The Big Weekend Pod

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Welcome back, America, United States men team ahead of the soccer ruse from Australia by a 1-0 after an own goal by Australia. We like that. We also like Eli Lake, who is the host of the Breaking History podcast, a contributor to the free press, and the man I wanted to ask this question to. JD Vance yesterday, you're a country of 9 million. You can't just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have. Was that an own goal, Eli? I think it is because I still believe that most of the Republican Party, with a loud and vocal exception, are very much pro-Israel and understand the U.S. Israel Alliance is something that's very good for America. And statements like that and the tenor of his remarks and focusing on... what, you know, a kind of a wacko or far-right minister says as opposed to... The Marjorie Taylor Greene of Israel. Yes. Right. You know, so the idea is, I mean, I have to say, it reminded me of the position that Volodymyr Zelensky was put in when he had the White House visit in the early 2025. And JD Vance was the one who was saying, you know, why don't you say thank you? And you should be, you know, showing your gratitude and thanking us and all this other stuff. Of course, it's true. The United States has helped Ukraine. But, you know, let's. You know, we also have an interest in that. And that interest is making sure that Russia doesn't swallow Ukraine. And we have an interest in making sure that Iran is not a nuclear power, which I think the war in many ways set back Iran very much in that respect. Trump deserves credit. Israel deserves credit. JD Vance supported was part of the administration for that war, too. So he should explain that to Tucker Carlson and others who are now so delighted with this version of JD Vance. But the deeper point here is that... Israel is really in a bind because I saw your remarks that it's a punt. So let's not it's the, the $300 billion may never be delivered. I don't think it will be. So some of these things are very aspirational. And this is a ceasefire to get negotiations going. But linking Lebanon to the Iran will. or and you knew it, everybody knew it, that Iran would tell Hezbollah to attack as soon as this thing was signed. That puts Israel in the position of kind of being in the fall guy and we all know better. And here is JD Vance kind of giving, at least rhetorically, you know, kind of validating that position that when Israel is going to have to respond and must respond.

Then, you know, what is it, you know, is it Israel violating the ceasefire or is it Iran once again violating the ceasefire as they did the previous ceasefire? So that's troubling to me. Last night, Hezbollah aimed at struck an IDF tank killing four, including Lieutenant Colonel and his crew, wounding five additional. And Israel responded with 80 strikes, which is the right thing to do. They hit you once, you hit them 80 times. And so. That is the Middle East, and that's what the IDF has to do. And it was obvious, I think obviously on the orders of Hezbollah. Let me change my metaphor. I am now describing this as halftime in the war. And it could be the longest half time since the phony war after the Germans had conquered Poland and the Vermacht had was moving all their troops from the east to the west to invade France in June. That went from October to May of... of 1939 and 1940, I think it's a phony war. I think it's a pause for nothing. And I'm not worried about it because they can't bridge the gaps that are there. I don't think they can, Eli, do you? What I'm worried about is that the president is, I think, going to try to do everything he can to make sure that he doesn't get involved again. I think he thinks it's an electoral loser. He's worried about the midterms. He's worried about the world economy. He's worried about the price of oil. Those are important concerns. I'm not denying it. But, you know, to quote Slim Charles in the great series of The Wire when he says to Avon Barksdale, the thing about war is when you're in it, you're in it. And I'm worried that the president would like to just sort of kind of magically kind of wish this away and say, no, no, no, we're doing ceasefire now and the Iranians are not going to comply. My hope is that eventually he will look around and he will say, we've been, you know, I can't take this. America can't take this. The Iranians are not, you know, good, good to their word. And that will prompt a response and hopefully the kind of smart response. The one thing, by the way, that we don't know, we know that. CENTCOM had a plan that they claim that within 14 days or so, they maybe could rest at least parts of the strait away from Iran's control and through freedom of navigation operations, and it takes a lot of time, that you could begin to sort of carving a path through the strait that would be protected and escorted by U.S. Navy vessels. I would have liked to have really given that a try. So maybe we will go back to something like that. I don't think that's out of the question, but Trump needs to kind of get out of this mindset that, you know, I've solved the war and now it's up to J.D. to try to win the peace because I'm not, I don't have a lot of confidence in that. Did you, do you think that the president kneecapped Benjamin Netanyahu? Because the numbers out of the polling overnight and since the MOU was announced put Gaddy Eisencott in the driver's seat to run the next government. and Benjamin Netanyahu's down to 22 seats in the Lakoud, which is very low for him. What do you think? It's like putting him on the Churchill arc when Churchill won the war in Europe and then got thrown out of office in the summer of 45 before VJ Day. What do you think?

I'm not an expert on Israeli politics, and it's constantly changing. I turn to Amit Segal and others for that. But I will just tell you this, that he absolutely kneecapped Benjamin Netanyahu. Sometimes you have to do that. I mean, you know, America has at times divergent interest from Israel. But I think Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel in general, remember Israel was our allies. They were flying, you know. They were the most competent Air Force besides ours, and they pulled off the first part of this war with brilliant precision and competence. And I just think that... What's the thanks that Israel gets for that? Is not being included in the negotiations, being informed after the fact, and being told that basically they're going to not respond or maybe only not respond in Beirut, depending on kind of who you talk to, when they are attacked by Hezbollah. And what about our plan to try to work with the Lebanese elected government? to expel Hezbollah. That's the plan I want to get back to. Last question. People like Tom Cotton are beginning to surface their spoken criticisms of the... Lindsey Graham has been somewhat more diplomatic. Tom is Cotton is hitting it pretty hard. I don't think the Republican Party is going to warm up to this. Because at the start of the war, 70% of Republican voters and Republican-leaning voters were in favor of the war. So I think this is... A big miscalculation by Team Trump. Big. I agree with you, and I just want to shout out the person who I think is leading the charge and will lead the charge in the Senate is Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz has really been out front, and I think he's willing to accept some of the slings and eras. So I just want to credit Ted Cruz. Senator Cotton is terrific. I have enormous respect for him, but I just think we're going to see Ted Cruz kind of leading the charge, and we'll see. I think you're right. Roger Wicker has said a couple things as well. in the Senate. So, you know, that's an important space to watch as well, especially as the Iranians do what they always do, which is to try to get away with as much as they can and violate the ceasefire and hope that Trump doesn't notice. What they do is kill and kill and kill again. Eli Lake over at X, follow him out on Eli Lake. Read over at the free press rate analysis this week of the MOU. And, of course, listen to Breaking History of Podcast. And stay tuned. I'll be right back with Matt Continent. Welcome back, America. That's the sound of the Turton Army.

