Larry O'Connor (2:14)

You're on your own. I believe it's Spanish language.

Mark (2:17)

Really? Are you kidding? Off the rv.

Larry O'Connor (2:20)

What?

Mark (2:21)

Are you kidding?

Larry O'Connor (2:21)

Productive skills here.

Mark (2:23)

Okay, and then Zero Hedge is the new media. IHeartMedia is the radio. It's an interesting pool, but. But they got nothing to do as of now because as you can see from the President's schedule. He got a quadrant. What. What's the. What's the four number for trio? Trio is three. What's four? Quadrant. It's not quadrant.

Kevin Walling (2:43)

Quadrant.

Larry O'Connor (2:43)

Quadrant.

Mark (2:44)

I don't know. Anyway, he's got four closed press events, eight o' clock executive time. So he can watch us. A quartet. Thank you. A quartet of closed press events. 8 o' clock executive time, 11 o' clock intelligence briefing, 2 o' clock, sign executive orders, 5:30 policy meeting. All closed press. I wonder if there's a question I could ask where the right answer wouldn't show up in the chat within seconds. It's just crazy. Just like I say, what's on a Reuben sandwich? Don't know what the vice president's doing today. I stumped the band. There's nothing in the chat currently. Right. There it is. No Cuban. What's in a Reuben sandwich? Everybody?

Kevin Walling (3:21)

All right?

Mark (3:22)

It's not there yet. Mustard? No. Oh, man.

Larry O'Connor (3:24)

Corned beef premise.

Kevin Walling (3:27)

One o'.

Mark (3:27)

Clock.

Kevin Walling (3:28)

One o'.

Mark (3:28)

Clock. Bobby Kennedy, AKA rk. What's he called? Rf. Rjk. What's he called?

Larry O'Connor (3:35)

Rfkj.

Mark (3:36)

RFKJ is. Is having an event with LE Lee Zeldin. Lee Zeldin, who we'll talk about later in the show, rumored to maybe be the next Attorney General of the United States making an announcement on one of Larry's favorite topics, microplastics.

Kevin Walling (3:51)

Very dangerous. Very dangerous.

Mark (3:54)

That that event will get. They are. That event will get more coverage than it otherwise would have gotten because of the rumors that Zelda may become the Attorney General. The House and Senator are both in pro forma sessions. They're trying to figure out a way how to solve simultaneously the funding of homeland security and reconciliation. We'll talk about that. It's an incredibly interesting process story. The Brits, the cowardly Brits, the Neville Chamberlain Brits are hosting a virtual meeting with 35 nations in a bid to ease the Strait of Hormuz crisis and to talk about a bunch of stuff. I wonder if the US Representative will even be on there. I Wonder. Gavin Newsom, 5:30 tonight is making an announcement with tribal and state leaders. A major milestone in California's effort to close the digital divide. That'll be interesting. And then at 9:30 Eastern Time tonight, as part of the 2025, 2026 Colorado Speaker Series at the Belko Theater in Denver, Kamala D. Harris takes the stage

Kevin Walling (4:56)

as part of her two part Debbie Harris right there.

Mark (5:00)

Yeah. Jobless claims came out at 8:30. Trade deficit numbers. Anybody have those for me?

Kevin Walling (5:08)

I was just Refreshing to see, but I don't.

Mark (5:10)

Yeah, all right. I assume if they were important, someone would have given them to me already. Anyway, last night the president gave his 19 minute speech at 9 Eastern time. The Wall Street Journal loved it. The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal gave it like a. I'd say an A minus. They really liked it a lot. Here's someone who didn't like it. 109. A guy from Brooklyn, Chucky. Chucky S Did not like Charles Schumer tweet. Has there ever been a more rambling, disjointed and pathetic presidential war speech? Donald Trump's actions in Iran will be considered one of the greatest policy blunders in, in the history of our country. Failing to articulate objectives, alienating allies, and ignoring the kitchen table problems America Americans are facing. He is completely unfit to be Commander in Chief and the whole world knows it. Well, you be the judge. Ladies and gentlemen, here's a bit of what the President said last night. 108, please.

Donald Trump (6:08)

Thanks to the progress we've made, I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America's military objectives shortly, very shortly. We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We're going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing. Regime change was not our goal. We never said regime change. But regime change has occurred because of all of their original leaders. Death. They're all dead. The new group is less radical and much more reasonable. Yet if during this period of time, no deal is made, we have our eyes on key targets. If there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously. We have not hit their oil, even though that's the easiest target of all because it would not give them even a small chance of survival or rebuilding. But we could hit it and it would be gone. And there's not a thing they could do about it.

Mark (7:13)

All right, gentlemen, in a moment, I'm going to ask you to tell me what impact, if any, you believe that speech has had and will have on the United States and the world. But before that, while you think about it, we put you both in your sound soundproof booths. Quick word from a sponsor, which I forgot to do before because I was so excited about everything. We're talking about Cozy Earth, sponsor of the program. There are two things I want you to think about when you think about Cozy Earth. I want you to think about puppies and the bubble cuddle blanket. And here are just the latest photos for members of the two way community. We'll flash them up on the screen. As I talk, I want you to think about if you have a dog or a cat and you haven't yet bought a bubble cuddle blanket, just oh my goodness gracious, how you can live with yourself. But I want you to think about Mother's Day, ladies and gentlemen. Mother's Day coming up quick. And they're having a Mother's Day promotion at Cozy Earth. Use the promo code morning, 20% off. Buy something for a mom in your life. Create comfort designed for the rhythms of those women who live every day. From the softness that greets her in the morning to comfort that helps her unwind at night. If your dog, if you're in kind of a Dr. Dolittle family and one of the moms in your family is a dog, sure. But if it's a human being, get her a bathrobe, get her some slippers, get her the bubble cuddle blanket. Let Mother's Day be a reminder that she deserves care too. Discover how Cozy Earth turns routines into moments of softness and ease. Go to cozyearth.com, use my official promo code morning for 20% off. And in the post purchase survey, be sure to mention that Larry insisted that you buy something for a mom and a dog.

Matt Ebert (8:49)

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 podcrash is all about. We have real conversations with people who've built things the hard way. We talk 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.

Larry O'Connor (9:23)

When you get momentum, you step on the gas.

Mark (9:26)

That's how you get separation from everybody else. I was at Harvard Law School as blah blah blah. I looked up somebody tell you something, there's kids in my neighborhood putting in sheetrock that are smarter than you.

Kevin Walling (9:35)

AI is going to disrupt a lot of stuff. It is never going to disrupt physical

Mark (9:39)

blue collar trade skill.

Kevin Walling (9:41)

And the guy just looked at me

Mark (9:42)

and he said it's bloody impossible. So I asked him this question. I said it's impossible.

Matt Ebert (9:47)

Unless that's Podcast with me, Matt ebert. Watch on YouTube and listen wherever you get your podcast.

Mark (9:57)

Thank you for your attention to this Matter, Larry, What. What impact will that speech have, or is it having.

