Erick Erickson 3-23-26 Hr 1

This is Eric Erickson here across the United States. The full number is 877-97-973-7-425, should you wish to be on the program. Long, long, long lines at airports around the country right now. Major, major backups, something like a third of TSA agents have stopped showing up for work now. The Democrats are giddy about this. The Democrats, actually, Rachel Bade, who has a newsletter, has the quotes on this, and it's kind of mind-blowing. If you get show notes, we just sit them out. And the... Rachel Bade's commentary there is wild. There's a very, the very first link in the show notes today is to a tweet by Rachel Bade. If Trump thought dispatching ICE agents to airports would force dims to blink in the never-ending shutdown standoff, he's in for rude awakening. I checked in with a bunch of Democratic lawmakers and top staffers. Their response wasn't just unfazed. It was downright giddy. The way they see it, Trump's move screams desperation as the White House fears getting blamed. Great, do it. One senior Democratic official told me, let's f-round and find out. Another predicted the optics would be disastrous for Trump. Armed agents at airports will crush tourism and freak people out. A third couldn't resist a jab. Can they please show up in masks? By the way, the president said they're not going to show up in masks. Let me defy the Democratic wisdom here. What if the ICE agents show up and actually help things move along orderly? Suddenly, those evil, awful ICE agents, we're told murder Americans, look like the good guys here. Tom Homan has every incentive for the ICE agents to show up and do a great job at airports around the country. In some cases, in Atlanta, there are people who waited five hours to get through security and miss their flight. The anger and frustration of Americans continues to grow. The Speaker of the House has just put together this, which is going to become a Republican ad. 2020 has the highest number of crossings ever recorded. The airport is warning TSA wait times could be three hours or more. Democrats refuse to reopen TSA and FEMA and the Coast Guard and these other critical functions of government unless they can reopen our borders to illegal aliens. They're perfectly content jeopardizing the security of our homeland and hurting the American people if it means protecting criminal illegal aliens. I would implore my Democratic colleagues in the Senate to vote no. against maintaining this DHS funding. Not one more dime for the Department of Homeland Security. Our caucus members will oppose all funding for immigration enforcement. These people are crazy, I'm telling you, they're crazy.

That's the Speaker of the House. Please, this is packaged as a minute long. It needs to be put on every YouTube stream. It needs to be put on every broadcast and cable television network. We've got to see. It's the Democrats' own words. The position here, contrary to the spin, it's the actual position. The actual position of the Democrats is they will keep airports. shuttered unless they can open the border. Your lines at TSA will continue to grow unless we can get massive lines at the border of illegal aliens flooded into the country. That is the Democratic position. They don't like it when you put it that way, but that's the actual position of the Democratic Party right now. They do not want ICE and Border Patrol funded to secure the border and deport illegal aliens. and they will keep your TSA agents unfunded at airports so you have long lines to go through airports. They either want long lines of illegal aliens at the border or long lines at airports. I am baffled by the Republicans' unwillingness to charge ahead of this. It's absolutely insane to me. As I am beginning to speak here, there is coverage now. at Hartsfield Jackson International Airport of the Long Lines. And let me just see, ATLTSA lines. Let me jump on right now, because this is becoming a major story right now in the Atlanta airport. Here we go. Due to current federal conditions, passengers are advised to allow four hours for domestic and international screenings. They have stopped the actual counter at the world's busiest airport. They normally have a counter that shows you how many minutes it takes to get through TSA at the world's busiest airport. And right now, when you go check TSA security wait times, it says passengers are advised to allow at least four hours. A four hour wait to go through security. at Atlanta International Airport right now, thanks to the shutdown, and the Democrats are laughing about the president sending ice to the airports. Airlines are advising passengers if they are on a morning flight to show up the night before. And airlines are advising passengers if they're on an evening flight to show up first thing in the morning. I was on my flagship station, WSP, with my buddy Mark Aram, who does the 9-to-noon show. He was asked me, he's got a trip to Vegas coming up in a couple weeks. There's going to be no relief. There is no relief. Unless you are one of the elite who flies private, which many wealthy Democrats do, you're stuck.

