‘You're Wrong' With Mollie Hemingway And David Harsanyi, Ep. 190: The Warpath

Summary

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Federalist Radio Hour: ‘You're Wrong’ With Mollie Hemingway And David Harsanyi, Ep. 190: The Warpath

Date: March 11, 2026
Hosts: Mollie Hemingway, David Harsanyi
Main Theme: In-depth analysis of the current U.S.-Iran war, public opinion around it, generational attitudes toward conflict, media bias, and recent political and cultural news.

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the state of the U.S. war in Iran, how it is being conducted, public reactions and polling, the influence of political figures, the challenge of messaging around war, and the shifting role of the media in covering conflict and controversy. The hosts provide trenchant commentary on political divides, generational perspectives, and the complex role of faith and media narratives in the modern political landscape. A robust cultural review and listener interaction round out the episode.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The War With Iran: Progress, Perceptions, and Polls

• Current State of the Conflict

  • The U.S. military campaign in Iran is described as going "spectacularly well," with major strikes on Iranian infrastructure and leadership.
    • "We have decapitated the enemy...meticulously destroying their entire military infrastructure.” – David Harsanyi (02:27)
  • However, both hosts caution that no war is without unintended consequences, particularly concerning global oil markets and regional stability.

• Public Opinion & Polling Analysis

  • Strong Republican support; Democrats and independents more hesitant.
  • Poll design often ties responses to views on President Trump, skewing interpretation:
    • “These polls are showing basically what do you think of Trump?” – Mollie Hemingway (03:49)
    • Polls are thus as much about presidential approval as foreign policy.

• Presidential Leadership Context

  • War support is highly contingent on who is president.
  • Mollie Hemingway stresses it's impossible to separate the policy from the person:
    • “Who is leading the effort has everything to do with whether you support it or not, both good and bad.” – Mollie Hemingway (06:52)

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2. Generational Attitudes Toward War

• Historical Reference Points
  • Those who remember the Iran hostage crisis (1979) or the Cold War view Iran differently than younger Americans shaped by the Iraq/Afghanistan era.
  • "If you are an older person coming out of World War II...you will have a different belief about what's possible with use of the military than if your only experiences are the Iraq war, the Afghanistan war, Libya." – Mollie Hemingway (09:15)
• Media Impact on Wartime Sentiment
  • Harsanyi suggests that if WWII unfolded in today's media environment, public opinion might be less supportive due to constant, graphic exposure:
    • “If we had the Internet during World War II...not sure that they would view it the same way.” – David Harsanyi (10:28)

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3. Inside the Administration and War Strategy

• Policy Origins & Internal Dynamics

  • Mollie reports the Iran war strategy is directly Trump-driven, not a neocon or senator-initiated plan.
    • “This plan really is a Donald Trump plan. More than a Pete Hegseth or Marco Rubio or a J.D. Vance plan.” – Mollie Hemingway (15:20)
  • Figures like Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio are influential but not originators.

• Comparisons to Other Military Operations

  • The Venezuelan operation is highlighted as a contrast—swift and easier vs. Iran’s entrenched resistance.
    • “That whole thing was done under. In under a day, just a few hours...it's really impressive.” – Mollie Hemingway (17:14)

• Objectives & Messaging

  • Uncertainty about specific war aims. Harsanyi desires clearer goals and improved communication:
    • “I think they need to clean up the messaging. I think it should be simpler." – David Harsanyi (19:52)

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4. U.S. and Israeli Alignment; Global Oil & Strategic Goals

• Shared and Diverging Interests
  • U.S. conducting war "in conjunction with Israel," but American interests (global and with China) are broader than Israel's existential focus.
    • “We should be communicating in a way similar to what they’re doing in terms of just getting that message to their, to the people.” – Mollie Hemingway (22:02)
• Oil Market Complexity
  • Disruption of Straits of Hormuz affects Europe more than the U.S.; reasons for targeting Houthis and regional instability explained.

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5. Midterms, Political Fallout & Domestic Focus

• Reflecting on the Polling & Political Risks
  • War support not translating into an assured political boost, even for Trump. America's entrenched polarization means no president sees high approval—even in wartime.
    • “I don't know there's ever going to be a popular president again...it's difficult for me to think that there's going to be a President with like 60, 70% approval rate even in the midst of a war.” – David Harsanyi (25:45)
• Democratic Critique
  • Bipartisan recognition of Iran as a threat, with procedural quibbles:
    • “He didn’t disagree that Iran was a very serious threat...He didn’t like that [Trump] didn’t come and get approval before the war.” – Mollie Hemingway (26:31)
  • Discussion of the War Powers Act and George Will’s argument against compulsory Congressional approval (27:22).

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6. Media Analysis and Critique

• Bias, Double Standards & Obscured Reporting
  • Examination of coverage regarding Zohar Mamdani’s wife and contrasting media reactions to similar controversies involving conservative spouses.
    • “When Momdani said, you know what? My wife’s her own person...everyone was like, well, case closed. If Justice Thomas...says that, people make fun of them.” – Molly Hemingway (46:15)
• Obfuscating Headlines and Propaganda
  • Hosts rail against the NYT and CNN for headlines and language that obscure the truth about anti-Semitic and pro-terror posts, and actual acts of violence.
    • “It’s anti-journalism. Journalism is supposed to synthesize information, bring it clearly and as truth...This literally leads you away from the truth on purpose." – David Harsanyi (49:49)
• Obituaries for Dictators vs. Conservatives
  • Obits for figures like Ali Khamenei and Baghdadi are seen as sympathetic, while conservative obits are harsh.
    • “There is a difference. If you are angrier at a cartoonist who supported Trump than a guy responsible for, for untold bloodshed and calamities, there’s something wrong with you.” – Molly Hemingway (55:27)

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7. 2026 Texas Primary & Faith in Politics

• James Talarico’s Primary Win and the “Faith-Forward” Brand
  • Criticism of Talarico as someone whose faith is led by politics rather than vice versa; radical positions masked as moderation.
    • “This guy’s faith is informed by his politics...he flips through Paul’s letters and comes up with some sentence that allows him to rationalize some kind of insane view of abortion or whatever it is.” – David Harsanyi (31:13)
  • Talarico espouses, per Mollie, extreme positions on gender and abortion under a Christian veneer (33:11).
• The Media’s Role
  • David French at the NYT is taken to task for evaluating candidates by tone over substance and lionizing “Christian” Democrats while demonizing Christian conservatives.

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8. Culture: Reviews and Recommendations

• Mel Brooks Documentary (“99-Year-Old Man”)
  • Mixed reviews: Hemingway likes “Blazing Saddles” (61:15), Harsanyi not as much, but both praise "The Producers."
• Tron: Legacy
  • Mollie Hemingway appreciates the Christian allegory and style, though acknowledges plot issues; her husband disagrees (62:14).
• LA Confidential
  • Both enjoy it; Jerry Goldsmith’s score praised (64:12).
• TV Picks
  • "Tehran" (Apple TV+): Harsanyi recommends; praises its realism and international cast (65:17).
  • “Young Sherlock” (Amazon): Guy Ritchie’s style makes it a fun, quick watch (66:29).

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9. Guns, Events, and Listener Q&A

• David’s Speaking Engagement

  • Upcoming talk at Virginia Forum on “Forged in Freedom: the History of American Guns" (67:02).