Larry O'Connor (10:04)

Well, the immediate impact seems to be that the price of American oil is going up quite a bit. I did love that moment where he said, hey, all you European countries who are complaining about getting oil from the strait of her muse, I got an idea for you. Buy our oil. You won't have any issues. And you've seen that impact. I think also Republicans, this was a political speech. And I think that the speech gave his Republican colleagues in the House and Senate something sort of a marker to lay down and say, this is why we're there, this is what we've done, we're achieving our goals and it's gonna be over soon. I think that they needed the President to sort of lay it out cohesively in one speech so that they can then deal with people who are complaining and saying to them, what's going on here? When is this gonna end?

Mark (10:50)

All right, before Kevin tells us what the impact is, Larry, could you divine directly or indirectly from the President's speech any of the following when the war will end, yes or no?

Larry O'Connor (11:01)

He said shortly. And he said, in the next two to three weeks, we're going to be bombarding them. Those were the only specifics that he gave. But. But the impression from the speech. Well, the impression from the speech is this is not a matter of, you know, a year from now we're not going to be talking about this. Right.

Mark (11:17)

Although he talked about how it was shorter than. He cited the length of other conflicts. And he said, well, it's not eight. It's not eight years. Second, Larry, did you. Did. Could you divine anything from his speech about ground forces?

Larry O'Connor (11:28)

No.

Mark (11:28)

Being used? No. Okay. Kevin, will that speech have any impact? First of all, do you agree with Larry that skittish Republicans in Congress will like it?

Kevin Walling (11:38)

I think the real goal of the President now is we're seeing some. Some of his numbers with his MAGA base drop off because of the war. Now it's at 31 in terms of support for the President's objectives here. So I think, to Larry's point, he's got an issue now with hardcore Republicans in supporting this effort. I was actually surprised by the optics of it. It seemed a little low energy. I would have suggested he go to a base with the military behind him, highlight really strongly the core successes of this effort, which have been all militarily so far, not obviously diplomatically, but again, I don't think it necessarily. Again, you've got the Chuck Schumer's of the world out there. And I'm getting, you know, on a bunch of text chains with Democrats and messengers out there saying, you know, really attacking this speech. But again, I think that the core element of this is to reassure Delari's point that the hardcore Republican base, and we'll see over time if those numbers come back up in the wake of this speech. But I don't think, I think the country, the country's going to move on from that speech. I think the world is going to move on. You've got, as you said, Mark, you know, the Brits convening this 35 Nation call today to figure out some solutions there. And, and it's almost like this hands off approach now by the President. Okay, reopen the street on your own. You're on your own, guys. Go in there.

Larry O'Connor (12:54)

Well, I, you know, Kevin, I usually agree with you on many things, but just to be fair, you would have been Low Energy at 9pm if you had the day the President had yesterday. He started the day attending Supreme Court hearings on birth, birthright citizenship. He did the Easter lunch, he'd had the Artemis lunch, and then he had this speech. That's a hell of a day. But I thought that, and if the optics had been in front of, you know, at a military base with soldiers behind him, it would have lent the optics of Mission Accomplished George W. Bush on the aircraft carrier. And I don't think to do with that.

Kevin Walling (13:26)

But again, not even having, you know, Marco or Pete behind him, you know, that the cabinet, it just seemed. And that just the visuals of it backing up into the Blue Room, you didn't have the crosswalk really, you know, that's strong imagery. I know he doesn't like necessarily the Oval, but I think just visually there could have been some improvements. Yeah, good.

Larry O'Connor (13:48)

I like the visual.

Mark (13:50)

We're about 18 minutes away from the open in the markets. Kevin, why the markets hate that speech so much? Because, because the futures and the Asian markets obviously did not like the speech. Clearly, if you accept Larry's interpretation, he gave the impression it ends sooner rather than later. Did the markets not like it because there was no definitive timeline? Did they not like it because he said other people are going to have to open up the strait? What do you think the markets don't like?

Kevin Walling (14:15)

Yeah, I think all of the above. I think, you know, the President said some contradictory things throughout. We've decimated their operations. We're going to bomb them over the next two weeks into submission, into back to the Stone Age. So markets like reliability and, and reality and I don't think the President, you know, and again, this is a president at war, and we're not going to telegraph exactly our war plans. I think. I think that's been a critique that's been out there for a long time. He's been saying since March 9th that we're going to end in the next two, three weeks. So, again, this is a moving target, and that's understood with dynamics on the battlefield markets like reliability and predictability, and that this is not what this President is about.

Mark (14:57)

Larry, if I'm not mistaken, the markets have been up for three days in a row. And then the President talked. Yeah. And now the President's talked. Now maybe they'll rally during the day. But it just seems odd that he would give a speech with multiple audiences. And as you said, one audience is Republicans in Congress. But it seems odd that he wouldn't have found a way to say things that would have allowed the markets to like it.

Larry O'Connor (15:19)

Well, the only thing the markets would have liked is mission accomplished, we're done here. We're taking our off ramp, and we've reached a deal. The markets want a deal. The President's speech last night was, I hope, for a deal. I'm planning on a deal. But until we get the deal, we're gonna keep bombing the F out of you. And the markets don't like bombing the F out of you.

Mark (15:37)

Yeah, I am so skeptical about a deal. I am so skeptical. Now, there's two kinds of deals, right? There's a. There's a cease fire where then they start to talk about the strait and the nuclear material, etc. And then there's a deal that ends the thing for good. I'm skeptical about both based on the. Primarily based on the Iranian behavior. I just can't imagine anything that the President would agree to that Iran would agree to. Larry, am I. Am I wrong about that, or is there reason to think there'll be a deal?

Larry O'Connor (16:05)

You know, the only reason why you might be wrong is if the President seems to keep suggesting and hinting that there's already been some basic agreement on some pretty important points. But we haven't seen that, and we haven't actually seen any action. And otherwise, yes, I agree with you.

Mark (16:21)

I don't like to gratuitously call the President United States a liar, but, I mean, there's no reason to think that that's true. And in addition, the President and his advisors told me and others that there were going to be ships going through the strait as a gift to the President. That was like a week ago, Kevin. As far as I know, that hasn't happened.

Kevin Walling (16:40)

What's the ten ships he mentioned?

Mark (16:42)

Yes, but what, what, what's the reason to think that there might be a deal? Like, what would you look to. To say there might be a deal? Because, Because Steve Witkoff is texting with the foreign Minister. That's about 24 steps away from a deal.

Kevin Walling (16:54)

Yeah, agreed. And again, we've talked about this yesterday. There is no reliable partner on the other side. This is an extreme theocratic regime. And likely the likelihood of someone within the government dealing with the Americans makes them a target within their own, their own base of support in Tehran. So I doubt that that's actually happening. And again, the President wants to put some rosy glasses on this, wants to be viewed as the dealmaker, but I don't think this is actually happening.

