00:04:41.740And I guess you could describe him as left of center, but he's actually tried to bring the paper back towards the middle, and he has not succeeded.
00:04:49.380So I think there's a story there as well.
00:04:51.840in just how difficult it is to bring change to the newsrooms, to bring change to the legislature.
00:05:15.300And here in California, we are going to have a new governor.
00:05:17.720Gavin Newsom is not running for re-election.
00:05:20.000he is barred by the state constitution from serving more than two terms so he is going to
00:05:25.280set his sights on the presidential nomination in 2028 and in the open seat that remains there's
00:05:32.480a very crowded field and the problem democrats have is that there are too many democrats and
00:05:37.840we have a strange primary system in california we don't have the parties nominate their respective
00:05:42.960candidates through separate primary voting processes what we have instead is we call
00:05:47.840the jungle primary all the candidates are thrown into one common pool and the top two vote
00:05:52.440recipients advance to the general election this was a kind of reformist idea 15 years ago that
00:05:58.140was supposed to produce more moderate candidates in fact it's produced the opposite produced more
00:06:02.700left-wing legislature more left-wing governance than ever before but because there are too many
00:06:07.800democrats they're splitting the democratic party vote between them and there are only two major
00:06:12.340republicans in the race so in many polls the two republicans have been in the number one and number
00:06:16.920two slot which does hold out the possibility though it's still remote that you could have
00:06:22.420two republicans advance to the general election which would guarantee a republican governor in
00:06:26.500california so there is a possibility however slim of some change here in california plus there are
00:06:32.240some ballot initiatives that voters are going to decide like whether you need to show id at the
00:06:37.060polls in california you do not need to show any form of identification and a lot of our voting
00:06:42.120happens by mail so it is susceptible at least to the suspicion of fraud and there's a movement now
00:06:48.520to make voter identification with a photograph a photographic id some proof that you are actually
00:06:54.680who you say you are and that you're a citizen you registered to vote going to require that the way
00:06:58.640many other states do and democrats don't like it and you have to ask yourself why i mean is it
00:07:03.780because they are relying on fraudulent votes i mean i don't know but it is a very important
00:07:08.880conservative initiative and that may succeed here in california as well well that's incredible i
00:07:13.960just want to take one more minute on the so-called jungle primary i've heard it described as a sneaky
00:07:18.640way to literally ban republicans from the ballot because if you know you would assume that if all
00:07:25.520the republicans and all the democrats were in the same primary that the democrats would be able to
00:07:31.380because it's california after all have the top two slots at least that's how it was described to me
00:07:35.880So to see the possibility of two Republicans, it's just so astonishing.
00:07:41.240It feels like it's boomeranged on them.
00:07:43.760And my theory, and listen, I'm thousands of kilometers away, so you tell me if this is wrong.
00:07:48.820There was this candidate who was running for governor as a Democrat, Eric Swalwell, who had an alleged affair with a Chinese spy, and he was always getting into trouble.
00:07:58.620And recently, a whole bunch of internal dirt on him was released.
00:08:03.380It's sort of shocking about sexual assault, etc.
00:08:05.880and he resigned from the race in disgrace i hate to say it but it sure looked to me
00:08:11.540like the democratic party was saying we've got to nuke a few of our vote splitting candidates
00:08:17.880we got some dirt on swalwell let's release it now because it's not like these were new
00:08:22.900allegations i don't know it sounds like the dirtiest politics since obama won his first
00:08:29.440election in chicago yes the timing is rather odd the accusations are quite severe and swalwell is
00:08:38.660accused of sexual assault he's now being investigated criminally for rape and there
00:08:43.520are all kinds of other accusations as well as questions about campaign financing did he spend
00:08:49.080money on personal expenses and so forth and all that has come out now and you're right it does
00:08:54.360seem rather suspicious and the democrats could be trying to reduce the number of candidates in the
00:08:58.560field. It could also simply have been one of his rivals trying to take him out. And many fingers
00:09:03.500are pointing in the direction of Katie Porter, who was the favorite for a long time until she
00:09:08.420stormed off the set of a CBS News interview several months ago. She is still in the race
00:09:13.340and still quite formidable. Although, again, the problem the Democrats have is a numbers problem.
