Erick Erickson 3-26-25 Hr 1

Greetings and welcome conversationalists across the fruited plane. It is Eric Erickson here. The phone number 877-977-37425. There's still time for one of you to get me into Berkman's Place on the Friday of the Masters with my son. Shameless begging. I am going to the Masters with my son. Very excited. Thank you. You know who gave me the tickets. Now, we got to begin with Iran. Because they're winning the war. You need to know this. Iran is winning the war. Now, I didn't know Iran was winning the war, but the economist tells me that Iran is winning the war. The headline from the economist is Advantage Iran. I honestly, I didn't know that Iran was winning the war. Apparently, they are winning in body count. We have killed now the head of naval forces. And I thought the head of naval force was already dead. And a buddy of mine told me, nope, we killed the army, we killed the air force. We were looking for the head of the Navy. The head of the Navy was near the Persian Gulf. And we bombed the island. Now, what have I been telling you? I spent yesterday even drawing out a little map for you, those of you watching online and explaining to the rest of you, that the Abu Musa Islands and Larsk Island are more important than Carg Island. Carg Island is far to the northwest of the Persian Gulf. Nobody cares about Carg Island. CNN released a report last night that... The Iranians are prepared for the invasion of the Americans of Karg Island. They've dug trenches and placed their military on Karg Island. Good, because I don't think we're invading Karg Island. I think we're going after the Abu Musa Islands and Larsk Island. Where are they at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz? They've got runways there. We've bombed the snot out of several of those islands. Now, you could carpet bomb Abu Musa Island, and they can't really get far underground because of the nature of the rock there. and the size of the island, they would very quickly have to deal with the ocean. And so you could get rid of it. And it looks like we are. But apparently the advantage is Iran. Now, I need to explain this one to you in all seriousness. I'm not making this up. In all seriousness, let me explain this to you. Iran was not just for the last 40, 50 years spending money on a massive armament campaign. In fact, in the last 20 years since the Ayatollah Khomeini replaced the Ayatollahomani and decided to really build stuff up and weaponry to annihilate the Jews, they've built massive, massive underground facilities deep under mountains to try to protect their weapon systems from bombs. They have also developed their nuclear project and they built a lot of missiles. They funded terrorists around the world. They propped up Hezbollah. They propped up Pahmas. They propped up the Houthi. They tried to help Bashar al-Assad to a degree in Syria. They have funded militias within Iraq. But that's not all the money that Iran has been spending. And you need to understand this.

Iran has spent a lot of money in the last 20 years, indirectly, not directly, makes it hard for the money to be traced. Iran has spent a lot of money indirectly in the last 20 years, funding think tanks and international monitoring organizations. So the experts that write in The Economist The experts you see on CNN in MSNBC, the experts who are quoted in the New York Times, have been very sympathetic to the Iranian regime because they've been funded by the Iranians. Now, let me jump as a tangent here. There was a media enterprise. It was an online enterprise. And I should tell you that at one point, some people from a similar entity approached me. This is the way this entity explained it to me. It was very similar competing enterprise by a former friend of one of the other people. And essentially what they told me is that if I wanted video clips of my show to go viral and I wanted to get traction online, I could pay this group. And they had networked with a bunch of people online. And those people would be paid to retweet me, to quote tweet me, to push my stuff to their social media accounts. And that would go viral. And since they were paying people to do it and it wasn't bot channels. the algorithm would treat me very favorably. Now, I got to tell you, I'm pretty sure I know some people who've used these groups. In fact, one name was mentioned to me that has a much larger social media presence. And... They were essentially getting, they were working with this company that would then make their content, quote, unquote, go viral by getting other conservatives to retweet and quote tweet and link back. And the more in the algorithms, the way an algorithm works on social media is the more people interact with your content, the more traffic your content gets. And so people were being paid to interact with these people's content. And I was like, this doesn't sound honest to me. I wasn't going to do it. Now, this other group, we now know they were accused of taking money from the Russians. And they had a bunch of conservative partners who did not know the Russians had given the company money, but were then incentivized through payments from the company to drive up links to things that were anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia. And the people say, well, I was only supporting the stuff that I really believed in. They were getting a lot of money to regurgitate the stuff. The Iranians have done the same thing that the Russians were doing. The Iranians have paid outside entities.

