00:06:05.140I mean, it's a tax for this purpose of the law, but a penalty for this other purpose of the law.
00:06:10.780That's how they got Obamacare through the Supreme Court.
00:06:13.100Or often they'll say, no, no, it's not a tax.
00:06:16.000It's an environmental fee to protect the environment.
00:06:19.240And so Iran comes out and they say, yeah, we're going to stop charging you a fee.
00:06:23.360We're going to stop charging you a toll.
00:06:25.080This will just be a little payment to protect the environment.
00:06:30.000Yes, directly payable to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
00:06:33.860It's really tricky because we don't exactly know who's in charge here in Iran.
00:06:37.420So the government comes out and says one thing.
00:06:39.460The foreign minister might come out and say one thing.
00:06:41.400But then the IRGC will come out and say a totally different thing.
00:06:44.220So I'm a little bit skeptical that we're going to get the deal.
00:06:47.260Both sides are saying they're close to it right now.
00:06:49.160And then, of course, you get down to this question, which is,
00:06:51.920is the deal going to be the same or worse than the Obama deal with Iran, the JCPOA?
00:06:59.280today because if it's the same or worse as the JCPOA, then the obvious next question is, well,
00:07:06.680why did we go into Iran at all? If we already had some deal that we then ripped up and the
00:07:11.880Strait of Hormuz was already opened and the Iranian regime was in place as it remains in0.86
00:07:17.840place today, then the question is, what will we have achieved? And this was always my fear at the
00:07:22.720beginning of the hostilities in Iran. The reason that I argued against strikes in Iran, this go1.00
00:07:27.760around and why I've continued to express a little caution and skepticism of the efficacy of the1.00
00:07:34.600strikes is not because I don't think the Iranian regime deserves it. It's because when I consider1.00
00:07:39.420those two criteria of just war, reasonable probability of success and proportionality,
00:07:43.420I just don't know that the juice is really worth the squeeze. And you might end up in a position
00:07:47.980that's roughly the same or worse than where you started. So Marco Rubio is addressing this concern.
00:07:52.600He was addressing this from a State Department airplane where he said, well, yeah, look,
00:07:56.260If the deal is as bad as or worse than the Obama deal, we're not going to have a deal.
00:08:02.860Well, look, I think our position is well stated.
00:08:05.220The president had a very important, I think, historic call just a couple of days ago with a number of leaders from the region.
00:08:10.400I think there's strong alignment and agreement on what a preliminary draft should look like.
00:08:14.880I think like anything with something like this, it's going to take a couple of days to settle on even down to the disagreements over a word sentence.
00:09:22.760That said, you're going to see a big fight breakout between the Warhawk people, the more neocon side, which just wants to bomb the Middle East and control the whole region, the whole world, and the people who advocate for more restrained foreign policy.0.80
00:09:35.760And I think here, if you've got a deal that's even slightly plausible, workable on the table, I think you've got to go for the deal.0.75
00:09:42.680I'm very firmly on the deal side here because I think that you're not going to topple the Iranian regime.
00:13:11.060you're fascinating to talk to poor anderson cooper says this is the best we got
00:13:16.980this woman who's obviously nuttier than an almond joy this is the best woman we got and this was
00:13:22.040always a sign to me that trump having publicly lived such a colorful life he was weirdly kind0.69
00:13:28.620of squeaky clean because the best people, the most convincing, credible people that they could
00:13:33.860get to go after him are this lady. Here's, by the way, here's a more recent video from this lady.
00:13:38.160Just to show you that the Anderson Cooper video wasn't a one-off, here's a more recent video
00:13:43.080from Eugene Carroll. I call it the Mouse House because some very distinguished mice live here.
00:13:51.360Kahneman lives in the kitchen. Taberski lives in the bedroom. This is my shed. And on that side are
00:13:57.460The books that most influenced me growing up, on the door are the list of my dogs, Marky, Fortuna de la Spunky, Heidi, Tits, Bloody, and Hepburn.
00:14:12.300The streams and the rivers were dry, and it so horrified me that I came out and started painting the rocks blue to indicate that there was once a river here.