00:09:18.140They are just splitting the vote among too many candidates. Just really interesting. Now,
00:09:22.000want to talk about other things. You know, Donald Trump, since the 1980s, has been talking about
00:09:30.400Iran, and he has felt that Iran is an enemy that needs to be bombed. I mean, you can find probably
00:09:37.10010 examples of him saying, here's a clip of him, and I'll just use the mouth for fan. He says he
00:09:44.500wants to bomb the shit out of him. They want to go after our civilians. They want to kill not only1.00
00:09:50.200civilians all over the world and it's going to be stopped it's going to be stopped somebody0.88
00:09:57.080criticized me the other day because they asked me what i do and i said i'm going to bomb the
00:10:02.920out of them it's true i don't care i don't care they've got to be stopped i mean he's been saying
00:10:11.720this uh since day one um some critics on the isolationist right would say that's not in keeping
00:10:20.440with his america first don't be don't get involved in foreign wars but i i think trump has been
00:10:26.680cleared since before he was in politics iran is an existential threat to america and more
00:10:33.760immediately to israel and europe um how is the u.s led i i don't know if i would quite call it a war
00:10:41.380because it's mainly right now just shooting like it's just a bombing raid i mean they're having a
00:10:47.680few unfortunate casualties but there have really been no troops on the ground that we know of
00:10:53.120tell me a little bit about it is it even a war and has it split the republican party base at all
00:11:00.100or am i putting too much stock in internet uh far right nicks like tucker carlson
00:11:05.900Well, it's definitely a war. It's a naval war right now, with the United States Navy blockading all of Iran's ports. And the Iranians say that they are going to use mines and small speedboats and other small weapons to attack any shipping that they don't approve of going through the Strait of Hormuz.
00:11:26.120So it is a naval war. It is one the United States is winning decisively and one that over time, the United States will continue to win because Iran does not have a way of earning foreign currency unless it goes through its ports.0.72
00:11:38.620It has very few overland trade routes. It can't really fly goods out of the country or into the country very easily.0.82
00:11:44.600So its currency is facing major challenges. Its inflation rate is through the roof and it simply is cut off from the world.
00:11:53.100And Trump has imposed that blockade in response to the Iranian attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz, again, not by blockading it, but by threatening terrorism, essentially, against global shipping, which only actually hurt the Iranians in terms of their moral case.0.93
00:12:10.560they made it clear that they are not to be trusted they're not a power that can be tolerated really
00:12:15.720because any country that threatens all and sundry attacking global shipping and0.82
00:12:20.600neighbors that have never done anything to iran for example flying drones to attack the qataris0.63
00:12:26.280and so forth i mean this is this is a very good reason that the regime needs eventually to be
00:12:32.660replaced and i think that trump is winning this confrontation and the u.s navy is doing what the
00:12:37.780U.S. Navy does so well, which includes blockades. Of course, it's also an aerial war. There was a
00:12:42.240first stage of the war that the United States and Israel were bombing Iranian leaders, Iranian
00:12:46.800nuclear sites, Iranian military targets. And really, the final stage is going to be either
00:12:52.380a deal that allows the United States to go into Iran and physically, personally remove the remaining
00:12:59.100Iranian supplies that Iran still has, or there's going to be regime change and the people of Iran
00:13:04.320will rise up and take control of their own country. But there is no real split in the
00:13:08.680MAGA movement about this. You look at the polls. Republicans overwhelmingly support the president
00:13:13.220and overwhelmingly support the war, and they believe it's going well. Democrats, of course,
00:13:17.280believe the opposite. But of course, Democrats, you know, if Trump cured cancer, Democrats would
00:13:21.360vote for cancer. I mean, Democrats basically are knee-jerk against anything Trump does.
