00:02:41.540But in other pictures, the Daily Mail got its hands on. You can you can see him in his tight little leggings trying to look like a woman, but like a freak woman.
00:02:54.040The Daily Mail reports that it has reviewed hundreds of messages involving Brian and three women from the so-called bimbofication fetish area of the Internet.
00:03:10.120I don't know how he finds them, but this is where performers receive outrageously large breast enhancements to obtain a Barbie doll-like look.
00:03:21.020And I guess he's been paying them to show it off for him, and then he returns the favor in kind.
00:03:28.860And it's relevant. It's it's obviously very salacious, but it's relevant because the reason if we had known this, she never would have been confirmed for this post is it makes her subject to blackmail.
00:03:47.300It makes her subject to blackmail because if the Daily Mail can find these pictures and this fetish by her married husband, so can our adversaries.
00:04:01.040And who knows who could go to Kristi Noem when she was DHS secretary and say, you will do the following things or we will run to the New York Times with these photos.
00:04:11.740One of the models who messaged with Brian told the Daily Mail, quote, his kink is for huge, huge, ridiculous boobs.
00:04:41.740I'm sorry, but it's just so absurd what, like, the ubiquitous nature of porn on the internet.
00:04:53.580You know, it's not like when it used to be, like, Playboy and Penthouse and, like, a man would see a couple dirty pictures and read a dirty forum and move on with his business.
00:05:05.020Like it's everywhere. It's everywhere. And any kink you have can be indulged, including like this. I mean, this is a form of cheating. There's no question. Like, ladies, can you imagine if you found out your husband was doing this? And he's not just looking at photos. He's interacting with the so-called bimbos, as I espoused here, quoting him.
00:05:29.200How are your boobs? Would you go even bigger? Yeah, I'd consider that cheating. He's clearly
00:05:33.440getting off to the sight of these women who have just mutilated themselves for the pleasure of
00:05:41.700random strangers online. And then he's returning the favor. He's doing it himself. Like that's a
00:05:50.840totally different fetish where then you've got to do it. That's autogynephilia. That's what most
00:05:57.500of these trannies have where you get off. It's a sexual fetish. How many times have we discussed
00:06:02.280this? You, you get your rocks off dressing like a woman and then so much the better if other women
00:06:09.600are around you or see you doing it. That's clearly one strain of what Christy Noem's husband
00:06:15.580apparently has. And don't tell me it's just the Daily Mail and we don't know because she's just
00:06:21.400confirmed it. Okay. This is, this story's real. We're going to have to deal with this because
00:06:26.700she's still in the government. She's not in our DHS post, but she's been offloaded to this new
00:06:31.740commission that the president created, and she's serving there right now. Brian telling this one
00:06:38.500model that the Daily Mail made contact with that she inspired him to dress like a girl. Quote,
00:06:45.920you turn me into a girl. Should I put on leggings? No, for the love of God, do not put on the
00:06:51.880leggings because those pictures may be even more disturbing than the enormous fake breast Kayla
00:06:57.460Lemieux wannabe photos. I mean, honestly, that's what he looks like. That level of breast enhancement
00:07:03.820and perversion, though he's not wearing a wig. And by the way, his face is all over the photos.
00:07:10.640He's not even trying to hide his identity as the spouse of the Department of Homeland Security
00:07:17.100chief. Here he is in another one of his little outfits with the same giant fake breasts giving
00:07:24.180a kissy face. Is that what that is? I don't like, he does the closeup of the fake breasts.
00:07:29.120And then is it a kissy face? Abigail Finan and I were debating it backstage where Abby made more
00:07:36.440just like a sourpuss, but I don't know. I don't know what that is, but I can speak for all women
00:07:42.880in America when I say we don't want to see our husband doing it. I mean, I feel for Kristi Noem.
00:07:48.540It's it puts a totally different spin on the affair she's allegedly been having with Corey
00:07:55.180Lewandowski. Who could blame her? Who could blame her? It feels almost noble at this point. I mean,
00:08:02.260like, it's not noble. I mean, they're both married and have children and all the bit. I'm just saying
00:08:07.760it definitely gives a different look at it because you never know what's going on in someone's
00:08:12.420marriage. Now I'll get to what she's saying. She's, she's suggesting she didn't know. So I
00:08:18.640guess technically it wouldn't justify the affair, but even if you don't know, don't you know, as a,
00:08:24.440as a, as a wife, you know, I had a dear, dear friend who had a husband who cheated on her
00:08:31.780for years, years and years and years and years and years. And she finally found out when one
00:08:37.740of the women came forward to her. And my friend didn't know, like we were all shocked, but my
00:08:45.480friend had been manifesting, I think, knowing without knowing in multiple health problems
00:08:52.100and stress and anxiety that had been plaguing her. I really think it's very hard for a spouse
00:08:59.160to get away with this for years, for, you know, who knows how many years this has been going on
00:09:05.340with him without the other spouse having something internal tell them something is off.
00:09:13.000I just, maybe I'm just telling myself that, that you'd know, because we all want to think
00:09:22.020A PayPal account associated with this Jason Jackson, again, that's Brian, would regularly
00:09:27.400send the woman money in installments, typically between $500 and $1,000.
00:09:31.960That's your tax money going to use there.
00:09:35.340In total, he allegedly paid the models at least $25,000.
00:09:40.720The Daily Mail got in touch with Brian, and he did not notably deny having explicit online conversations with these so-called Barbie or bimbo, bimbifications,
00:09:52.680and nor of sharing photos of himself dressed as these so-called bimbos.
00:09:58.840So he did deny the notion that Kristi Noem could have been blackmailed over it.
00:10:04.800OK, well, he doesn't know. I mean, that's not deniable. That's for us to decide whether she was subjected to black, could have been subjected to blackmail over it. But he did not deny that it was him. So, you know, it's a scoop by the Daily Mail. And it turns out, you know, the right wing may have its own Kayla Lemieux, though I don't think we own Brian. No, I.
00:10:27.380But this is Kayla. Maybe the two of them can meet up. He, Kayla, is a male, was the Canadian teacher
00:10:36.000who wore the fake Z-cut breasts in school. Take a look at them side by side. They're basically
00:10:41.200twins. They're twinning. There's like, there's enough breasts between these two to take up an
00:10:47.860entire aisle at the grocery store. You think you, like the chicken breast, nothing. This is pounds
00:10:54.540and pounds of breast. I don't know what was Kinkala's fake boobs, but we are told that Brian's
00:11:00.700is balloons. That's how it looks. And now we get a comment from, from Kristi Noem,
00:11:10.340who tells the New York Post, she's devastated by these allegations. It's someone,
00:11:18.560some representative of her saying, she is devastated. The family was blindsided by this.
00:11:25.060They asked for privacy and prayers at this time. I mean, she's got them. She's got them.
00:11:29.740This is not what you want to see if you are married to anyone to find out that this level
00:11:35.840of betrayal has happened. This speaks to somebody's entire character. The fetish, yes,
00:11:40.100but the lying, the deceit, the money, the getting off with another person, not your spouse,
00:11:45.840all of it, is very dark and dirty and disgusting. And I'm sure whenever she found out, whether it
00:11:53.840was today or previously, I'm sure it's made her skin crawl, like it's making our skin crawl.
00:12:01.360And just what an incredibly reckless risk for her husband to have taken, given the position
00:12:09.240she just held for the first year of the Trump administration. It's not the president's fault.
00:13:35.600It really does make you wonder what causes a fetish like this in somebody.
00:13:39.220You know, I remember Deborah So came on the podcast early on before we even had video.
00:13:43.640And she's a specialist in this kind of thing, in these sex fetishes.
00:13:47.360And she really thinks that they should be normalized and that we shouldn't stigmatize them.
00:13:51.920I mean, this is a different scenario, given Christy's role, given the money that changed hands, given the fact that she's saying this was a secret from her.
00:13:58.160but okay, let's say it wasn't a secret
00:19:34.880I mean, it's it's so erratic that even Fox News, the biggest cheerleader of this war by far, is starting to ask some questions.
00:19:45.480Watch. If we cannot come to some type of peace deal with people who can't be trusted, then what?
00:19:52.160Well, looks like the U.S. is going to escalate.
