Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things Hillsdale at Hillsdale dot ed or I encourage you to take advantage of the many free online courses there, and of course I listen to the Hillsdale Dialogue all of them at Hugh for Hillsdale dot com or just goigle Apple iTunes and Hillsdale Welcome back in America. I'm Hugh Hewett. Richard Goldberg as a senior advisor at the Foundation for the Defensive Democracy. He's one of those people actually knows
what he's talking about. On Iran, Richard, I want to start with this story from Iran International Iran Central Bank Warrens' economy may take twelve years to rebuild after the war. How much credibility did you give this report?
Well, it probably has a good deal of credibility. I mean, I think our own back of the envelope has been in the hundreds of billions of dollars of damage done to the economy already on our side. Now, obviously the Iranians, for their own propaganda, might want to try to put out a big number because they've supposedly asked for some sort of reparation.
Payments and negotiations.
But at the same time, Iran International usually gets a hold of some pretty good information, some good intelligues, and so I think if you match that with what they had also reported a few weeks ago of President Pizeski and sending almost a memo to these IRGC officials who've taken charge of the country, saying we can't hold out much longer. The whole economy is on the verge of collapse.
It does paint a much more dire picture of what's going on inside the country for this rum regime than what they would lead us to believe through their cognitive warfare.
Now, Richard, the one thing that makes me uneasy is I used to have friends who knew about the South African regime before it it gave way, and they could have gone to the mattresses. They could have kept their nukes, they could have kept their bank accounts. The Iranian regime has got a lot of money stowed away overseas in shadow accounts and in banking even in the UAE and Dubai. Do we have any plan to cut them off from that money if they don't come to the table.
I think your question couldn't be more timely. It would appear what the administration is doing right now, combined with the blockade on the naval waters, is going from Operation epic Fury to Operation economic Fury. And so a letter apparently was sent just today to the UAE, to Oman, to Hong Kong, and to China and all their banks saying, we know that there's shadow banking. We know you may be holding onto or processing some sort of Iranian funds.
We are watching. We are now on warning. We are going to use the full maximum pressure of our sanctions and cut you off from the United States the minute we have evidence that you are handling their funds. Stop it right now, freeze them in place. We'll see if that has.
A big impact.
That was a big warning letter just sent out in the last few hours. And then on top of that, obviously the lack of imports coming into the country. We focus a lot on the export cutoff of oil, obviously in other exports where they would get revenue, but they can't import either, and so that's also going to create a major balance of payments crisis. The prices inside the country are going skyrocket, hyperinflation going through the roof, even where it already is at the banks, which were already
teetering back in January. We know about we'll have even more pressure on them, and gasoline will not be coming into the country, something that increasingly last year they had to rely on imports for and it actually just cut subsidies on at the end of last year.
So Richard I stayed up late Saturday night waiting for the Vice president to come out and make a statement, very very relieved when it turned out to be Recovic two point zero and not Munich. Are you feeling good right now about where Team Trump is vis a VI the remnants of this regime?
I am if you put aside the cognitive warfare piece that this run regime is very good at. And unfortunately, they have a lot of nodes throughout the United States that can echo and their propaganda, you know, unnamed sources suddenly in the Wall Street Journal or Axios wherever it is, and they can push this out onto social.
Media and you believe that we're losing. Oh my gosh, we're losing. How is this possible?
I think the more accurate assessment is likely what the presidencies, which is a rump regime that has no ability to defend the country anymore is hanging on to remnant offensive capabilities to keep that propaganda going. Is on the verge of an economic collapse potentially if you push them over the edge. So I don't think he would be inclined to say, hey, I'm going to give you back to JCVOA after I've brought you to the brink of collapse.
But at the same time, we probably have a little bit of deficiency in the full intel picture because a lot of people are dead, a lot of other people are hiding, the communication is broken down, and actually having a delegation come to Islamabad and watching them, how they prepared, Who was there, who seems to be the leader, who's in charge? Who do they have to report to when
they go back to Tehran. In the fact that the Vice president said they couldn't make a decision, he had to go back and talk to somebody, he said, the Supreme Leader or somebody in his interview that you just played. So I think we're learning a lot more about the dysfunction inside. Now the bombs have stopped dropping for the moment in the ceasefire, the Iranian side's probably learning a lot more about the devastation that they have actually suffered.
And now with the US Navy through the Strait, alongside a blockade and the crack down on the banks, this is a lot of leverage for the President of the United States to get what he wants at the table.
And Richard, a key player who's not at the table but is in the background is the People's Republic of China. What did they want to see happen? Do you think what is it least acceptable for them to see happen?
Well, two things I would say.
First of all, the Chinese and the Russians have not come to the rescue of the remnant regime.
There's a lot of you know, unnamed sources.
Though there might be a shipment of radar coming, or of air defense or preakers or chemicals for fear Muel, none of that has actually materialized. And from a substantive contribution to saving the regime from the devastation of epic fury, nothing actually was there. So, you know, whatever they thought they were going to rely on from their agreements with the Chinese with the Russians didn't come to fruition. Now, the Chinese obviously have sort of a double edged sword here.
On the one side, They.
Depend on all of the oil and petrochemicals and other imports out of the Golf.
Not just Iran, which is one point five to two million.
Barrels per day of illicit oil exports that they're getting, plus the petrochemicals, but also Saudi Arabia, the UAE, you know, all the players that you would think of. They're importing massive more amounts for their own economy from the Golf.
They can't actually long term.
Sustain the idea of the Strait of Hormuz being shut down or the Iranian somehow being control of their fate and destiny. At the same time, they have been stockpiling for years now with the cheap discounted sanction oil from Iran, from Russia, from Venezuela, and had some sort of runway to try to see if the Iranians could hold on, could we lose control, Could this turnout in their favor where we lose control of the Strait of Hormus.
Now that we have.
Transitioned from epic fury to economic fury and we're imposing our will potentially on the imports and exports out of Iran, the Chinese are now seeing their fate may.
Be in our hands.
They're still going to need the oil to come out of the Strait of horm moves, they still need stability to be restored. But we are now setting the terms, and so if we're able to actually keep this blockade in place, actually be able to dictate the future of the Strait of Hormuz. This is not a good future
for the Chinese. They stand to benefit from us opening the strait and bringing them their own oil out from Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf, but they will, long term, and I think they know this, have a strategic loss in all they've invested in in Tehran.
All right, one minute, Richard, the friends of Iran and any American media are people who at least not enemies of On, are spinning the Lebanon situation wildly. What do we have one minute? What do you understand the situation in Lebanon to be.
Well, Hesbel obviously is the og of the terrorist proxies of the regime in Tehran, and they got into the fight on order of Tehran in the middle of epic fury, and they started launching their missiles and their drones and their rockets at the state of Israel under cover of ceasefire for the last couple of years, since the end of the Biden administration, when when they pushed the Israelis into a ceasefire in Lebanon. Obviously, Iran has been trying
to rebuild Hesbela. The Israelis have incredible intelligence. It appears a massive operation to neutralize hundreds of operatives and officials very quickly. The regime would like to see Hesbela survive. I don't think the United States wants to see that happen. Israel doesn't want to see that happen, and the US is now on Israel's side, working with the government of Lebanon, bringing them to the US to say, work with us to take back your country. We're not giving Lebanon back to Iran.
I hope you are right, Richard Goldberg, thank you for joining me from the Foundation for the Defensive Democracy. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewett. That music means David Druckers in the House. David is the chief political correspondent for the Dispatch. He's also Cammis for Bloomberg. David, you and I are Californians, though we have both fled the state California lost Eric Swalwell this week from the ticket and from their delegation.
