Reckoning: Imminent Dem Power Grab Looms

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It is Wednesday, April 15th, 2026. I'm Guy Benson. Welcome everyone to Guy Benson. We're live in New York City. And we're here for the next three hours together. Every weekday, 3 to 6 p.m. That's when we air. And then if you miss any of it, we've got a podcast that is always on demand and free at Guy Benson.com or Fox Newspodcast.com or wherever you get your podcast. I'm here in New York for a lot of television the next several days. More on that to come. I'm a Fox News political analyst. Also a senior columnist at the Washington Examiner. Have two pieces out already this week. Another one coming tomorrow. You can read my stuff at the Washington Examiner. Reach out to us here at the show, GBS.com. That's the email, of course. You can follow us on social at Guy Benson. Follow me while you're at it, Guy Benson. On the program today, Steve Moore will join us. I mentioned the date at the top, as I always do. That would be tax day. Not that I need reminding because I have money going out of my account today, and I owe the government, and I'm not happy about it. I want to go throw some tea in a harbor, although I am in fact represented. I'm being taxed with representation. I just would like to, in some respects, change my representation, especially in Virginia. More on that front in just a moment. But economist Steve Moore will be here on tax day. Actually, a lot of good news for many Americans today, given the working families tax cut that the Republicans passed and President Trump signed last year. A huge tax increase across the board was avoided. Thank goodness the Democrats almost unanimously. In fact, I think every single one of them voted to raise all of those taxes. Republicans won that battle, thankfully for taxpayers. And there are some other things to keep an eye on on this tax day that we'll talk about with Steve Moore coming up this hour. In the next hour, the former Attorney General until just very recently of Virginia, Jason Miaris, will be here. To follow up on a subject I'd like to address here in just a few moments at the start of the show. We'll hear from Jason Miaris at the top of the next hour. Andy McCarthy, our friend, longtime federal prosecutor. He'll be here in our middle hour as well. And then the one and only Martha McCallum, who's currently on TV on the news channel, helming the story. She'll be our guests kicking off our final hour just after five Eastern here today. So. As I just hinted at, I want to talk Virginia politics. I want to talk this gerrymandering power grab scheme with Election Day, this snap election that they threw together in just a few months. Illegally, according to several courts, the Virginia Supreme Court has punted until after the election to make these determinations. But for now, it's all supposed to happen less than a week from now. Next Tuesday, April 21st is the day. And as I've mentioned previously on the show, I have already voted against. I voted no on this referendum where they're trying to change the constitution of the state again in a snap election that the governor, the newly elected governor, newly installed governor, Abigail Spanberger, explicitly said that she was not planning to do. She campaigned saying she was not going to do this.

She had railed against gerrymandering in the very recent past. And then she got in with these big Democrat majority. She's getting bullied and bulldozed by these very leftist majorities in Richmond. And one of their very first priorities was to do the thing that she said she wasn't going to do, which is redistricting gerrymandering, taking, as I've said before, this is why I think it has national implications, two big reasons. One is the bait and switch. In fact, I'm seeing Republicans now across the country starting to point to Virginia as a cautionary tale of Democrat bait and switch politics where they put on a little smiley face and they say, I'm a moderate, I'm just a security mom. My name's Abigail or my name's Mikey in New Jersey. And we're moderate mainstream Democrats. And then the second they get into office, especially in Virginia, it is just warp speed, hard left madness. on virtually every front like whackamol to respond. And in some cases, I think the Republicans are barely responding at all. More on that in just a second. But that is one national implication of this story. The bait and switch that we are experiencing painfully in Virginia can come to a state or district or country near you if you're not careful. And if your eyes are not open to this kind of thing, then the second reason that this has national implications is, of course, the fact that Democrats are trying to take a six to five maps. So there are 11 congressional seats right now in Virginia, six Democrat, five Republicans. It is mathematically, and experts have agreed on this, one of the fairest maps in the country based on the percentage one. For instance, in the last presidential race, 2024, Kamala Harris, 52-ish percent. So six to five is about right. The Democrats want to take that and make it 10 to 1, Dem to R, and put all the Republicans. Basically, all their representation down into one district at the southwest corner of the state and drawing these insane circuitous gerrymandered maps, some of which were drawn for specific politicians, for that to be their district. Five of them run through Fairfax County, the basket case of Fairfax County that we've been telling you about. That becomes the hub. of Virginia politics all the way down into middle and rural Virginia. It's nuts. It would overnight, if this happens, if it passes next week and it's upheld by the court. It would go from one of the most fair maps in the country to arguably the single least fair, least proportional map in the country. And the Democrats have labeled this a project in fairness and democracy, which is how they presented it to voters on the ballot itself. And I read that to you. The day after I voted, I read you the verbiage that's on the ballot. It is.

unbelievably misleading. In fact, even the editors at the Washington Post in describing this said it pretty bluntly, quote, Democratic politicians are presenting the proposed amendment to voters in the most brazenly dishonest way imaginable. They're saying we have to restore fairness by taking one of the fairest maps and making it one of the most unfair maps. They are trying to gerrymander four Republican seats out of existence into their hands. That is something that should matter to every American given the fact that the current balance of power in the House is just about that many seats. Democrats could get themselves all else being equal into the majority after November just by virtue of this power grab, and they're calling it fairness. Even though the people of Virginia voted for the bipartisan commission that has given us a fair map overwhelmingly in a referendum six years ago during a presidential election. It didn't sneak up on anyone. It was adjudicated. The argument was made. In fact, the Democrats backed the amendment. Take the gerrymandering off the table. Take the redistricting power out of the hands of politicians. Give it to the commission. That's what Virginians overwhelmingly supported. And now, with Abigail Spanberger having said she wasn't going to do it, her number one priority beyond sanctuary state policies is now this. And they just flung it at voters in a snap election. It's coming up next Tuesday. And they're saying it's fairness. And they have Barack Obama on TV screaming at us constantly saying, oh, now, well, fairness, democracy. And they have Trump, Trump everywhere. Of course, it's all about Trump. Ooh, Trump's trying to steal and rig elections. They make references to Texas. And then they ignore all the other examples. We've got to level the playing field, they say. California already did that. Whether you like it or not, California did it. This is an escalation by Virginia. being sold profoundly mendaciously. So if you're listening to me in Virginia and you haven't already, you've got to vote. There's tons of early voting happening. And then Election Day itself in the snap constitutional election to change the Constitution. It's next Tuesday. Now, I bring this up for a few different reasons as well, which is there's a new poll that just came out from State Navigate. And I see some of the smart poll people saying that's relatively well done, where it is roughly a four or five point spread right now, yes, in the lead. And it's just a simple majority. If it's like 50 plus 1%, that's all she wrote. The Constitution gets changed and it becomes a 10 to 1 map. Right now, yes, has just over 50% of the vote. But there are some red flags in the poll for Democrats, including the fact that now in the second consecutive statewide survey, Abigail Spanberger's job approval, she won by 15 points. She won a blowout late last year. Her disapproval has now drawn exactly even with approval. It is the biggest collapse in approval in modern Virginia history this quickly for any governor.

And I think her team is a little freaked out by it because now she's out there trying to say, well, hang on, a lot of these crazy tax increases, I didn't propose them. We need change. Actually, she's not acting like someone who's feeling confident. Meanwhile, she's getting a bunch of broadsides from like the Senate majority president, a Democrat who's bullying her, being like, listen, lady, you might be governor, but I'm in charge here. That's the gist of it, the tone. It's a radical leadership down in Richmond now. So Abigail Spanberger's approval at 4747, a huge early collapse. And as Josh Krasauer pointed out, the people that are turning hardest against Abigail Spanberger and heading in the no direction on the gerrymandering are the higher educated suburban voters that are really key to the Democrats coalition all over the place, but especially in Virginia. So. That's interesting. That outcome in this poll is almost identical to what we saw recently in a Washington Post poll. The yes side slightly ahead, but not a done deal. The Democrats are not behaving like it's a done deal at all in Virginia. I saw one plugged in Virginia political source saying there are rumors that the internal polling on both sides looks worse for team yes, for team gerrymander, for team blue. Which might explain why they're doing this all hands on deck, giant propaganda push on top of all the advertising they've bombarded us with and all this propaganda for months. I don't know. I guess we'll see. But I think this is defeatable. One other data point from Qantas Insights, a polling firm, they have done a projection on the early vote so far. based on estimates and district behavior from the last four election cycles, not polling, not final, but a projection thus far from the early voting. And quote, at the moment, the model shows 50.3% no, 48.2% yes, a close contest, potentially with the no side slightly ahead at the moment. So again, I think this can be defeated. There are reasons why, as I've mentioned, non-Virginians, most of you should care about this. But the last point that I want to make is this. And I don't think it's worth getting into a bunch of angry pre-criminations because I think there's still a chance to win this thing next week. But I just have to keep laying down this marker because I am bewildered. Ladies and gentlemen. by the behavior of the Republican Party in Virginia and nationally. There are four House seats that the Democrats are trying to take through this crazy scheme. And to this day, six days away from the referendum, I have not seen one television ad opposing the power grab. Not one. I've seen one on YouTube. Mary Catherine Hamm, who also lives in Virginia, told me earlier she saw a second one online. By comparison, the yes side, the pro gerrymandering side, claiming that it's fairness, they have had their propaganda on air blanketing the airwaves since the Winter Olympics started.

