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00:02:45.000Hey, thank you so much for having me back.
00:02:47.000Yeah, you know, I have to chide you just a little bit because last time we had you on, you let us know that your prediction was that the trial was not going to happen until early 2028.
00:02:58.000I saw you clip that and we're making fun of our reaction.
00:03:02.000I think the whole world was groaning along with us, I would like to say, because sitting in this seat, I will tell you that is not what you want to hear.
00:03:12.000You know, it's just the whole wheels of justice move, in my opinion, almost a little bit too slow.
00:03:18.000But that's where we're at, and hopefully you are wrong and we get the under on that, not the over.
00:03:23.000All right, so on Friday, we had a hearing that was basically to decide the issue of cameras in the courtroom as well as the defense's request for an extension before the, I guess, preliminary hearing, evidentiary hearing.
00:03:42.000Obviously, there was a ruling on the cameras that Judge Graff was going to deny their request, but it's more complicated than that.
00:03:50.000Yeah, it's a little bit more nuanced than just the cameras are in or the cameras are out.
00:03:54.000What had happened with this motion was that the defense was seeking a categorical ban on cameras in the courtroom, essentially for the rest of the case.
00:04:03.000And that's in a bit of a conflict with Utah law, which has some of the most camera favorable rules anywhere in the country.
00:04:13.000And so they have a number of procedures and requirements that you have to go through to get a camera in the courtroom.
00:04:20.000But once, assuming you follow those procedures, they are extremely permissive and there's a presumption that they will allow it to happen.
00:04:28.000So, what has happened is that Judge Graff denied the defense motion for a categorical ban.
00:04:33.000He said that is not consistent with what Utah law provides.
00:04:36.000However, because Utah law in its own procedure already allows for there to be objections or concerns about certain factors the judge is to consider, such as the defendant's effect on the defendant's right to a fair trial, that the defense can still continue to raise those issues.
00:04:55.000They're just going to have to do it on a hearing by hearing basis and not as a general.
00:05:00.000Overarching rule that cameras would not be allowed.
00:05:04.000So there was a, it's like a 14 day advance, right?
00:05:10.000So if I am, let's say I'm CBS News or any outlet, let me get centered up here.
00:05:15.000I have to present my request 14 days in advance, and then there is an opportunity for the defense to basically object.
00:05:23.000And I saw a clip of yours basically saying the defense is now almost obligated to object to every single request for a media.
00:05:37.000If this is an issue that they are intending to preserve for future review down the road, which is kind of classic for defense lawyers to be doing, to be thinking, you know, through the appeal, through the post conviction process, and so forth, they have framed this issue as one of a federal constitutional magnitude.
00:05:56.000And so there are a lot of procedural hurdles that go along with potentially raising something like that in a federal.
00:06:07.000And one of them is that you have to exhaust your remedies in the trial court and you have to fully preserve the issue.
00:06:15.000So there is, I think, a potential argument that a prosecutor on the other side would be able to make that if they did not object to cameras at any specific hearing, that the defense has essentially waived any kind of objection to cameras being in the courtroom for that, at least for that particular proceeding.
00:06:35.000So I do think it puts a little bit of an onus on them if their objective is.
00:06:41.000To have an opportunity for a future appellate court to look at whether cameras in general, as a big picture specific to this case, whatever, are a problem with a fair trial, they are kind of stuck now with having to do a little bit of extra work to make sure that they have not waived that right.
00:07:00.000Yeah, they've just made more work for themselves, essentially.
00:07:03.000And one of the things I've learned from your commentary, Andrea, is just how much of these motions, these hearings, And you call papering the record are really done with the express intent of future appeals, essentially, because then it will be appealed.
00:07:21.000If you make the presumption that this would end in a guilty verdict because of the evidence that you already are aware exists against Tyler Robinson, then you're going to say, well, we're going to then appeal it at the state level.
00:07:33.000And then eventually the federal courts are going to get involved on a follow up appeal.
00:07:38.000And it seems like so much of these chess moves that we're seeing play out, where you're like, what are they doing?
00:07:50.000I mean, that's always going to be part of the role of defense counsel, particularly in a case like this, a death penalty case.
00:07:58.000It's very consistent with the strategies that these particular defense lawyers kind of traditionally employ in the cases that they work on.
00:08:09.000And it's just one of the aspects of being effective as a defense attorney having to think five years down the road, 10 years down the road, which I know now we're throwing out numbers you guys really don't want to hear.
00:08:22.000But that just is the unfortunate reality of death penalty litigation.
00:08:27.000There are many, many steps to it and many pitfalls along the way.
