Well Whiskey coming day.
From Powerline blog dot com and produced by Ricochet dot Com. This is the Three Whiskey Happy Hour with your bartenders Steve Hayward, John You and power Lines International Woman of Mystery Lucretia.
Got a Given where You're being.
In love down?
Hello, Welcome everybody to the latest episode of the Three Whiskey Happy Hour. I'm your host for today, John You, and I'm joined as always by my two indefagotable Churchill loving hosts, Steve Hayward and Lucretia. Where are you, guys, Steve, you seem to be far away up into the tundry north.
Yeah, well, I'm at Hillsdale College for a couple of days for a really fun conference. We're a gathering of the Claremont Clan. Uh And I did I think listeners should know that you were what in New York yesterday to be on that Gonzo Fox show Outnumbered. So there were four women and you on the show.
And that's just me, that's just me going out for drinks at night. What are you talking about?
Okay, you know the four of them don't add up to one, Lucretia, that's my point.
That's for sure, that's for sure. And Lucretia, where are you? What are you doing?
I am home.
The childless cat lady is at home. I'm not childlessening, but.
You are a cat lady, so that I am a cat lady.
I have this little rescue here. She is has dominated the household.
Now she's taken over.
So cats are natural tyrants on for show.
Very much, so, you know.
And I have a ninety pound German Shepherd that this eight pound cat kickses, you know what.
So that's why I like her.
You got to have some even if you're a cat hater, you got to have some respect for that, right. And I understand a lot of people hate cats, but anyway, yeah.
I hate cats, right, dogs? Yes, But why don't we turn this has been every week it gets crazier and crazier. You know, it used to be in the old days you would worry about some kind of October surprise singular that would affect the election at the last minute. And seems we've got October surprise after October surprise after October surprise. So they're going to be it's going to be October surprises from now on. But why don't we start with the one that wasn't a surprise, which was the vice
presidential debate between Harris and Waltz. H. So why don't we start off.
I mean Vance and the Walls.
Yes, I'm sorry, yeah, I wish right, Well, they ought to have a debate too. Now I've given all the differences between yeah, that was a parent at the debate, Yes, sorry about that, between Vance and Waltz and Steve.
Let's start with you.
Do you agree with the chattering classes view a that Vance won, but that b it has no seems to have no effect on the election.
What do you think? Well, I have three thoughts. You know that's the standard political science, regression analysis wisdom is that debates don't affect outcomes. Of course, it affected it for Joe Biden. I mean a debate finished him, right, And you know I kind of think this year maybe it does have a small effect, and in particular because Vance defied expectations, including from some of the conservatives. Oh, come to that point. I have three thoughts. The first
is a star was born the other night. I actually think that it's comparable, maybe not the equivalent, but it's comparable to Reagan's famous speech for Goldwater in sixty four. I mean, Vance was so impressive and it dispelled all the cliches about him that the media and the Democrats threw at him. And by the way, that's point number two. I remember, and I guess I will name it because I had the receipts. I remember the our friends had commentary John Pott Hart's all the last after Vance was
named by Trump and this terrible appointment. He's awful, What a horrible choice this was, and any and you know, maybe he's not really weird, but he's you know, he's off putting to voters and and pot hearts want as far as to say, I think Trump is going to drop him from the ticket. He has to drop him from the ticket. It's like Eagleton in seventy two. He's a millstone around the ticket. Well, no one's saying that, now, are they right?
And at least no one by the way, sorry to rup Steve, but no one's actually congratul congratulating Lucretia not only for predicting JD. Vance, but for saying that was the perfect choice for Trump.
Was I ever right? Okay?
Just well, well, that's my third point was a variation of yours. Which is you know, now the Vance pick looks like a case of far sightedness on Trump's part, not just because he's more impressive than people expected or the media tried to say. By the way, remember here's the important thing. Probably seventy five percent of Americans had maybe barely heard of Vance or hadn't heard of him
at all until now. I mean, we follow these things, we know about the book, we may have seen the movie, but you know, a lot of Americans have never heard of him, people who don't follow politics, and now they've seen him, and they say, oh, gosh, you know this is this guy's actually really impressive, and he's clearly a figure for the future win or lose under Trump a month from now, and and so Trump picking him, you know,
Trump could have gone conventional. That's kind of what the Pens pick was in twenty sixteen, you know, ticket balancing, trying to peel to constituency. No. No, I been picking Vance. Trump said, this is my successor, or once someone who represents a worthy successor to the whole you know, wider populist movement that is now in the ascendants of the country. And that's what a rare I say, rare actors. That's not quite right either. But Trump is often impulsive, does
things for his personal reasons. But here's a case where you could say he committed an act of far sighted statesmanship in picking Vance.
I think is this is this a case. Here's some other things that the conservative commentators have been saying, which is that the Advance does Trump better than Trump. Maybe the way to put it is, as Steve said, Trump does seem to go from you know, crisis to crisis, decision decision, doesn't seem to make coherent sense, or maybe he doesn't have a coherent plan in mind. But Vance actually tries to put it all together into some kind of coherent ideology, and that's why he's doing so well.
