Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things hillsdalet 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 dialogues, all of them at Hugh for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple iTunes and Hillsdale Morning Glory and even Grace America. And here's the Big Weekend pod. I'm Hugh Hewett. Thank you
for listening. Big line up today, John ellis of course with the news items of great import that you may have missed this week. Be following it up with Eli Lake. We'll be talking about Iron, as I will be with Matt Continei and Ben Dominicic as well. Look at a possible, as I said on America Reports yesterday John Roberts, possible that Iron will capitulate and simply say, hey, we're going to open up the kimono, Come get our missiles, come
get our uranium. It's what Kadafi did in two thousand and three December two thousand and three through the spring of two thousand and four, after the invasion of Rock had marched up to Bagdad Kadafi saw what the United States military could do, and he said, okay, out come get all my bad stuff, and we did go and get all of his bad stuff. Could the Iranians make that deal.
I don't know.
I don't think actually a regime is capable of doing that. But could a new regime put a bullet in the back of Himene's head and decide, no, we're not going to go down with this ship.
These people are crazy. Yeah, that's possible, but it.
Would be a new regime, Like there's a new regime in Venezuela that is cooperating with President Trump and the rest of the administration in the transition to something new and something that doesn't threaten the United States or the people of Venezuela. That transition undeterminate yet how long it will go. But I'll talk with all my guests about that today. Plus Japan takes a Chinese shipping boat. We'll start there with John Ellis on this big weekend pod.
Thank you for listening, Glory and even Graves in America. I hope your Valentine's Day weekend is off to a good start. I'm starting the program today with John Allis, founder and editor in chief of News Items, your morning newsletter on everything that's important in the world. Get rid of everything else. You can stick with news items and be well read. John, I had no idea until you sent me the note that we got a little crisis
brewing in the South China Sea. I didn't know that Prime Minister Takaichi had won a thumping, big victory last Sunday, did not know that Japan had seized a Chinese fishing vessel within their exclusive economic zone and China is not happy. How goes that situation, Well.
It's interesting.
I think it's the most important story of the day, and it may, you know, become more important as the day's passed. But if you go back to November, Takeishi was newly installed as the Prime minister. She was asked what would happen if China invaded Taiwan, and she said, Japan could become involved if that were to occur. The
Chinese completely flipped out about that. They said, mind your own business, you know, you have no right to even think that, and they and they put down, you know, some market, you know, tourists from.
China could go to Japan. Whatever.
She then last weekend was elected her party got a two thirds majority in the Diet, which is the Japanese Congress, and you know, she won a landslide victory. And here we are five days later and a Chinese fishing boat is in Japanese water. The Japanese seized the fishing boat and they arrest the captain. And so that's where we're
at right now. But the one thing that President g has simply can't allow is for him to appear week and at the moment he appears weak because the Chinese haven't done anything yet.
So we'll see what.
I would also add to what into her newly elected status.
It's a fairly bold move and one I think that well. I surprised it wasn't on the front page of every major news website.
Now you brought to my attention and I immediately went to see what have we got there? The Lincoln was on patrol in the South China Sea. That George Washington is back in Yakuska in the homeport. We do have a big deck Tripoli US Marine Corps carrying ship out there, and it's a big deck. But we really don't need another crisis in the world right now. With two carriers on their way to off the coast of Iran. So
good heads up on that. Let's go to the good news in your briefing that you sent me Alzheimer's A I'm covered on coffee. I'm not sure I'm covered on language unless high school Latin counts. Let people know about how to ward off Alzheimer's and dementia.
So there are two stories today.
One is that caffeine reduces your risk of Alzheimer's, and it's a huge study conducted over forty three years. Two or three cups of coffee a day, two or three cups of tea a day reduces your risk of inflation of.
It reduces it reduces your risk.
Hope that might be why the number came in today.
Sorry about that reduces your risk of dementia and you know, as I said, it's a huge study. So that was encouraging news, particularly for me because I get up very early in the morning.
And drink a fair amount of coffee.
The second is that if you if you keep engaged intellectually, if you read, if you write, if you do puzzles, you know, if you stay active, if you learn the language, it reduces your risk of dementia by forty percent. So the advice is to start reading, start writing, and start doing puzzles.
And well, I work with Dwayne every day, so I'm covered on the puzzles too. But yeah, one thing they never tell you in these studies on caffeine is I don't know anyone who drinks three cups of coffee. He doesn't drink five cups of coffee. So I'm the five cup of copy a guy day. Does it decline? Did you get to the small print?
I didn't get to the small print.
I was so excited about the first paragraph that I didn't read it anymore.
Now you have to explain to me the AI story you sent me, because the numbers are mind boggling on the speed with which AI can compute or likely to compute in the next twenty years.
Yeah, there's a research group called METR and they built a simple model for forecasting when AI will automate AI development. Okay, so essentially the AI will wrote write the code, and at current rate I'm going to quote from the research article, at current rates of compute growth and algorithmic progress, this model's median prediction is ninety nine percent automation of AI R and D in late twenty thirty two, So six years from today, all code, all AI code, will be written by AI.
And that is.
That it has enormously positive implications because if genetics is code as well, there are four letters and three billion base pairs, So if your AI is able to write that code, then we'll have a much better understanding of every disease. It will be astonishing. On the other hand, there are no guardrails to code writing code. There's no structure, there's no salt talk if you will, that that nations all agree on and how it should develop. So it could be that the machines win.
In the absence of an agreement, everyone goes fast as you can, which may lead to why people are so gloomy. The poll that you brought from Pew about the percentage of US adults who anticipate living high quality lives in five years down to under sixty percent. I find that astonishing.