Now Ever since Fang Thang, I've known he was not to be trusted, but I just thought he was an average knucklehead. I didn't know he was a predator. Had you ever heard whispers that he was a predator? Ian?
Nothing credible, I mean, nothing that made me feel the need to look into it. The thing about Hugh, the thing about being a reporter in Washington is like I received a rumor of just about everybody in public life at one time or another, and so that's the sort of thing that just happens. So, like you, I was surprised.
I mean, look, I always thought Swalwell was punching above his weight and that he seemed like effective member of the House of Representatives for what his Democratic constituents wanted out of him. But you know, I never saw him as his presidential material if he ran for president in twenty twenty four briefly or twenty twenty one of those, and when he emerged as a top contended for governor
in California, I was somewhat surprised. But you know, talking to some people back there, you know, Democratic voters who you know, really don't I mean, Democratic voters don't like Trump in California. It's like ratchet at up times ten. They liked swollwell because he was so combative versus Trump. So it makes sense in retrospect. But no, no inkling of this.
Okay, let's let's talk about that race. Two people make it through to jungle primary. Republican are kind of hoping that Steve Hilton and the Sheriff of San Bernardino whose name I can't recall, Bianco make it through, but I'm thinking God forbid. But I'm thinking Katie Porter is the one who bounces up. Is there any way Antonio Viragosa or anybody else can catch Katie Porter at this point?
Well, you know, the latest polling I've seen has shown Tom steyerway up there because he's basically, you know, spending the entire GDP of six countries to try and get elected. But it might work in this case. California is not big on retail politics. You know, you and I are
both from there. It's not big on retail politics. It's a huge state and it's all about advertising, and so it kind of makes sense that this is the kind of campaign Stire could finally win with all of his money, and I wonder if instead of Port or some other Democrat can break loose and you know, either give Styre a run for his money or escape into the top two with Stire.
But you know, we're gonna have to see what happens.
Yeah, Dave, one thing you know, and I know from our years and decades in California, there are two organizations that matter, the SCIU Service Employees International Union and the California Teachers Association. And they have the troops, They've got the infantry, they can season old ground, they can turn in the absentees that are left lying around. I'm not saying they cheat. I'm just saying they're very good at
ballot collecting, which is legal in California. Have you seen any indication that either of them has thrown their weight one way or the other.
I haven't, But you know, I haven't followed this race too closely, just with so much else to follow in California.
Just it seems so predictable.
But you know, now it's at least interesting in that Democrats were really in a bind there because they had so many candidates who were convinced that two of them would get into the second round, if you will, that's going to be held on election day in November, that they weren't worried about, you know, clogging the drain there
and allowing two Republicans to slip through instead. And there was a real concern for a while, but nobody would get out of the way, so small wells bad behavior solves that problem for them, And I suspect at some point the players will start to drift in the direction
of somebody. I think what they're waiting to see is, you know, who really emerges as that second tier Democrat or that second Democrat to go catch up to Styre now, or you know, let's see if the polling in the next couple of weeks totally turns upside down and looks differently.
Porter's problem is that she's not likable, she doesn't.
Handle the press well, and she's just not the kind of candidate that people warned to.
There's no charm there, and that's just a big problem for her.
Yeah, domestic violence doesn't go over well with people, and dumping what was it potatoes on her husband ex husband's head, I'm not sure what the story was. I'll have to check it out, but she's not a likable person. She was my congresswoman for a while back in the old day. She replaced eventually a Mimi Walters, who replaced hn Campbell back in the days when I lived in Orange County.
Let me ask you about Styer, though I have very little experience with it, other than the fact I believe his campaign misled the Nixon Library when they wanted to cut an ad there. They said they just wanted to use the backdrop, and as I recall, they actually slam Nixon. So it's kind of sneaky, disgusting. What's your opinion of Styer?
Just look, he's just he's a vanity candidate.
I mean, look, he's been very successful in business, so let me give him his due.
The guy's made a lot of money. It's been very.
Successful, and like a lot of successful people, they somehow decide the best thing they can do with all their money is wasted on a campaign. And so he spent a lot of money running for president, didn't get anywhere, and I mean a lot of money. And now he's spending a lot of money in California running for governor. And now the thing he has going from California in this race is Californians tend to elect boring bland, you know, non charismatic people as their chief executive. I mean Arnold
Schwarzenegger and Ronald Reagan, and I suppose Pat Brown. Notwithstanding, and now I'm really reaching into the way back. You know, we can point to a number of governors Jerry Brown, Pat Brown's side not very charismatic, George Duke Magin. Maybe Pete Wilson was fiery, but it's not like he brought the house down and so on and so forth. So this is sort of a campaign that's made for him.
And again particularly because it's going to be all about advertising, because California is just I'm sure the candidates are doing town halls and stuff, but it's not the kind of It's not like a New.
Hampshire or Georgia or Michigan.
He can named some medium sized states where retail is a big deal.
I'm waiting to see us see you and the teachers. Last question, We have a new story at the Atlantic today. Joe Biden really wanted to pick Gretchen Whitmer to be his vice president, but Black Lives Matter made him pick Kamala Harris. That's nonsense. He picked Kamala Harris. But is this just the beginning of puffery for Gretchen Whitmer.
Well, I don't know, actually, you know, look, Elin Godfrey is a really good reporter, I think, and I haven't read her story yet, but to me, it was very intriguing because I think what is true is that Gretchen witt was a much talked about heavyweight and presumed future presidential candidate, and she's not approaching twenty twenty eight like any of her colleagues, right, Governor Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania, Governor J. B.
Pritzker in Illinois.
I mean, she's really just taken a she's kind of established more of a low profile in her last term here and done a you know and really spent a lot of time trying to be you know, get along with the White House and things like that.
And it's great politics in Michigan, which is a you know, now a quintessential swing state.
But she's not doing the kinds of things that would suggest she's interested in running for president.
So I want to read the story or a comment on it. But I do think she, you know, was a major and could still be a.
Major, rising Democratic figure, and the fact that she's not.
Careading little longer. We shall see.
I wouldn't just say that things went wrong. I also think things went right.
We made a lot of progress, but we also made very clear and I think this is part of.
The progress we made.
What the term was, where the United States could make some accommodation, what terms we were flexible on, and what things we absolutely needed to see in order for the President of the United States to feel like he was getting a good deal.
And morning gloriating in Great America. I'm Hugh Hewett. That was Vice President Vance last night on my guest Brett Bear's program, Special Report. I'll be joining Brett tonight on the panel. Brett, I'm going to go to your interview with the Vice President in just a moment. But first, you're a Master's guy. How did you enjoy the tournament?
Oh?
It was fantastic, you know. I went down with my son Wednesday and then the first round on Thursday, and there's nothing like it, you know, tradition, unlike any other and I thought it was fantastic. The drama and Rory fighting and losing, you know, on Saturday, and then fighting back, and I just thought it was a great, great tournament, and I'm happy that he repeated that's a tough thing to do, and he is a champion.
You know, more of my people are buried in Sanfield, Northern Ireland and County Down than there are here in the state. So I always root for Rory. But he's getting up there and Shuffler was on fire. Did you follow Scotty at all on the first couple of days when he wasn't on fire?
Yeah?