00:13:27.740One of the reasons that Democrats have become so anti-Israel lately is simply because Trump
00:13:31.560is so pro-israel i mean there is the rise of a large muslim voting bloc and the far left and
00:13:37.280anti-semitism and the democratic party but a lot of it just has to do with this reflexive opposition
00:13:42.320to all things trump on the republican side the podcasters and so forth they've made a lot of
00:13:47.440noise on social media but they don't really have a lot of traction with voters yeah you know i think
00:13:52.960you're right on iran the democrats have often talked tough on iran themselves i mean uh the
00:13:59.740senior senator from New York himself, I mean, I think every single Democrat senator at one point
00:14:05.300or another has talked belligerently about Iran. Here's a quick example. Here's Chuck Schumer.
00:14:09.720Take a look. Iran's nuclear weapon program represents a severe threat to American national0.88
00:14:16.100interests because their acquisition of nuclear weapons could lead to the proliferation of nuclear0.91
00:14:21.500weapons throughout the Middle East and beyond, ending any hopes for a nuclear weapons free world.
00:14:26.940We've had a lot of divisions between Democrats and Republicans.
00:14:30.800But on the issue of making sure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon, we're united.
00:14:38.200The threat, the specter of an Iranian nuclear weapon can bring Democrats and Republicans together.
00:14:44.300So I think you're right. A lot of it is, you know, they want to put Trump in a no-win situation.
00:14:48.360If he's prosecuting the war, they'll accuse him of that.
00:14:50.980If he stops the war, they'll accuse him of backing down and blinking.
00:14:54.960they have this phrase taco trump always chickens out uh i think you're right by the way i mean you
00:15:01.000mentioned chuck schumer in the beginning schumer said trump never follows through on his threats
00:15:05.120on iran and then trump followed through on his threats on iran and schumer said oh trump doesn't
00:15:09.380know what he's doing and we need to get out of this war now you know it's nothing trump can do
00:15:14.120is right except if you actually look at what he's achieved this war is a stunning success for the
00:15:18.300united states and for israel and for the west but the democrats won't admit it and europe is deeply
00:15:23.360ashamed of not having participated and the only people celebrating are the israelis in the gulf
00:15:27.580arab states yeah you know um there's a bit of a realignment going on i think the united arab
00:15:33.240emirates uh i think this war has brought them in some ways closer to israel they've actually
00:15:38.560been hit with more rockets than israel i saw a count of it i was sort of surprised to see that
00:15:44.020uh is that true is the united emirates which has actually had a fairly warm relationship with
00:15:50.900israel since the abraham accords how would you characterize those gulf states like you say iran's
00:15:56.080lashing out at everyone in the region including oman which has always been sort of a neutral broker
00:16:01.460and even hosted talks between iran and the west um can you give me a quick rundown of the the small
00:16:09.900arab gulf oil rich countries would you say any of them are now actually allied that's too big a word
00:16:18.380But on the side of Israel, how has the reality of this war and Iran lashing out at them changed the politics there?
00:16:27.480Well, the Emiratis are closer to Israel.
00:16:47.240And the Emiratis are particularly angry about Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz, and they have said that we do not respect Iran's attempt to do it, and we have the right to ship through that strait, and you don't own the entire strait just because your country's on one side of it.
00:17:04.580Oman is on the other side, and we depend on that strait as well for other things, and so they're very, very angry.
00:17:11.820I also think it's just united the anti-Iran coalition even more strongly because now they understand that Iran is a threat to all of the states.0.87
00:17:21.080Whether you're anti-Israel or pro-Israel, Iran is the real threat in the region.0.87
00:17:26.520Now, Europe is an interesting case.0.98
00:17:28.860It's almost, if it weren't sad, it would be funny.
00:17:31.820The difficulties that the United Kingdom has had marshalling any resources.
00:17:37.340They have some fighter jets in the region, it's true.
00:17:39.520But they've been trying to send a ship to protect their base in Akritiri, Crete, I think it is, or Cyprus.
00:17:48.260And the ship, they could only field one ship and it had to go in for maintenance.
00:17:52.340I mean, the Royal Navy, which once ruled the world, can't muster anything.
00:17:57.200And they recently had a meeting, the UK, France, and others, of what they would do in the Strait of Hormuz once America wins the war.
