Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things Hillsdale Hillsdale dot ed or I encourage you to take advantage of the many free online courses there, and of course I'll listen to the Hillsdale dialogues, all of them at Hugh for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple iTunes and Hillsdale Morning Glory and eaton Grace America. Welcome to the Big Weekend Pod. A lot to talk about because there's a lot of news about the war that's not a war. It's a ceasefire that may have an
end in sight. It certainly the guns have fallen silent and the bombs of stop dropping in Lebanon. It appears as though this trade of horn news is open boided oil drop like a rock, but not to where it was pre war. Looks like a big win for Donald Trump. But everybody sees things differently depending on what they read and who they listen to. If you stay tuned, you'll hear from John Ellis of News Item, Eli Lake from
Breaking History. Matt Continetti is back, of course from the Wall Street Journal, where he writes his column for The Free Expressions Vertical, and from the American enterprise and student of course, Ben Dominic, editor of the op ed section over at the Daily Wire, Big Ben Show Podcast or Extraordinary. We all have our takes on the big news that came out Friday and whether or not we quite believe it or what to make of it, but we'll bring
in all sorts. I think it's an enormous win. The world is much better off than it was on February twenty eighth, extraordinarily so. But that doesn't mean the challenge presented by the Islamic Republican of Iran is over. In the Iranian people are certainly not free. There's lots more work to be done because there's still crazy What Secretary would be have said, these people are lunatics, So we can't lose sight of that these people are lunatics. And I think you'll hear that a lot coming up on
the Big Weekend Pod. Thank you for listening, Worried even Grace America. Good Friday to you. And since I promise you clarity, I begin by saying we have no clarity on what's going on inside the trade of horror moves, but we do have a lot of posts from President Trump, a lot of news to get through today. But I begin as I do most fridays, with John Ellis, founder and editor in chief of News Items. John, your ears might have been burning today. I was with a high
tech exec. I said, you know, five years ago I got twenty subscriptions. Now I get news items in two subscriptions. And that's basically what's happening everywhere with everything. Do you think that the retirement of read Hastings today or the announcement of the Vitalian June, marks the end of one tech era and sort of the opening of another. I think so.
I first met Read in New York City, and I think it was two thousand and one, and he was just starting up Netflix and was doing a press tour. I was a columnist for Fast Company at the time, and I had dinner with them two years I wrote a very flattering column about him, and I had dinner with him two years later. And he had a problem, which was people had the red envelopes and they would send them back. If they lived in San Francisco, they'd send them back and they'd get them by Friday day
before the next weekend. But if they lived in Amarillo, Texas, they sent him back on Monday. They wouldn't get him for like eight or nine days. So what to do. He had a choice to make. Should he build out more distribution channels or distribution sites or should he just wait for the whole thing to go digital? And he asked me what I thought, and I said, I really don't know, and he said, well, I think I have
to go with my customers. And so they built out distribution centers, knowing that it would all be done on the internet, you know, in five or seven years, to make their customers happy. And that kind of executive leadership I don't think is prevalent today.
I guess I know that he is an enormous Democratic donor. I was already kind of grateful for him for helping start the nudge of Joe Biden off of the good Ship White House back in twenty twenty three thank you or twenty twenty four one of the first and nudge President Biden off the ticket. But I really appreciated the red envelopes when I had small children. That was like, rather than go to Blockbuster to get the red envelope. That he was a genius and I'm glad he went
with the customers. May he enjoy his retirement. Interesting, Netflix is down ten percent today when the market is about to close up three percent for the third straight week because of the news that the President's been posting on that, but hard not to note a real entrepreneur retiring at sixty five. Good on him. He'll go make this shit for Democrats. Let's talk about the dark side of the future, John, because I read news items this morning, I sent you
a note saying we got to talk about Mythos. This is creepy, scary. Tell people about it.
Well, it's the latest model of the AI model, brought forth by Anthropic, which is one of the three or four major AI companies, And basically what they found is that this new model called Mythos or Mythos is able to autonomously break into self computer software systems in government and infrastructure in businesses and financial institutions.
In theory, it could disrupt the.
Global financial system, the functioning of the US government, and it was dangerous enough that Anthropic decided not to release it to the public, which it had been planning to do in which has spent a lot of money developing the product, obviously, and instead engage the US government and leading technology and Financial services company to say, look, we have this, we have this unbelievably capable AI model that could destroy your business essentially or destroy your governance, and
so we got to work together to make sure this doesn't happen. It's a major, major development, and the reason people are paying so much attention to it, I think, aside from being able to you know, rob a bank, is that it's a harbinger of what's to come in the world of AI, which is that it's, you know, the horse has left the barn and we don't know, you know, we don't know where it's going, and we're not sure that where it's going is where we want to be.
Now. You also point out to me there is a split in people who watch AI on the US side, the David Sachs led White House Yah Yago Go AI team and then the critics of Brave New World. It's going to destroy us all and eat humanity. I'm actually with Sacks on this. I don't think we can allow the People's Republic of China to get a lead here, even though they're going to develop their own meathos or those aren't they Yes, they will.
The you know, the argument that Sacks and others make is the answer to everything is China. If we don't stay ahead, China will get ahead. They'll be able to crack into our financial system, governments, et cetera. So we have to press forward. Sorry, but we have to. There's no other choice. The opposite side of that is it's
a major league losing political issue. People in you know, the electorate by really large numbers doesn't trust AI, doesn't trust the companies that are that are producing AI, and it doesn't trust the leadership of those companies. So it's a It's a tight spot for the administration because they want to do what David Sachs thinks they should do, but they fully understand it could cost them a lot politically in November and beyond.
