Iran updates, Tommy Vietor's lies, and Senator Kelly's statements on classified material

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All right. Now, Admiral, I did some research after Mark Kelly said we were running low on munitions. And I know we might be, and maybe we're not. But one thing we're not running low on is torpedoes, because we've only used two since World War II in hostile actions. I looked up World War II. We sank 529 oil tankers in World War II. Now, 105 of them were empty. But 425 tankers full of oil went to the bottom of the sea, and we didn't worry about the environmental damage. Can we just sink there, a ghost fleet, if push comes to shove? I think we lost him. Yes. I'd rather take it. You're back. I heard you say we'd rather. Yeah, I think we'd rather take them hostage as, I mean, take them as seize them and then put prize crews on board and return them to ports and then make decisions about how we deal with the cargo on board and the value of the ship. I don't think seeking them is necessary. We are strong enough and big enough and powerful enough of military. We have the right types of ships, ESBs, amphib ships. the right types of visit boarding search and seizure teams to go around and grab these wherever we need to in the Indian Ocean or around their North Arabian Sea. So no need to sink them. Look, on occasion, ones will sink when we're trying to disable them. But from my point of view, we're doing the right thing. If a ship gets past the blockade that is not captureable but is sinkable, would you let it go or would you sink it? I'd sink it. Okay. And if you need a longer answer, it's the right. That's what a blockade is. A blockade says you're going to be held accountable for trying to penetrate my blockade and run it. And boy, talk about, you know, shooting one, you know, shooting one of the monkeys so the other get the message. Well, tell me about what you think the rules are engagement for the boarding crews. Sinking a ship, and of course I'm assuming we would give notice to the crew to get off of the ship and then we would pick up survivors. But is our boarding crew in any danger from whoever is running an Iranian tanker? Would the IRGC put suicide vests on a boat? Potentially, you hit right on the thing that worries me the most, which is a, not the whole crew. Most of the crew aren't even Iranian, and they certainly aren't committed, right? They're trying to make money, trying to, you know, keep their families safe. But you could easily get a, you know, the IRGC could place a crewman on board with malicious intent to attempt to approach, you know, American forces and either shoot at them or detonate something. I'm not sure about a detonating vest if that's going to be their technique. I think they're more trying to shoot and kill. But in any case,

Our teams have to go down assuming the highest level of risk. And we've assessed the ship. You know, we're watching the ship. We're looking at the images of everyone on board. We're being very careful. You know, you can see it right here in the video you're running. So we're doing this. So from my perspective, you know, you minimize the risk to force, the risk to the people, and ensure you get the mission accomplished. And I'm not worried. We have real professionals, whether they're special operating forces. Marines or Coast Guardsmen, or even naval personnel. We have a lot of people who are experienced at this, done scores of them, if not hundreds, particularly the Coast Guard, and can handle any kind of risk situation. So, Admiral, you've studied this regime for a long time. My friend Mark Levin posted on, after the Iranians rejected whatever President Trump proposed, their National Security Council spokesperson came out and said the only option for America is to surrender. And Mark hit the roof and he said, this is a death cult. People have to understand we're dealing with a death cult. These are not rational actors. I agree with that. Do you agree with our assessment that this is not? This isn't even North Korea. Because North Korea are atheists. They just want to stay alive. But. the Iranian theocrats and the fanatics in the IRGC. They are, they're fanatics. Yeah, I'm glad you split that between the leadership, the autocrats, theocrats, and the people. You know, the people, I think, of Iran are uniquely well-educated. Yes. You know, can be a very successful state. But the autocrats, I mean, they're locked in. They've made money. They've had power. They've committed, many of them have committed crimes for which they would be held accountable by a transition, by a change in regimes. So for them, this is existential. That's kind of how I treat it. It's existential. And existential people talk smack, like the smack that got Mark Levin pissed off. Well, so should we say nothing and just do things, or ought we to engage in educating the American people about the regime? Because I'm not sure we've done enough of the fact that these are not rational actors. You know, I'm glad you brought that up. We have not, the president has got to talk more frequently about what this regime has done over 47 years. What they've done over four months, you know, killing 32,000 people in 36 hours just three months ago. I mean, it's like ancient history now. Our European partners can barely remember it happened. You know, we need, there's some film of it right there. You know, this has been, this was a dramatic event. This was killing on a speed and density, you know, comparable to 1940s Germany.

That's the last time it was like this. So, you know, from my perspective, we've got to do. The president has got to, I think, explain who the adversary is. I know he knows it. I know the people around him know it. But I don't think he gets that the American people don't necessarily know it. And also as a reminder to our European partners that, you know, when you say, you two belligerents are equal, kind of the way Emmanuel Macron talks about it, we're not. There's a big difference between the two of us, and if you can't recognize it, you're not truly a democratic aspirin. So last question, Admiral, in terms of our European partners, if they don't show up now, is that a significant blow, if not a permanent blow to the alliance? If they don't show up now, they're not showing up when we really need them. I don't know how we count on them with China if they don't show up now. This was a big deal. I want to say first, this is the worst, like, you know, the perfect storm of events. One, President Trump, the stuff with Greenland was kind of unnecessary and did create friction. Two, they weren't brief very well. We weren't pre-briefed at all. But three, they absolutely responded wrong. And you put those three things together in a blender and you get the condition right now with the president's frustrated. I'm glad he recognizes the difference between Poland and the Baltic states and the Western Europeans. Yeah, the frontline states are good. Yeah, that he averred to potentially maybe those troops from Germany don't leave Europe. They go to Poland. That would be fantastic, especially the long-range strike battalion that was coming in because that's very useful. But my point on this is that you had a perfect storm there of not great things happening. We'll come back to that in future weeks. Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, senior fellow retired in the United States Navy, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on X at Mark C. Montgomery. Thank you, Admiral. I'll be right back, America, with Alex Gray of American Global Security. Stay tuned.

