00:01:04.000News basically 24-7, the commentary that you want, all the great stuff from me, from Matt Walsh, from Michael Knowles, from our other hosts.
00:01:29.000That was Al-Quds Day or Jerusalem Day.
00:01:32.000It was established by the elder Khomeini in 1979 to express support for the Palestinian mission to destroy Israel.
00:01:38.000Well, he's competent and cruel, right?
00:01:40.000Well, last night, Larajani, who you might remember from such banger tweets as, quote, our leaders have been and still are among the people, but your leaders on Epstein's island.
00:01:49.000Well, he is no longer among the people, like any people, because he's dead.
00:01:55.000He was killed last night in an Israeli airstrike.
00:01:59.000I mean, at least Iran still has Khalamreza Soleimani, the head of the Basij, that's the internal Iranian force dedicated to murdering protesters and quashing dissent.
00:02:09.000Last night, Israel killed him also, along with other top members of the Basij.
00:02:14.000And now individual basij checkpoints in Tehran are being struck with Israeli suicide drones.
00:02:19.000In fact, according to the IDF intelligence head, a man named Major General Shlomi Binder, quote, their command structure is shattered, their capabilities stripped down to the bone.
00:02:27.000What you're seeing launched now is whatever scraps they can still push out.
00:02:31.000The United States has so severely degraded Iran's missile capabilities that the government has been firing off in rather desultory fashion individual missiles, like a kid whose tantrum is ending but is still kind of sporadically kicking as he tires himself out and goes down for a nap.
00:02:46.000On day one of this war, Iran launched 350 missiles.
00:02:49.000Today, they are down to launching barely double digits.
00:02:52.000Their ballistic missile capacity has been reduced by upward of 90%.
00:03:10.000Ask Mohammed Saloom, writing for, wait for it, Al Jazeera.
00:03:16.000Yep, there's a gigantic piece in Al Jazeera, Qatar's propaganda outlet accurately explaining the toll this war has now taken on Iran.
00:03:24.000Remember, Qatar is a half ally to Iran.
00:03:27.000That alone should tell you just where things stand for the Iranians.
00:03:30.000The Qataris, who play both sides, are now pretty clearly taking America's side.
00:03:34.000As Saloom points out in, again, Al Jazeera, quote, the picture is not one of U.S. failure.
00:03:40.000It is one of systematic, phased degradation of a threat that previous administrations allowed to grow for four decades.
00:03:47.000The campaign has moved through two distinct phases.
00:03:49.000The first suppressed Iran's air defenses, decapitated its command and control, and degraded its missile and drone launch infrastructure.
00:03:56.000By March 2nd, U.S. Central Command announced local air superiority over Western Iran and Tehran, achieved without the confirmed loss of a single American or Israeli combat aircraft.
00:04:06.000The second phase now underway targets Iran's defense industrial base, missile production facilities, dual-use research centers, and the underground complexes where remaining stockpiles are stored.
00:04:30.000And leaving Iran in total control of the strait just because Iran has a few drones and the capacity to fire them from the shoreline, well, this is, shall we say, a short-term problem.
00:04:41.000Soon, the Iranian government will have much larger problems because it does feel as though all of this is a prelude to action by the Iranian people themselves.
00:04:48.000President Trump noted that the Iranians will head out into the streets soon when they feel more secure.
00:04:55.000So the women had 250,000, even 500 people protesting a year ago, and they shot women right through the middle of the forehead with snipers.
00:06:51.000I hope that you're glad we took the risk.
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00:08:20.000Iranians are rallying around the flag.
00:08:22.000Now, if you watch X these days, that might be your takeaway from the joint American-Israeli action in Iran.
00:08:28.000Unending whining, caterwalling over a conflict less than three weeks old, in which the United States has suffered by any military historical standard, the lowest casualties in the history of major military conflict and has inflicted more damage by air than any combined air operation in modern military history.
00:08:46.000Now, part of the problem, surely, is actual false information.
00:08:49.000The New York Times reported just a few days ago, quote, that they had identified over 110 unique AI-generated images and videos from the past two weeks about the war in the Middle East.
00:08:59.000The fakes covered every aspect of the fighting.