Yeah, And I was surprised that he wasn't at the beginning, but he always seems to be there in the end. And you know, Justin Rose was there as he has been, so there's a lot of people knocking on the door. I played in the a tem t at Tebble Beach a number of years with Russell Henley and so I was kind of pulling for him and he did well, finished third and he at one point had to share of the lead on the back line.
Last golf question, Brett, I do not have a good fix on Justin Rose. He falls into that period of time when I'm not really paying much attention to golf. I'm doing not this stuff and he's forty five years old, but he's getting up there to be as competitive as he is. Does he have a reputation on the tour because he always looks so grim face? But then someone on the one of the announcers said, he's one of the best like guys on the tour.
Oh, everybody loves him. He's a huge, huge favorite down there in Augussa. And if he had won, he would have been a very popular champion. Uh. You know, he's finished second three times twice in the playoff and now you know, he was up the leaderboard this time, so he's a he would be a popular champion. And he's obviously won the US Open, and he's a big factor in the Ryder Cup. So yeah, he still got it. He would be the oldest since Jack Nicholas in eighty six if he did win the mess.
I don't know if you're allowed to answer this, but if you are allowed to answer it, and if you have played Augusta, what's the best round you've shot?
I have played Augusta. I've been fortunate enough to play Augusta, and I believe it or not shot even par Now different key box.
That's dude. I think we should lead with that. All right, Brett, let's go to last night. I have played almost every major except of your interview with the Vice President. Today we get a story from Iran International that Iran Central Bank has warned the economy may take twelve years to rebuild after the war. They're looking at inflation of possibly one hundred and eighty percent unless the ports reopen really quickly.
Do you get the sense that the Vice President is in the catbird seat or the president.
I do think that the leverage is increasing, and it seems like at least the administration saying that they think there will be more in person talks in Islamabad in coming days. Vice President couldn't put it in that down in the interview last night, but between us and the rest of your listeners.
We have.
Had outreach with the Iranians and we've been close to get any Iranan FOM minister on the show and may be able to do that tomorrow. So it seems like they want to send a message as well, and whether that tracks with getting back to the negotia table, we'll see.
Well, you have had the FOI administer on before. He very he's chief like in his eloquence and is a terrific communicator. Do we know did you pick up in prepping for interviewing with the Vice president who is really running the place? I know we've got the story of the five guys, but the political people don't really run that place. It's the generals. Do we have any sense of who the foreign minister speaks for?
Yeah, that's one of the problems. And you heard that in the Vice president's remarks that they had to go back and kind of get approval. It sounds like the IRGC commanders have a lot of a lot of power and that the other politicals do not. But you know, we'll have to see if they do a deal. They're doing a deal as a country, and you know they have to live up to it, which the Runians don't have a great track record of.
Now, the Vice President said, we have to get the nuclear dust. Using President Trump's term, that's a month long, very careful, possibly killing the people who hit the wrong stone and glass and irradiating them sort of excavation. Can you imagine Brett a detailed agreement that would allow us to supervise or superintend that extraction.
It would have to be structured, probably through the iaea, and it would be very complex. In the meantime, you know, the intel folks I'd talked to say, you know, as the President has said publicly, they have a twenty four to seven eye on the sky on where they know it to be and making sure that it's not touched or disrupted in the current state.
Now, you know as well as I do. One of the greatest critiques of the JCPOA was that the inspections it allowed for were not any time, anywhere, no knock knock inspections. They were you had to call up and schedule, and they could decline, and they put off limits large military bases. Do you get the sense from the Vice President that any deal with US has to be anytime, anywhere, no knock inspections.
Yes. I think the story is about the proposals of when they could enrich. The US was at twenty years and the Iranians were at five. You know, I think you're going to end up at fifteen or something. But I think that the inspection part of it was much more rigorous than JCPO read.
Yeah, question would be why would we even allow them to enrich Brett to me, I heard that when he said twenty twenty goes by in a hurry, it won't be my problem. Might be your problem, but it won't be my problem. Why twenty and not never?
That's a good question. You know, if Enrichmond is to enrich to a certain point. You know, we believed them before where they said that they were at twenty percent or medical grade even lower. But you know, and when they hand over a document that says nine hundred pounds at sixty percent that could go to weapons grade nine in a couple of weeks, that's a different animal.
Yeah. All right, I'm foreshadowing what we might be talking about tonight, but I'll relate to you what Richard Goldberg of FTD said in the first hour. We sent a letter today to UAE, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, China, and a couple other places saying we know you've got their shadow funds. Either you freeze them or turn them over to us, or we are going you're going to feel the full fury of our banking sanctions. Have you heard about that yet?
And do you believe I can't believe we do that to UAE, but do you think we would?
Now the UAE has has frozen running funds they just did it a few days ago. So I'm not sure that whether we're talking past each other on the UAE, but I specifically know they have other countries are, I'm told, feeling a lot of pressure on a lot of fronts from the Trump administration, including China ahead of this trip to China that's still on by the President going to
see President Shushi Ping. So I'll be making that trip over to China, and you know, I think that this moment, if you want to read in between Chinese officials, they want to be a part of this solution negotiation, but they are not stepping up on the straightfoar moves as of yet, or to your point, other assets.
When is there so much scheduled for Brett Bear is.
Fourteen to fifteen stuff like that?
So yeah, do you think you think Jimmy lylell be on the plane when you come back.
That would be a big deal if he was. But listen, there's going to be something baked in the cake. They're not going to go over there without deliverables.
That's what That's why I'm hoping it's Jimmy Lake as that would be. It's a low cost give by Jijinping it's a big win for the president and given the Pope Leo the fourteenth back and forth, kind of a double win. Brett Baer, I'm not sure you could be from.
A former altar boy, there could be some detante coming on the Catholic front. I think that might be wise after the last two days.
That's two of us, and we agree. Brett Barrell, see you later tonight on Special Report, Welcome Back to America. I'm Hugh Hewett. On this April fourteenth. I'm pleased to welcome Bethany Mandel back to the program. Bethany. About an hour before the program today, I pre taped a thirty minute interview for next week with Rachel Goldberg Paulin about her book When We See You Again. Have you read it yet?
I have not, but I talked to her, to John, Rachel's husband, I've talked to their family about the book.
It's gut wrenching and it's not a book about grief. It is grief in pages. It's really a remarkable story. Do you think people will be willing to read it?
So?
The testimony of Elie Sharabi, his accounts of being held hostage and coming out of the tunnels of Gaza after being held for over a year to discover that his wife and two children were murdered. That book was a bestseller. What's special about Rachel Goldberg Poland is that she has this American experience because her and John were born and raised here and they moved to Israel as adults, and so she has a way with words in English, it's
her native language. She's such a compelling human and so activating. I'm looking forward to reading it, and I think anyone who's seen her, which is now you know, tens of hundreds of millions of people have as well. Her story is incredible and her her strength is incredible. I was wearing a T shirt the other day that they made
while hers she was being held captive. Hope is mandatory, and that's that's the perspective that she held through that entire you know, almost a year of her husband being or i'm sorry, her son being held captive before he was murdered by Hamas and the tunnels under Rafa.
I had no idea. I kind of no knew because I interviewed Rachel a couple of times that they're very deeply religious. But I didn't understand how interwoven her faith life is with this suffering period. I mean, we've got job Jacob, Isaac and Moses in this speaking directly to Rachel, Did you know that about her?
I did.
She would talk a lot about, you know, starting the day reading Psalms, and you know, every for every day that he was held hostage, she would read the corresponding Psalm. And so if it was day thirty three that he was being held hostage, she would read Psalm thirty three. So this sort of carried her through in their life.