00:08:31.000And so that is what they're being attuned to as they go through this trial process.
00:08:37.000So, what about just the court live stream that's not connected to a CBS or a local affiliate or anything like that?
00:08:45.000Is that going to be permitted, or do we not know?
00:08:49.000Well, so when the court has these WebEx hearings like they had on Friday, Where they are just digitally present in court.
00:08:56.000They're not all there in the courtroom.
00:08:58.000Typically, we have been able to view those and restream them.
00:09:03.000And so the cameras in the courtroom is generally referring to a media agency from the outside bringing a camera in.
00:09:10.000But if they are having live courtroom hearings, not clear to me if WebEx is available or some kind of alternative camera feed of the court's own system that they might be able to rely on.
00:09:24.000So a little bit TBD on the mechanics of this, but we know generally, directionally, we're going to probably have video of the actual trial.
00:09:37.000The court grants the defendant's motion and reschedules the preliminary hearing for July 6th, July 7th, the afternoon of July 8th, July 9th, and July 10th, 2026, in order to protect the defendant's constitutional rights while minimizing unnecessary delay.
00:09:57.000And preserving the fair, prompt, and impartial administration of justice.
00:10:24.000This is, in many ways, I think the judge's equivalent of what we were just talking about with the.
00:10:31.000Attorneys looking down the road for future appeals and so forth.
00:10:36.000Generally speaking, the defense can only appeal rulings that go against them.
00:10:41.000And so, in cases where you want to maybe just minimize unnecessary grounds to potentially argue that there was some type of problem in the process, you can just err on the side of granting the defense what they want.
00:10:58.000And so, in this particular case, I think this is Judge Graff playing it safe.
00:11:03.000He cited the Primarily, the very large volume of discovery that has been produced in the case.
00:11:11.000I have to tell you, just from my perspective, the numbers that we have been talking about in terms of the terabytes of information that have been handed over are pretty mind boggling.
00:11:22.000And they kind of previewed this at the last hearing when the defense had been arguing that they wanted more opportunity to investigate some of the state's underlying DNA evidence and firearms evidence and so forth.
00:11:36.000But the judge kind of Cut them off and asked them very specifically about just the extent to which they'd been able to review the discovery so far.
00:11:46.000And all of the attorneys in turn indicated no, just given the volume, they haven't had time to review everything.
00:11:52.000So I think it's largely that that is driving this particular decision.
00:11:57.000That's why it was not the extended continuance that the defense was asking for.
00:12:02.000It's not for purposes of greater investigation or expanding the purpose of the preliminary hearing.
00:12:09.000It's just to make sure they've had an opportunity to be familiar with what is going to be presented and where it fits into the discovery picture.
00:12:17.000So, I think if I remember right, the first time we had you on, Andrea, I think you predicted they wouldn't delay it.
00:12:23.000Does even this short continuance, does it adjust your expected timeline for the trial as a whole?
00:12:29.000Or do you think we'll probably end up on the same timeline as before, which was already, unfortunately, quite long?
00:12:36.000Yeah, you know, that's a very good question.
00:12:39.000I mean, in general, I would say it gives us a little bit of insight into Judge Graff's perspective on the case and the timelines.
00:12:52.000Lenience towards allowing the defense the time that they need to develop their strategies in their case.
00:12:59.000Obviously, when you're getting ready for trial, it's a different situation in terms of what you actually have to do to prepare than getting ready for this preliminary hearing.
00:13:09.000So it may be an indication that he will allow them a greater opportunity to pursue leads.
00:13:16.000And like I mentioned last time, we already know there's going to be challenges to scientific evidence and so forth.
00:13:46.000Charlie's assassination was extraordinarily public, and it only follows that we would have a public trial where sunlight is the best disinfectant.
00:13:54.000I want to see everything, I think it's good.
00:13:56.000For this entire conspiracy cottage industry that's emerged around this case, for them to have to confront the actual evidence, the physical evidence.
00:14:58.000And ultimately, I mean, I. Judge Graff has been extremely fair so far throughout this process.
00:15:05.000In many ways, he's been kind of a blessing of a judge for this particular case.
00:15:10.000He's just demonstrated a lot of patience, a lot of understanding, and they're very much skills that a judge is going to need over a long run case like this.
00:15:19.000Yeah, I've seen that actually sort of across the board as people have been complimentary of this judge.
00:15:26.000And it does seem like, you know, from my perspective, as somebody that Does he believe that Tyler Robinson is guilty in this case and that I want to see justice served?