00:19:54.780President Trump is already warning of widespread further damage, threatening to hit electric generating plants, oil wells and Carg Island, as he's reportedly considering sending ground troops in to secure the uranium.
00:20:12.080Now, knowing what little time we have and how quickly this can spiral out of control, we still have a lot of questions.
00:20:18.500For instance, was the president fully briefed about the risks of all of this from the beginning?
00:20:27.000And was he then able to take it all in and understand the complexity of this, how complex it could actually get, and further possibilities of casualties or other damage, the difficulty of dealing with these people?
00:20:40.160Or was he told this would be relatively quick in and out?
00:20:44.620Here to react to all of this and more is Brandon Weikert. He's senior national security editor of
00:20:50.8401945.com and host of NatSec Talk on Rumble. Brandon, great to have you. Thanks for being
00:20:56.980here. So let's just start with the disparate messaging on whether the Strait of Hormuz
00:21:03.460must be open or closed or something in between in order for us to end this war.
00:21:09.340Well, thanks for having me. It's good to be here. And it's pretty interesting watching this
00:21:14.440You know, will they won't they open the strait when, as you know, 20 percent of not just the energy sources, but key fertilizers, helium that's needed for the production of silicon based semiconductors, which is the basis of this A.I. tech boom that that's really keeping the U.S. and Western economy afloat right now.
00:21:37.740So the president is saying, he's sort of going, eh, not my problem.
00:21:42.220And that's interestingly what Yaakov Armador, the former national security advisor to Benjamin Netanyahu, told me last Monday on another network.
00:21:49.500It's not their problem, but ultimately it's the whole world's problem if the Iranians keep this thing closed, and they're going to.
00:21:56.960So, you know, the president can say that, but then you look at what's going on, Megan, with the troop movements
00:22:02.860And the way that the U.S. military is still engaged, despite having won the war, supposedly, it sounds to me a lot like we are getting ready to make a move.
00:22:13.720And unfortunately, I think it's going to be a disaster with U.S. ground troops going in somewhere in Iran.
00:22:19.980But the Strait of Kormuz remaining closed in about 48 hours.
00:22:26.260Asia starts running out of oil that they've had stockpiled.
00:22:30.160And we start running out of oil in terms of what we brought in from overseas April 15th.
00:22:35.920So unless that thing gets reopened soon, everybody's going to feel the pinch in the next 48 hours.
00:22:42.080So, Brandon, you think he is going to he's still determined to go in with ground troops because yesterday we had on Professor Pape who said, don't look at just the troops being sent over.
00:22:51.500Look at all these supporting operations that we're sending in to support the troops.
00:22:55.660Right. But Trump is now starting to talk more like you and me. Yeah. You know, about wanting to wrap it up. So I have a glimmer of hope. Right. He talked about that before as well, though. I mean, we were all hoping that he would supposedly taco, you know, out of the the initial airstrikes because we'd love the taco taco Tuesday. Who doesn't love it?
00:23:15.960um and uh you know but then he ended up still going ahead with the airstrike uh that started
00:23:22.580this whole war uh you know so we have these periods where it looks like trump's going to
00:23:27.200negotiate possibly and get find a golden off-ramp and then that turns out to be not accurate or that
00:23:33.940ends up being a ruse so i think the same pattern is at play here where he's saying something to
00:23:39.920keep try to keep the markets calm it's not working like it used to by the way uh and he's saying
00:23:44.740something to try to keep the adversaries off balance and to try to keep as many people on
00:23:50.200board with what he's doing until he thinks he can get that final kill shot in. Except we've been
00:23:55.700looking for a final kill shot for the last 30 days. It ain't coming up because the Iranians
00:24:00.700figured out our war plan years ago and they've decentralized their capabilities and their
00:24:06.460leadership and they've hardened them. And so whether we're landing on Karg Island or somewhere
00:24:11.400along the Iranian coast to try to force open the Hormuz, the Strait of Hormuz, which will
00:24:16.280be like Gallipoli in World War I, which will end in a disaster for the United States Armed
00:24:20.540Forces, or if we have this sort of weird uranium Tom Clancy style hunt in the middle of the
00:24:27.340Iranian heartland, either way, this is going to end in a disaster for the United States
00:26:40.000And we haven't yet determined whether we're doing the Tom Clancy operation or not.
00:26:45.620Well, if I were a parent of someone about to deploy, I'd be very worried that that's what the commander in chief is talking like on the eve of what will be a major ground combat operation.
00:26:55.120Operation I think this is this is a very serious thing the president is talking about doing and he doesn't
00:27:02.080Seem at least in public to be taking it very seriously
00:27:05.240But every time that we turn around there's an escalation from us
00:27:09.960Against Iran. I think it's important to note. We don't like the Iranian regime. They support terrorism
00:27:18.120But ultimately as you noted the Iranians were not going to war with us before we attacked them
00:27:24.600and every time the Americans and or Israelis have escalated up the escalation ladder only at that
00:27:33.180point do the Iranians counterpunch which is how we're in the position we're now in where the
00:27:39.120entire Middle East is a battlefield remember this was supposed to be really a 96-hour pinprick
00:27:44.240strike against the leadership it was going to fold after that just like Maduro's regime supposedly
00:27:49.820folded. And then the people of Iran were going to rise up in 96 hours after the bombs fell on
00:27:55.100Kamani's head. And it was going to be great. And Trump was going to look like a hero. And we
00:27:58.780wouldn't even be talking about this come March. Well, here we are now in March and going into
00:28:03.840April. And we are having this conversation now. I think the bottom line here is the I don't even
00:28:10.480think it's about the uranium. My personal view is that the Israelis don't either. Yeah, I think
00:28:15.700the Israelis wanted this. I think they pressured Trump. I think that our friend Joe Kent gave a
00:28:20.820very good description in his resignation letter about the echo chamber that had formed around
00:28:26.480Trump. I think the president is surrounded by advisors who are George W. Bush acolytes.
00:28:31.760They're from that era of the Republican Party. There are very few MAGA voices,
00:28:35.920America First voices around him. And I think that he's listening to all these inputs,
00:28:40.620just like during COVID. He's listening to Fauci. He's listening to Birx. He's listening to all
00:28:45.400the people who have the wrong ideas and who are not on his side. It's the same thing here. And
00:28:49.860now here we are where he's flailing around, frankly, trying to find how do I win this thing?
00:28:55.820Well, there's no victory here. So how do I get out of this without looking bad and making our
00:29:00.560position worse? Well, unfortunately, the only thing he can think to do is to keep escalating.
00:29:04.760And Megan, that's why I say, I think we're going to see ground troops soon. And I'm going to go
00:29:08.960one more. I said this on another show. I'm going to say it here. I am convinced that in a couple
00:29:13.580weeks as soon as a couple weeks we might actually see uh nuclear weapons being deployed not by the
00:29:19.200united states but either by israel and or the iranian regime which i believe probably has
00:29:25.720a handful of rudimentary nuclear weapons that they've been playing with
00:29:29.200i mean i was comforted by professor pape suggesting israel knows not to do that because
00:29:35.380He was saying they know that not the entire Middle East hates them, but if they drop a
00:29:43.480nuke in Iran, the blowback of which will spread across the Middle East, they'll all turn on
00:29:49.180Israel, and it's only a country of 9 million people.
00:29:51.600It would just be too existential a risk for Israel to take.
00:29:54.640Yeah, but if you're sitting in Tel Aviv and you are in the Likud wing of that government,
00:30:00.540which is very fanatical um you're you might be looking around going hey look this is the use it
00:30:06.600or lose it moment the americans under trump can't be depended upon we have no idea whether trump is
00:30:12.040going to actually go forward with what he says or if he's just going to taco out and leave us
00:30:16.380holding a bag we can't carry that bag uh the iranians are actually going to walk away from
00:30:21.620this stronger now uh so we're going to have to do something to bring them down to size and that is
00:30:27.000why i'm fearful given the current government in israel that they might if they think that the
00:30:33.220americans either can't or will not be able to achieve some semblance of success on the ground
00:30:39.660that they will then just pop off some nukes and i think that's where this is headed and by the way
00:30:44.220if they do that i think at that point we're going to find out real quick whether iran
00:30:49.260has nukes or not because i think that they would retaliate in some way using whatever nuclear
00:30:54.480material they have yes it is it is not too crazy to say this thing could turn nuclear i mean that's
00:31:03.140what's really scary that this whole thing could turn nuclear and we may not we may not be in
00:31:07.860control especially if we leave if we i mean i want us to leave don't get me wrong but i want us to
00:31:11.640stand israel down too because if we leave and israel stays and feels like they're now exposed
00:31:16.100to a very angry hornet's nest in iran they may do it because they feel like they've left themselves
00:31:22.660with no choice, you know, that Israel may do it because Iran is now even more dangerous than ever
00:31:28.720if it does have a nuke that it wasn't using because the old Ayatollah, now dead, had a fatwa
00:31:33.160against it, but the new guy doesn't. And now they're very pissed and feeling defenseless.
