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Welcome back, America. Hugh Hewitt, Inside the Beltway on this Tuesday. Hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend. Noah C. Rothman joined me from his New Jersey headquarters of Noah C. Rothman International. where he is the senior editor of National Review. Noah, I hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend. I absolutely did. I hope you had the same. We did. We did. Noah, on May 1st, Donald Trump issued an executive order.
directing the Corporation for Public Broadcast to end funding for NPR and PBS. I worked for PBS for 10 years, from 1992 to 2002, doing the nightly news in L.A. and doing a national show for them. That was back in the early days of cable when they still had a mission. NPR sued the president today. Your thoughts on this latest controversy?
My thoughts are nowhere near as well-developed as my colleague Dan McLaughlin over at National Review who has written about that, and I commend it to your attention. The lawsuit is – it has – Within the language of the lawsuit, this contradictory argument that is made by NPR and its supporters routinely, it is that NPR's funding from.
public enterprises from the government, from taxpayers, is so minimal, it makes up such a marginal portion of its operating budget, that there really is very little point to stripping it of that largesse. At the same time, however, if you were to do so... It would throttle Americans access to news generally because it would result in the closure of small NPR affiliates who subsist on these federal taxpayer dollars.
And so you would get a lot of layoffs and you get a lot fewer stations and Americans would exist in a news desert where they cloister themselves on YouTube and TikTok, consume disinformation and then sacrifice the republic. Fundamentally, this is where the argument goes. It gets very cyclical. and very hyperbolic quickly. I don't find them... I'm not an attorney. I can't speak to the merits of the legal case necessarily, but I don't find that argument compelling. And it certainly...
It is justified that the Trump administration and any Republican administration, because this isn't a Trump initiative, this isn't a MAGA initiative, this is something Republicans have sought since I've been aware of Republican policy preferences. that they have a legitimate argument to the notion that viewpoint discrimination on these outlets is naked, obvious, and runs contrary to the Constitution's protections against that sort of preferential treatment.
I think the arguments made by Republicans are the better arguments. The courts may disagree, but I would be surprised, frankly, based on my reading of this very preliminary reading of this lawsuit. Now, my couple of points with you, Noah. You're right about the news-dethered fallacy. That might have been the case in the early 60s when PBS got started. that Sesame Street was useful and it was only available on over the...
over-the-air broadcast channels that PBS would be subsidized by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. NPR did all things considered in the morning, and people were driving. Back in the desert. Now there are a million choices. No one has to get their news from NPR or PBS. But as to viewpoint discrimination, I will end my segment with you in four minutes and I will do an ad.
And I've been doing this for 30 years. I've been supporting myself on a Hugh Hewitt show for 30 years because advertisers want to advertise with me. I get no money from the government. It seems to me, prima facie case, that... If there are private radio stations operating and the left wing people are getting the money, the viewpoint discrimination is against me and my colleagues on the center right and conservative side.
I don't want to hear that from them because it's absurd. They're subsidized by the government and I'm not. Yeah, precisely. You're talking about a category error. And then we quickly move away from the point you just make if you're arguing with people who support. public funding for NPR and PBS, to the point you made previously, the Sesame Street case, right? So this programming, very public-oriented, public-facing, salutary, I would say as much.
is just absolutely vital to the national conversation, and it has to be subsidized. Otherwise, certain Americans won't get it. You still hear the Sesame Street argument being made by these people as though it's 2012. It's not 2012 anymore. Sesame Street is a property that is last I checked owned by Netflix, which is a subscription service, which you have to shell out your own money in order to access.
It's just the talking points have not evolved with the evolving media landscape, and the landscape has been evolving very rapidly over the last 15, 20 years. And it's time for America's conception of what media is and what should be promoted. perhaps even enjoy federal subsidies. I don't think anything should. But you can have that or you can make a good faith argument in that realm. But the argument that is being made that these properties, these ancient storied properties like Sesame Street,
that we should all be deferential to would not exist but for public support is just outdated. It's a fallacy. It doesn't need to be engaged. There are other documentarians than Ken Burns. They are in the business of making money on top of money, and they are in the business of exploiting their ties to the emotional upbringing. There's hardly a parent out there that hasn't used Sesame Street.
as an introduction to television for their child, but it is dated and it's wrong, and I hope that they lose. What about Harvard, Noah, which has also sued the president over the cutoff of federal funds? Yeah, so I'm of mixed emotions on this one. I think Harvard is getting what it asked for. A lot of these funds are dedicated to research, medical research, scientific research. And I think medical and scientific research is good.
The degree to which this administration has tried to make a test case out of Harvard, again, I think they've asked for it. I think they deserve it. However, I also see this as retributive, excessive. I would hate to see this from a Democratic administration coming after a college that, for example. has religious affiliations or is explicitly conservative in its approach. Most of those don't take public funds, so they're not exposed as Harvard is.
Nevertheless, I see this as an effort to execute political retaliation against a political adversary and make an example of them. And I think that's really sorted. It's not the sort of thing I want to see. from the federal government. I think they had a really good case against Harvard and Columbia when it comes to the anti-Semitism EO.
and the extent to which the behaviors that were captured by that EO and are being aggressively prosecuted, either in the justice system or elsewhere, totally valid and 100% asked for. This, however, going after, for example, federal or foreign students, as though that's part of Harvard's conception of itself. It really isn't. But we shouldn't be criminalizing that process or creating disincentives to import the best and brightest from abroad because we want that. We want that human capital.
