Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things Hillsdale Hillsdale dot ed or I encourage you to take advantage of the many free online courses there, and of course I'll listen to the Hillsdale Dialogue all of them at hugh for Hillsdale dot com or just google Apple iTunes and Hillsdale Morning Glory at Evening Grace America's I
promised all day. Richard Goldberg joins us. He is with the senior director at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and he was in the Trump first term at the National Security Council with the Iran portfolio, and the Trump second term he helped stand up the National Energy Dominance Council of Secretary of Berghaman and writer. You've heard here a lot. They went back to the FDD to study Iran, and boy, what a timely time it is. Richard. Welcome to you here at show. Great to have you,
great to be here. Thank you so much so, Richard. Since President Trump appeared on the program, you know, two weeks and two days ago and said he's going to hit Iran harder and he's ever been hit before. They have ever been hit before. If they keep killing people on Mark Duvitch, your colleague, I've had on Michael Duran from Hudson. I've had on Ben and Ben Tellerblue, your colleague,
I've had on I will have on Kareem Sajyapor. I think Thursday of the writty gore from Israel you, I'm doing my best to get people ready for what will be a very big kinetic collision if it happens. Do you think it's going to happen with Iran?
I do think something is going to happen. I think the president is a president of determination commitment. I think he likely has his mind already set on some sort of outcome here and has asked his senior advisors to make sure his options are set and the force posture matches the options that are most aligned with what he
wants to achieve. And I think he knows that as more and more of this information comes out, the intelligence that gets leaked, as some of the Internet peaks back on in Iran and his phone calls are being made, as pictures and videos come out, he and the rest of the world sees that a red line that he drew was obliterated by this regime. He is aware of that the promises of no executions apparently have continued in secret as well.
And when you start seeing a.
Death toll in the tens upon tens of thousands, with more still in secret locations being held, with more executions potentially on the way, that alone, of course obliterates the
Red Line. But he also sees a regime that's teetering, he sees historic opportunity, and as he told you, he's already in many ways sealed his fate in history as somebody like Ronald Reagan who changes the world, whether it's last June with the B two bombers Operation Midnight Hammer, whether it's the most recent operation against Maduro, the Abraham Cords before that. But you know what, Ronald Reagan brought down the Soviet Union, a major threat to the United States,
transformed the entire world scene. This president could still bring down one of those major threats that is world changing, world history changing, if he contributes to the collapse of the Islamic Republic.
Of Iran, and in so doing, if that happens, having cut off the People's Republic of China from Venezuela and oil, he may succeed in cutting off Iran from setting hot oil to China. They't have to buy their oil in the world market. It's not that they won't get oil, it's just that they will pay a lot more for it. Richard, does that not serve our strategic interests as well?
I mean, I think if you, for some reason don't care at all about thirty five thousand people being mass murdered in forty eight hours and executions going on, you
just say, not our issue, not our national interest. And for some reason you didn't even care about the fact that Iran, as the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world, continues to plot war against the United States, has tried to assassinate the President of the United States while he was out of office, will most certainly to assassinate him again if they remain in power after he leaves office, and all of the other bad things they do to tie us down in the region, all the
gold Star families around the country who have grieving I have lost loved ones, whether in Iraq, of Beirut, colbar towers over many years, in Israel, Gaza, all these different places because of the Islamic Republic of Iran. If for some reason you didn't see that as a major national security thread to us. But you subscribe to great power competition, you say it's all about China, that's our greatest existential
threat of the century. Then let me tell you about why the President is executing the most brilliant grand strategy in history right now for the United States and taking apart the axis of enablers for the top acxis of
aggressors against the United States. As China starts seeing all of its chess pieces falling off the board, as Russia starts seeing its chess pieces falling off the board, started with ASAD collapse in Syria, and then Iran being able to do nothing as the President obliterates its nuclear program, Maduro being taken out in the middle of the night
in fifteen minutes by delta force. China is seeing all of its Belt and Road initiatives, all of its investments, all of its key supply lines being threatened, potentially all the aggressors that are the middle powers that can threaten the United States and distract us potentially being taken off the game board. And remember, for China heavily dependent on energy imports, one of their key weaknesses. Fifty percent of
their energy imports come through the Strait of Hormuz. That's obviously Saudi and the rest of the Gulf plus Iran.
But if Iran is no longer a threat there, if you're able to constrain that oil supply, and you've taken off the ability for Maduro to supply a few hundred thousand barrels per day going up from Venezuela as well, they are left with the potential of having to rely on GUSU, the United States of America, from whom they could be buying more oil, and other partners where we would have strong relations, and obviously the US Navy the
ability to interdict in time of conflict. That's bad grand strategy for China, that's very good grand strategy for US.
So, Richard Goldberg, I believe that if the President fails to strike it Iran, it will dent the deterrence that he is so masterfully rebuilt in the first year following the disastrous years of the Locust under Joe Biden. However,
I also don't believe that's going to happen. I think what he was doing with me, and then he followed with Sean Hannity, and he followed with Tony Dakoppel, and he did it on true social was trying to prevent violent It did not work ever since then, since the massacre, And you use the term thirty five thousand, I've seen now today as highest forty thousand. That's almost unimaginable. But
the president is a visual person. Do you think he has a good flow of information from inside Iran as to exactly how why spread the massacre was?
I think that picture is increasing and the flow of information is obviously accelerating. I do actually think that it's possible he did not have a good flow of information that first weekend when the massacres were taking place, most mainstream media were downplaying the reports that I and others were hearing from inside of Iran. The leading opposition news source, Iran International, was reporting throughout the weekend five and twelve thousand. We were hearing a lot of the stories that are
now being confirmed through the weekend. But you would hear from a lot of sources in government that's just not matching what we're hearing so far, both here in the United States, in Great Britain, and elsewhere where. We would rely on the intelligence community to validate rumors coming out of Iran. There's no way to deny what's happening now. Millions of people came out in the streets. There was mass murder. The blood is still stained across Tehran and
other major cities. People are still trying to identify their loved ones who are being held hostage, even as dead bodies throughout Iran. Right now, the fear of a continued crackdown if anybody else comes out into the streets. But also understanding that this is a regime that teeters. Why did people come out into the streets. There was an
economic crisis that Donald Trump helped facilitate and accelerate. There has been the snapback of UN sanctions, and so there's an understanding in the market that the old Iron nuclear deal is never coming back. Banks were teetering on the edge of collapse. One did collapse. There's a water crisis because of the mismanagement of this maniacal, corrupt regime. There is a power energy crisis where the grid is experience
blackouts throughout Iran. So people hate this regime. They already hate them for what they do to the people repression wise, as you can see, they hate them because their standard of living continues to go down into the gutter. This has spread from upper class to middle class to lower class, religious,
secular all across Iran. And if millions of people were willing to take to the streets but right now are deterred by machine guns and IERGC forces out there, if those IRGC forces somehow are dispersed have to run away themselves, stands to reason millions of people would come back into the streets if they see help on the way, as the President promised. And frankly, we long term whether or
not this collapses tomorrow. Remember nineteen seventy eight to nineteen seventy nine took a year before the shot had to flee Iran. Even if this is a long term situation and this regime does not immediately collapse or the Supreme Leader has taken out and you don't have a full change in regime, the RGC steps in a different successor
from the MULLA step in. If you're able to use this opportunity to continue to degrade and dismantle a direct threat to the United States, a direct tool of the CCP in China and putin in Moscow by degrading their missile program, their navy, their drone program and their command and control. You do a great service to the United States. You enforce a red line and show the enemies of
America this president continues to mean business. And maybe yes, you give the opportunity for millions of Iranians to come back out and take this country back for Iran, which will be a game changer for US national security.
Don't go anywhere. I'm coming right back with Richard Goldberg, Senior director at the Foundation for the Defense of DEMOCRACIESFDD dot org, and you can follow him at Richard Goldberg on AX. I'll make sure I get the right. Is there a middle initial in there, Richard or is it just Richard Goldberg?
Just at rich underscore Goldberg. The underscore catches people something rich Underscore Goldberg. It's one of the people I tell you you should follow routinely online because there are a whole bunch of people with opinions about Iran, but there aren't that many with actual firsthand knowledge of having worked the portfolio at the NFC Richard has.