Before the war.
Started, she was working at a Jewish learning organization in Jerusalem, and so this was always such a huge part of their lives, and it's why they decided to move to Israel in the first place, when Hirsh was still a young kid. So I knew that this was a pretty big thing in their lives.
Well, the book is divided into the before and the after, the day that separates them being October seventh. I can't recommend it enough people how to go out and buy it in advance, but it reminded me to ask you when you go to Temple. I didn't know this until I read the book. The Boys and the girls sit on different side with their mothers and their fathers, and there's a part of the service where the father puts their prayer shawl over their boy. Are you familiar with that?
Yeah? Yeah, it's when the Kohenes, the descendants of the priestly class, they're called up for a special ceremony. We actually had a lot of that happen over the holiday of Passover this year, and my kids guilted their dad into coming to Santagogue because he does that with them.
And one of those special things that they say about Hirsh was that even though he wasn't religious anymore, he still went to temple with his dad almost every single week because he didn't want him to sit alone because they were the only two men in their immediate family.
That's in the book, and John's afterward is particularly moving. I just can't recommend this enough, which brings me to my bigger question. You know, we're in the middle of a war with Iran. Iran is responsible for ten to seven I don't feel bad for any IRGC member who gets blown up, but what percentage? Unlike Gaza, which I think is deeply poisoned in the people, I don't think the Iranian people are that way, do you.
I don't know everything that we've heard before the war, and I think one of the most striking stories that we've heard, you know, because we've had basically radio silence from Iran since the war started, but when we lost our airmen for you know, close to forty eight hours, one of the most striking things was the Iranian people went drove on that road that separated Tehran in that region and parked their cars to try to prevent the regime from from accessing those those areas to give the
Americans time to come in and AFT airlift our guy out. So I think that really speaks volumes to you know, the sentiment in Iran about their regime and about what we're doing there.
So does that come through to you in legacy media coverage of this war, which seems to me sometimes to verge on rooting for Iran.
No, it's absolutely not, And it's it's interesting. Someone sent me a clip from Norwegian television earlier today. He's as his son is a classmate of my daughters in an online Jewish school, and so he sent me a clip of something that had just played on television and they were really amping up even in Norway in their mainstream media, this idea that the that the Iranian people are under siege just as much as the regime is, and trying to play that sympathy card in the same way, in
a way that I found to be very disingenuous. So perhaps we should take comfort in the fact that it's not just our mainstream media that's lying to us, it's you know, it's a worldwide problem.
Well, I have her. This is third hand hearsay that Iranians are happy that the bombs were falling in and disappointed that they stopped. Is that consistent with their understanding?
That's what I've anecdotally heard as well. But again it's the same sort of third hand, but I'm hearing that as well.
All right, now, I want to switch back to northern Israel and the Galilee. Do you think people feel safe enough to remove themselves or to move back there? Yet?
Not at all, And it's a significant portion of the
country's that lives up there. I wonder how many of those people will end up returning at all, because you know, since October seventh, that area has been under siege more than most and so you know, I think there's a lot of likelihood that the people who had lives up there have since moved on, who have since decided to live in you know, Jerusalem or modi en or bait schemesher and just sort of pick up their lives and permanently come to this understanding that you know, their homes
might not be you know, salvageable.
Are you at all optimistic about these talks at the State Department? They've never been held before. Lebanon has never sat down in an official capacity with Israel. It's happening today with Marco Rubio at the head of the table. I think it's a big deal, do.
You I do think it's a big deal. I mean I never I never underestimate the negotiating power of the Trump administration, whether it be Witkoff or Jared Kushner or Marco Rubio. They are incredibly skilled at, you know, cutting through the nonsense and and getting agreements made and you know, getting people to understand what's in their best interest. And so, you know, I'm interested to see how this goes. I'm definitely not pessimistic about it.
And have you picked up any kind of hint about what the operation is that Israel pulled off three days ago that Hammered has bela like the beepers.
I haven't, no, no, it's been pretty tight lipped.
Isn't that frustrating? They usually tell us when they do a Superman kind of thing, and now I'm addicted to it.
I know the Israelis are very good at their spycraft. I have to say they don't They keep a secret pretty well over there.
Well, if you hear let me know. Come back a second time once again, though, for the audience, when we see you again, by Rachel Goldberg Pollen. It's available on Amazon for pre order. It comes out in a week. I will play you the interview in a week, and Bethany, I look forward to talking with you about the book after you've had a chance to read it. Don't go anywhere in Maracaby right, lots more coming up, got a lot of good clips for you, and Texas Senator John
Cornyn is coming up too. Right here on the kew Hewitt Show. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt, so please to welcome United States Senator John Cornyn from the great state of Texas. Senator Corny, good to see you. How are you?
Thank you you good, good, Thank you, Senator.
You've got an election coming up, and I want to let the audience know I will be inviting Attorney General Ken Paxson on the show. But if he says yes, I'm going to talk to him about his impeachment, about the fraud charges, about his divorce, about the mont Bloc pen that he has allegedly stolen. We'll talk about it all because I think he's going to lose that Senate seat if he beats you. But I don't think he's going to beat you. Well, Now tell me why you think you're going to win.
Well, First of all, I don't think he'll accept your invitation. He's basically dodged every opportunity to answer hard questions, and I don't expect him to aren't now, But I do expect to win.
I think.
Obviously I'm strong on border security, endorsed by the National Border Patrol Council, which endorsed President Trump and has been there during the disastrous riding open border policies, but now it's steadfastly supporting border security. I've supported the President, as you know, ninety nine point three percent of the time.
So the problem is Paxson has got so much baggage, and for people who are interested in learning more about it, there's a website called crookedkin dot com which details all of the sorts of things that I'm sure you would ask him about if he were to accept your invitation. But I think Texas deserves good representation in the United
States Senate, all thirty two million of us. And I love my job and it's important work, and I have been privileged to do this for some time now, and hopefully they'll give me a chance to do it again.
I like t remind people it's pretty tough to find a former state Supreme Court justice is also a senator. The only trouble is there aren't any scandals at all to talk about with you, Senator Corny, and you've led this kind of square life, so we got nothing to ask you a hard question about. But I do want to ask you about the reconciliation. I just played Leader Thoon saying you're going to do reconciliation for DHS. President dropped a budget of one point five trillion dollars for defense.
I guess the Pentagon wants a two hundred billion dollars supplemental. I'm told by the people in and around the shipbuilding budget that their orders for every shipyard in America in that budget. I think Texas has got a dozen or two dozen of them down there. How much defense spending is going to get into the reconciliation process?
Well, I would support whatever the President asked for because I think we have a lot of catching up to do. What's so amazing is you we've seen the nature of warfare change in Ukraine and now in Iran and the straight up war moves, and we just simply need to catch up. At our defense industrial basis is way too bureaucratic and ossified, and this is dangerous for us. So I'll support the President's request, and if it's a one and a half trillion dollars, I'll support that. But we
need to shake off all this terrible bureaucracy. I think Secretary of Hegseth and the Department of War are trying to do the right thing, but we still have way too many bureaucrats operating in the procurement process in the Pentagon, which slow things down, may make them unaffordable, and are basically exposing us to great danger.
Senaer Krian, you have the most valuable currency in the United States Senate seniority. Do the voters at Texas realize that if they trade you out for a tall Rico, god Forbid or Attorney General Paxton, he'll be number one hundred out of one hundred that they lose all the advantages of that seniority. Is that an argument you can make the voters.