And this is the sort of thing that can put downward pressure on that. And as a result, our economic activity, productivity and growth. I don't want to see that either. So there's a tender balance that needs to be maintained here. And I don't think the administration has struck it.
Part of the argument back I got over the weekend from people on the foreign students is that half of Harvard's foreign students are Chinese Communist Party affiliated, and that I should dig into that, but we will do that later. Noah C. Rothman, thank you. Talks with Iran yesterday and today, and let's see what happens. But I think we could have some good news on the Iran front. Likewise with Hamas on the...
On Gaza, we want to see if we can stop that. And Israel, we've been talking to them, and we want to see if we can stop that whole situation. I'm joined now on the Hugh Hewitt show by Dr. Michael Orr, and that was President Trump yesterday. Michael, how did you respond to that? Well, it set off a lot of alarms in the state of Israel. I've been on the Israeli news probably nonstop since he said that.
It was not surprising to me, none of it. I've been saying for several weeks now in Israel that President Trump would eventually say, OK, guys, you got another week to go in Gaza. It's not unlimited time. The headline in Israeli news yesterday was that the IDF thinks it can take 75 percent of Gaza, its territory, within two months. And my response was, who thinks that they have two months to operate?
The president wants to end the war. The president wants to advance Saudi-Israel peace. It can't do that if we're fighting in Gaza. He wants to see the hostages released. I think he's being very clear about it. Now, I am most concerned. I'm not actually concerned about Gaza. I don't think he's going to stop you in Gaza or try to stop you in Gaza because his base doesn't like Hamas at all.
But I'm concerned about the idea that they had good talks with Iran because I don't believe we can possibly get a deal with Iran. And Khomeini has said that. What could the president have been told that would be different, Dr. Oren? I don't know, because the readout from the Iranian side was not very good. The talks weren't very constructive, but they were tough.
And if the administration is going to hew to its position that the goal of these talks is the dismantling of Iran's nuclear facilities, it's good. I don't think Iran will ever agree to it, in which case the other options are not just on the table, they're in the air.
Yeah, and I agree with that. And I, by the way, I do not discount the idea that President Trump is waving a false flag here about we're doing our best, we're doing our best, we're doing our best when he's personally reconciled to the fact they have to strike Iran. Talk to me about the collapse of the attempt to distribute food in Gaza today. I'm not surprised, actually. Hamas has no incentive in allowing that to move forward. Are you optimistic that that can be turned around?
Well, it wasn't a total wash today. They distributed 13,000 of the 14,000 food packages. Hamas did its utmost to try to disrupt this. There's a sense here that Hamas itself was involved. Now, let's see what the international community is going to say about that. actually stopping Palestinians from getting to their food. So let's see how it goes in the next couple of days. But one thing we have to understand, whoever controls the food controls Gaza.
And Hamas understands that very well, and he's not going to go quietly into that foodless night. All right, last question. I am... I read about the 75 percent plan. It made sense to me to clear and hold 75 percent of Gaza and then reduce and hopefully get the hostages at the same time. Does that plan have widespread support in Israel, Dr. Michael Oren?
It does not. That's why it is about 30 percent support, about 70 percent, according to all the recent polls. Again, we're going according to polls. I think that Israelis think that we should cut a deal with Hamas, get a ceasefire, get the hostages out. Tomorrow will mark 600 days of this war, 600 days that these people have been in unspeakable, torturous captivity, and it's tearing this country apart.
And the majority of people, even I know, say, OK, cut a deal. Let Hamas survive whatever way it survives. And the next time they violate a ceasefire, we'll go out and kill them. It won't be so easy, and Hamas is not stupid. They're going to try to lock us into a permanent ceasefire, either with a Security Council resolution or an agreement with the United States. Last thing I heard was that the Hamas...
He wants to have a public handshake with Steve Whitcoff. Wow. He can't do that. That would be a disaster for Donald Trump. But I am a little disappointed, Dr. Oren. that only 25% of the tunnel network has been destroyed according to yesterday's story. Are you surprised and are you disappointed by that? No, I'm not surprised nor disappointed. Listen, there are hostages down there.
This is a subway. This is a tunnel system that is as long as the New York subway system. Imagine how much you have to do to destroy that. And like the New York subway system, it's beneath the city. So you destroy a tunnel, you destroy entire swaths, and neighborhoods are extremely dangerous. It's even dangerous for our soldiers.
So ultimately, it won't be a matter of destroying the tunnels. They'll be filling them up with seawater. That is what the Egyptians used to do in its old days. We can't do that because the hostages are out of there. But once they're out, we can begin to systematically destroy them and flood them. And so you think there's going to be a deal, Dr. Oren?
I think there'd be a deal, but it would help if the United States and Israel stayed on the same page. The Congress's position is actually getting tougher, not weaker, because they send some daylight between Israel and the United States. I agree. Michael Warren, former ambassador of Israel to the United States, always welcome guests here on The Huge.
Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. That was Donald Trump on Sunday. I'm joined by David M. Drucker of the Dispatch. David, before I read you the specifics, what did you make of that statement? Well, it's interesting that the president is always he's just never in a hurry to criticize Vladimir Putin, which is different than just about every other human being alive on planet Earth. And I've asked him about that in the past. I've never been given an answer that explained it to me.
You know, what I'm saying is whenever the president criticizes Vladimir Putin, is upset with him. I think it's notable. I think the question now is, does the president. get sufficiently annoyed that he backs it up with more military aid to Ukraine, more intelligence sharing. The only way you're going to bring this war to an end is to squeeze Vladimir Putin. I mean, other than, you know, let Russia overrun Ukraine. And Putin has his own interests. He's not.
He's rational, but in his way, not our way. And you're not going to negotiate an end to the war by offering him business carrots or, you know, acceptance into Western institutions. He doesn't care about any of that. In today's news items, which is the first thing I read every day.
Russian forces conducted one of their largest drone and missile strikes of the war against Ukraine on the night of May 25 to 26 after three nights of record strikes. The May 25-26 strike is now the second largest combined strike of the war. After Russian forces conducted the largest combined strike of the war of May 24 to 25, the Ukrainian Air Force reported Russian forces launched nine KH-101 cruise missiles from airspace over...
Saratov Oblast, and 355 Shahid and decoy drones from the directions of Baransk, Kursk, and Oriol. And it goes on and on and on. It does not look to me like Putin's got any interest in peace, David, does it to you? No, he's never had any interest in peace. And anybody that thinks that he has interest in peace is just mistaken. that thinks that we can lure Russia into sort of an anti-China Western sphere. And that's the only explanation that I've ever found remotely intriguing about soft peddling.
our opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, is also mistaken because Putin doesn't care about any of that, and he's not trustworthy in any event. And if you look back at Nixon going to China, China was an undeveloped country who needed the United States.
And had specific reasons for wanting to to have a bulwark against Russian aggression themselves. This is just simply not going to work. You beat Putin by beating him into submission or squeezing him. And I think this is important, too, because. China is watching everything the West does, including us. They have designs just not just on Taiwan, but much of the Asia Pacific. And that's why this matters so much.
Here is Donald Trump talking about the Iranian talks, cut number six. Talks with Iran yesterday and today, and let's see what happens, but... I think we could have some good news on the Iran front. Likewise with Hamas on the on Gaza. We want to see if we can stop that. And Israel, we've been talking to them, and we want to see if we can stop that whole situation. What do you make of that, David Drucker? I don't...
Yeah, I don't know what to make of it in that – look, we know what an acceptable deal with Iran would be, that they give up – development and possession of anything that could lead to a usable, deliverable nuclear weapon, and they do so permanently. And they also, and this was one thing that the Obama administration just chose. purposely not to deal with in their talks.
is Iran's malign activities as the largest state sponsor of terrorism around the world. They're threatening of Israel's right to exist, their activities in the United States, in our allies, in the Middle East. That should all be a part of an Iran deal or there should be no Iran deal. And, you know, presumably the reason Donald Trump pulled the United States out of that deal during his first term is because none of these conditions were met. And so if you're going to go back in.
Again, something from news items this morning. Truck drivers across Iran have launched a nationwide strike against rising insurance and maintenance costs. The truck drivers are protesting the government's plan to cut the amount of subsidized diesel allocated to truckers. Since May 18th, this has spread from one city to other major cities. Economic-related protests and strikes have the potential to escalate into anti-regime protests. I can't imagine...
Iran doing a deal with us. But maybe they have to, David. Maybe they're out of money. Well, yeah, maybe. But I mean, look, we were squeezing them for decades. Notwithstanding Biden, you know, handing them pallets of money and Obama, the Obama administration doing the same. I mean, they've been under economic duress for decades. And this suicidal. regime has not seemed to care. And it's an authoritarian regime that regularly puts down unrest.
or protest. So who knows? I mean, anything is possible. It is possible. David M. Drucker. Thank you. Follow David on X at David M. Drucker. Read him at the dispatch. Morning, glory, and evening, Grace America. I'm Hugh Hewitt, Inside the Beltway. I hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend. I'm joined by Brett Barrett. Host of Special Report Every Night at 6 p.m. on the Fox News Channel, America's newsman, Brett. I don't know if you were at the Pentagon when...
Any kind of strategic defense was being talked about loudly because you came in after Reagan and Brilliant Pebbles and all that. And before Golden Dome. But what did you make of the Golden Dome rollout, given that you've got the Pentagon chops from earlier in your career? Well, I think, Hugh, good afternoon. I think it was bold. In other words, it painted a picture.
of what it would look like once completed. And there is a commitment by this president to do it. You know, I think that there's a lot of questions still about how much it will cost. What is his effectiveness and what does it look like? I have the CEO of Lockheed Martin on the show tonight, and we'll be talking about Golden Dome and other projects, but primarily that.
and how realistic, how fast, all of those things. There was a lot of strategic, when I was covering the Pentagon, talk about planning for asymmetric warfare. planning for not big armies, but special ops. And you saw that in the Rumsfeld era. He was very high on showing the pictures of the CIA operatives on horseback. And the special ops guys in the early days of Afghanistan steering in guided missiles and said that was the future of warfare. So they started to map that out while also looking.