You know, I have been taking meetings with tech execs because they like to talk to broadcasters for a decade and people from Mark Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel to the new high tech people in DC and their their opposite. I'm always humbled by it because you know, it's so far removed from what you and I grew up on, but it's it's inevitability is something to which I'm resigned. Are you you.
Yeah, I'm actually of the view that we have to strike a grand bargain with China. They're going to get there, We're going to get there. It doesn't really matter who gets there first. And I think the only way to put guardrails around this is to have the two superpowers enter into a pact that says this is what allowable, this is what's not allowable, and if you go with not allowable, you will incur the full wrath of China and the United States.
Now that had not occurred to me. Maybe they'll talk about that in Beijing in May. John, Let's go to the fourteen prominent people US and global that got their favorability ratings this week. Not surprisingly, Poblo the fourteenth is the most popular person. Is this among Americans? This is Americans? Right, Americans? Yes? Yeah, so Leo gets the best and what I'm not surprised that Zelenski gets a plus eighteen. I am a little bit surprised that Emmanuel McCrone and AOC are at fifty
to fifty. I didn't think anyone in politics could be at fifty to fifty. I thought they all got tarnished. Are you surprised by those numbers. Bernie's different. Bernie's like your crazy uncle that everybody loves and he can't hurt anyone, But AOC she can hurt people.
I think there's I think the poll was taken in August of last year. Pope Leo had just been installed, if you will, and you know, his numbers were through the charts at the AOC was surprising to me. But I think that there is in the context also of AI overlords. I think there's a resurgence on the left and AOC is sort of I don't think people are so much favorable of her as they are favorable of the idea of taking on the new overlords. It's a huge political issue of merging and it popped up in
that poll. Bernie, you know, had a net positive of plus eleven. He was the highest rated public figure in US.
My theory on that, after I read your brief, is that he has been who he is for a long time. He's authentic. He might be authentically wrong and he is about matters economic, but he's who he is and he's always been who he is. You think that figures into it, Just be yourself. Oh, I think absolutely.
I think it's absolutely Bernie has, you know, staked his ground. He hasn't moved. He doesn't change with the winds. He fighting the same battles he fought ten years ago, and he's completely transparent about it. He said, you're a socialist, and he says, yes, I am. So that's a whole lot better than most.
So I want to conclude by asking you for your We don't know what this deal is that the President is apparently negotiated with whoever is running the Islamic Republic negotiation team. Are you what's your spidey sentence on this. I'm going to talk with Eli Lake. I'm sure his will be negative. Matt Continenties will be balanced. Ben Dominic shall be a little bit worse. What's John Ellen's thing.
I think that there will likely be a deal announced in the next two or three days. It's unclear to me whether you know the Iranians will honor the deal, but I think that both sides have had enough. I think President Trump doesn't want the war to end. I think the Iranians want to stop getting bombed, and so clever diplomacy should make it possible for them to come out in a press conference and say we've arrived at a deal. And whether that means, you know, long term
peace or whatever, we don't know. But I think they will be able to say at the end of the weekend that a quote deal end quote has been reached.
It will be so interesting to get to the fine print of that, and we'll be talking about it next week. In the meantime, I'll be reading about it in news Items every morning. If you're not a subscriber, I recommend it to you. John Ellis always good to talk. You follow John on at chat Ellis Items. You can go to newsdash Items dot com if you want to find out what I'm talking about there, And I'm coming right back with Eli Lake for a take on the deal.
Don't go anywhere. Welcome back in America. I'm Jude Hewitt. I know there's been a lot of announcements today from the President and from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokespeople, and I don't know what to make of it. So luckily Eli Lake is here to tell us whether we like or don't like the deal that may not be a deal. What do you think, Eli, You're the first hot take I get.
I'm still waiting for details, but I would say overall, I'm pretty satisfied with this. The strait is opened, at least that's what the Iranian FIGN minister has said. Trump says he's got a deal for the highly the the sixty percent enriched uranium that we will go and get it. I'm I don't like that the Iranians have interpreted the ceasefire in Lebanon to be in a seceding to their demands. But then again, Trump also said he wasn't going to
pay twenty billion or whatever for the uranium. So I don't know what what what kind of sanctions really there is, but you know, we have to take a step back. The United States destroyed their you know what's the most conservative vest may maybe about half of their missile launchers and and and ballistic missile ballistic missile stocks. It destroyed their defense industry that produces those missiles. Most of the
nuclear program is now demolished. According to Benjamin and Yahu this week, what he said was that there are no active enrichment facilities right now in the country. The Iranians have lost their navy and their air force and their one piece of leverage. I think Trump turned the tables on in a kind of jiu jitsu move and blockaded the blockade, forcing the Iranians to get serious. And I think that's one of the main things that pressure them.
They are more diplomatically isolated than they were at the beginning of the war, and you know their proxy network at this point. Even if the war, even if the ceasefire is an end to this particular round between Israel and Hesba, loss suffered a lot of losses, particularly their senior commanders in the last major bombing run that the Israelis did. So I think overall, this looks like a win. And by the way, you he did it with no troops on no boots on the ground.
It it looked like an enormous win. But I'm cautious because the and It is a salesperson and he will over promise an underdeliver politically to people. And I don't think he would dare do that with this, given his record on the JCPOA. You think that might caution him.
Can I say something on the JCPOA thing, Yeah, it's apples and oranges. I see this from all the former Obama people like, oh, we could have had this, we did have this.
I'm like, no, you didn't.