So it's just as if it's as if Trump had all the education of a Yale Law school graduate, you know.
Trump educated.
Trump is as educated in simple terms as Vance is. I'm just gonna he's of course, obviously not as articulate all of those other things. I'm gonna you know, I'm gonna say something a little bit shocking to you, guys. I know that surprises you, but I'm feeling that way today. So I remember the talk about kemal Am Ding Dong being chosen as insurance for Biden.
Okay, whatever this that.
So if you so, I'm gonna say it like this, These last two assassination attempts against Trump.
Were probably.
Nutjobs who were in one way or another, groomed by some nefarious something in the background. I won't allege it was a CIA. I won't allege it was Obama. I'll just say somebody, because it's otherwise way way too coincidental. All right, So, thinking about any of those movies where somebody hires a contract killer or an assassin and they then they change their mind and they can't stop them.
What if there's more contract killers out there? You know, I'm not saying contract killers, but what if there's more people out there that have actually seriously been brainwashed or whatever word you want to use, into thinking that Trump is a threat to democracy? Et cetera, et cetera. Existential vance is now the most incredible insurance against Trump another Trump assassination, because you know, if something God forbid were to happen to Trump, JD. Vance is the nominee or.
Six months from now president that Trump wins, or.
Six months from now president at any point when that happens, and what we saw I think what I always believed, but what we saw in the debate Tuesday night was that exactly what John just said vans out Trump's Trump and does it with class, with style, with a likability and doesn't.
Have the baggage. And so you know, I see this as.
The future of whatever party it is that they actually represent, not the John Pedoritz or the Mitt Romney or any of those other slimy rhino people, but some party. It may not be the Republican Party. There may be enough of a backlash to Trump winning that those Bill Crystal types actually formed their I don't know, but anyway, this is the future of the party that will successfully challenge the Democrats. And you probably could not pick a better standard bearer than Jade Bans.
I was just impressed as hell.
I do want to talk really quickly about his abortion answer, because that's caused also a lot of trouble with some on the right. I think his answer to the abortion question, where's what he said was the Republican Party has not gained the trust of the American people. I believe what he was really saying is that this is not simply a matter of legislation.
This is a matter, as.
We've talked about before many times, of winning the hearts and minds of the people. I mean people, you know, the usual suspects, the radical pro life which I consider myself one. We're up in arms, he's he's coowtowing to the left, he's equivocating on pro life positions.
Wasn't that at all? It was an.
Absolute recognition by a very savvy politician that if the Republican Party and the pro life movement want to win on this issue, they have to change heart and hearts and minds before they force legislation down people's throats. And I thought that was brilliant that what was what I thought was his best moment, which of course lots of people thought was his worst.
So there you have it.
And you didn't even ask me about what I think about Waltz.
I'm not sure that anything really needs.
One question before maybe for the creation of this time about the bait, I think many observers said that the worst answer that Vance gave was his response to the question about twenty twenty did your answers asked, did you think that Donald Trump won the election or that Joe Biden won the election, and he said, I want to talk about the liberal censorship on the social media, and I think, well, I think correctly said that's a non answer. What do you think is that a little bit highlight
and the low lights? I mean, this is what is the highlight in the low light for Vance? A lot of people are saying that was the low light for Vance, and then answer low light for Walt.
Again, that answer wasn't intended for us. It certainly not for Steve and me. Might have been a little bit for you, John, because you're one of those peopleho still doesn't understand what happened on twenty twenty. But what I took away from it wasn't what you just said. What I took away from it was what are you talking about insurrection? What do you talk talking about? Threat to democracy?
On I think he could have pressed back a little bit harder about the crap about police officers being killed and if you'll recall, it was only Trump supporters who were killed on that day, but okay, including Ashley Maddison, Ashley Ashley Babbitt, babbit, thank you Ashley Madison.
So that's your only fan page?
I know.
Sorry, Steve's getting frisky early on a Saturday. My god, I worried for Charles later today.
And you might remind Charles of this, because I was never so disappointed as in Charles's his answer on your podcast One Time about January twenty, January sixth, on January twenty, what happened on January twenty. Uh, Trump handed over power peacefully. That is not an insurrection, folks. I mean, that's what jd Vance said. And if I'm a stupid Democrat or independent low information voter who's been believing that the Democrats rhetoric on this whole thing, and I'm reminded, wait a minute,
what are you talking about. What Trump did was no different than what Hillary Clinton did in twenty sixteen and so on, and he peacefully handed over power.
Yeah see, I thought, maybe we've made his last word on this, John and move on to other stuff. But I thought, look, it's a no win question for Dvance. But I did think he could have been stronger. And I think the tack I would have taken is, look, Americans, Auto, whatever Americans think about this, they should look at the
asymmetry of the punishment that's been meted out. You know, people have been there that given long jail sentences for trespassing, whereas in your case, Governor Waltz, you stood by and watched as your city burned, and then when people got arrested, Kamala Harris bailed them out. That would have been the boom answer to put Waltz on the defensive. It's not perfect, but that would have been what I would have tried to do.