00:09:01.000They falsely depicted screaming Israelis cowering as explosions ripped through Tel Aviv, Iranians mourning their dead, American military vessels bombarded with missiles and torpedoes.
00:09:10.000Collectively, they were seen millions of times online through networks like X, TikTok, and Facebook.
00:09:16.000The content has become a potent informational weapon for Tehran as it seeks to shake the public's tolerance for war by depicting scenes of devastation and destruction across the region.
00:09:25.000Now, of course, all of this does play on the inherent weakness of the West.
00:09:29.000A West filled with moral imbeciles with large platforms, like, say, Leigh McGowan, a person who I didn't know, except I guess she was on CNN, and has somehow amassed 2 million Instagram followers for brilliant commentary like this.
00:10:07.000How sick and perverse do you have to be to look at Iran, a repressive tyranny that forces women into particular forms of garb and hangs gay people and threatens all of its neighbors and spreads terrorism all over the region and tries to develop nuclear weapons so as to better spread terrorism all over the region and say America is the bad guy.
00:10:26.000How perverse or commentators like this over on MS. NOW, the other piece of this that I've found really disturbing in the messaging around the war recently and Eamon, I really want your thoughts on this in particular is some of the language and the description of their opponent, sort of the way they seem to create this image of the Iranians and all of their sort of proxies or allies, the sort of imagery that they conjure up.
00:10:53.000And I think that it takes a certain amount of arrogance and, I'm also going to say it, a bit of racism, to constantly talk about people like they are savages.
00:11:02.000That is a word that we have heard Heg Seth use.
00:11:04.000Talk about people as though they are subhuman, too stupid to engage in a war with the United States, incapable of possibly outmaneuvering us, and then find ourselves in the exact position in which it appears they are consistently outmaneuvering us okay.
00:11:22.000First of all, they are not consistently outmaneuvering us.
00:11:24.000We are kicking the living hell out of them.
00:11:25.000Second of all, if you can't label the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which shoots people in the streets by the tens of thousands, or the Basij, or Hezbollah, or Hamas or the Houthis, savages I don't know when you would ever apply that term ever The perverse moral sickness of these folks.
00:11:43.000And then, of course, there are people who are too dumb even for MS Now.
00:11:46.000So, for example, the extraordinarily dim-witted Joy Reid, who actually compares America to Iran and says that basically America is like Iran.
00:11:58.000Our regime is oppressing women, taking away abortion rights, taking away women's rights in like 26 countries, 26 states, some states where they're trying to have the death penalty for having an abortion.
00:12:34.000For Christianity, would that be allowing people like Joy Reed to have a major platform and continue to be a prominent person talking about how terrible America is in comparison with Iran?
00:12:43.000And then, of course, there are dumbasses like Dave Smith, a comedian whose only joke is apparently his understanding of Muslim history.
00:12:48.000He put out a statement just a couple of days ago: quote, Islam is such a violent religion.
00:12:52.000Every time we murder a bunch of their children, they try to kill some of us.
00:13:09.000Then, of course, there is gym teacher stipping, Jewelaser theorizing genius, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who I have to say, the trajectory of her strange new respect is astonishing.
00:13:20.000Everyone on the left recognized, actually, I think quite properly, that she is a double-digit IQ and a conspiratorial nut to boot.
00:13:27.000And now, because she doesn't like President Trump, she's given a slot basically every night on CNN or MS Now to rip into the president's strange new respect.
00:13:41.000Why would an American president lead his political party into the midterms, waging a full-scale major war completely unprovoked on Iran on behalf of Israel?
00:13:54.000And that's the way most Americans see it.
00:13:56.000They see this is for Israel, not for America.
00:13:58.000Why would an American president do that, which is forcing gas prices to hike right here going into spring break where families are going to be driving out of town, going into summer, declaring and waging a major, full-scale war that seems to have no end in sight, that is not de-escalating.
00:14:45.000He's a failed congressional candidate who was repeatedly backed by President Trump in Washington State, and then he was appointed by President Trump to head the National Counterterrorism Center as a deputy of Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.
00:14:57.000Well, this morning, Joe Kent quit his job at the National Counterterrorism Center and issued a scathing letter designed to undermine President Trump.
00:15:05.000The letter is deeply, deeply conspiratorial.
