00:00:01.000When you get to the airport next week, and 171 million of us will get on a plane this spring, a new record, will you be safe?
00:00:08.000When you look at the southern border or when you read about Sheridan Gorman, 18 years old shot in the head while going out for a walk with friends to see the northern lights, do you feel safe?
00:00:17.000We're going to spend today's show answering that question.
00:00:19.000I want to take you through the evidence the way a prosecutor would because there is an answer and it is worse than what they are telling you on CNN.
00:00:34.000Now, you may be listening to or watching this show right now at an airport waiting in line, probably for hours.
00:00:39.000If you are, that is because Democrats decided to shut down funding for the Department of Homeland Security in order to punish immigration and customs enforcement ICE, which is a part of DHS, for enforcing the law.
00:00:50.000Doesn't matter that ICE's legal authority has not changed for decades.
00:00:54.000It doesn't matter that under President Trump, they're just doing their job for the first time in decades.
00:00:58.000DHS must be closed down because ICE is doing their job.
00:01:02.000Democrats don't want to enforce the border.
00:01:05.000If they get the chance, they will return to Biden-era open borders as soon as possible.
00:01:10.000Let's start with this horrible story about Sheridan Gorman, an 18-year-old student at Loyola University in Chicago.
00:01:16.000She was murdered by a masked man while she was walking in Rogers Park last Thursday.
00:01:20.000According to CBS News, quote, the shooting happened early last Thursday as Gorman, who was 18 years old, was walking with her friends near the pier at Toby Prince Beach to see the Northern Lights.
00:01:31.000Prosecutors said as Gorman and her friends were talking toward the lighthouse shortly after 1 a.m., Gorman told her friends she saw someone hiding behind the lighthouse.
00:01:40.000When Medina came out from behind the lighthouse, Gorman and her friends ran away, and then Medina shot Gorman in the back.
00:01:47.000The police quickly arrested a suspect, one Jose Medina.
00:01:50.000As it turns out, the alleged murderer was a Venezuelan national in the United States illegally.
00:01:55.000According to the New York Times, the Department of Homeland Security said on Sunday that Mr. Medina was released into the country under the Biden administration in May 2023 after coming into contact with Border Patrol agents.
00:02:08.000Federal officials said Mr. Medina was arrested on suspicion of shoplifting in Chicago about one month later in June 2023 and then released.
00:02:16.000So you should be asking yourself, if you get arrested for shoplifting and you are an illegal immigrant, why are you still here?
00:02:21.000The answer, of course, is that Chicago is a sanctuary city.
00:02:24.000That means that the city and state of Illinois prevent local officials from cooperating with federal law enforcement.
00:02:30.000That is why Medina was freed to allegedly commit a cold-blooded murder.
00:02:33.000You see, if local law enforcement had notified ICE that they'd arrested an illegal immigrant and then held him until ICE arrived, Gorman would probably still be alive.
00:02:42.000Republicans, up to it, including the president, have pointed out the simple fact.
00:02:45.000Senator Ted Cruz correctly pointed out, quote, Sheridan Gorman's killer was an illegal alien who should never have been in our country.
00:02:52.000Joe Biden's open border policies and Governor Pritzker's refusal to accept President Trump's help are the reasons why she is not with us today.
00:03:23.000Came in through Joe Biden with his open door policy and his borders are a Kamala who never saw the border.
00:03:31.000Democrats, however, are still making excuses.
00:03:34.000Here was a Chicago alderman named Maria Haddon saying that actually it might have been Gorman's fault.
00:03:40.000You see, when you get shot in the back of the head by an illegal immigrant who was hiding while you were out seeing the northern lights, it's possible that it's your fault for startling that illegal immigrant.
00:03:50.000It's sort of like walking into an endangered species arena at the zoo or something.
00:03:55.000It's your fault if something bad happens to you.
00:03:59.000They go out on the pier, they walk around.
00:04:01.000So the kids were out doing normal, normal things people do in the neighborhood.
00:04:05.000And it sounds like this might have been a wrong place, wrong time.
00:04:24.000The idea is that criminality happens because too many criminals are in jail.
00:04:28.000Sort of like the argument that if you kill too many terrorists, you're just creating new terrorists, which is weird because when you kill terrorists, then they're dead.
