Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things hillsdalet Hillsdale dot ed or. I encourage you to take advantage of the many free online courses there, and of course I'll listen to the Hillsdale dialogues, all of them at Hugh for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple, iTunes and Hillsdale. Welcome Back America. Hugh hewittt in the Relief Factors studio Beltwigh, joined by an lsc Rothman, you can follow on Exit nosc Rothman, senior writer for a
National Review, participant often in the Editors podcast. No. I asked you to stick around extra today because I listened to the editors this week and I love Rich, Love Michael, Brendan Doherty, love Charles C. W. Cook. They've all been guessing here frequently. But I don't think they I don't think they dealt fairly with you and the last editors. Did you get enough time to stake the case in your opinion?
Well, I think I got plenty of time.
My colleagues are more skeptical of the campaign than I am, and for reasons that are perfectly well reasoned and legitimate and prudent. I wouldn't question any of their motives. I think they're sound and the.
Sacticism is justified.
Question they're wrong.
I argue that as well.
I want to give you a lot.
Of run Unspy. How you see the war.
Well, listen, and as I said on the show, if you were to gauge it, I gauge it in two different ways, tactically and strategically. Tactically, this is one of the most impressive military campaigns in the history of the human race. Which is not an exaggeration the degree to which we're taking out a top twenty military power on the planet Earth. This is state interstate conflict. This is not the sort of war that we're used to in the post nine to eleven world. We're fighting as state power,
and we are doing so with incredible success. Everything is relative and in relative terms. We've been gaming out this war with a Ran for twenty five years longer, and
those wargames produced catastrophic results in the world. Before October seventh, twenty twenty three, Iran was capable of shutting down the Straight within the first week and shutting down the Straight to its own traffic as well mining the Straight, as it did in the nineteen eighties, threatening shipping with really scary anti ship missiles, drones, ballistic missiles, etc. The prospects were for a major campaign, a ground war with up
to a million troops men at arms occupying the entire country, Iranian cities, leveled, huge refugee crisis across the region, instability throughout the region, up to a million dead on both sides of the conflict. You can go check this out. To say nothing of oil prices which were expected to skyrocket two hundred three hundred dollars a barrow within the first week. As recently as twenty nineteen, everything changed after
October seventh. Has Reel spent the last three years methodically dismantling Iran's proxy terrorist network, which were to pose a real threat in an existential war. We were expecting that Iranian terrorist cells active and passive, would be activated in North America, in Latin America, in Europe and would target soft targets, and that threat has not entirely abated to
my knowledge. I wouldn't say that the threat is completely gone, but it was much more grave a menace to Israel, to American troops in the regions and Syria and Iraq, etc.
And what we're experiencing instead is total.
Air superiority, verging on air supremacy, the destruction of the Iranian navy, the entire navy, the elimination almost of Iran's capacity to fire long range ballistic missiles, short range ballistic missiles.
We're attenuating its drone capacity.
We're striking really hard now at these depots and factories that allow Iran to manufacture the munitions that would have shielded its nuclear program and possibly denied US area access to the entire Middle East in the event of if we didn't act.
And we have experienced.
Three US soldiers killed by enemy fire, six rather just killed by enemy fire, each of which is a tragedy, each of which is an atrocity. You could argue, I would argue, and definitely something to warn. But again, if we are going to look at this campaign and say we've sustained three fatalities due to enemy fire and that's unacceptable, I just don't understand where you're coming from. What metrics are you using to evaluate that, What historical benchmarks are
you grading this against. I just feel like it's an impossible standard to hold the United States too, that the enemy can't be allowed to fire a successful shot. That's just an unrealistic standard to hold any country engaged in a real war, and this is a real war.
Some numbers. Ten Israelis have been killed, thirteen American serviceman sixtion combat seven is a result of an air catastrophe that was not caused by the enemy or by friendly fire. We've lost a couple of jets to friendly fire in Kuwait. A number of our United Arab Emirates in Qatari and Saudi Arabian facilities have been hit today. A reported just
minutes ago. The state of Gutter expresses its strong and unequivocal condemnation of the brutal Iranian attack on the industrial city of ross Laffen, which caused fire sufficient damage significant damage to the facility. Gutter views this attack as a dangerous escalation, the blatant violation of its sovereignty, as well as a direct threat to its national security and the
stability of the region. Meanwhile, Israel in the United States took out the largest facility seaborne facility for the production of domestic use natural gas in Iran. So the war is widening to the Iranian infrastructure and overnight Israel took out like number three and number five on the list of the top ten people in Iran. Every morning I opened up the Times of Israel, Noah, and they've gotten
two or three more of the batties. I don't know anyone could describe this as other than an overwhelming success with the tragic costs of life. That's how it is to be described. I haven't.
When I say this stuff like I'm accused of being pollyannish about this campaign, because there are downsides and I don't want to minimize those. But again, the Iranian campaign to extend the pain of this war to Gulf states is part of the playbook, and the playbook suggested that Iran would execute something like the twenty nineteen a Ramco attack. Remember that the attack on the Saudi petroleum processing facility, the largest on the planet Earth.
That was a strategic assault.
It was involved multiple drones hitting very specific targets designed to affect international oil prices. We're not seeing anything nearly
that coordinated. And the reason we're not seeing anything nearly that coordinated is because our technological and intelligence capacities shared with Israel have evolved to the point where strikes on leadership targets, pinpoint strikes on individuals, the sort of thing that we could only fantasize about in two thousand and three when we attempted to open that war with a decapitation strike and failed.
That's usually what happens. Very hard to forget that instead.
Quit early one thousand and three because we thought we knew where Sudam was and we didn't get Sadamn for months. For months he hit out, and of course the dec of cards, we never fully decapitated the regime. There's a different kind of war, but.
No I will one contrast, we've eliminated forty nine of Kamane's top associates, including the head of his intelligence services, his security chiefs, the.
Guy who was running the war.
And we're pealing back the layers of this regime, which is contributing a to instability in the regime. The command and control structure is gone. We're seeing people individual IRGC commanders act autonomously, which minimizes the amount of damage they can do. And second you peel back these layers, you finally you get to people who are maybe less loyal to the regime, who maybe prioritize their own survival and their family survival, who maybe want to talk to us.
