The Big Weekend Pod

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Hezbollah, the Hezbollah Israel War, which Hezbollah joined and started kind of on their own. They didn't have to fire anything into Israel once the Iran War started. And then whatever is going to be happening with the Strait of Hormuz and everything else. So it's that linkage, which is that when Iran says we want ceasefire, that means Israel has to cease stop the firing. And so far, the Hezbollah has shown no interest in that. So. I think, you know, he's gotten, in this respect, kind of, you know, it's a little bit of a trap. And what he needs to do is he needs to understand that Israel degrading Hezbollah and taking out Hezbollah gives him more leverage with Iran and that these two things are linked and link it a different way. Does that make sense? It does make sense to me, but I also think the reality is this. They're never leaving Lebanon, the southern Lebanon south of Latani. Because if I understand it from what Aviv told me and what I've read, They have tried to occupy Lebanon, and it didn't work. It was expensive, but it did work in terms of keeping the north occupied and populated. They withdrew, and that allowed Hezbollah to advance to the border and threaten what might have been another 10-7 from the north as opposed to from Hamas and Gaza in the south. Now they've reoccupied. I don't think they're ever going to leave. From the castle. back to the south, nor do I think they ought to leave until there's actually a government in Lebanon that's not a Hezbollah shadow government. Do you agree with my assessment? Yeah, one thing I would just point out is that at least the rhetoric coming from Lebanese leaders has been better than I've heard in 20 years. I'm not saying that they're backing it up. What I'm saying is that you're getting statements saying that Hezbollah needs to disarm. I mean, they still have to get rid of the chief of staff for the Lebanese army. I don't like the role that our envoy Tom Barack is playing in all of this. I think he is far too credulous when it comes to the Islamist government in Turkey with Recep Tayyip Erdogan as well as the intentions of Hezbollah and so forth. But... That said, you do have at least Lebanese political leaders at this point who've had enough and they understand that Hezbollah started the war and that the reason the Israelis are there is because of Hezbollah and Iran. Now, Benjamin Netanyahu is approaching elections, and I don't expect him to care how angry Donald Trump is if he thinks he has to do A, B, and C in order to retain his government in power or at least get to a hung parliament so he gets to be the acting prime minister. Do you think he'll be restrained by anything that America wants him to do if he thinks it's in Israel's national security interest, and thus his political interest, to strike southern Beirut, which is where whatever's left of Hezbollah congregates?

In a rare moment, I do think he has to take into consideration. I mean, we are living, our political reality right now is that Donald Trump is like a bulwark in many ways for Israel in terms of U.S. foreign policy. You know, Israel still is reliant on the United States for a lot of its military supply chain, and that gives the United States a lot of leverage. And given where the Democratic Party is, given where an element at least of the Republican Party, not all of it. And I'm not, I want to make it very clear, Israel has very strong friends in Congress, people like Senator Cotton, Ted Cruz, and there are many more. But Donald Trump is, this is extremely dangerous. This is Benjamin Netanyahu is in a lot of political jeopardy right now. And I have to say that this factors into it because if. If President Trump feels that Israel is being ungrateful or defiant, there are a lot of things the United States can do, and there are people in his administration who could give him lots of ideas that would be very damaging to Israel, and I'm sure that this is an excruciating decision for Benjamin Netanyahu. Do you think that Trump wants to deal with Naftali Bennett, as opposed to Benjamin Netanyahu? I don't. I think he likes dealing with people that he know his age, who get along with him, that he's known for a long time. And so they had an angry phone call. That's kind of part for the course for the president, isn't it? Yeah, I think it's recoverable. And I also think that the long-term interests of Israel, the United States, and Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump are the same. Trump wants to win the war in Iran. He doesn't want to have come out of this looking like a loser. And Israel has to win the war with Iran. It cannot have a wounded Iran. That's a terrible scenario. So both of them have an interest in finishing the job. I just am worried that like, well, okay, what's the plan at this point? Now, the Mossad did have a plan. And I think the CIA probably had a plan. And whatever that was, let's get back to it. I'm sure it involved elements of Iranian Kurds and Baluch and other minorities. But the goal here has to be regime change, even though... That word has, as you know, taken on, you know, all kinds of baggage since the Operation Iraqi Freedom. But that's what we're talking about. What I think we've all learned, there's no deal to be had at this point. And the deal is on the nuclear side is not as important because so much of their nuclear infrastructure has been destroyed because of Donald Trump's American military and the Israeli military, which is a good thing. And reopening the straight of four moves, I don't think it's going to come from the negotiating table either. It's going to come from military action. And the end of the day, the biggest threat is this regime. And once you get rid of the regime, then you're not going to see this fence sitting from a lot of the Arab-Americans Arab Gulf allies. And a lot of that creates space for a lot of really good things to happen. Like finally ending Hezbollah and ending Hamas and the other.

