 3: in the country. So losing would be bad. But that's
Speaker 3: the truth. That's true in every war. You I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, it's better to win, and I think Trump
Speaker 3: gets that more than anyone, So I think he wants
Speaker 3: to win it. That's I think he's focused on that.
Speaker 3: And then at that point, it'll be very interesting to
Speaker 3: see what happened, what becomes of MAGA and what becomes
Speaker 3: of what may be called the dissidence within MAGA, who
Speaker 3: have very big platforms, but apparently not many followers.
Speaker 1: At least we will sit not much influence, big platforms,
Speaker 1: not much influence. Eli, I think you're doing Yeoman's work.
Speaker 1: Keep writing, keep reporting at the Free Press and at
Speaker 1: the Breaking History. The episode with Andrew Sullivan is just
Speaker 1: so much fun. Andrew's been on his program twice one week,
Speaker 1: threw bricks at each other for an hour and a half,
Speaker 1: and then we had eleven ten years later, So I
Speaker 1: really think it's fine. Excellent conversation, Eli Lake. Follow him
Speaker 1: on exit, Eli Lake, read him in The Free Press.
Speaker 1: Listen to Breaking History. I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 1: Continetti is next on the Hugh Hewitt Show program Back America.
Speaker 1: I'm Hugh Hewitt. Matt Continetti is the Senior Fellow for
Speaker 1: Domestic Affairs at the American Enterprise Institute, also a columnist
Speaker 1: for the Wall Street Journal. Had a very good column
Speaker 1: today in the Journal on the complexities of the Iran
Speaker 1: where Matt Kannetty. I want to begin by asking you
Speaker 1: to describe how you see the first three weeks of
Speaker 1: the battle with Iran well Hugh.
Speaker 5: I think the first three weeks of the battle with
Speaker 5: Iran have been an overwhelming military success for the United
Speaker 5: States and for Israel. I think we're rapidly pursuing our
Speaker 5: main objectives is ending the nuclear threat, destroying the missile threat,
Speaker 5: destroying is Iran's ability to cement terrorism in the region
Speaker 5: through its proxies, and then laying the groundwork the conditions
Speaker 5: for a potential regime collapse where the boots on the
Speaker 5: ground are not American or Israeli soldiers, but they're the
Speaker 5: Iranian people themselves. So I think we've made extraordinary progress
Speaker 5: along all those lines. There have been some costs, but
Speaker 5: I think compared with what has been gained, those costs have.
Speaker 4: Minimal.
Speaker 5: And right now we've had this new challenge in the
Speaker 5: last week or so with the Strait of Hormuz. But
Speaker 5: the battle for the strait, for control of the strait,
Speaker 5: for the safe passage of all the vessels that transit
Speaker 5: through the strait, I think will be won by the
Speaker 5: United States. Has to be won for the future of
Speaker 5: the world and for freedom of navigation. It will just
Speaker 5: take a little bit more time.
Speaker 1: You know, Matt, I've been telling people this all week Long.
Speaker 1: I'm somewhat of an amateur student of World War Two,
Speaker 1: the Battle of the Atlantic, which ranged over two years,
Speaker 1: that was about actually whether Great Britain would have anything
Speaker 1: to eat. The Strait of the Hormuz is about the
Speaker 1: cost of gasoline and whether or not Japan, India and
Speaker 1: China can operate at full capacity. It's not an existential
Speaker 1: crisis for the world. It's a crisis of economy, but
Speaker 1: not anything remotely like the severity of a serious battle
Speaker 1: at sea. And I also don't think it's a problem
Speaker 1: that we won't be able to solve once we have
Speaker 1: a chance to turn our attention to it. Do you.
Speaker 4: I think we're already turning our attention to it, Hugh.
Speaker 5: You know, one of the interesting things to come out
Speaker 5: of yesterday's briefing from Secretary Hegseth and Chairman Kane was
Speaker 5: that the United States has now introduced the A ten Warthog,
Speaker 5: my favorite aircraft, and.
Speaker 4: Apache helicopters to the fight.
Speaker 5: What that means is that those are close air support platforms.
Speaker 5: They fly low, and I think what they're doing is
Speaker 5: engaging in hunting destroy missions for these fast boats and
Speaker 5: mind layers in the Strait. So that means that we're
Speaker 5: already tackling that challenge. Of course, we dropped the five
Speaker 5: thousand pound bombs earlier this week along the Iranian coast
Speaker 5: to go after the Missilan drone teams that have been
Speaker 5: harassing traffic through the state. It'll take some time to
Speaker 5: get our naval assets in place, but I think it's achievable.
Speaker 5: I think what we've seen in the past month, three
Speaker 5: weeks a month is the overwhelmingly ability of the United
Speaker 5: States to achieve its military objectives, especially when working with
Speaker 5: a capable ally and willing ally like we have in
Speaker 5: the state of Israel. It's really something to beholden. You know,
Speaker 5: your mention of World War Two just made me think
Speaker 5: you could you imagine if we had today's media covering
Speaker 5: the Second World War three weeks in after Pearl Harbor,
Speaker 5: The New York Times, The Economist, all of the network's CNN,
Speaker 5: they'd be saying that Japanese are winning. Hitler's on the March,
Speaker 5: Roosevelt's strategy failing.
Speaker 1: Do you remember the D Day rehearsal that resulted in
Speaker 1: the deaths of thousands of Americans and brit troops because
Speaker 1: the rehearsal went bad. And the tide was wrong. I mean,
Speaker 1: we had so many scrups in that. Let me ask
Speaker 1: you about the worst case scenario. Thus far, the Iranians
Speaker 1: are firing at the Alaska Mosque and the Western Wall.