And I kept sitting there wondering, okay, well, maybe no one really saw this coming. Abigail Spanberger said it wasn't going to happen. She wasn't interested in it. Now they've done it. Surely the other side will get their act together soon and start putting ads up. Here we are six days away. I've seen reports of millions of dollars flowing in for no. Where is it going? Maybe it's going to some worthwhile things and maybe we can have a conversation with this about Jason Miaris later this program. Although, again, this is not my overall focus. My focus now beating the thing. The fact that it's this close with this amount of propaganda, almost unopposed on air, is remarkable in a bluish purple state. But if this ends up being a close loss and the Democrats get their way and it goes to a 10 to 1 map, I will sit right at this microphone and. probably pound the desk a little harder about where the hell the money was, where the ads were, where the national party was, because it feels like almost a unilateral disarmament on the right over this for reasons that are completely beyond me. Virginians voted overwhelmingly for the opposite of this just a few years ago. You can make a powerful, nonpartisan case against it that would appeal to Middle of the road voters. But you have to make the argument to them. And they've seen only one dishonest side of this month after month. So I'm doing what I can to push back in the other direction. This is not just a Virginia story by any stretch. It's a story of power, of the balance of power in Washington, D.C., of bait and switch by leftists. And. An open question about what on earth the Republican Party is doing on a story that affects the entire Republican Party in the entire country. Because it's been like mostly crickets. I am baffled. Six days away, folks. I on the prize for now. More of Guy Benson coming up. We're just underway on this Wednesday from New York. Keep it here. Same issues, but with a fresh perspective. Guy Benson. This episode is brought to you by San Pellegrino Chau. A gift from Italy to your home. San Pellegrino Chau is a flavored sparkling water made with real fruit juice, finished with a pinch of Sicilian salt for a perfectly balanced taste. So which flavor will you choose? Peach, lime, blood orange, cherry, or maybe the all-new limoncello. Crafted in Italy with zero grams of added sugar, San Pellegrino Chow. Buy it now.

I'm Guy Benson. Welcome back. Here's a headline from a Baltimore publication. Amazing. Who edits this stuff? Asian enrollment at Johns Hopkins is skyrocketing. No one can say why. That was this week. I think many of us can say why. It's because the Supreme Court... struck down race-based, so-called affirmative action, discrimination that was disproportionately harming Asian Americans and Asians broadly. That's why. The court said, actually, no, we're against racial discrimination. You can't do this. And that was applied to colleges. And once the illegal, unconstitutional, racist discrimination ended. then Asian applicants were getting admitted at higher rates. But the headlines are like, oh, what a mystery. No one can say why. Actually, we can't. And on this score, a famous quote from Chief John Roberts on this overall issue, he wrote, the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race. Most Americans agree, thank goodness. More of Guy Benson coming up. This is going to be an extremely busy month. I have to watch 104 soccer games. Follow the pregame, the post game, yell useless opinions at the TV. It's a lot. So I knew that when it comes to screening for colon cancer, the choice was clear. The Colagard Plus test. It can be used at home and can only take 15 minutes, so I can do it during halftime and not miss any action. If you are 45 or older and at average risk, ask your healthcare provider about screening for colon cancer with the Coligard test. You can also request a prescription at colagard.com.

Talking about the issues you care about, Guy Benson. Glad to have you here with us on Guy Benson. Guy Benson.com, podcast always free. Today is Tax Day, as I mentioned at the very beginning of the show. Unhappily for me, I owed. So hate that. A lot better news for a lot more Americans, though, thanks to President Trump and the Republicans, something that Democrats seem to be an overdrive trying to downplay or ignore, hoping people don't really notice. And certainly, they want Americans to be unaware of the fact that every one of them in Congress voted for a massive tax increase, allowing all these tax cuts to expire. They were against all of that. They were against the no tax on tips and overtime and all of that. And if the Democrats had gotten their way, we'd be having an extremely painful tax day as a country. But a lot of that pain has been averted, thankfully. With us is economist Steve Moore, co-founder of Unleashed Prosperity at Stephen Moore on Social. Great to have you here, Steve. Hey, guy. Good to be with you. Happy Tax Day. By the way, I think you just explained everything better than I could in terms of what happened as a result of that tax bill. And you were 100% correct, my friend, that every single Democrat, every one in the House and Senate, voted for about a $2,500 tax increase for Americans this year, which we would have based if it had not been for the big beautiful bill. I was on CNN the other night with a very liberal congresswoman from Minnesota calling him the big, ugly bill. I said, Big ugly bill, you know, Congressman, are you for, you voted for a $2,500 tax increase on all your citizens. She just happened and odd. She didn't have any response to that. Oh, because she did. That's exactly she and all of her Democrat colleagues voted for a gigantic across the board increase in taxes on Americans, including poor and middle class and working class Americans, the people that they pretend they represent. It's always the billionaires that they rail against, but they. all voted in lockstep for an across-the-board tax increase. And fortunately, they failed. And then you also had the additional tax relief, not just the avoidance of the tax increase, the extension permanently of the Trump tax cuts, but also some additional tax relief. Again, this was party line. Only Republicans supported this. And it's interesting because, Steve, the DNC chairman. a guy named Ken Martin, he tweeted today, quote, if you're paying higher taxes this year, you have Donald Trump to thank he raised taxes on 95% of Americans, then handed a $1 trillion tax cut over the next decade to his ultra-rich friends. I don't know what to call that other than a lie, Steve. Or some kind of new math that I've never heard of. Because it's simply the numbers just are telling us just exactly the opposite, that anybody who pays taxes got a tax cut, essentially. Now, there may be a bunch of people who don't pay any taxes, and they didn't get tax cut. You can't give a tax cut that somebody doesn't pay any taxes. But the vast, vast majority of Americans got the cut. And in fact, interestingly enough, today, in all places, guide the Washington Post.

Their editorial, lead editorial today, the Washington Post, not the Wall Street Journal, said, hey, this tax code is more progressive than it's ever been, that the top, you know, 2% of taxpayers are paying 40% of the income tax. And, you know, people, it's very progressive. The more income you make, the higher the tax payment you pay in terms of the percentage of your income. And so any way you slice or dice it, we have a system that is, the rich really do bear a huge part of the burden. I've always been a big... Steve Forbes flat tax, so just get the rates down as low as possible, brought in the base, so everybody pays their fair share, and get the rate down to, you know, 17, 18, 19%, which would be like a rocket fuel for the economy. But all the left is able to do now is to lie about this, because frankly, they're embarrassed by the fact, oh, yeah, we voted for electricians and plumbers and, you know, homemakers to pay, you know, a big, big. tax increase if we had had our way and thank God Trump won the election and did make those tax cuts permanent. It seems like one of their only talking points on economic policy is to, of course, raise taxes and in the process to grunt about fairness. They just kind of belch out that word, fair share, fairness while demonizing rich people. And, you know, Steve, it depends on the year. But overall, approximately, and you touched on this just a moment ago, reviled top 1% those awful rich people top 1% in the country pay around or north of 40% of all the income tax revenue that the government collects. The top 1% paying 40 or in some years upwards of 45% of all the income taxes. The top 10% it's in the 70 plus percent range. Top 10% of income earners pay. 70% of all the income taxes that the government takes in. And the top 50%, right? So you take out half the country, the least wealthy, bottom half of the country. It's just the top half. It's like 95 plus percent of these income taxes are paid. And they talk about fairness, fairness, fairness. I'm just like, how is that fair?

What I just described. Well, you know, obviously those numbers speak for themselves. I mean, this just amplifies what I was just saying. But it's even more than that. I mean, okay, so who are the rich people like Elon Musk and people like, you know, the FedEx chairman, Fed Smith, who just recently died? you know, the people who founded Bill Gates and so on, great companies. What about all the jobs they created? What about the fact that they employed thousands and thousands of people that they created, you know, hundreds and hundreds of millionaires? And that, you know, we need rich people. We are an aspirational country. And I think this is one of the big differences I've learned over 40 years. We as conservative free market, Republicans believe everyone can succeed in this country. And anyone can pull their boots, you know, themselves up from their bootstress. You remember when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made fun of that? Oh, no, that can't happen in America anymore. And that's just a cynical view. I've seen it all the time. People literally who grew up with only the shirt on their back can become a millionaire in this country. Nowhere else in the world does that happen? That's right. And it's not just the aspirational nature of this country and what capitalism allows and just the unbelievable wealth that we have in this country. In fact, I saw a poll today. This is amusing. And I love the Brits, Steve, but they've made, I think, a lot of bad choices economically through the years, much bigger welfare states, so on and so forth, high taxes. And so it goes. They asked Britons. If you, if the UK were a country, where would we rank in terms of wealth in the United States? Sorry, if the UK were a state, I should say, in the United States, where would the UK rank in the 50 states in terms of wealth? And Britons, on average, said, oh, we think we'd be about seventh. There'd be a handful of states richer than us, but we'd be at the, you know, very top echelon, top of the pile, or at least near it. And the actual answer is dead last. UK would be 51st, dead last, poorer than Mississippi, our poorest state. I don't think a lot of Americans necessarily understand or appreciate how fabulously wealthy we are as a country. Well, that's amazing because, you know, I was going to guess, you know, if I had to guess, I would have probably guessed like 45th or something, but they're dead last. Dead last. They're even more than Arkansas and Mississippi. They are per capita. And same with Canada, by the way. And you share that information with them and they can't even compute it. Well, by the way, Germany would rank like 46th or something like that. Yes. Germany used to be one of the richest countries in the world. And of course, the UK, you know, created Western civilization. And it is amazing how much that country has fallen as a result of really, you know, decades of bad policy. Of course, Margaret Thatcher rebuilt that country in the 80s. And here they are right back where they were with socialism.

in all these countries, green energy. They also, the other thing that those countries all did in Europe is they tried the green energy route of, oh, we're going to build windmills and solar panels and, you know, switchgrass, and they shut down their nuclear plants. They shut down their pipelines. And those are nations now, a guy that are energy starved. And the energy rails are going through the roof. That's right. And they're beholden to a lot of other people. And they've gotten themselves into quite a pickle. And it's their own choices. And they'll lash out at Trump and all sorts of other scapegoats. But the results are the results. And what a lot of these European countries have done, these socialist or at least socialist inclined countries have tried through the years. is, on the whole bandwagon of fairness and fair shares, wealth taxes. They've tried this wealth tax. And it was such a catastrophic failure in these places that they've mostly been rescinded. They've actually repealed these things. They've been that counterproductive. They've not just been neutral. They have hurt these countries because people have left. When you soak and demonize the rich, you lose them. And an upwardly mobile society does not punish success. But these places tried to do it. And it was such a disaster policy-wise that they've actually gone back on it. And yet we're seeing that lesson simply unlearned. by a lot of the politicians in this country, whether it's in California or Washington State or beyond where they're saying, you know what, let's give this innovation a try, ignoring the failures of Europe and elsewhere. I don't know why they keep stepping on the rake other than they're just so blinded by ideology and addicted to this fairness talking point that actual lived experience, as they like to say, or economic history is almost irrelevant to them. Well, let me give you an example of what you're talking about. So, you know, you and I've talked about this before, Guy, but there are nine states in America that have no income tax, you know, states like Tennessee and Texas and Florida, of course, and New Hampshire, et cetera. And one of those nine states was Washington State. And Washington State, for the last 30 or 40 years, has always been the blue state that worked. You know, it wasn't California, it wasn't New York, New Jersey, by home state of Illinois. It was a state that was doing very well. I mean, they had Microsoft, they had Starbucks, they had Amazon, you know, all these great companies were created in that state. And what was their golden goose? The golden goose was the fact that they had no income tax. You know, so you do everything you can to preserve that. And those morons, those leftist progressives. in Olympia, Washington, just a month or two ago, passed an, not only did they pass an income tax, now they have the fourth highest income tax in the country, and I'll guarantee you, Microsoft's gone, Amazon gone, and it's not going to happen overnight.