tentacles, but you've got to get back to this, we can't live with this regime. Now, I will say this. Trump should, I mean, I think to Trump's credit, we've gotten this far, and there is no risk of American ground forces in Iran in a kind of Iraq-style quagmire. I count that as a win for America and a win politically for Trump. That's a good thing. But we have to think creatively that regime change has to be the end goal at this point. I'm going to come back and talk with Eli. During the break, he'll be back on the other side. We're going to talk about Mr. Hawami on the other side, so don't go anywhere. But in between, I want to talk to them about the fact I think Iran's regime is going to be very hard to collapse because I think they will loot the country before they give up. Stay tuned to America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. I'm back with Eli Lake. Eli, this regime, as is the nature of every tyranny, will not hesitate to take every diamond dollar. Rial and Shekel, whatever they have in Iran, they'll strip their population bear and they'll let their population starve. You really can't bankrupt a regime like this, which is a quarter million people on top of 92 million people, can you? No, but it's a series of strategies. Ultimately, what you want to do is you want to, the most important thing is you want to give the Iranian people the ability to communicate and access the Internet without going through the ISPs that are controlled by the Iranian regime. That's extremely important. So you want to restore the ability of the Iranian people to organize themselves. Number two, what you want to do is you want to build on this idea that... In order for any state to do anything, there has to be complicity from several people down the chain of command. And you want to begin to deprive that. This is the theory of Martin Luther King and Gandhi and Gene Sharp. This has worked in the past. It worked against Slobodan Milosevic. And the argument against it usually is that, well, this regime is so violent. This regime is so brutal. I've got to tell you something, Slobodomelosevic was pretty brutal, and more importantly, the theory still works in the sense that someone still needs to fire on the crowd. And so you are in some ways, as I, we've talked about this before, the real story is taking in place across the dinner table. If the Iranian people and if various elements of the battered, admittedly battered in opposition at this point. feel that they have been abandoned by the world and specifically the leader of the free world, which is Donald Trump in the United States of America, then that, then, you know, it'll become a self-fulfilling prophecy. But if this becomes not, and I'm not just talking about rhetoric, I'm talking about things like providing for strike funds. There are things that intelligence services, and particularly the Mossad, can read, can start doing into sort of, you know, whatever, getting that network up and going.

the ability to fly armed drones inside the country that take out a CG commanders at checkpoints. That's very impressive. The Israelis demonstrated that in the early phases of the war. That needs to be phase two, and we need to start getting back to that. And you could say, well, one of the chances that might take a long time. Sure. There's no other option at this point, though. We're always going to be at war with this regime. You mentioned Gandhi. I've just been rereading Freedom at Midnight, which is the story of the partition of India and Indian Pakistan. Gandhi took 25 years and went to jail repeatedly, and he was up against a civilized country. I don't really see civil disobedience working in Iran. They got to have guns. We have one minute, Eli, until we go back. Don't they have to have guns? Okay. Well, I think some elements might have to have guns, and it might be a mix of both. But I would tell you that when you mentioned 25 years, the... Real opposition begins in 1999. That's more than 25 years in this case. The Iranian opposition has been letting us know where they are coming from now for 27 years. It starts at Tehran University in 1999. And every few years, they have come back onto the streets. So I would say, yes, you're right. I certainly hope there isn't more bloodshed, but it's the only way out is through at this point. Um, you know, we, and I agree with the assist of the Mossad, it could happen. All right. All right. Come right back with Eli Lake. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh here with Eli Lake of the free press, the host of the Breaking History podcast. Eli, on Wednesday I was on Fox. I woke up to the news that in New Jersey's 12th congressional district, Democrats had nominated 13 candidates, the fellow who got 28 percent, named Dr. Hawami. Dr. Huami was an associate of the blind shake. He went to Bosnia for an al-Qaeda front group. He went to Gaza in the middle of the current war. Dr. Huami seems to me almost certainly to be an anti-Semite. And I just said to Bill Hemmer, The Democratic Party is infected with anti-Semitism, and it's spreading at the speed of light. It's in Michigan with El Sayyad and Rashid. It's in Minnesota with Omar. It is up in Michigan in Maine with Graham Platner. Now it's in New Jersey. It's in some of the California congressional districts. It was in some of the Texas races. I think it could become a sepsis for the Democratic Party. What do you think? I saw your comments on that, and I think you wrote something, too, which was really great. I agree. We're at a critical moment right now, and I'm still gobsmacked.