John ellis, Yeah, it was actually a gallup pole. But they've been, you know, they've been tracking this forever, and it is truly discouraging because people in the US are you know, discouraged, and the younger they are, the more discouraged they are. So it's something that needs to be turned around or else we're in a lot more trouble than we.
Think we are.
Is exuberance always been lower among the younger than it has been among the middle aged because they are uncertainty? Or is it something that is precipitously declining with gen alpha.
It's declining. It's not that it's precipitously declining. It's that the steady decline has full en off a couple of stairs instead.
Of one stair at a time I got my books. Discouraging the Pew Pole does not surprise me. That's the low confidence in journalism to act in the best interest in public Fifty seven percent express low confidence in journalism when it comes to acting in the public interest.
I kind of actually surprised it's that high.
John Well, I think you know this is not this is not news, right, I mean, we've been watching this trend for a long time, uh, and you know that it's I think the reason that it's not higher is it because people have found their own news sources, which they quite like, right. I mean people who listen to Hugh hewittt like the Hugh Hewitt Show. So from from their point of view, you know, the news media isn't
a bad thing. But I think big news media organizations, the major broadcast networks, the major cable organizations measure what we used to call newspapers, are suffering a crisis of confidence.
But that's you know, that's not news.
That's yeah, you've got tens of thousands, You've got tens of thousands of subscribers to news items.
I am among them.
Do they ever do you ever get feedback from them why they have confidence and news items? Because I think it's because you cover the waterfront quickly, but I'm not sure.
I think, I mean, I think the.
Key to our success, such as it is, is that in eight minutes, you get a lot of information that is you know, vetted, and that brings to your attention stuff that you might not otherwise see. I mean, the basic premises, We read it all so you don't have to, and then we make the decisions as to what is most important.
And people like.
That because it's you know, they can get a pretty broad picture in eight minutes and.
Then they can get on with their day.
All right, last story you sent me, Switzerland is joining the anti immigrant maybe joining the anti immigrant wave. They're going to hold a referendum. I'm not sure when it's going to be on whether or not to admit more people.
Details, yeah, details are that the current population is nine million. There's a strong conservative movement in Switzerland that has gathered the signatures to put a petition, put a referendum essentially on the ballot to say, look, we're going to cap the population of Switzerland at ten millions so that we're not overrun by immigration. And it's an important vote. Switzerland is not part of the EU, but it is indicative I think of a very strong reaction to immigration across Europe.
And as the climate gets worse in the upper part of Africa and stuff, and as the political climate deteriorates in the Middle East, more and more people are going to want you moved to Europe. And so Switzerland has said nope, quartering to go ten millions the number and that's it.
And Italy deployed its navy today saying stop introduce all shipping from Africa. So it is not just the Swist's everywhere. John Ellis from news Items, Thank you. If you want news items, just go to Google news items. Sean Ellis substack and you'll find it. Thank you, John, I'll be right.
Welcome back to America.
I'm Hugh Hewett, joined now by Eli Lake of the Free Press, where he was writing about the Kurds inside of Iran today. Eli, good to see you. Follow Eli at x on exit Eli Lake. Yesterday, the President said if negotiations don't work, there will be severe trauma for Iran, and that they have about a month or zo to make them work. I note before we start that Kadaffi in fact capitulated in late two thousand and three, early two thousand or opened up as Kaimano. Take my nuclear stuff,
take my chemical take my skates. That's really the only choice that I think the Iranians have other than getting hammered again.
What do you think, Well, I agree with you.
I think it's slightly different than what happened with Kadaffi. Kadaffi was responding to the invasion of Iraq and the coalition that George W. Bush had put together, and this was pursued discreetly. There was no announcement of it until there was a deal. It was done first through intelligence, and it was done very quietly. This time it's a little different. We we know that we had Midnight Hammer last June and the Iranian people, which were we began
the year with that front and center. I think, you know are we're We're in the beginning stages. My hope is that we are in the beginning stages of a revolution that will finally topple the Islamic Republic. In this respect, Trump is basically offering a kind of lifeline, albeit a godfather offer, sort of light fline. If you disarm and you do all these things which are definitely in the
US national interest, we will let you survive. But the problem is he began twenty twenty six by promising to come to the aid of the Iranian people who've already died in the tens of thousands at the hands of this vicious regime. So I have mixed feelings about them. Where we are at this moment, I have very.
Clear feeling eli, which is, if the President follows through, he will have done what he promised to do, meaning if he attacks Iran, or if they totally capitulate and Hamani is gone and his son is gone and there's a general in charge, it's.
Possible, it is not likely.
And then I think it is very likely that he's going to hammer Iran, but that as Admiral Montgomery explained on this program on Monday, he's going to do it after making sure we're it's defended as we can be wherever we are vulnerable. And I don't I don't know if they'll be Serbia like or Libya like in terms of our pounding of him, but it's going to be big, and I think it's going to be within a month to two months.
Well, this is again I want to What I want to say though, is that what bought. What concerns me is that he has it seems that he has dropped the condition that you can't kill the Iranians who are protesting the regime.
That's the problem.
They did kill in the tens of thousands, lots of they defied his redline. And if there is a final deal, I have not heard any I mean, it could be that that's in the deal, but we haven't heard.
When Trump talks.
About the deal, he talks about nuclear he talks about missiles. He meets with net and Yahoo, but we don't hear. And we talked about the terror proxies, but what about the executions, what about you know, the Iranian people and Ultimately, I think the end goal has to be the end of the regime.
Well, I give you that.
I'm not gonna I agree, but el I've heard a lot of people talking about this. We won't know how well Trump has pulled this off until it's over.
It's like Sophocle.
He will not know how good the day has been until the sun is set, and we want the sun doesn't set on this drama for a while. So I'm I don't think he can bring those people back to life. I don't blame them that the regime killed them and they've been killing people for forty seven years. But I do think we got to give him a chance to do what he said he would do, and by by upping the any with terror, with the missiles on the table, they're not going to give up their missiles, are they?