Marching out tonight, they play Morocco at 6 p.m. The United States has had 1-0 in Seattle as we talk to you today. I'm joined by Matt Continetti, head of Domestic Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He is a Wall Street Journal. columnist for the free expression vertical, and they put him in the main paper most of the time. He is also a regular guest here, and we appreciate it. Matt, we talked on Tuesday about the memorandum of understanding. Much has happened since then, including an attack by Hezbollah on the IDF troops in southern Lebanon last night. They killed four IDF soldiers in a tank and wounded five others. Israel responded with 80 strikes in the Baccah Valley and elsewhere. Is the MOU over before it began? I don't think so, Hugh. It was endangered for sure because the Iranians threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz after Hesbollah's attack in the Israeli response. And it shows you how tenuous, I think, this agreement will prove to be because of the way in which the agreement links the Strait of Hormuz to Hezbollah. and Lebanon. And that to me was always the most problematic part of the agreement. We cannot have a terrorist group building up force on Israel's borders dictate whether or not the Strait of Hormuz is open. And I think that Iran is using Hezbollah now to drive a wedge between the United States and Israel and daylight space between the United States and Israel. is not good. It's not good for America's interest. It's not good for America's security. It's certainly not good for Israel's security and for Israeli interest. And so that's what I'm watching most closely and what I'm most worried about. Now, Vice President JD Vance yesterday said on another podcast, to the Israeli people, all nine million, you're a nation of nine million. You can't kill your way out of every conflict. I think that landed with a thud. I think that might be a ghost that haunts the vice president for a very long time. What do you think? I don't know what he's talking about. I think that Israel is a democracy. In a democracy, you have a wide range of voices. Just think of the spectrum of American politics going from Donald Trump to Zohran Mamdani. It's the same in Israel, even though Israel's so much smaller than the United States. So, yes, there might be people who think that what JD Vance is saying, that you can kill your way out of this problem. But I'm not sure that's the majority position in Israel. I doubt it is. And I know that it's not the position of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He had goals at the outset of this campaign. The goal through the same as Donald Trump's, by the way. We've, I think, gone quite a far way to achieving a lot of those goals. But President Trump has now decided that he wants to. forego the kinetic action. He wants to forego the economic pressure through the blockade and try a diplomatic track. And that, I think, is the president's prerogative. He's done a lot to make the world a safer place. He's done a lot to secure Israel over the course of six years in two presidential terms. And now we're going to have to see what happens, whether this kind of opening the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for economic relief.

provides not just the economic and political benefits the President is hoping for, but actually leads to a diplomatic resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue. It's that last part that I'm skeptical about. I'm skeptical of the war is over, and I was describing it to Eli Lake just now. I've been calling it a punt all week because I don't think it's going to work. But now I'm just calling it halftime, and maybe the longest halftime in the history of modern war since the phony war between the invasion of Poland and 1939 and the invasion of France in 1940. Just a six-month pause to reconfigure and consider defenses and offensive. battle damage assessments, moving troops around. I really do think we're going to have another round with Iran before Donald Trump leaves office. Do you, Matt? Oh, absolutely, Hugh. I mean, let's just put this in the context of the history of the Islamic Republic, born out of revolution in 1979, a regime that has dedicated itself to the destruction of Israel, what it calls the little Satan. and to death to America. That's what they chant in the square there in Tehran every week, the great Satan, as they call us, ever since that regime was consolidated in the aftermath of that revolution. So you're going on almost 50 years now. That's what they're about. It's a terrorist regime. It's the world's greatest sponsor of terrorism. They have lied about their nuclear program for decades. One president has actually delivered blows to that nuclear program. That's Donald Trump. One president has actually taken out the architect of their terror strategy, Qasem Soleimani. That was Donald Trump in 2020. And so I think it's inevitable that as Iran seeks to increase the costs of compliance... to the United States, we will reach a breaking point and Trump will strike again. I agree. And I'm going to talk with Matt during the break about 2026 and 2028 elections in the United States and maybe the Israeli elections as well. And on the other side, we're going to take a look at the JCPOA and why it sucked. and remind you why it was terrible, as well as the Obama list of ceremonies this week. Don't go anywhere. I'm back during the break with Matt Continenti. Matt, I just want to know, did you have a reaction to learning that James Talarico, 37 years old, has one checking account and he shares it with his mom? It's a pajama boy lives, Hugh. This is so often the profile of democratic politicians is that they continue to rely on their parents. Think about... Graham Platner in Maine, this supposed oyster farm, a free beacon reported that the oyster farm has one customer. His mom. Yeah. And the Reddit, the Reddit, the Reddit post of the day for Graham Platner is he called police, quote, quote, opportunistic cowards, close quote, on the Reddit. How much, I mean, is the bridge?

about ready to collapse under Graham Platner. I think it's collapsed under Woke to the third degree, James Talarico, but what about Graham Platner? Well, with Plattenor, it's interesting. There's no question he's fallen in the polls. And it's a very tight race now. And let's not forget that Susan Collins didn't lead in any poll in 2020 before she won re-election. And now she's basically cut Graham Platner's lead to within the margin of error. That means I think Susan Collins has an advantage. What's interesting, though, Hugh, is... Graham Platner has not collapsed entirely. And there are a lot of progressive people, resistors to Trump, socialist radicals. They don't care about any aspect of Graham Platner except for he is full-throatedly against Trump and for, you know, fundamentally remaking the United States of America. Now, Matt, last question. I walked into a main office last week, and I found the break the silence card that's given away to everyone who goes in there, little PT, and it breaks the silence of domestic abuse. I have a hard time seeing women actually going into the ballot box and voting for abuser. And he's an abuser. I don't think there's any doubt about that. Do you think that that might be a quiet revolution that people don't want to talk about because they don't want their liberal friends yelling at them? Women voters are absolutely the field of battle in the Maine Senate election in 2026, Hugh. It's interesting. In 2020, her last re-election, Susan Collins won women, even as Donald Trump in losing Maine to Joe Biden, lost them by a significant margin. And so I think the matchup between Susan Collins and Graham Platner favors Susan Collins. If she's in her ability to appeal to Maine women voters, that will be the difference if Susan Collins wins for sure. And I think one of the ways to drive that home is by focusing in like a laser. on the issue of domestic abuse because I believe he has conclusively proven an abuser. And we'll see more in September. I think that the APA research people will come on in September with both James Talarico and the other. But by the way, Republicans are in tight races that they did not expect in Kansas with Roger Marshall and Iowa with Ashley Hinsland. We're in Ohio with John Houston and North Carolina with Michael Whatley, maybe. in somewhere else that I'm not thinking about. And we got Mike Collins in Georgia. It's up for grabs. I'll be right back with Matt Continetti on the other side to talk about the JCPOA and the exhibit that's probably in the Obama list.

