Happy 250th Birthday, America

Your education is more than a path to a degree. At Regent University, it's an important step in God's plan for your career. It's where you'll be equipped to lead and serve with purpose. It's where 40,000 graduates have prepared to fulfill their callings, and so can you. Choose a top ringed program from over 150 areas of study, on campus or online, and watch what God will do. Learn more at regent.edu. That's regent.edu. Welcome to today's podcast, sponsored by Hillsdale College, all things Hillsdale at Hillsdale.edu. I encourage you to take advantage of the many free online courses there. And, of course, I'll listen to the Hillsdale Dialogues, all of them at Q for Hillsdale.com, or just Google, Apple, iTunes, and Hillsdale. Morning Glory and Grace, America, I'm Hugh Hewitt. The reason that most of the country takes tomorrow off, the reason we sell off the fireworks on Saturday and celebrate all day long, is that Saturday marks the 250th anniversary of this. In Congress, July 4th, 1776, the unanimous declaration of the 13th United States of America. When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident. that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their powers from the consent of the government. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and then to institute new government. Laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form is that to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate the government's long established should not be changed for light and transient causes, and accordingly all experiences shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, Pursuing invariably the same object of instances are designed to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity, which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object, the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be summoned to a candid world. He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained. And when so suspended, he is utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inessable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly for opposing with manly firmness his invasions of the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time after such disillusions to cause others to be elected. whereby the legislative powers incapable of annihilation have returned to people at large for their exercise. The state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the populations of these states for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither and raising the condition of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice by refusing his assent to the laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices and the amount in payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, eat out their substance. He has kept among us in times of peace standing armies without the consent of our legislatures. He is affected to render military independent of and superior to the civil power. He is combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, unacknowledged by our laws, giving us a sense of the acts of pretended legislation, for quartering large bodies of armed troops among us, for protecting by a mock trial from punishment for any murders for which they commit on the inhabitants of these states, but cutting off our trade with all parts of the world. by imposing taxes on us without consent, for depriving us in many cases of the benefits of trial by jury, for transporting us beyond the seas to be tried for pretended offenses, for abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing and therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies. for taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, altering fundamentally the forms of our government, for suspending our legislatures and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coast, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, totally unworthy of the head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow citizens, taking captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become executioners of their friends and brethren.

or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections among us, and he's endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and condition. In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms. Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of the free people. Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to an extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them in the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity. and we have conjured them by ties of our common kindred to disavow the usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace, France. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in general Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare that these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown. and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is not to be totally dissolved, and that its free and independent states may have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all their acts and things which independent states may have right to. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm alliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. It goes on to list the signers of the Declaration. Now, our friends at the Americans for Prosperity, AFP, they've begun the Declaration Project. And they've asked me to encourage you to do what I just did. On July 4th, the actual day, go to the National Archives, print it out. It took eight minutes to read out loud. And maybe you can pronounce consanguinity better than I can. Eight minutes to do that. AFP is, in fact, asking you to head over to a 250toolkit.com slash hue. A 250toolkit.com slash hue. and sign there the pledge to do that. A250 Toolkit.com slash you. When you do that, I mean, when you sit around and you do it, actually talk about it with your friends and family. See if anything sits particularly well with them. I have long told my law students that my favorite part of the declaration is in the indictment of George when he is called the task.

for sending out swarms of officials to eat up our substance. He has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. That reminds me of the administrative state today. That's why it's my favorite part of the declaration. But maybe you have a different one. You might like the beginning or the end. You like the middle or one of the phrases. You might be able to pronounce consanguinity. But I encourage you to go to a 250 toolkit.com slash you. Sign on to the declaration project. and do that on Saturday with family and friends before the fireworks, the hot dogs, and the hamburgers. And then I also encourage you to come right back to today, Thursday, July the second, Hugh Hewitt's show.

Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Dewitt. Please welcome an old friend, Fred Ryan. Fred is the president of the Reagan Foundation in the Center on Civility and Democracy. I hold in my hand the book, the civility handbook that the foundation has put out. Fred, welcome. I began the show today by reading the Declaration of Independence, and I had to note, because I knew you'd be on today, that it includes in its first paragraph. A decent respect to the opinion of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to separation. A decent respect for the opinion of mankind. Kind of the whole theme of the civility handbook, isn't it? Exactly right, Hugh. And thanks for, it's great to be back on your show. Thanks for having me. But we time that civility handbook to coincide with the 250th because it's a time for people to look back and see, how does our model of democracy work? What does it require? And how can we keep it perfecting it going forward? So we put together a lot of things, as you know, you've seen it. And we have everything from quotes from Sandra Day O'Connor to Snoop Dog. on ways that we can engage more civilly and respectfully with our fellow Americans. Let's run through some of the chapters. First of all, you call civility the cornerstone of democracy. That's because democracy actually depends upon the free exchange of ideas. Why else is it the cornerstone? Well, it's just as you said, I mean, it's not about democracy doesn't work if we can't have disagreement. In fact, I think a disagreement is an essential element to democracy. But we find ourselves today too often in a situation where if we disagree with someone or if they have a bad idea. then they're a bad person, and we don't deal with them any longer. And it precludes the opportunity for finding common ground. So what we've tried to say in the book, and just back to your reference to reading the Declaration of Independence, it wasn't just there, but our early, our founding fathers were worried about this. George Washington in his farewell address. talked about his fear that we would develop into factions, that were competing factions, that put their own interests ahead of the country, and even that they would try to exact revenge on other factions. And I think we're seeing a little bit of that now. So, chapter two, I love this one as well, the power of humility and crucially, curiosity. Because, yeah, you've got to be humble about yourself. I think that ought to be a given for any human being that realizes not knowing what you don't know. Knowing what you don't know is crucial, but curiosity about what other people do know is essential.

Yes, it's part of having a good conversation. If you start off by saying, I know everything here, I don't care to hear what you have to say, and you don't have enough humility, you're not humble enough to actually listen. I think you're not moving our collective interests forward, and you're probably not serving yourself well because you figure you've already figured it out, and there's nothing more that you can hear from anybody else. But every one of us, I know we. We can all tend to find ourselves feeling that we are the experts on this or that or we know better than others. But just a little dose of humility helps. You know, Fred, just earlier this week, we had the birthright citizenship decision. I've been through all six opinions twice now. I must say, Brett Kavanaugh has me rethinking a little bit, but I agree with the Chief Justice in his decision. because I think it's persuasive, but I found good arguments in Clarence Thomas's that proceed from his view of the 14th Amendment. Samuel Alito is concerned very much about the future. Everyone's got something to offer, but you've got to read it. You've got to be curious about what their arguments are that they would vote that way, and that applies to basically every argument in America. Right. I mean, how can we grow in our own opinions? How can we improve our opinions, and how can we find ways where, despite our differences, We find common ground if we can't have the humility to listen to a fellow American when they're sharing their point of view about what's best for the country. You know, Fred, I first heard about the civility handbook. I was on the panel the night you were on with Brett Bear on his common ground segment. And your chapter six in this is find common ground. That's often easier said than done. What's the recommendation on how to find common ground? You know, and you and I have talked about this and going back to our years of friendship and your role as commenting on the political landscape is there were times where this could be done. And one example I know we've talked about is Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill. You had a conservative Republican governor from the West and a liberal Eastern Democrat Speaker of the House. Politically, they were pretty opposite. But they could find that there were areas where they could find common ground and they could move things forward for the benefit of the country. And the other lesson was, I think, despite feeling that the other had bad ideas, they never said they're a bad person and I don't want to deal with them. I also want to hold up as an example of this. A man you worked with for a long time very closely when you were a publisher of the Washington Post and who hired me at the Post, Fred Hyatt. Now, Fred and I probably agreed only about 25% of the time. But he was the most civil individual, I think I've met, at least the equal of any civil individual in Washington, D.C. It's a tragedy when he died young. But boy, did he try and make the pages balance, fair, equitable, and curious. intelligible to all. He really is the personification from the media world of the Civility Handbook. Agree with that? Fred was. For all the reasons you mentioned, a wonderful person, and one of the things I was happy was he was able to recruit you to be on the team there. But I'll tell you one lesson that I learned from Fred Hyatt. I try to apply, and I think we could probably, in the next edition of the Civility Handbook, we could add this. He said,