00:15:08.000It states openly that, quote, Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.
00:15:20.000It's also kind of strange since President Trump has said that it's conspiracy trash.
00:15:24.000So apparently, Trump is so deeply, deeply enthralled to those strange, powerful American lobbies.
00:15:31.000We're not going to say it, we're not going to say it, that he apparently has been so bamboozled by them that he's still under the impression that he's his own man.
00:15:39.000But here's the thing, President Trump is his own man.
00:15:43.000And as per our usual arrangement, Trump's critics are cowards who are simply unwilling to acknowledge that Trump is the one making the call.
00:15:49.000But Joe Kent continued, quote, early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pre-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran.
00:16:03.000This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory.
00:16:12.000This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women.
00:16:22.000Again, the idea here seems to be that President Trump is a moron, misled into war by nefarious Israelis and unnamed influential members of the American media.
00:16:32.000Again, apparently, President Trump has no agency and no thoughts.
00:16:36.000Kent's letter is replete with this conspiratorial idiocy, including, as we just saw, the idea that it was Israel that forced the original Iraq war, an idea totally and utterly unsupportable by any evidence given the fact that the actual prime minister of Israel at the time, Ariel Sharon, opposed the Iraq war.
00:16:56.000Now, listen, we should all be thankful for Joe Kent's long and honorable military service.
00:17:00.000We can also be glad that he's leaving, since his ideology is the same as that of Tucker Carlson, the guy who says that the war is disgusting and evil and who has been busy sexting with the MOAs.
00:17:09.000Tucker Carlson calls Kent a personal friend and quote, the bravest man I know.
00:17:12.000Frankly, I think that it is a good thing that Kent is not in this position.
00:17:16.000We cannot have a director of counterterrorism who is somehow advocating preemptive surrender to the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism in the middle of a war.
00:17:25.000Now, the question here is not why Joe Kent would do this.
00:17:28.000He's been a longtime devotee of a foreign policy utterly at odds with the peace-through strength foreign policy of President Trump.
00:17:35.000President Trump, we played clips on the show, has been advocating for ending the Iranian threat by military force for, I don't know, 47 years.
00:17:43.000Joe Kent, by contrast, is a devotee of Ron Paul.
00:17:46.000He's also the same guy who suggested that the West was trying to manufacture a war with Russia and backed Vladimir Putin's aggressive play for Ukrainian territory as, quote, very reasonable.
00:17:56.000The real question is why Joe Kent was appointed in the first place, and also which other members of the administration are trying to undermine the president from within.
00:18:04.000It's not all that hard to tell, to be honest with you.
00:18:06.000If you see a pro-isolationist story printed at Politico or Axios or a story from the administration, doubts inside the administration about the president's war, arguments behind closed doors, the president was misinformed.
00:18:19.000You can bet money where it comes from.
00:18:21.000Spoiler alert, it likely rhymes with Tulsi Gabbard's office.
00:18:25.000I would assume that is why Dave Smith is now calling on Tulsi to quit too and throw her own punches at the president in the process.
00:18:31.000It is also presumably why Candace Owens has been out there tweeting in support of Joe Kent and suggesting that the president of the United States is, as always, the real problem.
00:18:43.000It's not just the grievance right, of course.
00:18:45.000Some of these folks, like Pete Budijej, Choo-Choo Train lover, former failed mayor of South Bend, Indiana, but at least he's gay, simply spewing silly lines about how diplomacy with Iran was totally, totally, totally working.
00:18:55.000I mean, it wasn't working, but it was totally working, you see.
00:19:00.000So the Trump administration argues that they needed to take action to take out Iran's nuclear weapons program and Iran's ballistic missile program.
00:19:07.000Because when they came into office, the Biden administration, your administration, had done nothing in four years to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon, developing ballistic missiles, funding terrorism around the world.
00:19:22.000I mean, for one thing, the president assured us that the nuclear program, President Trump assured us, that the nuclear program was, in his words, obliterated just a few months ago.
00:19:30.000And let's also remember that in the past, Iran's nuclear program was contained without a shot being fired.
00:19:37.000I think President Trump thought he could get a better deal than the Obama administration did.