I think that, well, I'll get tired of this, or I'll get bored, or I'll have some pressure. But there's no pressure. There's no pressure at all. We're going to have a complete victory. Morning, glory, and evening, Grace, America. Welcome back. I'm Hugh Hewitt. That is, of course, President Trump earlier today in the Oval Office. Discuss that and the Iran War generally. I'm joined by Alex Gray. Alex is the CEO of the American Global Strategies Group. Represent some of the country's finest defense companies. He was the former chief of staff at the National Security Council. Alex, are you surprised by the president's confidence? No, not at all. And I think the reason is, Hugh, the United States is in a very enviable strategic position, particularly vis-à-vis Iran, but I would argue that the conflict, that Epic Fury has actually strengthened America's geopolitical position globally. You can go region by region. I think we've come out of this in a much stronger... geopolitical hand than we went in with it. And the president's looking at the blockade and the success it's having in destroying the war economy of Iran. He's looking at the confusion within the regime. He's looking at their inability to get on the same page. And I think the president's conclusion is we have a lot higher tolerance for pain at the moment than this decrepit autocratic regime that's falling apart at the seams than they do. So his confidence is not surprising to me. So yesterday, the big story was Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat from Arizona, went on, faced the nation, and told Margaret Brennan that he'd been in a classified briefing. That's kind of a red flag. You're not supposed to divulge what you learned in classified briefings. I discussed that with Senator Cotton earlier today. And said, we're running low on munition. A, I don't believe him. B, do you believe him in C? If he's right, what do we do? Yeah, well, look, let's start with the fact that Mark Kelly is the living embodiment of the reason why the legislative branch has consistently been sidelined in national security issues over the last. 40 plus years because I can tell you firsthand when you're making a decision about whether to inform the legislative branch of something at the White House or at the Pentagon, your first assumption is this is going to get leaked and it's going to put people's lives at risk. And it's because of people like Mark Kelly that that is the default position of both Democratic administrations and Republican administrations. To the substance of your question, Hugh, I think that the issue here, yes, we have plenty of munitions to do what the president needs us to do and to have the ability to go back to overmatch kinetically, if that's what we have to do. There is a broader point that I think people like the Undersecretary of War, Elbridge Colby, when he was a private citizen, made.

people like myself and others, that consistently we do not have a sufficient defense industrial base to be able to maintain munition stockpiles against a near peer or peer competitor. Think China for a long-term. conflict. That is true. Do we have sufficient resources? Do we have sufficient munitions to do what needs to be done in the immediate situation in Iran? I think absolutely. But does the fact that we are stretching a bit, does that show and demonstrate further that we need to be thinking about in an even more high-end conflict, what our needs are? Absolutely. And if that prompts us to be more strategic about our munitions needs, that's a good thing. Now, Alex Gray, I know you're not going to tell us any trade secrets or disclose anything about your clients that you're not supposed to disclose. You represent the very best in America's defense industrial base. I can tell the audience that they can look up AGS if they want to see that. Have they ramped up since Trump came back? Do they have a demand signal on which they can rely? They absolutely do. And I think that's both the traditional defense companies. It's also the non-traditional defense companies that are coming into the Pentagon. And this administration particularly has been extremely welcoming of non-traditional players into the defense space. But whether you're traditional, non-traditional, I think. Companies are looking for two things here. They're looking for surety. They're looking for a sense that budgets are going to match reality. And that's what this over $1 trillion proposed budget helps do. It helps give a signal that you have an administration that wants to see an industrial base ramped up to its full capacity. And the second thing is, I think that they're looking at the reforms that are going on in the Pentagon. People like the Deputy Secretary of War, Steve Feinberg, are finally... tackling some of the long-standing procurement and acquisition issues that have been deviled traditional, non-traditional, everybody in the industrial base. And I think you're starting to see a change in culture and a, just be very honest. A lot of times for many years, the defense industry, I think, didn't feel that there was a necessity for change. And the president has put a lot of pressure on the industry. And you're starting to see the industry respond in a patriotic and helpful way. And I think that's a very virtuous cycle. Alex, I was downtown D.C. on Friday at the SCSP Expo. And that had, I don't know, hundreds of AI companies and AI-adjacent companies displaying their wares. That's the conference that was organized by Eric Schmidt at the U.S. suggestion of Henry Kissinger. It's overwhelming how much innovation America is doing in that space. Does that augur well for our ability to respond? I don't think China can do that kind of thing.