It's one thing to, if he had, you know, been a surgeon who went to Gaza and it was under humanitarian, maybe he didn't know. But he testified in the defense of the blind shake in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing trial. So. How do you explain that? And I don't care that he, you know, served in the U.S. military. Lots of, you know, Lee Harvey Oswald also served in the U.S. military. So, I mean, it's a big institution. So did Major Hassan, who went on a rampage? And we're in Fort Hood. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I am very, what I worry about is because we're both, we're around for 9-11, we both have read the looming tower. I think that there are a lot of younger. Democratic activists in this country and Democrats in this country and voters in this country who have no idea that Iqwan, the Muslim Brotherhood, jihadism. are ideologies. They are not the same as the religion of Islam, and they hate America. One of their goals is to destroy America and reinstate the ancient Islamic caliphate. We have an enduring interest to make sure that this kind of politics is... quarantined and marginalized in our country at the very least. And we have to understand this as a hostile ideology. It's bad enough that the leadership of Turkey is Muslim Brotherhood, which is a NATO ally, the idea that it's now going to be acceptable to... be adherence to this ideology. If you are running in a Democratic primary, it nauseates me. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Does anyone make the effort to explain that the Muslim Brotherhood is not the Rotary Club? The Muslim Brotherhood is not a fraternal association like the Knights of Columbus. It's an ideology. And if you're hanging around with the blind shake, you're anti-Semitic and you're anti-American. I just think it follows like night follows day. And I don't know if you think it's that solid, but I do. I've read Andy McCarthy's books. Andy's got a brand new podcast out of the McCarthy report, which explains the whole trial of the blind shake and this guy's role in it. It's astounding to me that he's the nominee of the Democratic Party. And that there are not more Democratic leaders who are calling this out. There are a few. I saw a statement. I don't exactly remember, but there was a statement from, I think, one Democrat or two Democrats who said, if this guy wins the election, he should not be allowed on certain committees for national security reasons. Okay, that's a start. But where's Chuck Schumer? Where's Hakeem Jeffries? Where is the leadership of this political party that says this is not who we are, and we're going to draw a line at this?

And to me, that's like a no-brainer. I mean, we sort of, it's almost like a slow-motion car, right? You kind of saw it coming with Zohran Mamdani and his associations with the Democratic Socialist of America. And this is where it leads. So we got to a realignment. I'm not Jewish. I don't know about why Jews vote for Democrats, but they do. Does this lead to a Jewish realignment of the Jewish vote in America? A significant one, not a two or three point ones, but a large one. I got it to, I am Jewish, and I am, I cannot see how you can support the part. I mean, I could see how you could support John Fetterman or Ritchie Torres or Josh Gottheimer. I can see that there are certain individual Democrats, but if the party is going to stand by this, and then add to that Graham Platner, who I think there's now overwhelming evidence that he knew exactly what that tattoo was. It wasn't like he was ignorant of it. And, you know, How could you possibly get in line behind this party? You know, so I don't understand it. I understand why somebody who's ethnically Jewish but cares more about, I don't know, socialism, sure, I get that. But if you go to synagogue, if you observe the Sabbath, if you care about your Jewish identity, and you don't see it, by the way, I never saw my Jewish identity in conflict with my American identity, then you have to be very concerned about this. Eli Lake, always good to talk with you. A new breaking history podcast on Who Owns the Declaration is up, by the way. You can read Eli in the free press. I hope he writes this weekend before we get too further into this anti-Semitism story about Hawami. Thank you, Eli. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt, special treat on a Friday. One of our very favorite guest is Jonathan Williams, who is president of the American Legislative Exchange Council. You can also read them on X at Tax Economist. Jonathan, welcome. I want to begin by asking you about Wallet Hub. I don't know much about Wallet Hub. Tell us about their rankings and how they got the ranking of West Virginia completely wrong. Well, hey, Hugh, it's a great example, unfortunately, of a fake news headline in that Wallet Hub did rank West Virginia 51st. You know, maybe they were going for something like Barack Obama's 57 states. I'm not exactly sure. But, you know, the devil's in the details often when it comes to these rankings. And, you know, as we know with rich states, poor states, we pay a lot of attention to getting it right when it comes to measuring states. And, you know, the big difference between why Wad Hub gets it wrong. about West Virginia and how rich states, poor states, measures West Virginia much differently with an economic outlook at 17th best in the country is what we're looking at measuring, right? I mean, that's the devil in the details. And Wallet Hub is looking backwards, and rich states, poor states is looking forward when it comes to the rankings. There's no doubt West Virginia's been a state that's been, you know, hurting for decades. The key difference, though, is when you look at what policymakers are actually control of, the tax policy, the regulatory climate. education policy. West Virginia is moving in the right direction. And I think rich states, poor states certainly captures that momentum. You know, don't just take our word for it. I mean, people are voting with their feet and moving to West Virginia on net from the other 49 states. So they're taking note of the great work that Governor Patrick Morrissey, one of my favorite governors in America, and the legislators are doing on education, freedom, and tax cuts and making West Virginia more competitive. And so, you know, you always have to look below.

