This is the US Report with James Moroary.
Good evening and welcome to the program. Tonight. On the US Report, the Epstein files claimed their biggest scalp yet, and you won't believe who predicted it. Plus voter ID laws moved through Congress. But again, he'll never guess who's opposing them now and New York City is already running out of other people's money. Well, that's socialism for you. But first, is it too early to start talking about twenty twenty eight? Now? I know what you're gonna say.
If a week is a long time in politics, then two years is an eternity. Yet when you think about it, twenty twenty eight is not that far away at all, which means we need to start thinking about who Donald Trump's successor is going to be. Who will be the heir to the Maga throne. It's an important question because once we get through the mid terms later this year, if the Democrats get Congress back, it is going to be two years of shrieking, confected outrage, law fare and
impeachment trials. And whoever is going to take up the Republican mantle is going to need to be a steady pair of hands to fight through that chaos and win voters over despite all these distractions. Now, until very recently, the conventional wisdom the easy money was on JD. Vance, the vice president. But now the wind seems to be shifting. And if you ask me the front runner, the guy most likely to succeed is someone you might not have suspected if you asked this question a decade ago.
I have a policy question for you, sir. Let's see the answer is that I will.
Don't worry about it.
Mark, I don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Little Marco I will. Well, let's hear a big, big don't worry about it. Don't worry about it.
A little Marco.
You want to chow up better.
Than Yes, that's right, Lil Marco, Lil Marco who's now taking the world by storm.
For we in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West's managed decline. We do not seek to separate, but to revitalize an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization in human history.
And that was a little bit of Rubio at the Munich Security Conference last week and where he delivered a speech that was so powerful it may finally put an end to that city's association with weakness and appeasement and the lights going out in Europe and instead mark the moment when a continent riven by multiple crises of security and the industrialization and mass migration finally starts to reinvigorate
and reassert itself. But it's not just at Munich because Rubio, old little Marco, He's been punching above his weight for some time, dealing with crises in the Middle East, in Venezuela and delivering another stem winder at Davos, and the Boss well, he's noticed all one.
Hundred votes voting for him, and at first I wasn't happy about it.
I said, I don't like that.
And now it turns out that the Democrats probably wish they didn't do that. And Marco has been fantastic. Marco, standout, please, you have done a great job as Secretary of State. He's going to go down as the best Secretary of stag.
And just a few hours ago, Donald Trump had this to say about Rubio after the opening of the new Gaza Board of Peace.
Marco does it with the velvet love, but it's a kill. Sure, the result is the same thing, it very differently. And Mark, you really did yourself proud two days ago in Munich, In fact, so proud that I almost terminated his employee because they were saying, well, I can't jump to this. I do, but I say it differently.
He certainly does say it differently. Now, obviously it's too early for Trump to declare a favorite an anointed follower. But as I said, two three years is indeed a long time in politics. But let me break through a few reasons why I think Vance, for all of his great attributes, for his big brain, at all his fantastic speeches, may not be the right choice for twenty twenty eight. And again, none of this is to slight Vance, his
achievements or his story. But going into twenty twenty eight, frankly, I am not sure that Vance's bad cop persona is going to be what is necessary. I mean, he's often been the one on to play the heavy, which is an important part of the job. But a president has to be more than that. That's why presidents have offsiders to drop the hammer. You see him doing it there with Vladimir Zelinsky in the Oval office, which we saw last year, so that the president himself, well, he can
keep his hands clean. There's also another question too, and frankly, it's about style, and that's whether Vance is frankly too much of an online funster, leaning in too much to the fat guy memes that have become an Internet sensation for people who live a very online life, something which, by the way, I'm a little guilty of, but which
maybe with Middle America doesn't connect. And finally, this is a tricky one, but he's also still got a problem with many women voters, many of whom I've spoken to, who might otherwise be inclined to support the Republican but are still annoyed about his childless cat lady comments of a persona they suggest is more online than world stage now. Rubio, on the other hand, he doesn't carry any of that baggage.
He's both a true believer in not just the MAGA agenda, but also a great intellectual warrior, not just for the United States. But as I showed you before Western Civilization, he comes off as a pro and not a hothead. In other words, he's normal, which is exactly what will be needed in twenty twenty eight at a time when Americans think that the Democrat alternatives are far too left wing.
So let me make this prediction. The twenty twenty twenty eight election will follow Marrow's first rule of politics, which is to say that all things being equal, the more normal candidate wins. This is why Donald Trump, who for all of his crazy persona, is actually a normal person's idea of what a rich person is. This is why he won against Hillary Clinton in twenty sixteen, someone who absolutely was not normal.
It was something that you always carry with you hot sauce. Really, yeah, yeah, really, are you getting information right now?