Well, if you do learn a few things the longer you're here, and I've been this is not a place where you can walk into on day one and make
a difference. But for example, when the governor wanted Texas to be reimbursed eleven billion dollars for tact what Texas taxpayers paid to secure the border during the Biden administration's open border policies, he called me, and I worked with all of the Texas delegation and the Speaker and the Majority leader, and we got that done and we'll be presenting that check to the governor the President will sometime in the near future. So I think it's easy to
take that sort of effectiveness for granted. But look, I think the contrast between Tallo Rico and me will be apparent to all.
Tallar Rico is a He's a wolf in.
Sheep's clothing that the press kind of likes him a little bit because he's different because he claims to be a seminarian. Maybe he is, but he's reading a different Bible than I am, claiming God is not binarya there's six genders, and that the Bible approves of abortion. So he's just a classic liberal or progressive in the image of Bernie Sanders and AOC and will expose him as such.
He's a woke wolf, and I don't like wolves to begin with, but I don't like woke wolves, which brings me back to Ken Paxton. You won the primary, Senator, and I haven't seen polling since then. But are all your colleagues going down to Texas's time for you? Because we really cannot afford to pour billions of dollars into Texas. You're a layup. You like the cavaliers against the raptors we need. Are they working for you? Well?
Senatorsune and Senator Scott had been terrific and I've appreciated their support. They recognize what Senator Thune calls the business case for my candidacy because it'll be a whole lot cheaper because Democrats won't pour in hundreds of millions of dollars into Texas to try to elect to Tallerico if I'm the nominee, because that will be a long shot,
to be sure. So I'm very happy with the support I've gotten from our leadership, but more importantly, as you point out, I'm more happy with the support I got from Republican primary voters coming out first out of three
on March third. And so now we need to finish the job for encouraging people to get out and vote in early voting from May the eighteenth through the twenty second, and then on election day runoff day, May the twenty six And of course the people who show up are the ones whose voice and whose vote count.
Last minute center from May eighteenth to twenty second early voting is that by absentee or is it in person?
In person? In person, We'll still have you can still vote by mail if you meet the qualifications.
But we have the.
Most generous voting opportunities in Texas of any state that I'm aware of. So you can show up in person for virtually the whole week before the election, or you can come in the day after Memorial Day, May the twenty sixth, But it's really important to have a good turnout.
You know. I really have come to believe.
That the reason we get such extremes in our November general elections is because there's such poor turnout and participation in the primaries. We had eleven percent of registered voters voting the Republican primary and maybe even less than what.
Off We got to get people out, and we're on in SEMNY stations in Texas. Hear me, get on vote for John Cornyn. And when General Paxson shows up, I'll be sure to play in a few times. Willing to have on, very willing to have one. I know the equal time rules, just don't I hadn't want to come yet. Stay tuned, America. Thank you for listening today, Joined by the editor in chief of National Review, longtime friend Rich Lowry. Rich, I have been listening with a bit of dismay to
the editors over the last few weeks. Why do you think that dismay exist?
I'm sure here you think some of us have been too negative, including perhaps Here's truly.
Yes, I want Noah on every show. I wouldn't know what to have four times as much time, and I want him to be on every show. So I thought we would just start by being fair to each other. What would you put down as the conditions under which you would proclaim Operation Epic Fury to be an unqualified success.
Unqualified would be the fall of the regime, assuming you don't get some sort of disaster where you have a hoopy like urgency threatening the straight or four moves in a different way. But that would be the victory you'd ultimately be hoping for. I don't discount you that that could happen. I doubt it's happening on a schedule highly convenient to us. That's usually just not the world.
The way the.
World works in this regime has survived a lot to this point, but six months from now, twelve months from now, I don't totally discount it. Short of that, I think if you get the highly rich uranium, that's a huge deal. Short of that, I think getting them just to reopen the Strait and getting some sort of a deal to limit their nuclear program at the same time you've eliminated so much of the missile capacity and you kind of wreck their economy, that would be a success as well.
Okay for me, the minimum a minimum is that the Strait has to reopen and until the straight treopen. We have one and I gathered twenty ships went through today. By reopened, I mean the average one and twenty ships a day that we were before the war. That's the minimum baseline because we've wrecked there. But a real win, they have to give us the highly enriched uranium and they have to agree to an inspection regime significantly stronger than the one that the JCPOA had. To me, that's
an almost perfect win. The perfect win. Regime change I can't hope for. I don't think it's realistic. That's up to the people of Iran. They've just murdered thirty five thousand of them. I don't know that I'd be willing to go march in the streets or have my kids go do that. But what if we got to we got the uranium, there are economies a wreck and they've agreed to inspections. Isn't that like the best foreign policy win United States is hadding thirty years.
Yes, So to be clear, what I signed up for at the outside of this war A skeptical of regime change or again doing in our schedule from the air. But if we significantly degraded all this and set back their nuclear program for years.
That was a win for me.
It's the Strait that's been the current goal, and I just think it's a commitment of Anglo American naval policy going back for centuries, for centuries free navigation of the seas. So what Trump was saying at times, and maybe he's just jaw owning people and trying to get help from allies, but it's not our issue. Our crude oil doesn't come through there. The Europeans should take the lead. I thought that all was terrible. Now I like much more what
he's doing now. I think we need to see the Straight reopened again, one way or the other.
Now, let's talk a little bit about NATO. I moderated a panel today with the former National Security Advisor O'Brien, his counterpartner Japan and Prime Minister Marshon of the Australia. Former Prime minister and the PM reminded me nine years ago we had a crisis in the Straight and Australia sent a frigate. I'm really down on NATO, Rich and I've always been in Atlanta, says but I'm beginning to wonder are they really worth it? And that took a lot to move me there. I've never ever doubted that.
But they're wabbly.
Yeah, I mean they're always going to be wobblely, at least compared to us. Look the way I look at it, Hugh, and the grand historical sweep of historical sweeps of things. If you told someone you're going to basically control Europe, Europe is to defer to you on all military matters, Europe's gonna be relatively united, and doing this, you're going to effectively control Germany, which has been at the center of geopolitics on the continent for centuries. And they're all
gonna be happy about that. Any statesman throughout the last five hundred years would.
Say, yeah, give me that deal.
I'll take that.
So I don't think we should underestimate what we have in the form of NATO. But they're highly irritating they. I think they've played this wrong. I think they should help. They have more directly direct at stake than we do in the reopening of the Strait. But on the other hand, you know, we did irritate them unnecessarily, irritates the wrong
word too soft. We freaked them out unnecessarily by talking about taking Greenland by force, which never made any sense, you know, the reports that they're actually were preparing for war.
Yeah, the Danes sent.
The Dane sent a couple of platoons that like a symbolic deployment against their ality.
So it's kind of, you know, we've rubbed them the wrong way unnecessarily. And then they're like, well, you didn't tell us about this in advance, and now you're in the soup with the straight and you want to help, you know, come come talk to us later. Now. I think that's the wrong attitude. I think they should be more willing to help for many reasons, one of which is people like you are having the reaction you are.
Well, Maggie Thatcher is the one that told George H. W. Bush not to go lobbly when nineteen ninety one rolled around. I got a real long memory about the Iranians, and I'm beginning to want you're fifty seven, I'm seventy. I don't know how old MBD is or your other participants know as a kid too, but I don't know if they have quite their emotional reaction about it around. I hate those people, and let me play Marco Rubio Marco Rubio gave voice to my pent up frustration with this
regime last week. Let's play Marco.