Don't go anywhre. I'll be right back with rich Goldberg from the FDD. After the mess to State tuned that they can heal it show, Welcome back to America. I'm to heal it. With Richard Goldberg, senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defensive Democracies for years and Trump won had the portfolio over Iran sanctions, trying to rebuild some kind of pressure on Iran after Team Obama gave the
world away to them, including pallets of cash. He came back in term two at the beginning of it to stand up the Energy Dominance Council and to try and repair the damage done by four years of Biden appeasement. Hypothetical entirely, Richard, before we go back to the reality of strike lists and priorities. Had Barack Obama not gone belly up on Iran in his first term and then pursued the JCPO in his second term, would this regime have already fallen? Did Obama save it?
Oh?
He saved it several times. I mean two thousand and nine, the last time we remember, well, the first time I remember a mass uprising starting in Iran after what people understood to be a stolen election. They don't have elections in Iran, they have selections in Iran, and add this sort of mass uprising into Ihran suburbs taking place. It was an upper middle class revolt and they put that
down with force. And Barack Obama sent the love letters behind people's back to the Supreme Leader, saying, I want to have a good relationship. By the way, I've seen those letters when I was working in the White House. This was unimaginable. He abandoned the people in the street because he wanted a nuclear deal, because he internalized this anti American ideology that we were actually to blame for all of our problems with Iran. He believed in the false narrative of a coup that the CIA was behind
that the Iranian regime has put out for years. He believed that you need to have a balance of power in the region. Let Iran have a little more power and that would offset the Saudi power and the Israeli power, and then we would have this great equilibrium and kumbai Yah would happen, and we just needed to get to a nuclear deal because hey, you know, they have grievances and we should understand that.
Richard, it's not very relevable, but I want you follow Has anything been heard from the Metternik of MS now Ben Rhoades. Has President Obama said anything about the massacre of tens of thousands of people. Have the people who kept the eye tolls in power, have they had the decency to come forward and condemn the regime that they parlayed with.
No, because they're out there working the media right now to say it's over too late, can't do anything, too dangerous to act. Don't know what would come next, could be worse if the Supreme Leader were to go. That's who's behind a lot of those news stories and headlines that you see out there. It's Team Obama Ben Rhodes out there still trying to hope for a day where
they get back to appeasement as the policy with this regime. However, I will say that for many people who are let's call them normal, more mainstream, clearly don't agree with them on a lot of policy issues, but they went along with that because they're Democrats. They believe they this is what we have to do. This is Barack Obama's foreign policy. So I'll get get on the train looking at you, say, forty thousand. They're seeing it the numbers right now, they're
seeing the pictures, the videos. Those types of people on the left and in the center cannot justify the jcpoaim or cannot justify an appeasement policy anymore. Are looking at this idea of having a negotiation with this regime with everything going on right now, saying, are you kidding me? This regime has to end up in the ash heap
of history, the sooner the better. So, yes, there are idealogues out there, and we remember some of them who served in the Biden administration too, like Rob Malley, the Special envoy for Iran. It was kicked out for being a little too close to the Iranians perhaps, and many others. They might be rooting against the Iranian people right now. They might be trying to, in sinister ways, influence the
President not to act. But I think the vast majority of Americans see what's happening here, see a red line declared, See what this regime is capable of against its own people. Know that it's capable of building more and more missiles to use against us and our allies. He knows that this is a historic time to take advantage of for our national security.
So, Richard, there are lots of different definitions of what we're aiming for. Some people want regime negotiations, and if we are to believe. One of those includes Special Envoy WITCOP, but he's been involved in some headfakes of extraordinary proportions. There's regime coercion, which is what's going on in Venezuela. There's regime evolution, which is what we hope goes on long term in Venezuela, to free and fair elections and
democracy return. Then there's regime punishment and just simply a punitive strike saying what you have done here is beyond the bounds of what the West will tolerate. That's what President Trump did in term one visa via SAD when he used chemical weapons. And then there's regime change, which involves Iraq in two thousand and three, Afghanistan in two thousand and one. I'm in favor of at least regime punishment, in other words, just a simple punitive strike, and we
can talk about target lists. Where are you in that option, Richard Goldberg? What would you like to see happen as a strategic goal.
Yeah, I am at the very least regime punishment, but I would like to see the facilitation of regime collapse in transition. That does not mean boots on the ground, It does not mean an occupation, does not mean the
United States literally going to Tehran to do things. Though, if somehow the President and General Kine and Director Ratcliffe can pull a rabbit out of the hat and there's some incredible operation like nobody imagined in Caracas that just suddenly happens, I would be impressed with that.
I would not believe.
I would not be predicting that it would seem high risk and dangerous.
But who knows.
This president and this team around him have proven everybody else that we can't really expect the unexpected with their planning. At the moment. However, given the normal set of facts in front of us, the parameters that we would imagine what we would be willing to do with this president should be going to do and what he should not be willing to do. Given the risks to US personnel, I think it is quite appropriate A to make sure
they are punished for going across the red line. But B take this moment, seize this moment to continue to squeeze, to degrade, to dismantle, and the weaker and weaker and weaker they get, the stronger and stronger the people get. And yes, you will see some sort of transition. At some point, this regime cannot continue if banks are collapsing because the president enforces his thread of twenty five percent tariffs against all neighboring countries of Iran, and the cash
flow starts moving, stops moving from daily trade. And you actually use either by naval forces like you saw in Venezuela, or kinetic action or cyber action, some sort of prevention of the oil flowing out of carg Island, you will force an immediate liquidity crisis. You will accelerate what is already a liquidity crisis. More banks will fail, There will
be a massive inability to pay the IRGC payroll. That would be be very you know, uncertain for what happens next to that regime alone, just internally with fracturing, if you were to take out kinetically command and control, if you were disrupt communications at the same time, then to see, Richard.
Does the American people and the rest of the world have to see what it is that the United States does as a reaction to the massacre, because if it doesn't, I don't know that the red line isn't erased anyway. I think they have to see it.
Well, of course they have to see it. You mean you mean, could there just be a cyber uh event?
And that's the no. There's no way, there's no way that that is sufficient at dis point, based on what the president has has promised, what he has suggested, and what you know, if you're sheigen Peing, if you're Vladimir Putin and you're expecting if you were to default now, moving a carrier strike group there, moving all these squadrons, building up a force posture, and then just saying, hey, I had a cyber event and we'll call it a day. I think that would be laughed out of the room.
The president certainly knows that, and I think, you know, we should have a little bit of a level setting here. It's not like she and Putin don't believe the president is willing to use force. He has proven it certainly over the last year and in his first term he has just taken a dictator out of Caracas. I need to have to know he's serious. But you start stopping forcing your red lines, that can change quickly.
I'll be right back with Richard Goldberg of the Foundation for the Defensive Democracy, and he's for going to talk about risk to American personnel in the region, and then we're going to talk about target loos in our last two segments on Today is Iran in Focus Hours Day tuned. I'm Vio, Hugh, Welcome back America. I'm here, Hugh at the biggest story in the world remains Iran and whether or not the United States strikes and if Israel joins in with it. Richard Goldberger, I want to talk about
target sets now. I've asked all of the experts, and I'll ask Kareem when he comes on to finish my week of end experts on Iran. Why don't we hit carg Island because it and the two other oil terminals are the only hard currency generators that this regime has to pay its terrorists with. Why don't we do that?
This is the number one source of revenue for the regime. If you stop the flow of oil, then you are on an egg timer for how long the regime can survive. I will add that I also think we underestimate the importance of border trade, just in its very near circle of influence and neighbors. If you actually stop some of that daily trade and the currency transfers and the cash access, you will also accelerate liquidity crises inside the banking system.