Mark (17:21)

Right. All right, let's talk about NATO. The President had some very harsh words for NATO, not in his speech last night, but in his lunchtime speech, which we'll talk about in a minute. And throughout the week, he said in interviews and elsewhere, harsh things about NATO. NATO matters a lot for some aspects of American security and European security. Here's the Politico with just a classic. Trump has threatened to leave NATO over Iran. There are a few signs it's happening. He'd have to go to Congress to get out of NATO. Like, he can't just unilaterally, quote, unquote, get out of NATO. But NATO, their NATO relationships will matter when we turn back to Iran, to Ukraine for sure. But I think people have the wrong question here, Kevin. The President's not going to get out of NATO. But, but their behavior, their refusal to let us use their airspace, for goodness sakes, their refusal to, to agree. And the President said yesterday he asked the British Prime Minister for a couple of ships. And the Prime Minister said, let me talk to my people about it next week and get back to you. I mean, to me, what's going to happen? I put this out as the thesis for you to consider. NATO's going to have to pay a price. Now, the President's going to demand that NATO make accommodations to the United States or he'll threaten to leave NATO and he'll, he'll say, if Putin wants to roll tanks down the Champs Elysees and on Oxford street, you guys can deal with it. Kevin, am I right? It's not about leaving NATO. It's about the president now feels he's got more leverage to extort more from those countries.

Kevin Walling (18:53)

Exactly right. And again, you sell the President called NATO a paper tiger. The power of NATO has been less in terms of material, personnel, missiles, nuclear weapons, tanks, what have you. It's the assumption that the strength of the unity of the organization is paramount. And when you have a commander in chief doubting that on the world stage and openly questioning it, and we can talk about whether it's justified or not, I called out the fact, not just the idea that we're not getting material or support from these allies, but the fact that they're not even allowing us to use their airspace. When places like Diego Garcia, our joint base with the UK has been under missile threat, when there's been other threats to regional allies like Turkey, a member of NATO, that we've been taking the brunt of the attacks and repelling them is a huge problem. And you've got the Secretary General of NATO coming, you know, next week, Margaret, to Washington. And again, we talked about this yesterday. I think he's been very strategic and capable in terms of his dealings with the President and managing this relationship. But again, NATO is based on confidence. And that's the whole reason why we won the Cold War, was the ability to rally this union of countries together. And when you call it out as a paper tiger, that almost does more damage than any kind of pulling out or moving of resources.

Mark (20:22)

Larry, what's going to happen? What's going to happen now? The NATO relationship?

Larry O'Connor (20:26)

Well, I think that you're right, Mark, in that this is, this gives Trump the ability to put more pressure on NATO to try to exact something out of them. Because everybody looks at the NATO agreement and we, we know what Europe gets out of it. Everybody knows what Europe gets out of it. And Europe's gotten it for decades and decades and decades. And when you stop and you say, okay, so what are we getting out of it? And you ask for a little thing like airspace. By the way, it's not just that the missile went to Diego Garcia or reached as far as Diego Garcia, because if you send it northeast of Iran, excuse me, northwest of Iran, it's in the middle of the continent, right? I mean, so at the moment, NATO saw the ability of that intermediate range missile that they never thought Iran had, they should have at the very least allowed us to use their airspace and actually lend some ships to the effort as well. And so this gives Trump even more leverage to come back to NATO and say, what? What? Why the hell are we in this deal? And if you don't think I'll pull out, you're wrong, because I Will. Because he'll threaten that again. And I think that's why you're seeing these things leak, because it gives him more leverage. What he exacts out of them, I don't know. But the very least we could do is get some cooperation in this effort. They benefit more than we do at this point.

Kevin Walling (21:31)

And again, he doesn't. He doesn't need to pull out necessarily. He can reassign troops. He can move forces out of Germany, out of our bases in Italy. He can do a lot of things to put into question that the strength of NATO simply as commander in chief.

Mark (21:45)

Yeah. All right. Well said. Here's a sequence of events. The President had a closed press lunch yesterday for Easter. He invited a bunch of his people in his cabinet and his government. He invited some spiritual and religious leaders, a few other folks, outside folks. And it was supposed to be closed. Present. It was. There were no reporters present, but White House cameras recorded it. And then, as best we can tell by accident, the White House posted it on their website, at least briefly. Some reporters downloaded it, then they took it down. No explanation that I've seen. I haven't had time to ask them. There's a war going on, but about why, how something like that could happen. How the White House could accidentally post a video of a private lunch. In any event, then what happened was we watched it. It's extraordinary. It's extraordinary the way he talks to his friends because it's both the way you normally hear him talk, but also at times a little different. And the President at an Easter lunch. John Thune is on Fox right now. Let's. Let's dip into that, please.

Larry O'Connor (22:49)

This will be inspiring.

Mark (22:51)

We won't stay long. I just want to see what he's saying. If he's talking about this DHS funding, I'm not going to ask you to do that here because I think the bottom line, people want to know is what changed from last week to today and will the air. All right, dump out. I can tell already it's not going to be interesting working and monitor, monitor that. Any event, there's the question of how thing got posted. But then there's the substance of what he said. And. And then there is, of course, the fact that the President treated the Easter lunch not as a solemn time for reflection, but as a time to channel his inner. Don Rickles. Ladies and gentlemen, a few highlights from the President's Easter speech. Easter luncheon remarks courtesy of our colleague Paul Wilkie. Please roll t.

Larry O'Connor (23:47)

Is that the new

Kevin Walling (23:48)

Hail to the jeep.

Donald Trump (24:07)

JD he's lost weight. He got a little thinner. And I'm looking for. I'm looking for a heavyset gentleman. And now I find a perfect. A perfect looking specimen. Macro, whose wife treats him extremely badly and. Still recovering from the right to the jaw. Doctor King is coming over here in two weeks. Is a nice guy, King Charles, but should be our best. Right, Brook? But they weren't dumbest. I said, you have two old broken down aircraft carriers. You think you could send them over? Oh, I'll have to ask my team. I said, you're the prime Minister, you know. No, no, no. I have to ask my team president. My team has to meet. We're meeting next week. Next week? But the war already started next week. It's not good. The war is going to be over. Wow, that's a good tape. I like that table. You're doing well, right? Okay. I think you should sue him. But, you know, I told her, you ought to sue somebody. They're so jealous of Erica. I said, you're to sue their. You. I can say you're not allowed to say this. You have to be nice to her. Sue their ass off. And Darth Vader. Where's Darth Vader? Russ, where is Darth? Hi, Darth. He's looking. He's finding more fraud.

Mark (25:42)

All right, we added some sound effects in there. For those who wasn't clear. Paul did a brilliant job of producing that. Larry, let's do two questions on this. First, how does. How does something like that happen at a White House that. Where they post a video, apparently accidentally. How does that happen?

Larry O'Connor (25:57)

I think somebody. Here's the thing. You just made the point. There isn't a real big difference between President Trump's public speeches in front of friendlies. That could have been a CPAC speech. That was the same style, same cadence, same kind of jokes. And I'm guessing that there was a miscommunication about whether this was supposed to be made public or not, because it didn't seem like it was any different than one of his public speeches.