These people are lunatics, They are insane. They are religious zelots who can never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon because they have an apocalyptic vision of the future and all of their neighbors know that, by the way, which is why all of their neighbors have been supportive of the efforts you.
This is what I want you to play for MBD. Rich people are nuts. We can't let that push us around.
Yeah, you know who has a similar attitude that we do from our generations? Donald Trump? Right, No one who lived through nineteen seventy nine in nineteen eighty will ever view this regime as benign, as a benign actor, or one that we can truly deal with. So I think, you know, a lot of the commentary is forced into this by Israel or gold into it by Israel. No,
he hates this regime to his core. We have statements going back decades by Donald Trump saying he's going to bomb them, or he's going to seize carg Island or whatever it is. So I think he's totally his hard as totally in the right place on and the subceeded goal is the correct one.
So to put it in rich lowry terms, you always asks the good questions. I think it's a very charming way to do it. Are we better off than we were six weeks ago, a year ago, and five years ago.
With regard to Iran, Yes, we'll be better off if the strait is reopened. I don't think it's a close call with the Straight. Without the Straight reopened, then it's it's a real mixed bag and it's inconclusive.
How about five years ago when Joe Biden was going into the White House and they were looking at another appeaser in a long line a Democratic appeasers.
I mean, Biden was a disaster on every level. So I'd rather to have Trump, you know, a hawk on Iran in office. But we can't.
We can't lose the Straight to them.
That's going to be a historical lot on Trump's record, which is not the most important thing. It's going to be a blow to free navigation of the seas and ultimately to our security and wealth as a country. So that's the thing that just has to be fixed. And if I've found a negative at times last several weeks. That's the main reason.
I would agree. I agree with that. I just don't think it's possible. I can't imagine the United States. I know the president was mad and he posts stuff, but if people just ignored his posts and watch what he does, we're going to reopen the strait. We can't. One of our greatest allies, UAE, I don't know what they do. They have one pipeline. I guess that goes out to the Red Sea. But we have to reopen the strait. It's like a strategic necessity.
Absolutely, Yeah, totally agree with you.
And people focus on the oil, and we have, through hook and crook, made up with some of that oil dethsit which is why we haven't seen a catastrophe on the level that some people have predicted. Excuse me, but there are all sorts of other materials and goods that we get through the straight ufour moves that people aren't focusing as much on. So it has to it has to reopen it. And I think it'd be a national humiliation if we just let Iran control and toll the
straight of her moves. And this is what we have a fifth fleet for Hugh to keep this kind of thing from happening.
All right, now, I want to switch totally on you because you're the Protestant. We don't care what happens with the Pope. I'm the Catholic that says I'd rather it's not happen. But I don't really put much stock in it. MBD is the Catholics. Catholic I really don't put much stock on this rich the trading of statements and posts between a president who's got a political job and a pontiff he's got a religious job. Do you.
I think it's unfortunate.
I had to put a huge amount of stock on it, and it look I think the Pope has been misleading and how he's portrayed what the Bible says about warfare. He cited on Palm Sunday this verse from Isaiah one fifteen. You got blood in your hands, and God's not going to listen to your prayers. That's about a condemnation of the religious.
Practices in Judah.
It's not about Judah waging warfare.
And later on the chapter in the Book of Isaiah, you have the King of Judeah praying to God to smite the Assyrians who are threatening Jerusalem.
And he does so.
The idea that God never listens to the prayers of anyone who ages war, as Pocolio says it, I think is simplistic and reductive. Now just war matters, and I think the Pope should consider when did Trump first talk about hitting ran in the separation and then move down thousands in their own people in the streets.
That's the part that bothers me as a Catholic is that Jimmy la is in jail in China because of the Roman Catholic Church making a bad deal with China. And I haven't seen much from the Vatican about the dead Iranean Rich Lowry I like to agree on that. I'll be listening to the editors whenever it comes out next. Thank you for joining me, follo him on exed Rich Lowry, listen to the editors in stay.
Tuned backb the wedd is honesty that the firing is.
Welcome back America. That's Oasia. If they were inducting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame today, all my bump music coming from inductees today. I'm sure Matt Cotton and he is a big fan of Oasis since he wasn't born when Oasis was out there, Matt, Do you like Oasis.
Qu That's like the soundtrack to my adolescence, that saw wonder Wall right?
There? Are you kidding on? How young do you take me? For you? I didn't just follow off the apple cart.
I think of you as a young man.
That's a compliment, though, that's a compliment. I want to be in with a big assess the past week, which would include Islamabad, an embargo, and a report from the Bank of Tehran that the economy is in collapse in Iran. And I mean collapse collapse. There are republic collapse.
Yeah.
Well, I think it's been a roller coaster the past week. I think that after a potential distraction in Islamabad, the President has settled on what seems to me to be the appropriate policy of blockading the Iranian ports and answering
Iran's hostage taking of the Strait of Hormuz. With American power, we have the power to control our own destiny, and that's what I think the President has done by saying that the US Navy and Central Command will be disallowing ships to go in and out of Iranian ports, just strangling the regime's economy. Which is really the lifeline to the IRGC, the terrorist regime. So I think we had the potential for a bad deal in Islamabab, but that
didn't happen. And I think it didn't happen because the negotiating team, whether it was Jared Kushner or Steve Witkoff or Vice President Vance, saw just how intransigent the Iranians are.
And it's also because.
President Trump and President Trump has been crystal clear for decades he won't allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon. He has not wavered, and he continues to stand strong as we enter this new phase of the conflict.
I agree with all that. I am getting very tired of people telling me what President Trump thinks, and what JD. Vans thinks and what Witcoff think. Have you noticed how many mind readers we have in the analytical community, Matt. They don't deal with events, They deal with what they think people think.
Yeah, it's a case of projection.
You need a team of psychiatrists to study Washington, and they would they would view the analyst community as exhibiting that that delusion of projecting their own fantasies and wish fulfillments onto these Administrative administration players.
You know, it's interesting, Hugh.
Both Kushner and Witkoff participated in the last round of negotiations prior to the beginning of Operation Epic Fury, and I think both of them went in thinking, you know what, there's a deal to be had with the Iranian regime, and they came away, if anything, more skeptical than before. And to hear Steve Witkoff talk about the way in which the Iranians treated him during that round of negotiations is to really see someone listen to someone who is
one of my heroes. One set has been mugged by reality. And I think that's happened to Vice President Vance as well, because in his post negotiation interview he said, look, I may have given advice to the President before the beginning of the operation, but having dealt with the Iranians in Islamabad over the weekend, I can see it's very hard
to make a deal with them. Why is it so hard to make a deal with them, because the Iranian regime, what's left of it, understands that if they were to give up nuclear Enrichmond, the regime really has no reason to exist, and that is what the Iranians are playing for They're playing for survival. We have a whole range of different goals in this operation, but what the Iranian regime is playing for is survival.
Now we achieved a strategic breakthrough, I think of sorts and I hope we have kept Secretary Rubio's clip. Adam can whisper in my ear if we've got it ready to play. But in the meantime, I will ask you about Lebanon. As we speak over at the State Department, a first effort is occurring. A delegation from the government of Lebanon is shitting down with a delegation from the government of Israel. What's that tell you, Matt Kontinetti. That's a fact that's happening.