When you're critiquing somebody and you're debating somebody and you're criticizing them, criticize their strongest argument. Don't find the weakest point and go after that because that's easy. But pick the strongest one and critique that and base your opinion on that. And I think that's, you know, I think a lot of us could learn from that. You look at a lot of some of the extreme sites on the platforms and even some of the very opinionated cable channels. And you hear them taking on. criticizing an opponent, but they're picking the weakest, lightest part of their argument when I think all of us would be more persuaded if they took on the strongest part of their argument. Mowing down strong man, I call that. Before I go back to the specific, how do people get the civility handbook, Fred? I want to make sure people know they can get it. Well, you thank you. It's available. It's free. We made it available through Civilityhandbook.com. We've had, in the last week, we've had over 10,000 requests for it. They told me if it was a commercial book, it would be a New York Times bestseller. But if people go tocivilityhandbook.com, we will send it to them. We've had teachers reach out to us asking for. 50 copies for the students in their classrooms. We've had universities asking for it. So that's the way they get at civilityhandbook.com. And they can also get the digital version. So we will mail them this hard copy, but they can also get a digital flipbook they can see online. Maybe even enjoy it over the 4th of July weekend. It would be great to have it in your desk at school and pull it out and just go to chapter 7. Distinguished facts from opinion and then chapter 13, social media. So let's talk about distinguishing facts from opinion, especially on social media. Fred, we got one minute left to talk about the civility handbook. Well, I mean, you've nailed it there, Hugh. I mean, social media, more than half Americans say they get some of their news from social media. And if you think about it, social media has no journalists. They have no newsroom. They have no editors, no fact checkers. And people are getting their news and they're forming opinions based on that. So it's important to go to trusted sources. People like you, who they know do their homework and do their research and they can get the information firsthand and not rely on social media where there's so much disinformation. Fred, congratulations you and the Center on Civility and Democracy at the Reagan Foundation. Remember, civilityhandbook.com. Get it for yourself. Get it for your class. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Lewis. Jonathan Williams is with us from our sponsor, the American Legislative Exchange Council, Alec.org. Jonathan, I want to get the jobs numbers. I want to get to South Carolina, but I want to start with the fact that Alec is celebrating our 250th in a special way because you put together a curriculum for the states on American civics. Has anyone picked it up yet?

Well, they certainly have. I think it started in West Virginia with our great friend Senator Patricia Rucker, who's been on the show many times with you, Hugh. And our whole Alex State's 50, Alex 250 initiative this year has just been an incredible opportunity to just remind everybody of an incredible opportunity we have this year to go back and even read the founding documents, Hugh. This is something that we've talked about everywhere we've gone is if you haven't spent the number of minutes that it takes to go and reread the Declaration of Independence. and get inside what the founders were thinking. If we can't do it now, when are we going to do it, Hugh, right? And so whether it's the civics education piece where we're having our legislators go and make sure that that is being taught properly with the original documents in public education, we have a great Alec model resolution that states are introducing to commemorate our 250th anniversary as a country. But at the end of the day, this comes down to families and parents prioritizing us to say freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction, as Reagan reminded. It has to be fought for us, not passed down into bloodline. So this is, what an opportunity we have this week at America 250. I began the show today with the declaration, Jonathan, but I can't pronounce consanguinity very well. So I hope people practice that before they read the declaration. Let's go to the job numbers. Today, 50,000 jobs created in June. April job numbers were advised up to 177. March job numbers were up to 202,000. Wages are up 3.4% year over year. Unemployment still low at 4.3. Do we expect the number to be revised upward again like the last two months? You know, that's a little bit of an aberration, as you know, Hugh. I mean, we spent several years during the Biden years seeing these major numbers on the headline and then downward revisions every single time. So this is a great, great change of pace when it comes to upward revisions. I think it just, you rattled off all of those great statistics. I mean, obviously the piece on gas prices and inflation, higher than people would like, even though they're starting to come down, especially here in Northern Virginia in recent weeks. But I'll tell you, This economy is resilient, and a lot of those fundamentals are strong, and one of the reasons why I think that is, and I think you do too, is here we are one year later after the one big, beautiful bill, the Working Families Tax Cut Act was signed into law, and just the permanency of the tax cut for the first time in recent memory, those expensing provisions for businesses, the lower burdens, the lower ability of individuals now to have more take-home pay after the lower burdens. That all is coming back to roost when it comes to these strong economic numbers. Even with everything else going on around the world, it's pretty impressive just all of those things you just talked about. And oiled down to $68.45 a barrel as we speak. One big, beautiful tax bill did in fact.

passed one year ago today. The average tax saving for an American $3,800, more than $3,800. That's an increased standard deduction as well. Wonderful bill. So I think a lot's going to come together, John, including deregulation. We're not, that's not on our agenda for today. But I have to think that the myriad number of regulations that have been cut result in tens of thousands of Americans doing things they otherwise would not have been able to do this year. then when Donald Trump returned to office. And that's freeing up the economy. Well, there's no doubt. And you add what was being done at OIRA at OMB right now. They've taken the first Trump administration's efforts on deregulation, and they've supercharged them in Trump too here, and that's just been incredible. But, I mean, the other things that people forget about often are the one big, beautiful bill, is the massive amount of education choice that was included in it with the federal education tax credit scholarship, the expansion of those popular 529 plans, just all kinds of benefits that fly under. the radar of the mainstream media, as always. No, I had Vivek Ramaswamy on yesterday. He was telling me his platform for Ohio. I think he's going to win. He wants to become Texas, Tennessee, and Florida North. He didn't add South Carolina. Should he be adding South Carolina to his objective for modeling? They got down to a 2.5% flat tax. He was the first guy to say that, but they got a way to go. One minute. What's so great about South Carolina? Well, I was with them at the White House this week, Hugh, and it just happened that Governor Henry McMaster signed into law, their massive red tape reduction and deregulation bill that are great friends there, Speaker Smith, and others have been working on. It includes Rains Act-style reform, Chevron deference, and, of course, add that to the tax cuts moving towards a 1.99% flat tax, as well as a total elimination of the personal income tax that was already passed. And you add that to... just the amazing in-migration that South Carolina has seen, even beating Florida in raw numbers in this last year. I'm very bullish on the future of South Carolina, especially if they keep down on this trajectory. I think Alan Wilson will do that, but we've got to watch the Ohio-South Carolina competition in the year ahead. Jonathan, think the Buckeye State will win. Have a great 250th, Jonathan. It's always a pleasure of working with you and in all my friend, Alec, the American Legislative Exchange Council. Go to Alec.org and come see us in Florida in Orlando, July 22nd to 24th. I'll be broadcasting live there. Take care.

Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt, joined now by the editor-in-chief of the Washington Free Beacon. Usual participant in the commentary podcast. Eliana Johnson, follow her on Exit, Eliana Y. Johnson, listen to her on the commentary podcast. Eliana, happy 250th to you and yours before we get there. Let me read you six names. Darya Liza Avila Chevalier, New York. Adam Hamawi, New Jersey, Milot Kuros, Colorado, Brad Lander, New York, Claire Valdez, New York, Scott Weiner, California. Those are six new Marxists. There are other 15 Marxists already in, or nine other Marxists in Congress. What happens if we have 15 Marxists in the Democratic Congress? And they're in the majority. Well, Hugh, I think we've already seen the squad have an outsized impact. You know, we saw must be in 2018, 2019. The House would not pass a resolution to condemn anti-Semitism because of Ilhan Omar's protest. Now we have a new squad that we can call the Cell. These are al-Qaeda friendly, to say the least. folks on their way in and they're going to be an enormous headache for Hakeem Jeffries when if the Democrats take the House and even if they don't, they are expanding their footprint and certainly socialists and Marxists are ascendant in the Democratic Party. They have proven this is where the energy is in the Democratic base. They can win in blue districts. I think the question that remains, Hugh, is in statewide elections in Maine where Graham Platner is running with DSA backing in Michigan, where Abdul El-Sayed is running with DSA backing and these far left-wing candidates are trying to win in swing states. Can they take this revolution statewide? So, Elion, if you're Mike Johnson or the National Republican Congressional Committee, or you're John Thune and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, do you try and nationalize this election around the Democratic Marxists? Because that's what they are. Tom Cotton made that point yesterday. Democrats are being taken over by Marxists. We've never seen this in America before. We actually, 250 years, we've never had a Marxist party that was serious. Now we do. Right. Well, you know, Hugh, every Republican was asked to account for every last thing Donald Trump said. And I think something similar should be asked of these Democrats in terms of what their star candidates are saying. And one thing that's striking is we haven't seen Democratic leaders disavow the most controversial anti-American things that these candidates have said. In fact, we've seen the opposite. We've seen Hakeem Jeffries come out and congratulate these candidates. on their victories. And we've seen Chuck Schumer come out and say the Democratic Senatorial campaign committee is happy to support Graham Platner and presumably whoever wins the Michigan primary in their races. So we've gotten silence from Democratic leadership who are afraid of these people and presumably preparing to be steamrolled by them if they win.

I do want to say a good word for Adam Smith. He's a Democrat from Washington State, who's chairman, actually ranking minority member of House Armed Services. He's very upset about the march of the Marxists, and he talks bluntly about it. John Fetterman talks bluntly about it, but that's not enough. Do you think it's a winning strategy for Republicans to just say, these are Marxists, they will destroy our economy and our way of life, and your civil liberties? Well, I think it's a winning strategy to make clear what these people believe in, which I don't think are views that are popular with the broad middle of the electorate, which are no borders, no police, and vile hatred for America. We're about to celebrate our great inheritance, the country's 250th anniversary. And these are people who openly sneer at our inheritance and hate this country. So up in your home state, Peggy Flanagan is ahead, Lieutenant Governor. She's probably going to be the nominee along with Abdul El-Sayed. Those are August primaries in Michigan and Minnesota, respectively. Are people talking about first principles in Minnesota? I mean, are they really, Peggy Flanagan is a Marxist. Do people talk about that? Oh, Hugh, I have to say Minnesota has long been a lost cause. As we've seen Republicans win in Wisconsin, in Iowa, in Michigan, all of the surrounding states, Minnesota, with its long history of a DFL party, is one of the only states where the Democrats have continued to hang on. We'll see if 2026 is the year that changes. All right. This would never fly with my generation or your father's generation. What about your generation? Are they, the youngs are droving Keros in Denver. The people are under 30. What about your generation, which is 10 to 15 years older than them? Are they rejecting Marxism? Is it just the 30 and under? I think where we really see this is kind of the 18 to 34 generation in both parties, frankly, you know, there's a meeting of the minds on the far left and the far right. And I have to say to you, I think the kids under 18 who experienced the long reach of government during COVID have better heads on their shoulders than do the generation just above them, the Dari Elisa Chivalier generation, who have, you know, been in college and grad school for 15 years or whatever she has been. But I have a sense that the generation coming up out of college right now or in high school right now have a better view on the world and more sense than our current crop of political candidates, 20-somethings and early 30-somethings, the Zohran Mamdani generation. Last question, Eliana. I know you're busy and you've got a lot of... reporters to send to a lot of places. Has anyone figured out what Darya Liza Villas Chevalier has been doing for 15 years? I mean, I've known some PhD students who took seven, even eight years. They were grad students. They lived in, you know, three people, apartments. What has she been doing for 14 years? How do you live for 14 years as a grad student?

Well, the free beacons, I think she's been eight or nine years in grad school after, of course, doing her undergraduate studies at Columbia and spending some time to date. The Al-Qaeda lawyer who's working for Zohran Mamdani, went right into the Zohran Mamdani administration, both of them, Columbia graduates. But the free beacons, John Levine, did a wonderful story on the classes that she's teaching at CUNY, where she is a graduate student on, you know. Intersectionality of intersectionality. That is leaving intersectionality words you can't pronounce. So I think that's how she's been spending most of her time, as well as attending rallies on October 8, 2023, where she's cheering on the Hamas invasion of Israel. Boy, are the Democrats in for a rude awakening when these people arrive. They'll win. They're in Deep Blue Democratic District. They won the nomination with less than 20% of registered Democrats, but they're going to Congress. Wow. Eliana Johnson, you have a terrific 250. You too, Hugh. Eliana Y Johnson on X3Beacon.com and the commentary podcast. I'm Hugh Hewitt, joined by Ben Dominic. She is the opinion editor at the Daily Wire, Fox News contributor, hosts of the Big Ben podcast and friends of the program. Ben, I got a lot to cover with you, but I want to start with the red card last night. I did not watch it live. I was watching it online because there were 20 people in my basement, and I can't stand that much noise. So tell me what you thought when it happened. So, Hugh, I was watching it live, and I was watching at home by myself, and I yelled loudly enough that my wife said, quiet down. She's like me upstairs hearing the mob. As you might expect, what I yelled is not appropriate for your airways. So immediately my phone blew up with, I actually have a number of friends, including. One of my best friends, Vanessa Santos, who is within the D.C. sphere, who is a former soccer, quite accomplished soccer player herself. And the text chains immediately fired up of, this is obscene. This is ridiculous. Everybody's learning now how corrupt FIFA is, you know, and that kind of thing. I've never, that is such a blatant. non-call. It is so bad. And the fact that they made it is going to make this next game, this next match. It's going to be difficult. But let's hope that they play with even more spirit. But it was great to see them perform a man down. And look, you know, we know from Henry that the fewer men, the greater share of honor. Well, I saw you post that. But now, my Division III playing daughter-in-law tells me soccer reps are not like football refs. They don't make good. They don't, you know, when they blow one in an NFL game, you can normally count on a make good. Do you think that will carry over into the FIFA world?

I do not think it will, and your, and your driver's correct, she's completely correct, they do not do that. And frankly, I actually appreciate that a little bit about the NFL because at least in the days before we had the kind of review that was possible from the NFL headquarters, you know, I think that there's so many calls over the years where they were just like, ah, we screwed that one up. And then, you know, you might get one later on, or at least argue one that was iffy. In this situation, I don't, I think that this, look, the one thing that FIFA needs to understand is this is the kind of thing that can determine whether an enormous number of American potential fans become invested in your sport or not. One of the things that, I mean, we still remember some of those calls, you know, that have been made over the year. Yes. Absolutely. The replacement reps, the complaints from the Cowboys, the complaints from the Seahawks in that Packers game, the whole, like we remember these calls and the NFL works to fix them. In FIFA, nothing like that really happens. Well, you know what the analogy is, Ben? It's what's happening to Caitlin Clark. The WNBA is going to destroy itself if they don't stop that, and FIFA is going to blow up a chance. I have to say something, too. Who knew the WNBA had a potential to cause a massive race war in America? Yeah. Where did that come from? Who had that on their bingo card? I just, I mean, you know, the calcium market on that had to be low. The stuff with Caitlin Clark is absolutely ridiculous, and it's offensive, and what's more, I think it. This is really a scenario where they have a star who is so big that if she wanted to leave that league, there would be massive repercussions for them. And they need to, I think they're playing with more fire than they actually. I think she had a sign that Cavaliers could use her in 30-point range, man. Second story on my not yet important story. LeBron back to Clevelanders are going to be a warrior, which would disappoint all of Ohio forever. If he decides to go to the Warriors, it would be not just a disappointing thing for Ohio. I think it would be a disappointing thing for all of us who are fans of sport. Like, I mean, this is not, that type of decision is, it is craven and it is, you know, it is at odds with the kind of narrative that he should want at this point in his career about himself. And I think that if he decides to do that, I think he will be judged for it, and it will be thought of as a major, major mistake at the end of his career. He needs to go back to Cleveland. That is the story that makes sense. It's the arc that makes sense. And for a guy who's concerned about his image, it shouldn't even be a question. You know, Cleveland is blessed with Jose Ramirez, who is the classiest guy in American baseball. Doesn't speak English very well, doesn't answer in English. But he committed to Cleveland, and he stays in Cleveland. He takes half the money to stay in Cleveland. I wish professional athletes would understand when you commit to a city, they commit to you in ways that you'll never underappreciate. You'll always be appreciated. Especially stars who, you know, in this day and age, are going to make more money when they're not playing than they do when they're actually.