00:18:06.240So they're not there. They're not helping, despite Trump asking for help. But they've got all sorts of plans about what they're going to do when America's done. It's sort of a laugh. I mean, it just, it feels like they're as impotent as Canada, even though I know France and the UK actually do have a bit of an army.
00:18:22.600um but there's bad blood you have the the spanish thing they won't allow any uh you know americans
00:18:31.020to use their base there anymore how i mean to me it it is i suppose you could think it was a stretch
00:18:39.120for trump to say hey nato come help me fight iran but they've been saying that to america to fight
00:18:45.540in ukraine i mean this this really feels like a set-off if america spent a hundred billion in
00:18:51.260Ukraine for a war in another continent that wasn't really their war, couldn't NATO come and at least
00:18:57.280morally and symbolically give alliance to America, even if they weren't actually doing anything real?
00:19:03.380Could they at least pretend to be friends? I don't know. Maybe this is a stupid way to think about
00:19:07.640wars. Who's on your team? Who showed support? But there's something funny going on in Europe.1.00
00:19:12.400What do you think? Well, the electoral considerations have to come into play and you have large Muslim1.00
00:19:18.940voting blocs in these countries and the european left is afraid of those muslim voters and so it
00:19:25.560tries to appease them in this way by the way again much of the muslim world is not happy with iran so
00:19:30.820it's not clear to me there are many votes to be won but there is a knee-jerk response to this again
00:19:35.200because the united states and israel are seeming to be working together and israel has become not
00:19:39.880just a pariah state but a target state for many of these european governments i mean prior to the
00:19:43.540Or you have the Spanish cutting off relations and engaged in a diplomatic spat with Israel completely unnecessarily.
00:19:51.660And other European nations also taking the same stance.
00:19:54.160And so I think Europe is caught in a whirlpool that is not going to be easy to leave.
00:20:03.360This is a ragging down that feeds on itself.
00:20:09.260I mean, they're completely incapable of defending themselves to the point where some have even seduced that if Argentina wanted the Falkland Islands, they could just take them.
00:20:16.920Because, as you said, Britain is having trouble putting a navy on the waves.
00:20:34.400America provided an enormous amount of jet fuel.
00:20:37.300america provided um intelligence i i think the brits could have done it on their own but i know
00:20:44.480they couldn't do it now they don't have i mean they have two aircraft carriers they're both
00:20:47.800in port like i think that if argentina grabbed the falklands now and i'm not and i don't want
00:20:53.340them to and i don't think they should but argentina by the way uh i'm you know interestingly
00:20:59.500remarkably they said to trump will help however we can i don't think they followed through but
00:21:04.680at least morally they were in favor it's a very strange time but let's let's bring it back to
00:21:09.860what we talked about 10 minutes ago you know the price of gasoline is high not as high as it is in
00:21:16.500europe let's say where they're actually having farmer protests in the streets of ireland but
00:21:21.900there are some americans who are saying hey we are paying a price at the gas pump and that you
00:21:28.400know food prices are maybe higher because of it how will this war look in the midterms i mean
00:21:34.360And sometimes Americans rally around the flag during a war, but this one feels a little different.
00:21:39.620Well, I think if the war is successful and it does seem to be heading in that direction, then I think it's good for the president and his party.
00:21:45.780I think the high gas prices are a bit of a problem, although they're not higher than gas was a few years ago.
00:21:52.300And I think that it may be a lost cause anyway.
00:21:54.980I mean, Republicans may already be set to lose the House in the midterms just because of the nature of the margin and the redistricting that's gone on.
00:22:01.680and they may have a tougher fight to keep the senate but i think they will keep the senate
00:22:06.560but we'll see i think you have to win the war regardless in a way it's almost like you're
00:22:11.880looking at a politician in trump who doesn't have to be reelected we always wonder what would have
00:22:16.400been if these men and women didn't have to worry about being reelected now you're seeing it he's
00:22:20.460doing what he believes is right because he doesn't have to face election again if it hurts his party
00:22:25.260he's okay with that he's still commander-in-chief i mean obviously not okay in the grand scheme of
00:22:30.120He'd like to have more control. He'd like to retain control of all three branches of government, essentially.