00:31:38.380And Megan, you got to remember, we whacked not just the Ayatollah, Kamani, but we whacked a
00:31:43.980bunch of IRGC senior commanders. Well, now they're adjutants and the younger guys who are a lot more
00:31:51.560hot-headed than were their commanders have risen to positions of power, and you're witnessing them
00:31:57.480execute a very comprehensive, very methodical strategy of counterattack with these missiles
00:32:05.540and these hypersonic weapons and the drones. Here's some data points that I've been throwing
00:32:10.260out the last week. I just heard that we have officially expended one-third of our terminal
00:32:16.920high-altitude area defense, the THAAD, we've expended one-third of those interceptors in
00:32:24.600this month-long war alone. Those are the very important, high-powered, very expensive, I
00:32:31.040think they're about $12 billion a pop, air defense systems that we have ringing the Middle
00:32:36.600East. We've gone through one-third of those, and it will take about eight years if operations
00:32:41.720stop tomorrow. It will take eight years to replenish those numbers. The Royal United
00:32:46.920Services Institute, which is one of the oldest, I think it's the oldest think tank in the
00:32:51.040world, usually very pro-war, by the way, but they assessed last week that Israel is days
00:32:57.900away from running out of their important Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 exo-atmospheric interceptors.
00:33:04.600It's a very fancy way of saying they have interceptors in Israel they rely on that go
00:33:08.940high go fast and go far into the atmosphere into space to knock out incoming missiles well they're
00:33:14.460basically out of those which means they've got to wait for iranian missiles and other attack systems
00:33:19.980to get closer to their to their territory which of course increases the risk then you have also
00:33:25.900this report coming out saying that um uh we are about on the thad system we are about three weeks
00:33:33.580away from being totally empty uh on those thad uh interceptors for what we have in our current
00:33:38.940stockpiles we're already cannibalizing stockpiles from indopaycom uh which is a very important uh
00:33:45.500command for deterring china and we need the thads in place to deter china they are being depleted
00:33:51.180now and moved over to um the middle east so what we are witnessing is a race to depletion
00:33:57.260and it looks like to me the iranians are beating us in that all-important race to depletion
00:34:02.620which is why i think the americans and israelis are so spastically trying to up the escalation
00:34:09.900ladder because they figure well we're not doing well on this rung let's go up one higher and we
00:34:14.700can maybe outmaneuver them that way and and run them because otherwise if we keep doing this match
00:34:20.300tit for tat uh it's not going to end well i think the iranians probably have about 18 to 24 months
00:34:25.660left of missile um capabilities at least which is based on what just based on my own observations
00:34:32.380And based on what I've been looking at, if you look at the way that the Iranians have shifted their munitions packages, this is not a country that seems to be running low.
00:34:42.400I know Hegseth and the boys keep saying, oh, well, you know, he said that this morning.
00:34:47.120I know he's been saying this morning said the past 24 hours, the number of missiles went down to like 95 percent.
00:34:54.760Yes, that matches, though, if you look, this is my own assessment.
00:34:58.620so take from it what you will but if you take my assessment i think the reason you're seeing that
00:35:04.200that decline is not because they're they're reducing numbers too much i think it's because
00:35:09.420they recognize the americans and israelis have depleted for the most part their interceptor
00:35:14.340force so now we can conserve our fires there's there's this thing called conservation of fires
00:35:19.520and so the no professional military wants to waste ammunition no waste ordinance so the the
00:35:25.200Iranians are a professional military, and they're saying, okay, we've now depleted.
00:35:29.240We don't have to send swarms as much anymore because the interceptors are now pretty much drained,
00:35:35.860and we can have our pick of the litter of targets,
00:35:38.100and we know that there is a higher probability of those systems making it through.
00:35:42.180That's why, by the way, you're now seeing the newer Iranian missiles being deployed,
00:35:46.680these multiple independently targeted reentry vehicles where you have one missile
00:35:50.840and then multiple warheads that separate over the target makes it harder for interceptors to hit.
00:35:56.640That's why you're seeing them deploy these hypersonic weapons.
00:35:59.340You're seeing them deploy the Karamshar, which is a very complex system.
00:36:04.060In the beginning of the war, Megan, they were using their old 10-year-old missile systems,
00:36:09.620rudimentary systems, to just drain us dry.
00:36:12.480Now they're up the escalation ladder, and they're using their more sophisticated systems
00:36:16.940to really slam targets in Israel and throughout the Arab states.
00:36:20.840And I think that's because they know that the American and Israeli stockpiles are drastically depleted, and they don't have to expend as much ammo.
00:36:30.480That is very scary when you think, well, I mean, basically in Israel, the Iron Dome has got big holes in it now.
00:36:36.160It's got big holes, and they also punched those radars.
00:36:38.360So remember, we had installed billions of dollars worth of early warning air defense radars in places like Bahrain, in places like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, etc.
00:36:48.460And what were among the first target packages that the Iranians fired and they destroyed were those expensive radars, which is why now we're having to flood in these sentry planes.
00:36:59.820And, of course, the Iranians have apparently very good intelligence because last weekend they blew up our spy planes that came in, our radar planes that came into Saudi Arabia the minute they parked at the tarmac, which means they have actionable intel, live intel.
00:37:15.260I'm sure the Russians and Chinese are helping them as well.
00:37:17.860But they yes, they've also got locals on the ground. The Iranians have really good human intelligence, notably in Bahrain
00:37:23.740Which is mostly Shiite and that's why you're seeing those precision strikes with the drones against the Hilton Hotel
00:37:29.980Where so many of our of our troops and our CIA and intelligence people
00:37:34.860They moved out of the base that's destroyed there and they moved into these hotels
00:37:39.040Well, it turns out I think the locals at the hotels and the drivers are calling up Iranian
00:37:44.700In in intelligence operatives saying they're at they're on the eighth floor in the corner of this building send your drone there
00:37:51.140And so we have a problem where the people of the region are turning against us as well
00:37:55.940This is going south very fast, which is what gets me thinking
00:37:59.900Not only is this not going to end anytime soon, but we're going up the escalation ladder with troops that ain't gonna work
00:38:49.240And, you know, obviously, we know that Netanyahu was chief among them.
00:38:53.380He was probably the biggest cheerleader.
00:38:54.720But we know there were a lot of Fox News personalities who got into the president's ear.
00:38:58.800And then we talked briefly about how the president pushed to Mark Levin's show on Saturday night,
00:39:05.140where my friend, who I really care for, Mark Thiessen, said the following.
00:39:10.500And, you know, like, I can't see a world in which this happens, but Mark is very smart.
00:39:17.740So you tell me your take on this prediction.
00:39:20.900I've never seen a war where the Democrats turned against the war on day one and are rooting for defeat.
00:39:28.440You know, there are people in this country who hate Donald Trump more than they hate the Iranian regime that just massacred 32,000 people in their streets.
00:39:36.980You know, they were all very upset about about what was happening in Gaza, but 32000 people massacred.
00:39:43.980And then Donald Trump comes in to wipe out the genocidal regime that actually was committing genocide against its own people, massacring them in the streets like that.
00:39:52.420And because it's Donald Trump, we have to play it down. We have to say it's a defeat.
00:39:56.800We have to say we're losing and they're all going to have egg on their face because we got we're about halfway through this thing.
00:40:01.540And when this is all over, this is going to be go down in history as possibly the greatest military campaign the United States has waged since the American Revolution.
00:40:11.560Since the American Revolution, your thoughts on it?
00:40:14.260Well, that's to be expected from Don Rumsfeld's former speechwriter, I guess.