And most people right now are blaming both sides, and it's just a failure of both sides to get it done. The reality, however, is that the Republicans advanced a plan in the United States Senate this weekend to say that the Senate will not get paid until TSA is open, and Democrats objected to that. Have you seen that? You can tell that it's a Democratic shutdown by the way the media is not generally covering it. If it was a Republican shutdown, you would have counters on all the news networks, and they would highlight the fact that a Republican came out and objected to a Democratic plan to not pay the Senate, and instead it's the exact opposite. It is the Democrats are objecting to a Republican plan offered by Senator John Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that would refuse pay checks to the United States Senate until such time as TSA is paid. The Democrats objected to it. Republicans objected to the Democratic plan, which would be to fund TSA and an exchange shut down ICE and Homeland Security or Border Patrol. The way that the Democrats have put this forward is absurd. I want to hang on a second. I want to do something for you. I haven't done this. Will all of you take down a phone number? Will every one of you take down a phone number, please? I'm going to give you a phone number now. I want you to have your pin ready. My apologies if you're driving and can't do this. 202-224-3-1-21.

that as this continues to go on and local airports start getting shut down, that there will actually be blowback from the voters, not towards Donald Trump per se, but from the voters towards Democrats. This is Khome Hakeem Jeffries with Dana Bash on CNN. Let me ask you about that, because you are the whole reason, as you just laid out. that DHS is not funded right now is because you're trying to push the administration to enact some policy changes on how Border Patrol and ICE act when they're out looking for illegal immigrants. And now what you're saying is that you're okay with funding TSA, which has been, I think, the biggest point of leverage that you possibly had in order to get what you want on ICE because ICE already has its money. So what was the point of the shutdown if you're okay with funding TSA? Well, we never approach these things that are in front of us with respect to government funding in the context of leverage. Our approach is what is the appropriate use of taxpayer dollars? And we believe that taxpayer dollars should be used to make life more affordable for the American people, not brutalize or kill them or violently target law-abiding immigrant families, which is what we know ICE agents have been doing. And so at this point in time, more than 30 days in to the Trump Republican Department of Homeland Security shutdown, I think the most appropriate course of action is to fund TSA, fund FEMA, fund the Coast Guard, fund our cybersecurity professionals so that, you know, Republicans stop holding the American people hostage and these hardworking civil servants because of the Republican unwillingness, at least to date, to get ICE under control. You got that? It's about ice. They're holding you. He even admits it. It is about holding you hostage at airports so they can protect illegal criminal aliens. In Chicago, a student at Loyola University has been murdered by another illegal alien protected by sanctuary city policies. She was out at 1.30 in the morning on Lake Michigan with friends to watch the northern lights, and a random illegal alien randomly shot into the crowd of students killing this girl. Protected by Democratic policies. They do not want this guy deported. They want him protected. And you must walk in long lines at airports for Democrats to be able to protect the illegal aliens killing your kids. Have something to say? Hello. Hello. Call the show. 1-877-97-Earic. That's 1.877-97-9-3-7-4-25. You can be live on Eric's show by calling 877-97-9-7-Earic. That's 877-9-3-44-25.

Welcome back. It is 8779373-745. The full number you can call in. It's Eric Erickson here across the United States of America. Text Eric, E-R-I-C-K to 33777. You get the live stream, the show notes, the podcast. Everything you need. I have talked about it twice. Third times the charm. My entire family liked Project Hill Mary. It is the largest box office since Oppenheimer. It is the first original non-franchise story to hit $200 million in its first weekend, and it is worth it. It is not kid-friendly. There's not really bad language in the movie. There are some tense scenes, and it starts with a couple of dead bodies. So I wouldn't take a little kid to go see Project Hill Mary. But your teens for sure. I don't know why it's PG-13 other than possibly the dead bodies. And there are some tense scenes in the movie, but there really isn't bad language. There's no nudity. There's no real violence per se. It is just a quality, quality movie. So Ryan Gosling, who is the star of this movie, came out and said it's not our job to go to theaters to watch movies. It is their job, the actors in Hollywood, to make movies we want to go to the theater to see. And it is a visually spectacular movie. See it on the biggest screen you can. And it is great. Like Old Glory Bank, great. Old Glory Bank is my bank. They can be your bank. Old Glory Bank has been fighting debanking trends. Now that Trump's president, you really don't have to worry about debanking trends, but here's what you have to worry about. You still have to worry about there are banks out there with progressive shareholders and policies that have said, for example, you can't go use your debit card to buy a gun. There are banks out there that are run by progressives that are very persnickety about conservative businesses still because of pressure from progressive shareholders. Old Glory Bank believes in your freedom to bank. They believe that you should be able to use your money as you see fit without a banking overlord telling you it may be legal, but we don't like that you do it, so we're not going to let you. It's your money after all. If it's legal, you should be able to spend it. And Old Glory Bank believes that they believe in your freedom. If you're a veteran, first responder, after the military military, they waive some fees for you. They're very helpful to the military community and first responders. If you're a business, they're very hands-on with business. They may be an online bank, but your kids can navigate it online bank. You can even deposit cash at Old Glory Bank, even though they're an online bank. Old Glorybank.com slash Eric, check them out today. It is my bank. Old Glorybank.com slash Eric, E-I-C-K. DIC, Equal Housing Lender Terms and Conditions Apply. Welcome. It is Eric Erickson here. 877-97-9-3-7-4-25. Should you wish to be on the program, I would be very happy to have you. Don't forget to text Eric, E-R-I-C-K, to 33-77-7-7. I did the show notes myself this morning.