00:04:35.000And the same thing is true of people who are in jail.
00:04:37.000When they're in jail, you know what they're not doing?
00:04:38.000They're not on the streets shooting people.
00:04:41.000And yet, this is the typical Democratic take.
00:05:41.000While the mayor is supportive of community violence intervention, a key member of his public safety team said that CVI is a revolving door for gang members.
00:05:49.000Some of these guys who are collecting money through CVI are still committing crimes, the public safety team employee said.
00:05:55.000Governor J.B. Pritzker, who has been losing weight in expectation, I assume, of a presidential run, which again is misbegotten in the extreme, his office issued a statement, quote, our thoughts are with the family, friends, and Loyola University community grieving the senseless murder of Sheridan Gorman.
00:06:11.000Violent crime has no place in our streets.
00:06:12.000We expect the alleged perpetrator to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.
00:06:16.000The Trump administration needs to stop politicizing heinous tragedies and instead focus on real solutions, like reinstating federal funds to prevent violence that support our public safety efforts.
00:06:31.000Politicizing heinous tragedies instead of focusing on real solutions, it is not politicization to point to the specific policy that could have stopped this murder in the first place.
00:06:40.000In fact, it is playing politics to ignore that policy for political reasons.
00:06:45.000But Democrats are addicted to playing politics on illegal immigration.
00:06:48.000They've decided that illegal immigrants are the finest among us and deserve our undying sympathy, and that we ought to defund the agency that houses ICE in order to facilitate illegal immigration.
00:06:57.000Representative Eric Swalwell, who is running for governor of California, I don't know why.
00:07:13.000And if Democrats take control of the House, I hope we strip out your funding from the root to the stem because I can't speak for us, my colleagues, but I want to apologize.
00:07:24.000Okay, the reason that he's saying he wants to abolish ICE is not because he actually wants to abolish ICE.
00:07:28.000It's because he wishes to win a Democratic primary in the state of California.
00:07:32.000He wishes to become the Democratic nominee, and he feels like the more radical he is, the more he can vault himself to the top of the pile.
00:07:38.000In just one second, I'm going to get into our cultural arbiters playing offense on behalf of illegal immigrants, you know, like Miss Rachel.
00:07:47.000First, I've been working with Pure Talk for six years now.
00:07:50.000I wanted to work with a wireless company that actually shares my values.
00:07:53.000PureTalk is veteran-led, so helping veterans is huge to them.
00:07:57.000They've donated over half a million dollars to America's Warrior Partnership.
00:08:01.000That's a fantastic organization that's on the front lines of preventing veteran suicide.
00:08:05.000And PureTalk is creating American jobs with a U.S.-only workforce.
00:08:09.000Sure, it'd be a lot cheaper to send jobs overseas like other companies do, but they're committed to delivering the best experience possible for their customers.
00:09:28.000The counts that you are seeing, when it says that, for example, Obama deported more people than Trump, that's because they are counting turnaways at the border.
00:09:35.000There are almost no turnaways of the border these days because President Trump has made it clear that if you show up at the border, you will be turned away.
00:09:42.000So those numbers are kind of wildly inflated from past presidents.
00:09:47.000And yes, of course, things are more partisan now.
00:09:48.000Nobody on the Democratic side of the aisle in the 90s was saying that we needed to abolish ICE.
00:09:53.000That was just not a thing that was being said.
00:09:55.000If you go back and you watch 1992, Bill Clinton's acceptance speech at the DNC, he was a moderate on illegal immigration by today's standards.
00:10:05.000They have been playing offense on behalf of illegal immigration.
00:10:08.000Miss Rachel, that is the radically political children's host who spends her days playing an overgrown child and also standing for terrorist groups like Hamas.
00:10:15.000While she has now sounded off on ICE's supposed evils, she headed down to an ICE facility in Texas to lecture Americans on why we must allow illegal immigration to run unchecked across the country, you know, for the kids.
00:10:28.000Do you really miss your school and your friends?
00:10:58.000When I deflect from here, my stomach starts hurting.
00:11:03.000That is Miss Rachel programming to your five-year-old child.