I think that's what I wanted to can I just can have the second to the last last word, and that is that. That's what I wanted him to say too. However, that's been being said by people for a very long time. And what came away for most people, again, the low information voter that I wish I couldn't care, that I didn't have to care about, is what a nice guy he is. Even the regime media, whatever you want to call it, came away and said, what a friendly debate.
And in the midst of, you know, the the bemoaning of our divided country, our acrimony is divided country.
There you have JD.
Vance showing a little bit different from Trump.
I'm gonna I'm gonna push back.
I loved how he pushed back on the silly stuff about Haiti or Haitian immigrants. But but I'm gonna be so friendly when I do it.
People are gonna love me.
That's that's what I took away from the final thing of that answer. I of course wanted to exactly what you said. I'm not sure that's what the low information voter needed to hear.
That could be right. I mean, I remember Lou Cannon, the famous reporter who followed Reagan from the very beginning, saying Reagan is so nice. I don't see anybody wants to run against this guy. This is in the sixties, and Reagan first emerges, right, and then he sort of got it. My favorite. If you want a barometer of how bad the left freaked out about how good uh Jade Vance was, there's one story I don't know his newsweaker. One of the media sites said jd Vance is the
first candidate in eighty years to have facial hair. But you know a lot of women find his beard threatening. Oh that's that's they're gonna go to fat. It was hysterically right.
Yeah, So we're at the end of our segment. My my two observations is the elitist in me thinks this is a debate between a Yelle law school trained lawyer and a high school football coach, What did you think was gonna happen? Two? And this is I think this is where Waltz and Harris are a little bit of
the same. They're both liberals who haven't never had to run a tough election before, and so they're useful with getting away, saying goofy things, non sharp answers, and just getting elected because they're in very blue states, and when they're confronted with a real challenge, they don't know how to react, where as if you're a concerned you're getting being on all the time, you know how to debate
because that's how you survive. Yes, we will, of course ask that Trump if he prepares for a second debate. Obviously he needs to get Lucretia next time as the debating partner to prepare him. That would lead to overwhelming victory. Okay, let's take a break here for our commercial sponsors, and we'll be right back in a second. Coming back now. October Surprise number two, Hurricane Helene devastates large parts of Georgia,
South Carolina, North Carolina. We might remember that in the middle of the twenty twelve election with days to go, super Hurricane Sandy hit the East coast. People say that it stopped Mitt Romney's momentum in the pulse had been closing the gap. Some poles had him just within one or two points. President Obama was seen to have launched an energetic response. I think we all remember the pictures of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie right, greeting Obama warmly.
Although when I saw a video of it, Yeah, when I just saw a video of it, you know, Chris Christy was a much bigger man than Obama is a skinny little guy. I looked like a bear about to eat poor baby Seal. I thought, what do you guys think, Lucretians start with you, what do you think about the storm? The response? I mean, this is over a week later, and there are still people who haven't been found yet,
there's still supplies that aren't getting into the disasters. Trump has made the claim that the Biden administration is slow in its response because it appears I've seen the figures that looks like most of these counties where the hurricanes hit are mostly Republican counties. This may actually change for President Trump's view on mail in voting, because I don't see how you're going to be able to hold votes there. You're going to have to do something unusual. But what
do you think I appreciate it. Is this going to affect the election? What do you think is going to happen? What do you think about the response?
Well, let me just say first about the whole idea of changing your view.
On mail in voting.
Those of us who are adamantly opposed to mail in voting think that something like this should be a should be an exception to the rule that I mean, these people have a perfectly legitimate reason why they may not be able to get to the polls. I'm not sure that mail in voting is going to help them much right now, either, to be honest with you, because the mails are not going through. But anyway, mail in voting should not be for someone too lazy to show up on election day.
That's my opinion.
And if you don't make the time to do it under most circumstances, if you have no legitimate reason, you obviously don't care enough to vote, you shouldn't be voting. Okay, that's my I I was walking across campus the other day and this little sorry, I don't know how to say it, this little twitch, she's probably all of nineteen.
Years old, stops me. Are you registered to vote?
Oh god?
And I was already in a bad mood, and I just looked at her and I said, of course, I'm registered to vote, you twit, And I just kept walking. I couldn't help myself, because you know what I hate more than anything, are these people out registering idiots to vote?
The vote? Right all that?
Yeah?
Right, right? Okay, yeah, rock the vote. That's right, although this generation it would be wine the vote, but go ahead, yeah.
Wind the vote. Pardon me? So this is actually serious business.