Mark (26:19)

Now they pulled it down. Kevin, is it possible that they posted it? No. Knew somebody would download it and then pulled it down to pretend like it was an accident. Is that possible?

Kevin Walling (26:27)

It's certainly possible to telegraph some message coming out of that. And again, all credit to Paul for those edits. That was fantastic. Including getting the. That great theme from when Don Rickles would walk onto the. Well, that. But then when Don Rickles would walk onto the Tonight show, too. Yes, that's a.

Mark (26:46)

That's a classic man, your cultural literacy

Kevin Walling (26:48)

is super high again, 40 going on 87.

Mark (26:51)

Yeah. Amazing.

Kevin Walling (26:52)

Johnny Carson was a friend of mine.

Larry O'Connor (26:55)

Was there, was there anything there that made him look bad, you think? I thought that it didn't make him look bad.

Mark (26:59)

I mean, I mean, it would be a huge scandal for a normal president, but for Trump, it's just Wednesday lunch. Well, and again, I mean, but using saying literally, after he said sue your ass off to Erica Kirk, he then started talking about, like, the meaning of

Larry O'Connor (27:13)

Easter, about Holy Week.

Kevin Walling (27:15)

Yes.

Larry O'Connor (27:15)

He said, that's the best part. You should sue their ass off now as we celebrate Holy Week here.

Mark (27:21)

So, I mean, did it make him look bad? Not to, not to me, but to some people. I'm sure it would, ladies and gentlemen.

Kevin Walling (27:27)

But again, Martin, to your point, it's what, what he is behind the scenes is exactly that he is in front

Mark (27:34)

of, you know, whether, whether it was, whether it was truly, whether it was posted by accident or not. I strongly recommend you go on Twitter, which is, I think, the only place that exists now, and watch the whole thing. It is, it is a huge window into Trump, even though, again, it's very similar to what you see him say in public. Can I.

Larry O'Connor (27:49)

All right, real fast, Mark. I'm curious because you hear this all the time about, oh, it's so outrageous that he says these things and he does this stuff. The stories that we hear about Lyndon Baines Johnson behind the scenes before there were people had smartphones, before everything was on the record. The stuff he would do in men's rooms, comparing the size of his Johnson, if I may say, with other people.

Kevin Walling (28:10)

Still. Family show. Larry Stowell, family show at 9:00am well,

Larry O'Connor (28:14)

his name is Johnson, so you know what I mean? But, I mean, it's legendary, the kind of filth and profanity and a brace of obnoxious, horrible things that President Johnson said and he's lionized and revered because that was all behind the scenes, you know, and that sort of thing. I mean, Trump is who he is. Isn't there kind of a double standard here with how he's judged?

Mark (28:36)

I'm with you. Totally with you. I agree. It's all, it's all kind of weird. Gentlemen, we're going to do three more topics, then we're going to go to questions from the community. Please raise your hand if you want to be in on the conversation. So yesterday, at some point, the speaker of the House cried uncle and is giving the President and Senator Thune what they want on funding of dhs. Now, it's all Very processy and complicated. It involves in either today, tomorrow, or in a couple weeks passing a version of the Senate bill that would fund DHS and then using a reconciliation bill to. Or to fund the rest of the department, I should say, and then using a reconciliation bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol. Now, once you open the reconciliation process, then there's all sorts of things other, some members, Republican members would like to put in there, funding for the war, something on health care, something on taxes, the Save America Act. And now they're talking, much to my amazement, about not only doing a reconciliation bill in the next couple weeks, but doing a third one later this year when they have no margin of error. And it's, it's complex and of course, you got to deal with the parliamentarian and you have to offset everything with budget cuts. The whole thing seems nuts to me. Larry, how is this going to end? How is this. Will there be, will there be a reconciliation bill? Will there be two.

Larry O'Connor (30:00)

There will be definitely a reconciliation bill if it's only to fund the remaining parts of DHS that Democrats.

Mark (30:07)

But could, but couldn't that fall apart as they, as people try to get other stuff in it?

Larry O'Connor (30:11)

Well, sure it could, but I think that what the, the Budget Committee and the Ways and Means Committee are going to say is like, yeah, all those things will be in the next one. This is just for dhs. This is why Speaker Johnson was so off last week and didn't want to do what John Thune sort of dropped in his lap at 2 in the morning. And that's why we've gone through the last several days. So I think, I think the idea is do the DHS funding fund ICE through the end of the Trump's presidency and then all the other Christmas tree ornaments that everybody wants to put in reconciliation, we deal with that with the next one, and that's the one that could fall apart.

Mark (30:42)

Kevin, why did Speaker Johnson caved? Any idea?

Kevin Walling (30:45)

Just because he needs to move on and, and get this done. This is the longest situation that we've seen. It's the same deal that the Senate passed two weeks ago. The House is still out until I think the 14th. So we're not going to likely see action on that, even though they're in these pro former set, pro fo foma, pro former sessions. And, and again, I think he just needs to move on. He's got attendance issues, he's got all kinds of issues and, you know, and we'll see how this plays out.

Larry O'Connor (31:18)

I, I've heard, I've heard I've heard that there was a lot of coaxing from the administration, too, if not from the President himself to Speaker Johnson.

Kevin Walling (31:24)

And now the President's on board and he wasn't before, so.

Mark (31:28)

Well, I still think there, this, this thing's not over. I still think there's going to be some messiness, but we'll see. Last night, the New York Times reported this one 14. Donald Trump muses about firing people every day. And I'm not quite sure where had these major news organizations decide when to write stories over. Trump discusses. He's discussed firing Don Jr. For goodness sakes. But here's the New York Times last night. Tyler Pager. Trump has discussed firing Attorney General Pam Bondi. You could write that headline pretty much every day since last February. Donald Trump has made, has not made a final decision, but he has floated the idea of replacing Ms. Bondi with Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator. The EPA administrator. Shortly after, the Times broke the story of the fact that Donald Trump had discussed firing Attorney General Bondi. CNN reported the same thing. Not that he plans to fire her, but that he's discussed firing her. And then this morning in Politico Playbook, Dasha Burns reports she's going to be fired. She is gone. My sources suggest. Hold on. That may not be true. Kevin, is, are we getting a new attorney general or not?

Kevin Walling (32:39)

I don't think so. Not in the short term. She accompanied the President to the Supreme Court yesterday. She's been lunch. She was at the Easter lunch. She was at the speech, obviously, last night. I've spent a lot of time with the attorney General before she took on this position, debating. She is a Trump loyalist. There is some issues obviously on the Epstein front and her, her handling of it. But again, I go back to those hearings that she participated in with an audience of one. And I think in the President's estimation, she performed very well. And, and I don't think there's anything to it.

Mark (33:12)

Yeah. So, Larry, for a source of a reporter to tell the reporter Donald Trump's talking about this, would that, would, would that source be motivated by anything but a desire to get her fired? Like, why would someone, why would someone repeat that?

Larry O'Connor (33:28)

Oh, I'll tell you why. Because, Mark, wouldn't you agree that this article could be written about almost every Cabinet member on a ongoing basis, on a weekly basis from the administration?