Speaker 1: They're trying to actually hit the third most sacred place,
Speaker 1: and Sunni is 'n done matter much of the Shia
Speaker 1: as Karbala does. But are they out of their minds?
Speaker 5: Well, I think the answer to that question is unfortunately yes.
Speaker 5: I mean, this is why Iran is a threat. This
Speaker 5: is why we can't allow the Iranian regime to obtain
Speaker 5: nuclear weapons. They're apocalyptic, religious fanatics, and that goes down
Speaker 5: through several layers of the regime. I forgot to mention
Speaker 5: in my summary of all we've accomplished militarily that in
Speaker 5: the opening moments, the United States and Israel decapitated the
Speaker 5: Iranian leadership forty one major leaders, including Nyatola. The replacement
Speaker 5: Ayatola Kameni's sun has not been seen publicly.
Speaker 4: It's unclear whether he or heard.
Speaker 5: It's unclear whether he's alive, much less what condition he
Speaker 5: may be in. So I think the behavior of this
Speaker 5: regime is in fact revealing why it was necessary for
Speaker 5: the United States and Israel to take the action they
Speaker 5: have taken. When you're considering that they've launched missiles against
Speaker 5: twelve different countries, when they are holding civilian populations at risk,
Speaker 5: when they're trying to hold the global economy at risk,
Speaker 5: and now they're targeting Islam's own religious sites. You see
Speaker 5: how they could not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons
Speaker 5: and what was better to strike now rather than wait
Speaker 5: until it was too late.
Speaker 1: They are making the case for President Trump. I'll be
Speaker 1: right back with Matt Continety during the break. We'll put
Speaker 1: it on the Big Weekend Pod and you'll be back
Speaker 1: on the other side as well. Don't go anywhere if
Speaker 1: they tuned to the ushow on the sale Mustaine, I'm
Speaker 1: back with Matt Continetty. Matt I asked enable historian friend
Speaker 1: of mine, what sort of an attack, a decapitation attack
Speaker 1: could have been done by Imperial Japan upon the American
Speaker 1: military in December of forty one. He wrote back, on
Speaker 1: December seven, forty one, we had less than two hundred
Speaker 1: flag and general officers across the Army, Air Corpnavy, and
Speaker 1: Marine Corps. Within the US government. There were twenty two
Speaker 1: civilian and national security leaders, so two hundred and twenty two,
Speaker 1: and we would have been on our back for a
Speaker 1: year and a half trying to If they've gotten George
Speaker 1: Marshall and Nimets and a bunch of the other people
Speaker 1: who took over, we wouldn't have known what to do.
Speaker 1: Do you how do you imagine it is in Iran
Speaker 1: right now? Matt? You're pretty imaginative.
Speaker 4: What's it like of an overactive imagination?
Speaker 5: Well, look, I think it's clear that the leadership is
Speaker 5: in disarray. I think it's clear that there is some
Speaker 5: dissension in the ranks. It's hard to tell how much
Speaker 5: because Iran is a black box right now because the
Speaker 5: regime is shut off the Internet because they're going after
Speaker 5: people with in inside Iran who have the starlink terminals
Speaker 5: to connect with the wider world. We don't really know,
Speaker 5: but we do know that when you're getting down to
Speaker 5: the second and third level of leadership, these are folks
Speaker 5: who are not at the top of their game.
Speaker 4: And just thank you.
Speaker 5: You know the strike against Costan Solomani in January of
Speaker 5: twenty twenty, that Trump ordered the kind of commander in
Speaker 5: chief of Iranian terrorism, if you will, that truly disrupted
Speaker 5: the Kods force that he ran and the IRGC's operations
Speaker 5: and denied them a real kind of strategic brain.
Speaker 4: And think of that.
Speaker 5: That's how many Solomonis have been killed through this operation,
Speaker 5: through targeted strikes, or through just the general course of
Speaker 5: the war. When you have Israel contacting actual Bassiege militia commanders,
Speaker 5: this is the militia that really enforces the rule of
Speaker 5: the regime on the street. When you have Israel contacting
Speaker 5: individual commanders and saying, we know where you are, we
Speaker 5: know what you're up to, you better be ready to
Speaker 5: join the revolution when it comes. I can understand that
Speaker 5: the intelligence penetration that we have there, the just general confusion,
Speaker 5: the potential dissension. We have reports of IRGC and Basiege
Speaker 5: commanders not showing up for work. Yeah, I think they're
Speaker 5: in this array. But I will say this, I think
Speaker 5: the regime planned for this. And so you know this
Speaker 5: concept of mosaic defense that they've been deploying where it's
Speaker 5: decentralized and these missile and drone teams they're just operating
Speaker 5: on their own.
Speaker 4: And what it means is.
Speaker 5: They can still pack a punch, not as severe a
Speaker 5: punch as at the start of the war much less
Speaker 5: years years ago. They can still pack a punch, and
Speaker 5: so it's very imperative that we continue the operation until
Speaker 5: those those missile and drone teams are devastated.
Speaker 1: Now they can also drive their missile truck deep into
Speaker 1: the woods, throw the keys as far as they can,
Speaker 1: and start walking out. I just keep thinking, if you
Speaker 1: fire that thing, you'd better be very very fast. You've
Speaker 1: just got to run very very bad. I'll be right
Speaker 1: back with Matt Continetty. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back in America.