I read a lot this morning, and all of it came with the caveat. But Elon Musk says that his people who are trying to set up Starlink, who are bringing in helicopters worth full of supplies, are being prevented from doing so by FEMA. Yeah, FEMA's denying it, but they're not. For instance, if I was FEMA and somebody was saying this about me, and I was actually, excuse me, assisting in the recovery, the volunteer recovery efforts, which my understanding is are being turned away all the time. I
would provide evidence of that. I would say, no, that's not true. Look here's what we're doing here, and I would give pictures and so on. But instead they're just denying it. But the problem is that we have that that idiot MAJORCA say, yeah, sorry, we spend all the money on immigrants. Can't help you. We don't have enough money to make it to hurricane season. Dumb at Sorry, sorry, Kim lamading Dong. I'm getting exercised about this.
Kim La ma ding Dong never offered seven hundred and fifty dollars initially.
First of all, I don't even know what seven hundred fifty dollars is going to do if you can't even get to a store to buy supplies. I mean, I heard Eric Trump say seven hundred and fifty dollars won't even rememb replace your big screen TV in most cases, you know. I mean, it's just the whole thing is just creepy. It stinks to high heaven.
I can't.
I refuse to believe that Elon Musk and others on the ground are so corrupt that they're actually accusing FEMA and the federal government of stopping the relief efforts without any evidence for doing so. The left might do that, but that's not the way the right operates. I mean, let's be serious here. They don't lie about things like that. Now, maybe it's not as widespread as it's being made out to, but why on earth would do they not understand that
in a country where media is instant. Okay, maybe they don't want those counties that are Republican to vote, but do they really think that that the news of them stopping needed supplies from getting where they need to go isn't going to get out?
Are they just that dumb?
So no, I think it's uh, I don't know, it's worse than you. That's a rare occasion when I think, well, maybe not that things are worse than Lucretius says, first of all, let's just let's just plant the point about
the double standard at work here. If we had a Republican president and you had this catastrophe and in an area mostly with a black or minority population like we have in New Orleans with Katrina and Fama took FU five days to get there, and then twiddle their thumbs, we hear all about how the president hates black people, right, and instead their commaty is giving Biden Harris a free pass. To me, there's one it's hard to know what's going on because the news reporting is so bad and the
government lies to us. But there's one thing that jumps out, and that was actually a little TikTok video from Pete Boodoo judge announcing a ban on any drone private drone flights in the whole affected area. So paus for a moment. You know, it's now a regular practice of the Forest Service and local police that if someone's missing in a forest or if there's a forest fire breaks out, they fly drones because you can spot people who were lost.
That's how they find some lost hikers and so forth right. And so the claim is, well, it's unsaved because you know, we're going to have our helicopters and stuff, and I think that's an exceedingly remote problem. But beyond that, here's where I, you know, I start to put on a barrow of Lucreasu's tinfoil. Hat. I wonder if they don't want these drones flying around because there's going to be
too much information. You're going to see devastating footage of people abandoned on the rooftops out and because there's still apparently hundreds of people missing, and it's been a week now, and you know, this is getting really desperate, and you would seen to me that the sensible thing to do would be to say, please fly your drones, tell us what you find. It will help us identify people who need rescue, and we can That's not what they're doing.
They're you know, they're doing the usual bureaucratic we're in charge, and nobody can do anything until we give you permission, which is going to be slow, right, and I can go on from there. That's my I'll stop there.
Yeah, I'm gonna be careful.
Good.
No, you're right. It's just I knew about that too.
I just, you know, trying to keep it a little shorter. I've been contacted by military folks who at the bases Liberty and so forth that are close to very close to the worst sights of the damage. They want to go, yeah, they want to go help, and the big brass are preventing them from doing so. The National Guard, which is not under the it has hasn't been federalized, so it's
not under the corrupt Central Pentagon brass Is. I mean from practically every state has been sending National Guard to help, but even they are being hindered by FEMA.
I understand.
This morning, North Carolina put out the governor there put out the word that any federal agent that tries to interfere with a relief effort will be arrested. That if that's all true, that's going to make for some interesting kinds. We have to bring John back and he'll have to tell us why it is that that's a violation of.
That's a Democrat. That's a Democrat governor by the way, in North Carolina right now.
So interesting, Well, again, what about.
The it doesn't want? But John's not going to take your bait with Christianity, shouldn't.
Thankfully I'm the host today and can't get involved your internet scene battles and your conspiracy theories today. So well, what do you think the effect this will have on the election? So you've both said that you think the response has been maybe partisan, but certainly lacking and.
Contradictory.
You know, this could have been this could have century, This could have been Christeve loves this kind of stuff, crowdsourcing and private ordering, right, you could have seen maybe a kind of crowdsourced relief effort because of the failures of this top down, centralized FEMA system that doesn't seems to work less and less well. But let me ask you the second question, what effect do you think this
is going to have on the election? Is this going to be like Hurricane Katrina in two thousand and five, which was right after President Bush's realed But many people say that was the beginning of his political collapse. Was the impression of the failed response in New Orleans. However, Obama's response to Superstorm Standy seemed to help his campaign may be locked in his win prevented Mitt Romney from
making a comeback. What do you think this storm and the response is going to have in its effects on the election?
