Trump Talks Tough, Warns Iran He's Ordered Navy to "Shoot and Kill" Any Boat Laying Mines

Summary

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The Morning Meeting: "Trump Talks Tough, Warns Iran He's Ordered Navy to 'Shoot and Kill' Any Boat Laying Mines"

Date: April 23, 2026
Host: Mark Halperin (2WAY)
Panelists: Hogan Gidley, Jaime (Jaime Moore), and various contributors

Episode Overview

This episode of The Morning Meeting centers on President Trump's escalations regarding Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, following his order for the US Navy to "shoot and kill" any boats laying mines. The panel of top-level news journalists, anchors, and producers dissects the president's statement, the precarious geo-political situation, and its domestic and international repercussions. The discussion also branches into related topics, including the upcoming Correspondents’ Dinner, US-Israel relations, recent changes in marijuana policy, the California gubernatorial debate, political fundraising, and crowd engagement with Q&A.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Iran Crisis and Trump’s Orders

Timestamps: 11:03–20:00

• President Trump’s Statement: Shortly before the show, Trump posted on Truth Social ordering the Navy to “shoot and kill” any boat laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, tripling minesweeping efforts. (11:03)
• Panel Reaction:
  • Hogan Gidley: Argues Iranian authorities only respond to power and strength. Trump’s control of the Strait significantly cripples Iran economically and could force them back to negotiations or provoke further conflict.

    “The Iranians only understand one thing and that's strength, that's power.” (12:10)

  • Jaime: Expresses frustration over the “never-ending war,” skeptical of Iranian leverage, and points out how prolonged operations hurt US public opinion and Trump's poll numbers.

    “I get a little bit less optimistic [each day]. ... If Iran still has that much power to keep us over there for 50 more days, then there's a bigger problem that we've got to talk about.” (13:27)

• Mark Halperin: Lays out Iran’s leverage: control of the Strait, potential for nuclear escalation, and the capacity to strike regionally.

  “They clearly have three pieces of leverage at least. Number one, they control the strait ... Number two, they still have the capacity to move towards a nuclear weapon ... And number three, they can strike other countries in the region.” (16:46)

• Diplomatic Uncertainties: Reports suggest possible peace talks with Pakistanis as interlocutors, but most signs point toward a military escalation.

2. Political Fallout Domestically

Notable Segments: 20:00–27:30

• Trump's Foreign Policy Critique: Guest suggests that Trump’s presidency, initially promised as anti-war and pro-affordability, has instead resulted in rising foreign entanglements and higher living costs, particularly gas.

  “If I were President Trump, I'd be really concerned that … the exact opposite has happened. Those costs are going up and we are in another foreign entanglement.” – Guest, (20:21)

• Israel Support Debate: Panel discusses falling American support for Israel, with Jaime arguing “new leadership outside Benjamin Netanyahu” is needed to regain public favor; Hogan sees little that can be done to reverse anti-Israel sentiment.
• Navy Secretary Firing: Quick reactions – both Hogan and Jaime see it as part of cumulative Trump administration chaos but of minor importance to average Americans.

3. US Politics: Congressional Dynamics and Marijuana Policy

Timestamps: 25:31–28:50

• Johnson & Thune Relationship: Jaime rates House Speaker Johnson's and Senate leader Thune’s working relationship a “four,” citing diverging values; Hogan rates it an “8.27,” highlighting impressive legislative productivity despite tensions.
• Marijuana Reclassification: Trump’s administration has reclassified state-licensed medical marijuana as less dangerous; panelists speculate about further moves towards recreational legalization but acknowledge Trump's personal anti-drug stance.

4. California Gubernatorial Debate Highlights

Timestamps: 29:19–33:40

• Tom Steyer: Portrays himself as the “billionaire fighting billionaires” and lobbying interests, advocating higher taxes for the ultra-wealthy and corporations.

  “I’m the billionaire who wants to tax other billionaires. I’m the billionaire who's taking on the electric monopolies… I'm the change agent in this state.” – Tom Steyer (29:19)

• Katie Porter: Faces scrutiny over a past staffer incident but asserts accountability and highlights her advocacy achievements.
• Steve Hilton (Republican): Pushes tax cuts and three-dollar gas, hoping to bridge the partisan divide in a competitive runoff.

5. Fundraising and Redistricting

Timestamps: 34:27–38:03

• Fundraising Gap: Republicans’ outside groups are raising and reserving record sums, possibly surpassing Democrats in raw dollars, as contributors are “scared as hell” to give to DNC, fearing retribution from Trump allies.
• Redistricting Frustrations: Despite ongoing legal battles, both parties manipulate boundaries for gain. Mark Halperin calls out the “hypocrisy on both sides” around nonpartisan rhetoric versus actual partisan gerrymandering.

6. The Correspondents’ Dinner and Insider Advice

Timestamps: 44:14–46:08

• Stories and tips for first-time attendees:
  • “Get there early for the pre-parties, but make sure you get a ticket to a good after-party and stay there.” – Hogan Gidley (45:04)
  • “Eat first. Always. ... You want to be walking around and talking to people.” – Mark Halperin (45:53)
• Both hosts reflect on their favorite encounters, including celebrities at past dinners (Michael J. Fox, BD Wong, Rosario Dawson, Princess Leia/Carrie Fisher).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Trump's Iran Warning:

  "I've ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat ... that is putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz. There is to be no hesitation. ... Our minesweepers are clearing the strait right now. ... continue, but at a tripled up level." – Reading of Trump's Truth Social, (11:03)

• Panel on War Fatigue:

  “I'm mad as hell that we are still in this war. When the president said we'd be out…” – Jaime (15:03)

• Speaker on Partisan Politics:

  "Most politicians try to fight for partisan redistricting and then accuse the other side of starting it." – Mark Halperin (36:32)

• Ossoff 2028 Presidential Run Denial:

  “I have zero interest in running for president in 2028 ... let’s keep our eyes on the ball, folks.” – Sen. Jon Ossoff (41:30)

• Celebrity Table at the Correspondents’ Dinner:

  “When I was there last, I was there with BD Wong and Nancy Mace and Rosario Dawson. ... That was my table.” – Jaime (47:48)

• Eight-Year-Old Guest, Stella: A charming thread of the episode as Stella, visiting for "Take Your Child to Work Day," periodically interjects with questions and comments, notably closing the episode with her favorite things about being on the show.

  "Who is your favorite person that you've interviewed?... [I] did an interview with Dick Cheney once that I just loved..." – Mark Halperin responding to Stella (46:39)

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Timestamps for Noteworthy Segments

• Pres. Trump’s Truth Social Post & Iran Analysis: 11:03–20:00
• Domestic Political Fallout: 20:00–27:46
• Israel Public Opinion & Navy Secretary Firing: 21:42–24:50
• Congress, Marijuana Reform, and Gubernatorial Debate: 25:31–33:40
• Fundraising, Redistricting, and Gerrymandering: 34:27–38:03
• Correspondents’ Dinner Advice: 44:14–46:08
• Q&A, Including Eight-Year-Old Stella: 46:39–59:33

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Closing and Tone

The episode balances serious global issues with insider Washington banter, offering listeners candid insight, sharp critiques, and a few light moments. The conversational tone stays lively, candid, and sometimes irreverent, with panelists’ personal connections and banter adding both humor and real-world perspective.

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For Listeners Who Missed It

If you missed the show, this episode serves as an up-to-the-minute morning primer on US-Iran tensions, the mood in Washington (from war rooms to the Correspondents’ Dinner), major domestic stories, and political personalities. Whether it’s Trump's abrupt show of force, play-by-play of Democratic infighting, or the real utility of party celebrity encounters, The Morning Meeting remains a must-hear for those who want to know not just what’s happening, but what insiders think it all means.