Well?
Agree that now you're getting into something else, which is that can they accept the offer? Are they motivated by a kind of regime death wish? I believe they are. I think they're apocalyptic. And then the second thing is is that it's absolutely prudent to want to make sure that.
You have the innerset.
Actors in place and the military positioning in place to absorb any kind of barrages that the Iranians will launch after an attack. All of that's true, and I hope and that there's a lot of coordination I assume there is between the Mosad and our military and the CIA to find out exactly where them as the launchers are and to make sure maybe we get them before they
can fire them off. All that's great, but I just want to stress it's not a judgment, because I think you're right, we have to judge this until we can't judge until it's over. I'm throwing one red flag, though, is that the regime was cratering. They had lost popular legitimacy. Even the Chancellor of Germany said they're in their final months or days.
At this point.
Even the act of negotiations is reflected back to the Iranian people, see America will abandon you. And that's the part of it that doesn't sit well with me. I understand that he's trying to do it without war. That's always admirable, but then why make a promise that you didn't deliver on When they did that, now you know again it could be one of these things where he said that that was where his heart was. And then he's briefed, listen, we don't have the interceptors in place.
We've got to move these assets into the Persian golf. That's going to take some time. I understand that. And in the end history will judge him by the final result, not by what maybe happens in the interim. But just right now, where is that original demand, stop killing your own people?
Moas we hold all the cards, they have zero leverage.
They can't deliver that now. I mean, I think he was actually trying to protect those people. I think he was trying to tell their regime not to do that. And the regime did it, and they did something I didn't think possible. They out Chinese the tannem and square thing. They went three times and square, and I didn't think we'd ever see that done in the daylight or at
nighttime or without the internet. So they have done the worst that they could possibly And now it's made it harder because the IRGC can't really lay down its arms, can they are the people will? I asked the Crown Prince that this on Monday, how do you stop the reprisals if the regime falls? And he says, they think they can. I don't think he can.
Do you.
I hope he can.
I think there was I think in I think reprisals in the situation, and it's been building I'd say since seventy nine, are inevitable. I mean, there reprisals. As we know in Romania, it's very rare that you don't get reprisals when you have a regime this violent, repressive finally topple.
But they do have to go.
And I'm just worried that even if we got a great deal on all the things we wanted, the survival of the regime is still in my view of failure.
Well, I agree, but I don't think. I don't think that's possible.
Eli.
Yeah, because if that is, then trumps gerald in a way it would be as it would be a historic failure. It would haunt his presidency if he collapses.
Yep.
Yes, And I think the good The difference between Trump and Obama, there's been a lot of these comparisons, is that Trump understands that you can never go into a negotiation wanting the deal more than the other side. So he's shown before he is willing to say to walk away and say I'm not going to play games anymore. That was something that was Obama's big weakness. He at the end of it, he just wanted any deal and he got a very bad one. So I don't think Trump will agree to a bad deal in terms of
our US interest. I just want him to understand that even if what he thinks is a good dealer, the AD either says a good deal, it can't be a good deal until we see a new regime in Iran.
Yeah, and I agree. And if you ever played Jackson Open, trust the Wynn poker. H the Iranians doing Jackson Open. They can't open. Yeah, I mean they can't write and so yeah, So I hope we're there. I never seen Well keep talking about it every week because Eli and I have gotten there's no other story that's important in the world. Maybe the Chinese fishing boat, the Japanese cities this morning, but all other story is this close. Stay
tuned in America. Thank you, Eli Lake, follow him at Eli Lake, and read them in the Free Press.
Stay tune. Welcome back to America.
I'm Hugh Hewett, joined now by Wall Street Journal columnist Matt Continetti. Matt also has domestic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, and in his column this week for the Journal, he was talking domestic policy. He said, the Republicans need three things before November. Sustained economic growth. I think I'm going to give a check to that. Given the inflation number and job number this week, they need to have a put the Democrats on their feet with
a pivotal moment towards the end. Don't know if that's going to happen, and they need presidential barnstorming, which I think is going to happen. Matt Continetti, do you agree with me first on the fact that sustained economic growth appears to be in the in the offering for as long as we can.
See, Absolutely, Hugh. I mean, this administration has a great story to tell on the economy. The very simply, jobs are above expectations and inflation is below expectations, and slowly but surely, the American economy and the American worker is gaining back the ground that we lost during the Biden era.
I think Biden doug about a three thousand dollars hole in living standards, and with the latest data, I think the administration is saying we're up to about fifteen hundred dollars back into the filling it back up, so that means we're halfway there to where we're starting to really feel that we're making progress again on the economy. And so it's very important for the administration to highlight all
of this good economic news. I think President Trump has been trying to do that in recent weeks, trying to get the story back onto the economy. You notice that he's not holding as many press conferences with foreign leaders, for example, and the travel he's done in recent weeks has emphasized affordability. He needs to keep that up through the election.
He has also made the Secretary of the Treasury a regular fixture on the Evening and News and the Sunday shows. And I think Scott Besson deserves headline billing because he's very good at this better than you know. I mean, Williami Simon was pretty good, James Baker was very calm and poised. I'm sure Hamilton was witty. But he is our new Secretary of the Treasury, is a very funny man, and he's got good news to tell. I think they can't keep them out there enough.
Yeah, this Secretary Beson's a great ambassador for the administration, and he made the rounds today with the latest inflation numbers. You know, this has been the story of the Trump presidency so far, is that the tariffs aren't showing up in the overall inflation data, and so the economic cost of the tariffs and the tariffs are attacks, so there's
always a cost is showing itself in other ways. And so Secretary of Besting can say, look, inflation is lower than expected, and meanwhile GDP growth is above expectations, quite considerable growth coming out of the last quarter. And the job a situation, the job picture in January was really out of left field in terms of the jobs created. And so that's a great story any administration wants to have.
