Rich Lowry | Editor-In-Chief of National Review | 04-29-26

Did you know that St. Luke's University Health Network, based in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, has been recognized by the U.S. government as the highest performing health system in the United States for quality? You heard right. St. Luke's number one recognition affirms our status as the top leader among the most respected health care providers in the nation, including Houston Methodist and the Mayo Clinic. To state it simply, if you want to receive the best care when you go to a hospital, come to St. Luke's. Hey guys, Lady Luck here. Are you going on any road trips this summer? I know I'm going to be going on a bunch of road trips. And being that I'm going to be passenger princess, I love playing on SpinQuest.com. SpinQuest has all of my favorite slot games, live blackjack, live craps. Head on over to SpinQuest right now and get yourself a $30 coin pack for just $10.00. SpinQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. Rich Larry is the editor of the National Review. I love him. He's on every week. Have a good time, Rich. His stuff is up and syndicated in The New York Post. He's on Fox News. Well, I don't know. He's aggravated me this morning. I don't know why, but he has. Sorry, Rich. You keep calling her Marsha Clark, too. What's her name? Cramer. Oh, Kramer. I just want to make sure. Oh, yeah, I've said it 10 times. Wasn't she the prosecutor? The O.J. Procedure. Yeah, she's the one who was banging Chris Darden instead of going over the information that eventually let OJ get off the murder charge. That's her. Yeah, Marsha Kramer. I'm sorry. How are you, Rich? Shut up, Lou. Stick your gun. There are two big things you've been right about. One, that Jews should support. Trump and the Democratic Party is a disaster for Jews. That's been proved correct over the years. And you're going to be proved correct if you haven't already on this one. So don't back down, Sid. I'm never backing down. I apologized one time, not because John Katzmittis made me do it. That was a lie in the papers yesterday. He never even approached me with that. Nobody did. I had a discussion with my wife and daughter the night before other people. I decided to do it on my own. But even that morning, I brought on two guests. I'll never forget Abraham Hamra and Michael Rappaport that destroyed the mayor because he's a creep. That's the bottom line. And he's the last person that should be down there until he comes out and says, hey, Hasan Piker, he's still a friend of mine. That would be bad enough, okay? But fine, I can live with that. But what he said about 9-11 and America was gross. And I'm not on that. He's never said that. How can he stand there? So I've learned something this morning when I was listening to you a little earlier. I didn't realize that Zohran Mamdani was on with Hasan Piker during that notorious episode. Yeah. Crazy. He was sitting right next to him. Yeah, to be the leader of New York City when you're okay with that sentiment is absolutely disgusting. Thank you. And these guys, you know, Hasan Piker and others, they're just in favor of violence. Hasan Piker in that New York Times interview that got so much attention where the other lady was saying she steals one from Whole Foods, said that bank hikes are cool. We need more bank robbery and people should be robbing art museums. What? Oh, my God. And I looked back in the history and there were a lot of leftist groups in the 60s, 70s, 80s who robbed banks.