And it's why he won again in twenty twenty four, running first against Joe Biden, who could barely string a sentence together, let alone make it up a flight of steps, and then against Kamala Harris, who, well, I have a feeling we'll be talking a lot more about her soon, so I'll just keep my powder dry there. And I know you're saying, what about twenty twenty, Well, maybe my
room was broken, Maybe it wasn't. There may be more on that front coming two if anything comes from a recent FBI raid on Fulton County, Georgia election offices, But put that aside. For the moment. All of this puts Mark a room in the front running for the nominee. Smart normal lord knows he's a hard worker and he can appeal to the center, to normal middle Americans without betraying MAGA conservative principles. To put it another way, Lil Marco is all grown up. Well, let's get straight into
it now. Joined me now is our favorite US regular former White House Chief of Staff and senior advisor of Bondai Partners, Mick mulvaney. Mick, A lot of big news going on, and I want to start off with the story everyone is talking about Prince Andrew and his arrest, which would not have taken place, I don't think without the release of those Epstein files. But have a look at this from twenty fifteen. Even back then, Donald Trump seemed to think there was a problem here.
You raised the question of Jeffrey Epstein in your remarks.
Event I think he's got a problem.
You think the problem will be I don't know, but that island was really assesspool.
There's no question about it. Just ask Prince Andrew.
He'll tell you about it.
Yeah, well didn't he just call it? But I'll tell you what though Nick as a great lover of the royal family that Trump is. What do you think Donald Trump is making of all of this now.
Yeah, James, I think he wants to get away from this as quickly as he possibly can. There's no good that's going to come from Donald Trump from these Epstein files or from the continuous drip drip drip of the Epstein files. Like make thing a couple things perfectly clear, under no circumstances, there's anything in the Epstein file is going to shorten his term in office, and nothing in the Epstein files would ever be criminal, I don't think as pertaining to Donald Trump. If it was, the Democrats
would have put out a long time ago. Keep in mind that Biden Department of Justice had these files for four years and they hated Donald Trump more than anybody in the whole world. So this is not about Donald Trump's time in office. I think it's about embarrassment to friends. That it may be that Prince Andrew, who had friends on both sides the isle in this country, was one of the people that both parties had been protecting for a very very long time, and just then it became
politically impossible to do it. But look, Donald Trump wants the Epstein thing to go away. There's a lot of folks who want to go away for a variety of reasons. As I mentioned to you, I'm in the files, believe it or not. I got it there. He asked me about someone asked about my name. It popped up on a search. So there's people.
This is.
The longer this drags out, the more people are going to get involved, There's no question.
Yeah. And gosh knows where all of the threads that start getting pulled wind up going with that. So I suspect that's a lot of Trump's reticence on that. You're right. But moving on though, I want to know what we talked a bit about last week here, and this is this ongoing push for voter integrity and the Republicans pushing this Save Act, which, as we've spoken about before, is designed to ensure that only US citizens with proper iety vote in federal elections. Now, this seems like a no brainer.
It's past the House and gone to the Senate. But there's a surprising obstacle right now when Republican Mitch McConnell you see here on your screen, making Joe Biden look like John Wayne and who is now joining Democrats to stand in the way of the act, which is odd to be given that McConnell has in the past been a key spokesman for voting integrity, like all the way back in nineteen eighty seven.
A lot of the election fraud that occurs in my state and I suspect in many others involves the use of absentee ballots.
Mick, what has made Mitch McConnell change his tune on voter integrity?
Donald Trump? His Trump Arrangement syndrome now is real, Chris, Mitch McConnell is not running free election. I'm not sure the health. You showed the video there, that's not the only video you can find of Mitch McConnell clearly limited in his abilities and so forth. But he hates Trump. He just does, and he doesn't want to give him
a win. That's the only explanation I can come up with, because, as you point out, not only has he supported it in the past and for a long time, there's actually at least one Democrat, John Fetterman from Pennsylvania, who is supporting this bill. This is an eighty five or ninety percent issue with the American public, and that includes Democrats. Should you have to show an ID to vote? That's
really what this act is about as base. So why Mitch McConnell is doing if this is his parting shot to Donald Trump on the way out the door of refusing to give him a victory, I don't understand it. The bill is not going to pass mostly because of Democrat obstruction. Keep in mind, even if McConnell supports it, they're still short and need Democrat votes. They're not going to get it. So you can have a longer discussion another day about why the Democrats opposed it, But why
Mitch McConnell opposes it. The only reason I come back to is that he just he can't stand Donald Trump.
Okay, but Mick, walk me through this with the Democrat logic here, there are some states that require ID, some states that don't. Now, for the last decade we have heard the Democrats going on about election integrity. It seems to me that by not supporting this bill, they are giving Trump and Republicans anybody who's a little bit suspicious a great avenue to question the integrity of future American elections.