00:14:24.860And then after I got done painting the rocks,
00:14:27.320I just sort of walked over here and then did that tree
00:14:30.140and then did that tree and then I did this tree.
00:21:00.580but this was a Democrat scandal. How did it then become a Trump scandal? Let's not forget
00:21:08.300that Trump is the one who was prosecuting Epstein. Trump is the one who prosecuted
00:21:13.960Ghislaine Maxwell, arrested Ghislaine Maxwell. Before that, the president who arrested Epstein
00:21:19.560was George W. Bush. It was the Republicans who were prosecuting Epstein. It was the Democrats
00:21:26.520almost entirely who were palling around with Epstein. How did Epstein become a Trump scandal?
00:21:33.420The Epstein issue, I've talked about Epstein ad nauseum over 10 years now. I think there are a
00:21:38.440lot of really interesting angles to the Epstein story. But it is simply a fact that today,
00:21:45.200Jeffrey Epstein is a Democrat talking point. When you look on social media, it is the pro-Democrat
00:21:50.520bots and operatives, and in this case, the formal accounts of the Democrat Party that are talking0.58
00:21:57.320about Jeffrey Epstein, that are trying to insinuate that Trump is a pedophile or that he
00:22:01.680committed some crimes or that he didn't declassify Epstein information, even though
00:22:05.700Trump's declassification of the Epstein files is the single largest declassification ever in
00:22:11.060American history. The arrests and prosecutions in the Epstein case were brought by Republicans,
00:22:16.280were brought by Donald Trump. How did this become a Democrat talking point? In part,
00:22:23.160it's because the Dems really don't have much of anything. The best stuff they had to go against
00:22:26.700Trump with was the babbling lunacy of E. Jean Carroll. They didn't have very much. And
00:22:32.320ideologically, the Democrats are on the wrong side of the American people on virtually every issue.
00:22:36.960And wokeism may have killed their electoral chances for a generation. So they come back to
00:22:42.160that. I want you to hear very clearly what I'm saying. I'm not saying that there's nothing
00:22:47.160interesting in the Epstein case. I'm not saying that we shouldn't at the very least investigate
00:22:52.280the rumors that Alex Acosta, when he was being interviewed for a job in the first Trump
00:22:57.080administration, didn't say that when he was prosecuting Epstein back during the Bush
00:23:02.240administration, that Epstein belonged to intelligence. I'm not saying we shouldn't
00:23:05.500investigate that. I'm not saying that the Epstein Island and all the connections,
00:23:10.380the political connections. I'm not saying all of that's not weird. I'm not saying that there
00:23:15.180isn't all sorts of evidence of lots of weird, creepy political stuff.
00:23:20.260What I'm saying is that practically as a political matter, Epstein is just a slogan
00:23:27.760being used against Trump right now for no reason, by the way, because whenever the Democrats bring
00:23:34.120up this slogan, like the Democrat Party did right there, notice it's never accompanied by any
00:23:39.840specific accusations. This happened, some left-wing guy came up when I was doing the TPUSA event with
00:23:45.680Matt Walsh at Idaho. He said, I'm Epstein and Epstein, Epstein. I said, oh, okay, you think
00:23:49.900that Trump did something wrong with Epstein. Okay, what is your specific accusation? What are you
00:23:54.240accusing him of? The guy had no answer. Do you, if you're interested, as I am, if you're interested
00:24:01.340in the Epstein story, can you think of a specific accusation to make against Trump, some specific
00:24:08.080evidence of wrongdoing? When you say, well, we need prosecutions, who should be prosecuted and
00:24:14.540for what? And on what basis? Because prosecutions were brought largely by Trump and in some cases
00:24:20.020by George Bush, but against whom and for what? Can anyone answer that question? Well, we don't
00:24:26.000have the files. Yes, you do. You have three and a half million of these files. We've talked about
00:24:29.820this guy for 10 years. What is the accusation? They all come up short. I'm totally open. I'd
00:24:34.580love to hear it. Tell me what the accusation is. Tell me what the prosecution is. I don't hear it.
00:24:39.740So it is just the case that the Epstein issue, there are two things. There's the sign,
00:24:46.600there's the slogan, there's the word Epstein, and there is the signified, what Epstein,
00:24:51.780what that is pointing to, what the deeper meaning of that is. Those are different things.