00:11:07.000Yes, as long as she cosplays as a little girl, as an adult, you know, kind of blues clues style, then it's fine for her to be as politically left-wing as she wants to be.
00:11:16.000Popular TV shows, too, are pulling out all the stops.
00:11:19.000The Pitt, an HBO medical drama that I actually enjoy with my wife because she's a doctor, so she likes to analyze it.
00:11:24.000It recently featured this particular scene in which ICE raids an ER.
00:12:14.000They're even arresting ER nurses, not like the ER nurses who are out in the streets, you know, actively obstructing things, like ER nurses in the ER, mostly just to be particularly cruel.
00:12:24.000Democrats must be high on their own supply at this point.
00:12:26.000They are just drinking from this cultural well.
00:12:29.000They think that shutting down the Department of Homeland Security is good politics.
00:12:32.000At least House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries seems to think so.
00:12:35.000He is saying that it's good to shut down the DHS funding because, of course, the GOP won't agree to keep ICE away from polling sites.
00:12:45.000Why are illegal immigrants at polling sites?
00:12:47.000I mean, if ICE is there, like if ICE shows up at a polling site and I show up at a polling site, I'm not worried about ICE because I am not an illegal immigrant.
00:12:55.000It seems to me that actually making sure illegal immigrants do not show up at polling sites is not a horrible use of ICE, actually.
00:13:01.000Anyway, here is House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries saying we must withdraw taxpayer funding from the DHS.
00:13:08.000But one of those demands is keep ICE out of sensitive locations.
00:13:14.000And we've defined that as schools, houses of worship, hospitals, and polling sites.
00:13:22.000We want an explicit prohibition that ICE can go nowhere near any polling sites in the United States of America.
00:13:36.000I sort of get schools because the idea is that you have a lot of kids of illegal immigrants who are going to schools, and so you don't want them to have to worry about mom and dad getting pulled out of line and then thrown out of the country.
00:13:46.000I kind of get it, like on a humanitarian level.
00:13:48.000The polling sites, I really don't get.
00:13:50.000In any case, the partial DHS shutdown has had the effect not just of defunding ICE, but of defunding, of course, the TSA, the Transportation Security Administration.
00:13:59.000This has led to these gigantic lines around the country at airports.
00:14:02.000In response, the administration has said that they will deploy ICE officers to man the TSA lines because you see ICE actually has some leftover funding from the last round of funding.
00:14:10.000Here was Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy explaining on Sunday.
00:14:14.000Democrats want to see long lines at airports as leverage.
00:14:18.000President Trump's trying to take that leverage away and not make the American people suffer.
00:14:26.000They know how to run the X-ray machines because they are, again, under Homeland Security with TSA.
00:14:31.000So if we can bring in other assets and tools to assist TSA to get rid of these lines, yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense.
00:14:37.000And the president's looking around every corner to make sure the American people don't suffer during the shutdown.
00:14:44.000Now, the Democrats are saying that deploying ICE to help out.
00:14:47.000And again, it's not going to be ICE that's actually scanning your items that go through the machine.
00:14:50.000It's ICE that's facilitating the movement of the lines.
00:14:53.000You know how when you go to the airport, there are members of TSA who are directing you which way to go.
00:14:57.000ICE can do that too, and they won't be masked at the time.
00:15:00.000Democrats say this is not going to help the wait times.
00:15:02.000Here's Corey Booker being as manipulative as he could possibly be as per our usual arrangement.
00:15:08.000He's taking that agency that is recklessly out of control and bringing them to our airports under the lie that somehow this is going to help deal with the long lines that he created in the first place.
00:15:23.000Well, I mean, they will help because as it turns out, even CNN is saying that ICE is helping with TSA wait times.
00:15:32.000Finally, we can take a deep breath here.
00:16:14.000He would love for Democrats to continue to own the shutdown.
00:16:16.000Here is Senator Kennedy explaining the situation.
00:16:20.000Senator Cruz and I came up with a plan.
00:16:22.000We said, look, it's a two-step process.
00:16:25.000The Democrats have offered to open up everything but ICE.
00:16:29.000Tiet and I said, okay, let's accept their offer.
00:16:32.000And then at the same time, we would offer a bill for reconciliation where we don't need any Democratic votes to do whatever we wanted to do with ICE.