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Transcript

[A]

Five, four, three, two, one.

[B]

Welcome in, everybody. Thank you for joining. This is a morning meeting that countdown courtesy of Stella. Stella's here today because it's take your child to work day, and Stella's at work with mom Melissa, who works with us on the program. Stella, thank you for being part of the morning meeting. How's your morning going?

[C]

Good.

[B]

Yeah. What's the most exciting thing you've done so far today

[A]

during the countdown?

[B]

Yeah. And. And when your friends say, what does your mom do for her job? What do you say?

[A]

I say she produces a show in the morning.

[B]

Yeah. Produces a show in the morning. Stella, where do you. Where do. Where do you live, Stella?

[A]

Cedar Grill.

[B]

What time is it there right now, do you know?

[A]

Nine o'.

[C]

Clock.

[B]

Nine o'.

[D]

Clock.

[B]

So we say it's nine o'. Clock. That means it's time for what show?

[A]

The morning meeting.

[B]

Very good, Stella. Thank you for being here. We're just going to leave your mic open and if you either want to comment on anything or if you've got questions, Mr. Moore and Mr. Gidley are here to answer any questions you might have. And we're really grateful. We're really grateful to you for being part of the program today.

[A]

Thank you.

[E]

Go easy on us.

[B]

Yeah, go easy. Don't ask our questions. Heim is here. Is Hogan late? Is that why Hogan's not here right now?

[E]

He was here.

[B]

Hogan's here. So I was in Washington, D.C. for about 30, 30 hours, I think, and I had some meetings. So I saw people I knew at the meetings, but I only saw one person I knew the whole time I was there at the airport, at the hotel, walking around. I only saw one person I knew. And I saw him three times. Three separate times, I ran into Hogan. Wow, Logan, how do you. How do you explain that?

[D]

Serendipitous.

[B]

Serendipitous. Serendipitous.

[D]

I was having coffee with somebody. He said, I gotta go to the meeting. I said, we. We do too. We'll see in a bit. Then I saw him at the same location I was having me at the same location. I go into an office and there's Mark.

[B]

You didn't say what the location was, by the way.

[D]

Do what?

[B]

Good thing you didn't say what that location was.

[D]

Of course not.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

And then I'm leaving and I go back, drop my client off, and I'm walking back to the hotel. There's Mark.

[B]

Three for three. Hogan says serendipity. Thomas Hardy would call it hap. I would call it a further manifestation. I'm the luckiest man alive. 3. Three separate run ins with Hogan. Thank you. Thank you both for being here. And Jaime, I owe you some. I'm sorry, Hogan, what were you gonna say?

[D]

Nothing. Something stupid about.

[B]

Okay.

[D]

Seeing me three times.

[B]

Yeah. Okay. And. And hi, my iou. A debt of thanks. I don't think I'm misremembering because you tipped me off before I got to D.C. that there's palpable electricity in the air over the Correspondents Dinner. Right.

[E]

You said. I told you.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, you know, ladies and gentlemen, I went to Correspondents Dinner for the first time when Bill Clinton's first year, when Andrew Hsu went and all these Hollywood celebrities and it was just electric and. And now the things expanded and there was electricity. Bush, Obama. I won't say there was electricity in the Biden years. Sorry. But. But this is, this is quite something. Jaime is dead on. Just being in town, you can feel it. People are really excited. Not just about the dinner, but as Jaime said, events have already started. They've already been like three nights of events and probably. Hogan, you were probably out till 2 in the morning last night.

[D]

I was not. But I did go to the French embassy last night for a black tie event, which was nice, kicking off my week of correspondence dinner.

[B]

Do you have multiple tuxedo shirts?

[D]

I have multiple tuxedos and multiple tuxedo shirts.

[E]

Do you not, Mark?

[B]

Yeah, I, I really don't. Guys. I barely have one. Or at least one that fits.

[E]

Don't have black tie in New York.

[B]

I'm not, I'm not like you guys. I'm, I'm, I'm, I, I wear T shirts and jeans.

[D]

Own white tie and tails.

[B]

That's also. Jaime, you don't own white tie and tails.

[E]

No, I'm not doing that.

[B]

That's just. Hogan, that's just a waste of money.

[E]

Yeah, well, it isn't fit to be fair. When you're from Louisiana, you get your tuxedo pretty early because all the Mardi Gras balls. So you do circulate a pretty decent amount of tuxedos.

[D]

Well, interesting story about white tine tales. First Trump Admin, myself and Stephen Miller decided. We worked. He does. He's quite the sartorial giant. He and I had this conversation, said we're going to go buy this year because to rent one was 250 bucks. We'll be here at least four years. That's going to pay the for gridiron. Sure, let's go ahead and buy it. And we did and after the first time we wore it, Trump says, no more of these things. And we're like, ah, yes. So then our attempt shifted to try and get Wilbur Ross, billionaire extraordinaire, to purchase a yacht and park it in the Potomac. And allow myself and Stephen Miller to go back and forth up the Potomac and give different people rides in our white tie and tails would be the only appropriate dress on the yacht. It did not happen, sadly.

[B]

All right, I'm gonna work on, I'm gonna work. I know exactly how to saw this. I'm gonna work on it. Hogan's here, Jaime's here. Grateful to you both. Grateful to the two way community for being part of it. Raise your hand if you're here in the platform. Want to get in on the conversation? If you're watching on X or YouTube, no smack in the chat. Unless you want to just go hard after Hogan for having whitetails. I, I declare an open season on smack on that topic. Otherwise you no smack in the chat. And big news to share with you later today, five o' clock Eastern time. Two distinctive things about two Way tonight. First of all, it'll be our maiden moment, a maiden episode simulcasting on the new streaming X based platform, monitoring the situation. So we'll, we'll be, we'll be streaming there as well. And, uh, Secretary of transportation, uh, Mr. Duffy, Secretary Duffy will be our guest and we've got lots to talk to him about and a chance for you all to ask the secretary questions. So join us at 5 tonight. All right, let me run through the day book if I could and tell everybody what's going on. Amidst a continued day of uncertainty about what's going on in Iran. And we'll talk about that, but plenty of other topics as well. White House pool today includes semaphore. Wonder who's doing the duties for semaphore. And the president has a full day, but as you look down the schedule, one open event at 3:30, 8:00', clock, executive time, probably working on his jokes for the dinner, 11 o', clock, receives his intelligence briefing, 1:30 signing time in the Oval, close. Then 3:30 he's doing a healthcare affordability event in the Oval that's open to the White House pool. Let me go see who the TV pool is. I glossed over that cbs. So maybe my friend Jennifer Jacobs will be in there. Jennifer Jacobs of CBS News, formerly of Bloomberg, formerly of the Des Moines Register, one of the most respected reporters in Washington. And the White House team really respects my friend Jennifer. So she, she'll get some good solid substantive questions in and I'm assuming it'll be her and maybe not. There's other reporters there. Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions. I hope it's Jennifer. 4:30. The president's got a policy meeting closed, pressed and then a private dinner for the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace. Note to self, I want my own Institute of Peace. Don't know what the Vice President's doing but presumably his bags are. Exactly. Presumably his bags are packed because he may be headed right now just to give you the set the table in Iran. Here's the possibility. Peace talks within a few days leading to an agreement or World War iii. Those are the two. Those are the two end seats. We'll talk about it. The first lady and the Second lady teaming up at 12:15 hosting the 113th annual First Lady's Luncheon. I don't know. Is there coverage of that or is that closed press? I don't know. Michael, do we know. Is that open press?