Well, yeah, all right, there's a little revision of history should be done, which is the story in Katrina was massive incompetence on the part of the local government in New Orleans, which refused to request National Guard help from either the president or the governor that they could have did. Okay, I'll cut that story short, because that's true. We're got blamed and because the media spun it that way, and you know.
The reverse an interesting standing. Yeah, there's an interesting constitutional issue there because the law is written. These are the Emergency the Stafford Act, and these are things I actually read about and work on. But it's an interesting political problem because a governor has to invite the federal government to come in, unless it's in a federal If the governor refuses, then there's other triggers to allow the president
to do it. But a lot of governors initially don't want to do it because if you do, you look like you failed.
Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, So there's that and and and you know, Sandy was a triumph of image, right, you know, the media loved Obama. That was a much more minor you know, the media looked at the places that the isolated places that did get hit very hard in New Jersey, but and some flooding in Manhattan and stuff. But that was a pretty mild episode. In fact, it was actually, to be precise, Sandy was a tropical storm at the time it made landfall. It wasn't even a
Category one hurricane at that point. It still does damage, but nothing like what we're seeing now. And so the question is the big story here, I think once again is the utter incompetence of the federal government, and the media is going to cover that up. And so the one question I have as well, I think American people kind of know this about FEMA and the federal government as a whole, but can you get the message out?
You know, I don't know if Trump should how much Trump should try to exploit it, because there are bigger things than that issue. But it's not going to hurt him. It's going to, you know, if anything will help him a little bit.
I think I saw a tweet I think it was Sean Davis from the Federalists the other day, and it was something on the order of our FEMA, our federal government, FEMA can't respond to an emergency, our DOJ can't prosecute criminals.
It was a.
Whole list of failures by major federal agencies and he said they exist just to take our money.
Oh, I'm sorry, go.
Ahead, Steve, I'll come back to my point quick, well.
Quick FEMA story. I mean, you had I think it was two winters ago. You may remember this, John. We had, you know, very heavy rains, a lot of flooding out in the Sleekness Valley and yeah, uh, you know, one little town Santa Ardo almost got washed away, So okay, I don't know. Like two months later, I'm walking down the main street in Templeton and there's a big FEMA truck is rolled up and they commandeer the community hall and I walk in and there's always bureaucrats to their
laptops open. What's going on. Oh, we we're from FEMA and we're here to help people process their disaster claims. You have two months after it's sober and there was nobody in there. There was nobody going in filing a claim. So I thought, I'm gonna I'm gonna be amused by this, and I go and order a cup of coffee across the street, sat for an hour and my phone and nobody came. But you know, that's what FEMA does. They'll show up and write checks two months later.
It's okay, Yeah, I'm a little bit lucretia, real quick, I'm a little bit this time.
I'll go farther than Steve. I don't think this is entirely uh, incompetence as usual.
I am.
I'm much more suspicious about the motives of I do think incompetence plays a very large role in it. Just like incompetence play plays a large role in so the whole Secret Service of failures on Trump. But yeah, blame some of that on DEI, I get it. Blame some of it on the fact that that the federal government spends most of its time not doing what it's supposed to be doing in those agencies, but doing training and DEI stuff and then watching porn all day.
I get that.
But I think that there is there is in fact, a part is an angle to this. And I also think that again, this is Appalaysia, whether they're Trump voters or not, they don't They just don't give a dam in Washington about what happens in the middle of the country. That was clear in the the whole Ohio train incident, you know, I mean, they just don't care now if it had happened in Washington, DC or or something like that.
You know what, They're still traumatized by January sixth. But I do think that there's a part of an element to it, Steve. That's only exacerbated by the ranking competence that pertains now and is worse because of that kind of ideological bent to the federal government and to the federal bureaucracy. I mean, they don't hire the best and the brightest, and if they ever did those best and brightest, we'd get kicked out somehow. They're just a bunch of
slugs working for the federal government. Basically, Sorry, I hope we don't have too many of those people that are listening.
Audience.
Okay, that's Lucretia calling all federal employees slugs. Makes a nice time for our next commercial break and a word from our sponsors. Now coming back, where Lucretia is going to find more and vertebrates to insult. Oh, we're going to talking about a third October surprise, which is the mushrooming war in the Middle East. We now have the
war between Israel and Iran and its proxies. In fact, we're coming up on the one year bursary of the October seventh attack by Hamasen to Israel, and Israel launched a response and Gaza is rooting out Hamasa's whipek. In fact, that campaign seems to be coming closer to an end, and now Israel is turning towards the north, towards Hezbollah, and I don't think we've talked about it quite a
lot on the show. But it's an extensive campaign to attack the AMAS leadership, including attacking the famous campaign to destroy it, people holding certain beepers and walkie talkies and now but now more direct strikes. Uh, and Iran launched. I didn't realize this. Iran launched the largest missile attack by one country on another This week they launched almost two hundred ballistic missiles against Israel. What is going to happen next? And what should Israel do? What should the
United States be doing? One comment made by the Wall Street Journal an editorial page was an ally of ours gets attacked by the largest missile attack in the history of the world, and the President of the United States immediately starts defending the attacker, Iran, saying, don't don't fire back.