These are all stratiefic objectives.
Have you seen the reports of members of the besiege and a few IRGC refusing to report for work or deserting.
I have not, but Hugh and I said this on the commentary podcast today. It was really curious to me to hear Benjamin Nya who say, yesterday, Iranian people go out and celebrate in the rules. Yep, we got your back. We're in the sky, we're watching you. Go celebrate, enjoy your lives. I didn't expect that to happen for.
A couple of weeks.
He's not said go engage in insert violence, but he is saying go outside.
He is, and I was taken him back by that as well. We may play that for you don't go anywhere America because Noah Rothman is probably occasionally I like to talk to pundons who agree with me. Noah and I might be the most Impacotico views of the war. I think the world is so much better off. We got to talk about the strategicy involved as well. China cannot be liking any of this, and we got to talk about American public opinion. Don't go anywhere. I'm you
you itt no A. Rothman will be right back. Welcome back in America. I'm Hugh Hewittt with Noah C. Rothman, senior writer for a National Review. Noah, I have described this as a battle within Cold War two. Cold War two of course with the United States and China, but the battle here has three parts Venezuela, Cuba, and of course Iran. If you're China, how do you view the developments of the last fifteen months of Donald Trump's presidency.
Well, it haven't been great if you've predicated your geopolitical strategy on developing and leaning on as many of the anti American powers as you could. And again, as of January I'm sorry October sixth, twenty twenty three, they consisted roughly of Russia, China and North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and you could say Nicaragua perhaps, but on the edges of that.
Sort of thing.
And we've seen a significant attenuation of the anti American access over the course of I would say that the end of Joe Biden's presidency all the know thanks to him, in part because Israel took its destiny into its own hands, but the Trump administration has pretty much taken Venezuela off the board for now. I don't love that the regime is still in place, and it still has the very same character of the regime that Hugo chav has established
in nineteen ninety nine. But they're playing ball, and the oil exports that were gifted to Cuba have been cut off. China can no longer rely on them either. That's strategically valuable, and Irana is China's gas pump. China's insulated itself from fuel shocks.
To my understanding, They've.
Electrified a lot of their civilian automotive fleet, and they have significant stockpiles in anticipation.
Of this very scenario.
But it's going to hurt, and they're going to rely ever more on Russia now strategically. The thinking, as I understand it, among those who do this kind of thinking, is that it is in our interests to do something like the opposite of the Sino Soviets split, like a reverse Kissingerian approach to the dynamics between China and Russia. Rather than split them, we want to bind them together. We want their fates intertwined, because Russia is a declining power.
It is a power embroiled in a war it cannot win. It is a gas station that has a nuclear weapons facility attached to it, as I believe Lindsay Graham used to say, and China is a rising power, but it's got plenty of internal problems on its own, and it is confronting now something that it hasn't seen in a long time, which is a demonstration of American state power.
We're seeing a lot of commentary about how exquisite ordinance is being depleted, and that's a problem because we can't replace it as fast as we're using it, specifically missile interceptors, but also a variety of other high end missiles, you know, long range weapons, standoff munitions. But that's got to be mitigated by the fact that we have demonstrated the will to use them in a sustained way, in a strategic way, and in a very impressive way. That's the sort of
thing that puts the fear of God into you. There's something that people who observe foreign policy just kind of dismiss, and that is elementary human psychology, Like I don't begrudge this is something.
This is where we're going to disagree with you.
I don't begrudge European powers that have been treated like garbage by this administration for months and saying well, now you need us, and look where it's going to get you. That's elementary human psychology. So too is the human psychology of seeing the United States decimate a rogue but not in substantial military power in Iran with the quickness, with relative ease, and demonstrate the will to continue that fight, to fruition to an endgame that is shaping the thinking
in Beijing. That is changing their considerations. It may not change the considerations for the better by the way they may proceed in the windows we do disagree, that's closing fasts.
I expect European leaders to act in their national interest. Palmerston said that we have no permanent friends or enemy to, only permanent interests. So I expect them to look past insults, behavior that they don't consider to be reciproc all of that to the fact that they wanted one thing from America arms for Ukraine, which we sold them. We didn't give it to them. They haven't spent five percent, much less two percent for decades. They have been a free
writer and I've been okay with that. I'm like Lindsay Graham, we need Europe. But this is not the time to exercise your peak. This is the time to do something symbolic because they have you know, the British Navy's down to twenty seven ships. I think that they're not really a superpower. They've got some nukes. France is crippled by
internal divisions that make our look like paper mache. The people we can rely on are the Polls, the Ukraines, the Thins, the Swedes, and they can't really give us they're involved in a war, so the people are a loser. Here is great Britain in France. You get a minute to the break. Then we'll come back and have America. Yeah.
Sure, listen, there's nothing I disagree with there, and it would be very valuable for us to have these ships to help escort missions when it's time to do those escort missions, which is now. Now is the time to sequentially degrade RAN's capacity to project power in the Persian golf, and then we demonstrate that the Persian golf is clear. Everything's going to happen in a sequential order. But we're going to have to agree to disagree. Yes, I understand.
I believe it's cutting off your nose to spite your face, to react as they have reacted. Do I blame them? Do I think that they don't have any motive or impetus for acting that way?
No, I guess it's fine. And then we don't disagree. We just think they had to be I think they had to be more mature. So do you. But you're more understanding of them, I say, huh. Great nations don't need psychologists. I'll be right back with Noah Rothman to talk about American public opinion after this Welcome Back America, hew it in the Relief Actors Studio inside the Beltway, Join by Noah C. Rothman, Senior writer for National Review.
You can hear Noah on the Editor's podcast. He's a guest host on the Commentary podcast Today, which I will listen to after the show. You can follow him on Exit no c Rothman. No, I want you to listen to Harry Anton on CNN last night talk about the state of American public opinion, beginning with Republicans and Trump. Then we'll come back and get your thoughts on how this might feed into November. Here is Harry Anton, and this is one.