And it wasn't cool at all because you end up, of course, inevitably shooting bystanders and tellers and security guards. You know, good working people have done nothing to anyone besides, you know, the rank illegality of it. And this is how radical the left is. And Zohran Mamdani is basically on board with it, even if they'll hide it at the moment. And, you know, how he feels about America, again, 9-11 today, if you're not angry, your, allows the American, bottom line. And how he feels about the Jewish people? What he's doing to this city? You know, Ken Grypton is set to meet now with Governor Kathy Hochul tomorrow, Rich. Ken wants to... go about a $6 billion project. It's going to be more than that because he's going to employ about 20,000 people. And for a city that is right now running on a $5.4 billion deficit, why would this moron do anything, anything to piss off anybody who wants to bring revenue to the city? And this idiot goes out there and does a video in front of Ken's house, which is also a security concern. This guy doesn't... And then he's begging for more money yesterday from Kathy Hochul and him and Julie Menon. So it's not just about how he feels about the Jewish people. I get that all the time. All Sid cares about is the Jews. Shut up. Please, I barely talk about Israel anymore. Barely, I care about this city. What is he doing right? Yeah, so that was just to have a stupid Instagram moment. And he just loves the idea of taxing the rich. He hates... rich people. That's another category of people he ate. And what has Ken Griffin ever done to anyone except for start, you know, successful businesses and give a lot of way to charity and help the city through all this economic activity? And I don't know why you wouldn't, you know, I don't need to tell Ken Griffin what to do, but I'm in Austin, Texas right now, clean. I look out my hotel window, tall buildings, you can come here. You know, there's so many other options. It used to be like, 40 years ago, like New York and San Francisco were the only decent cities in the country. Now they've destroyed themselves. And there are a bunch of other great places you can go. It's true. There's no reason to stay here anymore. There really is. And how he feels about the cops and it's just every single day. It's the values. that made New York great, the values that made this country great. And this is why I'm not anti-Muslim. I have nothing against the Muslim people. I don't. But I'm sorry the Bible, the Torah, that's one thing. The Koran is another. It's just not the same value system that we have here. It just, you're trying to fit a square peg into a circle hole. And it would be difficult enough if he was a decent guy. But when you add the fact that he is radical Islam on top of it...

It's just never going to fit. It's never going to fit. And I got to tell you, right now he's still the overwhelming favorite to win again. I mean, kind of joking around, but true, both Bruce Blakeman and Lara Trump endorsed me last week. You should too, by the way. And people do want me to run. Danielle's going to kill me. I know you're listening to Danielle. I'm sorry, I love you. But people do want me to run because they're already scared to death. Only four months in, this guy's going to do eight years. Yeah, I've been thinking about this, Sid, if you want to run, you shouldn't run. I don't think you want to be in politics. You have a huge impact doing what you do now, and you're fantastic at it. But you want to run, move to Florida and run. Don't run a forlorn campaign in New York City. These things, once you're in the arena, you don't know what's going to happen. You might end up in very weird places. Where's our friend Curtis right now, you know? Oh, God, please. If you want to do it, go do it in some place you can actually win. You know, it's funny. I gave the same exact, God, this sounds like a conversation I had a couple of he scored, Andrew Giuliani. And a writer for the New York Times, I told him the same thing. You know, he ran for governor in New York, and he did a tremendous job. He came in second behind Lee Zeldin, almost beat Kathy Hochul. But I keep telling Andrew, take your wife and your daughter to Florida. Looks like Byron Donalds's will probably win because Ron DeSantis is done. But the next time, if I'm Andrew, I'd run for office, I'd want for governor again. But this time, to your point, in Florida. Yeah, no, exactly. And, you know, has a New York connection, and people love Giuliani, transplants down here. Yeah, so Florida's a good landing pad. So I don't think you want to come back to Florida, so. No, no, not yet. Your New York are through and through. I am. Listen, it's in my blood. I legitimately care about this city. I love this city. And a lot of times when I get angry or lose control and people find me offensive. It's fine. It's because I really, really care. I don't have talking points, Rich. You know me. We've become great, great friends. Great friends over the years. I have two pieces of paper in front of me right now. I have something that reads, Cutsheet 42926, which are the 16 pieces of audio I've got. And then I've got one piece of paper with four or five things scribbled on it. And that's it for a four-hour show. All of this is authentic. It's organic. It comes from my heart. And you know what? Zohran Mamdani and most politicians in New York, they can't say that. Yeah, no, totally, totally. I know that to be true. But look, you have so much impact right now, and you'll have more impact staying where you are, supporting if we get one, you know, some independent kind of billionaire who's running against Zohran Mamdani, kind of Republican, but doesn't like Trump. Right. That's the kind of person you need. You're right. Somebody like John Katzumatis or Bill Ackman, one of those guys. Exactly. Yeah, and I think you're right about that. So what do you think, you know, Saturday night, almost everybody on this week? And I've been talking about.