Take the win, be limited. You shouldn't escalation, Yeah, practice restrained. Well, a lot of people commented st yeah, And you know, the pusillanimous nature of the Biden foreign policy really requires no additional comment. There is one aspect of this, though, John,
that has has not been comment to the plant. Maybe it sounds a little technical, and you know, I don't know the ins and outs of missile defense, but what we hear is that we were very successful in intercepting you know, ninety percent or more of the missiles that are on shot. But it's also reported, and I don't know how accurate and meaningful, that they had some hypersonic
missiles that are hard for ours to intercept. And third, this goes back to the early days of SDI forty years ago, which is it's always thought that maybe you could overwhelm these systems with a massive barrage. So this is the second barrage of Iranian missiles, and you know they were successfully intercepted, but those interceptors are expensive. Are we procuring enough of them to replace all the ones that are being used up or are we short? I
don't know the answer to that. But my final question is I wonder if this is a dry run for Iran they want to figure out and they're gathering data, how many missiles do we need to shoot to overwhelm the system and how do we successfully get through a missile with the nuclear warhead on it. I think that's the game the Iranians are playing, because otherwise this is a reckless thing for them to do. But you know, when they're ready, and we keep hearing they could break
it out with a nuclear warhead pretty fast. Why wouldn't expect them to want to figure out a way to land it on Tel Aviv? And I hear no one talking about that possibility.
But Lucretia, Steve, this is a prelude to World War three, well, a nuclear exchange in the MIDI Lucretia, what do you think if Steve right? And what does that mean for American policy?
Well, I mean, I think the second part of your question is irrelevant, John, because American foreign policy is I don't think there is one, is there? I mean, honestly, the American foreign policy is very much to blame for the situation that we're in right now because the Biden administration has been so feckless. How could you have destroyed the gains that so quickly have destroyed the games that were made by Trump in the Middle East?
You couldn't. I couldn't write a script for a movie that.
Because it would be unbelievable that there could be so much stupidity involved there. And you know, one of the things I think is actually the best thing to come out of it is, at least for the time being, doesn't matter what Biden or any of those idiots in the Biden Harris White House have to say about it or the Pentagon right now?
Nah, who couldn't give a damn? I don't.
We don't need your support any longer. You know, I know they're getting support, but you know, we can send money. We are sending money, by the way, to Lebanon. We're sending relief money to Lebanon. I can't even go there. But my point is, I think Israel will continue to
do what Israel needs to do. I pray to God they have the resources to do it, however they need to get them, and I think that they will come out victorious and it will all be be without the active assistance of the United States government, which should be its closest ally in my opinion, And so I find the whole thing appalling. That's really I mean, Steve, Steve gave a much more intelligent, factual answer.
Mine's just an impression.
Steve is the son of an aerospace engineer, So what does he want to talk about? Does the missile defense work? He wants to know how much did the missiles cost?
Right? How many?
By the way, I know it's not Babylon b time, but this is so appropriate from the Babylon b I had told her frantically googles how to build iron dome thingy fast.
But Steve so these last two examples, this one if Lucretia is right, and about the fecklessness of the Bide administration. And then the last one we talked is we talked about the hurt came response again, feebleness, lack of energy, lack of right, all the qualities of the executive that are described in the Federal's papers by agus Lander Hamilton. Do you think this will have an effect on the election? You're seeing the October surprises actually seem to be hurting
the incumbent administration. Do you think that this is going to compound all the concerns that people already have about Kamala Harris that she won't engage with voters, won't do public events, won't sit down for interviews, has never really done anything. Nobody knows what she stands for. This is, strangely or all these things somehow snowballing into for Trump's advantage.
Oh, this is so much fun because it gives me an opportunity to annoy Lucretia in my usual way. You go back you go back to nineteen seventy when Reagan's running for reelection as governor and you hit all the campus riots, and somebody said, every campus riot gives Reagan another one hundred thousand votes. And I think the parallel here is an Actually lycretia is not in your head. Maybe I'm not so crazy, mister analogy man is. I think, what's you know, let's see what hell? What see that?
I know I's on my list the movie The Reagan.
Yeah, but we lived through watch movies.
Okay, Look, I mean next week, I mean, I you know, I have one post on this. You know, the left is going to want to march in the streets next week. They're going to tie up traffic in Manhattan. You know, we'll see how it all goes. Harris will avoid trying
to comment at all. But you know, if you really get a groundwar going in a big way in southern Lebanon, which looks like that's already started or may ramp up, I just think it's going to cause the crazy anti war, anti anti Israel left to take to the streets and make a big nuisance of themselves, and that all helps Trump. So that's that's what I think so.
Can I just really a little bit off topic, but can I point out that the US two polls in Michigan have come out in favor of Trump, and even though real clear polling has in the no toss up map has Michigan going for Harris. She's up zero point seven percent in Michigan. Do you think she can afford not to comment on if those things happen on Monday?
Well, she works.