Welcome back, America. Yesterday in Chicago, the Obamalesque, as Matt Contonetti has termed it, was dedicated, the Obama Presidential Center. The amazing Howard Mortman, aren't you in awe of Howard Mortman as I am Matt Contonetti? He seems to know everything. He's the best. He's the living memory of American democracy. And he has a wonderful chart on the hours of dedication required for the ceremony by a president. Barack Obama is in the lead at almost three hours. The Nixon Library opening over which I had a large portion ran between 90 minutes, well, actually between 85 and 90 minutes. So I think we did ours in record time, and I'm not surprised that we had long speeches forever. What do you think their exhibit says about the JCPOA, Matt? Well, I'm sure that Obamalists, the Obama Museum touts the Iran nuclear deal as one of Barack Obama's fondest, finest achievements. The thing about this presidential center, Hugh, is what it leaves out. And as I wrote in the Wall Street Journal this week, Obama's real legacy is the Trump presidency. Yep. Everything Obama did during his two years in office. created the conditions for Donald Trump's revolution in 2016. And then in 2020, when Joe Biden had what can only be described as Obama 3, the third term, things got even worse for the Democrats. And Trump was restored to office. So what you won't see in the Obama list is the fact that the JCPOA was a failure. You won't see how Obamacare is a failure. And you won't hear that Barack Obama's reliance on what he called a pad and a phone, a pen in a phone, actually is what torched up the polarization in this country and made the public ready for someone who didn't follow these. so-called rules of politics and order in Washington, D.C., but was really ready to bring change and restore in America that Obama clearly was trying to suppress during his eight years in power. President Obama's greatest achievement was on the day that he was sworn in, proving that America truly is an equal opportunity of society, and an African-American man can, in fact, be elected. That was a great achievement, and I don't want to diminish the historical significance of that. But in the JCPOA room, I want to call attention and remind the public of three things in the JCPOA. The JCPOA explicitly allowed Iran to enrich uranium and move closer to nuclear capability. It contained sunset provisions, a variety of them. It was signed in 2015. The first one would have kicked in in 2013. They would all be done by 2030, at the end of which there would have been no limits on the nuclear program. And additionally, critics... worried that Iran's nuclear program had no mention, or the JCP had no mention of the nuclear program's connection to the missile program. It really was a terrible deal, Matt, and people are forgetting that. Donald Trump destroyed the nuclear program. Whatever you think of the MOU, it's not the JCPOA. Am I just being a partisan or am I being objective?

Look, when the JCPOA, the Obama nuclear deal came into effect, Iran's centrifuges were spinning. The JCPOA provided sanctions relief and direct payment over a billion dollars to the Iranian government while legitimizing Iran's right to enrich and presenting Iran a glide path to a nuclear weapon in the sunset clauses that you mentioned. What we have now in this memorandum of understanding, the MOU, is a deal by which President Trump ends the blockade on Iranian ports and allows Iran to sell the oil it was selling before in exchange for Iran no longer blockading traffic in and out of the Strait of Hormuz. All of the nuclear... matters are left unresolved and are put off. And I think as we see in the cancellation of this meeting that was supposed to take place today, Hugh, it's unlikely that they will ever be resolved through negotiation. So the two deals cannot be more different. And what I think is interesting, Hugh, is you have all these Obama supporters online saying, oh, the MOU is even worse than the JCPOA. Well, that begs the question. It seems like they're kind of admitting that the JCPOA was a failure, and I'm happy to agree on that score, at least. About the reaction in the MOU, I think Vice President JD Vance's... extended remarks. He revised and extended his remarks about the MOU a few times. I think they opened the door to a challenger in 2028. I don't know if it'll be Marco Rubio, but I look at Mike Pompeo and I look at Dave McCormick. And I look at Ted Cruz, who's really carrying, as Eli Lake pointed out, a lot of the criticisms. I don't think Senator Cotton's going to run in 2028. Do you think the door opened a lot because seven out of ten Republicans strongly supported the war in February 28? And I would bet more than 90% of Republicans support the state of Israel. I just don't think it's good politics to be anti-Israel in the Republican Party. Do you? No, I know. I would say that JD Vance, as the presumptive frontrunner for the nomination was always going to face a challenge. And I think it's very likely that Ted Cruz will run. And his response to the MOU, I think, kind of underscores that presumption. I think it's potentially that Ron DeSantis will run again. He's had that experience of the first run in 2020. It would be interesting to see how he comes at some of the foreign policy questions this time around. So it will not be an uncontested nomination. And I think that Israel is going to be center stage in a lot of these discussions. What's interesting is JD Vance is trying to keep the 2024 Trump coalition together because he knows that's the way, or at least that's the way he thinks he can win in 2028. But he's doing it by appealing to the podcaster part of that coalition rather than the majority, the consensus in the Republican Party.

And I understand why he might want to do that, but I'm not sure how successful a strategy that's going to be in the end, given though an incumbent vice president is always favored in these types of nomination battles. 30 seconds. What about Secretary Pompeo? What about Senator McCormick? They're warriors. Senator McCormick, I'm a huge fan of. I'm not sure he's inclined to run in 2028, but I could see Secretary Pompeo representing what you might call the Republican wing of the Republican Party in some of these debates, standing for American power and our alliances with the Jewish state. I think we're going to have a wide, it's going to start in November, and so it's going to be fun. Matt Continetti, follow him on exit Contietti. Listen to yesterday's commentary broadcast because Matt begins with an essay, a verbal essay on the Obama years, which is just a work of art, Matt. My hat is off to you for that. Thank you for joining me. Stay tuned, America. I'll be right now. I'm Hugh Hewitt. I hope your weekend is off to a great start. I'm joined by Ben Dominic opinion editor at the Daily Wire, Fox News contributor. And Ben, Dwayne did not send me your email until two minutes ago, and I'd already outlined my interview. My interview began with Ben Dominic, not with Ben, that with JD Vance's comment. to Israel. You're a country of 9 million people. You can't just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem. And my list of questions was to you, did JD Vance hurt himself badly this weekend. Then I see you wrote for the Daily Wire JD Vance's big Iran gamble. I don't think it's a gamble. I think it's craps.