playing. They're going to make more money from endorsements, from everything that comes after, from everything that's going on simultaneously. And that's just the honest God truth. Now, I think in LeBron's case, he's made all the money. He's got the rings. He's got everything. Finish the story right. Don't do, don't make the mistakes that, you know, time and again, we've seen old quarterbacks make or something like that, going to a franchise that makes no sense. You know, just, you know, seeking another payday as so many NBA players have done over the years. Look, he's got to go back. And I think that it's important enough. You know, as you know, my conspiracy theory is about the NBA, I think it's important enough that the NBA needs to do whatever they can to make sure. Well, let me tell you the basketball problem. Terry Plito is the finest sports writer in Ohio. And he was doing a podcast on this. He said, okay, it's the end of the game. You've got three All of Famers, Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, and LeBron James. They all think they ought to take over the game. Meanwhile, Jared, Allen, and Evan Mobley don't think they're a slouch either. How do you manage the minutes and the end of the game? Even if LeBron itself sacrificing, can you really run a team with three All of Famers? I think that's going to be the test, but I think that you've got to try. And, I mean, you know, if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. But, you know, again. Look, I know the Warriors and then Winhorse, you know, over at ESPN, you know, was on this, you know, from the get-go. The Warriors moved, you know, in terms of their own cap situation to make some room for this. So clearly they think they have an opportunity. Clearly they want those jersey sales. But we can't let this happen. It's not, I mean, it's bad. It's bad for the NBA. It's bad for fandom to see someone like that, have the ability to go back to his hometown. be on a competitive team, you know, write a great end to his story, and instead choose, ah, no, I'm going to go to a team that is Seth Curry's team, that is absolutely Seth Curry's team, and will be remembered as such. That's not the way you should go out. Though I will say, credit to LeBron, Dad of the Year, for waiting until his son's contract vested to announce this. Next question, 250th. I began the show by reading the Declaration. I'm just, I'm not in D.C. for the summer. I go to both coast because I can't stand it. So I haven't been to the Great American State Fair. Have you been down there? Seven degrees here today. Oh, gosh. That people ask me why. I've got asthma and I just, I'm too old to deal with that. Have you been down to the Great American State Fair? Is it fun? So I have been down there multiple times. I've done some fox hits from there, and I've walked around a bit. I've got to be honest with you, Hugh. I think this could have been a lot better. And the reason that I say that is I think that what happened a little bit was it actually looks great. And there's a lot more people. People on the liberal networks are like, oh, there aren't people there. No, there's actually tons of people around. And there's tons of tourists. which is good, and a lot of tourists actually are going to the rodeo, which is an impressive scene, you know, right there in front of the Jefferson Memorial. You know, there's plenty of folks down there. The thing that I think is kind of the major botch of this is actually something that almost no one is talking about. The food's bad. The food is not impressive. And I wish...

that they had had, like, import whoever is at the Iowa State Fair, the Texas State Fair, the food, as you know, at State Fair's. The Minnesota State Fair, I broadcast from a dozen times. French fries. Chocolate chip cookies, butter, everything. It's fabulous. It's like you needed to have like a major investment in that side. It's totally absent from that. And that is a criticism from my perspective because it would have been an opportunity to kind of have a schmortest board of like the most amazing, ridiculous over the top fried snickers, you know, whatever you want to get kind of thing that only exists at these state fairs. Show it off, you know, have fun with that. And I think that that's something that just was amiss. It has been very hot, which they can't control. I suggested to the agricultural secretary yesterday who I ran into Brooke Rollins that they really should have just put a tent over the middle of that, over the green part, even if it was visually less impressive, just because there's a lot of moms pushing around babies and strollers in, you know. 97 degree 100. It's really 107 today. It's not really that high. It peaked it 107 today. It was 102 last time I checked. So the thing that is very, very troublesome about it is that, like, there's a lot of families who are here who, quite frankly, are just not out there on the field, on the mall, because they're going to the museums. Because the museums have air conditioning, which is also good. Like, that's good. You know, they're coming to D.C. and they're... seeing the stuff that they should be able to see. And some of the stuff that's in there is incredibly impressive. You know, the collections that they brought together, the National Gallery of Art, everything else like that. It's really good. All right. Ben is going to stick around for the next two segments off air. We're going to talk about Zohran Mamdani and what he has unleashed. And then on the other side, we're going to talk about the March of the Marxist from East to West and what's going to happen to the Democrats. And how leader... John Thune and Speaker Johnson ought to organize the NRC and the NRC to combat the march of Marxism and the Democrats. Stay tuned. I'm back with Ben Dominic during the break, and after the break, Ben, I'll run through the names for the audience of the Marxists who are running in the Senate and the House. They're going to have a crazy problem on their hand. But I want to zero in on Zohran Mamdani for a moment. Yesterday, he told New Yorkers to keep their thermostat at 78. That's so Stalinist. I mean, he didn't demand that the secret police aren't coming at. but it's central control. Is he going to be a disaster like he think he's going to be? I think it's going to be an utter fiasco. Well, the thing with Zohran Mamdani, of course, is that he's already played this game with the deferred payments on pensions to maintain that he's fixed the budget problem, that he's actually only made worse. I think that there's going to be a lot of sleight of hand here. But I think that one of the things about that 78-degree thing, which is interesting, is that the socialists, you know, they're not sending the secret police yet, but they're using public shaming. What does that feel like you, Hugh? To me, it feels like...

This is a lesson they took from COVID. This is a lesson that they took from the experience of forcing people to wear masks and basically using the power of individual Americans screaming at each other in order to achieve a level of legal enforcement that they couldn't do under the law. You know, that they essentially created a circumstance where... Well, if you didn't set your thermostat to 78 degrees, you know, I visited my friend the other day, and his thermostat was at 69. He's a horrible person now, you know, that kind of thing. And I think that what they're counting on... is this climate that existed during COVID where, you know, that was furthered, quite frankly, by a lot of, I believe, villainous members of our media, you know, who turned this into a, you know, kind of a morality play of if you aren't doing everything that we say at this particular moment, you know, on the latest CNN update, then you are killing grandma. And that's something that I think these socialists looked at and learned from and are now applying, and I think are going to continue to apply. Now, that's something that I think has to be resisted. I think it will be resisted. I think most New Yorkers are not going to turn the temperature stats to 78 degrees because that would be crazy. But look, we are not, we have to push back against this because they are serious about this. And you don't know the point at which they try to make this. perhaps not illegally enforceable, but to penalize people who break these kinds of laws, or not laws, but these kinds of dictums handed down from on high by people like Zohran Mamdani. They'll do alternative pricing, Ben. That's what they do in California on water. If you use above X water, you get charged 3X for the water that you use, even if it's abundant, even in places where water is abundant. Before we come back from Brett, your quick take of the Supreme Court's exit. They had seven major decisions, the court's capping it off with. We got one minute. Were you happy, sad, or in between? Well, I'm a little in between the one. So I agree with you on the outcome of the birthright citizenship decision. I disagreed with some parts of the opinion, but I also thought that this was an inevitable consequence of deciding to do what they did. via an executive order and not working to try to do something via Congress as well that would help define this. And look, we needed to have this defined. I personally am in favor birthright citizenship. I do not want a bunch of stateless kids wandering around. But we have a completely different and unprecedented situation that we've never had before, Hugh, in terms of the level of organized birth tourism that's going on in this country. That's a problem that needs to be addressed. That's a visa problem. I agree with you. And it's a pregnancy visitor problem.