Yeah, but they sort of want that don't they. I mean that they're prodding Trump. They tried to make Trump out to be this fascist dictator, and they sort of want him in some ways to try to federalize elections and so forth, to send out the National Guard and say, oh, look, see, we were right about him the whole time. It's really one of those circumstances of putting your own political interests
and just being right ahead of what's right for the country. Look, some of them will make arguments about how their elections are to be run by the states and not by the federal government, and I get that. I'm sympathetic to that argument. That doesn't mean there can't be some basic standards, including showing an ID. If you deep dig down deep into the Democraft Party, though, you'll find the wing of the party that wants to make sure that people who
shouldn't be here still get to vote. They think that voting is a universal sort of right. It's not just for citizens, it's for anybody who's here.
Yeah, and I think that's where we start to get down to the real nub of the matter. Let's move over to the Iran question though right now, because this we keep getting action threatened here and now Donald Trump has indicated that he will make a decision on whether to attack Iran in the next ten days while these
talks are underway to reach a deal on Iran's nuclear capabilities. Meanwhile, it has just broken that Keir Starmer's Belaguered Labor government is going to block the US from using bases out of the UK in any strike on Iran, saying they think it would violate international law. This has been a shade, so I think when France tried to ban Ronald Reagan from flying over France to strike Libya back in the
nineteen eighties. But Nick, what are you hearing about this particularly around maybe that it's actually things like whether in the time of year and rough seas in that area, that's actually what's still laying some sort of strike.
Yeah, and keep in mind France did do that to the United States Toronto Reagan in the nineteen eighties, and we were still able to bomb Tripoli despite that. And we're going to figure out if we decide we're going to do this in Iran, either the UK can go long or that they or they don't. They're not going to, but we'll still we're not counting on the UK. We're not reliant on the UK for that. It's disappointed to hear an ally does want to help us if we
decide to do that. But that's that's another story. Look, I had to laugh when you put up the headline about Trump suggests that he may have an answer in ten days. In Trump world, that's not an answer. That's maybe I will maybe I won't give you a little bit of a nugget that I know makes a headline. But that doesn't mean it's tomorrow, and it doesn't mean it's six months from now. So I think they're still waiting on a couple of things. To your question about logistics,
excellent question. The dark of night, the phases of the moon make a difference when you want to do these military types of operations that I understand. I think if I've got this right, the new moon was last night, so for the next fifteen days it will be getting lighter and lighter, which sort of maybe puts you in
a timeline of when something might be going on. They have had the opportunity, the American military now has had the opportunity to move more assets into the Gulf that comparing it to the build up they did before a desert storm back in nineteen ninety one. So there's a significant American military presence in the area. Again, another reason we're not heavily reliant on the UK. My guess is
it's an educated guest. There will be something. James eventually, as Lindsay Graham, and I don't agree with him very often. He said over the weekend, you don't move an aircraft carrier into the Mediterranean so the soldiers can get the seamen can get some sunshine. They're there to work and they're going to use this military asset at some point. But I wouldn't read too much into the maybe I give you, maybe I give you a decision in ten days.
That's not a hard and fast deadline by any stretch of the imagination.
Yeah, and I mean just on the domestic side of that. I mean putting Lindsey Graham aside for a moment. You know, there is that sort of line that goes around Trump always chickens out. Trump has made commitments that, you know, if the Iranians keep doing what they're doing, help is on the way. He said that help is on the way for the Iranian people. Is there a risk to his credibility. If he doesn't do that, does that play into his calculus at all? You know them, man, what do you think?
I think the calculus is this. They're trying to figure out if a decapitation, removing the senior leadership of the government, does that make things better or worse when it comes to American interests. In Venezuela, they were able to convince themselves and I think rightly so, that taking Maduro out of the equation would help because there was a government
there to stand up once he was removed. Trast that to what you and I know happened in Iraq with Saddam Hussein and what they call the debathification of Iraq when they took out the entire governing wing of the population and there was no government left run the country afterwards. So I think they're trying to figure out is Iran more like Iraq or that more like Venezuela, and what really happens on the day after we take out the
Eya toll. I think that's what's really the issue right now, is they're trying to figure out what comes next as they move down the chessboard.
Yeah, look, I think that's always the thing that we like to hear that they're thinking about because so often it seems like our politicians and leaders don't think about what comes next. Mick Welvany, thank you so much for your time as always. Now, hey, let's move on to Washington, d C. Where the phrase drain the swamp has taken on a whole new meaning after a sewer pipe owned by d C Water collapsed and sent get this, a quarter billion gallons of raw sewage. That's a lot into
the Potomac River. I can almost smell it from here. But it has emerged also that the chief of DC Water not only oversaw five hundred million dollars in DEI contracts, but also complained when he took his job that there were too many white men running the joint.