But yes, we have long had this option, and obviously on sanctions alone, we saw this happen in Venezuela as well. You have an immediate impact in the market, normal actors, normal corporations, and by the way, even state owned enterprises of China shy away from completing a trans because they don't want to suffer the blow of a cutoff from the US financial system, which is the punishment under US sanctions. And so for the Chinese at least, they resort to
illicit activity. They set up these so called teapot refineries. These are unofficial, sort of supposedly disconnected from state owned enterprises. They have a ghost tanker fleet, just like what you saw in Venezuela. A lot of those, by the way, were the Iranian ghost tanker fleet. When you saw the US seizing them, they seize them with US sanctions attached from the Revolutionary Guard Corps. So you have all these ghost tankers bringing oil out of carg Island, chugging along.
We let them go all the way through the Strait, We let them go all the way to China deliver it. We know exactly who they are, where they're coming from. What's what cargo they got and when they unload, and by the way, who has the off take agreements after they hit the teapot refineries the state owned oil companies of China. So we have always had the ability to escalate against Beijing in its sanctions realm to get them
to try to cut off the transaction. Obviously, that's complicated in a very complicated Bilatter relationship, and maybe there's reasons in a trade war and other things, we haven't gone that direction. There are other ways to exert that influence. The President has tried a tariff threat now that doesn't
seem to have worked so far. We haven't enforced it yet that I've seen in the face of Chinese that continuing to ignore that he is now moving a carrier strike group that comes with three destroyers he already had
three destroyers on station. Does he envision some sort of naval armada quarantine again like what we saw in Venezuela, to start seizing the very large tankers coming out of carg Island and not let the oil flow, start having contracts canceled and simply de facto stop the oil transaction.
Richard Here's student of history. We spent a lot of World War Two trying to hit Hitler's capacity to produce oil and to deny him the ability to get to the oil fields and the Soviet Union. Why don't we just blow up the refineries. They can be rebuilt under a new regime.
We have that option set.
The truth is is that if you go back to the Twelve Day War, it's not like this option set wasn't on the table. And by the way, that target set was on the table for the Israelis as well during twelve days of their own air strikes and with the exception of a couple of fuel depots in an inner near Tehran, they avoided hitting energy infrastructure.
Why is that?
Why is it that we hesitate to do that? Well, in the end, if you are a military planner, if you're advising the president, you say, well, mister President, if we hit their energy, then they will have a proportional response, which will be to hit other energy, whether that be to mine the strait of horror moves and deny Saudi oil for moving out to the market, or hit Saudi oil infrastructure itself and try to create a massive catastrophic
disruption event for the market. A couple of responses to that. The President should know about. Number one, then give me the top of the target list. We're going to hit the missiles, the drones, and the IRGC navy first and take that threat off the board. Why do we keep having to be deterred by that threat? And number two, this is a different oil market today because of Donald J. Trump, and we should understand that this is China's pressure point,
not ours. Fifty percent of China's oil imports comes through the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranians want to mine that straight. They want to attack. Saudi oil won't be good, not saying we won't have a short term price spike because it is a global commodity. But we're not going to run out of oil here. We're going to be okay, and we'll get the straight back open fast. And I don't think there will be any government facilities left in Tehran afterwards from what the President would do in response.
Yeah, Richard, thank you. I've been through a lot of experts and they all say we got to worry about our Golf Cooperation Council allies, and we do. And msz NBC is our best ally and MBS is a rising ally and we got to worry about World Royal markets. But Canada's coming online with a lot of heavy crude, and we got a lot of heavy crude, and Venezuela's got a lot of everything that Iran's got. I just don't understand why it's not at the top of the
target list. But my last segment with Richard's coming up, because we do have to discuss risks to Americans. Stay tuned on Hugoett, Welcome back America. On you here. Richard Goldberg is the senior Fellow at the Foundation for the Defensive Democracies. He's been in Trump one and Trump two. He's an Iran expert. We have a lot of assets in the region. Rich I know that families that people are on the Lincoln, and I've had family on the Lincoln, though not right now, are wondering, Hey, can they hit
the Lincoln? Can they hit the destroyers? Can they hit our base and cutter? We saw a demonstration attack after midnight hammer. We saw Israel hammered a lot I think thirty dead. We've seen them hit Ali Sad with ballistic missiles, precision strikes on Ali Sad in whatever year that was that they blew up alisade I had friends and family and Ali saw that that might that got off. How much can they hurt us with their ballistic missile capacity.
They can definitely target US faces in the region through their ballistic missiles. They also have a cruise missile capacity as well. We saw that utilized against the Saudi oil infrastructure back in twenty nineteen, along with drones. So long as we keep our naval forces far away with our standoff capabilities, whether that be Tomahawk strikes or fighter jets off the boat, we should be outside of their striking distance to our naval forces. They do not have much
of an air defense left. If any any that would be still there will be accounted for both by the growlers on the aircraft carrier. Those are the electronic warfare fighter squadrons that we have eighteen g's and also the fact that the Israelis sort of took out all of the Russian air defense already, the Iranian knockoff of the Russian air defense, It's not to say you couldn't have an oopsie, but the threat is much lower from an air perspective.
Remember the Argentinians hit that British boat. I can't remember the name of the ship that they that they shunk in the fall camp.
You can't have a total prediction here, you have to there. There can always be something that goes wrong. There can always be something like you can't believe that happened. But by and large, you do have to be prepared for their missile threat. We have missile defenses available, We have the s M three's on the destroyers, we have some land based Patriots and other at our bases in the region. So yes, we would be on force protection condition highest
possible level. People in barracks underground, prepared for any short of retaliation, already moving out most essential critical personnel and platforms to prepare for such a contingency. But that goes back to the fact that if you have a target list and you are most afraid of that retaliatory capability, then you want to mitigate that from the start. You want to go after all the underground facilities where they
store their missiles. If there is a launch, we will detect the launch immediately and take out the launchers.
That's what the.
Israelis did very effectively during the Twelve Day War. If you see fast boats going around in the gulf. There should be a shoot on site order get rid of the boats. Don't hesitate if you see anything that looks like mining. Shoot the boats, you know, take out the poor, take out the IRGC, Navy headquarters and command and control. All of those should be on the top of Richard if you are looking to do something real.
We got four minutes left, so I want to ask you the toughest question. Your phone rank, it's the President. Hey Goldberg. I heard you talking to Hewett and he was quoting me from two weeks ago. Things have changed. What do you want me to do? And do you really think my red line would be a race if I don't do anything? What do you want me to do? And would it really be a red line erased? What do you say to one?
Mister president, everyone's watching. You gave your word. You decided that you were going to set a red line, which was totally appropriate, and that lead line has been obliterated because in the end, these are crazy, maniacal radicals who have tried to kill you, and we'll try to kill you again when you leave office. But you already know that they've killed a lot of Americans, and they will
keep killing Americans. This is your moment in history. Strike them at their most lethal strategic threat to US long term, and then hit them in command and control and senior leadership to try to blind them, disorient them, and give the people a chance. I'm not saying that's going to guarantee it's going to be, you know, the collapse of the regime overnight. I don't know what's going to come next.
I can't guarantee you that, but I do know that this regime staying in power, with the ability to lash out and reach the United States or our allies, is very dangerous and very good for China and Russia. And you will do the world and the United States a great favor by taking action.
Now, So Baby says the same thing. Do you do you want me to have Israel come along or you want them to stay home?
Oh?
I think that if you have the aircraft carrier of the State of Israel at our disposal, that means we have two carrier strike groups at our disposal. Actually, the entire Israeli Air Force and their clandestine and cyber capabilities inside of Iran. We don't know what they're what they could be capable of.
Doing.
If I was the president of United States, I would say, what are our unique capabilities against specific targets that these Raelis can't touch, that they can't have impact on? Versus what are the Israelis able to do on their own and continue to contribute. I think it would be crazy not to coordinate this with the Israelis.
And then he finishes Richard this way, you know, I like air to one. Everyone called me. He doesn't want me to do this. They just put in a strike that he put in radar in Damascus. What do we do about Turkey?
Tell him that I hope he really loves what we've done to bring the Iraq Turkey pipeline back online and the revenue that's creating for his regime and for his country, that there's a lot more business to be done, and hopefully he understands that the Islamic Republic of Iran at
war with the United States all these decades. People who have tried to kill me personally the present United States and have killed many, many, many Americans really shouldn't be around much longer after what they've done here in the streets and what they continue to do to the United States and our allies, and I hope you understand that as a NATO ally because we could have a great relationship. But I don't think you want to be with those guys, right.