[E]

Probably in there. Then the, then the first lady have her own pool maybe?

[B]

Yeah, but they don't. It's open press. Okay. Senate was until like 3:20 in the morning passing their reconciliation after a vote of Rama the They're gone. House is voting on some drilling permit requirements. Jameson Greer testifying. Senate Finance. Howard Lutnick testifying. Fiscal year Appropriations. House Appropriations subcommittee Hakeem Jeffries. 11 o' clock has its press conference. EU heads of state gather in Cyprus for a two day for informal meeting and then it's a second round to talks between the Israelis and the Lebanese. In Washington today, jobless claims came out they were I think a little better than some people expected but nothing to dominate our day. The president was on Truth Social in just a little bit ago and we'll read that to you first. But first let me take care of some business and remind everybody about our sponsors Cozy Earth and the opportunity you have now to buy your Mother's Day gifts. 20% off. Go to cozyearth.com use the promo code. Morning. You can buy your mom a bathrobe. You can buy her the slippers. You can buy the small or large bubble cuddle blanket in a variety of colors. I recommend you get some Mother's Day gifts right now from Cozy Earth because I can tell you this, besides the money back guarantee, if your mom hates it, your mom won't hate it. Your mom will love it. And, and she'll say why haven't I ever heard of these folks at Cozy Earth before? And you'll say because mom, you don't watch the morning meeting. If you watch the morning meeting or two way tonight, you'd know all about Cozy Earth. So you're educating your mom about a great company and buying her a Mother's Day gift she'll love. And saving 20% off. Where I come from, ladies and gentlemen, we call that win, win, win, win, win, win. So go to cozy earth.com right now. Excuse me. Promo code morning for 20% off everything on the site. Let Mother's Day be a reminder to all the moms in your life that you know that they deserve. Careful, because home starts with mom. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

[D]

I'm doing it, gentlemen.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

And I will report back.

[B]

Okay, let me know.

[F]

I started with one shop. No college degree, no big investors. It was just a willingness to work. Over time, that one shop turned into a multi billion dollar business called Crash Champions. All the lessons I learned along the way came from the grind. And that's what my show Pod Crash is all about. We have real conversations with people who've built things the hard way. We talked to founders, athletes and blue collar leaders who kept going when things got tough. You'll hear stories of grit, leadership and growth. Plus real world lessons you can take back to your team and your life tomorrow.

[B]

When you get momentum, you step on the gas. That's how you get separation from everybody else.

[D]

I was at Harvard Law School. I was blah, blah, blah. I looked up.

[B]

Let me tell you something.

[D]

There's kids in my neighborhood putting in Sheetrock that are smarter than you.

[B]

AI is going to disrupt a lot of stuff.

[D]

It is never going to disrupt physical

[B]

blue collar trade skill.

[E]

And the guy just looked at me

[B]

and he said it's bloody impossible.

[D]

So I asked him this question.

[B]

I said, it's impossible. Unless that's.

[F]

Podcast with me, Matt ebert. Watch on YouTube and listen wherever you get your podcasts.

[B]

Gentlemen, let's start with the President's post on Truth Social. Again, my source is all and analysts you know across the board. Does pressuring Iran, either economically and or militarily, bring them to the table? Hogan, you first. Deconstruct the tweet. The Truth Social post of the President. That happened just before we went on the air. I'll read it now. I've ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat, small boats though they may be. The naval ships are all 159 of them at the bottom of the sea. That is putting is a poorly written sense, Mr. President, with all due respect, that is putting mine. Let's start over. He's ordered them to shoot any boat that is putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz. There is to be no hesitation. Additionally, our minesweepers are clearing the strait right now. I'm hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled up level. Thank you for attention this matter. There was a story, I think in the New York Times, maybe it was in the Journal, that said it would take six months to get the mines out of the strait and that couldn't start till the war was over. The president seems to beg to differ. Hogan, what do you make of this in the context of trying to figure out how to get the negotiations back up again?

[D]

I feel as though they only understand. The Iranians only understand one thing and that's strength, that's power. And, and while they pretend as though, you know, they're not going to be forced to the negotiating table through this method, nothing else really has worked for them. But Donald Trump has an interesting situation right now, and that is as he controls a blockade, he understands the economic destruction he is causing to Iran. They understand it, as do people like China and Russia as well, concerned about the oil flow for them. So if the straight opens back up and if he decides to allow these things to happen, I would imagine bombings commence because that means they've not paid attention to the bombings, they're not paid attention to the economic turmoil. So we're going to go back probably to a military operation if that's the case. I think him having control of this strait and preventing Iran from making 400 and some odd $500 million a day is further crippling them in this scenario and I think is a good thing.

[B]

Jaime, thoughts on Hogan's critique of the president's post?

[E]

I don't know. I mean, look, it's hard to know what the heck's going on. And I think we every day the news reports are all over the place. But I think you were right, Mark. We are. And yet again, for the third or fourth time in 50 days, we are at the crossroads of potentially going into a very intense world. Involved war are having some sort of semblance of peace. And it feels like today we're headed more toward some sort of military war like scenario, boots on the ground, like Hogan mentioned, more bombs. And here's. I was optimistic maybe about 15 days ago that this thing was going to come to a close. But every day I get a little bit less optimistic. When you think about the Iranian, Iranian people and the regime and whomever is over there, is in charge. I think Hogan's being really kind that they care about how bad this thing's really gotten for them. It feels like they are trying to see this through as, as much as they can. And they're. And, and they're not giving as much credence to how much we've crippled their economy, how much we've crippled their military. You know, and so that's one. And then second, I've been saying this, said it yesterday, I'm saying this all week. It seems like they're still holding us hostage. It's been 50 days. We're still engaged in this war. We are still talking about. The president's poll numbers are going down every day. Gas prices are going up, and I don't know what the heck's going on over there. But if Iran still has that much power to keep us over there for 50 more days, then there's a bigger problem that we've got to talk about.

[D]

What's their power? I'm not being, I'm not trying to be a gotcha or I ask, what do you consider their power? What do they know?

[E]

It doesn't, it doesn't matter that we have, we have, we have, we are still in a war. It's not about them having power. We're still engaged in a war with them. And they are still holding certain pieces of this supply chain hostage. We're blocking the strait because they have already, because they closed it. And so it's just if we, if we can sing all 156 Ships and if we can bomb the hell out of that, of that country, take their assets away, what are we going to do for the next 50 days? Why are we still there? What's the, what's the next step in this thing? You know, and I, I'm not saying I'm not giving Iran any credit. I'm just saying I'm mad as hell that we are still in this war. When the president said we'll be out

[D]

three weeks, that's their leverage. I think that's. You're hitting on something. I think Hama, that is their only leverage, and that's time. They have no money. They have no military. What they do have is time. And if they can try and make that time continue for longer, they're counting on the pro Iranian media. They're counting on the, the, the, the campaign to make them out to be the victim somehow to change sentiment to this country that would, in this country rather, that would hurt Donald Trump, thus making him stop the operation that may work.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

But I'm saying I don't know how much time they actually.

[E]

I get that, and I agree with you. We've talked about this, and then people have been saying, you know, we hold the clock, they hold the time. I think that is true. However, that is still infuriating when you are an American citizen who's paying for this war every day and this. And we see no end game ahead of us.