Now it's not enough, i think for the midterms, because if you recall, the economy was going gangbusters in twenty eighteen as well, and in fact, at that time, the economy was President Trump's best issue. He had high ratings on the economy, which he does not enjoy today. But in twenty eighteen, you had a growing economy, you had
Trump being rated very highly on the economy. The Democrats still won the House of Representatives, so that's where that second item in my list comes in a dramatic event. Something that puts the Democrats on their heels and allows Trump and the rep Republicans to display leadership and vision late in the election is critical, I think for Republican performance in the campaign.
Matt Contney, this will carry over into the break, So I encourage everyone to go and listen to the Big Weekend pod as well to hear the second part of this, and then Matt will be buck on the other side.
Would you think that either one.
Or two retirements on the Supreme Court this June or early July would or even announced earlier, would set the Republicans up for an enthusiasm burst. You can't get a higher one hundred percent turnout and the Democrats are there. So what do you think a Supreme Court vacancy or two would do for the GOP?
Well, I do think of vacancy and a fight over the Supreme Court would be something that could mobilize Republican voters in the fall and add to their enthusiasm. And
we have historical president for this. Again, I'll go back to the twenty eighteen example, Hugh, the Kavanaugh hearings and the way in which now Justice Kavanaugh was treated by the mainstream media and buy the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee infuriated Republicans and to I think, really defend Trump and go out and support Republican Senate candidates in twenty eighteen, I think the Kavanar hearings are a reason that Republicans held on to the Senate despite losing the
House in twenty eighteen. And so fight over the Constitution, a fight over jurisprudence about what type of direction we want the country to go in, that is something that would galvanize Republican views. And it's a consideration I think politically, though, I think the Justices make their decisions on different considerations.
Oh they do, and yeah, we don't know. And I'm not saying they should go. It's up to two justices and their spouses. But I'll be back with Matt Continentty to talk about some sacred saws that can be added to that during the burk. I'm back with Matt Continety
in the bridge segment between our two over the year segments. Matt, I've been peddling the idea that if you really want to make Democrats stand up and go crazy, President Trump would nominate either for a retirement by Justice Thomas or win by Justice Alito.
Eileen Cannon, the.
Astute judge from South Florida who ruled correctly that Jack Smith had no constitutional warrant for the position he was in. How do you think Democrats would respond to Judge Cannon's nomination?
Well, they go gaga. There's no question about that. I mean, let's not forget the Democrats will pose any Supreme Court nominee that President Trump throws up. And that's why people should be wondering about the prospect of potential retirement among a Republican appointed justice at the end of this term. Because say that the election does go overwhelmingly in the Democrats' direction and they win not just the House but also
the Senate. I happen to think Democratic victory in the Senate is unlikely at the moment, but let's just say it happens. Well, that means that President Trump will get no Supreme Court appointments for the rest.
No judicial appointments, Matt, I don't.
Probably no cabinet appointments either, right right, it will stop. So so that's a you know, that's a consideration. And again I'm not sure that justice is thinking those terms, and so as a Canon nomination I think would galvanize Republicans, it would galvanize Democrats. Let's remember, you know, Judge Cannon was also I think involved in striking down the Biden vaccine mandate which was unconstitutional as well and the mask
the mask mandate on planes. So she has I think of you, of freedom, individual liberty that many Conservatives would support if she were nominated to the High Court.
And there are lots about Judge Strauss up there in minnesot Cold Land. There's Mulsa Bar in Kentucky. There's David Hoe, Judge Hoe down in Texas. There are a lot of great first term Trump judges who have added six years to their resumes on the Appeals Court bench. I'm just toying with the Eileen Cannon, but any of them would ignite the Republicans, I think because Democrats could I guess there's a question, and I don't want to give you
an answer in the form of a question. Could the Democrats resist the bait Matt and not trash a nominee.
No, no, you is the Democrats can't resist any bait right now. I mean, look at what they're shutting down the government again this weekend, even though ICE is already funded. So we're having a second government shutdown, partial affected the Department of Homeland Security, which just happens to include besides ICE, FEMA, the Coast Guard, and the TEMP Transportation Security Authority TSA. And the Democrats are doing it why because of their
left wing base. It's demanding resistance to Trump at all costs, and that means taking grabbing any date that they see before it.
We'd have code pink twenty four to seven throughout a nomination process. And that's a promise, not a prediction. I'll be right back when Matt Connetty stay tuned. Clargan back in America. I'm huit joined by Matt Connetti. He had AEI in the Wall Street Journal. Matt, time to turn to Iran. I was talking with Eli Lake before you joined us about how long the president has to settle debts, and I think he is indebted to the people of Iran.
I think he made promises.
The Crown Prince of Iran was on this program Monday and said President Trump promised help is on the way. So unless they capitulate like Kaddafi did in two thousand and three and four, and that would probably mean the general's removing Hamini and someone something like that, which I can't imagine. Trump has to hit them very, very hard, or it's a shadow over his entire presidency. Do you agree with that assessment?
Well, I do agree that if Trump fails to enforce the red line that he drew, it will affect the rest of his presidency, not just in the way that we think about his presidential performance, but it will affect the way that America's adversaries see President Trump see our position in the world. You know, the deterrent is a
capability plus the will to use it. And if President Trump ends up not having the will to use our capabilities to enforce the lines he drew, that is, don't kill your own people, stop enriching uranium, and limit your ballistic missiles, and no longer support these terrorist proxies, then it won't just be the Mullahs that take notice. It will also be Vladimir Putin. It will also be Shi Jimping in the People's Republic of China, Kim Jong Lunan
in North Korea. They'll all see an opportunity and they'll begin to probe America's defenses. I think it's very important that President Trump enforced the Redline, and I think what we're seeing now, Hugh, is America moving our assets into position. Kind of Remember, it's capability plus will. So if the will is there, that means we have to have the capability, not just the capability to strike Iran, but also the capability to defend against a raring and retaliation. That takes time.
