Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things Hillsdale at Hillsdale dot ed or I encourage you to take advantage of the many free online courses there, and of course I'll listen to the Hillsdale Dialogue all of them at hue for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple, iTunes and Hillsdale Mornin, Glory and evening Grace America. Welcome
to the Big Weekend pod Our. Regular guest are here, Eli Lake, Matt Continetti, John Ellis, Ben Dominic, and we're talking about what we've been talking about for two months, the war with Iran, which enters a new phase perhaps over this weekend. Headline in the Times of Israel Israel said bracing for iron fighting to resume soon as Trump briefed on military options. I'll be talking with most of my guests, but especially Elila,
about the crazy upside down analysis of the war. Iran's gotten crushed and they continue to get crushed, and they put out press releases instead of offensive action because they had no offensive action. They have no way to move forward. And whether or not the United States goes back to kinetic operations or just squeezes them to death. I don't know what is the preferred way to go. The world is hurting because of higher oil prices, but Iran is
crumbling before our eyes. We have won. We are wrapping up. It may take a few months, but it's over. I just want everyone to know that. But before we get there, we're going to start by talking about none other than Graham Platner, the anti Semitic, Nazi tattoo wearing nutter who has got the Democratic nomination locked up in Maine. I had a friend rate me last night and say they'd sent one thousand dollars to Susancollins dot com to stop
the jewater. I don't think that person's alone. I think Susan Collins is going to benefit from everyone in the country, even Democrats who've just had it with crazy people getting in the politics and saying crazy things about Jews in Israel. And that will be the focus of a little bit of today's show, primarily though Iran the war after three months, what comes next? All come to you on the Big Weekend Pod. Stay tuned Morning, Lore Rating and Grace America.
Welcome to the Friday edition of the hu Us Show. Whether you're watching on the Salem New Channel, we'll say on the Salem Radio Network and one of our wonderful radio affiliates across the country, Welcome as usual on Friday, I begin with John Ellis, founder and editor in chief of News Items, your morning newsletter, which is the first thing I read every morning. And John's hit me a cheat sheet of stories he'd like to cover. And I
covered Graham Platner for most of yesterday. But I want your take on it, John, because you know Maine a lot better than I do. I've spent four or five summers there and a few vacations, but I don't know it that well. But I do know extremism and unbalanced minds, and Graham Platner is an extremist with an unbalanced mind. Can he possibly beat Susan Collins? Yeah? I think he can.
If we go back to two thousand nineteen, gallop ass democratic primary voters, Democratic presidential primary voters whether they preferred to candidate who could defeat President Trump in the fall or whether they want someone whose views most you know, closely resembled their own. And they said, by margin of two to one, we want somebody who can defeat President Trump. Fast forward to twenty twenty six, Janet Mills the incumbent governor.
She's term limited, she's running for the Democratic president Senate nomination in Maine, and she makes the argument, I'm the one with the best chance to defeat Susan Collins in the fall, and in so doing, I will send a message to President Trump, which is what you Democratic primary
voters want me to do. So you know that she made the electability argument, and to sort of cap it off, she ran a fairly extensive media campaign beginning in March that pointed out all of Graham Plattner's flaws and so you would think, given her you know, tenure as governor, a popular Democratic figure, and a highly flawed challenger, that she would coast a victory, when in fact, during the media blitz, Graham Plattner's numbers went up. He was when
the media campaign began about ten points ahead. By the time the media campaign ended, he was thirty points ahead. So the mood seems to be if you're old and in the way, get out of the way. We don't care, you know, we just wanted we just want to, you know, shake things up.
And John after after Afterday's program, a friend of mine Joey's friend of mine said, I just sent a thousand dollars to Susancollins dot com to stop the jew hater. And when you reduce it to everything, Graham Plattner is an anti semi anything not and so he might be able to win the Democratic base polling. But Main's a nice place, it's a gracious place. It's about as purple a state as you can get. I know it's got
its crunchy elements to it. I don't see that state not only again, grand total of twenty months in the state and ten vacations, what would it be what would happen to Maine to make it go off the left side of the moon.
I don't think it's the left right thing. I think it's get anyone who's in power out. And I'm not saying, by the way, that Susan Collins is going to lose. I mean, in twenty twenty, President Bush, I mean President Trump lost the state of Maine by nine points and Susan Collins won her reelection by ten.
That's a nineteen point split.
So there's no doubt that Susan Collins is a terrific vote get her. There's no doubt she knows the state inside out. The question is whether the mood is such that if you're in power, people want you out of power, and that, you know, that's a question that I think will be answered in the Senate race.
I think you're right. I also think that whatever Janet Mills did for the primary, Susan Collins and the super Pacts are going to do times one thousand for the general. Let's move to your second story. President Trump's extravagance, grandiosity, called esthetic, let's call it whatever you want, step on the ballroom, the arc de triump arch, et cetera. You're right, it's starting to earn him with voters. I have not seen that polling. Where do you find that evidence? Because everyone's I know that.
I am told by polsters that I trust that. While it didn't, I was started to ask posters that I know, you know, why is the Trump.
What do you call it? The Trump aesthetic?