Mark (33:39)

Not Rubio, but. Yeah. And not Bessant.

Larry O'Connor (33:41)

I said almost. Yeah. Not Besant. Not Besant. Not Rubio. So, so then, yes, the question is why was this leaked? If in Fact. And I have no doubt that it was leaked. And yes, it could be people trying to get the long knives out and try to attack Pam Bondi. I think that's what it was rumored Dan Bongino tried to do with that whole dust up in the middle of the summer last year, and it didn't work out well for Mr. Bongino. The other reason is, and don't discount this, that President Trump authorized this to be put out there because President Trump sometimes likes to use leaks to motivate people on his team. But you, you both were very surprised when I said that I think Kristi Noem won't make it till June.

Anthony (34:17)

Yeah.

Larry O'Connor (34:17)

And she didn't. My. I believe. I think Pam Bondi is fine until the midterms. We are going to have a new attorney general at some point, but as Kevin said, not in the short term. I think this was put out there to motivate the attorney general to make good on a couple of things that are still hanging there.

Mark (34:34)

No one on the history of this program is as classy and subtle as reminding everybody when he was right than Larry.

Larry O'Connor (34:41)

No one else is going to do it.

Kevin Walling (34:44)

He's still miffed about this shirt comment, Mark, from the outside.

Mark (34:47)

So, you know, I know, I know

Larry O'Connor (34:49)

our job is to, you know, give some insight to our viewers and listeners. So I want to just reiterate that they're getting stuff here that they don't get elsewhere.

Mark (34:56)

Now, there's this thing with Bondi where she got a subpoena to testify on Epstein before the House Committee and then Comer's trying to squash the subpoena and the New York Times, or somebody wrote, it's not clear that you can withdraw a subpoena. You can withdraw a subpoena, can't you?

Larry O'Connor (35:10)

Why couldn't you?

Kevin Walling (35:11)

I don't know if the committee needs to vote.

Mark (35:13)

Is there some reason. Is there some. Given how. How. Yeah, exactly. Given how. How Trumpy and. And what's the word I'm looking for? Not rambunctious. How, you know, rat attack. Spirited. Given how spirited she was when she testified in the Hill before about this stuff, is there reason to think that they might be worried about what questions she might be asked? And the whole point of this is to fire her before she testifies. Feisty. Thank you, Haley. Is, is, is it possible that that's what's at play here, is they don't want her to testify? And, and if she goes, then, then the new attorney general could just say, I wouldn't hear, is that A possibility. That seems to me to be a possibility.

Larry O'Connor (35:54)

I guess it is, but I don't think so. But pretty much Bondi's been pretty good on her test. I mean, she hasn't been very forthcoming, but she's been pretty good at these.

Mark (36:03)

She's been feisty.

Larry O'Connor (36:04)

According to Haley and I think Trump, feisty is the word of the One

Kevin Walling (36:06)

question, one question with Zelda, though, especially before the midterms, if she does get fired or she steps back, Zeldin can just, he's a he. He's been approved by the Senate. So he could just move into that position. Or would it trigger a confirmed.

Mark (36:21)

He needs to be configured different. It's a different committee. But I'll tell you, I'll tell you what makes this whole discussion hilarious. Do you know the de facto attorney general will be, no matter who the attorney general is, Todd Blanche.

Kevin Walling (36:32)

Blanche.

Mark (36:33)

Todd Blanche is running, is running, is running the joint no matter what. So it doesn't, it doesn't really matter. All right.

Larry O'Connor (36:39)

By the way, the thing that makes this ring truest is the fact that Lee Zeldin, right now, you would have never guessed the EPA administrator would be one of the top stars in the inner circle of the Trump administration. They love Lee Zelda. He's done a hell of a job.

Mark (36:53)

He's a talented guy. He's, he's recent guest on Next up, by the way, I want to pull that, pull that from the archives if he becomes the attorney general nominee. All right. 117. The Kristi Noem Story and the story about her husband in some quarters does not go away. It was broken by the Daily Mail and they continue to write about it. But our friends at the New York Post have a bit of a fetish for this story as well. Here's the headline. Kristi Noem's husband's cross dressing fetish leak sparks wild speculation in D.C. including a shocking theory man the headline writers. One theory among Republican strategists, the story says, who know Noam, is that she may have had a hand in the leak to the Daily Mail as part of a cynical play to rehabilitate her image after President Trump fired her as Homeland Security secretary. The story suggests that Secretary Noem and maybe Corey Lewandowski knew, knew about this despite her denial that she did and, and put it out there to kind of change the topic and to maybe allow certain dominoes to fall. Larry, thoughts on the question of, of who leaked this? And again, I normally hate leak speculation, but Colonel, Colonel Mustard in the library with the candlestick I think it was the Star Wars.

Larry O'Connor (38:11)

I, I'm, I'm not, I'm not an old school journalist like you are, Mark. And I mean that in the most respectful way because you rely on leaks. I think the who leaked a story, I think is sometimes bigger than the story itself.

Mark (38:22)

Yeah.

Larry O'Connor (38:22)

And so.

Kevin Walling (38:23)

And the agenda. And the agenda behind the leak. Yeah, that's right.

Larry O'Connor (38:26)

This story rings true, let's face it. Kristi Noem being reassigned from the Department of Homeland Security. And for various things that led up to that moment and that devastating moment where she was asked whether she was having an extramarital affair with Corey Lewandowski right there in a committee hearing. That left a mark. It left several marks. And this story makes her a sympathetic character and it sort of fills in a lot of blanks there for people who were wondering or speculating about what was going on there. I can tell you that within 24 hours, Christian Noem suddenly seems like, well, poor thing. Right. And this is a terrible thing. So if you try to deduce these things by who benefits the most from the leak.

Mark (39:10)

Yep.

Larry O'Connor (39:10)

Then it does kind of make sense that it might have come from her camp.

Mark (39:13)

Kevin, just try to top that brilliance because Larry's dead on.

Kevin Walling (39:17)

I can't. I mean, I just think about, you know, a mother using this to torture husband for sympathy in the national spotlight with three children at home that are, you know, grappling with the bizarreness of this story and their father and the situation.

Larry O'Connor (39:31)

They're adults, but they're, you know, they're 20.

Kevin Walling (39:34)

They're 20 somethings. But.

Mark (39:35)

Yeah, but nothing about it is break it. Their grandkids involved. The, the. So the husband told the New York Times this was on Tuesday. I don't mean to.

Kevin Walling (39:45)

It's amazing that he's picking up his phone and answering questions, too.

Mark (39:49)

Picked up his phone and he said he'd eventually talk about what happened. So here's my, here's my question. If we don't know what he knows about his wife's personal life, just as we don't really know what she knew about his personal life, but if she did leak it, is she in danger now that he could come back out and say all sorts of things about her life?

Kevin Walling (40:09)

Yeah. And again, I think the story reported that he expressed some semblance of knowledge of her and Corey to these individuals he was communicating with and these chat rooms and what have you.