to the East and what China and Asia was going to provide. We're going to have to record and steal that interview with the Lockheed Martin guy on special report tonight, because I'm very interested in Golden Dome back from my Reagan days. And I believe there is no more abroad. A hypersonic can be here in, what, 15 minutes, 10 minutes, something like that. And I think, I don't know, it won't make it deployed, I don't think, by the end of my career, but it ought to be up and operating at least.
at a 90% level like Iron Dome by the end of yours, Brett, and that will be a good thing. Let me play for you. The president made a lot of news on Sunday, so I want to run through it with you very quickly. Here's his comments on Vladimir Putin, cut number five. Yeah, I'll give you an update. I'm not happy with what Putin's doing. He's killing a lot of people. And I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time. Always gotten along with him.
But he's sending rockets into cities and killing people. And I don't like it at all. OK, we're in the middle of talking and he's shooting rockets into Kiev and other cities. I don't like it at all. Brett, I think this is significant. What do you think? I think it's significant, too. I think it's a turning point. I think the president's not saying that unless...
You know, things have changed and what that means as far as, you know, stepping up sanctions, whether it's banking, whether it's oil, whether it's. Something else. It seems like something else is coming. Now, Russia's response was to step up a drone attack inside Ukraine and also to say that the president was emotional. And the response from Medvedev was kind of flippant. So I think you're in the middle of a big change here that may change the trajectory of what we've been seeing.
I saw Chancellor Murs today say that he is going to remove any restrictions on the use of weapons that Germany provides Ukraine. But I don't know that they provide attackums like we do. Do you expect the United States to follow suit? I think so. I don't think that the weapons have stopped flowing. I think that there was an effort to...
analyze where they were all going, but I don't think they ever stopped. And if this is the case, I don't think they will stop. I think there was a plan in the ceasefire to put a halt on everything, but I don't think it's stopping right now, at least. That's what I'm tracking from the Pentagon and the White House. And so you've got a different scenario. And if we really and I asked this to the president while we were in Abu Dhabi, you know, if you really put the screws to Putin.
And I had to kind of go back at it a number of times. He said he was open to doing that. If they couldn't reach a deal, it doesn't seem to you like they're reaching a deal. No, it doesn't. He's not very flippant about. World leaders, unless he's really, as he said, he doesn't know what happened to him. He did say this in the same presser avail. Cut number six about Iran and Hamas. Cut number six. Talks with.
Iran yesterday and today. And let's see what happens. But I think we could have some good news on the Iran front. Likewise with Hamas on the on Gaza. We want to see if we can stop that. And Israel, we've been talking to them, and we want to see if we can stop that whole situation. Now, Ambassador Oren just told me, Bret Baier, that the president has said, you've got a couple of weeks, three weeks, a month.
I don't think he'll actually bring any pressure to bear on Israel if they're about executing... a final operative plan to get the hostages out and destroy the tunnels. What did you make of that offhanded comment about Hamas and especially about the Iran deal, about which the Ayatollah Khomeini hasn't said anything good? Yeah, I do sense that there's more optimism inside the administration about Iran. Now, in conservative circles, there's more fear about that, that it becomes Obama 2.0, JCPOA.
And I think that, you know, there's real fear about that, but that the administration is thinking they're going in the right direction. So that's what I hear. As far as Hamas, I think you saw Steve Whitcoff's statements. pushing back on Hamas. I don't think it's as close as they say. And I think Israel is getting really tired of waiting on hostages. So they're continuing with their operations.
I think so, too. Last subject, Brett Baer, the one big, beautiful bill. The president said this cut number one on Sunday. The one big, beautiful bill, and it is a big, beautiful bill. And so I think the Senate is going to get there. I hope they're going to get there. I think they're going to have changes. Some will be minor and some will be fairly significant. But we've been working with the House all the way up. They've been working together.
And the speaker has been working with the leader of the Senate. And, you know, they've done a great job. John Thune and Mike Johnson have done a fantastic job. They've been working together all the way up. So hopefully that'll be fine. So, Brett, I listened to Shelley Moore Capito on the Ruthless podcast today, and she said the Senate has to put their imprint on this, but that they've been very.
differential to the House up until now, but there are many senators who worry about rural hospitals. And she said rural hospitals about 10 times. So I think that might be the key thing. What do you hear about this one big, beautiful bill? Yeah, I think it's not as beautiful, and it's definitely big, but it's got some marks on it. And, you know, obviously conservatives are swallowing it if they vote for it.
Because it adds to the deficit and the debt over time. Obviously, it solves the tax problem and not a massive tax increase for the tax. The first Trump tax cuts to be sunsetted. So I think there is probably motivation. There's probably some momentum. to get this through, but there probably will be changes, and whether the House can stomach those changes, the ping-pong match would be interesting to watch.
Brett Baer, I'll be watching tonight because I'm very interested in what the Lockheed Martin guy says about Golden Dome and what they're doing. And I'm assuming it's a guy. It might be a gal. I don't know who runs Lockheed Martin. There's a guy, yeah. Okay, I'll be watching tonight on Special Report at 6 o'clock across the United States. Eastern Time. Brett Baer, thank you for joining me. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. I hope you had a great Memorial Day. I'm sure Vic Mattis did.