Secret Service had Nicole Parker on yesterday. She, former FBI agent. I've had some serious folks on the show the last couple of days. And what I'm Bo Diedel, too. And what I'm getting from most is, is yes, a little concerning he got past the initial group of folks. But the truth is he did not get very close to the president. He was staying at the hotel. So he was sleeping close no matter what. And I think more people are upset with the venue. holding events at places like that than necessarily bashing Secret Service, even though every day there's another editorial on the post, how Secret Service is going to get Donald Trump killed one day. What are your thoughts on Saturday night? So I think two things can be true. One, their job, the Secret Service, you create the security plumber that creates a secure public for the President of the United States, and you protect it. And that's what they did. But also, this event, which... I haven't gone to in a very long time, but when I used to go to it, it was a wonderful thing, before it was a celebrity thing. But the advantage of it, you just go in, you walk in there, you're instantly, among all these other insiders and journalists and celebrities and politicians and cabinet members, and you can just jump from party to party, and everyone mingles together. And that's got to stop. You can't do that anymore. Thank God this guy didn't want to kill a cabinet member because he easily could have done it. in that lobby. Instead, he thought he could bullrush the room and get to President Trump, which he was never going to be able to do. So you unfortunately can't have this kind of event anymore. I think maybe cabinet members need to have mags outside of every event they do around the country now because this is so... insane. And this guy, he's not a schizophrenic. He wasn't deranged. He believed things that almost every Democrat in the country believes and just decided to act on it. You know, if he's a pedophile and Hitler, yeah, maybe you go kill him. So they should stop saying those things because they aren't true and they're dangerous to say. Agreed. What do you think about the short future here for Kevin Warsh? I guess it all starts today, the beginning of what will likely get him to replace Jerome Powell in that Fed chair. But what do you think about the near future starting today for Kevin Warsh? I think it'll be good. I think he's a good choice. He's a pro. He agrees with Trump on interest rates at the moment. He's not going to agree with Trump on interest rates always. So that's going to be the point of tension. I wouldn't be shocked by the end of his term. Trump doesn't like him either because Trump just wants lower interest rates no matter what because of the real estate guy and that's his reflex. But I think Kevin Warsh is a good. pick, and Trump initially at least will be happy with him. So they arrest Jim Come on, 86, 47. There's no way they can prove that he meant to, his intent was to have Trump killed. There's no way it's silly. But, but it's not silly because that's why Todd Blanche, in my opinion, has a chance to keep this job. There's no question. Look, President Trump was upset with Pam Bondi over a variety of issues. He doesn't like being called the pedophile. By the way, Either do I. But, you know, the truth is that she kind of bungled the whole Jeffrey Epstein thing, and Trump was never even close to being involved, and she didn't really clear him for his taste fast enough. You know, there's some other stories that Adam Schiff, you know, leaks some stuff which pissed off the president, but there's no doubt that he wanted his enemies put away, right? Whether it was...