When I arrived at DC Water, this was an organization that looked very similar to our tour our industry.
It was predominantly you know, white male at the top.
But this is a utility that's you know, more than seventy percent people of color work at this utility.
Well, joining me now to discuss this and a lot more. As White House reporter at the Washington Examiner, Naomi Live. Naomi, this story. Part of the pund really stinks what's going on there in DC? And did the DC Water Authority spend more time doing social justice than they did maintaining the pipes.
Well, if you didn't think d C was toxic before, you probably do now. So then your audience understands sort of the magnitude of this spill.
I think it comes up to like three hundred.
And sixty Olympic size Simming pool's worth of sewage has gone into the local river around the DC area, which you know is not a lovely prospect. And even the presidents that have weighed in on all the White House preseecretary this week sort of way, and how Trump is actually kind of nervous that we'll have to be dealing with when he wants to celebrate the big two hundred and fiftieth birthday of the country this summer or in
July our time. But you know what is happening now is that there's a lot of finger pointing because obviously d C has a democratic run mayor as well as a council, and then obviously the Maryland governor wears More, who is thought of as a presidential candidate in twenty
twenty eight. He's a Democrat, and so there's a lot of fingerpointing about who to blame and who is supposed to be taking responsibility of that, because you know, there's like record levels of E. Coli in the water supply here now, and you know, you probably don't want to swim in the Potomac River before him, but now you definitely don't. Trump this week sort of said that he might step in and help with the Environmental Protection Agency
if the governors asked nicely. So hopefully where's more does that soon?
Yeah? Wow, it's a it's a sticky situation, that's for sure. Hey, Neyilby, I want to move on to more serious metters. Although that is pretty serious matter right there, partiularly the grinding lawfare that has been waged against the Trump administration for years now, where lower courts try and block everything the administration tries to do before they eventually get their way
higher up the line. And there was a fascinating admission by CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Tube in The New York Times whose Times who said those Biden judges and others appointed by democratic presidents have proved that the most effective resistance to mister Trump has come not from democratic politicians, but rather from federal judges. This really proves a point that the left is now actively trying to use a branch of government that should be independent from politics for
very political means. I think this makes them look very petty.
Well, whenever Jeffrey Truban is in the news, I always raise my eyebrows. But this, this is an interesting example because obviously the Federalist Society has become really influential and conservat of circles because of this way that they have really elevated judges that sort of believe in you know, originalism and textualism and really interpreting the documents that the
founding fathers left us. Now, when it comes to what Tuben is saying is that you know when they are choosing judges, because Biden did has you know, passed more or appointed more judges in his term than Trump's did in his first term. And so he was sort of saying, you know, what is the secret ingredient here and the idea of you know, these voters, these judges sorry, maybe not being sort of you know, standing for something as
opposed to just being against Trump. Now, the issue with that is that the opposite of originalism is sort of a living constitution and a document that you can interpret, you know, put your sort of activism into, which is something that is not very popular in some circles, but something that maybe Democrats might lean on more heavily if someone like Tuben gets his way with this sort of idea that he wants to.
Amph Indeed, and you're right about Jeffrey Tuba there there's a man who certainly has lived up to his name in the past. But I want to talk also just to go back to the Dei question, which I started here before. You have written a fascinating piece in your pay for the Washington Examiner this week about Trump's second term in this anti Dei age and your research showing his approach being different this time around. When it comes to policies for black Americans. Tell us what you found.
I thought this was really interesting.
Well, thank you for reading. That's really nice of you.
What I thought was really interesting is that so the black vote became more important for Donald Trump in this most recent election. You know, he might not have won the whole demographic, but you want enough to keep sort of Kamala Harris from becoming President, and I thought it was interesting that despite that, we haven't seen sort of
this outreach or this continued outreach to Black America. What we've seen instead is this idea that Trump's policies helped all of Americans, you know, for example, his tax cuts, for example, you know, work that he's done with veterans.
But it's really.
Different from term one, where you know, we had Yay or you know, formerly known as Kanye West in the White House Oval Office sort of talking to Trump about criminal justice reform. I think you had Kim Kardashian really pushing for these release of sort of making you know, drug defenders that weren't violent having advocating for their release. So there was a real sort of spotlight put underneath this very sort of identity politics. But again, in this era of being anti de I, we seen the opposite.
And so I'm really curious to see how that plays out, you know, before we go into the midterms, and then potentially whether this coalition that Trump is built sticks with the Republican Party going forward.