Of those because just take a look here, MAGA GOP a view of Trump approve one hundred percent, one hundred percent. If you are a member of MEGA and the GOP you approve of Donald John Trump zero percent say that they disapprove. You don't have to be a mathematical genius to know you can't go higher than one hundred percent.
He is the nineteen hundred and seventy two Miami Dolphins. Now, there are some Republicans who disapprove of Donald John Trump, but they are not members of the Make America Great Again movement. The bottom line is this, if you are a member of MEGA, you approve of Donald Trump.
It's interesting, though, because there have been a couple prominent people who have sort of come out online and they're very mad about this war with Iran because he promised no new wars. Is there anything that people might be leaving MAGA relative to twenty twenty four?
Yeah, okay, so you know I've said it before, and you know the theme of this segment is Tucker Carlson b darn and when we look at the numbers, I mean I've heard some people say, oh, you know what, when you look at those MAGA numbers, it doesn't account for those who might have left MAGA. But take a look here Americans who identify as MAGA. In November of twenty twenty four, it was twenty eight percent of Americans. Now it's basically the same of anything, it's slightly higher
at thirty percent. The bottom line is this, the magabase within the.
GOP is not shrinking.
It's the same size.
If anything, it is slightly larger than it was back in twenty twenty four, when, of course, Donald Trump won a second term. So that one hundred percent that Donald Trump has approval among MAGA GOP that is not an artifact of MAGA shrinking.
It's just an indication of how.
Strong Donald Trump's grip is on that MAGA base.
And so I guess it begs the questions what's happening with inside the GOP and if there are any splits there, because with that those kind of numbers, they're going to want to retain that right so they can retain their seed.
Yes, yes, and you know what we're talking about.
You know, we've mentioned Iran in the intro.
Of this segment GOP on US military action in Iran. Look at this in Magga, it's ninety percent approval. It's ninety percent approval, just five percent disapprove. If you disapprove of the job that Donald Trump is doing, or excuse me, the US military action in Iran, and you're a member of the GOP, look at this, it's your non maggot, You're not Magga. It's thirty six percent there, fifty four
percent approval. But the majority of Republicans approve of the job that the US military action is in Iran, and the majority of MAGA, which is the majority of the GOP very much proof ninety percent, very little.
You No, you are not MAGA. I am not MAGA. I'm a Reagan Conservative. I don't know how you describe yourself? What do you make of I think Harry is a pretty good pull, sure, and I think it's an honestly presented, presented set of numbers. What do you make of them?
It comports with what I've been seeing in the polling. And it's important to distinguish self described MAGA voters versus self described Republican voters, because self describe MEGA voters to expressed a higher approval rating of the president overall. To say nothing of the Iran war specific whereas Republican voters take a more nuanced view, and I've seen numbers that are higher than sixty four percent among Republicans who support
this war. Depends on the poll you go to. I've seen mid seventies, I've seen low eighties.
You have to.
Remember that it's not like Donald Trump came out of nowhere and said we should be hostile and confrontational with Iran. This has been baked into the Republican DNA, Republican voters DNA since the inception of the Islamic Republic forty seven years ago, including Donald Trump himself, who was one of the most outspoken expostulators of a view that we should be much more aggressive towards Iran as early as nineteen eighty and has been consistent in that view throughout his
career in public life. So this is not something that the President really has to sell to Republicans. It's a different story when you're talking about the rest of the the electorate, and we can get really deep and granular with this thing, like for example, YouGov has a survey of today which indicates that while seventeen percent of self
described Republicans I'm maga. Just Republicans express dissatisfaction with Trump's job approval, A full third thirty three percent are disapproving of the president when it comes to gas prices, and gas prices are ineluctibly linked with the instability in the Persian Gulf and therefore an expression of disapproval in the war.
You could really go granular with this thing if you wanted to, But I think that does kind of miss the mark because while these voters are expressing dissatisfaction with their own personal finances, and that satisfaction will could and probably will result in less enthusiasm to go to the polls in November, especially if these conditions persist. I doubt they will, but if we were in stasis between now and November, that would mute enthusiasm to vote for Republican
candidates at the polls. But I think it just misses the point because we're not talking about November's elections, talking about the price of gas between now and July. We're talking about an apocl confrontation with an immortal American enemy, And on the other side of this thing could be a lot of benefits that Americans will perceive and don't
even understand their paying Now. Nobody has any idea how much resources we devote, how much time it takes, how many US service personnel and civilians, public servants alike, devote to containing the threat from Iran. These people work day and night to kill our servicemen, to kill our public servants, to frustrate our interests in the world.
We've just gotten really good at interdicting it. But they never stop. They do not sleep. This is what they do.
And if on the other side of a world without the Islamic Republic, where we finally get to engineer the pivot to Asia that we've always wanted to engineer, we can contain Russia in Europe. We know how to do that. NATO allies are very good at doing that. What we can't do is extricate ourselves from the Middle East as long as the Islamic Republic exists. And if we could, that would be an epochal strategic shift for the United States and very bad news for our enemies.
And that is my view, is that every Republican running for reelection ought to learn the speech that Noah just gave off the cuff and say it again and again and again, because I think it's a winning issue if the war is won last minute too. Noah, if you're a Republican candidate, what do you say right now about the war? Right now?
Well, listen, I would say that.
I would say that if you're talking about politics right as a credidate an appeal to.
Voters, yeah, I would say that. Listen.
My political career is important to me, and I think that I'm valuable to you as your constituents. You matter to me, and I want to serve you best, and I'm trying to do that now. And what I'm going to do is put my political interests aside in favor of the American national interest. These people are enemies. They
want to kill us, they have killed us. It is far more important to me to be of service to you and of service to the history of this country then it is for us to argue about who should control the next budgeting process in Congress, who should control committee chairs. That doesn't matter to me nearly as much as the safety of you and your children, And that's what I'm here to protect.