00:15:37.000I may not like some of the hoops that have to be jumped through to sort of protect this on appeal, but it does seem that he's being prudent, he's being fair, and he's not giving a whole lot of opportunity.
00:15:49.000I mean, the appeals are going to happen.
00:15:54.000There's no way around it, essentially, with our system.
00:15:57.000And so, on the whole, you do take it as a blessing that he seems to be cognizant of the fact that this is going to be drawn out over years, maybe a decade.
00:16:07.000And he's playing that long game already right now to make sure everything's on the up and up and doesn't give them unnecessary opportunity for getting this overturned on appeal.
00:16:25.000So, the next hearing that is coming up, since they had already set aside the time the week of May 18th to do the preliminary hearing, they went ahead and rescheduled some pending motions to be heard.
00:16:38.000They're actually going to be heard on the 19th in the morning.
00:16:41.000And the primary one that I think is going to be of interest is that the defense is asking to hold one of the prosecuting attorneys in contempt of the court's gag order.
00:16:51.000And this is based on a series of public statements that the prosecutor made in response to headlines that were primarily in the Daily Mail, but got proliferated through other sources and so forth that indicated kind of misleadingly that the FBI was unable to match the bullet recovered from.
00:17:16.000Charlie's autopsy, the bullet fragment to the rifle that was associated with Tyler Robinson.
00:17:24.000And so this had been reported as being exonerating and no match and so forth, but that's not what that result means.
00:17:32.000And so the prosecutor had given some statements, kind of clarifying here's what this result means.
00:17:39.000And the defense is arguing that that's a problem.
00:17:41.000They should not have been allowed to do that.
00:17:44.000So we're going to see that on May 19th?
00:19:23.000Entertainment Weekly, Fox, it was like the whole, ran the whole gamut.
00:19:29.000And they were asking me about a particular comment by a particular, we'll say, comedian, actor that made a joke, I guess, at, I guess, kill Tony's expense, but it was really sort of at Charlie's expense.
00:19:44.000And I don't want to go into detail, but many of you in the audience probably know about it.
00:19:48.000There was a roast of Kevin Hart on Netflix over the weekend, and it was sort of the follow up to the roast of Tom Brady, which I actually watched and thought was funny.
00:20:17.000Everybody was kind of in good spirits.
00:20:19.000This just, I didn't watch it, so maybe I should hold back my full opinion, but this just felt a little bit darker, a little bit more vicious.
00:20:28.000The jokes were less funny and more sort of like, eh, like.
00:22:43.000One, this is about somebody who was murdered.
00:22:47.000And in really the most grotesque, like public way imaginable.
00:22:51.000And he happens to be our close friend.
00:22:53.000And so for me, my perspective is just I can't obviously divorce myself from the immediacy of the person that we're talking about here, Charlie.
00:23:04.000But two, you know, I just don't think it was funny.
00:23:08.000And when I saw the clip this morning, my instinct was my, I just cringed because kind of in the similar vein that the people in the audience, like that groan, because.
00:23:20.000You know, I'm, listen, I'm not here to tell comedians that they can't do it.
00:24:44.000So, a little context here, though, is just before that, Kill Tony had gone on stage and made a joke about his dad being in the rubble or something.
00:24:54.000And instantly, I sort of wondered was Pete Davidson's response a reaction to that?
00:25:00.000Maybe, like, he had the joke on standby and he was thinking about using it, maybe wasn't.
00:25:04.000Kill Tony did that, he was like, I'm definitely doing it now.
00:25:07.000Well, and maybe, but I don't think so because 10 years ago in the roast of Pete Davidson, it was already such a topic, it was very public.
00:25:13.000This is ground that's been tread before, so it probably didn't shock him.
00:25:17.000And I do wonder if maybe not even just a reaction specifically to Tony's joke, but just a reaction overall that you know, Pete Davidson was seven when his dad died, he has been in comedy, so I think he's a lot more used to these kinds of jokes, which I think are gross, but maybe for him, they're not as personal because he's had to separate himself from that.
00:25:38.000Have loved for him to have thought about hey, I grew up without my dad.
00:25:41.000There are two kids out there who are growing up without their dad right now, and the less difficult I can make this on them throughout their lives, the better.
00:25:49.000Like, I think that it's gross to what, yes, it's so close.
00:25:55.000Like, I think that's what the Hollywood Reporter said, or it was too soon, the audience didn't care for it to make these jokes.
00:26:00.000The audience didn't care for it, but I think, like I said, it's not a question of sure you're allowed to say these things, but I think we should all be thinking about should we say these things when they are.
00:26:10.000One, so many people that are affected by this.