00:22:36.600But he knows that might not happen. He knows that the changes that he puts in place have to last into Democratic administrations, whether in 2028 or much later.
00:22:46.440So I think Trump is taking the right approach to all this.
00:22:49.300He's basically saying, look, what is the right thing to do on Iran?
00:22:52.920Not really looking at the political consideration just yet.
00:22:55.780Although I do know there are people in the White House who are deeply worried about the high gas prices and what effect they could have.
00:23:01.780I'm trying to understand the China angle here.
00:23:04.180And again, that's something that Donald Trump has been talking about for decades, even before he got into politics.
00:23:10.100China was, and I think still is, the number one purchaser of Iranian oil.
00:23:15.160And it got it at a steal because the Iranian oil was subject to sanctions.
00:23:18.340So only China and India and some others would buy it at a deep discount.
00:23:24.300China was also a big buyer of Venezuelan oil, if I'm not mistaken.
00:23:27.360I know Venezuela always sold to Cuba, too.
00:23:30.920America has now taken over the oil industry in Venezuela, and we're not sure how it's going to end in Iran.
00:23:37.000Is there a China angle to cutting off the choke points of oil to America's largest rival?0.83
00:23:45.380Well, I think that's a major achievement, first of all, that the United States has shown you is capable of blockading Iran, cutting China off.0.87
00:23:52.560But look at all of the other straits where the United States has now established a presence.0.86
00:23:57.860The United States has naval mates across from the Bab al-Mendab where the Houthis have been firing and shipping.
00:24:03.280You don't hear much from the Houthis nowadays, even though the Iranians are threatening to use them.
00:24:06.880You've got various other streets that the U.S. Navy is either moving into or where American control has been cemented in some way.
00:24:15.100The United States controls the choke points of international trade once again.
00:24:18.140And it has done so by moving, as you hinted earlier, I think, from one important oil supplier to the next.
00:24:27.340We've got the Maduro presidency in Venezuela.
00:24:30.140The regime is still there, but eventually now it's now an American functionary.
00:24:37.060And ultimately, the idea is to cut China off from cheap energy that it's enjoyed for the better part of two or three decades.
00:24:42.920I should tell you up here in Canada our prime minister has positively talked about pivoting
00:24:49.380towards China just over the weekend Mark Carney did an incredible nine-minute televised commercial
00:24:56.480where he said that our proximity to the United States is now a problem our reliance on the
00:25:02.080American market is now a problem he's flown to Beijing and talked about a quote new world order
00:25:08.220he's called to china a partner he came back from china without investment in hand but promising
00:25:14.440china to allow 49 000 chinese made electric vehicles a year into the canadian market
00:25:19.300i'm worried that while donald trump is going around the world flipping countries from china
00:25:26.360and russia's columns into american columns canada i don't know if it's i don't know maybe it's just
00:25:31.480rhetorical maybe it's just to whip up anti-americanism for his own domestic political
00:25:36.760needs but i've never seen this kind of anti-americanism before even during pierre trudeau
00:25:42.780the marxist himself he never was this overtly hostile to america i don't know is this even
00:25:49.340registering in the states i mean maybe it's it's so unimportant compared to everything else people
00:25:54.960are noticing it but more with a kind of raised eyebrow as if this is somewhat humorous i mean
00:26:00.540how are you going to detangle yourself from the united states canada has a very long border with
00:26:05.540the U.S. Most major population centers are near the American border. There's a huge amount of
00:26:11.260cross-border trade. I don't think Carney is credible on any of these points. And I don't
00:26:16.640think he's succeeding very well. He certainly hasn't left a good impression in the United States
00:26:20.280with his attitude toward the war. Canada benefits if Trump is successful. So why not be supportive
00:26:26.080rather than trying to cut through and cut apart the relationship? Last question. I really appreciate
00:26:32.060your time today um i'm interested in the the american future after trump and i know there's
00:26:40.080some people who float the idea that trump would run another time and they have their complex