Aesthetic not registered more with voters, and they said it didn't in twenty twenty five, But it's beginning to now all of the talk about the ballroom at the time that we're at war and you know, times are tough, apparently has raised this quote salience end quote of that issue in a way that it was not raised in twenty twenty five.
That'll be interesting to see if that's I think that's true, If democratic Olama to the ballroom or the archititrium arch. I just don't want them to build the arch while I'm still living here, because that will make going over the moorial bridge, which I did twice today in Nightmare. Next,
this is Saudi Arabia story, the LIV golf tournament. Now I have not followed this closely, the whole LIV controversy, but the Saudis are pulling the rugout, and you suggested to me this is just the first bubble coming to the top of the water of GCC golf, a coordinating council money being withdrawn from extravagance. Is that a good way to put it? Yeah, I think.
I mean, I don't think anybody cares that the Sods have pulled the plug on Live. I don't think anybody really cared about the live golf tour. But the war,
you know, they'll turn down. The downturn in revenues from oil and from tourism have caused the GCC states to pull back, and the question because there's such you know, large investors in the American innovation economy, if you will, particularly in the AI data server compute space, that if they pull back, that could have significant impact on the
buildout of the infrastructure for artificial intelligence. There is I think I don't think anybody disagrees that there is a sort of reckoning coming, a shakeout coming in the AI infrastructure compute space. If the SuDS and the Emirates and stuff start, you know, pulling back their investment in infrastructure and compute, then the shakeout will come to us faster than it otherwise would.
And that's that's a big deal. My frequent guest and friend, David Monson, I'm not his client, he's not my client, but I do turn them for economic advice. There is a AI shakeout coming. This will accelerate it. There will be winners, but there will be a lot of losers. You better you're in Las Vegas when you're investing in AI. Finally, John, let's talk about this is the most important story. I
want people to hear it here. First, al Qaeda is taking over a large swath of the Sahl, including Mali, and they beat the Russians to do so this is this is worse than Afghanistan. Really they got more assets there. Explain Well, it's.
Yeah, I mean the Mali is resource rich, as they say, and the Russians have been making a you know, fairly significant move to ingratiate themselves with the junta if you will, in Mali and sending mercenaries to protect the hunt and its leadership, and you know, basically trying to make it a client state.
Uh and al Qaeda, a form of.
Al Qaeda, an offshoot of al Qaeda, has is at the capitol gates, so to speak. I mean, it's a little bit like Afghanistan during the Biden administration. So if if in fact Mali falls, it will be an enormous defeat for mister Putin and mister Putin's inability to win the Ukraine war to be you know, it's a they have a huge military advantage and they're not gaining ground. Put those two together, and I think mister Putin's tenure is you know, at risk.
I really do. I think.
I think the combination of Mali and Ukraine could be his Afghanistan.
The tyrant in the Kremlin cannot be wearing his crown very easily right now, so uneasily. You also know that to me that the May Day Parade is going to be sort of a third of a parade, not really the May Day parade that they usually have in Russia. Yeah, well we always see it on TV. Right you have all these.
Missiles and tanks and troops and they all march through, you know, by the Kremlin, and it's a huge thing that's dating back to you know, the Soviet Union days, great show of force and strength and so on and so forth. And because the Ukraine Ukraine military has been able to penetrate so deeply into Russia that they've scaled.
The whole thing down.
No missiles, no tanks, and very few soldiers. It's a sparse Victory Day parade. And I think telling that it has to be that way, we ever talent, you know, it shouldn't.
It shouldn't have to be that way. Putin cannot be happy right now. John Ellis, as always, thank you following at Ellis Items. If you want all your news in one place in one newsletter every morning, subscribe to news Items. Google news items in John Ellis and you'll get there, or news items dot subseat dot com. It really is your one stop shopping center for all the news that matters at six am in the morning. It covers the world. Thank you, John, be right back with Elila. Stay tuned.
I'm joined now by Eli Lake, who is a correspondent for The Free Press, the host of the Breaking History podcast. Eli, let me tell you. I could spend the entire segment talking about your new Breaking History on the misinformation campaign in Great Britain. I found that that's fascinating where I could talk to you about Graham Platner. But instead I got to focus on a story in the Atlantic and
the general world around it. Yesterday, Nancy Yusef and Jonathan Lemire published in the Atlantic the Iran Wars ramifications have only just begun subtitle US goals have not been met, but the war will cause long term disruption. And they quote a friend of the radio program, Richard Haas, and he's a smart guy, saying, even if Iran does not have explicit control of this trait, there is now always an implicit measure of control. Because they have shut it once,
now they know they can do so again. Now, Eli, that's just dumb, and Richard's not dumb. North Korea didn't invade South Korea a second time. I got all sorts of you know, Egypt in Syria never invaded Israel a second time after the Mkipor war. It doesn't happen that way just because they do it. They've been crushed, they've been smashed. So how do you explain the defeatism or Iran's won a secret victory that permeates the left and people like Richard Oz.
It's hard to understand because I keep going back to the reason why we're doing it, which is that the war is about making sure Iran doesn't have a conventional shield so that it can race for a nuclear weapon, a.
Full stop yep. So everything else in between.