[B]

Let me say I try really hard to not make this program Groundhog Day, but the facts haven't changed very much in the last 48 hours. There's another. Another Iranian connected ship that the Americans boarded yesterday. We can put that up while I talk about it. That's incremental. The Iranians seem to be firing maybe on a few more things. But, Hogan, I think the Iranians have at least three key pieces of leverage. And, and look, there's a. There's a factual question. There's an empirical question. Are the people in the administration who think they are on their final throws on the economy correct, which is to say they. They need the oil revenue to pay the military and the secret police. And if they, if they can't find a way to get rid of the oil, to ship the oil out to China and elsewhere, then the oil infrastructure is going to be destroyed because you got to shut it down, because there's nowhere to put the oil. And once you shut it down, it's a problem. That's a factual question. Is that happening today, tomorrow, next week? We don't know the answer to that. But I would say, leaving that ticking clock aside, they clearly have three pieces of leverage at least. Number one, they control the straight. And. And sometimes I'll say that, and I'll get a bunch of angry emails and things on Twitter. They control the straight, ladies and gentlemen. The American blockade, whether it exists or not, it's just blockading Iranian ships. They're controlling other ships from going through. So, number one, they have that. Number two, they still have the capacity to move towards a nuclear weapon. We haven't eliminated their nuclear capability completely. We certainly degraded it quite a bit, but we haven't eliminated it. And that's really the main reason this whole thing happened. And number three, they can strike other countries in the region. We're pretty sure they still can. Another report, I think from cnn. We've seen these every so often. Their missile capability, their drone capability is, is. Is not fully degraded. They're still operational. There's a ceasefire going on, so they're not doing It. And, and, and they also have not done a ma. An act of mass terror, which maybe they can't, but maybe they can. I put that in the second category, in the third category, so they have some leverage. And this, this war is not over. Okay, It's. It's not over.

[D]

Striking then.

[B]

I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. Now, the United States position is on. On record. We'll give them a few days, two days, five days. We don't know. Let's give them a few days. Let's let the, the great Pakistani interlocutors see if they can say between. In the Iranian government, you've got the quote, unquote, civilian leadership, you got the military, and you've got the, the clerics. Let's see if, if there's a group that can say we speak for the whole country, we can make a deal. That, that seems to be the state of play right now is. And, and, and there's. There's some reports that the interlocutors, not just the Pakistanis, but the Egyptians and others are pessimistic. And there's some reports that the talks may begin next week. Okay, we don't know. What we do know is this. If you think that the person who sets MAGA off the most when they talk about the war is Hillary Clinton are wrong. If you think the person who sets Mag off the most when they talk about Donald Trump in the war is Kamala Harris, you are wrong. Ladies and gentlemen, I stipulate for you that everyone in this meeting who's MAGA is about to sit here a thousand monkey nails on a thousand blackboards. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you 105.

[G]

So the IRGC is maybe, maybe more powerful today than it was before this began, and that is not a good outcome. You know, if I were President Trump, I'd be really concerned that he started out against foreign wars and for lowering the cost of living for average citizens in America. And the exact opposite has happened. Those costs are going up and we are in another foreign entanglement. So there are a lot of reasons why everybody ought to get to the table, behave like adults, notwithstanding the affronts that everybody feels for one thing or another. You gotta be professional diplomats here and get to the task of negotiating very tough issues.

[B]

Am I right? Jaime? Am I right? That maga's gonna just hate that.

[E]

My favorite patrician politician.

[B]

Yeah, Hogan. For some reason I'm inclined to ask you if you have any great pepon.

[D]

He is. He is the left smitt. Romney or. They're very closer than that, but, yeah, it isn't. In his house on Martha's Vineyard. Supposed to be underwater by now, according to the climate change expert himself.

[B]

Or am I wrong? It could happen. All right, guys, I'm going to ask you for extreme discipline. We're going to do the next three topics, one sentence each from you. Okay. One sentence each.

[D]

Can it be like a Trump sentence?

[B]

It can be. You can do the weave, but no semicolons, only commas. Okay. Jaime, you first. Matthew Continetti has a great column in the Wall Street Journal today about all these Democratic senators voting to not help Israel militarily, even to give them, like, hard. Like trucks. If. If. What's the one thing that Israel and its supporters could do? What's the best thing, one thing they could do to try to turn public opinion back in support of Israel?

[E]

I would probably say elect someone outside of Benjamin Netanyahu.

[B]

The. So have a different prime minister.

[E]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

Okay, Hogan, what's the best thing supporters of Israel could do?

[D]

I don't think they could do anything to make people end their Jew hatred.

[B]

Nothing. Nothing could be done.

[D]

I don't think that you. I don't think you can.

[E]

I think that I. That's. Look, it's. If I'm gonna. This is. There's a separate understanding of Israel and his government.

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

Jewish people. Thank you. We're talking about Israel. We're not talking about hate of Jews. Israel. In the public opinion of American people, particularly liberals, it's about the leadership and about the values of the leader. Not about.

[B]

Hold on, hold on, guys. Can you say it's not about.

[E]

It's not about the Jewish people.

[B]

We. We said leadership. We said one sentence.

[D]

Right and left are on the same page.

[E]

I can't deal with that.

[B]

Yeah, they're on the same page.

[D]

Left.

[B]

Hogan, I can't agree with what you're saying, but what I can agree with, which we all agree with, is this is a national. There's a national crisis for the United States and for Israel. But for the United States to have all these Democratic senators who honestly know better. They're voting because the base of the party would kill them if they didn't vote that way. That's just a fact.

[E]

And also, the leadership of Israel did no entreaties whenever Donald Trump became president. One and two. They completely turned their back on Democrat support, which they used to have a lot. And so when the prime minister came to the United States and D.C. didn't meet with any Democratic senators, He went to Mar a Lago. I mean, so he didn't do any, you know, any.

[D]

Because he wouldn't work.

[B]

You're right. Well, you know, I mean, all right, we got to move on. We got to move on. The Pentagon. John Phelan is fired as Navy Secretary 104, please. Pete Hagsett seems to like to fire people who he doesn't like. He couldn't fire the Secretary of the army because he's a friend of the vice President's. But failing billionaire campaign contributor, the president was fired. Hogan, what's the significance of this on. In a Green Bay diner? If people said to you, what does it matter that John Fon. What would you tell somebody? In a Green Bay diner?

[D]

In a Green Bay diner, It wouldn't matter at all.

[B]

Yeah. All right, Jaime, is this significant at all?

[E]

I don't, Look, I don't think. I think it's a, it's a, is a, it's cumulative. You know, we're, we're, we're seeing, we've seen this movie play out before where all the chaos around us. President Trump has, you know, a couple good months around the economy and then, then falls into chaos, and then it's all these people leaving the administration, and then, you know, there's covet. I mean, so, I mean, we've seen this before. It just, it's just cumulative chaos.

[B]

All right, next topic. Hogan's. Hogan's an advisor to all, all the leading figures in the United States, including Speaker Johnson. But. So just make that clear, Jaime. If. If on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being Bob Torricelli and Frank Lautenberg, just two guys who can't stand each other, and one being you and Hogan, two guys who like, like twin brothers to different mothers. Where are John Thune and Speaker Johnson right now in their relationship with all these things to work out on spending and FISA and, and reconciliation and, and housing, where's their relationship? Zero is the worst, 10 is the best. Where's their relationship?

[E]

You guys know I have a great respect for both, particularly Lune and the speakers from my home state, Louisiana, but I think they're probably at like a four right now. I don't think it's horrible, but I do think that the value systems that they are sharing are starting to divert. And we talked about this before. Leader Thune is preparing for the next phase of the Senate, be it with Donald Trump or whomever. And, and, and, and, and the speaker is not the speakers. The speaker is preparing for his last days of Speaker.