00:26:46.000But in a sense, what we are being reminded of is Charlie is an iconic figure, a very famous figure.
00:26:55.000Even people who didn't follow Charlie's stuff while he was alive, his death was basically the biggest news story in the country for that entire, arguably the entire year.
00:27:08.000And so a lot of people are going to have knowledge of that, a reaction to that, and understanding of that moment.
00:27:38.000Like at some point, I feel sort of just bound to the fact that I am now facing an existence where I'm going to get media inquiries for the foreseeable future because people reference.
00:27:47.000In a dark way, I am happy that Charlie is an iconic figure because he deserves to be.
00:27:54.000And it's going to have a lot of upside for faith, for revival, for setting a role model for conservatives.
00:28:00.000But the downside is he's going to be a subject of humor because anything great is subject to humor.
00:28:06.000So we were sort of talking about how Kill Tony and Charlie, I wouldn't say they were friends or anything close, but they did know each other.
00:28:14.000Mutuals, there was a time, especially before the election, when comedy and the conservative movement were kind of conjoining forces.
00:29:36.000And he says, The point of a roast is to cross the line, but you keep receipts on everyone who crossed those lines and the people who laughed at it.
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00:31:54.000This, this is what a strong public health system looks like experienced professionals, seamless coordination, and a shared commitment to protecting the American people.
00:32:05.000We'll continue to follow the science, we will stay vigilant, and we will keep the public informed every step of the way.
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00:37:15.000See why so many believers are taking a leap of faith?
00:37:49.000Kane, you have your finger On the pulse of the conservative movement, the base, probably better than anybody else around.
00:37:56.000You get this constant feedback loop with your audience, millions and millions of people every day checking citizen free press for their news and updates.
00:38:04.000So the question came what are the vibes?
00:38:08.000Well, they're very positive after the end of last week, obviously.
00:38:13.000We had some really nice, you know, a Virginia Supreme Court decision and the U.S. Supreme Court decision.
00:38:22.000Yeah, people are, you know, I think a lot of, as we look forward to midterms, obviously, you know, we don't really even know the issues that are going to be in play in, you know, in late October, early November.
00:38:32.000But a lot of it is excitement and getting, you know, and getting millions of voters.
00:38:59.000I think she actually, that's about a bathroom cabinet that she needs moved that was delivered this morning.
00:39:04.000But yeah, look, I'm going to go ahead and predict it.
00:39:08.000I don't think I'm really going out on a limb, really going out on a limb here, but I think we're going to have record turnout for midterms.
00:39:18.000I think these midterms are going to be the highest turnout, at least of the modern era.
00:39:22.000I'm not sure what turnout used to be like before the internet.
00:39:29.000We're already kind of getting into that mode.
00:39:32.000You've got Texas, May 26th is that Texas runoff election, and the The early voting for that actually begins on the 18th, which is next Monday.
00:39:42.000And so people will, people will, you know, they need to get better, right?
00:39:49.000Because Texas has sort of a weird thing.
00:39:52.000So if you haven't, if someone didn't vote in the earlier part of the, or in the first primary, not the runoff, they're actually able to come in and vote for either party.
00:40:03.000So there's a danger that Democrats could sort of sneak in in Texas.
00:40:09.000And try to vote and affect that race and vote for Cornyn and prevent us from getting Paxton.
00:40:17.000Although I'll say, last thing, there's a chance, if Democrats actually believe, I don't believe it myself.
00:40:23.000I think that if Cornyn's the nominee, I think it depresses turnout on the Republican side.
00:40:29.000So I don't think that electing Paxton is dangerous.
00:40:34.000I think if so, anyway, but Democrats, at least they're spewing that.
00:40:39.000So, yeah, I'm not sure how they would get involved, you know, what they would do to, you know, in that open primary if they would try to vote for Cornyn or Paxton.
00:41:04.000So, this happened, the surface over the weekend, as you remember, last Friday, we got the great ruling from the Virginia Supreme Court.
00:41:09.000Struck down the referendum with their map because it was illegal.
00:41:12.000They flagrantly broke the Constitution to do it.
00:41:15.000And Virginia Democrats started to flip out and over the weekend reported in the New York Times as a real idea that was passing around.
00:41:21.000They were contemplating convening the legislature and rush passing a bill to lower the mandatory retirement age on the Virginia Supreme Court because they have one from mid 70s to I believe 53, which would be younger than all the current justices.
00:41:38.000Force retire all of them, replace the entire Supreme Court with people who will just instantly retire.
00:41:44.000Bring back the referendum, let them do whatever they want.