Because the latest edition of Getting Hammered was about getting hammered. Hello, Vic. How are you? Hello, Hugh. I'm doing just fine. And happy belated Memorial Day. Now, I did not listen to the actual podcast because one of your cocktail... focused podcast, and I don't drink unless I'm at sea and single malt scotches at hand, and then only very little because I have no capacity for alcohol. But tell me, what did you talk about for an hour about drinks?
Yes. As you noticed, if you look at the timeline there, we managed to stretch that show out for an hour. The tasting episodes are always tricky. I think we might be done in 10 minutes, but no, it was a variety of subjects. We talked about. My son's summer reading list selections, books you can choose from, big books and small books. And that was very interesting. And then we talked about James Comey's 8647 Snaffle. Oh, you did other stuff?
Oh, it was badly titled. I thought it was just a drinking show. No, we talked about topics that were in between. We were drinking in between different topics, I should say. Oh, then I got to go back and listen. How much did you drink? You know, we don't allow that on the air, by the way. We have a alcohol. No, no, no. Yes, I think we had about, I don't know, maybe six cans plus a shot of vodka.
But just little tastes of each one, samples. So, you know, it's like what you would call a flight, but it's a very quick flight because we taped on the early side. And I have a full day of work. I have to get to you. I don't bet you that work was really reviewable. Were you editing anything that day? Yes, it all went very smoothly. I'll bet it did. Yes, when I woke up. So now, because I didn't listen to the episode, I'm going to engage in Catholic talk with you. I was very pleased to be a proxy.
at the baptism of my granddaughter, my infant granddaughter, on Sunday. And when you're a proxy, that's when a godparent is abroad and can't stand in, and so you stand in. So I stood in. I want to know... What do you think is the average time of a Catholic baptism that you've been to that's a standalone baptism independent of the Mass? Oh, I don't know. I would say 15 to 30 minutes at most. Okay, we want an hour and 15 minutes.
And there are a lot of kids. There were five babies. So that's part of it. Five babies. And we had a homily. When do you get homilies at baptisms? Yeah, if you're having a full mass and then there's the baptism, sometimes it's in the middle of the mass or at the end, you might get one. I mean, the average length of a homily shouldn't be more than 15 to 30 minutes. You got a real treat there.
probably tested the patients of the babies. The babies were great. The parents weren't so hot, but the babies were great. And the old folks who were back behind. The parents were even less accommodating. But it was a great sermon, a great little homily about making a point. Now, this links me to my next question. Do you have bumper stickers on your car, Vic?
No, I do not. But here's one of the problems, Hugh. A lot of the cars these days, the fenders are no longer made of just straight on like metal. It's like fiberglass and things. So you have these magnet bumper stickers that are very handy these days because you can take. them out if you're no longer using the car, selling it, or you were just leasing it. They don't stick because it's magnets and we're not making cars that are made of heavy metal and steel anymore.
So I do not. I will say this. My son has one bumper sticker on the car that was a hand-me-down, and it's Free Jimmy Lai. Oh, Free Jimmy Lai? Well, that's a great bumper sticker. Now, what the priest's very good homily was, baptism is about obtaining your Catholic identity. That's the most important identity as a Christian.
And today we live in an identity crisis-driven world, and people put all sorts of bumper stickers on to establish their identity. Schools, causes, coexistence. I never really thought of that, but I'm not a bumper sticker guy. Are you a bumper sticker? guy even if they worked no i i you know i i did once have a bumper sticker bush quail 92 and i drove that around proudly for years that's
That's a throwback. That's a big throwback. It was a classy bumper sticker. It was a classy bumper sticker. All right. Now I want to go to my Catholic talk. We've had two weeks of Leo. What do you think? So far, so good. I know he talks about, you know. The late Pope Francis, may he rest in peace in continuing his legacy and reaching out and helping the poor and the importance of the climate. That's all fine by me. I don't have the same feeling of nervousness that he's going to start.
issuing screeds against the general broad evils of capitalism and things that the late Pope Francis had done, and including lack of clarity. when it came to Catholic doctrine. I do hope... I think we're all waiting for him to say, hey, you know what? It's OK to have Latin mass again because we're all in this together. That hasn't quite happened yet. People are trying to read the tea leaves. And when I say tea leaves, I mean they're trying to get feedback from.
Pope Leo's older brother, who is very outspoken on things. But, you know, the siblings can disagree on a number of things. I have it on good authority that the Pope was a reader of the dispatch. Oh, really? So I have heard. Yeah. Oh, well, that's a very good thing. Now, Vic, tell me another thing, though. At your parish, what's the general mood? Because my...
When you have five families having baptisms, you've got five sets of parents, five sets of godparents or proxies. You've got a whole bunch of people. Some of them are Catholic, some are not Catholic. But you kind of talk Catholic talk with everyone. Generally an upbeat group of people. Pretty happy with Pope Leo. What did you hear this Sunday? Yeah.
Same thing. I mean, it's positive. It's very important to keep him in our prayers, both his health and good intentions, as we say. So, yeah, I haven't heard any pushback. And I go to the parish I go to now. fairly conservative and everybody's very supportive. I haven't heard...