But let's talk about five to ten years from now, all out of Seattle. And what do they do, Steve? They'll rant and rave and invade against corporate greed, right? This is, okay, you've got all your slogans, but does it actually work when the rubber meets the road? And the answer repeatedly over and over again is no. Steve, one more point I want to get with you here on. considering that it's tax day and we're sort of talking about economic policy. I generally am quite supportive of what the Trump administration has done in economic policy. I'm quite skeptical of a lot of the tariffs. You and I have talked about that. Not all of them, but a lot of it. And I think things could be going better absent that. We could have a separate conversation about the price of oil and Iran and all of that. But one thing that I have been pleased to see. is job growth in the private sector, overwhelmingly in the private sector, and then actually a receding of the government sector, which has been a longstanding conservative goal, talked about for so many decades by conservatives, we're actually seeing it under this president, right? Yeah, we have. I mean, so we, this is the first president in a long, long, long, long time where we've actually seen big, you know, generally very strong private sector growth in his first 14 months or so in office. And then, you know, a reduction of, by my estimates, about 300,000 in the in the government federal sector. So that's about a 12. percent reduction in federal employment. That's called draining the swamp, which is what voters voted for. But I've got to put an asterisk on what you just said, because in the next couple of weeks, Congress is going to pass a $200 billion military spending bill. Now, I'm not a military expert, so I can't say whether that's necessary or not. The president says it is. But if it is, let's say that it is, why don't they pay for it? Why don't they pay as you go? Why don't they cut other government program and make room for that? I'm angry about the Republicans. We're just going to add $200 billion to the debt. No, that's not the way you should do it. Cut every other government program by 10% and pay for it. There is this conflict against the Iranian regime, and we've talked about it quite a lot on this show. I'm supportive of it for a host of reasons. It is, of course, creating pressure on the oil market around the world. I see that actually American ingenuity and American production is actually helping to mitigate that problem in a very major way. We're also seeing some really good work done by the Saudis and others. But still, you know, some shocks out there in the marketplace. definitely impacting other countries more than it is the United States of America. But just very quickly, in the last minute or so, Steve, your read economically on the fallout from this war.

Well, it's been negative clearly. I mean, now everybody's going to have to make up their own mind of whether I think the, you know, short-term pain, as Trump would say, is worth the long-term gain. And that's for everyone to make up their own mind about that. But if Trump is right, that is within a month or so we get the straight open, then we'll see a nice recovery. We'll see the gas price go back down to $350 to $3 a gallon. We'll see industries, you know, inflation coming down generally. You know, there is short-term pain here. Everybody knows that my wife gets mad every time she gets home from the grocery store with the price of things. But I'm here to tell you, I think that the future looks pretty good, and I think it'll start early summer. Steve Moore is co-founder of Unleashed Prosperity. You can follow him at Stephen Moore on social and a perfect guest on this tax day. Through a lot at you, Steve. Thanks so much. Thank you, guys. We'll be right back after this short break. Always fresh, always fair. Guy Benson. Even if you're using topical prescription creams for your child's eczema, you still might be hearing this. That relentless itching that makes them want to scratch and scratch and scratch and scratch. When they're moderate to severe eczema isn't well controlled, it's time to ask about DuPixant, dipylamab, which isn't a cream, steroid, or immunosuppressant. DuPixant helps kids as young as six months stay ahead of their eczema, with clearer skin and noticeably less itch. Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help right away for face, mouth, tongue, or throat swelling, wheezing, or trouble breathing. Tell your doctor right away of new or worsening eye problems like eye pain or vision changes, skin symptoms, joint aches in pain, or a parasitic infection. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor. DuPixant helps your child feel the heal. Ask your child's eczema specialist. Visit duPixant.com or call 1844 DuPixant.

Back here on Guy Benson, there was an event yesterday, I believe in Georgia, featuring the vice president, Faddy JD Vance. It was a TPSA event. I know some people on the left talking about how the crowd wasn't very big. But it was supposed to be featuring Erika Kirk, Charlie's Widow. And instead it was Andrew Colvette who stepped in and here's why cut 27. Mr. Vice President, I'm on stage here instead of our friend Erika Kirk. That's right. Because unfortunately she has received some very serious threats in her direction, which is terrible. It's a terrible reflection on the state of reality and the state of the country. And the usual suspects, you know who I'm talking about probably. chiefly and then some of her minions, immediately were saying, oh, that's a conspiracy. There's secret service there. So how could there be a security threat? Apparently they were like publishing her travel plans and where she was going to be with JD Vance the whole time. And the threats apparently were so severe that eventually she had to back out given everything that's already happened to that family since last year. And of course, this lunatic group who's made it apparently their life mission to torture this widow. They're taunting her for pulling out. They've turned that into a conspiracy theory. I just, I'm at a loss. I can't really fathom or describe how evil it is to do this. To that poor woman, given what she and her kids have suffered, given the overwhelming task of picking up the pieces and still trying to lead the organization that he built and all of that. And you have this malignant, just peanut gallery, making a lot of money in some cases off of this filth coming after her. And then crazy people take hold of it. Then I guess the threats are flowing because people are saying, oh, well, she was in on the death of her own husband. And so here come the threats. It is a really dark reflection. Shame on these people. I can't say it enough. And we've talked yesterday about the confession letter from the person who's responsible. And I'm sure they would just ignore that. A sick. Just sick. Another hour of Guy Benson coming up. Jason Miaris is here when we come back. On July 16th, the Hawk lands on Netflix. From the mind of Will Ferrell. Oh, Mama, I'm back. Come in love! Comes a new original series. Get ready. Get ready. That's it. Did I stutter? When an iconic pro golfer. Lonnie? Hockey! Takes one last swing at greatness. You were a Big Shot golfer. I still am a Big Shot golfer. No one. Dad, I'm the Hawk now. Will stand in his way. That's how it's done. The Hawk, only on Netflix, July 16th. A new generation of conservative talk. Right here, right now. Fair, fun, and backed by the trusted voices and reporting resources of Fox News. Fox News. You're listening to Guy Benson. And now, here's your host, Guy Benson.

It's a brand new hour here on Guy Benson live in New York. Thank you for tuning in. Guy Benson.com, the website, podcast free every day on demand. As we enter this middle hour, let's bring you a Fox News alert. The Dow falling just slightly down 58 points at the close. The bell ringing and the Dow finishing at 48,477. That market update brought to you by Americans for Prosperity and their timeless mission based on principles. which would be expanding freedom and opportunity for every single American. You should join them. I'm very proud to be associated with them. They're doing a lot of really cool stuff with America's 250th birthday. You can go to Americans for Prosperity.org and find an AFP chapter near you. With that, very pleased to welcome back to the show, the former Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Jason Miaris. Jason, good to have you here again. Great to be with you. Thanks so much for having me. I opened the show today talking about what the Democrats are trying to do in Virginia and telling this national audience why I think it is such a big national story beyond just the borders of Virginia. And I've been candidly mystified at the degree to which Republicans and conservatives have been caught flat-footed and getting just almost unanimously outspent. on air as far as I've seen in Virginia. But a bevy of polls recently show that this is still a very close contest on yes versus no in this, this crazy snap election constitutional amendment, gerrymanders scheme that the Democrats are trying to pursue. From your perspective, as you try to beat this thing back, where do things stand right now six days away from next Tuesday? Well, listen, you're right. We've had a flood of national money from California, New York that have come in because they want congressmen to vote like they are from California, New York, and not from Virginia. This has always been a grassroots campaign. We have had more substantial engagement in the days, recent days. But yeah, this is a coin flip. And the reality is, I would argue, control the House of Representatives is on the table right now. What the Dempter trying to do is overturn the will of the Virginia voters who just several years ago voted for a constitutional amendment saying, we don't want partisan gerrymandering. And it passed by a 30-point margin in an evenly divided purple state-like Virginia. And it produced maps that reflected Virginia, 11 members from Congress, six Democrats, five Republicans. So it's Virginia is a swing state that tilts blue. And now if this, if the yes campaign is prevailed, it's going to take us to what they call a 10-1 map, 10 Democrats, one Republican. In other words, 48.5% of Virginians voted for a Republican to represent them in Congress. And this would leave them with only 9% of the representation.