00:16:44.000And that way we're out of the shutdown and DHS is back open.
00:16:49.000Senator Cruffoon submitted that to President Trump as is his right.
00:16:54.000He said, no, no deals with the Democrats.
00:16:59.000Now, again, I assume here that President Trump doesn't want to deal with the Democrats because he believes that they basically own the shutdown, which is probably true.
00:17:07.000According to Punch Bowl, President Trump threatened he would slam Republicans if they left town for recess coming up.
00:17:13.000According to Punch Bowl, quote, the president wants Republicans to stay in D.C. and keep fighting with Democrats over DHS funding and the Save America Act, the GOP's voter ID and proof of citizenship bill.
00:17:24.000So this begs the question of whether President Trump is right on the politics.
00:19:03.000If you've been in business for at least a year, if you're pulling in 20 grand a month in revenue, apply now for up to $500,000 in same-day business funding at cardiff.co/slash Shapiro.
00:19:27.000So Antonio asks: The Cato Institute has argued against mass deportations based on analysis that illegal immigrants cost less than they contribute to the economy.
00:19:35.000Daniel D. Martino and Manhattan Institute have released a study showing the opposite.
00:19:40.000So what methodologies lead to these findings?
00:19:42.000How do we accurately estimate the cost of illegal immigration?
00:20:02.000Meaning they came here as minors through no fault of their own, but they're illegal immigrants.
00:20:05.000And now we have to pay for their schooling and their health care and all the rest.
00:20:09.000So it depends how holistically you actually measure taxpayer costs.
00:20:13.000If you holistically measure taxpayer costs, then overall illegal immigration does cost Americans more than they receive from whatever taxes people are paying into the system.
00:20:24.000And this has also been suggested by the Center for Immigration Studies and Mark Crocorium.
00:20:27.000Alrighty, folks, speaking of our airport, scary footage out of LaGuardia on Sunday night, according to the Associated Press.
00:20:33.000An Air Canada jet carrying more than 70 passengers collided with a fire truck while landing at New York's LaGuardia airport late on Sunday, killing the pilot and co-pilot, injuring several other people, according to officials.
00:20:42.000The impact severed the cockpit, hurled a flight attendant who was still secured to her seat far from the crash site, according to her daughter.
00:20:50.000The firetruck was crossing the tarmac just before midnight after being given permission to check on another plane that had aborted its own takeoff.
00:20:57.000Before the collision, you can hear an air traffic controller on airport communications telling the fire truck to stop.
00:22:50.000Both Democrats and Republicans agree, but they have to have the will to finish the funding.
00:22:57.000I'm not saying that this crash would have been prevented if we had all the equipment deployed.
00:23:05.000So, yeah, again, he is right about this, but there is an alternative priority here.
00:23:10.000What if we privatize both TSA and air traffic control?
00:23:13.000There are a lot of other countries that actually do this, including ones that are to our left, Canada, the UK in part, Australia, Germany, Switzerland.
00:23:22.000You could have the airlines actually pay for TSA, essentially.
00:23:26.000You'd have them control their own security into their airlines.
00:23:29.000It would also prevent the government from being able to shut down air travel whenever politicians fight.
00:23:35.000And by the way, it would create massive incentive for better service and more reliable service from the airlines.
00:23:39.000If the airlines want you to be able to move more quickly in and out, then they will facilitate that.
00:23:45.000It would also separate the FAA from service providers.
00:23:48.000So if you have regulatory oversight of private agencies, that is better than the same people who are making the rules also implementing those rules.
00:23:56.000It would create an incentive for people to actually follow the law because instead of people working for the FAA, creating the regulations and then failing, and then the liability lies with the agency that created the regulation, meaning the taxpayer, it lies with the airlines.
00:24:11.000But again, one of the biggest problems with a big government is that it is sclerotic, it is inefficient.
00:24:18.000And if you take that back to the TSA and to DHS, it ends up with the American public significantly less safe.
00:24:25.000In just a second, we're going to get into the idiotic socialists who traveled to Cuba as a PR stunt.
00:24:30.000Truly, the most ridiculous thing that I have seen, at least this week.
00:24:34.000First, today's episode is sponsored by our friends over at American Beverage.