Ben Dominic, don't go anywhere, America. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hugh, with Ben, Dominic. It's time to get to the serious stuff. Ben, I'm going to read you a post I put up on X earlier today. If Democrat House nominees, Daria Liza Avila Chevalier in New York, Adam Hamawi in New Jersey, Milot, Kiroz in Colorado, Brad Lander in New York, Claire Valdez in New York, and Scott Weiner in California. Join the radicals already in Congress, and I named the nine of them, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Dexter, Frost, Pramila Jayapal, Omar, there are a bunch of them. And if radicals shared Brown in Ohio, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota, Graham Platner in Maine, and James Talarico in Texas, join the radicals already in the Senate. We know they are. Chris Van Hollen and Elizabeth Warren, Sheldon White House, Bernie. The Democrats will be run by Marxists. I mean, they'll have the balance of power. How alarming is this development? It's never happened in American politics before. Well, Hugh, I'm glad that you're putting it that way because, if anything, I feel like I've been saying that this is alarming until I'm blue in the face in the sense that the people that I think are running the Republican Party have actually been kind of toying with it at something that was funny or amusing or that you could mock or that would play to their political benefit. I think that they're underestimating the fact that the energy, the organizing energy, the activist class of the Democratic Party is firmly behind this, all of this, and that the Democratic leadership is sclerotic, it's aging, it's not in control of their own coalition anymore. Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer do not run their party, and the energy, if these folks all get elected, and most of them will, I think, you know, you will end up with a situation where... all of the energy, all of the focus, and the priorities of one of the major parties in America is going to be set by a bunch of people who think that capitalism is evil, that it needs to be destroyed, that toys with the idea that, you know, billionaires and that just the executive class, even generally, needs to be hauled out and, you know, killed at the worst extent, you know, that's something that a lot of Democrats excuse when you even ask them in polling, which is amazing. But it's one of these things where the entire idea that we would enter a stage where one of the two major parties would essentially reject any kind of pro-business, pro-capitalist approach and instead adopt this type of Marxism in mass, it's a very real possibility, Hugh. And I think that Republicans and conservatives have dramatically underrated it. So here's the tough question. Mike Johnson, the Supreme Court cleared away the way for the parties to actually collect money. And anyone who's out there listening, you should send your money to the RNC, the NRCC or the NRSC, and they can control it. John Thune can control the Senate fund along with Tim Scott. We've got Speaker Mike Johnson and the NRC chairman. It's not Tom Emmer anymore. Kent Maroo, it is this right now. They can control the messaging. What should the messaging be? That they're Marxists, that they're anti-Semitic. How do you message, can you nationalize this race and turn it into whoever you are, wherever you are, vote Republican because they're insane.

Well, I think that that should be a part of the Republican message, but it can't be the only part. And I think, unfortunately, they've leaned on it a little bit too heavily. One of the big things that I think has to be done is to focus on their law and order or lack thereof, I should say, agenda. When it comes to destroying the police, when it comes to destroying the actual institutions of America, I think that needs to be a bigger part of this talk. I think people hear socialism, and they have been brainwashed by our education system and our media, unfortunately, to the point where they think that means affordability. They think it means Norway. They think it means Sweden. It's not Sweden in Norway. It does not. It does not. Look, you know, I think that there is an element of this, too, Q, and this has been something that I've kind of beat the drum on over the years. This is the true stage of America becoming a Latin America politics, adopting that entire approach, where you see sort of the strong man politician who comes in to clean things up and make big changes. But then there's problems when it comes to oligarchs and it comes to corruption and it comes to all these other things that communists. come along and demonize, then the communists get elected, and they bring in crime, and they bring in, you know, all sorts of upheaval and chaos, and people, they never deliver on their promises, and so people respond in kind by electing another strong man. And that's the kind of thing that you see time and again in Latin American politics. I think, unfortunately, you know, in America, we are looking more and more like that on a daily basis, and that's something that the communists. think, and they really are communist, they're not social. They think benefits them, and they're going to try to run on that agenda. Republicans need to understand that they have vulnerabilities on this point, especially when it comes, I think, to the anti-corruption language that they're going to use. They're going to go after the president's family. They're going to go after all the business deals. They're going to go after all these different things, and they're going to paint themselves as being crusaders for the working man against a group of rich people who are distant. who don't care about them, they're going to play all the clips of the president, you know, saying things that he doesn't care about or lower or saying that, you know, housing isn't a priority right now, inflation, you know, et cetera. They're going to use all of that, and they're going to use it, I think, to great effect if Republicans don't come up with a response to it. Well, that's what I'm most worried about, the consulting class. They've never confronted this before. The Republican consulting class, and nobody admires Carl Rove more than me, and Carl gets it, but he's not in the game anymore. I don't know that there's a generation, I mean, the ruthless guys, they kind of know the language and the music. Does anyone else, though, that actually makes a living off of this know how to sell? the fact that Marxism is a disaster and it never is not a disaster? So I have not, you know, look, I talk to a lot of consultants. I think there are some very smart ones who are out there. I don't think they have found the message that will actually tie that in yet that will connect with people because of so many decades of...

you know, indoctrination, again, by our education system that said that all this stuff was harmless and that these people just want you to have free health care and free everything, et cetera, and does not actually deal with the realities of what would be the consequences of their agenda. That has to change, and Republicans need to understand generally that they are facing a different animal here than they have faced before. And it is far more extreme, far more radical. And the difference is a lot of these people who came before, we've said this before, a lot of these people who came before were silly. They were on the edge. They never were really going to exercise any kind of power. These people are going to be powerful. Do you have enough of them if they form a consistent... You know, caucus within the Democratic Conference in the House, they will be able to affect policy to a greater degree than ever before. They'll control the speaker. They'll control the leader. They will control everything. And I think that people are underestimating the fact that this Democratic leadership is the weakest it's ever been in our lifetime. Nancy Pelosi is no longer in control of this situation. You do not have people to keep people in line. She knew how to keep the squad in the box, even though she let them in. And I think that that was, you know, something that was a mistake to do, of course. But she kept them in the box. She gave them things that they could run and chase. She said, go off and make your case for your Green New Deal. And by doing so, she basically made them, she neutered their ability to actually, you know, affects policy within the Democratic Conference to a great degree. That's going to change. And that's going to be a major difference than anything that we've seen, certainly in my lifetime. It certainly does make. Susan Collins race in Maine and Mike Rogers race in Michigan, the most important races in the United States. I mean, I want John Houston to beat old Sherrod Brown as kind of Joe Biden, but getting bad, faster than Joe Biden did. I want to beat awesome, but we really have to reelect Susan Collins and have Mike Rogers win in Michigan. Ben, have a great 250th. Always a pleasure to spend time with you. Follow him on exit be Dominic. Listen to the Big Ben podcast and, of course, read the Daily Wires, opinion pages in the interview of the week on Saturday. Stay tuned to America. Welcome back, America. I'm Q. Hugh at Josh Kroshauer joins me, Jewish Insider, Editor-in-Chief. Josh, we've talked a lot about the Democrats' hard left turn already this year, and we'll talk about it through November. But this week, Milot Kuros in Colorado became the six radical Democrat to join the ranks. Darya Liza Vila Chavez is nominated. Adam Halamoumi is nominated Brad Lander, Claire Valdez, and Scott Wiener. is not as anti-Israel, Jewish as the rest of them, but they're all very, very radical. Have the people that you cover notice this, and like Normie Democrats notice what's happening in their party? Oh, yeah. I mean, look, it is.

