On today's show, Steve is on the road covering the Supreme Court, the budget, the Iran deal, and much, much more. Also, we have a special guest, Josh Hammer, breaking down the Kennedy v. Kennedy controversy.
00:05:16.000He's actually got people in discussions.
00:05:17.000Can you put this in geostrategic framework, particularly given what happened at NATO, where we finally got the nations of Europe that stepped up to the plate and say they're going to actually put up 5 percent of GDP for their own defense so they don't have to be protectorates of the United States of America?
00:06:16.000I just got out of a briefing on the strikes.
00:06:19.000I think you just articulated very well about the president's use of force and doing it very well.
00:06:24.000I think they executed it in the fashion that, as you point out, that MAGA Americans are, you know, not wanting to be involved in a long term war, get involved in endless wars.
00:06:34.000We've been dealing with the last 25 years.
00:06:37.000I feel much better about it after listening to those guys.
00:06:40.000And then we'll head up to the House floor and we've got to vote on something that's not really relevant to the BBB, but we've been watching all the negotiations with the big, beautiful bill in the Senate.
00:06:58.000Didn't go as far as I would prefer in terms of spending restraint, but at least was a giant step forward in trying to honor our commitment to spending and try to at least think about reducing the deficit.
00:07:10.000Our bill was plausibly deficit neutral or even going down as tariff revenue and economic growth comes in.
00:07:17.000But the Senate is just blowing it up right now with probably another trillion dollars in the calculations I've seen, which we don't have bill text yet.
00:07:26.000And, you know, they're undermining a lot of the great things we got while they're letting the parliamentarian make decisions.
00:07:33.000They're not doing what they need to do, and they're certainly not ending the Green News scam, which the president wants.
00:07:40.000So we're going to have a lot of work to do these next few days, and I hope the conservatives in the Senate hold the line.
00:07:45.000Guys like Mike Lee, Ron Johnson, Rick Scott, they've been doing a great job trying to negotiate this thing to a better place.
00:09:17.000Our hardworking Americans don't need to have their Medicaid taken away.
00:09:21.000But the able-bodied who should be working, the people that are engaging in fraud, the people that are, you know, abusing the system in a money laundering scheme to enrich hospitals and insurance companies, those guys, we need the reform.
00:09:35.000So that's what's all getting watered down over in the Senate.
00:09:40.000So we're going to keep working on it, trying to get that back.
00:09:43.000And again, the Green News scam, we want those things to end.
00:09:46.000I mean, again, in the House, Steve, we only, like I fought like frickin' cats and dogs to get 60% of it taken out, right?
00:09:56.000It was a good bill to get rid of the 60% future projects, but it would leave all of the existing projects in place, which personally I don't think is good enough.
00:10:04.000But, you know, you take the deal that you can get.
00:10:06.000Well, now the Senate's watering that down.
00:10:08.000So now we would allow probably half or some significant chunk of future projects.
00:10:12.000And that's not what termination means.
00:10:14.000You've got to end these scam subsidies or we're not going to have a strong grid and we're going to continue to empower China.
00:10:21.000We had language in our bill to prohibit some of this stuff going to China and the foreign interest for solar panels and batteries and all that stuff.
00:10:28.000They watered that down because most of these guys want to protect their corporate cronies in their states and their districts who are, oh, I need my subsidies so I can have a better bottom line.
00:10:39.000Well, that's not what the American people sent us here to do, Steve.
00:10:44.000The first line of defense is the Senate.
00:10:46.000It's Ron Johnson and Mike Lee and these hawks in the Senate.
00:10:50.000Do you anticipate that they will get a lot of this change even before it comes back to you guys?
00:11:07.000Look, they're going to get a lot of pressure from the White House, which, you know, God love them.
00:11:11.000They're my friends and we want to get the border money and we want to get the taxes extended.
00:11:15.000We want to deliver for the president, but we've got to get something better than we're getting.
00:11:20.000And so these guys are going to have to hold the line.
00:11:22.000We need the White House to put pressure on the moderates, not the conservatives, but pressure on the moderates to stop messing with the deal.
00:11:30.000And hopefully the Senate can hold the line and get it over to us so we can pass it.
00:11:35.000But I can promise you there's a bunch of us over here in the House who are not happy with it if they were letting the Senate send it over to us.
00:11:45.000By the way, you can't see this, but the front page of the Financial Times of London is a massive story.
00:11:50.000Investors flee U.S. long-term bonds in fear of soaring debt, $11 billion outflow.
00:11:56.000And it's exactly because of debt and the deficits.
00:11:59.000Are people up there taking this seriously that now we're not able – we're kind of like in Japan where investors are uncomfortable buying 20-year and 30-year bonds from the United States government?