the surface when you look at any of these ranking systems. So don't buy it the news that West Virginia is dead last in America. West Virginia is moving in the right direction, Hugh. I'm not going to buy it. I'm going to trust my rich states, poor states. And I remind everyone, you can get that for free. Leave it in your guest room. Leave it around your house. People always go to it and look up their state. And it's absolutely free. It's a wonderful book. Rich states, poor states. Jonathan, while I've got you, we were talking before the program about the fact you've been married for a long time, I've been married for a longer period of time. So I need your, you're an expert, you're an economist, right? And you know marriage. So I'm coming up on my wife's birthday on Monday, and I have two presidents for her. I can either give her this 250th anniversary of our country's sea bag. It's a beautiful sea bag, cost a couple hundred bucks, or I can give her this sea bag, which is the Cleveland Brown Seabag. So, I'm asking you, Jonathan Williams, as a longtime married man, would you go with the 250th anniversary C-bag or the Cleveland Brown Seabag? Hey, I think you know the answer to that. American 250 all the way, my friend. But, hey, I was thinking you may give her a copy of rich states, poor states for the anniversary. I don't know. Oh, we've already got that. We've already got that. We actually leave that in our guest room because people do love that. All right, let's move to North Carolina. You know, we're looking for a place to run away to live in if Virginia goes as crazy as I think it could go. Because I'm not going to live in Virginia if they raise the taxes. I left California because of that. And I'm thinking maybe North Carolina, that's pretty close to the grandkids. What has North Carolina done this week that makes it more attractive for people? Well, North Carolina is continuing to move in the right direction. This week was a big week there in Raleigh, where you had the conservative majorities of the legislature, as well as getting a couple of votes from independent members who are not members of the Republican Party, vote to override Governor Stein on his veto of their acceptance of the Trump Education Freedom Tax Credit. As you know, it's an opt-in to that program to give 17. $1,200 tax credit per year to scholarship granting organizations in that state. We've seen about 30 states already opt in, and North Carolina was a holdout because of Governor Stein's veto. Thankfully, cooler heads did prevail, and you had the legislature override that veto, which now opens up that amazing opportunity for taxpayers in the state. But moreover, the scholarship granting organizations, those private institutions in the state that will now be able to take those dollars and use that. on the ground in North Carolina in the future. So that was a huge win. The other thing that they did was they had a resolution, which is an Alec model resolution encouraging the Trump effort and Linda McMahon's effort to get rid of the bureaucracy of the Federal Department of Education and move those functions to other areas within the federal apparatus. But more importantly, return education back to the states into parental control ultimately. And so that's also moving in Raleigh this week.

this week there in North Carolina, especially as it relates to education freedom, one of our best and favorite topics here at Alec. Well, Jonathan, does the state lose anything when they opt in? The $1,700 tax credit goes to the family of that is paying the taxes. It doesn't take any money away from the state, does it? Why wouldn't any state opt into it? You know, this is the great question, Hugh. This is a no-brainer of an issue. And even recently we've seen Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, of all places, say that she's looking at opting into this. So, I mean, if you have people like liberal Democrats like Kathy Hochul in a state that has been run by teachers unions think that this may be a good idea, this is absolutely a good idea. And it doesn't cost a state a dime. What it does do is allow those education entities within the state lines to take advantage of these dollars. Parents can use those dollars elsewhere, but the money would go out of state if you don't opt into the programs. It's a great, great idea to do that across the country. Okay, last story, my friends in Colorado have for, as long as I've been on the air, 25 years, been very, very proud of their Tabor, which is a taxpayer of some sort of protection of taxpayers that prevents it. And now the Dems in Colorado are trying to get rid of Tabor again. They try this like every five years, don't they? Well, there they go again, as President Reagan would say, right? And every two years, they look to get rid of the nation's gold standard in the state constitution, the taxpayer bill of rights, really the gold standard protection against overtaxing and overspending. It just says if you want to spend more, then the economy is growing, essentially. You just need to go and ask for taxpayers' approval. The progressives who run the legislature in Colorado right now don't like that. They don't want to go and get people's approval to raise more tax. taxes and raise more spending. And so every two years, they go through this exercise, get all the big spenders and the special interest to try to take this out of the Constitution. Thankfully, so far, Hugh, Alec and our friends and allies have been able to preserve that. And let's hope this fall once again that Colorado doesn't lose that inherent advantage that they've had for more than 30 years. It's the one thing from keeping Colorado from becoming California East. We have to make that a centerpiece of our broadcast from the Alec Annual Meeting, which will be in Orlando on July 22nd and 23rd. John will spend a lot of time on the air with me down there. And if he made the wrong choice on the Seabags, I'll let him know then. Jonathan Williams from the American Legislative Exchange Council. Remember, rich,states, poorstates.com, alec.org, and stay tuned. I'll be right back, America. I'm the Hugh Hewitt Show. Now, I want to take a moment to tell you about our great sponsor Consumer Cellular. They have a brand new offer, so I want you to listen carefully to this. You've probably seen the headlines are worth your latest sell bill. Big wireless is raising rates again. Well, you can switch to consumer cellular right now and get $200 off your bill by going to consumercellular.com slash hue and use a promo code, Hugh 200. That's right, Hugh Hewitt-UGH 200. And when you switch, you'll get the same coverage as big wireless carriers, just not the coverage that's anything other than high quality.