And we were having the second aircraft carrier now moving to the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea. That will take time. And in the meantime, of course, we're replenishing our air defenses and putting other offensive platforms into the region as well. So I think this will play out
over the coming weeks. President Trump this week said that, you know, a month or so, that probably just around the amount of time it takes for that second carrier, which I believe is the Ford Carrier Group, the largest carrier in the world, to get in place, and for everyone there on board and in the affiliate vessels to have operational readiness.
That's right.
Admiral Montgomery brought me up as a civilian this week. He said, takes the two weeks after a carrier arrives on station to get operationally ready to do what they really want to do if they can, if they have the time to take. They want to take the time to get ready.
So he said a month or.
So yesterday on Thursday, and I take that strategic confusion again. He said everything, but he's also last question on I run. I want to go to Japan and China. I think what he's created are the conditions for what Admiral Montgomery called strategic confusion, not ambiguity, but confusion. And we really can't we really can't judge what he's done here until it's over. And I'm going to stick to that point.
We don't really know if he's erased the redline or not, or he's gone Obama or not until those ships are withdrawn.
I agree.
I agree that Trump always leaves his options open. Trump would prefer a deal. He's asking things that this Iranian government, this deacratic dictatorship that has waged war against the United States since it came to power in nineteen seventy nine, they're not going to agree to it. And so the moment of decision will come, but it might not come for a few more weeks.
Did you play poker as a young man? Now, have you ever played jack? So open trips to win.
I've played a few hands of poker, but I'm not going to Blackjack is more my game.
Hugh, Well, Jackson opened, even though the odds.
Are against him blackjack, blackjack, I still prefer it poker for whatever reason.
Well so do I, and that's the only thing I know how to play, So that's why I prefer it. I'd lose at blackjack, but Jack's to open. The Iranians don't have jacks. They don't have anything they can give or their regime will collapse. And so either the generals, I think it's really the generals do it, or we do it now. Matt earlier today, John Ellis brought me up to be on this. Japan sees a Chinese fishing but within their exclusive economic zone. We do not have
a carrier in the South China Sea. We do have a big deck. The Tripoli is there that George Washington is in Yokuska. They're homeport in Japan, but they're not patrolling right now. They were patrolling until December. Do you think, I mean, what do you think is the worst case scenario for China Japan right now.
Well, the worst case is always a conflict between these two powers that would drag in the United States, obviously, because of our very important alliance with Japan. You know, the Chinese so called fishing fleets have been harassing our
allies for over a decade. What's interesting here is, you know, the Japanese Prime Minister Hue Prime Minister Takeichi just had a tremendous victory in the Japanese Parliament and has done one of the largest majorities ever enjoyed by her party, the ld which has been the ruling party of Japan
since the Second World War. And of course Takeichi is disliked intensely by Beijing because she is a Japanese nationalist, because she is a strong supporter of the Democratic governor government in Taiwan, and because she believes that Japan needs to re arm and expand its defenses. It already has defenses, and we help with them. And so I wonder whether this probing by the Chinese fishing vessel was a part
of a test of Takeiichi to kind of remind her. Interesting, even though she has this tremendous political victory, that she still has to watch out for the CCP.
I don't think she I think I'm not sure I can call her Asia's Thatcher yet. But she is a China Hawk, and I can't imagine that she's going to go wildly do you imagine? I just don't see it happening.
No, she's not you know Thatcher as an Iron Lady. Takiichi is the Iron Maiden because she used to play drums in a metal band. Oh, she's a fascinating Yes, she's a fascinating figure. She spent time in the United States, and you know she was a protege of Shinzo Abbe, who is very much in Shinzo Abbe's mold, someone who believes in Japan's power, strength, wants to re energize the
Japanese economy. And of course Abe had a tremendously important relationship with Trump, and I think Takeiichi and Trump are on the way to re establishing that type of personal friendship that strengthens the alliance.
In the second watch that space. Wait the Iron Maiden would be terrific. Wait the Iron Lady and the Iron Maiden. That's a good one. Matt Conteney, thank you. As always follow Matt Tad continenty on Accent in the Wall Street Journal and over at AEI and come right back here on.
The Huge Show. Hiight you, Hewett. You've heard me talk a lot.
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Is you.
Morning loraining engrace in America? I'm to hear it?
Joined by Ben dominic Is, the host of the Big Ben Pod. And you ought to be listening to Big Ben Pod this week you would have heard is America? Is Trump Losing America? And a long conversation about a novel with a novelist, which I found very interesting, though I don't read novels very often. Ben Dominicic, welcome. I have a completely unexpected turn. Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition. But Ben, when you show up, nobody but I know that I can ask you about sports?
Right? Are you an NBA fan?
I am, but I paid more attention to basically once the playoffs start, especially at this particular moment. I mean, I'll wait for your question, but especially at this time of year when you see so many teams tanking well this time of.
Year is also when you see teams going all in.
And the Cavaliers, my club has been since they got started in the seventies, they've only won once twenty sixteen, been ten years, and they went all in, trading Darius Garland for the Beard James Harden, and Cleveland is on fire.
Ben.
He made his home debut against the Wizards, the hapless Wizards who are thanking, and he's lit up the first three games. And I just want to know what you think of the Beard because Cleveland and I am now in love with the guy and I've kind of all he's been a West guy mostly. He was with Philadelphia and Brooklyn for a while, but mostly it was thunder and rockets and stuff like that. Now the Clippers, what do you think of the Beard?