00:40:20.820You know, this is this is the same Pollyanna ish predictions we were hearing in Iraq.
00:40:27.280I just remind everybody Iraq was actually supposed to take a few weeks and then we were supposed to be out
00:40:33.740In fact, I know for a fact Rumi had the the plan for the exit was September
00:40:39.580Oh three the last tranche of US forces were supposed to be pulled out of Baghdad International Airport
00:40:45.620And that's so that's when did we launch we launched it March this this month actually ironically this month
00:41:10.440So, you know, Mark Thiessen may be a nice guy.
00:41:12.480I used to see him bouncing around Old Town Alexandria when I lived out there.
00:41:15.760uh but ultimately mark is not the guy to listen to on anything related to war with all due respect
00:41:22.780well he he's a wonderful guy and he's very smart and i i will say this he's completely sincere in
00:41:28.800his analysis i'm sure he is like yeah he became a star on the kelly files we used to open our show
00:41:33.760with him every night he could talk he's a nice guy i'm not attacking him personally yeah no no i
00:41:37.900know i know i know i just like i i don't since the american revolution seems like a stretch to
00:41:42.940And I think that the problem is like President Trump was pushing people to watch that.
00:41:47.560And clearly President Trump watched that.
00:41:49.200And back to Laura Ingraham's question about like who's been in his ear and what have they been telling him that led him to completely reverse himself on his promises of no war, no Middle East war.
00:41:59.720And all the millions of tweets we've seen circulating from Donald Trump, you know, repeatedly saying it's so dumb to get involved in the Middle East war.
00:46:28.700I've spoken to many people at Fox who've told me that administration figures will come to them saying, please put me on because I have something the president has to hear.
00:46:38.620and also if their fortunes are dwindling they want a hit like on fox and friends for example
00:46:44.800because they want to show i'm on tv see i'm relevant i'm making your points yeah they know
00:46:50.520the shows he watches and they try very hard to get on them but look we know that the case was
00:46:55.900made because we know that tucker carlson got in front of him three times in the month leading up
00:46:59.420to this war and you know just he wasn't persuaded so but there were just so many other voices it was
00:47:05.180nine to one, you know, that he was listening to pushing him into it. Not to take agency away from
00:47:09.700the president at all, but I do think a full assessment. I agree. We know Trump made the
00:47:13.440call. That's not a mystery, but who pushed him into it, who made these representations
00:47:17.480also matters. It's the famous bubble. When you work in DC, I worked on the Hill for a period of
00:47:22.680time and you work in the white house. It's even worse. I'm sure you get into a bubble and you
00:47:27.320know, you're always taking incoming. So you only start listening to friendly voices. And, uh, you
00:47:33.280know i will tell you i remember being mortified listening to dan crenshaw at a private event in
00:47:38.9602018 where we were at at capitol hill club and he was gloating about how he ted cruz and lindsey
00:47:46.080graham convinced the president to break his 2016 campaign promise to keep to pull troops out of
00:47:52.280syria and he was gloating at the table about how and i said well how how did you even get him to
00:47:57.380do that because I was very cross. And he said, well, he goes, we just appealed to his ego. He
00:48:05.240has the ego the size of Jupiter. And he said, and we just kept appealing until after two hours in
00:48:10.200the yellow oval office, he said, we all just got him to break that campaign promise. It's the same
00:48:17.700thing with this war. Same thing. I mean, I'm thinking about Joe Kent's wife, his first wife
00:48:22.900who was killed in Syria because she was left there
00:48:25.840and he had said to her in the last conversation,
00:48:28.100don't be the last one to die for a cause
00:50:24.460The feeling was the exact opposite of the rotational units year after year in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that we're so familiar with.
00:50:48.640This fight is long overdue. We need to address it for our kids. We cannot pass the buck. Please thank the president from us. I heard that time and time again.
00:51:03.000Okay. That was Pete Hegseth, our Secretary of War. Like, to me, I just, it sounded like a Jack
00:51:09.360Nicholson impression. I just, of course, the men and women in uniform speaking to the Secretary of
00:51:16.720War are going to say that. That doesn't tell us whether this is, in fact, a noble cause or whether
00:51:22.840it was smart for the United States of America to do in the first place. I care for Pete, as you
00:51:29.400know i backed pete but this like bravado is not going to get it done we actually need to be very
00:51:34.920serious and sober about the risks we're exposing he and the president are exposing those men and
00:51:41.820women who are so courageous to and and for whom are we doing that uh brandon weichert is back with
00:51:48.740me now your thoughts on that brandon uh well i call him pollyanna pete for a reason and i say
00:51:53.680this because i was a like you a very firm supporter of his uh i actually got a lot of
00:51:59.480pushback from friends of mine in the defense community who were like why is why is this guy
00:52:03.080becoming secretary i said look i think he has some great ideas and to give credit where credit is due
00:52:08.300he's done a lot of good work with until now with recruitment and he's done a lot of good work with
00:52:13.800acquisitions reform now acquisitions reform has been my great bugaboo for a decade so i give credit
00:52:20.100to to to mr hegg said but on the war he's pollyanna pete and uh unfortunately we don't need that right
00:52:27.220now we don't need a mindless cheerleader we need someone who understands strategy ends ways and
00:52:32.820means and as i noted at the beginning our strategy in this war megan makes and as you noted makes no
00:52:39.140sense you saw in the previous hour you played rubio's clip rubio's now emphasizing oh we got
00:52:44.020rid of the iranian navy and the air force that was never a significant threat the iranian navy
00:52:49.060i mean and also the iraqi navy the other problem with that is we learned we learned in our 20 years
00:52:55.540in the middle east in iraq and afghanistan that it's not about that right it's great okay iran
00:52:59.920no longer has the navy and the air force that's that's better than than them having it but that's
00:53:04.200not how these guys fight right that that's not the thing that's right kills americans and makes
00:53:08.680the war go on and on and on it's like the mujahideen the fighters the like ongoing jihad
00:53:14.200from the like yeah the caves that's what we've proven we've learned nothing from 20 not inept
00:53:21.720at fighting but it's a very much it's a very difficult fight for us well no you're right and
00:53:25.860what we're facing is yet another and it's it's different because it is more of a state actor but
00:53:31.020it's a hybrid model we're facing yet another uh insurgency and that's basically what this is this
00:53:36.280is the unconventional insurgent model and i got to tell you the iranians are reminding me a lot
00:53:41.320of the Muj, and they're reminding me a lot of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese,
00:53:46.580who, remember the North Vietnamese, after the Battle of Ayah Drang, or into the Battle
00:53:50.600of Ayah Drang, the first major battle we fought in Vietnam in 1965, the general there was
00:53:59.200saying that we want to kill Americans, we're welcoming the Americans, we want them to land
00:54:02.980so we can bloody their nose, and it's interesting, President Pazeshkian of Iran, who by the way
00:54:09.100was raised among the Kurds, the Kurds that supposedly
00:54:11.200were going to overthrow the regime, interesting
00:54:35.040reason they're being so cagey about whether
00:54:37.160they're negotiating or whether they want an end to this war in which we're killing lots of them
00:54:41.940every day clearly we are look how many vietnamese we feel like they can outweigh us they're like we
00:54:47.700don't really care we want you to feel the pain that's right economically we want president trump
00:54:51.940to feel the pain politically we want gas prices to go up and for you to get the message that this
00:54:57.780is a freaking disaster for you and it is and the iranians like i said so you know the iranian
00:55:04.320strategy i've said this on other i said this on tucker show i'll say it here because it needs to
00:55:07.480be constantly reminded von klauswitz the great prussian leader in the napoleonic war wrote a
00:55:13.460book called on war it's required reading at all the military colleges around the west and he said
00:55:18.020essentially politics is an extension i'm sorry warfare is an extension of politics through other
00:55:22.120means you have to have a political end goal in mind that your military strategy is attempting
00:55:27.920to achieve in our case what is our end goal it is shifted from regime change to we want to get rid
00:55:34.640of the nukes to we want to get rid of ballistic missiles in iran to oh we're going to sink the
00:55:38.640iranian navy sink the air force and oh by the way we're going to get them to stop supporting hamas
00:55:43.820and hezbollah so that's like six things that are kind of ambiguous and we've attached a an air
00:55:49.480force only an air war only approach you can't achieve those goals in a short time frame with
00:55:56.060air power alone. Meanwhile, on the Iranian side, Megan, their only strategic end goal,
00:56:01.660their political goal is survival, regime survival. That's all they have to do is hang on
00:56:06.820long enough for the Americans to run out of stuff and to run out of patience with fighting the war.