Yes, it's important that Iran doesn't charge tolls on the straight up her moves and doesn't control it. I think that that is eminently militarily possible. My senses that we'll be seeing more on this very soon. But the big thing here is to make sure a bunch of fanatics in Tehran do not have nuclear weapons. In that respect, mission accomplished.
Agree, But everywhere I turn I see narratives like this. They're coming from the New York Times, the Atlantic center right, people like Richard Hassu may have a twinge of TDS, and it's just it's defying logic. Now, Mat Connetti has a peach in the Wall Street Journal today, we have to force the straight of hormones. People can argue about tactics, but there's no arguing we crushed the Iranian military. They don't have any offensive power. They just have terrorism power.
Yeah, they do have a few missiles left and those and they have some drones and they You're right, it is that they can.
They can.
They can be vandals, they can be like terrorists, but they do not have the strategic to terrance that a nuclear weapon or being a nuclear breakoup power would give them. And meanwhile, their economy is in free fall. And that is, you know, not because of the sanctions entirely, it's because of their own corruption. And I'm still not counting out the Iranian people. I know, I might be the last one.
I know.
It's not sort I think, I think in some ways what happened here. Another explanation is that we've never seen a war begin like this, other than what the Israelis kind of did to Hezbollah at one point, to the Emmy. But the ability without any ground troops to start a war taking out the political and military leadership, like literally within a few minutes, like in the in the first move.
That's never been done before. And I think that people cannot be blamed for thinking, wow, we've never seen that before, or maybe the Iranian regime should fall. It didn't fall. It was resilient. But all this, like I told you, so they would Nobody knew that they were going to necessarily survive, that they would be able to restore their command and control. But that was not the war aim.
You know, it's two months, so that's the key thing. Yeah, it's like two months. We had the Battle of Castarine Pass was our first major battle with Rommel got our rear ends kicked all over North Africa that told, and
we haven't lost anything here. They just haven't collapsed. But just because we lost the Battle of Castering Passed, it meanwharire I'll lose North Africa, Italy, Normandy or the bat It's nuts and it the only I can come up with is like when the Democratic establishment turned against Vietnam as soon as Jack Kennedy was dead and they had sufficient INTERVOWSS A little bit after that, Yeah, and then I mean, it.
Was like sixty six to sixty seven is when they start turning on it for real, when Bobby Kennedy turns on him.
Yeah. Yeah, And so this time it accelerated to two months. But I don't think the American public are well served by Doom saying we're crushing it, and I think their economy is going to collapse. I'm fairly confident that this will end with a neutered regime. I don't know what it looks like, but they.
Have to neuterd I think I wouldn't give the current crowd. I think eventually in the short ter, medium term there through.
But we also kind of.
Know q why there is so much of a rooting interest against it and to try to kind of create a phony conventional wisdom of the war was a failure. Because if the war was a success, what does that tell us about the signature foreign policy initiative of a Barack Obama and the Democrats, The JCPOA, the nuclear deal, but.
That there is a way, there.
Is a way to contain Iran's nuclear program without giving them gazillions of dollars in pallets of cash, which they did. They used to supercharge their ring of fire around Israel and their their terrorist proxies. So I think this is a little bit of kind of you know, getting out in front of what they understand to be historically will be an embarrassing story. Many people built their careers and reputations on the JCPOA, and this is the we're in
the process right now. At least I think of showing that the JCPOA was a mistake and there was another way there was a military solution.
Not only a mistake a disaster, because it allowed the funding of has At, allowed the funding of moss which led it to and it didn't have to happen. Maximum pressure could have done it. That there is no legacy of the Obama years his Obamacare failed. Now that JCPOA is revealed as a monumental mistake. It was a phantasm for the whole time. Tom Cotton was right. And if Trump wins, this is a world historical event. I don't know how anyone's going to be able to deny it. Right, it's a new.
Middle East if this war goes as I think it will eventually, it's a new Middle East. Israel has proven that it is a now a regional superpower in every sense, it doesn't have the aircraft carriers, but it has the ability to send its you know, air force over one thousand miles away and take out the leadership of another regime. That's what it did. That speaks louder than anything else. Everybody knows it, and you're already kind of seeing the alignments forming in the aftermath of ua E getting out
of OPEC and all that. These are the ramifications of a huge hinge of history moment. So again I think it's not over until the regime falls. But I also think the regime probably is going to fall. But in terms of this war, the bottom line is is that the military has been neutered, the nuclear program has been turned into rubble.
Shuttered and shuddered, and I think people are going to be embarrassed by what they write and say to the contrary, and not for very It won't take very long. However, I do want to tell everyone the new Breaking History is fabulous. It makes me worry about the Five Eyes program, and I hope you think about that. I don't know that we can trust the nsay of Great Britain when I read listening to Breaking History, Eli Lake, thank you Stay tuned in America. Welcome back in America. I'm Heugh Hewittt,
joined now by Matt Continetti. Matt is at the American Enterprise Institute, where he oversees domestic policy studies. He's also a calumnist for the Wall Street Journal and their Free Expressions Vertical. His very excellent column today, Time to Force Open the Strait of Horror Moved, begins quite simply. Sometime soon, President Trump will open the strait of war moves. He has no other choice. Matt, Welcome. I agree with you,
but I think he has time on his side. He also sent a letter to Congress today to sort of sidestep the War Powers Act, which he doesn't think is constitutional. Neither do I. But when does he have to open the strait of war moves?