Bingo. Noah Rothman campaign consultant extraordinaire, except he's not. He's a senior writer at NRO follow him on exit. Noah S c. Rothman, thank you for the extra time today, Noah, I'll be right back. America Station. You inside the Beltway. And if you've been watching c SPAN for the last day and today, you've seen Republicans standing up demanding voter ID and citizenship before they vote in federal elections, and they're pummeling the Democrats because of the way the Majority
Leader John Thune set this up. The leader joint me now, Leader Dune, welcome, Well played, mister Bond. This is if this was a fight, they'd stop it. The Democrats could. Are they going to.
We'll find out here soon enough. You know, I think the one thing that this is a Save America Act is a package of just common sense policies that should get an automatic yes literally from every member of the Senate. And the core of it, as you know, is a requirement for Americans to demonstrate that they're eligible to vote and that they are who they say they are when
they go to do so. And requiring a photo ID for a whole lot of things in this country is something that you know, Americans expect, You would think that they'd be able to produce one to vote in our elections, so I think it's on the substance where it's a winner. We just have to do everything we can to make sure that we're pounding them over the course the next week or two, and then we'll see where the votes are.
Well. I enjoy tuning in when I can, and whenever I want to break from using my voice. I just turned on c SPAN because we're winning so well played, well played. Is there any idea of how long they'll put up with this? Is there any way they can stop it? Democrats?
Is?
I mean not really. I mean what we did. We called up the House passed version and typically to get a up on the floor, and the Senate takes procedurally what we call culture on the motion to proceed, which is a sixty vote threshold in the Senate. Because this came over in the form of a message in the House, it was at fifty one, so we were able to.
Get on it.
And then I filled the amendment tree, which prevents the Democrats from getting some of the amendment votes on some of the crazy ideas they have, so it keeps it more, gives us more control, I guess, I would say, of the floor, and we ultimately we end up voting on but again, we'll see how long it goes. I think that we need to have a sufficient amount of time obviously to make the case and get this issue in front of the American people and hold the Democrats accountable.
So later down, if Chuck Schumer had a brainstorm, which would be rare, but it doesn't not impossible and decided I'll offer to reopen DHS, We'll vote on the appropriation bill if they'll stop pummeling us. Would you take that deal?
You know, I will say that would be That's a good question. I think that'd be a might be. It might be an off ran for the Democrats, honestly, And we've got to get d DHS opened up. And you know, we've got one hundred and twenty thousand people at DHS who started missing paychecks and many of those, of course work with TSA or other agencies that are crucial, crucial
for national security. And so yeah, if they were willing to make a deal on that, we might we might be, we might be willing to negotiate, but.
They take that TKO Senator, yesterday, one of your colleagues I talked to was about to go through to a TSA line, and this Senator had been padded down on their way home. I'll bet you a lot of Senators are getting padded down unnecessarily right now because they can't be very happy. But I think about the Coast Guard and the counter terrorism people. This is nuts. This is really nuts. In the middle of a war.
It is and you know, what's the second time they've done this to you. And this is especially troubling because we are in the middle. It's a dangerous world. We've got cyber threats and the Cyber Office is located within the Department of Homeland Security, so that's also affected by this appropriation bill. And it just it makes you wonder what is on their minds. I mean, I think they have become so obsessed with I'm told there's another No King's rally out here in the next week or two.
The Democrats are you know that happened last fall and slowed down negotiations on ending that government shutdown. They are held so hostage by the far left in the country right now and are so infected with Trump derangement syndrome and blind hatred of the president that they don't want to do anything obviously that that gives him a victory and this isn't The White House has been very willing
to negotiate. I mean, I don't know if, of course you've been following the back and forth on this, but they really are on ICE and DHS or I should say customs of border patrol, the two things. Right now the Democrats have held hostage.
That to me is a.
You know, it's a.
Defund the police, defund law.
Enforcement position that they've taken in spite of the fact that the administration has made numerous efforts to engage with the Democrats on some of the issues they care about in ways that I think the Democrats ought to be willing to accept them. I'm just this is about politics, nothing more, nothing less for them, you know, a.
Leader I did not know we had another No King spectacle coming. I have heard the President called an authoritarian by Ben Rhodes and because of Venezuela and Cuba and Iran and the fascist talking is out there. You know what I say to them, Supreme Court ruled against the thing that matters most to him, the tariffs, and they said you can't do it, and he didn't arrest him. You know, it's the like least authoritarian thing in the world is to abide by the ruling of the people
who rule against the thing you want the most. And so they're just silly. Let's turn to the war. Five minutes ago and Na da Viol, a very good reporter out of Israel, posted the IDF confirmed it has struck the Iranian naval fleet in the Caspian Sea. The fleet had been used during the war in Ukraine to transfer equipment from Iran to Russia. I think the Iranians are getting pummeled and they don't know how to surrender.
Yeah, it seems like it, I mean, and I think the President clearly understands the importance of reopening the strait, whether it's done the easy way or the hard way.
But you know, operations have been going on now for less than three weeks, and thousands of stories have taken place against their missile launchers, their ballistic missiles all the I just think they're you know, the the administration, our military leadership, our war planners have done a great job of just taking completely away from the Iranians their ability to threaten the region. And I think that's what this was all about. And so I mean, we need to
finish the job. Hopefully that'll be done soon. But I think every day we start, you know, we achieve more of our objectives in defanging the Iranians regime.
I'm very glad that Senator Collins and our colleagues got the defense appropriations built through. Is a supplemental necessary and if so, can reconciliation be used to move.
It could be option obviously that we'll keep available to us and honestly, in both defense and homeland security, if they continue, I think we have to. We got to do what we can and make sure we're doing everything we can to defend the country and the homeland and the Democrats seem very unwilling to do that. But so if a supplemental is necessary, we'll obviously entertain that the White House sends it up. We did, as you know, put a significant amount of funding last summer in the
Working Family's Tax Cuts bill for defense. But you know, obviously this costs money, and we need to make sure that we keep sure keep our munitions built up so that the deterrence is always the best thing that we can do as a country. And you want to desur bad behavior around the world. You know, it's not as it's always been said that it's not our strength tempts
our adversaries, it's our weakness. And I think that's why we've got to make sure that we're sufficiently funding our readiness in a way that deters bad behavior later.