The program that the JCPUA legalized you is now no more, is now in ruins. So we're talking about very different things in some ways. I mean, of course, I don't want to recognize Iran's so called right to enrichment, which doesn't really exist in any way in the NPT the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, but like leaving that aside, like you, great, you have a right to enrich and you don't have a faciity you don't. It's going to take an enormous
amount of rebuilding to do it. And as you pointed out on earlier shows this week, which have been excellent, you know, the Central Bank of Iran is saying it's going to take twelve years to rebuild their economy. They're expecting a kind of hyper inflation. Their real is still worth nothing. They still they're having trouble paying their salaries of their security forces, let alone the rest of their government.
I mean, there's so many hurdles ahead that to compare it to the JCPUA is just it's two different galaxies.
Yeah, I go back in fifteen months and I say to people, are you glad that we have had the last fifteen months, as the world say, for undeniably so, and there's just a jig break though. I want to play for your secretary Rubio. I played this for everyone this week. There's Marco Rubio on the IRGC.
These people are lunatics, they are insane, They are religious zelots who can never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon because they have an apocalyptic vision of the future, and all their neighbors know that, by the way, which.
I play that again and again, because to me, it's the most important takeaway that is not physical. It's it's knowledge, it's it's communicating with the American people. You've got to be realistic about who these people are. They're fanatics. Do you think the country has that message now?
I hope they do. I think that it's starting to get through. And there was a really simple way to talk about this. You really to look at it like Midnight Hammer and Epic Fury, and it's like one war you know between you know, sort of two wars, but
it's really one war. And we you know, between the two wars and what was done the press, you know, the United States and Israel have managed to make sure that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon for at the very least several years, and they won't have the ability to protect a weapons project from a huge, sort of insurmountable style.
Of ballistic missiles.
The other thing that we have to worth watching here is that, yes, the Chinese and the Russians helped a little bit, but there was a lot more they could have done. So where does Iron now stand with the you know, axes of dirtbags.
Yeah, we have no idea. That's another They could be so shatteredy live Hamaj shattered. Im Segal was writing about this today. We don't know how badly shattered there Hezblah has been shattered. So that's baby Bear, Mama Bear, and now big Bearry Iran. It's just shattered. But we don't know how shattered it is, and I don't know that we'll ever know, will we.
Well one indicate one explanation as to why the Iranians were willing to open the strait, which was their last trump card, is because they had a couple of days to kind of look around and assess the damages. The other one is that the Chinese made it very clear you are under no circumstances allowed to mind the straits, that if you do, we will cut you off and
that's the end for them. So I think there is a difference between mining the straits, which would shut the straight up rooms down for months, you know, on end, versus the harassment of drones and cruise missiles and fast boats. I'm not saying that other, but the other threat.
Is not as serious the second one is.
So at this point, you know, I just think the Iranians are in such a difficult position. My hope is is that we really turn the screws and we get as much as we can. I wrote a column earlier this week saying that one of our one of our asks and demands of the Iranians should be release your political prisoners, turn on the internet and stop the executions.
That would be I think a great signal to the Iranian people and let us in to pick Axe Mountain. I know Mark Dubowitz, I don't know him, but I know he's going to post at some point, what about pick Axe Mountain? What do you think about pick Axe Mountain?
I think that, uh, my understanding is that it's it's not online, and I think that it I don't know why we didn't hit it in the run but my assumption is is that because even our best bunker busters couldn't get to it. So maybe that's but you know, again, they've lost so much of their program at this point, and I think that we will have eyes on that area that it's gonna be very difficult to restart it.
But yes, Pickack Mounts, Pickaxe Mountain is a real problem, and my hope is is that you know, we will we will have some way to deal with it. But oh, you know, I'm going to look for you know, whatever happens is better than the JCP away.
Oh yeah, of course. But I'm going to look for your detailed assessment in the Free Press as soon as possible. I don't know if you work weekends or Breaking History can be out. Oh I've been working the weekends. Oh good. I am looking forward to your assessment in the Free Press tomorrow. Because one of the people I read along with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy and Aaron
McClain is Eli Lake. Follow him on Exit, Eli Lake, read him in the Free Press, Listen to his podcast Breaking History, and come right back to today if you hear a show. Welcome back America. I'm Hugh Hewett, Matt Continetti is with the Wall Street Journal with the American Enterprise Institute, and he's back on the commentary podcast at least weekly, which I agree to. That made me very happy. Matt dare you back talking at length with your fellow commentator
commentary people, And I hope you keep doing that. I mean, I want to get to the serious stuff, but really, no turning you around. On the arch that the President is proposing for the Arlington side of the Memorial Bridge.
Well, Hugh, I don't oppose the arch in principle. I just think that it should be scaled down just a little bit. In my view, I'm not as grandiose maybe as others. I think the proper size for the arch would be smaller than the two hundred and fifty feet proposed by the President, which would make this Memorial Arch the largest, the largest in the world, and almost as tall as a Capital Dome. I'm one of those guys.
The Capital is my favorite building in America, and I don't think anything should approach the Capitol Dome and height in Washington, d C.
Well, my only objection to the idea is and I really have no objection because I'm too old to really care about what the city looks like for the next fifty years. Is that the traffic going on in Memorial Bridge is already terrible. And if they build that dog on thing, I want them to do it after I've retired. Now let's get to the serious stuff. You wrote a Wall Street Journal column nine hours ago on the Trump doctrine. I was going to spend the whole time talking with
you about it. However, we now have a deal. Is the deal that is emerging via the President's posts and buzz and the Iranian replies and Israeli media, is that part of the Trump doctrine? Is it a logical extension?