00:19:42.000He failed to get that better deal, and he went off and launched a war without planning.
00:19:49.000I mean, I think that we should probably listen to Pete Budig, whose latest tack is hanging out at diners and trying to look more tough and rough so he can run for president.
00:19:58.000I mean, he does have longer facial hair than he used to.
00:20:01.000Some are, like howdy-duty-looking creepy youth pastor James Tallarico promoting a rube bait about how we're spending too much money in this war.
00:20:07.000You see, it's a misdirection of resources.
00:20:08.000Listening to Democrats whine about how much money we spend is a brain rot of its own.
00:20:13.000By the way, for the record, we are spending about a billion dollars a day on this war.
00:20:18.000We spend in America every single day for the rest of time at least $20 billion every day, forever at the federal level.
00:20:27.000Here is James Tallarico saying, the war is just too costly.
00:20:30.000Oh, yeah, by the way, we should have universal child care or something.
00:20:34.000I was in Sand Branch, Texas a few weeks ago.
00:20:36.000It's a community south of Dallas that doesn't have any running water.
00:20:41.000It doesn't have basic sewer infrastructure.
00:20:44.000So every dollar that we are spending bombing people in the Middle East is a dollar that we are not spending in our communities back home.
00:20:54.000This sort of rhetoric is always unbelievably stupid because it turns out the American government spends, you know, like $7 trillion a year.
00:21:02.000But maybe you find these arguments convincing.
00:21:06.000But just understand, you are not hearing an accurate depiction of the thing that's actually going on.
00:21:11.000You are very often hearing either politically motivated nonsense or actual agitprop designed to undermine America's incipient victory in Iran.
00:21:20.000Now, again, this does not mean that we don't have some outstanding problems in the action in Iran.
00:21:24.000The large of these remains, the Strait of Hormuz.
00:21:27.000Now, for everyone watching at dailywire.com, let's head on back to the chat.
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00:22:47.000Traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, as we have been discussing, has been dropping precipitously since the beginning of the Iran action.
00:22:53.000Western flags or linked tankers have stopped transiting in the waterway at least until the action is over or until they receive an American escort.
00:23:00.000Maersk, MSC, HAPEC-Lloyd, they've all suspended transits.
00:23:04.000Despite America's vow to ensure shipping, most companies aren't actually taking America up on it.
00:23:08.000Meanwhile, Iran has been launching drones at ports in the area that are attempting to ramp up pressure on America to end the conflict.
00:23:15.000Now, again, if America were to just do that, that would really be dumb because then Iran would be in basic permanent control of this vital choke point in global trade.
00:23:26.000The Wall Street Journal laid out a few options this morning.
00:23:28.000They wrote, quote, retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, who has commanded a carrier strike group, recently laid out what a Hormuz operation might look like.
00:23:36.000First, continue to degrade to a militarily manageable risk the missiles, mines, drones, unmanned surface combatants that could threaten U.S. forces and tankers.
00:23:44.000Second, maintain an unblinking eye that looks 50 miles on either side of the strait and 100 miles back.
00:23:49.000Third, keep four or eight aircraft persistently overhead during convoy operations, equipped with advanced precision kill weapon systems, a cheap rocket, 25,000 bucks, that is extremely effective against Shahad drones.
00:23:59.000Fourth, have to arm helos ready to attack small boats that emerge.
00:24:02.000Fifth, deploy 10 to 14 Aegis destroyers whose air defenses make them the perfect escort ship.
00:24:07.000These surface combatants first need to be brought into place.
00:24:15.000Or, alternatively, President Trump could seize Kharg Island, as we have been talking about.
00:24:20.000Kharg Island is at Coral Island, located about 15 miles off the coast of Iran, and literally 90% of all Iranian oil capacity moves through Kharg Island.
00:24:29.000If we were to seize it, it would cut off Iran's export capacity entirely.
00:24:34.000And that would likely either force the regime to negotiate an end to the war, or it would lead to sort of a final Iranian conflagration that might end in the fall of the regime.
00:24:42.000Because when you don't got no money and when you don't got no oil going out, and when the United States is sitting on your entire oil supply, things start to get pretty rough.
00:24:50.000So, what is President Trump actually going to do here?