00:41:47.000An insane constitutional coup d'etat if they do that.
00:41:50.000And I was thinking what you said about turnout getting amped up.
00:41:55.000And it's, you know, there's two ways to read this.
00:41:57.000On the one hand, we hear people think, oh, Democrats are doing well, they're polling well, they might have a good midterm, but they seem to be flipping out.
00:42:29.000Top House Democrat reflected the fury and desperation that has gripped the party after Friday's ruling in the state.
00:42:36.000And of course, that's Hakeem, the bad dream Jeffries there.
00:42:41.000And I will just let's play this clip just because, Kane, I think this gives a good indication of the current mental state of the Democrat.
00:42:49.000Party, you know, Hakeem Jeffries, you got to imagine, given his role is, you know, within the leader of the minority party in the House, he's getting incoming from everybody.
00:42:59.000You need to look like you're fighting.
00:43:12.000Remember, Ali, when we took the House back in 2018, we were 24 seats short.
00:43:19.000We crossed over that hurdle, and in fact, in 2018, we flipped a total of 40 seats.
00:43:24.000So we're going to take back control of the House of Representatives.
00:43:27.000We're going to continue to make clear to the American people that we will lower their high cost of living, fix a broken health care system, and clean up the corruption that we're seeing.
00:43:35.000In the country, in the Congress, certainly with the Supreme Court, and deal with the most corrupt administration in American history.
00:43:43.000Now, we're going to need nationwide judicial reform.
00:43:46.000We're going to need nationwide electoral reform.
00:43:49.000We're going to need nationwide campaign finance reform, which is why we have to take the House back, take the Senate back, keep pressing forward, and then in 2028, take the presidency back as well.
00:44:01.000Do you hear what he's calling for, Kane, there?
00:44:10.000What they're trying to do in Virginia with mass retiring, forcing the mass retirement of the bench there, is exactly what they would try and do.
00:44:21.000Dramatic, dramatic, probably, I would say, unconstitutional steps, really, certainly beyond the pale of our norms and customs and traditions as a country and as a body politic.
00:44:48.000They had conference calls and meetings all weekend long trying to look at what alternatives there might be to kind of flip this again.
00:44:58.000I don't see Spanberger agreeing to it.
00:45:00.000I think there are a lot of sort of constitutional issues, and I think it would just be such blatant, naked hypocrisy if they were to do it.
00:45:08.000But, you know, one thing I watched a lot of MSNBC and CNN this weekend.
00:45:14.000You know, they're all freaking out about the Supreme Court in Louisiana, the Calais decision.
00:45:18.000But what they're not talking about is the fact that they were perfectly happy, and they're perfectly happy right now, to have the Northeast have zero, you know, 13 states in the Northeast have zero Republicans, and yet they freak out about what may happen in the South.
00:46:21.000And again, I'm worried about the Iran stuff.
00:46:23.000I think Iran is going to be depressing a lot of turnout.
00:46:25.000I think there's a lot of support in this audience for the president's action in Iran, but I'm worried that some of that coalition that we built ahead of 2024 is not as enthusiastic.
00:46:39.000Well, I think that the last statement you made is correct.
00:46:42.000There's no doubt that a certain percentage, a certain part of the Trump base is vehemently opposed to this war.
00:46:51.000And So it's going to hurt us a little.
00:46:54.000Look, I'm trying to be optimistic, but I also know that Susie Wiles has set a goal that Trump is going to campaign for these midterms like no president, no sitting president has ever done before.
00:47:08.000I'm counting on lots of rallies in August and September and October.
00:47:13.000And I'm counting on sort of people understanding what's at stake, that impeachment's at stake, that, I guess, packing the Supreme Court, I think to do that, That's a complicated thing I haven't really looked into.
00:47:27.000Let's say the Senate were to pass that, right?
00:47:40.000So maybe they won't be able to pack it.
00:47:42.000And maybe you guys can do that research really quick.
00:47:47.000But either way, I think we need to scare our base.
00:47:50.000We need to scare the Republican electorate, the MAGA electorate, and let them know how important this is.
00:47:56.000You know, we were talking about the maps.
00:47:57.000I'm still all weekend long, I've been pissed off about these maps.
00:48:00.000There's that meme going around where it says, like, it shows, you know, the Northeast with no Republican seats in 13 states, and they call that protecting democracy.
00:48:11.000And then they show the South where there would still be a few Democrat seats, and they call that, you know, treasonous to the Constitution.
00:48:19.000And I want to remind people because I wanted to know the numbers in Texas.