to regurgitate the pro-Iran line. Not only that, the Iranians have funded a number of outside partners. There's long been speculation that the Quincy Institute in Washington, D.C. is a front for the Iranian government, whether directly or indirectly, it is the most sympathetic to the Iranian regime. In fact, individuals within the government who have been tied to the Iranian government. Robert Malley, remember, who was worked for Obama and for Biden. He was Biden's Iranian negotiator, and he was removed after concerns raised by Biden's own FBI about him and what he may be giving to the Iranians and talking to the Iranians. These people in D.C. have in many cases, they don't even realize they're already sympathetic to the regime in various ways, and the regime amplifies them. So a lot of what you hear in the press, a lot of what you see in the press has been amplified by people who are funded by organizations that are directly or indirectly funded by the Iranians. Some of the people may not know it, but they've been hired because of their sympathies. And then they get... Amplified. If you want an expert on Iran, the Iranians have funded the think tanks indirectly for you to get the experts from. And you, the member of the media, don't know the Iranians funded them. In some cases, the experts don't know they've been funded by Iran. They just happen to take the Iran party line. And so the news of the Iran campaign has been shaped by people who know the regime establishment. And there's a problem. The regime establishment is all dead now. They're dead. The leaders are dead. The replacements of the leaders are dead. In some cases, the replacements of the replacements of the leaders are dead. And so these people are coming on television and they're giving you the regime talking points of a regime that is dead. You are hearing the echoes of ghosts on television and reading the echoes of ghosts in the newspapers. These people who are the Iran experts know the party line of the dead regime. They don't know the party line of the live regime. And what I can tell you from the people I talk to who actually do know what the hell they're talking about, the Iranian regime has become so fractured that the right hand doesn't know what the lie. left hand is doing. And in fact, in many cases, you've got the fingers from the right hand or detached from the right hand, and none of them know what they're doing. And the left hand is all detached as well. And so you've got multiple factions now, some of which are talking to the Trump administration and some of which are not. And the ones that aren't are rushing out and say, no, no, we know nothing. We're not talking to anyone. And yet we're clearly talking to someone because the Turks confirm it, the Pakistanis confirm it. Now the Indians are confirming it.

And yet somehow we're losing because that's what these people know. They have built up the shadow of an empire that does not exist. And they believe that the bite is as bad, if not worse than the bark of the Iranians. We've decapitated the Iranian regime. We have killed two-thirds of their missile launch capacity. We are on the verge probably of landing troops on islands in the Persian Gulf after we've carpet bombed them and wiped them out. We haven't decimated them. We've destroyed them. And yet the media tells us Iran is winning because, one, that's what the talking heads paid by Iran under the table say, and two, they hate Donald Trump so tremendously. I want you to know I believe my friend Mark Halperin is right. I do his YouTube show the first Tuesday of every month. Mark Halper yesterday says he thinks he's beginning to believe regime change was the goal all along. Let me explain this to you. The Democrats and Republicans were briefed in Congress last night on the war plan. And Democrats and Republicans both rushed out and expressed concerns about the vagueness of the information provided. And they rushed out and they expressed dire concerns about the unwillingness. of the administration to be thoroughly open. And I think what has actually happened... is that the administration doesn't trust Congress not to leak. The number of Democrats who rushed out, just listen. This is one Democratic Congress representative magazineer rushing to CNN to talk about the efforts. Just listen. From the Department of Defense for House Armed Services yesterday, a lot of bipartisan frustration coming out of that meeting. Can you give us a sense of what you've heard from your colleagues? Yeah, it's more of the same, right? It's very obvious that President Trump has blundered us into a war with no clear objective, no adequate planning, and no idea how to get us out of it. And as a result, there are now 13 bright young American service members who have lost their lives. Those are seats at their families' dinner tables that are never going to be filled. Countless civilians have also lost their lives, gases up a dollar a gallon since a month ago. And again, there's no end in sight. And so we still have not got from the administration a clear explanation for why we are in this war and what the plan is to get us out of it. My entire life, presidents and politicians have been sending other people's kids to fight and die in the Middle East.