00:24:52.000Well, he's certainly not going to tell the members of the press.
00:24:55.000One of my favorite games that President Trump plays is somebody asks him a specific question on what he's about to do, and then he just rips on them.
00:25:41.000But back to opening the strait for just a moment.
00:25:43.000President Trump has been calling on our allies from Europe to Asia to help open up the strait.
00:25:48.000These allies freely acknowledge that freedom of transit through the strait is, in fact, a key strategic interest for not only the United States, but for everybody.
00:25:57.000It's just that they are too cowardly to do anything about it.
00:26:00.000You know, as usual, as per our usual arrangement, they bring the empty talk, we bring the hardware.
00:26:05.000As of now, Japan has announced they're not going to send ships to help us, even though 93% of all of their oil transits the Strait of Hormuz.
00:26:13.000South Korea, same story, even though 70 to 75% of their oil comes through that waterway.
00:26:19.000Britain has been offering us a few minesweeper drones.
00:26:22.000France wants stability first, which is to say they want a partial surrender to the Iranians.
00:27:30.000I mean, they're focused on the right things.
00:27:32.000So, that would be a yes on the solar panels, and that would be a no on joining America to end the terrorist regime in Iran.
00:27:38.000So, let's talk a little bit about our vaunted allies.
00:27:42.000We've heard over and over and over again that our allies are deeply important, that we shouldn't abandon our allies, that our allies deserve our support.
00:27:49.000I've been a huge advocate for that idea, not because I deeply love the French or the Germans or the Brits, but because the world is a chaotic place, and we would rather have countries on our side than aligning with our enemies.
00:28:01.000But the time has come to discuss what makes a good ally.
00:28:05.000A good ally in foreign policy isn't just a country we pay to stay out of the sway of the enemy.
00:28:13.000First, our best allies should align with us morally.
00:28:16.000They should share our general values and orientation toward the world.
00:28:20.000We have strategic partners, and these strategic partners may change over time and not share our values very much, but our best allies ought to stand shoulder to shoulder with us in our civilizational outlook.
00:28:29.000Second, our allies should minimize the help required from us by building up their own resources.
00:28:35.000Mooching allies generally are not good allies.
00:28:38.000Now, again, this doesn't mean that our allies won't occasionally need big infusions of help.
00:28:42.000That's been true forever, or that they can always stand up to the predations of their enemies without our help.
00:28:46.000It does mean they owe us an obligation to help themselves.
00:28:50.000Third, when we call on our allies, they ought to answer the call.
00:28:55.000After all, if we're a good ally, we'd do the same.
00:28:58.000That doesn't mean, of course, that every country with which we are allied must pre-commit to joining every war that we join.
00:29:04.000But when the strategic and moral interests align, backing out is not just cowardice, it is a form of sedition.
00:29:11.000Fourth, and finally, our allies should engage in intelligence sharing and sharing of military capability.
00:29:16.000This doesn't mean countries give up their own independent capacity, but our best allies should be in the air with us, in the water with us, on the ground with us.
00:29:23.000Our combined power should be stronger than the power we have alone.
00:29:26.000That, of course, is the purpose of an alliance.
00:29:28.000So, here is the question: Are our key allies doing this?
00:29:33.000So far, the only thing we've seen our allies saying is that they are on our side morally.
00:29:39.000But when it comes time to actually enforce those morals, then they just disappear into the wind.
00:29:44.000Here's the vice president of the European Commission, Kahakalas.
00:29:49.000This is not Europe's war, but Europe's interests are directly at stake.
00:29:57.000Okay, so if it's at stake, then why are you guys not doing anything about it?
00:30:02.000And then, of course, there's German Chancellor Friedrich Mares, who freely acknowledges that America's action against Iran is justified, but then says, We will not participate in ensuring freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz by military means.
00:30:13.000The war in the Middle East is not a matter for NATO.
00:30:15.000Therefore, Germany will also not become involved militarily.
00:30:22.000Here's that tower of strength, Emmanuel Macron, on X. Quote: I have just spoken with Iranian President Masood Pazeshkin.
00:30:29.000I called on him to put an immediate end to the unacceptable attacks Iran is carrying out against countries in the region, whether directly or through proxies, including in Lebanon and Iraq.