00:56:13.100Now, there is a chance. There is a chance now, because as we were talking in the first segment,
00:56:18.340I got a note from a retired CIA guy, and he says to me, quote, he goes, I think we might actually
00:56:25.700be thinking uh we need to be thinking the unthinkable that potus will actually leave
00:56:30.440the war with leaving by leaving the iranians in charge of the strait of hormuz so on the one hand
00:56:36.380oh i think that's what he's getting ready to do i hope that's how he sounds i hope you're right and
00:56:40.120i hope i think president trump has seen these numbers that we've been reporting on our show
00:56:43.780you know and i've been reporting them on x and i get all sorts of blowback brandon because my
00:56:48.020audience loves president trump for the most part but i was a three-time voter for you need to see
00:56:51.860this yeah but but even if you still love trump and you you know you want him to succeed he's got
00:56:57.040another three years to go you have to see these numbers you have to see what's real right it can
00:57:03.020still be potentially turned around there's no reason to double down on what we've already done
00:57:08.200if there's any way of wrapping it up quickly we should and i as i listen to president trump over
00:57:14.080the past 24 hours i think someone has seen the many harry enton reports the fox news polling
00:57:20.380the Quinnipiac polling, the Reuters polling, that Amherst polling that came out yesterday,
00:57:24.960putting his approval rating at 33%. The drag that this war on Iran has been across the board for
00:57:31.480every single group that put him into office. President Trump is brilliant. He is very smart
00:57:35.580when it comes to politics. And I think he's finally at the point where he's like, I'm out.
00:57:39.460You know what? F it. I'm out. It's Europe's problem. Somebody else can have to deal with it.
00:57:43.460The problem is, though, the enemy gets a vote. And like I said, Pazeshkin is talking about,
00:57:48.120I'm not going to let go now until I've bloodied your nose and the Israelis get a vote, too.
00:57:53.640And the Israelis are making it clear they're not going to stop.
00:57:56.900I mean, like I said last week, I talked to Yaakov Armador, who was he's still very much intimately involved with with Netanyahu.
00:58:03.720And he made it clear that the Israelis will only do what they think is in their national interest.
00:58:08.480They do not care if the Americans want to reopen or keep close the Strait of Hormuz.
00:58:12.840They do not care if the Americans bail out, they will do what they perceive is in their national interest
00:58:18.480So that to me was an implied statement that they will continue pressing
00:58:22.980Militarily knowing full well, it's probably gonna rope us back in not gonna let us go
00:58:27.600And so this is what I see which they want yes, which is why I said in the beginning. I'm very
00:58:33.520Doubtful that even if Trump wants to quit which he probably does at this point because like you said he's politically savvy
00:58:39.680he might not be able to this is the nature of what your previous guest mr dr pape was talking
00:58:45.460about with the escalation trap you are trapped now yep and so this is why here let me show you
00:58:51.840just one i mean we could we could play these harriet and sots all day let me show you one
00:58:55.440um sot 12 this is the lowest of his term the lowest of his second term we're talking about
00:59:01.300minus 17 points 17 points underwater so i went back and i looked at all of the presidents at
00:59:08.540this point in a presidency, all of them, all of them at this point in a presidency. And guess
00:59:13.320what? Donald Trump is the lowest ever, the lowest ever at this point in a presidency.
00:59:20.020Yeah. Today, he updated that to say it's actually low minus 19, not just minus 17.
00:59:27.440YouGov with his latest poll, Trump's approval among independents approved 22 percent,
00:59:32.280disapproved 65. The trend for independents in March of last year, 12 months ago,
00:59:37.760trump was one point underwater with independence which is very good in december of last year he was
00:59:43.280minus 26 he was already losing them because of affordability issues um and then march this month
00:59:50.640he's minused 43 with the independents who are worried about their money and do not support
00:59:58.460this war the independents there's almost none who are supporting this war right now and more and
01:00:03.460more you're seeing the republican party split the core magas for it but every other republican
01:00:07.880is at best split right down the middle which is exactly what happened in iraq and vietnam if you
01:00:12.700remember it started out strong support patriotism rally around the flag and a lot stronger support
01:00:18.780by the way in iraq in 03 than there was this time around in iran um but what happened was over the
01:00:23.840course of time and it wasn't in iraq in particular remember the first bombing on the airport road in
01:00:28.980Baghdad occurred I think six six or seven weeks after we invaded so that was relatively quickly
01:00:36.260that the war started the support started turning on the war uh because it was the first Arab you
01:00:41.380know the first marine that was killed was that 19 year old guy uh by the by the IED the improvised
01:00:46.540explosive device and from that day onward you can track the decline in support in the United
01:00:51.480States and the rise of the Democratic Party the return to power in 06 and that ultimately then
01:00:57.440laid the groundwork for the rise of Obama and really the unseating of that Reagan coalition
01:01:03.940that had dominated American politics since the 80s. And that really ended there with Obama. And
01:01:09.920that all goes back to the first bombing in Iraq in 2003. Something similar is going to happen,
01:01:16.600I think, in Iran. I just want to make it clear, by the way, the president can quit today if he
01:01:21.640wants. We don't know what that's going to mean in terms of, is Iran going to stop or what are
01:01:26.360the Israelis gonna do but even if it all works out according to plan the the time
01:01:30.800that it will be needed to restore economic capacity the time it will take
01:01:35.180to rehabilitate the destroyed infrastructure of the Gulf Arab states
01:01:39.860as well as Israel now the Gulf Arab states are more economically important
01:01:43.820because of the oil and the fertilizers and the heat the helium is the big one
01:01:47.360as well it's gonna take years and years I mean they put on force majeure in
01:01:54.320Qatar on five-year contracts for oil so that indicates to me that they're
01:01:58.340anticipating they don't have to honor them because of like a yes forgive me
01:02:02.300a massive intervention beyond their control so what that tells me is that
01:02:06.100the Arab states if it all goes according to plan and they quit the war now it
01:02:10.700doesn't matter we're not getting that economic capacity restored fully for
01:02:15.000months and months if not years and we saw this by the way when Trump finally
01:02:19.580reopened after lockdowns and COVID, it didn't matter. The economy did not rebound the way
01:02:25.220they said it was going to. Well, wait, but does this matter? Because, you know, Trump's been
01:02:28.800saying we don't get our oil from the Strait of Hormuz. So while, you know, Qatar may be suffering
01:02:32.980a, you know, a problem on its balance sheets, we'll be fine. It's important that we understand
01:02:38.760global markets. And I don't mean to sound like a jerk when I say that, because I understand people
01:02:44.320think in America, well, we have all the stuff we need under our feet. And it's true, we do,
01:02:48.460but we don't actually have full productive capacity here in the United States. And that
01:02:53.520is a business decision that has been made by various oil and natural gas and fracking companies
01:02:59.420because they want oil internationally in a price range. They like it. I think it's $66 to $88,
01:03:06.980preferably closer to $66. They like it in that sweet spot. So what happens if you overproduce
01:03:13.180at home uh your oil and your natural gas you're going to lower the global price of oil which means
01:03:19.420good for you and i at the pump but it's bad for those oil companies which have to see roi return
01:03:24.700on investment so when we talk about why is what's happening in the strait of hormuz affecting us here
01:03:30.380it's because we're integrated why is my why is my gas right more than a dollar right more a gallon
01:03:35.900than it was a month it's because we do not get all of our oil from our own not only north america but
01:03:42.300the western hemisphere and also even if we did we're still affected by volatility swings in the
01:03:48.940oil market so what that means is we are going to be subject to price increases and shortages here
01:03:55.260in the united states especially because we don't have full capacity the infrastructure is not in
01:04:00.700place and the oil companies don't want to spend the money on expanding infrastructure in the near
01:04:06.060term for a variety of reasons but mostly because that's going to harm their bottom line every
01:04:10.620quarter you know they have to post a return every quarter for their stockholders or their
01:04:14.740shareholders so it's not in their interest to do this long term it is but short term it's not and
01:04:20.000everything in america is about the short term and the number one thing that's upsetting voters here
01:04:25.160is the economy so the last thing we need to do is give them yet another hit in the economy we
01:04:30.500haven't even talked about the fact that war is costing us a billion dollars a day they want
01:04:34.000200 billion dollars to to fight this we can't afford that we can't afford to rebuild all of
01:04:38.600our military bases throughout the middle east we can't afford to replenish all these interceptors
01:04:44.040and so like we can't afford any of this but we're going to have to because we can't sit
01:04:47.700exposed without these things lest we we lest we get attacked but wait i want to ask you about
01:04:53.320something else brandon this just broke via the new york times it's it's related but not on the
01:04:58.180same exact topic um the revolutionary guards of iran just issued a threat against top american
01:05:04.340corporations, accusing them of helping the U.S. and Israel carry out strikes against Iranians.