00:24:56.940What Epstein really means, what he was really up to, how he was palling around with all these
00:25:01.420foreign leaders and domestic leaders. That's one issue. I'm just saying the sign, the slogan
00:25:06.860is just a Democrat cudgel to try to beat Trump. The same thing goes for the pro-Palestine0.83
00:25:14.400activism, I've noticed. It is not the case that there is nothing interesting and worth talking
00:25:20.780about and nuanced, complex discussions about the Middle East, the Holy Land, the thorniest
00:25:26.360political issue in geopolitics. I'm not saying there's nothing interesting there.
00:25:30.240I have a pretty moderate view. I have a pretty nuanced, complex view of Israel, Palestine, the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, counterbalanced with the real establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, with a war of conquest and independence, with UN declarations, with the Balfour Declaration.
00:25:48.760That's all really, really interesting. I'm just pointing out that as a sign, not as a signified,
00:25:54.040as a sign, when you see someone out there with the keffiyeh ranting and raving about
00:25:58.380river to the sea, pro-Gaza, whatever, as a sign, that is a left-wing cudgel. That is a left-wing
00:26:06.500talking point. It's Greta Thunberg. It is used simply as a cudgel against the West, against the0.99
00:26:12.840United States, against the Trump administration. The same thing goes for affordability.
00:26:18.340There's the signified, which is that, yeah, there are actually real questions about how
00:26:22.220Americans can afford things and how our political economy is set up.
00:26:24.860And, you know, maybe we need to reshore some of our industrial base, and maybe we need
00:27:22.400I don't think that we should be legalizing gambling and commoditizing everything and financializing everything.
00:27:27.080I think that's a really interesting debate.
00:27:29.840But the reason that the Democrats are making that into a slogan right now is because some of the prediction markets are tied to people like Don Jr.
00:27:38.860Because often the prediction markets aren't looking very good for the Democrats.
00:27:42.220That's why there's a total chasm between the issues as they should be in themselves and how they are being used in politics.
00:27:53.600And that is the caution that I'm offering to people right now.
00:27:57.560Because politics operates on manipulation of signs and symbols and slogans.
00:45:49.180until Britain declared they had no right to self-rule.
00:45:51.480So ordinary people had to make extraordinary choices and risk their lives their fortunes and their sacred honor to fight for independence against all odds
00:45:58.340They won and in victory they built one of the most stable and lasting republics in history
00:46:02.420Now experience the american revolution like never before thanks to our friends at hillsdale college
00:46:07.180Revolutionary america a new documentary from hillsdale studios narrated by tom sellick
00:46:11.540Brings the founding of our nation to life through the voices of those who lived it alongside insights from leading scholars and commentators and most importantly me
00:47:16.080I heard you were being mean to the Mauger Professor Jacob.
00:47:19.100Do not do this. Jacob is one of the greatest Jews to ever live, with the IQ of Albert Einstein, to the sense of humor of Adam Sandler, to the political knowledge of Ben Shapiro. He has it all. You should also give him a raise. Anyway, my question is this. What is your favorite Jewish dish to eat? I know the Arabs say hummus is theirs, but it is not, so you can say that too. Love the show. Thank you.
00:47:49.100Wow. Really incisive question, Mr. Prime Minister. Thank you for, I didn't know you
00:47:54.340watched the show, but I appreciate you dialing in. I'll take your thoughts on Professor Jacob
00:47:58.260into consideration. My favorite Jewish dish. That's very simple. My favorite Jewish dish
00:48:02.680would be pastrami and mustard on rye bread. Some Jewish food is very good. Some of it's very bad.
00:48:09.360Some of it's very, very bad. What's the, shakshuka is very bad. I don't like that.0.98
00:49:11.720So, since you've talked often about the importance of Americans having our founding myths, I'm curious as to your opinion on what Matt Walsh is doing with his analysis on civil rights figures like John Brown, MLK, and Rosa Parks.
00:49:27.360Because I don't disagree with him on any of the facts, but a nation does need its heroes, and I'm concerned that if we tear down MLK, well, we both know who's going to replace him.