Well, Hugh, I think he needs to do it before June, to be honest. I mean, this war has been extremely effective in defanging the Iranian regime, in knocking out the Iranian leadership, command and control, in reducing the Iranian nuclear
program to rubble. But it's exacted an economic cost on the world and in the United States and the rising gasoline prices, and that in turn has affected President Trump's political standing, and so I think the clearest way to change the momentum or the lack of momentum in this conflict, the standstill we seem to be in, is to prove to the world that the United States will not allow Iran to hold a veto over the Strait of Hormuz, and that might require us to go back into combat
operations for a short period of time so that we can prepare the ground for a naval escort operation. We've done it before in the Tanker War. We can do it again. And once we deny Iran this leverage that they've held over us, they will be truly, truly broken.
Now I agree with all of that, and I think we're going to do the kinetic option as well as continue the blockade because they're staggering and they're broke. But I want to contrast what you wrote, which was optimistic about the result, with a quote by Richard Haas a smart Guy in an Atlantic article yesterday. Richard is quoted as saying, even if Iran does not have explicit control, there's now always an implicit measure of control. Because they have shut it once, now they know they can do
it again. That's just silly. North Korea didn't invade South Korea a second time. Sadam didn't go back into kuwaita second time. Egypt didn't invade across as so as in Israel a second time. When you get smacked and crushed, you don't do things at second time, do you.
No, you don't. And the Iranian regime's capabilities have been
dramatically damaged by the war. But at the same time, we know just from all these commercial vessels that are stopped up in the Gulf there that they're worried that if they try to traverse the Strait of Hermus without paying an Iranian toll and flying the flag that is aligned with a US partner rather than an Iranian partner, they'll be fired upon, they'll be intercepted, they'll be struck by a mine, They'll have to encounter a fast boat. And I just believe that America, as a superpower, cannot
allow that to happen. It's been an American interest since the seventeen eighties, right after our founding, to ensure the free flow of commerce across the global commons, air, se in space. And if we allow Iran to hold this veto over the Strait of Hermuz. It will send a signal to China that they could potentially create toll booths across the straight the Taiwan Strait in any conflict there. So we have to open it up, and I think that's a three stage process we've already started. The first
stage is the blockade. The blockade is working. The blockade's fantastic, but it doesn't solve the problem of the strait. In order to solve the problem of the strait, you're going to need to destroy the missile and drone teams that are along the coast. You're going to need a clear, safe passage, which I believe we're already starting to do, and then you're going to have to escort some of these vessels and prove to the world that with United States naval assets on your flanks, you can get through
the Strait of Hormuz safe and sound. What that will do is it won't restore gas prices immediately to where they were before the war, but it will send a positive signal to markets. It will set the positive signal to the world, and we'll send a single to the Iranians that they have no more cards to play that the game is over, and we're going to allow safe passage through the Strait, whether they like it or not. And if they try to interfere, they will pay the price.
Not our allies, not these people who are simply trying to send goods through the strait.
No matter you a chess player, I am okay, So can you tell when you've lost when it's like twenty moves down the road? Or can you tell when you've won when it's not that good of a chess player.
It's more like for me, it's like maybe five moves.
Okay, I have a terrible chess player, but I used to play across the hall in college where the guy give me.
The plastic chess player not a very good one.
Well, my view is this game is over. For anyone who can see twenty moves down the road. Iran has a lot they've lost badly. That regime is doomed. But if you're only looking at the board right now and you do know how to play, you don't know that the game is over. And that's or you don't want it to be over. You don't want Donald Trump to win. And we'll talk about that during the break with Matt Continetti. Don't go anywhere America. Matt will be on the other
side as well. Stay tuned. I that you do a show. So I'm back with Matt Continetti of the Wall Street Journal AEI So, Matt, what about my analogy. I think this regime is going to collapse because like bankruptcy, it happened slowly and then all at once. There's no money. We're taking their tankers off the sea in the Indian Ocean. They're not getting revenue, they're not getting food. They've got
trucks going to China and to Turkey. But you can't beat ninety two million people that way, and you can't get gasoline that way. How long can it stagger on? Oh?
Not that long. I think a matter of weeks or possibly one or two months. You know, the Wall Street Journal reported this week you that the Iranian economy is in a death spiral. Yes, the Iranian economy was already in terrible shape before the blockade. The blockade seems to have truly enacted terrible damage on the Iranian economy and the economy, especially these oil revenues through the shadow fleet, which are blockade is intercepting. That's the lifeblood of the regime.
That's what pays the IRGC soldiers and the regular soldiers. So we cut that off. The Iranians really don't have any means to finance their offensive capabilities, which we've already largely taken off the table, and the apparatus of repression which has been keeping the people down. So yes, I think the game is over for the Iranian regime, but they're still dangerous and they're still holding one fifth of
the world's oil market hostage. And that's that's why I think the United States need to come to the rescue.