All right, very last question. I don't think the red lines obliterated yet, because there's a rationale for what he did when he did and what he said when he said, and I think it was very strategic. But it will go away by a date certain I'm saying, Saint Patrick's day. How long do they have to act, Richard before the damage Obama like damage to his credibility is done.
I don't like setting a timetable on that. If he is intending to act, and he is continuing to move forces into position to be able to fulfill his objectives, he should use this time to squeeze, destabilize, and disorient that can be done in the economic realm, that can be done in the cyber realm, and then follow on with the kinetic action. So long as that's all sequenced, it's all coming together. It's all part of strategy.
You know.
The time is on his side. He should not rush something like this. It should be done correctly.
Richard Goldberg from the Foundation for the Defensive democracies. Thank you. Follow rich On at Rich Underscore Goldberg at Rich Underscore Goldberg, and visit Foundation for Defensive Democracy that's at fdd on X as well all of their They've got the strongest Iran department inside the Beltway because they've got people who have actually done it, including Rich Goldberg, who's been mister sanctions for a long long time. Thank you, Rich, coming back,
don't go anywhere, America. We've got a couple more experts to have on about this, but by now you should have a fairly comprehensive grip on the Iran situation. If you have been listening to every hour of every two huge show, stay tuned. I have Brett Bear joining me now, of course, the anchor of Special Report, America's newsman, America's anchor. Brett. I want to talk to you about Minnesota because you have a very good perspective on this. You talk to all
the different people. I think a week ago Thursday, I set on the panel on Special Report. Minnesota is a shall issue state when it comes to permits, and they can shall issue an open carry or a concealed carry, and that it was dangerous, that was after an a good and before Alex Petty were shot and killed. I don't think it's going to get better either. I don't think the left is going home, and I don't think Donald Trump's going to back off. What do you think? I agree with you.
You.
I think President's call can you hear me?
Yeah, we got you.
The President's call to the governor and also to the mayor of Minneapolis. I think that those two things, at least a tone from both sides about those calls, seem to indicate something different. I agree with you that, you know, the agitators, the protesters who are hired to do that are probably not going to leave. But with the ad of you know, state police, police and maybe even National Guard, because Minnesota is engaging and working with them, I think
it could change the dynamic. I mean, just having areas for protesters that are outside the operation lines of ICE agents is one thing, and the other thing is to work and give up the illegal immigrants who are already jailed for crime.
This is if you've touched on I think the most important argument that Team Trump hasn't made effectively, which is that when illegal aliens are arrested, they are in a county or a city jail for a period of time until they reach trial and they get a detainer a term of art, meaning that ICE wants them whenever they're released on bond, on bail, on their own recognizance, or after acquittal. And St. Paul Minneapolis won't do that. Has Jacob Fry said he'll order police to begin cooperating.
I don't know if you said that, per Se. I know that the president's asking for them, and I know that they had a good phone call. So listen, if you poll getting criminal illegal immigrants who have committed crimes off the streets, it's an eighty twenty seventy thirty issue. If you poll the type of stuff you're seeing on TV with ICE agents and you add in you know anecdotally that people have been you know, put into the middle of that who have not been criminal or illegal immigrants,
then it goes exactly the opposite way. And I think they lost the pr narrative obviously in some of these in these incidents, and you know, I think it's going to change, but you're right, it could be. It could be ugly before it's better.
Now they're spokespeople are I think in order of frequency of a Pearance, DHS Secretary Nome, Trish McLaughlin, the Assistant Secretary at DHS, Tom Homan, a bit of cash Betel, And every now and then Steven Miller erupts on san N. I think he goes on, said, Steve Miller done your show, Brett.
He has, it's been a number of weeks.
Yeah, yeah, but he usually goes on san N because they like to erupt with Jake and he and usually wins that. Uh, do you think those five are the best five communicators at the disposal of the administration on this.
Well, some of them are not clearly and they've they've had missteps. And I think the reason President Trump chose Holman to go into Minneapolis and to report directly to him tells you something. There's you know, there's a dynamic in there. And Bill Mallusion has reported on it. There's senior DHS officials who believe they the narrative was too firm and too definite about Preddy and his motivations, you know, as that shooting in the early hours, and there's a
lot of bad feelings about it. And I think the President got that and sent Holman in on the ground and.
He's also in New Yorker, who's followed for years Rudy Giuliani defending cops, and he wants to defend cops in law enforcement, but he probably also remembers I started my TV career two months before the LA riots, the Rodney King tape, and you can always stand behind police, but you can't stand forever if there's something wrong with an inst I have no judgment. I have no opinion one way or the other because I know that it will require weeks of special forensic analysis of what happened because
ops are involved, shootings are always complicated. But I have no opinion on it. And that's what I think Cabinet secretaries ought to say, and they can say it while still saying I support the men and women of DHS, Border Patrol, Immigration Control, and alcohol, tobacco firearms in the bureau. It's not really a difficult message, is it, Brent.
No, It's pretty simple. It's coming down the middle, and you wait for an investigation and say they have a tough job and it would be a lot easier if the state and local authorities would help ICE do their job. That's the message, and I think it also helps that Tom Holman was given an award by Barack Obama YEP, and was touted for his work in the Obama administration.
Well, decades of law enforcement experience coming into play here, and the last person that wants to be involved in a law officer involved shooting is the officer, absolutely, one hundred percent. The few that I have known well have always said that to me. Now, Brett, when it comes time to shut down the government or not shut down the government, there's going to have to be a choice made to Democrats want to shut down the government, and
I can't believe it. But I don't think Susan Collins is going to budge, and I don't think John Thune's going to budge on defunding DHS or in any way restricting ICE.
Do you no, And you know it's silly. The ICE has been funded through twenty twenty nine largely. I mean it's around the edges that they're talking about additional funding, but they've been largely funded as an organization through twenty twenty nine. So if you're taking away DHS funds, taking him away from TSA, from FEMA in the wake of tough travel, that could bite you in the wake of snowstorms and other disasters that could bite you, so politically,
this is dangerous. I think that's why Chuck Schumer wants to have a meeting and a call with President Trump and try to come to some deal. And that's what I'm hearing is behind the scenes right now.
Yeah, I must feel bad for Chuck Schumer, which I've never said on the rate, because he just cannot win the situation. He catch up down to Ja. Okay, let me turn to Iraq Iron. This is what President Trump said to said Rosenberg this morning. Brett Kunnemer IWO.
We have a big armada going over there right now, and hopefully we won't have to use it.
But it's very.
Powerful, bigger than what we have in Venezuela that we said over that worked out so well, and the leadership there is doing a very good job coordinating.
With us and anything else.
But we have a big armada going over there and we'll see, hopefully we won't have to use it now.
Brett Baer, I've had on every expert saved one. Kareem Sadrpor will be on I think Thursday, but Michael Duran, Mark dub It's Ben and Ben Tellablu Richard Goldberg's coming up a vive Reddick gore. Of course, the president was on all the experts want him to hit Iran hard and rattle their teeth, if not topple their regime. If it's possible and the president is ambiguous, what do you think is going to happen? You've interviewed more than anybody
I think on the networks. What do you think he's doing here?
Yeah, I think he's positioning. He is doing the art of the deal as he sees it, you know, having the strengths and you know, the big stick is Teddy Roosevelt would say, looking for them to do a deal. He says they want to and they call all the time. But he also kind of drew a red line about killing protesters. Now there are human rights groups on the ground saying it could be thirty thousand who died in that span where protesters were killed in Iran. So listen,
I'm with you. I think that there is more likely a strike than not. I think that the delay has been about getting patriot batteries and missile defense for Israel that was low. I think that's starting to be in place, and once it is, I wouldn't be surprised that there is some action. You know, if there is action, you've got to have something on the ground. I think they're working on that. And number two, you know, think about it, Venezuela and Iran. What is the tangential benefit of that?
It is a pinch on Russia and China.