I don't think they can actually have a big convention expo with all their defense industries, hawking their wares, and actually selling them because they'd be afraid of, you know, leaking and getting arrested. Yeah. Look, our great strength, Hugh, as you know, better than anyone, is the innovative... nature of the American economy. And AI is the place where at this moment in time, that is most on display every day. You know, obviously the Chinese are working overtime with industrial policy, with coercive efforts to try and keep up. We have just a dynamic rule of law-based economy that they can only dream of. My only concern, Hugh, just to be a little bit of a downer, is we are starting to see the Democratic Party particularly look at AI as something to be regulated and something to be constrained. We're seeing it with data centers. We're starting to see it with questions about should we impose a universal basic income. We're starting to see AI regulation at the state level that in some cases is incredibly punitive and counterproductive. So I think that there's beginning to be, as there always is with new technology, a bit of a domestic backlash that we need to be very careful of for both economic innovation reasons, but also for national security reasons. All right, you're the third guest I've asked this to today, I ask Admiral Montgomery, Senator Cotton. The one thing I know we're not running short of is torpedo tubes in Virginia class attack submarines. What about just sinking the Iranian tankers? We've been capturing them and taking them into neutral harbors. But if we really run short on munitions or they got too many ghost fleet, got any problem with just sinking them? I mean, give the crew notice and everything, get them off the boat. But then sink it. That happened a thousand times in World War II. Yeah. No, I think you're 100% right. It's why we defeated the Japanese. We choked them off with undersea dominance. And it's our greatest strength. Look, we did it to the Iranian Navy off the coast of India. I don't see why there's any reason if you give the appropriate warning to, you know, ostensibly civilian mariners that we're going to do this. If that's the best way, the most efficient tactical way to stop the evading of the blockade, I don't have any problem with it. Okay, good to hear it. That's an interesting question that crossed my mind because Mark Kelly, I'm not sure I believe him. But if he's right, and we have to steward on munitions, we got lots of torpedoes that haven't been used since World War II except that one time Alex Gray of American Global Security just referenced. Alex Gray, thank you. Yes, Margaret. We have. We've been tracking it a number of times we've been briefed by the Pentagon on specific munitions, actually. It's been pretty detailed on Tomahawks, Attackums, SM3s, that rounds, Patriot rounds, those interceptor rounds to defend ourselves. And the numbers are, I think it's fair to say it's shocking, how deep we have gone into these magazines.

Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. I was Senator Mark Kelly on Face the Nation yesterday. I'm joined now by Senator Tom Cotton, who is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Senator, a lot of people immediately assumed that Mark Kelly was giving away classified information. Was that from classified briefings? Hugh, I'm not going to pine on what Mark Kelly said yesterday on Sunday shows. He has been in classified briefings. I've been there with him about the exact figures. And those are pretty sensitive numbers, Hugh. In fact, if I recall, I think sometimes they even ask most staff to leave the room as well. You can say... A few things, though, that are not classified. One, everyone knows that we have challenges with our munitions. We simply don't make enough of our weapons fast enough. Two, that's in their small part because of Democratic cuts to our defense budget over the years. It's like birds migrating south for the winter. Every time a Democrat takes office. Whether it's Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, or Joe Biden, they cut the defense budget. And one easy thing to cut, easier than aircraft or ships or troops and their pay and their health care and their benefits is our munitions budget. And Democrats thought they can get away with that. And then along comes first the war in Ukraine, and then the wars against Iran over the last two and a half years and the threat of a conflict over Taiwan. are blaming Donald Trump somehow for this when it's really their reckless cuts in the defense budget. The final thing I'll say to you is that obviously the president, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, Steve Feinberg, Dan Kane are all aware of these challenges, and they would not take any action, in my opinion, that endangers our national security that leaves us unable to defend ourselves, to defend our friends around the world, and to deter China. So let me take it away from Mark Kelly then and not ask you to comment on him. Can you discuss the munition stockpiles with me? I can tell you that we don't have enough and we don't produce them fast enough, Hugh. We need more. That's been proven clear over the last five years by the stress. that our defense industrial base has exposed by Ukraine and Iran. Let me be clear, though. The war in Ukraine and the wars in Iran have not caused the fragility or brittleness of our defense industrial base. It's exposed them. The cause of them is the reckless defense cuts that Democrats always encosed when they take office. Now, the Trump administration is working with us in Congress to... produce more missiles and missile defense interceptors as quickly as we can. They've made good strides in the last year plus, but there's more work to be done here. All right now, Senator, I did some research today. The one thing I know we're not low on is torpedoes, because we've only used two of them since World War II, and I assume every Virginia-class submarine has got torpedoes in it. During World War II, we sank 529 oil tankers. Look that up.

At least 100 of them were empty, so that means we sunk 429 oil tankers. They're not as big as supertankers, but we sunk them. Should we cut out the middlemen? We're capturing these oil tankers right now. We're boarding with special forces, and we're taking them into neutral harbors, and I don't know what's going to happen to the oil or the ship. But it's the ghost fleet. They're sanctioned vessels. Should we just give the crew time to get off and then sink them? Hugh, before I'd upon on that, I would want to hear the professional military judgment of General Kane, the chairman of joint chiefs, and Admiral Cooper, our combatant commander in the Middle East. But I think we should consider every option we have to keep the economic vice on Iran and make it even tighter because they're on the back foot right now and every day gets worse for them. What was your reaction, Senator, when you read yesterday that the response of the National Security Council spokesperson in Iran was that we should surrender that we had lost the war? And then President Trump dismissed quickly and comprehensively their long-winded non-response to his proposal.