Speaker 1: I'm Hugh hewittt with Matt Continey of the Wall Street
Speaker 1: Journal the American Enterprise Institute. Matt, have our allies surprised
Speaker 1: you in any way?
Speaker 4: I think they have surprised me, Hugh.
Speaker 5: I think the United Kingdom in particular has really surprised me.
Speaker 5: I should maybe I shouldn't have been surprised considering Keir
Speaker 5: Starmer's atrocious record on the Middle East, recognition of the
Speaker 5: State of Palestine after October seventh attacks on Israel.
Speaker 4: It's general kind of.
Speaker 5: Appeasement posture he's taken toward Islamism in general. The domestic concerns,
Speaker 5: the links between radicalism and the labor part he runs.
Speaker 5: Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised, but I do think
Speaker 5: that their initial reaction to President Trump's call for an
Speaker 5: alliance to free the straight in a way that will
Speaker 5: benefit Europe and China most of all. America is energy independent. Sure,
Speaker 5: the market for oil is global, so our gas prices
Speaker 5: are rising, but really the oil that flows through the
Speaker 5: Strait is benefiting Europe and China more than it does
Speaker 5: the United States. So yeah, France has surprised me. Some
Speaker 5: of the other allies now it seems like they're kind
Speaker 5: of understanding that they're the losers if they don't contribute
Speaker 5: to some type of multifaceted Sorry.
Speaker 1: General Ruda is doing his best to kind of slap
Speaker 1: them and throw a little cold water bucket in their face.
Speaker 1: Let me talk to you a little bit about the
Speaker 1: ideology of the enemy. Our new ally is Israel, and
Speaker 1: I listen to the v Ready Gore and A meet
Speaker 1: Sagal and Nada ve Al and Michael Lauren, because there
Speaker 1: are now our closest enemy in the world when it
Speaker 1: comes in our operability, and we ought to understand the
Speaker 1: war from their perspective. Avid did two long shows or
Speaker 1: ask Aviv anything number ninety three and number ninety nine
Speaker 1: on the ideology of the Harmoniast, which is different from
Speaker 1: the al Qaeda ideology, the Sunni extremesm, the Shia extremism
Speaker 1: is a blend of Marxism and Times scatology. Do you
Speaker 1: have you seen any mainstream American outlet attempt to explain
Speaker 1: the ideology of what we're up against here?
Speaker 4: No, no, I haven't.
Speaker 5: I mean, I think it goes back to what we
Speaker 5: were talking about before the break. On the way the
Speaker 5: media has approached this war. It's really remarkable. I mean,
Speaker 5: a coverage in Western media is so one sided against
Speaker 5: the United States, against Israel, against Trump that it's even
Speaker 5: kind of remarkable to think that we could get an
Speaker 5: article or a television segment like you suggest, actually exploring
Speaker 5: this Twelfth imomism from the Sheaite radicals that govern Iran.
Speaker 5: It's very different from twenty years ago. You know, after
Speaker 5: we were tacked on nine to eleven, there there was
Speaker 5: a huge kind of cottage industry about why they hate us, right,
Speaker 5: and Bernard Lewis kind of jumped to the top of
Speaker 5: the best setherlists explaining what had gone wrong in the
Speaker 5: Middle East, and of course even when we launched the
Speaker 5: war in Iraq in two thousand and three, Yes, there
Speaker 5: was a debate, but most Democrats sided with the operation.
Speaker 5: They turned against it later when the insurgency started killing
Speaker 5: American troops.
Speaker 4: Now we've like fast forwarded.
Speaker 5: Right to the endgame where Democrats are uniformly against the war.
Speaker 5: The media is totally negative in its coverage. And yet
Speaker 5: if you actually take a step back and look at
Speaker 5: what's happening, America and Israel are succeeding in our military campaign.
Speaker 5: And when you know the situation is bad, Hugh, when
Speaker 5: you have to turn to Al Jazeera for a fair,
Speaker 5: imbalanced explanation of what's going on in Iran. An excellent
Speaker 5: article by an analyst in Al Jazeera who points out
Speaker 5: in Cutter sponsored media that America is winning in Iran,
Speaker 5: which is I think, what is happening. But you won't
Speaker 5: hear that in almost any news outlet, much less some
Speaker 5: type of investigative reporting on the ideology of our adversary.
Speaker 1: Well, I do want to hear, have my audience here
Speaker 1: from you, Matt, the best case scenario. I don't think
Speaker 1: anyone understands how important this is. China is our pacing adversary.
Speaker 1: They are our greatest threat. Russia is a gas station
Speaker 1: in nuclear weapons. We understand that. But Iran is a
Speaker 1: malignant force in the world. What would the world look
Speaker 1: like if that regime collapsed.
Speaker 5: Well, it would be a much safer world. There's no
Speaker 5: question about that. It's already a much safer world because
Speaker 5: the United States and Israel have stated the Iranian war machine.
Speaker 5: They've tackled and trounced the nuclear program. The missiles are down.
Speaker 5: That not just the missiles, but the missile production, the
Speaker 5: drone production facilities, they're gone, The navy is sunk. It's
Speaker 5: already a safer world. Without the Iranian regime, you would
Speaker 5: have chance for real peace in the Middle East. You
Speaker 5: would have the main source of terrorism around the world
Speaker 5: gone from the face of the earth. You'd also weaken
Speaker 5: You'd weaken that axis of aggression you mentioned, because not
Speaker 5: only have we now taken Venezuela's oil right and are
Speaker 5: using it with the United States's strategic purposes in mind.