I'm trying to be charitable and possible you. I think it is a gamble. I think it's a foolish gamble. I think that, you know, quite frankly, trusting the Iranians to change their ways or trusting that this is something more than just a punt. where I think that we are actually agreed that the nature of this MOU is different than the way that it was initially reported. We are. You know, I think that the vice president has made a serious mistake here. Look, the... The simple fact is that he had a very short political career. He was in the Senate for essentially, you know, a length of time that was less than being in Congress before then becoming the Vice President of the United States. And obviously he was somebody who, you know, was picked in part because he was new blood. He was someone who was, you know, on the rise and viewed as such. But what that also means is that he didn't really do a lot when he was a senator, and he didn't do a lot before he was a senator, and he certainly didn't do a lot when it came to electoral politics. The two elections he has won, is one as a senator from Ohio, and the other, of course, as the vice president underneath Donald Trump is the top of the ticket. I think that with that, at his record, to go in and then make this huge bet. to basically choose to double down and say, no, I'm happy to be the lead voice on this. I don't need a bunch of people around me. Particularly, I do not need the Secretary of State who is potentially a competitor with me in the future to be standing next to me. And, you know, I want to own this. I want to take this on. I believe it's going to be a win. That's a huge bet, and I think that the vice president is very confident in his ability as a communicator, and he has every reason to be confident that way. He is somebody who has already shown his acumen for it. But that's different, of course, than making the right choices when it comes to foreign policy and national security, and I just was not convinced by his performance in that press conference or by the things certainly that he said around this in various interviews that he was doing. promoting a book that nobody seemed to, you know, actually talk about, to be quite honest, that there was any kind of confidence that emerged from that about the way that he would conduct himself in the future as president. Now, I know that the vice president is very smart. I ran the debate in Ohio, the first debate when he was running for Senate against seven other people or six other people. And he's very good on his feet. You saw what he did to Tim Walz. He left him up in little pieces. And he can be, he's been given the anti-fraud portfolio, which is a good one. He engaged with some fisticuffs, verbal fisticuffs with Volodymyr Zelensky. Not a bad.

way to go. But the Republican Party is overwhelmingly supportive of Israel, like seven out of ten strong supporters of Israel and of the war. This plays to the podcast pros in our side of the aisle. That's not a lot of people. You know, I don't think it's even just the podcast pros. I think that it plays to, I mean, the way that I felt about this. was, are you actually catering to the people who voted for Donald Trump and think and believe in Donald Trump and agreed with Donald Trump when it came to these things? I would actually like to know what the vice president truly believes about whether he still thinks it was right to launch Operation Epicure. You know, in his heart of hearts, does he still think that, knowing what he knows now? And I suspect that the answer that he would give, of course he would say yes if you're asking this question. But I just am not sure that that's actually the truth. And I think that when it comes to this catering, you can call them the podcast bros, but I think of them as being. This online set that is, you know, absolutely devoted, but also, from my perspective, quite unserious about foreign policy and national security. They only want to frame things in terms of, you know, endless victory and that type of thing. I am always suspicious of that. I don't like the kind of attitude that I'm seeing here in terms of taking, you know, taking pot shots at Israel. At a moment in which, you know, they are, you know, they are having to defend themselves. They have every right to do so. And I also don't think that we should be playing this both-sidesom game when it comes to historically America's attitude toward Israel and other nations or America's attitude toward the relationship that we have, the unique relationship, I should say we have. with the Jewish people and with this rise of anti-femitism that has taken place on the left. This is not a time to play footsie with that kind of thing. Okay. Now, I believe that the happiest person with those remarks by the vice president is named Rahm Emanuel. Now, it's a long shot for Rahm Emanuel to get the nomination, though he's the most formidable candidate they've got. And boy, you give him back Israel, and that's what J.D. did? Didn't he? Am I right about that? He gave Rahm Emanuel back Israel as an issue. Well, I certainly think, you know, there's... There are not many people who are more canny politically than Rahm Emanuel. I certainly agree with you there. I have always said, and I may have even said it on this program, that the biggest mistake that Barack Obama made was choosing to not listen to Rahm Emanuel on numerous things and ultimately pushing him out, you know, forced him into his Chicago situation. But I think that the situation here is one that can be absolutely exploited.

by the democrats because then they can basically do both both sides of the game when it comes to israel uh... and and use the kind of comments that were made in a way that hurts republican candidates you know and and republicans will have to defend it because they feel obligated to do so i mean i don't think they should but they will feel like they are obligated to do so when it comes to the politics the moment look The vice president, I think, is thinking about his own political future. I think he's thinking about domestic problems. I think that he is thinking about the fact that he hasn't had a real political win, quote, unquote, within this administration yet that Marco Rubio had kind of surpassed him as being someone who both donors liked, and it seemed like even perhaps the president liked more than the vice president as a choice for the next round. That's a short-term thinking. It's very online. It's too much influenced by the trends of the moment. Step back, have some perspective, and I think you'll understand that what the American people want in this moment is leadership. They want strong leadership, and they want confidence that we are not going down a road that is going to ultimately lead to the Ayatollah having billions of dollars more to play with when it comes to the list of things that we know the Ayatollah always has on his gift list. So here's my question. Eisenhower did not endorse Nixon until he had wrapped it up. He had to see off a couple of people. Reagan did not endorse. George W. H.W. Bush until Bush had seen off Dole? Do you think Donald Trump will try and pick the nominee for the Republican Party? Oh, come on, Hugh. He loves the game. He loves the competition. He wants to see competition. He wants to be calling, you know, bald and strikes on the competition. He wants to be, you know, I think, you know, criticizing people when they... you know, have a bad debate and, you know, encouraging people when they do things that he likes. I don't think that he's going to endorse right off the bat at all. I have completely disagreed with the conventional wisdom on that in D.C. for a long time. So I suggest it in a column this week. He will moderate a debate because he likes to do that. Do you think he will? Oh, my gosh. The ratings on that, Hugh. Yeah, I know. I think he will. Who do you think we'll bid on that the most? We'll be NBC? Everybody. Everybody. I think he's going to lay out. I think he controls the RNC. Joe's a good guy, but I think if he says I want 12 debates and I'll take three of them. They'll give him three of them. I mean, I think I don't think there's any question in my mind that if he has the inclination to do that, it would be must-see TV, of course. But it would also, I actually think it would be revelatory because I think. People underestimate the fact that the president, you know, he's very canny when it comes to these things. And he can ask questions of people that reveal things about their own, you know, biases that are very interesting. And, you know, he's been that way for a long time. You know, he's trained on the reality TV circuit. It's something he's used to. And I think that that would be an incredible sight to see. But look.

