How does this battle compare with those of 1991, 2001 and 2003?

In 2025, Americans lost more than $21 billion to fraud and identity theft. That's why so many people are turning to Aura. Aura helps protect your identity with fraud alerts, dark web monitoring, and up to $5 million in identity theft protection. And if you become a victim, Aura's 24-7 U.S.-based support team is there to help. Don't wait until your identity is stolen. Start your free trial today at Aura.com slash safe. That's Aura.com slash safe. Welcome to today's podcast, sponsored by Hillsdale College, all things Hillsdale at Hillsdale.edu. I encourage you to take advantage of the many free online courses there. And, of course, I'll listen to the Hillsdale Dialogues, all of them at Q for Hillsdale.com, or just Google, Apple, iTunes, and Hillsdale. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh. You are joined by Senator Tom Cotton. Senator Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the chairman of the Republican Conference of the Senate, member of the Armed Services Committee. Senator, in my adult life, four times I've seen the American military operated peak lethality. The 100-hour war in 1991. the fall of Kabul with the Northern Alliance in 2001, the March to Baghdad in 2003, and the last three weeks. How do you rate the last three weeks in terms of American military prowess? Well, Hugh, with respect to those other three operations, I put this at number one. Some of that is just the march of technology and abilities that our military and our intelligence agencies have today that they did not have in 1991 and 2001 and 2003. All, of course, are impressive operations. But at this point in Iran, we have decimated the leadership. We've overrised their army. We've sunk their navy. And we are steadily but assuredly degrading all of their missile forces, their drones, their manufacturing capability to replace those things. And it's all, as far as I know, and last I've spoken with senior leaders in the administration, at least on time, if not ahead of schedule. Now, you're in the gang of eight, so you are adjacent to the chain of command as close as anyone not in it can be. If you knew who the president was talking to, you wouldn't tell us. But do you think there's a serious command and control problem in Iran that precludes someone speaking on behalf of the entire regime? Frankly, I'm not sure anyone knows who's in charge in Iran right now. The Supreme Leader and most of his key lieutenants were killed on the first day of the war.

His son, who was widely believed to be incompetent, was at a minimum severely injured. And to my knowledge, still hasn't appeared or been heard of outside of AI enhancements since then. Iran, of course, after the strikes last June in Operation Midna Hammer also. adopted what has been called the Mosaic Defense Strategy, essentially decentralizing a lot of command and control decisions down to regional and local commanders, mostly in the IRGC. So I'm not sure that we have a clear picture, that there's a clear picture inside of Iran, who's saying, you know, shoot this missile there, send this drone there, or let's reach out to the Americans here. Pete Hector put it, you know, they can't command and control. They can barely even communicate. Yeah. Do you think a message was received by Europe when the regime sent long-range ballistic missiles toward Diego Garcia? They missed. One was intercepted. One didn't get there. But that ought to put London and Paris on notice, but it doesn't appear to have had that effect. Well, it should, Hugh, I've been pointing out for months now that Iran can already range Diego Garcia and many of our bases in Central or Eastern Europe, and now it's clear they can range all of Europe. And Hugh, I had a conversation last week with CIA director John Ratcliffe about their ability to target the United States. It only takes two basic technologies to have an intercontinental missile. One is the thrust to get the thing into space. Iran has that under their so-called space launch. program, which is really the slimsy cover for an intercontinental missile. The second is a reentry vehicle to get the thing back from outer space. And they already have that with the medium range ballistic missiles who have been firing at Israel. So they could crudely, but in a functioning fashion, marry those two things together and be able to target the United States, if left unchecked, probably in a matter of months, certainly not years. Months not years, Hugh. the missile, the intermediate range missile that was fired at Diego Garcia over the weekend. It's just an exclamation point on that conversation that I had with Director John Ratcliffe last week at our annual public hearing of the Intelligence Committee. Now, Senator Cotton, the military Pentagon has asked for $200 billion of supplemental funding. If I were King of the Force, not Queen, not Duke, not Earl, I would double that because, as the SEALs like to say, two is one in one is none, or maybe someone else says that as well. Double it, add in whatever it takes to keep DHS open for two and a half years and pass it through reconciliation in a week. Why aren't we doing that? I don't think that request is official yet. I've seen those media reports as well, but I'll wait until Secretary of XF and Chairman Kane actually make an official request. There's probably still some analysis of what they think they're going to need going forward, based on how long the war is going to last. But I think the bottom line is we should do what, you know, make sure the military gets whatever it needs to replenish all of our stockpiles when this war has ended and to continue to minimize all threats.