• Gun Ownership

  • Gun store “tribalism”—David mocked for buying a Springfield Hellcat Pro:
    • “I've never experienced something like this...Gun people are so opinionated that they will...mock you for your selection.” – David Harsanyi (68:42)

• AR-15 Bans

  • Discussion of possible grandfather clauses in pending legislation and the climate of gun ownership in Virginia (69:01).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “War is always going to have unintended consequences...” – David Harsanyi (02:27)
• “Who is leading the effort has everything to do with whether you support it or not, both good and bad.” – Mollie Hemingway (06:52)
• “This plan really is a Donald Trump plan.” – Mollie Hemingway (15:20)
• “You want to know if you’ve got a good like justice or judge, just look at who their wife is.” – Mollie Hemingway (59:31)
• “It’s anti-journalism.” – David Harsanyi (49:49)
• “He is a talented politician who is running as a faith forward candidate while condemning conservatives for running as faith forward candidates.” – Quoting Albert Mohler via Hemingway (38:13)

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Key Timestamps

• [02:00] – Initial takes on the war’s progress and public negativity
• [03:49] – Polling and public opinion on the war, framed by Trump
• [09:15] – Generational differences in war perception
• [15:20] – Who originated military action against Iran?
• [19:52] – Uncertainty on war goals and the need for clearer messaging
• [22:02] – US-Israel alignment and US global oil interests
• [25:45] – Political prospects in light of war and the midterms
• [31:13] – Critiquing James Talarico’s faith and political rhetoric
• [46:15] – Media double standards: spouses, bias, and coverage
• [49:49] – Media language and reporting bias on extremist violence
• [55:27] – The problem with obituaries for murderous dictators
• [61:15] – Mel Brooks documentary and broader cultural talk
• [65:17] – Show recommendations: “Tehran,” and “Young Sherlock”
• [68:42] – Gun ownership, store culture, and AR-15 ban discussion

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Tone & Language

The conversation is sharp, witty, conversational—and often caustic. Hemingway and Harsanyi are unflinching in critique but also indulge in cultural and personal asides, making their analysis accessible and engaging for listeners who appreciate a mix of substance and humor.

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For listeners: This episode offers a sweeping, candid discussion on the current US-Iran war, generational and partisan divides, media bias, and the state of faith in politics, capped with lively pop culture reviews and listener interaction.

Transcript

[Molly Hemingway]

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[David Harsanyi]

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[Molly Hemingway]

nearby Lowe's on Colorado street in Kennewick.

[David Harsanyi]

Welcome back everyone, to a new episode of youf're Wrong with Molly Hemingway, editor in chief of the Federalist, and David Harsanyi, senior writer at the Washington Examiner. Just as a reminder, if you'd like to email the show, please do so at radio the federalist.com we'd love to hear from you, Molly. There's a war on. A lot of negativity out there. Have you noticed that about the war? Am I misreading what's going on?

[Molly Hemingway]

No, I think that we are taping this on day like 11 or something of the war. It's in the early days, it seems that there are debates about the war, but the war itself seems to be going fairly well, as you might expect, given our overwhelming military might. What are you hearing, though? You're hearing negativity.

[David Harsanyi]

Yeah, maybe I have the. I mean, maybe I'm on Twitter or X too much because I think that's a place where negativity thrives. But people are already kind of wringing their hands over how long it's taking over, you know, the oil prices. Legitimate concern, right? Especially oil prices, even though they've dropped today significantly from the other day. But you don't know. I can't predict what's going to happen there, and neither can anyone else. But I think the war is going spectacularly well, far better than perhaps any military conflict we've engaged in in the sense that we have decapitated the enemy. We are meticulously destroying their entire military infrastructure. We have gone after their leadership. They are the Revolutionary Guard within the country. I, you know, I don't know exactly, because we don't know exactly what all the aims are as far as as getting to certain kinds of nuclear material or no war is perfect. War is always going to have unintended consequences like we discussed. But I think it's going incredibly well. The messaging hasn't been great always, but even if we picked up and left today, we would have accomplished a lot against a sworn enemy of the United States that has been after us for 47 years in different ways.

[Molly Hemingway]

Well, I was looking at there was a major effort to put forth polling showing that Republican voters love the war. And by and large you do see very strong support among Republicans for the war. And then you see much softer support among Democrats, but even independents who are much closer to Democrats than they are Republicans on this issue. I think if you look at that another way though, these polls are showing basically what do you think of Trump? And even the way the questions will be asked, do you support President Trump? War in Iran? Do you support President Trump sandling of the war in Iran? And so people are just answering, do you support President Trump or not? And it's hard to get a really good analysis of what those numbers mean, particularly this early in. If things continue to go as well for the Americans as that's us as they have thus far, I think you will see even, you know, you will continue to see those high numbers from Republicans. It is also true that if it goes on for a long time, if it's very disruptive to oil markets, if, if it's where you're starting to see a supplemental have to be put forth for a lot of money, you will maybe see more diversity of thought among each group of those polled. But thus far, people trust Donald Trump to engage in war fighting better than his predecessors. But part of that does mean that you're not going to do a big nation building war that continues, I believe, to not be as popular even among Republicans. What do you think?

[David Harsanyi]

You make a very good point about polling because when you dive into those polls, it's not just absolutely a lot of them tie it to Donald Trump, which is both the positive probably and a negative, depending if you're a Democrat or Republican. But they also the sequences of questions. So essentially they'll say like Donald Trump has started a war with Iran, you know, and the next question will, so it'll be connected to Donald Trump in some way. And so you see the normal splits that, that usually happen. So I don't really trust those polls. But again, I don't know. I am out of touch with the American people in that way. I don't, you know, I, I, for me, this seems like a very good thing to do, but I understand why other people wouldn't feel the same way. I get it. Do you think if it was a different president that the polls would look completely different? Would more people be for it? Were more people be against it? Like, is it just because it's Donald Trump that everyone's staking out these positions? Or there is, is there an American, you know, is there some kind of, Do Americans have some kind of belief in how we should use the military? I mean, oh, I think it would

[Molly Hemingway]

be wildly different, but it's impossible to separate the two things right now. If Joe Biden were doing this, it would be prosecuted in a very different way. If George W. Bush were doing this, it would be, it'd be done in a very different way. Who, who is leading the effort has everything to do with whether you support it or not, both good and bad. So I don't, I don't even know how you would ask the question without having, you know, with it. If you're saying, like, if this were a generic person prosecuting this war, would it look differently? But it's never a generic person. It's always someone in particular.

[David Harsanyi]

I totally get that. That, that who leads a war is part of why you, you would feel more secure in it or not. My argument that it's, we're Donald Trump is doing this, so don't worry, trust the plan, all of that. I don't love that. I mean, you have to have some kind of idea. Do you think it's right to eliminate Iran as a threat to the United States? Do you think it's right to go in and take away their nukes? I, I get that. I don't, I don't think, you know, on that.

[Molly Hemingway]

I would be more curious to see how it breaks down more by age than anything else. You notice that people who remember 1979, which at this point is people who

[David Harsanyi]

are, you know, the olds. Yeah, I get it.

[Molly Hemingway]

I don't remember 1979.

[David Harsanyi]

I do.

[Molly Hemingway]

I. So, yeah, people who are older are going to have had a longer history of disliking Iran, much like people who are older are going to have natural distrust of the Soviet Unions, you know, major state, which is Russia. You, that, that plays In I do not think younger people in any way have the same idea about this war as older people do. I'm sure you agree with that, right?

[David Harsanyi]

No, overall, yeah. I mean, obviously your background and, and your, your history in the world and what you've seen plays a part in that. Do you think that when people get older they become more open to this sort of thing or less open? I feel like when you get older, you have a longer term view of history and you sort of change. Maybe, or maybe this is maybe this wishful thinking on my part.

[Molly Hemingway]

I don't know if it's that so much as you are a product of the era in which you grew up and if you are an older person coming out of World War II, which was a dramatic success for Americans working with allies, you will have a different belief about what's possible with use of the military than if your only experiences are the Iraq war, the Afghanistan war, Libya. You know what I mean? It's different now. We have a little bit of a different situation. Donald Trump has had very successful military interventions and he's done them in a way different than those other conflicts. Usually it's very quick. It doesn't have democracy building aspects to it that we saw in some recent efforts, not just under Bush, but Obama and Clinton. And so I don't think it's that you get smarter or wiser as you get older, although we tend to do that even so much as. How deeply do you understand the success that's possible with the military?

[David Harsanyi]

We finally found a point to argue. Maybe I completely disagree about World War II. World War II, if we had the same kind of. If we had the Internet during World War II and people saw the massive casualties that the Americans took just to take a hill or just to move forward by a few miles, I'm not sure that they would view it the same way. And World War II was the biggest democracy built building regime change, war that has ever existed in the history of mankind. We literally demanded unconditional surrender of Japan and of Germany and instituted democratic governments in those countries and rebuilt them. They were a huge success.