Speaker 5: In Iran that was pro Western or at least not
Speaker 5: hostile to the United States may take a very different
Speaker 5: approach to China and may not supply the Shah head
Speaker 5: drones to Russia to be used against Ukraine, which, by
Speaker 5: the way, you as you know, is actually me making
Speaker 5: gains on the battlefield right now, Ukraine is reclaiming lost ground.
Speaker 4: So at the last point, turning point.
Speaker 1: I question, Matt, if you're the Republicans, the Pentagon asks
Speaker 1: for two hundred billion dollars, do you put your arms
Speaker 1: around that in a reconciliation and jam it through. Get
Speaker 1: the Budget Committee and the Appropriations Committee and the Armed Services
Speaker 1: Committee to do a straight reconciliation. We can do that
Speaker 1: fifty one votes in the Senate, a simple majority in
Speaker 1: the House, and just jam it through and put your
Speaker 1: arms around the war and say it's a good war,
Speaker 1: it's a just war, it's good for the world, and
Speaker 1: we're Republicans and we support it. What do you think
Speaker 1: of that?
Speaker 5: Well, I think you have to put it to the
Speaker 5: Democrats first. I think you have to get the Democrats
Speaker 5: on record. Are the Democrats really going to vote against
Speaker 5: resupplying our forces while they're engaged in a fight against
Speaker 5: a deadly enemy. Our casualties have been minimal, as I said,
Speaker 5: But really that's what the Democrats are going to do.
Speaker 5: You're going to show them if they do vote against
Speaker 5: it for kind of the Trump deranged opposition that they are.
Speaker 5: If that, if that vote fails, then that's when you
Speaker 5: move to reconciliation.
Speaker 4: Interesting, but I believe, I believe we should.
Speaker 5: We should make a political debate about this really and once,
Speaker 5: once the votes are on the record, if it doesn't
Speaker 5: go through, okay, then you use your fifty one vote
Speaker 5: majority to get the troops what they need to finish
Speaker 5: this fight against a terrorist enemy.
Speaker 1: Better thought, that's why you're at a Matt Connetti, thank
Speaker 1: you as always follow him at Continetti read his Wall
Speaker 1: Street Journal piece today in the Free Expression vertical on
Speaker 1: whether or not President Trump ought to make the traditional
Speaker 1: appeal to the American people about national interest, which is
Speaker 1: not yet done. Matt and I diverge a little bit
Speaker 1: on that, but it's okay, it's a small deal. Go
Speaker 1: and read it and thank you. Matt. Coming right back
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Speaker 1: we are lucky with Ben Domin that she's the head
Speaker 1: of the Daily Wires commentary section, he's a Fox News contributor,
Speaker 1: He's a friend of the program. Ben. I want to
Speaker 1: start by saying I watched the Daily Wire with you
Speaker 1: Ben Shapiro, Michael Knowles, who was the fourth person at
Speaker 1: the shootout at the OK Corral, and all right, Andrew
Speaker 1: was there. Andrew was duck in the whole time. I
Speaker 1: think that that is the McLaughlin group be born. I
Speaker 1: think you should guys should do that every week. Maybe
Speaker 1: bring in Mary Katherine Hamsey. You don't lose, you know, composure.
Speaker 1: But is that a regular feature that's gonna that's gonna
Speaker 1: score an enormous hit every week.
Speaker 6: Well, well, I will tell you. I will tell you
Speaker 6: this you uh uh. This was my first experience with it,
Speaker 6: you know, and and thanks for being so kind about it.
Speaker 6: I just got back from from Nashville yesterday, and I
Speaker 6: will tell you that the folks they were like that
Speaker 6: it's the hottest thing we put out in in a
Speaker 6: long time. And I was like, well, let's do it again.
Speaker 6: And so I think we're both in the same same way,
Speaker 6: both peple no.
Speaker 1: Appointment appointment viewing is everything. My best advice to podcasters
Speaker 1: is put out the same amount on the days like
Speaker 1: Ruthlesses Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday. Let people know do it. But
Speaker 1: that was McLachlan group fun and I haven't had that
Speaker 1: much fun in a long time, because, I mean, poor
Speaker 1: Michael's got the do you know, the Catholic disability? You
Speaker 1: can't call someone an anti semi you cannot do it.
Speaker 1: So I don't know if Ben knew that, but he
Speaker 1: couldn't say what Ben wanted him to say, but he
Speaker 1: didn't pull the Catholic cards. So much respect to everyone involved.
Speaker 1: Now to the issue straight up explanation. How do you
Speaker 1: describe the first three weeks of the war.
Speaker 6: I would describe them as both phenomenally military and militarily impressive,
Speaker 6: but also I would say that in terms of the
Speaker 6: communication with the American people, I think it needs to
Speaker 6: improve and improve significantly. You can't just have the President
Speaker 6: out there saying trust us, things are going to be okay,
Speaker 6: or JD out there saying this is only temporary. That's
Speaker 6: not enough. I think they need to be specific, more
Speaker 6: specific about you know, this is what's going to happen.