Mark (40:20)

Yeah.

Larry O'Connor (40:20)

Is it, is it also part of this story? Listen, people reached out to me who work in the government and work in Homeland Security, they sent me messages saying this kind of thing gets screened out for people who work for the department. We would have never been eligible for our jobs with this kind of thing happening in our background. How did this not get vetted? How. When you're. I mean, she's got a pretty critical role. And this sort of thing back in the day would have excluded someone from having a job like this because they'd be susceptible to blackmail.

Mark (40:49)

But if he's got. If he's got dummy or what do you call him? You know, like if he's got fake boots accounts.

Larry O'Connor (40:55)

Big fake boots.

Mark (40:56)

No, no, not the big feet boots. Thank you. Thank you.

Kevin Walling (41:03)

His name is Jason on those or something like that. Come on.

Larry O'Connor (41:06)

Last time I tried to help Mark finish his sentence.

Kevin Walling (41:10)

Still a family show. Still a family show.

Mark (41:13)

Yeah. The markets have opened way down and oil is still going up, by the way. My point. My point is I think there's more to come. I'm at least controversial.

Larry O'Connor (41:22)

I think you're right.

Mark (41:22)

I could make. But I think there's more to come. All right. To your questions. Now, if you're here on the platform, maybe you've never raised your hand before. Maybe you're thinking, today's the day I got to get in on the big fake boobs.

Larry O'Connor (41:34)

Or today would be the day.

Mark (41:36)

Or. Or the Easter lunch, whatever it is. Please raise your hand. And. And we start with Nelson. Nelson, welcome in. Thank you for being part of Two Way Unmute. Tell Kevin and Larry what's where you are and what's on your mind for these gentlemen. And thank you again.

Nelson (41:52)

Oh, four points on Iraq. Really quick one. I've seen a lot of these Iranian women. They're wonderful. You know, the expatriates. They're beautiful people. They're smart. I learned they're not Muslim. 90% of the population is not Muslim. They don't even speak Arabic. Free them. The way to do that is to provide weapons. Have Israeli quietly Mosaic people provide weapons to the people and defeat them. I know it didn't work in the baby pace. The last thing you should do is Trump send them back in the Stone Age. If you take the desalinization plants out and the power plants, you're making the people suffer. It'll cause a massive. The country's going to turn to Mogadisha and they'll suffer for 100 years and go to Europe. It's crazy.

Mark (42:43)

All right, Nelson, those are. Those are two great topics. I would only say that handing out guns and other weapons is. It runs a lot of risk because you don't know whose hands are going into. You don't know who they're going to use them on.

Nelson (42:54)

And, and I agree the most people can do this.

Mark (42:58)

Maybe, maybe, maybe one town, maybe take one town. Maybe. I, I'm amazed, I'm amazed that there aren't any uprisings. And I understand it's a police 45, 000 people. Yeah, I, I just, I just, I. Given what happened. When were, when were the protests? Were they in January?

Nelson (43:15)

Yeah.

Kevin Walling (43:16)

December. December 28th.

Mark (43:17)

December.

Kevin Walling (43:18)

Yeah.

Mark (43:18)

So given before the new year, we're three months away from thousands of people, tens of thousands of people defying the government and going out on the street and, and now nothing. Even though, you know, I mean, again, there of course, 100 reasons why not, including the bombing.

Nelson (43:35)

Now you have Israelis didn't have drones over them.

Mark (43:38)

Yeah, I understand. Yeah, I hear you. Kevin, thoughts on Nelson's idea that the Israelis should really just figure out a way. And of course we know the Israelis have thought about this, but Kevin, thoughts about the feasibility of that?

Kevin Walling (43:50)

Yeah. One of the interesting things, Nelson, to your point is, you know, I remember weeks ago with Mark and Larry talking about the Kurds being armed. Right. And infiltrating, you know, city by city, not necessarily going right to Tehran, but working to topple local regimes. Again, this is a country 93 million. I'm with Mark. I'm a little surprised we haven't seen uprisings like we have. Obviously there's an issue with Internet access and usage over there and coordinating. But the fact that the Kurd element has fallen by the wayside is interesting to me.

Larry O'Connor (44:26)

Yeah. And I don't know if that you're right that there is a huge number of the population in Iran who are secular, who are not Muslim. I don't think it's as small as your. As you're citing there. That might be the, the shia minority at 10%, but I think that there are non Shia Muslims there. But that said, having talked to so many of the Iranian expatriates at the CPAC conference, they were dominating the conversation on that last day there. They're with you. They, they, they think that there needs to be this sort of slow rollout here, either town by town, arm the people so that they can defend themselves as they go in. Mark is right that it's dangerous to do that. But I think what you're seeing right now is the manifestation of sort of a modification of the you break it, you bought it Pottery Barn thing where I don't think the Attitude here is, yeah, it's okay if we break it, we don't mind, but. But what they're doing is they are breaking it, but all they're breaking is the military capabilities. I think at the end of the day, if they still have a standoff and they don't get good guys in place, but they have pretty much demolished their military capabilities, they'll call it a victory and walk away. It's not ideal. I think they want freedom for the Persian people, but if the Persian people don't assist in that process, they're going to be fine saying, well, at the very least, their military is not going to threaten us for quite some time.

Mark (45:42)

Nelson, thank you. Great questions very much.

Kevin Walling (45:44)

And they're at the. And they're at the weakest point ever in the history of this regime going back 47 years. And to not see that uprising is interesting.

Mark (45:51)

Exactly. Larry, don't be insulted, but did we ever talk about your CPAC panel? I don't feel like we did.

Larry O'Connor (45:57)

Well, it happened Friday afternoon and this is my first time.

Mark (45:59)

Okay.

Larry O'Connor (45:59)

Since then.

Mark (46:00)

Okay. Yeah. So how'd it go? How'd it go?

Kevin Walling (46:01)

Short.

Larry O'Connor (46:02)

It was short.

Mark (46:03)

It was running late because they're running late.

Larry O'Connor (46:05)

Okay. Benny Johnson's producer, Alex was on there and a young man from Prageru. And it was. And I gave a shout out to. To you and to two way in the whole community. I'll send you a clip.

Mark (46:17)

Was there huge? Oh, they were.

Larry O'Connor (46:18)

They. They went nuts. It was actually that took up most of the time was to have it

Mark (46:21)

a calm to their feet, sustained standing ovation.

Larry O'Connor (46:25)

No, we did discuss that. The dynamic of, of Anthony coming in with his incredible collie to tell us what his opinion is and how that shapes how we discuss the news of the day and manifest that into a live chat and comment section that is changing the way news and politics is discussed in this world. And we.

Kevin Walling (46:44)

That colleague. That colleague needs a bubble cuddle blanket, though. She's a colleague wrapped in warmth.

Mark (46:51)

Anthony, do you have a football team you cheer for?

Anthony (46:56)

Well, believe it or not, growing up, I was cheering for Italy, but there will be the third World Cup. There won't be there. So I'm a bit disappointed. But I mean, France is still. They're ranking at number one now, so they're probably the favorite to win the, the next World Cup.