from Iran. And you make a good point as well about funding for Homeland Security. The Democrats continue to blockade that funding. That's why you see long lines at airports. We've got our Coast Guard shutdown, and we are steadily draining resources from immigration enforcement as well. So we might have to use reconciliation, the fast-tracked budget procedure, to fund the Department of Homeland Security, too. Do you think they're losing that debate in public? They're attempting to make that a Republican problem when I think everybody in their brother knows the Democrats shut down at DHS and therefore the lines at the airport are Democrat lines. Yeah, there's no question with that, Hugh. We've made multiple efforts to fund the Department of Homeland Security, even on a short-term basis, to allow negotiations continue. And the Democrats would rather you miss your flight than deport illegal aliens. It's as simple of that. Let me close by asking you about the president. The thing that's unambiguous with CENTCOM continues to strike Iran tonight, and they've been doing so all day long as has been the IDF. But the president announced he wasn't going to take out the large energy production plant that he had threatened to do. How do you read what he's saying and doing? I think the president from the beginning has not wanted to see massive damage to energy infrastructure, not just with our allies, but inside Iran as well, because Iran's energy infrastructure can be critical to the future of Iran if you see regime collapse and you see that people rise up and replaying their own destiny. Of course, we want to protect all the infrastructure in the Middle East because it's important for... global prosperity of which the American economy is an important part. I think at several points, the president has signaled that we're not going to intentionally target for severe destruction, the energy infrastructure of Iran. Now, he keeps that card in his back pocket, but for instance, the strikes on Carg Island a couple weekends ago, only targeted the military installations on Carg Island, not the crown jewel of Iran's oil industry. And last question, Senator, if the Strait of Hormuz remains, quote, closed because of the threat of damage done by Iran, is it possible to reopen that in rather efficient fashion, or is that a major undertaking? No, Hugh, of course our military can reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Look, it was foolish for liberals say, like, oh, this caught us by surprise. I think since the Portuguese first sailed through there more than 500 years ago, everyone has known that Strait of Hormuz is a strategic waterway, and certainly when a fifth of the world's daily oil production flows through it. We also knew that Iran, because of geography and a little more. has the ability to temporarily close the Strait of Pramu's to safe passage. The United States has the ability to permanently open the Strait of Muzhu. And a lot of what you've seen in the last few days is that as we've eliminated Iran's air defenses and their long-range strike capabilities, we're able to focus more on the short-range weapons that are on uses to threaten the straight. For instance, we've now got cobra gunships and 8-10 warthogs in the fight. Those are close in.

Close aviation aircraft are designed to hit the fast attack craft that Iran has or some of their coastal defenses. So we knew that Iran had the power to close the straight temporarily. We have the ability to open it permanently. Well, said, as usual, Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas. Thank you for joining me. Don't go anywhere in America. I will be right back on the Hugh Hewitt show. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Good Monday to you. I'm joined by Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, retired United States Navy. You may have read his piece in the New York Times last week. The piece heard around the world. Good to have you back, Admiral. Before we get into the specifics of what's going on today, a little comparative military history. I remember as a journalist, the 100-hour war in 1991 against Saddam, the 2001 Kabul and Kandahar campaign. The Marines did some pretty interesting things in that campaign that were detailed in call-sign chaos by Jim Mattis. I'm not expecting them to go to Karg Island, but they can do a lot of interesting things. The 2003 March to Baghdad and then now the last 24 days. Of those four campaigns, which has been the most impressive display of lethality? that you think? Well, I think the 2003 March to Baghdad was, you know, we basically had an army, you know, an army in the field with two corps commanded by an army commander, you know, that maneuvered aggressively, rapidly, fully integrated with air power. To me, that, I mean, that's the most impressive modern military maneuver warfare. That's what the Russians could have only dreamed of in February of 2022, and the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps executed it. So if you added the technology on display today to that kind of maneuverability and operability between Marine Corps and Army, how destructive is the American military and what message are our adversaries getting around the globe? You know, I think one of the important things here is like... You know, I spend a lot of time in Ukraine and a lot of time in Taiwan. And I keep being told by people in Bonnie that the people in Taiwan have to understand everything we're learning in Ukraine. It's a new way of war fighting. And what I say is you're 50% correct. You know, Taiwan will be like a Ukraine fight. He's heading, you know, west towards the Chinese mainland. Thousands of ships and aircraft trying to cross thousands of UAVs going to have low-cost munitions. But east of Taiwan is a high-end war fight between the PLA Navy and Air Force and the U.S. Navy and Air Force. That's what we saw us execute. superbly over the last three weeks, you know, alongside the Israelis. It's a reminder that despite what Elon Musk says, the F-35 is not a dinosaur. It's, in fact, the lead predator in the skies and has done a fantastic job. And it clears the skies to such a degree that we can bring in 70-year-old war horses like B-52s and B-2s and B-1s. Obviously, B-2 could operate on its own there, but, you know, B-1s. So our air power was demonstrated again, you know,