[B]

All Right. I, Carnac style will say that Hogan's going to pick a number bigger than four.

[D]

Hogan, I'm going to say 8.27.

[B]

Yeah. You know the undertold story. Although they have a lot to get through and there are some points attention now those two guys have really held it together. Yeah. And, and, and they've done it. Even though the president really, by any logic of how a bill becomes a law, the president should really be weighing in more. I don't know. I don't know why he's not, but.

[D]

Well, but it's not that he doesn't and I would argue you have to understand their constituencies. The Senate th has a constituency that's much different and bigger, quite frankly than does Mike Johnson in the House. The diversity of the five families of the Main street caucus versus the Freedom Caucus.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

Versus the moderates. These are all different players and if one of them defects, the, the agenda is dead.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Every day one of them defects. And Mike Johnson said this before and he's right. It's like he wakes up and there's a bank of dials used to have Elon on it, but it's got the President, the vice president thune and every 218 members he's got and every day he's twisting a knob to try and figure out what where they are because these dials just go crazy and haywire at the drop of a hat. Doing that and still being able to accomplish passing more bills than any Congress in history. More of the President's executive orders codifying them in law than any Congress. This is unbelievable work by both the speaker and by th they have a good relationship, but they also have constituencies they have to answer to.

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

All right.

[B]

We could talk about this for the hour, but we got to move on. 125, please. This long expected, long touted. No one's surprised anymore. The United States federal government says going to reclassify marijuana. Trump reclassified state license medical marijuana as a less dangerous drug in an historic shift. Here's my question. I'm a first. Will the President support recreational use before he leaves office, yes or no?

[E]

Potentially. I, I think there's a financial case to be made for it, but it seems like he's always been adamantly anti drugs.

[B]

But so, so you're, you're saying, you're saying maybe.

[E]

I think he'll entertain it.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Hogan, his brother was an alcoholic. He does. That's why he doesn't and has never had a drink. He doesn't like drugs. I think if you bring this back to him, because he's already made some moves on marijuana. Now, if you went back to him, his first thought would be, didn't we already do something about this? Yeah, and I think it would. At this moment in time, he'd be like, no, no, we've already done something on this.

[B]

Oh, I disagree. I think they'll come back to him and say, let's do recreational.

[D]

And he'll say, I'm not saying it wouldn't happen. I'm saying his initial reaction, like, hold on.

[B]

He's going to do it. I think now he's going to do it. Okay, we got sound bites from the California debate. Gubernatorial debate. And we don't have time to show everybody, so I'm going to let you guys pick. Jaime, whose sound bite would you like to hear? Porter Steyer, man. Hilton Stier. Steyer. Let's hear Tom Steyer from last night's California gubernatorial debate. 118.

[H]

So let me say this. I'm the only billionaire on the ballot. Nikki. But I'm not the only billionaire in this race. The billionaires and corporations are spending big in this race to oppose me and to support the other people on this stage. In 2024, corporations spent $540 million to lobby in Sacramento. They are literally spending tens of millions of dollars against me. I'm the billionaire who wants to tax other billionaires. I'm the billionaire who's taking on the electric monopolies and trying to break up their power. I'm the billionaire who wants to tax the oil companies and make polluters pay. So when you say I'm the only billionaire in the race. Yes, but I'm the person who is the change agent in this state.

[B]

I thought that was pretty good for Tom Steyer.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

What do you guys. I thought. I mean, he's. He's not usually that good. Hogan, I know you don't want him to win, but that's pretty good, right? You agree with me.

[D]

I'm the billionaire who's not going to part with any of my money. I just want to take all of yours.

[B]

All right, you won't answer a question, Hogan. Who do you want to hear? I bet you want to hear your friend. You want to hear your friend Steve Hilton.

[D]

I don't. I want to hear from. What's her name?

[B]

Katie Porter.

[D]

Katie Porter, yes.

[E]

The former congresswoman. That's her name.

[B]

Here's, here's, here's, here's.

[D]

I can't remember her name. I'm sorry.

[B]

Here's Katie Porter, here's Katie Porter. 119, please.

[D]

What have you done to address those concerns?

[B]

And as a person who frequently speaks about being a parent on the campaign

[D]

trail, what would you tell your own kids if they ever faced a boss like that? You have 60 seconds.

[I]

I apologized that day to that staffer four years ago. And I took responsibility then and I have taken responsibility since, acknowledging that it was not the right way to treat someone. And that is a big contrast to what we have seen other candidates do when they have been called out for misconduct. I'm proud that that staffer in that video and I continued to work together for four years following that incident, and it speaks to how I addressed it. I work hard with my team to deliver for Californians things like free COVID testing in the first days of the pandemic, first weeks of the pandemic, things like cracking down on pharmaceutical price gouging, calling out a bank CEO for the fact that their employees couldn't pay for housing. All of my accomplishments have come from my team. And I would say that if somebody is treating you rudely, you should speak up.

[B]

How is that, Hogan?

[D]

I. I can't stop laughing at the. Someone in the chat put Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter. That's epic.

[B]

That's a great pull. Yeah. All right. That is Jaime. How'd you do? She.

[E]

She's fighting for her life, and I don't know if it's going to be enough. Yeah. And I don't want to say anything bad about her, but I think Tom Steyer and Becerra seem to be benefiting the most. Tom Sawyer is going to run a bunch of ads against her very soon, and it's going to be between Tom and Becerra.

[B]

You think they're. They're going to be. They're. They'll.

[E]

No. Well, the. The dim side of it. Yeah. But I think it's going to be a. Steven. Steven. Tom. Yeah.

[B]

Okay. Hey, is Stella still there? Stella, are you still. Yes, she's here. Hey, Stella, would you like to hear from a man named Hilton or a man named man? Which would you pick? Hilton. Here we go. Thank you, Stella. Here we go. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Republican Steve Hilton, who will probably make the runoff from last night's debate. We need to cut spending and cut taxes so that we can give relief to families and businesses. My plan is for three dollar gas and your first hundred grand tax free. That's what we need to do to make our state Cal. Affordable. Mr. Hilton. Thank you, Frank. He had me until California. So Jaime, you think it's going to be either Becerra or the billionaire against Hilton in the runoff and, and the Democrat will win. That's what you think, right?

[E]

I suppose. But you know, you know, California has elected Republican governors before, and you. And as much as Hogan and his friends like to call it a liberal state, there's a chance that, you know, the right Republican could do pretty well in this season.

[B]

Now you're just, now you're just messing with us. Hogan, who's going to. Which two are going to make the make the finals?

[D]

I think Hilton and Steyer.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

Hilton and Stier. All right, those are, those are good guess. Okay. Fundraising. New York Times is a story about how Democrats, Republicans are just candid. Democrat candidates are doing well, but the Republican Party committees, particularly RNC versus DNC is just like a crazy gap. And of course, there's no analog to the president who's raising a lot of money and James Blair is getting ready to spend it. Here's the announcement this morning from the Republican House outside group, the main group that works with Speaker Johnson, the CLF 113. They announced this morning that super PAC endorsed by Speaker Johnson initial wave of reservations, 38 markets totaling $153 million. Broadcast, cable, streaming and digital. Initial reservation is their largest ever. Jaime, that's a lot, right?

[E]

It's not.

[B]

That's a lot. That's a lot. And James Blair is saying first time Republicans may have just stack up all the money in the different categories. Republicans may have more. Hogan, what accounts for this?