Something that was a concern a year ago got more deeply worrying six months ago. And now that these very radical openly, you know, extremist candidates have actually been nominated and are going to be headed to Congress. You know, there are a lot of folks on the record. There are a lot more that are quietly whispering about how concerned they are about the direction of the party. But look, the big tests are coming up in the... summer and then in the fall with Abdul El-Sayed got the endorsement of uh Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez today and that Michigan Senate race is a real proxy for these same forces and uh but but also the general we haven't really seen how these extreme DSA-al-line candidates or socialist candidates are going to fare in a general election and if you have Graham Platner in Maine and Abdul El-Sayed if he gets the nomination in Michigan I mean that is going to be the ultimate test I and look I think That is the more important test, ultimately, because if Democrats lose the Senate majority and lose these very winnable races because of that extremism, I think they will get the message that they need to do something to confront the anti-Israel extremism and the anti-Semitism and the radicalism. If somehow even one of the two, just a win, that might send them a different message, and that would be a very disturbing message. I do see polling showing Susan Collins has gone ahead in one public poll of Graham Platner. I think he's falling like a rock. Domestic abuse is one of those acid acting. issues that destroy a candidacy, even though people don't say things about it. Elsa yet is just so far out there, and Mike Rogers is such a normie that I think he'll win, but in the House, they've already got nine radicals in the House Democrats, and I could run through them, but you know Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and everybody's. They're nine radicals. If they get six more, that's 15. There's no way, I think, the Democrats come out of these House elections with a majority of greater than 10 or 12. So they're going to be in charge of the house. Do you think Hakeem Jeffries controls that? Well, you nailed the math, Hugh. The math that I'm going to be looking at come November is whether the number of DSA-affiliated Democrats is a larger number than if Democrats do take the majority, is it larger than Hakeem Jeffries, you know, majority margin. I think there's a good chance it will be. When you look at the Cook Political Report, you look at, you know, kind of an unexpected, like a 15-seat pickup that would put, you know, that number kind of in the same ballpark. So it's going to be a hell of a time for Hakeem Jeffries. to be speaker. It's going to be very much like Kevin McCarthy faced in 2022. And I've heard from some Democrats, they're going to kind of play the card of how dare you oppose someone who would be the first black speaker to Hakeem Jeffries. And I think it could get ugly if it really is a fight for the speakership. But that's the card, I think, that the establishment is going to play. But I don't think that the very radical, very anti, I mean, these folks, we've talked about this queue, but, you know, they make sort of the,

type of extreme candidates who I've talked about as exotic or unelectable in both parties in the past. Chevalier is an out-and-out self-declared communist, you know, the candidate in Colorado, Kuros. who just got nominated. She would not declare the firebombing that killed Jewish people trying to raise awareness of the hostages being held by Hamas. She wouldn't declare the terrorist attack as anti-Semitic. I mean, this is a whole new level of extremism, and I think it's going to have some very serious consequences in a negative way for the Democratic Party. So, Josh Roshire, you play center field in political journalism. I'm wondering of the Republican National Republican Congressional Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee, evidence to you, yet any kind of coherent strategy for going into the fall trying to nationalize the race around the Democrats' march to Marxism? Well, look, we have platinum. And the nomination of Graham Platner might become a nationalized play, given just how prominent he has become and how problematic, even Democrats who are pretty progressive, they realize that this guy may not be viable in the long term, right? I think the right, you're right, that there was the first poll. The Fox poll came out this week showing him down for the first time in a public poll. And then the New York Times poll showed him only up by two points. But if you talk to Democrats who were looking under the hood of those numbers, not. a lot of good trend lines for platinum, a lot of real red flags. So I still think that'll be a competitive race, but Graham Platner does look like damaged goods. I think the question is for Elsa, Elsaida is starting to get negative attacks on his record starting now. The air wars are already beginning. And I think the question is, and I think you raised a good point, Hugh earlier, that it really was the sexual. abuse allegations as documented in the New York Times that really sank Graham Platner's campaign. It actually wasn't the neo-Nazi tattoo. It wasn't the fact that he watched Hamas terrorists in a video killing Israeli soldiers and praising the video. It was the sexual abuse that really did him in. With El Sayyad, he's made a number of anti-Israel, I would call anti-Semitic comments in recent months. But is that enough in a state like Michigan to crater his candidacy. I'm not sure. I think that's going to be the big political question this year. Well, the good news for Republicans is Mike Rogers is a normie and Susan Collins is an army. They're not running. marginal candidates, which might make them vulnerable. I do wonder, though, about the math, and you just ran through it. Hakeem Jeffries is cowering. He's not out there trying to elect moderates. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is out there endorsing Abdul El-Sayed. She's the leader of the party in the House. Zohran Mamdani is the leader of the national movement right now. I don't know. Nancy Pelosi held on to power for so long.

She did not really allow Hakeem Jeffries to develop an independent stature. Right or wrong. You got a minute, Josh. Well, that is, you asked me about what I'm hearing from a lot of more moderate mainstream Democrats alarmed at the direction of where this party is headed. And it is how quickly party leaders accommodated these DSA-aligned members. How Hakeem Jeffries, I know, has got to be just. Very concerned about an out-and-out communist winning in his backyard in New York City and ousting a well-respected incumbent in the spayat. But a day later or maybe two days after the election, he praised that candidate, Chevalier, and said he hoped he can work with her in fighting right-wing extremism. So talk about putzbo. That's a pretty good example of that. That's a good turn on the heel. Josh Croschauer, have a great 250th celebration on Saturday. We will talk again soon. Don't go anywhere, America. As America approaches its 250th, here's a question, do we still know the words that build our country? I'd like to recommend a remarkable new book from Mount Titano Media called Finding Our Words, Words That Made America. This collection brings together the leaders who articulated and drove the American mission. their words shaped our understanding of liberty self-government courage and citizenship these profound words have been neglected but no longer Whether you're a student, parent, teacher, or you just love American history. You'll find wisdom and inspiration in these pages. There's also a new audiobook edition featuring a distinguished cast of voices who bring you these historic species and bring them to life. Listen with the whole family, your friends and family. This July 4th will mean more than ever when you read and listen to the words that made our nation exceptional. Visit mount titanomedia.com today and get your copy of finding our words, words that made America. That's mount titanomedia.com. My friends, you've probably seen the headlines are worse. Your latest bill. Big wireless is raising rates again. That means you could be paying more for the same service or getting pushed into a price share plan you simply do not need. That's not right. You can switch to consumer cellular right now and save an additional $50 when you go to consumer cellular.com slash you and use the promo code Hugh 50. And if you happen to be over the age of 50, listen to this, you can get a single line with unlimited talk, text, and data for just $355. Remember, their numbers, $800411414454, 800411 44, 800411 44. Consumer cellular ranks number one for network coverage and for customer satisfaction according to ACSI. And when you switch, you'll talk to an actual human being based right here in the United States. No long-term contracts, no hidden fees. You can keep your phone or choose a new one. Get an additional $50 off when you switch today using promo code Hugh 50. And do not forget, if you are over 50, you get a single line, unlimited, talk, text, and data for $35 a month.