Well, first of all, I have to say it's a bold statement to say Cleveland is on fire. I'm giving it some context. No, you went on fire. And the truth is I am actually a longtime fan of James Harden. Oh who is who I has gotten to see multiple times, you know, in person, and look, the truth is that his limitation has always been a physical one and not a mental one. He's a very smart player, and when
he wants to get going, he can get going. And the real question is just whether you know he's able to hold up once you get to the playoffs, because I think that this is you know, look, this is a moment where there's a lot of action in the East and there's a lot of things that I think that the you know, people frankly are disappointed in how Orlando has turned out. They're disappointed, and you know a number of different clubs that they thought would be doing better.
And I think that, you know, this could be a year where you have a team surprise and breakthrough. And as for the Wizards, yes, they are definitely tanking, though the Anthony Davis and Trey Young acquisitions are ones that make me hopeful if they are able to stay healthy, and that is an incredible heavy.
If so that's when they when Darius Garland got traded, everyone was saying, oh lucky, he's ten years younger than hard and maybe the young man doesn't play, he's hurt all the time because he's small.
You can't yeah, no, he's not. And you can't evaluate a player on hope. You know, I'm sure only had plenty of them come through in Washington who you evaluate that way, and you just have to at a certain point you have to say, are we serious about this or not? And so I like the hard and move and I think that there is an opportunity here, perhaps in the East to really, you know, make make some noise in the year when certain places have underperformed expectation.
So let me that's my first step on the diving board is step number two about sports. Cleveland is very excited about this. The Guardians have got said, you know, we have the Browns, and the Browns are disaster, but they got a new coach. But they're very excited. And it brings me back to the Washington Post's decision to close their sports page. Now, if they really want to reinvigorate the paper, they have to reverse that decision, don't they.
I mean, I pay to Cleveland dot Com a ridiculous am I remember about this for Fox News this week.
I subscribe to them.
I get their verticals on the calves of the Browns, Ohio State and the Guardians. The only way the Post can actually turn it around is to go heavy into Washington DC sports.
There. They even have the University of Maryland in the Big Ten.
Now they've got George, they got hoops, they got UVA planning for maybe getting in James Madison looks like it's interesting. What do you think then do they change their mind?
I think that there's I think there are two things that have to happen. One is I actually think they need to expand you mentioned James Madison. The Washington Post is for years essentially treated anything that's outside of Northern Virginia as if it's a foreign country. You know, they didn't they didn't cover Virginia Tech as as much as they should have.
They don't.
They'll cover what goes on with you know, when UVA was something that was a little bit of an exception because it's a basketball tem But the truth is that, you know, when the jam you run was happening, they did almost nothing in terms of their coverage of it because they're more they were more addicted to these stories. And and Andrew Styles over at the Free Beacon did a fantastic roundup of like of like twelve of them that over the past couple of years that are just
ridiculous injections of politics into sports. So I think you have to step one is you have to expand you have to cover these different teams that are outside of the of the Beltway area. But you also, I think, have to be serious about we are in the business of sporting news. We are talking about the games, we were talking about the trades, we were talking about what's going on. We are not using sports as a lens to look into the American psyche as it relates to gender and sex and raise.
They're doing fan service. They need to do fan service.
That's and not the kind of fans who don't care about sports, but they've basically been catering to for the last several years. And it's why this decision was easy, because essentially you're killing in an opinion section which is expensive to run, and that's something that I think that they need to understand in order to move forward and look, I think that that would be an enormous benefit to the Posts and to having the paper set on a
good role going forward. They need to appreciate how important this is. And I will say one more thing, and I say this with all due respect our British friends, there's been you know, a real importation from the UK, including in the in the Post, you know, in terms of their in terms of their leading folks and across media generally, a lot of folks have come over in the last couple of years. One thing that they don't
get American sports. And that's something that I think that they don't quite rock as much as they ought to as something that was a centerpiece of American discourse. But they have to change the approach that has been used by these lefties who just wanted to I mean, I don't know if you've seen this today, even Sarah Spain, you know, going after jd Vance for you know, seeing him, just seeing him carrying his kid at the Olympics, and she's, oh, no, I didn't.
I'm not reading the paper. I don't I don't subscribe to that.
Well that's that's she's doing it on X. But the but the point is just that like those are the kind of people you've had covering sports. That doesn't make sense anymore. You can't get away with that anymore. We're not interested in it. The market has spoken, and you can't, you know, let them write a notpbed occasionally in the New York Times, which also is a lot of people who don't really care about sports reading it and and
leave that leave the sports sections alone. When it comes to Indian injecting this type of politics into literally every story you can.
Yeah, I don't want them to go hire David Campbell, who's the Cleveland dot com sports editor and the genius. But there are there got to be people around who know how to do sports journalism and do it well, because everybody I know in my world love sports, even if they're left.
You Lucas Tomlinson and my colleague and I text about sports on a daily basis, and when it comes to the Washington decisions and everything related all to the leagues, and you know, he's absolutely as die hard into this as I am. And I'm sure that we would love to have an actual local section that was paying attention to things that mattered in terms of the franchisees as opposed to, you know, again, injecting politics into every piece
of coverage that you possibly can. Leave them leave that worldwide leader.
By the way, my triple.
Jump off of the board now is to the Olympics and it will take us into the break and we'll.
Talk about Iran afterwards. I have watched very.
Little Olympics because of one reason. There's too much Olympics I mean, they're everywhere broken into eight minute segments, and there's not NBC News primetime at seven pm you can catch the most important events with.
All the glitz. Do you think they killed the Olympics.
I don't know what their viewership is like, but it's it's like a buffet course that is never ending.