This is not, you know, we have had, you know, a not quite monopoly, but near monopoly on the ability to project air power like this. And I'd say if there's one country that's close to us right now, it's Israel, our partner in this combined air campaign. So I'm pretty comfortable. And I think this was a, one of the secret things of the last three and a half weeks is the Chinese looking at this and going, you know, kind of clearing their throat and going, well, let's hope the United States doesn't get involved in anything we're doing. Now, let's talk about Ukraine. Last night, they blew up liquid natural gas, I think poured. I think that's what they did. Way the freaking way away from where the front line was. What kind of capabilities have our quasi allies developed there? So our model ally, Ukraine, they meet all the terms of the model ally that we apply to Israel. They spend more, you know, they spend 40% a year, 30% of their GDP on defense. They fight authoritarian regimes. And then when we ask for help, they give it to us. And the former counter U.S. Our model ally, Ukraine, has demonstrated that it now has long-range strike. You know, they've done, this is different than Operation Spider-Web where they drove, you know, surreptitiously got... UAVs into near airfields took off from the top of trucks and struck things. These are now, they are using persistently every few days, long range strike. And what's happening is they've worn down the Russian localized air defenses and they've extended the range so much that the Russians are spread so thin that they finally find. rich targets that are unprotected or effectively unprotected and overwhelm them with five or six. They may be low ordinance, some of them in, you know, weapons. They also, by the way, have a very heavy weapon, the pelican, you know, something that goes about, you know, 1,200 miles, and there's a 2,500-pound warhead. But most of their stuff is low-cost stuff. So, yes, they are now a long-range strike military. And, you know, I was against giving them tomahawks for various reasons, but the truth is they've developed their own tomahawk-like capability. Well, this brings me the next question. Volodymyr Zelensky's given everything to the Gulf states. And he said, how can we help? Here's some advisors. Here's our munitions. Do you think we are noticing that in the Congress? Because there was a period. Everyone was for Ukraine at the start. Then it kind of fell off. And now I'm saying. You're right. It's a motto ally. The front line states like Poland and Finland, they know what they're up against. And Ukraine and Israel, and they can fight. You know, thanks. I've been in Lithuania the last few days in Bulgaria before that, and I was talking to these countries, and they see Ukraine as the model ally to the United States. They understand what they've done. But look, sending these counter-UAS systems is critical. Defending against drones against these kind of longer-range drones is a two-step solution. One is an airborne capacity with an advanced precision kill weapon system, which you and I have talked about before. Ukrainians have an F-16s. We have an F-15, F-16, and F-18, all those fighters.