This is the problem. Yeah, the problem is that she the reason I was reading a story just before that said support by Arab Americans for Harris is dropping because they are really upset about the Bide administration being too supportive of Israel, not too late.
That's my point.
Yeah, yeah, And I don't know what you do about that if you're in their position. And my question really quick for you guys, if you're one of those Arab Americans that are upset with Harris, you don't vote, right, you don't go vote for Trump.
You just don't just don't show up.
Okay, Yeah, yeah, Well, let's take a question on the Senate race.
Let's make our last commercial break, and when we come back, we'll talk about the only intentional October surprise that and see whether this one is working. So we'll be back after you hear from our commercial sponsors. And now we're back, and we've been talking about what used to be acts of God or force majeure right, war, hurricanes impacting the presidential election. All. You know, the Steve will really get through when I say this word exogenous events.
But now you're hitting my exogenous zones.
John, Oh, no, Lucretia, you long ago made this family show. So but this one here, we have one that's endogenous. So Steve's gotten excited. Now here's a case where we have an intentional October surprise from within the system. And this was Jack Smith's one hundred and seventy page follow up. It's not an indictment, and he's already indicted Trump, but it's an expansion on an explanation. Well, I think the
former leaders. It's a profit. It's what the prosecution says it's going to show at trial by Jack Smith the Independent Council against Donald Trump for his involvement in the January sixth attack on the Capitol. There's no way the trial could even remotely get started before the election. So the timing looks awfully suspicious. So Steve, first, is the timing suspicious? And then two, is this in a tober surprise?
It's going to work?
Because you could predictably perhaps the newspapers and new shows were filled with stories about what was in the new document from Jackson and saying that it's brought back to
the voter's minds. January sixth, and if you were just looking at this morning's Washington Post, sorry, Lucretia, they have a story saying that Kamala Harris's campaign is going to turn negative on Trump and going to use a lot of this material in the closing weeks because so far they've been running too positive a campaign and now they really are working. They got to get across the finish line and they're gonna turn negative.
Steve, God, the month slinging has begun. It's gonna be a rough camp. Look, so you said this is not an act of God, but Jack Smith thinks he's God, or at least a lesser detail of some kind. And you know, is this is this a gear to the election? You know, is the Pope Catholic to keep going with the stasistic thing. I haven't read the filing. I'm probably not going to I read some news accounts that play up the salacious allegations. A lot of this looks like
hears say to me and problematic at a trial. But that's not the important part. The thing to me that is, I'll put it this way, this is very brief and uh so, Lucretia and I have talked about you know, low information voters, you know, morons in other words, and people who are undecided. And I really am thinking, are there really a significant number of people out there say, gosh, you know, I'm undecided about Trump, but gosh, this Jack Smith filing, this latest one that turns it. That's that's
gonna help me make up my mind. I think at this point it's it's you know, we've been doing this for so long now that it's one more you know, pebble in the river, and I don't think it's going to have much effect.
Well, and we're still told minorities right that I shouldn't. I'm not calling them low information minorities. But what we're actually seeing our voters who are moving from is call it the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, moving from that might have voted for Clinton or Biden in the last two elections are now moving towards Trump. Even ruy
Ti Chera had an article about Hispanics. And for all the reasons why the percentage that the ratio between the two candidates is dropping in Trump's favor or it's changing in Trump's favor, I guess.
I should say I think.
That with some of those voters, we've seen evidence, at least Hispanic males African American males, this is just one more proof that that Trump's the man, or Trump's being persecuted by the man in the same way that they often feel they are. That's that's you know, I'm oversimplifying, but you get what I'm saying, right.
Well, no, I'm hearing a lot of anecdotes and social.
Media though, well Trumps to the criminal crowd.
No, No, it's well, it's well, there's there is an aspect of that. That's maybe we're talking about, but we're short of time. Look, I keep seeing anecdotes and it shows up on social media, and you know, it's not true that the plural anecdote is data. However, I think maybe it is. People say I don't like Trump, I can't stand him, and I'm voting for him because he you know, they like what he represents. They want to give the middle finger the establishment. They're sick of the Democrats.
And I think that's a I think there's a significant number, I mean statistically significant number of people that who probably think that way.
So so John, let me be serious and ask you a question.
Yeah, let me Yeah, I was gonna Can I just make one point of one or two points about the thing because I did read it, I just out of professional curiosity. Yeah and yeah, yeah, to one thing is a lot if this I don't think this case is really ever going to get to trial, but if it were, the star witness is going to be Lucretia's favorite guy,
Mike Pence. So to the extent, there was a lot of new information because what the what Jack Smith is trying to show is he basically didn't change the indictment at all in response to the Supreme Court. This guy is just a terrible prosecutor. But what he's trying to do is say President Trump committed fraud because he knew he had lost, and all his actions were just lying. So how does he try to prove that Trump really
knew he had lost. Extensive discussions between Pence and Trump, where Pence tries to convince Trump that he's lost and tried, and that's only really new information. I think that's of any note in the indictment. So pens is going to be the star witness at any trial. This will be amazing, right, Like this is better than the Aaron Burr trial. This is a vice president testifying at the criminal trial of
his president about things they spoke about. And I'm sure they're going to ask Pence, do you really think that Trump knew he lost the election? And was he committing fraud? That's the one really interesting thing I think factually from the indictment.