Yeah, I think that there's there's a bit. It's just oversaturation and it's hard to cover all this, you know, to pay attention to all the storyline. I'll confess that because of the kid, the love of the little now almost six week old, you know, I've paid less attention to this Olympics than I normally do. Because I like the Olympics. I think it's great to see America go up into the Olympics and kick ass. But the thing that is the thing that I think is really you know, difficult,
is you never really know what you're watching. It bounces around quite a lot, and I really wish that they would give it to us in a bit more of a package where we would have, you know, something more that we can that we can see and follow. I will say though, that the primary complaint against the Olympics was lodged by the five year old in the house who wanted to watch a movie or something, and my wife informed her that, know, in this house, we root
for the United States of America. And so that's what happened for Mecca.
Yeah, it's a shared experience.
It's a shared experience that most Americans like, but it's not a shared experience anymore when it's fragmented. So the shared experience of watching an ice skater fall or America win beat the Russians in nineteen eighty, that's not there.
So I think just they made a huge program and if you have not seen it, you should watch this Netflix documentary on the on the nineteen eighty USA team because and this I think that they did a poor job of advertising it, because it has a ton of new footage, of footage that has never been seen before
of the game. And it's really just something that I think is is, you know, I recommend to everybody that I know to watch, even even just as a historical document and you know, you get different shots of Herb Brooks, you get different shots of you know, key plays that we're in it, and you look at that was obviously an incredibly shared experience in America, as you as you had, you know, people able you know who did not know that it had happened learning about it, and so I
think this is also just one of these uh, this is one of these eras where we have such an oversaturation of some of these things, often motivated by just being able to do ad sales during them, as NBC has done quite successfully, and and that I think leads to some of that fragmentation that you're talking about.
I'll be right back during the break with Ben Dominics. We're going to talk about the Big Ben podcast. The lead story, has Trump lost in America? I don't think some that will have been talked about that. We'll be back on the other side and talk Aaron, So don't go anywhere they tuned to.
The k Huge Shots. I'm back with Ben Dominic s.
Ben, I thought you were opening at the Big Ben podcast, which was very provocative this week, where you asked as president and Trump lost the country and then I watched him go down to Fort Bragg and get the enormous reception that the commanders in chief got. I think he's lost belue America, but I don't think he's lost right. America is just a question he turns up in November.
Yeah.
I think that the big question though Hugh is whether he is losing, and this is something where he got in good news today obviously on the inflation figures, whether he has lost the key portion of his coalition, which, as you know, is difficult to get to the polls when it comes to mid terms of working class Americans.
I know that you probably saw if you have, If you haven't, who you will the AOC clip from Munich where she's talking about so today, you know, she went to Munich, which is interesting.
So she's running for president. She's running.
It's another sign as I think she's running for president. She's not running for Senate. She's running for president, and that I think is But one of the things that she started leading with was about having a coalition that they basically it sounds like half Hillary Clinton on one hand when it comes to the Globe and then half
at home mom Donnie and basically you know, affordability. We need to be this working class coalition, warrying warrying about oligarchs by the way to Munich, which is pretty funny, and and then and saying that we needed She was asked by one of the people there about whether we ought to have a wealth tax, and she said that needs to be a priority. That kind of language is actually what upper crust sort of lefties think is an
affordability message. It's not an actual affordability message. And if you look consistently the kind of reports that were coming out after November of last year from from the you know, the different Democrat super packs, they all indicated that basically, what people want to hear within that demo, which again went for Donald Trump and went in mass and delivered a big victory for him, what they want to hear
about is affordability. They feel like things should have gotten cheaper since he got back into office, and they and they care about those things as a priority. They don't really care about hearing about the you know how insulting it is. She she went after the Trump administration, for instance, for forgetting Maduro, describing it as kidnapping a head of state, which I mean, actually quite the stretch. But I think that this is the situation where again she's running for president.
Put that in your calci bet now.
But I think let me ask you that have you ever heard her give a serious interview on national security?
I have never heard once, of course not and and she's treated by kid gloves, you know, she in terms of the way that the media acts towards her, and I think we have to expect that that will continue. And so look, you are going to end up with the situation here where the President could lose a significant portion of his coalition that the Republican Party needs to show up in order to have a competitive November. Otherwise
they get swamped. The Democrats take at least the House and they just turn the next two years into a complete craft show of investigations and impeachments.
Well, that's going to happen. I think we're gonna lose the House. But I'll come back on the other side with Ben, and we're going to talk about how did the Republicans chiefs turn out?
Standby Welcome Back in America.
I'm Hugh Hewitt, and I'm temporarily stunned because during the break, Ben Dominic's told me that AOC went to the Munich Security Conference, which is with the Reagan Defense Conference and the Halifax Conference, the big three national security conferences around the country. The Nixon Foundation does one as well in DC, but the one up in Halifax out west in Munich. They're the Big three and I can't imagine AOC at
a security conference. Ben just explain to our Steelers fans what that means, because I agree.
With you what it means.
What it means is that AOC wants the attention of the world. And the way that she framed herself by the way to this global audience was essentially as someone not who didn't want to tear down the system, but kind of restore an older system of of you know, using using all the normal catchphrases of global order and
the like. She basically depicted the Trump administration as agents of chaos when it came to the global affairs, particularly in our own hemisphere, you know, citing the Greenland example, citing the Venezuela example, you know, citing you know, some of this other you know, saber rattling and the like. What what she really means, of course, when she says something like that is she wants to China run global
order in my opinion, but that's just my opinion. The thing is, I think that when she goes on to a stage like that, she knows she's going to be treated with kids loves, by the by the international folks, they're not going to be judging her right off the bat, and she can basically give this message as one where you know, again she is depending on which polling numbers you look at, she's third currently in terms of the
ranking of the Democratic potential presidential candidate. You can debate about where she is, but she's definitely third, with Newsom and of course Kamala Harris hanging around as one and two, depending on the ployee that you're looking at. I think she is fully intend to run for president.