We have that. We're doing good with that. But the second part of it, the part we don't have and our Arab allies don't have, is the point defense around a radar, an airbase, an op center, a power station, a desalinization plan. They all need these counter-UAS systems that are costing away from $3,000 to $15,000. They have crazy names like Spear and Spire and Octopus and Mirropps, whatever they are. They have about a 70 to 90 percent likelihood of destroying a Shahed drone when approaching. We need those point defense systems there, and they have provided 200 plus people, and I'm understanding thousands of these systems already to get our Arab partners jump started. I'm hoping we're using them on our military bases. I don't know that for a fact. Sadly, they offered them to us last June, and we passed on it. Probably we ought to go back and revisit that decision-making, make sure we don't make that kind of mistake again. Now, Admiral, I also read today, open source, that Palantir and a couple of other AI companies assisted in the targeting plan for either the IDF for the American military, and that it's been just eloquently precise. Have you been following that in open source and your friends that you talked to about how very, very precise the American and Israeli strikes have been on the command and control systems of the IRGC? I have. And it's a question of precision plus volume. It's so many strikes each day with precision. I mean, Palantir, other contractors provided, they almost all loaded with Anthropic is their AI tool with probably something. Secretary Heggsets to quietly think about after the conflict's over. But the, you know, yes, we're doing very well on planning, our speed of planning, our ability to digest information. And what's going to be interesting is finding out the precision, the effectiveness of our re-attack. That's when you really need good planning. When you realize I didn't quite get it right or I was, you know, they have a secondary tertiary supply chain to this or depot. going to find that and attacking that. When you can do that with pace and speed, you know, in the 96-hour planning cycle, to me, when we hear that that's happened as well, which I think we will, then we'll really know we've gone to the next echelon. Again, I refer back to China should start getting nervous. They're thinking about it. We're doing it. Admiral, do you think the regime in Iran is going to crumble? From everything that you've seen, the president's given them a reprieve on their energy infrastructure, but we're not slacking off on the strikes tonight, you know, after midnight before one in Tehran right now, and the strikes are going on. Do you think that regime can crumble? I think that, you know, there's an old Air Force planner named John Warden who kind of like thought about how you do attacks on critical infrastructures to do a strategic campaign that breaks a country like this. I don't know that we've successfully done it since he first envisioned that in the 1960s, but I think another week of this, which is what, you know, if you go to Admiral Cooper and General Kane, they've never not said four to five weeks.

You know, they need four to five weeks. Let them have their time. See what happens. We and the Israelis are hitting them hard. And we are removing a lot. particularly moving a lot of the IRGCs, not just their senior leadership, but the ligature and the facilities that keep the IRGC functional. We'll have to see the results. Again, give it another week. I'm glad the president took a pass on the critical infrastructure for now in like a five-day hiatus. And in the meantime, hammer everything else. Hammer the stuff goes on your plan. Ambassador Orrin Fretz that the president will call off the Israeli attack on Hezbollah. I don't think that makes strategic sense. if we come to an agreement with the remnants of the regime. What do you think about the Hezbollah front, Admiral? Absolutely. We should allow Israel to continue to create the conditions for the Lebanese armed forces and the Lebanese government to succeed. And that means destroying Hezbollah. Destroying Hezbollah is as important for Lebanon as it is for Israel. The president does no one any favors if he pushes Israel calling off the attacks on Lebanon, on the Lebanese Hezbollah. I agree with that, and I appreciate your joining me. I know you travel more than anybody I know, and I don't know what time it is in your body, but I always appreciate you're making time for us. Thank you, Admiral Mark Montgomery. Follow him on X at Mark C. Montgomery, and read them wherever people are taking serious writing and putting into their newspapers and their platforms. I'll be right back, America. Bethany Mandel is next on the Hugh Hewitt. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. It was a very difficult weekend in Israel. So my next guest, Dr. Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the United States, former deputy minister in a previous Benjamin Netanyahu government, is a regular guest on the program. He's the founder of the Israel Advocacy Group. I just thought I'd give him the floor to tell us about everything. How are you, doctor? Take it away. We're good. We're good. We're hanging tough. I thought about this moment because, as you know, before I was in Bass or before I was in Knesset, I was an historian, a military historian. And I want to say unequivocally that I can think of just almost no example in certainly in modern history, perhaps in all of history, with the one exception of that year in 1940 where Churchill battled alone during the Battle of Britain during his darkest hour, where all of history. where regional peace certainly in the Middle East, but even world peace hinges on one man, hinges on one person that is the president of the United States. And if that president stays the course.