Ultimately, I think that what's going to come out of this deal, just to circle back, is what you and I think both believe, which is that this is unsustainable. the folks on Capitol Hill, including, by the way, strong supporters of the president. Yes. You know, people, people who are allied with him, who are not just the Lindsey Graham's or the Tom Cotton's or the people who are hardcore going into Iran, that kind of thing. But, I mean, Josh Hawley came out right away and said, we shouldn't be sending any money to Iran. And Ted Cruz was even more blunt. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad deal. Tom Cotton took his shots today. The MLU is a halftime. It's going to be the longest halftime in the history of modern war except for the phony war. But after the election, it's starting again. Ben's going to talk with me during the break about the UFC fight. Don't go anywhere. When we come back, we've got some other stuff to talk about on the Gugulich. I was on special report on Friday night, and they do winners and losers. And my winner of the week was Freddie L.A. 7, the German, has been adopted by the South. Have you been following him? Of course, I've been following him. How can you miss this guy? I mean, it's crazy the degree to which, you know, someone can kind of take over the viral conversation and simply by intent of having a perspective on America that is both new and appreciating the old, appreciating the traditional. within America, things that Americans take for granted and Europeans are shocked by. It will always be a thing, and I'm very glad to see it. What do you make of the Tartan Army in Boston? Well, the thing that stood out to me the most about the Tartan Army in Boston was, I don't know if you saw this, but the reports about their ability to drink Boston bars under the table, they were comparing it to, you know, three or four St. Patrick's Days combined. I mean, that it slipped. The Scots are undefeated when it comes to that sort of behavior. One poor Barkeep said we're down to the Bud Light, which means they're really. Yes, that means they're really dressed for it. Look, did you watch the UFC fight? I actually love this. And this is why, I mean, you know, sometimes people are. you know, skeptical of, and I will admit I have the Australia-US game on muted as I am talking to you today. The thing is that some people are amazed, I think, by how backwards European nations actually turn out to be, just given their great history and, you know, all the phenomenal art and architecture and all these other things. And then, you know, learn things like, and as the British learned recently, that they have.

a GDP that doesn't look very good when compared to Mississippi. You're a big man, Ben. Have you ever tried to shower in a European shower? Oh, it's, oh, gosh. It's absolutely ridiculous. No, the fact that there are going to be a bunch of people coming out of this, and I hope that they do, appreciating air conditioning and actual water pressure. Water pressure. Water pressure. Let's try to make the West more civilized. Generally, and that includes that goods. Did you like the cage match? We got a minute to be. You got to go back. I thought it was beautiful to see in terms of storyline. I understand why some people thought that it was disrespectful or something like that. I don't personally think so. I thought it was incredibly American. And I was so impressed, by the way, at just the patriotism of the people involved. It was so, you know, such an emphatically American event. You know, and especially for the people who didn't have tickets and were just sitting outside, you know, in the heat, watching this, you know, on big screens and cheering fighters on, I think it was great to see. And I'm so glad that we can have things like that happen. And again, as I've said to you before, Thank God we don't have a 250th that's being managed by the, you know, the Biden press team. Oh. Oh, you're right. We would have had like the Christmas at the White House with Joe Biden. I'm a lecture from Nicole Hannah Jay Jones coming on. Don't go anywhere. I'm coming right back with Ben Dominic on the weekend pod.

Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt with Ben Dominic, editor of the opinion pages over at the Daily Wire, Fox News contributor. Ben, I've got in my office, my big 250 C bags, which I hold up to remind myself. It's the 250th. And I'm really looking forward to it, and I think the World Cup is getting us in the mood, and the UFC fight and everything else is going on is all positive. And in the middle of it comes the Obama-Lisk dedication yesterday in Chicago. And I have lots of thoughts about that. particularly about the speeches by the president and the first lady. What did you make of the whole spectacle, which Howard Mortman informed us, the one and only, the remarkable Howard Mortman, ran far longer than any other presidential library dedication. I was in charge of the Nixon Library in 1990, and it went about between 90 and 100 minutes. This went three and a half hours. What did you make of it? What did you make of their speeches? Did you even pay attention? So I paid attention to Obama's speech because I did want to both hear it and also to just get his temperature and attitude. Look, they are so self-obsessed and especially I think they feel so defensive about... the view that their legacy is the presidency of Donald Trump. I think this library as a matter of architecture and abomination, I think it's embarrassing. Every architectural critic, they just carved their knives before they went to writing. Yeah, I think it was just insane. But the thing that really sticks out to me is, how distant he seems in the past and how irrelevant from this current moment. You know, the Obama era was supposed to be this world-changing event, you know, not just altering the position of people in America and the view that they had of this nation, but also kind of a reorienting of the world around a new reality, a post-W post-Clinton reality. In retrospect, he just seems so small as a presidential figure. You know, I don't know about you, Hugh, but the, you know, the biggest thing, obviously, that he did domestically was, you know, this massive attempt to reform and to governmentalize health care. People today in the Democratic Party spend... I would say at least half their time talking about how bad that very same system is, one that was, you know, enshrined in law by him, created by him, created by his people, defended by their people over and over again. They would accuse people who disagreed with his plan of, you know, including, I mean, I remember when Ezra Klein was calling Joe Lieberman somebody who wanted people to die because he wanted alterations to the way that the plan would even work. And today, what do we have? We have hospitals that cannot survive based on the fact that Medicare is not paying for procedures, what they actually cost. We have systems where doctors are completely burnt out, where they're retiring younger and younger. We have Medicaid systems that promise care, but then end up getting completely overburdened by the pressure of illegal immigrants in emergency systems.

