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