Speaker 6: And I think that that you know is a good
Speaker 6: example of that. Actually is just what played out in
Speaker 6: the last you know, forty eight seventy two hours, where
Speaker 6: you know, the President says, well, I think the Europeans
Speaker 6: are going to come around and then you start to
Speaker 6: actually see the Europeans at least, you know, reluctantly having
Speaker 6: their arms twisted in the direction of coming around. And
Speaker 6: I think that that's important. You know, they are hit
Speaker 6: more by the straight being closed than we are. That
Speaker 6: it's an indirect hit for us, it's a direct hit
Speaker 6: for them, and I think that explaining that the American
Speaker 6: people would be would be very helpful. But I also
Speaker 6: think that there are limits again to what you can
Speaker 6: do with that. And the President really, you know, as
Speaker 6: he made note of this week, you know, he likes
Speaker 6: the idea of surprise, and so it's one of these
Speaker 6: things where I think the White House would be well
Speaker 6: served and have more people out there and have I
Speaker 6: think too much of the focus, to be quite honest,
Speaker 6: right now, is on heat. That that's they're kind of
Speaker 6: using him as their main messenger to the people, and
Speaker 6: the press is glomb on to that. So it's Starday
Speaker 6: Night Live, and Teach should be one voice among many,
Speaker 6: you know, it should not just be you know, kind
Speaker 6: of him standing out there and making what I think
Speaker 6: are actually you know, e cogent and coherent arguments and
Speaker 6: by the way, taking some tough questions too, despite what
Speaker 6: you might hear from the media, I just think that
Speaker 6: you need more of it. I think you need more
Speaker 6: people who are out there who are talking about what
Speaker 6: we're doing and why. And I think the administration would
Speaker 6: be well served if they took that under advisor.
Speaker 1: How do you grade the American media legacy division on
Speaker 1: a patriotism scale?
Speaker 6: I mean, if there's something worse than fail, you is
Speaker 6: it possible? Is it possible that they could flunk out
Speaker 6: of school entirely on this test? I mean, this is
Speaker 6: here's here's the well and you know this, here's the
Speaker 6: great and ridiculous nature of what they're doing here. Many
Speaker 6: of these people are the same exact people who warned
Speaker 6: that the that the Iranian regime was such a great
Speaker 6: threat to the American people and to the future of
Speaker 6: the world, that we had to do what Barack Obama
Speaker 6: wanted to do when it came to those palates of
Speaker 6: cash and everything else associated with that terrible deal. That
Speaker 6: was the justification at the time. And then they were
Speaker 6: the same people who when protesters were getting slaughtered in
Speaker 6: the streets and Iran were basically calling out Trump and saying, well,
Speaker 6: he's not actually going to do anything to help them,
Speaker 6: because that would be difficult and dangerous and you know,
Speaker 6: could blow back, and he's not you know, he's not
Speaker 6: courageous enough to actually live up to sending help or
Speaker 6: something along those lines. They have completely gone in the
Speaker 6: opposite direction, and they're going back with equency to the
Speaker 6: same people who arranged for that stupid deal in the
Speaker 6: first place, which of course bolstered the regime, gave them
Speaker 6: the kind of cast that they could play around with,
Speaker 6: allowed them to project power more around the region, and
Speaker 6: put us in this position in the first place, that
Speaker 6: we had to rely on the Israelis to scale them
Speaker 6: back over the last year to such a degree that
Speaker 6: we could have the opportunity to do this. There is
Speaker 6: absolutely no willingness to look in the mirror on this.
Speaker 6: And you know, I mean just on a patriotism scale.
Speaker 6: Let's set that aside for a second. How about a
Speaker 6: faith scale. I don't know about you, Hugh, but when
Speaker 6: I you know, typically you know, any church that is
Speaker 6: you know, whether you're when you're listening to a prayer
Speaker 6: that invokes Saint Michael to protect our troops overseas, whether
Speaker 6: you're listening to something from the book of common prayer
Speaker 6: that calls for the protection of our leaders and our troops.
Speaker 6: This is something that is as normal of a Christian
Speaker 6: activity as you possibly can have. At the Daily Wire
Speaker 6: right now we have a piece from Daniella Greenbaum saying
Speaker 6: that as a Jew, she could not possibly be offended
Speaker 6: by what Pete Heex has said about praying for our troops.
Speaker 6: And the fact that Margaret Brennan, someone who has one
Speaker 6: of these legacy media positions that should be reconsidered at
Speaker 6: the top of face the nation, would call that into
Speaker 6: question is absurd. It is absolutely to a Christian nationalist statement.
Speaker 6: Come on, I mean, that's I've.
Speaker 1: Given Barry a lot of time, this one.
Speaker 6: That you got it.
Speaker 1: Come on, it's got to be over it.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now, let me ask you about the other side. When
Speaker 1: we went to war with Imperial Japan and not long
Speaker 1: thereafter Nazi Germany, American media worked hard at letting us
Speaker 1: know how evil they were. Have you seen any single
Speaker 1: episode of Network News explain the Iranian regime over forty
Speaker 1: seven years and how depraved, malignant, and medieval it is.
Speaker 1: It may be the worst regime on earth because it
Speaker 1: doesn't even work to provide minimum levels of food to
Speaker 1: its people.
Speaker 6: You know. The stounding nature of this, by the way, Hugh,
Speaker 6: is that that is regardless of your position ideologically, whether
Speaker 6: you think this is a good war to fight, a
Speaker 6: good war to have, you know, whether you support the
Speaker 6: president or oppose him, that's an important story. That's an
Speaker 6: important story in the world to tell. And the fact
Speaker 6: that they're looking in the opposite direction. I mean, look
Speaker 6: at the blit that this latest round of slaughter has
Speaker 6: had in terms of the public executions of people who
Speaker 6: participated in this. You would think that it was something
Speaker 6: that exists, and I mean, I haven't seen the data
Speaker 6: on it, so I don't want to speak to it.