Notice all the standard talking points and how disastrous is. By the way, I said this yesterday, and I put it up on Twitter last night, and it incited a firestorm by progressives. And I stand by the statement. More Americans have been killed in Chicago, Illinois, in the last four weeks that have been killed fighting Iran. The media wants you to look at what has happened in Iran. They mentioned the deaths of American service members fighting Iran. What a tragedy it is, what a disaster it is. It's a sign we're losing. If that's the case, we've lost Chicago. Maybe we need regime change in Chicago. We've lost more Americans in Chicago in the last four weeks than we have fighting Iran. That should be looked at as a sign of success. Instead, the Democrats are using those deaths to paint a picture of failure when actually we're succeeding. This is why the administration does not want to go to Congress and tell them what's going on. I think the plan all along has been regime change. Here's the problem that you don't seem to understand because the media doesn't want to tell you this. The Saudi Arabians cannot afford what Israel can afford. What I mean by that is that Israel would be perfectly happy with an Iranian regime in disarray, unable to work together, divided, killing each other in a sort of civil war. Saudi Arabia can't afford that level of instability. Saudi Arabia needs regime change. At this point, the Saudi position on Iran is further to the right than the Israeli position on Iran because Saudi Arabia does not want that instability. Why? Because Saudi Arabia is the custodian of Mecca. What does that have to do with anything? If you're a Muslim, one of the five pillars of Islam is Haj. It's a pilgrimage where you go to Mecca and you walk seven times around the Kabla and you pray. The Kabla is, people believe it's a meteorite. It's the most holy site in Islam. And Saudi Arabia can't turn its back on the Muslims of Iran if they want to go on Hajj. So if you have the stability, civil war, rebellion, and the like in Iran, it spills over into Saudi Arabia during the Haj. Saudi Arabia needs a stabilized Iran, and they want regime change. Do you really think Donald Trump is not going to give Saudi Arabia what it wants? He and Crown Prince Salman, they have a great relationship. Benjamin Netanyahu would be fine with regime as well changed. I think regime change has always been in the cards. And so what you see, the cavalier attitude with the press is saying, oh, they have no plan. Trump's flying by the seat of his pants. He changes every day. I think that's part of the plot. Discombobulated and destabilize everyone. You have no idea what Donald Trump actually wants. And the press here, the people who ate Donald Trump, they have interpreted it, is flying by the seat of his pants, no master plan. It's all a disaster when I don't think it's a disaster at all. By any measure, we have done a great job destroying Iran's capacity to make war, and there are more weeks coming, too. Have something to say? Hello. Hello. Call the show. 1-877-97-airing. That's 1-877-97-9-3-7-4-25.

You can be live on Eric's show by calling 87797-9-97 Eric. That's 877-97-9-3-7-425. Greetings and welcome. It is Eric Erickson here. I got to read you a statement. This is a direct quote from CINCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper. The death of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy Commander Admiral Ali Riza Tang Siri from the Israeli air strike makes the region safer. Tang Siri commanded the IRGC in for eight years, during which the IRGC harassed thousands of innocent merchant mariners, attacked hundreds of vessels, with one-way attack drones and missiles, and killed countless innocent civilians. He was designated, a specially designated global terrorist by the U.S. Treasury in June 2019, with additional secondary sanctions added in 2024 related to drone development. Since the commencement of Operation Epic Fury, 92% of the large ships in the Iranian Navy have been eliminated. As a result, the Iranian Navy has completely lost their ability to project power in the Middle East or around the world. Now with the loss of their longtime leader, the Navy is on an irreversible decline. U.S. military strikes on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy will continue. Therefore, we call on every Iranian serving in the Iranian Navy to immediately abandon their post and return home to avoid further risk of unnecessary injury or death. That is Admiral Brad Cooper, the CENTCOM commander. Yep, it really looks like we've given this thing up and we've lost, huh? Really? Wow. Y'all, Swiss America is keeping up with global events and how they're affecting market economies, the price of gold and silver, the instability around the world. And they would love to educate you if you go to swissamerica.com slash Eric today, Swissamerica.com slash ERIC. You can sign up and get their free report, The Secret War on Cash. But also be informed about these global events market economies, the Brick Nations, gold and silver. You could even start a precious metal IRA. You could also, by the way, buy gold from Swiss America. I have. I bought gold coins from Swiss America. They're now worth a whole lot more than they were when I bought them with all the market instability out there. You can find out more at Swissamerica.com slash Eric today. Swissamerica.com slash Eric. One of the gold coins I bought, like from the 1800s. It's gorgeous, too. They don't make stuff like that anymore. But I got it from Swissamerica.com slash Eric. Swissamerica.com slash E-R-I-C-K. Click the news and views tab. Stay informed. Stay smarter than your friends. understand what's happening before it happens thanks to Swiss America. Swissamerica.com slash Eric. Trying not to choke. I just swallowed seven pills at one time. The vitamins. I do one of those supplement packs. Swallow them all at one time. One of them got caught in my throat. I'm a professional. You would think I would not do that.