[Molly Hemingway]

We're talking about completely separate things right now. I was talking about if you were a product of the World War II generation, you saw success with your military. If you were a product of the Gulf War, Afghanistan War era, you're going to have a different view of it. I'm not talking about whether any of those wars were right or wrong or justified or not justified, but simply people who grew up in the Post World War II era were in a period of great optimism, great patriotism. You know, just how it's different for different generations. And I think it's worth it contemplating that.

[Podcast Host]

I've got Dan Morgan here on the pod. Say hi, Dan.

[Dan Morgan]

Hey, how's it going today?

[Podcast Host]

It's going good, man. Tell us who you are and what you do.

[Dan Morgan]

I'm Dan Morgan. I'm an attorney and a managing partner at Morgan and Morgan, which is America's largest injury law firm.

[Podcast Host]

That's pretty awesome. I think I saw a billboard of yours recently that said 20 billion won. 20 billion is an insane number.

[Dan Morgan]

Yeah, 20 billion recovered. It's actually, I think, somewhere north, probably closer to 22, 23 after this year. And each year we get bigger and badder and our army grows. So the number will hopefully keep getting bigger and bigger as time goes on.

[David Harsanyi]

Awesome.

[Podcast Host]

So how does someone get in contact with Morgan and Morgan? What would I do if I got into an accident?

[Dan Morgan]

Probably the easiest way is dialing pound law. That's £529 from your cell phone. We are always open. Our call center is always waiting to take your call. 24 7. 365.

[David Harsanyi]

Wow.

[Podcast Host]

Dan Morgan from Morgan and Morgan, America's large injury law firm. Thanks for coming by the show.

[Dan Morgan]

Thanks for having me. Visit forthepeople.com for an office near you.

[David Harsanyi]

Well, for sure, I agree with you on the aspect that we are prosecuting this war to win and for American interests and not for the interests of other people on that point.

[Molly Hemingway]

I actually think that's always been a real unifying theme for Americans. They're not super jazzed about having our military everywhere, but if we do have our military somewhere, they want to win. They want people's lives and money to be treated respectfully. And, yeah, they want it to also have, like, a strategy for success. And so this is where we go back to those poll numbers for Trump. If you don't trust Trump already, you might be more anxious about, what are we doing there? What are the goals? Why have they not been communicated more clearly? If you do trust Trump, you just think those questions are silly. It's like, trust the plan. He's always. He's always done it well thus far. It's gonna work out fine. Or if you have been wanting to bomb Iran for a long time, you're just happy about it. You know, like, this is something Lindsey Graham has really wanted for a long time. He's very happy.

[David Harsanyi]

Gosh, the. The. The isolationist, right? I'm not throwing you in there. They are so Lucky Lindsey Graham's around because he's, he says ridiculous things all the time. He pretends he's King of America and he could punish the Saudis, punish the Syrians. I saw him on TV for out, but yet he's literally the only real neocon out there. I have literally not heard a single person talk about nation building or talk about this in the way that he has. He's a lone voice here.

[Molly Hemingway]

I'm not a fan of him, but I don't think we should undersell how important he is. Right. You know, the Wall Street Journal reported that he had personally been involved in crafting the conversation with Israel about how they would convince Trump to get involved. I mean, he's not an uninfluential figure. He, he, he's someone who President Trump definitely talks to and you can like him or dislike him, but I think it's okay to acknowledge that he has played a role in this conflict.

[David Harsanyi]

I, I, I don't believe that story for a second, but I will say this. Yes, he has.

[Molly Hemingway]

Well, I will tell you, I can tell you this. He's definitely telling people that he played that role.

[David Harsanyi]

Yes, this, this administration has the Marco Rubio's and on the edge the Lindsey Grahams, but also has the Vance's and other people in the administration are probably much more, you know, who are less, far less inclined to do that. You should hear both sides anyway, I guess.

[Molly Hemingway]

Yeah, I think Marco Rubio, from what I've heard from my reporting, probably was pretty similar in his perspective. In fact, I would say there hasn't been a huge diversity within the administration on whether to do this or not. This plan really is a Donald Trump plan. More than a Pete Hegseth or Marco Rubio or a J.D. vance plan. Yeah, like they're serving him. They're supporting him and they're serving him well, I think. But they're not the originators of this. Based on my reporting.

[David Harsanyi]

I have no reporting. I trust your reporting, but I just don't believe that J.D. vance would ever do this, ever. And I'm not sure that Mark.

[Molly Hemingway]

What, what do you think he's like, what does that have to do with what I said though?

[David Harsanyi]

Well, you're, you're saying that everyone's on the same page as, and it's just Donald Trump's plan. Don't you think that Marco Rubio.

[Molly Hemingway]

Okay, let's listen to what I'm saying. They're not, they were not the originators of this plan even as they are supporting Trump, which I do believe. Each one is quite publicly supportive of Trump, but they didn't. This plan did not come from a Pete Hegseth or Marco Rubio or a J.D. vance. This was more a Donald Trump plan than.

[David Harsanyi]

I get that. But I'm just saying that I could see a President Rubio militarily acting against Iran if it would not agree to limit its nuclear program or whatever. I just don't see that happening with a lot of the other people in that administration. That's all I'm saying. I don't. I don't.

[Molly Hemingway]

Well, like that. I mean, I think with the Venezuela situation, that was. That was something that originated out of the Pentagon. I believe so. And it was very successful.

[David Harsanyi]

Yeah.

[Molly Hemingway]

And they worked very hard on coming up with a plan that would be achieved with. I mean, just. It's so remarkable. That whole thing was done under. In under a day, just a few hours. I mean, it's really impressive.

[David Harsanyi]

There are people who are comparing that operation to the Iranian thing, which is. It's just very different. Iran is a far superior military power in a way. It's far away. There are other intricate things that.

[Molly Hemingway]

Very different culturally.

[David Harsanyi]

Yeah.

[Molly Hemingway]

Very different geographically.

[David Harsanyi]

We'll see.

[Molly Hemingway]

You could accomplish a lot in Venezuela just by going in there and grabbing Maduro. You don't do that with this entrenched irgc. Doesn't really matter if you take out the head. There are many layers below it. Right.

[David Harsanyi]

They're not rational actors in the way they believe. They're rational in how they view the world, but they don't view the world as someone who is trying to hold on to power in Venezuela. Right. Who is going to be more apt to work with Donald Trump not to lose power. Hopefully moderate that country. Maybe Cuba's next. I mean, hear a lot about that, I think. I just don't think countries like that should exist in our hemisphere, frankly, who are our enemies and. But we'll see.

[Molly Hemingway]

I think I saw some people when. I think it was Lindsay Graham maybe, but maybe someone else who said, and Cuba's next. And some people were like, oh, my gosh, really? But I think Cuba is a much greater or much easier to understand problem. Not a greater problem than Iran, but it is insane that they have just been allowed to pose problems from such a close proximity to our country. They're right there.

[David Harsanyi]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't want to see an invasion and a regime change Iran style. I would like to see what happened in Venezuela happen to them or maybe not even happen to them. Maybe just threaten them and see what they're amenable to some sort of agreement to reform in some way. We'll see. You want to move on?

[Molly Hemingway]

Maybe. I just. I was gonna ask. There was something you said that made me want to ask a question about. You're not entirely sure what all the goals of this war are, but also you said that you think it has been so successful that even just with what's been accomplished thus far, you could kind of call it a day and. Or say, you know, take the win and move on. What are your thoughts on that going forward? Do you want them to articulate more clearly specific goals? Do you want them to just kind of wrap it up and get out? Do you want to. Does that make sense, what I'm asking?

[David Harsanyi]

Yeah, I think here. I think they need to clean up the messaging. I think it should be simpler. I think it's been better lately, but still not great. I think, like I said last time, there are an array of possibilities. The best case scenario is regime change. I went back to see what Donald Trump said about that and listen, I'm not here to defend Donald Trump's rhetoric. I think it's very messy. But he didn't. When he was talking about regime change, he was talking about the people rising. We, because of what we're doing for ourselves, have allowed and given the opportunity for Iranians to rise up against their regime. I think that's a long shot. Regime change is incredibly hard through just air, you know, an air war. So I don't know if that's going to happen. I think that's the best case scenario, and that's what they're hoping for. The idea that Donald Trump has to go out there while a war is raging and let everyone know exactly what he wants to do and let the enemy know exactly wants to do is not the norm.