00:26:45.300constitutional theories about that how that would happen i don't think it's going to happen and trump
00:26:49.000turns 80 this year i just i mean he's got a lot of energy but i just don't see it happening
00:26:54.100um i think the two favorites uh on the republican side to go up against gavin newsom are usually
00:27:01.560mentioned jd vance the vice president and marco rubio the secretary of state and and i tell you
00:27:07.900trump has put a lot of praise on rubio and i think with good reason um i don't know how jd vance is
00:27:15.800doing he was allied more with tucker carlson but he just recently let go of tucker carlson's son
00:27:20.780from his personal staff buckley carlson was working for jd vance i don't know if that's
00:27:24.900relevant at all but if you had to look into the future um what what would you think or maybe
00:27:31.760there's another name that hasn't emerged yet but what do you think of the 2028 prospects
00:27:36.200for a post-trump republican party it's too early to say but i do think the president is playing
00:27:42.880vance and rubio off against each other perhaps in a healthy way a kind of team of rivals sort of way
00:27:48.280he has brought vance into the diplomatic process with the iran war he sent him to lead american
00:27:54.680negotiations in Pakistan. And by all accounts, Vance did a very good job. So he's got these
00:27:59.880two potential rivals, both handling foreign policy. Of course, they both also have many
00:28:05.240different jobs. Rubio famously is also the national security advisor, doing many other
00:28:09.440things as well. And J.D. Vance, yes, he had some trouble with his Tucker Carlson connection.
00:28:14.580Buckley Carlson used to work for him. There's another Buckley Carlson, not to be confused,
00:28:18.440by the way. Buckley Carlson is Tucker Carlson's brother. So Tucker's son and his brother,
00:28:22.980same name and irony is of course buckley chased the extremists out of the republican party out
00:28:28.200of the conservative movement so why the brother was really a rabid anti-semite on social media
00:28:34.920uh why why do you think that's appropriate i don't know but anyway it's it's really a fringe
00:28:40.640phenomenon and i i do think probably the association became a problem for jds but
00:28:46.220it's hard to see which one of them will come out on top um if you had to predict for the iran war
00:28:54.280you said there's two ways it can end regime change or somehow america goes in and removes
00:28:59.400the nuclear materials i'm waiting for the ordinary iranian people to stand up i mean i don't know
00:29:06.240uh i'm waiting it's been months do they is it a likelihood i'm sure the cia is busy on the ground
00:29:13.780But I just, I'm worried that those two options you outlined won't happen and that Trump will, quote, declare victory, which he's done several times, and just go home without achieving a permanent solution.
00:29:28.440And then we just know that, no, I mean, if Trump doesn't finish the job, I don't think any other American president, especially a Democrat, would.
00:29:36.040What do you think about the fact that we're two months in and they haven't risen up?0.86
00:29:42.060The people, the Shah's son, no one's done it.0.96
00:29:48.700I mean, the Iranian regime has blocked them from speaking with one another.
00:29:51.800So in order to help them rise up against the regime, you have to provide them a way to communicate with each other.
00:29:57.100So I think all of that is in the words.
00:29:58.780But the war is still here, and Trump suggested right from the beginning that he was not going to encourage people to go into the streets while there was still active fighting going on.
00:30:07.420And there's still active fighting going on if it's in the Persian Gulf, but that still might be dangerous enough to keep Iran on a war footing and to keep Trump from openly encouraging people to take back their country, as he said.
00:30:19.680So I think they just don't have the means yet, but I think the means will be coming.
00:30:23.460well maybe we need to drop a hundred thousand star links into that country joel pollack great
00:30:29.360to catch up with you and what's the website for people to check out the california post
00:30:33.120just californiapost.com or nypost.com slash ca right on great to talk with you thanks for
00:30:39.380spending so much time with us thank you there is joel pollack he is the opinion editor of the
00:30:44.780california post the west coast uh version of the new york post in that city well that's our show
00:30:50.900for the day until tomorrow on behalf of all of us here at rebel world headquarters to you at home
00:30:56.300good night and keep fighting for freedom