01:05:08.460Quote, from now on, the main institutions involved in such operations will be considered
01:05:12.240legitimate targets, says the guard in a statement that named 18 companies, including Apple, Google,
01:05:18.080and Meta. The statement carried by Iranian state media called for employees of these companies,
01:05:24.020quote, in all countries of the region to evacuate their workplaces and stay a kilometer away from
01:05:28.980their officers. I think they mean offices. It was not the first time that Iran had threatened
01:05:33.520american tech companies earlier this month they they threatened wider attacks against enemy tech
01:05:37.640in infrastructure belonging to seven u.s tech firms they think the tech firms are helping are
01:05:42.740assisting in the conduct of this war now this is a direct threat against the people who work at
01:05:47.800their the branches anywhere in the region i mean that's not good either like we don't spend a lot
01:05:53.500of time talking about the satellite problems that this thing is going to cause beyond the gas so my
01:05:59.040My first book was on Space War. It was called Winning Space. It came out in 2020. And I talked about the threat to our space systems, which is still very underappreciated. Your audience might be aware of these fireballs in the skies over Texas and Ohio. Some of them are meteorites, but some of them, I think, are satellites being destroyed.
01:06:22.580Now, I don't have proof of this, but my theory is I think somebody is clipping SpaceX, possibly Starlink satellites.
01:06:32.300I hope that's incorrect. I hope that they can prove that is not correct.
01:06:36.280By clipping, you mean like tapping into?
01:06:40.500And I believe the reason that Starlink is a target now is because we know 40,000 Starlink terminals were uncovered in Iran during the protests by the Iranian regime.
01:06:50.880And they are now associating that as not a private satellite company providing internet to people around the world
01:06:58.200But as a backdoor way for regime change by the West using these decentralized
01:07:04.540Satellites in fact, we saw the Ukrainians in the Ukraine war at the beginning
01:07:08.880We're using Starlink to basically keep their units in the fight after the Russians attempted to de-link
01:07:15.280Ukraine from the world telecommunications networking yeah now today the Russians are using Starlink terminals as well
01:07:21.080So we're seeing Starlink increasingly used whether intentional or not by SpaceX. It's being used to
01:07:29.040You know in these combat situations or in these political situations, which is now in turn making it a target
01:07:35.640I think also there's probably some some anti-satellite warfare going on because I was told years ago
01:07:42.000go. There is a fear that the Iranians put a cluster of EMP satellites or satellites armed
01:07:47.500with electromagnetic pulse weapons above the United States. And I suspect we're probably taking those
01:07:53.240things down as a precautionary measure. But ultimately, I think that the businesses,
01:07:59.420particularly the tech companies that they're singling out, the Iranians believe, and it's not
01:08:03.900always wrong, that these tech companies in some way or members of these tech companies are
01:08:09.300for facilitating operations against the regime in Iran electronically.
01:08:38.380I want to see the complete reduction, if not complete pullout of U.S. military forces from the Middle East. We've lost this region. I want to see the reorganization of our defense apparatus so that we are prioritizing only two things, only two things, Western hemispheric defense plus space dominance.
01:08:59.240uh and that is the only things that we should be focused on uh patrolling the world's oceans and
01:09:04.740patrolling the world's you know straits and whatever sounded great in the 90s very alfred
01:09:10.420mahan you know influence of sea power upon history wonderful stuff but we are no longer a unipolar
01:09:17.240uh you know hegemon anymore we have blown that uh the economic situation alone for consistently
01:09:23.560many years indicates we can't afford that kind of an empire anymore what i want to do is focus on
01:09:29.800rebuilding america i want to focus on rebuilding the defense industrial base truly the industrial
01:09:35.480base i want to bring the factories home so you can't do those things if you are constantly
01:09:40.680engaged and exposed to the varying hostilities and grotesqueries of geopolitics in eurasia that's
01:09:48.680europe and asia and the middle east you can't do it you've got to be hard about this and say we're
01:09:54.440getting out and i can't think of a greater example of why we need to get out than looking at how
01:09:59.880boxed in we are by the iranians of all people you know they spend a fraction on their defense
01:10:05.480budget than we do uh also you know we well but wait but wait we're boxed in by the iranians
01:10:11.800We're boxed in by Israel who saw all of this coming and couldn't have cared less what this
01:10:26.020But of course, if you look at what's going on in Israel now, I don't think in another
01:10:29.160decade Israel is going to be a real country anymore.
01:10:31.460I think that they have been completely smashed.
01:10:34.540If you look at Tel Aviv, the footage, you have to go to foreign sources because of course
01:10:38.220our own censorious media won't cover the story.
01:10:41.800But if you go to some of these foreign networks in India and elsewhere, you will see the real footage being revealed on social media, on their networks.
01:10:51.580You know, these Iranian missiles are nothing to joke about.
01:10:54.420They're very serious and they're doing a lot of damage.
01:10:56.820You're talking about, you know, their key ports, Haifa's getting hit.
01:11:01.160ELAT has been blockaded on and off for years.
01:11:04.640They've had an economic downturn because of this.
01:11:07.220You look at the hundreds of thousands of professional class people who are getting their passports and going to places like Cyprus or Crete or Malta or London or Canada or here back in the United States.
01:11:34.040They've lost over 100 of their Merkava.
01:11:35.400A million people have been displaced out of Lebanon because Netanyahu saw an opportunity to clear out Hezbollah and anything related to Hezbollah.
01:11:43.260But the civilians are being killed there, too.
01:11:45.900And they're promising to do there what they did in Gaza, which is very scary.
01:11:50.440Yeah, I don't think it's going to be a viable entity much longer.
01:12:05.400And it's like, this was, it didn't have to happen. I'm not defending Iran, not defending, I mean, we all can't stand Iran. It's like, okay, we know what they've done. They have been, you know, popping up here and there periodically over the course of the past 40, 50 years. And they are responsible for American blood and treasure being spilled. There's no question, but more, more got spilled just this week.
01:12:27.380And it's doing more strategic damage to us than it ever did before.
01:13:53.980Turning back to the double life of Kristi Noem's husband, Brian, part of the Daily Mail report raising national security concerns that his personal fetish poses.
01:14:03.620Again, he didn't admit it all to the Daily Mail, but when asked about the allegations that he's doing it, that he was paying women to show their breasts to him, enormous breasts, and to look at him and his fake enormous breasts,
01:14:16.000The Mail reports that Brian, quote, made indiscreet remarks about Kristi Noem as well while on these forums.
01:14:24.480In any event, Brian responded to the part about whether this all opened Kristi Noem up to the threat of blackmail,
01:14:34.200because, of course, the Daily Mail went to him for comment and he told the outlet, quote,
01:14:37.520I made no comments like that that would lead to that.
01:14:40.840I deny the second part of that, but not the whole bimbofication parts. And now we know that
01:14:48.100Kristi Noem has spoken to the New York Post, not Kristi herself, but somebody who represents
01:14:54.660Kristi Noem has spoken to the New York Post and said she's devastated by it. I'm going to get the
01:15:02.720exact quote. Ms. Noem was devastated. The family was blindsided by this. They asked for privacy
01:15:07.660and prayers at this time. So she's not denying it either. Her people are saying she's devastated
01:15:14.500by it. Okay. Here to react, the guys from Real Clear Politics. Before this show on the Megan
01:15:19.020Kelly channel, Sirius XM 111, you can hear them live. Today we have Tom Bevan and Andrew Walworth.