Brett. The last thing I want to bring your attention Tommy ved is an annoyance to me. He's one of the pod bros. And he's barking at me online right now. But something he said today I think Donald Trump might note when he's barking at me. Donald Trump told Ironi and protesters he would rescue them. He encouraged them to take over institutions, and then did nothing as they were massacred by the regime. You know, that's early to be
calling you're repeating the red liner rature. And it's ironic, not completely ridiculous for an Obama bro to do it. But will the president have to live with that if he doesn't do anything?
Yeah, I think that the way he talks, I think that that, you know, was was pretty bold and I think that, you know, that's why it leads me to the conclusion that I'm with you. I think it's more likely than not that there is some kind of action, but in a sense it is a little ionic for Tommy retorts.
Ben Rhodes will be in next to check in with the Kurds.
Have something to say about the red line.
Oh yes, oh yes. Brett Bear will be watching tonight. I know Trey Yanks will probably be updating you or Lucas or one of your fine military guys over in the region. Brett Behar, host of Fox News Special Report, America's anchorman. Thank you, Brett. I'll be right back America. Lylacs is next more on Minnesota when we return to the he Hewit Show logom back America. I'm h Hewett. I asked our friend James Lylyx to come early and
stay late today. You can read James at James lylys dot substact dot com because James is has been and probably always will be a resident of Minneapolis. And James, just for your benefit, I've just discussed with Brett Bair the Alex Pretty death and the Renee Good death and in between. I was on a program and I said, you know, Minnesota is an open carry and a concealed carry state and a shell issue state, and somebody was going to get hurt after renee Good and now someone's dead.
You live there, you can see what we don't see and feel what we don't feel. Is the city boiling over it is on the edge of revolution, or is everyone kind of now just saying shocked and disgusted with themselves and everybody.
It's neither. It's both.
I mean, where I live, it's okay, it's great. I mean, I'm about twenty blocks south of where the George Floyds stuff happened in the summertime. Unlike the Governor's wife, I did not open my windows so I could smell the burning tires and think of it as the perfume of justice. But we had calamities around here. We had disorder. That
was twenty twenty. This is much different. The only thing exactually penetrated my neighborhood, as I may have mentioned a couple of weeks ago, was a woman who was driving behind in black suv and she was convinced it was ice, and she was blowing whistles and gesturing and making trying to get everybody to run after it and do I don't know what, but you know, possibly was a guy with a long service, you know, a tree free friming operation,
who had mistakenly been entered into the databases. So around here, no, it's quiet, but of course you talk to your friends, you talk to your neighbors. Everybody sort of tries to feel the other person out. There's a general assumption that your anti eyes. This is horrible, this is awful. They ought to leave these people. B and beyond that, the conversation doesn't go any further.
Now you have just here the old colleague. You had the old colleague from the Star Tribune last week who wrote they almost left them all in Michigan after there is another shooting, the one of the trend at D Did he write anything else in the most recent shooting.
I haven't actually read it yet or looked, but what is there to say?
Really?
One of the more unnerving things about this era that I've Selody put it quite nicely, is we all do the Zapruder film when it comes out to these all these different advantage points of the unfortunate death of that man, and we slow it down to frame by frame. But life doesn't happen that way. The best way to understand these videos, perhaps is to watch them at twice speed because everything is flooding and everything is immediate, and it's difficult to judge.
I after this last shooting.
It is hard for somebody who has not been supportive of going out and getting the bad guys and taking them away to say that there has to be a lowering of the temperature.
But that doesn't mean that you have to stop doing what needs to be done.
So the unfortunate part again is that there will be continuously these cell of people who follow around the ice agents. And the way that it's been documented is how they're doing it, and the coordination and the sacred little signals operations that they have, and the code names, and the way they've got the city into grids, and the possibility that they're getting in real time the drivers or the auto places of the vehicles that tells them it's ice.
I mean, it's extraordinarily coordinated and it's not you know.
A couple of wine moms who see.
A truck had decide to go out soude and side and bang on a pot. It's all part of a very very sophisticated operation with tentacles. They go back to organizations that we actually are not having the country's best interest at heart. They'd love a color revolution out of this, but they're not going to get one. So the mood now, the mood now, I can't say. There was a bruhaha and a local hotel last night where they went after it, but it was a different police force.
It wasn't many, as we.
Answered my question. That was the Maple whatever Ridge Front Mountain, Maple Growth, Maple Grow police force, and they just brought the tackles, the offensive line and pulling guards. Took down ten demonstrators with twenty four police officers and that was the end of that. Because obviously somebody knows that the Maple Grove Hotel knows the mayor.
They were banging on the side of the thing with shovels, which is a very Minnesota thing to do. I actually had to smile before I was completely disgusted by it.
It really is.
It's like, you know, we want to just petelt ludifisk at the windows and have that stuff d you know, slimy drip down.
Yeah, they weren't playing in the sense.
The Minneapolis cops stand back because it's not a sanctuary city.
That's great, that's great.
They also deployed an l RAD system I believe it's called, which is one of those things that makes you feel uncomfortable, probably like a TEAMU or a play school version of the one that was used in Venezuela.
But that's a different set of tactics.
So if they're starting to push back against letting these people just absolutely control, try to control the situation, great, that would be good, but they're not getting that from the mayor. What the mayor is saying, of course, is that he met with Holman and that they have to end the surge as quickly as possible because it's the tactics that are sowing division.
Now.
I don't know if you've heard specifically what the mayor said, did you No.
Okay, what he said was, we have the end metro search as quickly as possible.
This is his tweet.
Public safety works best when it's built on community trust, not tactics that create fear or division. Well, it's a platitude and it's twaddled. But in one sense, communities say public safety requires a certain amount of fear in the mysteriants that they're going to be apprehended, but the idea that community and trust in the rest of it will somehow result in the easy acquisition of really bad ombres
out there is nonsense. He's mad that they're going in and that it's paramilitary and they look scary and they.
Have their faces up and all the rest of it.
But the fact of the matter is that this is being done under the Obama administration, and nobody would have linked once.
Where did Jacob bry go to college? Because I'm wondering what happened to the Pete Bootage, Jacob fry pod Brothers generation. That they can't answer a question with anything resembling a specificity and resolve. I mean, just say no, we're not going to we're not going to work with them, or yes, we will do the detainers and then explain why that was problem.
What you read to me, Yeah, well, it's a generation that just speaks and stuff that has to that. It sounds like it's been run through HR for the appropriate amount of platitudes. But he said he also made it clear that Minneapolis does not and will not enforce federal immigration laws and that we and we will remain focused
on keeping our neighbors and streets safe. So he believes this is part and parcel that not enforcing federal immigration laws is part and parcel of keeping neighborhoods safe, despite the fact that they're rolling up some people who ought not to be here and do very bad things. So it's gas. It's just all gash nonsense.
Okay, he went to William and Mary. He was a lawyer at Villanova. I knew that he learned his law school at Villanova. I think he is forty four years old, So he really is in the demo of perplexed. They are perpetually perplexed by everything that the Iranians perplexed them, so they sent them bags of gold and the jcpoa.
Pallats of cash. What in the.
World is wrong with that generation? They should not be allowed to run anything. Is he running for governor?
No, not that I know of, and he wouldn't win.
Part of the problem is this, this difficulty in grappling with human nature, the sort of.
Belief that there actually are.
Deviations within populations, that there are hierarchies of intelligences and cultures and the rest of it, and that everybody is actually pretty much cut from the same cloth, and if you just drop them here in Minneapolis, then they're going to become productive citizens and some magic will happening.
It's all great.
So attacking the very idea of singling out somebody because they did not come through the legal channels, it strikes them as as as an untenable intellectual position. It's not what a good person thinks. A good person believes that borders are a construct. They're letting anybody in whatsoever is perfectly fine, and that once in, everybody should have opportunities that are equal to everybody else.
When it comes from the public's funding's funding, when it comes.
To a game of suggests, when it comes to public schools, Lilac can't go anywhere. During the break, you might want to look up because I want to ask you what's the difference in demographics between mapel Grove, which took on the mob effectively, and Minneapolis, which didn't. When I come back to the herere at Shovel Morgan back America, I'm Hugh Hewett Lilac, my guest. As in James Lilacs dot substack dot com. Humor is extraordinary but also very perceptive
social commentator when he feels like it. James maple Grove wanted no part of the ICE organized demonstration, so they arrested them all, took them away. Minneapolis doesn't show up. What's a difference in the demographics of the community.