[D]

I think there is a healthy fear of losing the House and then having to focus on defending impeachments from now until the end of the term. I think there's also some quiet optimism that albeit the party out of power typically wins in midterms. There's a chance for Republicans here with the passage of the big beautiful bill, but also the unpopularity of Democrats who actually hold the House for Republicans. And I think a lot of people like Mike Johnson and a lot of people still give a lot of money to the president and people like Thune and so they're giving money in hopes that they can somehow turn the tide of history.

[B]

Well said. Well said. Okay.

[E]

And I got to say, Mark, and you know, I have clients who are a part of this giving, giving. And people have been scared as hell over the last year to give to Democrats, particularly the DNC because of retribution potential from the president and his allies. And so that is a factor in this as well.

[B]

And that is a turtle on offense. Post that's not happening because they're sort of abstractly afraid. The president's very ruthlessly and cleverly that's just made it clear to them that if he can read the FEC reports, still trying to figure out how the courts are going to adjudicate the Virginia redistricting plan. The the lower court is, is saying it can't. It's unconstitutional. The state supreme court will eventually rule. Most of legal observers say it'll be upheld. Florida is still kind of messing around. Ron DeSantis doesn't seem super enthusiastic. Some House Republicans are worried that they're going to lose seats because they've already redistricted quite a bit there. The most annoying thing about what's going on with redistricting is and, and, and I should also say we talk here about the voting rights case and how that could change this. A lot of people are now saying it's just too late.

[E]

It is.

[B]

Politico. Politico this morning had a very good summary of this and say there are too many states that have already had primaries. Too many states are on track. Even if the Supreme Court ruled next week and struck down the Voting Rights act, it's not clear how many states would have the political will to overturn the process that's already in place. So this is going to net out as, at a minimum, at a maximum for Republicans, a seat or two. And we really won't know till Election Day because like in Texas, they think they have five or they thought they had five, they may end up with literally with one. I think if, depending on how these races go, what's most annoying to me is the hypocrisy on both sides. It's manifest. I mean, both sides do this. Both sides can pay lip service to nonpartisan redistricting. Both sides can point to red or blue states where that happens. But in the main, whether it's, whether it's what happened in Texas, whether what Democrats have did in, in Massachusetts, most politicians try to fight for partisan redistricting and then accuse the other side of starting it. Here's just the latest example of a politician who's pretending to be holier than thou. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the gentle lady from New York City.

[D]

Wow, wow, wow.

[I]

Listen.

[D]

Democrats have attempted and asked Republicans for 10 years to ban partisan gerrymandering.

[B]

And for 10 years, Republicans have said no.

[D]

Republicans have fought for partisan gerrymanders across

[B]

the United States of America. And these are the rules that they have set. All right, you guys want to say anything about that? Or move on.

[D]

Go ahead. I'm a.

[B]

Anything. Bueller. Bueller. Okay, New Hampshire dinner coming up, the big annual party Democratic Party dinner. They announced a few weeks ago Hillary Clinton was the speaker. And we learned yesterday from our friends in New Hampshire. 120, please. Ain't sold out. The dinner is on April 25th. That's in two days. And last night they were sending around an email saying, if you haven't bought your ticket, this is the last chance to do so. Previous dinners involving other Democratic luminaries have sold out almost immediately. Haima, what's your theory on this? Secretary Clinton less popular than before or they're focused on other things? Why, why would this not have sold out?

[E]

I think there's, there's a lot happening in New Hampshire. I mean, I, I, I, you guys know you're not going to get me to say anything bad about Hillary Clinton. I mean, she's going to be phenomenal. I know, I tried, I wish I

[B]

tried to trick, I tried to trick you into it.

[E]

I wish I was going up to New Hampshire to see her. But the state party is trying, is in a rebuilding phase as well. They're obviously trying to re establish themselves as the first in the nation. And so there's a lot going on. But I mean, I think it's going to be great. She's going to be fantastic. They're going to sell the tickets.

[B]

I mean, you know, you know, you know, you know what my theory is, Hogan? It's, it's the same night as the correspondence dinner and everybody in New Hampshire's coming down to the dinner.

[D]

Probably true.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

And having grown up in Arkansas, remember, Hillary Clinton was my first lady before she was yours. So I'm well familiar with the Clintons and all of their.

[B]

How old, how old were you in 1992 again?

[D]

See, I graduated, I don't know, 16.

[E]

Okay, Mark, I was gonna, I was gonna say all this is, I, it's so funny you mentioned Hillary Clinton because early on with Trump's true social. And then.

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

What Steve Hilton said in the, in the thing. Hillary would say this thing on the campaign troll in 2015 about Trump's economy trumped up trickle down. Do you remember that?

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

It was so silly.

[B]

Yeah, it was silly. All right, ladies and gentlemen, I am a firm believer in listening very closely when someone seems to be denying they're going to run for president. When they use weasel words like I'm not planning to run or I've got no plans to run or I like the job focusing on my State. Yeah.

[E]

I'm running for Senate.

[B]

I discount it almost entirely. But I'm going to play you one from someone who's touted as a potential president candidate. And I'll tell you guys in advance, I kind of believe him. Maybe I'm foolish. I kind of believe him. This is Georgia Senator John Ostoff up for reelection this year. Constantly I am badgered to put him on my 8 for 28. And I'm tempted to because he's a very skilled guy. Although again, I say openly in the context of our free platform short Jew from the South I'm not sure is number one choice.

[E]

He's not really short.

[B]

Yeah. Shortish. He's not. Is he six feet?

[E]

Maybe probably like five.

[B]

Five.

[E]

He's a little shorter than I. Yeah.

[B]

I mean under six feet. How many presents time have we had in the modern era? Under 6ft?

[E]

Fair. Fair point.

[B]

Not. Not a lot. Here is. Here's John Ossoff on Ms. Now saying, I think he's not going to run for president.

[J]

121 I have zero interest in running for president in 2028. I love serving the state of Georgia. I've got two young daughters. And to be honest with you, I think that the 2028 fantasy football risks distracting us from the urgent task at hand if we do not restore checks and balances in these midterm elections. I don't know that we have a free and fair presidential election in 2028. So let's keep our eyes on the ball, folks. We need to win decisively in Georgia in every battleground state and in every competitive U.S. house district this fall. And folks out there ask yourselves whether you are doing what you need to be doing right now. It's a collective effort. All of us need to be taking action in defense of our republic.

[B]

Now, Hogan, on the substance of what he said. Substance in air quotes. Talking about the midterms is the biggest dodge possible. Say, well, I'm not focused on the future. But the first thing he said, he said, I'm just not interested. I don't know. Rang true to me. What do you think?

[D]

It rings true. But I don't. I do think there is a significant number of people who aren't interested until someone sits them down.

[B]

I understand.

[D]

I deal with whiskey. Look at this poll.

[B]

I get it.

[D]

How can you pass this opportunity up and then all of a sudden it

[B]

piques that interest you How. How many you agree with me? That seemed like he was serious.

[E]

No, I don't agree with you at all.

[B]

Oh man.

[E]

I Look, I, I worked for Aoft when he ran for Congress in 2017. There are only three politicians that make me blush. Hillary Clinton, Mitch Landrew, and, and John Oof. I, I, I really like the guy. He's, he's fantastic. He is going to think about it. Warnock is probably going to think about it. Kim is obviously thinking about it. There's a lot of energy in Georgia. And so, I mean, at some, I mean, maybe he's running to be vice president, but I think Jon Ossoff, when he wins, and I'm hearing right now that he may win by six points in November. If he wins Georgia by six points, he immediately is going to be asked by all the people Hogan just mentioned to run for president. The donors are, the donors love him. He's got a great on the ground presence. He's got a great team. Shout out to his team, particularly those on the communications team. Great team. And so he's going to think about it. Of course, not sincere. To answer your question, not sincere.