00:12:10.000Steve, finally, way too late, my colleagues are starting to wake up to this reality, which is why we got the bill that we got through the House.
00:12:19.000But the problem is too many of the senators and too many of my colleagues still don't get the urgency, and they don't understand that to get this done, they're going to have to make tough decisions, right?
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00:16:28.000Can you tell us, were you satisfied with the briefing today?
00:16:30.000Yeah, let me give you some thoughts about what just transpired in there this morning.
00:16:36.000We talked about how historic and fateful these moments are.
00:16:40.000This is a historic time that we live in, and this has been an incredible two weeks.
00:16:45.000Of course, it began with Israel's strikes that were targeted against Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
00:16:53.000They eliminated nearly the entire top echelon of Iran's military command and nuclear scientists.
00:17:01.000And then, of course, this past weekend, the United States acted as we needed to act.
00:17:06.000And we had our military forces, of course, strike the heart of Iran's nuclear weapons program.
00:17:13.000We delivered a major setback that resulted then in a feeble face-saving response from Iran and immediately thereafter a ceasefire agreement.
00:17:23.000We want to commend President Trump for his decisive and bold leadership.
00:17:32.000Today, I hope they drill down because, look, it's total obliteration, but I hope they drill down on what was the sense of urgency even have to go to this?
00:18:57.000It's definitive in the sense that it's 6-3, and it's nice to see Amy Coney Barrett and John Roberts, for that matter, on the right side of it.
00:19:34.000And one of the criticisms of John Roberts for, I mean, for a couple decades, is that he cares more about the court and the status of the Supreme Court than about some of the issues in front of him.
00:19:44.000And that actually is the legacy of Bush versus Gore.
00:19:47.000That pushed things, that was Rehnquist, but that pushed things about as far as they can go.
00:20:03.000Roberts now sees that as the threat to the court.
00:20:05.000When you have members of Congress and people like Mike Davis, who know this stuff inside out, saying, you know, the district courts are not in the Constitution.
00:30:43.000So, Steve, I was guessing that they were going to go into next week.
00:30:47.000There are some other tea leaf reading indications, if you will.
00:30:50.000They might actually try to get them all out today.
00:30:52.000For instance, John Roberts has a public event tomorrow.
00:30:55.000Typically, historically speaking, the justices like to get out all of the rulings before they kind of go do their summer session thing.
00:31:01.000And they do the public speeches, the law school seminars, the junkets to Europe, things like that.
00:31:05.000So, there are various indications to think that they're probably going to drop some more opinions today.
00:31:10.000But I would not be surprised, certainly, if they go into next week.
00:31:15.000The past couple of terms, they typically have gone into the first week of July, not the end of June.
00:31:19.000So, there is some recent precedent for that as well.
00:31:22.000Having said that, the opinion that we've already gotten today is definitely one of the most anticipated rulings of the term.
00:31:29.000It's probably my personally most anticipated ruling of the term with the exception of the Scrimetti case, the transgender case out of Tennessee, which was a tremendous victory that we had a couple of weeks ago.
00:31:38.000But the ruling today is it was teed up as the birthright citizenship case.
00:31:43.000Steve, as I think you and I discussed on a previous appearance here on your show, the way that this was litigated kind of precluded or at least necessarily steered the justice away from issuing a ruling on the actual 14th Amendment birthright citizenship question.
00:31:57.000Because the way that the lawyers teed it up was about the scope of injunctive relief.
00:32:01.000So the real kind of question that we got an answer to today isn't about whether or not the 14th Amendment citizenship clause requires birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens.
00:32:11.000I hope that we get an answer on that in the next few years, to be clear.
00:32:14.000But the opinion today really only deals with the issue of so-called nationwide injunctions.
00:32:42.000And hopefully we get that in the years to come.
00:32:44.000But it is a solid victory, nonetheless.
00:32:46.000It effectively says that the notion that there is a power of a court to issue a sprawling universal injunction to bind anyone throughout the country is not a power that exists.
00:32:58.000It is not the kind of thing that existed in the courts of equity back in medieval England.
00:33:03.000It's not the kind of thing that was adapted into the Constitution in the Judiciary Act of 1789.
00:33:08.000And probably even more kind of mouthwatering, I might say, is just the really dripping with disdain language that Amy Coney Barrett has for Ketanji Brown Jackson, the lead dissenter here.
00:33:20.000She accuses Ketanji Brown Jackson of opposing an imperial executive branch but worshiping an imperial judiciary.
00:33:27.000This is a pretty fiery language for Amy Coney Barrett, who is not necessarily always the fieriest of the justices on the court there.
00:33:34.000So there's a lot of good stuff in here.
00:33:36.000It is a strong, strong partial victory for the Trump administration there.