Any concerns, I have to tell you that much. I mean, there's a lot of excitement that we share this commonality that he is an American, the first American pope from the Midwest. So, I mean, he's got the backing, right? It's a honeymoon period, Hugh. see how long that lasts. Have you heard any extended? I can't pick up his accent yet. I haven't heard enough yet. Have you?
No, I haven't, but his Italian sounds fantastic. And Spanish, he's very fluent. I like that. And Latin. Well, he lived in Peru forever, so his Spanish is going to be good. Does Peruvian Spanish match up with Filipino Spanish? Slightly. I mean, there are obviously differences. Tagalog is its own thing. Mostly. It's a mishmash, really, Hugh. It's a mishmash. But that's like our Pope.
All right. He is a mishmash. Rick Mattis, I'll go back and listen. Next time, tell people there's other stuff than the tasting. Morning, glory and evening, Grace America. I'm Hugh Hewitt inside the Beltway. If you listened last hour, I asked Brett Baer about Golden Dome. He has Lockheed Martin's CEO on tonight. He's got a piece of that.
I also had Senator Kevin Kramer on last week to talk about it, and we got into it. But now I've got Admiral Mark Montgomery, senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, and he knows this stuff. So, Admiral, welcome. I hope you had a great Memorial Day. I was over at Arlington.
I don't know if you were, but always think of my friends from the military like you and Jerry, et cetera, on days when I'm over there. A lot of your friends, I'm sure, are in turn and resting there. So thank you for joining me on the day after a long weekend. Tell me what you thought about the president's rollout of Golden Dome. Well, first, thank you very much for having me. And I agree on Memorial Day and Arlington's a beautiful place this time of year. Look, Golden Dome needed to happen.
I'm glad President Trump had the vision to push this and make it one of his primary Department of Defense initiatives, you know, kick it off along with shipbuilding. And I appreciate the Congress putting it in the reconciliation bill. This had to happen. China and Russia have spent the last decade moving ahead of us and their ability to conduct prompt strike with hypersonic.
ballistic and cruise missiles that could reach the U.S. homeland. And the gap isn't do we have more than them on the offensive side. The gap is that they're developing an offensive capability, conventionally equipped offensive capability. for which we have no defense. And you should never do that when you're competing with a first mover authoritarian state like China or Russia. No, Admiral, I tell people there is no more abroad.
that the whole concept of John Adams, we should not go abroad seeking monsters to slay, no longer applies because there is no abroad. A Pearl Harbor can happen in 15 minutes. Do you agree with that? I do. And so does every president since 9-11. If you look at every national security strategy or every national defense strategy since the September 11th attacks, we have highlighted that the defense of the homeland.
against these external threats is our number one priority. And it's no longer just counterterrorism or even issues on the border, although those are serious issues. We now have both cyber threats and missile defense threats. that allow China, Russia and other authoritarian states to bring the fight to the American homeland, you know, by either through cyber missile defense, missile attack means, you know, destroying our critical infrastructures, our military mobility.
both our national security and economic security. Now, Kim Jong-un today declared that Golden Dome is provocative and will lead to space war. Your thoughts on that? My thoughts is it must take an extra three days for things to be done. Translated into Korean because the Chinese said the same thing five days ago after the president's initial announcement. So I'll say I'll say productively. Kim Jong Un may have been.
caught up in the personal investigation he's leading about why his destroyer is laying on its side after the side saddle launch that failed a few days ago. But the fact that Kim Jong-un and and President and Chairman Xi's apparatus are telling us we're wrong, kind of validates in my mind that we're probably right. But beyond that, I know we're right, Hugh, because we need to have this system to defend our homeland.
So talk to me about degrees of complexity, comparing it to, for example, our Columbia class boomers, which we're producing. We're behind, but we're producing them. Where are we in the. On the implementation phase of Golden Dome, how long to roll out something that might deter an enemy or make them think twice? So I'll take that in two parts. There's a complexity issue.
and there's a how long is this going to take issue. The complexity issue, look, the Columbia class is a complex undertaking, but every element of it has generally been done in a previous submarine class.
or has been really modeled well as they were getting ready for this, you know, decades-long modernization. So what's challenging the Columbia is our... is our supply chain our workforce it's not the engineer i do not believe it's purely engineering challenges although there are some this uh missile defense challenge is unique we have not fought with interceptors from space. We have not built, you know, 800 to a thousand, you know, satellite network lattice together to, you know, detect, track.
And then engage adversary cruise and hypersonic missiles from space. So, you know, from my perspective, this is a this is going to take seven to 10 years. So probably it's on about the same timeline as. as Columbia to get to full operational capability. We'll get initial operational capability during President's
Trump's time in office. But what he described, that full operational capability to attempt to defend the whole homeland, that is not happening in the next three and a half years. It'll happen in the next seven to 10 years. And that will be with some great engineering work. So, Admiral, explain for the Steelers fans, how is it supposed to work? I mean, really break it down to what are we going to be seeing happen?
Well, the first thing for a Steelers fan is you need a good quarterback. You need a good leader. And unlike the Steelers, the president found one. And that's General Mike Gutlein from the Space Force. So you need a single leader. You know what Senator Angus King, my old boss, would say is one throat to choke. And the president now has that. It's General Mike Gutlein.