Fascinating stuff. Dale William, thank you so much for joining me and everybody out there. Read her stuff at the Washington Examiner. But don't go anywhere, because after the break, I'm going to be joined by the fabulous Gerard Baker. And you know who else is fabulous? This ice office who turned the tables on a Karen who was trying to shave him for doing his job. And what is the word the kid use? He clapped back at her spectacularly.
This isn't a good look for you.
You think I care about my look?
Oh no, no, trust me. When you guys are, he's evident by how you wick you don't care.
We get that. Trust me.
No, that's all I'm saying. I'm saying this trying to be a social warrior. If you actually cared, you probably would care about the child who got raped and also the person got murdered by the person that we were looking for.
But see, you don't care. No, I don't care, because you guys try.
You just try to detain.
Who you tell her Gerard Baker and Marker Rubio's wounded moment after the break, Welcome back to the program. Well joining me now is Editor at Large at the Wall Street Journal, Gerard Baker. Gerard, thank you so much for coming on. Always thrilled to have you on, but particularly this week because at the top of the show I made a case that Marco Rubio, not jd Vance, is probably the best shot the Republicans have in twenty twenty eight to maintain both Trump's legacy while also driving forward
an articulate conservative worldview that Middle America will appreciate. And I note you've also taken up a similar theme in your latest Wall Street Journal column about whether Mark Rubio can deliver what you call the substance without the spectacle. Can you explain this choice here that the Republican Party has.
Well, Thanks James, thanks for having me in, Thanks very much, and if for mentioning the columny, I do agree with you. Look, look, look, this is the as I said in the column, this in some ways is the kind of the essence of the conundrum of Donald Trump, right kind of. I think it probably was necessary given where America was given, frankly, where the West was ten years ago, it was necessary to have a really disruptive figure the sort of traditional
Republican Party leaders. You know, though they were good people in many ways, is they really weren't They really weren't in touch with people's views on immigration, on globalization, on trade, even on the woke stuff. I mean, many of them were just too sort of tolerant of the woke stuff. So you really didn't need to have this dramatic, disruptive outsider come in. The question is did you need with that?
Did you need to have.
All the other stuff that comes with Trump? And by that I mean, you know, some of the kind of slightly crazy tweets or truth socials or whatever, but also frankly some of the questionable character stuff. I mean, you know there are you know, there's a pretty there's a long list of there's a long line of a long list of examples of grift going on right now from
this administration. And so I think the challenge has always been can you find someone who does what Trump does, makes the kind of impact that Trump has overturned so many of these things that have gone wrong in this country over the last twenty thirty years without bringing in some of that kind of baggage that people don't I don't I think to some extent that's an open question. Maybe you did need somebody. I give the example James of Europe. You know Trump, and that was where obviously
where Rubio was. Would the Europeans really have done more in their own defense and committed to more defense spending and all of that. If Trump hadn't behaved in the way that he did, would they really have done that if they've been asked politely and nicely in the way that say Marco Rubier would do.
I don't know.
I don't think so. So you do need an element of both. I just think right now that Rubio and the speech that he laid out in Munich and the way he kind of approaches things generally, I think he does give you that, you know, the promise of change. He you know, now he's changed himself. He didn't used to be in favor of a lot of these populous things, but I think he does. I think he gets it, and I think he promises that, but without some of
the other stuff. And I think he is a more appealing candidate to your point, I think he is a more appealing candidate Jade Evance who, frankly, while he's loved by the Magabas and he says all the right things to the magabase, I'm not sure that he has the ability to reach out beyond the magabase in the way that Donald Trump or I would argue Marco Rubio can.
And you know, I really think it's interesting though that this speech has made such an impact that five or six days after he gave it, we're still talking about it. People are still talking about it. And my mail is that he got well, he got this big standing ovation.
And my male from Europe is that a lot of people, even though they won't say it on camera, that they agreed with what he said and some of the tough love messages that he delivered, they agree with him and say that he was right about an awful lot of these things, and actually that they get what he is trying to say about this link between the western great powers, Western Europe, the United States, Australia too for that matter.
Yeah, and again I think that's that's right.
And again that you know, as I said in my column, by twenty fifteen, when Trump came along, came onto the political scene, there was widespread, widespread dissatisfaction with the world, but particularly the market, you know, and it had been you know, Republican administrations after all, brought us the disaster of the Iraq War and the sort of developing disaster
of Afghanistan. And really they also or to some extent, the global financial crisis, All of those things happened on Republicans watches.
And on top of all of.