I'm old enough to remember Grenada, and I'm old enough to remember Panama and nineteen ninety one, and then of course two thousand and one Afghanistan in two thousand and three March to Bagdad. Every time our troops do something big, I'm always amazed at the iterations. I mean, triple generation jumps and weaponry accuracy lethality. Do you sit around the Senate conference room and look at each other? How do they do this?
You kind of do? I mean you look at the operations that have been conducted just in this past you know, the time frame here is starting with the B two bombing run in Iran earlier this year, of Venezuela, this operation. It is remarkable how good these people are, and it makes you grateful as a nation that there are young men and women who want to serve their country and have the skill, the expertise, the experience and the determination
to keep the country safe. And I think we've seen that in so many ways just in the last few months.
All Right, last question. Everyone always assumes the Republicans get along. They've never been to a conference meeting, and now they've seen Senator Paul and Senator Mullen kind of comeing to verbal blows today. Does Senator Mullin have the votes to get confirmed because we need him confirmed quickly.
We do, and they'll I'm hoping he'll be voted out of the committee tomorrow. I think that'll be the case, and then we'll get him up on the floor early next week. We got to fill that position, and he's the right person for it. And yes, there are some it got a little spicy, and there's some personal history that those two have, but at the end of the day, it's about the job, and you know, it's an important job, and I think Senator Mollin is the right person to fill it.
I always say, a little sparky is fun lights up the night. Sah Majority of Leader of Thune. Thank you for joining me. As always a pleasure talking to your leader. Welcome back in America. I'm Hugh Hewett. Josh crosh Hour is editor in chief of Jewish Insider, a daily newsletter. Josh Before I go to any specifics, how do you think the war is going?
I mean, militarily, If you look at the objectives that both the US and Israel set out at the beginning of the war, you really couldn't have asked for a whole lot more. The first twenty four hours saw the killing of the Ayatola and some of the top Iranian military officials know Israel I know certainly has had certain targets, the besiege headquarters, some of the checkpoints, some of the IRGC offices and leaders. So there's been a lot of
military successes. I think the one thing that has been unclear, and we talked about this last week, Q is you know there's been a mixed messaging for the US and Israel. I think a little bit on whether regime changes the goal and whether that's a reasonable expectation as a result of the military operation.
Has also been you know, a lack I.
Think of communication a little more of the US side in terms of what the goals are. And I think President Trump lately, as we're talking about the war, its aims and the threat that it posed with its nuclear ambitions very clearly the last few days. But that's been an issue, But in terms of the military successes, I
think Israel's been very transparent about the accomplishments. The US has been briefing on a daily basis, and I think militarily they've taken out a lot of the Iranian infrastructure, a lot of the top leadership, and it has been fairly significant to date.
Great breaking reports have the IDF sinking at least five Iranian Navy ships in the Caspian Sea used for reef supply of Russia. One of the Israeli journalists I followed closely is Nada viol I think he sort of center left. He writes in a piece called Lara Jeani was the system.
Now he's gone this paragraph. One senior figure told me Nada vel imagine Israel waking up after weeks of war to find no military industry, no Raphael, no Israel aerospace industries, no R and D technological backbone for the regime left. That's the scale of damage we're inflicting. That's the campaign billions that they are losing each day, and that's Israel's insurance policy for the day after. What do you think of that?
Yeah, I mean, that's consistent with what we've been hearing, certainly on the Israeli side, Hugh. We have a story on Jewish Insider about the lieutenant colonel who has been briefing the Israeli public who said that Iran is now as of as of right now, they're no longer able to produce ballistic missiles, which is one of the big goals in terms of both the goals of the war and getting getting rid of its bablistic missile UH stockpile,
and also the nuclear inrichment. And on the ballistic missile front, apparently they've declared UH success at least on the Israeli side.
They're the you mentioned UH.
You know, there's been a lot of notable officials in recent days that have been taken out. The latest is the Iranian Intelligence Minister sm A L Katib, who the Israeli military said today that it had killed in an overnight airstrike. So, like again militarily, there are a lot of checks on the boxes of what the US and
Israel have been doing. I think the one big remaining question is is regime what is the timetable and is regime change going to be the outcome of these of this pretty very very deliberate military even.
From the beginning, it's been my estimate that this would go until June, but not longer than June. And that's for a variety of reasons. But I would I would think June, given how long carriers can deploy. We have the Ford is leaving today and the h the hw Bush is on its way there. The Lincoln's been there a long time. There is a durability factor there are our Air Force has a long range strike. I don't think there'll be any targets. Laugh Josh. That's the now
whether or not this horror moods reopens. Let me play for you the Secretary of General of NATO RUTA today. If you can find that clip Harley and play it for job of ba blistic missiles.
Of the nuclear capability is severely degraded. But it comes to the straitor for Moose. I've been in contact with as many allies. We all agree, of course, that straight has to open up again. And what I know is that allies are working together discussing how to do that, What is the best way to do it. They're working on that collectively to find your way forward.
All right. Now, that's not saying yes, but it's not a no, Lindsey Graham, Mister NATO blew up yesterday at NATO's reluctance to help the United States clear the strait and keep them open. And I'm kind of there too, and I've always been a big supporter of NATO. What do you think is the blowback at Britain and France as a result of their being afraid to be a part of this.
Well, look, it's the Trump has expressed as yesterday was letting some steam off when he was with the Irish leader about about the British Prime Minister Starmer and his sort of hesitance to be engaged.
Look, I think there's also, you know, a challenge on the US front.
We didn't we talked about the public wasn't quite as mobilized, and in terms of preparing for war as we've seen in other past interventions, there wasn't a whole lot of mobilization on the international front. Now, I remember all too well, Hugh that, even going back to the Iraq War and other international engagements, that the Europeans always seemed to kind of carve from the sidelines.
That's not entirely new, but there was sort of.
A lack of building that Coalition of the willing, and I think it's been done a little bit on the fly as we speak, So I'm not sure it's a lack of wanting to engage as much as it is, you know, about preparing their publics in their own countries about what what the goals.