and stands up in the face of tremendous pressures. And believe me in Israel, we know the pressures he's under. Then everything in this region can change. We're not talking just about the peace between Israel and Lebanon, peace in Israel and Syria, but a strategic arc that extends from the Mediterranean to the shores of the Ganges under a Pax Americana. where Russia will be humbled, and China will be humbled. And everything, everything can change. This is one of these extraordinary hinges of history where it can go in two directions, but we ardently are the hope that will go in this direction. Tonight, the president has talked about a negotiation with the Iranians, and I'd be remiss and not saying that there's not a certain amount of nervousness in this country. We've gone through an extraordinarily difficult month. We've all been under fire, including my family, everyone's families. And we hope that during these negotiations, as President Trump indicated tonight, that our fundamental interests will be addressed, which is the end of the Iranian nuclear threat, the end of the Iranian ballistic threat, and the end of Iranian... support for terrorist groups who are seeking to destroy us. And we hope also that our army can continue to battle His Bala in the north, because frankly, if His Bala is not beaten back, then we will lose the Galilee. We'll lose half this country. People simply will not go and live there. So it's close to an existential threat for this country. So it's just this extraordinary moment. I really don't know any like it, Hugh. Maybe you do. Other than that one year of Churchill's darkest hour. where everything depended and everything dependent on one person and his strength, his vision, his character. And we ardently hope that the direction will turn to the direction of regional world peace. Marho. You know, Dr. Ron, that's a very interesting observation because this is a pivot point for the world. And if Iran can be brought to heel and turned into even a quasi-normal country, all sorts of vistas open up for not Pax Americana, but a second American century with its allies, its closest allies now Israel, and I doubt that anyone would argue with that. And Europe is old and exhausted. I'm just very disappointed with Europe. I am curious if people in Israel... are alarmed by the president's very ambiguous. I think he's just playing the Iranians against each other. What do you think? One can't know. One can only hope. One else to couch many things when dealing with the president in terms of hope. And the good news is that the vast majority of our hopes have played out vis-à-vis the president in recognizing Jerusalem as our capital, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, the Abraham Accords, there's one hope after another that has been realized by the president, getting our hostages back from Gaza. How about that one? And we hope now again.

that in negotiating with whom he is negotiating, it's not quite clear with whom he's negotiating, that that person will have the authority, will have the plenipotentiary ability to actually make those decisions. Now, I've got to be skeptical because, you know, I come from the background of Middle Eastern history, and to have Iran give up its nuclear program, to have it give up its ballistic program and support for terrorists is telling the Iranian regime to give up its DNA. It's not going to be the same regime anymore. It's something completely, completely different. Is that about to happen? Again, I'll couch it as a hope, but I can't say with any certainty that that is likely to happen. Will the Iranians turn around? This is actually an interesting question that's been raised several times in my media interviews with Israeli media tonight, is will the Iranians say to the president, okay, we'll have a ceasefire, but you've got to call the Israelis off our boys in Lebanon, off of Hisbalah. And that would be a very difficult call for the prime minister to make. The prime minister may have to turn around to say to the president, I'm sorry I can't do that. We have half the country displaced tonight. And the Iranians may say, well, okay, in that case, we're going to keep Hormos closed. And the gas prices are going to go up. So there are many, many moving pieces here and tremendous amount of uncertainty in the state of Israel. One thing is certain is that our pilots continue to fight tonight. They're flying over Iran as we speak. on the ground in Lebanon, fighting back Kisbollah. And American pilots are in the air, CENTCOM released. a video of them hitting striking Iranian targets. Earlier today, Dan Cienor said the only time he can remember a working relationship between two heads of government as close as Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump is as between Margaret Thatcher and President Reagan, to which I'd like that. As unlikely as it might seem, there was Helmut Kohl and Francois Mitterrand as well, as you remember, during the last years of the Cold War. I think that might turn out to be Mohammed bin Salman and MBZ. Odd as that might be, I think those four are the key players here. Or Roosevelt and Churchill, not to be labeled the Churchill example. And certainly. And today, I think we can say this unequivocally. The United States has one, exactly one dependable military ally in the world. And I'm sitting in. And not just a penile military ally, but a dependent military ally that is willing to go shoulder to shoulder with the United States and not play a secondary role. to be a full partner. So that to me is an extraordinary accomplishment. And I don't think anybody responsible in Washington would somehow want to squander that extraordinary asset.