Are you tired of your wireless company telling you have to talk to an AI chat box or even pay 10 bucks to talk to someone when paying your bill? That's happening now, really. With consumer cellular, you'll talk to an actual human being based right here in the United States who will help you every step of the way when you switch. For a limited time, if you're over 50 as well, you can get $200 off your bill when you switch two unlimited lines. That's two lines of unlimited talk, texting data for $60 a month, plus $200 off. Hurry, the extra $200 off your bill will not last long. This offer ends June 14th. Visit consumercellular.com slash you. Use the promo code. Hugh, 200, or call 1-800-4-1-41-44, 1-800-4-1-4-4-44, 1-800-4-1-4-4-4-4-4-54. Good morning, glory, and evening, Grace, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. The weekend is upon us, and I'm so happy to welcome back Ben Dominic. Ben, of course, is the host of the Big Ben Pod, which is really, really excellent this week. And we'll talk about Graham Platner fairly quickly and about the Democratic Party. But, Ben, I want to begin. I also want to let people know you're the opinion editor of the Daily Signal. How's the new gig working out? Do you like doing that? The Daily Wire. Daily Wire. Daily Wire. Daily Wire. Ben Shapiro will shoot me. We actually, we have, we've had some great pieces. This week from Senator Josh Hawley, familiar to your readers. We have a great interview tomorrow that will come out on the threat that AI poses from Nate Sarris, who is one of the heads of sort of the Silicon Valley AI skeptic groups. And then next week we have an interview with Ted Cruz about his plans for college sports. So I hope that people will come to the other wire and read. some smart opinions from all our folks, including those people. I want to read the Josh Hawley piece. Mike Pence was my guest yesterday for his new book, What Do Conservatives Believe? It's a good book, by the way. It's a fine book. Mike Pence is my age. So we are reganauts and we are older than the younger rising generation, which hang out over at the Daily Wire, etc. But Mike Pence says Josh Hawley is a populist conservative, not a Reaganot. What do you make of that? You know, here's the thing, and I actually, let me ask you this as a Reaganot, and with all due respect.