Well, I think we have to wait to see what the deal actually is. To listen to what President Trump is posting, I think the signs are very good that we would obtain the remaining enriched uranium that's buried underground after Operation Midnight Hammer last year, and that the Strait of Hormus would be open to all traffic. Those two points would be real wins for the President, and I expect that they will come to some agreement in the coming days. I still look for other elements in a deal.
There need to be radical restrictions on the Iranian missile program so that they're unable to replenish the stocks of missiles that we destroyed during Operation Epic Fury. I'd also want to see them have limitations on support for terrorist proxies. And of course, as Eli Lake was saying in the previous segment, there are things that we should be demanding that would help the Iranian people, including reopening the Internet
in Iran, the information straight, if you will. So, I think what we're experiencing right now is a tremendous amount
of leverage that this president has over these negotiations. I think that the blockade was a essential tactic in order to force the Iranians' hands, and I think the Iranian leadership, what is left of it, has been beginning to discover just how much damage Operation Epic Fury and Operation Roaring Lion wrought on their country and how they are in an economic tailspin that is likely to grow only worse if they don't concede.
So, Matt, here's the problem in evaluating the deal. If you're somewhat of my generation, We've never beaten the Iranians, all right, So I got out of college in seventy eight. They took our hostages in seventy nine, and they released them when Reagan was elected president. That wasn't really a win. They were afraid, they let them out, and we were embarrassed for four hundred and forty four days. I don't think we've ever beaten them, so I'm kind of reluctant
to say we've won. Do you think that it's going to be a general apprehension among the commentariat.
Well, in the anti Trump commentariat, of course, we've been losing since the very beginning of Operation Epic Fury. I think more generally, yes, there will be apprehensions about dealing with the Iranians. As Senator Cotton likes to say, the Iranians regime has never won a war, but it's also never lost a negotiation, and so you have to be very tough in these negotiations, and you need to demand results before any relaxation of pressure occurs. And that's what
I'm really looking for. How real are these Iranian promises and will they be verified before we begin to think of relaxing, relaxing the blockade, releasing frozen funds, or much less drop some of the sanctions that have been imposed in Iran. Because of their just atroc behavior over the decades in the region and in the world. You need results first, and you can't let the pressure up until we get them.
If the blockade is still in place, I have to think the Iranians have or the irgc have just thrown in their hand because well, I'll talk to Matt about it during the break. Don't go anywhere, America. Stay tuned. I want to get his take on the blockade and it being placed. What does that mean? I have one take. We'll see what Matt Continenty thinks. Stay jammed. So I'm back with Matt Continenty of the Wall Street Journal in American Enterprise Institute. Now he's back on the commentary podcast
once in a week. By the way, Matt, is that a given day any week, is there going to be Wednesdays or Thursdays. It will be.
Thursdays, Hugh where I'll appear on the commentary podcast. I don't want to interfere with my appearances on the Hugh Hewitt Show my top priority.
And then I'll do this.
I also appear on I also app here on the Wall Street Journals podcast on Wednesdays.
So you know you can have a whole week.
Of CONTINENTI means you have to keep pressing different buttons and searching different podcasts online.
Well, when we come back on the network, I'm going to have you explain why you recommended a sci fi novel this week, because I don't like sci fi. But here's my take on the blockade being left in place. The Iranians can have no leverage if the blockade is still in play. They're basically begging us, aren't they. If the blockade still there, they have to give us what the President says. Otherwise they're going to just run out of money completely. They got nothing.
That's why I think Trump used the right policy here. He trumped the Iranian closure of the Strait of Hermuz by saying, look, if you're not letting the commercial chips out, we're not going to let any of your ships in or out. And this is a stranglehold on the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and it's going to deprive the Range economy of huge amounts of funds. And remember, because that economy is so controlled by the government, you're
really just depriving the terrorists of funds. And so what makes Operation Epic Fury interesting here is unlike Operation Absolute Resolve of Venezuela, where the blockade preceded the change in leadership. Here we remove the leadership Iotola Kameni and forty top officials in the opening minutes of the operation and then sustained thirty eight days of intense and punishing bombardment of
Iran before we impose the blockade. I think that makes the blockade hurt even more than the blockade of Venezuela hurt the Maduro regime. And it means why that we need to keep up the blockade until we see verifiable results in concessions on the ground from the Iranian.
Government, hopefully in the form of that highly enriched uranium being turned over to not to a third party country, but the United States. I'll be right back with Matt on the other side of the break. Don't go anywhere, stay tuned to the Quit Show. Thank you for listening to highly concentrated Hugh, and don't forget one of our great sponsors is Consumer Seular one eight hundred forty four
fifty four, eight hundred forty four fifty four. When you call them, and you should, because you should want to save money, make sure you use my promo code Q Hugh. You'll get your second month free if and when you switch to Consumer Cellular. Whatever plan you switch with, you'll get your second month for free. I want you to call and investigate because you're probably paying too much for whatever you're doing right now. With Consumer Cellular, well, you
can go online Consumer Cellular dot com slash you. They've got great plans for every kind of person in every kind of data usage. However, they really target people who are fifty years and older. Listen to this. You get a single line with Consumer Cellular with unlimited talk, text and data for just thirty five dollars a month. That's a single line if you're fifty years and older for with unlimited talk, text and data for just thirty five
dollars a month. When you call Consumer Cellular eight hundred and four one one forty four to fifty four and everybody, he can be under fifty, you can be over fifty. Everybody gets their second month free when you use my name, Hugh. Welcome back in America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Matt Connetty. It's still with me. He of the Wall Street Journal Free
Expressions column. He of the American Enterprises too now Thursdays on commentary podcasts most Fridays when we are lucky right here before I go back to the latest announcement by Admiral Cooper, head of Suncom. Matt Contnetty on your return to the commentary podcast, you got to do a recommend and you recommended sci fi. Now, I've never even read enders book or whatever that thing is by Orson Scott Card. What in the world are you doing recommending sci fi?