Pete Hegseth has that. And then that leader will work across the services, across the defense industrial base, across the new startups, and most importantly, with the Missile Defense Agency, the agency where we're stuffed. several hundred missile defense engineers to build an architecture, to contract with the companies to get us there. We're lucky, Hugh, in the sense that people criticize Elon Musk, but I'll tell you, SpaceX.
has unilaterally driven down the cost of space launch 90 plus percent over the last 20 years. That's going to make this feasible. So we have these defensive industrial based companies. So to me, the big issue is you have a good leader. a good engineering plan, and then you execute that plan, you know, to a budget. How many different places in the United States will see dedicated space bases that are integrated into a Golden Dome system, Admiral Montgomery?
So a number. I think there's two different ways to look at this. There are going to be a lot of spaceports that support launch because we have to launch in quite a bit. Many of them exist already, but more will be built. There'll also be ports that handle what I think will be tethered aerostats or dirigibles with high-quality firing-quality track radars. Raytheon, the Navy's had them. Lockheed Martin has built them for the Navy already, the track hypersonics.
Raytheon just produced one for the Army that tracks hypersonics. We want to get them up at 20, 30, 40, 60,000 feet where they have phenomenal ranges, right, these long-range radars to help us track these missiles. So you're going to see these. Spaceports and near spaceports developed all over the United States. Look, I think there'll also be, you know, three to five.
long-range detection radars, similar to what Australia has and what Canada has built. Canada will build one or two or three, we'll build three or four or five, and that'll cover that whole northern approaches to the country where many of these cruise missiles come from. Now, and how much of this architecture has been at least begun in Israel? And do we expect their laser technology to become part of our Golden Dome?
So they have aerostats, the Israelis. So, of course, that's a U.S. company and it was built by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency with the Israelis. And so some of that technology will come back over to us. You know, I don't know that we're going to be importing Arrow or or David slaying their to their cruise missile ballistic missile systems because we have equivalent systems. And the problems both of those systems have, which is.
You're taking off from terrestrial, so the cost per launch starts in the millions.
In both cases, you know, when I compare them to, say, Thad and Patriot, which also start in the millions, I think we'll be looking for space-based systems. Now, what I do love what you mentioned is directed energy. I do think directed energy or lasers will be coming. So the iron beam, which the U.S. funded through the last Israel supplemental that passed with the Ukraine supplemental last spring, that money from that will drive
developments in Israel. There's equivalent money going into the U.S. Army systems and the U.S. Navy systems. From someone there, we will begin to get more directed energy. The kind of energy from space is going to be slightly different. And so that technology will come over and then have to be worked. I think we'll have both kinetic effectors, that is.
rockets or missiles that drop out of space, in addition to eventually some kind of directed energy or microwave energy that comes from space against weapon systems. Well, that's the last question. Does the directed energy generator... Speaking in Ohio terms here, the machine, is that a loft or is that on the ground going up? I think the most effective systems are going to be ones that.
come from space um now look there's a problem with generating power up there we'll work through that uh but if you do it from the ground you're having a You're having to burn through a lot of pollution, a lot of atmosphere to get to the target. I still think you'll have that for last-ditch defenses.
And I think you're going to see the development of directed energy weapons and microwave and lasers that really help us over the next few years with our proud naval force. Admiral Mark Montgomery, United States Navy, retired. Thank you for...
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a cash settlement. Call 800-260-8700. That's 800-260-8700 to see how much money you could potentially get. Advertisement sponsored by Legal Help Center. May not be available in all states. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Bethany Mandel is co-founder of the Mom Wars, which you can get on Substack.
She is also the author of Stolen Youth and co-author of Stolen Youth and a John Andrzejczyk fan. So we saw each other at the John Andrzejczyk concert a week ago tonight. But I didn't have any kids with me. How did the children like the show, Bethany? They loved it, but perhaps not as much as my oldest daughter loved meeting you. Have you ever seen an 11 year old look more excited to meet you in your life?
No, except my grandchildren. They're always happy because there's 20 bucks involved for them at the end of the visit. They know that. But I was impressed that they even knew who I was, so that's nice. Why did you take them? I'm so interested. I take my kids to all this stuff.
I think it's a perk of being my kid. They get some of the negatives, too. They get the people whose kids are not allowed to play with them because of who their parents are. So I feel like they should get the perks of being our kids, too. But John is incredible on Israel, and I thought it was really important for them to hear someone who wasn't Jewish. I knew that John was going to talk about the hostages and politics and everything.
When you go to concerts nowadays, you get a lecture. And so it was really nice for them to at least hear something that we as a family agreed with. Yeah, that is. You do get a lecture. Last time I went to a Joan Baez concert, it was during the Kavanaugh hearings, and we got a lot of anti-Kavanaugh stuff. So I'm used to it, and I'm not a shut-up-and-sing person. I don't mind it, but I do like it when it makes sense, like John.
made sense but in terms of their schedule last you know it goes to about what 9 30 10 o'clock show it's a it's a quartet so it's a different kind not rock and roll it's not going to blow their eardrums out what were they like the next day And that's a late night, isn't it? Not for them. I mean, they're homeschooled, so they're up late anyway. But Seth brings our our oldest son, our 10 year old to like.
heavy metal rock shows and punk bands like they're out until midnight at shows on like a Tuesday night on the reg. That's pretty wild. OK, kudos to Seth. I'll ask him about that. Let's turn to the news. First of all, President Trump spoke about Iran on Sunday. I don't know if you heard it. I want you to play it so that everyone listening to the segment hears it as well. This is what he said. Cut number six.