Mark (47:14)

So who do you like? Anybody?

Anthony (47:17)

Barcelona.

Mark (47:19)

Barcelona.

Anthony (47:20)

Barcelona is my team.

Mark (47:21)

Yeah, they. They do too much. They do too much flopping for my, for my taste.

Kevin Walling (47:26)

The president. The president's not a fan. Right. Now, Barcelona or anything in Spain.

Mark (47:31)

Anthony, tell folks who don't know where you are and what's on your mind for.

Anthony (47:35)

Yeah, no, so, so, yeah, so I live here in France. Yeah. So the reason why I just wanted to say so, I mean obviously, you know, we, we are a big country and so, you know, opinion are very split. But I can just tell you that one of the reason why a lot of people, including conservative in Europe, are not actually a big fan of this. And taking from the French perspective, here is a few things. Number one, we have a presence and weapon sales agreement with some Gulf countries. And so that means that if there is a conflict, we are obliged to pour in, you know, blood and treasure in order to, to protect our own interest. And the second thing, you know, there is also a presence in Lebanon, you know, a French military presence in Lebanon. So anything that happens there also put our own troops potentially in harm's way. And the third thing, and that is the biggest one, is that nobody is actually happy to pick up the tab on the immigration side if anything else happens in the Middle east, like we did with Libya, all like we did with Syria.

Mark (48:57)

Yeah.

Anthony (48:58)

Most people are just done with it and if, you know, things go pearship and then it's just, you know, you have a lot of refugee coming. The only place where they can reasonably come is Europe and nobody wants that. It is just as simple as that.

Larry O'Connor (49:19)

Yeah. But Anthony, may I ask from your perspective, how much is the resistance of these European nations to get engaged in this concern a about the already existing Muslim and Middle Eastern refugees that are in their streets, that they may have, you know, violent and negative repercussions there. But also you just mentioned refugees coming from around. I mean, if, if Persian refugees suddenly start resettling in Europe alongside, there's, there's now going to be potentially sectarian gang angry because they don't all like each other. Is that what they're afraid of and is that why they're trying to stay out?

Anthony (49:55)

Well, yeah, I mean we, I think it was when we're back in the 70s, you know, the Iran Iraq war. So, so obviously, you know, we had Kurds and we had a lot of people who settled here and so. And we also have a very big Jewish population here in France as well, you know, so really nobody wants to go back to a time, I mean, I grew up in the, in the 90s as a teenager and I remember there used to always be, you know, like people bombing different government places, you know, in Corsica and things like that, you know, sectarian violence has always been, well, used to be very prevalent and people are just fed up and they don't want to have to to return to that. So on the immigration side, that is the big thing. People are just like, we don't want it because you're just going to create more problems.

Mark (50:54)

Anthony, thank you for raising these. These are super important issues that don't get talked about too often.

Kevin Walling (50:58)

KEVIN yeah, Anthony, I echo Mark's gratitude for raising these issues. I think one of the stories that's fallen by the wayside, and you rightly pointed out, point out, Anthony, is the situation in Lebanon. Over a million or so refugees because of that, that front that's been opened up mostly by Israel, right, in terms of Hezbollah and taking out material and individuals and people there, leading towards that refugee crisis. And the other interesting thing you point out, too, in your first point is leaders on the right in France specifically, but other European countries too, really being dismissive of the war. Right. Le Pen, I think, has come out strongly or indicated not a lot of support behind what President Trump is doing right now in Iran. So it is interesting to see the political dynamics play out in these countries, specifically in Europe as well.

Mark from Sydney (51:56)

Yeah.

Anthony (51:57)

Because, you know, we want things that are predictable. And so what I'm afraid is that eventually they will say, well, look, because right now the problem with the president is that, I mean, with President Trump is that nobody really knows where he'd sent. And so with that, the issue is that we don't want people to say here, well, you know, the right can't actually govern.

Nelson (52:22)

Right.

Anthony (52:23)

That's the issue.

Larry O'Connor (52:24)

But they're right.

Mark (52:26)

Thank you.

Larry O'Connor (52:26)

It seems that they're not worried about the Arab street in the Middle East. They're worried about the Arab street in Montmartre. That's the Arab street they're worried about.

Mark (52:34)

Grateful to you, Anthony, for raising that. Mark, welcome and tell folks who don't know where you are what's on your mind for Kevin and for Larry.

Mark from Sydney (52:40)

Hi, Mark ON hi to your guest. My name is Mark. I'm in Sydney, Australia. Iraqi background, by the way, the Iraqi Irani war was from 80 to 88. I just want to say, because I do follow like a lot of Middle Eastern news. All the media are talking about some ground operation in next few days because I believe the amount of forces that that are sending is not for, you know, like a picnic.

Donald Trump (53:16)

So,

Mark from Sydney (53:19)

like all they are talking about is just, you know, like in the next three to four days will be something, you know, like so yeah, so, like I just Wanted to take your opinion about that.

Kevin Walling (53:34)

Yeah, Mark, it's. It's a really good, good question I'd say too, in part of what we've seen in the last couple of hours, even following the President's speech, is reporting on briefings that he's had, specifically on securing that enriched uranium, which would involve ground troops obviously building potentially of. Of some kind of airstrip as well, to get the multitudes of that uranium out, which would foreshadow some ground forces in the next couple of days, weeks, you know. And again, to your point, Mark, resources are being moved to do that. We talked yesterday obviously about the George H.W. bush that's obviously another aircraft carrier, but talking about Marine and expeditionary forces specifically on. On the, the uranium front.

Larry O'Connor (54:23)

Yeah. My understanding is the Bush is coming to relieve the Ford because the Ford's been out for like over 10 months now. They were the Ford.

Kevin Walling (54:32)

The Ford left.

Larry O'Connor (54:32)

Yeah, yeah, the.

Kevin Walling (54:34)

Was there initially, but then. Yeah, but the 4:2 had some structural damage, I think too, which is why it had to leave for repairs.

Larry O'Connor (54:42)

And so I.

Mark from Sydney (54:44)

That's the last thing I just want to say. Like, I really hope that you guys winning this and you finish this because, you know, like, by the way, like, you should be happy, you know, like after a month, you know, like, we're not talking about like, lots of casualties or like captured pilots, you know, like, all you guys are not happy about is the strait of hormones. And that's the least, you know, like, you should be caring about at this stage. I mean, I mean, after a month to fight, to fight the head of the snake, the strongest country in that region, you should be happy, you know, like, this is all your concern at this stage, Mark.

Larry O'Connor (55:22)

Will your family back in Iraq be happy if. If the US Is victorious here?