I've always thought it was a big time waste. Even though I like fantasy. There's epic stuff in fantasy. What's in this sci fi? I can't help it, Hugh.
I'm a I'm a genre fiction freak. I love mysteries, I love thrillers, and I've also loved science fiction since.
My youth.
You know, the saying goes, the golden age of science fiction is twelve years old, and if you discover it then you never really get rid of it.
And I think, this book, what's this book?
Oh? This book is called The Faith of Beasts. It's part of a trilogy by the creators of The Expanse, which is a very popular sci fi book and television franchise.
But I just say this you know, in many ways, science fiction is the most political of genres because it's the easiest way for authors to explore different political systems, different forms of government, and you get to see kind of the play of parties and intrigue in a vast landscape, as opposed to kind of historical fiction or His Street here at Home, which of course I read a lot of as well.
Where do you put epic fantasy? You don't include that in sci fi? Do you? They have magic and dragons and stuff like that game.
Yeah, if there's magic, if it's if there's magic, it's not science fiction. That's the general rule of thumb. And I'm not. I'm not actually a fan of a fantasy. My my wife is big into those romanticy novels, but I'm not. And the only real fantasy series I've ever really liked is The House of the Game of Thrones, the You and.
You're You're the Same era. Ross is a big lover of fantasy, epic fantasy series, and we've gone down many rabbit holes together. You two ought to have a Battle of the Titans from.
Your era one of the many areas where Ross and I disagree despite being friends. Fantasy and science fiction. We we differ on that. We just don't get a lot many things.
Dogs and cat that's tox all right. Here's what Brad Cooper said. The US military has completely halted economic trade with Iran by sea and has stopped nineteen vessels from trying to evade the blockade. Animal Cooper said earlier today. Quote, we are watching every Iranian ship in every port, Cooper told reporters today. We're able to sustain this as long as necessary. That's music to my ears, Matt continetty, because it will mean the end of the regime. Maybe not today,
maybe not in twenty twenty six. But they can't make it to the end of the Trump years without any money, can they? No, not at all.
And look here, we know that the Iranian economy was in free fall prior to Operation Epic Fury. One of the reasons for the public uprising that led to President Trump saying help would was on the way was this collapse of the Iranian economy, lack of electricity in Tehran, lack of water, potable water in Iran. And now think
of the situation. Not only is there the devastation wrought by the bombing campaign, the complete destruction of the defense industrial base, the kind of chaos that the command and control has been set into since the military operation began. Now you have this blockade that is really exerting a strangerhold over the Iranian economy, which is so dependent on sea traffic. And so this means that we have the
upper hand in whatever negotiations we follow. And it also means that the situation for the Iranian regime is bleak and will turn ultimately, I think, totally black, And that is another form of leverage. In addition to the economy. In addition to the fact that, as Pete Haggs has said yesterday, we are ready to resume the bombing campaign if necessary, we also have the Iranian people still waiting in the wings, and they've risen up against this government
time and time again. We're now in a position where, if it happens, we can help them and that will be the ultimate source of peace in the mid at least the end of the current Iranian regime.
I agree with that. Now, the counter narrative from the anti Trump folks is that the hardliners are now in charge. I kind of laugh at that. If it were not so sorrowful, how much more hardline can you be than ordering the murder of thirty thousand people. I mean, they can't get more hardline than what we wiped out. Am I right about that? Yeah?
I mean the myth of the Iranian moderate has been kind of a fantasy that has gripped the imaginations of so many analysts in the West for so long. One I'd say, I'm not even sure we know who is in charge in Iran. I think that was one of the problems that faced Vice President Vance last weekend in Islamabad.
So he has told people in interviews that every time the group he was dealing with made some concession, they'd have to check back with others in Iran, and it led the Vice President to conclude that he might not be dealing with the right people. We really don't know what the state of play there is, but we do know that, as you say, the people who remain are
dedicated Islamists, they are revolutionaries. This ideology has been entrenched, and this is a regime that begins every day saying death to America, death to Israel, and says the same thing at the end of every day. And so yet you can't get more radical than the regime we had
prior to Operation Epic Fury. And the truth is, it doesn't matter how radical they are as long as they do what Donald Trump is asking them to, and that is give up the nuclear material, open the strait, limit your missiles, end the support for proxies, and be more responsive to the needs of your people. You can still be an ideologue. What matters to Trump is not what you believe, it's what you do. And that's why his having the high cards right now is so important.
So, Matt, you're against the triumphal arch at the height that it is. What do you maka like? There's Trajan's column in Rome, and do you think maybe we should just whisper the Trump column somewhere?
Well, you know, look, people have often talked about there's room for that fifth face on Mount Rushmore. You know, I've always thought that would be the best tribute as to have him up there. Yeah, this president, on the trajectory he's in, is going to be recognized as a world historical figure, someone who changed the whole condition of
the United States, the shape of global politics. If he leaves office having changed the regime in Venezuela and Iran and Cuba, and ended the border crisis and given US leverage over China. He will have a remarkably historical presidency and deserve some type of monument for sure.