Hugh, I'm not the Monty Python expert that you are, but every now and then you play that clip about the guy who said it's just a flesh wound. That's what it brings to mine. I do. And... I just, I mean, one simple observation is that Donald Trump is still holding forth in press conferences and going to golf tournaments every weekend. The Supreme Leader of Iran has gone to his just deserts killed on the first day of this war. Our Navy is still... on the sea. Their navy is underneath the sea. They have no air force left. Basically, every leader in Iran is either dead or afraid to turn their cell phone on. That doesn't exactly sound like a victory to me, Hugh, no matter how much the Democrats and the liberal media in America try to spin it as a victory for Iran and defeat for America. Well, I do hear the left arguing that we're in a forever war when... You know, we've been there two months. And if this takes six months to bring this regime to its knees or eight months or a year and we don't have troops on the ground, is that a forever worse, Senator Cotton? No, Hugh, the Forever War is what Iran waged against us for 47 years, and we largely turned the other cheek. We had presidents like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and Joe Biden who might talk a tough game against Iran, but in the end, they usually extended a helping him to Iran, and they were scared to strike back. Now we have a president who is actually enforcing the words of... past presidents, Republican and Democrat alike, to end the campaign of terror that Iran is waged, not just against the United States, but against the civilized world for 47 years. That's the only forever war that's been waged here. We just decided to finally join it and win it in short order. So last question, Senator Cotton, back when the JCPOA, that disastrous deal that was entered into by President Obama was signed, you sent a letter to the Hyatollah, the late. I told a Hamini, not Hamini 2.0, but Hamini 1.0, say, hey, that's not really binding, and there are many flaws in it, and it won't bind the next president. Did you point out at the time that there were no missile restraints, there was no proxy restraint, that the JCPOA was a terrible deal from day one? Yeah, maybe not in that letter to you, but we certainly pointed out repeatedly that on the nuclear terms of the deal itself were terrible, but the fact that it didn't cover at all, their missile programs or their support for terrorism made it even worse.

Obviously, you know, we don't know the endgame in Iran right now, but we're light years better than we were not just three months ago, but 10 months ago with their nuclear programs blown to smithereens and with their missile and drone magazines reduced with the ability to replace them severely degraded and with their Air Force and Navy destroyed. Senator Cotton, thank you for joining me, and thank you for your precision in answering questions about national security in such a way as to not perhaps give false confidence to our enemies or betray classified information. It's not that hard, but at least you pay attention to your job and not betraying American security in the course of doing it. Thank you, Senator Cotton. I'll be right back, America. Welcome back, America, Hugh Hewitt, Inside the Beltway, joined by America's columnist, Selena Zito, follower on X at Zito, Selena. or read everything that she writes at selina zito.com selina i loved your column on brett bear's book which i greatly enjoyed the case for america uh i loved it so much i'm not going to tell anyone about it i want them to go read it but in a in a short version why did you love it well um He really makes the case in a way that is both aspirational but informative. And he retains, he really digs into the optimism that makes us, despite all of the things and all the struggles and all the setbacks and all the bad choices that we have made throughout our 250 year anniversary, 250 years of existence. He really does a great way of prosecuting the case that this country is exceptional, that we have lived up to our ideals, and that the great experiment is working. And it is. Now I want to involve you in a controversy in which I am tangentially involved. Here is what, you know, Tommy Veter, one of the pod boys who was on Team Obama. Remember when he was an intern. Yeah. Tommy was an intern in the White House. Tommy writes, Trump claims media tycoon turned political prisoner Jimmy Lai for his imprisonment in Hong Kong. So he says he blames him and says he would keep James Comey in jail if he was in prison in the U.S. just like Xi Jinping wants locked in jail. Wonder if Trump's fluffer Hugh Hewitt will weigh in on that take. Did you hear the president's comments on Jimmy Lai today? No, I did not, but I was out on the road. What did he say? Well, let me play them for you. Cut number five. Again, speaking with Claire and Lyme this morning, she's the daughter of Jimmy Lye, and she told me that she's been praying and hoping that you'll be the one that brings her dad home. She says, of any administration, she thinks you're the one that could do it. She's a Jim Lai's daughter. And there's another gentleman, a minister, pastor, as you know, I'll bring them both up. I brought it up before. Jimmy Lai, I brought up, the other one I just heard about this morning, actually. And I do bring that up. You know, we've gotten, I don't know if you've been reading, John Cole was a great lawyer. He was a tobacco lawyer.