This, right now, I need to tell you about my tankless water heater from Rani. You, my friends, can have hot water forever with a tankless water heater from Runei. If you go to talkingtankless.com, you can figure out how to yank your tank out and put in a tankless water heater like we did in our house. No kidding. We got this thing well before Rani was an advertiser. I'm so delighted to have them as an advertiser. I grew up listening to Paul Harvey talk about them. I'm always wanted one. We finally got one of our water heaters. We had two small water heaters to cover the whole house. One of them broke, flooded the under space of our house. We had to pump out all the water. It was a mess. I was like, let's do tankless. We got a Rani, tankless water. Fits on the side of the house. It's like a small suitcase, like a carry-on bag. And it just works. We don't run out hot water. The kids fighting over hot water and showers stopped. Our power bill went down. You can experience that satisfaction of ever running out of hot water with Renai by going to Talking Tankless.com, yank your tank out of your house and get a tankless water heater from Renai. And you and your family, you won't have fights over hot water. You'll always have hot water. They just work and they're really efficient. And again, I don't know about your case, but in our case, our power bill went down. We had electric water heaters. We yanked them out, put in the Renai, and life is good. Talkingtankless.com. Look, I need to talk about the TSA stuff, but I've got to share a story with you guys. I got asked to be on a program yesterday on TBN, Alan Jackson Now. And it turns out one of my old bosses at Fox News, Michael Clemente, is now producer on the program. And it was great to reconnect with him. And Alan's a great guy. I was familiar with him, not the singer, minister up in Nashville, Tennessee. And he had me on for about 20 minutes. And I got five voicemails last night. None of them were emails. Four of them came to my flagship station, to my line. One of them came to the office line. Charlie forwarded it to me. And I called all five of them back. One was a World War II veteran who was very nice. There were two men. There were three women. They were all very nice. They were all elderly. But this lady who left the message on the office line, her name is Vera. And her last name is Macon. And she grew up in Macon, Georgia. And she is desperate to come home. She's 82. She says she intends to be buried in Middle Georgia, where the rest of her family is buried. Her message was so sweet. She started tear it up. It was like, this is a lonely, elderly lady who is so kind, I'm going to give her a phone call. I spent about 30 minutes talking to Vera last night. And I am just reminded of the greatness of ordinary Americans. Let me tell you Vera's story.