Are and the coalition that w was nineteen ninety one, we had the bridge in two thousand and three for Iraq Afghanistan. Article five triggered everyone kind of pretended to play. The UA had more real soldiers in real combat than Germany did in Afghanistan, but everyone pretended to play We carry the load with the bridge. Now, however, Ukraine is in its fourth year. We're supplying Ukraine everything except manpower. And we did it before NATO started spending it. And
now NATO isn't setting a mind sweeper. A mind sweepers you get the last minute.
Yeah, look, I would hope, I would hope that it would be as simple as, you know, some communication at better diplomacy, that we could kind of coordinate more effectively, and that they are not trying to resist helping out and dealing with the threat that Iran poses.
Very much to their own countries.
In fact, terrorism is an even more pronounced threat, and Iranian terrorism or Indian sponsored terrorism is very very real on the European homefront.
So they understand, they should understand these.
Countries the threat that Iran has posed and does pose, and I would hope that it would be more of an issue of diplomacy rather than an issue of their reading of the security threat.
We can only hope. Josh Crushauer, thank you. Don't go anywhere, America. I'm do Hewett. Stay tuned to the Salem News Channel. I'll be right back. Welcome back to America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Joined by Charles CW. Cook of National Review. He is a contributor to the Editor's Podcast. He also has his own podcast, the Charles C. W. Cook Podcast. Charles, I
had Noah on earlier. I gave him extra time because I thought you guys all ganged up on him in the Editors this week, although you were the most gentle of the three. How do you just not in that context, but just you, Charles C. W. Cuck, how do you assess the war whine?
It's quite difficult, and it's been a remarkable military success at the outset, and I'm deeply impressed by the performance of the Department of Defense, and as I said on the editors, I hope our adversaries are watching. I'm sure they are. Where I'm a little stymied here is I'm not quite sure what we're doing. It's not that I don't think there are all manner of good reasons to be there.
There are.
It's not that I am per se against this action. I'm certainly not. But the President has been all over the place when describing what their aims are here, and because there wasn't a debate, I'm just not quite sure how to judge it. I'm not sure how long he's going to stay. I'm not sure whether we're going to commit the resources we would need, for example, to reopen the straits of horror moods.
So I find it quite difficult to judge.
Not because I think, you know, I've seen some people who have derangement syndrome saying the US is losing that's absolute nonsense.
I'm just not.
Sure how long we're going to stay in what we're doing, so I find it difficult to know.
I'm a bit like I'm going to borrow from in Antigony and Butcher Misophocles. You cannot tell how good the day has been until the evening comes. We won't know till it's over. But it sure looks pretty impressive to me. And I'm not worried about the Strait of Hormuz, even though the price of gas is up Politically. I know that's a problem for Republican if it remains upcome the midterms, But this is much bigger than the midterms in my view? What do you make? And I think this is actually
the untold story. This might break NATO. When Lindsey Graham and Hugh Hewitt and a bunch of old Reagan conservatives are saying what in the world they won't even send mind sweepers. What is the purpose of NATO? Is it just to protect NATO? What's your reaction to that, Charles, that people are turning on NATO who have always been pro NATO.
Yeah, I'm pro NATO, but I'm also of the view that NATO is in effect American power, and so I don't get too hung up on the formal structure. I think that the United States is in effect playing the role that the British Empire played before nineteen forty five. Back to about the Battle of Waterloo, and that is as the global hedgemon with naval supremacy on which others rely. So I'm not sure it can break NATO in the
sense that it's not going to break American hegemony. And Europe, whether it likes to admit it or not, is completely reliant, more reliant now than it has been for a while on that supremacy. So I think it's more a matter for us. You know, are we getting tired of being taken.
For a ride?
And I suppose in some sense the answer is yes. But on the other hand, Donald Trump has made this a big feature of both of his presidencies, to tell Europe to pay more and to put pressure on them. So I very much see this within the context of that existing tension.
Now, Charles, one of the memorable moments of my life, and it's long. It's seventy years old, when after nine to eleven, w addresses Congress and he looks up and Prime Minister Blair is there. He thanks him for being there, to thank you, friend, and that spoke volumes about the special relationship. Kiir Starmer has trashed that in two weeks. Do you think the British public is in favor of that.
Well, here's what I think you and I take no pleasure in saying this as somebody who was formerly British and whose family lives there. But the British, irrespective of Kirs Starmer and the most recent examples, have rendered themselves, through their own choices, somewhat irrelevant. I mean, if you think back, even just over a decade ago to when Barack Obama was considering going into Syria after the Libya adventure, the British Parliament voted against helping.
And this was a big deal.
This was reported in the United States as being a big deal. It had some impact, not definitive impact, but it had some impact on Barack Obama's decision not to go in. That wouldn't happen now. If the British Parliament had taken a vote ahead of this and said we're not going to help in Iran, it would not really
have factored in very much to America's calculations. So, although I am very sad about that, and although I am sad about the decline of the special relationship which has accompanied it, I think it's a lot less important than.
It used to be.
Look at the British inability, the British of all people, inability to send a naval power around the world within what two weeks they said they would need two weeks. When the Falklands were invaded in the early nineteen eighties, Missus Thatcher sent hundreds of ships to the Falkland islands within forty eight hours. So the British have done this
to themselves. I don't think that is a case for going into Iran or for this or that president, but the British have rendered themselves irrelevance such that it doesn't matter.
Unfortunately, well, now there is New NATO, there is poland there is Finland. There is Ukraine, which is a sort of deep fact on member of New NATO, and they are holding the line against one of the maligned powers in the Alliance of Tyrants. I'm just curious if you think Britain can recover its mojo, and whether or not France might recover with new political leadership. They've only had twenty seven ships right now, They've got seven submarines, one of which is at sea right now. They've got two
aircraft carriers. I don't know how you send aircraft carriers out without an escort fleet that they haven't got. Can they get it back? Do they want it back?
Well, it's a huge question because they're going to have to if they're going to get it back, acknowledge that there is more to life than welfare spending. And I'm really not being a moaning conservative when I say this. I am very much a physical conservative. But the British have now for ten fifteen years, really since the end of the Blair years, ramped up welfare spending, raised taxes to pay for it, and let everything else go by the wayside. There is no dynamism in the British economy.