We have a completely broken system, and that was his signature domestic policy. For a president who had eight years, he, to me, changed so little about the way that things worked in America in terms of the government while also attempting to change it so harshly when it came to the culture. And I think that those changes in the culture were what led directly to the election of Donald Trump. You know, Freddie, L.A., the World Cup person, he's running into bitter clingers wherever he goes, and they love him, and he loves the bitter clingers. The highest point of the Obama presidency was the day he was inaugurated. That was a significant day. It was a big day in American history. It was all downhill from there. Let me close with the MOU and my theory to have you expound on. My theory is it reactions to the MOU. Across the spectrum, left to right, everybody, people on our team, people on their team, people on no team, that if you go back and find what they were writing 10 years ago in the summer of 2016 about Donald Trump, their opinion of the MOU will exactly match and map their opinion of Donald Trump in 2016. No, they do, Hugh, and that's something that I think is inevitable that we have to deal with and that we have to understand about the nature of this. There is a complete lack of... ability for people to look back and evaluate their own opinions. They're all engaged in revisionist history. And I think that it's something that's, you know, frustrating about our political debate, but it's inevitable, and I think it's only going to continue. Have you heard Dean Elliott Cohen yet sit down with Aaron McLean on School of War? I'm not. It's very good because Elliot Cohen deserves a lot of respect, but he begins by saying... I am humbled by how wrong I was in 2015-16. I was one of the original Never-Trumpers, and with age comes a little more perspective. Now, he doesn't like the MOU much, but he is also very, very careful about how he went overboard and he doesn't want to be a Never-Trumper forever. Do you think some people are just caught in that loop? They'll never get out of it. I think that's unquestionable, Hugh, and I think that one of the things that, you know, we should, look, we should welcome people back who reevaluate their positions. We should also, though, I think, be honest about where people actually were. A lot of people, myself included, who get lumped into this position of being never Trumpers or something. Oh, me too. It's so stupid. When we actually just opposed him in the 2016 primary, which is stupid. I mean, I... You know, I opposed Mitt Romney when, you know, as you know, in 2012. You know, I, in 2008, I voted for Mike Huckabee before I voted for John McCain. You know, and so it's just one of these things where, you know, look, we should be honest about where people were. And the demands of fealty by these online folks are just designed to cover up for, in many cases, their own. lack of awareness. Lots of people, I think, like to play games with this, and those games should be apparent to folks, but they're counting on you to not pay attention to work. It's the fallacy of sunk costs. I'm not going to go through and find out what everyone said. I was Trump skeptical, but willing to support him. I got very upset over the Hollywood Access tape, called for him to get off the ticket, but then voted for him because I'm Trump objective. I call myself that.

But there were Trump deranged, and there were MAGA people, and there's a third category in the middle who just evaluate what he does. And I think that those opinions would map on the MOU opinions. Well, I'm skeptical. Let's see how it goes. I hate it. I love it. And it doesn't really work. That's a bad way to do politics. No, it's absolutely a bad way to do politics, and I think you're right. It maps over the Venn diagram of how we're looking at this thing. Look, I hope that, you know, for that at the end of the day, what we can say is that we have seen the decimation of the power of Iran to project power and to have the kind of influence that they had in the past, to have the kind of military capability that they had in the past. But I also think that, you know, the promise of what this was supposed to be was much higher than that. And we shouldn't pretend like that was the case, you know, at the get-go. And right now, a lot of people, I think, are defending a deal that's designed to essentially have the free war status quo, but also involved. you know, untold billions, if the paper is held to account, sent to the Iranian regime, which from my perspective is unacceptable. I agree with you, Ben, but I also don't think it's going to happen. It's a punt, or it's a long half-time, the longest since the phony war. and it will resume again after the election. Ben Dominic, always good to go back and root on the U.S. men's team against the soccer ruse. Thank you very much. Come right back, America. Don't go anywhere. Stay tuned to the Salem News Channel and the Hugh Hewitt Show. 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-year 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 hue 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, $8004114454, 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, texting data for $35 a month. Visit consumercellular.com slash hue and use promo code Hugh 50 or call 1-800-41144 and use promo code Hugh 50. The bluest guys you've ever seen.

Morning glory and evening grace, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. As we speak, the United States men's team has taken the field in Seattle against the Sakaroos from Australia. We'll keep you posted on the World Cup as we go forward with our first regular guests on a Friday. John Ellis, founder, editor-in-chief of news items. News items is my daily first thing I read in the morning, and I think you ought to as well. But at the end of the week, John sends me two or three or four stories that we may not have focused on in the course of the week. The first one of which is particularly interesting to those of you listening in California right now, you're all going to die. The University of Bern has modeled 1,000 years of earthquake history along the San Andreas and San Jacinto Falls in Southern California. John, good Friday, too. What did they come up with? Well, the result is that the stresses in the crust are higher today than at any time in the last millennium. And a critical fault junction near Los Angeles could decide how big the next major earthquake will be. If we have the Hewitt and Ellis Insurance Company, and we're thinking about maybe we'll go into Southern California and, you know, underwrite home policies, the answer would be no. We're not going to do that. I went through two major quakes in my 30 years out there, the North Ridge and the Big Bear Quakes. And I don't want to do it again. And I certainly don't want to be going to Las Vegas when the Cajon pass goes. And so where do you put this in terms of degree of likelihood, John? Because we've been getting earthquake predictions for as long as I've been in California since 1978 on and off. And I'm not there except in the winter every other year, so I don't really worry about it anymore. But they're not fine. And if it ever gets up to the big one, that'll be a nightmare. Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, it's not, this is not sort of, oh my God, the next big one is on the way. This is a serious group of international researchers who have looked at the data for the last 1,000 years and have come to the conclusion that the stresses at this point are as bad as they ever have been in those 1,000 years. It doesn't mean the big one is coming tomorrow. But it's certainly one that you would think people pay attention to. Interesting to me, I put it in news items, I think, on Wednesday, and I saw one report on it in the nine U.S. newspapers that I survey every morning. That was in the Washington Post the next day. It seems just an extraordinary story. Regardless of the geology, the impact on the insurance. crisis in California, I think, is going to be exaggerated by this report, because, as I say, the Hewitt and Ellis Insurance Company is going to look at this and say, no, thank you. Yeah, we're going to redline Dwayne, who just left a pack. I do want to point out to people in the last 1,000 years, the...