It would create five districts in which somebody lives within a 15-mile radius of each other in northern Virginia, five congressmen that all basically are neighbors in northern Virginia. It splits up the Shenandoah Valley in the four districts. It takes away one of the seats in Hampton Roes and gives it up to northern Virginia. It would be, according to the nonpartisan observers, the single most gerrymandered map in the entire country, even worse than what we have in Illinois, which says something. They're running a very dishonest campaign when even the Washington Post calls the yes campaign brazenly dishonest. That says something. So we're telling Virginians to go out and vote no. And rural Virginia is standing up. You're going to have if this passes 56 counties in Virginia, rural counties in Virginia, that effectively will not have a congressman. It'll be somebody from northern Virginia that will never visit them, never see them, and don't care about. Rural interests or agriculture or agribusiness. And that's what's at stake. And I think it's where you're saying so many Virginians are getting engaged now in a way maybe they didn't. They weren't last year. Do you think? Because the polls that I've seen show like four or five points in favor of the yes campaign. I've heard other whispers that some of the internal numbers are worse for the Democrats. I saw one projection that might show yes losing by a hair right now. What's your sense of it? Is there a legitimate chance at defeating this by next Tuesday, which is election day? There's huge voter intensity on our side when you actually even dive into the polls, the people most likely to vote. are those that are voting no in a no campaign. And you're also getting, you know, it's not a partisan vote. It's not left versus right. It's right versus wrong. You know, you got good government Democrats. You got, say, Chad Peterson, former Democratic state senator from Fairfax, who says, this is wrong. You have independence. I mean, listen, Abigail Spanberger, there's a reason why her face is no longer on TV is because she is the least, most least popular governor. in modern Virginia history. And one of it is she broke her promise. She told Virginians back in August of 2025 that she was not going to redistrict Virginia. The very first bill she signed in the law was the enabling legislation for this monstrosity. And so, you know, this idea that, for example, Hampton Roads, where I'm from, huge Norfolk Navy base, Oceania, and the Navy Seals, 40% of the region's economies based on is tied. GDP's tied to defense spending, they're going to redistrict out the ranking Republican Rob Whitman on Armed Services Committee if this is successful. That is insane. So I know business leaders that foolishly had given money to Abigail and thought she was actually a moderate that are incensed at what they're saying, that this is nothing but a partisan power grab. And I would remind your listeners, particularly those in Virginia, all the TV ads are trying to say, we're only doing this in Virginia.

to respond what they did in Texas. What they leave out is Texas was not the first state to do mid-decade redistricting. It was New York in 2024. The New York Democrats in Albany tore up their maps and gerrymandered several Republican members of Congress out and then Texas and then obviously California. But we don't have to follow any of those states. You already have a constitutional amendment that works. So just vote no. And don't gerrymander and rig these maps. About a minute plus left, Mr. Attorney General, the governor, now she's got her defenders saying, oh, the Republicans have slimed her and smeared her by saying that she's not a moderate. Some of these tax increases and proposals, she didn't endorse them. They were just bills. She's getting a raw deal. It's all a big right-wing lie. What's your response to that in about a minute? In her first week in office, she put a carbon tax on every Virginian's utility bill by joining Reggie. First week in office, that is indisputable. First day in office, executive order number one, she ended cooperation with federal immigration authorities, even if you're an illegal immigrant that is in a Virginia prison for being a violent, convicted felon. Even then, she doesn't think you should notify ICE for them to be deported. So on almost every single measure, she has veered far to the left. And now she's trying to silence the voices of rural Virginia, Hampton Roads, Virginia, and millions of Virginians. She has nothing but a partisan politician that said one thing when she was running. She is capped the governor bait and switch is what she is. Yep. She did a complete pullover on Virginians and now she's paying the price. Yeah, I mean, her whole thing during the campaign was affordability and I'm not going to. redistrict and then the first bill that she signed was getting things rolling for redistricting and day one executive order was sanctuary state neither of which has anything to do with affordability but that's what voters voted for and a lot of them have buyers remorse clearly based on this polling jason miyaris thank you for your time great to be with you guy thank you but six days and counting in virginia we'll be right back You're listening to a new generation of talk, Guy Benson. When it's time to scale your business, it's time for Shopify. Get everything you need to grow the way you want. Like all the way. Stack more sales with the best converting checkout on the planet. Track your cha-chings from every channel, right in one spot, and turn real-time reporting into big-time opportunities. Take your business to a whole new level. Switch to Shopify. Start your free trial today.

I'm Guy Benson. We are back. I opened the show yesterday talking about the direction of politics on the political left in this country. And there are a few follow-ups I want to bring to you. Number one, there is the revelation by Jewish insider, where our friend Josh Kraussauer is editor-in-chief, that Zohran Mamdani's video chief, his guru, who put together a lot of those slick videos that were so influential, especially among young people here in New York, that helped Zohran Mamdani win. In a landslide, especially among younger voters, specifically in New York, those videos were a key to that success. The person responsible for those videos is a big Hamas fan. Shock of all shocks, I know. This guy explicitly praised the now deceased Yahya Sinwar, a hardcore Palestinian terrorist. who was released in a prisoner swap years ago and was the mastermind of the October 7th slaughter of 1,200 Jews, nearly 1,200, including women and children, the kidnapping, the rape, the plundering, that unimaginable horror. The man who... plotted and willed that into existence, Sinwar, who was eventually killed in the war by Israel down in Rafah. Zohran Mamdani's videographer or video editor was a big fan, really admired his bravery and his courage and his principle. And I guess my commentary on that is, is a single person surprised by that. It's like we're almost done being shocked with the pro-terrorism sentiments of the people all around. Zohran Mamdani, including his wife, as illustrated by her social media footprint, not just when she was a teenager, but as an adult as well, liking posts celebrating October 7th, liking and sharing posts or amplifying posts engaged in rape denialism vis-a-vis October 7th. That's the guy's wife. So his video editor, I mean, does anyone bat an eye? That this guy's a big Hamas fan. It might be easier to find the people in Zohran Mamdani's orbit who are not at this point. One of Zohran Mamdani's BFFs is this guy Hasan Piker, the podcaster, streamer, hardcore communist and terrorism supporter. Those are his own words, by the way. His own characterizations, not mine. who's become sort of the it boy on the left and quite a few Democrats are embracing him. He's on the campaign trail with Zohran Mamdani last year and now with others as well. And the Democrats are having a big debate about whether they should be embracing the likes of Hasan Piker. Some of them saying, no, we shouldn't and they're getting piled on by many in the base. Others saying, yeah, it's great. He's part of the coalition. Ezra Klein, Mr. Abundance, supposed intellectual on the left. saying, oh, yeah, no, Hasan Piker's not the enemy. Wrote a whole column defending him, this apology in the New York Times. Hasan Piker being whitewashed by the Podbrose, the Obama guys on their show. And we played the clip yesterday of one of them, a former Obama speechwriter, saying, hey, when you said that you prefer Hamas a thousand times over Israel, do you actually mean that or, and he gave him a few other off-ramps? And Pikes like, oh, yeah, totally mean it.

He loves Hamas compared to the you know who's. And I just want to mention Hasan Piker again because, just as a reminder, this is who we're talking about, Zohran Mamdani ally, increasingly this mainstreamed figure in Democrat politics. Here's just a partial montage of a handful of this guy's low lights, cut 25. America deserved 9-11, dude. I'm saying it. What makes it interesting for me, at least, is like seeing so many people from all around the country literally travel here just to see this. That part is insane. Like, I just don't, like, I'm not, I don't have any sort of patriotism in my heart for any, yeah, for America, but just in general. It doesn't matter if rapes happen on October 7. Like, that doesn't change the dynamic for me even this much. America deserved 9-11. We could have just stopped it right there. This guy believes in his heart said it out loud that we deserved a terrorist attack by al-Qaeda that murdered almost 3,000 of us. Of course he's a fan of Hamas in October 7th when he doesn't care if there were rapes. Doesn't change the dynamic at all. He said that he has no patriotism in his heart for America. Obviously, he thinks we deserve 9-11. He also really hates people who hate communists because he is one. There was a woman, this is a resurfaced clip from 2020. There is a woman who escaped communism. I believe from communist China, who's been an outspoken critic of communism. And boy, does this guy hate her. Hasan Piker, take it away, cut 26. Because as Vietnamese refugee, we have endured suffering under the communist regime. And we believe that. Okay, you, dude. I mean, seriously, you old lady. Shut the fuck up, you stupid, idiotic, old lady. With your stupid gamer headset, who is fucking you harder? America or Hocci men? Suck my g, old lady. Dude, you fuck this refugee, okay? Charming, isn't he? Is Vietnam, not China, by the way? Here she is talking about the horrors visited upon her, her country, her family, country of origin, by communists, and here's Mr. Communist slash Jihadist. with that tirade of epithets against her. Shut the bleep up, old lady, et cetera, et cetera. F this refugee. What a progressive. This is the man that they are platforming, that they are mainstreaming, they invite him to these conferences. He's appearing on the campaign trail with Democratic candidates. They can't decide as a party whether he's an asset or a liability. Mr. America deserved 9-11, who was invited to speak. leading light of progressivism. He was invited to speak this week at Yale, where he was very upset about something. I'll let him explain. Cut 24. The fall of the USSR was one of the greatest catastrophes of the 20th century. Just wait. Listen, maybe you'll agree. Not only was there incalculable harm done to every single country under its banner.