[B]

All right. I'm so naive. The Internet says he's 59 or 5 10, maybe.

[E]

Wears those little risers like Ron DeSantis maybe.

[B]

Yes, maybe he does. One more topic. Raise your hand if you want to get in on the conversation. We'd love to have you. If you've never raised your hand before today, be a good day to raise your hand. The dinner we talked about, the correspondence dinner is this weekend and the excitement's already building. What? Each. How many times you've been to dinner?

[E]

Two times.

[B]

All right. But you're a party animal. You are the Spuds McKenzie. I love your generation. And Hogan's been too many times to count. I want to eat. How many times you've been dude to the dinner?

[D]

Maybe three.

[B]

Okay.

[E]

You're both commodities. I know you got one Mark.

[D]

We weren't allowed to go during the Trump administration, except one year.

[B]

There are two things you should never ask before. You should never ask me for the exit poll results before the first wave, and you should never ask me for tickets to the correspondence dinner. I don't have any. But, but advice, Jaime. If somebody's going this time for the first time, and a lot of people are going for the first time, they're Trump cabinet members who've never gone, who are going if somebody's gone for the first time. One piece of advice about how to, how to do the dinner, right?

[E]

Get there early and get to the CBS Politico pre party.

[B]

Good one, Hogan.

[D]

Get there early for the pre parties, but make sure. You get a ticket to a good after party and stay there.

[E]

Oh, don't hop around.

[B]

Yeah. And. And the addendum to yours is if you get into a good after party, go early, go right there.

[D]

Yes.

[B]

Because they. Because they could shut it down. Go ahead.

[D]

I just say one and one thing and a lot of people on my side hate it.

[B]

And.

[D]

And I just. There's a disdain I have for it. Yes. Because the whole thing is self aggrand and stupid.

[E]

Whatever.

[D]

What I do like, though, for me is the pre and post allows me to get more work done in an hour than I ever could.

[B]

Boom, boom, boom.

[D]

You can go and talk to every cabinet secretary.

[E]

I spent an hour with Sean Spicer last year talking at one of the parties at the line. It was awesome.

[B]

There you go. Yeah, I'm. I'm gonna book a month. A month worth of shows. Here's my advice. If you're going to the dinner, ladies and gentlemen, believe me now, thank me later. Eat first. Always the foods. The food's no good, but you don't want to be eating. You want to be walking around and talking to people.

[D]

Yes.

[B]

Eat first. Eat first.

[E]

Yes.

[B]

Thank you very much for your attention to this matter. All right, time for your questions. Does Stella have a question? Did I understand correctly?

[D]

Who is Sean Spicer? I just saw that.

[B]

That's a good question also. Good question.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

Am I right to Stella, have a question or not? Maybe I misread what my texts. All right. While we wait to see if Stella has. Stella, do you have a question? You got unmute if you do. Here you go. Stella, welcome in. First time, long time.

[A]

Who is your favorite person that you've interviewed? I can't see you.

[B]

Who's a person that I've interviewed? Is that your favorite person? Favorite person that you interviewed? Well, other than us, yeah. Yeah. It's Mr. Mr. Gidley and Mr. Moore would be one and two. But number three, the favorite person I interviewed. You know, I've been blessed to have had a very long career, Stella. Even before you were born, I was working. And I've interviewed a lot of people I really like. I'm stalling now like a politician, because I know what I want to say, but it's not really the answer. But it's the one that always comes to mind first when I get asked this. I did an interview with Dick Cheney once that I just loved. He was a vice president of the United States. He recently passed away. Extremely nice man and a very smart man and really misunderstood. He had a great Sense of humor. He told really funny jokes and I did an interview with him once that I just think very fondly of. Thank you for the question, Stella. Grateful to you. All right, let's go now. Yeah. What's that, Jaime?

[D]

Who's the. Who's the most. Who's your favorite person you've ever encountered or talked to? Celebrity at the dinner?

[B]

That's a good one.

[D]

And Mark, same question for you.

[E]

That's a good one. Well, I have to. It's my last table. When I was there last, I was there with BD Wong and Nancy Mace and Rosario Dawson. That was my table. So imagine the four of us chatting. That was pretty fun. But I did meet one of the housewives when I was there a couple years ago, and that was pretty fun.

[B]

That's good, Hogan.

[D]

I'm friends with Ramona Singer. Side note, speaking of housewives, I've had a lot of good encounters, a bad one, famously with Kathy Griffin.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[E]

Oh, yeah.

[D]

That was chronicled in the New York Times. But I'll tell you, Rosario Dawson was nice. I still have some friends that are actors now. I don't want to dime out because then they'll get, you know, yelled at for being friends with me. I'll tell you, I had a really nice exchange with Michael J. Fox, who stopped me, knew me, and was real appreciative of my. He said, I don't agree with you, but you're one of those guys who just articulates it calmly. You're not, you're not mean. And I appreciate that. And I was just like Marty McFly, like, whatever, you know.

[B]

You know what I just realized? You're. You're a real life Alex Keaton.

[E]

Oh. Oh, that's.

[B]

That's right.

[E]

That's a high mark.

[D]

I think.

[B]

My, my, my, my answer. First of all, I interact.

[D]

A sherbet colored sweater with a collar poking through. And I'm Alex P. Keaton.

[E]

I.

[B]

That's a good. That's a good retort, dude. Good retort. I. Did the president just put something on Truth Social?

[D]

No, surely not.

[B]

Maybe. Did. Check. Check for me, please. I talked to the president in 2011, right before Barack Obama and Seth Meyers laid into him. And I introduced him to a couple of friends of mine who really wanted to meet him. And whenever I saw the president after I met him, which is around that time, really, I, I didn't really know him before then. Whenever I saw him outside New York, he'd always say the same thing to me. Do you want to ride home he'd always want to fly me back home, or do you want to fly with me to Mar a Lago? And so that night he said, do you want to fly back to New York with me? But my answer is not that, because I had. Technically, I didn't meet him there. It's Walt Frazier for Bloomberg in 20. I don't know what year it would have been. I don't know, 2015, maybe. Walt Frazier. And I did the live red carpet, you know, program for Bloomberg. And so I got to stand with Walt Frazier and, like, interview people. Oh, on the red carpet? Yeah.

[D]

Princess Leia Carrie Fisher, before she passed away, came up and gave me a big hug on the carpet. And I was like,

[B]

did she say you were real life Michael Keaton? Not Michael. All right, here's another. Here's another Truth Social post. So back to your questions. Raise your hand if you want to get in the conversation. This is from a little while ago. Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is. They just don't know. The infighting is between the, quote, hardliners who've been losing badly on the battlefield and the, quote, moderates who are not very moderate at all. But gaining respect is crazy. Again, a very poorly constructed sentence. I now get what it's. So he's basically saying the infighting is crazy. We have total control over this Strait of Hormuz. Fact check. Nah. No ship can enter or leave without the approval of the United States Navy. Fact check. True. It is sealed up tight until such time as Iran is able to make a deal. Thank you for your attention to this matter, President Donald J. Trump. All right, back to your questions.

[D]

It's.

[E]

It's as if he's watching the show right now.

[B]

It is kind of like he's watching the show now, Mr. President. All right, back to your questions. Let's go to Susan. Susan, welcome in. Thank you for being part of Two Way Unmute. Tell everybody where you are and what's on your mind for our distinguished guest, Mr. Gidley and Mr. Moore. I.