00:48:32.000So I think, you know, this is getting a little bit longer term, but once the new census kicks in in 2030, maybe even in 2028, Texas can change their map again.
00:48:42.000I mean, if Virginia is willing to go to 11 or excuse me, 10 to 1, and all these Northeast states can be zero Republicans, I'm not sure that Texas, you know, we'll see.
00:49:30.000Yeah, it's literally spaghetti where every, they have a proposed map, Kane, I don't know if you've seen it, where every single spiderweb goes right up to Chicago.
00:49:38.000So you could be in the south of Illinois and you'd be sharing a district with some portion of Chicago because that's just, it's so dominated by Democrats.
00:49:46.000On the question of turnout, I just had the bizarre thought because we're saying Trump needs to do a bunch of rallies.
00:49:51.000Can the GOP turn out if President Trump isn't on the ballot?
00:49:54.000And I did just have the deranged thought enter my head what if every Senate and House candidate changed their name to Donald Trump?
00:50:35.000Other than the civil rights groups, have people not learned that when you do this to black voters, it turns out bad for democracy for everybody?
00:51:35.000Like, even after the four seats that just switched, Democrats still have a large number of seats in Florida.
00:51:41.000And that can be, you know, if they want to mess with us, they just need to know that we can mess back, that we could take, you know, we could take more of their seats in Florida.
00:51:48.000You mentioned the Illinois thing, everything's stretching up to Chicago.
00:51:52.000You know, as a guy in Southern Indiana, Bloomington, Indiana University, and by the way, Signetti and IU is going to the White House today at 4 p.m.
00:51:59.000So, if people want to, if there are Cignetti and IU fans, you may want to turn in.
00:52:09.000But so my point is, you know, Southern Indiana is all rural.
00:52:12.000There's Indianapolis, and then you don't get anything until Evansville in the deep south.
00:52:17.000Southern Illinois is exactly the same way.
00:52:19.000That state, most of Illinois votes 70% Republican, 70% for Trump, but they get, you know, they get over, their numbers are canceled out by just crazy Cook County numbers.
00:52:30.000And who knows how much cheating actually happens?
00:52:34.000I mean, listen, if the Democrats end up trying to push through this Puerto Rico and D.C. as a state and all this garbage, I mean, I think we need to go full bore ahead with like Eastern Washington, Eastern Oregon.
00:52:48.000We need to like break California into like three to five states.
00:52:53.000We need to get Southern Illinois as its own state.
00:52:58.000I mean, candidly, it's like if we have no rules and norms anymore, then we have no rules and norms anymore.
00:53:04.000And by the way, yeah, we've made other states in the past.
00:53:07.000In the past, but it wasn't for partisan purposes.
00:53:09.000I'd love to make Hawaii a territory again.
00:53:33.000The war in Iran is having a devastating effect on the people living there locally.
00:53:38.000What most people don't realize is it's a Affecting everyone on the global scale as well, even if we aren't there physically.
00:53:44.000Every time a missile is launched or a bomb goes off, tiny microplastic particles are being spread into our atmosphere, leaching into our soil and water.
00:53:52.000They eventually end up in our body, causing harm.
00:53:56.000They cross the gut lining, leach into your blood, and disrupt everything.
00:54:00.000They've been shown to alter gut bacteria, suppress your immune response, and increase your risk for heart attack, stroke, cognitive diseases, and cancer.
00:54:08.000There's now a plastic spoon's worth of microplastics in the average human brain.
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00:55:23.000Without further ado, I want to bring in Stephen Moore, author of The Trump Economic Miracle and chairman and co founder of Unleash Prosperity.
00:55:42.000And now I get it every day and I read it every day because you always have interesting insights and a new vantage point on kind of how to think about the economy.
00:56:31.000So, look, it has been proven it's been harder than we thought it would be.
00:56:35.000I think harder than I think the president thought it would be to get the situation, the supply chains open for the oil to flow through the Strait of Hormuz.
00:56:47.000And we're now paying nationally about $4.25 a gallon for gas.
00:56:52.000That's up from less than $3 a gallon a few months ago.
00:56:55.000And that's like a tax on the U.S. economy.
00:56:59.000You know, people are angry about prices, but I still remain confident that within a month or so, we're going to get the straight open.
00:57:07.000We're going to get gas prices back down as low as they were.
00:57:11.000I mean, people forget that back, you go back to January and February, gas prices adjusted for inflation under Trump were as low as they'd been in 50 years.
00:57:19.000Everybody would love to see a return to that.
00:57:22.000And so obviously that has trickle down effects across the economy.