There is no interest in the creation of wealth. There is no interest in the generation of great companies or great ideas or frankly great men in the way that there once was. And the same is true of defense. That the British have given up on defense. They have allowed their defense capability to atrophy. So it won't just be one good prime minister or one new political party or one favorable election. Culturally, in their souls, the British are going to have to acknowledge that there is more
to government than handing out money. And at the moment they're just incapable of doing it again. I hate saying this.
I hate this.
I take no pleasure in it just because I move country, you know, I haven't left all those sentiments behind. I wish the British and their island well, but I don't see anything at the moment that suggests that there is an uprising against the status.
Quo one minute, Charles, not the rise of Parage and a party to his right. Is that not the stirring of the embers.
It's the stirring of the embers. But you need a lot more than embers, you know, a very very.
Large fire here.
And Nigel Farage, although admirable in some ways, is still operating within the existing political structure, and he is, for example, quite bad on housing development because he understands that the people he need have all of their wealth tied up in their homes. The real shift in British history in the recent years was Margaret Thatcher, who operated outside of all of that, and the results spoke for themselves. So I hope that it can happen again. But I'm not optimistic, Charles, But you.
Are honest, and I appreciate that. Candor Charles C. W. Cook, listen to him on the editors read him in National View. We listen to his podcast, Charles B. W. Cook and come right back, Sharon Bedford from The Illness Welcome Back in America. I'm Hugh Heugh at Sarah C. Bedford is a senior investigations editor at The Washington Examiner, and she covers the Hill like few people. Sarah, what do you think the endgame is going to be for the Save Act and the DHS shut down?
Well, it'd be great.
If those two things could sort of get done together, right, and you finally have enough pressure on Senate leadership to bring the Save Act to the floor have a.
Real debate about it. And you know what.
People like Senator Mike Lee and other big supporters of the Save Act wanted all along was to have to force Democrats to defend their opposition to the Save Act, which is like full of eighty twenty proposals, right, voter ID, proof of citizenship to register to vote. Those are things that most Americans support, and so Senatorly and others who wanted to force, you know, a talking filibuster, and we've talked about before how that's maybe not.
The most realistic way to try to.
Overcome the sixty vote threshold. But the real thirty thousand foot view of the goal of all of that was to try to force Democrats to say why they're against proposals that are so popular. And finally it looks like Republicans are going to get that chance with soon bringing the builds to the floor, even if it doesn't end up having the votes to pass.
Spartacus is up right now Corey Booker, and he's saying crazy stuff. Patty Murray has said, oh, you can't use your student idea anymore. I don't even know if that's true, but it's not really consequential to me. We've had Amy Klobuchar saying that Elon Musk is setting up a data center at DHS to take They're saying crazy things. Do you think those crazy things will hurt them in the fall?
Well, it depends on how much Republicans are willing to push on the Save Act. I mean, so far, it seems like not that much. It's only in the past few weeks that you've seen momentum really builds behind the Save Act.
But if you go point by point through.
Most of the Democrats objections to the Save America Act and we've done that at the Washington Examiner.
Most of them don't stand up to scrutiny.
You know, this idea that married women, for example, won't be able to register to vote if they've had their name changed.
Legally, that's just not the case.
And so, you know, Democrats don't really have a cohesive argument against the Save Act. And that's what Republicans were sort of thinking on why they wanted these open conversations on the floor of the US Congress, because it's so difficult for Democrats.
To hold the line against something that's so popular.
Democrats want to cheat. And it comes down to that they want to cheat in a few places where it makes a big difference in a few hundred votes mean an election that some elections do not feature cheating does not mean that cheating does not occur in some elections. Let me switch topics to the war. I've been covering it top to bottom. I believe it's going very very well,
about as well as any war could go. In which you've suffered fourteen casualties, thirteen casualties and among Americans ten Israelis now six team with six Palestinians killed this afternoon in the city of Hebron. Our allies and the Gulf nations are taking it as well. But Iran is getting pummeled. What's your take on the war.
Of Sarah Bedford, Iran is and I you know, it was interesting today you had d and I Pulci Gabbard, you had CAA director John Ratcliffe, FBI director Cash Hotel on the Hill, and they faced a lot of questions about the threats from Iran. And what was really interesting to me is that the extent that Democrats were able to I don't know if land some successful blows is the right way to put it, but were able to
sort of really press Ratcliffe and Gabbard in particular. It was really all about messaging related to the war, right, because it's hard for Democrats at the stage to argue that the war has been unsuccessful in achieving its goals or that it's a bad idea to make sure that Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapons. So you really all Democrats had to go off of we're messaging critiques. You know you said this at one point, now you're saying this. Your opening remarks had a paragraph that you didn't end
up reading out loud. In the case of gabbered, But again, those were just all sort of rhetorical critiques about the way that the Trump administration is talking about the war, and not really critiques of what the Trump administration is actually doing.
Sarah, I think the American media is overwhelmingly anti war because they're anti Trump overwhelmingly, and they cannot bring themselves a report. This is going as well as any military operation in my life, and I've seen a lot of wars, beginning with Grenada in nineteen eighty three. I remember vaguely the end of Vietnam, but not really that well, and that was a disaster. But doesn't anyone on the left recognize the incredible, awesome ability of the American military.
Well, I think that's why you do see Democrats treading rather carefully, not necessarily going after the Trump administration directly saying this is really bad.
We don't want the Iranian people to be free.
We definitely want one of our biggest adversaries in the Middle East to have nuclear weapons. They are sort of that's why don't have a coherent message from Democrats. They're going after messaging and things like that, because again, like you said, it has so far been a successful mission.
I hope it remains that way. Sarah C. Bedford follow her on x at Sarah C. Bedford. Thank you, Sarah. You've heard me talk a lot about Consumer Cellular how you can switch your carrier save money without the sacrifice. That's because Consumer Cellular uses the same towers as major carriers. Make the switch today and get twenty five dollars off
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Welcome back to Maerica. I'm Hugh Hewett. Mary Katherine Ham joins me, host of the Getting Hammered podcast and Fox News contributor, Mary Katherine, you really hit Paul Eric hard today. He was a villain. You said we should talk about Norman Borlog, but let's just pause to dance on the on the grave a little bit. That guy was wrong about everything.