That, as I say, the Republican Party represented this kind of slightly weird hybrid between late twentieth century neoliberal kind of absolutely straight down the line the wrong of Reagan economics and twenty first century sort of woke progressive embrace of globalism. And that was really a bad place for
the Republican Party to be. Nobody back then in twenty fifteen, whether it was you know, the leaders in Congress of the Publican Party, candidates were president like Jeb Bush, frankly, candidates and president like Marco Rubia were offering the change that people wanted. Trump came along and brought that change. And you know, I think that ten years later, the
Republican Party leadership now basically gets it. They don't like a lot of what Donald Trump does, and frankly, nor do I, but they get that his message was absolutely necessary, that he was the one to deliver the change that people really wanted to do. Now, it's probably in two years time, as the next election looms, it will be time to move on. And then the question is who's best place to carry that torch forward.
And you know, just on that torch question too. Though, one of the things that I thought fascinating I said this before about this speech was his real, big love of Western civilization and those links. And the fascinating thing is watching how the left is reacting to this, because, as you know, the left has tried to run down this idea that there's something special about Western civilization basically
as long as I've been alive. And you know, the latest cope on this, though, is this piece by Jamel Buie in the New York Times saying that the civilizational link I love this between Europe and America is fake because well, the founders of the US made an explicit break with England. But come on, Gerard, all of those guys they studied ancient Greek and Latin, and I mean they modeled the Senate on ancient Rome. Anybody who drives around Washington, DC knows how linked Washington is to this
thread of Western history. This whole Western civilization idea that Ruby is pushing strikes me as very threatening to the left.
One percent, James, and of course that I agree with you completely. That argument is wrong. Look, there's a strong argument that's made and it's made by serious historians that what was kind of defining and unique about the American Revolution two hundred and fifty years ago was that it was fundamentally a conservative revolution. What they were revolting against was not, of course, it was monarchical power and the
excesses monarcal power. But if you go back and read all those documents, you read the federalist papers, you read all of the stuff that was written at the time, you read Tompain, they were calling for the rights that the English had had for centuries.
Back to Magna Carta.
They were calling for They were that their beef with the king was that the king was actually not treating them in the way that English subjects did English. The English had had had the English rights that have been achieved, and the way the English wanted to demand it to be treated from Magna Carta, through the Civil War, through the Glorious Revolution.
And everything else.
That's what was very much in the mind of the revolutionary They wanted to They wanted to re establish those rights. Now, of course, they wanted to do it in the context of a republic. And you're absolutely right. They drew heavily
on ancient Rome and to some extent Greece. But that's those values that they were defending in the in the in the Revolutionary War, and defending in the Declaration of Independence were absolutely rooted in those traditional Western values to say English, you know, English common law, English democracy, you know,
you know, Roman republicanism, Athenian democracy. Those absolutely were the animating ideals that you know, they didn't come over, they didn't they didn't have a revolution in seventeen seventy six because they wanted they wanted to change, you know, they
wanted to impose some sort of revolutionary new system. They want to actually assert the rights and values that's what you know, the Preamble to the Constitution, that's what it ought that everything all those documents talk about are those inalienable rights, and those are classic Western These are Western ideas through John Locke and David Hughes and so many of the you know, the great Western philosophers that of course America was. Of course, those are the common roots
between the United States and America. And I would say, obviously a country like Australia and other and other countries which have you know, have also gone their own separate way, but still cling to the values that the West actually first, really, Adambray.
Absolutely, and that is why the American Revolution was a success, of the French Revolution was a disaster. But maybe that's another conversation there. Before I lecteredly go though, I did want to talk about Also, we've just had this opening meeting of the Board of Peace to rebuild Gaza. Now there's billions of dollars pledge, but apparently there's still some ramp area of Gaza that's under Hamas control. Just tell us quickly, how serious is this plan and what do you reckon can this work?
Look clearly it's it's a it's a novel approach to this. Right, So we've had the war. Israel has done a very effective job of damaging, causing significant set back, decimating really Hamas's military power. You know that the standard way forward that American presidents have always sought at this point would be to say, we've got to get buy in from
Arab countries. In order to get buy in from Arab countries, maybe the normalized relations with Israel, we've got to you know, we've got to go for a two state solution, so, you know, because the Arab countries will insist on a.
Two state solution.
I think Trump has kind of bypassed that this idea of the border pieces to say, no, we're not there's not gonna be a two state solution. What we're going to do is wan to focus on actually what's needed in Gaza and not you know, we're not going to hand over Gaza to a political authority that's then going to you know, once again trying to clear war on Israel. What we need is what what's needed there is economic
is it is investment. We really need to bring that, you know, to to restore the Gaza strip and the you know, the damage that has obviously been done by the war, but also to build, you know, to create the foundations of a functioning economy. And he's managed to get buy in for that. I mean, we'll see, you know, we'll see whether these numbers actually materialize.
You know, he's the US is committed to ten billion dollar itself does that.
But as you saw today, there are a lot of countries there who pledged their commitment to help this process along.
So I think it's been you know, it's look.