Isn't Reagan an incredible populace, if you look at this, especially the formation of his political beliefs? Reagan in his own hand, which is a book that I recommend to virtually everybody that I speak in front of, especially college kids, is kind of a way to see his own process. It's these radio scripts that he made as he was traveling around America, and you can see the edits that he made in different pieces, the way he would pull stories. from local experience, and he would apply it in ways that he spoke to great principles. Look, you know, obviously Josh Hawley did his thesis and has written extensively about Teddy Roosevelt. He has a lot of, you know, affinity for things that I think are a little bit more pro-government in terms of the use of governmental power. But I also think that, you know, when it comes right down to it, the principles of what he's trying to achieve. It's in America that is strong, that is good, that it secures our liberties, that has an actual impact on the world that is not just looking inside its borders. And to me, kind of the end state of populism is when they basically say, we need to turn into an island and cut ourselves off from the rest of the world, which is just a backwards and ridiculous statement at this point. Well, you know, it's almost a distinction without a difference to me because David Trulio introduced. introduced me to Josh Hawley, David Trulio, until recently, the president of the Reagan Foundation out in California. And a member led a group of young conservatives in D.C. And Josh Hawley wasn't anybody then. He just written this book on TR. But he was a John Roberts clerk, as was his wife. And I've known the Chief Justice since we worked together in the White House. 40 years ago. And I thought, well, if you can clerk for John Roberts, I'm going to, you're a smart guy. So I've always thought when he speaks, he speaks about the family, about faith, about masculinity. I don't think that's in tension with Reaganism. Reaganism is really about individual liberty and a strong defense and being an anti-communist. That's it. I mean, that's it. I'm in, here's the thing. There's this whole, there was a meme that kind of came around in the, you know, about 10 years ago. people who were criticizing zombie Reaganism. And I think the idea there was people who were critical of Trump because of the defections that he had from conservative orthodoxy. But I think there's two ways to view that. One is to say, you know, what did Reagan believe it needs to be in amber? And we always need to sort of, you know, adopt policy approaches that are exactly the same as that we would in 1984. There's another approach that says, What would Ronald Reagan think about the situation today? And I think that's the healthy response. It's the same way that we look at the founders, which is to say, you know, I'm really curious. What would Thomas Jefferson and John Adams argue about when they were talking about AI? That's like that's the kind of thing that I'm interested in. And I just think that we should think about these people as not just. stuck in the time that they are in when, in the case of Reagan, look, I was alive during Reagan. From my perspective, he's the greatest president in my lifetime. He won the Cold War. He battled the bear. There is no one better, in my opinion. And so, you know, I am not going to reject him at the same time.

in the past that we should no longer, you know, view as being sacrosanct, as being protected from the reality of what they are today. And it's converging, and we're going to take three segments on this, so let me set it up this way. Graham Platner's on the table. So the New York time, so is 60 minutes. The backdrop of this is Anita Hill, where Anita Hill made up stuff and tried to gig Clarence Thomas. Christine Ford Blasey made up stuff, tried to gig. Brett Kavanaugh. I do not believe. You do not know this, but I watched the Clarence Thomas hearings as a kid. That's weird. They broadcast it on PBS. That's the degree to which my parents were interested in us learning about politics as it happened. And... And it is still a formative moment for me in terms of my... How old were you? Because, I mean, they're talking about pubic hair on Coke cans. I mean, I don't know that. I know. I was, I guess I was eight years old. Oh, my gosh. All right. So it was a little, yeah. But, hey, I also lived through the, you know, I remember downloading the Star Report from AOL.com. Oh, well, that's even worse. All right. So then we've got, then we've got all these standards and the New York Times and the... 60 Minutes people are on high horses and the Me Too movement comes along. Now comes Graham Platner. And every totem, every shibbolet that we were told by all of the left and all the legacy media has been put aside for Graham Platner, who is a deeply troubled man. I'm not going to characterize how he's troubled, but is that not a fair statement? He's just troubled. Here's what I think about Graham Platner, and I don't, this is probably going to break with the general conservative mantra about things. I recognize Graham Platner. Graham Platner is kind of the, he is the dark side of the coin for people like JD Vance and Pete Hegseth. He's someone who came out of his experience militarily with a lot of darkness with it. I know guys who are like Graham Platner. They're intelligent people, actually. They're students of history. They, you know... Clearly, you know, one of the funniest things about Graham Platner is that he pretends to be this kind of populist rising up guy. You know, he went to Hotkiss, at least for a year, I guess. Hold it right there. He went to Hodgkiss, which is a $70,000 a year high school, so he's not really a working-class kid. Stay tuned. Ben will talk to me during the break. He's not known to the break. No, he's not. No, he's not, unless you count one restaurant owned by his mom. Stay tuned to America. Ben will be back on the other side of the break. We're not going anywhere. So I'm back with Ben Dominish. And, Ben, I want you to pick up where you left up. You know, you know, Graham Platner. Or people like it. I know, I know guys like, I mean, I don't think I know anybody who's had a toten cough on his chest. But the point is, I know a lot of guys who came out of that experience and they were troubled. And they had a lot of, you know, quite frankly, they had marriages that broke up and they had lives that fell apart. And they had, you know, health problems and psychological problems. And most of them became addicts. And it's, you know, and it's a sad situation. And it's an indictment, quite frankly, of our VA.