Yeah, it's a very expensive confrontation, but it's one in which the United States and the West will prevail. I'm wondering before we come back on the network, Matt, mister Bahadi, who is ahead of them, into how easy riot lies his head, because when things get tough, there's got to be like when law firms break up, people whisper in the hallways about who's going with who, but they're not going to kill each other. When this is a situation where he could walk into a room someday and they
just say you're done. We're making a deal with Trump, And that got to be an ever present problem for this regime.
Well, for everyone involved. I think more likely the people without the guns are especially worrying about who might come for them next. But when you have a situation where the forty top leaders were all taken out in the first seconds of the conflict, where the Ayatola is in hiding in hospital, no one's heard from him, has seen him since the opening day of the conflict, And you have this Fahdi, the head of the IRGC, he has all the guns. And then you have the so called
political leaders. They have some of the guns, but maybe not that many. I think there's a lot of conflict within the regime right now over what to do. I think they're negotiating with themselves. I think that's a bad position for Iran to be in, and that's why the blockade is such an essential tool here. So yeah, I'd be worried. I'd also be worried, of course, you know Israel has Iran penetrated so deeply. Yes, in terms of intelligence, none of these leaders can rest easy at night.
That's for sure that we're coming back on the network. But take that one to the bank too, mister BHD has got to be sleeping in a different bed every night, stay tuned in America, Welcome back in America, and hew it with Matt conton any of the Wall Street Journal and of AEI. Matt, I understand that half of America doesn't like Donald Trump to a great degree, including his policies, his intemperance sometime, and his aesthetic. I understand that. I
get it. Graham Platner is a different issue. I spent most of you today's show talking about Graham Plattner and going over it, and a listener Jewish man sent me in out saying I just sent one thousand dollars to Susancollins dot com to stop the jew hater. And I mean that is play Braunt, but that's true. I think Grand Platner is a Ani semi. What do you think about that candidacy and what it says about American politics.
Well, doesn't say anything good about American politics. You the ease with which Bernie Sanders anti Israel socialism, which easily slides into anti Semitism, is taking over the Democratic Party is greatly alarming. I mean, when you look at the candidacy of Zoramamdani and now Mayor of New York City, you look at the fact that you had forty four Democratic Senators vote against sending bombs and bulldozers to Israel
at Bernie Sanders behest just the other week. Now you see Graham Plattner winning the Democratic nomination before a single vote is cast, you have to be greatly alarmed at the direction of the Democratic Party. The rise of socialism within the Democratic Party is one of the great undercovered stories of our time. It began even before Trump arrived on the scene, but Trump has greatly accelerated it. And it's it's bad for the country, first of all, because
socialism is inherently destructive. But it's also very bad for the Democrats. These aren't your parents' Democrats, are not my parents' Democrats. You It's a different party that is animated by open borders, by socialism, by hostility to Israel, by hostility to the West, to the United States, all of our principles in history and traditions, and Grand Platner represents that. And just think, I mean, if you are supporting Platner because you're anti Trump,
don't forget he's running against Susan Collins. It's a moderate Republican. It's been there forever, you know, and that shows you if you're willing to vote for Platner, you're willing to vote for anyone.
I know, meaning pretty well. I've spent a few summers there in a number of vacations. They're very gracious people. It's a very mild state. It's crunchy, very crunchy, especially around Portland. But in Angus King and Susan Collins, you've got the most conservative Democrat and the most liberal Republican,
and together they wield extraordinary power. They're both on the Senate Intelligence Committee, by the way, which means that they enjoy the respect of their colleagues immensely because that's the secret committee that nobody else knows about except the members of the committee, so they're very well trusted. I think there are two strains, the old Bernie Sanders socialism strain that's never bothered me. That's wacky, Ben and Jerry Vermont
left wing economics that don't work. The anti Semitic, anti Jew stuff bothers me greatly. Grand Platner is outside of the level of up. He is like Nick Flints. He is as though, you know, Republicans have turned up a few candidates in our past decade like Christine whatever her name was in Delaware. I am not a witch. They're just outside the norm. This guy is very, very ominous. How ominous.
Well, he pretends this poortends at potential red green alliance and alliance between socialists and Islamists, and we see that happening in Europe, and we don't want that to happen in America. But the types of rhetoric that Graham Platner has used about Israel, the type of people he's talked to about Jews, the very fact that he wears a tattoo affiliated with not just Nazism, but an SS unit on his chest, that is that's extremely disturbing. It should be to anybody, including including Democrats.
You know.
So I think I think those two wings though that you describe Hugh, they're joining. They're joining under Sanders's aegis. You know, Sanders invited these Chinese AI scientists to the summit that he had on AI and you and he's saying that we should listen to the Chinese scientists and get what. Guess what the Chinese scientists are telling Americans stop developing AI. Who does that help?
No?
Right?
And then this case where Barney Frank Barney Frank, of all people, is saying that the Democratic Party has moved too far to the left.
Yeah.
When that happens, you know something has gone wrong.