[Molly Hemingway]

He.

[David Harsanyi]

They have, I'm sure, operations that are happening right now to procure, for instance, the nuclear, you know, the enriched uranium. I'm sure they know what they're going after. I'm sure there is a plan. People who pretend there's no plan don't understand how military works. And we've shown that we are a very competent military right now. So I hope. I think we've weakened them tremendously. It will probably take them decades. But if we have allowed their nuclear program to survive in some way, I think that's a big problem, because then you have to go back again. And I hope that we never have to go back again. So I don't exactly know when I said I don't know is because I don't know what these operations entail, but it's still a victory for us to weaken them tremendously in their military and their ability to undermine American interests. I think the, there is still work to be done because they could still obviously create problems in the Straits of Hormuz and, you know, in oil delivery for the whole world, which matters. It's a fungible commodity. It's not that simple, though. We use very little Gulf oil, frankly. I mean, we get most of our oil from Canada, Mexico and we make it ourselves. So I don't know, I don't want a tangent. Yeah.

[Molly Hemingway]

On that point though. It's true that we don't get much oil through the Straits of Hormuz, but Europe does. A lot of their products are, are able to be made because of that oil coming through there. And this is why we were targeting the Houthis in Yemen, because they were making shipping difficult in the Straits of permits. So, so we are clearly doing this war in conjunction with Israel. And I have thought that Israel isn't giving away what they're doing there, but they've done a pretty good job of mess. Part of that, I think, is because Iran is an existential threat to Israel. Everyone understands in that country, you know, even you see it in the support that Netanyahu has in his country for, for his, for what he's doing with this war. Everyone understands Iran wants to wipe Israel off the map and they seem to have a clarity of explaining that. That would be good, I think, for the Americans to follow in explaining why they're doing this, what the general plan is, getting that messaging out to people is important because part of, you know, this is using our money and our, our boys. And so you do want to have broad buy in from the public. You do have a lot of that among Republican voters already. They're enthusiastic about this war or at the very least supportive. And I would just even understand that we have different interests than Israel. We should be communicating in a way similar to what they're doing in terms of just getting that message to their, to the people. Does that make sense?

[David Harsanyi]

Yeah, but it's very difficult because we have a far more complex case to make to voters about the long term problems that a nuclear Iran would pose to us. And though I think we share many of the same interests as Israel, we also have broader interests that include China, where Israel's interests are more narrowly focused, focused on proxy armies that are literally bombing their people. So it's easier case to make you Know, I mean, like, like Hezbollah. So, but if the Iranian.

[Molly Hemingway]

I agree. It just still, it's still good to do that kind of communication.

[David Harsanyi]

They have done a lot better military planning than messaging planning, I think in the White House, I think Rubio has been the best. But even his words can be taken out of context sometimes and have been. So they should clean it up. But it is a tough, it's tough to explain a lot of it. It's tough to explain a preemptive war that maybe saves, you know, it's tough like the line of immunity where Iran has these ballistic missiles and it makes it into a far more dangerous war. That's difficult to explain. It's maybe it's not difficult. Maybe they don't give the American people enough credit. I don't know. But it is to message that in a sound bite when you're on Fox News or wherever you are making the case super, super difficult, I think.

[Molly Hemingway]

And then the other thing I would just say, and I mentioned this on Fox News Sunday, was that Republicans are supportive of President Trump pretty much across the board. Whatever the issue is, they tend to be supportive. It's also true that there are a lot of things that need to be done to fix America. And a lot of people voted for Trump believing that he alone could really fix some of these problems in America. A lot of work has been done closing the border, beginning the deportations. But the Trump administration should not neglect that domestic policy agenda if they want to have any shot at some wins in the midterm elections.

[David Harsanyi]

Yeah, well, I almost think it's not, I don't make predictions anymore, but that the midterms are going to be very difficult no matter what, in my opinion. And, and even with the win, once we talked about this last week, once you win, everyone's moved forward to something else. It's incredibly difficult in this environment, especially where, I don't know, I was thinking about this the other day. I don't know there's ever going to be a popular president again. Like, we're so divided on partisan lines that it's difficult for me to think that there's going to be a President with like 60, 70% approval rate even in the midst of a war like we're in. Usually you get that bump for like a week or two. Trump wasn't even given that bump. And like you say, if Biden did this, I don't think he would have been given that bump either. And maybe, maybe it's those personalities, I don't know.

[Molly Hemingway]

From, from Fox News Sunday, Senator Mark Warner was there, and he's on the Senate Intel Committee. He had some critiques of Trump with the war, but they were all procedural. He didn't disagree that Iran was a very serious threat that needed to be taken seriously. Thought that was interesting. He didn't like that he didn't come and get approval before the war. He didn't believe that that was the right way to do things. And he said because it was a, you know, he chose to go to war rather than doing it because there was some imminent threat, even though the Trump administration says there was an imminent threat, whereas Tom Cotton says they have been an imminent threat since 1979.

[David Harsanyi]

Can I say something about that?

[Molly Hemingway]

But Warner was. I'm just saying Warner was supportive, and he's a big Democrat, so I just thought that was interesting.

[David Harsanyi]

Well, did you see the George Will column about how he argued that Trump doesn't need any congressional approval for this war? That was quite interesting.

[Molly Hemingway]

I might agree with it. But what was his. What was. I don't, I don't think the War Powers act is very good, but go on. What was George Will's argument that the.

[David Harsanyi]

You'd have to go read it. I mean, I don't know if I agree with it, but essentially he, he argued that the founders never envisioned having to go and ask Congress for, For military, you know, to engage in military action in the. When you need the surprise, to do it, when you need to move very, very quickly, and all of that. I don't know if I agree, but it was interesting and unexpected for me to read him defending Donald Trump, but also saying that. So something to think about, right?

[Molly Hemingway]

Oh, so surprising. All the people who suddenly support Donald Trump worked very hard to get him out in 2016, including some publications that did some pretty dramatic stuff to try to thwart Trump. Now being very supportive.

[David Harsanyi]

George Will was not a big. He's not a big neocon type, though he did initially support Iraq. But he quickly wrote columns saying it was a mistake and stuff like that.

[Molly Hemingway]

You know, I, I just. If Congress wants to. To say something, they control a lot through the budget, and that's where they should show their power.

[David Harsanyi]

Right?

[Molly Hemingway]

And they will have an opportunity to do that here fairly soon. If the reports that this is costing one to two billion dollars a day

[David Harsanyi]

are true, we shall see. 1800 companies are in the amazing tariff refund race. The Watchdog on Wall street podcast with Chris Markowski. Every day, Chris helps unpack the connection between politics and the economy and how it affects your wallet. $130 billion was taken in tariffs because those tariffs were called off. Companies want their money back. Will they get it? Whether it's happening in D.C. or down on Wall street, it's affecting you financially. Be informed. Check out the Watchdog on Wall street podcast with Chris Markowski, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast.

[Podcast Host]

I've got Dan Morgan here on the pod. Say hi, Dan.

[Molly Hemingway]

Hey.

[Dan Morgan]

How's it going today?

[Podcast Host]

It's going good, man. Tell us who you are and what you do.

[Dan Morgan]

I'm Dan Morgan. I'm an attorney and a managing partner at Morgan and Morgan, which is America's largest injury law firm.

[Podcast Host]

That's pretty awesome. I think I saw a billboard of yours recently that said 20 billion. 1. 20 billion is an insane number.

[Dan Morgan]

Yeah, 20 billion recovered. It's actually, I think somewhere north. Probably closer to 22, 23 after this year. And each year we get bigger and badder and our army grows. So the number will hopefully keep getting bigger and bigger as time goes on.

[David Harsanyi]

Awesome.

[Podcast Host]

So how does someone get in contact with Morgan and Morgan? What would I do if I got into an accident?

[Dan Morgan]

Probably the easiest way is dialing pound law. That's £529 from your cell phone. We are always open. Our call center is always waiting to take your call. 24-736-465.