Speaker 6: But it seems to exist entirely in the conservative or
Speaker 6: right of center ecosphere that something like that happened, And
Speaker 6: to me, it is incumbent upon these institutions to tell
Speaker 6: that story. And basically, you know, if you do tell
Speaker 6: that story, the idea that that is going to in
Speaker 6: some way care to the current administration again is just
Speaker 6: a complete denial of their responsibility as media entities. You
Speaker 6: have to tell that story, regardless of your position on
Speaker 6: the current war, and have.
Speaker 1: They prepared it. I think the enemy is not to
Speaker 1: be underestimated because of the mosaic approach. They've broken into
Speaker 1: thirty one military districts, thirty one commanders in chief. They
Speaker 1: all have missiles. It could be like the proverbial Japanese
Speaker 1: imperial soldier on an island somewhere, not knowing that they'd lost.
Speaker 1: This could go on a long time.
Speaker 6: Ben, Yeah, and I think that we are seeing right
Speaker 6: now a good ground being laid for something that can
Speaker 6: happen only internally. And then look the president is going
Speaker 6: to do. He's going to take some steps I think
Speaker 6: here that more of his supporters may question, including the
Speaker 6: deployment of marines, including what he could be doing I
Speaker 6: think and already being sort of telegraphed. But one thing
Speaker 6: to keep in mind too is that you know, this
Speaker 6: is a military that has been preparing for this for
Speaker 6: a very long time. We have done the kind of
Speaker 6: war gaming on this, the kind of tests before that
Speaker 6: led us to this point, and we've seen the results
Speaker 6: that they've been able to achieve, and frankly, the targeting
Speaker 6: that the Israelis has been able to achieve with you know,
Speaker 6: our assistance in some ways, but really on their own
Speaker 6: as well.
Speaker 1: Ben. You let us know that you were a nerd
Speaker 1: when you were a little kid, and you watch the
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one invasion, you know, taking notes, and so
Speaker 1: you watch twenty and twenty one, I mean two thousand
Speaker 1: and one, two thousand and three very close like this
Speaker 1: makes those look like tinker toys. This is remarkable.
Speaker 6: It is remarkable. And I mean the speed at which
Speaker 6: I mean I had, I had notebooks filled of you know,
Speaker 6: this is what the news is saying today, and it
Speaker 6: would you know. And by the way, when I say
Speaker 6: the news, i'm talking about MTR and CBS and ABC
Speaker 6: and ABC, I'm talking about Peter Jennings. I'm talking about
Speaker 6: you know, I was We were reliant on a news
Speaker 6: broadcast medium that was telling the story of the Wars
Speaker 6: as it happened, and not basically a bunch of people
Speaker 6: sitting around a table at CNN headquarters debating, you know,
Speaker 6: whatever the latest true social post is, which is what
Speaker 6: they do. And it's just it's just not media anymore,
Speaker 6: you know.
Speaker 1: No, it's Scott Jennings slapping down Josh Rogan, something of
Speaker 1: which has gone wrong with him. I'll be right back
Speaker 1: with Ben Dominic after the break. We're going to talk
Speaker 1: during the break about the political fissure in the Republican Party.
Speaker 1: If there isn't one, it's in the Big Ben podcast
Speaker 1: this week. You want to go and listen, like and
Speaker 1: subscribe to the Big Ben Podcasts. Conversation with Jamie Kirchik
Speaker 1: is amazing, and then we'll be back on the other
Speaker 1: side of talk a little basic politics. Stay tuned.
Speaker 7: The qu Huge Shoe coming to you from the Relief
Speaker 7: Actor studio is brought to you by Reliefactor dot Com.
Speaker 1: I'm back with Ben Dominic's brand new Big and Dominich
Speaker 1: Podcasts is available wherever. Podcasts are one of his guests
Speaker 1: with Jamie Kirchik, who's one of my favorite reporters. His
Speaker 1: book on Secret Washington. Am I remembering the name correctly?
Speaker 1: Bend about being gay in Washington up until.
Speaker 6: The Secret History of Gay Washington.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a fabulous bit of reporting. Who knew and
Speaker 1: he's a great smart guy. You two got in to
Speaker 1: the Republican Party. And whether or not Marco Rubio has
Speaker 1: to be thinking about challenging jdvans Now. I tend to
Speaker 1: think people overstate JD's quote restrainer credentials. I think he's
Speaker 1: a marine or anither grunt. But what do you explain
Speaker 1: to people what you and Jamie were talking about, because
Speaker 1: it's fascinating.
Speaker 6: Well, I think that, you know, the thing that is
Speaker 6: really weighing on people right now is that a lot
Speaker 6: of this I view everything that's going on right now
Speaker 6: as a proxy war over JD And I mean everything
Speaker 6: is perhaps in the exaggeration, but it's not too far.
Speaker 6: You know, the fight that the Wall Street Journal is
Speaker 6: having with Chelsea Yabbert blaming her as a you know,
Speaker 6: a their reference, I think was to a resistance wing
Speaker 6: inside the Trump administration. I don't think that's true at all.
Speaker 6: By the way, the fight that's happening over Joe Kent,
Speaker 6: the fight that Tucker Carlson is having, this is all
Speaker 6: kind of as a proxy over the fact. And Ben
Speaker 6: Shapiro has pointed this out. None of these people are
Speaker 6: willing to name Trump. They're not willing to go out
Speaker 6: there and say, you know, Trump is wrong, Trump is
Speaker 6: you know. Instead, it's he's had his mind melted by
Speaker 6: you know, nefarious Jews have you you know, who have
Speaker 6: convinced maybe as.