Because the person who normally helps put them together for me needed to go fishing, seriously. There are lots of developments out of Iran happening right now. Word has come from the White House and from the Turks that the Americans are talking to the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament right now about the terms of a ceasefire. The Speaker of the Iranian Parliament has come out and said, this is not true. The president says he would very much like a deal with Iran. He said that he was going to blow up. Iranian power infrastructure. If they didn't get out of the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranians are laughingly saying it's a taco moment. Trump always chickens out because he hasn't done it. Just so you know, oil prices have fallen. West Texas is down to $91 a barrel. Brent is down 7.5% to $103 a barrel. The Dow is up 1.4%. S&P is up over percent, NASDAQ up, I mean, NASDAQ up over 282, S&P up 76, Dow up 643 points. The president saying there are productive talks. And again, the Iranians are saying that there aren't productive talks, and the Americans are saying there are. What's going on? This is probably a sign Iran is fractured. Y'all, I want to make a point to you that you should take to heart. You right now, wherever you are, you're sitting at your desk listening to me, you're in your car, driving around, you're stuck in traffic, you're listening to me, you're listening to me on a podcast or my live stream. You are right now. Wherever you are, as much of an expert on the thinking of the Iranians as the talking heads on television are, whether it's the treat of Parsy person or some of the other academics and scholars who claim to know the thinking of the Iranian regime, you are as much an expert as those people are right now. The people that are trotted out to CNN and CNBC and even Fox News, MSNBC are quoted in the New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, political, wherever they are. You are as much an expert as those people are right now. Why? Because the leadership of Iran that those people talk to are dead. The fallbacks that those people talk to are dead. The fallbacks to the fallbacks to the fallbacks are dead. And nobody talks to the C and the D team that's now in charge. To the extent that there are Iranian leaders who have not been decapitated, who are not the C and the D team, there is a real division in what is or is not the situation on the ground. What is and is not the desires of the Iranian leadership?

You know as much as the talking heads on TV at this point because the talking heads on TV who have been sympathetic to the Iranian regime have in the past listen to the Iranian regime and those people are no longer there to talk to. Since I left you on Friday. The replacement of the replacement of the Basage commander is dead. Muhammad al-Al-Altaire killed at a security checkpoint on Banahar Street in northern Tehran. Two IRGC captains from South Khorasan province were killed in an attack on a Tehran checkpoint. Hosan Al-Khodi and Muhammad Malai, IRGC members Morteza Tarabi, they're all killed in the strike. Brigadier General Ibrahim Mortazavi Nassab, a commander of the Tarasol Basij. Residence Zone in Shiraz, one of the largest Basage divisions of the city, is dead. Saeed Mohammed Navid Koreshi, a senior researcher in missile and aerospace projects for the IRGC's aerospace forces, was killed in an attack on Iran's Space Research Institute building last week. He held a postdoctoral in aerospace and mechanical engineering. Senior IRGC cleric Sajad Buzargi was killed on an attack at Asaluya-Andy Beshear province. Mehran Khakshar, a senior IRGC cleric in a Hormogzin province, has been killed. Mohamed Ganbari, the head of Ali Shakmani security detail, was killed on the first day of the war. He was only identified this morning. Medi Nasra Adani, an IRGC colonel that was involved in internal security during the January protests has been killed along with his entire family. We have launched strikes at Kiribad, Kalesha. Verroman was killed on Friday. He was the prayer leader in Kiribad, Davud Muhammad Yan, along with several other Basaj members, were also killed. We have largely wiped out the replacements of the replacements of the replacements of the regime. A few of these people that I've listed were killed earlier, and they have only just been identified. And yet, somehow or another, the talking heads on television who are pro-Iran tell us that Iran is winning. How is Iran winning? If you got my show notes this morning, I linked to a piece that's kind of an important read from the Asia Times, are in pressure. For those of you who do not know who he is, he is an Indian administrative officer. It has written a lot about geopolitics.