Great, great guy. I won't say he's an older guy because he may be offended by that, but he is. He's a little older, and he's a wise man, actually. He made a fortune with the tobacco. He did the first tobacco lawsuit, and he's a great man, and he's brought back hundreds of people out of various Belarus. You know, you read about that. And the leader has been fantastic, but somebody has to ask them. Biden never asked, we asked. And we're getting hundreds of people out of confinement and prisons that shouldn't be there. And hundreds, and many of them aren't even citizens of the United States. They're people that have been captured in some form, ministers, and people that are really innocent people, and they're being held captive. And I bring up Jimmy Lai. Now, Jimmy Lai, you know, he caused a lot of bedlam. I don't know. It's like saying to me, if James Comey ever went to jail, would you let him out? That might be a hard one for me. Does that make sense? It might be a hard one because he's a dirty cop. But Jimmy Lye is in that way. But Jimmy Lai, he caused. Lots of turmoil for China. He tried to do the right thing. He wasn't successful. Went to jail and people would like him out and I'd like to see him get out too. So I'll bring him up again. I have brought him up. And there's another gentleman, a pastor, as you know, with a beautiful daughter and son-in-law that would like to see him get out. I'm going to bring his name up. So, Celine, the three things. He said, James Comey was a dirty cop. Jimmy Lai is not like that. Jimmy Lai tried to do the right thing. Cause bedlam, cause some problems for Gigi. But I'll try and get him out. To remind you of what Tommy Beter said, he said, Trump blames media tycoon turned political prisoner Jimmy Lai for his imprisonment and says he would keep Chin Komi in jail if he was imprisoned in the U.S. just like Xi Jinping wants lie in jail. wonder if Trump's fluffer you will weigh in on that take. What do you make of Tommy Beater's comment? Well, first of all, that's the most twisted sentence. I mean, you have to, it's like an algebra problem or calculus problem. It doesn't even make sense, to be honest. It's a lie. Well, yeah, it is a lie. I mean, I feel like that's obvious, right? But here's the thing about Trump. Remember when the Western Pennsylvania teacher was held and Trump handled it kind of the same way? Like, I'll ask, I'll see if I can get him out of Russia. And he sort of danced around it. but didn't assure anything. And the next thing we know, he comes, he's done meeting with Vladimir Putin. And then, like, a week later, he's back home. Well, I think. I don't know, but I think he was foreshadowing his tactic. I think he's going to say something like, gee. You know, gee, I know this, I understand. If someone put, if James Comey went to jail, I'd have a hard time if you came to me and asked me to let him out. But it's not the same thing.

James Comey's a dirty cop and Jimmy Lye was just a political protester. I think he was just foreshadowing his argument. Yes, he was totally doing that. This is the way he talks and the way he deals and the way he teases out a situation to get the most out of it, right? And in the end, everyone's like, oh, wow, I can't believe he got him out. What is wrong with the Obama people that they hate Trump? Have you seen how many TDS people have been gone crazy because of the statue at the Doral Gulf? Of course, of Donald Trump. Oh, yes, I have. And it's been unfortunate in the way that they have framed it. But, you know, I can't get my, I have never hated anyone that was our president. Ever, ever. I might not have liked their policies. I might have been exasperated by them, but I never harbored any deep hatred. So I can't get my head inside of people making their entire lives about hatred. And they write the same stories every week. They write the same point of view every week. They talk about the same point of view on their podcast every week. And it's regurgitating this. this hatred, but it doesn't, it leaves them stuck. And I would never want to be professionally or emotionally stuck in the way to day off. I agree. It is corrosive on their soul, on their perspective, and on their reality. They're having trouble dealing with reality. It's a statue. It's on his golf course. He's not taking, he's not trashing the United States Constitution. Selina Zito, a follower on X at Zito, Selina. Welcome back, America. I'm Q. Hugh at Bethany Mandela is my guest. She is one of the proprietors of the momwors.substack.com. Bethany, you know the president's going to go sit down with General Secretary G. this week. And I assume you know who Jimmy Lye is? I do. Yes. Okay. And do you know who Tommy Veter is? One of the pod bros. Yep, one of the pod boys, I call them. So I want to play for you. I talked to the president about Jimmy Lye a week ago today. He said, I will bring him up. And then he got asked in the Oval Office by Mary Margaret today about Jimmy Lye. This exchange followed about which then Tommy Vita and I have had an exchange. Here's the original exchange, the president and Mary Margaret in the Oval on China and Jimmy Lai cut number five. Speaking with Claire Lai this morning, she's the daughter of Jimmy Lye, and she told me that she's been praying and hoping that you'll be the one that brings her dad home. She says, of any administration, she thinks you're the one that could do it. She's your Jimmy Lye. Jimmy Lye's daughter. And there's another gentleman, a minister, pastor, as you know. I'll bring them both up.