01:15:25.420Sadly, Carl Cannon is off because I really wanted to talk to him about this.
01:15:31.920You know, Megan, it's funny. He gets scheduled on a show and then it's like winning the lottery.
01:19:10.280Maybe this is an argument to like, you actually do need to kick the tires when you hear something like this about someone in that, because who knows how many layers there are to the compromised position she's placed herself in.
01:19:23.220Yeah, I agree. It raises the question about should spouses be vetted for these positions
01:19:33.220as well? Because the obvious implication is that they'd go to him and say, listen,
01:19:36.980if you don't start leaking us information about what's going on in the Department of Homeland
01:19:41.060Security, we're going to expose this. But look, my first thought at this is like,
01:19:45.540it all makes sense now. I could never understand why he stayed with her because he sat behind her
01:19:52.980at the department of home security and it was just sort of like being cuckolded like that it's like
01:19:59.060you know it never made sense and now it kind of does um my other thought was like i i totally
01:20:07.140don't believe christy noem and that statement that she was blindsided by this and didn't know
01:20:10.660anything about it i i would be that that seems impossible or near impossible to me that this was
01:20:16.500just going on and she didn't know anything about it and the last thing i would say is i don't buy
01:20:22.260the story that this was leaked by some illegal immigrants you know bent on revenge it happened
01:20:28.660after she's already gone i mean we're hearing sort of rumblings that my first thought was well
01:20:34.020corey probably leaked it after he got fired i don't have any proof of that i'm just saying like
01:20:38.020that that was my first thought but that this had to come from someone who had this information
01:20:45.700and was holding on to it, and it wasn't ever, it never made the rounds to the media in years.
01:20:53.460And then suddenly, you know, she leaves the Department of Homeland Security,
01:20:57.720and this stuff just comes out. That's not coincidental. So I don't buy the idea.
01:21:01.880Yes, why do we know about her affair? Why is that, Tom, that we know about her affair for
01:21:07.180all this time, but we don't, we didn't know any of this, even though he's posting pictures of his
01:21:56.580And by the way, I have the same question on this dude as I have.
01:22:00.120I know somebody who is in my orbit who was a man, a very accomplished man in New York City, who suddenly I walked in, I saw this person one day, and they've gone trance.
01:24:49.340And listen to her talking about fetishes.
01:24:51.000There are so many different paraphilias. I really found it interesting to hear what people are into, why they're into it.
01:24:58.040And I also wanted to help remove the stigma and shame that often comes along with having an unusual sexual preference.
01:25:04.380I found that there are and there's a larger body of research to suggest that paraphilias are innate in that they are with someone from a very young age.
01:25:15.500they cannot be changed and that whatever it is that someone finds sexually interesting if it's
01:25:21.840very unusual there's a biological component to that so previously it was believed to be purely
01:25:27.280a social thing or that it's something that someone learned I think it's a combination of both
01:25:31.220but the main takeaway is that if someone has a paraphilia it's not something that they can
01:25:35.260change so if they're really into something sexually they can't suppress that especially
01:25:40.400not in men they can't suppress that and be interested in something else by the way that
01:25:45.160completely tracks with what we know, for example, about like pedophiles. They can't be reformed.
01:25:51.240We can't just like say, okay, I did three years in jail and now you can have back out to society.
01:25:55.240We know that's not true. I don't, I don't think that's a sexual fetish, but I'm just saying like
01:25:59.640that, that logic that you can't be therapized out of your fetish or what turns you on seems real to
01:26:06.200me, which is why the marriage can't, in my view, continue. Deborah So is by the way, a neuroscientist
01:31:07.200Historically, have we seen dips this low, like these numbers with independents where
01:31:12.800he's got 22% approval ratings and still a party able to win, let's say, at the midterms, Tom?
01:31:21.780Well, typically, I mean, the problem that Trump is experiencing, all right, midterms are typically
01:31:28.960lower turnout, so they're base elections. And Trump has, he has shattered his base. I mean,
01:31:33.760the coalition that elected him and has fueled MAGA is now split over this. And it's not like a,
01:31:39.540it's not a tiny split. It's not a split over a sort of tangential side issue. This was one of
01:31:44.960his main promises, no new wars in the Middle East. And here he is engaging in it and trying to say,
01:31:51.380you know, I'll define what MAGA is. And it's not working. It's not happening. And so you go into
01:31:58.360midterm where your base is divided, the other base is united, you're going to get your ass kicked.
01:32:03.040And that's where Republicans are. I think in terms of independence, you mentioned, I mean,
01:32:07.460he's lost ground with independents and there may be you know 10 15 percent of the electorate which
01:32:11.700isn't huge but is important and he's underwater with them not only in this handling of the war
01:32:17.440but then you go back to sort of domestic gas prices now over four dollars uh that's the main
01:32:22.360concern is the economy inflation he's not attending to that at all if anything people would say he's
01:32:27.280making things worse and so yeah it's it's shaping up to be a perfect storm against republicans
01:32:33.640And then, you know, after that, it's like, well, we'll have to see as the race starts to be the inheritor of MAGA, if somebody can put Humpty Dumpty back together again, whether that's Vance or Ruby or somebody else.
01:35:44.260I mean, we've talked about this on our show a lot.
01:35:46.640I mean, the Senate is an interesting thing because, in my view, the Senate comes much more down to sort of candidate quality in these individual races.
01:35:55.760So you really have to look at individual races.
01:35:58.840But overall, certainly it's more in play right now than people thought three or four months ago.
01:36:06.340Can I just add, even if you set aside Donald Trump and the Iran war, Republicans have an enthusiasm gap, right?
01:41:04.620I now have my very own channel on Sirius XM.
01:41:08.080It's called the Megyn Kelly Channel, and it is where you will hear the truth, unfiltered, with no agenda, and no apologies.
01:41:14.200Along with the Megyn Kelly Show, you're going to hear from people like Mark Halperin, Link Lauren, Maureen Callahan, Emily Jashinsky, Jesse Kelly, Real Clear Politics, and many more.
01:41:25.680Only on the Megyn Kelly Channel, Sirius XM 111, and on the Sirius XM app.
01:41:34.620Just take a look here. Oh, hello. Most House retirement since 1930. So far, this cycle already 36, 36.
01:41:44.100That is the grand record over the last nearly 100 years. My goodness gracious, that actually beats the former record in total, which was 34 back in the 2018 cycle.
01:41:55.040And that wasn't that long ago. And I do recall that was a very, very good year for House Democrats.
01:42:00.640The bottom line is this. You don't run for the exits unless you know trouble is brewing.
01:42:06.560And House Republicans so far believe trouble is absolutely brewing.
01:42:10.700OK, what they're looking at is the president of the United States and his approval rating.
01:42:14.880So why don't we just take a look here? Why are GOP retiring?
01:42:17.940OK, when the president's approval is less than 50 percent, I went back all the way through the record books, all the way back since 1938 and midterm elections.
01:42:26.280When the House, the press party in the House, on average, loses 34 seats, loses 34 seats when the president's approval rating is less than 50 percent.
01:42:37.840Hmm. Well, that's certainly not what we want to see come November.
01:42:41.580Welcome back to The Megyn Kelly Show. Tom Bevin and Andrew Walworth are back with me.
01:42:45.360It is amazing the number of retirements they're having in amongst Republicans in the House, Andrew.
01:42:51.440And a lot of people thought it was because, you know, leading up to now, it's tough to ever buck Trump.
01:42:58.700You know, they're kind of a rubber stamp.
01:43:00.880And if they're not a rubber stamp, he attacks them.
01:43:03.340And so, like, it's just not a pleasant life.
01:43:06.280You know, now it's maybe that's still there or not, but it's like you're also probably going to lose, right?
01:43:12.360Like they see their fortunes rise or fall with the president's is basically what they're seeing.
01:43:17.300And probably even worse so because they're not Donald Trump and Donald Trump's not on the ticket.
01:43:24.140At least he has some hope of getting like the MAGA faithful out there to vote Republican.
01:43:28.560But when in the midterm he's not there, I don't know, you tell me, how does it affect your average Republican House member?
01:43:34.920Well, I think those numbers are indicative of just what he was saying, which is that basically a lot of Republicans are thinking it's two things.