It's got a long way to go. We'll see how it unfolds. But this approach of saying no, no, no, we're not that. The way forward is not some you know, elusive political solution of a two state approach. What's needed is hard cash, and we are to put some up. These other countries are prepared to put them up. That's the way forward, and that will mean a more stable Gaza, a more stable Palestine ultimately living, we hope, ultimately side by side with Israel in peace.
Yeah. Well, the previous approach hadn't worked so well, So here we go. Drive Baker, thank you so much for your time. I was always love the chat. Now don't go away because the great Kelly Jay and Torrence joins me in above it. And guess what, speaking of money, New York City, they're already out of it. But first over at the Board of Peace meeting or speaking about a moment ago, Vice President J. D. Vett through some epic shade at Alexandria Acazio Cortes referencing her stunned Mullock
performance at Munich last week. Have a look.
I knew exactly what I wanted to say, but then after the President said that I was so smart and that I didn't want to repeat our congresswoman who froze for twenty seconds over in Munich. Now, I'm tempted, sir, just to freeze for twenty seconds and just stare at the cameras and maybe they'll say nice things about me, like they do about Congresswoman Cortez.
Bullseye. Stick around, because the big Apple is broke and we're gonna find out all about it after the break. Welcome back to the program. Let's head over to New York City now, where I am joined by Editor at Large the New York Post, Kelly Jane Torrens. Well, Kelly, I'm glad you're still in New York, but I don't know how things are going over there, because it doesn't like things are going too well with Zoron Mom Donnie, who has started to crash out in ways so quickly.
I hadn't even thought this was possible. Now he is proposing raising property taxes, raiding pension funds, all because already six weeks in they're out of money.
How a look at this to balance the budget is required by law. Our preliminary budget takes the only path within our control, the second path. The options of the second path are the options of last resort in order to get to this point of closing the gap on both this fiscal year and the next fiscal year, we are forced to raid the Rainy Day Fund, the Retiree Health Benefits Trust Reserve, and to increase property taxes across these other years.
So what's going on here? It sounds like he is holding a gun to the governor's head and saying, if you do not give me my millionaire's tax, I'm just gonna blow up the entire budget.
That's pretty much how you can describe it, James. And it's really quite amazing to see.
You're right.
I mean, he's only been in office since January first, and he's already saying and he's admitted that raising property taxes will be raising taxes on lower and middle income New Yorkers because are the way our crazy property tax system works. Now, let's face it, he knew that there was a budget shortfall going in. He knew this long before he became mayor, and he knew this during the race.
Uh.
And his solution was, I need I need a millionaire's tax, and Governor Hulkell endorsed him.
Uh.
You know, I wonder if she's regretting that decision now, But she endorsed him, but she told him at the time, I'm not raising taxes. It's not going to happen. So instead of you know, pulling back on some of his huge and ridiculous promises, free buses for all, freeze the rents, free grocery stores, free you know, anti Jewish propaganda, he instead just keep going with it, and even though he can't afford it. It's incredible.
Well, it's just unbelievable too though, because I mean I have watched over my lifetime the middle class get nuked out of New York City by economy, and now it seems like this whole thing about the millionaires is complete nonsense. All of this stuff is all going to wind up hitting you know, immigrant property owners, hard working class people.
They're the ones who are going to suffer. It's going to be just like the nineteen seventies when the city went broke and all of the services that people you know, at that end of the spectrum relied on they all lost out.
You're right, James, I mean again, our property tech system is very odd. You know, you know, a very nice, huge place in Park Slope that you know, owned by some upper class elite is taxed at a rate less than you know, a small property, saying Staten Island, where a lot of working class people are. It's insane and it's insane that he thinks he can, you know, taxi somehow taxes way out of this mess. I mean, as you noted, people have been fleeing New York, especially job creators,
and it's scary for all of us. You know, the top you know, one percent of New Yorkers, they really spend, they really are deal with most.
Of the taxes.
Yeah, and so's propping everything up. And what's going to happen when you know, more of them leave and the rest of us are left, you know, shouldering even more of the burden.
He really is just running around.
Like a chicken with his head cut off. And it's it's embarrassing to see. It's it's humiliating to see. This is the supposed to be the greatest city in America and you've got a mayor who can't do basic math.
Well, it's just terrifying to me too, because who would have thought that, you know, a filmmaker Nepo Baby was going to be bad at maths? Who saw that one coming. But it's also you know, this housing market. He's going to blow this up too, because he's got this new rent control board to try to, you know, make up his promise of freezing the rent. But as your newspaper reports, it's all full of hard left socialist, activist anti Israel nutters. This does not sound like a recipe for getting roofs
over the heads of people who need it. Am I wrong? Here?