So I just wanted to ask you from the former DOJ employee point of view. I know that you've told me before that those kinds of guidelines about not doing things that would interfere with the election are just that guidelines. They're not laws regulations inside of the DOJ.
But what have we done now?
Because Jack Smith and Chuck Can I have a new name for her.
But I won't say it today.
I can guess.
They have destroyed so many norms, so many of the rule of law norms, so many of the things that kept the DOJ at least with some appearance of objectivity prior to this whole lawfair mess.
Are we done? I mean, is it over?
No?
I don't. Well, if Harris wins, it's done.
I don't mean that.
I mean, is the DOJ forever sullied and will never be able to return from being a law enforcement arm of the Democratic Party?
You do.
I don't think the whole department is, but I think Jack Smith is. I think this is a real indictment of having special counsels, although I'm not sure he's really acting at odds with what Merrick Garland and Joe Biden want.
Right.
Yeah, Garland in his speech, remember said I approve every decision.
So I think you know, you're seeing a lot of media reports handwringing about whether President Trump will use the Justice Department to take revenge on his enemies. But the real task is I think what you're talking about, Lucretia, for the next Attorney General, it's going to be a hard job is to restore public faith in law enforcement. And it's not just federal it's state too, because you've had these das in New York City and Atlanta also
persecuting Trump. All of these clearly intended because of their timing, to affect the elections. So I think, I mean, if you think about what they'd have to do, I mean, first you'd have to fire a lot of these people whoever becomes Attorney general, and then start to restore the reputation integrity for integrity of the Justice Department and states and cities too. That's a huge monumental undertaking.
I'm not the host, but they have a quick question for you guys. So you know my prediction that if the law fair didn't work against Trump, and the assassination attempts didn't work against Trump, and now my theory is that they won't work even if they do assassinate Trump. But all that's left now is to cheat. Sorry John, but I'm gonna say that all that's left is for
the Democrats to cheat one way or the other. Do you think, Steve, let me start with you, because that would my question requires John to go along with the premises, and he may not. But do you think the Republicans have done enough in terms of hiring lawyers? I guess they've got a lot of volunteer lawyers who are willing to help with the legal issues involved at the polls, they've got poll watchers, they've got a ground game in that way.
Do you think it will be enough?
You know, I think we should take the subject up for a whole extended consideration next week or the week after, only because it's a lot to it and there are things that are quite different from four years ago, partly the you know, some of the COVID stuff. Some states changed laws. There is more prep work and that U and I know a little bit about it, but I want to know more before and I think we should do it.
Let me let me back Steve up on that host prerogative. I'm shutting you down, Lucretia. Yeah that felt so good, said that, but yeah, because we're out of time. And let me also say I was the other reason I was on the East Coast this week was I was at a conference at the Heritage Foundation about election integrity, and I learned lots of interesting things and there is a lot to talk about. So maybe we should make this a special focus of next week's episode, when I
think it's Lucretia's turn to host too. So it's a perfect act of God, Lucretia, Lucretia, you have our Babylon be headlines of the week.
I wish we had an hour left, but we didn't even talk about the The latest little bit of scandal coming out of the Hare of Spiden me Harris Walt's campaign.
And that's the fact.
That Harris, with her her husband and waltz redefining masculinity away from toxic masculinity. The Doug m Hoff is credibly accused of having basically beat the you know what out of a girl he was dating at one point. Okay, so first Babylon Bee trembling bleeding spokeswoman issues statement denying that Doug m Hoff would ever hit a woman.
I love the Babylon beat. Teama reports they.
Spent all the taxpayer funding on a sweet PowerPoint presentation about racial inequalities. North Carolina asks Zelenski for one hundred billion dollars in US funding. DOJ indicts jd Vance for brutally beating three women And it's a picture of the two moderators and right, uh, then you guys will get this since you said it's no longer a family show, John, I don't really get it. But Tim Walt's pulling strong among men who choose middle.
Urinal Oh, you don't get that really?
Yeah, yeah, I do, although I had never used one.
All Right, school school shooters distanced themselves from Tim Walt.
What was that?
I mean.
You never even got to the whole.
Yeah, because he was so damn nervous and he prepared for how long? Anyway, young hesbela recruit, can't believe he's already been made regional manager and understand the latest one has been killed too, right.
Isn't that true? I'm sorry?
Uh, one last one campaign quietly Ansel's release of new Doug wife Beater.
And it's okay, okay, well, Steve, let me take us out with always drink your whiskey meat. Let's go, Brandon and Steve. What's our new sign off?
Well? Today I'm working on several versions. Today, I'm going with a succinct version of Camelo, which is feel the joy, people, feel the joy?
All right, buy everybody and see you next week.
Ricochet join the conversation