Child prostitution, skyrocketing suicide rates, life expectancy plummeting. But America was no longer contested around the globe. And it is precisely because of the end to that multipolarity that we saw accelerated neoliberalism that is devastating every Western nation right now. Unlimited and unchecked greed. This is a guy, by the way, who reportedly is worth millions and charges money for his subscriptions and has partnerships and sponsorships. He doesn't do it for free. Does that count as unchecked greed? I'd ask his dog that he puts the shock collar on and zaps him if he whimpers after sitting there in the background of the live stream after a few hours needing to go to the bathroom. This guy is an absolute degenerate. And there he is at Yale. And apparently there's probably rules against applauding or booing. So there's hissing and then thumping on the desks. And you can hear the disagreement there as he is speaking his truth to the Yaleys that one of the greatest catastrophes of the 20th century was the fall of the Soviet Union. No, the Soviet Union itself was one of the greatest catastrophes of the 20th century or any century. given the extraordinary death toll, the devastation, the misery, the persecution, the murder that it was responsible for. And he is lamenting the fall of the Soviet Union, the ideology, by the way, underpinning it communism responsible for tens of millions of deaths, which he's perfectly fine with, obviously. And his takeaway is, what a shame that the Soviet Union fell because then America wasn't challenged enough around the globe. And now we've got neoliberalism and all this greed. And by the way, F that refugee, America deserve 9-11. This is not a fringe figure anymore. And they are having a battle on the left about whether or not to fully embrace him. Someone that just a few years ago would have been anathema to any sane political movement. And there are equivalents on the right, by the way, and we embrace them at our peril. I think we are doing a much better job of gatekeeping in a lot of respects, especially in like the official party. But watch what's happening on the left. This guy is the personification, I think, of the direction that they're headed, which is a frightening prospect. It's the Guy Benson's show. We'll be right back. Cheers to America's 250th birthday. Get 20% off your first purchase at Fox Newswineshop.com with code FN Radio 20. 20% discount excludes wine club offers and cannot be combined with any other promotion. Expires July 31st, 2026. Must be 21 order to order. Please drink responsibly. Guy Benson, sponsored by Previgin. Previgin, made for your brain. Halfway through Guy Benson on this Wednesday, so we're halfway through the broadcast week. We're in New York City. Thank you very much for being here with us. Guy Benson.com, our website, the podcast free every day, of course. Andy McCarthy is now our guest back with us on the air. He's a Fox News contributor, longtime federal prosecutor, bestselling author at Andrew C. McCarthy on social. Andy, always a pleasure. Guy, great to be with you.

President Trump is urging the extension of a FISA program, a surveillance program, while some lawmakers are saying, nope, we need more privacy protections for Americans. There's been a tug of war on this for years. I know that you're really an expert in this realm. What's the dispute and with whom do you cite? Well, I think there's such a tortured history of this guy, as you allude to. And I think it's unfortunate that when we resolve this, they always resolve it with a sunset. I actually wish they'd sunset more federal laws. Yeah, me too. You know, so every two to five years, we have this argument. I think what a lot of Trump... supporters are upset about with respect to FISA is, for the most part, not what's at issue here. So the main abuse of FISA during the Russia Gate stuff was the part, it's kind of called traditional FISA. It's where you have to go to the FISA court, which is the foreign intelligence surveillance court created in 1978. to get a warrant to monitor someone in the United States who you're claiming is an agent of a foreign power. What is at stake here is a different thing. This is Section 702, which is a part of FISA, which deals with the ability of the United States to collect foreign intelligence. targeting non-Americans who are believed to be outside the United States. To my mind, the biggest problem with this is I don't think courts should be involved in this at all. I think... You know, it's obvious that we have to collect foreign intelligence against people outside the United States who don't have Fourth Amendment rights and who mean ill toward the United States. The problem is, just like happens in domestic wiretaps, like when I was a prosecutor and we used to do wiretaps on the mafia, in foreign intelligence, you incidentally collect. information and sometimes communications by people who aren't the target of the surveillance. Right, they're like swept up in it, not because they're targeted, but because they're on calls with people. Yeah, like the mafia guy decides he wants a pizza, you know, and he calls up the pizzeria. You're going to get that on the wiretap. Probably pretty good pizza, Andy, I have to say, right? For all their fault, probably pretty good pizza. Yeah, excellent pizza, actually, in the places where I investigated. The problem is that you have incidentally collected Americans who end up in the database, not because they've been targeted, but because it's illegal to target them, but because they've been in communication with people who have been targeted. And then what could happen later on is the FBI could decide that it wants to build a case against the American, so it wants to have access to the database.

to look not for foreign intelligence collection, but for evidence of crime, which ordinarily they would need a warrant to try to access. So that's the main dispute here. But the thing is, those kinds of communications or those kinds of incidents where the FBI wants to collect that information, we're talking about like 0.001% of... the intelligence collection. What we're really talking about and what's really at stake here is the ability of the United States to collect intelligence overseas in a very dangerous world where a lot of people mean ill for the United States. I mean, that's the problem. And that collection, of course, is vital. Relatedly, Andy, today two men appearing in court in New York City. They were perpetrators of this attempted bombing outside Gracie Mansion. Just weeks ago, where they had these incendiary devices that were pretty serious. Thank goodness did not succeed. They did not explode the way they were intended to, but this could have been a very deadly event. They were screaming, Alahu Akbar. This attack was done in the name of ISIS. And there was a whole argument about... exactly how the media covered it for a while. They were pretending like Zohran Mamdani was the target, which was not the case at all. In fact, it was anti-Zohran Mamdani protesters who were the target. Setting that off to the side, it feels like this incident, much like some of the other jihadist attacks that we've had on the homeland during this DHS shutdown, which by the way is still going on. It still has not been resolved. It seems like they're moving towards a conclusion, but it is still underway. There have been a handful of these jihadist attacks just... within the last month or two, Andy, it feels like, broadly speaking, the American public is kind of slumbering through these, maybe because they're relatively low level and, thank God, low casualty numbers, but the desire to strike us here among jihadists remains. I think it not only remains, Guy, there's reason to worry that it could easily increase, given what's, you know, given the war in Iran and other things that are going on in the world, that tends to spike these kinds of activities. Remember, I think we talked about this before, but these two arrests in connection with what happened in New York City came in tandem over like a two-week period where we had four different. incidents, I believe. One in Texas, and then there were a couple of... There was Virginia. Michigan and Virginia, right. So, you know, we could get a spate of these, and you're quite right. The thing is that, you know... People have only so much bandwidth, and there's a lot going on in the world. And it kind of reminds me in a sense of the World Trade Center attack in 1993, which did get a lot of attention, but didn't get anything near 9-11 type attention because only six people were killed, including a woman who was seven months pregnant. If you have...

If you don't have wartime kind of casualty counts, people tend to just go on with their day. And a lot of these jihadist attacks are either attempted attacks that don't succeed or attacks that harm comparatively few people, like maybe fewer than you'd get in a weekend in Chicago any given weekend. I think we should be thankful that we become much more efficient in terms of investigating and thwarting these attacks. But you're quite right. It's just the fact that they want to carry out these kinds of attacks. And the way modern technology is, it takes fewer and fewer people to project more and more power. So it's something we obviously have to be vigilant about. I have to say your comparison. to the 93 World Trade Center bombing is ominous, and I hope not prescient. I'm going to sit with that through the break, Andy. When we come back, I want to shift to weaponization of government a couple stories to get your analysis of Andy McCarthy with us on Guy Benson. Keep it right here. Not the same talking points here, Guy Benson.

We are back here on Guy Benson with Andy McCarthy, still with us. Andy, I want to turn to weaponization of government and prosecutorial power on both sides of the aisle. Here's a story from the New York Post that I saw yesterday. The Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden, quote, withheld evidence and approved, quote, aggressive arrest tactics when targeting pro-life defendants, then slap them with longer prison sentences than pro-abortion offenders. According to an explosive internal review released on Tuesday, the DOJ revealed the stunning abuses in a nearly 900 page report after examining more than 700,000 records related to the Biden administration's prosecutions under the so-called Face Act. 1994 law passed to protect access to houses of worship, religious institutions, abortion clinics, and pregnancy resource centers. Andy, basically the upshot of this report. from DOJ is that in the previous iteration under the last administration, these laws were weaponized and used most aggressively for political purposes it would seem against political opponents of the administration on the issue of abortion. I think a lot of pro-lifers could have told you, of course this was happening, but here seems to be an admission from the DOJ itself. How big of a scandal is this or should this be in your mind? Well, I don't think that the fact that the Trump Justice Department... releases a report that confirms everything that in real time we already knew really changes much of anything because, you know, unfortunately, and this is the reason I've been beating the drum of having non-politicized law enforcement. The Trump Justice Department has been sufficiently politicized that anything it puts out in the way of a report like this is going to be taken with a grain of salt by people who point to its own. politicization. So I'll just talk about, forget about the report, what we objectively knew, which is that the Biden Justice Department consistently throughout its whole time and power, just like the Obama Justice Department, exploited the apparatus of federal law enforcement and intelligence to advance Democratic Party narratives. In the Biden years, there were two of them other than prosecutions of Trump. There were two of them that were most important. One was in the post-capital riot era. They tried to paint conservatives and particularly Trump supporters as domestic terrorists and white nationalists and what have you, white supremacists. That was a big narrative, and they tried to jack up prosecutions to support that. The other thing was abortion. They thought that, especially after the Supreme Court's Dobbs case,

that there was a lot of hay to be made politically for Democrats on the Democratic false narrative that what the Supreme Court had done and what Republicans wanted was for abortion to be completely eliminated. And while a lot of people, myself included, would love to see that happen. That was not what the legal cases were about. But what they tried to do, thinking that they could exploit abortion. as a wedge issue, particularly in the midterm elections and then ultimately in the 2024 election, was to gin up these prosecutions to make people concern that abortion rights or what they like to call women's reproductive issues were at risk. So this is something the Biden administration did all the time. I think they were hyper, hyper political. My beef is I hoped that President Trump would come in and stop this kind of stuff instead of doubling down on it. Yeah, I'm going to come back to that exact point in a moment, but just back to the New York Post report that we've just seen here, the Biden DOJ found to have engaged multiple times in, quote, biased enforcement. on this front while collaborating actively and even seeking to fund pro-abortion groups. So they were putting their fist on the scale on this issue. And just the last point on this, Andy, I think about the massive Hamas hate rallies that we've seen in our streets on our campuses, the abuses of civil rights of Jewish students, for example, and the way that a lot of that was just ignored or excused or allowed. very sort of tepid response of anything from the Biden DOJ on that front and others. And then the really. vigorous application, even abusive application of laws when it comes to peaceful pro-life protesters. I think it just, it really does speak to deep politicizing, which is a problem. That's my editorial observation on top of everything else. You can agree or disagree with that, Andy, and then move on to relatedly, I think to the point that you were also making. President Trump in an interview with Maria Bartaromo, defending the DOJ's ongoing criminal probe of the Federal Reserve and Chairman Jerome Powell and the renovations and all of that. I initially, when this came out, said, this does not smell good to me unless there is really powerful evidence of criminality. It looks like retribution in my mind against Jerome Powell and... interest rate policies that Trump has complained very loudly about. It just is redolent of weaponization, which Trump, I think, rightly decried, but now critics are saying his administration is engaged in. I wonder what you make of that, number one, and number two, what about the argument that you will hear from some Trump supporters that say, yeah, this probably is some weaponizing, but the left does it all the time. Andy, you just mentioned Biden and Obama.