00:30:37.000I reminded him that France is acting within a strictly defensive framework aimed at protecting its interests, its regional partners, and freedom of navigation, and that it is unacceptable for our country to be targeted.
00:30:52.000Then, of course, there is the excrable Kira Starmer of the UK, who says, Opening the Straits is very difficult.
00:30:57.000It's very difficult, which is why we're not going to do anything.
00:30:59.000We will just let our entire country be eaten by the interests of radical Islamists, but we certainly won't do anything to open the Straits of Hormuz.
00:31:07.000Here is Kira Starmer, a man who looks like a thumb with glasses.
00:31:12.000But ultimately, we have to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to ensure stability in the market.
00:31:26.000Saying that we have to do something and then not doing anything is effervescently stupid.
00:31:32.000So, they will all say some nice words and then they will do pretty much nothing.
00:31:36.000But when the shoe is on the other foot, say in Ukraine, then of course everybody shows up at America's door, hand out, waiting for some help.
00:31:43.000Here, of course, is NATO chief Mark Rudy saying, you know, the EU can't defend itself without the United States.
00:32:05.000But if we need each other, then it can't just be that you need us.
00:32:08.000You have to help us when we ask you to help us.
00:32:12.000We're going to move over to the DW members chat and take a couple of your questions live.
00:32:15.000Savvy, today's episode is sponsored by our friends over at American Beverage.
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00:35:26.000And four, you need to help us with military intelligence sharing.
00:35:29.000So, a lot of our allies fulfill that first element, you know, at least most of the time.
00:35:33.000Although one could argue that their significant tilt towards surrendering to radical Islam at home and abroad is risking long-standing alliances.
00:35:40.000But on the other elements, our allies need to be better allies.
00:35:44.000President Trump is quite properly getting pretty sick of this nonsense.
00:36:27.000And when we want to know, do you have any minesweepers?
00:36:31.000Well, would rather not get involved, sir.
00:36:35.000They said, you mean for 40 years we're protecting you and you don't want to get involved in something that is very minor, very few shots going to be taken because they don't have many shots left.
00:36:46.000But they said, we'd rather not get involved.
00:36:50.000I just want the fake news media and everybody else to remember that that was said.
00:37:37.000Okay, listen, we're constantly hearing from the chattering class and the podcastian contingent that foreign aid to Israel is expensive.
00:37:44.000That's a fair enough argument on its own.
00:37:46.000I've been arguing for literally decades that Israel ought to wean itself from American aid.
00:37:50.000And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the same people all these folks hate, said clearly to the president last year he wanted to do that.
00:37:56.000President Trump said, hey, wait a second.
00:37:58.000By the way, the reason President Trump said, hey, wait a second, is because it is military sharing that is the basis for that aid.
00:38:04.000I mean, let's be real about the initiation of American aid to Israel.
00:38:07.000It began because the American military-industrial complex was concerned that Israel is going to build its own fighter jet, the La V, that would be in direct competition with the F-16.
00:38:17.000But let's also point out that for $3.8 billion in American aid, all of which goes back into American defense production, because Israel has to spend all of that with American defense companies.
00:38:26.000The United States has access not just to top-flight Israeli military technology, like, for example, their very cool laser shooting down rocket system, but they are an ally that actually joins in our fights at the highest possible level.
00:38:38.000Israel has actually been flying far more authorities, far more than the United States has above Iran during this mission.
00:38:45.000Israel has absorbed dozens of missiles coming the other way.
00:38:48.000Israel has provided the intelligence that led to the killing of Iran's top echelon and done the killing itself in many cases.
00:38:54.000Israel requires zero U.S. bases and zero U.S. troops, historically speaking.
00:38:58.000Here's Secretary of War Pete Hegseth explaining our relationship with Israel.
00:39:03.000To our steadfast partner, Israel, your mission is being executed with unmatched skill and iron determination.
00:39:12.000Fighting shoulder to shoulder with such a capable ally is a true force multiplier and a breath of fresh air.
00:39:21.000We salute your courage and your contribution.
00:39:26.000Now, let's contrast that with some of our other allies.
00:39:29.000This idea that we only spend military aid on Israel is nonsense.