I brought it up before. Jimmy Lai, I brought up, the other one I just heard about this morning, actually. And I do bring that up. You know, we've gotten, I don't know if you've been reading, John Cole was a great lawyer. He was a tobacco lawyer. Great, great guy. I won't say he's an older guy because he may be offended by that, but he is. He's a little older, and he's a wise man, actually. He made a fortune with the tobacco. He did the first tobacco lawsuit, and he's a great man, and he's brought back hundreds of people out of various Belarus. You know, you read about that. And the leader has been fantastic, but somebody has to ask him. Biden never asked, we asked. And we're getting hundreds of people out of confinement and prisons that shouldn't be there. And hundreds, and many of them aren't even citizens of the United States. They're people that have been captured in some form, ministers, people that are really innocent people, and they're being held captive. And I bring up Jimmy Lai. Now, Jimmy Lai, you know, he caused a lot of bedlam. I don't know. It's like saying to me, if James Comey ever went to jail, would you let him out? That might be a hard one for me. Does that make sense? It might be a hard one because he's a dirty cop. But Jimmy Lye is in that way. But Jimmy Lai, he caused. Lots of turmoil for China. He tried to do the right thing. He wasn't successful. Went to jail and people would like him out and I'd like to see him get out too. So I'll bring him up again. I have brought him up. And there's another gentleman, a pastor, as you know, with a beautiful daughter and son-in-law that would like to see him get out. I'm going to bring his name up. So Bethany, Tommy posts on X. Trump blames media tycoon turned political prisoner Jimmy Lai for his imprisonment in Hong Kong and says he would keep James Comey in jail if he was imprisoned in the U.S. just like Xi Jinping wants lie in jail. I wonder if Trump's fluffer Hugh Hewitt will weigh in on this take, to which I responded. How shocking to discover Tommy doesn't do research or much care about the truth. Is that what Trump said? as Tommy related? No, it's pretty wild to see how they can possibly twist everything that Trump says to fit their narrative. And it's especially disturbing when you see this kind of game gamesmanship happening over someone's freedom. It's not, it's not just American politics. It's not, it's not a game. This is someone's life that he's toying with. And Even so doing, he's taking the side of the Chinese. He's playing into their hands and shifting the blame and causing divisiveness at a moment where the president's doing the right thing here. And it seems like he'd rather get a dunk than, you know, for a man to have his freedom.

And it's also just simply not true. What the president said is, the analogy is, if you asked me to let James Comey go, it would be a tough lift for me, like it's a tough lift for G to let Jimmy Lye go. Not because Jimmy Lye, I honestly don't know if Veter's dumb. Do you think he's dumb or do you think he knows what he's doing? I think he knows what he's doing. I think he knows what he's doing. I think it would be more convenient if he were dumb and we could sort of brush it off and say, what an idiot. But he's pretty calculating. It's a really disgusting move. He knows exactly what he's doing. And what he's doing is anything in the service of the narrative, Trump can't have a win. Trump can't be better on human rights than Obama who was abysmal. Now, let me ask you about the response from Iran. They blew off whatever we sent them. The 14 points, which had me on NERP, they blew it off completely. I am, and then their national security spokesman said, America should surrender. How ought we to respond to that, in your opinion, Bethany Mandel? I mean, I think how President Trump responded was good. He said, you know, this entire situation is on life support. These people are suicidal, and this is the problem with dealing with actors like these because they'll never surrender. They'll never give up. I read a great piece by Jonathan Shanzer from FDD in Commentary Magazine this month. And he basically said, like, we're never going to have a situation like we had the end of World War II where they just unconditionally surrender. And so we just kind of have to decide, you're done now. And it's time to walk away because these suicidal maniacs who are in charge of the regime will never just... put up their hands and say, okay, I cry uncle. You know, I think the way that the president has been supporting the fact that the Iranian people want to pick up arms is good because that is our endpoint here. That's our exit strategy. So do you think Americans generally, not the Tommy Veters of the world or the Obama apologists, but American? It's a death cult. That's different from China, Russia, and North Korea, which has an interest, all of them in. surviving and prospering. Iran has an interest in dying, or at least the people running the regime, not the Iranian 92 million people, but the 250,000 people in the IRGC. It's a death cult. You can't negotiate with Jim Jay Jones and the People's Temple in Guyana, can you? Yes, that's true. I would argue that the North Korean regime is also a death cult. But yes, no, I think you're absolutely correct. There is no negotiating with people who think that the ultimate reward is, you know, paradise with however many virgins. Where do you go from there with these kinds of people? Okay, so I want to get you ready for what I think we're going to do. I'll ask a few experts today. They have lots of tankers. We have lots of ways to stop tankers, but some get away from us. But we have 40-plus Virginia attack submarines. We can put torpedoes into tankers that belong to Iran. And we sank a thousand tankers in World War II. We had just sink their tanker. You know, give them notice, get the crew off, say, we're about to sink your tanker. You might want to take to the lifeboats. Should we do that?