Well, I'll be talking with Senator Cotton next hour. I'll ask him about that. But I got it. I got one minute left, Dr. Oren. The interoperability of the IDF and the American Navy, the pilot, it's just extraordinary to me. We've never operated like this in my lifetime because I wasn't around for World War II. There's simply, there's no division between their division of labor. It's lockstep. Unfortunately, it's a war, but otherwise it's a beautiful thing to see. And if you listen to some of the communication between our palates and the American palace, you see that we're allies in the fullest sense of the word here. And it is, I think it's a message to the entire world. A cautionary tale for Europe, I think there's going to be a lot to answer for with Europe and NATO when this is over. I agree with that. Dr. Michael Oren. Follow him on X at DR. Michael Oren. Go look up the Israel Advocacy group, which he founded, be a part of helping to tell the story of the Jewish state. And thank you very much. Dr. Oren, stay safe. I know it was a rough weekend. And my condolences to those in Israel who are listening who lost someone this weekend. Don't go anywhere, America. I'm usually. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt, joined by Salina Zito, columnists to the world, Washington Post, columnist, Washington Examiner, columnist, columnist, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, New York Post, syndicated columnist. I go on. And Yinser. Selina, airports are in the news. Now, Pittsburgh Airport happens to be my most favorite and least favorite airport. It is my most favorite airport because the car rental, which I've got to get to get to warn, is right across. the entrance. It's a very convenient car rental. The bad part is I have to go by Franco Harris every time I get there to go to it. So how are the lines at Pittsburgh Airport? Well, Since the last time I flew is in 2020. No, I mean, that's true. But, you know, they're not, I don't think as bad as everyone else is experiencing, but they're not bad because of a bad reason for Pittsburgh. We don't have a hub. So we're not a frequently traveled airport as much as these other airports are. Nonetheless, people have to get out and people have to come in. It is definitely higher. Ice is supposed to come to Allegheny County's airport this week. And so it must be bad enough to be a problem. You know, you don't need an editor. You always have enough columns to write. I would love a Selena Zito piece of just talking to people in line at Pittsburgh. Because the Jinsers don't like nonsense, right? They just don't like nonsense. This is nonsense. The Democrats are putting millions of Americans in peril of missing their flights, all of that inconvenience. My kids and my grandkids had to leave at 4 o'clock in the morning on Sunday morning to get to the airport three hours early to make sure that they could make their flight.

It's crazy what they are doing to people for I don't really understand their motive. They're not making a point. Do you think they're making a point? No, I mean, I have talked to people, not at the airport, but I have talked to people. And they're not making the point they think they're making, which is this is Trump's wealth, right? They don't even want to blame Republicans in office in as much as their whole focus and concentration is on President Trump. And so they want to blame it on him. However, that's not sticking. People have common sense. They have the ability to read and understand and comprehend what really is the problem. And, you know, A lot of people that I've talked to have said, I don't get it. ICE is already funded. Why are we in this position again? It doesn't make, why are, why are, what do we do? Why are we in trouble? Why are we getting punished, right? Why are we getting punished? It's group punishment of the country because the Democrats lost an election. Now let me turn to your Senator John Fetterman over the weekend. had a conversation with a rock-rived Republican who said, you know, John Fetterman is making me rethink. The Democrats might be salvageable. But then I read your column. There's a little uprising against him in Pittsburgh and in Pennsylvania generally. Is that real? If he, he's not up for four years, is he? Or two more years? He's not up for four years. He's not up for two years. A lot of that is hyperbole. There is a lot of sort of ex-posting going around pushing Connor Lamb, right? The guy who lost to John Fetterman. And I would love to point out that John Fetterman defeated Lamb by 30 percentage points in that primary. John Fetterman won all 67. counties and the argument that lamb is making that John Fetterman is um not a true democrat betterman votes 93 percent of the time with democrats whereas lamb voted 68 percent of the time um with democrats that's enough That's a 30 point, almost a 30 point difference. And so I think there is a lot of posturing. But the Democrats that I talk to, even they know they know that there's sort of this online movement against betterment. It's very difficult for me to find anyone outside of the far left. And by the way, this all has to do with Israel, right? Like, let's not make any bones about it. This all has to do with Israel, and it's vulgar in the way that people are prosecuting it. So let me ask you this. Graham Platner in Maine, the oyster man with the Nazi tattoo, who's a whack job from the left, he's trying to run like John Fetterman, but I don't think it's working because it's not authentic. He wants to be that kind of loose, that kind of...