which I still think is kind of the underreported story of the last decade and a half of how poorly we have served the people who came back from serving our country and serving it, you know, willingly. By the way, the idea that Susan Collins sent him to war is just, you know, BS. Look, here's the thing about Graham Platner, and it's what Democrats are dealing with right now. They believe that they can survive this situation if there is nothing else that comes out about him. I do not believe there will be nothing else that comes out about him, nor does anyone who is intelligent on Democratic staff. That's why you had the questions asked by Elizabeth Warren. That's why you've had the statements from John Fetterman, from Maggie Hassan, from a number of other people. And I will tell you this, Hugh, and, you know, Hugh, you know Maine more than I do. I will say that. You spend more time there than I do. When it comes to Maine, there is... An aspect of this that I think people do not appreciate, which is that Angus King's son is running for governor. He's going to lose. When that happens, I think it's very possible that Angus King crosses over, breaks for this party. I know he's an independent, but he caucuses with the Democrats, and actually endorses Susan Collins. I think that that could play politically in a very damaging way. I don't know what you think about this. I'm curious as to your thoughts, but I do think that it matters on a certain way. I think last night when Chuck Schumer, and it happened last night, took time to salute Susan Collins for making 10,000 consecutive votes. I've never heard a senator. I've talked to many of them. It is a tell. It's an indication of... Yeah, we really wish we hadn't let this happen. And I think that a lot of it was assurances that they had and also fear of their far-left populist base, which represents, as I've said before on this program, about a third of their party. They are scared of those people because they are younger. They are loud. They are active online. And they do move numbers in terms of donor dollars and the like. From my perspective, Graham Platner is a troubled individual. I don't know how much of all this is true. I don't know how much of the rumors are true. I do think that he's someone who should not be anywhere close to the U.S. Senate. So Janet Mills might beat him. But if Jared Golden gets swapped out in a Torricelli move, could he beat – I don't think he can beat Susan Collins either, but do you think so? We've got 30 seconds to come in back. I do not think so. Susan Collins, gosh, she's been there for 30 years. She's such a survivor. She beat the odds last time around. I would not bet against her. I mean, Kalshi, do what you want. I would not take the other side of that. Yeah, I agree. When we come back, America, we're going to talk more Kalshi because Ben is a big Spurs fan. He's always been telling me the Spurs we're going to sweep, and now we've got the Mitz ahead. Stay tuned. I'll be right back with Ben Domich.

Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Ben Dominic is here with me. Ben, how long have you been married? You've been married 10 years yet? I've been with my life for 10 years as a girlfriend and a spouse, but I have not been married 10 years, but effectively I have, yeah. All right, so I've been giving birthday presents for almost 50 years, and I've got to give one on money to my wonderful wife, the freshman is you. And you can't see this, Ben, but I've got a C bag here that the people on the Salem News Channel can see. It's a beautiful red, white, and blue, 250 C bag. It's a gorgeous thing. I bought that. I saw you tweet this. It looks gorgeous. Can I get one of those? Yes, you go to sea bags, but here's the Cleveland Brown Seabags. Now, I can give her this one, too. Now, you've been very 10 years. Which one should I give her? The Brown Seabag bag or the America 250? No, the American 250. All right, how good. Now, about the Spurs, I'm rooting for the Knicks because if the Knicks win, that means the Cavs lost to the best team in the NBA. Are you rooting for the Knicks? I'm rooting for the Knicks, but it's for entirely financial reasons. I have a future on the Knicks that it was placed before this playoffs began because I thought they were the best team. Oh, you did? Yes. And so, to be quite honest, look, I love Wendy. I think Wendy's going to be a great, I hope that Wendy's an alien. He's an alien. He's an alien. He is a creature from a different universe. I mean, it's just like watching this guy is insane. I was trying to explain to my daughter literally when she was watching me watch highlights from the game. She was like, that man is very tall. Yes, he's very tall. Very good. But it's, look, I love that, but I think it's a little too early for him. And I think. Jalen Brunson, I mean, just the way, what he did in the fourth quarter there, I know they started slow, I know they had problems. They didn't play a great game, but they won anyway. And look, my colleague and technically, I guess, boss, Ben Shapiro is emphatically opposed to the Knicks. But I actually think that it's kind of good in a certain way to have, you know, a fan base that it's been so long suffering. Yeah, that's exactly it. The other thing is, I thought you were going to go in a different direction here. What do you think about the trade? I love the trade. I think you just love the trade. I do love the trade. I do love the trade. I do love the trade. I love the draft capital. We'll get a QB if Shador can't do it, and Miles deserves a Super Bowl run. And so everybody wins. I completely agree. I think it's a win-win all around, and I think that you guys just sort of set yourself up. I mean, the... The truth is the fan base there is so dedicated. And I was watching an interview with Terry McLaurin was on with Rich Eisen this week, and he was talking about it. And he said, you know, this is one of the most dedicated, hardcore fan bases in the entirety of football. They deserve to have a team that, you know, lives up to their expectations. And I think that you could actually build that with it. I mean, this draft capital is insane. So, you know.