I've known Barney for sixty years. Yeah, that is kind of shocked. That is shocking because Barney Frank was a liberals liberal. But here's my real question. If the legacy media will swing into action here? They took apart Todd ake and we had a couple of candidates, one in Missouri and one in Indiana. One talked about legitimate rape and it was the only story we ever heard about. The other one taught I can't remember what the other
extremists position was. And they were both out of the race before you could know it, and they were they were ruined. Will the legacy media, actually I asked the Eleana Johnson if she'd done the work yet. But will the legacy media dig into his Reddit stuff? Or is that just all okay because it's Trumps he's a Democrat. We got to get the Senate back and pack the Supreme Court.
I think you see a lot of sanewashing happening of Graham Platner. I mean, you have Chuck Schumer saying that they're going to back him, which is just incredible to behold. You have Obama Bros. Saying oh, well, he's just misunderstood.
Wow.
I think you'll see some of that in the media as well. So we can't depend on the media to show Grand Platner for what he is. There's a true threat to America and too and too into the American Jews and the people who support them. But you're gonna have to look to the main to the to the alternative media. You're gonna have to look to places like the Washington Free Beacon and look, Susan Collins is a very effective politician.
Oh yeah.
Even if The New York Times doesn't inform the people of Maine about her opponent's record, she will make sure that they know all about him, and not just on Israel and Jews, but on medicare, for all about comments he's made about women, his general radicalism in all areas. I don't think main voters at the end of the day, are going to be tempted to choose Graham Platner, no matter how much they may be disappointed in President Trump.
Yeah, he's not really profane and vulgar. I really think he stretches every norm in America. He shatters every norm. But we only care about norms when Donald Trump's involved, apparently, Graham Platner, come on in Matt Connetty great column today and the Wall Street Journal. Follow Matt at Continetti on X. You want to subscribe to the Journal and the Free Expressions Vertical because it's got great new stuff in it every single day. The journal is changing with the times,
and they are They're just adding resources every day. Thank you, Matt, have a great weekend. Don't go anywhere America. Got lots coming up in hour number two, including Ben Dominic right here on the UEWIT Show. Thank you for listening to highly concentrated Hugh, and don't forget. One of our great sponsors is Consumer Seulor one eight hundred four forty four fifty four eight hundred four one forty four fifty four.
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Star.
Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Ewett. That's Norman Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, and I'm playing it for Ben Dominic, host of the Big Ben Podcast, opinion page editor at The Daily Wire. Do you know why I'm playing in Norman Desmond?
Ben, I'm sorry you're gonna have to give me the contact for this one.
Well, yesterday on the Big Ben Podcast, you were talking about the reaction of the White House correspond Association dinner, and how among a certain class, people like oh, Taylor Lorenz, the wacky Oh it didn't happen, it was staged mantra started, and I began to think about whether or not people like Jim Acosta and Don Lemon and Taylor Rent they lose their platforms and they go full normal Desmond, they lose their minds.
What do you think phenomenal comparison? Yes, I think that's perfect, you know, especially especially because you know, if you think about it, it's like, I mean, you could play out the final scene there just with ring lights, yes, the camera flash bulls. Look, I think you know the reaction that they showed to this latest assassination attempt, which it clearly was. I mean, there is no doubt about it.
There's no doubt about the motives. There's no doubt about why this guy, you know, took a train across country and what he intended to do. We're very fortunate that he did a very bad job of it. But I think at the same time, the thing that actually takes that they should sun people, that they should take away from this is one how much his complaints echo the complaints of people like Don Lemon and Jim Acosta about
the press. There really is no you know, sort of uniquely crazy thing that this guy was upset about that separates him from your run of the mill left of center, uh you know, Trump critic, reporter turned substacker. And I think that at the same time, the other thing that we should be still, I mean, at this point, I should not be surprised by this. There's you know, there's
a gambling in this place. Now. The thing that I think is is that we should be surprised at is there was not even a day before everybody got back to their places again. On the Democratic side, there was not even them, yeah, I mean, there was no hesitancy for them to go back to using the same rhetoric, the same Katie Porter's you know, campaign sending out the same you know kind of you know, uh expletive laden promotional email for her campaign and that kind of thing.
There was no hesitancy on that. At least when Butler happened, there was some kind of pause for a few days where where the left seemed like, oh, you know, gosh, maybe we really overdid this Hitler thing, you know, and people will try to start treating him like Hitler, and now they're just right back to it, and they will be back to it, and they'll go it all the way along as they're promoting a guy who actually had a tattoo on his chest.
Speaking of him, Senator Chris van Holland was asked about him by Jake Sherman, Ann and Palmer today and the Nazi tattoo, cutting number eleven.
In my view, we need somebody who will shake things up, and Plattner has clearly proven himself to be somebody who can, you know, grab the attention of a lot of voters, and not just Democrats.
But that's the good part. Now, cut number ten. The dude hasn't not had a Nazi tattoo.
I mean, let's be clear about what's going on here. I mean, is that how.
Do you view that?
I mean, it seems it seems to be at least.
Somewhat disqualifying and traditional certainly historial. Look, I mean, let's.
Take a couple issues, including the comments he's made in the past. I mean, he's been very clear that he went into combat behind the United States, he went through a really rough period PTSD type period, and he is himself said there are lots of things he's done and said that.