Speaker 1: A magician, right, it's silly.
Speaker 6: Things, you know. Well, I mean, we all know as Jamie.
Speaker 6: Jamie said it more eloquently than I, but it was.
Speaker 6: You know, we all know that that Donald Trump is
Speaker 6: known as being this personality, the easily moved by all
Speaker 6: the people around him.
Speaker 3: You met.
Speaker 1: The power suggestion works on him very easily.
Speaker 6: The truth, of course, is that this is all about
Speaker 6: what comes next. And I actually I incur with your
Speaker 6: analysis as JD. I don't think he actually is as
Speaker 6: much of a restrainer as people have said, but I
Speaker 6: think that the restrainers have glommed on to him, and
Speaker 6: by the way, it goes further than restraint, because you know,
Speaker 6: the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan are ones about America's humility,
Speaker 6: I think in terms of what we can achieve, but
Speaker 6: they are not the lessons I believe, certainly about humility
Speaker 6: about the need for America to achieve certain things in
Speaker 6: the world, and those I think are two separate paths.
Speaker 6: And if you believe that, you know, in the absence
Speaker 6: of American might, things would be worse in the world,
Speaker 6: and that in the absence of American investment in the military,
Speaker 6: et cetera, that our European allies would be totally incapable
Speaker 6: of keeping up the slack of Britain with their two
Speaker 6: floating ships effectively. You know, it's absolutely ridiculous to make
Speaker 6: those arguments. This is a proxy war that's playing out
Speaker 6: in front of us on a daily basis. They just
Speaker 6: won't actually name the people that they're being proxy for.
Speaker 6: It's because everybody's waiting to see what's going to happen
Speaker 6: with Markoo, with JD if there is going to be
Speaker 6: some kind of contest there. And I think the further
Speaker 6: things go along, you know, this seems to me more
Speaker 6: and more likely that there is going to be a
Speaker 6: very real.
Speaker 1: I think there isn't kp R I on Mike Pompeo,
Speaker 1: maybe even Tom Cotton. I'll be right back with Ben Dominic,
Speaker 1: don't go anywhere America and Glenn Youngkin the UHU Show continued.
Speaker 6: For the love of America. They speaking of foreign land
Speaker 6: with weapons in every hand. Whatever they try, We've got
Speaker 6: a reply and language then they understand, for the.
Speaker 1: Love of them, Welcome back America arms for the love
Speaker 1: of America. Irving Berlin, nineteen forty one. Ben Dominic, have
Speaker 1: you ever heard this before?
Speaker 6: I have, Actually my grandfather had a record of early
Speaker 6: perfect for land, but it's a long long time since
Speaker 6: I've heard that.
Speaker 1: I used to play it all the time during the
Speaker 1: Long Wars, beginning in two thousand and one, when Lilacs
Speaker 1: brought it to my attention, and he reminded me of
Speaker 1: it this week, and I bring it up in the
Speaker 1: context of the Pentagon asked for two hundred billion dollars
Speaker 1: for the war. It is my view that the Republicans
Speaker 1: ought to put their arms around that double it, put
Speaker 1: it on a reconciliation and make the Democrats vote against
Speaker 1: funding the military tomorrow. I mean, I would say, and
Speaker 1: we want Golden Dome, and we want Golden Fleet, and
Speaker 1: we want three more of everything that the Pentagon asked for,
Speaker 1: so we can give them the Ukraine or whoever else.
Speaker 1: Just put their arms around it. What do you think, Well.
Speaker 6: I agree with that you And one of the reasons
Speaker 6: that I agree with it is that you know I
Speaker 6: have said before, and I said it actually last night
Speaker 6: on such a report, that we misunderstand the state of
Speaker 6: the American military, in part because they're so good at
Speaker 6: what they do, but when it comes to the resources
Speaker 6: that they actually have, we are climbing out of essentially
Speaker 6: two decades of resource deployment that has never really been
Speaker 6: back the way that it ought to be, and new
Speaker 6: technology that has not necessarily come to fruition as quickly
Speaker 6: as we would like it to be. We still struggle
Speaker 6: to build basic things, you know, the conversation around you know,
Speaker 6: building shifts in particular. These are just skill sets that
Speaker 6: we don't have to the same degree within the population
Speaker 6: that can do those things as we need them right now.
Speaker 6: You know, we needed all we need all the people
Speaker 6: who are currently in these various engineering schools across the country,
Speaker 6: who are eighteen nineteen and the like. We need them
Speaker 6: now and we don't have them yet, And so we
Speaker 6: have to do things, I think, to step that up
Speaker 6: and understand that even if we have incredible might, you know,
Speaker 6: we look at how strange we've been just with the
Speaker 6: actions that Donald Trump has taken thus far. And that's
Speaker 6: not to say that you know, we are in any way,
Speaker 6: you know, a weaker military for it. It's more just
Speaker 6: that we need more things, and we need them faster.
Speaker 6: Fixing that resource situation is something that I hope this
Speaker 6: administration can take major steps toward. And I think this
Speaker 6: is an opportunity to do that.