real guy living down the street across from the steel mill. Have you followed Graham Platner and all? No, I haven't. because, well, my state keeps me busy enough, right? But even from afar, I'll end up going up to Maine before the primary, but even from afar, look, people can smell something that's not authentic. People know when you're trying to pose, there was a guy in West Virginia a few years ago that tried to run against Joe Manchin when he was running for re-election with that same sort of like, I'm real and I'm, you know, I'm working class. And it just didn't pan out because people can smell people that are inauthentic and are trying to create a brand as opposed to living that real life. All right. Last question. I watched 60 minutes last night to see about the American shipbuilding crisis, all about the Philadelphia shipyard. Have you had a chance to see that yet? What'd you think? I have not watched it, but I'm well aware of it. I have been writing about it. 20 people at a time are going through, and the three young people, one wasn't so young, but the three people that are craftsmen, they all left Amazon warehouse, and they work hard, but that place is going to be hopping. It's going to be back to what it was in World War II. If they carry through on there, are you going to go visit? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Just wish we would stop snow in between here and there, right? Well, that doesn't really ever happen, does it? Well, snow in Somerset County. I know you've been stuck in Snow. I have been stuck in Somerset County. You can't get there from here. It's a blizzard. I don't care why. July. Yes. It has snowed in Somerset County in July. That's a fact. There's also shipbuilding capabilities going on in Erie, but also in Pittsburgh. They just got a huge Navy contract right in Pittsburgh fixing our naval ships. Well, I would love to see your critique of the 60 Minutes piece. which was maybe the nicest piece about President Trump ever, run by CBS News, because he's doing something about our shipbuilding crisis. Selena Zito, follow her on X at Zito Selina, and follow everything that she writes for all those different places at Salinasito.com. You've heard me talk a lot about consumer cellular. How you can switch your carrier save money without the sacrifice. That's because consumer cellular uses the same towers as major carriers. Make the switch today and get $25 off at consumercellular.com slash hue. If you're over 50, get one line of unlimited talk, text, and data for $35, plus an additional $5 per month off for the first five months when you visit consumer cellular.com slash hue. Use the promo code, Hugh 25. Consumer cellular ranks number one for network coverage and consumer satisfaction according to ACSL. You'll be working with an actual human being when you switch based right here in the U.S.

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Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt, joined by Bethany Mandel. She is the author of The Momwars.substack.com. Bethany, good to see you. First, just your general assessment of how the war with Iran is going. I think it's going well. My Israeli friends are losing it a little bit. I think it's really, really tough on them over there. I think, you know, from the Israelis perspective, they need to get rid of the missile capability. This is not a situation that... is sustainable. It's been three weeks of constant missile fire at all hours of the day and night, and it's become really dire. The airspace, I'm sure you talked about with Mark Montgomery, is sort of under siege, and it's become so difficult to get out. I have a friend who was supposed to leave the day that the war started, and her new flight is scheduled for April 16th. So it's not a sustainable situation for a country for a month and a half. Well, Ambassador Oren made a direct appeal to President Trump earlier today saying, don't tell us to stop in the north. Whatever you negotiate with the Iranians, if you come to some sort of agreement, don't make not killing Hezbollah off part of the deal because we have to do that. Are your friends telling you the same thing? Yeah, I mean, this has been a threat that, you know, has been existential for the Israelis for a long time. And the difference between Hezbollah and Iran is that they get no warning when a missile comes over from just up north in Lebanon. And so that is a situation that really needs to be taken care of. I believe that when things calm down in Iran, there will be. an uprising and things will finish themselves off naturally with the regime, that's not really the case with Hezbollah. And so I think that it's right for Israel to insist that they are able to take out Hezboa while they have the ability to do so. That was the Admiral's point of view is that You're not doing Lebanon any favors by stopping Israel from exterminating Hezbollah. You're doing a disservice to the Lebanese because the country can't ever recover as long as that parasitical malignancy is there in the country. Now, a couple of ICBMs got through, ballistic missiles got through. They're not ICBMs, just ballistic missiles, and injured a lot of people over the weekend. Primarily, according to Dr. Oren, elderly people who can't move that fast. I would have thought by now the Israelis had a plan for that. No, I mean, unfortunately, you know, there's different, I think I've made this joke on your show before that in Hebrew, there's so many different words for bomb shelter.