00:33:40.000And I guess we'll just have to see how it plays out from here.
00:33:43.000You're talking about imperial judiciary.
00:33:45.000I mean this has been the fight where this judicial supremacy and this is what the progressives have used to chop block President Trump, right, on his Article II powers, everything he's trying to accomplish with the theory to delay is to deny.
00:33:58.000Is this now – because we just had the Supreme Court ruling the other day about the bad hombres being sent out, and I think that they've had to – they're going after now judges in Maryland because district judges are not following the Supreme Court, right?
00:34:12.420So is this – is this going to have an impact?
00:34:15.480I mean these district judges even going to pay attention to this, sir?
00:34:21.360I – we are currently at a state where these lower courts are just so brazenly flipping their fingers, not merely at President Trump, but as we saw with Judge Murphy, Massachusetts, so brazenly sticking their middle fingers at their own purported bosses or their own actual boss, I should say, in the Article III hierarchy there, that it's hard to know what it will actually take to try
00:34:42.340to corral these lower court judicial insurrectionists and actually bring them in line.
00:34:46.660Certainly in my personal capacity and we at Article III project, we've been supportive of everything including jurisdiction stripping legislation, abolishing judgeships, filing articles of impeachment as necessary against rogue judges.
00:34:58.460Certainly I think Judge Brian Murphy, the one in Massachusetts who literally is just straight up ignoring the Supreme Court order that overturned his preliminary injunction, I think an impeachment article against Judge Murphy is wholly necessary right now.
00:35:10.780But for all these reasons, Steve, I was hoping for a stronger ruling today.
00:35:16.340I was hoping for a definitive kind of Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito ruling that says Article III of the Constitution, the judicial power, here is what it means.
00:35:23.420It absolutely unequivocally does not include this so-called nationwide injunction.
00:35:27.360We didn't get that, but it's pretty good.
00:35:31.240What Barrett says is that there is strong reason to doubt on a historical basis the veracity or legitimacy of so-called nationwide injunctions, and they should not be used more than is absolutely necessary to reach the correct ruling.
00:35:45.840Now, there is some kind of lawyerly language in there that you can kind of see how some left-wing NGOs, the ACLU, the open borders advocates, they might try to play with that language there.
00:35:54.240They're still trying to get some nationwide injunctions there, and there's also some leeway potentially for the rogue lower court judges to kind of play with it a little bit as well.
00:36:02.440So, again, it's not the full-out, all-out victory that I was hoping for, but it's very good, and I'm certainly quite happy from where I sit.
00:36:08.960Given some of the cases that this court has dealt with over the last few years where they take something like this local injunction, but they talk about the broader issue that brought it, that's why a lot of us on the 14th Amendment were hoping that this is what they were going to do and address birthright citizenship.
00:36:58.060The actual substantive 14th Amendment citizenship clause question, what does it mean, what does it not mean, that cannot come on the emergency docket.
00:37:07.340That cannot come kind of on the scope of injunctive relief.
00:37:10.240That has to be a standard kind of you file a petition, you file a writ of certiorari, you get the justice granted, you have a full oral argument.
00:37:18.160So, look, that's the kind of thing that can be teed up there, and certainly this litigation when it comes to President Trump's executive order is not going anywhere.
00:37:27.360If anything, today's ruling kind of sort of has the effect of kicking it down the road a little bit for the rulings or for the reasons that I just said.
00:37:35.060It does kind of then open up the potential gateways for the lower court to say, okay, I mean, this injunctive relief is not necessary here, but maybe it's necessary here.
00:37:43.740But there is room, I think, for the Trump DOJ and for the Trump Solicitor General's office to try to cleanly tee up this, I would hope, potentially, for the next SCOTUS term.
00:37:53.720Now, here's what I will say, though, Steve.
00:37:55.140I will sound a note of slight caution on this for the following reason.
00:37:58.820If I'm just being very sober here and just trying to call it like I see it there, I am unfortunately not convinced that at this exact time there are five votes on the court to do the right thing on birthright citizenship.
00:38:12.240I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong.
00:38:14.560I think that there are probably two solid votes, Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito, and beyond that, I think that there are a lot of question marks.
00:38:21.420I could see Brett Kavanaugh getting there, maybe Justice Gorsuch, but you're really starting to kind of count votes from there.
00:38:27.900So what I would hope for, and I guess we'll see, is maybe there will be some shakeup on the Supreme Court personnel.
00:38:33.780It's probably not looking great, to be honest with you, because I don't necessarily see Sotomayor or Katanji Brown-Jackson retiring or anything like that there.
00:38:40.480But that is my one note of caution there, is that there is an argument to be made that it might be a blessing in disguise, that we didn't get that ruling on the merits day, because I'm not convinced that it actually would have gone in our favor.