[David Harsanyi]

Wow.

[Podcast Host]

Dan Morgan from Morgan and Morgan, America's large injury law firm. Thanks for coming by the show.

[Dan Morgan]

Thanks for having me. Visit forthepeople.com for an office near you

[David Harsanyi]

would like to move on.

[Molly Hemingway]

Yeah. Speaking of midterms, did you follow the Texas situation?

[David Harsanyi]

I did follow the Texas situation. You're speaking of the Democrat James Talarico winning against Jasmine Crockett.

[Molly Hemingway]

It.

[David Harsanyi]

Yeah, in the, in the primaries there. I am obviously not a Christian, but I. He said I. I wrote a column on this, but to me, he sound like he speaks with the moral authority of a 1980s, like, televangelist. But he has the intellectual depth of a freshman, like, gender studies major at Oberlin. That's. That's basically how I think of him. When you listen to him speak, it's. It's vapid.

[Molly Hemingway]

Right.

[David Harsanyi]

And because I know many social conservatives, and I can say not all of them are perfect and. And this or that. But I think that their views are informed by their faith. Like their political views are informed by their faith, which is completely normal and expected. This guy's faith is informed by his politics. Like, I feel like the whole thing's inverse. Like, he comes up with, starts talking about trans kids, and he flips through, you know, Paul's, you know, Saint Apostle Paul's letters or whatever and comes up with some sentence that allows him to rationalize some kind of insane view of abortion or whatever it is. Right. So I cannot, I find the guy just insufferable. Let me ask you, what do you, what are your thoughts on him?

[Molly Hemingway]

Well, again, I'm thinking back to some stuff from Fox on Sunday. A Wall Street Journal reporter, Amy Linsky, was saying that Democrats were in a very good sit in Texas because they had been able to dominate this moderate James Talarico over Jasmine Crockett, who said this. I think her name is Annie Linsky.

[David Harsanyi]

Okay.

[Molly Hemingway]

Did I just make that up? In fact, that is the general consensus. Right. You saw it with the Stephen Colbert conspiring with Talarico to, to not help out Jasmine Crockett and make a big production out of it so it would gain money and recognition for Talarico. The Democrats were focused on that and they did consider it a big thing that they could run him instead of Crockett, in part because the big Democrat operation now is to take the most left wing person who presents the least left wing as your ideal candidate. And so they think Talarico is their most left wing, but presents as not left wing in part because the media keeper saying that he's moderate. It there is, it reminds me of when the media were saying that Democrats had cracked the code with Pete Buttigieg and Tim Walls. These are the men that vote for Beto o'. Rourke. And it's, it's just clear that Democrats aren't talking to any actual men. These men are very effeminate and do not appeal to men or, or many women. And yet the media keep going with this line. So Talarico is, his views are radical. He led the effort to trans children at the state legislature. And he said that God wanted you to do that. He, he said that he wanted abortuaries in every federal courthouse in America and that abortionists should be federal employees, that there were six genders, that God is non binary. This is a guy who would come off like a kook in Portland. Well, maybe not Portland. He would have trouble getting elected in California. The idea that he's going to be this like miracle candidate in Texas, I don't really buy at all.

[David Harsanyi]

He proves, yeah, he proves that they're trying to prove that progressivism is compatible with traditional notions of faith. But what they're proving is that modern progressives are bigger quacks than average social conservatives have ever been, that they are Willing to believe anything that they are willing to believe. There are six genders you can choose from that they're willing to believe. How you didn't even talk about his racial stuff during Black Lives Matters. Or maybe he did, but he talks about how your skin is white. It's a virus. It's like he speaks like a klansman from the 30s, but in reverse, right? Like he thinks being white is, is that. Does he really believe that Christianity that, that don't speak for Jesus, but that Jesus believes that your, your skin color defines you, that you don't have any kind of free will, that you're a hater because of who you were born to? I mean this kind of stuff is radical. And using faith to hide it and to justify it, I think is, is really just gross in a way. And I can't imagine voters won't see through it. I don't know.

[Molly Hemingway]

Well, I think that many voters will. Will see through it. It is also true that this kind of shtick does work on a certain type of individual. And we saw this. The New York Times has, you know, they are engaged constantly in propaganda operations. And so one of their long running propaganda operations is to have David French as their in house like anti Christian critic basically. But again, much like James Talarico, under the guise that he is actually the most Christian of them all. And so every Sunday he does a sermon column and I think it was this Sunday he did a column praising James Talarico as the best Christian in America vis a vis other Christians. And did you read it?

[David Harsanyi]

Yeah.

[Molly Hemingway]

What'd you think of it?

[David Harsanyi]

Christians are involved in debates that are none of my business. You know, just overall, I'm just gonna say. But it seems like he puts a lot of importance on tone. You know how you sound, not what you do, like a non judgmentalism, but of course it's just judgmentalism a different way. But I'm, you know, so. And he likes the tonal value of someone like this. Who, who says that, you know, abortion and gay marriage are not the most important things in the Bibles. But he, But David French then doesn't care that he uses the Bible to justify having an abortion mill in every federal building. So is he like, is he only. Is seeing half of the equation? I don't know. I. That's what it seems like to me. Like to him the tone is more important than the substance of this sort of candidate. I don't know. What'd you think?

[Molly Hemingway]

I don't read David French, but I have enjoyed some of the anti David French pieces that have come out in reaction to his column. And Chris Bray, who's very similar to you in like not the most religious person or doesn't come off off that way. Although he is Christian, the Talarico guy annoys him like any red blooded American man. And also David French's little shtick that he does annoys him quite a bit. Did a great takedown of all of the logical fallacies in the David French column, including how he rewrites MAGA and Trump as Christian leaders and Christian as a Christian movement, which is just not accurate. Right. Donald Trump does not prepare to be a Christian leader. MAGA is a political movement, not a religious movement. Even if it contains quite a few Christians. It also contains people who aren't, you know. But he rewrites these things so that he can compare. Albert Mueller had a response to David French where he was saying in his column, David French states that Talarico is one of the few openly Christian politicians in the US who acts like a Christian. And by acting like a Christian, he reveals a profound contrast with so many members of the MAGA Christian movement that's dominated American political life for 10 years. A few paragraphs later, he cited Talarico as saying, I'm tired of being pitted against my neighbor. I'm tired of being told to hate my neighbor. And then Mueller writes, who told him such a vile thing? To state my frustration clearly, I am tired of being told about people who told him to hate his neighbor, who told him that. To be even more clear, we know what he is doing here. He is a talented politician who is running as a faith forward candidate while condemning conservatives for running as faith forward candidates. And he condemns evangelical Christians for attempting to influence politics while he seeks to establish his own religious liberalism as law. Talarico wants to divide voters just as much as Donald Trump, but on different grounds and along different lines. That was a good point.

[David Harsanyi]

That's a great point. Of course he does. And, and what about the hypocrisy of secular urban liberals who are constantly, you know, yelling at social conservatives not to bring God into politics and so forth. But when a candidate comes like this, comes along, you know, there are, he's on Stephen Colbert, he'll be on the COVID of GQ for all I know. Like Beta o'. Rourke. It's a massive hypocrisy. I have no problem with people bringing God into politics because those are the, those are the beliefs that help dictate our choices in life. But he's a Hypocrite. Yeah. He's a talented politician, people say, I guess so. I am not. I think I'm immune from those charms in general, but I don't, you know, especially with him. But we'll see. I don't buy it. I don't buy that he's going to beat either of the Republicans who. Who move forward. I don't understand, understand why. I mean, David French mentions Cornyn, but he, you know, if you're that put off by Paxton. Is that his name? Paxton, Then you have a candidate there, a milquetoast Republican you could support. Right. Why put your. Who I'm fine with. But why do you have to put your support behind the person who is attacking other Christians in essence? Right. He's constantly telling other Christians how to think, but other Christians aren't allowed to say anything.

[Molly Hemingway]

Thing.

[David Harsanyi]

I don't know. I don't know why I'm going off on this. This isn't my business, all of our business. It is my business that a guy who thinks it's okay to mutilate young children in schools is going to be in the U.S. senate. That's my business. I'm against that. A guy who thinks your skin color dictates that you're going to be a racist, I'm against that. And, and you know that people who believe those two things believe a whole menu of crazy things, too.