And in older buildings, people don't have a bomb shelter in the apartment building or necessarily, you know, even in the basement. And so, you know, you have to sometimes run across the street and you have seven minutes to do it and less time if it's Hezbollah. And so, you know, it's difficult. It's difficult for old people, especially when they're woken up in the middle of the night to get moving that fast. I have a friend who was on the road. She was visiting her in-laws. Her husband is in Gaza right now, and so she wanted to visit her in-laws to give herself a break. And she drove with four young kids by herself. And over the course of that drive, she had to stop four different times for missile sirens. And she had to collect four young children out of the car and run into a gas station bomb shelter and stuff in there like Sardines with 50, 60 people. That's really hard. And she said that at every single stop, there were people who had to be turned away because the bomb shelter was so full it was suffocating. You know, I've not thought of this before, but are bomb shelters well marked in Israel? Do they have like arrows bomb shelter here? That's sort of like UK during the Blitz. Yeah, yeah, they are. And she remarked that she learned that every gas station has one. And so she just would keep driving until she saw a gas station. In the south, there's a lot more roadside bomb shelters because there were so many missiles sent over from Hamas. And so in the Gaza envelope, there's a lot. In the middle of the country, there's not so many. And so, you know, at these roadside shelters next to gas stations, there was 50, 60, 70 people stuffing in them. And her kid in one of them, had a panic attack because he knew the story of October 7th where Hirsch Goldberg, Poland was taken out of that roadside shelter. And he said, is this how Hirsch was taken? And he had a panic attack. And he's a 10-year-old kid. Well, it's going to be a molding event. I don't know if it'll make people tougher and more resilient, but it is definitely the last 30 months. have changed the entire generation of Israeli children. Maybe some will be too young to remember, but everyone between the ages of 5 and 15, right? It's in their genes now. Yeah, and this is on top of COVID before this. And so they've really had a very difficult childhood over there. And, you know, my friends have shared anecdotally with me one-on-one, but also on social media, just how traumatic the last six years have been for their kids. Because they're, unfortunately, they didn't have the protections that we have here. And so it was very draconian with COVID for a year and a half. So are they expecting a Passover?

Just Israel being hit with everything Iran can possibly hit on the night of Passover. That's what I think is going to happen. They should expect that. I mean, it's awful. I was reflecting actually on yesterday we were talking about last Passover how the Pennsylvania governor's house was hit. last year. And so I think Jewish communities around the world are expecting to be hit. In London, volunteer ambulances were lit on fire last night. And so I think all around the world, Israel and outside of Israel, Jews are sort of bracing themselves for what anti-Semites throw their way on Passover. We need to pause on that story because I don't think many Americans know. There's a volunteer Jewish ambulance service in England that had four ambulances. All of them were torched last night. I don't think here's darn. I think his government's serious about this. I don't think they care. I really, I just don't think they care. What do you think? I mean, he at least called it anti-Semitic. The beautiful thing about this ambulance service is that it serves everyone. And so, you know, this is just a volunteer ambulance service that will respond to anyone for anything. And it was arson. And it was an arson attack. It was in Golders Green where I was, I don't know, 10 months ago or so. And the security is not sufficient there. I don't know if it's improved since the Yom Kippur attack. But there have been so many anti-Semitic incidents that my friends there have shared. And there's been nothing in the way of increased patrols, increased security. It's a scary time for London Jews. And a lot of my friends who live there say that they're making their exit plan. One minute. Is it a scary time for American Jews? Or is it just Zohran Mamdani running his mouth with a crazy wife? I mean, I think it is scary in some ways. You know, I'm careful with my kids about walking to synagogue and, you know, wearing yarmacos in places where we might not necessarily be safe and comfortable. But I personally, I feel mostly safe. I think that there's incidents that, like, happened to the Pennsylvania Governor's House last year. I think that there do need to be increased patrols and increased funding for increased patrols all around the country, but on a personal level, I still feel safe. I'm glad to hear that. Bethany Mandel, follower on X at Bethany Shandark. She'll change your name on X someday to Bethany Mandel and the momwors.substack.com. Here's something most people don't know. When Warren Buffett was just 13 years old, he didn't put his money into a savings account. While other kids were earning next to nothing at local banks, Buffett put $114 into a little-known investment. Today, that $114 would be worth over $15 million. And it wasn't a risky trade, it wasn't even insider knowledge. It was an account that's been around since 1888, and over the last 25 years, it's average 29% a year. That's what happens when your money is allowed to compound. Compare that to today's savings accounts, paying less than half a percent, while inflation quietly eats away at your buying power. Buffett understood early. Banks are great...

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