00:24:37.000Think about the iconic drinks you grew up with and still love today.
00:24:40.000Whether it's a soda, a sparkling water, a tea, or a sports drink, the companies behind those beverages, like Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, they make them right here in America and they always have.
00:24:49.000So while there's a lot of talk about bringing jobs back, America's beverage companies never left in the first place.
00:24:54.000These are American companies making American products with American workers in America's hometowns.
00:24:59.000275,000 men and women across all 50 states who show up every day, do the work, help keep the country moving.
00:25:05.000We're talking about great paying jobs, the kind of jobs you can raise a family on.
00:25:09.000For more than 100 years, these companies have been part of the American story.
00:25:31.000She wants to know: all the illegal aliens that crossed in the Biden administration, they can't possibly all be deported by the Trump admins.
00:25:37.000So how do we speed up the deportations and avoid a PR nightmare?
00:25:42.000And I think that the reality is the American people by polling data are much more focused on people with a criminal record than they are on sort of people who are down at the Home Depot looking to do some gardening.
00:25:53.000And so this is always the delicate balance.
00:25:55.000One of the things that has happened is an enormous amount of self-deportations.
00:25:58.000A lot of people who see that the administration is not going to allow them to overstay their visa, simply leaving and going home.
00:26:05.000And I think that will solve part of the problem.
00:26:07.000But the idea of us mass deporting 15 to 20 million people, which is probably the number of illegal immigrants in the country, that I think is a non-starter in just realistic political terms.
00:26:26.000Meanwhile, speaking of people who truly wish to undermine America's interests at home and abroad, the so-called Nuestra America convoy has ended.
00:26:35.000Nuestra America, that's a group associated with Code Pink, which of course is a radical left-wing, partially foreign-funded group that brought rich and famous left-wingers to Cuba to yell about how terrible America is while enjoying drinks on the beach and some unearned feelings of moral superiority.
00:26:51.000Now, as we've talked about, Cuba is a communist hellhole.
00:27:52.000Well, according to Fox News, the far-left group Code Pink sponsored flights to the communist-led island, and the group was joined by Isra Hersey, the daughter of Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and left-wing Twitch streamer Hassan Piker, an ally of Democratic socialist New York City mayor, Zorhan Mamdani.
00:29:18.000Well, at least the communists, you know, from abroad are having a good time.
00:29:22.000While defending herself, Hersey tweeted, quote, yes, I am in Cuba.
00:29:26.000People are here from across the globe to express solidarity with the Cuban people, people who are standing against the oppressive blockade exacerbated by the Trump administration.
00:29:40.000People generations from now will remember the spoiled brat child of the luckiest immigrants in history going to communist nations to decry the nation that took them in.
00:29:50.000So to get this straight, this person is the daughter of an immigrant from one of the most impoverished and terrible parts of planet Earth.
00:30:45.000And everyone who made the trip to Cuba, they took tons of aid to make sure the people of Cuba knew that there are so many people across the world who stand in solidarity with them.
00:30:54.000Cuba has always sent aides to country, has always sent aid to countries in need and has trained thousands of physicians across the world, including my childhood physician.
00:31:03.000In reality, Cuba tried to export revolution during the 1960s and 1970s to large swaths of Africa and joined with some of the worst, most repressive regimes on planet Earth in doing so.
00:31:12.000Ilhan Omar says, Isra Hersey is more than just my daughter.
00:31:15.000She is a brilliant young leader who has always worked hard to advocate for a more just world.
00:31:19.000She inspires me and so many people with her leadership and dedication.
00:31:23.000I am forever fortunate to have her as my daughter, but I am even more fortunate to know her as the unflinching justice warrior for justice she is.
00:31:31.000Well, joining Hersey was Nepo Baby Socialist and dog-zapping fashioniste, Hassan Piker.
00:31:36.000That is a man whose love for communism is matched only by his taste for Cartier jewelry.
00:31:40.000One day soon, perhaps he'll finally get his life stream and end up in a thrupple with Mojd Ab Khomeini.
00:31:45.000But this week, he was in Cuba where he was explaining that he had to stay.
00:33:36.000You know, you arrive in Havana and you start seeing the trash that can't be collected because there's not enough oil and gas.
00:33:42.000There's not enough oil to operate the trash trucks.