Visit consumer cellular.com slash hue and use promo code Hugh 50 or call 1-800-41144 and use promo code Hugh 50. Welcome back to America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Welcome to our three of our... Thursday program before we all go out for three days. We have special programming tomorrow on the eve of the 4th of July having to do with the Declaration of Independence. I begin this hour with Jim Garrity, Jim the indispensable, comments for the Washington Post, senior writer for National Review. Co-host of the editors, along with Rich Lowry and his fellow colleagues over at National Review, and of course, on the three martini lunch podcast as well. Jim, a happy 4th of July in advance to you. I want to state my base case and get your reaction. If Democratic House nominees, Dorealiza Avila Chavez, New York, Adam Halamian, New Jersey, Milot Kuros in Colorado. Brad Lander in New York, Clairvaldez in New York, and Scott Wiener in California. Join Representative Ballant Democrat from Vermont, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York, Dexter from Oregon, Maxwell Frost from Florida, Grolada, I can't say the name, Grawalaba, I guess, from Arizona, Pramila Jayapal from Washington, Elon Musk Omar from Minnesota, Talib from Minnesota, Michigan, I mean, Anaya Pressi from Massachusetts. and the radicals running for Senate. Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Flanagan and Minnesota, Graham Platner in Maine, James Talarico, and Texas, joined with Ed Markey, Merkley, Bernie Sanders, Chris Van Hollen, Assoff, Elizabeth Ward and Sheldon White House. Then the Democratic Party will be controlled in both houses by radical caucuses, the likes of which we've never seen before, and the party will be captured in a way we've never... considered before. Am I overstating it? You are not, although I got to say, Hugh, for a while, I thought this was Christmas mass, where so-and-so who begat so-and-so, who begat so-and-so, you were doing the lineage, you know, Bernie, who begat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who bagat Chevalier, and all of that stuff. It very much feels like we are in this era of a swinging pendulum. And each time the pendulum swings a little bit further, right? The Trump, you know, like Trump was undoubtedly a response to the two terms of Obama and the entire MAGA movement was this sense of frustration with quote-unquote establishment republicanism or whatever you want to call it. Oh, you know, we get Trump. The Democrats like, oh, my God, he really means what he says. This is crazy. And they go further to the left. This is the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez era Democrats. The Democrats, particularly under Biden, are too far to the left for the American public. And they swing back to Trump. And now you're getting Trump unleashed. I think you'd agree with me that second term Trump is a different guy from first term Trump. And it is further. Much more into Article 2 powers. Yes.

Right. So now you've got the, and this is now twice the Democrats have lost to a guy who they thought was absolutely unelectable the first time. And this is now a crisis. This is now something that really can't be done. So clearly it cannot be solved with someone like Michael Bennett, the Colorado senator who just lost the gubernatorial primary out there. He's to milk toast, allegedly. He's not a fighter because he hasn't punched anybody out or something like that, right? We need people who are fighters, and that's why you're getting folks like Chevalier, who's very much believes that she's hoping in the Senate, she will turn America into a country in which there are no murders. Now, I wish her every success in that endeavor, but I don't think it's going to happen because there's never been a human society that didn't do that. And my sneaking suspicion is that what separates us from that immunitized eschaton, to quote William Buff Buckley, is not that we don't have Chevalier in the House. I don't think she's going to make that much of a difference when it comes to the homicide rate in the United States other than probably making us want to kill somebody every time we have to listen to her some, you know, Tommy Pinco speech in the House of Representatives. But I'm going to go a little bit. I think your analysis of what happened is correct because Democrats are shocked by the aesthetic Donald Trump, the intellectual approach of Donald Trump, and the pragmatic steps that Trump takes, which can sometimes be brutal like the border wall. However, to come up with the DSA is March. Chevalier, Homo, Kiroz, Ladner, Valdez, Weiner, and all the other radicals out there, Graham Platner, Flanagan, especially, and... El-Sayed may be the most radical of them all in Michigan. You take all those people. Latner is a national socialist, different kinds. Not a communist, but he is a self-described communist. He's a self-described communist. When they nominate people like this, is it possible for the Republicans to nationalize the race about what power in that caucus? Let's just call it the radical left caucus in both houses of Congress? Can the race be nationalized in November around that? Yeah, I have a feeling that between now and November, enough Americans will be frustrated with Trump. Enough Americans will be frustrated with the state of the country and the direction of things. And they'll say, we're going to know, it's time for a change. We're going to vote for Democrats. Democrats are going to win the House. Don't know how the Senate's going to shake out. It'll probably be close either way. But what I do kind of think could very well happen is that this is, you know. If it's not JD Vance, if it's not Marco Rubio, whoever the Republican nominee is, you are, there is a, people can change their opinions really fast. And in 2022, the country did not actually give Republicans the big red wave that people were expecting. They stuck with Obama, they stuck with Biden. There was, you know, other than Florida, there was kind of the sense Republicans underperformed.

And then as Biden accelerated into those last two years, there was a real sense of, you know what? We did not put the check on his power the way we wanted. He's really getting older and swapping out Kamala Harris didn't do any good. So my sneak to suspicion is that Democrats will still have a good midterm. And that once these folks are no longer the outsiders with this very, like every outsider, every challenger has the easiest message. Things stink. Elect me and I'm going to make them better. But my speaking suspicion is in 2027, 2008, when things don't feel dramatically better in the country with a Democratic House and perhaps a Democratic Senate, but probably the American people would be like, well, wait a second. You guys said you were going to deliver, you know, the end of murder. And everybody would be having socialist, you know, we're supposed to have free grocery stores and free buses in New York City. Hugh, it turns out the warmth of collectivism is that you can't set your thermostat below 78. I know. And that's something. Poor people in New York. Before I get to the red card last night, because I saw you were watching as I was, the red card controversy, those 15 radical members of the House, it's the nine who were there and the six who are coming in. They are communists. They might not call themselves communists. They are communists. Is there any way to warn people about what that means that's effective in the era of Trump? Because there is the title chart of American political history, which is it goes out on the sixth year of a presidency, whether it's Trump or Bush or Reagan, they get slaughtered. Or Obama, they get slaughtered. But these 15, they're not going to pick up more than 16 seats. They're down six right now. They're not going to win, with redistricting thrown in, they're not going to win 23. Hakeem Jeffries is going to need those people. So do we warn? Can the NRC and the NRC nationalize those races, or at least the Senate races, to protect the country? It will be challenging when the likes of CNN White House correspondent Caitlin Susan Collins keep insisting. Well, Trump's calling them communists, but they're really, if you look at the Leninist Marxist history, Hugh, there's two weird things about labels in the midterm so far. So, Hugh, how many times in your career do you think you've been called a Nazi? A lot, yeah. Twice? You know, probably too many to count, right? Yeah, well, you get called the Nazi, but I normally bleep them out. Anybody who... Yeah. anybody to the right of Lincoln Shafee has been called a Nazi plenty of times in the course of their years of arguing about politics. The one person who the left is absolutely certain is not a Nazi is the guy who had the SS Totenkov tattooed onto his heart. He's the one guy. They're absolutely certain is not a Nazi. Well, in this case, we have people who, by any definition, they're talking about seizing the means of production or they have past comments where they said that they were a Nazi of Chevalier and Graham Platner. And you say, oh, no, that was the ancient history.

four or five years ago. I'm a totally different person now, right? Now, think about all the times Trump gets called fascist. Kamala Harris called Trump fascist, right? So there's this very odd policing of political labels in which, oh, you can't call this Democrat running for Congress a communist. Because they don't, they only check 14 of the 15 boxes and all that stuff. And they've, you know, they aren't really calling for gulags now. They're merely calling for work camps for, you know, all that stuff. Well, Senator Cotton yesterday called them Marxists. And I may, I may agree with them. That's the best way. We've never had a Marxist majority in Congress or a Marxist majority making caucus in Congress. So what do we, if you're Mike Johnson and you're John Thune. and you're in charge of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee. What do you say about these people in every district? Because John Pot Horst yesterday said you can nationalize the Senate races, but not the House races. What do you say in every House district in America about the vote people are casting? It's tougher. But one of the things I would say is, you know, when these people would say, oh, I'm not a communist, I'm only a Democratic socialist, what part of communism do you not agree with? Is it the Sassie? Is it, you know, was it the forced famine in Ukraine? What part of the Soviet Union do you look at that and say, I don't want that part? Because Chivalier genuinely believes she's going to create in America where no one murders each other, right? So, you know, and then the next question is if you're a Democrat who says, oh, I'm not DSA. Where and how will you fight your DSA colleagues? My suspicions. Oh, good question. That is the good, that might be for the non-crazy races, which they're going to win because of the district, where and how will you fight your DSA Marxist colleague? That's the question. That's why we have Garrity. That's why we call them indispensable. How they marvel is 250th for Jim Garrity. Read them at Jim Garrity on X. We'll talk about the red card next week before Belgium. We fight the Belgians off. Stay tuned to America. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt as promised. Philip Balboni, founder, editor-in-chief of the Global Post, is with us, globalpost.com. And by the way, if you go to the link, globalpost.com slash Hugh, you'll get 50% off. Phil is not a sponsor of the show. He's just a regular and wonderful, great guests who always informs me about something. And today's information is about Germany and its rearmament about which I was unaware. Philip, when did Mr. Mers finally begin to deliver on Germany's pledge? Hugh, first of all, happy fourth. And secondly, the discount is Hugh Hewitt, not just H. Hugh Hewitt. Okay. Yes. So I just want to make sure of the listeners and viewers got that right. So this is a really, really interesting story and an important one to Hugh. So Germany is rearming. for the first time in 80 years since the end of World War II, the Chancellor has promised that Germany will reach 3.5% of gross domestic product on GDP, going for defense spending by 2029. They're in the mid-2s right now.