00:38:51.020Josh, your running mate there, Mike Davis, has got a solution to send – hopefully Amy Coney Barrett goes back to be dean of the Notre Dame Law School, but we can only hope.
00:39:06.700Sir, where do people get your writings?
00:39:09.660We'll basically reach out if anything else breaks.
00:39:44.980Jim Rikens, before we get back to – before we get back to intel and geopolitics and strategy, the possibility of impeaching some of these district court justices, because they're giving the middle finger to the Supreme Court.
00:40:02.140They're giving the middle finger to Congress.
00:40:03.660They're giving the middle finger to the executive branch and to the American people.
00:40:07.780Well, I doubt that they'll actually impeach them.
00:40:12.720But starting an impeachment proceeding, kind of beginning to go through the process, is exactly the kind of thing that John Roberts does not want to see.
00:40:22.780Independent of the merits of any issue, that begins to affect the integrity of the judicial system and ultimately the Supreme Court.
00:40:28.740So I would say that that may be a very worthwhile avenue to pursue, not that you get it all the way, but it's one more reason for John Roberts to start to slap these guys down, you know, men and women, but start to slap them down and put them in their place.
00:40:42.300I doubt it will go all the way, but it will get Roberts' attention.
00:40:45.400It's the kind of thing that will, again, continue these types of rulings.
00:40:48.600And, you know, Josh was exactly right about, you know, the substance of birthright citizenship, that's going to go back to the district court.
00:40:55.380They're going to have a trial, see how it turns out.
00:40:57.360It's going to work its way back to the Supreme Court, and he's right, that may take a year.
00:41:00.540But the definitive ruling today that you cannot have nationwide injunctions from the district court except in very limited circumstances, that's the law of the land as of now.
00:41:11.000And, again, independent of birthright citizenship, that affects 100 other cases.
00:41:14.540It's a big deal for that reason, even though, again, Josh was right, it doesn't get to the merits of birthright citizenship.
00:41:22.900But, Jim, this is what I understand, is that the Supreme Court ruled the other day about the bad hombres and about how they can – President Trump in his Article II powers as commander-in-chief can send these guys back to other countries other than their own for jailing.
00:41:38.060And immediately you had the guy in Massachusetts, but I think there's also a revolt of federal district judges in Maryland.
00:41:45.120So it's – we come out with these kind of rulings, and these district judges who are, I think, neo-Marxists just say, okay, fine, we're not doing it.
00:41:55.460So what happens – what happens, like, for instance, this is, like I said, not a definitive ruling but pretty good if these guys – because you know they're going to do the workarounds.
00:42:04.380They're – because they're praised as heroes.
00:42:07.540If you watch MSNBC, those district judges are held up as the paragons of the rule of law.
00:42:13.680And anything that supports Trump or the MAGA movement is – look like lawless anarchy.
00:42:19.140So how can we – how can we – you know, how can we depend on even this ruling being effectuated, sir?
00:42:24.320Well, I would say the Trump Justice Department, the Solicitor General's Office and others, they've done a very good job, precisely, where they scoured the rule books.
00:42:33.980I mean, you can make motions to remove the judge from the case.
00:42:37.500You know, I'm not against impeachment.
00:42:39.660I think that these – some of these judges are – you know, deserve that.
00:42:43.460But even short of that, or if he started and doesn't go anywhere, you can remove the judge from the case.
00:42:47.520You can appeal the ruling again, you know, get to the circuit court.
00:42:51.740The circuit court can issue various rulings that would favor, you know, what Trump's trying to do.
00:42:57.860And bear in mind, a few days ago, the Supreme Court said that there was no bar on deporting illegal immigrants, criminals, basically, to countries other than their home country.
00:43:08.420So this guy – I forget his exact name, Garcia – but, you know, the human trafficker, wife-beater, smuggler, child sex trafficker, et cetera, who's been described as, you know, a Maryland dad, et cetera.
00:43:22.100Well, we couldn't – we had to – he came back from El Salvador, but he might be on his way to, you know, Sudan.
00:43:27.660So, you know, what – and the Supreme Court said that's okay.
00:43:31.140So we are getting – look, it's a slow, frustrating process.
00:43:34.100We are getting rulings, but, you know, it may be a motion to remove the judge from the case based on that conduct or various ethical considerations.
00:43:42.440These are all – these are not taken lightly in the judiciary.
00:45:37.000So at Capitol and Terminal today on the big, beautiful bill, the intelligence, everything else going on, the engine room has sent me to always remind me of Andrew Jackson.
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00:46:22.340And trying to make sure that after a 14-point Trump victory, which is unbelievable because they're kind of the railhead of MAGA, that we're in a situation where, you know, Democrats and the Bush apparatus runs the state.
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