Forever well wrong about everything, and hurt people being wrong about it, and was never once sorry about how wrong he was. And I just think with people like Paul Aarl, like, I'm usually pretty nice unless you're an actual terrorist when you die, But like a lot of people made decisions based on this person's worldview that did not allow for the idea of human innovation at all, and a lot of people are sad because they made decisions based on
that worldview. And that worldview was also used to bully a bunch of people with government policy and environmental wacko stuff to make all of our lives worse. And so I just I don't want to let that kind of person with that kind of scholarship so easily into elite conventional wisdom.
Anymore, can we learn some lessons? Pleased?
I appreciate it, Paul Air, like for the Steelers fans believe malth Is, like that the world was overpopulated and what's going to run out of resources? Wrong? Wrong? Wrong? Then you and Vic spent a lot of time on the oscars. They only reach seventy point nine million people. That's less than a presidential debate, because people would rather get their politics when people are really in politics as opposed to the movies. And the only movie I saw
was Marty Supreme. I think they're dead. I think the oscars are dad. Mary Catherine, you may be the person who watched them.
Well, I didn't even watch them. I was just reporting what I saw the next day.
Okay. I got the impression that you had watched them. In my gosh, I did not think. Let's talk about something important. Let's talk about the Iranian women soccer team. They're being forced back because the terrorists are taken their families hostage. No one accept you and Vic had paid attention to this.
I know, and I wish people would. I was saying at the Oscars perhaps someone could wear a pin for them. That's an ongoing crisis with specific women involved that we I'm sure in Hollywood alleged that they care deeply about women under oppression, while they pretend that we are all oppressed here in America under Donald Trump. It's shameful that no one talks about it, and it is a situation
where I think some people don't understand. When you live under a totalitarian regime like in Iran, if you are able to get out, your family is subject to torture, to kidnapping, to awful punishments, to disappearing. They are under tremenous familial pressure and filial pressure to go back.
Home to spare them that.
But by the way, they'll be in trouble as soon as they get back home. It's a really awful situation, and I'm praying for them and praying that the Iranian people will soon be in a different position.
Well. The one thing I think our government could do, and I hope Secretary of State Ribio does, is mark the names of the women who defected and then are coming back and say very clearly the Iranian regime when you fall, the people who are in charge of these girls, these women and their families will be marked and will be found, and if you mistreat them, you will be prosecuted and hung by the neck until dead, just like Nurremberg. That's all we can do, right, We could do that.
We could do that.
And the nice thing about the threat credibility of Donald Trump is that people might actually believe it.
So yes, now, Mary Catherine, I began the show talking I Noah. I want to end it by asking you, I think we're winning. I think we're winning big. I don't say that point of view reflect that anywhere in the media, And I mean, really, we're really winning big, big, big.
What do you think now?
I think that the media has trouble covering military conflict. They don't like American might and military being used for basically any ends, so they don't want to cover tactical and operational victories as victories. Instead, they just focus on, well, there's risk, Well we don't know all that is true,
there are always risks in conflict of this kind. But they're not dealing with or contextualizing any of this for people who'd actually like to understand it and how things are going on the ground or in the air, which is a pretty astounding victory on many fronts, including the continuing amazing intel from Israel that allows the striking of specific targets, which by the way, minimizes civilian targets or civilian casualties, and we end up taking out large parts
of their higher ups, which is what can inspire people to actually come out of their house. You have Baby Yahoo telling the Iranian people we're watching from the skies for you.
I mean, that's something else.
Yeah, what I would love to see. You know, my daughter, you know, her husband is a flyboy who now sales ships. He's been in out of the war. He's not in the war right now, he's in the far side of the world. But I wish that we would celebrate these men and women in the fight. They're such extraordinary professionals. And I think you're the one who said, please make a friend in the was that you please make a friend in the military. Yes, please make a friend. We
have no idea what they're doing. It's extraordinary.
No, it's it's shameful that the press is so bad at this. The Surf and Turf was another great example of like, y'all don't know anyone you can call who's been in the military, who could tell you about this. I wish they did. I wish that more civilians knew more military folks. It is the beauty we have this beautiful volunteer force full of these amazing families who put so much on the line, and getting to know them will help you understand their lives and what they sacrifice
for us. And the press is foremost in needing to do that. By the way, That's why I work with Travis Manning Foundation, because we make a lot of connections between civilian life and military.
Life, and right now the civilians ought to be thinking about the military family next door and asking, especially if their wife or husband is deployed, can we give you a ride to school? Can we give you a meal? Let me close by doubling back to what you began with Saint Patrick's Day. Mary Catherine am if not Irish, this is a shock to everyone. She's English and she's completely Protestant. But your dad made a shamrock for you, and I want every dad to know that. Tell that story.
So I was between five and seven, probably, and I remember being a little panicked in the morning of Saint Patrick's Day because I realized I didn't have anything green on and couldn't find anything, and my dad found somewhere a piece of felt the house and handcut this beautiful little shamrock and we pinned it on my shirt and I saved it for years. I probably could still find it somewhere around here, but it's just this little creative knickknack from when I was a child where my dad
quickly solved a problem at six years old. I was like, Wow, how amazing is that? And I still think it's amazing and I appreciate it.
It's been thirty five years and you're remembering what your dad did on Saint Patrick's Day. Is a message to dad's that everything they do every day matters. That's actually what I took away from that, Mary katherineham every day, what a dad does.
Matters, it does.
And there's nothing like having a good dad, and I have one.
So I'm very thankful.
Well said and a well produced episode The new Getting Hammered dropped. I will talk about corn, beef and cabbage in the Filipinos tomorrow with Vic Mattis.
That was weird, but that's good.
We'll do that tomorrow. Mary Katherine aam follow on Exit mk Hammer. Get getting hammered on, your like and subscribe. Playlist it's back. It's weekly, great fun, Stay tuned America. I'm dugious