[Molly Hemingway]

And the guy is super motivated about trans children. I saw this clip where he was asked, who's someone you care about other than family and friends? And he's like, trans children again. Do you see this as being a winning message in Texas? You know, even Abigail Spanberger was running away from the transing of children when she was pretending to be moderate. But this guy's on video way too online. Way too much video.

[David Harsanyi]

We don't mention her name. We don't mention that woman's name in this house.

[Molly Hemingway]

Oh, sorry. In this house.

[David Harsanyi]

Yeah, They're. They're gonna put out a sign. They're. They're trying. She's trying to. Or Democrats are trying to pass a AR ban in Virginia right now.

[Podcast Host]

I've got Dan Morgan here on the pod. Say hi, Dan.

[Dan Morgan]

Hey, how's it going today?

[Podcast Host]

It's going good, man. Tell us who you are and what you do.

[Dan Morgan]

I'm Dan Morgan. I'm an attorney and a managing partner at Morgan and Morgan, which is America's largest injury law firm.

[Podcast Host]

That's pretty awesome. I think I saw a billboard of yours recently. It said 20 billion one. 20 billion is an insane number.

[Dan Morgan]

Yeah. 20 billion recovered. It's actually, I think somewhere north, probably closer to 22, 23 after this year. And each year we get bigger and badder and our army grows. So the number will hopefully keep getting bigger and bigger as time goes on.

[Molly Hemingway]

Awesome.

[Podcast Host]

So how does someone get in contact with Morgan and Morgan. What, what would I do if I got into an accident?

[Dan Morgan]

Probably the easiest way is dialing pound law. That's £529 from your cell phone. We are always open. Our call center is always waiting to take your call. 247 365. Wow.

[Podcast Host]

Dan Morgan from Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. Thanks for coming by the show.

[Dan Morgan]

Thanks for having me. Visit forthepeople.com for an office near you.

[David Harsanyi]

Let's talk about the media. Usually I think you're the media critic. Right. But I have a be. I have three, three beefs. First one is did you see the story of Zohar Mamdani's wife, Rama Duaji, who liked on October 7, liked a bunch of posts on Instagram celebrating the mass murder of a thousand two hundred innocent civilians in Israel and then liked it liked an Instagram post calling the rape of women that day a hoax? Well, she is now. And that's bad enough. I would say that that's one of the least surprising things I've ever read in my life, just to be honest about that. But did you see the coverage of that?

[Molly Hemingway]

Did you see the reaction to the article, the investigative report into her likes?

[David Harsanyi]

Yes.

[Molly Hemingway]

They seem to go after the reporter and defend and Mrs. Mamdani.

[David Harsanyi]

Yes. One of the headlines in the New York Times reads Mamdani defends wife amid, amid criticism of her support for the Palestinian cause. Now, either the person who wrote that believes that the Palestinian cause entails hunting down terrified unarmed young women who are at a music festival and killing them, or they're lying where they're trying to be evasive. Right. Or, or, or obscure. What that was really about, knowing the New York Times, I'd say both possible. Maybe, maybe both happened at the same time.

[Molly Hemingway]

The thing I couldn't get over is that the New York Times, the New York Times was doing this. Do you remember the New York Times thinking that it was inappropriate to go after the wife of an influential figure when they ran multiple stories about Martha an Alito's habits with flags? Remember that?

[David Harsanyi]

Yeah.

[Molly Hemingway]

You know, she, she likes flags and she had a dispute with a neighbor and she had a flag flying upside down. And they made that a front page story, tried to get Alito to be forced out of the Supreme Court or to recuse himself from all sorts of cases related to various, you know, lawfare that the left was doing. And then they kept it going. She had a. She had an appeal to heaven flag up at her beach house, which is a great flag that everybody should fly. A flag that has been flown by left and right. The San Francisco City hall or whatever used to fly up for decades until this story came out where the New York Times said, again, because Martha Annalito likes flags. And I can verify this, Sam Alito is not a big flag waiver in any way. Martha Ann loves flags, has a ton of them, loves to fly them. And New York Times made it a really big story. It was a. It was a massive story. You had Senate ethics investigations, you had all sorts of drama happening. But then they get mad when their own mayor's wife is caught liking tweets that are politically difficult to justify.

[David Harsanyi]

How many stories has the Times and pro public and other outlets run about Justice Thomas's wife and what her political opinions? Right here's.

[Molly Hemingway]

And then when Mom Donnie said, you know what? My wife's her own person. This is her business, not anyone else's. Everyone was like, well, case closed. If Justice Thomas or Justice Alito or Justice Roberts or anybody on the court who's a Republican appointee says that, people make fun of them. The New York Times said that when Alito, who. Anyone who knows him knows he's not a flag person, when he said, those are my wife's flags, she's her own person. She has First Amendment rights. They said, this is despicable. This is. He is using his wife so that he can protect his career. There were other media outlets that said their. Their marriage is probably in trouble because he's throwing his wife under the bus. But none of this for Mom Dani. Interesting.

[David Harsanyi]

The. I mean, she's entitled to her opinion. I don't want to stop her from saying what she wants to say. But if you. Mamdani said that she's a private person. Well, if you pose for magazine photos, you give interviews to New York Magazine, to the New York Times, to one of. I think it was Vanity Fair or whatever it was. You offer your political opinions on social media, then your positions are fair game for. For public to scrutinize a. But I looked up how many stories the New York Times did on this private person before. And just like last week, there was a story called the Complex. Here's the headline. The Complicated Politics of Rama Dawaji's style celebrating the New York lady's ascent into the spotlight. You know what complicated is a euphemism for in the New York Times? It means that you have, I almost cursed. You have insane positions that it's a, you know, that an extremist views that they, that are too nuanced for you pros to understand. We're going to layer with all tons of context what she really means when she's like, yeah, people weren't raped, you know, rape, there was a rape hoax. And, and that's what they do. And I believe this is driven not only because she's a, so the wife of a socialist, because people it, they have internalized the idea of Islamophobia. These young reporters and these people at the New York Times and they simply can't get themselves to ever be honest or say anything about someone who is, is Muslim. I, it's part of it for sure for me because there are two other stories that the New York Times participated in that show. This I was about to mention. There was an event where two ISIS inspired terrorists through homemade bombs. They were duds, but they were packed with like nails and things like that. At a peaceful protest. Some anti Muslim protesters who want to kick all the Muslims out of the country. Whatever. They were peaceful. These people threw bombs at them. Here's the New York Times headline, Smoking jars of metal infuses thrown at protests near mayor's house. Now if you read that headline, would you know who was involved in throwing those bombs? You wouldn't even know. The subhead says six people were arrested after anti Islamic protesters led by the right wing activist Jake Lang clash with counter protesters near Gracie Mansion. You could read the subhead and you wouldn't know who actually threw the bomb. You have to go pretty deep into that story. You know what smoking jars and metal fuses are? They're called bombs. You could have just said bombs. Right?

[Molly Hemingway]

And it's in journalism they always tell you use 14 words that obscure the truth when a single word that would say it clearly should not be used.

[David Harsanyi]

I'm happy you brought that up because this is, is anti journalism. Journalism is supposed to synthesize information, bring it clearly and as truth to people who read it or see it. I mean that's like the core job, I think, of a journalist. This literally leads you away from the truth on purpose. Like that's anti journalism. It's propaganda. I don't know what you want to call it. Can I read you CNN's lead from that day from, from their Story on that. Two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for one, what could have been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather. Their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bomb. Homemade bombs during an anti Muslim protest outside Mayor Zoran Mamdani's home. That is insane. It reminds me of the COVID of Rolling Stone when they put the Boston Marathon bomber on and made him into like, what was that, a teen magazine idol or something? These people are insane. Something wrong with them, you just nod in your head you know it. I don't know.