00:40:08.000How many of those countries that we are spending literally billions of dollars a year on have provided us direct forward support for our operations?
00:40:33.000We have a tripwire force in South Korea so that we will immediately be drawn into any conflicts with North Korea so they don't cross that border.
00:40:39.000We station troops in Japan to prevent Chinese threat against Japan.
00:40:43.000Our German bases are a holdover from the Cold War, where we worried about a Soviet invasion.
00:40:47.000So we stationed troops there for literally half a century.
00:40:51.000Meanwhile, those countries, when we want their help, go totally quiet.
00:40:55.000And instead, they spend their money building up their exorbitant regulatory and welfare structures.
00:41:04.000President Trump was always right to force NATO countries to pay up for their own defense.
00:41:08.000But if NATO countries want America to help them out in times of common need, they need to step up as well when one of the world's chief shipping lanes is closed by an internationally recognized terrorist regime.
00:41:18.000We can talk all we want about how we shouldn't alienate our allies saying silly things about invading Greenland or tariffing the Germans.
00:41:26.000But if our allies aren't going to back our play when we need them, then we should treat them as what they are, strategic partners, not ironclad allies that make a call on our resources at their whim and then abandon us when we ask for a hand.
00:41:39.000Meanwhile, domestically, we keep hearing that Republicans are in serious, super duper electoral trouble, that President Trump is suffering low approval ratings, that the public isn't behind the war in Iran, that Democrats are about to swamp Republicans all over the country.
00:42:07.000While the legacy media have been focused on the Republicans these days, which makes sense given that Republicans have a trifecta in government, Democrats are about as popular as some forms of cancer.
00:44:10.000Or maybe the Democrats are having trouble because they're busy complaining about voter ID, a policy that has the support of eight in 10 Americans in every single poll.
00:44:19.000And yet, Democrats are very much against voter ID.
00:44:21.000Again, I still can't come up with why Democrats are complaining about voter ID other than they kind of like voter fraud.
00:44:27.000Like, I need an alternative explanation that makes sense to me.
00:44:29.000I'd be happy to find it if you want to give it to me, Democrats.
00:44:32.000Here's Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz making the usual Democratic complaint, suggesting apparently people of minority ethnicity cannot figure out how to get a driver's license or something.
00:44:41.000This is just about voters having to show ID and proof of citizenship in order to vote.
00:44:50.000This is about one thing, ensuring that it is much harder for people who are unlikely to go to the polls and vote for Republicans, and that making it much harder for them to cast their ballot.
00:45:07.000Or maybe they're in trouble because they continue to jack up their taxes and then lie about it, as California Governor Gavin Newsom continues to do.
00:45:16.000We have the most progressive tax rates in America.
00:46:02.000Or maybe Democrats are still unpopular because they are keeping the Department of Homeland Security shut down, like even in the middle of an Iranian global terror threat.
00:46:11.000I guess in order to make some point about how they don't like ICE or something.
00:46:15.000Well, here's House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries trying to explain.
00:46:20.000We've repeatedly made clear, Democrats in both the House and the Senate that we should fund the TSA, fund Coast Guard, fund CISA, fund FEMA, fund every other aspect of the Department of Homeland Security that doesn't have to do with ICE or Donald Trump and Republicans' toxic deportation machine that the American people are rejecting.
00:46:45.000And for whatever the reason, Republicans have decided that they would rather shut down the whole thing than actually deal with a situation where we get ICE under control.
00:46:59.000So we're in the middle of a war with Iran where they are activating terrorist cells and the Democrats are like, we have to keep DHS shut because we don't like ICE.
00:47:07.000No, Democrats are, as Bill Maher says, stupidly counterintuitive.
00:47:10.000Here was Bill the other night with Jerry O'Connell, the actor.
00:48:06.000But even if Democrats gain power, they won't keep it for long if they keep pursuing stupidly counterintuitive policies.
00:48:12.000So while President Trump is fighting a world-changing war that legitimately will change the face of the map for generations to come, Democrats continue to pursue their white whale, making sure that there are male appendages in the female locker rooms.
00:48:27.000All righty, folks, the show continues for our members right now.
00:48:29.000Like we've been asking our members for questions all through the show, like during the commercials even.
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