And he points out that Iran's missile stockpile will not last indefinitely. There's a clear tapering in the intensity of retaliation as its capacity for producing new missiles and drones is degraded. While many missile launchers taken out of service, a war of attrition can't be a rational goal for Iran as the war progresses. Iran's economy will suffer even more. The wealth of Iran has been stashed abroad by its elite, with the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei alone reportedly worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Iran's main allies are Russia and China, neither of which has offered substantial material help in Tehran's war effort. Russia is trapped in its own war. China's help is invariably linked with demands for family jewels like mines and ports as collateral. In addition, to control over other revenue streams in the real world, there's no flying carpet bringing aid to Iran. Iran has no in-game here. And that is not a good thing. Some say Iran has no endgame, and that's a sign Iran is winning. That's actually not a sign that Iran is winning. The country is fractured. The country is divided. IRGC commanders are in some cases fleeing the scene. There is real and genuine disarray. And Iran has launched a missile on Diego Garcia.

For those of you who paid attention to this, Diego Garcia is a very small island in the Indian Ocean. It is south of India. The Chagos Islands. It is an atoll. You can zoom in on the map if you want to see this for yourself. You go due south from Mumbai into the Indian Ocean, and you go south of the Maldives, and you'll get to the Chagos Islands, archipelago, and you'll find Diego Garcia. It is 4,000 miles from Iran, and Iran launched two missiles at it. Neither reached. One broke apart in the sky and one was shot down before it could get to Diego Garcia. And the significance of it is that we have been told by the experts on television who seem to know everything about Iran that Iran was not capable of firing such a missile, did not have such missiles, and were a decade from acquiring such missiles, and yet they fired them.

Ladies and gentlemen, we were told Iran didn't have this capability. You know what the spin is now? Well, they were insignificant. They just lightened the warhead so the rocket could reach it. No, these were intermediate range ballistic missiles, an intermediate range far enough from Iran that it could hit parts of Europe, including at the furthest western, northwestern edge of Iran. If that rocket were fired there, it could hit London. And we were told they did not have this capability. In other words, many of the experts who have pontificated about what Iran couldn't do based on their conversations with the Iranian regime didn't know what they were talking about to begin with. So why should we listen to them now? They had no idea. They got it wrong. The president of the United States would like some level of peace. This is the president talking this morning. You said you want to get the enriched uranium. How are you going to get the enriched uranium? It's very easy. If we have a deal with them, we're going down and we'll take it ourselves. We're going to go take it ourselves, he says. We will take it ourselves. One more on the president dealing with Israel and this. If these talks go well and you reach a ceasefire agreement with Iran, do you believe Israel would abide by that agreement? I think Israel will be very happy with. We just spoke to Israel a little while ago. I think they'll be very happy. This will be peace for Israel, long-term peace, guaranteed peace. If this happens, and I can't guarantee it, but I think it's going to, my life is a deal. That's all I do is deals, my whole life. I think this is something that's going to happen, and why wouldn't it happen? So tomorrow... morning sometime, their time, we were expected to blow up their largest electric generating plants that cost over $10 billion to build. It's a very good one. There was no dearth of money. And one shot, it's gone. It collapses. Why would they want that? So they called, I didn't call, they called, they want to make a deal. We are very willing to make a deal. It's got to be a good deal. And it's got to be no more wars, no more nuclear weapons. They're not going to have nuclear weapons anymore. They're agreeing to that. Any of that stuff, there's no deal. Again, the Iranians are trying to claim that the president has backed down that he's chickened out. Let me just give you my sense. And again, you and I are as much an expert as the people on TV right now. There are multiple conversations in multiple media outlets based on conversations with sources in Turkey and Oman, in Saudi Arabia, in Israel, and even some within Iran. And they're all talking about talks that are happening behind the scenes. The Turks and the Omanis are very explicit that there are conversations happening.