why unilaterally disarm if one side's going to do it, both sides need to do it. A lot to unpack there, so I'll give you the floor. Well, I think the last point you made is the one that needs to be rebutted, which is it's against the Constitution. to do, to violate due process. Minor point. Yeah, right. So, like, you know, the legitimacy in the existence of the Justice Department is to vindicate the rule of law. And if you're going to take the position that the way we do that is to violate the Constitution, I think you need to take a couple of steps back and figure out where you went wrong. The Jerome Powell prosecution is a, I think it's an instance. And I should say it's the Jerome Powell investigation because there aren't any charges in the case. Right. But it's the instance of like the president doesn't know when to stop and back down. And as a result, you know, his minions keep pushing forward when it's really not in their interest and ruinous to do it. The president is obviously unhappy with Jerome Powell. They're also very unhappy that Judge Bostberg quashed. two subpoenas in that investigation because that raises the issue of whether it's the Justice Department or the federal courts that get to run investigations. Now, there are legal reasons why Bosberg did what he did, and the position that the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Justice Department have taken publicly about that is very different from what they told the court in the hearings. That frequently happens, unfortunately, with the Justice Department. But, you know, we could picket this for a long time. What I would just point out is that Kevin Warsh is supposed to have a confirmation hearing next week. Right. The replacement for Jerome Powell, because he's terming out. Right. And basically, even people who would be supportive of Kevin Warsh like Thom Tillis, the outgoing senator from, is it, North Carolina? That's right. He's basically saying, you know, look, I love Kevin Warsh. But unless the Justice Department drops this preposterous, ridiculous investigation of Jerome Powell, he's not getting through. He's not going to get confirmed. So I don't know how that helps. Trump. Anyone. And the final thing I would say about it is, you know, I heard our old friend, Janine Piro, in trying to defend this, she's the U.S. attorney in Washington, point out that there's 80% cost overruns at the Fed renovation. And anything like that, she says, needs to be investigated. And the first thing I thought of when I read that was that there's 100% cost overruns from the original estimate of what the White House ballroom was going to cost.

So are they going to investigate that too? Fair. That's a fair question. And is it the job of the DOJ to do that? Is it criminal? Right? Or is it just a pretext to come after Jerome Powell for these political disagreements, which is what it kind of seemed like to me. And the longer we've been waiting for concrete evidence of the contrary. The more we're just sitting here waiting for that, I really think it's a very bad look for the administration. And when I think that's true, I will say it. I know you have the same approach to this type of job, which is why we appreciate always having you here, Andy, on a whole host of issues. Andy McCarthy, longtime federal prosecutor, our Fox News colleague here, as a contributor by his books, read them, follow him on social at Andrew C. McCarthy. Andy, thank you. Guy, it's my pleasure. Thanks so much. Final hour. Guy Benson coming up next. Martha McCallum will join us. A lot to get to with her on some news of the day. That's next.

Raise your glass to Guy Benson Happy Hour. Brought to you by the Finnish Long Drink. Finland's most popular alcoholic beverage is taking America by storm. Visit thelongdrink.com. And now, here's Guy Benson. Happy hour time here on Guy Benson from the Big Apple. Thank you so much for joining us. Guy Benson.com is our online home. The podcast is free, every day on demand. As soon as the show ends in just about an hour, GBS at Fox.com. That's our email at Guy Benson on social, at Guy Benson by personal social accounts. This radio hour is sponsored by the Finnish long drink. We are fans. They've been great friends of ours. Please drink responsibly always. 21 plus only the long drink.com. But with us now is our colleague and friend Martha McCallum, executive editor and anchor of the story, 3 p.m. Eastern weekdays on the Fox News channel, bestselling author. co-politics anchor here at Fox News. She's got her podcast, The Untold Story as well. Martha, always great to have you. Welcome. Hi, Guy. Great to be with you. Let's talk about this Eric Swalwell business. What's done, apparently, is done, although there might be additional shoes to drop involving other members of Congress. There are rumors about that. I'm sort of fixated on this notion that the Democrats are now swearing up and down that they really didn't know anything about this until very recently, including Eric Swalwell's very close friend, Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona. who has seemingly contradicted himself about what he knew and when he knew it. It seems like this fire might not be extinguished for the party, even if Eric Swalwell is already gone. There's also a media angle to it that I want to ask about. Let's just start there. The Democrats like, who us? What? That whole act right now. What do you make of it? So I think with all these things, there's always the political angle and the personal angle. And unfortunately, in politics in Washington, it appears that sometimes there's a sort of Damocles hanging over someone, but it's only acted upon if it works politically for the people whose side they're on. So I keep going back in my mind to Eric Swalwell coming out. By the way, roughly around the same time frame as some of these accusations. So if these women are telling the truth, then he was carrying out these heinous acts against them.

Potentially, he's accused of drugging people's drinks while he was high and mighty with Brett Kavanaugh about something that happened in high school, which the accusers could not even pinpoint whose house had happened at or what we could happen at or where. So at that point, it was politically advantageous to Democrats to unearth this scandal against Brett Kavanaugh, which obviously came to nothing. He sits on the Supreme Court right now. But now that you've got this governor's race happening in California and Eric Swalwell not performing that well, you've got a jungle primary with two Republicans at the top, which means they could end up running against each other for the governor's seat in California. The sword was grabbed and, you know, metaphorically, he was stabbed. And so this is, I think, what people find very unseemly. That when you're aware of this kind of behavior, there isn't a push to come forward. There isn't a, you know, come to Jesus moment with him saying, look, you need to clear your name on all this. You need to get out there. This is wrong. You can't serve with these kinds of accusations hanging over you. So I think that's what people find really kind of disgusting beyond the actual act, which is disgusting enough, these charges. But it's that. All these things only get used when it's to political advantage. Right. And when it's politically safe to do it and he's seen as expendable rather than important or potentially useful or anything like that by, in this case, his party. The other thing, Martha, is there were rumors that. Some of these accusers were willing to come forward previously because this guy ran for president, right? He famously was the first one to really go after Biden's age on the debate stage back in 2019. And at least what I've heard is that some of this stuff was bubbling to the surface and then he dropped out of the presidential race and it sort of went away again. There have been a few members of the media who have said, oh, yes, we knew that there was a lot of smoke around this guy for many, many years, including one journalist out in California, said this was an open secret in democratic politics, especially in the county where the congressman hails from, all of that. And I just wonder if they had a lead on this for over a decade. At least some of them, it's like now it can be told. Why wasn't that pursued more aggressively? And for some of the women who are now coming forward, you'd kind of imagine that if this is part of a pattern of behavior that was an open secret, if that's the case, by remaining quiet, by not tackling the issue. Kind of by default, you were at least risking more victimization of more people in Eric Swalwell's employ. Because on top of everything else, the women involved here, most of them worked for him or were interns. So there was also that power dynamic in play. I don't know why that would be allowed to carry on year after year, allegedly.

Yeah, you know, I think that is something that we do hear from victims in these situations. I'm thinking of some of the obscene victims that either what ultimately made them come forward or the thing that they regret or feel guilt over not coming forward is that it happened to other people after them. And, you know, if these allegations are true that he... drugged people's drinks. There's one woman who said she had one glass of wine and she doesn't remember anything that happened after that, except that she woke up and realized physically that she had been raped and choked. So these stories are so heinous and horrible that it just raises questions about why they didn't come forward sooner. You know, it's very hard to. sort of calibrate what weighs on a woman emotionally in these situations. But whether or not, in some cases, you know, maybe they were rallied to this effort to push him out of the governor's race and convinced that it was, this is the time to come forward and there'll be numbers. If you do it, this other woman's also going to do it. And, you know, they decide for their own personal reasons that this is the time to come forward. But I think that guilt over not preventing it from happening to other people. And I think even back to the gymnast case with the. penis doctor who was abusing gymnast. That was something when I interviewed those young women that they felt terrible about, that they hadn't come forward for that reason. And I'll just add that. These are allegations. He does have a right to defend himself, a presumption of innocence. All of these claims, some of them are very disturbing, as you point out, Martha, should be tested by evidence. I've been very consistent on these things. I'm not sure he has, which is also part of his dilemma. That goes back to the politics that you mentioned at the top. Martha, I want to shift gears entirely, but I guess one common theme is the victimization of women. There is now a report, I saw this in the New York Post, that the Iranian regime is set to execute the first female, the first woman over the most recent spate of widespread anti-regime demonstrations in that country. They've been executing a lot of people, including many young men, including some who are pretty high profile or were before they were executed. Now there's a woman who's going to be executed according to these sources. And it just reminds me, you've had one female dissident on your show a lot, Masi Alinajad. She's been on this show as well. The regime tried to have her murdered here in New York City because of what she says and her outspokenness against them. She's been on your program. She's brought other women on the show. It just seems to me, whatever people think of the war, the military conflict, I'm in favor of, I'm in favor for various reasons. The very real human toll, the evil of what this regime perpetrates on a daily basis, especially against women. You think of the soccer team, et cetera. It just feels like in a media environment that really...