I mean, should we be worried about this? I think that's the question that people might want to ask. And I would say, yes, but not because Germany has any evil intentions. They don't. It's really about the introduction of more instability into the world by all this armed spending. So why is Germany doing it? If they're doing it for two reasons, one, the war in Ukraine, they're scared of Russia. And they really believe that Russia will eventually invade Europe, of the main body of Europe. And then the other reason is the Trump administration's pullback from NATO, which has all of the European countries, you know, scared because they've been relying on us for 80 years, and now they realize that maybe they can't. And so they're all scrambling to spend more. So Germany is a large economy in Europe, most powerful country. But it's been a pacifist nation. After the end of the war, Germany just basically said no more fighting, no more killing, no more invading. And they had very little military. And they never sent their troops overseas. Now, Philip, MERS, who's the chancellor, is a CDU, Christian Democratic Union. And he's got a party to his right, the AFD. Does the AFD support this, or does he need the socialist to assist him in getting the defense spending up? They're on board. They're on board. Okay. The left is on board. What about the AFD? Oh, the AFD, they support it also. Maybe not as much as MERS wants to spend, but they are supporting the military spending. And they're sending... Obviously, different perspective. They're sending troops to the Baltics? They sent a combat brigade to Lithuania. of about 4,500 troops, first time they've ever done that, Germany. And so they're right there on the front line. I mean, Germany is not the front line. Poland is the front line in the Baltic states. Of course, and Ukraine goes without saying they are the front line, the real fighting front line. So if Russia were to invade the Baltics, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, then the German brigade would be right there. And then, of course, that would trigger all kinds of other things. You know, God forbid that that would ever happen. But, I mean, it's possible. I mean, you know, it's really interesting, Hugh, if you look at... the Great World War II powers and where they are today in terms of military spending. So Russia spends 7.5% of their GDP. Even with a war, it's not maybe as high as you would think. Ukraine is 40%. 40% of their economy is devoted to military spending. The United States is 3.1.

The U.K. is 2.4. France is 2. China is 1.7. And Japan is at the very bottom in the military spending at 1.4%. But Japan, the other axis power, the other major axis power, not counting Italy. They are in the process of beginning rearmament as well under the new prime minister. Do you happen to know, Philip, what they're building? Because right now, Ukraine has shown us you can go to 40%. And I'll bet half of that 40% is drones and manpower at least. What is Germany going to invest in? We don't really need leopard tanks anymore. Well, I'm sorry to tell you that they are investing in tanks. Maybe they're not leopards. I think there's a new tank that is being built by a company in the Netherlands. It's kind of a joint effort with France and maybe another country. But they are building tanks, fighter jets. And, of course, drones, artillery, shells, men and women, and uniforms and rifles and bullets. And I mean, everything that it takes, you know, radar systems, intelligence systems. That's the other thing Germany is doing is... They are greatly increasing their intelligence capabilities because in all these years since World War II, they've completely relied on the U.S. for intelligence share. So we have all these phenomenal capabilities from, you know, eavesdropping to human intelligence, CIA activities. And we give a lot of that to the Germans and the French and our other allies. Before I ask this last question. Because we'll run out of time. I want to make sure I get to it. I want to remind people, globalpost.com slash Hugh Hewitt. If you want 50% off, the best newsletter every day about the world. GlobalPost.com slash Hugh Hewitt. And it's free. Don't even need my code if you're a teacher or a student K through 12 and maybe college as well. I'm not sure if Philip can tell us. It's middle school, high school, and college and university. All right. Middle school, high school, college, university. One minute, Phil. Do the Germans have the will to fight? I mean, that's a big question, but it's one thing to build weapons. Do they have actually the appetite for it? That's a great question. You know, my answer would be probably not. But I suppose if, God forbid, there were a Russian invasion or something, they will have to discover that will all over again, you know? I mean, you could ask the same question. Somebody invaded America? Would we fight? Yeah, of course we would. Would we be good at it right away? No, probably not, but would we get good at it? Definitely.

Well, Philip Balboni, a very happy 250th birthday to you and yours. GlobalPost.com, if you're a middle school or high school or college, teacher or student, absolutely free. But if you just want to be smart about the world, go to globalpost.com slash QH, and you'll get it 50% off for the first year. Philip Bellbony, thank you, my friend. Happy Fourth. Don't go anywhere, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Tarzan and Joe, the poet laureate of the Hugh Hewitt, shows a day early. It's not Friday, but we're not going to be here on Friday. We're pre-recorded. So time to talk to Tarzana Joe. Hello, Joe. Oh, you happy birthday, America. And, you know, we have to acknowledge that while we're having a birthday party, there are some party crashes. And, you know, one's a fluke, two's a trend, three is a movement, and four is a disaster. So we need to celebrate what we have and preserve what we have. And here we go. These are the times that Tri-Men souls, a patriot once wrote, and those who welcomed common sense embraced another quote. The Continentals under George were in a full retreat, and all prediction markets then were pointed toward defeat. Chaos ruled as if the world had been thrown off its axis, and Congress simply couldn't agree on trade or votes or taxes. Those who fought for liberty. were sure that ship had sailed, and yet, somehow through all of that, the patriots prevailed. Today, we're met on battlefields of yet another war, to keep alive the freedoms that our fathers struggled for. We have no potent pamphleteers, no patriotic ditties. But soldiers of oppression are quartered in our cities. A quiet war on freedom, these minions have conducted, and wearing crowns of ignorance, they've plundered and obstructed. We have this consolation as we take up the fight. Our victory will be more sweet, arrayed against such might. And if we stand with courage, I know we cannot fail. The last best hope of freedom will not perish, but prevail. That's The Times They Are a Tryin' by Tarzanah Joe. The Times They Are a Trian. It only misses the Summer Soldier and the Sunshine Patriot Joe. So in 2.0, we've got to get another stanza in there. Just to give our hat tip to Mr. Payne, like you did at the beginning there. Is that going to be posted at Tarzanagio.com in time for the 4th of July?

Absolutely, as well as last week's America 250, so feel free to go to Tarzanagio.com, take them, read them. After you've read the declaration to your party friends and ignited some safe and sane fireworks, be my guest. And Tarzanagiojo.com, I don't think it's up yet, but will it be early in our 250 first year? The new Tarzanagio.com is a schedule for launch at the end of July, but it functions as the old Tarzanagio.com. So I want a poem, click the button, send the page. I'll get right back to you. And Joe will continue to work in our 251st year, or is it our 250th year? I don't know, but it's our 250th birthday, so I guess it's our 250 first year. I could be wrong. Go to Tarzan and Joe.com and figure it out for yourself, but if you need a poem for any occasion, go to Tarzan and Joe.com and hit the I Need a Poem button. Joe will be right back to you. Rates are reasonable. Thank you. I'll have a wonderful July, 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Have a great day, and I will talk to you on Monday on the next live, UGU.S. Brought you by Food to the Poor.

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