Well, demographics look like this.
When you go north to Minneapolis, you get you tend to get more into African American neighborhoods.
When you get beyond that, you get the.
First ring of the suburbs, the old post war suburbs, which have been going through changes over the years. They're once more exclusively white. They are not anymore. It's changing in interesting ways. Brooklyn Center, which is up there, is I think something like the most diversity in the state. It's like twenty five percent, twenty five percent, twenty five percent, twenty five percent, and then Brooklyn Park next to that is a little less. So by the time you get
to Maple Grove it's about eighty percent white. The farther you move out of the city and you get to the exurbs, it's mostly white and relatively more conservative, but by a Minnesota model, I mean Minnesota conservatives are pretty dark purple. To the south of me you have it allmost repeated a little bit. The suburb to the south of me, Richfield, is heavily is increasingly Hispanic in the last few years, as they build and as they move in and they buy homes and start families and all
the rest of it the American dream. And I actually haven't heard an awful lot of action that's gone on down in Richfield. I mean that neighborhood every day practically, and there's no disorder. There's no tweeting whistles, there's no APC's going through the streets.
So I can't say, but that's what it is.
You go farther north, you get, the more diverse you get until it starts to change, and then it becomes white in the excerbs and white as the general state is now.
You're been a lot of exceptions. You know, I both know because you've co hosted with me. When I've gone to the Minneapolis or the Minnesota State Fair. Everybody goes to the fair, right, everybody goes to the fair. Are the people in the watch Ice, attack, Ice, disrupt ice groups ever going to get visit the butter Princess Room. Are they going to go to the fair?
Or I guarantee well, I guarantee it.
The people who live here who are showing up at the protests, who are on the little signal chats who are blowing the whistles and doing the rest of it. Absolutely, I would expect to see them show up at the fair because the Fair is one of the strange things that binds us all together. And it's regardless of your political disposition. People go there because it's Minnesota, and a lot of the people who are doing these things and showing up in the street corners and protesting and the
rest of it love Minnesota. They're doing it out of what they believe to be in altruistic sense. So yes, the people who are coming from elsewhere have no interest whatsoever in anything in Minnesotan or the Fair, or the lakes or the loons. They're here to bring about the social change that they think is absolutely necessary.
No events.
Culture Woodstock, Kent State. Yeah, George Floyd did not change the culture of Minnesota. It made it more blue. Is this event going to make it more blue or less blue?
Well?
Again, do you want me to go on vibe from Twitter or do you want me to go from my own experience?
Here?
Vibe from Twitter as a lot of people saying, you know, I was on the fence about a lot of this stuff, but having seen what I've seen.
I'm absolutely going to vote for every single socialist program that comes down the pike. And I don't believe that.
Would it be mean that Minnesota, that Minneapolis turns more blue and gets more push to the left. I'm not sure that's possible, actually, because right now it's you know, the Democratic socialist government and people who are generally blue, blue blue as can be. I don't know how they're gonna get any bluer unless you know, they replace their blood with the windshield wiper. So it's not going to
change that the composition of Minneapolis. What it changes, what it enforces, unfortunately, is the perception of Minneapolis, which has gotten so bad and really is inaccurate.
It really isn't.
But you know, we've sort of deserved the number of holes that we have in our feet from gunfire. So it'll take a long time for the city.
After the Cuyahoga River on fire. For the rest of my life, I've heard about the Cyhoga River catching on fire, and right there are there are events and weeks and events that and then Nick Dime Beer Knight at the Stadium when there was a mob that almost killed David Clyde Cleveland had a very bad rap for a long Minnesota treading on those territories just becoming and no goes on for the rest of the country.
Yeah, and it's worse because social media has amplified it and because it becomes the thing that you say, I wouldn't go to Minneapolis if you paid me. It's a hell hole in smogadishu and the rest of it is like, you know, I look at that and I just think, Okay, fine, you're scared.
You're scared.
There are people in South Dakota, rural South Dakota who are scared to go to Sioux Falls for whatever reason.
Stay where you are.
But the idea that it's an that it's an unsafe place to be based on what you've seen, isn't true.
It's a big, big, big city and I love it here.
And the only reason that I'm you know, I'm leaving for different reasons, but I'm not moving away very far.
I'm moving like ten blocks from the city border.
So if you know, if it's engulfed in complete social chaos, it'll come to my place too.
James is going to stick around, because what do we do.
It's a beauty.
Are you going to play around of what did President Trump mean with me? When we come back? It's a fun game and it takes someone with Lilac's agility to play it. So stay tuned for what did President Trump mean with Lilac's next on the UU check we go back America. I'm Hugh Hewett. James Lylyx is doing double triple duty with me today, Lyles says in James lylys dot substack dot com is up in Minneso. Cool because uh, Dwayne dumped a bunch of the president's presser in Iowa
or walk about in Iowa on me. I need you to help me translate. Cut number twenty one, James, this is President Trump.
Some of your own.
Administration officials have labeled out this ABC thing?
Is this one?
She hasn't asked me.
She hasn't asked me a good question in years. I think a nice woman, but I don't really like her too much. Go ahead, what you said, I'd say ABC is about as bad as they can President.
Would you like to see the dollars? All right? As I stop, James, what's the president doing there?
I believe that he's asserting that he does not believe the premacy legitimacy and the unassailable quality of the mainstream media. And frankly, I'm shocked that somebody would say that in twenty twenty six, especially President Trump.
That's what he's back to the machine shed restaurant gaggle in Des Moines, cut twenty two.
So you know, I'm going around, and I'm going around because hopefully we win the midterms. And it's very scary because like it's two out of fifty years or something like that. For some reason when a president wins, Republican or Democrat, even if they're a good president, and hopefully I'm a great president based on the first year.
We had a great first term too. People don't.
We rebuilt our military, we had phenomenal financial levers.
But I think this term is blowing away.
Really every time traditionally when a president gets elected, out of I think fifty years, they've had two. One I don't understand it had too so we have to and one was by unusual circumstance. So there's something psychological if you win the president and whether you're a Republican or Democrat.
With that being said, the polls look very good.
Everything looks very good, and you have great congressmen here with congressmen and women here, and we love Iowa.
All right.
James commentary, Well, what he's saying is, if we get selected in the mid terms, it's this historical inevitability because forty edit of the last fifty times, that's exactly what's happened.
It's like the tide comes in and the tide goes out. The people do this, and the people do that.
But if it doesn't happen, that's great because it shouldn't happen because I was good and I was good and I did this thing right, and it shouldn't happen.
But if it does, its history, I mean, that's exactly right. Basically, I'm very easy to understand. I'm defying the law that he's difficult to understand. Cut number twenty three at the machine shed gaggle playing, Well, we're going to.
See what happens with Cuba. Did anybody interested in Cuban in this room? Not too many. This is not a Cuba room, But that's all right.
There are plenty of them around, especially in Miami, and Cuba will be failing pretty soon. Cuba is really a nation that's very close to family. You're talking about you know, they got that money from.
Venezuela, and they got the oil from Venezuela. They're not getting that anymore.
Okay, James, this is not a Cuba room.
Yeah, well, you know, I probably is not a Cuba room. But I mean, what he's reminding us is that Cuba is next on the agenda. Is that we've gone from Venezuela to Greenland to Cuba. And I've heard this a little bit, and it's interesting because when you say Cuba is next, it makes people think, wait a minute, did
did what happened with green what happened with Venezuela? And it's that sort of kinetic flow that just keeps you off balance and looking forward as opposed to looking back at the other things, which resolved was great, best time ever. So I mean, when he's somebody mentions it and he's just reminding us it's on the platter, and it's on the platter in unspecified ways.
Jim, do you agree with me that if Jijinping does the very unwise thing and tries to attack Taiwan, Cuba's number comes up immediately and Donarden first goes there.
I hadn't really thought of that before. I really hadn't, but it's entirely possible. It's it's suck outside of the roma possibility.
Do we want to do that? Do we need to do that? Necessarily?
Is what's happening in China right now. And all the reshuffling and the little internal dynamics. Shuffling is the very words.