[Molly Hemingway]

It's horrible. I mean, I saw some funny parodies of this where they were rewriting, you know, the Ted Kaczynski as a promising Harvard student or MIT student, whatever he was, who had some interesting ideas about technology and writing skills. Then his life took a turn. But it's not funny because it's so bad. And you just said, I don't know anything about this group that was protesting. So I literally don't know what they're called or who they are. The name of the individual didn't match for me. But it does concern me that we are whistling past the, in some cases, literal graveyard when it comes to difficulties having a pluralistic society with people who support killing those they don't agree with. And we're not answering those questions because they're very difficult. And we are importing massive numbers of people who don't necessarily have a problem with this type of violence who have religious justification for it. And because it's a difficult conversation to have, we just don't have it. And you see this on left, left, right, media we can make fun of. But, you know, I keep on thinking about how after 9, 11, the big mantra from Republicans was that Islam is a religion of peace. Now, the worst thing would be, if any, there was any, like, blowback on Muslims for the Muslim terrorism that had killed so many thousands of Americans. And I would like to see better conversations there, acknowledging that there are varieties in Islam and also acknowledging that the percentage of Muslims globally who support violence as a means to accomplishing political and religious ends is way too high.

[David Harsanyi]

That's all fair enough. I mean, someone made the joke that there was a protest to say that Muslim Islam was incompatible with Western society. And a couple of people showed up and threw bombs to prove them wrong.

[Podcast Host]

But

[David Harsanyi]

I think it's important to note it's not the most important thing, honestly, but it's important to note that there are many Muslim people who are peaceful and all of that. And they live in America and they're citizens, and we should want to secularize them and bring them into the fold. But it's also not. We shouldn't obscure the truth that there are Islamic people who cannot abide by someone disagreeing with them or saying something they don't like. And this is that. And I just want to say CNN retracted that lead.

[Molly Hemingway]

Not really. They didn't. I mean, they. They took away the tweet. Then the story stayed basically the same.

[David Harsanyi]

They tweaked the lead. But also the New York Times changed one of its headlines. There are still, I think, some older leftist editors in these places who will reign in this craziness. But at some point soon, the nuts are going to be in charge. And I wonder what's going to happen then. I think it's going to be a lot worse. The last story on this, I could quickly say, is that. That also a obituary in the Economist, which was once kind of like the house magazine of neoliberalism in the world, right? In the Western world. It was a serious concern. It has become a joke. You know, there are. There. There are no. There are no bylines on it. So you don't even know who writes this stuff. But they decided to write an obit about Ali Khamenei, who is dead, said told to the prism of his own eyes, with a downplay that he is basically was some kind of Nazi in essence, to his own people, the misogyny, the murder, the destitution and the executions. And talks about how he believed he had divine right on his side and had countless reasons to hate the west, especially the United States, the tip of a phalanx of morally corrupt countries. I mean, this is just outrageous. It would be like writing an obit of Hitler through his own eyes. He had good reason to hate the Jews who. Blah, blah, blah, right? Like, it's just unbearable. But then I thought about it. We've been seeing this forever. You remember the infamous Washington Post obit on Al Baghdadi where they call. They led with calling him an austere religious scholar, not a person who brought back white slavery or, you know, buried people, you know, by the thousands. It's just. Something is wrong here.

[Molly Hemingway]

The New York Times had started responding to critics of its favorable obituaries for dictators and murderers. And they said, you know, we try to present people in all of their complexity. And I don't hate that idea at a time of death to just describe their importance and put the best construction on it, except for two things. One, if you're a conservative, they lead with the worst of worst thing they can say about you, and it's in the headline. And they take things that they took out of context when you were alive and they lead with that at the time of your death. So no offense, but screw these people. They're not painting a, you know, picture of their full life. And then secondly, there is a difference. You know, if you are angrier at a cartoonist who supported Trump than a guy responsible for, for untold bloodshed and calamities, there's something wrong with you. You're to quote. To quote George W. Bush, you know, remember how he was like, if you're a critic of the Iraq war, he's. You're either with us or you're with the terrorists. But I just think the New York Times has been basically with, with bad people. They write positive or, you know, the Economist or the Washington Post. They write these positive things about these people because they agree with them, them in their fight against America. What do you think?

[David Harsanyi]

I think that's harsh and true sometimes. I think it, you know, a less, less harsh way to put it was that they sympathize with them more than a normal person should. Maybe, but I, you know, you mentioned you're talking about Scott Adams and that obit. Right. But think Rush Limbaugh. I think this was the New York Times. It might have been the Washington Post. Like, it led with like radio personality who weaponized AM radio against Democrats. Like, they always pick the, the worst, or they put the worst formulation on it. I don't, I think what Rush Limbaugh doing, that was good actually for America, but I understand that it has a negative connotation for them. Yeah, something's wrong with these people. There is something wrong. Like you could. I was thinking about Mrs. Mamdani. You could stake out a position that you think that Israel is immoral in the way they acted towards Gaza and not celebrate the wanton murder, the taping, the laughter of mass murder. But they have a problem doing this. There's something wrong with these people. And I just, I think that. I think there's an evil there. I'm sorry, there's a bloodlust when you are liking something like that. That is not normal for a person in Western society to do. I don't know where this all goes, but it's not great.

[Podcast Host]

I've got Dan Morgan here on the pod. Say hi, Dan.

[Dan Morgan]

Hey, how's it going today?

[Podcast Host]

It's going good, man. Tell us who you are and what you Do.

[Dan Morgan]

I'm Dan Morgan. I'm an attorney and a managing partner at Morgan and Morgan, which is America's largest injury law firm.

[Podcast Host]

That's pretty awesome. I think I saw a billboard of yours recently that said 20 billion won. 20 billion is an insane number.

[Dan Morgan]

Yeah, 20 billion recovered. It's actually, I think somewhere north. Probably closer to 22, 23 after this year. And each year we get bigger and badder and our army grows. So the number will hopefully keep getting bigger and bigger as time goes on.

[David Harsanyi]

Awesome.

[Podcast Host]

So how does someone get in contact with Morgan and Morgan? What would I do if I got into an accident?

[Dan Morgan]

Probably the easiest way is dialing pound law. That's £529 from your cell phone. We are always open. Our call center is always waiting to take your call. 24-737-65.

[Podcast Host]

Wow. Dan Morgan from Morgan and Morgan, America's large injury law firm. Thanks for coming by the show.

[Dan Morgan]

Thanks for having me. Visit forthepeople.com for an office near you.

[David Harsanyi]

You want to talk about culture. It's so funny when we turn to culture after talking about such horrible things.

[Molly Hemingway]

I just wanted to add one more thing about the Mamdani wife, which is I definitely judge people by their wives. And I think that if you want to know if you've got a good like justice or judge, just look at who their wife is. That will tell you more than, more than a lot of questionnaires. And Mamdani having this woman as his wife, I think it's just, it's informative. Tells you a lot about who he's trying to please when he goes home at night. It's not like a perfect metric but, but something I like to do. But yes, for culture. I have two things. First off is there's this documentary on Mel Brooks. Have you talked about this previously?

[David Harsanyi]

I have not watched it, but I want to.

[Molly Hemingway]

Okay, so it's called 99 Year Old man and a riff on his 200 Year Old man comedy record. And it's actually really well done. I'm watching just like a little bit at a time. So I've only made it through one episode.

[David Harsanyi]

And then I just want to say Mel Brooks. Like I like Mel Brooks as a person. I think he's funny. I like interviews with him. But I'm not as big a fan of his movies as a lot of people are. I've always found them too slapsticky for me especially, you know, I think some of them are better than others. But I, I've not. I just don't Think he's this great talent that other people do. Not trying to put him down. He's still alive, so I could say some bad stuff about him. Well, are you a fan? Like, do you love Blazing Saddles? Do you love Spaceball?

[Molly Hemingway]

I. I do love Blazing Saddles. I think the rest of his movie output is pretty bad. I think he's interesting because comedians I like love him. I want to know more about why do they love him so much. But for me, personally, yeah, I mean,

[David Harsanyi]

I should say I like the Producers as well quite a bit. I like Blazing Saddles, but that's.