Yeah. I don't think of Colin, but you're right. Just recognition is enough at one point, Matt Continetti, thank you. Follow Matt on Exa. Continetti read them in the Wall Street Journal and has worked at AAI. I'll be right back in America. Steak morning, glory and even grace America. I'm Hugh Hewittt, joined by the opinion editor of The Daily Wire, the host of The Big Ben podcast, Fox News contributor Extraordinary, Ben Dominic. Ben. Good to have you back,
especially on a day of such breaking news. I want to begin with my proposition, we've lost muscle memory of winning battles and wars. We did that in two thousand and three with the March to Bagdad, and after that was a twenty years log to nowhere. Two thousand and one, it was a quick victory over the Taliban that never became a real victory before that. It was nineteen ninety one and it was a great one hundred hour war,
but it didn't dislodge Saddam. Do you think we might be afraid to declare victory here over Iran because of that.
I think you're very much on the right path with that, And I think a big part of that is that you know, you, I mean, you saw it used to great effect, that natural hesitancy by the legacy media. I mean just openly, you know, declaring that right from right off the bat, that this was going to be something that led to see that ultimately it could lead, you know, perhaps to the exiting or the end of the entire
Trumpian agenda. That's even been you know, on some magazine covers, including What I Used to work for, not go on wood. But one of the things that I think is really indicative about this is that this is a moment when the president has a ton of confidence in his ability to get a good outcome, and the fact that we have become so reluctant to use American military might in the way that it was used in this case. There's
some healthy aspects of that. You don't want to give into hubris, you don't want to be naive about what you can achieve. But I do think that to a certain degree, this this is a demonstration of how the hesitancy on this part, on the part of people within the populace in America was used and exploited by the legacy media in ways that was not actually reflective of the facts.
If it wasn't Donald Trump, if it was you know, President Gretchen Whitmer, or President Gavin Newsom, or anybody that was a Democrat or even you know, a pre Trump Republican President Romney. If they had done this the last six weeks, what would legacy media be saying.
Gretchen Whitmer would be on the cover of every magazine. She would be depicted as this warrior queen to achieved something that none of her male predecessors was willing or courageous enough to do. You know, our own iron lady. I mean, I can't even imagine the perlative that would be launched in her direction. And if you don't think that The New York Times would be saying that she should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, I just
I think you're out of your mind. This is this is a situation where that level of animosity I think was from the beginning something that led them to reject the idea that we could even achieve this type of goal, that we could be in a situation where we would be sucked into a quagmire after six weeks. It's absolutely nuts when you consider it, if you step back from it.
But I think that they were counting on people not having the willingness to do that and to play on their fears as opposed to what we actually know about what is possible and what this president is capable of.
Now. The most important fact that I'm certain of is what Admiral Cooper said earlier today. He said, we are watching every Iranian ship in every port. We're able to sustain this as long as necessary. Backing up the President's statement that the blockade is still in effect, That to me is something I can measure that I can stand by. The blockade's still there, so the Iranians had no leverage at this table, none zero. Is that how you read it.
I absolutely agree with that, and I think that that's I mean, obviously, to comment from you know, a military man as opposed to just someone who has you know, a political acts grind or anything along those lines. I think that this is a situation that we have to continue to monitor. But if you know, the things stay as they are, if they continue to look in the
direction that they are looking. You know, I just think that there are a lot of people who should be holding their hat in their hands, and they're not going to by the way. They're going to try to get away with this the same way that they always do. And I think it's going to take a lot of people demanding that their feet beheld the fire and that they say, look, you know, you were wrong about this. You were clearly wrong about this. What did you learn?
And I think that you know, we and it was my own skepticism about what we can achieve in certain areas. I've had to temperate with the fact that the US military and the people who who lead it have been running the game over and over and over again as long as I have been live. And that's something that does have a great benefit to the American people when it comes to addressing these types of problems.
Well, let's go back in remind people the first criticism of the president's decision too, with Israel strike Iran, the straight of horror moies is closed and they didn't have a plan. That may be the dumbest take of all, because the Pentagon has plans for every country in the world, including our own. They just have plans on top of plans on top of plans. Do you think we'll see anybody retract I wish to extend and refine my remarks.
I mean, unfortunately, you I just don't. And I think that that's going to include a lot of people, by the way, who were previously, particularly within the US Senate, within the US political leadership, just you know, a few
months ago, criticizing the president for not doing enough. That's the greatest aspect of the statistic is I mean, it's not hilarious, but it's it's just an indictment of the fact that there were so many people who said, you know, this president doesn't actually have the willingness to go help the Iranian people, He doesn't have the willingness to go
after this regime. They always return to this idea that either the president is an out of control figure who doesn't understand the limits of what he can do, or he is someone who's actually, you know, just on some level, a petty coward who is only going to speak in sort of boisterous terms but isn't actually going to achieve anything. And they can't ever choose in between. They just go back and forth between the two binaries, when obviously both.
Of them are all there. But it's a complicated picture. I just talking with Matt Contenetty last hour, and if in fact this is the win that I sensed that it is, because the blockade is still there and the Iranians have thrown in their hand, If it's that sort of historic win, Matt's argument is the world historical figure. If he brings in Venezuela, flips Iran on its back, and takes Cuba back to capitalism, it's going to be a pivot point and the people he deranged, they're going
to have to deal with it. Ben can they.
I don't think that they can at this juncture. And but the one thing I will tell you, Hugh, because it's been one hundred percent certain in my life and you know this to be true, there is nothing more powerful as a motivator for the leftist and legacy media than strange new respect. I remember the way they talked about George W. Bush. I remember the play that they
that they look back at Ronald Reagan. I don't remember the way that they have that they have you know, revised their remarks about this person and I know, I know this seems crazy. I know, it just seems absolutely ludicrous. They're gonna do the same thing that Donald Trump. Say what you will about JD. Van, say what you will about Marco Rubio. But they, you know, I mean Donald Trump, he was you know, he was from New York. He was much more moderate. And they will absolutely run this back.