Vera, she said, those of you who live in Middle Georgia will know this, she said she grew up on the poor side of Shirley Hills, which is a wealthy, old, gentrified neighborhood in Middle Georgia. And if you grew up on the poor side of it, it means you grew up on the servant side where the houses are small. She grew up, her family couldn't afford a car until after she got out of high school. She went to a high school. She said all the girls wore clothes they had bought in stores except for her. Her family was so poor, her mother made all the clothes and passed them down to the kids, and the boys' clothes were cut and rearranged for the girls and vice versa, depending on the fabric. She grew up every day playing in a creek. There wasn't much entertainment. She got married. Over time, moved to Southern California. Her mother moved in with her. She said her family was always poor and moved to California, and they weren't wealthy by any means. Her husband died, her mother moved in with her, and a family friend of her mother's moved in with her. And she said that they didn't have means. They couldn't do a lot. They didn't have a lot of money. And the friend got cancer, and there was no way to cure the cancer. And she said she and her mom gave that friend of theirs the best four years of her life before she died. And when she died, and this was the part, I was like this, she had dementia. I'm not sure. We have this conversation. She says the Trump people came to my house. The Trump people did. And they said they needed to tell me something that this woman had left a lot of money. It's like the Trump people. And it finally realizes it's the government. This woman apparently had some level of government benefits. And she had left the entire estate to Vera, the lady I was talking to. So the friend who died of cancer turned out to have had a lot of money. And they had no idea. The friend had never talked about the money. They didn't care about the money. They live comfortably, poor. And we're glad to have that woman with her. And so here's what Vera tells me. This, again, the love of the American people. Vera said she and her mother had never been wealthy. They had never known money. And she said suddenly she had more money than anyone she knew. And she felt really uncomfortable. about having that amount of money. So do you know what Vera and her mother did? They went to the hospital where the friend had gotten cancer treatment, went to the billing department, and paid the bills of all the people who were fighting cancer. And when they had paid all the bills of all the people fighting cancer, they had money left over. And all the people in their neighborhood and in their community and in their church who needed new cars, they bought them until they were out of money. And she says she went back to being poor and happy. Just think about that for me. I got to tell you, if I won the lottery, I don't think I would show up at my wife's hospital and pay all the cancer bills of all the people fighting cancer. But Vera and her mother. had lived within their means, pinched every penny, didn't need the money, and paid the medical bills of people fighting cancer and then bought new cars for people who, in Vera's words, were poorer than they were. What a remarkable testimony. She says she's going to die and be buried under the red Georgia clay one day. She wanted to come back. She asked me if I had a room at my house she could stay, and we do not.

What a neat person. All the stories were incredible, but that one just stood out to me. What a remarkable, generous story. You hear these stories all the time from Americans. You hear, so I don't know Tyler Perry, and I know there are some scandal issues apparently there, but, you know, Tyler Perry, the actor, director, producer, Hollywood mogul, shows up at grocery stores and drops enough cash so that all the people at checkout their groceries are paid for. He's done this repeatedly over the years. Just for whatever demons he may face, he's got a generous heart and he shows up and he buys groceries for everybody. And there are plenty of people who do it anonymously. There's a guy here in Georgia who is running for governor who he pays for scholarships for all the foster kids in the state because he grew up a foster kid. The warmth and generosity, and we attack wealthy people in this country. It's sport almost. You've got a growing body of Republicans who attack wealthy people. You've got the Democrats who make sport of attacking wealthy people. And so many of the wealthiest people in America are people you've never heard of. They're not on the billionaires list. They're not on the Forbes list. They're not on the fortune list. They're privately wealthy and privately generous with their money. You know, I make a good living. I am not at that level of wealth. I would love to buy land and build a house. We're not there financially yet to be able to do it or to fly private so people don't yell at me while I'm peeing at the airport, which has happened more than once. But I really do pray regularly for God to be generous with me so I can be generous with other people. And I think there's something to generosity when you are a steward of money to be a good steward and to have a kind heart and to be generous to other people. I'm taking some friends of mine who otherwise wouldn't be able to do it. at the end of next month to Las Vegas to play golf for a couple days. I'm paying for everything. The airfare, the hotel, the golf rounds, everything. And it's not a burden. It's a blessing to be able to do it and to hang out with people I want to hang out with and let them have a break from anxieties in life, just having some fun. And this lady just, my goodness, to be poor, to know you are poor, to get a massive sum of money, and to go to the hospital and pay off medical bills and buy cars for people and then go back to being poor. These stories are out there across America. There's so much anxiety these days. There are so many people who hate their neighbors. They don't love their neighbors. I tell Christians all the time, and it gets a reaction from people when I give speeches and churches and to religious groups and people ask me, how do you improve the country? And my answer is always the same. Love your neighbor enough so that your...