[Molly Hemingway]

I revealed to Mark I hadn't seen that and he was mortified, so. So cue all the letters from people angry when I say that I haven't seen something. I am working on it, but I

[David Harsanyi]

don't know if people understand how radical that movie kind of is because it was only 20 something years after World War II where there's a story of two Jewish people putting on a play celebrating Hitler because they wanted to go bankrupt. It's a hilarious premise and the songs are funny and the movie's very good. And Gene. Gene. Gene Wilder's in it. Gene Wilder, who's wonderful always, in my opinion.

[Molly Hemingway]

Opinion, yeah. Okay. So the other thing I watched, which I loved, is tron legacy, the 20. Wow movie. Have you seen that?

[David Harsanyi]

I have not. Which one is this, the latest one or earlier? Okay.

[Molly Hemingway]

Came out in 2010. It's the first sequel to Tron. I think there are several now.

[David Harsanyi]

Yeah.

[Molly Hemingway]

Mark thought that it lacked a plot, a coherent plot, and I would agree that it struggled a little bit in that area. But I loved the soundtrack. I thought the. The concepts that it introduced were great. Lots of Christian allegory, and it looked beautiful. So I enjoyed all of those things.

[David Harsanyi]

I love that you see Christian allegory in all movies. Like, I remember, you're like girls. It's the most Christian show ever. It's like, what are you talking about?

[Molly Hemingway]

No, I said I didn't say it was Christian, but I did that it was morality play. You know, tale of, like, what goes wrong when you accept feminism. And I still think that.

[David Harsanyi]

I'm just kidding.

[Molly Hemingway]

It's just truth in a good. Good art is truthful. And so sometimes people who don't want to reveal truth still do it accidentally.

[David Harsanyi]

No, I agree with that, actually, quite a bit. Did you. I know, as we discussed, I think before the show, I am older than you, but did you see Tron, the original, when it came out out? It did.

[Molly Hemingway]

I. I liked it a lot. What did you think?

[David Harsanyi]

I loved it when I was a kid. I thought it was. It was. It was kind of innovative for its time. It had a kind of a cartoonish quality to it that I liked and a video game quality. Obviously I'm not. See, I might have seen that one. I'll rewatch it because I'm into Tron, so. Wow. That's a strong recommend for you on Tron. I didn't think that, you know, you're not real sci fi type.

[Molly Hemingway]

So I just also need to reiterate that Mark didn't think it was as good as I did. Did. And he's pretty good at movie reviews. I forgot that I also rewatched LA Confidential.

[David Harsanyi]

Oh, I love that movie.

[Molly Hemingway]

Yeah, I like it too.

[David Harsanyi]

It's funny. You know the guy who plays the model who is like the gay hustler who has killed the blonde guy. I was watching a show with him called the Mentalist that was not terrible for a few episodes. I think he's Australian. Simon something or other.

[Molly Hemingway]

I'll just point out too that Jerry Goldsmith Smith did the score for LA Confidential and I really like him.

[David Harsanyi]

If you can't get John Williams, you get him like he does. Like every movie.

[Molly Hemingway]

Prefer Jerry Goldsmith, but. Go on.

[David Harsanyi]

That's an insane thing to say. Oh, my Lord. John Williams, the guy who. Who did Raiders of the Lost Ark. You think that Jerry Goldsmith is. Is a better composer than he is.

[Molly Hemingway]

No, I'm not. I just said I would prefer I. Some of my favorite things have been done by Jerry Goldsmith, including one of my very favorite movie soundtracks ever, which is the Russia House.

[David Harsanyi]

Whenever I'm in a. I'm in a record store, I'm always. I always go to the soundtracks to look if they see that. To surprise you. Because you have mentioned it so often and I'm starting to think maybe it never came out on vinyl. I've never seen it in any form.

[Molly Hemingway]

Discogs does have it, but they're so expensive. Then they're only in foreign countries.

[David Harsanyi]

So.

[Molly Hemingway]

Thank you for looking though. I appreciate it.

[David Harsanyi]

Yeah, I'll keep at it. I. I have a strong recommend.

[Molly Hemingway]

Okay.

[David Harsanyi]

And it's. It's topical in a way. It's called Tehran. It's a show on Apple plus about an Mossad woman who. A spy who is a younger, not a young woman, maybe youngish woman. Young to me. 30, let's say, who. Who has parents from Iran who speaks the language, all of that. And she is dropped there and gets stuck in Iran and is being chased by the Person who is the head of the Revolutionary Guard, you know, anti Mossad squad. It's very well done. It's an Israeli show. But the second season has Glenn Close. The third season has Hugh Laurie. Like really well made. Doesn't. It's not cartoonish in how it portrays human beings. They're complicated. I liked it a lot until the last episode of the first season. Has something that I think is quite implausible in the real world. But overall I don't want to spoil it. But overall it's a really good show. I think it's a really good show if that's your thing and I would recommend it.

[Molly Hemingway]

Okay, great.

[David Harsanyi]

The other show I watched was Young Sherlock. I started watching, which is a Guy Ritchie show on Amazon, I think. Think. And I don't know. It has all the markings of a Guy Ritchie directed show. It's fun.

[Molly Hemingway]

I like that. I like Guy Ritchie.

[David Harsanyi]

Yeah, I do too. It's. It's nothing deep, but it's fun. I would say it's fun. It's crackling. It's alive. The way he films the, the dialogue, all that. Pretty good show. I've only. I've only watched a little bit of it. That's all I have. Have.

[Molly Hemingway]

Okay, great.

[David Harsanyi]

Oh, I did. I did want to. I have an event coming up where I'll be speaking, so I wanted to mention it in case people wanted to come. It's in Virginia. If you live near Richmond or even if you don't and want to come to it, you can. It's at the Virginia forum on April 1st. I'll be talking about the history of American guns. I think we called it Forged in Freedom. So if you're interested in that, you can go online to Virginia forum farm.com, i think it is, and scroll to the bottom. You'll see events.

[Molly Hemingway]

I hope you talk about ammunition.

[David Harsanyi]

I was going to talk more about kind of the. The most. The biggest innovators and industrialists who did a lot. I think people don't know or maybe they do, but many people might not how innovative gun makers were in the larger context of like mass. Mass producing things and manufacturing and. And other mechanical innovations. But yeah, I can mention ammunition too. I'm into ammunition. Should I mention that I. Did you remember I mentioned that I was going to get a concealed carry gun and people had a lot of suggestions and I went with the Springfield Hellcat Pro and when I went to pick it up at the local. What's it called? Bass Pro Shop out the. The guy made fun of me and laughed at me, said it was a terrible gun. I've never experienced something like this gun. People are so opinionated that they will, when you're buying from them in the store that they are managing the area of, will mock you for your selection. I think it's a great little gun. I got an extended mag so my, my hand fits around it really well.

[Molly Hemingway]

And why did he mock it?

[David Harsanyi]

He thinks it's a bad gun. I don't know. I'm not that friendly. So once he mocked me, I sort of like stopped paying attention to him. I didn't appreciate that at all.

[Molly Hemingway]

If Abigail Spanber, the other Democrats successfully ban the AR weaponry, what happens to people who already have, say, an AR15?

[David Harsanyi]

I think they keep it. I believe the law. It's like kind of like if you have it, it's grandfathered in or whatever. I mean, I'm loading up like the Soviets are about to invade Red dawn style. Like, I think people should buy as many guns as possible in Virginia because I don't know what's going to happen. That's just me. All right, yeah.

[Molly Hemingway]

Okay, great.

[David Harsanyi]

If you want to make fun of my gun, you can email [e-mail] we'd love to hear from you. And we'll be back next week. And until then, be lovers of freedom and anxious for the fray. Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. Are you looking for a refresh this spring? Make sure you take some time for self care with savings on all your favorite hair care Essentials now through March 31st. Shop in store or online for participating hair care items from Pantene, Head and Shoulders, Aussie and Old Spice and earn four times points. Points can be redeemed later for discounts on groceries or gas. Offer ends March 31. Restrictions apply. Promotions may vary. Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more details. Are you a fraud paying American? 1 in 4 tax paying Americans has been a victim of identity fraud with Lifelock. If your identity is stolen, they fix it guaranteed or your money back. Last year, billions in refunds were stolen. Could be from your salary, overtime or second job gone. But this year you don't need to stay a victim because this tax season, fraud paying American is something no American should have to claim. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com iheart Terms apply.