They will and that way.
It's the sand trap that both Nance and or Rubio or anyone else who wants to be president, and I'm Republican side will have to hit over. Now, there's one more counter narrative I want to do with you before we talk about the impact on the Democrats on the left, which is significant if this is a big victory. The counter narrative is, oh, he just promoted more hard line people. Now, the ractional response that is, how much more hardline can you get than mowing down thirty thousand minimum of your
own people in the street. The answer is you can't get more hardline than that. But we're seeing that already, ben hardliners are in charge. What do you make of that?
I think that if you're making that argument today, I mean, just take a look in the mirror. I mean, we were talking about people who were not just willing to say all the things that they've been saying for decades, not just to engage in the type of support for terror that killed so many people around the globe, but also people that people that you know, we're very much confident in the persistence of their regime to a point that they were willing to meet in these ways that
led ultimately to their demise. These were people who didn't feel like they had anything to fear from the Americans. And to look at this new situation, do you think that the people who are in charge now, even if they echo the same sentiments, even if they talk to people within the government, the analysts and the like the Vindomins of the world today, and when it comes to Iran, that they are going to actually not have any lessons taken away from the way that their regime was absolutely
decapitated by these approaches. Of course, they're going to take the lessons from that, and that's going to alter their behavior.
If you're an Iranian ordinary person, someone who runs a convenience story you can't get gasoline, someone who who sells wholesale flower and you can't get flowed. Are you happy or sad that Trump made these announcement today.
I mean, I think at this point, there's no question that you're happy. I mean, this is what we've seen, as much as they have tried to limit the access to the footage and to the information that has come out during the course of this war or that there you know is a is a reaction on the part of the Uranian people that indicates enormous support and enormous hopefulness about what could happen going forward. They have hope now for the first time in a very long time,
and that's a very good development. You know. At the same time, we're going to have to We're going to have to see what happens. That's not something that America has control over in terms of what comes next, to the same degree that we've had control over what's been going on in these past few weeks. Much better, I think than anyone was willing to acknowledge. This is something that you know is going to have an enormous import
for the world as a whole. You know this, You've talked about it, and we are going to have to monitor it and see and let's hope that this has the kind of outcome that is possible.
I'm going to talk with Ben during the break. He'll be back on the other side because I got to talk with him about the New Quad as well as the old Quad right after this and NATO Siga. I'm back with Ben Dominich during the break here on the network. Ben, I want to play for you Secretary of State room early on in the sixth Week War. This is what the Secretary had to say.
These people are lunatics, they are insane. They are religious zelots who can never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon because they have an apocalyptic vision of the future. And all of their neighbors know that, by the way, which is why all of their neighbors have been supportive of the Now.
After the break, I'll talk about the new Quad, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Israel in the United States. But I think it's a strategic win to have the Secretary of State speak this bluntly about the IRGC and the mulis. What do you where has he been this week? Men?
You know, I think that this is a stitution. You know that the president you know, certainly is out there in front. Marco Rubu has decided, I think after getting a you know, a series of plaudits you know, from myself included in you as well, that I think you wanted to take a little bit of a step back and focus on the job. I really wish that that
was a little different. I wish that he was out there a little bit more advice for and has been out there quite a lot this past week and a half on things that didn't necessarily go well, you know, for him. But I think that this is, you know, a situation where the sectuary of State that decided I'm
going to focus on my job. And that's I think an indication that you know, as many of us have suspected, you know, as much as that there remains a call out there a group of people who would like to see him run for president, who would like to see him contend against jd Vance potentially in the primary, that he is still reluctant to do so, at least at this stage.
Well, there's a narrative that the president sends Rubio to deal with our enemies, and he sends Fans to deal with our friends. But that's been flipped. So now I really have no idea who's doing what. But do you expect the Vice President to go back to Islamabad this weekend.
I don't know. I mean, I honestly don't know that the vice president wants to be stuck in a situation where he could come back, you know, with half a loaf or something along those lines. But it would be I think, in his interests to go there and to achieve some things, because that's something people will look back on if he's able to do it, if he's able to pull it off, and that's I believe the better way to run, and to build the case for running as opposed to playing it safe all the time.
I agree with that. I hope he's on the plane. I hope they go back and get the details ironed out so that we know we get the highly enriched uranium. Don't go anywhere, America. I'm coming right back with Ben Dobbin. My friends, you've probably seen the headlines are worse. Your latest cell bill, big wirelesses raising rates again. That means you could be paying more for the same service or getting pushed into a pricier plan that you simply don't need.
That's the right. There's a better way, and it's called consumer cellular. Millions of Americans have already made this switching. For good reason. Consumer Cellular is consistently ranked number one in customer satisfaction because they treat you like a customer, not a number. With Consumer Solul, you get flexible, affordable plans to fit your life, not the other way around. No long term contracts, no hitting fees. You can keep your phone and use a new one, so don't let
big wireless dictate what you pay. Take control today. Visit Consumer Sellular dot com slash Hugh and use the promo code Hugh hug h for your second month for free, or call eight hundred four one one forty four to fifty four again. Remember my code is Hugh. If you're over fifty, listen to this. You can get a single line with unlimited talk, textan data for just thirty five dollars. I'm a consumer Sellular dot Com slash q Welcome back America.