01:43:48.100It's not that fun to be in the House right now, and second of all, they're going to lose, so why bother?
01:43:52.360So I think that's bad for Republicans.
01:43:54.920I think what might be, you know, what the Republicans hoped would offset this a little bit would be redistricting, but it doesn't even look like they're going to pick up that many seats through redistricting.
01:44:06.040So, you know, I think all indications are pointing to a bad, bad midterm for the Republicans in the House.
01:44:13.460I mean, I don't think there's another way to look at it.
01:44:15.080Having said that, you remember, Tom, the midterms of 2022, and we really thought there was going to
01:44:22.820be a red wave and it turned into a trickle. It was like not a wave. They did take control of
01:44:29.560the house, but it was like by a tiny, tiny margin. So it was like, I don't know, like how much stock
01:44:37.040can we put into these historical trends? Because things do seem to be a little different now.
01:44:42.140people are entrenched in their partisanship i don't know what yeah no i agree with that i mean
01:44:46.600harry enton smart guy whatever but like there are a couple different things right that that
01:44:52.660comparing 1900 in the 1930s to now is completely different right um and one of the things is trump
01:45:00.200i mean trump's never had 50 job approval rating he came in in 2016 with i think 44 job approval
01:45:06.360rating and went down from there. And Republicans, you know, he still managed to win Senate seats in
01:45:13.7002018, even though Republicans lost. And the other thing too, is that historic number of 34 seats
01:45:20.000that he was mentioning on average, well, because of redistricting, because of gerrymandering
01:45:25.380and what's been going on, there just aren't that many seats at play. I mean, so even if Republicans
01:45:31.420have a terrible night um i you know maybe they lose 25 seats but but there just aren't
01:45:39.900by the time you get to 34 seats you're you're into deep republican territory and and some of
01:45:44.380those retirements by the way are you know sam graves just retired from missouri and and these
01:45:49.260are deep republican districts they're they're getting out just because they're they're tired
01:45:52.300of the job or whatever it's not like those seats are going to go go democratic so but the point
01:45:57.180is taken that when the winds are blowing against you, you know, it's a lot of these folks decide
01:46:02.800that they're just done with it. They don't want to be in the minority. You know, we can talk about
01:46:06.520how big a wave it'll be, but it looks like it's going to switch the control of the House. And
01:46:13.220that's, I mean, it is sort of a light switch here. I mean, and the Democrats, at least
01:46:17.340traditionally, have been a little bit more disciplined than the Republicans when they
01:46:20.960have a narrow majority. So if that trend holds, I mean, you know, maybe they'll only have a five
01:46:26.520seat advantage in the House, but does it really matter whether it's five or 30 seats?
01:46:49.400He's such a nice guy, but he seems so unhappy in that role.
01:46:52.800It is just a thankless, thankless job.
01:46:54.680It is a thankless job, particularly on the Republican side. To Andy's point, Nancy Pelosi did a better job of managing a very slim majority. Hakeem Jeffries is no Nancy Pelosi. So, you know, even if he's got a five seat majority, it's going to be tough.
01:47:10.700And certainly, you know, if Democrats win the Senate, they'd have at best maybe a one-seat majority there.
01:47:21.100So it'd be 51-49, and then you still got President Trump as a backstop to veto anything.
01:47:26.380So, you know, it's going to be – we're in a very tribal, very partisan, very evenly divided country.
01:48:54.300um that's it's probably not a great time to ask that question right because like the trump
01:48:59.260administration's fortunes aren't favored at the moment given everything that's going on
01:49:03.880but is there any doubt in your mind that jd vance will be the next nominee andrew i because i feel
01:49:09.960like for me i have no i have no doubt that unless he chooses not to run he's going to be the nominee
01:49:15.140i think last time i looked at the poly markets i think donald trump jr was in second place in
01:49:19.780those betting. So I, so I don't, I don't put a lot of stock in the betting right now, but yeah,
01:49:26.500you would have to, you would have to say that I think he's going to be the nominee. I mean,
01:49:30.520you know, people talk about Van, about Rubio. Um, but, uh, you know, if you look at what's going
01:49:36.100on right now, um, and, you know, uh, and Rubio being so identified with the war, um, I wouldn't
01:49:41.880think his stock is rising. I'd be curious to see what the, that's the thing. So that's very
01:49:46.800interesting, Tom, because if you talk to sort of the neocons in the Republican Party, they're like,
01:49:52.220Marco, it's Marco. Nobody likes J.D. now. You know, J.D.'s going down and Marco's going up.
01:49:57.840And I have to say, from where I've been sitting, I'm like, what do you base that on? Like that's
01:50:03.040just instinct because the war's not going well. Trump's Trump is the grand poobah. You know,
01:50:08.780the party loves Trump. Even the non-MAGA people tend to love Trump. If you're a Republican,
01:50:13.000And he's got, amongst Republicans, very high approval ratings.
01:50:16.920So if his number can go down, anyone's can, including Marco Rubio, who is much more associated with the war and with hawkishness than J.D.
01:50:25.820And I also think it's significant that they're saying J.D. should be the negotiator to bring this thing to a close because, like, the Iranians can trust him since he's not hawkish and he can get the president on the phone whenever he wants to.
01:50:41.940I mean, on one hand, he's he's the heavy favorite. And you have to assume that he he is is going to run and will most likely be the nominee. However, you know, I look, I've talked to a bunch of folks who are who have and seen some of the stuff online. And, you know, you always fall into the trap. Am I too online? Is this really representative of what's going on in the country?
01:51:03.660But the folks who were America firsters who was like, that's it. Like, anybody who's involved in this administration, anybody who got us into the Saran War, whether it's J.D. or Marco, like, we're done. Not doing it. Gotta be someone else. Gotta be someone from outside to sort of, you know, reinvigorate or whatever, MAGA.
01:51:21.260Yeah. So the challenge is going to come perhaps in 2028 from someone on that side of the aisle, whether it's Joe Kent or Tucker or somebody else who will come in there and say.
01:51:32.960They're looking at Tucker, but I can't see a world in which Tucker runs when J.D. is running. They're too close.
01:51:40.700Well, right. I agree with that. And, but the thing is then, okay, but JD is going to have to, therefore, somehow, you know, he's going to have to distance himself from Trump on this issue. He's going to sort of have to reassert the fact that, yeah, I wasn't really for this war, but I was, you know, I was loyal and I was doing my duty and all that, I think, to sort of recapture some of those folks.
01:52:02.940And whether they believe him or not, whether they think he's sincere about that or not, he certainly had this sort of non-interventionist bona fides before he became vice president.
01:52:12.660And even during the early Iran exchange, he was on those text messages where he was like, I don't think this is a good idea.
01:52:19.520That's the JD that I think people, at least on the MAGA side, they like that part of him.
01:52:27.500And so, again, a lot of this depends on how does this war work out?
01:52:30.980Is it still a disaster six months from now? Is it a disaster? Are we still there a year from now?
01:52:35.680Then does he have to defend it as he's starting to kick in to his campaign for president?
01:52:40.820That's going to be a really interesting thing to watch and to see him maneuver.
01:52:44.940It is going to be very interesting because I think, Andrew, he needs to give the answer that Kamala Harris failed to give on The View.
01:52:50.380You know, is there anything you would have done differently?
01:52:52.400He's going to have to say, with all due respect to the boss, you know, going into Iran probably wouldn't have been my choice.
01:52:58.560but I believed in the president because he's smarter than the rest. And as I said publicly
01:53:03.620at the time, I could get behind it because Trump is a unique commander in chief, unlike
01:53:08.840George W. Bush or Barack Obama. But when he's going to have to give this answer,
01:53:14.600he's still going to be working for Trump. And while Trump will be a lame duck at this point,
01:53:18.480is Trump ever a lame duck? Like when he leaves the office, he's still going to be very loud,
01:53:22.880very influential in this contest and every other Republican contest for a long time.
01:53:26.820Yeah, I think when you look back on this period, we will think about how he talked about both Rubio and Vance and how much we tried to figure out where he was leaning.
01:53:37.620Because sometimes, remember this, we made a big deal of the fact that he would mention Rubio first when he was talking about the two of them as being the next leader of MAGA.
01:53:45.180And the fact that he was talking about Rubio being the next leader of MAGA at all was kind of interesting to a lot of people.