It's all about the people who make the decisions now. You need a QB. Now, I question for you, though, I've been a season ticket holder for 27 years since they built the new stadium. I had to buy seat licenses when we went in there in 1999. Do you think I should have to buy seat licenses for the new stadium when it gets built again? No, of course not. You've been suffering enough. I know, but they're going to say, oh, hi, there's you. Time for you to pony, and I'm not going to do it. Can you believe this deal with the bears, by the way? They're going to move to a dome? I did not know that. I did not. Well, the Browns are moving to a dome, and the Cleveland people kind of like it. They're moving off the lakefront, so I don't care. I will say the Browns are built more for a dome, perhaps, than other teams. But I will say that the Bears moving to Indiana and moving to a dome, I just think that's an insult. I think that, I mean... I know Roger Goodell is like an evil creature and that kind of stuff. Like, please stop this. It's just about the money. And the NFL is just about, it's like the California elections. Where does the money come from and who does it go to? You hired the money. That's all that matters. Hired the money. All right, let me ask you about Hawami, because this, I want to go back to Syria. Halami is adjacent to the blind shake. He is an anti-Semite. He is an Islamist. He is a radical. And yes, he's also a medical missionary. You can be both of those things. He didn't go to Gaza to shoot Israeli. You went to Gaza to fix people. But he's a jihadist. He's hanging out with the blind shake. What's wrong with the Democrats? You said the exact right thing the other day, which is that this is a poison that has absolutely infected the Democratic Party. And they seem to have no interest in finding the cure for it, which disturbs me. It's more like... You get what I'm saying. Like, it's one thing if you got the poison and you're trying to find a cure. The other one is if you got the poison and you're like, no, actually, this feels okay for me. Let it run. I'm addicted. Yeah. Exactly. And that, I think, is extremely disturbing. Not as disturbing, by the way. I personally am more disturbed by the fact that people like Chuck Schumer who have for so long stood on these pedestals and said, you know, various things about how they represented the defense of democracy, you know, Sheldon White House, defending the Republic, you know, that kind of thing with their pompous and sanctimonious attitude, you know, are basically willing to sort of go out there and sacrifice everything that they've ever said in order to back someone. who had a literal Nazi tattoo on him. You know, I have to admit to you, Hugh, I don't think I would ever date someone with a Nazi tattoo. No. Like, especially without telling them, that's a Nazi tattoo, and I'm uncomfortable with that. So, look, you know, the situation that they're in right now, they're embracing the furthest left people. They're embracing actual anti-Semite. They're actual terrorist supporters in the case of hominy. And it's one of these things that, I mean, I don't know, Hugh, I want a healthy Democratic Party. I want the Democratic Party of Bill Clinton back. I want a Democratic Party that's arguing with us about how protectionist should we be. What should our attitude be towards China? What should our attitude be toward, you know, the way that we do welfare and the way that we do Medicare? We don't have that argument anymore. That doesn't exist. You know, I did an event on Monday night, Ben, with...

Leon Panetta, Rahm Emanuel, Tim Ryan, Karl Rove, and me. And Rahm Emanuel is formidable because he's an old Democrat. I mean, he's a fight. I still believe that. I will stake my claim on this. Rahm Emanuel would have made the second term of Barack Obama a success instead of a failure. He is absolutely intimidating as a foe. Oh, he's also a vicious and fun debater. I mean, he got me a couple of times. I was banged up, but it wasn't bad. Because he got Rove. I got the architect and the ambassador on either side. Tim Ryan and I had a couple of guys from Warren, Ohio, and we're wondering, what are we doing here? And Rahm Emanuel said, we were wondering the same thing. So he's that kind of quick. Do you think he has a prayer? I think that the problem with Rahm is that he's too honest about everything that's going on in the Democratic coalition, and they don't want honesty right now. They want either illusion, which is offered to them by kind of a fake neoliberal, like Gavin Newsom, or they want... which is offered to them by a youngster, you know, TikTok, you know, a social media person like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I think they want to one of those two things. I hope you get Rom for an interview for The Daily Wire. I would pay money to watch that. I'd love to do that. I would absolutely love to sit down with Rom because, to be honest, I think we would agree a lot about the history of politics and disagree, of course, about aims and things like that. and of course, ideologies, but he is formidable. All right. Ben Dominic, follow him at B. Dominish. Listen to the Big Ben podcast. Read him over at the Daily Wire where he's the opinion editor and stay right here. 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, and up to $5 million in identity theft protection. If something does happen, Aura'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.com slash safe.