My guess, my guess is that there is something happening right now, and it's just that the government of Iraq or Iran, rather, is divided. And there's no unifying voice right now in Iran. That is my guess. Now, I got to tell you about a fantastic new advertiser, and they're an advertiser that I got because I asked them to be an advertiser after I bought their product. It's called Perfectly Snug. If you go to Perfectly Snug.com, you can get one of their mattress toppers. Now, what makes it unique is that it adjusts to your body temperature all night long. So if you want it to be cooler, it's cooler. If you want it to be warmer, it's warmer. You go to perfectly snug.com slash Eric, E-R-I-C-K, save up to $290 on the smart topper. I think Oprah Winfrey just gave them a big award that I read about as a great consumer product. You know, I've looked at some of these systems. This is why I decided to get perfectly stuck, so I looked at some of these systems. And some of them, they put these tubes like under a mattress pad, and some of them run water and stuff, and they had, like, leaks and terrible customer reviews. And then I discovered perfectly snug, and it uses fans, and it can heat, and it can cool. So it's not just cooling. It's also heating. I've used it. Now I've had mine for about two months. And I'm like, I need to tell the world about this product. Maybe I can turn it into an advertiser. And it uses a phone app. You can schedule when you wanted to come on and turn off. And do you want it to just stay cool all night or hot or adjust with your body temperature? It even qualifies for the HSA FSA program. What you do is you go to perfectly snug.com slash Eric. Perfectly snug.com slash ERICK. Save it to $290 on this using my code. And you get a 30-night. risk-free trial. If you don't like it, you can sit back. I think you're going to like it. I have liked mine. I am a persnickety sleeper. Y'all, I change my mattress out every few years just because when I'm heavy, I'm working on it. But I don't like when my mattress starts to stack. I don't like most hotel mattresses. I am so picky. And I love the perfectly snug smart topper. And again, you can get it cool. You can get it warm. If you use code Eric, you save up to $290. They just got a fancy word from Oprah. You should not like dispute this because it's not just me. It's her as well. But it's perfectly snug. Perfectly snug.com slash Eric.

Honest. Putting your trust in me to tell you what's going on. Transparent. I need you to know this from the bottom of my heart. Giving you the information without the noise. My job isn't to tell you what you want to hear. It's the Eric Erickson Show. This is our of the program brought to you by Van Allen Golf, A-L-L-E-N. Van Allen Golf.com, make her find golf equipment, including my fantastic putter. I got a 35-foot putt on to make parth. Last weekend, it's gorgeous. I love my putter. Van Allen Golf.com, Van Allen Golf on Instagram or text golf to 33777. Chris, you're the first caller today. Welcome to the showster. How are you? I'm absolutely. Thank you. Great. What's going on? Well, I actually have two comments. The first one concerns this matter of the Democrat. Okay, we've got a minute. All right, who are causing, or the TSA funding problem. I remember previously there was a very effective semantic tactic that was used to get them off the dime, which was referring to it as the Chuck Schumer shutdown of the government. And that really seemed to get under their skin. I think people should start referring to this current situation as the second Chuck Schumer shutdown of the government instead of this partial government shutdown that they keep calling it. And I think that would maybe get their attention a little more. You know, I hope so. All right. Last point, you got about 20 seconds. Okay, last point is I was a member of the amphibious ready group that conducted the fake amphibious landing in Kuwait during Desert Storm. And I remember one of the sailors when we were talking about all the mines, Saddam is saying laid around the Kuwait. He said, you know, people don't understand that actually every ship in the Navy actually can function as a mine sweeper once.

Yeah. Well, we're going to have to have them over. That's a great point. Chris, thanks for that. Now, I've got to tell you about the Eden Pure Thunderstorm. You can get three of them, save $200 at Edenpuredeals.com. Edenpuredeals.com. The discount code is Eric 3, E-R-I-C-K-3. They will eliminate odors. They have a money-back guarantee if they do not eliminate odors. They don't just eliminate orders. They also kill bacteria and viruses. They trap particles that are floating in the air. They're filterless. So you don't need a filter subscription. But it's the odor elimination where they shine. with a money back guarantee if they don't eliminate odors. See the site for details at Edenpuredeals.com with the discount code, Eric 3, E-R-I-C-K-3. They're small, they're portable. I keep one in a travel bag. You can plug it in with a USB cord. You can plug it into the wall. I've used them in hotel rooms and rental cars. I've used them on the back porch. Used it in a hotel last week. So give them a shot. Do you get three of them and save $200.com. The discount code is Eric 3. They've got a money-back guarantee. See the site for details.