Ben, we want to add to the pile of things he's sung and said the Free Bacon has an article up right now. Working class may Or Graham Platner got two hundred thousand dollars from his father to baya his house. Record show. He now claims you relied on veterans benefits. It's not going to stop with this guy.
Look, this is the thing that I'm going to put a warning out there for any Democrats who are listening to this. Everything that you saw at of this point in terms of opposition research that was coming out of that Platner was from Democrats, elite Democrats who were worried that if he was the nominee, Susan Collins, who even in a rough cycle, has shown the ability in close races to win Maine, would be able to pull it
out against him. And now you've you've major bet, you've chosen and this guy, the people in your party have chosen this guy. He's raised a ton of money, he's got, you know, a big email list, he's got a big following, he's got people who say that he's part of this class of younger you know, just listen to Van Holland. You know he's talking about how the oh he's inspired
people and that kind of thing. Okay with what okay with the kind of rhetorics that he had online, with the kind of things that he's said and done in the past. I just think that for Democrats you should be prepared. There's going to be a lot more stuff that comes out about this guy. You can just sense it, and you can.
And there's goin to be blow back. Yes last I did a sean him yesterday and a listener sent a thousand dollars this Susan Collins dot com and said, I sent a thousand dollars this Susan Collins dot com to stop the jew hater. That's it in a nutshell. That's it in a nutshell. I'll be right back with Ben Dominic's during the breaking on the other side, don't go anywhere. We got lots to talk about. So I'm back with Ben Dominis. Ben Charles CW. Cook, in his inimitable fashion, said, look,
there three buckets of would be killers. There are the mad people, absolutely insane mad as I had. Are people like the guy who killed Judge Roll and wounded Gabby Giffords. Then there are the religious Islamist nuts who like the disco in Florida, the Pulse Disco, and then there are political people. And it ought not to be difficult to classify. However it is. How do you classify? I'm sure you remember the comment Ping Pong pizza shooter of ten years
ago he got four years. Did you know that he only got four years?
Yes, I do remember it being shorter, a shorter time than people anticipated. I mean I would put him in the category of political flash crazy. Little from column a little from columb you know. But the thing that I think you hit on there is that we have a new avenue of radicalization which actually has a lot in common with the second category that you mentioned there, which is the religious zealot. The of the internet that can be has its own kind of It has its own
lingua franca. It has its own ability to get into the minds and become a mind virus for people who I think don't have the defenses up against it, don't have necessarily that questioning attitude, and that can be as powerful of a motivator, I believe as that type of religious experience.
You are so I think you're right, especially if you're lonely all day. If you're lonely, if you swim in sewage, you're going to get sick. And the sewage can be on the right, and it can be on the left. It can be powered by former mainstream journalists who have got the Norma Desmond effect, or it can be powered by Reddit threads. I don't do Reddit, but do you think I've been reading John Carl's book Retribution, and it's
a fine recounting of the campaign. But I get mad at Alvin Bragg and Juan Murshan and everything they did to try and torture Trump. I get mad at Jane Carroll, the absurdity of it all. Do you think that that whole circuits made people crazier? Well?
I think it did. But I also would add one more element to this, because I do pay attention to Reddit. I actually pay as much attention to Reddit as they do to X Wow, And I will tell you you have not. It's kind of a halfway point between X and Blue Sky. The threads about, just to pick one example, Erica Kirk walking out of the White House Correspondence dinner and then her response her monologue this week that came
after that. The threads about her are insane. They are absolutely insane, and like they will make Candice Owns sound reasonable and measured. Wow, let's put it that way. So what I'm telling you is, I think that what we have underestimated here is the percentage of people I think we've thought of these folks. This is the fringe. This is the guy standing on the street corner saying the world's going to end tomorrow, and it's not anymore. It's like that guy is speaking to a stadium of people
who also agree with him. And that's the thing that I think we don't really understand about the way that the gates have been have come down around media and the ability of people, especially charismatic people, to message around these crazy beliefs.
It's usan piker. Yeah, stand by, we got we got to go back on the network. But you're right, it's my gosh, I'm never going on Reddit. You're going to have to translate from me. Stand By, Welcome back in America. I'm you Hewett. If you listen to podcasts, a Big Ben podcast this week with Byron New York is just fabulous. It's absolutely fabulous. You want to go and listen to it.
Uh.
And now I'm going to make a jump to a related subject. Bend from the craziness of Reddit and whack adoodle. It didn't happen people of the White House courtspond. I'm going to turn over to coverage of the Iran War. Yesterday, The Atlantic ran a story by Nancy Yusuf and Jonathan Lemir headline, the Iran War's ramific have only just begun. US goals haven't been met, but the war will cause long term disruptions. In this article is quoted a very smart guy done on a guest on the show many times.
Richard Haas might have a touch of TDS. I don't know, but Richard says, even if Iran does not have explicit control, there is now always an implicit measure of control. Because they have shut the straight of arm moves once, now they know they can do it again. Now that doesn't follow from history, Ben, that's crazy. North Korea didn't invade South Korea second time. Saddam didn't go into Kuwait twice.