That's a very gentle word. Yeah, reshuffling going on in Joe Stalin's.
Yeah, that's right, pory, yeah, poor.
Uh so the organizations different now.
Jed ted Bundy was reshuffled this morning in a chair in the right. I mean if that means that he's getting ready to do something, or that he's dealing with the Richalcitan generals who don't want to we don't know. We'll see.
The opacity of China and it's it's ruling red families is a mystery to me and I wish I would I knew better about it. But that's interesting. It's just reminding you that to keep your eyes focused. And I mean, if he could, if he could effect the change in government in Cuba in such a way that redoubted to the benefit of the people, that would be a good thing.
As it was in Venezulta.
The real estate developer in him wants all that land. Okay, let me go to twenty four. Last Donald Trump cut from today. Cut twenty four.
Remember we secured the border. Crime is down all over the country. We just had a crime report coming out from I think one of the networks which they hate to hear this with crime is the lowest number ever recorded. So I said, I don't know which we've talked about Minnesota, but in Minnesota you probably read the crime is way down. You know why because we took out thousands of criminals out of Minnesota and that's why it's good.
So anyway, but.
Com Homan is over there. We all love time.
Yeah, I never we met with the governor, met with a Marria's going to meet with a merry guests and it's it's going very well.
But remember this, even Minnesota. The crime is down down.
In Minnesota, James, your crime is down. Did you know that.
Even in Minnesota? And again that's the ref that we have is the Rep. Detroit crime is down. I mean, oh my god. Well, first of all, I mean this is this is standard politics.
Is what presidents do. I'm tough on crime. Crime is down there for my policies, work. You can attribute a lot of it to the border being closed. You can attribute a lot of it to that. You can then turn around and say, well, wait a minute, we thought the crime was low because the cities weren't reporting it, And that's a possibility there.
You can say that the people.
Who were removed from Minnesota were not out there actually doing an awful lot of crime themselves.
That they were.
They may have had bad things they did, but they weren't every day engaging in rapiant criminality.
But you know, what, do you exactly what you expect politicians to say. He said I was tough on crime. Crime is down to draw the conclusions.
But is crime diamonds again? The Cuyahoga River on fire thing sticks with people from Ohio and I Minnesota is getting branded as we speak. Is crime down there?
Well, if it may be for the for the time, it's simply because it's too cold to actually do a lot of criming. I mean, it's been about you know, fourteen below in session, so your miscre intends to stay home. The criminality will probably surge in the spring, in the summer, in the warm, in the clement times. But the sense of the sense of disorder crime wise seems to have abaited a bit a lot since twenty twenty.
So criming with somedto God is also and you can't go to the VA. There's no criming at the fair either, as I recall.
Yes there is, Yes there is.
Unfortunately that's the tragedy of it.
But that's another shale in the chocolate chip buckets. Really I don't know. James Wiolights dot substat dot com, James Lyle that substack dot com. Welcome back to America. I'm Hugh Hewett, joined by Michael Duncan, one of the fellas on the Ruthless Podcast, himself a Hoosier and congratulations Michael, I'm sure you are a proud Hoosier.
Uh.
With the national crown being taken from Ohio across the state line, congratulations to your friend.
Thank you very much. I mean, I think bigger than Indiana's just a great story for college football. You know, doubted the whole way, losing his program in the history of college football and somehow national champions So anybody out there listening, if you think your team doesn't have a shot, you know they might.
Well that that's a nice way to spin it. The other way to spin it is Mark Cuban unloaded the Dallas Mavericks and bought the Hoosiers, and just hold.
On, hold on, hold on here, you hold on how Miami was paying Carson Beck what four million dollars.
I'm not saying that. I'm not saying there are other people out there spending billions on their college team. But Mark Cuban is a good businessman. Buys low and he sells high.
But just don't expect okay, last well, fine, you all I'm saying is the reason why they were so doubted. All these transfers that Kurtz Signetti brought from JMU, and everybody said, oh, well, these kids can't compete in the Big ten. They go and they win the Big Ten, and then people said, well, they'll never be able to match up against the powerhouse of the SEC. And then they throttled Alabama and then they win the national championship.
And so all these kids, those kids who were doubted, the zero star kids, are now national champions You.
Know, kids who was like twenty eight. Some of them were on medicare I think, but I don't mind. I don't mind. They're Big ten. And by the way, isn't the SEC. So Mid that's what Doug lay Murray is our football expert, because Mid they're just not really a conference anymore than anyone wants to be in. It's all in the Big Ten.
Now, yeah, that's right. And finally, you know, you're I know you're a Ohio guy, so I'm glad we have some solidarity here in the Big Ten.
We do.
Ohio basically allowed Indiana to be to leave, and it's sort of like when there's a subdivision in a neighborhood and we let them go over and take all the flat land. By the way, if you have to give a list of five tourist attractions in Indiana, rattle them off for me, will you.
Okay, So, first of all, obviously the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indy five hund that's one day.
It's like one of the.
Uh yeah, but you know it's the largest single day sporting event in the world.
Here.
That's that's not a tourist attraction. That's a sporting event. That's different. I mean, do we go and see the Indiana Coliseum as well when it's empty.
Hugh, It is not a sporting attraction. It's a religious event being on that track.
Okay, okay, we'll give you a half. What's next, I mean, where do we go?
Well, we're going to go to Saint Elmos Steakhouse and we are going to get the shrimp cocktail with a super spicy horse Radish cocktail sauce.
Really, we went from a one day event to a steakhouse for the Indiana attractions. Don't they have a theme park?
Okay, well, we don't need theme parks because what we have is Coliseums of Sport. Next, we're going to go ahead to Lucas Oil and we're gonna go watch the Indianapolis Colts, a wonderful football franchise with a storied history.
And by the way, Philip Rivers is going to transfer to IU and the lower the age of the IU people over there. Let's get the important stuff. Let's get to your podcast this morning. You guys ran the Senate map. You ran the map, and I'm glad you did. My assessment generally concurs with yours, but I am not complacent about Ohio. I have John Houston on the show almost weekly because I'm a buck eye and Sheard Brown basically is a vampire, right He lives in the dark off
of government jobs. He went from Yale right to the state legislature and spent fifty years in the government. And he's not dead yet. We didn't use the garlic. We didn't we didn't get a mirror.
What do you think, Well, that is the grand irony, Hugh, you alluded to it. This guy's never had a real job in his life. But in every campaign ad or campaign stop, you see him without a blazer and his sleeves rolled up. And suddenly people in Ohio seem to think this is a working class man, and of course he's not. And he's far to the left. He's the Bernie Sanders of Ohio. But he's hoodwinked the people of Ohio before, and so we do definitely have to watch that race.
There is no media in Ohio. This is the sad fact that The Inquirer is down to nothing, The Playing Dealer is down to its sports section. They're all left with leaning. There's just no media on that. And I don't know, I'm a little bit worried. We'll keep bringing Houston on.
Now.
The key question of the day, Michael, the Trump administration has a problem in Minnesota. It's a perception problem. The polling is on both sides. People don't want criminal, illegal aliens wore violent in the country, and they don't like what ICE is doing. Does President Trump retreat from Minnesota or does he double down?
I really hope he doubles down. I think retreat would send the wrong message. And it's the lesson that the left learned after twenty twenty is just if they riot and obstruct enough, that will give in. And unfortunately, Joe Biden led in twenty million people into this country illegally, and so it's going to be difficult to undo all of that, and they're hoping that we get discouraged and doing it. I don't say that to disregard the political
optics of this entire thing. It's going to be difficult because the Left is insistent on making it as painful as possible for us. And this tragedy is terrible, right that somebody was shot and killed during this skirmish with ICE agents, But I mean, what is the administration doing to put forward exactly what the ICE agents were doing at the time. Who are the criminals they were arresting. I mean, the perception, I think is that we have
this sort of vacuum. I think on the right of not explaining enough about what ICE is doing and the terrible criminals that they're getting off the streets of Minneapolis.
Let me play for you in it. On the White House lawn this morning, getting a question about Homeland Security Secretary no home cut number ten.
I think he's doing a very good job.