You are not James as usual? And you know it's funny because when Mayor Mumdannie was talking about the need to freeze the rents and announcing these crazy new names to the rent guidelines Board, he even said, I'm sure that they will look at all factors tenants are facing when they decide whether rent should should be frozen or not. Well, okay, he's looking at all the things tenants are facing, and sure, I'm facing cost of living issues since he became mayor.
But what about the issues that you know owners are facing again? You know some owners, there's some big landlords, huge landlords in the city s, but there's also an awful lot of small ones, you know, who just own one building. They've built their way up, and this is going to crush them if they are forced to freeze rents when every other costs that they have to pay, you know, supplies energy, everything is going up. You know, it's crazy, it's just unbelievable. But he's made it clear,
you know what he's going to do. And again, as you mentioned, some of these people he's put on the board don't even have any experience dealing.
With numbers alone.
You know, the difficulty in figuring out you know, the costs and benefits and weighing you know, the tenants issues versus the landlord's issues and all of the things that go in to the economy that helps decide how rent should should be dealt with. And that's you know, one million rent stabilized units for New York City.
And you know what's fascinating to me because this just shows how out of touch the Left is with the people that they supposedly represent. Here, let's go over to Los Angeles where late night host Jimmy Kimble is headlining a pricey fundraiser for the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee where guests have to pay twenty five thousand US that's like forty forty five thousand Australia just to get a seat
at the table. This just shows how all of these Democrats, socialist lefties, they are not for the little guy, are they?
No, they're not. And it is really quite funny. You know, you have to pay twenty five k just to get in the door. And you know, California is facing you know, is where Jimmy Kimmel lives, of course, is facing a lot of economic issues, just like we are here in New York City. And it's incredible that that they're they're they're thinking about this. But and again, you know, Jimmy Kimmel, I mean, the guy's kind of washed up. His ratings
have been going down. I mean, who even wants to pay twenty five thousand just to you know, be in his presence. It's it's incredible, But you know, they're they're more interested in money and trying to figure out how they can get their people in then actually listening to voters and real people and finding out what their concerns are, because I can tell you are not the concerns of the Jimmy Kimmel and the other Democratic elites.
Yeah, you know what, I'd probably pay twenty five grand to stay away from Jimmy Kimmel, but very quickly, very quickly, before I let you go. The other day, Barack Obama dropped in an interview that seemed to confirm that aliens, the space kind, not the border kind, are real. Now. Donald Trump was just asked about this a little while ago on Air Force One. Here's what he had to say. I think they got a lot of attention this week.
Barack Obama said that aliens are real.
Have you seen any evidence of non human visitors to work? Well, he gave class of right information.
He's not supposed to be doing that.
Aliens are real. Well, I don't know if they're real or not. I can tell you he gave class of fight information. He's not supposed to.
Be doing that.
I don't know. It's not quite a yes, not quite. I know, is the truth out there? What do you reckon? Real quick?
That's quite you know. The statement for Trump to be saying, Donald Trump to be saying he shouldn't be giving out classified information. Everyone is always attacking.
Him for that.
So you know it's serious when Donald Trump is worried about classified information getting out there. So well, yep, fort you decide kind.
Of thing fascinating, Kelly J. Georgane, thanks so much. I think we may have to get you a gig down here at the Daily Telegraph, to get you out of New York City. Thanks so much for your time. Now you know what's coming next, A very special Only in America where we look at just how horribly racist those voter ID laws really are. But before we hit the brake, have you ever wondered if you're the crazy one? Does this ever happen to you? Well, here's Alexandria Ocasio Cortes to sort it out.
You must remember, in a time such as this, we are not the crazy ones New York City. We are not the outlandish ones New York City. They want us to think we are crazy.
We are saying, well, you know the old saying, you don't have to be crazy to vote Democrat, but it sure does help Only in America. After the break, all right, welcome back to the program. And now it's time for your favorite segment, Only in America. Well, you know we've talked a lot about voter ID on this program and how the left thinks the whole idea is racist because those source of rules might be hard on minorities. So to test this theory, our pals at the Babylon b hit the streets.
We're here on the seat where African Americans are being oppressed by horrific new voter laws forcing them to acquire a legal ID to vote. Excuse me, sir, you're unable to acquire an ID, are you not?
Actually I just renewed my ID.
It's pretty easy.
Actually, there you have it.
This poor black man has been disenfranchised by racist voter ID laws because he's too ignorant. I'm sorry, ignorant means stupid, too ignorant.
To acquire a voter ID.
Absolutely tragic.
Well done. I think they just showed up what George Bush called the soft bigotry of low expectations, which, sorry, that means not having a lot of hope. Anyway, that's all the time we've got for this week. I'll see you next time and bright and early Sunday morning at nine am for outsiders. Bye bye
M