[C]

Can you hear me okay?

[B]

Yes, ma'.

[E]

Am.

[C]

Okay. So I was listening to your show last night, which I thought was a really wonderful show.

[E]

Thank you.

[C]

Yeah. So the fellow that was on, I think it was Benin, was on, and I really agree with what he said. I think I called in previously and said everybody in Iran is anti the US But I think there's just a smaller and smaller group. But the ones that would rise up potentially would be fearful that we would suddenly lose interest because of our Own political.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Game that we play, that people are. It confuses the world kind of thing.

[B]

Yeah, definitely got to be a concern.

[C]

The other thing is that I think Trump is turning into a scapegoat by Europe and everybody else for doing the right thing. I mean, releasing the Iranians from this Shiite rule is really the right thing to do. And I kind of agree with Professor Kenny that at the end of the day, there's gotta be some boots on the ground to secure the strait. And now, whether that's our boots or somebody else's boots, I mean, the Iranian government is just going to make their people suffer more and more and more. And I, you know, I just don't see it happening through negotiations.

[B]

Susan, what should the goal of the war be now? What, what would you like to achieve before it ends?

[C]

This is going to take a while, but regime change.

[B]

Regime change. Hogan, question for Susan or comment on what she said?

[D]

Yeah, I think, Susan, that that's, that's smart. I think you're right. The boots on the ground piece, I don't know. Look, with the way warfare is conducted now through the air and with drones and other things, you can do significantly more damage, I think, than now than you could in the past. But there is an element of you need people on the ground. And like you said, I don't think there's any appetite in the administration to put American troops there. I don't think that's going to happen with Europe's reticence to be involved at all. I don't see them putting.

[C]

What about Israel? Would Israel. I must provide cover. I mean, this is just conjecture.

[D]

I think they would, but they'd have to have some type of hat tip or nod from the United States to go. Go right ahead. And at some point, if they're not going to come to the table and negotiate any further, I can also see the president going, go nuts like he did before with Israel, too, and say we're going to take our hands off Israel. You want to go ahead and start to kill their leaders and do their things with beepers and other things. Go right ahead. So I don't know, would they need

[C]

some kind of involvement from the American military to succeed? I mean, Trump is a scapegoat no matter what happens, you know.

[D]

Oh, sure, sure, you're correct.

[E]

I think that's a valuable question. And I, and thank you for asking that. That's something that I've been dealing with and talking about with friends. You got, look, you guys know, work for Hillary Clinton. I love her. And so I could be a little bit more hawkish and some maybe than Hogan and some of the some other friends who are more liberal than I don't want to necessarily say this, but we maybe should have gone in with the idea of changing the regime from the beginning and maybe that's the only way to really get to an end. That's going to be positive for Israel, positive for America and positive for rest of the world. And I don't want to send any boots on the ground. I really don't, Susan. I really, really don't. But it feels like the next step in getting this thing under control is probably escalating a little bit further. I don't think diplomacy is going to work and I hate to say that, but I think you're right.

[B]

Susan, thank you. Grateful to you. Thank you for being part of two way. Raise your hand if raise your physical human hand. If you've got your electronic hand raised. And you can be really quick. You can be really quick. You're not gonna I'm not gonna have to cut you off. You could be really quick. Well, Professor Kenny is a man of many and few words depending on the situation. Professor, welcome in floor is yours briefly,

[K]

very briefly NFL draft tonight and thank you Susan for a little shout out there. I haven't met Susan before and come on the post shows.

[B]

Tell everybody how to do that.

[K]

Please link is in the chat and you can always privately chat me your email and I'll put you on the mailing list. Thank you. Thank you.

[B]

Huggin, you said link is in the chat. Is it in the YouTube chat chat or just the.

[K]

No, it's not in the YouTube chat. I have. I don't want to go down that road yet.

[B]

Okay. All right. Well good enough. Professor, thank you for being part of big big moment for Pittsburgh with the draft. Some people are a little worried about traffic, but I believe the Steel City can handle a little few extra cars.

[K]

Yeah, our friend Aaron Reyes is there. That's why I'm wearing my steel. Another two way guy.

[B]

Professor, thank you. All right. A reminder. Later today, five eastern time on two way. Tonight our guest will be the secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy. I've got it's got some special stuff to talk about regarding consumers and travel. So join me. And again tonight our partnership, our pop up partnership with our friends that monitor the situation starts tonight. So you can still watch the program the way you watch it now on two way on our YouTube channel on X on our on our account or or on the platform. But but if you want to check out, monitor the situation, you can do that as well. And we've got some other guests and we hope you're joining us. Four o', clock, the group chat is back. Please join them, my friends and colleagues, Emma, Joe, Robbie, Stephen, Akara and Nina at 4 Eastern time. And then this program will be here tomorrow. And because it's Friday, we'll have our winners lose the week and what to look for. I think it's, I think it's Larry and Kevin. Am I, am I right about that?

[D]

You are right.

[B]

Yeah. So we'll have to remind them no sports on what to look for over the weekend. And if you're going to say the dinner, you're gonna have to be more specific than just saying the dinner. You guys going to big parties tonight?

[E]

Tonight's when I'm taking off.

[D]

Yeah, tomorrow, tomorrow for me. I, I did last Thursdays.

[B]

Thursday's kind of, Thursday's kind of amateur night. Right?

[E]

Yeah, I'm gonna have a proper dinner tonight, you know, proper dinner.

[B]

I'm aiming to go to bed by 8 o' clock tonight. That's my goal. That's my goal. Can we bring Stella back just to close out the program with Stella?

[D]

Please do.

[E]

Well done Stella.

[B]

Well done, Stella. Thank you for being part of the program. I don't know if, if you read the chat. I don't but the grown ups have been very impressed. Just tell us, tell us a little bit about what kind of things you like to do, Stella. You like to do stuff inside, outside, what do you like to do?

[A]

I like. Yeah, go outside.

[B]

Yeah. What do you like to do outside?

[A]

I like to play with the neighbors outside.

[B]

Oh, that's nice. So the kids about your age?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Do you. Really nice. Go ahead. Okay.

[D]

Do you have a favorite stuffy and if so, what is it?

[A]

Yes, what is it? It's a bunny.

[B]

Oh, I love that.

[D]

The bunny's name.

[B]

Good choice.

[A]

Snuggle Snow.

[B]

That's good. Good. Uncle Stella, finally. Would you learn anything today? Take, take your kid to work day, you're supposed to learn some stuff. What'd you learn today? Anything. Anything. Yeah, take your time, we're no rush. I gotta get over to SiriusXM.

[E]

How old are you, Stella?

[A]

Eight years old.

[B]

Stella's eight.

[E]

Oh wow, that's a great age.

[B]

Well Stella, we couldn't be more grateful to you for participating. And anytime you want down, tell your mom no school today, you got to do the countdown. All right, thank you Stella. Very grateful to you.

[A]

Thank you.

[B]

Thank you so much. Thank you all. I'm jumping over now to SiriusXM to do the 10 o' clock hour, the morning meeting. Join me there. If you want to get in on the conversation on the radio, you can give me a call. 833-446-3496. See you at 5:00 clock tonight with Secretary Duffy and monitor the situation. And then tomorrow with he's nice man. Tomorrow with Hogan. I mean today thanks to Hogan Hyman. Tomorrow Larry and KE and Kevin. Thank you, guys. I'll see you tomorrow night, guys.

[D]

See you.

[B]

Have a.