I think she wants to.
Depict herself as being this future is female candidate, but from a younger generation. And I think that she wants to basically become someone who could go up against the vance. I mean Rubio was there as well this year, of course, go up against you know, potentially a Rubo and depict them as being chaotic figures, where she's a return to normalcy on the international level. And that's a savvy political move. I think it's the kind of.
There's no downside to her running for president, there's none. She doesn't she didn't get stuck in the Senate where she's one hundred out of one hundred. She gets either she gets it the brass ring, or she makes a gazillion dollars and she becomes her own thing. So there's no downside to it. It's almost inevitable that she runs. And I think she's going to win because she got chops on stage and the President has said to me on the show, Oh, she's got a lot of sparkle.
But we'll have to see how she does in an interview. She does not do interviews, Ben, and I don't know whether or not she can do the comments.
I don't think require her to do it. I think she's going to skate. And this is the thing that's you know, happens so frequently with her. Again, she represents herself as being this candidate who appeals to the working class, and you can't think of a less working class friendly policy than something like the Green New Deal. I mean, that's just it's a complete opposite. And yet she never
gets asked about that. The idea that she is going is going to skate into this role is something that I certainly believe, and I would be scared if I was Gavin Newsome that she could have the kind of of inspiring appeal that he is, This kind of slick California, you know, Silicon Valley back, you know Reid Hoffman backed candidate or something like that. You know, is going to seem like She's going to make him seem like the corporatist,
you know, billionaire friend much older, Yeah, much older. And I think that that's something that has real resonance in in America, where you know, no offense view that the millennials are in charge right now, you know we are.
You know, we're going to skip right past these Actually you cannot offend me because I'm seventy. I know what happens, and I'm looking at Gavin, and Gavin's on my side of the divide.
He's not on your side of the divide.
Well, but again, I maintain the most gen x thing that ever happened is to not have a president like we looked around and we decided, nah, I will not do that. So it's the thing that I think is going to be very interesting going forward. Look at the way that she is covered versus the way that JD dances covered, because they are essentially I think that they are headed on a collision course.
And I think, now I've been talking about I got to get this in because I've been talking about Iran with Matt Contenenny and Eli Lake.
I don't have to cover it with you, but I do want to cover with you.
Takaichi the new prime minister who just went overwhelmingly a week ago huge majority in the DAT in Japan, and today her security forces went out and nabbed the Chinese fishing vessel inside their exclusive economic zone. It's a Conney says we should call her the Iron Maiden. I said, maybe she'll be Asia's Asia's Thatcher, and Kantene said, no, she's the Iron Maiden, not the Iron Lady, because I
didn't know she was in a heavy metal band. What do you think of her and what do you think of this this crisis in the South China Sea.
I think that this is going to be a real test for us in terms of the alliances that we have in the region, and it could be something that could spawn I mean, it's very rare that something like this happens without after action, after effect Domino's falling. I'll be curious to see how she handles it. I do think that you know, she's someone to watch, but you know, in an era when we have seen so much praise directed at UH directed at North Korea of all places,
for having a female air name. That was a big trend among a lefty twitter. Why can't we have a female air named You know, here in the United States, don't people look to you know, women politicians who are actually good at what they're doing. You know, why don't Why don't she serious?
And we just talked about AOC not doing any national security interviews. Ever, she that's what she made her bones on. She's a China Hawk.
Yes, yeah, And I think that this is I mean, this is obviously a test case. But the truth is that we we should be applauding this in the West in terms of having someone in that job who understands the real threat that China represents and is not too scared to confront it. But look, you know, these these are the kind of questions I would like to see AOC asking, as opposed to should we have a wealth tax?
You know, we asked AOC if we asked her what the Hunan Island incident was, would she have a clue?
Do you think she'd have a clue?
You know, I don't. I'm not a big fan of, like of basic tests in order to run for office or to get that job. But I kind of wish that we made all of the all of the you know, folks who did this do some form of political jeopardy just for the sake of just, oh, you know, where do you you know? What part of the world do you think? You know? Afghanistan is in? How about that? To start with?
I don't I don't believe in gotcha's, but I do believe that before you become president. And you know, famously, Donald Trump told me he know more about terrorists on day one when he became president, and I didn't. Sure enough, he took it out more. He's taken out more terrorists than any other president on one on one basis.
He doesn't.
But I I just wonder if she doesn't really have any kind of evidence, any kind of grasp of the complexity of what she aspires to speak on it.
You know, there's some humility in its a real problem.
I think it's a real problem. But I think that the other problem that we need to understand is she has a political career that is built on vibes and social media that works in this era. It's going to raise a ton of money for She's going to have a ton of energy, and I think that Republicans should not underestimate her. And that's you know, something that we've seen happened four where they thought that certain people could come up. I mean, I remember the talk about Barack Obama.
How are they gonna k oh, yeah.
I'm guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, and well well but.
See, I think at the time you can defend yourself because that seemed like a very unlikely scenario. But sometimes the nation is a couple of rungs ahead I guess, or a couple of months behind where you think they are, and they are very vulnerable in an era like think about it this way, in an era in which education scores have plummeted. Not everybody's Mississippi, Hugh, And I say, that's a proud a child with Mississippi.
Yeah, yeah, I agree.
I was in the Qweight Center when Obama gave his speech in two thousand and four, and I was impressed, but I wasn't thinking he could be president. So that just tells you what four years can do. But he also is a Harvard log guy, and she has not well Ben dominant. She's given us a lot to think about. Follow Ben a be dominant on X Listen to the Big Ben podcast you hear most Fridays when we are lucky.
Thank you, Ben,