I think he's going a very good job.
The border is totally secure, you know, you forget we had a border that I inherited where millions of people were coming through.
Now that's just all The key part is is she doing a very good job? Do you agree? And do you think he will stay there? Because the President's been known to change his mind rather rapidly.
I think she is doing a great job, and it's easy to look past all the success of this administration has had on the issue of border security. I also noticed that the President is bringing in Tom Homan, and I think bringing in Tom Homan, I think is a good sign that we're getting somebody with a lot of experience to be in there on the ground to make sure the operations are effective. Reminder, Hugh, it was Tom Homan who was given an award by Barack Obama when
he deported a million people. Yeah, right, And so this used to be a bipartisan issue that we got criminal legal aliens off of our streets, but lost their mind during the age of Donald Trump, and hopefully we can reverse some of that now.
Last question, not the president's a great communicator, best interview in America. I hope he does it right along with the fellows on Ruthless podcast before much longer. But not everyone in the White House is a great communicator. Do you think he tends to overlook the deficiencies of his friends?
Wow, that's a really good question, Hugh. It's possible. It's possible. Look, it's difficult when you're dealing with these complicated issues and you have to be out there every single day fighting a media who's against you, a radical left that's well funded and against you, and so yeah, I mean, I definitely think it's a communications issue at some level that we have to be out there proactively telling the story of what this administration is doing to get criminal legal
aliens off the streets. Who are these people? These are people who've trafficked human beings, these are people who are selling drugs, these are pedophiles. I mean, these are people who've done domestic assaults, and instead we're doing this a bruder film on this interaction with the ice officers in this horrible tragedy. And so it feels like, you know, the left has already won the debate by us engaging
with it that way. People who are obstructing justice, people who are obstructing law enforcement from doing their lawful duty to get criminals off the street, shouldn't be anywhere near those cops.
Everybody, go listen to the Ruthless Podcast this morning. They run down the map in twenty twenty six, and you'll want to hear not only Michael, but of course Josh Holmes and Smug and our good friend Ashbrook from Ashbrook from Cincinnati, which is kind of in Ohio's Stay tune in America Ontview. Hi, it's you, Hewett. You've heard me talk a lot about Consumer Cellular, how you can switch your carrier and save money without sacrifice. That's because Consumer
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at the Dispatch. You got a brand new article out on the Texas Senate race, John Cornyn's dilemma and David, First, let's have you recite the facts before I ask him my questions about it, because I got a lot of questions. I'm a corn and backer, I have a Cornyn endorser. I love John Cornyan. But you wrote objectively you always do about the race, tell people about it.
Well, you know, what makes Texas interesting in twenty twenty six is not because I think the Democrats can flip it, although you never rule anything out, but it's highly unlikely.
But what is happening is this Republican primary for Senate.
Where John corn is being challenged by both Ken Paxton, the state attorney general, and Wesley Hunt, a congressman from Houston. And you know, Cornyn is always won easily. I mean, he works really hard, he doesn't take anything for granted, but he's just never really faced a challenge.
He's either at the general election or primary levels.
And as the party has changed, you know, his political standing has just gotten a lot dicier because he's not the sort of combative populist who spends a lot of time on cable news or social media, although he does tweet a lot, and he authors his own posts on x and so he's just he's not stylistically where a lot of Republican primary voters are now, and he's in a.
Real dogfight for his career. Packson has led in most polls. It's been narrow lately, but he's still up narrowly.
And what we think is going to happen is that it's going to be a Ken Paxton, John corn And runoff because Texas has that rule where if you don't get fifty percent plus one, you head to a runoff. So there's a March third primary, it's coming up. There's a May twenty sixth runoff. Just about everybody I talked to and i'm hunt will make the runoff. And these
are lower turnout affairs. They're lower turnout than the actual primary. Now, some people tell me that because they are going to be quite a few runoffs sprinkled throughout the state for various offices, that maybe this runoff.
Won't be as low turnout as normal. But I think the.
Bottom line here is what Cornyn told me when I sat down with him in ol Passo last week, is that his race is going to be a real test for whether and this was his These were his words, whether a normal Texas Texas conservative Republican can.
Win a primary. And I think he's right.
I think it's going to say a lot about where the party is, particularly because Paxton has so many scandals swirling around him that are you know, we say allegations, but I mean these things are pretty well known and pretty documented that it would really say quite a lot if Paxton was able to beat him.
Now, I've sat on the show many times. It won't surprise my listeners. And we're on right now in every major market in Texas right now, John Cornyn is a layup reelection because you can't be more conservative on a voting record than John Corny. You can't support Trump any more than John Cornan has supported President Trump. There is no room to his right. There is only the identity
is combative politics. But in the Senate, where everything is based on seniority, you don't trade in someone at the top of the food chain for someone who will be at the bottom of the food chain and will never get off of the bottom because of his age. So
I don't think Congressman Hunt's going to win. I do think it will be a runoff, and I do think John Cornyan will win easily because I think Texas voters are smart and I don't know, I don't know how much money Ken Paxton is right, they got nothing against Ken. I know all the baggage that you refer to in your article. I know in detail. I'm not going to
trade in it. I just I just think it's absurd to spend the money for the Republicans there, that John Thune's got to spend money of the Senate majority pack defending his buddy John Cornyn, because that's what senators do, and it's going to be John corn eventually, and we're going to waste all this money. How much do you think Corny's going to have to spend in these two races, the March third primary and then the runoff, Right, So.
The pro corn and forces have already spent anywhere from fifty to seventy million dollars, ending on what kind of accounting you're doing, and I think he's going to have to spend another good, you know, twenty five to fifty million dollars to really make his case against Paxton. Because the thing is a lot of voters don't know about the allegations, and this is the this is the only way they're going to beat him, right, because the points you're making about seniority and the fact that his record
actually does match well with President Trump. He has not voted against Trump. The knock on Cornin from voters I talked to in Texas is that, well, you know, when there's been a Democrat In fact, I one voter is in the story, Michael Sheridan is his name, and he said, you know, his voting record with President Trump is quite good. Actually, the problem is when we had Joe Biden or Barack
Obama in office, he got soft. And of course Cornyon's a legislator who occasionally will take tough votes but is trying to do, from his perspective, whatever he can wherever he can. And when Democrats control one branch of government or all branches of government, that just means that unless you're just going to be a blanket no and never be involved, your record is not going to look as good as when Republicans are in full control of the government.
And that's something, however, that a lot of voters. It's not that they can't understand it, you because voters are smart, but they understand.
That Paxton could lose. That's the key. Paxton could lose because you've got so much baggage that will that will turn ay. Voters should just want to avoid the ads that are coming their way against Ken Paxton in November. But if it's Ken Paxton as the nominee, Act Blue will raise I don't know how many millions of dollars, but they'll spend them all in the major media markets just hammering Ken Paxton for the next six months, won't they. Yeah.
So that's the other piece of this is even in a rough midterm cycle, Texas should be fine, but if you have a highly flawed nominee. What Republicans that support Cornyn are saying, and I think there's some truth to this, is that if you end up with not just a rough midterm election, but a rougher the normal midterm election, which is possible at this point, then Texas becomes a little bit less red. And in this case, all of
a sudden, Paxton is not a lock. And on top of it, to make sure he doesn't lose, Republicans are going to have to pour tens of millions of dollars into that race that they could otherwise spend elsewhere. And from the Democratic Party's perspective, I mean they also should be more strategic I think about how they spend their money. But if Paxton's the nominee, then you can't blame them for going after him and seeing if they go off a miracle.
Now that that is the proverbial late developing race that we all know will develop into a neck and neck race, and posters will have whoever their Tasmin Crockett or the other guy, the Presbyterian pastor they'll have. Yeah, they'll have them ahead in every poll because that's what's going to happen. And then more money will pour into Texas and they'll watch even more negative ads about Ken Paxton all because I mean miss as opposed to service to the country.
I really don't understand Ken Paxton or Wesley Hunt here because John Cornyn is this conservative. It's good piece, very good piece by a David Drucker in The Dispatch, which you ought to be reading. It's a fine, fine journal of politics and opinion out of DC The Dispatch dot com. Thank you Drucker.