Well, it tells me that since the beginning of the post October seventh conflicts, the Lebanese government has moved to a position where they understand that Hesbola is a liability, not an asset, and there's a potential for some type of effort to disarm Hezbola by the Lebanese government. Now, I think we have ways to go before we reach that settlement, but it does show I think that like the other Arab states, like the other Gulf states in
the region. Since Operation Epic Fury, Lebanon and the Lebanese government has seen the face of the enemy. They understand that Iran and it's so called Axis of resistance, these terrorist proxies, which include Hesbela Hamas, the Hutis, the militias in Barak and Syria, they are contributing nothing to the Middle East except violence, terror and bloodshed. And so I hope that these negotiations go well, we'll have to We'll have to watch.
That's the very clarity that I think was the breakthrough. Here's Secretary of Rubio last week.
People are lunatics, they are insane, They are religious zelots who can never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon because they have an apocalyptic vision of the future. And all of their neighbors know that, by the way, which is why all of their neighbors have been supportive of the efforts.
Man, That's why I think it was a big win. And when we can get the Secretary of State to say these people are lunatics and everybody knows it, isn't that a win for the world. When we recognize Hitler is Hitler and the people running Iran are crazy.
I think the world is safer when the United States has leaders who can distinguish between good and evil, sane and crazy, who understand the threat from Iran. The threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon, all of the havoc, the economic dislocation, the damage which to civilian infrastructure that Iran has caused during the weeks of Operation Epic Fury, would be magnified to an apocalyptic dimension. If they had a
nuclear weapon. There'd be no opening the Strait of Hormuz, which the United States government is now in the process of doing, if Iran had a nuclear weapon. So we've seen why Iran cannot be allowed to have this nuclear weapon. That doesn't mean the job is done. The strait has to be open, and we have to find a way, either diplomatically or militarily, to guarantee that Iran never produces enriched uranium again. But I think right now we're in a much better place than we were, say a week ago.
Do you think we have to get the six hundred pounds of your enriched uranium to call it a day, Matt or do we need the regime to do something concrete visa be the people of Iran who are held under their boot.
I mean the uranium uranium dust.
As the President has called it and others have called it, is being monitored.
It's underground.
So whether it's we have eyes on it all the time and we just create a circle and no go zone for Iranians around that perimeter, or whether we actually extract it. I mean, I think we have several options. The Pickax Mountain facility, though, is one that I think we have to take very seriously, and someone has to gain entry into it, the United States allowing the IEA to go in there and to monitor it, those are
very important. And opening the straight and not allowing Iran to impede the free flow of commerce on the seas, that is extremely important.
Those two things.
If we achieved both of those goals, combined with the way which we've destroyed the iranium war machine, truly degraded it, I think you then have the conditions, combined with that economic pressure for with the regime to unravel. It will be a process of months, but I think it will happen.
It took three years after Rekovic for the Berlin Wall to fall. I think it might take less time for this regime to fall. After Rekovic two point zero Islamabad Domestic politics, next with Matt Continent, any of the Wall Street Journal, the American enterprises too, don't go anywhere. I'll be right back with Matt on the Hugh Hewitt Show, Welcome Back America. That's Iron Maiden. I don't think Matt Continent he listened to Iron Maiden. He doesn't strike me
as an Iron Maiden kind of guy. Did you listen to Iron Maiden? Matt?
I went to school with a lot of kids wore wearing used Iron Maiden T shirts. Hugh, That's about as close as I got.
I was gonna say, this is definitely not your bowling, Wayne. I want to switch to domestic issues. Last week, little unnoticed because of the news, the President dropped a budget. That budget called for a trillion and a half dollars in defense spending and the most ambitious shipbuilding programs in nineteen fifty five, eighteen warships, sixteen auxiliary ships. What do you think about its chances? Do you think they're going
to use reconciliation? And do you think it was partly in response to our being a naval power very much in the Straits and outside of the Straits right now, in the here and.
Now right well, so much is up in the air with reconciliation, and of course this weekend Capitol Hill will be spent trying to get the shutdown of the DHS resolved. I don't know whether the one and a half trillion dollar defense budget will be through that process as well, though I think they should consider it, because I believe they have two bites of the apple, the reconciliation apple
left you. I think the key question here is what you pointed out with the capacity of our navy, and I would just refer our our audience to that great interview you did with Admiral Mark Montgomery the other day where he was talking about kind of the burn rate of some of these vessels we have operating in the Middle East and then of course in the Caribbean as well, where once the deployment ends they have to go in for maintenance.
And so you don't want to get into a situation.
Where, God forbid, a crisis happens in the Taiwan straight and all of a sudden we have aircraft carriers they're all in dry dock being repaired and can't move to respond to the crisis.
So that is I think the biggest.
And most compelling argument for spending all it takes to expand our naval capacity. We have guaranteed the safe passage of the global commons of airscene space since the end of the Second World War. That's what we're fighting for right now at the Strait of Hormuz. And in order to do that, you need a navy capable of the job.
And that's why I think Congress should move expeditiously to expanding our navy, making sure it has the ships it needs to guarantee the security of commerce and the prosperity of the United States and the world in an event of a crisis.
So I want to close Matt by talking about President Trump's posts, and there have been a few that have been very controversial this week. I don't know why he posts them, but I do know the effect it has. Almost instantly, everyone in my life who has TDS sends me a direct message or a text that says, aren't you finally going to turn on him? Aren't you finally
going to say He's crazy? Don't you feel bad? One guy told me I was in danger of losing my soul because he'd attacked the Pope, and I wasn't attacking him back now. I just got done saying we shouldn't guess at what people's motives are. But do you think he does what he does online in order to remind people who've got TDS offline?
Sometimes I'm not sure why he does what he does.
To be perfectly honest, I think the one thing we know about President Trump is he has no filter, and that's been actually an asset for him politically because he is always very direct about how he feels at any given moment. Sometimes it gets him into trouble, and it's gotten him into trouble with more frequency, I think in the past couple of weeks. But I with President Trump have a very simple rule. Rather than looking at what he says, I look at what he does. He does,
and he's having this conflict with the Pope. I don't think it will benefit anyone, But I'm looking at what he does and in the policy realm and the conflict we are engaged in at the moment with Iran, I believe he's settled on the right policy.
Now. You know, I'm a Catholic, cradle Catholic matt and popes have been have scuffed it up a little bit with presidents forever. We did a lot with this with Francis, We did some of this with Bennett Nick them with John Paul, but not nearly as much. It doesn't matter. It doesn't change the church, it doesn't change the presidency. It sure makes good copy, though. Have you written about it? I wrote about it for Tomorrow's Washington Examiner. Have you written about it yet? Because it's good copy.
It's good copy. I haven't read about it.
I have to say, I do credit the president with originality for calling the Pope soft on crime.
That was new to me, That was new to me, that made me, that made me laugh. I have to admit it. But okay, yeah, it does make for good copy.
And it puts it puts liberals in weird situations. I saw one headline, Hugh where USA Today was saying a Popolio for president, except really, you.
Know, you might you might want to look at some.
Of his positions on the other issues, right, that's the point, United States?
Yeah, May next time I will ask you about axel Rod's theory of Americans electing the opposite temperament, because I'm not sure what the opposite temperament, and President Trump is to find the most boring person in America to be president. At that theory holds, Matt Continety can be followed on x at continenty read in the Wall Street Journal that is free Expressions column, and everything he does over at the American Enterprise Institute. Thank you, Matt. I'll be right
back in America States in my friends. You've probably seen the headlines are worse your latest cell bill, Big wirelesses raising rates again. That means you can be paying more for the same service, or getting pushed into a pricier plan that you simply don't need. That's a right. There's a better way, and it's called Consumer Cellular. Millions of Americans have already made this switching for good reason. Consumer Cellular is consistently ranked number one in customer satisfaction because
they treat you like a customer, not a number. With Consumer Solular, you get flexible, affordable plans to fit your life, not the other way around. No long term contracts, no hidden fees. You can keep your phone and use a new one, So don't let big wireless dictate what you pay. Take control today. Visit Consumer cllular dot com slash Hugh and use the promo code q Hugh your second month for free, or call eight hundred four one one forty four to fifty four again. Remember my code is Hugh.