I'm Hugh Ewett. We have been dominant chapinion page editor, overt Daily Wire. He's the host of the Big Ben podcast, Fox News contributor Ben. I want to go way out now to thirty thousand feet. Uh Nato is in the rearview mirror in my view right in front of US. Is the new is the quad that we know about Japan, Australia, India and the United States, and quad adjacent countries like
South Korea and Philippines, Taiwan and Singapore. Now I think there might be a new quad which is the US, Israel, UAE and Saudi Arabia, and they're adjacent country like bob Rang and Kuwait. And I think that might become the local gendarmerie for in the Middle and Near East. What do you think.
I think that that has a level of potential that you know, even a little while ago, would not have seemed real, realistic at all, But I think that now has to be considered as a possibility, a very real one. Of Course, those relationships are ones that I think are fundamentally extremely transactional, and we have to understand that about them. They don't have necessarily the level of camaraderie and of joined at the hip nature of the other quality you mentioned.
But I think that this is also a situation where the level of interest, the level of shared interest, is too high not to cooperate to a greater degree. And what we've already seen are indications that I think are
very positive in this vein. If we can continue to see that relationship grow, it certainly could become a force for real stability in the region going forward, and one that I think would really take the load off a lot of things that America has had to do in a sort of single shock capacity going back for many years.
Okay, so that takes us to the blast radius of the significance of the Six Week War, which is NATO maybe the second most injured party here, all right, Iran number one as well, I guess number one A. But here is the president of Finland, alex Stuff, who was very he gets along well with Trump. But he was given an interview in I think a European network. Here's what he had to say.
I think at the end of the day, the United States will find themselves in quite a lonely place. I mean, I'm the most pro American president in Europe. I'm an avid Transatlanticist. I want the relationship to work, but I fully also realized that, you know, with certain patterns behavior, there is going to be a feeling of Okay, if you treat me like that, I don't feel very good about it. And we can see that with the European States, we can see it with you know, Golf.
States and many others.
So I hope that it's in the interest of the United States if it wants to continue to be one of the world hegemons to have close friends and alys.
Now I call I throw a flag on that Ben. The Golf States love us right now.
That very just.
That's just because the Golf States love us right now and our patriots. Canada and NATO are not high on my list, but I got the frontline states like Finland and Poland and Sweden might have a little bit more in the game with us. What do you make of that? Is your bloss it's mine. You know what.
Whenever you go to one of these European leaders to ask this type of question and they start talking about it, there's this word that they use all the time, and it bothers me. That word is feelings. Yes you've heard it again, And to me, it's like, this isn't about feelings that we don't actually care about that aspect. This
is about shared interest. This is about what is in America's interest and what you are willing to do, and we are going to cooperate you to the extent that it is in America's interest and that's something that I think the Europeans really need to understand because feelings, I mean, just like the idea that they're going to continue to be insulted by different I mean, at a certain level, it's saying we care more about the tone of a truth social post than we do about the interests of
our country and of the West, and that is just a ridiculous and inconceivably stupid position to occupy.
That's well put, inconceivably stupid. They just took off the board, the president and the American military just took off of the board the third greatest threat to peace loving countries in the world. And that's fine, China and Russia and maybe a team in number two because they're let me go to the only people who are below the NATO non interventionist, not our problem people, and that's the Democrats. Did any Democrat not named John Fetterman come out and
support of the president's policy towards Iran? One? Did anyone? No?
I mean, it's just and and by the way, I want to point out again that these are the same people who were saying just a few months ago that the president was that he was wrong not to raise up you know, his standard that he that he was going to you know that he was promising things that he couldn't deliver on. And the other thing is, by the way, I mean you mentioned the last time that
we talked, you mentioned Mark Warner. Mark Warner has been around long enough to know what a threat that Iran really represents and the facts that he even he can't even come out and say that he supports a policy that ultimately is likely to lead to what he always claimed he wanted it to see, all these people said that, you know, the threat of the of a nuclear Iran was so existential that I needed to cut this ridiculous deal with them before. And now what are they going
to say. They're going to say that this was a wrongheaded war, that it's a catastrophe, that it's a travesy. Look at Chuck Schumer. I mean, come on, how can you take him seriously after all the years when he was clearly of the mind that a're on with such a threat, and now he can't even say that because his base will hold him to account if he does.
Okay, So, last question, Bett, did the Democrats price in in November win off of the war and the gas height price too quickly, because right now oil is down to eighty four dollars a barrel. If it stays, if the Strait stays open, and we've got Donald Trump welcoming the highly enriched uranium and the internet's back on in Iran in three weeks, did they just bury themselves?
I don't know that we can say that. I do think that things get lost in the shuffle, and the truth is that, as you know, voters make up their minds typically in the first six months of the midterm year. Republicans are going to have to get out there and make the case to themselves. And I think that that's something that we haven't seen them do to a great degree when it comes to the House, which is all a kerfuffle over so many different things and doesn't seem
to really be keeping their eye on the ball. I think that the truth for Republicans at this moment is that they need to take this win and run with it as much as possible, make the Democrats on the other side of it, and if you know, if the voters see I think that this turns around in a way that is beneficial to them in their household then I think that there's possibility that they can actually, you know, achieve something better than what we certainly thought even a few months ago.
So Republicans have to learn to say we won, we won conclusively, we want in a way that you can't see see.
Then they have to make arguments to you, and that's that's something that they seem to that's not something that they tend to do.
They like to only.
Argue amongst themselves, So it's a real problem for them.
I just would turn Ruby l loose and the vice president loose, and the president. By the way, the more interview it gives at length as opposed to true social post, the better off he is. Ben Dominich, is great to talk to you on a victory Friday. We used to call that in high school football, you have a victory Friday, and that was always good to have. Good to talk to you, Ben Dominich. What I hope the weekend proves that we are right in our optimism. Thank you for joining me.