James Comey, Letitia James, Brennan, and Pam Bondi did none of that. So even though this is a silly case, let's be honest, you're not going to jail. It just showed President Trump that Todd Blanche wants to serve him, and that may be enough to keep Todd Blanche in that job instead of people like Lee Zeldin, Janine Piro, Hormit Dillon. What are your thoughts? 100%. I think you nailed it totally. This is a ridiculous case. Never should have been brought. Never going anywhere. But it might keep Todd Blanche in his seat where he is now. So Todd Blanche, I don't know him. I just know him from his media appearances. They're pretty impressive and much more impressive than Pam Bondi. But this is a ridiculous thing to do, but he's playing the game. And it might work for it. He is. That's exactly what he's doing. He's smart. Last one, the Iran conflict. I guess, you know, depending on how you speak to, I speak to people like K-T-McFallin. She says, we basically won. That's what Trump says. Then I speak to people like Joe Takapini. He says, Sid, we're stuck. The bottom line is, we're stuck. What do you think is the truth here? Who's closer to being right? It's somewhere in between. We destroyed a lot of stuff in Iran, which is great. It's going to take them years to recover, but they've taken control of the Strait of Pramuz, which is an enormous economic and strategic chip for them to play. And now we're just in this game of chicken. The blockade will eventually grind them down to dust. But I emphasize that word eventually. You know, I don't think it's happening next week or happening in a month. And they're... hurting everyone else at the same time. So it's a game of chicken, and I'm not sure where this one goes. I guess eventually you get a deal that isn't great, but I think if you get a deal that's not great on top of the destruction, that's a net victory for us. But it may be that eventually both sides just stop, you know, and there's no deal. I still think there's upside to that because of the destruction. There's no doubt this has lasted longer and been more painful than Trump would have hoped at the outset. You know, one more, the fraud deal in this country. Lee Zeldin has uncovered billions, standing back to Stacey Abrams, Anthony D. Esposito now as the General Inspector of Labor Department. He's uncovered billions. J.D. Banscher is in charge of it. The feds rated 22 businesses in Minnesota yesterday. Tim Walz is actually saying, hey, if there's fraud, we're going to find it. Hey, stupid. It all happened when you were in charge, you, dumb bastard. That's why your political career is over. This is going to extend, as we know, already to New York and California, maybe Colorado, Illinois. How bad do you think the fraud issue is here in the United States? It's appalling. It's unbelievable. And it's because we have this model, especially in blue states, based on just shoving money out the door. And then they considered inherently wrong or racist to check if someone has suspicions that there's fraud. That's exactly what happened in Minnesota. It rolled on and on. It's insane. billions of billions of dollars in these states. Someone was saying that the wealth tax in California they want would have funded, would be just enough to fund all the fraudulent payments that estimated they made over the last period of years, $50 billion. It's incredible. It's crazy. It is crazy. All right. Well, the good news is Aaron George is hitting home runs every day. Every day.

Not unbelievable? Unbelievable. And Rice off to an incredible start. So if the pitching stays like this, they are a really good team. Stays like this? You haven't even gotten, we, excuse me, we haven't even gotten Garrett Cole and Rendon back yet. Yeah, could be better. I mean, it could be a situation you don't have a spot for Weathers or Warren. Imagine that. Schmidt could be coming back, too. I know, I know. So far so good, but it's April. My yanks. I love my yanks. I'm actually going again Monday night. All my boys are taking me out. It's late. It's two weeks after my birthday. But Keith Kantowitz and Oranger, all my guys are taking me. Legend seats for the Yankees Monday. And then I'm going to City Field on May the 15th to sit with Steve Cohen and Bill O'Reilly for the Met Yankee game. But what Steve doesn't know is I'm showing up in Queens wearing a Greg Nettles jersey. I love Greg Nettles. I saw Greg Nettles just a couple months ago. He was great. At a show. Listen, those World Series in 77 and 78 against the Dodgers, the plays he was making a third base for the Yankees, the plays that Ron Say was making a third base for the Dodgers, both of those guys were unreal. Yeah, yeah. Nettles, rarely can say a defender won a game and helped win a World Series, but he did that. I think it was 77. Yeah, yes. I love you. Another great appearance, Rich Lurie. I have so much fun with you. Keep up the great work. Thank you, buddy. Thank you. There he is, the editor of the National Review. Long appearance today because he can discuss everything and anything. Which, Larry. Thanks for listening to Sit and Friends in the Morning. You can hear Sid and Friends in the Morning, weekday mornings at six. If you like the podcast, share it with your friends, and listen anytime at wabcradio.com and download the Wabc Radio app. Hit that subscribe button on all major podcast platforms. Plus, follow WABC on social, on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X. See you next time for a new episode, so you never have to wonder. What the What the heck is going on here? You know what? It sucks to be bored. But when I get on my phone and play real casino games on SpinQuest.com, the time flies by. That two-hour wait at the DMV seems like 10 minutes. Play your favorite slots. Live blackjack, live craps with a live dealer. New players, $30 coin packs are on sale for $10.00. Play SpinQuest.com and you'll never be bored again. SpinQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit spendquest.com for more details.