If you're over fifty listen to this. You can get a single line with unlimited talk texting data for just thirty five dollars. I'm a consumer sellular dot com slash Hugh Welcome back America. I'm Hugh Hewittt. That is Phil Collins, and my guest is James Lyas. Who could not be a more appropriate guest today on the day when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announces its annual inductees. So I'm going to give you a little bit of a minute on each of them. Let's start with Phil
Collins LILEX, what say you interer out? Good choice, bad.
Choice, fantastic choice. He is one of the best drummers in rock and roll.
Imagine if at some point of the sixties the Rolling Stones had said, you know what, We're going to put Charlie Watts, our steady drummer into Mick Jagger spot and Mick Jagger went off to a solo career and the Rolling Stones exploded.
You imagined imagined Richard Starkey taking over for Paul McCartney.
It's about that Phil Collins stepped into the role of the departed singer. The band blew up and became incredibly famous, and good for them. They deserve to make some money. And I was one of the first people to hear in the Air Tonight because unlike most, I bought that album the second it came out because I was a Genesis fan. Phil Collins is also one of the world's greatest collectors of Alamo material, and as a matter of fact, psychic told him that he was reincarnated from the last
person to leave the Alamo before the battle. He donated the whole collections of the Alamo itself. So this magnificent thing that he assembled from all the millions that he got as a pop star ended up benefiting American history for generations to come.
I love Phil Collins.
I would like to tell the audience, by the way, Lilas had no idea we were going to do this segment or talk about these people, So this is just Lilac's being Lilacs. You can hear him on Thursday Night with General Lisimo on the After Show, which is now called Dwayne's World, but you have to join the universe, Part number two, Billy Idol, What say you?
I love Billy Idol, the sneer, the whiplash sneer that buzz.
Cut came out of. You know, he came out of.
A real, actual generations, as they called themselves, a punk band, and he was a genuine pump. But he was too charismatic, and he got glammed up a little bit buffed up, got some good songs and an amazing guitarist and deserved again the hit that he had, iconic eighties look and songs. What I love about Billy Idol is that the last thing I heard from him. There's a new documentary by the way called Billy Idol Should Be Dead. I haven't seen it.
The last thing I saw from him was a Christmas album that Billy.
Was singing, you know, honey, baby is cold outside, and I hope I was hoping that he did it with a particularly malevolent sneer in his voice.
Of malice, you know, the way people are always saying that song is meant to be. But no, he played it completely straight, Billy Idol doing for you know, I can think of worse things I remind.
I get through this list. Number three, Queue up Iron Maiden for people, Adam just a little Iron Maiden, James, what do you think of.
Iron Maiden, Well, one of the earlier hair bands, if you want to say that, fond a whole lot of other guys that came out there.
Put a little bit more hair on print to their hair, put on a little bit more lipstick on there. Well, you got to remember about Iron Maiden. They were one of those groups that didn't just have a logo.
They had a mascot. They had a mascot called Eddie Eddie the Head I think he was called.
It was sort of this cadaverous, leering, ec comics kind of guy that would accompany their antics great stuff.
I wasn't really ever a heavy metal guy because it's too much about you know, hello Satan, let's sit down and have some crumpets. But again, you can't do the history of metal and rock in the eighties without getting the Iron Maiden.
All right, I'm not sure you're gonna have any commentary on Joy Division and New Order.
Oh well, Joy Division, Yeah, Joy Division named after I believe a Hitler organization had handed out prostitutes and then of course.
New Order out of that New Order is one of the greatest.
Bands synth bands, pop band of the era as well distinctive. I think it's Bernard Summers is the guy who's the vocalist. This very dry bass sound. You can always recognize their album Requiem, which I think came out in about nineteen ninety one ninety two, or Nnstory Republic as one of the greatest synthpop records ever.
And I fil turning it out periodically every other year. You'll say, oh, New Order as.
A song and it'll sound like it did twenty years ago. You know, the iconic Blue Monday. And I shouldn't use the word iconic so much, but Blue Monday is one of those songs in my unit's generations, comes on the radio.
I turn it up. It comes on the radio, and my daughter's in the car. She turns it up.
Great, all right, Oasis, Yeah, I don't have much to say about them, all right, Sade Sharde.
Jar Day it was this is this beautiful, gorgeous, hultry, smoky jazz gaming about eighty seven eighty eight, I'd say.
Smooth operator was Is it really pronounced Sunday? I think it's Shardei.
Yeah, oh, I'm saying Mark.
Yeah, I mean beautiful, beautiful voice for romantic sort of the happier person's Chris.
Isaac from the dist out side. Everybody bought her album, everybody made out to it. She deserves to be there. Is it rock? Well, if you want to expand the definition of rock to include sultry, smokey, soft, soulful.
Songs, then sure, Okay.
Luther Van Dross, Yeah, probably.
I don't know as much about him at all, except to say the name I heard is recognizable, and I'd recognize a tune of is or two. But he's one of those guys who probably should have gotten in earlier and getting around to him because he's I believe, predates most of the people were talking about.
Okay, very last one. And I have nothing to say about Wutong Klan, but maybe you do.
I don't have anything this may about them either, and it's just isn't because they're bad.
Some of their stuff is okay. I like it.
I'll NodD around to it, but it's because it comes at a point where I, in my life had stopped paying particular attention as much as i'd before to radio and pop music for two reasons.
One I was getting older. Two, I was finding more stuff that was niche than I ordered that I believed.
And I guess there's a third reason. The music of the you know of my thirties was demonstrably inferior to the music of my topic. So just that I got old, and without question, it got bad, it'd got meritricious, it got stupid.
There was still great stuff to be had, but ill you would have were.
Lucky enough so that our drop off in interest in pop music coincided with the fall of pop music itself.
And that's kind of I got just old. Phil Collins shouldn't have been in in like year three, right, Why did it take so then?
I'm not sure about that.
There's a lot of Yeah, I don't know how many induct a year, but you know, I put zz Top before I put in Phil Collins. Phil Collins is a great drummer, but he's a jazz drummer in so many ways.
He's a great vocalist and that treb. He didn't write a lot of the songs I would have put.
You know, there's so many bands from the sixties, foundational bands.
That I would have put in first I would.
Hermit torments of the Rock Hall of Fame. You're to put in Herman's m.
Yeah, you know, second and second verse same as the first. Not exactly the moskst lyrically invented group out there, but yeah, I would have.
I would have put them in, not because they're better.
But just because I would have laid the foundation for the for the rock and you know, thank you.
It's an evolutionary walk you've got to start, you know that. Do you go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Ever?
No, I haven't been there though.
Oh James, Uh, that's that's the place you and Dwayne should do a uh what are we going on with? Till Colin Lilacs. You can hear him again Thursday night in the after show now called Dwayne's World. Used to be called Dwayne's Road when it was behind outside the paywall. Now it's behind the paywall where the after show used to be. But Lilac's in the Magnificent seven back with Dwayne on Thursday night to say here, thank you, James,