biggest quake on that juncture. It was in 1857 with a magnitude of 7.9. If there's a 7.9 earthquake at the Cajon Pass or the Tahon Pass, the two passes in Southern California, Katie bar the door because you won't be able to get out and it will be up to Javier Biss. Hilton, that's all I can tell you. You don't want Xavier Becerra in charge. All right, let's go to number two at a meeting of Chinese officials at the end of last year. President Xi Jinping outlined the main driver of growth for this year, 2026, which was consumer demand. How's that working out, John Ellis? It hasn't gone the way he had hoped. You know, the consumer activity, if you will, is down substantially and certainly substantially from where he hoped it would be. And more important, it seems to me, is that investment activity... in companies in China and in wealth, what are called wealth products in China, and particularly in real estate, is down 4.1% over these five months when compared to the first five months of 2025. That's an astonishing statistic because Chinese statistics are, shall we say, optimistic in general. So I think we can say that the actual numbers are probably worse than what was reported. in this report. And, you know, the bargain has always been in China that the government gets to govern and if it continues to deliver a growing economy. So, you know, we deliver a growing economy and you don't challenge our leadership. One of the reasons I think the G is busy purging everyone he can see, and the purges continued this week with people being accused of witchcraft, is that he's, you know, nervous at the top of this thing because his side of the bargain will produce a growing economy is not being delivered. You know, when property values start to fall in America, it is usually an 18-month process, and you don't try and catch a falling night. It's been going on longer there, and so no wonder people are stressed out. You also noted retail sales in China turned negative last month for the first time since 2022. So they're in, I don't know if they call it a recession, they're in a period of unease among their population. deep trepidation about the future. I think they're saving a lot. Is that how you conclude they're saving everything? They're saving, but they're also investing in gold and putting it under their beds, right? They're not, the way to invest. If you made some money in China, there were two ways to make, you know, to invest. One was real estate and the other was what are called wealth management products. And those boomed when the real estate sector was booming, and the real estate sector was 25% essentially of the Chinese economy. The real estate sector is now in bankruptcy, essentially, and to give you some idea of how...

how difficult it is, there are 60 million empty units in China, apartments or small houses or whatever, 60 million. That's greater than the population of Germany. That's a wild thing. All right, I want to move on to Gordon Goldstein, because I read this this morning. This is in the Friday news items. One of the reasons I read news items may be the most compelling is it keeps me up to speed with science and tech. And this is an AI story by Gordon Goldstein. AI with the capacity for recursive self-improvement may be a game changer for global security. All AI attackers may be massively empowered. Autonomous self-improving AI technology could stimulate and design unique biological weapons and lethal chemical agents that no human has ever discovered or contemplated. Human oversight of AI models may be fatally weakened. Computational speed will be revolutionized. And this one's the scary one, John. AI may communicate in an opaque language. I hadn't considered that. They may invent, the machines might invent their own language that we don't know. Well, that Jeffrey Hinton, who was said to be the godfather of large language models, worked, you know, his company, his piece of paper, essentially, his intellectual property was bought by Google. He worked at Google for a number of years, developing their artificial intelligence. He resigned a couple of years ago because he was so frightened by what he had buried, essentially. And what he talks about over and over again, if you go to YouTube and look at some of the videos, what he talks about again and again and again is that AI will have its own language and that humans won't be able to understand it. And that basically at that point, who knows? But from his point of view, if we don't get control of this thing now, the computers will be talking to each other and we won't be knowing what they say. John, I heard Matt Contenetti yesterday reference the Infinity Machine, Dennis Hasibis, Deep Mind, and the quest for something or other. I can't remember what it was. But have you heard of the Infinity Machine or Dennis Hasibis? Yeah, he's the founder and chief executive of Deep Mind, which Google bought, I think, 10 years ago. I did a podcast with Sebastian Malaby, who wrote the book, The Infinity Machine, and it's one of the best podcasts I've ever done, Sebastian's book.

is a must read. If you want to know about AI, there are a number of books to read. One of them is Sebastian Malaby's book about Dennis Hussabas. It's really a good book. Is it alarming or does it leave you somewhat? Because Demis is a good person, is somebody that you want as a neighbor, so to speak, is just a good egg. You feel much better that someone like him is running the show, or is at least running the show at Google. And the work that he's doing and the development of pharmaceuticals and all sorts of other stuff is extraordinary. and beneficial to mankind. But, you know, he is the first to say that if we don't get control of this thing, we're in real trouble. That's why you need to read news items. Go and find it on substack news items, John Allen.

Back America, I'm Hugh Hewitt. Yesterday, you may have seen that President Trump invited to the White House Major James Capers and his family, Calpers, excuse me, and, no, it's Capers. And the family of Colonel John Ripley, who's deceased, so that they could both receive the nation's highest toward the Medal of Honor, the Congressional Medal of Honor, for their actions in Vietnam. Today, both Major CalPERS, The family of John Ripley were at the Hall of Heroes in the Pentagon so that General Eric Smith, the commandant of the United States Marine Corps, could honor them both. Here's the first portion of his remarks. Cut number three. Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending a ceremony decades in the making where our president awarded the Medal of Honor to Major James Capers Jr. and posthumously to Colonel John Ripley. Major Capers, we're proud to call you one of our own. I speak for all Marines when I say congratulations. And those congratulations are heartfelt by every PFC, every private up through the commandant. Congratulations, sir.