highlights certain victims. It's pretty stunning when other victims writ large, almost as a class or a group, are ignored or downplayed. And I feel like with very few exceptions, your show being one of them, these Iranian female in particular victims have gotten pretty scant media attention in the West. I wonder if you share that perception. And if so, why do you think that is? Yeah, I mean, it's a great question, and it's a question that Masa Alina Jod raises a lot on my show and your show and the other guy. You know, where is the outrage about these killings from the left in the United States? And, you know, I think about Chuck Schumer, who's calling for a ceasefire. So essentially, I don't think you can. crafted any other way in terms of takeaway that he's, I guess, trying to make sure that the current regime stays in place. And they're about to, according to reports, they're about to hang the first woman. I don't know that she's the first woman who has ever hung, I doubt it, in Iran, but she would be the first who participated or is accused of participating in the bloody January 2026 protests. And, you know, the numbers are so overwhelming in that I think they get lost in the reporting. But anywhere from 15,000 to 40,000 people. And the fact that we don't know tells you how closed this society is, but even the Iranian government has recognized thousands of deaths of these protesters who they say, you know, are just hostile to the regime. But, you know, what we understand right now is that the... Death sentences were issued for four of these protesters from the January protests, and that two of them are a couple. The husband is Mohamed Reza Pahlavi, Majidi Al, and the wife is Bita Hamati. Yeah, that the hanging of this woman shows that, or the potential hanging of this woman, just shows that they are not daunted by this war, that they are incredibly... radically, theologically driven in their protection of the regime. They do not look at things, you know, which is what constantly comes to my mind when I think about these negotiations. I mean, there's just two totally different ways of looking at the world on the other side of this table. And I think it's very hard to be like, oh, we're going to let you do this for five years and that for 10 years when you're talking with a regime who's hanging people from cranes in the street. Yes, I think that's exactly right. And I also think back, to the Gaza war, started by Hamas on October 7th, 2023, whenever there was a report about an Israeli bomb dropping somewhere in a hospital parking lot, even when it was made up and it didn't happen, or was an errant rocket fired by Islamic jihad, whenever there was an opportunity to blame the Israelis for any civilian deaths, the Hamas-run, so-called Ministry of Health in Gaza would put out instantly. some number of deaths and fatalities. Women, children, hardest hit. The international media would run with it. Instantaneously, it would be all around the world, the latest anti-Israel propaganda, true or not, intentional or not, with civilians almost always unintentional with the Israelis, that was a drumbeat. And yet...

Here we have verified tens of thousands of innocent people slaughtered in the streets, going back to these protests, by the regime. These are Muslims who are being mowed down and now some of them still being murdered by this regime. And it just feels like... The coverage is almost non-existent or just kind of like a shrug, oh, well, allegedly this happened and this is what the regime does, but, and then it's off to whatever the talking point is. And you juxtapose that with people running wild with whatever Hamas would tell them to on civilian casualties in a separate context. Other than very dark ideological aims here, I can't explain that discrepancy. Yeah, I mean, you put it so well, Guy, and your coverage has been great on this, and you articulate it beautifully. It's this question of just believing whatever one side tells you and ignoring what's happening on the other side. I have a hard time understanding it in any other way than... you know, Israel bad, according to the media, and give every ounce of benefit to Iran, to their proxies, to the terrorist regime and the terrorist activity that they've carried out for 47 years. I mean, it's, it is. It's unfathomable. And so, you know, if you purport to be any sort of news organization, you have to give equal time to what's happening here. And in some ways, you know, when you're talking about dissidents who are reporting the deaths of these wrestlers and athletes and all of these young people who have promising futures in Iran who are getting cut down for simply speaking out against their government or going out into the street. And you don't care about that. It just makes it really hard, too. to pay attention to your other arguments. You're right. It's glaring. Martha, from the Middle East to Manhattan, an update here with Mayor Zohran Mamdani. I want to get your reaction to that as soon as we return. Miss a minute. Miss a lot. Guy Benson.

We are back with Martha McCallum, our guest here on The Happy Hour and Guy Benson from New York. Martha, the mayor of New York City, a story much closer to home. He is announced with great fanfare at this city grocery store, which I'll let him fill you in on some of the details in his triumphant press conference, cut 17. New York City, it is time for a grand experiment once again. Just as LaGuardia used government to respond to the challenges of the Great Depression, we will use government to respond to rising prices and unaffordable groceries. Between 2013 and 2023, grocery prices increased in New York City by nearly 66%, significantly higher than the national average. During our campaign, we promised New Yorkers that we would create a network of city-owned grocery stores, one in each borough. And we are here today. to celebrate the site of the Manhattan store, La Marquetta, which will be open by 2029. Three years from now, Martha, they'll open this. The price tag to start is $30 million somehow. A lot of people pointing out that there are active groceries for sale, grocery stores for sale in New York right now for a fraction of that. But this is some giant city government project. $30 million, three years of lead time here of this announcement. He calls it a grand experiment. We've seen a less than grand experiment exactly on this front. in other cities. We've seen how that has gone. But he seems to believe it's going to work in New York, plowing 30 million into it. And this all against the backdrop of the mayor saying that the city is beyond broke and they're going to have to cut all this other stuff. Apparently, not this one, Martha. Interesting priority here. And the word experiment does come to mind because as I said, we've seen the results of very similar ones. Yeah, I mean, a couple of things come to mine and I would just reiterate the point that you just made because I think it's worth reiterating. They could be buying a grocery store that's already built for less than $3 million that is standing empty. They could clean it up. They could, you know, begin this project, which would make a lot of sense. Even if you think this project might work, why not do a test project and why not get it open in the next 60 days? You know, that's the kind of ingenuity that is possible. It is just a... repulsive reflection of government bureaucracy that you're going to send $30 million and it's going to take three years to open the doors of a grocery store. And I've always honestly entertained a bit when I hear him make comparisons to LaGuardia, which he made on the campaign trail as well. Fioro LaGuardia was dealing with the post-depression period when there were unemployment rates of 25% of the American population. It was a dire situation that required... a very emergency band-aid to just help people survive and stay alive. LaGuardia also served in Congress for close to two decades before he took on the job of mayor of New York, so he understood finance, he understood passing legislative bills, he understood the power of the purse. He also fought in World War I and was an intelligence officer. So to compare Zohran Mamdani to LaGuardia, and I know he admires LaGuardia, and that's great, but maybe he should also admire some of the practicality with which

LaGuardia sought to solve problems in New York. And the life experience being a factor there, as you've alluded to as well. Martha, we've got to let you go. At some point in the next couple of weeks, we'd love to have you back because the king and queen of England are coming to the U.S. late this month to help celebrate America's 250. That's a big moment. I know you'll be covering that very closely. I'd love to get you back to preview it. I'd love to do it. Thank you, Guy. Martha McCallum. On Guy Benson, more of the happy hour coming up. Talking about the issues you care about, Guy Benson. Earlier in the program today in our first hour, we welcome back to the show, economist Steve Moore. It's Tax Day, gag. We talked about what that means, but also some of the good news mixed in with the frustration of taxation. Really interesting conversation, especially on a day like this with Steve Moore. Here's part of it. Steve, the DNC chairman. A guy named Ken Martin. He tweeted today, quote, if you're paying higher taxes this year, you have Donald Trump to thank he raised taxes on 95% of Americans, then handed a $1 trillion tax cut over the next decade to his ultra-rich friends. I don't know what to call that other than a lie, Steve. Or some kind of new math that I've never heard of. Because it's simply the numbers just are telling us just exactly the opposite, that anybody who pays taxes got a tax cut, essentially. Now, there may be a bunch of people who don't pay any taxes, and they didn't get tax cut. You can't give a tax cut that somebody doesn't pay any taxes. But the vast, vast majority of Americans got that cut. And in fact, interestingly enough, today, in all places, guide the Washington Post. Their editorial, lead editorial today, the Washington Post, not the Wall Street Journal, said, hey, this tax code is more progressive than it's ever been, that the top, you know, 2% of taxpayers are paying 40% of the income tax. And, you know, people, it's very progressive. The more income you make, the higher the tax payment you pay in terms of the percentage of your income. And so anyway, you slice or dice it, we have a system that is, the rich really do bear a huge part of the burden. I've always been a big... Steve Forbes flat tax, so just get the rates down as low as possible, broaden the base, so everybody pays their fair share, and get the rate down to, you know, 17, 18, 19%, which would be like a rocket fuel for the economy. But all the left is able to do now is to lie about this, because frankly, they're embarrassed by the fact, oh, yeah, we voted for electricians and plumbers and, you know, homemakers to pay, you know, a big, big. tax increase if we had had our way and thank God Trump won the election and did make those tax cuts permanent. It seems like one of their only talking points on economic policy is

to, of course, raise taxes and in the process to grunt about fairness. They just kind of belch out that word, fair share, fairness, while demonizing rich people. And, you know, Steve, it depends on the year, but overall, approximately, and you touched on this just a moment ago, the reviled top 1%, those awful rich people, top 1% in the country. pay around or north of 40% of all the income tax revenue that the government collects. The top 1% paying 40 or in some years upwards of 45% of all the income taxes. The top 10% it's in the 70 plus percent range. Top 10% of income earners pay. 70% of all the income taxes that the government takes in. And the top 50%, right? So you take out half the country, the least wealthy, bottom half of the country. It's just the top half. It's like 95 plus percent of these income taxes are paid. And they talk about fairness, fairness, fairness. I'm just like, how is that fair? What I just described. Well, you know, obviously those numbers speak for themselves. I mean, this just amplifies what I was just saying. But it's even more than that. I mean, okay, so who are the rich people like Elon Musk and people like, you know, the FedEx chairman? Fed Smith who just recently died and, you know, the people who founded Bill Gates and so on, great companies. What about all the jobs they created? What about the fact that they employed thousands and thousands of people that they created, you know, hundreds and hundreds of millionaires? And that, you know, we need rich people. We are an aspirational country. And I think this is one of the big differences I've learned over 40 years. We as conservative free market, Republicans believe everyone can succeed in this country. And anyone can pull their boots, you know, themselves up from their bootstress. You remember when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made fun of that? Oh, no, that can't happen in America anymore. And that's just a cynical view. I've seen it all the time. People literally who grew up with only the shirt on their back can become a millionaire in this country. Nowhere else in the world does that happen. That's right. And it's not just the aspirational nature of this country and what capitalism allows and this is the unbelievable wealth that we have in this country. In fact, I saw a poll today. This is amusing. And I love the Brits, Steve, but they've made, I think, a lot of bad choices economically through the years, much bigger welfare states, so on and so forth, high taxes. And so it goes. That full discussion with Steve Moore available online at Guy Benson.com. If you can stomach it again on tax day, Guy Benson.com, Fox Newspodcast.com or wherever you get your podcast. When we come back, the home stretch, cookie and alligators. Stay tuned. New talk for a new generation, Guy Benson.