Lesbian, Muslim, transgendered atheist neighbor leaves you a key to their house when they go on vacation because they know you're the neighbor who will take care of things while they're gone. Loving your neighbor doesn't mean only the people who agree with you. Only the people who share your politics. It means so much more than that. There's no carve out. There's no caveat. There's no exception to loving your neighbor. Now, if you're a person, if you're Christian faith, you're the only people bound by this. No one else is, but you're bound by it. You got to love God and love your neighbor. And it's so easy to hate your neighbor now. It's so easy to despise because of politics these days. And, you know, I just, I am remarkably impressed when I hear these sorts of stories, and there are so many out there that you're never going to hear. You're never going to hear about it. And I will tell you, I've heard these stories, too, the number of people who are going to go to airports right now. And they're handing the TSA agents, food or money to help them. Do you know there are TSA agents right now who are having to donate blood and plasma to make ends meet? Did you know that? Did you know while some of you were frustrated in the lines and I saw a video yesterday of someone snapping at a TSA agent who hadn't gotten paid in a month? And... They're still working. You've got to, y'all, if you are stuck in a line in an airport, you should be thanking the TSA agents who are still showing up for work unpaid. They are, in many cases, having to take extra jobs working for Uber or Lyft driving, or they're doing DoorDash, or they're donating blood or plasma just to make ends meet for their family because they haven't gotten a paycheck. The Democrats are signaling there will be no deal with the Republicans unless the Republicans agree to unmask ICE agents and require judicial warrants for deportations. There will not be judicial warrants for deportations. If there was, no one would get deported. And understand this when your friends throw this in your face, that your...

This is our of the program brought you by Van Allen Golf, A-L-L-E-N-Van-A-L-L-A-N-Golf.com. They have fine, fine golf equipment. I use their putter, and I have been delighted to spread the knowledge of Van Allen Golf. They're a brand-new golf company, started by some friends of mine. They're known for the guns they make through their company True Precision. And the same milling equipment, they can make golf equipment. And it is, it's spectacular. The putting together, the piecing, the seams, everything is phenomenal, the weight, the balance. Van AllenGolf.com or text golf to 33777. We got to pivot to a lot of other stuff when we come back. There's more on Iran developing. In fact, the Minister of State for the United Arab Emirates, who happens to be a woman, was with Brett Baer last night, and I need to talk you about that, but also the Cherfyllis McCormick scandal. Have you heard about the Cherfellus McCormick scandal? I bet unless you're hardcore into politics, you have not heard of the Cherfellus McCormick scandal. She is a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives who is being prosecuted for defrauding the government. There is an ethics committee meeting about it, and it may be public. It's such a damning indictment of this woman, and the Democratic leaders who were perfectly happy to boot George Santos without a guilty conviction are trying to circle the wagons for Democrats and say, no, no, we will not boot this woman. Really? So they had a standard. They were happy to adhere to for George Horsi. You know, the response from the Republican bases, well, you Republican idiots, you shouldn't be ousting people like Santos. And that's what happens is it makes it more and more extreme on both sides. And even Democratic members of Congress are now in open revolt against the Democratic leaders saying this is not right. This is not right. There is a major ethics committee hearing. headed this way. And in the past, well, the Democrats... They were willing to boo people, but now it affects their numbers in a closely divided House, and they don't want to do it. And that's what's going on here. Because of a closely divided House of Representatives, the Democrats want to abandon their principles in ways they insisted Republicans uphold their own principles. It's remarkable some Democrats are starting to call BS on their own leadership, but the press is barely breathing about it because they don't want to make the Democrats look bad. I've got the details when we come back.

First, let me tell you about vision computers. If you buy a computer from vision computers, you get their world-class customer support with your computer, no extra charge. You call them at 404 compute or you go to visioncom and you can build the computers. But here's the thing. Let's say you need world-class customer support for your computer. Vision computers can give it to you. And unlike other companies in this space that have started relying on AI chatbots, vision computers relies on human beings. And you can get one on the phone in 15 seconds or less. If you have their customer support, you get a special number you call them, 15 seconds or less, someone gets on the phone with you. And they can navigate all your computer needs with you. I had a lady call left with me a long voicemail about how she wasn't even a customer. She called them. She begged them. She was so desperate. Six months worth of work disappeared on her computer, and Vision was able to find it for her, and she signed up that night for their customer support for the next year. That's how great it is. 404 compute or Vision Computers.com. 404 compute or Vision Computers.com. Tell them Eric sent you, you might save even more money. You will not go wrong with Vision Computers. Let them build your computers to 404 compute or Vision Computers.com.