Egypt didn't invade Israel a second time after the am Kapol War, and it needed in Syria defeated country don't do the thing that led to their defeat twice. So we're still in the battle. But there is an effort by crazy Trump deranged people to say that Iran is winning in some way. Do you see this as much as I do?
So here's first off, I completely agree with your frame that this is motivated by pds, not by actual analysis of the situation. But I also think that you know, the truth is this is being played by Democrats and by the left, and by people who are in the kind of foreign policy blob who still supported the JCPOA
and were defenders and participants in creating it. In some cases, they want to frame this domestically in terms that are designed to appeal to people's fears, to play on those fears, and to suggest that this is not going the way that it actually has been going. The chaos on their side, they're fighting amongst each other. They don't even know who's
in charge day to day. You know, the president himself says, you know, you've got two, three, four groups that you're talking to, and you don't really know which one is the actual one that has control. Does that sound like an enemy, a foe that is winning does that sound like a like a country that is strong. I don't
think so at all. And in fact, when it comes to what they did here, I truly believe that if the there had been the kind of reaction from Europe that we had hoped for, that there could have been solutions found earlier in this process. But look, they want to play this in domestic political terms. They're thinking about the midterms. They want to get Republicans scared of the war. They want to get Republicans scared to be even talking
about the war. And what I'm telling you, Hugh, is Republicans need to be emphatic that winning this war and having an endpoint solution that benefits us and benefits the world is something that they are emphatically in favor of.
They are not going to be able to run away from this, and I think they should run toward it instead, and they should be all the more emphatic because as much as Democrats may want to run on anti war opposition, anti you know, sort of American positioning, even in the most extreme circumstances, you know, the truth is, I think making the case for Iran heading into a midterm is not the way to actually you know, it's certainly not the way to inspire voters, but I think that it
plays on an assumption that Donald Trump is not going to be able to get out of it, come out of this at the end with the deal that he believed is good, that is better for the Middle East and better for the world. And they're, you know, they're really I think, running the risk that they could be a very negative position if if you can go back and look the point to all these different things that they've said about how much this is a disaster and
a mistake. And I think of Chuck Schumer as kind of top of that list.
And Bed, I don't blame you, You're a busy man. I wrote this exact thing yesterday for Fox News that Republicans. Republicans have got to put their arms around this war, start behind the president. I'm sorry, that's okay. I didn't expect you to, but it's exact. I love it when I agree with someone they agree with me, and we come to that same position via different paths. They Republicans cannot run away from this. They can't say I don't know. They got to say Iran with a nuclear weapon was
an unacceptable risk. The President did the right thing. Europe is a bunch of yellow, cowardly people that we have to now wonder about NATO and we have to ask ourselves what is Merg's doing And in the meantime, when the Iran collapses, will help the people of Iran. But we're not. The blockade is working. I mean, by any objective measure, these people are criticizing Donald Trump right now would have declared World War two over after we got our butts whipped at the Battle of the Castering Pass.
And we haven't lost anything. We don't have a Castering Pass. We've won everything.
Yeah, So I well, I'm glad we ended up at the same point, and I apologize for not even ready your peace. But the thing that I think, the thing that I think is is critical here for Republican candidates to understand is you're one hundred percent correct. They cannot There is not going to be some distancing saying here. There is not some way to do this at arms length. You have you know, if the President has made this decision, it's a decision that's consistent with America's interests, you should
be prepared to defend it. You should not be hemming and hauling, you know, beating around the bush or trying to sort of hide from this type of question going into these midterms, because that's just poison and it's wrong, which is also a play here, but it's also politically stupid.
All right. So I hear'd my question to close out with Secretary of hexit really out a sparky day yesterday on the Hill, and the question is is that good or is that bad? Because you know, inside the Beltway people think Pete's a television storry doesn't know what he's doing, but recruitment is off the charts. I don't know what to make of this, but he sure doesn't act like a Secretary of Defense in my memory. What do you think?
I think that a lot of people misjudged what his job was when he came in. I think that they, again, you thought of him as a tech TV personality. I think his job was to restore morale, to get rid of a lot of stupid stuff that had been done internally over the years, and to be a public defender of policy. And I think that he's done that very exceptionally.
I think he's done that. You know, he's used his skill as a communicator and I think that having that type of testy back and forth is actually totally fine, and in fact, to people who are supportive of America's military, I think that they, you know, a lot of these guys view him as an avatar. And that's not to say that he's gotten everything right. I think he's made
some bad moves too. But one of the things that I think we need to understand is the last several you know, and I would include even by the way, the Trump prior Trump administration, with this, we were letting our armed forces turn into places that no one wanted to be. They just did not want to be there. We were losing good people, We were losing people who we need to be in those positions because of the kind of operations that they need to be able to run. And we were doing it at such a clip that
it had to be turned around. But it turned around before it became just an existential problem for us in the future in terms of American might. And I think that Pete has done a yeoman's job of getting towards that.
You know, it's been shocked therapy, but I think you're right, and I think it long overdue. Ben Dominic. Everybody read him at the Daily Wire, read his columns that he supervises there, and go get the Big Ben Podcast with Byron York because it's really a very sophisticated discussion of crazy in America, and there's unfortunately a lot of it. Thank you, Ben, I'll be right back to America States