Mark from Sydney (55:27)

No. Like, be like, we will never go back there. Like, my dad was in the, in the army from 80 all the way to 90 something, you know, like after the Gulf War, you know, like it was, you know, like a miserable period, but we didn't leave. Like, I was there when the American occupied the country, by the way. I just want to, you know, like, maybe for another day. There are like a lot of misinformation about the Iraqi war because the first six months was the honeymoon period for you guys. But your president back then made a major two mistakes. It took six months for you to pay for those two mistakes. But that's for another day. Because the army used to come to my street every Sunday for the communion because there was a church in my street. They used to sit with us, play cards, neighborhood used to invite some soldiers to have shower. So it was, you know, like a very peaceful. But for the two mistakes that your president made back then, it did cost all this. But that's for another day.

Larry O'Connor (56:22)

Okay, thank you, Mark.

Mark (56:24)

Thank you, Mark. Grateful to you.

Kevin Walling (56:25)

Thanks, Mark.

Mark (56:26)

Don't know what's going on with my signal, but to Mark's point about how the conflict is going, if you want to know how the President and his top five aides who deal with the war are thinking about how it's going,

Larry O'Connor (56:41)

there it goes again.

Kevin Walling (56:43)

Oh, we lost Mark for a second.

Mark (56:45)

Now he's very, very, very positive. Sorry about that. Don't know what's going on with my connection. Very positive account of how the war is going, not just militarily, operationally, but also geopolitically and strategically. Some of you will probably read it and say it overstates the case, but it's very positive. And again, it's interesting to read what Barton Swaim thinks, but I can tell you from talks with administration officials that it reflects the view of the President, the Vice President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Treasury, Witkoff, Kushner. I recommend it to you. If you haven't read it yet, Mark,

Larry O'Connor (57:20)

can you share that?

Kevin Walling (57:22)

Mark, can you share that publication? Again, some folks in the chat, I think you.

Mark (57:25)

Yeah, it's a wall. It's a Wall Street Journal op ed page. It's Barton Swaim's column, and I recommend it to you. Gentlemen. What are you looking for in the war today? Are you focused on the diplomatic track, on the Israeli bombing? Where. Where is your attention, Larry?

Larry O'Connor (57:43)

I'm looking to see if any, any good news comes out of the talks that are supposedly happening or the note passing that's going on that is being characterized as talks. I'd like to see the first 24 hour reaction to what the President had to say in the threats. Let's face it, the crux of that speech last night was a threat. Time to make a deal. Otherwise, you're about to get the next wave.

Kevin Walling (58:04)

Yeah, Kevin, I'm interested to see what this call yields. Anything the 35 nations that Keir Starmer is bringing together later this afternoon to talk about specifically the Strait and if any military resources will be deployed from our allies.

Mark (58:20)

Yep. I'm going to pop over to Sirius xm, roll into our second hour of the morning meeting there. Some of you will jump over and join me there. And if you'd like to get in on the conversation, you can give me A call at the bottom of the hour. 833-446-3496. And for a preview of what's coming up later today on two way, I turn you over to capable. Capable four hands total of Larry and Kevin. Gentlemen, thank you both. And I'll see you both tomorrow. Friday, winners and losers of the week and what to look for in sports. Thank you.

Kevin Walling (58:50)

Thanks, Mark. See you over on Sirius.

Larry O'Connor (58:53)

He said bottom of the hour. He's really got the radio thing down, doesn't he?

Kevin Walling (58:56)

You, you inspire us both. You know, when we see you back, when we see you out there. That is a great shirt. I will say that. You've got. What is the material? What is that material? Is it like, I'm just saying.

Anthony (59:08)

No.

Larry O'Connor (59:09)

Embarrassing.

Kevin Walling (59:10)

The only thing I'll say is that you might need some, you might need some collar stays, though. There's some bend in there in that color.

Larry O'Connor (59:16)

If I had a tie, I would, definitely would. But I sort of like this as the open collar look. This is cotton. It's Banana Republic. Thank you very much. I like my Banana Republic.

Kevin Walling (59:24)

There you go. From the spring collection.

Larry O'Connor (59:28)

Yeah.

Kevin Walling (59:31)

Well, everybody should join. Mark, I'm still busy over on the

Larry O'Connor (59:34)

Shook by the Kristi Noem conversation. I'm sorry, I can't believe I just said that.

Kevin Walling (59:38)

I can't believe. I think I will never ever recover.

Larry O'Connor (59:42)

And I know Haley will never recover from hearing me.

Kevin Walling (59:44)

I think you're going to, you're going to get a call from Laurie and Paul after this. From 2way HR. Yeah, potentially. So call waiting on that front.

Larry O'Connor (59:55)

Thank the Lord. Oh, and I did make a Johnson reference to, to Lyndon Johnson. What is wrong with me? I'm like doing Howard Stern on the morning meeting.

Kevin Walling (60:03)

How about it?

Larry O'Connor (60:04)

Apologize. All right. Yes, sorry, go ahead, Kevin.

Kevin Walling (60:08)

Well, we've got join Mark right now over on Sirius, channel 111, Megyn Kelly channel, obviously. And again, call in there. In the meantime, we've got the group chat coming up at 4pm Nina Turner, Robbie Suave will be joined by the Daily Callers, Amber Duke, a favorite of ours, Larry and I's and the aggressive progressives Chris Hahn to discuss today's latest and hottest topics from the two way community. And of course, you want to preview two way tonight.

Larry O'Connor (60:37)

I do because the guest tonight will be the effervescent and delightful Beverly Hallberg, good friend of ours.

Kevin Walling (60:44)

And also many are saying, many are

Larry O'Connor (60:45)

saying, many are saying she's a Republican communications strategist and Doug Fried Nash, Democratic strategist. That's all coming up tonight on two way tonight. And Kevin and I will be back tomorrow with the edition of the morning

Kevin Walling (60:58)

may we're always Friday edition favorite edition winners and losers.

Larry O'Connor (61:04)

It's going to be hard not to go with sports because my Michigan Wolverines are in the final four. You know my prediction for my bracket, my bracket has a final between Yukon and Michigan. So I, I could be on the verge of winning every single bracket I'm in right now if I get that.

Kevin Walling (61:20)

They're sitting pretty. You're sitting pretty. And we always and we always love to hear from the two way community their thoughts on winners and losers. So tweet at us or message us. Oftentimes we, we use those and then of course too. You can join the chat right now on Professor Kenny's after show with fan favorites. And of course that starts at 11 and the links are in the chat for that.

Larry O'Connor (61:43)

I'll be live today at noon on whatever video platform you're watching us on right now. I go live at noon for my town hall show every day at noon tomorrow morning, WMAO in Washington, D.C. and tomorrow I'll be for at a new location for the morning meeting. I will not have my regular. I won't be here.

Kevin Walling (61:58)

Okay.

Larry O'Connor (61:59)

And I won't be in Dallas. I'll be in New Haven, Connecticut.

Kevin Walling (62:03)

There you go. How about it?

Larry O'Connor (62:06)

New Haven, Connecticut, if anyone's out there, go Bayers. Go dogs.

Kevin Walling (62:12)

Yeah, that too. Thanks, everybody. We'll see you tomorrow morning.

Larry O'Connor (62:17)

We'll see you. Bye.

Donald Trump (62:18)

Bye.