00:58:14.000So, the federal government is its smallest that it's been since 1966.
00:58:18.000It's a huge accomplishment when we had this bloated federal bureaucracy, and yet jobs are still, we're still gaining despite what's happening in Iran.
00:58:47.000And so Trump has done an amazing job of against huge amounts of resistance in Washington, D.C. to reduce massively the size of the federal workforce.
00:59:06.000So what we've seen is virtually, not virtually, but every single job that has been created under Donald Trump in his second term, every one of them has been a private sector job.
00:59:17.000Remember, when Biden was president, we'd get these.
00:59:19.000Pretty good jobs report saying, oh, 250,000 jobs were created and like half of them were government.
00:59:44.000Now we have to start cutting the, you know, the expenditures because it's a good thing to reduce the number of federal workers and regulators.
00:59:52.000And now we've got to get the the spending down.
00:59:55.000I mean, look, we're facing a debt deficit of about $2 trillion.
00:59:59.000As you know, our national debt, this is a disgrace, is now larger than our annual GDP.
01:00:05.000And that is a prescription for economic disaster.
01:00:57.000Right, we are still dealing with structural affordability issues that we inherited from Biden.
01:01:03.000Yeah, the attention span of the average voter is pretty short.
01:01:06.000They're just going to put that on the economic power that's in office now, they're going to blame Trump as opposed to understanding this.
01:01:12.000Biden, how do you make the case when you're asked about affordability, whether that's housing, energy, what have you?
01:01:19.000Explain it in layman's terms so people can understand it.
01:01:23.000A lot of this had to do with the massive spending that we experienced under Biden, and in general, the affordability crisis is the lords of easy money this printing of.
01:01:36.000And we just ran these numbers at Unleash Prosperity.
01:01:38.000We estimate over the last roughly six years since the end of COVID, 80% of the increase in prices for things like groceries, things like housing, things like healthcare, 80% of that happened under Biden, not Trump.
01:01:56.000Now, the prices have trickled up a bit in the last few months because of the higher energy prices.
01:02:02.000But I always say, yeah, are you angry about prices?
01:02:05.000Are you angry about what it costs to go to the grocery store?
01:02:08.000And you should be blaming Biden for that, not Trump.
01:02:12.000In fact, in Trump's first term, we had record low inflation.
01:02:15.000So it's really important for Republicans to make that message all the time and to connect the dots between it didn't just happen by coincidence.
01:02:25.000Why did we see the inflation go up to as high as 9% under Biden, the worst record since Jimmy Carter was in office?
01:02:33.000And that happened because Biden came in and spent and borrowed and printed $4 trillion.
01:03:09.000Well, so, you know, I was in my teens in the 70s, and I arrived in Washington in the early 80s when Reagan was president.
01:03:18.000And it took Reagan about 18 months to get the, I mean, he succeeded three of the worst presidents in American history, Nixon, Ford, and Carter.
01:03:27.000And so it took, it takes a while to, but here's the thing.
01:03:31.000And I think this is exactly what's going to happen to Trump.
01:03:46.000And Reagan's up saying, no, stay the course, stay the course, stay the course.
01:03:49.000And by the beginning of 1983. we had the biggest economic boom in American history.
01:03:55.000It was what the Wall Street Journal called the seven-year boom.
01:04:00.000And I think we could see that under Trump.
01:04:03.000As soon as we get oil prices down, I think you could see one of the great economic booms like we had in the 80s.
01:04:10.000When I came to Washington, the Dow Jones was at 1,000.
01:04:13.000As soon as the Reagan boom started, here we are at Dow 50,000.
01:04:17.000So I'm very bullish on the U.S. economy.
01:04:20.000If we can get a victorious And peaceful settlement there in the Middle East.
01:04:25.000Well, and Stephen, a lot of the reports right now is that corporate earnings are remaining high.
01:04:30.000That's why you're seeing the stock market go up.
01:04:34.000Are you seeing the economic underlying data that says that that is getting to the people, that we're seeing that in higher wages, whatever?
01:04:42.000In fact, we do a report every month at Unleash Prosperity that we give the data about six months before anybody else reports it.
01:04:51.000So in Trump's first term, we saw a $6,000 after inflation increase in median income in the United States.
01:05:00.000That was the fastest growth of median income in terms of dollar amount in history.
01:05:05.000And then through 2025, Trump's first year of his second term, we saw a $2,500 increase in real median income above inflation.
01:05:16.000So yeah, Trump is now in the last couple of months, inflation has gone up.
01:05:21.000So wages have fallen a little bit behind.