00:33:48.000Communism, it's doing great, but he's blaming America.
00:33:51.000I love that he is hanging out with Ben Rhodes.
00:33:52.000Again, remember, Hassan Piker, who is one of the worst people in the commentariat, a person who routinely sympathizes with terrorists, like all over the world, that guy is hanging out with Zorhan Mamdani and he's doing interviews with all the Democratic politicians.
00:34:30.000And so they perform sensual massages on the planet's worst dictators, from Cuba to Iran to terrorist groups, all in the name of their magical principles.
00:34:38.000And then they say their critics are the problem.
00:34:41.000If you ever want to hear somebody self-pitying beyond all belief, listen to this one.
00:34:57.000But in any case, one of the things that I'm going to say is that I think a lot of people just simply don't do things, right?
00:35:05.000So when they see someone doing things, it triggers something in their minds where they go, well, I'm not doing anything.
00:35:12.000And that makes me feel somewhat like it may be a little immoral that I'm not doing anything.
00:35:18.000So I have to find a way to disparage people who are trying to do their best.
00:35:24.000You know, Hassan Piker is doing things.
00:35:26.000He's doing things by taking a flight over to Cuba, taking pictures of all the poor people, and then proclaiming that he is virtuous.
00:35:32.000Is there any way that we can just give him a one-way flight to Cuba and he can just stay there?
00:35:37.000Well, speaking of America's enemies, the war in Iran continues.
00:35:40.000It appears that Saudi Arabia and UAE may be getting closer to direct involvement against Iran, according to the Wall Street Journal.
00:35:46.000Quote, U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf are inching toward joining the fight against Iran, getting tougher following persistent attacks that have disrupted their economies and risk giving Tehran long-term leverage over the Strait of Hormuz.
00:35:59.000Now, all that makes perfect sense because our Gulf allies do not really want an Iran that survives and continues to prey on the oil industry in the Persian Gulf.
00:36:07.000That is not something they're interested in.
00:36:09.000And an early withdrawal or Iran still being in dominant position in the Strait of Hormuz means they can cut off oil supply at any given moment.
00:36:16.000Now, President Trump, for his part, seems to be pursuing a dual track.
00:36:19.000Negotiations with the possibility of even harsher action.
00:36:22.000Yesterday, President Trump suggested that there were, in fact, negotiations with Iran happening.
00:37:15.000So tomorrow morning, sometime, their time, we were expected to blow up their largest electric generating plants that cost over $10 billion to build.
00:38:51.000So, who is it that Trump could be talking to, considering that the current titular leader is probably either dead or in a coma?
00:38:57.000Well, according to the Jerusalem Post, the answer is that it is a person who is the parliament speaker and longtime IRGC higher up in Mohammed Baker Khalibaf.
00:39:08.000Not a lot of not hardliners at the top of the Iranian government, as per usual arrangement.
00:39:12.000As political reports, quoting one Ali Vaez, senior Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group, quote, Khaliba is a quintessential insider, ambitious and pragmatic, yet fundamentally committed to the preservation of Iran's Islamist order.
00:39:24.000It makes him an unlikely candidate to offer Washington any meaningful concessions.
00:39:27.000Even if he were inclined to test the boundaries, Iran's military establishment and the broader security elite would almost certainly constrain him.
00:39:35.000For his part, Khaliba is denying any contact.
00:39:38.000He put out a tweet saying, our people demand the complete and humiliating punishment of the aggressors.
00:39:42.000All officials stand firmly behind their leader and people until this goal is achieved.
00:39:45.000No negotiations with America have taken place.
00:39:48.000Fake news is intended to manipulate financial and oil markets and to escape the quagmire in which America and Israel are trapped.
00:39:54.000And of course, on Sunday, Khaliba also threatened the United States on X.
00:39:58.000He said, in addition to military bases, those financial institutions that fund the U.S. military budget are considered legitimate targets because Treasury bonds are tainted with the blood of Iranians.
00:40:06.000If you proceed to purchase them, you are in fact attacking your own assets in primary headquarters.
00:40:10.000We are monitoring your investment portfolios.
00:40:13.000The Iranian foreign minister is denying outright any negotiations, so President Trump laughed at them yesterday.