And now it's time for your favorite segment of the day. Home Stretch. It's basically the only segment I'm on. So I've declared it the audience's favorite segment. Guy Benson. Home Stretch here on Guy Benson, Wednesday edition in New York. Glad you're listening, Guy Benson.com. Podcast always free. I'm scheduled to be on outnumbered tomorrow, noon Eastern, on the couch with the ladies co-hosting for that hour Fox News channel. Hope you will tune in for that or set your DVR. Now, you'll be shocked to learn that producer Christine will not be with us here next week. She was off much of last week, and now she will be on vacation next week as well. I assumed it was going to be... But apparently she's mixing it up a little bit this time. Going to Acapulco every week or two, I guess, has gotten monotonous, even with all of the red carpet treatment from her friends in the cartel. So, Christine, where are you headed next week? Can I just go on record here for a second? You're always on record when that microphone turns on. Okay. Besides the couple days that I took off last week, which I didn't go on a vacation, it was my daughter's spring break, so I was home with her. Um, by the way, I was, I took her and a couple girlfriends last week to a Chick-fil-A in Union, New Jersey, and there was a huge, it was like a mass shooting that happened a few days later. Oh, yeah, like armed gunmen. Yeah, someone died. Storm the place. Yeah, I was at that chick-fell. I, nothing to do with that, but I was there. Oh, my goodness. Will you think twice about going there or? I wonder if they'd even reopen. I don't know. It's a pretty big deal in the area. Yeah. So anyway, that's, I wasn't on a vacation. Well, next week. Spring break. You're on spring break. I wasn't in Cancun in spring break. Down at your favorite place, Signor Frogs. Oh, I love that place. With the adult-themed vessels for drinks that we experienced together horribly awkwardly at Justin's wedding. I will be back there. I will be going to Cancun this summer. Oh, right. That's a separate vacation. Completely separate. Yet another vacation down there later. Have you made your reservations yet at Senior Frogs? No, not yet. I mean, do I need to? Can't I just walk in? They're not going to ID you. I promise you that. Guy. Sorry, go ahead. What were you going to say? So I am heading off to a tropical location with my family. One of the islands. I guess I could say it right. I don't think people are going to. The paparazzi going to track you down. Is that cookie cookie? Cookie. Cookie, who are you wearing?

Target's finest. As soon as you get off the plane, you're like going down the little ramp. Cookie! Look over here. Smile for us. I am adding to Turks and Caicos. There we go. It's supposed to be beautiful. Have you been there? No. Yeah, I'm excited. I heard it's supposed to be beautiful. I don't even know where it is. I know it's down there. Yeah, it's like below the Bahama. I mean, you're asking me. I don't know. That's a good point. I surprised you didn't think it was like in Turkey. Guy. Go on. So anyway. My husband suggested because we like to golf and we haven't really golfed much in 2026. So he suggested that we go golfing, maybe do a round of nine. Bring Megan. Show her what golfing is all back because we're trying to get her into it. She's not feeling it. So I had this thought once he booked it. And it didn't come to me earlier, but I had this sudden panic. What if there are alligators? Yeah, so hang on. The reason that we know this is because you decided when this thought entered your brain to then immediately text us on the show group chat about whether we think there are alligators at golf courses in Turks and Caicos. You came straight to guide Dylan and Joel on that one. Actually, what I said was, should I call the gov course? That was your thought. Maybe. Just ask them. And then you decided, never mind, scratch that, I'll just ask my chat GPT boyfriend. Correct. So did you? Yes. And what did he tell you? He said that there's really, there hasn't been many sightings. Have you named your chat GPT boyfriend? I think I did. Didn't we call him Glenn, Dylan? I think Glenn is. I say we like I'm adding you guys into this whole crazy madness. We called him that. I think I wanted my race horse to be Glenn. There's something about Glenn. I think you've used Glenn before. Yeah, I like the name. All right, regardless. Yes. He said that I don't need to worry because there's no alligators in Turks and Caicos. Problem solved. No, but there had been rare sightings of possibly the Cuban crocodile. It's not funny. It is funny. So then I needed to Google the Cuban crocodile. Forget the missile crisis. We have a crocodile crisis in Cuba that nobody speaks of. But you're not going to Cuba. What if they swam? Swam. To Turks. That's what I was telling Dylan. I'm like, do you think just like a whole group of there was like, you know what, let's try a different island? So are you convinced that the Cuban crocodile crisis has migrated to this island and therefore? There might be some risk. Christine, there are alligators all over golf courses in Florida. I know that's why I don't golf there. I have a very, very, very irrational fear of so many things. Of alligators. When was the last time a golfer was eaten by an alligator? Have you heard of anything like that happening? Don't ask Glenn.

Can you recall a single example of that? Like, oh, she was just out with her gal pals for some drinks and some golf on the links, and then an alligator ate her and she's gone. It happened in Happy Gilmore. The fictional film? I mean, they. The Adam Sandler movie from the 90s? Yeah, remember the guys? Let's pretend that's real. The pro golfer's arm was gone. Survived, though, right? Yes. And also there's so many. Do you swim in the ocean? Yes. There are sharks, Christine. I know, I know. You never know where they are. They might not be frequenting a certain beach, but they just show up. I do know that. Gladys the shark just swims up and boop. There goes cookies' leg. But I don't have an irrational fear of sharks. Why? That one's scarier to me. I don't know. I have nightmares since I was a little child. Constant nightmare sometimes of alligators. Just I'm running away from them, running away from them. You know who I'm rooting for? Go Gator. Yeah. Routing for the Gators in this one. Can we just go back to the main point of this whole story? Which is? Go Gator. Sorry, you were saying. The main point was it is not you, I feel like you're trying this week to make me crazy over anything I say, like make me sound crazy. It is not crazy. No, what I'm doing is making rational statements, number one, which I know you don't like. to get you even more eager to be on this most recent upcoming vacation. Not that you need more motivation to go on vacation. It's my first vacation of 2026. Oh, probably the first one that you've put in the system. Oh, I got an email the other day. Confirming? Saying the no that I need to use more days. Because you don't log them, which is, I think, illegal. I think we've talked about this. Anyway, please continue. I think it is fair. It's a fair question to call up a golf course and just ask. Do you have any? Per chance. Alligators around. Yes. Crocodiles, Cuban. Anything. Anything that could attack me on a golf course, I don't want to be there and I don't want my daughter to be there. That's why we do not go to Florida. If there is a one in one thousand chance that you would see an alligator at a golf course, would you not go? Like what's the pain threshold here? I think that if I did call them, I should call them right now on air, I think that if you did call them and they said, yeah, we have spotted them, then there would be no golfing in my future. When you call them, do me a favor and do it in one of your foreign accents, which always devolve into a Jamaican pirate, because I don't want them judging Americans as a group based on this phone call. Well, it's funny that you say that because I...

brought this hard-hitting question to many people after you made it seem like it was crazy. And one of those people were, I asked my boss and then I asked my boss's boss. And he too looked at him. You used their time on this? I sure did. Wow. Yeah. Judgment calls. Yeah. I even asked Bobby. Because, oh, Bobby told me never to do this again. I put together a little text group of some of Bobby's friends, like guy friends. And one of them had gone to Turks. So I asked him in the group. I'm like, hey, do we have any worry? And then they wrote back laughing and Bobby wrote in the group text. No, no, no, no, no we. I was never concerned about this. That's right. Please, this is crazy. I did not ask her to ask that. So I agree with Bobby is what you're telling me. Oh, he agrees with me. Because I thought he was going when I explained to him why my fear. And I thought, and I was like, guys, making it sound like I'm crazy. I'm like, right? It's crazy. Right. It's even worse than crazy. Here's my solution. Go down to the local Turks and Caicos version of senior frogs. Maybe they have them, maybe something similar. Have yourself, Mama's Juice, vodka, whatever you do. Probably with my daughter. Has that ever stopped you? Long, silent pause from cooks. So, you know, have a few. Knock them back. Next thing you know it, you're like in the little man-made pond trying to make friends with the alligators at the golf course. You'll just, you'll have a change of heart. The booze will make you, uh, cookie will be friendly. You'll be posing, you'll be posing. You'll be like Steve Irwin, posing with these crocs and like, Like throwing back a shot against the crocodile's will. It's not funny. Don't you see those stories all the time? Like, you know, Gator eats puppy in Florida, clear water, wherever. I don't know. Some pond in Florida. Well, I think animals sometimes get attacked. But again, I challenge you to find, to find, I mean, you could probably get rid of any number of your pets. By bringing them down to Florida, actually, and going golfing with them. Like, hey, there you go. Carousel or Rosie or whomever. Just off you go into the alligator realm. It's a fair question to ask, and I think it's a reasonable fear. And I think that you just want to constantly make me look nuts. It is not something that I desire or have to pursue. It's just something that happens very naturally. You understand I'm your like, I oversee this show. Your whole national radio show, I'm in charge of. It's crazy. It really is. Speaking of crazy, can't believe it. But here we are, years into it, and we're still doing segments like this one.

Because it just, it never ends. The parade never ends. And by parade, I mean of Christine's vacations, obviously, never ending. But we have a few more days with Cooks before she decamps yet again. So we will definitely have to bring you some more information, including a very tantalizing opportunity upcoming, a public appearance by yours truly with Christine in tow at one of our affiliate stations. We'll tell you where and when later in the week before she leaves for Turks, Kekos, and Crocs. Crocs. There's no crocs. Got to run. But before we do, just for the road, one more. Go Gator. Back here tomorrow. Same time, same place. On Guy Benson, have a great evening. So then I needed to Google the Cuban crocodile. Forget the missile crisis. We have a crocodile crisis in Cuba that nobody speaks up.

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