I'm no Pete Hegseth. I'm no, you know, military strategorin. But this can't go on. This bizarre holding pattern that we're in with the ceasefire as it stands, it can't continue. You know, I don't think that we can say we can walk away and put up our hands and, you know, wipe them and say we're done here. I don't think we're done here. And so, you know, if it takes more military action of that nature. I think that's important. We need to get the gas prices down. We need to get that straight opened up. And if that's how it has to happen, then the rest of the world should thank us. I know that they won't. But I think that that's the most likely next step that will get us to an end point that is sort of acceptable for everyone in America. Yeah, we don't want to blow up their infrastructure. You want that for the Iranian people after the regime crumbles. Yeah. But sinking the tankers doesn't end the export of oil because there are actually legit tankers out there, not their shadow fleet. Right. Bethany Mandel, good to talk to as always. Hi there. Thanks for listening to the highly concentrated Hugh PODcast and the Big Weekend pod. I want to talk to you about prison fellowship and their angel tree summer camping program. You can contribute today over at my website, Hugh Hewitt.com. AAA 206 2764. AAA 206, 2764. AAA 206. 2764. Now, my kids went to summer camp. All my grandkids. Some of them aren't old enough yet, but they get to go to summer camp. But I have never been in prison, and the fashion of Mrs. Hewitt nor any of my children have been. There are, well, millions of kids who have either one or both parents behind bars. Pretty tough for their family to swing it. They need help. That's where Angel Tree Camp step in to ministry of prison fellowship, and it's a great one. And thousands of my... Listeners to the podcast and the program over the years have stepped up to contribute. Won't you consider doing that? A full scholarship is $200. That sends a kid to camp for an entire week. AAA 206-2764, or visit the Prison Fellowship Angel Tree Banner at the top of Hugh Hewitt.com. Thank you for listening to highly concentrated Hugh. And don't forget one of our great sponsors is Consumer Cellular. 1-800-4-1-4-4-1-8-4-1-4-1-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4. When you call them, and you should, because you should want to save money, make sure you use my promo code, Hugh Hewitt-U-G-H, you'll get your second month free. if and when you switch to consumer cellular, whatever plan you switch with, you'll get your second month for free. I want you to call and investigate because you're probably paying too much for whatever you're doing right now with consumer cellular. Or you can go online, consumercellular.com slash you. They've got great plans for every kind of person and every kind of data usage. However, they really target people who are 50 years and older. Listen to this.

You get a single line with consumer cellular with unlimited talk, text, and data for just $35 a month. That's a single line, if you're 50 years and older, with unlimited talk, text, and data for just $355 a month when you call Consumer Cellular, 800, 411, 44, and everybody, it can be under 50, you can be over 50, everybody gets their second month free when you use my name, Hugh. Welcome back, America. I'm Q. Hewitt. Give it listen to that. That is Southern Grind. It is from part three of the part album, Resurrection, and Revival by Max and Neath. His father, Gary Seneath, joins us. Gary's been working on that project since Max's death. He went and found all of his music on his computer. Good friend of the program, Gary Seneas, good friend of veterans and first responders across the United States, and I love this project. Gary, how are you? And how goes the project with your son? And we'll come to the foundation in the next segment, but tell me about Revival Part 3. Resurrection and Revival Part 3. Yes, thanks so much for having me, Hugh. Well, you know, and you and I had talked when we put out the Resurrection and Revival Part 2 album, and that was a lot of music that I found on my son's laptop that he'd written, but never played for me, tucked it away, and I found it, and we went to work on Resurrection and Revival Part 2, which came out in uh... twenty twenty four last year twenty five i started looking through the laptop again and i started finding all kinds of music and the piece that you just played a little bit there is called southern grind that's really the piece that i found that started the whole ball rotting i i had never seen the file when i put together resurrection and revival part two and then i stumbled on this file And it turns out that Mac was writing music for an industrial film. called Public Lands. And one of the pieces that he was writing was this Southern grind. I never found it. And it's just this great rock and blues tune. And that started me looking through the laptop again. And I started finding all kinds of additional melodies, Max singing into his phone, just thinking ideas that he was having, playing the piano, all these different things. And we found so many musical ideas and some Pretty structured pieces and everything that I thought, well, I've got to go to work on a third album. And Resurrection and Revival Part 3 now is being pressed. It's in pre-sale at the Gary Senees Foundation, and it comes out next month.

Gary, I thought of the fact that we're going to talk today. Yesterday, I was down with my daughter and her four kids because my son lost deployed. And the pastor of her church brought up a very poignant, you know, I'm getting ready to talk to you, making my notes for the next segment about the foundation and the new warriors who've been wounded. And he made a point saying, people, you've got to remember on Mother's Day, there are lots of mothers who have lost their children. to premature death in the way that Moira has. And for them, it's a very difficult day. Keep them in your prayers. How is Moira? Oh, thanks so much for asking Hugh. She's doing okay. You know, this is, you know, the loss of a child is, it's hard to explain. I've met so many of our, the families of our fallen heroes who have lost. service members and whatnot over the years and I've tried to help them through and I've learned quite a bit from them about resilience and perseverance and in the face of tremendous grief and then we got hit with a cancer diagnosis in 2018 for our son Mack and he battled that for six years and and then when we lost him I mean, even though I could see what the cancer was doing to him and it was getting worse and worse and worse, I still never believed that we weren't going to get through it. And then when all of a sudden things turned and it was his final hours and then he was gone and I couldn't talk to him anymore and the family couldn't talk to him anymore and he was gone. I thought about... You know, I couldn't help but think about all the families who have lost loved ones quickly, you know, a bombing or a shooting or something like that. People that I've met so often over the years. And, you know, they have, they have given me a lot of strength to try to persevere through this. And certainly Mack leaving all this incredible music for me to find. I mean, it really was like a beautiful gift. There's a book coming out, Hugh, that I've been working on for a couple of years. It comes out in November. It's called Graceful Warrior. And that's how I saw Mack as this graceful warrior just plowing through as this cancer was disabling him more and more. And then the final year of his life, just gracefully pushing through it because music had come back into his life. And he ended up doing the first record. And now there are three albums of his music, and it's been a beautiful blessing for me to be able to bring it to life. Here we're back in the next segment. This is the ether from Resurrection and Revival Part 3.

Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Friend of the show, Gary Seney's is still with us. This is Triumphant from Max Seneas album, Resurrection and Revival, Part 3, which is forthcoming. Find out about it at the Gary Sinise Foundation, available in a limited supply. Gary, I want to turn to the foundation, and we'll get a longer bit of the last cut before we go out. following into you. That's the last cut from Max Music for today. And then we'll talk when your book comes out because I think that sounds like a fabulous book in November. But I've been thinking about the foundation. I'm going to do my annual Memorial Day show with the fun. This is the first time and a long time that there will be new families of the fallen and new wounded. And there are a lot of wounded. People don't know that in the war with Iran... There have been hundreds of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who have been wounded. And you've already assured me you're on the case. Tell people about that because the Gary Seneese Foundation does fabulous work with our wounded warriors. Well, thanks you. Just one brief mention that piece triumphant that you were playing for the National Memorial Day concert on May 24th, on PBS. We will be featuring that piece of music. The National Symphony Orchestra is going to be playing that piece of music for a 9-11 anniversary segment. So I'm very, very proud of that. Are they doing that on the mall? It's right in front of the Capitol. We have 200,000 people on the lawn, the West Lawn of the Capitol, and the National Symphony Orchestra is going to be playing that piece. And another piece that Mack wrote from Resurrection and Revival Part 2. So I guess you got to believe that the music is good if the National Symphony is going to play. Oh. Yeah, they're not going to do that as a favor to anybody. They're going to insist on playing something that makes people stand up and feel proud on our nation's 250th birthday. So let's talk about the foundation. Absolutely, Hugh. As you asked me about... the current conflict and the wounded. And of course, you know, whenever our country is in conflict or bad things are happening or whatever that we hear about in terms of our service members sacrificing, my foundation jumps into action. And we reached out immediately to help the families of our fallen heroes that we've lost in this current conflict. But also there have been, you know, hundreds of wounded in these in these missile attacks and and whatnot and

And so we, you know, jump into action. The American people support the Gary Seneef Foundation and help us do a lot of wonderful, wonderful things so that we can ensure that these families that are going through difficulties know that we're not going to forget about them and we're going to help them through in whatever way that might be. We supported some of the families of the fallen. in various ways, you know, recently and some of the wounded recently. There was, and remember that terrorist attack on our National Guard, right on the streets of Washington, we lost a soldier there and we supported her family. through that, as well as the family of the wounded soldier, just trying to help them through. Wherever we can, we want to be proactive in reaching out to these families, reaching out to these units that need support. As you know, a unit losing a soldier, that can be devastating on the entire unit. And so we just reach out and try to help them through those moments in whatever way we can. We don't want to forget, and we want to always try to do a little more to help them. You know, Gary, you've been talking about this on this program for 20. I don't know how long the foundation has been going, but it's a couple of decades. And you have enormous trust with the American people. 15 years. You have an enormous trust. And so people trust you with the money. And I think that's a wonderful brand to have. And you're not ever retiring, right? You're not going to retire on us. Not anytime soon. No. I'm actually going to Dover Air Force Base on the 20th to play a concert at Dover. That's, of course, where the families of our fallen come through with a dignified transfer. They have a great mission out there, an important mission, and they don't get a lot of attention in terms of support. So we're going to take my band out there and play for them. And then I'm going to Fort Belvoir on the 21st. I just got back from England where we played a couple of concerts. We actually were at one of the Air Force bases over there with a squadron that had the F-15 that got shot down over Iran. Thankfully, the two pilots were rescued, but we played at that base and supported that mission there. We just want to make sure, man, look, I started doing this years ago. I got a lot of veterans in my family. I have great respect for them. I want to do everything I can to help them through, you know, no matter if we're in current conflict or... Or not. Somebody is serving out there. They're sacrificing people get hurt in training accidents. We lose them, unfortunately, to, you know, they take their own lives sometimes. And those families go through a lot. We have one of our programs is called Snowball Express, just specifically focused on the families and the children, especially of our fallen heroes. And these families go through a lot, and people don't realize.

how difficult it can be to lose somebody in military service. Well, the Sunnis Foundation does, and I appreciate it as the father of grandkids with the military dad. Gary, we're going to go out with following in next album, Resurrection, and Revival. Tell me a little bit about this. You can bring up the music now, Adam, and let Gary talk us out. to you is a song I found a voice memo in Max's phone where you've seen this melody and I thought it was a great melody and so I brought it to one of my band members Dan Meyer who had worked on some other songs with Max and we created a beautiful song called Falling to You and that's the melody right there that I heard Max singing into his phone well we'll go out with that And I'll remind everyone, there's a resurrection and revival available soon at the Gary Sedice Foundation. We can also direct contributions to help our military service families injured in so many different ways in serving always. Gary Sneak, good to see you again, friend. We'll talk in November. I can't wait to hear that concert on the Mall featuring Max Music in May. Be well. Don't go anywhere, Mark. I'll be right back.

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