01:05:24.000But once we get inflation back down to 2%, I think you're going to see a real boom, what Reagan used to call a rising tide that will lift all boats.
01:05:33.000Stephen Moore, co founder, and I mean, honestly, Unleashed Prosperity is a great resource.
01:06:17.000It seems like the blockade is working, but the Iranians are not just bailing on their aspirations to maintain a grip on power or to stop being a thorn in America's side.
01:06:30.000Split of this war, actually, when you read about it, it's we obviously have way more resources, we have way more weapons, we can essentially bomb them at will, we can kill their leadership at will, but it's one of the most asymmetric conflicts ever in terms of commitment on each side.
01:06:50.000And that's what balances out that we have vastly more ability to project force on them, but actual enthusiasm for the conflict is very low with half the country and even with the part that's in favor of it.
01:07:02.000It's not that they were chomping at the bit for the conflict, it seems.
01:07:05.000And then on the flip side, Iran, they're dying in large numbers.
01:07:09.000They're not really able to strike us, but it's an ideological conflict of such intensity that it does seem a lot of them have decided they'll just handle whatever pain it takes and they'll just hope, you know, maybe we'll get a better deal in a year or a better deal in three years or maybe it just doesn't matter.
01:07:36.000So I'm beginning to become convinced that this conflict will not come to any sort of pure, clear, clean resolution with the regime that's currently in power remaining in power.
01:08:22.000They're probably traumatized from 42,000 other protesters being killed.
01:08:26.000And then on top of all of this, we have the Chinese aspect, right?
01:08:31.000So President Trump is going to be traveling to meet with Xi over in China, and apparently he's going to be bringing Fink.
01:08:38.000Elon Musk, Tim Cook, and about 15 other industries, titans from the United States, talking about AI, talking about trade.
01:08:48.000There's a new Wall Street Journal report that President Trump might be importing more beef to help lower prices on beef.
01:08:55.000It is a very tricky set of variables that President Trump is trying to navigate because, on the one hand, he's got to bring down prices for affordability, he's got to show economic advancements and progress, but he's got these.
01:09:08.000International, I guess, you know, issues that we still have to work out in order to get forward progress in those areas.
01:09:16.000Well, it's such an interesting thing with him bringing those industry leaders because it gets at the double edged nature of this, which is President Trump wants to bring up American industry.
01:09:24.000He wants America to be economically powerful and not just rich, but specifically productive.
01:09:31.000That's why we have all the tariffs, he wants to bring manufacturing back to the United States.
01:09:34.000He wants things made in America, done in America, very old fashioned, but I think.
01:09:39.000In my opinion, I think you would agree, the correct view that a nation is not strong unless it is actually wielding the elements of strength.
01:09:46.000We can't just import everything from China.
01:09:48.000And yet, those business leaders who are the best manifestations we have of that are probably the ones who are also lobbying him the hardest to lower those tariff barriers because it's always that temptation.
01:10:01.000It'll actually work out better for us if we have more trade with China, if we offshore more things to China, if we build more things in China.
01:10:24.000So we want to lower the affordability issue.
01:10:27.000Again, Stephen Moore just said that 80% of the affordability issue was created because of Joe Biden's terrible policies.
01:10:34.000I think that's a really important talking point, and I want you all to log that.
01:10:37.00080% of the affordability crisis that we are currently experiencing for blue collar working class people in this country was created as a direct result of Biden's policies.
01:10:46.000But so then you inherit these problems where your population is suffering under a mountain of affordability issues, housing, health care, education.
01:10:55.000How much can you push the envelope to achieve long term beneficial goals, namely tariffs, right?
01:11:01.000If you're tariffing goods that are hollowing out your working class, your industrial base, how much pain can the population take to achieve a long term end?
01:11:09.000That is the conundrum that you're in when you inherit such a mess from the previous administration without getting saddled with it politically.
01:11:33.000He often takes the short term view of politics, which I think is innate to his attitude.
01:11:36.000If you read The Art of the Deal, he says, I don't get too high or too low because everything can change in a moment.
01:11:43.000And so I think he thinks, I should focus on short term stuff because I have no idea what the future is going to be.
01:11:47.000So you might as well do what makes sense now.
01:11:49.000And tariffs are actually one of the big exceptions to that, where he really is taking the long view.
01:11:54.000It's the thing he's most committed to, it's the thing that he plows ahead on despite opposition from his own party, from his own base, from his own economic advisors.
01:12:04.000He's most fervently committed to that.
01:12:06.000It's like the thing he believes in the most.
01:12:12.000For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to charliekirk.com.