Iran yesterday and today. And let's see what happens. But I think we could have some good news on the Iran front. Likewise with Hamas on the on Gaza. We want to see if we can stop that. And Israel, we've been talking to them, and we want to see if we can stop that whole situation. Now, my reaction to that, Bethany, was, uh-oh.
Because the Ayatollah Khomeini said, we're not making any progress at all. Whitcoff came out, Special Envoy Steve Whitcoff, and said, Hamas is lying about the deal we proposed. So maybe the president was watching the news and not getting briefed. What do you think about what?
said. I'm not sure. I mean, I've been talking to a lot of my Israeli friends about the Iran situation, and there's a lot of concern that There's a window of time that is shrinking very rapidly where Israel does not have the capability to defend itself in the air because Israel knocked all of their defenses out.
And there's a lot of concern that they're trying to wait out the clock, basically, until they can rebuild those air defenses. And by that point, I mean, I think we're going to get to that point inevitably. And it's a pretty scary proposition that the president seems to be. going along with that plan. Or is doing the 4D chess stuff and talking softly and carrying a big stick. Let me talk to you about Hamas in Gaza. Over the weekend, it was leaked that Israel is going to
occupy 75% of the Gaza Strip, destroy the infrastructure beneath it, try and get the hostages out and the bodies return. But they're not going to give the 75% of the Gaza Strip back. Ever, as far as I can see, what did you make of the leak of that plan? I mean, I think it was a good move whomever leaked it. There's been a lot of confusion in Israel and on my end, too, over here. Like, what is the game plan? What is the end game? They just did the biggest call up of reserves.
you know, in the history of this war and the fact that we're already 600 days in and they've just done that, people are starting to very loudly grumble in Israel, like, what are we doing? are men who have jobs, who have families, who have been on hold for the last 19, 20 months at this point, and they want to hear a plan. And I think it was important for there to have been a plan.
projected out there into the world and i and i hope it's true i hope that this is the plan because as it stands like the gaza strip cannot be taken over by hamas that's just that's that's a non-starter and At least we're hearing some semblance of an idea of what the plan is. There are five divisions operating in Gaza, not reservists, but five of the standing divisions. of the IDF. Are you surprised that they've thrown that many trips into this latest iteration of their war plan?
I'm not. I mean, they've decided that they need to take over the Strip and it's not a small piece of real estate. And so they really do need to get in there. But they're also hoping that the military pressure can bring Hamas to the table in a way that it hasn't before. I think that the military pressure got the American Israeli IDF soldier, Edan Alexander. I think that that was a direct result of that military pressure was getting him home. And I hope that, you know.
They're able to finally cohesively put an end to this because this is the longest war in Israel's history by a mile. And it's gone on way, way too long. Now, there are two stories from the Times of Israel and one from the Wall Street Journal. Hamas, Gaza overrun, Gazans overrun Strip's new aid center. Operators say distribution has resumed. Ambassador Oren told me it went pretty well today, all things considered, that Hamas is trying.
to disrupt the distribution of food because he who controls the food in Gaza controls Gaza. And then Hamas executes four Gazans accused of looting aid as it tries to assert control. I get the sense, you know, whispers, leaves, tea leaves. Gaza's on its back. There's nobody left running it. I mean, Hamas is on its back. What do you think? I'm hearing the same. I'm hearing that they're recruiting 12 and 13 year old boys to to be the militants because they've run out of.
men who will serve as Hamas militants. Yeah, I do think they're on their back. The commentary podcast that they taped today with John Putthard and my husband Seth Mandel really laid it out. I mean, this is the last gasps. I think the problem with a lot of these hostile negotiations is they don't have anyone left to talk to. They've killed everyone. And so that can it can be hard to negotiate with a ghost. I think that's what's happened when they got Mohammed Shinwar.
They got the last name. I'm told there are two more names on longer lists, but I just think they're leaderless, headless, and that they're going to operate like gorillas. And not really have an infrastructure, but that means going into the tunnels. Let me close by asking you, have you heard about this book, The Disenlightenment by David Mamet? No. When you get a hold of this.
I can't wait to talk to you about it and to Seth. He's very hard on American Jews, of which he is one. Very, very hard. Seventy nine percent of whom voted for Biden, Harris. And he says that was suicidal and that. Thank you, blacks and Hispanics, for voting for Trump and putting him over. You saved the state of Israel. Agree? Disagree?
I mean, you have to consider that there's Jews that actually live their faith, like Seth and I, and then there's people who, you know, they have a Passover Cedar once a year. That 79% is the latter. Not enough. He said that's actually the key demographic in the future of American politics. I think he's right. Bethany Mandel can be followed on X at Bethany Shondark. The Mom's Word on Substack. Stay tuned, America. I'll be right back.