You are still looking fit to fight. We may recall you. To Tom and the Ripley family, thank you for joining us and for continuing to honor the legacy of Colonel John Ripley. Today we have the distinct honor of inducting both of these legendary Marines into the Pentagon's Hall of Heroes. Their actions in Vietnam earned them a place alongside every other Medal of Honor recipient. But their stories did not begin on the battlefield. They began at home. Long before Major Capers and Colonel Ripley earned the title Marine, their families helped shape the men they would become. For Major Capers, it was his family of sharecroppers, whose example of hard work and resilience helped forge his unshakable will, an unbreakable will. For Colonel Ripley, it was his parents, whose strength during the Great Depression taught him perseverance and determination. The capers and Ripley households remind us that families are the bedrock of our institution. They instill America's sons and daughters with the values they need to fight and win our nation's battles. Today's inductees live those values throughout their long and illustrious careers, and especially in the crucible of their most demanding operation. The commandant then went on to discuss those operations about major capers, he said this cut number four. In April of 1967, near Fulock, Vietnam, a newly commissioned second lieutenant capers and his nine-man element, team broad-minded, found themselves cut off and surrounded by a massive enemy force. Despite sustaining multiple devastating wounds, Lieutenant Capers refused to falter. Bleeding heavily, he continued to lead while directing precise artillery fire onto the advancing enemy, shattering their onslaught. As helicopters descended into the chaos, he demanded that his wounded Marines be boarded first, refusing rescue until every last survivor was flown to safety. I mean, who does that? Who does that? Major Capers did that. And now he's with us today. And then he went on to talk about the late Colonel Ripley, a legend cut number five. Five years later, in the fury of the 1972 Easter offensive, Captain John Ripley faced a challenge just as harrowing. While advising South Vietnamese Marines, he was charged with a monumental task. Destroy the Dongha Bridge to halt a massive North Vietnamese advance. Dangling 50 feet over a churning river. Colonel Ripley, then Captain Ripley, hauled hundreds of pounds of explosives hand over hand beneath the bridge. I mean, think about that. Hundreds of pounds going hand over hand. That's like doing a thousand pull-ups, and he kept going. While he was braving a torrential hail of enemy fire, all designated trying to kill him, all trying to kill one man dangling below a bridge. Starved of energy and tools, he clung to consciousness, using his own teeth to crimp the blasting caps in the charges. And think about that. Using his own teeth to crimp the blasting caps. After three agonizing hours, he detonated the charges, bringing the enemy offensive to a dead stop. For heroism that transcended the limits of human endurance, major capers,

and Colonel Ripley have been bestowed our nation's highest military honor. My brother-in-law, Georgia, there, as he served as a co-van in Vietnam with Colonel Ripley. Colonel Ripley, I had the honor of being escorted around Annapolis by and having lunch with down on the Wharf. An amazing man. And long overdue. The Dongha River is a diorama in Annapolis Memorial Hall for a reason. And I'm glad both major capers and Colonel Ripley were so honored. More on that when I come back. Borderback America, I'm Hugh Hewitt. I want to go back to the Medal of Honor recipient's ceremony at the Hall of Heroes and the Pentagon today. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Rosen had this to say about Major James Capers. Cut number six. In April 1967, Lieutenant Capers went looking for a down B-57 bomber that crashed into the mountains. But by the time he reached the site, the enemy had already been there. The crewmen were missing. All Lieutenant Capers found were goggles. And he spotted the enemy's tracks nearby. He knew that he and his men needed to get to safety. Lieutenant Capers radioed for extraction. But the answer came back. It's raining. The weather is too rough. The chopper can't fly. We can't get you right now. And so... Lieutenant Capers huddled his men together. They negotiated minefields. They swam a river. And just as they were almost to safety, the enemy opened fire on them. Lieutenant Capers undaunted. We killed a bunch of them, he said. At long last, a Sikorsky chopper appeared. Lieutenant Capers refused to leave before his Marines, as the commandant said. And he remained in command until all his men were aboard. Bleeding and weary as the chopper lifted off, Lieutenant Capers watched as thunder and lightning and high winds and rain moved in. The chopper started to go down. Lieutenant Capers looked up at the night sky and said, I need help. He prayed, God, I need you. The chopper went higher and higher, and finally home to safety. God reached out his mighty hand and kept that chopper going, Jim Capers said. God saved us when we needed to be saved. Then he said about Colonel John Ripley, and I heard this story from Colonel Ripley live when he was alive. Cut number seven. Later, Captain John Ripley confronted the same enemy. The date was Easter Sunday, 1972. His superiors ordered him to the pivotal Don Ha Bridge with a simple order, stand and die. As Captain Ripley recalled, the only way to stop the enemy was to destroy the bridge.

The mission was overwhelming, and at first Captain Ripley had no idea how he was going to carry 500 pounds of explosives there. But he still called the Superior and said, I will destroy that bridge. He reached up and grabbed hold of the beam underneath the bridge. And even though the communists had rigged up German steel razor wire to protect it, Captain Ripley began kicking his way through. With his weapons slung over his back and explosives in his webbing, Captain Ripley started handwalking himself under the bridge and out over the river. Jesus, Mary, get me there, he prayed. He repeated it rhythmically. Jesus, Mary, get me there. Exhausted and starving, Captain Ripley said that suddenly strength came. He swung up and placed the explosives into the eye beams and underneath the bridge. Later, Ripley would say, the enemy was not happy about this. They were trying to get my attention the whole time and had 30 caliber messages coming my way. But as he put it, they were never successful. On that Easter Sunday, Captain Ripley destroyed that bridge. He stopped that enemy. And in those terrible, magnificent moments that we recall here today, the fellow warriors of then-Lieutenant Capers and then Captain Ripley bore witness to a truth that no totalitarian ideology can ever suppress. That free man is made in the image of God, all men made in the image of God. and his highest destiny is love expressed through sacrifice for his fellow man. As they're moving sermon, I watched most of it. My brother-in-law was there who served as a co-van with Colonel Ripley and introduced me to Colonel Ripley, and he wanted to go, so he traveled a bit to get there, as did General Boomer, Colonel Turley, and all the other covans of that era from the 72 East are offensive. I'm sure Major Capers. friends and family and fellow Marines were there en masse as well. In 2025, the FBI reported that Americans lost more than $21 billion to fraud and identity theft. Identity thieves can steal your social security number, open credit accounts in your name, take over online accounts, and create financial headaches that can take months to fix. Most people don't realize they've been targeted until the damage is already done. That's why more families are turning to Aura. Aura helps protect your identity with fraud alerts, credit monitoring, dark web monitoring, up to $5 million in identity theft protection. If something does happen, R's 24-7 U.S.-based support team can help guide you through the recovery process. You also get a VPN, antivirus protection, password manager, and scam protection, all in one app. Don't wait until you're a victim. Protect yourself and your family today. Start your free trial at aura.com slash safe. That's Aura, a-U-R-A-com slash safe.