Speaker 1: And I hope the Republicans realize one way to hold
Speaker 1: off a disaster in the fall is to be the
Speaker 1: Patriotism Party, because it's right. Ben, I want to ask
Speaker 1: you one more thing. By the way, sixteen minutes has
Speaker 1: posted an announcement they're doing a segment during March Madness
Speaker 1: about shipbuilding in the United States. So I call all
Speaker 1: your attention to that, Ben, in terms of what the
Speaker 1: fundamental message on the war should be, if you had
Speaker 1: ten minutes with Donald Trump, what would you tell him
Speaker 1: to tell the American people about this war? Because I
Speaker 1: think it's how good the world will be when Iran
Speaker 1: is gone. But I've already given the audience my two
Speaker 1: cents what has been Dominic's think.
Speaker 6: I think that you add to that because I think
Speaker 6: that's what you should lead with. I think what you
Speaker 6: add to that is if we don't take the opportunity
Speaker 6: to kick these people, these evil, horrible people, when they
Speaker 6: are at their weakest, they will only get stronger, they
Speaker 6: will only get more desperate, and they will only get crazier.
Speaker 6: We have a unique opportunity at this moment, having chopped
Speaker 6: off so much of their leadership, the head of the
Speaker 6: snake to lean into this and make sure that this
Speaker 6: is not a problem that future generations have to deal with.
Speaker 6: And as Donald Trump, I think he can say, you know,
Speaker 6: and regardless of your thoughts on his past meanderings on
Speaker 6: foreign wars, he can say, look, I am in this
Speaker 6: war because I hate wars, and the future war that
Speaker 6: would have to be fought in order that would be
Speaker 6: caused by a nuclear power Iran, by an Iran that
Speaker 6: can project power again, would be so bloody and so
Speaker 6: terrible that it would cost the lives of millions of
Speaker 6: people in our allies, including Americans, including our resources, including
Speaker 6: everything that we care about, and it would upend the world.
Speaker 6: I am working to prevent that by having a small
Speaker 6: war today that can take out something that would be
Speaker 6: of enormous evil and horrible intent in the future. And
Speaker 6: that's I think Americas could understand.
Speaker 1: I think that what last question. You've known Senator Lindsay
Speaker 1: Graham a long long time. He appears on this show
Speaker 1: every six years in an election year. Luck you, I've
Speaker 1: been on for twenty five years, so I get to
Speaker 1: talk to him fairly frequently every six years. But he
Speaker 1: was angry this week at NATO, and I've never heard
Speaker 1: him be mad at an alliance partner before, but he
Speaker 1: was pissed. What does that.
Speaker 6: Mean to me? It means that he feels, I think accurately,
Speaker 6: that the Europeans need to pick up the their freight
Speaker 6: when it comes to the Strait and there were a
Speaker 6: lot of I think he's gotten a lot of promises
Speaker 6: behind the scenes personally, because he's someone who likes to
Speaker 6: work behind the scenes. My vision of Lindsay and knowing
Speaker 6: him a little bit and being from South Carolina, is
Speaker 6: that he is simply a politically animal. This is a
Speaker 6: person who wakes up in the morning and goes to
Speaker 6: dead to night and only lives politics in between. And
Speaker 6: the thing that is going on there, I think is
Speaker 6: that he is back channeled. He has worked, he has
Speaker 6: tried to do different things with our allies around the
Speaker 6: world because he thinks it's important to hold that alliance together.
Speaker 6: But you know, and he's done that sometimes working. I
Speaker 6: believe at odds with what Donald Trump. You know, his
Speaker 6: attitude is just kind of let him go, you know whatever.
Speaker 6: I think that he is frustrated with them because they
Speaker 6: know and he knows that they need to be part
Speaker 6: of this. They have the mind sweepers to help out
Speaker 6: clear the straight They have the resources that we actually
Speaker 6: would like to be brought to beer, and they have
Speaker 6: a vested interest in this. And look, a lot of
Speaker 6: this is behind the scenes diplomatic stuff. The Europeans they're
Speaker 6: very touchy, they very they take things very personally over there.
Speaker 6: I wish they had a little bit more of an
Speaker 6: American attitude toward it, but you know.
Speaker 1: Then they were a humor. So last question, Big Ben
Speaker 1: pod is great, But I hope you get Senator Graham
Speaker 1: and say we need ninety minutes or two hours and
Speaker 1: we're just gonna go unplugged, and we're gonna go long,
Speaker 1: and we're just gonna go wherever it goes. Because I
Speaker 1: know you and you know me.
Speaker 6: I mean, I'll tell I'll tell, I'll tell you. I
Speaker 6: that is a conversation that has long, that could be
Speaker 6: that could deal with a lot of So I will
Speaker 6: take that under advisement because I.
Speaker 1: Am it could be a two parter. I would Jamie.
Speaker 6: Here's the thing, I know, if he asked, if I
Speaker 6: asked him, you would say yes. And so if if
Speaker 6: if that's to be had, if that is to be had,
Speaker 6: then you will hear it okay.
Speaker 1: Because I think the voters of South Carolina would love
Speaker 1: he gonna win anyway, But I would love it because
Speaker 1: I think he's a lot more complicated than people know.
Speaker 1: But his patriotism is so obvious and his love of
Speaker 1: freedom is so significant that if he was comfortable with
Speaker 1: the interviewer and didn't have his gloves up, it would
Speaker 1: be a fabulous interview. Great work on the Big Ben
Speaker 1: Podcast this week and the Daily Wire, Ben, thank you
Speaker 1: for joining me. As always, always a pleasure talking to you.
Speaker 1: Like and subscribe the Big Ben Podcast. Like and subscribe
Speaker 1: the Big Ben Podcast. I'm right back on you here