00:40:21.000Telling the truth, when it comes to productive conversations, Dan Leville, they're going to have to get themselves better public relations, people.
00:40:50.000First, negotiations probably are taking place.
00:40:53.000After all, it does make some sense to keep the phone line open in case Iran decides to give up the ghost into a Dulcie Rodriguez situation over in Iran, like Venezuela.
00:41:01.000Second, even the possibility of an off-ramp talks down the oil prices.
00:41:05.000So yesterday, oil prices fell by over 13%.
00:41:08.000Brent crude futures had fallen around 17 bucks or 15 percent, down below $100.
00:41:14.000U.S. West Intermediate Texas had fallen $13, about 13.5%.
00:41:19.000Third, this all does buy time for some more resources to reach the region.
00:41:23.000The Wall Street Journal reported last night, quote, thousands of U.S. Marines are slated to arrive in the Middle East on Friday, according to two U.S. officials, the day President Trump has set as the deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
00:41:35.000The Japan-based amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli, the amphibious landing dock USS New Orleans, and roughly 2,200 Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit will cross into U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for U.S. forces in the Middle East.
00:41:48.000On Friday, the officials said it would take another few days for the unit to get to the Strait of Hormuz.
00:41:52.000The Pentagon has also ordered another Marine unit to CENTCOM, the California-based 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard the USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group.
00:42:01.000It won't arrive in CENTCOM for a few weeks after that.
00:42:04.000So, you may recall that President Trump negotiated with Iran for weeks while American aircraft carriers made their way to the Middle East just a few weeks ago.
00:42:11.000So, this could be a similar situation.
00:42:13.000Meanwhile, the Grievance Party having a very rough time of it.
00:42:17.000Senator Chuck Schumer, who has constantly decried the evils of the Iranian regime, he is having a very tough time answering whether it is good or not that President Trump went after Iran.
00:42:26.000And he just cannot answer the question on Morning Joe.
00:42:30.000Is it a good thing that Iran, and I think you would agree with me, epicenter of terrorism in the world since 1979, is it good that their military infrastructure is being degraded to the degree that it is, yes or no?
00:42:43.000You can't because it's a premature question.
00:42:45.000What is going to happen in the next several months?
00:42:56.000You have the military side, you have the political side.
00:42:58.000I'm simply asking on the military side, is it good, regardless of whether we agree with going in or not, is it good that Iran's military infrastructure has been seriously found?
00:43:10.000Again, I have to tell you, Joe, first, you can't, what's going to happen three months from now?
00:43:26.000It's incredible that he's unable to just say the obvious, which is, yes, it is good that we have destroyed an enormous amount of Iran's military arsenal.
00:43:33.000And what happens next, we don't know, but that at least is good.
00:43:36.000Meanwhile, Joe Kent, who you remember is the former national director for the counterterrorism center, the one who quit amidst a full-scale federal investigation into leaking, he is still making the rounds and he's pretending to be a principled critic of the administration.
00:43:50.000President Trump smacked him down yesterday.
00:44:35.000Well, it turns out President Trump probably should not be quite as sympathetic to people who beg him for a job.
00:44:41.000Turns out that Kent was almost certainly using his slot as director of National Center for Counterterrorism to leak information about Charlie Kirk's murder to Candace Owens.
00:44:51.000When Candace said she had a source inside the federal intelligence apparatus, I think it would be hard to believe it was not Joe Kent.
00:44:57.000So Andrew Colvett made clear over at TPUSA.
00:45:00.000So Andrew is a high-ranking member over at TPUSA, very close friends with Charlie.
00:45:04.000Obviously, after Charlie was killed, there's a lot of speculation about foreign involvement, driven largely by Candace.
00:45:10.000And Andrew Colvett actually gave texts that he had had with Charlie Kirk.
00:45:14.000There were texts that ended up in Candace Owens's hands.
00:45:18.000And what he says is that he had sent those texts to Joe Kent, and then magically they ended up in the hands of Candace Owens.
00:45:26.000I'm not sure why we want the National Center for Counterterrorism head to be on a first-text basis with a person who is acting in totally psychotic ways, but all right.
00:45:38.000Behind the scenes, we have given everything we know to give, every single piece of information.